Pittsburgh InfraGard Security News

The United States and Britain expressed confidence on Sunday in the security of Pakistani nuclear facilities after an attack by Taliban militants on the country’s army headquarters.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a news conference in London that Washington had every confidence in the Pakistani government’s control over its nuclear weapons.

Read More: http://in.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idINN1111754120091011

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the border with Mexico is more secure and it is time to change immigration law.

Napolitano says the Obama administration has completed the construction of 600 miles of border fence. But critics say the fencing is inadequate and incomplete. Others worry environmental laws are blocking construction of parts of the virtual fence of electronic surveillance and could create areas where border patrol agents cannot easily track illegal immigrants.

The Washington Times reports the National Park Service has tried to stop the Border Patrol from placing some surveillance towers on wilderness lands in parks along the border. Some agents have been required to pursue suspected illegals on horseback or even on foot, in order to avoid disturbing protected lands.

Read More: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,575362,00.html

Fears of a potential terror attack are overshadowing festivities to mark the anniversary of German reunification. Security around the Brandenburg Gate is tight with increased police presence. The capital’s interior minister, meanwhile, urged Berliners to be “increasingly vigilant.”

Berlin’s police force is on high alert. Following a series of al-Qaida propaganda videos directly threatening Germany, officials have beefed up security around the festivities to mark German reunification. “Due to the altered security situation there will be significantly more security forces on site on October 3,” Berlin’s Interior Minister Ehrhart Körting told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “Additionally the police will be warned to watch out for suspicious people and vehicles.”

Read More: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,652915,00.html

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed Saturday to punish security members who were involved in Wednesday’s deadly truck bombings.

“We have taken significant measures in dealing with deficiencies and shortcomings (of the security forces) and we will severely punish those involved in these crimes,” Maliki said in a televised speech without disclosing what the measures were.

Read More: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/23/content_11928503.htm

The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution condemning “in the strongest terms” a recent nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and imposing new sanctions.

Resolution 1874 demanded that the DPRK “not conduct any further nuclear test or any launch using ballistic missile technology” and urged that the isolated country come back to the six-party talks without preconditions.

Read More: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/13/content_11535875.htm

Government and private security teams are in a rush to get tooled up for possible new attacks by a computer worm that threatens to carry on disruptive activities on April 1.

The Conficker worm, also known as Downadup or Kido, first appeared last November and is estimated to have infected millions of computers worldwide.

By exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Windows operating system, the worm can infect users’ computers and spread to other computers across a network automatically, without human interaction.

Computer security experts believed that a new variant of Conficker, which surfaced this year, on April 1 could contact 500 of 50,000 randomly generated domain names to receive updated copies or other malicious commands.

Read More: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/31/content_11106207.htm

The Iraqi government has informed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that it will not issue a new operating license to Blackwater Worldwide, the embassy’s primary security company, which has come under scrutiny for allegedly using excessive force while protecting American diplomats, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry conveyed its decision to U.S. officials in Baghdad on Friday, in one of the boldest moves the government has made since the Jan. 1 implementation of a security agreement with the United States that sharply curbed American power in Iraq.

Blackwater employees who have not been accused of improper conduct will be allowed to continue working as private security contractors in Iraq if they switch employers, Iraqi officials said Wednesday.

Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/28/AR2009012803319_pf.html

President-elect Barack Obama yesterday introduced a war cabinet that is more diverse than that of any other president in recent history, appointing three women and two African Americans to his top national security and foreign policy posts. But the six folks nominated mirror the national security slates of the last three presidents in one key demographic: age.

Obama appointed a record number of women to his top national security posts, naming three — Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state, Janet Napolitano as secretary of homeland security and Susan E. Rice as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations — to key jobs.

Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/01/AR2008120102718.html

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — A network security expert reaffirmed his warning about a major Internet flaw that hackers can use to attack corporate or even personal networks.

Security expert Dan Kaminsky’s renewed warning follows a major Justice Department crackdown on an alleged international ring of computer hackers accused of selling millions of credit and debit card numbers and breaking into the networks of major U.S. retailers.

