Homeland Chief Wants Biometric Standards
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Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Friday called for a new international standard for putting biometric data such as fingerprints on passports, and said the technology could play a vital role in combating terrorism.
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The United States wants recruit Britain and other countries to share biometric data on terrorists and criminals, a British newspaper reported Tuesday.
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The chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security wants answers from the Department of Homeland Security about data mining programs that were shut down for privacy reasons after millions of dollars were spent on them.
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Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who has headed President Bush&#39;s efforts to build up domestic security following the Sept.
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A top House Democrat yesterday criticized the Department of Homeland Security for not working aggressively enough to gather fingerprints of foreigners as they leave the country.
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WASHINGTON: Former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who helped rally the cityâs police force and citizens following the September 11 terror attacks, is President George W Bushâs pick to run the Homeland Security Department.
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The official leading the US overhaul of border security stressed Tuesday that Washington was still welcoming foreigners despite a new program to track &quot;biometric&quot; data of all visitors to the United States.
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FBI director, Homeland Security chief and intelligence leaders endorse controversial Real ID scheme despite continued questions from senators.
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Cabinet secretary-designate Bernard Kerik may be exactly what the Department of Homeland Security needs.
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U.S. border guards at busy northern crossings will start fingerprinting foreign visitors entering from Canada by the end of the year, a top official in the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS)Â CIO was on the hot seat Wednesday on Capitol Hill after an independent audit found that a database that screens U.S. visitors lacked security controls. The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee called on DHS CIO Scott Charbo to explain why he should keep his job after persistent cybersecurity problems at the agency. "What happened to leadership?" Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee chairman and a Mississippi Democrat, said during a hearing of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science, and Technology. "What happened to accountability?" Lawmakers also said they were concerned that the agency reported 844 cybersecurity incidents in 2005 and 2006. "Although we still have a ways to go, we've made measurable improvements in the management of information security at the department," Charbo said. "Certainly, we need to increase our vigilance to ensure that such incidents do not happen again." Many of the 844 incidents were minor, and the agency has taken major steps to fix past cybersecurity issues, Charbo said. Many of the reported cybersecurity incidents related to problems like lost laptops that did not result in data breaches, he added. The subcommittee did not have a breakdown of the incidents Wednesday. Asked about reports of bots installed on DHS computers that could send information out to hackers, Charbo said he had "no evidence" that the bots caused a breach. Thompson's comments came as the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report saying DHS continues to have "significant weaknesses in computer security controls that threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of key ... systems." GAO investigators found no security controls on the US-VISIT database, the system that screens people who want to visit the U.S. for potential terrorists and criminals. Lawmakers are concerned whether terrorists could get into the database "and change or alter their names to allow them access to this country, and we wouldn't even know that they're doing it," said Representative Bob Etheridge, a North Carolina Democrat. A contractor provides IT security for US-VISIT, but DHS has its own security controls in place to protect the database, Charbo said. He didn't disclose specific security measures. The GAO doesn't have evidence that the US-VISIT database was breached, said Keith Rhodes, chief technologist and director of the GAO's Center for Technology and Engineering. "I did not see controls in place that would prevent it," Rhodes said. "I did not see defensive perimeters, and I did not see detection systems in place whether it had or had not [been breached]." GAO started a cybersecurity review of DHS a year ago but curtailed its efforts because it kept finding "more and more" problems, Rhodes said. "If we had continued to this day, I would argue we'd still be finding things," he said. "The problems were pervasive. The problems were systemic." Charbo outlined recent measures DHS has taken to improve cybersecurity there. The agency is collapsing multiple legacy WANs into a single WAN, and it is standardizing all e-mail and directory services onto a single platform, he said. The agency had 13 separate e-mail systems when it was formed out of 22 U.S. agencies in 2002, he said. DHS also is combining multiple data centers into a shared center, he said. Thompson asked how DHS officials can preach cybersecurity practices to other agencies and private companies while continuing to have its own problems. Among the incidents DHS reported were employees sending out classified documents on unclassified networks and contractors attaching unauthorized laptops to the DHS network, he said. "How can the Department of Homeland Security be a real advocate of sound cybersecurity practices without following some of its own advice?" he said. "What the department is doing on its own network speaks so loud that the message isn't getting across to anyone else."
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OTAY MESA - The US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection announced Thursday that a biometric identification system, piloted in San Diego three years ago, has been implemented in all 136 Border Patrol stations around the country.
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Former government undersecretary William Schneider Jr. says the United States needs better identity authentication practices.
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A top homeland security lawmaker has called for an investigation into possible cyber attacks on computer systems at the Homeland Security Department.
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The office in charge of cyber-security in the Department of Homeland Security is planning to continue moving ahead on the agenda the agency has already set.
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President Bush has chosen former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who helped direct the emergency response to the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes against the Twin Towers, to lead the Homeland Security Department, charged with safeguarding Americans from future attack, administration officials said Thursday.
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Imposing government security standards on software companies is not the answer to improving the security of the country&#39;s computer networks, a US Department of Homeland Security official said Thursday.