The 9/11 New York attacks prompted an over-reliance on security technology – leaving us vulnerable

It has been 25 years since the devastating attacks of September 11, 2001. Amid the reflection that followed emerged the most comprehensive examination of any terrorist attack in history, the 9/11 Commission Report. Several statements in this forensic diagnosis continue to shape our understanding of those events. These range from the intelligence systems that were “blinking red” in the months preceding the attacks to various institutional “failures of imagination” that left the threat unrecognised.

Yet the commission’s investigation into the circumstances of the 9/11 terrorist attacks was also, fundamentally, a report on how to reimagine and improve security. The commission’s recommendations foreshadowed and legitimised a new model of security that emerged from the ashes of the twin towers, one centred on protecting critical infrastructure using an integrated security architecture.

The 9/11 commission’s blueprint involved integrating agencies, systems and technologies. This principle took many forms. The integration of intelligence reporting is illustrated by UK’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre. Technology became weaved into security activities. Important spaces were fortified using a “layered security” approach.

Symbolic buildings, financial districts, city centres, stadiums, high-end shopping malls, and especially airports were the first to be upgraded. Passenger preclearance, biometric documents, full-body scanners, armed police patrols and the canopy of surveillance cameras became the building blocks of these...

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