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"Airline Employees Charged With Smuggling Drugs"
Associated Press (10/17/07) ; Johnson, Leah Federal authorities have arrested 18 people in connection with a drug ring based at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK). Seven employees from Delta, including a cargo supervisor, and one from American Airlines were apprehended, as well as two others who worked at JFK. The smuggling operation involved suitcases filled with drugs flown in from the Dominican Republic that were removed by the suspects from the cargo area before they could be processed by inspections agents. Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they began looking into suspicious activity in 2005 when authorities at JFK appropriated a suitcase containing cocaine and heroin on an incoming Delta flight.
(go to web site) "Raid Exposes Security Flaw in Booming Diamond Industry"
Times (UK) (10/19/07) ; Page, Jeremy Robbers stole 1.2 million pounds worth of diamonds from the headquarters of India's gem trade Tuesday night, the third large-scale jewel robbery in Mumbai in the past year. Police believe that Tuesday's robbery of Aarshit Gems was an inside job because the office was accessed with duplicate keys, the closed-circuit security camera was shut off, and one of the company's employees is currently missing. The robbery came a week after 500,000 pounds worth of diamonds went missing at Mumbai's international airport, an incident that resulted in the arrest of three baggage handlers. India's diamond industry is booming, and security for the industry will improve later this year when most traders move into the new Bharat Diamond Bourse, a building that will provide increased security, including vaults and advanced surveillance.
(go to web site) "Partnerships to Cut Crime in Shopping Malls"
allAfrica.com (10/18/07) ; Appel, Michael In an initiative to thwart the growing trend of shopping mall crimes, businesses, mall managers, and local authorities in South Africa are partnering to implement safety procedures and security systems within shopping facilities. Jenni Irish-Qhobosheane, project manager for the Business Against Crime (BAC) South Africa Shopping Centre Security Initiative, told reporters that three provinces -- Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western Cape -- will be the first to implement the new security measures. The Shopping Centre Security Initiative, a conglomerate of public-private partnerships, will give businesses a blueprint for dealing with crime that will include early warning systems, special cash management procedures, and gauging patterns in mall security risks. Simphiwe Nzimande, chief executive officer of BAC, said that tougher measures led to 900 arrests in August, as well as a 30 percent drop in the number of violent crimes between June and October.
(go to web site) "Gates Mulls Central Authority Over Iraq Security Contractors"
Agence France Presse (10/17/07) Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is considering creating a single authority to control all private armed security contractors in Iraq. Last month's incident involving Blackwater USA guards that left at least 11 Iraqi civilians dead set off an investigation by the Pentagon into the need for military oversight. The Pentagon found that military commanders in Iraq believe that they do not get enough information on the actions and performance of security contractors. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said that Gates "is certainly sympathetic to his commanders who believe there needs to be greater visibility and greater accountability over all armed security contractors in the field, not just those who work for the Department of Defense." A New York Times Report Wednesday said that the State Department is against Gates' proposal because it wants control over the 2,500 security contractors that it has hired in Iraq.
(go to web site) "DHS Chemical Regulations Coming Soon to a Business Near You"
IndustryWeek (10/15/07) ; Lipchitz, Joseph D. Ever since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh, Congress has worried about monitoring so-called "high risk" chemicals that could be exploited by terrorists to produce explosives or poison gases. After struggling for more than a decade to regulate such chemicals without unduly interrupting commerce, Congress delegated to the oversight responsibility to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which published interim regulations directing its Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism standards in April 2007. The regulations define a "chemical facility" as any organization that owns a threshold quantity of chemicals labeled as potentially dangerous by DHS. Over 300 chemicals are listed in DHS' "Proposed Appendix A: DHS Chemicals of Interest," including acetone, chlorine, and sodium nitrate. Some of the chemicals on the list are commonly used in many industries. Once the final version of Appendix A is published, businesses that have threshold amounts of any of the chemicals listed will have two months to complete an online assessment using DHS' Chemical Security Assessment Tool. The appraisal will enable DHS to rank facilities into four risk-based tiers. Businesses that fall into one of the upper three tiers will then have to develop security site plans and conduct security vulnerability assessments.
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"Attack on Bhutto Convoy Kills 130"
BBC News (10/19/07) Two explosions in Karachi have killed at least 130 people. The explosions occurred as the convoy of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was passing, slowed by the some 200,000 people who turned out to celebrate her return after eight years in self-imposed exile. Bhutto was not hurt, but the windows of the armored truck that was carrying her were shattered and one of its doors blown off. Police say that the first explosion may have been caused by a hand grenade and the second, a much larger one that occurred two minutes later, by a suicide bomber. Bhutto had been warned by several Islamist groups that her arrival would not be welcomed; she has pledged to fight Islamists operating in the northern tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. But Bhutto had earlier said that if attacked she would hold certain elements within the government as at least partly responsible. Police vehicles guarding Bhutto took the brunt of the explosions. Among the dead were more than 20 police officers.
