In Chertoff, safe choice for Homeland Security
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President Bush's second nominee for Homeland Security chief brings to the table long experience in Washington and in legal matters.
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CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts  - From weak border controls to the risk of chemical bombs, the United States could be backsliding on national security since the September 11 attacks, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said on Wednesday.
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Foiled terror attacks in Britain and a history of summertime terrorism have U.S. authorities practicing extra vigilance, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Monday.
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The immigration raids on meatpacking plants in six states were the largest sweep of their kind against a single company and resulted in the arrests of 1,282 suspected illegal immigrants, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday.
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President Bush on Tuesday nominated  U.S. Appeals Court Judge Michael Chertoff, an architect of the  Justice Department's anti-terror response after the Sept. 11,  2001, attacks, to become secretary of homeland security.
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Senators predicted Michael Chertoff would be easily approved as the nation's next Homeland Security secretary even as they jousted Monday over whether he had any connection to a secret FBI memo that discussed the treatment of terror suspects.
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The United States is ramping up transportation security, including more air marshals on flights to Britain, amid concern an attack in Scotland could spawn copy cats, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Sunday.
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Cabinet secretary-designate Bernard Kerik may be exactly what the Department of Homeland Security needs.
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) finally named a leader for its cybersecurity efforts on Monday, fulfilling a promise made last July by an agency that has drawn poor marks for digital security.
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Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Wednesday that security measures for the Republican National Convention are as strong and well-coordinated as officials have had for any event.
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Investigators have uncovered no signs of U.S.-based terrorists linked to a plot to blow up airliners headed to the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday.
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Construction on a border wall in southern Texas is expected to begin by this autumn, despite strong local opposition, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in an interview published on Thursday.
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Mustachioed, plain-spoken and built like a .45 bullet, Bernard B. Kerik brings a cop&#39;s street savvy to the job of the nation&#39;s secretary of homeland security.
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By Josh Loftin and Bob Bernick Jr. Deseret Morning News  Even with a rapidly declining amount of federal homeland security funding bound for Utah, emergency responders feel much better prepared to handle terrorist attacks and other disasters than they were before the Sept. 11 attacks.
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Securing essential protections is the best strategy.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has failed to take several basic steps to protect the nation's cyber infrastructure, including a year-plus delay in naming an assistant secretary for cybersecurity, lawmakers and other critics said Wednesday. Lawmakers and representatives of cybersecurity trade groups questioned why the DHS has failed to fill the high-level cybersecurity position after DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff announced plans to create the position in July 2005. The delay in hiring an assistant secretary shows a "lack of cybersecurity leadership" at the DHS, said Representative John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, during a congressional hearing. But DHS is working hard to hire an assistant secretary for cybersecurity, and the agency has continued to make significant progress in improving cybersecurity in the past year, George Foresman, the DHS under secretary for preparedness, told the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. He spends about a quarter of his time working on cybersecurity issues, while Andy Purdy, acting director of the DHS National Cyber Security Division, spends about three quarters of his time on cybersecurity issues, Foresman said. Some potential candidates for the job have withdrawn their applications because of private work commitments, Foresman said. Still, the agency may be close to naming an assistant secretary, he said. "Had we been inactive the whole time, I think there'd be grave concern," Foresman said. "But I think we've been in overdrive." Some lawmakers and witnesses seemed to disagree. Representative Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat, said the lack of a top cybersecurity leader at DHS means the issue is not a top priority. "Simply put, we're putting ourselves in a real ditch here," she said. Congress may have to get involved in the assistant secretary's hiring, said David Powner, director of IT management issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), which has criticized the DHS cybersecurity effort in a series of reports. "If they can't figure it out soon, perhaps you can help them," Powner told lawmakers. A June report from GAO found that the DHS had not yet completed a plan involving public and private resources for recovery of the Internet after a major cyberattack, added Representative Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat. Paul Kurtz, executive director of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA) trade group, called on Congress to pass data breach legislation awaiting a vote on the House floor. CSIA also recommended that Congress better define the roles government agencies such as the DHS and the Department of Defense should play after a major cyberattack. "There is little strategic direction or leadership from the federal government in the area of information security," Kurtz said. "We must move beyond philosophy and statements of aspirations to defining priorities and programs." The U.S. government has the responsibility of setting priorities and coordinating response to cyberattacks, he added. "Let me be clear -- this is not a call for regulation or intervention," he said. "This is a call for leadership."
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(InfoWorld) - Fixing cybersecurity problems in the U.S. is a top priority at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said the agency's leader, but lawmakers didn't focus on the issue during a hearing in Congress Wednesday. Cybersecurity is a "very big issue" that DHS remains concerned about, said DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, testifying before the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee. Chertoff didn't go into details because much of the department's cybersecurity efforts are classified, he said. "I can assure you that we are working with other elements of the federal government and giving highest priority an enhanced strategy with respect to cybersecurity," he said. Cybersecurity threats have "enormous potential to do damage to the United States in years to come," Chertoff added. Chertoff testified before the committee in a hearing titled, "Holding the Department of Homeland Security Accountable for Security Gaps." But while cybersecurity problems continue inside and outside of the U.S. government, lawmakers focused on other issues during the hearing, including the hiring of border agents, training of bomb-sniffer dogs, and the scanning of airline cargo. Just this week, the U.S. Department of Defense acknowledged a successful attack on an unclassified e-mail system earlier this year. While not focusing on cybersecurity, committee chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said DHS needs to improve in several areas. Thompson has criticized the department's cybersecurity efforts in the past, but cybersecurity issues were not on Thompson's list of top priorities for Chertoff in the remaining 16 months of U.S. President George Bush's administration. Instead, Thompson called on Chertoff to fill vacancies at DHS, to finish regulations for container security at ports, and to implement a biometric air passenger screening program. "We owe the American people security," Thompson said. "We owe them accountability. And most importantly, we owe them freedom from fear." Other than the short Chertoff statement on cybersecurity, the issue did not come up again in more than 90 minutes of questions from lawmakers. Representative Mike Rogers, an Alabama Republican, used part of his question time to complain to Chertoff that many bomb-sniffing dogs used by DHS came from overseas. Rogers urged Chertoff to find ways to breed bomb-sniffing and cadaver dogs in the U.S. "I'm concerned that we are increasingly relying on foreign imported dogs," he said.