Daily Report Tuesday, March 13 , 2007

Daily Highlights

The Associated Press reports a train carrying liquefied propane derailed Monday morning, March 12, setting off an explosion and fire that forced evacuations from a small central New York city and shut down a section of highway. (See item 2)
·
The South Florida Sun−Sentinel reports the Orlando security problem suggests airports may be vulnerable against employee threats, and that strong security measures are needed for employees as well as passengers. (See item 14)
·
The North Central Texas Council of Governments has announced the launch of its Law Enforcement Analysis Portal, a statewide multi−jurisdictional crime analysis system designed to concurrently analyze incident and offender information from the more than 2,500 law enforcement agencies across the state of Texas. (See item 28)

Banking and Finance Sector

7. March 09, Department of Homeland Security National Computer Forensic Institute unveiled. The Department of Homeland Security and Alabama state officials unveiled, Friday, March 9, the National Computer Forensic Institute in Hoover, AL, that will assist in the field of computer forensics and digital evidence analysis. The institute will be developed by the U.S Secret Service and is partially funded by the department’s National Cyber Security Division. It will serve as a national cyber crimes training facility where state and local police officers, as well as prosecutors and judges, will be offered training and equipment. Law enforcement agencies routinely encounter computer or digital evidence and the level of training for state and local police departments is diverse. The facility will include classrooms, a computer forensic lab with an advanced research and development area, an evidence vault, storage and server rooms, public education exhibit space, and a conference room. Training will be based on the current U.S. Secret Service curriculum and include: basic electronic crimes investigation, network intrusion investigation and computer forensics.
Source:
http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1173477460607.shtm

Information Technology and Telecommunications Sector

29. March 12, Federal Computer Week — Intelligence community embraces Web 2.0 tools. The Information Sharing Environment (ISE) that the country’s 2004 terrorism prevention act mandated is beginning to take shape in a loose policy framework established by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. But intelligence experts say social−networking technologies for sharing intelligence information−−wikis, blogs and mashups, for example−−are developing faster than the policies governing their use. The gap is real, said Ambassador Thomas McNamara, who leads 25 employees at ODNI headquarters and works with the Information Sharing Council, a representative board of federal departments that hold intelligence assets. “The technology is sitting there waiting to be used, but a whole series of decisions have to be made at the policy level.” In November 2006, McNamara released a long−awaited implementation plan for the ISE that reveals how the government will implement the intelligence−sharing provision of the 2004 law. McNamara said that information sharing is fairly well−established within intelligence agencies but less so among agencies. “What we’re doing is adding the next level,” he said. That requires creating standards for broader cooperation and managing access to various levels of classified information. The ISE’s information technology architecture will conform to the Office of Management and Budget’s federal enterprise architecture, McNamara said.
Source: http://www.fcw.com/article97883−03−12−07−Print