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DHS News
Administration Delivers Homeland Security Review (Washington Post) “The Obama administration Monday delivered to Congress the nation’s first Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, defining homeland security for the first time as including hazards beyond terrorism, in a strategic document intended to drive long-term budget decisions,” reports the Post. “Congress mandated the high-level strategic review in 2007, two years after Hurricane Katrina exposed failings in the government’s response and four years after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.” The “review focuses on terrorism as the foremost of many threats, defining homeland security as ‘a concerted national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards, where American interests, aspirations, and way of life can thrive.’” The review “lists five missions, backed by 14 specific goals.” [View article] [View review (950KB PDF)]
GAO Wants Better Use of Watch Lists and Checkpoint Technologies The Intelligence Community “did not nominate” Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab—who attempted to blow up an airliner that was landing at Detroit’s airport on December 25—“to the consolidated terrorist watchlist” or “the ‘No Fly’ list,” reports the Government Accountability Office. “… Further, the government lacks an up-to-date strategy and implementation plan—supported by a clearly defined leadership or governance structure—which are needed to enhance the effectiveness of terrorist-related screening and ensure accountability.” Also, the Transportation Security Administration “expects to have installed almost 200” advanced imaging technology (whole body) scanners “in airports by the end of calendar year 2010,” but “it is unclear whether” these “or other technologies would have detected the weapon used in the December 25 attempted attack.”
[View GAO summary]
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| DHS photo |
Delays and Problems Plague Virtual Border Fence (MSNBC) The “ambitious, $6.7 billion government project to secure nearly the entire Mexican border with a ‘virtual fence’ of cameras, ground sensors and radar is in jeopardy after a string of technical glitches and delays,” reports the Associated Press. (See the Sep. 19, 2008, newsletter.) “Having spent $672 million so far with little to show for it, Washington has ordered a reassessment of the whole idea.”
[View article]
DHS Wants to Work With Community Groups (Government Security News) Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano asked “her Homeland Security Advisory Council on February 3 … to establish a new task force that would focus specifically on how community-based organizations—both religious and secular—could help identify homegrown terrorists and dampen domestic violence,” reports Government Security News. “DHS wants to improve its outreach to such community-based groups, said Napolitano, and to receive greater input from them.”
[View article]
Other Federal News
Energy Dept. Needs to Address Security Personnel Problems, Says GAO To transform the forces guarding weapons-grade nuclear material into a tactical response force “with training and capabilities similar to the U.S. military,” the Energy Department could either reform “the current contracting approach or [create] a federal protective force,” reports the Government Accountability Office. “… Either approach might” work if well managed. A separate departmental initiative “to enhance protective forces’ career longevity … has made limited progress.”
[View GAO summary]
Pentagon Releases Quadrennial Defense Review (New York Times) “The Quadrennial Defense Review, released this week, finally catches up with the current world, one where the United States confronts a host of different adversaries on a variety of different battlefields,” says the New York Times. “It acknowledges that while the United States remains the world’s leading military power, it is much more dependent on allies to help maintain international stability. It places long overdue emphasis on preserving and rebuilding the overstretched, all-volunteer force. It recognizes the need to rebalance American forces to perform multiple new tasks and to finally jettison cold war weapons that are too expensive, over budget, underperforming or ill suited to today’s missions.”
[View editorial]
[View QDR]
National News
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Critical Infrastructures Are Under Constant Cyberattack (Wired; Federal Computer Week) “Critical infrastructure systems around the world are the targets of repeated cyberattacks, according to a new global survey of technology executives in these industries,” writes Wired “Threat Level” blogger Kim Zetter. “They believe some of the attacks are coming not just from individual cybercriminals but terrorists and foreign nation states.… Companies and agencies operating in the banking and finance sectors, energy and natural resources, telecommunications and internet service providers, transportation and mass transit, chemical production and storage, food distribution and government services are considered critical infrastructure companies. The attacks that are occurring include massive denial of service attacks, stealthy efforts to penetrate networks undetected, [domain name service] poisoning, [structured query language] injection attacks and malware infections.” “In the Crossfire: Critical Infrastructure in the Age of Cyber War” was “commissioned by anti-virus firm McAfee and coordinated by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.” However, the “electric power grid … might not be as fragile as it appears,” writes William Jackson in Federal Computer Week, citing “Martin Libicki of the Rand Corp.” The electrical grid, says Jackson, “is a distributed system operated by some 3,000 companies.… the industry is obsessed with resiliency … the Internet is not intrinsic to the industry’s business model,” and “widespread reports last year that the grid’s infrastructure was riddled with rogue code were the result of unconfirmed speculation by intelligence agencies.”
[View Wired blog] [View report] [View FCW commentary]
Disasters 2.0 Conference Addresses Social Media Use (Emergency Management) “About 130 public and private information officers from the emergency management, first response and business continuity communities gathered on Jan. 21 at the Midwest Disasters 2.0: Social Media and Emergency Response training session” in the Kansas City area “to learn how social media systems work and how they can be used during a disaster,” reports Emergency Management. “… Two things were made clear during the workshop, said [Adam] Crowe [assistant director of the Johnson County Emergency Management and Homeland Security office] … First, social media isn’t going away, and emergency officials and public information officers need to figure out ways to use it. And second, there’s no wrong way to get involved with social media.”
