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As national security and war are being redefined for the digital age, Silicon Valley will need to be on the front line of counterterrorism. Its inventors and entrepreneurs are driving the information revolution, and they must figure out how to protect vital systems against malevolent intrusions. It lies at ground zero of the battle between government efforts to protect society and individual rights of privacy.

Silicon Valley is up for the challenge, if my recent experience at TiEcon, an annual conference in Santa Clarita of innovators and entrepreneurs, is any indication. Some of the participants already have created technologies currently being used to assist in security. Others have exciting new concepts or ideas already in development. These represent new approaches to physical security and information protection; the detection of weapons, explosives, radioactive material and other dangerous substances; analytics; and other countermeasures. With these potential advancements, Silicon Valley may already be placing itself at the heart of the terrorism battle.

http://www.rand.org/blog/2016/06/cyberterrorism-and-the-role-of-silicon-valley.html

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• ISIS Opponents Generally Outnumber Supporters Six to One – but ISIS supporters, however, routinely outtweet opponents, producing 50 percent more tweets per day.

• ISIS opponents are plentiful but may require assistance from the U.S. State Department.

• Twitter should continue its campaign of account suspensions: This campaign likely harasses ISIS Twitter users, forces them to lose valuable time reacquiring followers, and may ultimately push some to use social media channels that are far less public and accessible than Twitter.

• Nations and organizations (such as U.S. military and State Department messengers) looking to countermessage ISIS on Twitter should tailor messages for and target them to specific communities.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1328.html?adbsc=social_20160816_962621&adbid=765450532139864064&adbpl=tw&adbpr=22545453

3

• The correct response to Istanbul by U.S. leaders is to point out that such an attack is precisely why the United States and its allies are engaged in an effort to destroy ISIS, al Qaeda, and other like-minded fanatical groups. People need to understand that this will be a difficult, long-term effort and that, while intelligence efforts to uncover terrorist plots and arrest terrorists will continue, Americans have to realistically accept the risks they face.

• Fortunately, these risks remain minuscule. In the nearly 15 years since 9/11, terrorists in the United States have managed to kill a few more than 100 people. Of course, that number is not acceptable, and anger is appropriate. It should reinforce our resolve. It demands courage and continued commitment to the values we celebrate on July Fourth

http://www.rand.org/blog/2016/07/the-response-to-every-terrorist-attack-cannot-be-another.html

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• As to broader values -- and I would say here American values, things that we value in our society, courage, self-reliance, tolerance – it is extremely important that we hold on to those. It’s not a matter that those are some sort of luxuries that we’re going to toss overboard when we get into stormy waters.

• It is those values that motivate our own soldiers and sailors and marines. It is those values that, despite the mistakes we have made in the world, that still have many of the people in the world desperate to come to the United States. It is those values that prevent us from alienating populations that could otherwise provide support to our adversaries.

• So these aren’t luxuries; they are weapons. And we want to be very careful about not giving those up.• I think ultimately, one, we are a tough nation; that ultimately we will prevail not because of how many

bollards we plant in front of public buildings or how many procedures we install at airports or how many cameras we put up. We will prevail because of our essential values.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-patt-morrison-asks-brian-michael-jenkins-terrorism-20160504-story.html

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Or some may wish to portray the attacks as an escalating terrorist threat posed by Islamic radicalism in order to support broader biases against Islam or immigration, and the admission of Syrian refugees in particular. This interpretation makes no distinction between a strategic decision by ISIS and a troubled shooter in Orlando — all manifest the same threat.

https://www.rand.org/blog/2016/07/is-the-surge-in-terrorist-attacks-coincidence-or-coordinated.html?adbsc=social_20160711_910841&adbid=10154651794368676&adbpl=fb&adbpr=55708608675

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• The Internet is the starting point for many homegrown terrorists. (Some would argue that, given this incessant incitement to violence from abroad, it is incorrect to use the term homegrown terrorist.).

• The Internet also enables extremists to find resonance and reinforcement for their personal discontents, provides them with direction, and justifies their aggression.

• Limiting Internet communication would, opponents argue, be a blow to freedom, a terrorist victory.

• Most pragmatic is the argument that shutting down terrorist websites and chat rooms would deprive the authorities of a valuable source of intelligence. In fact, a number of terrorist plots have been foiled by monitoring communications on the Internet.

• The United States needs to improve its capabilities in cyberspace, develop effective ways to blunt al Qaeda’s appeal, and increase the awareness of family members and community leaders of the problem of online radicalization and recruitment to terrorism, but it should avoid imposing government control.

http://www.rand.org/pubs/corporate_pubs/CP625.html

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Whatever one thinks about the wisdom, or the folly, of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the sacrifices of war have been borne unequally. Our sense of community has eroded. Terrorists did not create America’s anxieties. Terrorism acted as their condenser. Our commonwealth, our common defense, will come only from the recovery our own sense of common will and common purpose.

http://www.rand.org/pubs/testimonies/CT377.html

8

The Land of the Fearful, or the Home of the Brave? • Although the rule of law prevailed in the post-9/11 decade, American values were at

some level damaged. The most egregious example was the employment of coercive interrogation techniques that were tantamount to torture. The sophistic legal defense of these techniques remains a blight on American history.

• The objective of terrorism is to create terror. The 9/11 attacks certainly created a state of alarm. They made the country very edgy, if not fearful, but they did not bring down the republic, imperil America’s democracy, or destroy individual liberties.

• Americans struck back, albeit not always at the right target, accepting long campaigns but few constraints on freedoms, painfully relearning old lessons, and realizing the limits of military power. At times, American values were threatened or abandoned, but resilient congressional and judicial institutions, cognizant and at times jealously protective of their roles and prerogatives, have struggled mightily to right the ship of state and to chart a new course for the nation. However, this is an enduring task. http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG1107.html

Security remains a dominant preoccupation, accompanied by unrealistic expectations on the one hand, yet cantankerous resistance on the other. Tolerance has worn thin. It is a messy but overall optimistic assessment. In the short run of responding to this new terrorist threat, America might appear to be the land of the fearful; but in the long run, I believe, the home of the brave will prevail.

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The lack of significant terrorist attacks on the United States since 9/11 suggests not only intelligence and investigative success, but an American Muslim community that remains overwhelmingly unsympathetic to jihadist appeals. Modern communications, especially the Internet, offer access to violence-exalting narratives, but there is absolutely no evidence to show that attempts to exploit the dismay of some Muslims at policies that can be portrayed as an assault on faith or community have interrupted the integration of immigrant communities. What authorities confront are tiny conspiracies or the actions of individuals, which in a free society will always be hard to predict and prevent.

http://www.rand.org/pubs/testimonies/CT336.html

10

Jenkins believes that homeland security should move beyond gates and guards and become the impetus for rebuilding America’s decaying infrastructure. Americans need to adopt a realistic approach to risk and get a lot smarter about security. We need to build upon the nation’s traditions of determination and self-reliance. Above all, we need to preserve our commitment to American values. Preserving these values is no mere matter of morality, he argues; it is a strategic imperative.

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG454.html#download