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"Hotel Owners: How to Protect Over 300+ People During a Hurricane Evacuation"
Associated Content (08/12/07) ; Chaplin, George George Chaplin, who was the night manager of a small 32-room hotel in East Texas during the evacuations produced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, gives hotel owners advice on how to prepare for a hurricane. Chaplin notes that his hotel was ordered to book every room and make the evacuees as comfortable as possible. Chaplin's hotel took in more than 10 people per room, and evacuees also filled the hallways. When one of the hurricanes passed through, the winds picked up and began tossing the hotel's sign back and forth, prompting Chaplin to become worried that the sign could break loose and become a projectile. Chaplin made the decision to evacuate the hotel rooms near the sign, a decision he is glad about because 15 minutes later the sign broke loose and became airborne, crashing into the building and penetrating the interior. Chaplin recommends that hotel owners stay in touch with churches and the Red Cross during a hurricane, and he also urges hotel owners to stock up on water and flash lights that can be charged by shaking. Candles are too dangerous, he says.
(go to web site) "Preparing for a Mine Disaster"
WTVQ 36 (Lexington, Ky.) (08/15/07) ; Stotelmyer, Greg Lexington, Ky., is hosting the 39th annual Kentucky State Mine Rescue Contest this week. The event has drawn 32 participating teams from seven states. Dave Blankenship, director of safety for the Teco Coal Company, explains that the event simulates, but does not replicate, the real conditions of a mining disaster, as the rescue teams compete to find a group of "missing" miners. The mock scenario for this week's event centers on an explosion that occurs in a tall mine wall, leaving six miners missing under a roof, with methane gas and high water present. The event builds certain conditions into the simulation, including "gas mixtures and mine conditions that will prepare you if you ever see those conditions," Blankenship explains. The complex simulation is very beneficial, he says, adding that the event provides mine rescue personnel with experience on how to react during a real disaster. Coal companies are required, as stated in the 2006 Miner's Act, to have two teams of rescue personnel capable of responding to each company mine within one hour. Teco, which has a mine-rescue budget of $350,000 per year, spent about $500,000 just creating and outfitting its two mine-rescue teams.
(go to web site) "U.S. Pays Millions in Cost Overruns for Security in Iraq"
Washington Post (08/12/07) P. A1 ; Fainaru, Steve No fewer than 181 private security contractors have been killed in Iraq since the start of the U.S.-led invasion, according to the U.S. Labor Department. The number of private security contractors in Iraq has increased as the insurgency in Iraq has escalated and as the number of U.S. military troops in Iraq has leveled off. The Pentagon estimates that some 20,000 security contractors are operating in Iraq, and as of July 2007, some 2,000 private security contractors employed by two U.K. security firms--Erinys Iraq and Aegis Defence Services--were under contract to provide security for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers personnel working on reconstruction contracts. During the past three years, the U.S. military has paid the two firms $548 million, more than $200 million of which is over budget, drawing criticism from some observers. But military and security industry officials say that the costs are necessary because the Corps of Engineers' security needs have expanded as the insurgency has escalated. "To pay a man or a woman to come over here, put the vest on every day and escort military and civilians around the theater, knowing that people want to blow them up and kill them, you gotta pay to get that level of dedication," said Col. Douglas P. Gorgoni, senior finance officer for the Corps in Iraq. Officials say that the reconstruction effort in Iraq would be severely hampered without the security contractors. "Without private security, our mission would be much more difficult and would require coalition forces to be diverted from their assigned combat missions," said Col. Robert Walton, head of security operations for the Corps in Iraq.
(go to web site) "Thieves Clean Up by Clearing Out Appliances"
Washington Post (08/15/07) P. D1 ; Lengel, Allan Construction-site thieves are adding large, expensive appliances like stainless-steel refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, and stoves to their list of favorite targets, according to law enforcement authorities and members of the home builder community. The theft of these appliances and other materials from construction sites costs the home building industry about $5 billion annually, according to Gopal Ahluwalia, the National Association of Home Builders' staff vice president of research. These losses represent about 1.5 percent of the value of a house, with the losses being built into the price of the home, Ahluwalia explains. The Washington, D.C., region has not been immune from such thefts, as millions of dollars worth of appliances have disappeared from new homes in several D.C.-area jurisdictions over the past few years. Thieves have been known to smash in the front door of a vacant new home to get at the appliances, marring the flooring as they drag the appliances out of the house. This tactic has become so common that some builders in Charles County, Md., have stopped locking the front doors of houses in order to prevent the doors from being damaged.
