README.md

Student Information

Student name: Shrinithi Narayanan

Student NetID: sn32

Problem 1

• Scenario: Stadium
• Assumptions:
  • I am assuming that I have the ability to lock up certain elements of the stadium and that I also have access to certain things like the light box and the equipment room.
• Assets:
  • The stadium lights are an asset. Lights are needed for a night game, so that the players can see the field for play and for safety. If the lights are defective, then games cannot be played or players could get hurt without adequate sight. Also, if the lights are somehow broken or tampered with, glass shards could be on the field which could injure players.
  • The stadium seats are an asset. People need seats to watch the game. Although this may not be a problem at Rice due to lack of audience turnout, at a university whose team is frequently ranked among the best in the country, it's important to have people be comfortably seated. Without proper seats, audience turnout could decrease, and people could get hurt while standing to watch if there's enough of a crowd. If seats are tampered with, people could hurt themselves when they sit down if the integrity of the seat is compromised.
  • The stadium field is an asset. In order to play football, a proper and well kept field is required. I don't play football, but I know that there are yard lines. We need to make sure that these are not vandalized or tampered with, because this could affect a player's ability to perform a play, and commentators'/referees' abilities to discern what is happening on the field. We also want to make sure the integrity of the field is protected so that players don't injure themselves if the field is muddy.
  • The team equipment is an asset. It's important that our team players are properly protected when playing football. I assume that the equipment and locker rooms are housed underneath the stadium. If the equipment is tampered with, players can get hurt during the game if the integrity of the equipment is not up to standard. It's also possible that if the equipment is stolen, then players simply cannot suit up to play the game.
  • The people that are in the stadium during practices and plays are important to protect. We want to make sure that when there is a significant number of people that the stadiums are not open to the public, or require some sort of screening process to prevent adversaries that want to hurt people from entering a densely populated area.
• Threats:
  • Stupid college students are a threat. Being that this is a university stadium, there will be kids that get drunk and want to sneak into the stadium. There might be kids that are dared to vandalize or break property in the stadium. These kinds of threats can be stopped with countermeasures that I will describe later.
  • Malicious people that want our football team to lose could attempt to hurt the assets provided. These are people that are actively wanting to, or are paid to, vandalize and ruin property of the stadium. They are not as "innocent" as drunk college kids or kids being dared to do something, as they have the intent to break things in order to make it harder for the team to play, in the hopes that our team will lose or players will get hurt and cannot play.
  • Naturally occurring weather events could destroy the stadium. Strong winds could blow things around the stadium and break things. Lots of rain could ruin the field, or make it unsafe to play. There could be lightening and thunder that could affect the field, and it might even be possible that tornado could touch down in the stadium (I think).
• Countermeasures:
  • To protect the lights, we could add some sort of physical strong plexi glass, or some material that when broken wouldn't be as unsafe as glass, but is also strong enough to protect the actual lights, while making sure the lights still work properly so people can see. This prevents people from breaking glass and making the lights not work and from people getting hurt. Putting plexi glass doesn't seem too expensive in my opinion. Also, having a lock on the light/control box would easily and cheaply prevent people from messing with the lights during non play time.
  • To protect the seats, we could bolt them to the concrete, so that people can't steal them. This would prevent them from loosening them and having people get hurt, or just taking them altogether and removing comfortable seating from the stadium. I don't think this would require too much money, and this is a one time cost during construction, but if it wasn't constructed this way, it's a one time cost to do this.
  • The field itself is harder to protect, but I think a good way to protect it is having some sort of automatic tarp that can cover the top of the football stadium when it is not being used. So at night, the tarp would activate and cover the top of the stadium so things like rain don't affect it. In terms of vandalizing it, locking the entrances so that people can't get onto the field when the shouldn't seems cheap. The tarp could be quite expensive, so it may not be in the budget, but locking the entrances with a lock seems like something that would exist for the stadium already, or be quite cheap to implement. I think a tarp would be more justified in areas where there are lots of weather events like heavy rains and storms. I don't think it would make sense in an area with nice weather, like LA.
  • Team equipment seems quite easy to protect by just locking up the equipment room when people don't need to be in it. Basically, keep it unlocked when players are getting ready for scrimmage and games, and when they are out on the field, lock up the equipment room until they are done. So, the players are in the room and can be on the lookout when they need it, and it's locked, and people shouldn't be able to get in when the players are not in it.
  • In order to protect against people that want to harm a densely populated area, I would have people be screened at every stadium entrance during very big/popular games. This would be the usual metal detector and bag check to make sure no one is bringing a weapon of mass destruction in. This would be pretty cheap because you could hire people looking to make some quick bucks during games, and I'm sure you could also find people willing to volunteer their time to do it.

