In a paper published in the journal last month, authors Anthony Bonato, Dieter Mitsche, and Pawel Pralat describe a mathematical model to disrupt the flow of information in a complex real-world network, such as a terrorist organization, using minimal resources.

According to Homeland Security News wire a SIAM release reports that terror networks are comparable in their structure of hierarchical organization in companies and certain online social networks, where information flows in one direction from a source, which produces the information or data, downwards to sinks, which consume it. Such networks are called hierarchical social networks.

“In such networks, the flow of information is often one way,” explains author Pawel Pralat. “For example, a celebrity such as Justin Bieber sends out a tweet, which is sent to millions of his followers. These followers send out their own retweets, and so on. We may therefore view hierarchical social networks as directed networks without cycles, or directed acyclic graphs (DAGs).”

Here, there is no requirement for reciprocity (the celebrity does not necessarily follow his or her followers). Similarly, in a terrorist network, the leaders pass plans down to the foot soldiers, and usually only one messenger needs to receive the message for the plan to be executed.

Disruption of the flow of information would correspond to halting the spread of news in an online social network or intercepting messages on a terror network.

The authors propose a generalized stochastic model for the flow and disruption of information based on a two-player outdoor game called “Seepage,” where players who depict agents attempt to block the movement of another player, an intruder, from a source node to a sink. “The game – motivated by the 1973 eruption of the Eldfell volcano in Iceland – displays some similarities to an approach used in mathematical counterterrorism, where special kinds of DAGs are used to model the disruption of terrorist cells,” says Pralat.

The motivating eruption caused a major crisis at the time, as lava flow threatened to close off the harbor, the island’s main source of income. In the game, inhabitants attempt to protect the harbor by pouring water on the volcanic lava to halt its progress. A mathematical model of the game pits two opponents against each other – the sludge, or intruder, against the greens, or agents – forming

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The Israel Airports Authority (IAA) has declared the FODetect, an automated Foreign Object Debris (FOD) detection system developed by Xsight fully operational at Ben -Gurion airport in Tel-Aviv.

The operational status was declared after a rigorous evaluation process and soft launch testing at the airport’s primary runway.

According to Xsight FODetect is a comprehensive automatic FOD detection solution, uniquely embedded in Surface Detection Units (SDUs) that are collocated with the runway edge lights. FODetect provides close-up view of the entire runway during both day and night, including inclement weather conditions. The system’s capabilities are based on a hybrid radar-optical sensing technology utilizing optimized algorithms, advanced image processing software and close range detection.

Scanning between each aircraft movement, FODetect not only markedly enhances safety, but also increases operational efficiency and runway capacity. Xsight’s FODetect system is fully compliant with the FAA’s regulation for FOD detection, as it meets or exceeds thehighest performance levels in every parameter required by the FAA.

The FODetect system is installed on the airport’s primary 0826 runway, the first of three runways planned to be equipped with a FOD detection system.

FOD is an international problem The certification in Israel opens the way for a way to deal with it in a more efficient way.

Experts say that the systems’ sensors are located along airport runways and therefor can serve as an added tool to detect any suspicious movement that can be connected to an terror act.

“It would have to be evaluated but the potential is there” one of the experts told I-HLS.

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This is not a unique problem of the U.S . The different organizations fighting terror in the world have to communicate continuously to get the picture in real time. This doesn’t happen always and the result is more terror attacks that could have been avoided.

The issue is a hot one in the U.S in the wake of the Boston bombing.

Last week FBI director Robert Mueller defended the way his agency handled the Russian request that the FBI pay attention to Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the months before the 15 April attack on the Boston Marathon.

At the request of the Russian security service, Mueller told a Senate subcommittee, the FBI initiated an investigation of Tamerlan in March 2011. The investigation found no evidence that Tamerlan was a terrorism threat. Just to make sure, the FBI twice asked the Russian security agency for more information, to see what they knew about Tamerlan possible connection to a terrorist network in the Caucuses. The Russian ignored both requests for information, and the FBI closed the file.

“As a result of this, I would say, thorough investigation, based on the leads we got from the Russians, we found no ties to terrorism,” Mueller told the Senate Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on commerce, justice and science.

The Washington Post reports that Mueller did acknowledge that electronic notifications that Tsarnaev had left the United States in January 2012 to spend six months in Russia were not shared fully within the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Boston.

“To the extent that we go back and look and scrub and see what we could have done better, this is an area where we’re looking at and scrubbing it and doing better,” the FBI director said.

FBI agents interviewed Dzhokhar before he was charged. He told them that he and his brothers were angry about the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The FBI also revealed that Dzhokhar wrote a note while he was holed up in the boat. The note was found after Dzhorkhar was taken to a hospital. In it, the 19-year old says the two brothers were driven by anger at the United States, and describes those killed and injured near the Marathon finish line as “collateral damage.”

