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Thank you, USSN Staff
DISCLAIMERTHE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS REPORT HAS BEEN ASSEMBLED FROM A VARIETY OF SOURCES AND IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS REPORT IS PROVIDED AS RECEIVED AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN ENDORSEMENT BY THE US SECURITY NETWORK, ANY MEMBER COMPANY, OR PARTICIPATING PUBLIC AGENCIES. INFORMATION MAY BE REPEATED, AS IT IS EXTRACTED EXACTLY AS PRESENTED BY THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
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Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a chip that allows law enforcement to detect illegal drugs via a handheld device. Dogs are currently employed in this capacity, but have difficulty distinguishing odors of illicit drugs from other substances, and they need trainers to oversee them. Georgia Tech researcher William Hunt said the chip's design is based on two types of technology: Microelectronics and biotechnology. The chip uses surface acoustic wave electronics to detect the presence of illicit chemicals via sound waves, plus monoclonal antibodies to detect chemicals through molecular interactions. Hunt notes the technology is the first of its kind to employ cloned copies of proteins. The technology offers cost and time advantages over using dogs for drug detection. The chip performed successfully during a field test with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Results of the study will be published in the American Chemical Society's Analytical Chemistry journal. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More and more law enforcement agencies are using Wi-Fi connectivity to facilitate different functions. In San Mateo, Calif., for example, police officers rely on Wi-Fi networks in the city's downtown section and other busy areas to access databases from the main office. Officers use laptops in police cars to obtain missing persons reports, vehicular records, photos, and other documents, all in real time. As a result, officers do not have to wait for faxes or flyers, and can get access to a greater amount of "critical information," says San Mateo Police Chief Susan E. Manheimer. Tropos Networks helped the city set up its Wi-Fi network, and the company plans to set 40 access points and also add video and GIS capabilities. For the Los Angeles Police Department, Symbol Technologies has developed Wi-Fi networks to enable officers to accurately reports data from the field. Officers link up via Wi-Fi that surrounds police stations and use Vytek's ProfilerPD application to complete the reports. Meanwhile, the New York Police Department has turned to Wi-Fi for an application that replaces handwritten tickets, which previously cost the city millions of dollars in lost money due to indecipherable handwriting. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Network-security experts at the Livermore, Calif., campus of Sandia National Laboratories are protecting a supercomputer conference this week in Phoenix without the use of a main firewall. Instead, federal researchers have decided to use a "honeynet" to create a mirage of the network that will provide connections to supercomputers and videoconferencing systems every day during the public gathering. The honeynet concept is similar to the notion of a honeypot, which is a machine or software designed to act like an unsecured computer operating system, in that a fake network is created to distract hackers from a real network, and to give security experts an opportunity to study the actions and strategies used by hackers. "The ultimate goal is to deter them from your real computer system and delay them on a fictitious system so you have more time to figure out who they are and what they're after," says Tim Toole, a Sandia network architect working security for SC2003. The emergence of honeynets does not signal the end for firewalls, intrusion-detection systems, and other cybersecurity measures. However, Sandia cybersecurity co-manager Barry V. Hess envisions honeynets one day being built into the firewalls or modems of small businesses and home PC users, turning the Internet into a house of mirrors for hackers. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A person intent on committing identify fraud typically starts by opening a financial account using someone else's information, despite the existence of multiple identity verification methods. A study by research firm Gartner reveals that among the banks it surveyed, almost all use internal data checks, external services, and manual credit checks to make sure a person is actually who he says he is. Over the next two years, banks intend to spend an average of about $600,000 each on customer verification tools in an effort to prevent identity theft and fulfill new banking policies, the study says. Bank of America's anti-fraud tools include a database service from Primary Payment Systems that inspects data on credit applications. This system searches for suspicious data such as a driver's license being issued earlier than a Social Security number. Bank of America's senior vice president of liability risk management Angela Bardowell says using the database has resulted in a fraud-prevention benefit of $10.50 for every dollar of expense (technology, employees, and facilities), but adds that manual investigations are still necessary in ambiguous cases. Another tool that banks rely on is obtaining "out-of-wallet" data from applicants, referring to information that typically cannot be found by stealing a wallet. But credit bureaus and other sources frequently store and provide such data, including monthly mortgage payments or types of student loans. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Businesses in the United Kingdom, long accustomed to the terrorist threat posed by the Irish Republican Army, have traditionally held twice-yearly fire drills, as called for by national health and safety laws. However, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, brought along a new form of threat, one that has forced U.K. businesses to rethink their traditional emergency response procedures. The idea of conducting regular training exercises and emergency drills has taken on added importance to companies in Britain, with some companies choosing to act out their evacuation scenarios, with security officers leading the way. One of London's five-star hotels, The Lanesborough, blocked off a few escape routes during one of its drill as a means of simulating the unpredictable nature of an emergency event. During the drill, The Lanesborough's employees were confused when they saw that their normal escape route was inaccessible, but it forced them to find an alternate way out of the building, which better prepared them for a real emergency incident. David Burrill, U.K. group security manager at BAT Industries, says that many companies fail to ensure that their public address systems are in proper working condition. Burrill advises companies to conduct regular tests of their public address systems to ensure that emergency messages can be heard throughout the building. Deutsche Bank in London complements its public address system with an electronic pager system that is capable of providing instantaneous, important safety information to 450 key employees during emergency situations. