There's a
problem facing the Bush administration: It
has $30 billion to spend over the next five to
seven years to keep the U.S. safe from hackers
and cyberspies. But to extend that protection to
the nation's critical infrastructure--including
banks, telecommunications and transportation--it
needs the cooperation of the private sector. And
among corporate executives, even those who want
to help are wary: How can the business world
participate in the government's cyber
initiative, they ask, if the government remains
intensely secretive? Apr 10, 2008
TSA plans to
screen all passenger cargo. A new TSA
program expected to launch this summer is aimed
at screening all cargo on passenger jetliners.
The program will rely on packing companies to
voluntarily screen cargo that they bring to
airports, purchase screening equipment, and
subject themselves to TSA regulation. Apr 10,
2008
TSA makes
allowances for travelers who forget their
IDs. Travelers who forget to take their IDs
with them to the airport may face a hassle, but
in most cases they will still be allowed to
board a plane, TSA officials said. A TSA
spokeswoman acknowledged that a procedure exists
for travelers who forget their identification,
but it does not disclose the policy. Apr 9,
2008
A French
luxury ship is being "kept under surveillance"
after it was hijacked by pirates last Friday off
the coast of Somalia. The 64-passenger Le
Ponant, a three-masted ship, which was returning
to the Mediterranean after a Seychelles
itinerary, is carrying no paying guests, but
reports say 30 crew members of French and
Ukrainian descent are aboard. Upon receiving the
news last week, France's Foreign Ministry said
all its means would be deployed to the region to
negotiate a resolution and reports now say a
French team of specialized anti-terrorist
commandos has been sent to Djibouti to handle
the hostage situation. In a press conference on
Monday, the French Foreign Ministry said it was
in contact with the pirates, who reported that
the hostages are safe. Somalia's coastal waters
are known to be dangerous and a hotbed for
pirate activity. On February 1, the Svitzer
Korsakov tugboat was hijacked off the coast of
Somalia. The crew was released on March 18 after
it was reported that the company paid a hefty
ransom. Apr 8, 2008
Federal
cybersecurity officials are trying to develop an
early warning system that alerts authorities
to incoming computer attacks targeting
critical U.S. infrastructure, Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff said Tuesday.
Chertoff's keynote speech at the RSA security
conference, however, was light on details about
this and other initiatives, many of which he
said were classified. Some security experts said
the idea of an early warning system seemed
far-fetched. Robert Graham, chief executive of
Atlanta-based Errata Security and an expert on
computer-intrusion prevention, said current
technology can only detect when a hack has
already occurred _ and even then the breaches
usually happen too fast for an early warning.
Chertoff did not say how the government plans to
detect and flag computer threats as they sneak
into government networks. But he did acknowledge
the technical challenge in developing such a
system. Chertoff said the system would improve
upon the government's current tools for
analyzing computer threats, which he said are
built on "fundamentally a backward-looking
architecture" _ that is, they scrutinize threats
coming into the networks and work backward to
identify the nature and source of the attack. He
was referring to the "Einstein Program" run out
of the United States Computer Emergency
Readiness Team, or US-CERT, a partnership of the
homeland security department, other public
agencies and private companies. The Einstein
program is an automated process for collecting
and sharing security information. Apr 8,
2008
The governors
of California and Hawaii have publicly decried a
proposed cruise ship rule that would entail
foreign-flagged ships to remain in a foreign
port for 48 hours before continuing to U.S.
ports. The new rule is intended to safeguard
U.S-flagged ships from foreign competition.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and
Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, both Republicans,
co-authored a letter to Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff, urging that the
proposed rule be rejected on the grounds that it
would hurt their respective state economies by
causing "unintended disastrous consequences and
wide-ranging economic damage." A change is
supported by the likes of NCL America, which was
operating three U.S.-flagged ships in Hawaii
before shipping two out due in part to
foreign-flagged competition, who briefly stop in
places like Ensenada, Mexico, to fulfill
port-call requirements. The joint letter also
asks the Office of Management and Budget to
initiate an economic impact review before any
rule changes are implemented. Hawaii's democrat
congressional delegation supports NCL, stating
that the line is at a financial disadvantage
because it complies with U.S. labor and
environmental law. Apr 8, 2008
The Justice
Department has not prosecuted any cases
involving sexual assaults against civilians who
work for contractors in Iraq or Afghanistan,
despite a law giving it that authority,
according to written testimony submitted to a
Senate subcommittee. The department has taken
action in 12 cases under the Military
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act and five of
those involved sex crimes, according to Sigal P.
