The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 11/21/02 Section: News

This past Tuesday, Saint Louis University's Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice hosted Larry L. Cockell, the first presenter in their Distinguished Speaker series. Cockell, a SLU alumnus with a long list of impressive credentials, spoke on "The threat of international terrorism on public and private entities."

Cockell was a member of the St. Louis Police Department from 1973 to 1981. After moving on to work in the detective bureau, he pursued a recommendation to work for the FBI and was later invited to join the Secret Service. He served there for more than 20 years and was eventually named deputy director. During his time with the Secret Service, he was put in charge of White House security and headed the Presidential Protection unit from 1998 through 2000. Since retiring from government work, Cockell has taken up a position in the private sector as Vice President and Chief Security Adviser for AOL Time Warner.

Cockell's speech covered multiple aspects of security within our country, but he was specifically concerned with the importance of improving security in the private sector to protect our nation's interests from the threats of terrorism.

Cockell explained that, before Sept. 11, the main challenge for businesses was simply to keep pace with ever-developing technologies- a task that was often under-appreciated and subject to the first rounds of budget cuts. The terrorist attacks, however, "exposed an Achilles heel" in our nation's security that redefined corporate views of the relationship between technology and our safety.

According to Cockell, the key to protection of our nation lies in safeguarding the businesses and other non-government organizations in the private sector.

"On Sept. 11, more people got news from CNN than they did from the government," Cockell said. "Now, the government is beginning to take a look at private assets--the ones that work when everything else fails."

Unfortunately, these private entities are equally as adaptable to terrorism as they are to assisting our country in a time of crisis. For this reason, protecting them from within is crucial. The high profile of the United States makes the U.S. private sector a prime target for "information" attacks that, although they would be relatively easy to carry out, could have devastating effects.

"The global activities of U.S. corporations help shape world opinions," said Cockell. "We connect more people to info than any other nation, via the Internet. We cannot control the threat. What we can control is the vulnerability."

Cockell cited several key issues in controlling our susceptibility to attacks. He stressed the importance of identifying the most critical vulnerabilities in a world where "so much of what we do, so much of how we live, rests someplace on a file of slashes and o's" and safeguarding them with new technology.

Secondly, he recognized the need to strengthen information sharing. In order for prevention to be effective, Cockell explained, shared information must not be limited to ominous, color-coded warnings that give no real indication of danger. Instead, information must be "credible, specific and actionable" to do law enforcement any good.

Thirdly, Cockell addressed the necessity of preparing responses to terrorist attacks. Inevitably, security will be breached again at some point. The important thing, he said, was to ensure that our responses to such incidents are designed to help rather than simply add to the confusion.

"The Chinese character for the word 'crisis' is two bold strokes," Cockell said in closing. "The first means danger, and the second means opportunity. We understand the danger. Now we need to see the opportunity to preclude that danger."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools