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Secretary Tom Ridge on the One-Year Anniversary of the Department of Homeland Security
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Groove networked in to Homeland Security project
The Dept. of Homeland Security demonstrated Thursday a massive new network that uses software from Beverly-based Groove Networks Inc. Groove did not specify the amount of revenue it received for contributing to the project. Groove's software allows people to collaborate on projects using the Internet. It is a contractor on the Homeland Security Information Network, which was scheduled to be unveiled Thursday in Washington, D.C. The system allows agencies to exchange photos, maps and video feeds to respond to crises or threats. HSIN expands on an existing network called the Joint Regional Information Exchange System, which also uses Groove software. JRIES enables federal, state and local agencies to share intelligence and tactical information. Eventually, HSIN will be used by agencies in 50 states, five territories, tribal governments and 50 major urban areas, as well as by organizations in the private sector. Homeland Security will be using the network by this fall.
boston.bizjournals.com
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Microsoft's Homeland Security
Viruses. Worms. Creepy, crawly things nobody likes to worry about, and certainly not in the virtual world. Nevertheless, Microsoft at a security conference yesterday addressed those concerns by discussing a string of "active protection" initiatives to make its products safer. It makes sense that all eyes would be on the technology giant's security plans, considering its recent rep as needing a security boost. Bill Gates exhibited an upcoming Windows XP Service Pack (due out later this year) that includes security-friendly features where users can check their antivirus software and whether they have applied all critical patches. In addition, firewalls will be part of default installation. Microsoft's deal with RSA Security will enhance security past the usual username and password system, stepping it up to include a keychain-like device, requiring authorized personnel to enter a code that changes on a minute-by-minute basis. Also, there's a proposed "caller ID for email" to combat spam. Such a function is something many of us non-techie folks can relate to. I use caller ID to screen out anything that looks like a telemarketer, and I'm addicted to knowing who's on the phone before I answer. It addresses spam as one of the highest-profile issues around, but it's probably still a ways off.
www.fool.com
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UTSA students help market Department of Homeland Security
The Department of Homeland Security has selected the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) to help develop a marketing campaign to recruit individuals to work for the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE is the Department of Homeland Security's investigative arm, overseeing the functions of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and U.S. Custom Service. For the next 10 weeks, UTSA professor Tina Lowrey and 24 of her MBA students will research, budget, program and execute an integrated marketing campaign for ICE. UTSA is only one of five schools selected to participate in the ICE Peer Marketing Program nationwide. They will present their initial marketing pitch on March 2. Last semester, Lowrey's graduate-level business students worked to develop a recruitment campaign for the FBI as a class project. UTSA officials say Lowrey is considering making the assignment a permanent part of her coursework, by working with different agencies.
sanantonio.bizjournals.com
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Law Enforcement Associates Added to Federal Counterdrug Tech Program
Surveillance and technology security firm Law Enforcement Associates (LEA) Corp. has been selected to participate in the Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center's (CTAC) Technology Transfer Program. The program, which is sponsored by the Office of National Drug Control Policy and administered by the U.S. Army Electronic Proving Ground, helps local law enforcement improve their counterdrug capabilities by providing federally funded technologies to local and state law enforcement agencies. The aim of the CTAC technology transfer program is to identify emerging technologies that can improve officer safety and aid in criminal apprehension. The program will make available LEA?s wireless video kit, which uses RF technology to provide law enforcement personnel with a tool for recording audio and video in undercover situations.
www.localtechwire.com
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New technology drives changes in border policy
The infrastructure at border crossings and other points of entry to the United States will look completely different in the next few years, driven in part by new technologies, a senior Homeland Security Department official said last week. "We're halfway through restructuring our border policy," said Stewart Verdery, assistant secretary for policy and planning at Homeland Security's directorate on border and transportation security. "In a couple of years, [crossing the border] is going to be a hell of a lot different than it is today." Verdery made the comments after a speech to the Heritage Foundation. But changes may not happen as quickly as Congress and some others want. Verdery said only three or four nations appear to be on track to complying with a law requiring that they implement biometric-readable passports to enter the United States by late October 2004. He said Homeland Security is working with Congress on the possibility of changing that deadline.