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Personal data about airline travelers to be collected for a system designed to identify terrorists will not be accessible either to the government or the database companies verifying passenger identities, a top official developing the system said on Thursday. The data assembled for the Homeland Security Department's Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System (CAPPS II) will not be accessible because of a technology that allows database companies to read but not copy passenger data, said Steve Thayer, deputy director of the Office of National Risk Assessment (ONRA). The program has been slowed by privacy concerns, and Homeland Security officials have said they will not proceed with CAPPS II until it issues regulations subject to a Privacy Act notice. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Large credit card companies, big IT vendors, and technology startups foresee an imminent change in the way people use bank and credit card accounts. Currently, three technologies are vying to replace the credit cards bulging in people's wallets: Radio frequency identification (RFID), biometrics, and wireless gadgets such as mobile phones. Examples of how these systems might work are already here in Mobil and Exxon gas stations where customers wave their RFID-enabled Speedpass card in front of a reader to buy gas, and in Istanbul where commuters in the mass transit system use an RFID iButton to debit a prepaid account. A number of other companies are already running or testing their own solutions aimed at speeding transactions, making accounts more secure, and adding convenience and flexibility: Visa's Sue Gordon-Lathrop says mobile phones in the future could store credit card information and approve purchases when the correct PIN is entered on the keypad; the phones would have to be equipped with Bluetooth, RFID, infrared, or some other short-range wireless technology since customers would not want to dial in to transact. Biometrics, specifically fingerprints, are generating a lot of interest as a way to add security and convenience, as well as a greater marketing platform for companies. If consumers used only their fingerprint to access all their accounts, then retailers would have less trouble signing up customers for store-branded credit accounts. Indeed, retailers and financial firms have a lot to gain from new platforms, including reduced fraud and the ability to add value-added functions. A mother and daughter could access the same account using their fingerprints, but the mother could set spending limits for the daughter, for example. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mexican smuggling rings have discovered that one of the easiest ways to transport illegal aliens across the U.S. southern border is to pay Americans to do the job. The Homeland Security Department is able to stop and search only about 1,000 of the estimated 50,000 automobiles that enter the United States each day through the San Ysidro, Calif., border crossing, which is considered one of the most secure in the world. Americans who are caught attempting to smuggle illegal aliens from Mexico into the United States are rarely prosecuted because there are so many smuggling attempts and few resources to prosecute all the cases. Thus, Mexican smugglers have decided that it makes good business sense to recruit U.S. citizens to smuggle illegal aliens across the border, paying the smugglers hundreds to thousands of dollars per smuggling run. Many of the smugglers are juveniles or high school dropouts looking to make easy cash. Indeed, the Immigration and Naturalization Service says that juvenile smugglers were responsible for roughly 400 smuggling incidents at the San Ysidro checkpoint from July 2001 to August 2002. Smugglers have taken to creating secret, customized hiding spots in their vehicles, stowing human cargo in trunks, hollowed-out seats, door panels, and under hoods, as they attempt to outwit border officials. Smugglers will sometimes recruit several U.S. citizens to serve as passengers in cars that contain hidden aliens, the theory being that the well-dressed group will not illicit much suspicion. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Know-your-customer rules enforced under the USA Patriot Act require banks to be able to identify their customers and recognize any unusual transactions. Anti-money-laundering is now the most expensive compliance cost faced by financial institutions, according to the American Bankers Association. Regulations require banks to be able to file appropriate forms, identify suspicious transactions, maintain required records, and produce the records upon request, necessitating a system commensurate with a bank's size, which usually means automation. According to Brent Atchley of Atchley System, "any bank with more than four or five branches will be dealing in volumes that would be difficult, if not impossible to manage manually." Solution providers must be able to keep abreast of rule changes and a bank's operations. A wrong solution can add risk by giving a false sense of security. Failure to comply can mean hefty fines and even prison time. Some banks are benefiting from use of monitoring tools by using information gleaned to better market their products and services. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The chief privacy officer for the Homeland Security Department said Monday she supports some secret law enforcement and intelligence activities of the department, but that such activities must be "narrowly and appropriately construed and not abused." Nuala O'Connor Kelly said one of her greatest challenges is implementing common training about privacy issues across the department's 22 agencies, while not hampering the ability of employees to do their jobs. O'Connor Kelly, who was appointed in April as the first federal chief privacy officer, spoke at the Heritage Foundation Monday morning. O'Connor Kelly said that since her appointment, she has had to intervene in certain policies and programs to protect privacy and safeguard civil liberties. She declined to specify which programs, saying instead that she makes recommendations on policy and programs on an almost daily basis. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The Department of Homeland Security has announced an additional $725 million from the fiscal year 2004 budget for the Urban Area Security Initiative to help enhance overall security and preparedness levels to prevent, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism. ?The funds will go to the designated states, which will then work with counties and cities to form regions that will work together through mutual aid agreements, interoperable communications, statewide intelligence centers and community and citizen participation. Our goal is to ensure that all of these necessary elements are communicating and coordinating to prevent a crisis and to be ready if one occurs,? said Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.
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