The GIBACHT fellowship: a multilateral initiative for strengthening capacity in biosafety and biosecurity towards pandemic preparedness.

The German Biosecurity Programme was launched in 2013 with the aim to support partner countries overcome biological threats including natural outbreaks or the intentional misuse of highly pathogenic agents. As part of this programme, this paper describes the development and implementation of a multilateral biosafety and biosecurity training initiative, called 'Global Partnership Initiated Biosecurity Academia for Controlling Health Threats' (GIBACHT). To achieve its objectives, GIBACHT implemented a blended-learning approach with self-directed, distance-based learning phases and three training-of-trainer workshops. The programme follows Kirkpatrick's model of learning to guarantee sustainable effects of improved knowledge and skills. One hundred nine fellows from 26 countries have been trained in seven cohorts. Many GIBACHT alumni have established additional biosafety/biosecurity trainings in their home countries. The knowledge exchange is strengthened by the implementation of a Moodle-based alumni network. GIBACHT has the potential to contribute to strengthening the capacities of partner countries in Africa, the Middle East, and South and Central Asia to respond and build resilience to biological threats.

Determining the efficacy of visual inspections at detecting non-biosecurity-compliant goods.

Examination of imported commodities by trained inspectors searching for pest organisms is a common practice that phytosanitary regulatory agencies use to mitigate biosecurity risks along trade pathways. To investigate the effects of target size and color on the efficacy of these visual assessments, we affixed square decals to polystyrene models of mandarins. Sample units of 100 model fruit containing up to 10 marked models were examined by inspectors. Six sizes in six shades of brown were tested across two prevalence levels. The experiment consisted of five inspection rounds where 11 inspectors examined 77 sample units within an allocated time. The probability that decals were detected increased with mark size and color contrast. Smaller, low-contrast marks were mainly missed. The prevalence rate did not affect the detectability. Through the experiment, the false-positive rate dropped from 6% to 3%, whereas false-negative rates were constant throughout. Large, dark targets were readily found with a mean recall of >90%, whereas small, pale marks had a mean recall of 9%. Increased experience made inspectors more competent at recognizing decals, reducing the false positive rate. However, constant false-negative rates indicate that experience did not prevent inspectors from overlooking targets they could not perceive.

Life-Suspending Technologies, Cryonics, and Catastrophic Risks.

I defend the claim that life-suspending technologies can constitute a catastrophic and existential security factor for risks structurally similar to those related to climate change. The gist of the argument is that, under certain conditions, life-suspending technologies such as cryonics can provide self-interested actors with incentives to efficiently tackle such risks-in particular, they provide reasons to overcome certain manifestations of generational egoism, a risk factor of several catastrophic and existential risks. Provided we have reasons to decrease catastrophic and existential risks such as climate change, we also have a (defeasible) reason for investing in developing and making life-suspending technologies (more) widespread.

Computationally intelligent real-time security surveillance system in the education sector using deep learning.

Real-time security surveillance and identity matching using face detection and recognition are central research areas within computer vision. The classical facial detection techniques include Haar-like, MTCNN, AdaBoost, and others. These techniques employ template matching and geometric facial features for detecting faces, striving for a balance between detection time and accuracy. To address this issue, the current research presents an enhanced FaceNet network. The RetinaFace is employed to perform expeditious face detection and alignment. Subsequently, FaceNet, with an improved loss function is used to achieve face verification and recognition with high accuracy. The presented work involves a comparative evaluation of the proposed network framework against both traditional and deep learning techniques in terms of face detection and recognition performance. The experimental findings demonstrate that an enhanced FaceNet can successfully meet the real-time facial recognition requirements, and the accuracy of face recognition is 99.86% which fulfills the actual requirement. Consequently, the proposed solution holds significant potential for applications in face detection and recognition within the education sector for real-time security surveillance.

EU space security-An 8-Step online discourse analysis to decode hybrid threats.