www.govexec.com
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US livestock ID program to begin this year - USDA
A national livestock identification system will begin to be put into effect this year, one of the government's responses to the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, a senior Agriculture Department official said on Thursday. Scott Charbo, USDA's chief information officer, said he would make recommendations to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman in coming months on the shape of the animal ID system. Open questions include whether the system will be mandatory and how costs will be shared, if at all, he said in remarks at the USDA's annual outlook forum. Charbo began looking at options soon after the Dec. 23 discovery of the nation's first case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalitis. Veneman directed Charbo to oversee an acceleration of adoption of a tracking system that could trace within 48 hours the history of livestock as a step to protect food safety and animal health in the event of a disease outbreak. There are 1 million farms, ranches and feedlots that produce livestock and 2,000 slaughterhouses, according to USDA, so creation of an ID system will be a massive task. One-half of the cow-calf operators have no animal ID system at all, according to USDA data.
www.agriculture.com
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US Homeland Security Chair likens 'cyberterrorists' to Al Qaeda
US President Bush's Homeland Security Assistant this week stopped just short of referring to hackers as Al Qaeda terrorists in a keynote at the RSA Conference in San Francisco. But Gen. John Gordon, who also serves as chairman of the Homeland Security Council, did not balk at drawing key distinctions between the importance of securing the United States from terrorist attacks and protecting the internet from possibly debilitating cyber attacks. Speaking to attendees Wednesday afternoon, Gordon said that terrorists and so-called cyberterrorists -- people that use the internet to wreak havoc on the everyday lives of American citizens -- have some key similarities in their tactics. "The [Al Qaeda] enemy fights from the shadows," Gordon said. "This is similar to the cyberterrorist community." Both types of attackers also can carry out their plans on limited resources and can make multiple attempts to succeed in mounting an attack, he said. Gordon said that whether someone detonates a bomb that causes bodily harm to innocent people or hacks into a web-based IT system in a way that could, for instance, take a power grid offline and result in a blackout, the result is ostensibly the same; both are acts of terrorism. But rather than focus on identifying the individuals staging such the attacks, the Homeland Security Council must focus on creating more secure systems to deter and prevent them, he said.
www.itnews.com.au
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Cybersecurity vendors form policy group
A collection of technology providers working in the online-security sector announced the formation of a new industry oversight organization Wednesday, in the name of establishing common ground among vendors, legislators and users to discuss threats to Internet safety. Introduced at security software maker RSA's ongoing conference in San Francisco, the group has been christened the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA) and will be headed by Paul Kurtz, a former special assistant to the president who has worked on technology issues for the White House's Homeland Security Council. Among the 12 companies represented in the organization are security specialists such as Check Point Software, Computer Associates International, Entrust, Internet Security Systems, Network Associates, Symantec and RSA. The group announced plans to outline its agenda over the coming weeks, but representatives said CSIA would focus primarily on four topics related to Internet security: policy, education, standards and increasing public awareness of Web safety issues.
msnbc.msn.com
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Air Marshals Get Extra Help Policing the Skies
With limited resources and thousands of flights with which to concern themselves each day, the Department of Homeland Security has taken an unusual step to protect travelers flying the skies. The government announced Tuesday that it has decided to recruit Secret Service and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers to share air marshal duties while those agents are already flying as part of their normal course of business. "The future in law enforcement is to be joint. We have to be joint at all levels, and we have to be able to utilize the resources of each organization to be able to continue this war on terrorism," said Thomas Quinn, director of the Federal Air Marshal Service. Since Secret Service and Customs agents take tens of thousands of flights for business each year and are already trusted federal agents, DHS officials decided to coordinate their travel schedules so that air marshals will be diverted from flights where Secret Service and Customs agents are already expected to be present. That way, air marshals won't overlap on flights with other federal agents, and can be deployed to protect other routes.
www.foxnews.com
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Homeland Security unveils technology advisory panel
The Homeland Security Department on Thursday unveiled its new 18-member science and technology advisory committee. The body, mandated under the 2002 law that created the department, consists of top government and industry scientists with expertise in various fields deemed essential to homeland security. In remarks to panel members at their first meeting, Charles McQueary, Homeland Security's undersecretary for science and technology, said their expertise will be vital in helping the department ready equipment to protect the country from terrorism. "This division has the responsibility to provide the best science directly to our operational units. It's very important to me that this organization help deliver things," McQueary said. "The real important responsibility we have is to engage in scientific areas that will provide capabilities to the nation's first responders" to emergencies.
www.govexec.com
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