Sustainable security needs risk-based approach Published March 16, 2005 By John D. Banusiewcz American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Risk management must guide decisions on preventing, responding to and recovering from terrorist attacks, the new homeland security secretary said here March 16.Michael Chertoff spoke at George Washington University in his first major address since taking office Feb. 15.“A nation as vital and thriving as ours cannot become hermetically sealed; even less can we afford to be overwhelmed by fear or paralyzed by the existence of threats,” he said. “That is why we need to adopt a risk-based approach in both our operations and our philosophy. Risk management is fundamental to managing the threat while retaining our quality of life and living in freedom.”The secretary illustrated his point by noting that people take risks every day.“The perfect way to avoid the risk of a car accident is never to leave your home in a car,” Secretary Chertoff said. “But very few people pursue this kind of perfect security, because we understand that it is self-defeating. … When we get into our cars, we take reasonable precautions, but we also go about our lives. We go to work, we drive our children to school (and) we visit friends. We are managing risk.”The same principle, he said, applies at the homeland security level.“The most effective way, I believe, to apply this risk-based approach is by using the trio of threat, vulnerability and consequences as a general model for assessing risk and deciding on the protective measures we want to take,” Secretary Chertoff said.And he also warned against focusing principally on the threat.“A terrorist attack on the two-lane bridge down the street from my house would be bad, but would have a relatively low consequence compared to an attack on the Golden Gate Bridge. And at the other end of the spectrum, we know that even a remote threat to detonate a nuclear bomb is a high-level priority because of the catastrophic effect that would have even though it is a remote threat.“So each threat must be weighed with the consequences and the vulnerabilities that are attached to it,” he said. “As consequence increases, we have to respond according to the nature and credibility of the threat and any existing state of vulnerabilities.”Secretary Chertoff said homeland security is one piece of a broader strategy President Bush has laid out. That strategy first involves taking the battle to the enemy, he said.“To be blunt, we have forced terrorists to spend more time worrying about how to defend themselves against death and capture, leaving them less time to plot how to get by our own defenses,” he said. “That strategy pays enormous dividends in terms of diminishing the threat. First, the intelligence we gain is a major tool in disrupting the threat. And second, by taking the fight to our enemies, we keep them on the run (and) limit their abilities to plan, train and act.”A “defense in depth” is another part of the strategy, the secretary said.“That means even as we pursue terrorists overseas, we work here at home to prevent infiltration by those terrorists and their weapons, to protect our people and our places if infiltration occurs and to respond and recover if an attack is carried out,” Secretary Chertoff said. “This is embodied in our strategy of building multiple barriers to terrorist attack.”The secretary said his department and other federal agencies are not enough to protect the nation.“Homeland security does not simply rest upon the federal government. It requires collective national action,” he said. “When it comes to the protection of our people, our infrastructure, our companies, our communities (and) our country, we all have a role to play if we’re going to frustrate the enemy’s intentions.”