(go to web site) "Official Cites Qaeda Links in Bhutto Bomb"
Associated Press (10/19/07) ; Khan, Ashraf The attempted assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi is being blamed on a pro-Taliban, al-Qaeda-linked warlord described as the most prominent leader of Islamic militants in Pakistan's northwestern region bordering Afghanistan. Baitullah Mehsud had been quoted by local media reports as promising to greet Bhutto's return to Pakistan with suicide attacks. A provincial government official had cited intelligence reports indicating that three suicide bombers sent by Mehsud were in Karachi. Bhutto has accused certain conservative factions within Pakistan's ruling party and security services of secretly helping Islamists. No group has yet to take responsibility for the attack.
(go to web site) "Mall Explosion in Manila Kills 8"
Associated Press (10/19/07) ; Teves, Oliver At least eight people were killed and up to 70 injured in an explosion that hit a crowded Manila shopping mall on October 19, leaving the capital in its highest state of alert. "It's too early to say if it's terrorism related," says Manila police chief Geary Barias. The Philippines has been the target of several al Qaeda-linked attacks over the past few years, including a 2004 ferry bombing by Abu Sayyaf that killed 116 people. Earlier this year, security officials were informed of a possible terror plot to set off bombs in Manila's financial district.
(go to web site) "India Cinema Blast Was 'Terrorist' Attack, Police Say"
Agence France Presse (10/15/07) At least six people were killed and 32 injured when a bomb exploded in an Indian movie theater in what authorities believe was a terrorist attack. The explosion occurred late Sunday night as hundreds of people sat in a movie theater in Ludhiana, in India's northern Punjab state. Police are investigating both Sikh rebel groups and Islamic rebels, and believe that there could be a link between the two. "One angle being probed is whether the blast was triggered by Sikh revels with the help of Islamic militants," said an anonymous police official. The bombing was the latest in a series of terrorist attacks in India, coming just days after a bomb killed two people at an Islamic shrine in Rajasthan. That attack caused a nationwide alert in preparation of the Hindu festival season, which begins next week.
(go to web site) "Blast Marks Start to 'Dirty Bomb' Drill"
KATU-TV 2 (Portland, OR) (10/16/07) The TOPOFF 4 emergency response drill started Tuesday with a planned explosion at the Portland International Raceway. The exercise, which is designed to test the medical response and communication between local and federal agencies, is simulating "dirty bomb" explosions in Portland, Ore., Phoenix, and Guam. The explosion in Portland simulated a dirty bomb attack on the Steel Bridge in Portland and used 200 local residents as test victims. Terrorism experts believe that terrorist groups may attempt to use dirty bombs because they are easy to assemble and can spread radioactive material over a large area. The TOPOFF drills, which started after a 1995 sarin gas attack killed 12 in a Tokyo subway, are designed to help responders prepare for a variety of disaster scenarios, including terrorist attacks, earthquakes, and hurricanes. "There are many, many smaller scenarios that we don't know that are being injected in, to test out many parts of the system," says Red Cross volunteer Bob Porter, one of many Red Cross workers taking part in the Portland drill.
(go to web site) "Screeners Missed Most Fake Bombs"
WTSP 10 (10/18/07) A classified U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) report reveals that security screeners at Los Angeles International and Chicago O'Hare International both failed to find fake bombs in over 60 percent of tests in 2006. TSA screeners at Los Angeles International missed approximately 75 percent of bomb parts, while O'Hare's screeners missed around 60 percent. Testers at San Francisco International, who are employed by a private firm instead of the TSA, only failed in 20 percent of tests. The tests were conducted by sending undercover TSA agents through security checkpoints with devices in their carry-on luggage, such as detonators and blocks resembling plastic explosives. Officials were concerned with the results of the tests because the top risk for air travel is terrorists sneaking either a homemade bomb or easy-to-assemble bomb parts onto a plane. TSA chief Kip Hawley said that the high failure rate was a result of a switch from testing screeners' ability to find assembled bombs to finding component as small as a pen cap. In a 2002 report, screeners only had a 24 percent failure rating.
