Vulnerability Assessment Team (VAT)

Selected VAT Papers

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A selection of VAT papers that are available upon request:

• RG Johnston and JS Warner, “How to Choose and Use Seals” [ 399KB]
  Army Sustainment 44, 54‐58 (2012)
• RG Johnston, “A Cynical View of Security (Or the Importance of not Being Earnst)” [ 140KB]
  Keynote Address for Security in Government Conference (SIG 2011)
• RG Johnston, “Mitigating the Insider Threat (and Other Security Issues)”[6.4MB]
• RG Johnston and JS Warner, "Magical Seals, Secure Voting Machines, and Other Fantasies", Invited Talk for the Election Verification Network Meeting, Chicago, March 24-26, 2011 [   2.0MB]
• Countermeasures to Perceptual Blindness, Roger G. Johnston, Proceedings of the 51st Annual INMM Meeting Baltimore, MD, July 11-15, 2010, [ 539KB];
• Handbook of Security Blunders, Roger G. Johnston, Jon Warner, Proceedings of the 51st Annual INMM Meeting Baltimore, MD, July 11-15, 2010, [ 568KB];
• Changing Security Paradigms, Roger G. Johnston, Journal of Physical Security 4(2), 35-47 (2010), [126KB];
• JS Warner and RG Johnston, “Why RFID Tags Offer Poor Security”, Proceedings of the 51st INMM Meeting, Baltimore, MD, July 11-15, 2010.
• RG Johnston, et al., “The Security of Urine Drug Testing”, Journal of Drug Issues, 39(4) 1015-1028 (2009).
• RG Johnston and JS Warner, “Security Theater in Future Arm Control Regimes”, Proceedings of the 51st INMM Meeting, Baltimore, MD, July 11-15, 2010.
• RG Johnston, “Countermeasures to Perceptual Blindness”, Proceedings of the 51st INMM Meeting, Baltimore, MD, July 11-15, 2010.
• RG Johnston and JS Warner, “Unconventional Approaches to Chain of Custody and Verification”, Proceedings of the 51st INMM Meeting, Baltimore, MD, July 11-15, 2010.
• JS Warner and RG Johnston, “Chirping Tag and Seal”, Proceedings of the 51st INMM Meeting, Baltimore, MD, July 11-15, 2010.
• RG Johnston and JS Warner, “Using Pointers for Key and Password Security”, Proceedings of the 51st INMM Meeting, Baltimore, MD, July 11-15, 2010.
• RG Johnston, J Vetrone, and JS Warner, “Sticky Bomb Detection with Other Implications for Vehicle Security”, Journal of Physical Security 4(10), 36-46 (2010).
• EG Bitzer, PY Chen, and RG Johnston, “Security in Organizations: Expanding the Frontiers of Industrial-Organizational Psychology”, International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology 24, 131-150 (2009).
• JS Warner and RG Johnston, “Contact Memory Buttons and Nuclear Safeguards” Journal of Nuclear Materials Management 37(2), 11-15 (2009).
• RG Johnston, “Lessons for Layering”, Security Management 54(1), 64-69, (2010).
• RG Johnston, “My Turn: An Only Slightly Cynical Dictionary of Security Terms”, Security, July, 2008.
• RG Johnston, M Bremer Maerli, EG Bitzer, and JD Ballard, “Two Simple Models of Nuclear Transparency”, International Journal of Social Inquiry 1(2), 201-237 (2008),
• RG Johnston, MJ Timmons, and JS Warner, “Protecting Nuclear Safeguards Monitoring Data from Tampering”, Science and Global Security 15(3), 185-209 (2007).
• RG Johnston, “Tamper-Indicating Seals”, American Scientist 94(6), Nov-Dec 2006, pp. 515-523,
• RG Johnston, “A Model for How to Disclose Physical Security Vulnerabilities” (2006).
• E Bitzer, “Strategies for Cutting Turnover”, Security Management 50(5), 88-94 (May 2006), based on EG Bitzer and RG Johnston, “Turnkey Turnaround Solutions: Exploiting the Powerful Tools of I/O Psychology”, Los Alamos National Laboratory Report LAUR-05-1130.
• RG Johnston and JS Warner, “The Dr. Who Conundrum: Why Placing Too Much Faith in Technology Leads to Failure”, Security Management 49(9), 112-121 (Sept 2005).
• EG Bitzer and RG Johnston, "A Taxonomy for Security Assignments", J Security Administration 26, 1-11 (2003).), [ 112KB].
• EG Bitzer and RG Johnston, “Turnkey Turnaround Solutions: Exploiting the Powerful Tools of I/O Psychology”, Los Alamos National Laboratory Report LAUR-05-1130, (2005), [ 47K B].
• RG Johnston, “New Research on Tamper-Indicating Seals”, International Utilities Revenue Protection Association News, 16(1), 17-18 (2006)
• RG Johnston, “An Anti-Counterfeiting Strategy Using Numeric Tokens”, International Journal of Pharmaceutical Medicine 19, 163-171 (2005).