Kaminsky has been credited with identifying a serious gap in Internet security that allows hackers to redirect users to fraudulent sites where they are tricked into disclosing personal information.

Read More: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/expert-warns-against-major-internet-security-flaw?dist=msr_1

Having been in the past investigated for a security clearance, and used as a reference for others seeking a security clearance, I can personally attest to it being a somewhat wacky process (but in the end, much, much less scary and typically not as intrusive as those outside the world of security might fear). This week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates at least made it a tad bit more sane, quite literally.

Read More: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/05/security-cleara/

Gordon Brown wants tens of thousands of Britons to join a new Dads’ Army-style volunteer force to help the Government tackle threats to national security.

The Prime Minister also said ministers will also publish an annual risk register of the top threats facing Britain, from the Al Qaeda terror threat to flooding and cyber crime.

The new force, called a new Civil Protection Network, will be based on the local Neighborhood Watch schemes.

The Prime Minister said he wanted to see “improved resilience against emergencies” from floods to terrorist attacks.

Read More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1582199/Dads-Army-to-protect-against-security-threats.html

Three Basra residents discuss their hopes and worries about security, as British forces hand over the province to Iraqis.

When our brother got kidnapped in November, we went to the police with the phone number of the people who had demanded a ransom.

For the entire month that our brother was held, we didn’t get a single call or visit from the police to ask about it.

That’s the biggest problem – the Iraqi security forces don’t believe in what they do.

I think the army attracts a better sort of person, but many of the Iraqi police are just there for the money. They are loyal to their party and the militias, not to public security.

If a policeman challenges a criminal, the criminal’s clan will come after him. There’s no law to protect him, so he’s scared of doing his job properly.

Read More:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/7138577.stm

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 (Xinhua) — The UN Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a resolution authorizing a 26,000-strong joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur, Sudan.

Under the resolution, cosponsored by Belgium, Britain, France, Italy, Peru and Slovakia, the hybrid operation in Darfur, known as UNAMID, would be authorized and mandated for an initial period of 12 months, consisting of up to 19,555 military personnel and a civilian component including up to 3,772 police personnel and 19 formed police units comprising up to 140 personnel each.

It calls on member states to finalize their contributions to UNAMID within 30 days of the adoption of the resolution.

Read More: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/01/content_6458232.htm

The nation’s security industry found itself involuntarily transformed after Sept. 11, 2001, from an army of “rent-a-cops” to protectors of the homeland. But cutthroat competition by security firms trying to win contracts with low bids has kept wages low and high-level training non-existent.

Read More: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-29-homeland-insecurity_N.htm

By Ernesto Londoño and Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 15, 2007

BAGHDAD, Feb. 14 — At least once a week inside his stationery shop, Ali al-Yousef stacks up old notebooks in the back room and fires his pistol at them.

“Target practice,” Yousef said. “We don’t like guns, but we have to have them. I think every house should have a gun.”

As the contours of the Baghdad security plan start to solidify, Yousef, 55, like millions of other Iraqis, is trying to assess whether measures such as the newly announced ban on civilians carrying weapons are more likely to keep him safe than the 9mm pistol he carries on the seat between his legs, safety off, for the drive home.

The U.S. military announced Wednesday the formal start of the security plan, dubbed Operation Law and Order, saying in a statement that troops cleared several areas of the capital in “intelligence-focused searches.”

Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/14/AR2007021400450_pf.html

By Eric Lipton

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 — House Democrats intend to fulfill a campaign promise this week by passing broad new antiterrorism legislation, but some Senate Democrats and the Bush administration object to security mandates in the plan, citing concerns about their cost and practicality.

The House measure, the Sept. 11 Commission Bill, is intended to write into law recommendations by the group that investigated the 2001 terror attacks. They include initiatives intended to disrupt global black markets for nuclear weapons technology and to enhance cargo inspection.

“Today marks a giant leap forward toward a safer and more secure America,” said Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, the new chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, as he unveiled the bill Friday.

Read More:  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/09/washington/09terror.html