Vulnerability Assessment Team (VAT)

Welcome to the Vulnerability Assessment Team (VAT) homepage at Argonne National Laboratory. The VAT is devoted to improving physical security, especially tamper and intrusion detection.

Argonne has expanded its capabilities to protect U.S. interests at home and abroad. The VAT moved to Argonne's Nuclear Engineering Division in October of 2007 from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The VAT conducts multi-disciplinary research and development on physical security devices, systems and programs. "The VAT's expertise and capabilities align extremely well with Argonne's work in national and homeland security," said Alfred Sattelberger, Associate Director of Physical Sciences and Applied Science and Technology at Argonne, who helped to find the group a home at Argonne. "Since the tragedies of Sept. 11, 2001, this lab has been actively bolstering its research portfolio to support the federal government's national security efforts. We expect that the VAT will be integrated into that work."

The VAT has worked extensively in the areas of product anti-counterfeiting, tamper and intrusion detection, cargo security, nuclear safeguards and the human factors associated with security using the tools of industrial and organizational psychology. The VAT also runs a rapid, one-stop microprocessor shop where Argonne scientists and researchers can have a microprocessor solution – hardware and software – for analog or digital measurements in about a week. Another VAT activity is playing host to the Journal of Physical Security, the first scholarly, peer-review journal devoted to physical security R&D.

The VAT made the move to Argonne because the team wants to make scientific research an integral part of its activities — a strategy not typically considered or employed when it comes to physical security, said Roger Johnston, who heads the team.

For more information, follow the links listed below.

In the Spotlight

JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL SECURITY

The Journal of Physical Security is our modest effort to deal with some of the serious problems with the field of physical security—in particular, the lack of scholarly peer-reviewed journals. There are a number of useful trade journals that cover physical security. There are also numerous peer-review journals that focus on criminology, law enforcement, cryptography, terrorism, national security, computer security, or security management. The field of physical security, however, has long needed a journal that can serve as a central focus, as well as a vehicle for rigorous discussion and advancement of the field, especially in the areas of research, development, modeling, testing, and analysis. We hope to contribute to the advancement and understanding of the field. Physical security is not just of great practical importance, it is also an intellectually challenging, multidisciplinary, fascinating subject worthy of thoughtful study.
Read more at the Journal of Physical Security

Tell me more about…
Contact Roger Johnston or Jon Warner

Other Resources / News Items

Brochures

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The Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne - Brochure
[ PDF (881KB)];
Philosophy on Vulnerability Assessments RG Johnston,
[ PDF (24KB)];

News Releases

Security team makes its home at Argonne
TheDoings-ClarendonHills.com (Jan. 24, 2008)
Argonne bolsters efforts in security research
Argonne News Release (Nov. 28, 2007)

Related Publications

You can read about Roger Johnston and the VAT in the book "Safe: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World," by Martha Baer, Katrina Heron, Oliver Morton, and Evan Ratliff (Harper Collins, 2005), pages 254-257 and 259.
More about the work of the VAT can be found in a feature article that appeared in the May 2005 issue of Mechanical Engineering.
"Get Creative to Reveal Unseen Vulnerabilities”, IOMA Security Director’s Report, Issue 05-11, November 2005, pp. 1, 12-13. SUBSCRIPTION NEEDED to read full article
F. Kahn, "The Eyes Don’t Have It", Business Travel Executive, June 2005. SUBSCRIPTION NEEDED to read full article

For copies of the VAT papers and presentations on a wide variety of physical security issues (tags, seals, product counterfeiting, vulnerability assessments, RFIDs, GPS, nuclear safeguards), contact Roger Johnston at

Contact:
Roger Johnston, Section Manager
National Security and Non-proliferation Department
Vulnerability Assessments Section
Fax: +1 630-252-7323