Problem 2

• Scenario: TSA
• Assumptions:
  • I am making the assumptions that I have the budget to implement reasonable countermeasures, that my workers don't call in sick because we're on a government shutdown that affects our livelihood.
• Assets:
  • The building is an asset. We need to protect the building because it houses the screening process for people entering and exiting the building. It also houses the baggage claiming and the connection points for flights to arrive and leave. Without this central building, we don't have a place for people to board, deplane, or send their bags. We need to make sure people don't bring things that could affect the building.
  • The people in the building are assets. First of all, we need to protect human life, but more specifically, we need people to do the baggage claim and screening, so that the people that are inside are protected. If pilots or flight attendants or people are hurt, then the airport cannot function as best as it can. We need to make sure it's safe for people deplaning, and that they cannot be hurt by people that have gotten past the security checkpoint.
  • The planes are assets. We need to make sure that the planes are protected, so the screening process needs to make sure that people cannot bring things that could negatively affect a plane either on the ground or in flight.
  • The bags are assets. These are not necessarily assets for TSA, but they are assets for the people traveling. We need to make sure that the bags are not ruined by our screening process.
• Threats:
  • People who don't understand the rules can be threats. For whatever reason, whether they didn't read the rules or because they didn't understand them, people can bring in items that be used to hurt people. Someone might bring a gun or a knife without realizing it. We need to protect against these people, because regardless of intent, they might accidentally hurt people.
  • Malicious people/terrorists are obviously threats. There are people that want to hurt something or some people, and they need to be screened out. They could have weapons of mass destruction that are intended to be used to hurt people at the airport.
  • Unsafe baggage can be a threat. Planes are up in the air and at altitude, things like fires can bring a plane down. We need to make sure that people aren't bringing things that could cause events at altitude that could bring down a plane, like lithium ion batteries which could catch fire, or liquids that become volatile at high pressure or things of that nature.
  • Drug smugglers could be threats, or lead to threats. People who are smuggling drugs or under the influence of drugs could be acting crazy and doing things that lead to problems past the security checkpoint. Someone carrying drugs could attract the attention of malicious people that want to hurt them, by hurting the airport as a whole. People ON drugs could do something unsafe past security, like pull a fire alarm while delirious. We need to make sure that these people don't pass the screening to protect.
• Countermeasures:
  • An x-ray scanner would help look for metal objects that could be destructive in nature. This includes things like metal knives and guns. They would also help the TSA look into baggage and do visual checks for items that may be unsafe. This would make sure that nothing is brought in that could negatively affect the building (some sort of small explosive). Similarly, smaller weapons that could harm a person could be caught, or things like batteries which could cause explosions when in the air. These are usually already in place at airports, so it wouldn't be any more cost than the initial cost of making an airport anyway.
  • Body scanners are already common place in airports, so the cost would be justified by precedent. Body scanners would allow TSA to screen for people who might be smuggling drugs, or other items that they shouldn't be, which can help prevent people who might attract other malicious people from entering. This could also prevent ignorant people from bringing things on that they forgot they had, and this prevents malicious people from sneaking items on board that they shouldn't be bringing.
  • ID checks are a simple countermeasure. People must be required to bring an ID and make sure that their information matches their flight ticket. This makes sure that malicious people don't try to sneak onto planes using someone else's information. This must be done by a human because I believe if automated, it would be too easy for people to trick. This is already done, so again, this can be justified by precedent for costs.
  • Having better disposal techniques of items that don't pass the current countermeasures. Normally, when something isn't a weapon (like a liquid), people are required to throw them away during the screening process if they don't fit the requirements, but it's commonly brought up on the Internet that disposing everything like this could be used as a way to harm the building. For example, when sodium and water are mixed together, it creates a volatile reaction. Someone could bring too much water, be required to dispose of it, and someone else could later drop sodium into the same disposal bin and cause an explosion. Therefore, when someone is bringing something that must be disposed over before finishing screening, it should be handed to a TSA agent that can safely dispose the liquid in such a way that people cannot manufacture their own explosions in the screening area, which would protect the building, people, and baggage in that area. This does not incur any extra cost, as there are extra TSA agents, usually, during screening.
  • Testing any and all liquids during screening. I am not sure how feasible this would be for costs, as I don't have the information on how much screening tests costs, but having some sort of machine that can check that liquids are "safe" would be useful. People can say that it's water, but how would an agent or scanner be able to tell the difference between vodka and water? Having a machine that checks for certain types of liquids would be useful to make sure that various people cannot bring in various liquids that could combine to form something malicious. It doesn't have to be all inclusive and perfect, but some sort of small test to make sure that things aren't wildly different from what people claim they are.

