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Homeland Security to grant nearly $7 billion in 2004
The Homeland Security Department will issue approximately $6.9 billion in grant funding to state and local governments in 2004, according to a report released today by Reston, Va.-based research firm Input Inc. That figure is down slightly from the $7.3 billion doled out in fiscal 2003. ?There are several cyclical homeland-security grant programs through which the majority of funds are distributed year after year,? said Meredith Luttner, manager of public-sector operations at Input. The report identifies three major homeland-security grant programs that accounted for nearly half of the funds distributed to states and local governments in 2003. Those three programs were the Office of Domestic Preparedness? State Homeland Security Grant Programs, the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program and the Urban Areas Security Initiative. According to the report, these grant programs will be refreshed in 2004 to a total of $3.7 billion, more than half of the total grant funding available. In 2004, the renamed Homeland Security Grant Program will consolidate State Homeland Security Grant program with two other previously separate grant projects and have a total of $2.2 billion set aside for the new program.
www.wtonline.com
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Dougherty County law enforcement backs safe schools
Educators say that students can not learn if they feel unsafe, or if someone is disrupting class. Dougherty County law enforcement came together to state their commitment to safe schools. Class change at Albany High School. Teachers, principals, and school resource officers keep a close eye. Law enforcement says they want to remind students of the consequences of bad behavior. Deputy Superintendent Carlos Keith said "Our primary job is to educate,but we also make sure that we have a safe and orderly environment in our schools." Chiefs of both the City and County Police Departments, Sheriff's Office, and District Attorney came together to pledge their support of safe schools. Dougherty County Police Chief Don Cheek said "I look at this as a unique opportunity for us to get involved in shaping and molding where our kids are going for the future, because they are our future." Earlier this year fights between students at a football game and the Albany movie theatre brought out a strong Police reaction. As spring begins, they want to remind students about conduct rules and truancy laws. Dougherty District Attorney Ken Hodges said "We certainly believe that if students are in school, they will not be out creating mischief. Vandalizing property, engaging in destructive activity. And they need to be in school to get their education."
www.walb.com
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Examining the Cyber Capabilities of Islamic Terrorist Groups
Discussions between law enforcement, the private sector, and academia revealed that there is a lack of authoritative unclassified materials concerning the use of cyber technology by Islamic terrorist groups. To meet this need, the Technical Analysis Group at the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College has prepared a report detailing how cyber technologies are exploited by these hostile groups. The Institute conducts interdisciplinary research and development projects addressing the challenges of cyber and homeland security. There is clear, factual evidence that Islamic terrorist groups are using information technologies to facilitate propaganda, recruitment and training, fundraising, communications, and targeting operations. The open source materials used in this report include court testimony, indictments, government reports, academic reports, actual information from websites associated with terrorist groups (both from the organization itself and from sympathizer and affiliated groups), Congressional testimony, and the open media. This document uses these materials to present a clear picture for those who require awareness-level training in this domain, and provides a starting point for further research and analysis. Copies of Examining the Cyber Capabilities of Islamic Terrorist Groups may be downloaded from: http://www.ists.dartmouth.edu/TAG/index.htm.
www.ists.dartmouth.edu
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Port Security Remains a Concern in War on Terrorism
When Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan wanted to ship nuclear-related materials to spots like Libya or Iran, his customers had little to fear. The contraband goods, hidden amidst the huge number of massive shipping containers that move every day through the port of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, easily escaped detection. Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Peter Brookes, now a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said Mr. Khan's actions have underscored the vulnerability of high-volume seaports to high-tech smugglers. "What we really have learned from this - not focusing just on Dubai," he said," [is] there are a lot of places in the world where these sorts of materials, this sort of contraband, can pass through." And if a simple smuggler can so easily move his wares through a port, it is even more frightening to contemplate what a determined terrorist might be able to accomplish. Each day in ports around the world, thousands of huge metal cargo containers are loaded on and off of ships. That, say analysts, makes the odds heavily in the smuggler's favor. It is simply impossible for customs agents to thoroughly search every container. A thorough scrutiny of one container may take up to eight hours. In many places, laws may be lax and customs officials corrupt. As Mr. Brookes pointed out, in a high-density port, containers can easily be moved in and out of a port with false documentation about the contents and destination.
www.voanews.com
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Agencies seek to 'immunize' buildings against terror attacks
As the FBI scrambles to figure out who has been sending ricin to U.S. government facilities, scientists are placing new emphasis on the development of systems to make buildings "immune" to biological and chemical agents. The 2001 anthrax mailings and subsequent ricin scares have cast a spotlight on the potential for a devastating indoor biological or chemical attack. Although scientists say they can do little?short of supplying gas masks?to protect those in the immediate vicinity when a dangerous agent is released, systems to protect people in the rest of the building are approaching 100 percent effectiveness. The focus is on developing "immune building" technologies to prevent the spread of dangerous agents through heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. "The most likely approach that would be used by terrorists would be to employ an aerosolizer to release the agents either into the ventilation duct or into general areas of the building," Penn State University immune building expert Wladyslaw Kowalski wrote in a recent paper.
