U.S. must tighten port security: panel
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The United States must guard against a terrorist attack by tightening port security, with shippers paying fees to finance the increased scrutiny, a task force recommended on Monday.
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'These actions will provide a powerful deterrent,' says the US secretary of state.
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The United States and the European Union are working on measures aimed at strengthening the security of cargo containers moving through seaports so they can't be used to smuggle terrorists or weapons.
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is hampered by having to report to 88 congressional committees and subcommittees, the Washington Post said.
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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.
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Computer-security experts, including former government officials, urged the Bush administration on Tuesday to devote more effort to strengthening defenses against viruses, hackers and other online threats. -Reuters
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The U.S. military didn't immediately tighten security across Iraq on Thursday in the aftermath of an apparent suicide bombing, but security experts said improved screening of visitors and fewer large troop gatherings would help counter insurgents' tactics.
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Incident prompts unease about whether the hair-trigger response of U.S. ports might affect the free flow of trade.
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Security concerns are preventing fuel and other goods from leaving a key port.
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U.S. customs inspectors may be too focused on scrutinizing incoming travelers from Cuba, which may affect their ability to detect other security threats, a new audit report said on Wednesday.
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Secure Freight Initiative will see cargo scanned for nuclear and radiological threats before it sets off for the U.S.
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A member of the 9/11 commission told House lawmakers Wednesday that the risk of an airline passenger detonating a suicide bomb has increased as a result of security precautions to prevent hijackings.
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U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday that Mexico and the United States need to secure their common border before Congress approves an immigration accord. He acknowledged that focusing on security puts "horrible pressure on the Border Patrol," but said Americans must be convinced that the border is safe before they back a plan to grant more immigrants legal passage to the U.S.
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By Carol Eisenberg, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.  Jun. 13--WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff   yesterday urged operators of water and waste treatment plants to secure chemicals such as chlorine from terrorists, although they're not required to do so.
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New cybersecurity standards proposed by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) to protect the nation's power infrastructure are not broad enough and fail to cover a significant number of interdependent assets.The standards also give electric utility owners, operators and users too much discretion when it comes to implementing the prescribed controls, a group of experts told members of the House Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science, and Technology on Wednesday.James Langevin (D-R.I.), chairman of the committee, said the NERC's proposed standards require stakeholders in the power grid to establish plans, protocols, and controls for safeguarding physical and electronic access to the control systems that manage the national's electric infrastructure.The problem is the standards are focused purely on the reliability of "bulk power systems" and don't require electric sector owners and operators to secure their generation systems, distribution systems, or telecommunication equipment, Langevin said in prepared testimony."We know from countless real-world examples that these units are highly vulnerable to intentional and unintentional cyber-events. Knocking any of these units off could affect the power supply to our nation's critical infrastructure," he noted in his statement.The narrow focus of NERC's proposed cybersecurity standards is especially troubling, Langevin said, in light of a recent simulated attack against a power utility control system that was carried out by Department of Homeland Security researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory. The same methods that were used in that experiment could be used to carry out attacks against larger generators and other equipment and cause "widespread and long-term damage to the electric infrastructure," he warned."I'll be blunt: If this administration doesn't recognize and prioritize these problems soon, the future isn't going to be pretty," Langevin said.Joseph Weiss, managing partner of Applied Control Solutions, testified as an expert at the hearing. He said the growing interconnectedness of control systems with other networked computing systems is happening without a corresponding appreciation for the security risks resulting from such connectivity.For the most part, he stated in written testimony submitted to the committee, security issues have been the purview of the IT organizations within utility companies, whose control system groups manage grid and plant operations. As a result, it's often the case that some parts of the system are sensitized to security while others do not fully appreciate the risks, he said.Exacerbating this issue is the fact that many control system applications run in Windows and Unix environments and are therefore susceptible to the same security threats as other systems are. Traditional IT security controls, Weiss said, can help alleviate some of these issues, but they can also cause control system reliability problems.Against this backdrop, he said in his prepared remarks, the NERC's proposed standards are too narrowly focused on bulk power grid reliability, and not, for instance, on smaller substations that might support a major oil or gas pipeline in a remote locale. Similarly, there's not much priority given to securing the continuity of electricity to facilities such as municipal waterworks, manufacturing plants, refineries, hospitals and military installations.Experience has already shown the significant impact that an attack or a security incident against a control system can have on the electricity infrastructure, said Gregory Wilshusen, director of information security issues at the Government Accountability Office. Wilshusen provided written testimony to the committee.As examples, he cited a 2006 incident in which a foreign hacker planted malicious software capable of affecting a water treatment plant's operations, and another incident in which excessive traffic in a nuclear power plant's control system caused two circulation pumps to fail -- forcing the unit to be shut down manually.David Whiteley, executive vice president of the NERC, said that the security issues raised by the interconnectedness of the electric infrastructure and other infrastructures are important and need to be addressed. However, under its existing mandate, the NERC has the authority and responsibility for enforcing reliability standards on only the bulk power grid, not on the distribution system. Developing and enforcing standards on connected infrastructures is beyond the capability of a single body, he said.Whiteley said that in July of this year, the NERC sought comments from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on a proposal for approving eight CIP reliability standards. Those cybersecurity standards have been in development for several years and were developed with extensive input from industry experts.Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate
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The United States wants to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay but needs assurances that detainees won&#039;t pose a security risk or face torture when they&#039;re sent to other countries, a senior U.S. State Department official said Monday.
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The House approved a major ports security bill early Saturday, providing new steps to prevent terrorists from slipping a nuclear, chemical or biological device into one of the 11 million shipping containers entering the nation every year.