let the cyberwars begin ... prepare the white flag OR put your money where your mouse is ...

I'm not sure this is a war we are ready to fight, let alone win. Yikes.
Somebody unleash our cyber-Army (you know, the Wii generation) back on China!
Here are the players:

1) The antagonists ...

Pentagon: Cyberattacks appear to come from China

The Defense Department said Monday that cyberattacks in 2007 against computer networks operated by governments and commercial institutions around the world "appear" to have originated within China -- marking the first time the Pentagon has so visibly pinned the blame against China for cyberattacks.

These intrusions require many of the skills and capabilities that would also be required for computer network attack. Although it is unclear if these intrusions were conducted by, or with the endorsement of, the [People's Liberation Army] or other elements of the PRC government, developing capabilities for cyber warfare is consistent with authoritative PLA writings on this subject."

2) Our front line of defense (LOL ...) ...

Users continue to compromise federal computer networks, says tech community

More than half of government IT professionals know of violations in security protocols, according to a recent survey. Funding challenges hinder agencies' ability to put proper security measures in place, while lack of systems and requirements standardization creates confusion in the market, said an industry official.

Of 474 federal IT professionals, 56 percent reported witnessing or hearing about a security violation, according to a survey by Washington-based research firm Pursuant on behalf of Quest Software Public Sector.

3) And finally, those (DHS) considering our cybersecurity "satisfactory" ...

DHS gives itself a 'C' for cybersecurity

The top ranking official in the Homeland Security Department's national protection division called the agency's efforts in cybersecurity satisfactory, assigning a grade of 'C' during congressional testimony Thursday. But members of Congress called the grade inadequate, emphasizing the need for better collaboration with agency technology leaders, real-time response to system attacks, and metrics that measure the ability to protect networks from specific threats rather than system compliance.

HSI gives DHS a 2nd opinion on GAO nuke/rad port detection ... both say "fix it!"

Report Urges Better Way of Evaluating Nuclear Detectors Used at Ports

“The government needs to develop a better way to evaluate the effectiveness of technology to detect nuclear and radiological material at U.S. ports, according to a report commissioned by the Homeland Security Department.

Congress and its investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office, have been skeptical about the department's testing of such systems. As a result, the department called for an independent audit into its testing. The report by the Homeland Security Institute did not find that the testing has been biased or results manipulated. It did say the department should devise a better process to test and evaluate how effective the machines are.”

(Yahoo! Finance; 28Feb08; Eileen Sullivan, AP)

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080228/nuclear_detectors.html?.v=1

HS Research Centers: And the winners are ....

Universities Are Chosen for 5 New Homeland Security Research Centers


The U.S. Department of Homeland Security financed this week five new, university-run research centers. The projects, which involve 11 universities, join a list of existing centers chosen by the agency thcoarse [sic] merit-based competitions. The institutions and their research topics are:

The University of Arizona and the University of Texas at El Paso — border security and immigration.

Northeastern University and the University of Rhode Island — explosives detection, mitigation, and response.

The University of Hawaii-Manoa and Stevens Institute of Technology — maritime, island, and port security.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Jackson State University — natural disasters, coastal infrastructure, and emergency management.

Texas Southern University, Tougaloo College, and the University of Connecticut — transportation security.

UTEP is new DHS Center for Excellence for Border Security

UTEP selected as border security center
Times staff report
Article Launched: 02/22/2008 02:15:22 PM MST

The University of Texas at El Paso has been selected by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a Center of Excellence for Border Security, U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, announced Friday.

Through this designation, UTEP will develop and manage education programs regarding border security, collaborate with other institutions, and will receive $1 million per year in federal funds during the next six years.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_8336851

"FBI deputizes business"

InfraGard is not something that gets mentioned enough. I'm still too
ignorant to this to have an educated opinion, but if the gov't embraces
this then they must embrace the Minutemen-like groups along the border
between US and Mexico.


12/02/08 " The Progressive"

Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does—and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government, which alarms the ACLU. But there may be more to it than that. One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to "shoot to kill" in the event of martial law.

In November 2001, InfraGard had around 1,700 members. As of late January, InfraGard had 23,682 members, according to its website, www.infragard.net, which adds that "350 of our nation's Fortune 500 have a representative in InfraGard."To join, each person must be sponsored by "an existing InfraGard member, chapter, or partner organization." The FBI then vets the applicant. On the application form, prospective members are asked which aspect of the critical infrastructure their organization deals with. These include: agriculture, banking and finance, the chemical industry, defense, energy, food, information and telecommunications, law enforcement, public health, and transportation.

