Info

You are currently browsing the ISM Colorado Homeland Security News & Research weblog archives for the day December 2, 2008.

Calendar
December 2008
S M T W T F S
« Nov   Jan »
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
Categories
Latest Postings
Links
Archives
Meta

Archive for December 2, 2008

The Beslan Terrorist School Siege

December 2, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

The Beslan Terrorist School Siege

Thursday, December 4, 2008
8:00 a.m. - 5 p.m. (Check in begins at 7 a.m.)

Tuition: $119* includes continental breakfast and box lunch.

LOCATION: This course will be held at Bloomington Fire Station #1, 10 W 95th Street (95th & Nicollet), Bloomington. Additional parking available in south lot of church across from station.

Presented by:
John Giduck, Senior Consultant
Archangel International Anti-Terror Group

http://southmetrotraining.com/Courses/20081204_Terror%20at%20Beslan.html

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

IMPACT 2009 April 6-8, 2009, McLean, VA

December 2, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

Register online

http://nsi.org/Impact_2009/

Posted in HLS Conferences | Print | No Comments »

Pentagon wants smart cards in play

December 2, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

(GCN.com, 11/24/08)

Defense Department officials are taking steps to make Common Access Cards the single identity credential for authenticating federal employees, members of the military and contractors when they enter federal buildings or other restricted areas. A request for information about making CACs the main credential for physical access was announced on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site. CACs are now used for visual identification and access to computer systems. The cards are also used with public-key infrastructure tools for signing and encrypting e-mail messages.

“The CAC is now moving in a new direction, identified as the single identity credential for authenticating federal employees, contractors, military and other CAC-eligible personnel for physical access control systems,” the RFI states. The Pentagon Force Protection Agency wants to deploy a physical access control system at the Pentagon that would confirm identities using a smart card-based system. DOD officials want input from industry before a potential contract is announced and asked for information about companies’ experience with testing or installing readers.

http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/47645-1.html/?s=dailyNL

Posted in CIP, HLD | Print | No Comments »

Chinese-Born Scientist Pleads Guilty To Tech Espionage

December 2, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

(Infoweek, 11/18/08)A Chinese-born scientist working in Virginia has pleaded guilty to selling U.S. technology and military secrets for rocket propulsion to China, though news service XFN-Asia reported that the Chinese government insists the charges were “completely fabricated.” Quan-Sheng Shu pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Norfolk to charges of bribery in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and breaking the federal Arms Export Control Act.

The U.S. Department of Justice said the physicist in Newport News exported technical space launch data and defense services to the People’s Republic of China and offered bribes to Chinese government officials. Shu, a naturalized U.S. citizen, exported defense services from January 2003 through October 2007 by helping China design and develop a cryogenic fueling system for space launch vehicles in Hainan, China, U.S. prosecutors said in an indictment. China plans to use the facility to launch space stations, satellites, manned space flights, and lunar missions, according to the complaint. http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/attacks/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212100587&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Security

Posted in CIP, HLD | Print | No Comments »

U.S. Report Foresees Deadlier Terror Attacks

December 2, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

 (Global Security Newswire, 11/19/08)

Terrorists could acquire more dangerous conventional arms and even biological-weapon agents by 2025, creating the potential for more lethal attacks, U.S. Deputy National Intelligence Director Thomas Fingar said. “I can imagine that the aggregate threat diminishes but the specific instances (of attacks) being much more deadly,” he said, basing his comments on a new National Intelligence Council report, Global Trends 2025.

Fingar said the report suggests that the Middle East’s burgeoning youth population would give al-Qaeda more prospective operatives while the terrorist organization’s attacks on Islamic populations would hurt its ability to find new members, the Associated Press reported. Fingar added that future tensions in the Middle East would likely involve nuclear weapons.

Posted in CIP, HLD | Print | No Comments »

Details emerge about President’s Cyber Plan

December 2, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

 (GCN.com, 11/21/08)

A new layer of details surrounding President Bush’s Comprehensive National Cyber Security Initiative emerged from a speech delivered by a senior federal official in Washington recently.
Steven Chabinksy, deputy director for the Joint Interagency Cyber Task Force, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, shed new light on 12 core initiatives that are part of the president’s cyber security plan.

Much of the security plan, introduced last January under National Security Presidential Directive 54/Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23, has remained classified. And only limited amounts of information about the initiative have been made public. Reciting concerns that new vulnerabilities, strong adversaries, and weak situational awareness were resulting in “untrusted systems,” Chabinsky outlined the objectives and rationale behind 12 “discreet initiatives” in the CNCI plan.

http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/47639-1.html

Posted in CIP, HLD | Print | No Comments »

Security clearance process remains ‘cumbersome’

December 2, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

 (Secrecy News, 12/1/08)

Despite compulsory legislative reforms and multiple executive orders intended to streamline the granting of security clearances for access to classified information, the process remains “cumbersome,” according to a new House Intelligence Committee report. While backlogs and processing time have been reduced since enactment of the 2004 Intelligence Reform Act, overall “progress over the past five years has been disappointing,” the report said.

Among other things, the executive branch has failed to establish an integrated database of all security clearance authorizations. As a consequence, “no one knows how many people in the U.S. Government hold security clearances.” (It is more than 2.5 million and probably around 3 million people in government, military and industry.) Government agencies have also failed to fulfill a requirement for security clearance “reciprocity,” referring to the acceptance by one agency of a security clearance granted by another agency. This is in spite of an explicit statutory requirement that “all security clearance background investigations and determinations… shall be accepted by all agencies.” http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

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

|