GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Securing critical infrastructure no short term fix, experts say

 

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: Homeland Security NewsWire

01April2011 8:59amEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Federal officials have long sought to secure critical infrastructure from potential attack, and recent events like the 2003 blackouts and the Stuxnet virus have added increasing urgency to government and private sector efforts; speaking on a panel at the Government Security conference and expo in Washington, D.C., security experts that specialize in critical infrastructure discussed the challenges of protecting infrastructure and steps that both governments and businesses can take; experts discussed addressing vulnerabilities in the smart grid, Stuxnet as a game changing cyber attack, and protecting critical infrastructure as a portfolio management problem. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Unique Commercialization Process May Be Implemented Across Government

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: AFCEA

21March2011 8:00amEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: A unique process for identifying, certifying and fielding technologies for homeland defense has captured White House attention and could be implemented across other departments, according to Thomas Cellucci, the government’s only chief commercialization officer.

The one-of-a-kind Commercialization Office, which resides within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate, doesn’t buy a thing. In fact, the office has shunned the traditional time- and resource-consuming acquisition process of releasing requests for proposals and requirements documents and holding a competition. Under the auspices of the System Efficacy through Commercialization, Utilization, Relevance and Evaluation (SECURE) program, the office places detailed requirements on its website, along with an estimate of the available market.  

Companies then reply with a one-page summary of their solutions and sign a page-and-a-half cooperative agreement to continue developing their technologies. At the end of the process, the company provides objective operational test and evaluation data from an independent third party, and the Commercialization Office certifies the technology meets the department’s requirements.  

That certification is pure gold for companies seeking to sell their homeland security wares. “This is not a procurement activity. We guarantee no sales. We don’t guarantee the size of the markets. But think about all the money the private sector spends on application development, business development, marketing intelligence,” Cellucci says. “DHS has huge potential available markets. We’re not going to give the commercial sector on a silver platter what they spend a lot of time and money trying to figure out; we’re going to give it to them on a golden platter.”  (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Secure Communities Program Uses Biometrics to Target Illegal Immigrants

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: Emergency Management

01March2011 8:53pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE:  As of last week, any person arrested and fingerprinted in California will now undergo an automatic immigration check.

California became the ninth state in which each county has activated Secure Communities, a fingerprint data-sharing program between local law enforcement offices and federal immigration enforcement agencies. Other states with complete activation include Texas, West Virginia, Florida, Arizona, Delaware, Virginia, Wisconsin and New Mexico.

Secure Communities is a program between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Justice that automatically sends name and fingerprint information submitted through a federal file-sharing system, where it’s checked against both the FBI criminal history records and biometrics-based immigration records in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Automated Biometric Identification System.

If fingerprints match DHS records, ICE determines if immigration enforcement action is required, considering the immigration status of the alien, the severity of the crime and the person's criminal history. Priority is placed on aliens convicted of serious crimes, such as major drug offenses, murder, rape and kidnapping.

ICE estimates that 1 million individuals arrested by law enforcement each year are not U.S. citizens. Across the country, 1,033 jurisdictions in 38 states have activated the ICE system, which has resulted in the arrest of more than 59,000 convicted criminal illegal immigrants. By 2013, ICE plans to be fully rolled out nationwide.

“What we’re seeing here is ICE receiving leads and taking the appropriate enforcement action in almost real time as that information is coming in,” said Marc Rapp, acting assistant director for Secure Communities. “There is no instance where some individuals are having their identities queried and others are not. It happens across the board, thereby eliminating the potential for racial profiling.” (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.