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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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The Shawnee County Commission has final authority on the future of a proposed overhaul of the Shawnee County Jail's security system. Project supporters propose allocating $1.5 million in capital improvement funds to replace the manual operation of the jail's video security system with automated functioning that employs a touch screen to show video and provide passage through doors. The current system requires control room employees to access video and camera shots, plus open and close doors for officers. The system will also display unclosed doors and identify malfunctions with more precision, as well as continuously record specific camera shots and archive activity taking place through specific doors. Control room employees are faced with the complex task of responding to multiple requests and monitoring 35 video screens and 320 security cameras. A central computer will control automation of the system. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In preparation for potential incidents of school violence or other threats, all public schools in Burlington, Vt., will run one or two lockdown drills this year, according to school district and police officials. Burlington's private schools will also have lockdown drills that the police will oversee. A federal grant is helping fund the drills. Second graders at the Lawrence Barnes School practiced a drill recently. The drill began with an announcement over the public address system and ended with the students and their teachers sitting quietly on the floor in a corner of the room, with the lights out and blinds drawn, in locked classrooms. The drill is meant to protect students from potential intruders roaming the school grounds or hallways. Officials note that they try to run the lockdown drills without scaring the children, and the kids, as young as they are, seem to have a firm grasp of the concept of school violence, perhaps through exposure to the media. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More organizations are attempting to reduce their risks by formalizing their risk management efforts and focusing on an enterprise risk management (ERM) approach. Shrinking budgets have moved many companies to look towards risk management as a way of improving the success of their information technology programs and identifying their project risks. Brainstorming sessions during which professionals discuss and identify their primary risks are usually the start of an ERM approach, but experts warn that once risks are identified, they must be acted upon as well. By prioritizing their risks, and determining their various options with regards to separate risks, organizations can better decide whether to attempt to mitigate those risks or to accept those risks. Risk acceptance can be an option for some organizations that have weighed both the advantages and disadvantages of taking action against a possible risk. Another essential part of ERM is risk monitoring, which involves the continual analysis of risks to determine their possible impact and to eventually reduce risks. While risk managers agree that risk management should be on everyone's mind, they note that assigning responsibilities for individual risks is the only way to make sure that specific risks will be adequately addressed. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Federal and state lawmakers are scrambling to combat ecoterrorism, especially activities perpetrated by radical environmental and animal-rights activists. Civil libertarians, however, are angered by the latest attempts to penalize political dissenters, even though some resort to arson and other personal violence threats to achieve their goals. The number of companies now targeted by radicals has grown to include not only loggers and mink farms, but also biotechnology firms, Wal-Mart, housing developments, and others. Property losses from ecoterrorism in the United States have reached $50 million, according to figures compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front are the largest perpetrators of ecoterrorism; most of the stunts performed have avoided injury to others and killings, but the Revolutionary Cells Animal Liberation Brigade in California have resorted to bombing cosmetics facilities and other firms. Congress has already introduced a bill that would declare ecoterrorism a federal crime and impose stiff penalties for those involved, but states need clear definitions of ecoterrorism before prosecutions can be made, because in most instances ecoterrorist events are often declared signs of troubled youths. Legal experts caution that any legislation aimed at these acts should be well-defined before it is passed in order to prevent violations of civil liberties. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A National Science Foundation-supported cyberdefense project operates on the premise that many computer systems are vulnerable to viruses, worms, and other forms of malware because they use identical software that has the same vulnerabilities, in much the same way that genetically similar individuals are susceptible to the same diseases or disorders. The project, which enlists collaborators from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of New Mexico through a $750,000 NSF grant, is investigating how "cyber-diversity," like biodiversity, can bolster systems' resistance to dangerous agents. "Our project seeks to reduce computer vulnerability by automatically changing certain aspects of a computer's software," explains Carnegie Mellon researcher Dawn Song. "Adapting this idea in biology to computers may not make an individual computer more resilient to attack, but it aims to make the whole population of computers more resilient in aggregate." Earlier attempts to diversify software had independent teams develop different versions of the same software in the hopes that different sets of vulnerabilities would evolve from each version, but researchers call such an approach time-consuming and economically costly. University of New Mexico computer science professor Stephanie Forrest says they are exploring ways to automate the diversity process, which could be more effective and less economically taxing. NSF program director Carl Landwehr says the Carnegie Mellon-New Mexico collaboration represents the kind of innovative research his organization expects to encourage through its CyberTrust program. 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 last week. 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
