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PITTSBURGH: Corporate executives should expect substantial cost increases for security measures similar to the costs incurred three decades ago following strong public demand for better environmental safeguards, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Tuesday.

Speaking at a symposium on corporate security one year to the day after his appointment, Ridge told leaders of some of the country's largest companies that they are the most likely targets of terrorist attacks. He said if they do not voluntarily step up security, security measures could be mandated.

"You own most of the targets," Ridge said. "Even if nine out of 10 of you don't think you're a potential target, your enemy says you are."

Ridge was referring to a study done by the Council on Competitiveness, a nonpartisan coalition of corporate chiefs, labor leaders and academics that is co-hosting a two-day symposium on corporate security with Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

The group recently interviewed leaders of large U.S. corporations and found that few have increased security, believing that they would not be the target future attacks.

Of the 230 corporate executives running companies with gross revenues of more than $50 million, fewer than half have made significant changes to security policies, according to the survey.

Many of the companies that did increase spending on security directed funds toward guards or measures to prevent entry into buildings, not protecting vital infrastructure, according to the survey.

"We're already talking with businesses and communities to identify weaknesses in our critical infrastructure — you own 85 to 90 percent of it," he said.

Ridge told a room of about 200 people at the exclusive Duquesne Club, a playground for industrialists and magnates since 1873, that the public would demand more security from corporate leaders.

"Like the environmental movement of the 70s and 80s, the post 9/11-era will have its costs, in this case for security," he said.

Ridge said he has read reports that estimate new costs for security could run as high as 5 percent to 6 percent of corporate earnings.

The Sept. 11 attacks have taught corporate America that if it does not spend money on increased security, "we might find the bill coming our way anyhow," Ridge said.

The president of the Council on Competitiveness said she has spoken to Ridge, and because of his experience as governor of Pennsylvania, he understood the importance of creating an efficient system of cross-border commerce.

"The friction we find between the need for security and the need for free commerce right now is that when there is a threat, we shut down," said Deborah Wince-Smith. "If we shut down, the terrorists have won and attacks on our institutions will continue."

The symposium continues today. Featured speakers include Raymond Gilmartin, chairman and CEO of Merck & Co.; C. Michael Armstrong, chairman and CEO of AT&T; William Brody, president of Johns Hopkins University; Gov. John Engler of Michigan and John Morgridge, chairman of Cisco Systems.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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