Space security has emerged as a concern for the European Union (EU), given that space systems have become integral to ensuring the safety of all European society. This strategy reflects the interaction of geopolitical dynamics and the rising specter of hybrid threats. However, grappling with hybrid threats targeting the EU space presents distinct challenges, primarily owing to their elusive nature. Hence, our objective is to develop practical methodologies to identify and mitigate such threats effectively. To meet this objective, we propose an innovative 8-step process. This approach streamlines the systematic identification and analysis of discourses of hybrid threats within online platforms dedicated to EU space discussions. Our methodology underwent rigorous scrutiny, including a comprehensive literature review that prioritized peer-reviewed manuscripts from sources such as Web of Science and Elsevier Scopus. Additionally, we selected documents from Google Scholar to ensure comprehensive coverage of diverse scholarly contributions, enriching the depth of our analysis. Our research yielded a conceptual framework for Online Discourse Analysis (ODA) tailored to evaluate hybrid threats targeting EU space defense and security. The results highlight the importance of leveraging advanced ODA techniques to deepen our understanding of emerging threats. In conclusion, we advocate for the adoption of these innovative methods to enhance the robustness of EU space defense strategies in the face of evolving security scenarios. The establishment of the 8-step ODA framework marks a pivotal milestone, offering a structured approach to deciphering hybrid threats. Looking ahead, we aim to empirically validate this framework by creating and deploying custom-tailored software designed to identify potential hybrid threats jeopardizing the security of European space assets. Through continued research and practical implementation, we endeavor to fortify the EU's defenses against emerging threats in the space domain.

[Terror attacks : Recommendations for cooperation between police, hospitals and non-police security services]. / Lebensbedrohliche Einsatzlagen : Handlungsempfehlung zur Zusammenarbeit zwischen Polizei, Kliniken und nichtpolizeilicher Gefahrenabwehr.

BACKGROUND: The risk of terrorist attacks in the Federal Republic of Germany is present and is currently increasing. Publicly funded acute care hospitals and their owners are involved in disaster control as part of their remit and are responsible for taking comprehensive precautions to ensure their operational capability in the event of disasters. This mandate must also be ensured in the event of terrorist attacks and amok incidents. For this purpose, an optimal cooperation between preclinical and clinical care is indispensable. AIM: Recommended actions for collaboration between nonclinical and clinical planning to manage a mass casualty incident in terrorist life-threatening response situations are presented. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The Inter-Hospital Security Conference Baden-Württemberg (IHSC BW) is an association of representatives of acute hospitals in Baden-Württemberg, the Ministry of the Interior, Digitalization and Migration Baden-Württemberg, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration Baden-Württemberg, the State Police Headquarters Baden-Württemberg and the Baden-Württemberg Hospital Association. From 2018 to 2020, the IHSC BW developed recommendations for action on cooperation between police, hospitals and non-police emergency response. The recommendations for action were agreed by the group members in 6 working sessions and initialled in two subsequent video conferences. A recommendation was considered adopted when the IHSC BW plenary assembly finally gave its approval with an absolute majority. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Competence-based interface solutions for a smooth cooperation between prehospital and hospital management in the care of patients who have become victims of a terrorist attack are to be demanded. For preliminary planning, the establishment of a local safety conference at the county disaster control authority level with the following participants is recommended: disaster control authority, fire department, regional police headquarters, chief emergency physician, rescue services and disaster control officers of affected clinics. It is recommended to set up a joint command and situation center (CSC), where management personnel from the police, rescue service, fire department and disaster control can meet to organize the handling of the incident jointly, competently and without loss of time. From this CSC, a liaison officer should then provide the clinics with information at regular intervals. Exercises should take place regularly. Cross-organizational exercises are particularly important, and this is one of the tasks of the local safety conference.

Virtual Labs and Designer Bugs - Generative AI, Synthetic Biology and National Security.

AI technologies can pose a major national security concern. AI programs could be used to develop chemical and biological agents which circumvent existing protective measures or medical treatments, or to design pathogens with capabilities they do not naturally possess (gain-of-function research). Although Australia has a strong legislative framework relating to research into genetically modified organisms, the framework requires the interaction of more than 10 different government departments, universities and funding agencies. Further, there are few guidelines about the responsible use of AI in biological research where existing laws and policies do not apply to research that is conducted "virtually", even where that research may have national security implications. This article explores these under-scrutinised concepts in Australia's biological security frameworks.

Biosafety, biosecurity, and bioethics.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of biosafety in the biomedical sciences. While it is often assumed that biosafety is a purely technical matter that has little to do with philosophy or the humanities, biosafety raises important ethical issues that have not been adequately examined in the scientific or bioethics literature. This article reviews some pivotal events in the history of biosafety and biosecurity and explores three different biosafety topics that generate significant ethical concerns, i.e., risk assessment, risk management, and risk distribution. The article also discusses the role of democratic governance in the oversight of biosafety and offers some suggestions for incorporating bioethics into biosafety practice, education, and policy.