FBI Director Robert Mueller addressed an InfraGard convention on August 9, 2005. At that time, the group had less than half as many members as it does today. "To date, there are more than 11,000 members of InfraGard," he said. "From our perspective that amounts to 11,000 contacts . . . and 11,000 partners in our mission to protect America." He added a little later, "Those of you in the private sector are the first line of defense."

http://www.grandestrategy.com/2008/02/2349048-fbi-deputizes-business.html

NPS and WV ... more opportunity for graduate education?

From the HS digital library blog (hsdl.org/hslog) ... another good blog site.
Here's at least a little more info on this supposed 2nd NPS facility in Shepherdstown.



Congressional Record Recognizes the Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Submitted by ijkaijan on Thursday, February 7, 2008 - 20:05

See attachment below: "Madam Speaker, I am pleased to advise my colleagues of the 5th anniversary of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security, located at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. NPS has always been at the forefront of military graduate education for all the military Services and no more so than 5 years ago, when the School was selected by the Department of Homeland Security to fill a critical gap in graduate level education for our current and future leaders of homeland defense and security. Since 2002, the Center has graduated nearly 200 students from the ranks of our Nation’s first responders-public health, law enforcement, fire, emergency management and other disciplines that make up homeland security, and from almost every State in the country.

The highly competitive application process and the rigorous academic excellence of the master's degree program ensures that Center graduates are having a significant impact on protecting the Nation. Moreover, the success of the Center in Monterey compelled the Department of Homeland Security in June 2007 to establish the DHS Homeland Security Academy in the National Capital Region. NPS was again called upon by DHS to replicate the Center's success by providing faculty and curriculum for DHS employees at the second site in West Virginia. At that time, FEMA Administrator Paulison said the following, 'The NPS master's program has a proven track record of building a national network of leaders who work across agency and jurisdictional lines to solve problems and protect the American people."

https://www.hsdl.org/hslog/?q=node/3964

DHS budget request for 2009 is out ...

... and can be found here:

http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1202151112290.shtm

Food for thought: indulge our inner libertarian and compress/reduce DHS?

As a fellow moderate libertarian, I give you some food for thought from an interesting blog created by a History and PoliSci professor at U Delaware - Wilmington:

I do advocate the elimination of the cabinet level position for Homeland Security. This is one of my professional research areas, and I can tell you this: you do not meet the challenge of terrorism by creating the largest bureaucracy in American history. The TSA should not only be eliminated, we should destroy the records that suggested we were dumb enough to create it in the first place, lest our grandchildren think we are idiots.

I would add to Professor Newton's sentiment that "patchwork existence" (see some of my past posts) has amplified the problem that large federal bureaucracies can ause. Back to the fact that basic IT common infrastructure has not yet been applied to the entirety of DHS, again, amplifying the "lack of being on the same page." The integration of the component parts (the patches) into a whole should have been priority # 1 in our largest federal expansion in 35 years.
And nobody expected any hint of gestalt here, people, just basic commonality.

Indulge you inner libertarian some more at:
http://delawarelibertarian.blogspot.com/

Even appropriations bills are not immune to POTUS "signing statements"

Interestingly enough, not even the Homeland Security legislation (which you would think would essentially be written by the White House, DHS and/or other "friendly elements") are immune from the pen of GW Bush. Here's a link to his "signing statement" on the 2007 APPROPRIATIONS act - make me wonder why a funding bill needs to be re-interpreted by POTUS but there you have our current state of legislative affairs/constitutional clashing.

I'm starting to really not like the words "The executive branch shall construe ..."

Read more here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061004-10.html

DHS continues to muddle through its patchwork existence

The experiment in the largest increase in the federal gov't since the establishment of DoD in the 50s and EPA in the early 70s continues to muddle along. DHS still gives the impression of being a "patchwork" agency 5 years into its existence. You would think IT infrastructure would be one of the first things established ... practice what you preach, folks! Let's hope 2008 is hte year for shoring up cybersecurity among all agencies...


Poor management continues to plague Homeland Security, IG reports
BY JILL R. AITORO

Management challenges continue to plague the Homeland Security Department, including a failure to integrate the information technology infrastructure across all of the department's agencies, according to a report released Jan. 30 from the DHS inspector general.