Problem 3

• Scenario: Rice Coffeehouse
• Explanation of choice: You are the manager of Rice Coffeehouse and need to make sure you can serve all your customers and "protect" your Coffeehouse to make sure you can accomplish this goal.
• Assumptions:
  • I don't actually work at Coffeehouse, but I'm going to assume the general manager has unilateral control over certain aspects of Coffeehouse that other workers don't.
• Assets:
  • The food and coffee items are assets. You have to make sure you protect all the items that you sell because you don't want people tampering with them to hurt or injure other people.
  • The equipment used to make the coffee is important to protect. Without an espresso machine, you cannot make a lot of the drinks that people order, and if you don't, the business will suffer and may not be able to stay open.
  • The equipment in the room is an asset, because that's also what brings a lot of people to Coffeehouse, and if people steal the equipment or tamper with it, people aren't as likely to stay in Coffeehouse, and that brings down the atmosphere, which may lead to less people, and less people means less business, which could lead to closing down of the store.
  • The items and valuables of people on shift. People on shift need some place to keep their stuff while they work. You don't want to leave it out in the open, because while Rice is usually a safe campus, it is possible that people will steal their stuff, so you need some place that they can lock their items up.
  • The other items for coffee like cups and straws and napkins. You need to make sure that people don't steal straw and coffee tops, because customers will get annoyed if they cannot find the stuff that they need to drink their coffee and they may stop coming to Coffeehouse if they are very dissatisfied.
  • The cash in the register, the tip jar, and card readers are assets. Anything related to money is something that people might steal in order to get the money or hack or toy with the card reader for some other reason. There are also the iPads that people might steal and resell.
• Threats:
  • There are people that love coffee a lot and might be willing to steal it. You need to make sure that they cannot steal the money from the register to get free coffee, and make sure that they can't just take a cup and take free drip coffee. Implementing security cameras to make sure that people are paying wouldn't be too expensive, and it would be nice to have security cameras in case any incident takes place.
  • Malicious people might just want to steal stuff. They might want to steal the items and valuables of people working inside Coffeehouse or working for Coffeehouse. Again, security cameras would be useful in case such an incident happens so the person can be caught, and having lockers with lockers for people to put their stuff would be useful so people cannot just take it when others aren't looking. These people might also want to hurt people and try to tamper with the coffee supply and food supply, so employees need to make sure everything is locked up behind the bar.
  • Stupid people that aren't noticing their surroundings could be a threat. You could have someone not notice where they are and accidentally hit and break the espresso machine, or knock over coffee dispensers and things of that nature. While they are not trying to be malicious, they could break expensive items or hurt other people, so we need to make sure that things behind the bar are protected from accidents like that.
  • Bad employees could be threats. Normally, people trust their employees not to steal, but it's possible that someone could be skimming from the register, which is why security cameras are again important. Also, in case there is a bad employee that wants to hurt people by tampering with food and coffee, cameras would help prevent/find that person.
• Countermeasures:
  • Locks are important for everything that needs to be safe. They are quite cheap, and could easily solve the problem of people stealing stuff from Coffeehouse, its customers, or its employees. Also, as general manager, locking up the whole Coffeehouse during closed hours to make sure no one else can go inside and tamper.
  • Security cameras as I mentioned above would help because if something did happen, they could look at the tapes to see who did it. Also, just knowing that people are being watched would help prevent them from committing a crime or doing something bad.
  • This isn't necessarily a physical countermeasure, but just having some good free software for accounting. This would make sure that the books are correct and that people aren't stealing money from a great non profit organization.