Using Defence Engagement (Health) to progress the Women Peace and Security agenda.

Since the unanimous passing of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which calls on member states to address gender inequality, many countries and the wider North Atlantic Treaty Organisation community have championed the Women Peace and Security agenda to empower women and reduce violence within fragile states. When women are empowered and actively involved in decision-making, there is less violence, and more peace and stability in that society, which benefits all members.Defence Medical Services are uniquely positioned to progress this agenda, particularly through its Defence Engagement activities. The UK's military medical community has more women in leadership than the wider military community. Our personnel can and should be used to model and empower military healthcare workers in partner nations. This paper forms part of a special issue of BMJ Military Health dedicated to Defence Engagement.

Can trade and security alliance help reduce interstate war?

This study explains how the gap between theory and empirical research hinders scientific progress in the area of international political economy. To demonstrate this point, I use Chen's Extended Dependence Theory, which challenges liberal peace theory but fails to provide supporting empirical evidence. Chen contends that it is not trade dependence between two states that fosters peace but a challenger's trade relations with the defense-pact partners of the target. Although Chen criticizes liberal peace proponents whose primary concern is how to deter war, his empirical analysis is confined to how to decrease (fatal) militarized disputes short of war. I argue that for his theory to succeed, it must be validated against the most severe and intense form of conflict. Using statistical tests and substantive significance, I uncover no peace-building effect, with regards to war, attributable to Extended Dependence. It appears that the Extended Dependence variable exhibits a ceiling effect. Future research should explain why economic ties and security institutions fail to work together to lower the risk of the most destructive form of conflict.

Regulatory mechanism of vulnerability disclosure behavior considering security crowd-testing: An evolutionary game analysis.

The security crowd-testing regulatory mechanism is a vital means to promote collaborative vulnerability disclosure. However, existing regulatory mechanisms have not considered multi-agent responsibility boundaries and stakeholders' conflicts of interest, leading to their dysfunction. Distinguishing from previous research on the motivations and constraints of ethical hacks' vulnerability disclosure behaviors from a legal perspective, this paper constructs an evolutionary game model of SRCs, security researchers, and the government from a managerial perspective to propose regulatory mechanisms promoting tripartite collaborative vulnerability disclosure. The results show that the higher the initial willingness of the three parties to choose the collaborative strategy, the faster the system evolves into a stable state. Regarding the government's incentive mechanism, establishing reward and punishment mechanisms based on effective thresholds is essential. However, it is worth noting that the government has an incentive to adopt such mechanisms only if it receives sufficient regulatory benefits. To further facilitate collaborative disclosure, Security Response Centers (SRC) should establish incentive mechanisms including punishment and trust mechanisms. Additionally, publicity and training mechanisms for security researchers should be introduced to reduce their revenue from illegal participation, which promotes the healthy development of security crowd-testing. These findings contribute to improving SRCs' service quality, guiding security researchers' legal participation, enhancing the government's regulatory effectiveness, and ultimately establishing a multi-party collaborative vulnerability disclosure system.

A higher education approach to active shooter incidents: Evidence from 40 United States university campuses.

In a post-9/11 environment with an increased United States (US) federal government emphasis on active shooter preparedness, this study seeks to understand how higher educational institutions have adapted to this changing policy environment. Furthermore, between 2000 and 2017, there were 15 active shooter incidents at US higher education institutions. This study provides data on how public and private higher education campuses are preparing for this increased active shooter threat. Interviews were conducted with higher education employees familiar with campus security policies from 40 higher education institutions across 18 states in the US. These colleges/universities also represented a range of institution type: community colleges (5), public institutions (9), and private institutions (26). Interviews were conducted with 18 Chief/Director of Campus Safety/Security, 14 members of campus police or security, seven Chiefs of Police, and one staff member familiar with campus security policies.

Qualitative Evaluation of a Novel Security Role to Reduce Occupational Violence in Inpatient Hospital Settings.

