A recent USA Today article highlighted the increased number of improvised explosive device (IED) attacks outside of Afghanistan and Iraq over the first nine months of 2011 compared to the previous year. While the number of attacks has drastically increased, IED attacks outside the United States Military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR) are not an entirely new phenomenon. The same author wrote a similar May 2008 USA Today article. What has changed is that IED use as a tactic has expanded beyond terrorist groups to criminals and other groups around the world. The CTID Threat Report, IED Proliferation Outside CENTCOM, provides background on the expanded use of IEDs outside of CENTCOM and examples from other AORs. Many groups including terrorists and criminals have used IEDs as a preferred tactic for several years for multiple reasons. First, the materials to make IEDS are abundant, regardless of whether the bombmaker uses military material or civilian products. Second, an IED reduces the user’s exposure to a superior military or police force. Third, bomb-makers can produce IEDs cheaply. In 2006, materials to produce an IED cost about $1,125, but by 2009 the cost had dropped to $265. Remotedetonated IEDs cost bomb-makers only another $80 in materials. Fourth, IEDs cause a government’s police and military to expend significant amounts of resources in terms of both time and money to prevent the explosion, mitigate the blast’s effects, and/or track down the culprits involved. Lastly, many criminal organizations have adopted IEDs due to the apparent success of homemade explosive devices in the Middle East.