The threat of outsourcing US ports operation to any terrorist country supporter: a case study using fault tree analysis

Abstract

The possibility of any chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) weapon and/or material to be used in a shipment as a terrorist attack is considered a threat. The objective of this case study is to use fault tree analysis (FTA) to assess the threat to outsource the US ports to any terrorist country supporter. Thus, it was suggested a two-stage process to achieve this: problem formulation to define and rank scenarios, then quantitative risk assessment of selected, more highly ranked, scenarios. The quantitative risk assessment used here is considering two bioterrorist scenarios (projecting the past): the actual 1984 Rajneeshee incident in Oregon and a hypothetical release of oral anthrax into the food supply system. It is worthwhile to highlight that we have demonstrated with the use of FTA that a biological case scenario is possible if a terrorist attack happen.