America’s intelligence community finds itself pressed to deal with the “Wild West” frontier of an ever-expanding cyber space. From Twitter to blogs to e-mail, the changes are coming hard and fast for governments, businesses and individuals worldwide. The challenges for the American policy maker and the intelligence community are simple and yet hugely complex. So far, by our own admission, we appear not to be passing the grade.
One of the keynote speakers at last week’s Cyber Conference at the Walter Washington Center was Ed Amoroso, the CTO of AT&T. Ed is brilliant, well spoken, and as funny as any speaker I have heard lately. He also has a practical and accurate view of the challenges we are facing in the cyber realm – including LAN protection, botnets and mobile security. He raised lots of great issues and challenged the audience to work out the solutions.
Research is continuing research and development of gamma and neutron radiation detectors with funding from the U.S. government.
Funding came in two contracts from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office worth a total $3.65 million, said Dynasil Corp., parent company of RMD.
A sudden move last week to return a hip-hop site to its owner after it was seized and held by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for a year has renewed criticism of the agency’s domain confiscation program called In Our Sites.
For that hard-to-buy-for person, the Indiana Department of Homeland Security suggests purchasing a NOAA all-hazards alert radio, hand crank AM/FM radio or flashlight, or putting together a personalized emergency preparedness kit. “An emergency preparedness kit for your loved one’s home or vehicle can be a very practical expression of how much you care for them,” said Homeland Security executive director Joe Wainscott.
Something interesting is going on in Janet Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security. For the first two-plus years of the Obama administration, Secretary Napolitano’s priority was to plug security vulnerabilities, real or perceived. Arguments that her department was also responsible for encouraging trade and travel, and that security measures should therefore be carefully risk-targeted, were received with minimal enthusiasm. Recent DHS efforts, however, show a new paradigm in how the United States engages foreign partners, driven by the need to increase security while also promoting economic benefits.
Last week Secretary Napolitano gave a very good address to the Council on Foreign Relations. She highlighted the critical role of international partnerships in advancing homeland security and the commendable progress that DHS has made in that regard. But it could be much better. DHS’ efforts to expand programs like the Visa Waiver Program and C-TPAT have been ad hoc, leading to less expansion of these programs than warranted
It was recently reported that Congress is launching an investigation into the Drug Enforcement Administration, following claims that the agency helped drug cartels launder money – an operation some in Congress say bears striking resemblance to the failed “Fast and Furious” anti-gunrunning probe. While most of America is appalled at the “Fast and Furious” operation, myself included, money laundering investigations are a completely different, proven and accepted investigative technique when conducted properly.
Recently, the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy and Canadian Maritime Forces Atlantic strengthened this global network as they discussed the mutual homeland security and defense issues of the three maritime commands charged with protecting the East Coast.
Using Twitter, Virginia Tech’s College Newspaper Kept on Publishing – NYTimes.com During the shooting in 2007, Virginia Tech’s Collegiate Times did not have a tool for publishing real-time updates and informing fellow students about what they had reported. On Thursday, the newspaper’s Twitter account, @collegiatetimes, was providing updates every few minutes, quickly becoming a source […]
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