Risk, Uncertainty and Everything Else

What is an “emerging threat”? Or even more generally speaking, what is a “threat” in the first place?

There are numerous definitions proposed and used for the word “threat” and its synonym “hazard”, and I leave it to readers of this blog (and myself) to explore the myriad definitions for such terms as these described in the SARMAPedia just to see what I mean (this website is part of the Security Analysis and Risk Management Association, or SARMA, initiative to develop a common lexicon; participation is encouraged).

For simplicity, let’s go with the following simple and generic definition of threat: a threat is a source of potential harm. Of course whether or not something is harmful is in the eye of the beholder, but for…

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Security Risk Professional’s Bookshelf, Volume 1, Number 1

Citation: Purpura, P. P. (2007). Terrorism and Homeland Security: An Introduction with Applications.  Butterworth-Heinemann (Elsevier).  ISBN: 978-0-7506-7843-8.

Here we have what appears to be an undergraduate text centered on this idea of homeland security.  It seems that the target readership for this book are HLS novices, so from that point of view the text covers a nice swath of homeland security issues and recent milestones (legislation, strategies, etc.).  But I think the book would come off as being quite lame to those in the homeland security community who know a thing or two about what it is, what is should be, and where it is (really) headed.  This book is truly an introductory text aimed at exposing…

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