Saturday, December 27, 2008

DHS Presents 5-Year Threat Analysis

The Associated Press claims to have gotten its hands on a 38-page internal "Homeland Security Threat Assessment" covering the next five years. According to an AP article published on Christmas Day, the report's findings suggest that the "terrorism threat to the United States will be driven by instability in the Middle East and Africa, persistent challenges to border security and increasing Internet savvy" by terrorist groups. DHS considers a WMD attack to be the gravest threat, and "intelligence officials also predict that in the next five years, terrorists will try to conduct a destructive biological attack," according to the AP article. The document also forecasts a greater likelihood of cyber attacks over the next five years "as hacking tools become more sophisticated and available."