Government Executive - Authors - David J. Wallace

Security advisory panel seeks solutions to data dilemmas

David J. Wallace — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0400

"We see our initial, short-term goal as helping ourselves and the public get a better sense of what the issues are, inventorying the issues at [the department] and [pinpointing] where the open legal questions are," panel Chairman Paul Rosenzweig said at Harvard Law School here Wednesday. The committee discussed privacy policies and standards, as well as the need for data exchanges across institutions covering topics as diverse as health care, travel and border control.

The panel's mission is to determine how federal agencies can improve information sharing without over-reaching into domestic spying and personal abuse. Preserving civil liberties while fighting terrorist threats is the goal, Rosenzweig said.

In the last three months, the committee has examined specific programs and agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Homeland Security's customs division.

Several federal entities have sought input from state and local agencies and activist groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Center for Democracy and Technology. Yet ACLU Massachusetts Director Carol Rose said greater government pursuit of presumed terrorists is leading to misidentifications that infringe upon free-speech rights of ordinary citizens.

At Wednesday's panel hearing, activist Bill Scannell noted recent allegations of privacy breaches at TSA, specifically the loss of personal passenger data by JetBlue Airways. "TSA simply cannot be trusted with data," he said. "We've seen it time and time again."

Nuala O'Connor Kelly, Homeland Security's chief privacy officer, said her office is examining about "half a dozen" instances of possible data misuse but said she considers those probes routine. She added that using commercially available data to reduce misidentification would be a benefit it if speeds passenger travel but only if appropriate safeguards are in place.

Individual airlines oversee the "no fly" lists of suspected terrorists and other criminals. TSA is working toward automated systems that scan passenger data from U.S air carriers.

Justin Oberman, assistant director of TSA's Secure Flight passenger-screening initiative, said TSA expects to lower the number of false-positive identifications that cause airplanes to be delayed or diverted. Oberman said airline employees should not be given the names because of their sensitivity and inability to cross-check an estimated 1.8 million passengers daily.

He said "close-match challenges were cut significantly" but that further testing is being done with efforts to use names and documents with greater accuracy than the current practice of checking driver's licenses. One possibility is using birthdates or other commercially available data to reduce possible confusion among people with similar names.

"This will be a core function for us, and we'll be applying state of the art technology on it," he said. "We conducted two separate tests and started by requiring all 65 U.S. air carriers to submit passenger data on people who flew in June 2004. We screened 1.8 million passenger records in a 16-hour period."

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Homeland Security ready to start ordering technology

David J. Wallace — Tue, 07 Oct 2003 00:00:00 -0400

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-The Homeland Security Department is finally "open for business" for companies offering innovative protective systems, an industry executive said Tuesday.

Thousands of vendors have given up hope of landing federal security contracts after two years of waiting for the department to hire staff, announce programs or standards, and increase budgets, Edmond Woollen, vice president of Raytheon of Waltham, Mass., told a conference for Massachusetts companies weighing federal sales. But the window of opportunity is finally here.

Woollen said he believes Homeland Security has the quickest response of any government buyer. But he cautioned companies to be prudent and think long term in pursuit of both independent sales and collaborating with larger "system engineers" or integrators such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon or IBM.

The department is seeking "evolutionary and revolutionary" technologies that show quantitative improvements in safety, not just change, said Charles McQueary, Homeland Security's undersecretary for science and technology.

Of the department's projected $37.6 billion budget for fiscal 2004, $900 million is earmarked for science and technology, including $198 million to prevent biological attacks, McQueary said. About 400 bidders appeared last week at the first meeting for vendors of systems for detecting chemical and biological weapons, he added.

An estimated 85 percent to 90 percent of the $900 million will be devoted to near-term solutions instead of long-term research, McQueary said, describing a two-year schedule in which suppliers move quickly from prototype to installation. Longer-range research still will be done by other defense-oriented labs or companies, but may be funded by Defense Department grants or other agencies, he said.

"We need to do things, and it's my view that if we were to have a science and technology division that was looking five or six years out, in that time we'd become irrelevant to the department," he said. "I'm looking for companies, university labs and others that have solutions today-things that are relevant to make an impact on overall homeland security."

McQueary cited the upcoming Oct. 15 release of standards for a $60 million program to protect commercial aircraft from ground attacks. He said it is more complex to equip passenger planes and meet other federal standards from the Federal Aviation Administration, for example, than supplying a contract under military specifications.

With technical standards emerging and budgets growing to fund anti-terrorism, cybersecurity and transportation infrastructure projects, companies are aggressively pursuing business in Washington.

Such contracts often are low-profit-margin sales that can take several years to materialize, said Arthur Coviello, chief executive of Bedford, Mass.-based RSA Security, which provides digital certificates and other encryption tools. But he estimates that 10 percent to 15 percent of RSA's sales are to government.

"Once you're on a contract," he said, "the repeat business and the lower costs of selling makes it a worthwhile endeavor."

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Regulatory future for unmanned vehicles pondered

David J. Wallace — Mon, 22 Sep 2003 00:00:00 -0400

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-The increasing range and capabilities of remote-controlled vehicles has made some jobs easier for law enforcement and military officials. However, the same devices are making it harder to distinguish hobbyists from potential threats, a specialist in unmanned aerial vehicles said here last week at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Computer-controlled planes using global positioning systems (GPS) and other technology could pose a danger despite regulations by the Federal Aviation Administration on craft lighter than 500 pounds or less than 55 feet long, MIT professor Eric Feron said at the school's Industrial Liaison Program, which connects sponsor companies with research at the university.

"There is a discussion for how to regulate them so they don't become a homeland security danger-or even a threat if people live near an airport," he said. "The issue is much broader than that."

Who should be allowed to buy such machinery? That is just one question facing several government agencies.

One manufacturer, Advanced Ceramics Research in Arizona, builds unmanned aircraft costing $500 each for remote surveillance, he said. Hobbyists can create gas-powered or electric planes, helicopters and other craft. The trans-Atlantic flight of an 11-pound airplane from Newfoundland to Ireland in April 2003 demonstrated the possibilities of using commonly available materials.

Feron showed a video of a computer-controlled helicopter than can replicate some of the most dangerous maneuvers and some that might be too risky for humans. The craft spiraled wildly in S-like turns and rolls, a feature that could help craft enter canyons or urban settings that he said are too dangerous or too small for manned aircraft.

Border-control agents, military officials and police agencies can use the devices to "see" remote areas without endangering people and then send the people if needed, he said.

Feron and his students are developing algorithms for unmanned flight that could permit the craft to sense and respond to threats, or to changes in internal or external conditions. Unlike autopilot systems that manage basic flight, the maneuvers offer more options such as hovering, distance flight and escape that are not available to larger aircraft that require onboard humans.

"Maybe a traditional way of flying is not enough," he said. "Bees or flies don't fly the same way as an F-22." Such a system could be used to compute optimal trajectory between two waypoints to minimize costs, travel time or fuel consumption, he added.

Unmanned vehicles in sea and air also are approaching an ability to perform functions, not act merely as remote cameras. Professor Chryssostomos Chryssostomidis, the director of MIT's Sea Grant College Program, said improvements in battery life, communication and remote operation have enabled machines to identify and remove unexpected materials from below a ship's waterline, eliminating the need for human inspection.

"The next challenge will be intervention: machines that assemble, recover items, sample returns and manipulate objects underwater," he said.

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