The control of illegal border crossing and the prevention of people intending to do harm from entering a country are paramount to the security of citizens and the financial health of a nation. Securing a nation's air, land, and sea borders is a difficult yet critical task. Borders serve as the nexus for terrorists, weapons of mass destruction (WMD), illegal immigrants, and contraband which represent a threat to national security.

The United States shares 5,525 and 1,989 miles of border with Canada and Mexico, respectively. Our maritime border includes nearly 100,000 miles of shoreline. Each year, 11.2 million trucks and 2.2 million rail cars cross into the United States, by land, while 7,500 foreign-flag ships make 51,000 calls to U.S. ports.

Annually, a half a billion people cross the border into the United States—330 million are non-citizens. People and goods crossing borders help drive economies, but also create potential breaches in security allowing illegal drugs, contraband and terrorists to enter. In order to secure a nation, border protection must secure the flow of people and goods, protect infrastructure and integrate into a system for coordinating and communicating critical information.

The first line of defense for controlling the flow of people and goods and securing infrastructure is done through physical deterrents such as fences that limit access. The no-mans land between fences is where sensors can be located to detect suspicious activity. Given the fact that the current seismic sensor system deployed at the Mexican boarder has a false alarm and unidentified source rate of over 95 percent and a successful apprehension rate of less than 1 percent, IA suggests implementing its Incident Video Synchronization System (IVSS) to display and record incidents minimizing false alarms and increasing the likelihood of apprehension. In remote locations the IVSS alarm could be directed to a helicopter patrol to speed the time to the point of detection for rapid interception of a suspect.