Travel Security Update.

Apr 14, 2008

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

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