The inspector general updates the assessment of management challenges annually, as part of the DHS Annual Financial Report. Past reports have been sharply critical of top management for not making enough progress. This latest report continues in the same vein.

Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39200&dcn=e_nextgov

DHS press release for the new National Response Framework

National Response Framework Released
Release Date: January 22, 2008
Office of the Press Secretary(202) 282-8010

WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today released the National Response Framework (NRF), successor to the National Response Plan. The NRF, which focuses on response and short-term recovery, articulates the doctrine, principles and architecture by which our nation prepares for and responds to all-hazard disasters across all levels of government and all sectors of communities. The NRF is responsive to repeated federal, state, local and private sector requests for a streamlined document that is less bureaucratic and more user-friendly. The NRF also focuses on preparedness and encourages a higher level of readiness across all jurisdictions.


The NRF is being released following an extensive process of outreach and coordination between DHS and key stakeholders representing federal, tribal, state and local governments, non-governmental agencies and associations, and the private sector. The latest public comment period for the base document of the NRF closed on Oct. 22, 2007 and the comment period for the support annexes closed on Nov.10, 2007. The final documents reflect the nearly 5,700 comments received from participants of the process.


“The National Response Framework is an essential tool for emergency managers at all levels,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. “It helps define the roles, responsibilities, and relationships critical to effective emergency planning, preparedness and response to any emergency or disaster. Today’s release reflects the culmination of many months of hard work and collaboration within the nation’s emergency management community.”


The NRF is intended for senior elected and appointed leaders, such as federal department and agency heads, state governors, mayors, tribal leaders, city managers and the private sector. Simultaneously, it informs emergency management practitioners by explaining the operating structures and tools routinely used by first responders and emergency managers at all levels of government.


The NRF is designed to:
be scalable, flexible and adaptable;
always be in effect; and
articulate clear roles and responsibilities among local, state and federal officials.


In addition to releasing the NRF base document, the Emergency Support Function Annexes and Support Annexes will be released and posted at the NRF Resource Center (www.fema.gov/nrf), an online repository of the entire component parts of the NRF. The annexes are a total of 23 individual documents designed to provide concept of operations, procedures and structures for achieving response directives for all partners in fulfilling their roles under the NRF.


Upon finalization and publication of the NRF base document and the annexes, a large focus will be to initiate an intensive nationwide training and exercise program to embed the NRF into the nation’s preparedness and response cycle. Implementation of the NRF training and exercise strategy will include awareness training, position-specific training, exercises (tabletop and functional), and sustainment training.


To make the NRF a living system that can be revised and updated in a more nimble, transparent fashion, the NRF Resource Center was developed. The Resource Center will allow for ongoing revisions as necessary to reflect real-world events and lessons learned.


The NRF and the annexes will go into effect 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.

Cherty goes head to head with Congress over border crossing initiative

It will be interesting to see what happens with this initiative if the POTUS torch is passed
to a Democrat. Current delays at the major US airports are now at a high (there a great graphic in one of the last issues of Wired showing average delays and rankings of the top 30 airports
and the East Coast has like 3 of the top 5 "most delayed" airports). Will this border crossing rule lead to large queues of people at the border trying to get in? This is definitely going to cause some trouble in Michigan, where the Ambassador Bridge to Windsor, Ontario enjoys probably the single highest rate of crossing in the country.

Chertoff to defy Congress with new border-crossing ID rules
By Chris Strohm, CongressDaily

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff Wednesday said new border-crossing requirements will go into effect at the end of the month, despite opposition from Congress and concerns from state officials that commerce and tourism will be disrupted. Chertoff said the department plans to begin phasing in new requirements under the so-called Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. "On Jan. 31 of this year, we'll be making some changes at the land border," Chertoff said in a speech to a border security advisory panel in Washington. The new rules will apply to travelers coming into the United States at land crossings from Canada and Mexico and by water from the Caribbean. Border inspectors will no longer accept oral declarations of citizenship, meaning U.S. citizens will have to present documentation proving they reside in the country, Chertoff said. He said the department will also begin preparations to limit the types of documents that can be used to prove citizenship. Border inspectors now accept about 8,000 different documents, many in the form of birth certificates issued by a variety of jurisdictions. Last year, Homeland Security began requiring people coming into the United States by air from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean to present a passport or other government-approved identification document.