(go to web site) "The Exploding Market for Video Analytics"
Access Control & Security Systems (07/01/07) Vol. 50, No. 7, P. 12 Frost & Sullivan research analyst Dilip Sarangan predicts that the market for video analytics technology will increase to more than $400 million by 2012, nearly a sevenfold increase from the $60 million posted in 2005. "The market for video analytics is poised to explode," says Sarangan. "The explosive nature of the market is tied to the increased need for more proactive surveillance, the elimination of human error, the convergence of physical and electronic systems, and increased scalability." Alan Lipton, CTO of ObjectVideo in Reston, Va., concurs, saying, "[Video analytics] has already become table stakes in the world of government security and quasi-government security…and now, for the first time, we're seeing analytics becoming a requirement in the commercial world."
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"Hurricane Dean Likely to Threaten Gulf of Mexico"
Reuters (08/17/07) Hurricane Dean is expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico within the next five days, where it will make landfall. As of 8 a.m. Friday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) was predicting that Dean would turn into a Category 3 hurricane within 24 hours before morphing into a ferocious Category 4 hurricane after another 24 hours. Dean is currently entering the Caribbean Sea as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 100 mph, but its winds would top out near 155 mph should it reach Category 4 status. The NHC's advisory notes that Dean was just 50 miles from Martinique and had already begun lashing that island and Dominica. The NHC is predicting that Dean will score a direct hit on the Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 4 storm on Tuesday, Aug. 21, then weaken to a Category 3 or 2 before churning into the Gulf of Mexico, strengthening, and making landfall at a spot that has yet to be determined.
(go to web site) "Exclusive: U.S. Studying Two Dozen 'Clusters' of Possible Homegrown Terrorists"
ABC News (08/15/07) ; Ross, Brian; Esposito, Richard; Sauer, Maddy There are more than two dozen "clusters" of angry but "unremarkable" homegrown Muslim men in the northeast United States who pose a potentially serious terrorist threat to the United States, according to a new report to be released Aug. 15 by the New York City Police Department's intelligence division. The report indicates that the most serious terrorist threat against the United States is not from foreign Al Qaeda operatives like the 9/11 hijackers, but angry Muslim men in the United States who are on a "trajectory of radicalization." The "Radicalization in the West and the Homegrown Threat" report concludes that mosques, prisons, cafes, bookstores, and flop houses have become "radicalization incubators" that are fueling the rise of Islamic radicals in the United States. However, the report concludes that the threat posed by Muslim terrorists is not as extensive in the United States as it is in Europe.
(go to web site) "Hurricane Safety Tips Before, During and After the Storm"
Associated Content (08/12/07) ; Hembree, Dahloan The first step families should take in preparing for a hurricane is to examine the outside of their house and determine what items could potentially become an airborne missile during a hurricane. Any such items should be stored or packed away before the storm hits. Loose shingles should be fixed, and loose gutters, windows, and screens should be secured. Filling the bathtub with water is a good idea in case the water supply is knocked out during the storm. All homes should have disaster supplies and kits, including flashlights, batteries, food, and medicine. Be prepared to leave the home if need be, have a suitcase packed and ready to go, and keep all important paperwork on your person. Relatives and friends should be apprised of your evacuation location. Do not use candles; use flashlights or halogen lamps. After the storm, be aware of downed power lines and debris.
