Recap of the Symantec Symposium
This week, I attended the Symantec Cyber Symposium. It was a well organized and first class event. At a time when there is a bit of a glut of cyber events, this one stood out.
Tijuana's Drug War
Recently, I spoke with CBC’s “The National” regarding the escalating drug war along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Crime, Terrorism, or Insurgency? A Glimpse at the Niger Delta Conflict
Last month’s annual U.S. State Department Country Reports on Terrorism 2008 made not one single mention of Nigeria’s Niger Delta conflict. This past week, the Nigerian military’s Joint Task Force (JTF) conducted offensive cordon and search operations against the militants of the Niger Delta, including the largest umbrella group known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). The JTF operations were ostensibly in response to the recent series of MEND attacks, which comprised hostage-taking, oil pipeline and vessel attacks, and direct engagements against the Nigerian military. What is occurring in the Niger Delta–crime, terrorism, or insurgency?
Great Exchanges in the Senate Cyber Hearing
While the debate on the future of cyber security has been underway for some time, one of the world’s great deliberative bodies, the US Senate (in the form of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee) brought an elevated and informed discussion in today’s hearing, “Cyber Security: Developing a National Strategy.”
Napolitano to revamp Real ID
DHS Sec. Napolitano wants to revamp government’s approach to Real ID Passed in 2005, the Real ID Act launched a nationwide effort to improve the integrity and security of state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards, with an eye to fighting terrorism and reducing fraud. But the program has stalled out. Now the new DHS secretary […]
Free to Be Someone Else?
Yesterday, the FBI announced that more than 7,000 schoolchildren in Puerto Rico had their identities stolen by an identity-ring supplying illegal aliens with Puerto Rican birth certificates and Social Security numbers. With this information, the aliens could get drivers licenses, credit, and, of course, jobs.
Can the government compete in today's underworld of terror and criminal finance?
When I managed the El Dorado Task Force, the top money laundering task force in the nation, I had a nagging belief that some of the criminal and terrorist organizations we were up against were conducting sophisticated money laundering schemes that the federal government lacked the capacity to identify, investigate and neutralize. Simply put, the government lacked the necessary resources and expertise to compete with the criminal minds set on exploiting the ever-evolving complexities of the financial world.
Special Agent Martin Ficke on Counterfeit Drugs
Martin Ficke, Former ICE Special Agent for the New York Region and Security Debrief contributor, discusses the dangers of counterfeit medicines and how they present a threat to personal safety as well as international crime.
Counterfeit Goods: The Biggest Crime Nobody Is Doing Anything About
Not only is this a crime that hurts the American economy — and therefore results in higher costs for consumers — it is also be the cause of serious illness or even death. If a patient is dependent upon prescription medication and is unwittingly taking counterfeit drugs, her life could be in danger. And yet, these crimes capture little attention in the media and even less in many law enforcement circles.
Narcotics and Counterfeit Goods Operation Linked to Terrorism
The Los Angeles Times reports that a dozen people were arrested yesterday on charges of narcotics trafficking, money laundering and selling counterfeit goods after a two-year counter-terrorism and drug investigation centered in Los Angeles’ downtown garment district. The link between drug smuggling and counterfeit goods operations with the financing of terrorist activities is well known […]