CBS News reports that Dzhorkhar says in the note that he did not mourn his older brother because he was a martyr and that he will soon join him in paradise soon.

Mueller did not offer new information about the way the FBI handled the case before and after the attack, but said the agency is still investigating whether other people were involved in the attack.

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Mueller told the lawmakers that the Russian security agency contacted the FBI in March 2011, reporting their concern that Tamerlan was planning to return to Russia to join Islamic militants.

FBI agents in Boston then looked into Tsarnaev’s background. They visited the community college he attended and interviewed his parents and Tsarnaev himself. Mueller said his agent did not find any ties between Tsarnaev and any terrorist network. In September and October 2011 the FBI contacted the Russians again, asking whether they had any more information about Tsarnaev that the FBI could follow, but the FBI received no response, and the case was closed.

The Post quotes Mueller saying that although the file was closed, the agency went ahead and added Tsarnaev’s name to a low-level watch list that’s notified U.S. law enforcement when he traveled. This is the reason why, in January 2012, an automatic notification was sent to a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent with the Boston terrorism task force that Tsarnaev had left the country for Russia. A second notice was sent when he returned six months later.

Mueller said the CBP agent took no action in response to the FBEelectronic notices about Tsarnaev, probably because the office receives hundreds of similar notifications each year.

Mueller said changes in the system will ensure that more attention is paid to such notices in the future.

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The Israeli homeland security ministry is teeth less. There is a minister and staff but they are actually helpless to change the things that have to be changed.

This ministry like many others , has one mission – to solve coalition problems. In Israel this ministry should have been in a very high status. It is not.

In the new budget proposal the allocation to the ministry does not allow it to spend a sum that can change something. A bad joke.

We will all pay the price.

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Israel in the past years, did not use its mighty military force to stop terror attacks from Gaza and Lebanon. Israel used some of this force in a “Surgical” manner. When rockets hit the population center the politicians were not brave enough to unleash the might of the Israeli defense forces and mainly the airforce.

This will happen again because we deal mostly with the same politicians. They want to complete their shift without too many complications. So the population will absorb. The Israeli airforce can stop the barrage of rockets in two days. Someone has to give the order. I don’t see that someone in the neighborhood.

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When countries like Russia and China directly or indirectly support a murderous regime like in Syria that is a terror supporter, the international efforts to suppress terror have little chance to succeed.

Syria supports the Hezbollah in Lebanon , one of the moist dangerous terror organizations . Instead of helping to end the civil war in Syria , the two super powers put hurdles on the flimsy efforts made by the U.S and Europe.

This game is not only useless , it is pathetic. Israel is alone in that battle. When you are alone you should use all you have in order to win. This is not being done.

Arie Egozi
i-HLS Editor-in-Chief

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This is a “bloody” joke. The world looks at the atrocities in Syria as if it is a football game. The Americans and the Europeans are very busy in meetings about the situation that are not worth the paper of the invitation to participate.

Locking at the very sad circus , Israel can draw only one conclusion – it will have to take care of its security alone without any help that will only get the shape of more fruitless talks.

The U.N. is useless , the U.S. is useless the Europeans are useless . This because they are not threatened directly by a country like Syria. But euphoria can change overnight when Al Qaida  is penetrating deeper into any crack in Syria,

All this happens in spite of the fact that the U.S. has again confirmed that Chemical weapons have been used at least twice in attacks during the Syrian civil war.

“The intelligence community has agreed with varying levels of confidence that chemical weapons were used in small amounts in at least two instances in Syria,” Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told American lawmakers, according to AFP. “But having high confidence up in the intelligence community, for which I have great admiration, is not in fact all that one needs to take some of the actions that many people have contemplated.”

In recent weeks, the US government has intimated that the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime against its own people would potentially constitute the crossing of a “red line” for possible military intervention. Still, US President Barack Obama claimed two weeks ago that the intelligence about the use of chemical weapons in Syria was still not sufficient.

In Syria, each side has accused the other of wielding deadly chemical weapons during the devastating civil war that broke out in 2011, but Sherman did not point a finger at either side. The White House is blaming the country’s embattled President Bashar Assad of using chemical weapons.

On Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that there is “strong evidence” that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons against its people.

Talk of increased Western intervention in Syria has grown louder in the wake of Israeli accusations that Assad attacked civilians with sarin nerve gas on multiple occasions.

Again all there is right now is talk. Israel is prepared to defend itself with all it has and that is a lot.

Arie Egozi
i-HLS Editor-in-Chief

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Since the dawn of the Internet, security has been a big issue. Having machines communicate and transmit information over a public, worldwide network makes the data accessible to other machines. Naturally, that means that everyone can obtain any piece of information one desires, even if that specific piece was meant for someone else’s eyes only.