(go to web site) "Earthquake Kills at Least 337 in Peru"
Houston Chronicle (08/16/07) ; Hayes, Monte A 7.9-magnitude earthquake followed by four aftershocks of magnitudes 5.4 to 5.9 jolted coastal Peru on Wednesday evening, leaving at least 337 people dead and at least 827 wounded. The powerful quake prompted tsunami warnings and watches to be issued for coastal parts of South America and Central America, and a tsunami advisory was issued for Hawaii. The alerts were lifted after two hours passed, with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center noting that the quake produced just a 10-inch tsunami, near the epicenter, located just 90 miles southeast of Peru's capital, Lima. Witnesses said that the quake lasted for more than a minute in Lima, with the ground making "waves" and earth moving "like jelly." The area of Ica, Peru, where all but one of the confirmed deaths occurred, has been mostly cut off from communications, as telephone and mobile phone service was knocked out of commission in Lima and outlying provinces. Pisco Mayor Juan Mendoza said that a church had collapsed, burying 200 people under rubble. "We don't have lights, water, communications," said Mendoza, adding, "Most houses have fallen--churches, stores, hotels, everything is destroyed." Police, doctors, and other first responders are attempting to reach Ica, but the Pan American Highway has been blocked by downed power lines and buckled pavement, causing an enormous traffic jam. Ica and other towns along the coast are without power, roads have been blocked by landslides, and hospitals in the region have suffered damage.
(go to web site) "Dean Gives La. Chance to Practice Storm Plan"
New Orleans Times-Picayune (08/17/07) ; Schleifstein, Mark Homeland security and emergency management officials in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana are using the approach of Hurricane Dean as a chance to put their hurricane-response plans into action, even if Dean never comes near Louisiana. "We've been monitoring Dean ever since it was a tropical wave off the horn of Africa," explains Col. Jeff Smith, acting director for the state Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. On Thursday, Aug. 16, Smith and emergency management directors from the state's coastal districts held conference calls to discuss evacuation plans; various contractors and agencies would be responsible for providing buses and trains for human evacuees, and air-conditioned cargo trucks would transport pets. New Orleans Homeland Security Director Terry Ebbert is sitting tight, tracking Dean's progress and staying in touch with the city's response partners. The city's residents have been told to have their own evacuation plans ready, and a 311 help line is available for residents who need to register for a special evacuation program. In the event that Dean does draw near, the state would conduct an evacuation using a contraflow plan for highways and interstates. The state is making maps of the contraflow plan available to residents via local stores and the state Department of Transportation's Web site. National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen predicts that Dean will slow slightly as it crosses the Caribbean, after which it could take any number of tracks. "Once this storm is in the central and northwestern Caribbean Sea, people should pay very close attention to it," Feltgen warns.
(go to web site) "Russia Opens Terrorism Probe Into Train Bomb Attack"
Reuters (08/14/07) ; Sinyakov, Denis A homemade explosive device exploded on a railway bridge in the Novgorod region of Russia, causing a passenger train to derail and overturn, leaving about 60 passengers and crew injured. Most of the casualties are said to have occurred in the train's restaurant car. Russian authorities have announced that they are opening a terrorism investigation into the bombing. The train, which had departed from Moscow and was destined for St. Petersburg, was crossing a bridge near the village of Malaya Vishera when "we heard two explosions, then the train put on the brakes suddenly," said one of the train's conductors. Authorities say that the bomb consisted of 4.4 pounds of explosives and produced a crater six feet wide when it exploded.
(go to web site) "Sharing the Risk"
Aviation Week & Space Technology (08/06/07) Vol. 167, No. 6, P. 56 ; Doyle, John M. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is exploring the possibility of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for a variety of purposes, including conducting maritime surveillance, protecting commercial airliners and airports from ground-to-air missiles, and protecting U.S. borders on the ground. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will conduct a test in early 2008 that will see UAVs patrolling the Caribbean and Gulf Coast, while the Coast Guard will launch vertical takeoff UAVs from ships to conduct maritime surveillance. The CBP's Michael Kostelnik, head of the air and marine division, explains that the CBP is seeking a "maritime-variant" UAV that can be deployed in the Caribbean and U.S. Great Lakes. He believes up to 20 UAVs could be patrolling U.S. borders--sea and land--in the future. The DHS envisions using high-altitude UAVs to patrol the airspace some 65,000 feet above U.S. airports, where they would be used to identify the heat signatures of ground-fired missiles targeting commercial aircraft. The UAVs would decoy the missiles so that they miss their intended target. The DHS also believes UAVs could be useful in protecting oil pipelines and other critical infrastructure--and could even be used as a platform to relay communications during disaster response efforts.