[View article]
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Nominations Open for Emergency Management Digital Distinction Awards (Emergency Management) “Emergency Management magazine and the Center for Digital Government are conducting an awards program to recognize technology solutions that have assisted first responders in their mission of keeping citizens safe. The Emergency Management Digital Distinction Awards are open to all emergency management, fire, homeland security, criminal justice and public safety agencies at all levels of government worldwide. Entries must be submitted by a government employee, and projects must be operational by the contest deadline of March 18, 2010. The Emergency Management Digital Distinction Awards will be presented to individuals or teams that have designed, developed and deployed new applications or improved existing systems that assist the department/agency to deliver services more effectively.”
[View article]
International News
Somali Rebels Unite and Claim Loyalty to al-Qaeda (Reuters) “Somalia’s hardline al Shabaab insurgents have agreed to join forces with a smaller southern militia and both groups professed their loyalty to al Qaeda,” reports Reuters.
[View article]
Britain Assigns Counterterror Police to Some Universities (BBC) “Special [Police] Branch officers are being deployed in universities particularly at risk of being targeted by Islamic extremists,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “… Higher Education Minister David Lammy … told BBC Radio 4’s The Report, ‘We have identified universities for whom the risk is greater and they have to work closely with Special Branch, and so I think it is a partnership between leadership at universities and the police.’”
[View article]
Britain Hopes to Buy Out Four Fifths of Taliban
(Reuters)
“There is no room for compromise with hardcore Afghan Taliban but the Afghan government and its allies hope to lure away many of the up to 80 percent of Taliban who joined for economic reasons,” said “British armed forces minister Bill Rammell” on Wednesday, according to Reuters. (See last week’s newsletter.)
[View article]
Pakistani Scientist Found Guilty of Shootings
(New York Times)
“Pakistani neuroscientist” Aafia Siddiqui “was convicted on Wednesday of trying to kill American military officers while she was in custody in Afghanistan [see the July 31, 2009, newsletter], capping a trial that drew notice for its terrorist implications as well as its theatrics,” reports the New York Times . “… Siddiqui [was found] guilty of all seven counts against her, including attempted murder, after three days of deliberations. She faces life in prison when she is sentenced in May.”
[View article]
Canada Has Only One of Many Planned Health Emergency Response Teams (Ottawa Citizen) Eight “years after the government announced the plan and purchased equipment, there is still no national network of elite emergency medical teams to help overwhelmed local authorities cope with natural disasters and other major calamities,” reports the Citizen. “… Health Emergency Response Teams … were to be, ‘ready to be deployed on a 24-hour basis to assist provincial, territorial or other local authorities in providing emergency medical care during a major disaster,’ the federal government stated.” But only one “exists. Based in Ottawa since 2007, it comprises 80 specialists from Ontario and Quebec who can be drawn from their jobs as physicians, registered nurses, paramedics, respiratory therapists and pharmaceutical technicians to provide ‘surge’ assistance to other parts of the province and country. The unit is stocked with an extensive array of sophisticated emergency medical equipment and supplies. It has yet to be dispatched to an emergency.”
[View article]
United Nations News
UN Scales Up Aid to Haitian Quake Victims (Reuters AlertNet) The United Nations World Food Programme on January 30 began ramping up its operations in Haiti, opening 16 fixed food distribution sites offering supplies to some 2 million people affected by the January 12 earthquake. For 15 days, each family will receive a 25-kilogramme ration of rice, with only women being allowed into distribution sites to collect their share. (See the Quote of the Week.) Also, “more than 12,000 Haitians … have been enlisted to clear away the debris—as part of a U.N. scheme aimed at providing temporary work for the country’s unemployed,” reports Reuters. (See the Jan. 22 newsletter.)
[View UN press release] [View Reuters article]
Unaccompanied Haitian Children Are at Risk, Warns UN (BBC) Unaccompanied children in Haiti, including orphans and those sent by their parents to live with more affluent relatives or strangers, run a greater risk of being abducted, enslaved, sold, or trafficked due to increased insecurity following last month’s devastating earthquake, according to independent human rights experts who are mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor slavery, sale of children, trafficking and violence against children. “Haiti has charged 10 US missionaries with child abduction and criminal conspiracy for allegedly trying to smuggle 33 children out of the country,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation.
[View UN press release] [View BBC article]
Private-Sector News
Mapping System Pinpoints 911 Cellphone Callers (Emergency Management) PlantCML is “a new mapping system that pinpoints 911 calls that originate from cell phones,” reports Emergency Management. “… a map pops up on the call taker’s monitor and displays a red and yellow circle marking the caller’s address or location.” The system was installed at the end of 2009 in Escambia County, FL.