For two and a half decades, this problem was addressed mathematically – data that people wanted to stay secure was transmitted in an encrypted form, which means its pieces were scrambled or switched with a code, only readable to someone who has the decryption key. But as computers get stronger, encryption keys become weaker and can be “guessed” by algorithms applying thousands of keys to each piece until it becomes readable.

A possible solution to the problem is moving away from mathematics to physics: Quantum encryption is a new kind of code, based on the work of scientists including Albert Einstein on quantum mechanics. The theory says that a photon – the basic particle light is made of – travels in a state that changes if someone observes it or tries to interact with it. This state, called polarization, makes it possible to have a message coded in photons and sent between two computers that know the state in which the photons are ought to be read. Any other party trying to decode the message will presumably get the polarization wrong half of the time (meaning for half of the “pieces”) and also leave its mark on the transmission, so both the eavesdropper and the receiver can’t read the message. This way, the message has to be encoded and sent again in order to be readable by the receiver, and each time there’s an interruption the sender and receiver know about it.

Current technology, though, can’t transmit the quantum-encrypted information through the World Wide Web’s switching equipment, which requires a direct optical fiber between the transmitter and the receiver – an old implementation that would almost totally prevent eavesdropping even with the oldest internet technologies.

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A possible solution was revealed this month in Cornell University’s online journal arXiv.org. Apparently, scientists in Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico have been running an operational test quantum network for about two years. A central “hub”, which all the computers in the network are connected to, is used as a central point encoding and decoding quantum keys. Each computer has a laser transmitter which sends and receives quantum keys to and from the “hub”. Encrypted messages are sent to the hub for decryption, after which it re-encrypts them with the key it sent to the receiver.

The scientists say this technology can enable quantum encryption to be applied in real-world networks. The first target for this kind of system is critical networks such as power grids, which can use this method to prevent hackers from disrupting their services.

By Yair Mohr

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15 vessels from nine navies have gathered in Singapore for IMDEX ASIA 2013. Photo: IMDEX Asia

Changi Naval Base, Singapore: 15 warships from nine countries around the world, including the latest patrol vessels, frigates, corvettes and destroyers, sailed into Singapore for the Warships Display at IMDEX Asia 2013 this week. The US Navy’s first ever littoral combat ship, USS Freedom, in its maiden overseas deployment, was among the warships at Changi Naval Base. Defense-Update reports from Singapore.

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The picture shows some of the visiting vessels cisiting IMDEX this year, including (in clockwise order): RSS Valiant (Victory Class corvette P91), RSS Bedok mine countermeasure boat (M105), RSS Formidable (F68) and RSS Tenacious (F71), both Formidable (La Fayette) Class frigates.

In the background, left is Ladroite, the French experimental OPV, with the Royal Thai Navy HTMS Rattanakosin (F441) to its right, the Shivalik class Frigate INS Satpura (F48) and Kora class Corvette (P62) INS Kirch, both from India. The Australian Armidale class Patrol Craft HMAS Bathurst is seen by the side of the USS Freedom, the first Littoral Combat Ship of the US Navy.

The Malaysian frigate KD Lekiu frigate (30), Indonesian KCR 40 class patrol craft KRI Kujang [642] and Diponegoro Class Corvette KRI Frans Kaisiepo [368] are closing this impressive line up at the Changi Naval Base in Singapore. Two vessels from Singapore are filling in for the two vessels that were scheduled to arrive from South Korea.

Defense-Update IMDEX ASIA 2013 VideoReport

Following is a collection of photos from the first day at IMDEX Asia

The new Littoral Mission Vessel (LMV) class program for Singapore comprises eight 1,200-tonne vessels. The program is being led by ST Marine as prime contractor. These boats will replace the country’s current Fearless-class patrol vessels.

Lockheed Martin is offering the Multi-mission Combatant (MMC), a stretched version of the current LCS.

Austal is offering a Trimaran design similar to the Independence Class 127 meter LCS, for a more compact 80 meter Multi-Role Vessel (MRV). This ship will be constructed of aluminum and have a deadweight of 400 tonnes. It will feature a flight deck of 290 m2 and hangar, supporting H-60 class helicopter. The maximum speed will be 26 knots, but when cruising at a speed of 12 knots the ship will be able to sustain missions of 28 days at ranges of 4,500 nm.

The Protector Unmanned Surface Vessel was the first USV used by the Singapore Navy.

RAFAEL displayed models of the Typhoon 30 and Typhoon MLS-NLOS.

Lockheed Martin displayed here a model of the proposed CJ-130SC designed to replace the Orion P-3C currently in service with many world navies. Note the surface attack missiles carried underwing and ASW torpedoes carried on the belly sides.