• RG Johnston, JS Warner, ARE Garcia, et al., "Nuclear Safeguards and Security: We Can Do Better", Paper 1009, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management, September 4-8, 2005, Glasgow, Scotland.
• RG Johnston, “The ‘Anti-Evidence’ Approach to Tamper-Detection”, Packaging, Transport, Storage & Security of Radioactive Material 16(2), 135-143 (2005).
• RG Johnston, “Assessing the Vulnerability of Tamper-Indicting Seals”, Port Technology International 25, 155-157 (2005).
• RG Johnston, “Adversarial Safety Analysis: Borrowing the Methods of Security Vulnerability Assessments”, Journal of Safety Research 35, 245-248 (2004)
• RG Johnston and ARE Garcia, “Effective Vulnerability Assessments for Physical Devices, Systems, and Programs”, Österreich Militärische Zeitschrift (Austrian Military Journal), Special Edition “Nuclear Material Protection”, February 2003, pp. 51-55
  PDF format
• JS Warner and RG Johnston, “GPS Spoofing Countermeasures”, Homeland Security Journal,  December 12, 2003
• RG Johnston and M Bremer Maerli, “International vs. Domestic Nuclear Safeguards: The Need for Clarity in the Debate Over Effectiveness”, Disarmament Diplomacy, issue 69, pp 1-6, February-March 2003
• RG Johnston, ARE Garcia, and AN Pacheco, “Improved Security Via ‘Town Crier’ Monitoring”, Proceedings of Waste Management ’03, Tucson, AZ, February 24-27, 2003
• RG Johnston and JS Warner, “Cargo Tracking and Security”, EyeforTransport, Sept, 2003
• RG Johnston, ARE Garcia, AN Pacheco, SJ Trujillo, RK Martinez, DD Martinez, & LN Lopez, “Improving Tamper Detection for Hazardous Waste Security”, Proceedings of Waste Man- agement ’03, Tucson, AZ, Feb 24-27, 2003
• A Simple Demonstration that the Global Positioning System (GPS) is Vulnerable to Spoofing”, The Journal of Security Administration 25, 19-28 (2002).
• RG Johnston, ARE Garcia, and AN Pacheco, “The ‘Town Crier’ Approach to Monitoring”, International Journal of Radioactive Material Transport 13(2), 117-126 (2002).
• RG Johnston, ARE Garcia, and AN Pacheco, "Efficacy of Tamper-Indicating Devices", Journal of Homeland Security, April 16, 2002,
• M Bremer Maerli and RG Johnston, “Safeguarding This and Verifying That: Fuzzy Concepts, Confusing Terminology, and Their Detrimental Effects on Nuclear Husbandry”, Nonproliferation Review 9, 54-82 (Spring 2002)
  PDF format
• RG Johnston, “Testing Tamper-Indicating Seals”, Security Business Practices 5, 15 (2002).
• RG Johnston, "Cryptography as a Model for Physical Security", Journal of Security Administration 24, 33-43 (2001).
• ER Gerdes, RG Johnston, and JE Doyle, "A Proposed Approach for Monitoring Nuclear Warhead Dismantlement", Science and Global Security 9, 113-141 (2001)
  PDF format
• RG Johnston, "Tamper-Indicating Seals for Nuclear Disarmament and Hazardous Waste Management", Science and Global Security 9, 93-112 (2001).
• RG Johnston, DD Martinez, and ARE Garcia, "Were Ancient Seals Secure?", Antiquity 75, 299-305 (2001).
• RG Johnston, "Tamper Detection for Safeguards and Treaty Monitoring: Fantasies, Realities, and Potentials", Nonproliferation Review 8, 102-115 (Spring 2001)
  PDF format
• RG Johnston and ARE Garcia, "An Annotated Taxonomy of Tag and Seal Vulnerabilities", Journal of Nuclear Materials Management 229, 23-30 (2000).
• RG Johnston, "The Real Deal on Seals", Security Management 41, 93-100 (1997).
• RG Johnston and ARE Garcia, "Simple, Low-Cost Ways to Dramatically Improve the Security of Tags and Seals", Proceedings of the IAEA Symposium on International Safeguards, Vienna, Austria, October 13-17, 1997.
• RG Johnston and ARE Garcia, "Vulnerability Assessment of Security Seals", Journal of Security Administration 20, 15-27 (1997).
• RG Johnston, "Effective Vulnerability Assessment of Tamper-Indicating Seals", Journal of Testing and Evaluation 25, 451-455 (1997).
• RG Johnston, ARE Garcia, and WK Grace, “Vulnerability Assessment of Passive Tamper-Indicating Seals”, Journal of Nuclear Materials Management 224, 24-29 (1995).

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.

Invited Talks

A list of selected Invited Talks is also available.

Security Maxims

Make sure you check also Roger's Security Maxims.

Not sure about the meaning of that security term?

Check out if it's defined in Roger's Devil’s Dictionary of Security Terms [252KB] | Last updated: Wed, Feb. 20, 2013

VAT in a Nutshell — a collection of fact sheets

Last Modified: Wed, February 20, 2013 2:47 PM