Entries Tagged "DHS"

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Would-Be Bomber Caught at Orlando Airport

Oddly enough, I flew into Orlando Airport on Tuesday night, hours after TSA and police caught Kevin Brown—not the baseball player—with bomb-making equipment in his checked luggage. (Yes, checked luggage. He was bringing it to Jamaica, not planning on blowing up the plane he was on.) Seems like someone trained in behavioral profiling singled him out, probably for stuff like this:

“He was rocking left to right, bouncing up and down … he was there acting crazy,” passenger Jason Doyle said.

But that was a passenger remembering Brown after the fact, so I wouldn’t put too much credence in it.

There are a bunch of articles about Brown and potential motives. Note that he is not an Islamic terrorist; he’s a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq:

“This is not him,” she said in a phone interview. “It has to be a mental issue for him. I know if they looked through his medical records…I’m sure they will see…”He’s not a terrorist.”

Brown married Holt’s daughter, Kamishia, 25, about three years ago. They met while serving in the Army and separated a year later. Brown wasn’t the same after returning from Iraq, her daughter told her.

“When he doesn’t take it [medication], he’s off the chain,” Holt said. “When you don’t take it and drink alcohol, it makes it worse.”

Doesn’t sound like a terrorist, but this does:

According to the affidavit, Brown admitted he had the items because he wanted to make pipe bombs in Jamaica. It also indicated he wanted to show friends how to make pipe bombs like he made while in Iraq.

Federal agents said federal agents found two vodka bottles filled with nitro-methane, a highly explosive liquid, as well as galvanized pipes, end caps with holes, BBs, a model-rocket igniter, AA batteries, a lighter and lighter fluid, plus other items used to make pipe bombs and detailed instructions and diagrams. He indicated the items were purchased in Gainesville where he lived at one time.

Ignore the hyperbole; nitromethane is a liquid fuel, not a high explosive. Here’s the whole affidavit, if you want to read it.

Even with all this news, the truth is that we just don’t know what happened. It looks like a great win for behavioral profiling (which, when done well, I think is a good idea) and the TSA. The TSA is certainly pleased. But we’ve seen apparent TSA wins before that turn out to be bogus when the details finally come out. Right now I’m cautiously pleased with the TSA’s performance, and offer them a tentative congratulations, especially for not over-reacting. I read—but can’t find the link now—that only 11 flights were delayed because of the event. The TSA claims that no flights were delayed, and also says that no security checkpoints were closed. Either way, it’s certainly something to congratulate the TSA about.

Posted on April 3, 2008 at 9:02 AM • View Comments

TSA's Ideal Laptop Bag

This seems not to be a joke.

The Transportation Security Administration is interested in evaluating—and eventually approving –- the design of certain laptop bags, so travelers would be permitted to pass through security checkpoints without having to remove their laptops.

[…]

To accomplish this, the TSA RFI pointed out that the laptop bag would need to meet the following requirements:

  • The carrying bag cannot exceed any one of the proposed dimensions – 16 inches in height, 24 inches wide and 36 inches long.
  • The materials that make up the bag cannot degrade the quality of the X-ray image of the laptop.
  • No straps, pockets, zippers, handles or closures of the bag can interfere with the image of the laptop.
  • No electronics, chargers, batteries, wires, paper products, pens or other contents of the bag can shield the image of the laptop.

TSA is inviting bag designers and manufacturers to come up with creative ways to meet these design requirements, but it has also suggested three concepts of its own:

  • A bag that would open completely, and lie horizontally on the X-ray belt, such that one side with hold only the laptop.
  • A bag that would open completely, leaving the laptop standing vertically, supported by clips.
  • A bag that would pull apart in separate compartments, with one compartment containing only the laptop.

Doesn’t sound like a particularly useful laptop bag.

Posted on March 7, 2008 at 10:42 AM • View Comments

Foreign Hackers Stealing American Health Care Records

What in the world is going on here?

Foreign hackers, primarily from Russia and China, are increasingly seeking to steal Americans’ health care records, according to a Department of Homeland Security analyst.

Mark Walker, who works in DHS’ Critical Infrastructure Protection Division, told a workshop audience at the National Institute of Standards and Technology that the hackers’ primary motive seems to be espionage.

Espionage? Um, how?

Walker said the hackers are seeking to exfiltrate health care data. “We don’t know why,” he added. “We want to know why.” At the same time, he said, it’s clear that “medical information can be used against us from a national security standpoint.”

How? It’s not at all clear to me.

Any health problems among the nation’s leaders would be of interest to potential enemies, he said.

This just has to be another joke.

EDITED TO ADD (3/13): More Posted on February 20, 2008 at 12:30 PM • View Comments

DHS Warns of Female Suicide Bombers

First paragraph:

Terrorists increasingly favor using women as suicide bombers to thwart security and draw attention to their causes, a new FBI-Department of Homeland Security assessment concludes.

Photo caption:

Female suicide bombers can use devices to make them appear pregnant, a security assessment says.

Second paragraph:

The assessment said the agencies “have no specific, credible intelligence indicating that terrorist organizations intend to utilize female suicide bombers against targets in the homeland.”

Does the DHS think we’re idiots or something?

Posted on February 13, 2008 at 12:35 PM • View Comments

Cyber Storm Details

Recently the Associated Press obtained hundreds of pages of documents related to the 2006 “Cyber Storm” exercise. Most interesting is the part where the participants attacked the game computers and pissed the referees off:

However, the government’s files hint at a tantalizing mystery: In the middle of the war game, someone quietly attacked the very computers used to conduct the exercise. Perplexed organizers traced the incident to overzealous players and sent everyone an urgent e-mail marked “IMPORTANT!” reminding them not to probe or attack the game computers.

“Any time you get a group of (information technology) experts together, there’s always a desire, ‘Let’s show them what we can do,'” said George Foresman, a former senior Homeland Security official who oversaw Cyber Storm. “Whether its intent was embarrassment or a prank, we had to temper the enthusiasm of the players.”

See also this. CyberStorm report here.

Posted on February 7, 2008 at 2:30 PM • View Comments

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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.