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S-400, Photo Credit: Defense-Update

According to some sources the Russians have supplied the S-300 surface – air missiles to Syria, This in spite of Israel’s efforts to stop the deal.

But now the Russians offer some countries the new system the S-400.

The S-400, the next generation of air-defense systems, has the potential to create serious problems for fighter aces around the world.

“The 400 is an evolution of the 300.  It has many features specifically designed to overcome countermeasures and stealth, such as a larger, more powerful radar that is more resistant to jamming.  It also actually has a set of three missiles of varying range that provide overlapping layers of defense,” Ivan Oelrich, an independent defense analyst and adjunct professor at the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University, told The Diplomat.

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“The S-400, or Triumph, consists of a radar and several missiles. The main radar tracks targets, calculates an intercept course, and sends guidance signals to the missiles, directing them toward the target.  When the missiles get close enough, they switch over to an independent, on-board guidance system for the final attack.”

Oelrich explained the system is not combat tested nor has it been sold outside of Russia, so information on the system is limited.

While such an advanced air-defense platform could certainly create problems for strategic planners, even the most advanced technologies like the S-400 require proper training.

“Even very capable weapons, especially sophisticated and complex systems, are of limited use when in the hands of poorly trained users and the missile would have to be part of a comprehensive air-defense system,” explains Orelich.

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The Obama administration has floated the idea of putting the CIA’s controversial targeted killing operations under the control of the uniformed armed services. But sources familiar with the still-classified program, which uses unmanned aircraft to kill suspected terrorists in Pakistan and Yemen, says the shift would be difficult to implement and would make little difference.

All of the specially outfitted Reaper and Predator UAVs used in the CIA’s program actually belong to the Air Force.

According to Defense News in all, the CIA controls more than 80 remotely piloted vehicles, or about one-third of the Air Force’s fleet of Reapers and Predators, according to an official familiar with the program. That figure has not previously been disclosed. The Predators, known as MQ-1s, and the Reapers, known as MQ-9s, are manufactured by General Atomics.

The Air Force counts its unmanned aerial force in combat air patrols, or CAPs. Each patrol is made up of about four UAVs, so that one of the drones can always be flying over a target while the other three are being repaired, refueled, or in transit. The Air Force has almost 260 UAVs, which yields 60 patrols; it says it wants to increase that to 65.

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The 80 Air Force UAVs assigned to the CIA give the intelligence agency enough air power to stalk 20 targets persistently, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for months on end.

Both the CIA and Air Force declined to comment for this story. Air Force Maj. Mary Danner-Jones, a service spokeswoman, said in an email that “The Air Force isn’t going to comment on or discuss the missions of other government agencies.”

The CIA has outfitted its Air Force UAVs, all purchased from General Atomics, with special features, sources say. They say the agency has a more “agile” contracting process than the Air Force.

The refits include four-bladed propellers, which enable the CIA UAVs to take off from shorter runways and may give them a higher operating ceiling as well. With more blades, “you can slice through more air,” one UAV expert said.

The UAVs assigned to the CIA also carry more advanced sensors. For example, they shoot high-definition, 1080p full-motion video, while the Air Force UAV sensors offer just standard definition. Air Force drones may be used as much to gather intelligence as for airstrikes, where CIA UAVs are configured so they can watch, gather intelligence, and eventually kill.

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The bat-winged X-47B stealth UAS roared off the USS George H.W. Bush near the coast of Virginia and flew a series of pre-programmed maneuvers around the ship before veering away toward a Naval air station in Maryland where it was scheduled to land.

“This is really a red-letter day. May 14 we all saw history happen” said Rear Admiral Ted Branch, the Atlantic naval air commander. “It’s a marker … between naval aviation as we’ve known it and the future of naval aviation with the launch of the X-47B.”

Because of its stealth potential and a range nearly twice that of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the X-47B and its successors are seen as a potential answer to the threat posed by medium-range anti-ship missiles developed by China and Iran, defense analysts said.

The missiles and other so-called anti-access, area-denial weapons would force U.S. aircraft carriers to operate far enough from shore that piloted aircraft would have to undergo refueling to carry out their missions, leaving them vulnerable to attack.

But with a range of 2,000 nautical miles, an unmanned jet like the X-47B could give the Navy both a long-range strike and reconnaissance capability.

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“That makes it strategically very important,” said Anthony Cordesman, a senior defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He described the drone as “essentially a really long-range stealth system.”

The X-47B, one of only two demonstrator models made by Northrop Grumman Corp, carries the equivalent of two precision-guided bombs. It was catapulted from the aircraft carrier on Tuesday using the same sling-shot system that sends manned aircraft aloft.

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