Background: Occupational violence (OV) is a priority issue that significantly affects the safety of nurses, leading to staff burnout and poor retention issues. Security personnel are common in inpatient settings, yet there is limited research on their role, function, and impacts. The study aims to qualitatively evaluate a novel security role to reduce OV in inpatient settings. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in a tertiary hospital in Brisbane, Queensland. A novel security role (Ambassador) was piloted in three inpatient wards over 6 months in 2020 to mitigate OV risk. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted. All interviews were audio recorded. Interview transcripts were transcribed. Deductive analysis based on the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) was used to identify the experiences and perceptions of the participants. Findings: 17 participants were interviewed. Five themes were identified including program characteristics, internal drivers, external drivers, individual experience, and implementation process. An Ambassador proactively engages with patients and visitors and employs behavioral strategies to de-escalate or redirect persons of concern. Participants considered Ambassadors to be important members of the health care team who supported the provision of patient and family-centered care. Successful implementation was said to require collaboration between clinical and security services and a small agile project team with authority and autonomy. Conclusion/Application to practice: This study provides many insights into the successful implementation of a novel security role in acute hospital settings. More research is needed on the effectiveness, appropriateness, feasibility, and cost of different security models.

Implementing an Organizational Culture of Biosafety and Biosecurity in the SAP Institute.

An organizational culture of biosafety and biosecurity is critical for effective management of transboundary animal diseases. One essential aspect of this work is keeping important pathogens studied in veterinary laboratories under control. Türkiye is among the countries that are both endemic and disease-free for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus, and it has a unique institute dedicated to FMD diagnosis, control, and vaccine production. To build an organizational safety culture within this institute and strengthen awareness of the importance of safe and secure handling of FMD, 4 staff members previously trained in biorisk management developed and provided trainings to all institute staff. The institute's 173 personnel were divided into 3 groups by job description based on direct or indirect work with FMD virus. All 3 groups received training that addressed biosecurity, biosafety, biorisk awareness, and insider threat; the trainings varied in length by group. Three-quarters (n=130, 75%) of all institute staff completed their training and were asked to complete knowledge surveys using a Likert scale survey before and after their training. A majority (n=104, 80%) of those participants completed both the pretraining and posttraining surveys. All 3 training groups' posttraining surveys showed improved awareness above baseline scores, and all 3 groups scores reached the targeted threshold goal. Group 2 demonstrated a realization that some of the knowledge and habits they had acquired through experience were incorrect. Scores for several individual questions decreased at posttraining, and these results will need further evaluation. The overall training results prompted the institute to provide periodic updates to employees to sustain the organizational safety culture. With this study, the institute now has a dedicated group of biorisk management representatives. This work serves as a wake-up call for established institutions that rely on staff experience to foster an organizational culture of biosafety and biosecurity.

Building resilience: The role of enterprise security risk management in developing a resilient organisation.

Enterprise security risk management (ESRM) has continued to gain global acceptance as a management philosophy for the development and implementation of an enterprise-wide corporate security programme. As organisations continue to rebuild and recover from COVID-19, the value of assessing the resilience of an organisation through regular testing of its response to events has gained prominence. There are opportunities to link the development and implementation of a risk-based approach for designing a security programme, to assessing an organisation's resilience to future events. Organisations can benefit from the complementary approaches of ESRM and organisational resilience once the commonalities are identified and embraced. This paper expands upon the ESRM management approach, linking the concepts of ESRM to the design of a resilient enterprise.

Enabling cyber resilient shipping through maritime security operation center adoption: A human factors perspective.

The increased adoption of digital systems in the maritime domain has led to concerns about cyber resilience, especially in the wake of increasingly disruptive cyber-attacks. This has seen vessel operators increasingly adopt Maritime Security Operation Centers (M-SOCs), an action in line with one of the cyber resilience engineering techniques known as adaptive response, whose purpose is to optimize the ability to respond promptly to attacks. This research sought to investigate the domain-specific human factors that influence the adaptive response capabilities of M-SOC analysts to vessel cyber threats. Through collecting interview data and subsequent thematic analysis informed by grounded theory, cyber awareness of both crew onboard and vessel operators emerged as a pressing domain-specific challenge impacting M-SOC analysts' adaptive response. The key takeaway from this study is that vessel operators remain pivotal in supporting the M-SOC analysts' adaptive response processes through resource allocation towards operational technology (OT) monitoring and cyber personnel staffing onboard the vessels.