Chertoff said compliance rates for the air rules have reached 99 percent. But he did not mention problems and delays that U.S. citizens had obtaining passports from the State Department last year, with delays so acute that Homeland Security had to delay implementation of the air rules for six months. The passport trouble also drew the ire of lawmakers. Congress responded by recently passing legislation that prohibits the department from fully implementing the land crossing rules until June 2009. "Congress has mandated a delay for the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative ... but [Homeland Security] will nevertheless, in the intervening time, take some reasonable and very important measures to eliminate what I consider to be unacceptable vulnerabilities at our land border," Chertoff said.

Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39048&dcn=e_hsw

DHS considering rapid response law enforcement teams

Well, we will see where all this goes. My gut isn't comfortable with the concept
of rapid deployment law enforcement teams strutting around during disasters,
potentially "overenforcing" the law at a time when you might just need to look the other
way for the greater good. (case in point: people stealing diapers from the flooded
store durign Katrina ... what's the point of arresting this poor mom? Now the TV sets
are are entirely different story, of course)

Jan. 3, 2008 – 10:20 p.m.
DHS Considering Law Enforcement Rapid Response Component
By Daniel Fowler, CQ Staff

The Department of Homeland Security is considering the feasibility of creating law enforcement deployment teams that could be immediately sent to assist communities during disasters. The agency’s senior law enforcement adviser said the goal is to have a draft report on the proposal completed sometime this year.

A proposal from the Major Cities Chiefs Association calls for 10 regional teams across the country, with up to 500 law enforcement officers, who could deploy fully self-supported for two weeks.

The law enforcement personnel would come from agencies in the various regions and would be formed around a major sheriff’s department or police department.

Full article here:
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=1&docID=hsnews-000002651552

2008 guidelines for DHS Scholarship/Fellowship program

2008 Competition Guidelines for DHS Scholarship and Fellowship Program
have been announced:

For full article, see:
http://www.orau.gov/dhsed/

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) realizes that the country’s strong science and technology community provides a critical advantage in the development and implementation of counter-terrorist measures and other DHS objectives. The DHS Scholarship and Fellowship Program is intended for students interested in pursuing the basic science and technology innovations that can be applied to the DHS mission. This education program is intended to ensure a highly talented science and technology community to achieve the DHS mission and objectives.

Eligible students must be studying in a homeland security related science, technology, engineering and mathematics (HS-STEM) field with an interest in one of the homeland security research areas listed below:
Explosives Detection, Mitigation and Response
Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences
Risk and Decision Sciences
Human Factors Aspects of Technology
Chemical Threats and Countermeasures
Biological Threats and Countermeasures
Food and Agriculture Security
Transportation Security
Border Security
Immigration Studies
Maritime and Port Security
Infrastructure Protection
Natural Disasters and Related Geophysical Studies
Emergency Preparedness and Response
Communications and Interoperability
Advanced Data Analysis and Visualization

In 2007, there were only 15 of 262 accepted among the undergraduate applicants and 13 of 347 graduate applicants. So its pretty competetive! This is the fifth competition cycle thus far.

looking forward and looking backward ...

... as only one surnamed Janus can.

Happy 2008!

To kick off a new year of living and learning, here's a self-published list of 2007 accomplishments from Department of Homeland Security. Let's look back ...

One thing that occurred to me while perusing it is that even under thier "building a culture of preparedness" category is there appears to be little to no attention (or more importantly, $$$) given to public awareness, education and/or training. Other than $$$ available to put on CERT-type volunteer system training, who is teaching Joe Q Public on recognizing hazards, planning for emergencies, family and personal prearedness, and better yet, government resources, roles and responsibilities???

Full news release available here:
http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1197477138027.shtm

Also here is a link to help one look forward ... Chertoff's comments include some big ticket agenda items for 2008, including:
- "secure identification" (enhanced drivers' licensure, REAL ID retooling, etc.)
- "cyber security" (haven't they said this a few years in a row now????)
- "institutionalizing its [DHS] operations and the homeland security mission" (not much said here but he does plead for heeding the 911 Commission call for streamlining DHS)

Take it with however many grains of salt you need ... cyber security is indeed important,
but I think Priority # 1 for DHS for 2008 should be to actually make good on all the things they are obligated to do (like complete all the sector specific infrastructure reports, etc.) and really focus on that third bullet: streamline the department and its byzantine organizational charts ...