(go to web site) "U.S. Commander Warns of Latin America Terrorist Threat"
Reuters (10/18/07) ; MacSwan, Angus South America and the Caribbean may unknowingly be hosting Islamic terrorist groups, says Adm. Jim Stavridis, head of the U.S. Southern Command. In the soon-to-be-released fall edition of Americas Quarterly journal, Stavridis says it is "highly likely" that Islamist sympathizers and terrorists are using bases in the Caribbean and South America to plan future U.S. attacks, citing a statement by police in June that authorities had circumvented a plot by Caribbean-linked extremists to attack New York's John F. Kennedy airport. Several nations joined in a task force to patrol the tri-border area between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, a locale that is reportedly a hub for money-laundering and smuggling. Brazilian security officials like Mauro Sposito, however, say there is not enough evidence to support claims that activities in the region pose a viable security threat. "If I were a terrorist I'd launch an attack from England," says Sposito, head of border controls for Brazil's Federal Police, who believes heightened security prevents insurgents from crossing into the United States from Latin and Central America. Brazilian authorities say that financial donations from the country have been made to Hezbollah, which is not labeled a terrorist organization by Brazil's government, but refute claims that any Islamic terrorist activity is occurring in the country.
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"Study--Unapproved Apps Costly to Security"
InfoWorld (10/16/07) ; Hines, Matt Communications applications oriented to consumers--such as Skype, World of Warcraft, and BitTorrent--are prevalent in the workplace and are often used by employees without authorization from IT. FaceTime Communications investigated the impact of "greynet" usage and found that companies are spending, on average, over twice as much money in 2007 than in 2006 to repair damage from greynet-based security incidents. On average, nine greynets were found to be active within each enterprise surveyed, and IT managers reported handling almost 39 incidents brought about by greynets each month. According to FaceTime, the applications can and do bring about malware and identity theft attacks. Even systems that are frequently tolerated by IT departments, such as IM and VoIP systems, can dodge security infrastructure created for typical Web traffic and email. Video streaming tools, IP address "anonymizers," and P2P file sharing systems are even more dangerous to a network's safety, warns the company. A key obstacle to security is the discrepancy in outlook between IT managers and end users, as IT managers often dub applications risky that end users see as harmless or necessary for work. Frank Cabri of FaceTime says enterprises must work harder to inform employees of rules governing greynet usage. If risky behavior does not change, companies may have to warn users that they are being monitored, or perhaps even adopt control tools and filters to block the use of greynet applications.
(go to web site) "Study--90 Percent of All Sites at Hacking Risk"
InfoWorld (10/15/07) ; Hines, Matt WhiteHat Security reports that up to 90 percent of all Web sites tested by the company within the past year remain susceptible to hacking vulnerabilities. The report notes that cross-site scripting hacks are the primary vulnerability, with 75 percent of sites having a potential XSS-flaw. Through XSS attacks, unsuspecting users end up entering personal information or passwords into malicious-coded sites that seem legitimate. Meanwhile, HTTP response splitting has increased user vulnerabilities, along with cross-site request forgery and SQL injections. WhiteHat says response splitting remains underestimated in its scope for potential damage, yet it is a formidable threat because it evades detection by most anti-virus software. WhiteHat also notes that security levels vary among industries. Retailers have more secure URLs, though overall Web security is lacking.
(go to web site) "'Dark Web' Project Takes on Cyber-Terrorism"
Fox News (10/11/07) ; Kotler, Steven Dark Web is an extensive, searchable database on extremists and terrorist-generated content. Developed by Hsinchun Chen, director of the University of Arizona's Artificial Intelligence Lab, Dark Web uses advanced technology to cross-reference, catalog, and analyze terrorist Web sites, message boards, and any other online information. Chen says the amount of information is massive, posted in dozens of languages, and is often hidden behind ordinary-looking pages. "Since the events of 9/11, terrorist presence online has multiplied tenfold," says Chen. "Around the year 2000, there were 70 to 80 core terrorist sites online; now there are at least 7,000 to 8,000." Chen says the Internet is arguably the most powerful tool for spreading extremist violence because Web pages can be used for activities such as spreading propaganda and offering advice on how to plot a series of attacks. To process the massive amount of information gathered, Dark Web uses a variety of analytical tools, including statistical, cluster, content, link, and sentiment analysis, a new analytical tool capable of determining the emotional content of a site, so the system can differentiate between social activists and hateful extremists. Dark Web also uses social-network analysis to map extremist networks and determine the importance of each member. Chen's team recently studied online training manuals and methods on how to build and use improvised explosive devices, including where such content was downloaded, which has led to countermeasures that are keeping soldiers and civilians safer. However, critics see a number of similarities between Dark Web and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's controversial Total Information Awareness initiative, while Electronic Privacy Information Center executive director Marc Rotenberg notes that "the very same tools that can be used to track terrorists can also be used to track political opponents."
(go to web site) Abstracts Copyright © 2007 Information, Inc. Bethesda, MD | 
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