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"Black Hat 2007: VoIP Security Reaches Tipping Point"
SearchSecurity.com (08/01/07) ; Brenner, Bill PGP creator Phil Zimmermann unveiled new software at the Black Hat 2007 conference in Las Vegas that aims to improve the security of VoIP. The software, called Zfone, utilizes a new cryptography protocol called ZRTP--which has a better architecture than other VoIP security protocols such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), H.323, and IAX--to allow users to encrypt calls over the Internet. During his presentation of the software at the Black Hat conference, Zimmermann said Zfone protects VoIP calls from man-in-the-middle attacks without a PKI or certificate authority because the same session key is used at both ends of the call. Zimmermann also said it was important to encrypt VoIP calls even though some in government say that doing so would hamper law enforcement's ability to tap VoIP calls as part of criminal investigations. Zimmermann noted that many criminals are figuring out how tap VoIP calls made by the authorities who are investigating them. Meanwhile, Himanshu Dwivedi and Zane Lackey of the digital security firm iSec Partners gave a presentation on how hackers can exploit SIP, IAX, and H.323, which is especially vulnerable to attack because most users assume it is secure. During their demonstration, Dwivedi and Lackey gave examples of how attackers could exploit the protocols to eavesdrop on VoIP conversations and obtain sensitive information in the process, as well as how to create denial-of-service attacks and how to impersonate people on the call.
(go to web site) "Security Researchers at Black Hat Show How Corporate Intranets Are Ripe for Emerging Attacks"
InfoWorld (08/01/07) ; Hines, Matt Many companies are leaving their IT operations vulnerable by failing to protect their internal Web sites, according to Jeremiah Grossman and Robert Hansen, two leading researchers who made presentations at the Black Hat 2007 security conference in Las Vegas. In his presentation, Grossman noted that hackers can find links to companies' internal Web sites by carrying out new attacks such as cross-site request forgery (CSRF) threats, which allow them to break into seemingly secure Internet sessions in order to steal password and browser history data. After breaking into these Internet sessions, attackers can then attempt to misappropriate victims' identities and privileges to carry out activities such as changing their applications passwords to log on to intranets or banking sites, or to log on to e-commerce sites to make fraudulent purchases in their name. Though such CSRF threats and cross-site scripting (XSS) techniques are typically being used together to steal money from online bank accounts, they can also be used to access prior Web browser sessions and remain logged into sites that have been accessed by an end-user to carry out illegal activities. In order to protect themselves, companies should defend their internal Web sites in the same way they protect their external sites. For example, public-facing Web sites should not be allowed to access intranets on any level, since this is a common way for hackers to break into the systems, Grossman and Hansen said.
(go to web site) "Wither the Perimeter"
Information Security (08/07) Vol. 10, No. 7, P. 26 ; Korzeniowski, Paul Firewalls and other network perimeter security projects have long been a way to clearly demarcate who is allowed access to corporate resources and who is not. However, businesses have shifted to the Internet, blurring those lines and turning the corporate network perimeter into "a slice of Swiss cheese," according to Paul Simmonds of ICI. Still, CISOs are responsible for protecting data by distinguishing between valid and invalid users. To do so, CISOs must consider multiple factors, such as remotely-stationed workers, networks exposed to customers, and integrated supply chains, which can reveal both front end and back-office applications. In response, some companies continue to focus on the perimeter, running multiple security applications on their firewalls. Perimeter security systems can assist companies in deflecting spam and spyware, and some firewalls can provide application-layer protection and monitor HTTP-based traffic. Other companies are revising their security policies to shift their perimeter defenses nearer to transaction endpoints. Companies are adding security checks to data center activity and are offering personal firewalls to employees. Because managing the perimeter has become increasingly complex and expensive, some industry professionals are waiting for the emergence of a distributed security prototype emphasizing secure application development over perimeter security. Such trust-based security systems would depend on a group of statements about a user to execute tasks such as authorizing access to sensitive information and payment validation.
(go to web site) Abstracts Copyright © 2007 Information, Inc. Bethesda, MD |
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