Vulnerability Assessment The terrorist incident in New York on September 11, 2001 woke many individuals and organizations to the realities of vulnerabilities within the airline industry. The particular problems seemed to be that crucial training for individuals who wished to work as commercial airline pilots had very little monitoring. Of course, security on flights was the most critical oversight as people within the industry believed that inflight incidents would not happen. Other transportation industries also realized the immediacy of the need for change, and have been implementing new protocols also. It may seem that the most vulnerable are those that travel in international waters or skies, but dangers exist within the United States because of a reliance on rail transportation of people and goods also. The United States could face significant problems if a major rail transportation system was interrupted due to terrorist infiltration. The research into this system proves that there remain major vulnerabilities in the U.S. rail system that could...

In Washington, D.C., the metro is used by approximately 800,000 people every day (Post, 2007). According to research all of the trips that occur throughout the system are controlled through a single master command structure (Brainard & Derrick-Mills, 2011). This system is well guarded and there are multiple fail-safes within the system, but a large detonation could be used to cause significant damage to the system. Another singular feature of the rail system is that it connects, and operates below, some of the seminal structures of United States government. Stops are located close to the Pentagon, Capitol Building and the White House. It would be possible for organizations to use these stops to cause a great deal of damage to seats of American government.
Many terrorist organizations in the world would be interested in gaining access to the Metro rail system in order to disrupt the…