Pittsburgh InfraGard Security News

SCHUYLKILL HAVEN – About 15,000 Social Security numbers on file at Penn State Schuylkill may have been exposed when school computers were affected by malware, a university official said Wednesday.

“There’s no evidence that they were actually accessed, but they were on that computer. We err on the side of caution and notify (anyone who was affected),” Annemarie Mountz, Penn State’s assistant director of public information, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

The local problems are unrelated to a similar, but separate, incident in December at the school’s University Park main campus, Mountz said, in which university computers were also infected with malicious software, commonly known as malware.

Mountz said she is not sure exactly who the Social Security numbers belong to, but the files were old archives and it’s unlikely current students were affected.

Everyone whose information was affected was contacted at the end of December by letter with information about the breach and tips for monitoring suspicious behavior, including checking their credit reports. There have been no complaints so far, Mountz said.

Read more: http://republicanherald.com/news/computer-breach-may-have-exposed-social-security-numbers-at-penn-state-schuylkill-1.530155

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/

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

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