[View article]
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Education
The HOMELAND SECURITY STUDIES AND ANALYSIS INSTITUTE lists these education programs as a service to readers who may be interested; it does not endorse them or
their courses. New education listings are posted for four weeks.
Rail Tank Car Responder Training (March 10-12, San Bernardino, CA; March 15-17, Barstow, CA; March 27-29, Riverbank, CA; April 6-8, Stockton, CA) Half-day sessions will focus on
rail tank car anatomy and leak mitigation.
[View course website]
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New Upcoming Events
(Events are listed for four weeks; after that, they are still on the Upcoming Events page)
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| NRC file photo |
Public Meeting on Nuclear Power Plant Force-on-Force Inspections (February 10; Rockville, MD) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is holding a public meeting to discuss with the public, the nuclear power industry, and other interested stakeholders proposed enhancements to the agency’s force-on-force inspection program. These inspections, which test a nuclear power plant’s ability to defend against adversaries, are conducted at each plant every three years. Tabletop drills and other assessments precede three days of mock commando-style attacks against the facility. The commission is seeking public input, and the staff will take questions. [View announcement]
Cyber Threats to National Security (March 2; Arlington, VA) The theme is “Countering Challenges to the Global Supply Chain.” Panels will discuss “Assessing the Role, Reach, and Limits
of Cyber Warfare,” “State of the Practice Securing Federal and National Supply Chains,” and “Keeping the Armed Services Supplied
‘to the Edge.’”
[View event website]
(March 2-6; Baltimore) Serving the emergency services community, EMS Today provides professionals with a combination of progressive education, developed by industry experts and Journal of Emergency Medical Services contributors, and the latest equipment from leading manufacturers, plus live emergency medical services games.
[View event website]
4th Annual DHS University Network Summit (March 10-12; Washington, DC) This year’s conference will focus on resilience, discussing what makes an individual, an economy, infrastructure, a community, and a nation resilient. Student Day is March 9.
[View event website]
Mass Fatalities—Compliance and Guidance (March 16; London) This conference will help those responsible for managing mass fatalities, especially in establishing a temporary mortuary, understand the law and guidance on how to carry out this duty. This is of particular interest to local authority emergency planning officers, emergency services personnel, and those who would staff a mortuary.
[View event website]
International Conference on Biocontainment Facilities (March 25-26; St. Petersburg, FL) This conference will discuss planning, design, construction, operations, and maintenance for more standardized, safer, and higher-security solutions for human and animal pathogen research, vaccine development, and clinical environments.
[View event website]
(April 5-9; Orlando, FL) This Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers technical program focuses on sensing systems and platforms and on sensor and data analysis.
[View event website]
Defense Industrial Base Critical Infrastructure Protection Conference (April 26-28; Philadelphia) This year’s theme is “Risk Reduction & Mitigation in the Defense Industrial Base.” The panel topics include “Critical Infrastructure Protection/Resilience Leadership,” “Threats to the Defense Industrial Base,” “Cyber Security Critical Infrastructure Protection and Public-Private Partnerships,” “Critical Infrastructure Protection Mission Assurance Assessments,” “Effective Partnerships for Homeland Defense and Security Program Implementation,” “Commercial Interdependencies Risk Management,” and “Defense Industrial Base Sector Involvement in Recent and Planned Exercises.”
[View event website]
Maritime Homeland Security Summit (April 26-29; Miami) This summit brings together departmental policy makers, uniformed service leaders, law enforcement, and industry partners to exchange and share best practices and opportunities to improve the security of our nation’s maritime borders.
[View event website]
(June 13-18; Miami) The theme of this year’s Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams is “Past the Faded Perimeter: Threat & Incident Response.” It will bring together computer security incident response teams from over 200 corporations, government bodies, universities, and other institutions across the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. It will cover topics such as advanced techniques in security incident prevention, detection, and response; the latest advances in computer and network security tools; and shared views, experiences, and resolutions in computer security incident response.
[View event website]
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(June 28–July 1; Aspen, CO) This forum, sponsored by the Aspen Institute and Government Security News, will bring together government decision makers, industry leaders, think tank and academic policy experts, and journalists to discuss and debate key homeland security issues of the day, including aviation security, maritime security, border security, mass transit security, critical infrastructure and soft target protection, emergency preparedness, intelligence, and counterterrorism strategy.
[View event website]
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Calls for Papers
(Calls for papers are listed for four weeks; after that, they are still on the Calls for Papers page)
Workshop on Radio-Frequency ID Security (June 8-10; Istanbul, Turkey) The workshop focuses on approaches to solve security and data-protection issues in advanced contactless technologies such as radio-frequency identification. It stresses implementation aspects imposed by resource constraints. The deadline for submitting papers is April 20.
[View call for papers]
Advanced Video and Signal Based Surveillance (August 29–September 1) This conference of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society welcomes contributions on sensors and data fusion; processing, detection, and recognition; analytics, behavior, and biometrics; interaction and description; applications; and systems, performances, and ethical issues. The deadline for submitting papers is March 26.
[View call for papers (224KB PDF)]
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