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Archive for May 2008

Homeland Security to train police

May 14, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is holding a workshop in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to teach local law enforcement agencies how to handle roadside bombs. The department’s Office of Bombing Prevention will host Tuesday’s workshop. Police, sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement agents will learn how to identify the bombs and how to protect against them. Although no roadside bomb attacks have been reported in the U.S., experts say they could be a future threat.

The workshop is part of the IED 2008 Symposium and Expo, an annual meeting held near Fort Bragg to discuss ways to counter the bombs.

Source: http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/2872208/

Posted in CIP, HLS Conferences, HLD | Print | No Comments »

Military computer contractor pleads guilty to ID theft

May 14, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

(IDG News, 5/2/08)

A former U.S. military contractor has pleaded guilty to exceeding authorized access to a computer and aggravated identity theft after he was accused of selling names and Social Security numbers of 17,000 military employees, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Randall Craig, 41, of Houston, pleaded guilty to both counts of an indictment returned in April by a grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Craig acknowledged selling information contained in a military database to a person he believed to represent a foreign government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas and the FBI.

The person who purchased the names and Social Security numbers from Craig was an undercover FBI agent, they said. Craig worked as a private computer contractor at the Marine Corps Reserve Center in San Antonio in September 2007, and he had access to personal information of U.S. Marines in the center’s database, the DOJ said.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9082158&source=NLT_SEC&nlid=38

Posted in CIP, Blogroll, HLD | Print | No Comments »

Rx for security clearance delays

May 14, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

 (FCW.com, 5/5/08)

A team of government agencies has laid out a broad proposal for security clearance reforms in which technology would play a major role. The Office of Management and Budget, part of the Joint Security and Suitability Reform Team, unveiled a plan to expedite hiring and security clearances for federal employees and contractors. In February, President Bush ordered the security team to submit a governmentwide proposal for streamlining the security clearance process by April 30.

The proposal represents a basic outline for modernizing the process and is intended to lay the foundation for more specific reforms in the next administration, said Clay Johnson, OMB’s deputy director for management. “We have been making security clearance determinations the same way for 50 years, and it’s time to change the way we do that,” he said. The proposal calls for an automated system to speed the clearances process, reduce work done manually and integrate additional data sources. One component of the plan is a Web-based application to speed the acquisition of biographical data required at the beginning of the clearance process. A project plan for developing this application will be completed later this year, Johnson said.

Posted in Blogroll, HLD | Print | No Comments »

Pentagon: Ex-detainees returning to fight

May 14, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

 (CNN, 5/7/08)

A Kuwaiti man released from U.S. custody at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in 2005 blew himself up in a suicide attack in Iraq last month, Pentagon officials said. Abdullah Saleh al-Ajmi was one of two Kuwaitis who took part in a suicide attack in Mosul on April 26, the officials said. Records show that an attack in Mosul that day targeted an Iraqi police patrol and left six people dead, including two police officers. An announcement on a jihadist Web site earlier this month declared that al-Ajmi was one of the “heroes” who carried out the Mosul operation. A second man from Kuwait also took part in the suicide attack, the Web site said.

Of the more than 500 detainees released from Guantanamo since the detention camp was opened in 2002, 38 have been stripped of their “enemy combatant” status and determined to pose no future threat to the United States. The remaining 462 were repatriated to home countries or resettled to third-party countries and still considered a threat, Pentagon records show.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/07/gitmo.bomber/?iref=mpstoryview

Posted in CIP, Blogroll, State & Local | Print | No Comments »

House bill targets DHS cybersecurity efforts

May 14, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

 (Wash. Tech, 5/9/08)

A bill introduced in the House of Representatives would require the Homeland Security Department to assess the robustness of contractors’ cybersecurity protection before hiring them. The Homeland Security Network Defense and Accountability Act of 2008, introduced by Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.), is intended to improve the department’s cybersecurity by ensuring contractor cyberqualifications, strengthening the chief information officer position, establishing rules about cyberresponse and capabilities, and requiring various assessments.

