I have been looking at the makeup of the Security Leaders Group I manage at Linkedin.com. Posted below is the breakdown of the 1,403 members and the countries they reside in. With a membership of security professionals and thought leaders from so many countries I have become sensitive to the parochial nature of the term “homeland security”. To the 644 members of the group that are not from the US (and the 5.3 billion other people) I am sure “Homeland” has a very different meaning.
I started to think about this when Linkedin added discussion capability to its Groups function. As could be expected there were the usual job postings from head hunters (who are strictly banned from the group) and one call for the group to peruse a member’s new Homeland Security website. How can you talk about Homeland Security and take a completely US centered view? The world, and most especially the world of security researchers, practitioners, and industry people, is a global community. Fighting cyber crime, espionage, terrorism, and cyber warfare involves all of us no matter where we reside.
I don’t know about you but for me “homeland” evokes the term “fatherland” with all of its negative connotations. It is time for the US to rename its largest department.
| Country | Number of members |
| USA | 759 |
| UK | 112 |
| France | 54 |
| India | 49 |
| Israel | 48 |
| Canada | 40 |
| Brazil | 39 |
| Australia | 21 |
| Belgium | 18 |
| Spain | 16 |
| Sweden | 14 |
| New Zealand | 13 |
| Switzerland | 10 |
| Denmark | 10 |
| Portugal | 8 |
| Mexico | 8 |
| UAE | 7 |
| Netherlands | 6 |
| Germany | 6 |
| Finland | 6 |
| Singapore | 5 |
| Poland | 5 |
| Norway | 5 |
| Italy | 5 |
| Ireland | 5 |
| Thailand | 4 |
| Russian Federation | 4 |
| Hong Kong | 4 |
| Argintina | 4 |
| Tunisia | 3 |
| Saudi Arabia | 3 |
| Panama | 3 |
| China | 3 |
| Ukraine | 2 |
| South Africa | 2 |
| Slovak Republic | 2 |
| Peru | 2 |
| Japan | 2 |
| Columbia | 2 |
| Uraguay | 1 |
| Turkey | 1 |
| Taiwan | 1 |
| Qatar | 1 |
| Philippines | 1 |
| Pakistan | 1 |
| Malaysia | 1 |
| Luxenbourg | 1 |
| Iraq | 1 |
| Indonesia | 1 |
| Hungary | 1 |
| Greece | 1 |
| Ecudor | 1 |
| Czech Republic | 1 |
| Cyprus | 1 |
| Croatia | 1 |
| Costa Rica | 1 |
| Chile | 1 |
| Cape Verde | 1* |
| Bulgaria | 1 |
| Bermuda | 1 |
| Bangladesh | 1 |
| Bahamas | 1 |
*I suspect that the member who entered Cape Verde as their location was obfuscating their nationality. Security people are strange that way. 
