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RFID adoption could boost homeland security
Widespread use of radio frequency identification technology throughout commercial industry could help the Homeland Security Department do its job better, a department official said today. When companies use RFID to improve their supply chains, Homeland Security gains greater confidence in those supply chains, ?thereby lessening the need for us to come in with some kind of one-size-fits-all regulatory structure,? said Stewart Verdery, assistant secretary for border and transportation security policy and planning. Verdery was speaking on an RFID panel in Washington, sponsored by the Commerce Department. He also described some of the department?s plans to use RFID tags in its own systems. As part of its Free and Secure Trade initiative, the Customs and Border Protection Bureau within Homeland Security has already begun using RFID tags to identify freight trucks as they cross the border with Canada. By the end of the year, the Homeland Security Department expects to extend the U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indication Technology system to cover land entries along the nation?s borders. The U.S. Visit system is currently in use at 115 airports and 14 seaports. People entering the country on a visa are fingerprinted and photographed and their information is stored in a centralized system for tracking purposes. At the Mexican border, Verdery said, the current U.S. Visit process of collecting biometric information would be untenable due to the sheer volume of people crossing the border. Verdery said Homeland Security will employ RFID in border crossing cards and other documents that visitors carry when they enter the country. The department is also pushing the adoption of RFID for cargo containers. By using so-called ?smart boxes,? Homeland Security agents would be able to tell if a container had been tampered with.
www.washingtontechnology.com
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Local agencies say the key to Homeland Security is teamwork
Surrounding these waters is the second largest petrochemical complex in the world - 7,600 vessels dock there each year. Since 9-11, protecting the Houston Ship Channel has become a top priority 24 hours a day, 365 days a year as part of Homeland Security. The Coast Guard and the Houston Police Department rely as heavily on the public as the public relies on them. U.S. Coast Guard Commander Steve Seiberling said, "Right after 9-11, when we were flying, it was extremely quiet in the skies. It was a very strange feeling. It did hit close to home." The Houston wing of the United States Coast Guard can't do the job alone. That's where the Houston Police Department's Helicopter Division steps in as a sister to the Coast Guard. "The Coast Guard patrols the Ship Channel and therefore the Port,? said HPD Helicopter Division?s Lt. John King. ?We give some minor attention to that relative to what they give it. We also give attention while on our patrol flights to other Homeland Security sites, such as the fresh water treatment plants, the sewage treatment plants." "We do a majority of the over water patrolling, but when we have no assets available for various reasons either aircraft that are broken or we're responding to our traditional missions of search and rescue, I may have to ask HPD to support us in the over flights of the ship channel," said Seiberling. But HPD isn't the only one they need support from. There's only so much the Coast Guard and HPD air crews can do from the sky. They say a portion of the responsibility falls on the citizens of Houston. They expect them to work as the team with the Coast Guard and HPD to notify them of anything out of the ordinary.
www.news24houston.com
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Georgia Receives Over $67 Million in FY04 Homeland Security Grants
Governor Sonny Perdue said today that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP) has made available over $67 million in FY04 funding to help first responders throughout Georgia better protect their communities. "I would like to express my appreciation to President Bush and Secretary Ridge for this funding which will help us reinforce our homeland security efforts," said Perdue. "With our state continuing to host global events like the Olympics and the upcoming G8 Summit, it is vital that we provide enhanced support to state and local first responders." The grants will be distributed in Georgia as part of five programs - the State Homeland Security Program, $41.96. million; the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program (LETPP), $12.45 million; Citizen Corps, $871,825; Urban Area Security Initiative, $10.68 million; and the Mass Transit Security Grant, $1.48 million. "The increased Homeland Security funding we've received over the past two years has given us the opportunity to build our prevention and response capabilities in accordance with our state and national strategy," said Bill Hitchens, Director of the Georgia Office of Homeland Security. "As a result Georgia is a much safer place to live."
www.theweekly.com
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Are Biometrics Coming to a PC Near You?
Science fiction often depicts a future where retinal scans are common and fingerprint scans replace passwords and even door keys. It may be science fiction no longer: A government agency is examining the possibility of applying biometrics to curb identity theft. A little-known provision of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003 requires the Department of the Treasury to examine the use of biometric technology as a security tactic. The FACT Act's primary mandate is that customers be notified when banks send credit bureaus negative reports on them.Identity theft is an increasing problem, especially with the advent of frequent computer use. Banks in particular are plagued, partly because information such as Social Security numbers, relatively inaccessible before, is now more easily available online. Under the FACT Act, the Department of the Treasury is studying how biometric technology is now being used to help stop identity theft. The agency also is examining whether the private sector has enough incentive to adopt biometrics as a security measure, and what the rate of adoption is for biometric technology now.
www.pcworld.com
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Military bolsters maritime security role
The U.S. military is shoring up its role in maritime security in response to ongoing concerns that terrorists might use cargo or passenger vessels to launch an attack against the country, officials said Thursday. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently issued an order clarifying and emphasizing the Navy's ability to conduct maritime intercept operations, said Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland security. Additionally, the Navy and the Coast Guard are negotiating a memorandum of agreement for closer coordination in maritime security. "Our goal is to identify an enemy threat as far from our shores as possible and to employ military capabilities for the defeat of that threat," McHale said. "We don't want to discover a weapon of mass destruction after it has entered a port or come ashore. Our strategy is to locate that threat and defeat it as far away as possible."