The bill stipulates that DHS must determine contractors’ cybersecurity posture before signing a contract, according to a news release from Langevin. It applies to any contractor who will have access to the department’s computer networks, said Joy Fox, a spokeswoman for Langevin. The legislation calls not only for contractors working with DHS to have robust cybersecurity in place but also for DHS to assess and tighten its cybersecurity procedures and capabilities.

Posted in CIP, State & Local | Print | No Comments »

F.B.I. Says the Military Had Bogus Computer Gear

May 14, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

(NY Times, 5/9/08)

Counterfeit products are a routine threat for the electronics industry. However, the more sinister specter of an electronic Trojan horse, lurking in the circuitry of a computer or a network router and allowing attackers clandestine access or control, was raised again recently by the F.B.I. and the Pentagon.

The new law enforcement and national security concerns were prompted by Operation Cisco Raider, which has led to 15 criminal cases involving counterfeit products bought in part by military agencies, military contractors and electric power companies in the United States. Over the two-year operation, 36 search warrants have been executed, resulting in the discovery of 3,500 counterfeit Cisco network components with an estimated retail value of more than $3.5 million, the F.B.I. said in a statement.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/technology/09cisco.html?_r=2&sq=markoff%20cisco&st=nyt&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&scp=1&adxnnlx=1210790241-T/5fisqOzaCKvbvMWi5NWw

Posted in CIP, HLD | Print | No Comments »

Spy-Agency Revision Triggers Turf War

May 14, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

(WSJ, 5/12/08)

The White House is in the final stages of the first executive rewrite of spy-agency powers in more than 25 years, aiming to solidify the authorities of the new director of national intelligence as the administration winds down.The revision has spawned bureaucratic showdowns with many of the 16 intelligence agencies. The main source of contention has been a move by the director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, to ensure he has the power of the purse as well as over personnel, according to current and former officials.

The yearlong process reopened a number of the contentious battles stirred up by the 2004 intelligence-reform bill, which first created the new post of an intelligence director to oversee all the U.S. spy agencies. The Pentagon sees in the process an effort to take power from some of its biggest intelligence agencies while the Central Intelligence Agency worries about excessive meddling in its activities, current and former officials said.

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Counterfeit networking gear: A security threat?

May 14, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

(SC Mag., 5/13/08)

Counterfeit networking equipment could jeopardize the security of U.S. military and other government systems, according to an FBI PowerPoint presentation posted on a website covering “alternative” topics. The website, AboveTopSecret.com, which sometimes strains credulity, published parts of an FBI presentation. The FBI report stated that counterfeit networking gear could possibly “provide backdoor capabilities and access into compromised networks for the originators of the equipment.”

According to AboveTopSecret.com, the military, the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration, defense contractors, universities and financial institutions may have purchased a wide range of counterfeit equipment, including routers, servers, switches and wide-area-networking (WAN) interface cards

Posted in CIP | Print | No Comments »

Furniture Salesman Pleads Guilty To Spying For China

May 14, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

 New Orleans furniture salesman pleaded guilty Tuesday to spying for the Chinese government and providing Beijing with secret information on military relations between the United States and Taiwan. Tai Shen Kuo, 58, a Taiwan native and naturalized U.S. citizen, faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 8.

Kuo’s lawyers, Plato Cacheris and John Hundley, said after the hearing they believe their client would face a prison term of about 12 1/2 to 15 1/2 years under federal sentencing guidelines. Kuo pleaded guilty to a single count of espionage in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. In court papers, Kuo admitted that he received $50,000 from the Chinese government for his efforts. Kuo obtained classified information throughout 2007 from a Defense Department analyst, Gregg W. Bergersen, by providing several thousand dollars in gambling money to Bergersen on trips the pair took to Las Vegas, as well as promises of future employment at a company Kuo hoped to establish.Bergersen has already pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme and awaits sentencing.

Posted in State & Local | Print | No Comments »

National Homeland Defense Foundation Symposium VI

May 2, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

National Homeland Defense Foundation Symposium VI (October 27; Colorado Springs, CO) The theme of Symposium VI is “Securing Our Homelands Through International Collaboration; Neighbors Helping Neighbors.” Submissions must be emailed in PDF format by August 1 to librarian@nhdf.org. [View conference website]

Posted in HLS Conferences | Print | No Comments »

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