<FONT SIZE=2>In July, MTC Technologies Corp. began work on a first-of-its-kind project that essentially will turn Air Force refueling aircraft into flying data routers.</FONT>
A task force on national security Oct. 7 called for the new Department of Homeland Security to take the lead in shaping domestic information and intelligence priorities to inform policy-makers, rather than the FBI. The recommendation was made in a report issued by the Markle Foundation's Task Force on National Security in the Information Age. The report, "Protecting America's Freedom in the Information Age," calls for a networked information technology system that shares information among local, state, regional and federal agencies.
Whatever the White House's new draft cybersecurity plan lacked in specific requirements for the private sector, it more than made up for in proposed spending to improve security at federal agencies.
<font SIZE="2">Even though Congress has failed to agree as of this writing on any of the 13 spendingbills for fiscal 2003, lawmakers are expected to approve the president's $52 billionspending request for information technology products and services.</font>
<font SIZE="2">Cybersecurity strategy</font><font SIZE="2">The White House Sept. 18 released a draftwith a 60-day comment period. The plan sets out security recommendations for home computerusers, businesses, industries and government agencies. The plan pushes the philosophy thatthe federal government cannot act alone in protecting against cyberattacks. </font>
In the post-Sept. 11 world, corporations must confront numerous liability issuesrelated to terrorism. One is the liability of the corporation, its directors and officersfor business decisions related to a company's preparedness for terrorist attacks.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Steve Cooper, then chief information officer for Corning Inc., was speaking at a CIO forum aboard a ship sailing under a British flag in New York harbor. After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Coast Guard asked the ship, because it was under a foreign flag, to go out to open sea. One day and 200 hundred miles later, Cooper and the passengers disembarked in Boston. Angry, Cooper -- who had served in the Navy during the Vietnam era -- tried to figure out what he could do personally to make a difference in the new national situation.
The Bush administration and Congress have not followed through on their pledge to provide state and local governments with nearly $6 billion in homeland security funding, said Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes at a Sept. 19 news conference in Washington to announce new homeland security initiatives by the states.
The Bush administration seeks to launch the proposed Homeland Security Department with significant IT capabilities, a senior administration official said. Steve Cooper, CIO of the Homeland Security Office, told IT executives Sept. 18 that his office is preparing for the possibility of providing the department with systems it can use from its first day.
<FONT SIZE=2>On May 16, South Carolina Chief Information Security Officer Jim MacDougall discovered that the state's servers were being scanned for vulnerabilities by a hacker in Beijing. After informing Matt DeZee, the state chief information officer, MacDougall blocked out a range of Internet protocol addresses, including the ones scanning the system.</FONT>
Six companies have won contracts on a five-year, $3 billion program run jointly by the Justice and Treasury departments to procure standard land mobile radio subscriber units.
The lack of an interoperable communications system for first responders could have led to the deaths of several hundred firefighters trying to save lives Sept. 11, said Homeland Security executive Charles Cape.
Computer Sciences Corp. announced Sept. 10 that it won a $50 million subcontract from Unisys Corp. to provide enterprise integration and other information technology services to the Transportation Security Administration.
Twenty-one states have enacted driver's license security legislation this past year, a state legislator told the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation's subcommittee on highways and transit.
When terrorists flew a jet into the 90th floor of the World Trade Center's north tower, Gregory Burnham, who was in his office on the 71st floor, had one main focus: get out with his staff and let his family know he was OK.
Disappointment. That describes what most of the information technology industry is feeling regarding state and local homeland security spending. Companies are discouraged with the amount of money spent on homeland security, the lack of opportunities in their sales pipelines and the relatively small size of the projects that have been launched.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will distribute more than $900 million to state governments in coming months for bioterrorism preparedness, including about $300 million slated for information technology solutions.
All the clues were there: Student pilots interested in flying planes but not landing them; Osama bin Laden wanting to hijack a plane; funds being transferred to the United States from known bin Laden operatives.
Gerald P. "Geep" Fisher's reputation was already known to Chris Fisher when the couple met at a party in 1982. "He was the guy that threw a really great party at Thanksgiving," she said of her husband, a Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. employee who was killed when American Airlines Flight 77 flew into the Pentagon. "I wanted to get invited, so I introduced myself."
