Threat Assessment

Criminals
Subdivided into three categories: unsophisticated, sophisticated, and organized. Unsophisticated criminals are unskilled in the use of weapons and tools and have no formal organization. Their targets are those that meet their immediate needs, such as drugs, money, and pilferable items. They are interested in targets that pose little risk. Sophisticated criminals working singly are organized and efficient in the use of certain weapons and tools. They target high-value assets and frequently steal large quantities. Organized criminal groups are sophisticated and rely on specialists to obtain equipment to achieve specific goals. Targets of organized criminal groups may involve large quantities of money, equipment, arms, ammunition, and explosives.

Protestors
Categorized as either vandals, activists, or extremists. Engineers must be concerned with all violent protestors. Protestors are politically or issue-orientated and act out of frustration, discontent, or anger. Their primary objectives include destruction and publicity. Vandals and activists are unsophisticated and superficially destructive. They generally do not intend to injure people. Extremist groups are moderately sophisticated and more destructive. Their actions are frequently overt and may involve individuals as targets. Terrorists. Oriented on an ideology, a political cause, or an issue. Terrorists commonly work in small, well-organized groups. They are sophisticated and possess an efficient planning capability. Terrorist objectives include death, destruction, theft, and publicity. Terrorist groups are generally classified by their government affiliation. They are categorized as non-state-supported, state-supported, or state-directed. Chapter 1 contains a detailed description of these categories. Chapter 5 lists specific terrorist tactics.

Subversives
Classified into two groups: saboteurs and spies. Saboteurs include guerrillas and commandos. They are very sophisticated and highly skilled and employ meticulous planning. Saboteurs commonly operate in small groups and have an unlimited arsenal. Their objectives include death and destruction. They often target mission-critical personnel, equipment, or operations. Spies are highly skilled and very sophisticated. They are generally foreign agents but frequently employ insiders. They target military information and attempt to avoid detection. In some cases, they may use the activities or other aggressors.

Moving - Vehicle Bomb
Used when an aggressor's goal is to damage or destroy a facility (or assets within a facility) or to kill people within the blast area. The moving-vehicle bomb is a suicide attack where an explosive-laden vehicle is driven into a facility and detonated.

Exterior Attack
Used when an aggressor's goal is to damage or destroy a facility (or assets within a facility) and kill or injure its occupants. This attack is at close range of a facility or exposed asset. Using clubs, rocks, improvised incendiary devices, hand grenades, or hand-placed bombs, the aggressor attempts to inflict destruction and death.

Standoff Weapons Attack
Used when an aggressor's goal is to damage or destroy a facility (or assets within a facility) and kill or injure its occupants. These attacks are executed using military or improvised direct and indirect fire weapons, such as antitank weapons and mortars.

Ballistic Attack
Used when an aggressor's goal is to kill or injure a facility's occupants. Using small arms at varying distances, the aggressor attempts to inflict death.

Forced Entry
Used when an aggressor's goals are to steal or destroy assets, compromise information, or disrupt operations. Using small arms or forced-entry tools, the aggressor enters a facility through an existing passage or creates a new opening in the facility.

Covert Entry
Used when an aggressor's goals are identical to those listed for the forced-entry tactic. The difference in these entries is that the aggressor will attempt to enter the facility covertly using false credentials. The aggressor may attempt to carry weapons or explosives into the facility.

Insider Compromise
Used when an aggressor's goals are similar to those listed for the forced entry tactic. The aggressor uses an insider (one who has legitimate access to a facility) to accomplish their prescribed objectives.

Electronic Eavesdropping
Used by an aggressor to monitor electronic emanations from computers, communications, and related equipment. This eavesdropping is normally done from outside a facility or restricted area.

Acoustical Eavesdropping
Used by an aggressor (a listening device) to monitor voice communication and other audible information.

Visual Surveillance
Used by aggressors employing ocular and photographic devices to monitor a facility, installation, or mission operations.

Mail Bombs
Used when the aggressor's objective is to kill or injure people. Small bombs or incendiary devices are incorporated into envelopes or packages that are delivered to the targeted individual.

Supplies Bombs
Used when the aggressor's objective is to kill or injure people or destroy facilities. Bombs or incendiary devices, generally larger than those found in mail bombs, are incorporated into various containers and delivered to facilities or installations.

Airborne Contamination
Used when the aggressor's objective is to kill people. The aggressor uses chemical or biological agents to contaminate the air supply of a facility or installation.

Waterborne Contamination
Used when an aggressor's objective is to kill people. The aggressor uses chemical, biological, or radiological agents to contaminate the water supply of a facility or installation.

Rocks and Clubs
Used in exterior building attacks to damage exterior building components or exposed assets or to injure people.

Incendiary Devices
Used to damage the facility's exterior or sabotage other assets. These include hand-held torches and improvised incendiary devices (IID). An example is a "Molotov cocktail".

Firearms
Used in the ballistic tactic to attack facility assets from a distance and in the forced entry tactic to overpower guards. These include pistols, rifles, shotguns, and submachine guns, both military and civilian. Weapons capabilities are outlined in the Security Engineering Manual.

Antitank Weapons and Mortars
Used in standoff attacks of facilities. For example, the direct fire antitank weapons most often used by terrorists are the Soviet, rocket-propelled grenade RPG-7 and the US light antitank weapon (LAW). These weapons increase the terrorist's ability to penetrate and damage a facility and to kill or injure people. Mortars are indirect-fire weapons and include both military and improvised versions.

Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical
Delivered as airborne or waterborne gases, liquids, aerosols, or solids. Very powerful chemical agents can be manufactured with relative ease from commercially available products. Biological agents can be grown in unsophisticated home laboratories. Radiological agents are radioactive elements that pose a potential threat to water supplies. They can be delivered in liquid or solid form.

Improvised Explosive Devices (IED)
Used in the exterior-attack, mail and supplies bomb deliveries, forced-entry, covert-entry, and insider-compromise tactics to destroy assets and to injure or kill people. They are commonly "homemade" bombs made of plastic explosives or trinitrotoluene (TNT). Plastic explosives are chosen by terrorist and extremist protestor groups because they are easily molded, stable, and difficult to detect.

Hand Grenades
Used in exterior attacks to injure or kill people. These include common military antipersonnel and fragmentation hand grenades.

Vehicle Bombs
Used to destroy facilities and kill people. They contain large quantities of explosives and have the potential to do catastrophic damage.