A new study to be published in the British Journal of Criminology claims that bright street lighting does not deter criminal activity, and may in fact encourage it. The study, authored by U.K. statistician Paul Marchant of Leeds Metropolitan University, finds fault with a research paper from the U.K. government. The U.K.'s Home Office had published a paper called "The Effects of Improved Street Lighting on Crime." That paper, which referenced studies on security lighting in the United States and Britain, is flawed and contains major statistical mistakes, according to Marchant's analysis. "Not only does the paper fail to demonstrate that improved street lighting decreases crime, its figures could equally well show that it increases it," Marchant said. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The Associated Students Bookstore (AS Bookstore), which serves the students of a local university, has been plagued by a shoplifting problem over the past few years. Robert Perks, the bookstore's textbook supervisor, says the store recorded $59,000 in losses during the 2001-2002 school year, losses that can largely be attributed to shoplifting. The store decided to install a security system, which helped reduce the losses to $21,000 during the 2002-2003 school year. Perks says that about 300 students out of the body of 12,000 have stolen textbooks. Dave MacAuley, general manager of the AS Bookstore, notes that the store's business of buying and selling books provides shoplifters with a ready-made market for stolen books. The AS Bookstore and another area book store, The College Store, communicate with one another frequently to cut down on shoplifting. "If we find we're missing something or somebody is trying to sell back a book that is still in the cellophane wrapper, we call each other and ask if there are books missing," states Dave MacAuley. The AS Bookstore makes it known to customers that they are being watched, and the store has trained its employees to be observant of customers. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Bank One in Chicago has kept credit card fraud in check by implementing transaction monitoring systems, launching a consumer education program, and training its customer service team on fraud prevention. The largest issuer of Visa cards started focusing more on credit card security after adding First Chicago NBD and First USA to a single-card services platform, and the bank has cut fraud in half over the past three years. The bank uses a system that can review customer spending in real time, and can recognize the typical signs of identity thieves--such as spending occurring a great distance from the home of the card holder--and can monitor spending habits--such as the type and cost of purchases. Bank One has made changes to the way its customer service representatives monitor changes in accounts, including address changes or requests for additional cards, to spot fraud. The bank also is involved in a consumer education campaign that includes print advertising, posters, and a Web site. Nonetheless, privacy advocates maintain that consumer education can only go so far, considering the collection and storage of their personal information is out of their hands. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Information-sharing efforts by U.S. law enforcement agencies face formidable hurdles that are primarily cultural, financial, political, and legal rather than technological in nature. Nevertheless, states are working to link databases into crime-tracking and crime-prevention resources. Minnesota's CriMNet information network, which covers the entire breadth of the state's criminal-justice system, is a distributed data system that CriMNet director Rich Stanek expects will become a information-sharing model for other law enforcement agencies. Stanek contends that the network's success relies not on technology but on a fundamental shift in business practices. Ohio's Office of Criminal Justice plans to link state-wide law enforcement--comprising some 940 agencies and 384 courts--through the Ohio Justice Information Network, which employs a "database-stays-in-place" model whereby data is maintained by the agency that generates it; "We don't host data so jurisdictions can pick and choose what data to let out," notes project director David Lewis. The system is set up so that records purged from local courts are in turn deleted from the network. The Pennsylvania Criminal Intelligence Center, which has been in operation since July, is composed of about 20 databases, uses a central data-warehouse model, and provides a chat room where members of the law enforcement community can post queries and answers; it also allows users to access data in any format. "We hope to be one-stop shopping for any agency, even those outside the country," states Capt. Jon Kurtz, who adds that plans are underway to automate the system. He also notes that the project's biggest challenge was keeping the network compliant with Pennsylvania's intelligence dissemination regulations. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cybercrime has become common, thanks to the Internet, and law enforcement agencies are employing cybercrime investigators to deal with it. Regular detectives can specialize in cybercrime, says Rockland County, N.Y., Sheriff's Department Detective Slomo Koenig, noting that it is easier for investigators to learn about technology than for techies to learn to investigate. "You have to have a thorough understanding of how the technology works," explains Foothill-DeAnza College District Police Sgt. Ronald Levine. "If an officer or deputy doesn't have computer skills, they're going to have to come up to speed and understand how the technology works before he or she can become an effective investigator." The first step in investigating an online fraud is finding the Internet protocol (IP) address of the defrauder, and possibly working with a company involved in the fraud to find the IP address of the Internet service provider used by the perpetrator. The provider keeps temporary records of what users do online, but speed is a factor; this data can be used to track the suspect, often into other jurisdictions. Suspects' computer equipment can be seized and turned over to computer forensic specialists--work that is sometimes outsourced due to costs and expertise requirements.
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