Pirates, just like land-lubbing bank-robbers and jewel thieves, probably will always be with us. The question is how to counter them and their increasing sophistication, and how to prevent them from coordinating efforts with terrorist networks like Al Qaeda. The answer to the latter is simply good intelligence: human, signals, open-source, and otherwise. In terms of shipboard counter-pirate operations, the answers lie in effective training of security personnel and high-tech ingenuity.