Homeland Security May Expand Preparedness In Virtual World

Last month we featured an article that detailed Catastrophic Planning and Management Institute’s innovative disaster awareness project, “The Disaster Zone’. The Disaster Zone assists in planning and preparing for real disasters with virtual worlds via a Second Life simulation. Now it appears they won’t be alone in cyberspace disaster planning and preparedness. Pixels and Policy reports that the Department of Homeland Security may also be planning a virtual world of it’s own.

Pixels and Policy takes a look at the proposed program below.

The next major threat to American homeland security could come in the form of a virtual simulation if the Department of Homeland Security follows through on a recently announced plan.

DHS, the government department responsible for protecting Americans from terrorism and major disasters at home, has expressed a deep interest in using virtual worlds to train first responders and disaster management officials.

DHS Moves Quickly to Find a Policy Role for Virtual Worlds

The Department of Homeland Security made its interest in virtual worlds known in an August 25th request for information on the recently updated Federal Business Opportunities website. The announcement requested information that would lead to a “better understanding of virtual worlds,” with a deadline of October 2.

Less than 20 days after the closure of the request, the Department sent a high-level director to London to discuss the vital necessity of defending virtual worlds as part of an overarching national cybersecurity initiative. On very public fronts, the Department of Homeland Security is seeking to bolster its cybersecurity initiatives by increasing its knowledge of virtual worlds.

There’s a reason for this sudden government eye on virtual worlds. Cybersecurity remains a hot topic on Capitol Hill this year, with hearings in the Senate committees on Homeland Security, Commerce and Science, Small Business, and Armed Services. Government agencies from NASA to DHS are looking into the use of virtual worlds for a variety of public and internal services.

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DHS is tilling the soil in preparation for a large-scale move into virtual worlds as a training grounds for potential terrorist attacks on the American homeland. The techies at Visual Purple recently secured a DHS award for virtual education technology, and may find themselves among those partners called on to develop this large-scale project.

The idea itself is brilliant – in virtual environments, a building or stadium can be destroyed a thousand times at no expense. No one except those authorized will even be able to see it, lending a cloak of privacy to the emergency response techniques DHS wants to optimize.

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