Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last Friday announced two new initiatives, one aimed at better positioning his department to deal with threats to the homeland posed by China and the other to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) in support of homeland security missions.
The Department of Homeland Security is conducting a 90-day sprint that will analyze the evolving threat from the People’s Republic of China and how the department can continue to defend against this threat, Mayorkas said during his State of the Homeland Address.
Two areas of focus in the sprint were called out by Mayorkas, including defending critical infrastructure against attacks by, or sponsored by, China that are “designed to disrupt or degrade provision of national critical functions, sow discord and panic, and prevent mobilization of U.S. military capabilities.”
The second area is improving screening of travelers from China that come to the U.S. to “collect intelligence, steal intellectual property, and harass dissidents,” he said.
Mayorkas’ expressed concerns about Chinese operations in the U.S. follow the Justice Department’s announcement last Monday that it arrested two New York City residents for operating an illegal police station of the PRC in Manhattan that tracked and harassed Chinese dissidents critical of China’s government.
“A PRC invasion of Taiwan would have profound reverberations in the homeland, putting our civilian critical infrastructure at risk of a disruptive cyber-attack,” Mayorkas said. “We must ensure we are poised to guard against this threat today and into the future.”
DHS last Thursday released its third ever Quadrennial Homeland Security Review and the first since 2014. The new QHSR devotes a section to strategic competition with an emphasis on China, and highlights a range of actions underway at DHS to strengthen the homeland.
These actions include information sharing across government and industry about nation-state threats and work with partners, including the private sector, to “build a common understanding of strategic cyber threats to empower” defenders of government and critical infrastructure networks to bolster resilience against cyber-attacks and maintain critical functions.
In March, Mayorkas tasked the Homeland Security Advisory Council to create two subcommittees focused on the department’s strategy for AI. His taskings, which were outlined in a March 27 memo to the council, include an effort on how DHS “can best use AI to advance critical missions” and another “on how the Department should be building defenses to the nefarious use of AI in the control of an adversary.”
DHS will also stand up its first Artificial Intelligence Task Force to drive applications of the technology in advance of homeland security missions, Mayorkas said on Friday.
One area of focus for the task force will be supply chain security, in particular for better cargo scanning, to “identify the importation of goods produced with forced labor, and manage risk,” he said.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a component of DHS, has already launched an effort to develop AI-based algorithms that will be integrated in non-intrusive inspection (NII) systems to automatically detect anomalies in cargo conveyances that are scanned with the equipment. The algorithms are expected to enhance threat and contraband detection while reducing the workload on operators.
Congress has been frustrated with CBP’s slowness in moving out on applying AI and machined learning technology to its NII systems.
The task force will also focus on using AI technology to the challenge of fentanyl that is coming into the U.S. Mayorkas said the goals here are to employ AI “to better detect fentanyl shipments, identify and interdict the flow of precursor chemicals around the world, and target for disruption of key nodes in the criminal networks.”
DHS’ fiscal year 2024 budget request includes $305 million for NII systems that would be deployed at ports of entry with a primary focus on fentanyl detection.
Most fentanyl entering the U.S. is coming from Mexico through the ports of entry where overall most vehicles, including passenger and cargo, are not scanned by NII systems. Most of the precursor chemicals used in the production of fentanyl come from China and are sent to Mexico.