www.govexec.com
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Developing technology fights 'phishing' scams
Mark Nichols runs an online gift shop and considers himself Internet savvy. He got duped by an e-mail scam anyhow. A message saying it was from eBay Inc. asked Nichols to submit his password and other personal information to a Web site. The e-mail had arrived shortly after Nichols' credit card had expired, so he didn't suspect the site was phony. "I was thinking, 'You're right, I do need to go update my account,' and sure enough, I fell for it," the Crosby, N.D., man said. As these so-called phishing scams proliferate, companies are sharpening technological tools to counter them. Anti-phishing software is apt to soon be added to the arsenal of digital shields forged to stop spam, viruses and hacking. Scammers now copy and paste Web coding from real sites to give their fraudulent messages and the sites they lead to an aura of authenticity. They register Internet addresses that look real, subbing the letter "l" with the numeral "1," for instance. A few messages even carry ads for that aura of authenticity. "What used to be a game and a prank has now been recognized as something that can be lucrative and has attracted organized efforts," said Bill Harris, chairman of PassMark Security LLC and former chief executive of PayPal, a frequent phishing target. The Anti-Phishing Working Group, formed in October by industry and law enforcement, identified 282 new phishing scams in February, up from 176 a month earlier. About 70 percent have been traced to eastern Europe or Asia, David Jevans, the group's chairman, said. Jevans said no hard numbers are available on monetary losses from phishing, which represents only a sliver of overall fraud. The greater cost is in consumer confidence, he said: Banks might suffer if customers shun online banking and insist on using more expensive tellers. In Nichols' case, he realized his error early enough, so he quickly changed his eBay password. But the scams can be costly. To fight back, eBay in February added an Account Guard feature. A green light appears when users are on a site run by eBay or its PayPal subsidiary. The light goes red for known fraudulent sites. A warning also appears any time users try to enter their eBay or PayPal passwords elsewhere.
www.enquirer.com
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Gates outlines security strategy
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has given a detailed breakdown of his company's security strategy. In a statement published on Wednesday on the Microsoft site, Gates, who is also the company's chief software architect, detailed a number of updates for Windows XP in its Server Pack 2, and for Windows Server and Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004. Need uninterrupted data transfer at all times? UUNET Managed International Frame Relay is a cost-effective, robust, network solution ensuring smooth, fast, reliable and secure data transfer. While Gates' newsletter details the company's overall strategy, including its co-operation with law enforcement agencies, there was no mention of the prospect of an immediate public alert of a vulnerability that many users of Microsoft products would like to see. Gates also mentions anti-spam tools such as SmartScreen technology that can be trained to filter out unwanted e-mails and the implementation of ?Caller-ID? that can authenticate the origin of e-mail.
www.itweb.co.za
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Informational CD offered for ag first responders
To prepare for the intentional and unintentional introductions of animal diseases into the nation's food production pathway, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman announced the release of an informational compact disc for federal and state agriculture first responders. "This new tool provides federal, state and private veterinarians immediate access to resources and relevant information to help them more effectively identify, respond to, control and facilitate recovery from a foreign animal disease outbreak," Veneman said. The compact disc, "Food Security: The Threat to American Livestock," was developed in conjunction with Auburn University. The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said it helps to ensure the safety of all animal and plant products from the farm to the food distribution centers located around the country. The agency said it has embarked on an extensive program to enhance its readiness to detect, deter and respond to terrorist events involving plant or animal pathogens. State and federal officials who have a role to fulfill in the event of an unintentional or intentional threat to U.S. livestock will also have access to this data bank, the USDA said.
www.zwire.com
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$4 Million in Funding Available for Organizations to Engage Volunteers in Homeland Security
The Corporation for National and Community Service is encouraging nonprofit organizations and public agencies to apply for $4 million in grants for projects to engage volunteers in homeland security efforts in their communities. The grants are for projects that engage volunteers, especially those age 55 and over, in helping communities prepare for and respond to all types of emergencies and disasters. The Corporation expects to make approximately 12 awards, ranging from $100,000 to $500,000 each. The grants will cover one year of program activity, but funding for a second and third year may be provided contingent on performance and availability of funds. ?Americans are eager to serve and can make an important contribution to homeland security,? said David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation. ?These grants will strengthen the volunteer infrastructure and engage thousands more Americans in disaster relief and preparedness. We encourage organizations to apply for these grants to support more Americans getting directly involved in protecting their communities.? Examples of the kinds of activities that could be supported include engaging volunteers to assist fire or police departments; assisting in disaster response, search and rescue, first aid, coordination of emergency supplies, and establishing communication links for relief workers; organizing immunization programs; and educating the public on preparing for potential disasters or terrorist attacks. Eligible applicants include both nonprofit organizations and public entities at the state and local levels. The Corporation encourages community groups, both faith-based and secular, and organizations that have never received Corporation funding, to apply or to become part of a community-wide initiative in response to this notice.
www.usafreedomcorps.gov
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Regional homeland security offices will be small
A Homeland Security Department initiative to unify the field structure of its 22 agencies will not create large field bureaucracies, a top DHS official said Wednesday. Asa Hutchinson, Homeland Security's undersecretary for border and transportation security, outlined the department's ongoing effort to create regional offices around the country in testimony before a joint hearing of two House Government Reform subcommittees. While the department plans to appoint regional directors to oversee homeland security efforts outside Washington, Hutchinson said it does not envision hiring hundreds of workers to staff the offices.
www.govexec.com
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