www.govexec.com
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Personal background checks go retail
"Make better hiring decisions," says the package, a little smaller than a box of breakfast cereal. "Conduct background checks quickly and easily!" With security-conscious employers stepping up scrutiny of job candidates, background checks have become standard procedure at many companies. The new check-in-a-box, which is marketed by ChoicePoint Inc. and began selling alongside software for $39.77 late last year, points to new efforts by data vendors to market background screening as a consumer product. ChoicePoint also recently began selling background checks via Yahoo's HotJobs.com online employment board, offering jobseekers the chance to vet themselves. Entersect, owned by competing data provider LocatePlus Holdings Inc., says it plans to launch a self-check service later this year on CareerBuilder.com. The companies say such checks give workers the chance to spot and correct problems in their personal records before an employer does, and to affix a seal of approval to their resumes.
www.zwire.com
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Biowatch sets high standard for homeland security programs
A homeland security program that guards 30 cities against possible biological attack represents the high standards the Homeland Security Department wants from its projects, an agency official said today. The Biowatch program has not had a single false alarm since it was established a year ago, Charles McQueary, DHS undersecretary for science and technology, told attendees at the department?s first industry forum in Washington today. Although the monitoring installations have not detected any biological attacks by terrorists, they have detected naturally occurring agents, McQueary said. Biowatch ?is an example of a [DHS] system ... with low false alarms,? he said. DHS? two-day industry forum offers the private sector information on how to do business with the department. Features include briefings by officials from the department?s five directorates. McQueary described the task facing DHS in protecting the American public from threats as both enormous and daunting. ?It?s impossible for DHS to guard against all possible threats,? he said. Still, the department wants to move quickly to address all threats to domestic security, he said. Private-sector participation is essential to the department?s ability to meet threats that range from border and airline security to cyber and critical infrastructure security, McQueary said. ?We want a viable solution to prevent another attack on American soil,? he said.
www.washingtontechnology.com
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Driver?s license gets new look, safety features
The Georgia Department of Motor Vehicle Safety is preparing to issue new driver?s licenses and identification cards with added security features. The new design will be issued in mid-August and will be available statewide by the end of September. It will take four years to complete the conversion of all drivers having the new card design. The new documents are designed to be more difficult to duplicate. The license still resembles a credit card with a bar code on the back containing information that will allow a store clerk to scan and determine a driver?s age. The new cards have several security features including a ghost photo image imprinted over vital information to minimize alterations and a tamper resistant coating placed over the card. One new security practice will be the issuing of an initial driver?s license to anyone who obtains a license or renewal at any DMVS customer service center. This will allow DMVS to do information security checks against various databases to detect identity fraud or possible homeland security issues. The document will be printed on special security paper which is highly sensitive and will discolor after any attempt to alter it. The license will have a picture to allow its use for all identification purposes. The interim license will be valid up to 45 days. A permanent license will be mailed to the applicants mailing address on record. Drivers renewing their license through the mail or on the Internet will be mailed the permanent license.
www.thehartwellsun.com
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FBI's DNA Database Snags Suspects in 11,000 Cases
The FBI's DNA database, filled with genetic samples from prison inmates nationwide, has helped local authorities identify suspects in more than 11,000 cases in what is becoming the 21st-century equivalent of fingerprinting. The database, known as the Combined DNA Indexing System or CODIS, has helped solve two "cold" murder cases in Kansas, identify the 2-decade-old remains of a missing California child and capture a sexual predator who terrorized boys in Houston. Just as important, police and lawyers say, it has freed prisoners wrongly convicted of crimes and helped detectives quickly eliminate wrong suspects, saving manpower chasing false leads. "This basically is the fingerprint technology of this century," said Joseph M. Polisar, the police chief of Garden Grove, Calif., and the president of International Association of Chiefs of Police. "The potential for us in the criminal justice field to solve crimes with this technology is boundless." As a side benefit, the sharing of genetic fingerprints has helped the FBI improve relations with local law enforcement, which for years was frustrated by problems with information sharing, Polisar said. The FBI says more than 8,000 samples of genetic evidence from unsolved cases have been matched to past or current convicts in the database, helping to solve crimes. An additional 3,000 samples have been matched to unidentified suspects in other cases that remain unsolved, creating links between cases.
www.newsmax.com
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TSA seeks to change funding formula for airport security improvements
The Transportation Security Administration does not agree with a congressional mandate that requires the agency to increase funding to large airports for security improvements, senior administration officials said Thursday. TSA has signed eight letters of intent to provide funding to nine airports across the country for security improvements. Agency officials said, however, that they want to cover 75 percent of costs for large airports, as opposed to at least 90 percent, which Congress mandated last year. "TSA believes the current cost share is fair and equitable and that revised allocation formulas could potentially disrupt current [letter of intent] commitments and be detrimental to long-term security effectiveness," retired Navy Rear Adm. David Stone, acting TSA administrator, told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security in prepared testimony Thursday.
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