Utilizing expert systems for efficiency in integrating safeguards and operations

Since terrorist activities have had such devastating effects on our lives in recent years, both government and private agencies have given heightened attention to security. They must continually seek new ways to ensure that their operations are guarded against a variety of threats. Often, this results in increased workload both in security support functions and in the managerial and administrative support to these security functions. Since cost is always an essential factor in any business, each organization must balance the cost of providing security functions with the risk of not doing so. One method of helping to ensure that adequate and continual security requirements are met while minimizing cost is to utilize an expert system to track and document these requirements and to provide verification that needs are being appropriately implemented. Such a system can help organizations achieve higher levels of efficiency, availability, responsiveness, consistency, and quality. This paper addresses the merits of such a system, as well as the process of developing and integrating it into routine operations.