Mandelker, deputy attorney general of the
Justice Department's criminal division. Her
comments came in prepared testimony obtained by
The Associated Press Tuesday. In the five sex
cases, four were convictions. The convictions
were for sexual abuse of a minor by a Defense
Department civilian employee in Japan; child
pornography crimes by DOD contractors in Iraq
and Qatar and abusive sexual contact by a
Pentagon contractor against a soldier in Iraq.
An indictment has been delivered in the fifth
case, but Mandelker in her testimony did not
provide details on that case, citing privacy,
confidentiality and court ordered restrictions.
The Pentagon declined comment until the hearing.
Apr 8, 2008
U.S.
officials have acknowledged that hackers have
broken into the networks of at least one
government research laboratory and even the
Pentagon over the past year and are intensifying
their attacks. A well-targeted attack could
cripple financial institutions or air traffic
control systems or expose U.S. secrets to
enemies. Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff said there are too many openings into
government networks for criminals to explore and
exploit with viruses or other malicious code.
One of the homeland security department's goals
is to winnow the number of Internet access
points into government agencies from the
thousands that exist today to about 50, Chertoff
said. He gave no timetable or details on how the
plan would be implemented. Chertoff's speech
focused heavily on his pitch to recruit
private-industry security researchers as the
government beefs up its cybersecurity staffing.
The government needs to recruit from private
industry because many critical networks are
operated by private companies and they need each
others' expertise, he said. He did not say how
many new cybersecurity jobs the agency wants to
fill with private-industry professionals, but he
said the initiative is a high priority because
the power of the government alone is
"insufficient" to fully combat the threat. Apr
8, 2008
TSA expands
behavior screening program. The TSA is
expanding its behavior detection program at
major U.S. airports. The goal of the program is
to spot terrorists and other potentially
dangerous travelers based on their behavior.
Since the program's launch four years ago,
officials have subjected more than 104,000
travelers to additional questioning based on
their behavior and have arrested fewer than 700.
Apr 7, 2008
US Dept. of
Homeland Security avoided potential confusion at
airports last week by granting an extension
to Maine on compliance with the first phase of a
federal law mandating new security features on
driver's licenses. Extension followed assurances
from Gov. John Baldacci (D) to "use the
resources at my disposal" to amend state
policies in accordance with DHS demands. It was
unclear, however, whether the state legislature
would back him. Nevertheless, DHS said the
governor's promises were satisfactory, allowing
residents of all 50 states to continue using
licenses as airport identification from May 11.
Apr 7, 2008
Kuala Lumpur
Airport
Malaysian police
on Thursday hunted for four gunmen who grabbed
SGD$1.5 million (USD$1.09 million) in a raid at
Kuala Lumpur International Airport, spraying
bullets and wounding five people. In Wednesday's
drama, the gunmen ambushed two moneychangers and
their two armed guards at the busy departure
hall of the airport before opening fire and
grabbing a bag containing the money. They
escaped in two cars driven by another two men.
The heist is a major embarrassment for the
country's airport authorities and came just a
day after a passenger smuggled a fruit knife
onto a Bangladeshi plane, forcing a security
scare. The police moved on Thursday to soothe
concerns about Malaysia's rising security risks,
saying that the latest case was an isolated one.
But they admitted their investigations could be
hampered because the airport did not have
security cameras at the crime scene. A Nepali
businessman and a policeman also suffered
gunshot wounds in the shoot-out, which lasted
for about five minutes. Police found 40 spent
cartridges at the site. The incident did not
disrupt flights. Apr 10, 2008
Apr 14,
2008