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Homeland Security lists systems priorities
The Homeland Security Department?s IT team identified eight priorities for their 2004 to-do list. At a Tuesday meeting sponsored by the Washington chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, DHS chief technology officer Lee Holcomb said department brass must still bless the list but he expects few changes. The list reiterates many of the efforts that the department has been working on since it opened for business early last year:
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Information sharing, within the department as well as across the federal civilian and military sectors, the vendor community and the public
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Consolidation and shuttering of duplicative systems
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IT security
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Creation of one IT infrastructure
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Refinement of the department?s enterprise architecture
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Portfolio management
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Oversight of IT operations, part of which will involve bringing needed capabilities into the department
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Development of IT human capital within the department and in the vendor community.
As DHS officials consolidate systems, the total number of systems in the department might not decrease in proportion because elements of particular systems would be reused in other systems, noted Holcomb. Holcomb spoke on a panel with other systems chiefs from the department. Looking back at the previous year?s accomplishments, the IT executives cited various successes, ranging from creating the Transportation Security Administration to creating an enterprise architecture for the 22 agencies that DHS subsumed.
www.washingtontechnology.com
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Law enforcement officials gather for lecture
Blowing a whistling tube, Gordon Graham told top law enforcement officials from across Florida the train approaching law enforcement is headed for disaster."You've got to listen for the train," he said, meaning mistakes in law enforcement can be prevented by common sense risk management techniques. Graham's lectures Wednesday and Thursday at St. Johns River Community College kicked off bi-annual presentations for Florida's executives in law enforcement, called the Criminal Justice Professional Executive Leadership Series. Graham spoke to lieutenants and sergeants Wednesday, then met with chiefs, sheriffs and other high ranking officials from area agencies. In total, more than 150 attended the two-day lecture. St. Augustine Police Chief David Shoar coordinated the first in the series, and hopes the top-ranking officials will use them as tools to better their agencies. "Many people said it's the best course they've ever had," he said during the lunch break Thursday. Shoar, who recently completed the 35th session of the Chief Executive Seminar by the Florida Criminal Justice Institute, said education is key to moving forward in law enforcement. "It's an opportunity for supervisors, for command staff to get together for one day and listen to something meaningful," Shoar said. Graham has made more than 3,000 presentations over the past decade and is a 30-year veteran of California law enforcement. He said he wanted the leaders to know they have an obligation to protect the public and the profession they are sworn into.
www.staugustine.com
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About 500 law enforcement personnel involved
About 500 law enforcement personnel and volunteers staged a massive anti-terrorism drill Friday as a security expert from Greece reviewed the exercise in preparation for the 2004 Olympics in Athens. The drills had officials from various local, state and federal agencies responding to hypothetical terrorists who spread toxic chemicals inside a performance theater and then flee in a vehicle. After crashing the car, the terrorists commandeer a train and take hostages, leading to a standoff with SWAT teams when the train's power is cut off. The standoff, occurring outside Compton's City Hall, ended with security teams storming the train and rescuing the hostages. Dimosthenis Giannissopoulos, security chief for Athens' subway system, said he was impressed. He hopes to teach his own personnel similar tactics. ``It's going to be the safest, securest Olympic Games ever,'' said Giannissopoulos, who also met with local officials in 2002. ``In order for them to be so secure and safe, we're here to examine all possibilities and get all the answers for them.'' Up to 1.2 million passengers could travel Athens' subways each day during the Olympics, he said. He believes the drill will help his agency handle possible terrorist strikes involving chemical agents or hijackings.
www.espn.com
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Stress increases on officers
Law enforcement is more stressful than ever, according to a former police officer, detective, vice/narcotics investigator and administrator of two agencies in the Atlanta suburbs who spent Wednesday talking to more than 100 officers about the survival skills of their profession. The key to being a successful police officer and enjoying a successful law enforcement career is to be a survivor, not a victim, according to Jack Enter, also a university professor and administrator, who spent the day at Arkansas Tech University. The audience listened all day to Enter explain that officers should never misunderstand that they will come in contact with people they may never see again ? but could make an impact that could change their lives. As law enforcement agencies continue to go through several changes ? including budget cuts and addictive behaviors by the American public that cause all kinds of problems ? Enter stressed to officers how to survive an ever-changing profession, society and world as well as balancing family, their work life and learning to communicate with people.
www.couriernews.com
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Restructuring, terrorism prompt defense of military bases
Two strategies that many lawmakers are counting on to protect military bases in their home districts emerged this week, as the Pentagon released its official criteria for choosing which bases to shut down, and the House held its first election-year hearing to review the base closure process. Some lawmakers have questioned the wisdom of eliminating U.S. installations until the Pentagon determines what to do with the influx of troops returning from anticipated base closures overseas. Others have gone the domestic route, seeking ways to influence Pentagon decision-making through local community activism and lobbying for specific installations. Some defense analysts to warn that neither approach offers a foolproof strategy to neutralize the impact of the next Base Realignment and Closure round in 2005. Senate Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who has been wary about closing bases prematurely during the war on terrorism, reacted to the Pentagon's base-closure criteria Thursday by praising the Pentagon's plan to weigh overseas bases in drawing up the hit list it must submit to an independent BRAC commission next year.
