May 28, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

A group suspected of stealing secret files on potential terrorists in San Diego and elsewhere apparently operated with impunity from one of Camp Pendleton’s most heavily guarded buildings, newly obtained court records and investigative reports show. Its members – military reservists and law enforcement officers – allegedly swiped the classified documents from the Strategic Technical Operations Center.Base officials have acknowledged the center’s existence without discussing anything about it, citing national security concerns. But FBI and Navy agents said in reports that Col. Larry Richards, a Marine reservist, and his accomplices had no trouble evading the building’s security measures.

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May 28, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

Last June, the Department of Homeland Security leaked a video documenting a disturbing experiment. Using only digital means, researchers hacked into a power plant’s generator and caused it to cough and shake before shutting down in a cloud of black smoke. That clip, demonstrating what has since become known as the Aurora vulnerability, served as a wake-up call for regulators, highlighting the need to guard against cyber-security threats to critical infrastructure like power plants and the telecom system.But at a recent congressional hearing, members of the House Committee on Homeland Security warned that those regulatory bodies aren’t moving fast enough. “I think we could search far and wide and not find a more disorganized response to a national security issue of this import,” said Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity and Science and Technology. He pointed a finger to several groups including the DHS and the power industry for working too slowly to mitigate the threat.

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May 28, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

U.S. government agencies are scrambling to plug one of their biggest security holes: sensitive information — names, addresses and Social Security numbers, for example — stored on laptops, handhelds and thumb drives. In the last year, agencies have purchased 800,000 licenses for encryption software through the federal Data at Rest (DAR) Encryption program, which is run jointly by the General Services Administration and the U.S. Department of Defense.The government’s fast adoption rate of encryption software comes after numerous headline-grabbing security breaches. Laptop encryption has also been on the rise among corporations, including the likes of EMC and IBM. This year alone, laptops with personally identifiable information have been stolen from Bolling Air Force Base, a Marine Corps base in Okinawa, Japan and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. In all of these cases, the data wasn’t encrypted.

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May 28, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

Officials reported that they halted services on a major subway line that circles Beijing on two separate occasions on 28 May 2008, citing unspecified emergencies. Local media sources stated later that the No.2 line was suspended due to technical issues. Officials, after investigating, indicated that the suspensions were due to “signal failure” rather than any security or terrorist related incident. The subway line has since resumed normal operations.

The police presence in Beijing has increased exponentially ahead of the Olympic Games, with strict security checks being fully enforced. As reported in Hot Spots on 9 May, canine units and metal detectors are being implemented as additional security measures at each security checkpoint.

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