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At Conference on the Risks to Earth, Few Are Optimistic

More than 120 scientists, engineers, analysts and economists from 30 countries were hunkered down here for the 40th annual conference on “planetary emergencies.” The term was coined by Dr. Antonino Zichichi, a native son and a theoretical physicist who has made Erice a hub for experts to discuss persistent, and potentially catastrophic, global challenges. (Washington Post)

Chinese spying during the Olympics

In preparation for the August Olympic Games in Beijing, China has installed hardware and software in all hotels, to make it easier for state security to monitor foreign visitors that use the Internet. Some foreign owned hotels leaked the documents (orders from the Chinese government to install the systems) to U.S. government officials, who made it public. The foreign owned hotels in Beijing were threatened with closure if they did not comply. (via StrategyPage)

Centers Tap Into Personal Databases

Intelligence centers run by states across the country have access to personal information about millions of Americans, including unlisted cellphone numbers, insurance claims, driver’s license photographs and credit reports, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post.

One center also has access to top-secret data systems at the CIA, the document shows, though it’s not clear what information those systems contain.

Dozens of the organizations known as fusion centers were created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to identify potential threats and improve the way information is shared. The centers use law enforcement analysts and sophisticated computer systems to compile, or fuse, disparate tips and clues and pass along the refined information to other agencies. They are expected to play important roles in national information-sharing networks that link local, state and federal authorities and enable them to automatically sift their storehouses of records for patterns and clues. (Washington Post)

Fusion centers face FOIA issues

An issue worth watching closely.

A D.C. privacy group that is curious about the activities of a Virginia domestic intelligence center filed a government sunshine lawsuit Friday, after Virigina’s so-called fusion center rebuffed its requests for documents about what the center was doing.  The Electronic Privacy Information Center’s complaint (.pdf) asks a Virginia judge to force state police to cough up records about meetings with the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, especially in regards to discussions about how the center would or would not comply with state open government laws. Virginia state police denied the request, saying the documents were “criminal intelligence data.” (Wired)

CIA Confirms Cyber Attack Caused Multi-City Power Outage

According the SANS Institute, the CIA has disclosed that several critical infrastructures have been hit with cyberattacks recently.

SANS FLASH
CIA Confirms Cyber Attack Caused Multi-City Power Outage
On Wednesday, in New Orleans, US Central Intelligence Agency senior
analyst Tom Donohue told a gathering of 300 US, UK, Swedish, and Dutch
government officials and engineers and security managers from electric,
water, oil & gas and other critical industry asset owners from all
across North America, that "We have information, from multiple regions
outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed
by extortion demands.  We suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of
these attackers had the benefit of inside knowledge.  We have
information that cyber attacks have been used to disrupt power equipment
in several regions outside the United States. In at least one case, the
disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities.  We do not
know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions
through the Internet."

According to Mr. Donohue, the CIA actively and thoroughly considered the
benefits and risks of making this information public, and came down on
the side of disclosure.

Delegates at the meeting shared information on how attackers are eluding
current defenses and on promising practices for mitigating the most
critical vulnerabilities. Link—>

Non profit terrorism research not as appealing these days

Renowned non-profit the Site Institute which monitors terrorist web sites has determined that they’d prefer to be a “for profit” entity.

“After several years of public service, the SITE Institute, a non- profit organization, has ceased its operations. Its assets have been sold and the proceeds transferred to other non-profit organizations consistent with the educational and charitable mission of the SITE Institute. Some of the activities formerly conducted by the SITE Institute will now be carried out by the SITE Intelligence Group, a for-profit entity.”

Intel Centers Losing Anti - Terror Focus

This story is being spun as a negative, when in reality a multi-disciplinary all-hazards approach is required.  Terrorism is too narrow a focus and diminishes the role that intelligence and pre-incident planning play in addressing other threats.  Unfortunately, the government applied their resources against the wrong model and the “intel” component is replaced with a “sharing” dynamic that doesn’t provide the same yield as a true intel fusion center.  Maybe it is time to revisit the TEW Expansion program.

Local intelligence-sharing centers set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have had their anti-terrorism mission diluted by a focus on run-of-the-mill street crime and hazards such as hurricanes, a government report concludes.

Of the 43 ”fusion centers” already established, only two focus exclusively on preventing terrorism, the Government Accountability Office found in a national survey obtained by The Associated Press. Center directors complain they were hampered by lack of guidance from Washington and were flooded by often redundant information from multiple computer systems.

Administration officials defended the centers and said encompassing all sorts of crimes in the intelligence dragnet is the best way to catch terrorists. (NY Times)

Firefighter Help on Terrorism

It would seem the ACLU is a little late to the game here. Multi-disciplinary intel gathering at the local level has been in effect since 1997.

Firefighters in major cities are being trained to take on a new role as lookouts for terrorism, raising concerns of eroding their standing as American icons and infringing on people’s privacy. Unlike police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel don’t need warrants to access hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings each year, putting them in a position to spot behavior that could indicate terrorist activity or planning. But there are fears that they could lose the faith of a skeptical public by becoming the eyes of the government, looking for suspicious items such as building blueprints or bomb-making manuals or materials. [Associated Press]