The Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) took part in two scenarios of civil protection at a NATO exercise in Slovakia on 27 of September 2010.

SnT scientist Aurel Machalek, who tested special applications for the secure and reliable communication technology via mobile phones, was accompanied by 16 members of the civil protection department of Luxembourg, the ‘Administration des services de secours’, supplying 6 trucks for special operations in the field of decontamination. Teams from Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland and Slovakia also took part in the exercise, hold at the city of Lest, at which simulations of scenarios of chemical and nuclear cases of emergency took place.
“We explored the supportive use of new communication technologies, like mobile phones, during emergency situations. The SnT cooperates on developing secure and encrypted communication tools using the latest version of internet protocols, the IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6). We want to develop the technological background that is necessary for offering the police, fire brigades and civil protection organisations reliable and trustworthy communication technologies”, explains Aurel Machalek from SnT. The whole setup is part of the Secricom project (www.secricom.eu), which fosters seamless communications for crises management and is co-funded by the seventh framework programme of the EU.

Mobile phones are everywhere

The exercise simulated the crash of two trains and the leakage of highly contaminative cargo. The rescue teams used conventional radio sets and - at the same time - mobile phones with a tailored software, using the IPv6 technology in order to show interoperability between these technologies. SnT member Aurel Machalek analysed the quality of communication via the mobile phones. The advantage of mobile phones is their common distribution. Today, many people have smart devices. The software enables the user to talk and chat, while sharing data and images in the background.
“The internet is ready to be used as a trustworthy communication tool in crises situations”, states Prof. Dr. Thomas Engel, vice-director of SnT, referring to the new options of encrypted communication provided by the IPv6 technology. The SnT already took a managerial position within the U2010 project (www.u2010.eu) in Luxembourg, where the overall objective was to provide the most effective access to information to everybody required to act in cases of accident, incident, catastrophe or crisis, while using existing or future telecommunication infrastructures. The exercise in Slovakia was the next step in developing crisis communication strategies for the future.