www.govexec.com
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Ghost town getting new life as `terrorist' target
Wayne and Mara Duncan have witnessed their tiny community nearly evaporate, now just 60 people away from a ghost town. Isolated in the high desert mountains, Playas once shimmered like an oasis, its green lawns visible for miles. Though only three decades old, the enclave of adobe-style houses and brick buildings evokes a mining town gone bust, except this one-time company town was built around a copper smelter, which closed in 1999. Only the Duncans and their two teenagers enliven Lomitas Street, where 25 other houses cast a lonesome shadow. Now, a New Mexico university is about to take over the cactus-tough village and turn it into a terrorist response training camp for Homeland Security Department agents, the military and emergency responders from local and state agencies. Once the transformation of the suburban-like community is complete as early as this summer, the site will be the only anti-terrorism facility in the nation that uses an entire, real town for emergency training, according to officials with New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, which is purchasing the town for $5 million from Phelps Dodge Corp. Officials say the facility will mark a milestone in the Homeland Security Department's level of preparedness. Such training now occurs largely on military bases or college campuses, including at New Mexico Tech in Socorro, where three cars a week are blown up on a 40-square-mile range to train firefighters and others on handling car bombs, officials said. The school, known for developing the "proximity fuse" that allows missiles to detonate when they are near a target, has experienced a boom in emergency training since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Some 40,000 emergency personnel have been trained by the college since 1997, including 1,159 from Illinois, mostly from the Chicago area.
www.kansascity.com
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New Partnership Will Create National Database to Identify Missing Children
The Nation's Missing Children Organization (NMCO) and The Point Group Companies (TPG) announced today they have entered into a teaming agreement to create and maintain a national database designed to identify and locate missing children and adults through the use of Iris Recognition Technology. The Children's Identification and Location Database (CHILD) project is a secure nationwide network and registry, which will be available to law enforcement and social service agencies and maintained at NMCO's Phoenix, Arizona headquarters. The CHILD project will create a national registry designed to give authorized users access to data that can positively identify children in seconds. Iris recognition biometric technology positively determines the identity of an individual by capturing a high-resolution digital photograph of an individual's iris. The technology can tell the difference between twins or even an individual's right and left eye. The technology is non-intrusive so the individual does not need to touch anything. An image of the iris is captured simply by looking into the camera and the information is placed into the national database. The equipment is also portable and simple to use, making it ideal for use at remote locations. Roll out of the application is expected to begin this spring. During the rollout phase, the CHILD project will be contacting social service and public safety agencies, such as county sheriff's and police departments, to gauge their interest in participating in the program. The CHILD project will offer concerned agencies and organizations a low cost iris recognition system that will enable authorized users access to NMCO's database to both enroll individuals in the program and check them against the nationwide database. Participation is entirely voluntary, just as it is now with fingerprint and photo ID card programs.
home.businesswire.com
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Critical infrastructure data sought
The private sector can voluntarily submit critical infrastructure information to the Homeland Security Department with a new program designed to protect such information. Starting Feb. 20, the Protected Critical Infrastructure Information (PCII) program will collect sensitive data about physical and cyber infrastructure according to regulations that will be posted online Feb. 19 and published in the Federal Register the following day. Public comment on the regulations could last up to 90 days. Robert Liscouski, DHS' assistant secretary for infrastructure protection, said by partnering with the private sector and making the program voluntary, the federal government can find vulnerabilities and nuances that the private sector knows best. "The partnership's important to us because the government can't afford to buy the expertise that we need to understand those vulnerabilities at the nuance level if they have access to it," he said. Fred Herr, PCII's program manager, said the private sector isn't required to submit anything to the federal government under the program. But DHS officials cited the public good as a reason why companies and nongovernment organizations might share such information voluntarily. The information will be kept confidential, because any data that passes all program requirements will be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act and cannot be accessed by third parties or state and local governments for civil litigation, officials said.
www.fcw.com
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Adobe tightens document security
Adobe announced its new Adobe Policy Server, software that enables users to lock down PDFs so that they can be viewed only by approved recipients. Adobe said the technology is ideal for organizations that need to disseminate sensitive information electronically, since it eases the process of ensuring document security. According to Adobe, the new technology is permissions-based. It lets document authors and IT administrators dynamically control who can view a PDF document, and determine whether recipients can modify, copy, print or forward the document. Such permissions can then be changed, even after the document has been distributed, in order to accommodate changing usage policies. Documents can also be made to expire on a specific date, or if need be, revoked immediately, regardless of how many copies were distributed, the company said. The technology promises to ease document security because it does not require any specific client software be running on the recipient?s machine, beyond the free Adobe Reader, Adobe said.
www.documentiq.com
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Overseas Outsourcing Leads To Identity Theft Risks
As business process outsourcing to low-wage countries increase, so does the concern over protecting data. Personal information contained in patient medical records and income tax documents heading to India or Pakistan must be protected against thieves who would use it to fraudulently obtain credit, merchandise and services under someone else's name. Identity theft is expected to cost consumers, businesses and government organizations $221 billion in losses worldwide in 2003, according to market researcher Aberdeen Group. Worse yet, those losses are escalating at a jaw dropping 300 percent compound annual growth rate, and could reach $2 trillion by the end of 2005. Call centers comprise a large portion of the business process outsourcing market. By 2007, 5 percent of estimated 4.78 million agent positions worldwide will be located in countries outside a company's home, according to a recent study by analyst firm Datamonitor. Increasingly, however, companies with facilities overseas are contracting with U.S. hospitals, accounting firms and insurance companies. The services these outsourcers provide include tax preparation, processing of insurance and medical claims and transcribing dictation from doctors relating to all areas of the health-care process, from patient visits to surgical procedures. Such activities involve sending personal information to foreign countries, which add to the difficulty of guarding against identity theft. After all, most experts agree that security in protecting data is only as strong as the weakest link.
www.internetwk.com
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