Government Executive - Authors - Michael Martinez

Texas officials endorse enhanced driver's licenses

Michael Martinez — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The top cop in Texas has endorsed a plan for the state to develop enhanced driver's licenses that can double as border-crossing credentials.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Tuesday ruled that the cards proposed as part of the state's high-tech licensing plan would satisfy federal law. Abbott was asked for his opinion about the initiative by the director of the Department of Public Safety.

The Legislature recently authorized the plan to develop the license, which will be designed to meet nationwide standards for driving credentials recently released by the Homeland Security Department, as well as specifications for another initiative to speed cross-border travel. Several other border states are moving to issue licenses that would satisfy both the so-called REAL ID Act and the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

Abbott said in his opinion that enhanced licenses would be legal under federal passport laws if they conform to the technology, security and operational requirements of the travel initiative, which mandate that that the cards be tamper-proof and machine-readable.

The ruling came as many states are considering the costs and consequences of developing driver's licenses to comply with REAL ID. Homeland Security earlier this month released the final regulations for the statute.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said the final rules were designed to allow states more flexibility in meeting REAL ID's requirements. The department delayed several key deadlines to give states more time to enroll drivers, which Chertoff said should reduce the costs of compliance considerably.

Several states already have decided to ignore REAL ID. Privacy advocates also are pushing Congress to move on federal legislation to repeal the law.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, has continued to reach out to other governors in his quest to block the law. He said in a letter to governors last week that he wants them to speak with "one unified voice and demand that Congress step in and fix this mess."

Schweitzer signed a bill last year that prevents Montana from participating in REAL ID. Members of Montana's congressional delegation also have expressed serious concerns.

Legislation has been offered in both chambers of Congress to wipe the REAL ID slate clean and restart a negotiated rulemaking process to develop licensing standards that was abandoned when the bill was passed.

Schweitzer wrote that the cooperative rulemaking process would give state officials a seat at the table and could facilitate the development of more secure IDs faster than REAL ID ultimately will with the new deadlines.

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Official: Critics of driver's license standards are off base

Michael Martinez — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

A top official at the Homeland Security Department said that much of the resistance to his agency's plan for nationwide driver's licensing standards is off base.

Last week, the department issued final regulations for states to implement the so-called REAL ID Act. At a Heritage Foundation event Wednesday, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Policy Stewart Baker said the regulations are a reasonable solution to a pressing security issue.

Baker, who has served in many government positions, including as a former general counsel to the National Security Agency said REAL ID is a necessary mechanism for fighting terrorism and identity theft.

The final rules include relaxed state deadlines, particularly for the enrollment of older drivers. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the adjustments made by the department also will substantially reduce the cost of compliance.

Some states have openly rebelled against REAL ID, ignoring the threat that their licenses no longer will be accepted for federal purposes if they are not compliant with the law. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill also are considering bills to repeal the statute altogether.

Baker said the majority of Americans agree with what REAL ID aims to accomplish. He noted that the panel that investigated the 2001 terrorist attacks recommended that the nation's licensing system be tightened. The terrorists involved in the attacks were able to obtain driver's licenses from Virginia and other states.

Baker also said REAL ID would help ensure that illegal immigrants do not use fraudulent documents to gain employment, and he said the law would curb identity theft.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Cato Institute and other groups that oppose REAL ID have said it would erode privacy. They also have criticized the Bush administration for taking so long to issue guidance to states and have accused Homeland Security of essentially passing the buck to future administrations.

Baker said it was inevitable that REAL ID deadlines were going to need to be extended in order to give states enough time to carry out the law without forcing citizens to wait in massive lines to obtain new credentials. But he said that "virtually all responsible states" will sign on to the program and do so during this administration.

"In the long run, we're going to prevail," he said.

ACLU Legislative Counsel Tim Sparapani said in a telephone interview that Homeland Security's regulations still do not address many of the law's biggest privacy flaws, particularly with how states are supposed to protect driver information. He also said the agency has guaranteed that future presidents are going to have to deal with the problems it has created.

"The public, instead of listening to what they say, should be watching what they're doing," Sparapani said. "It's clear to anyone who's watching closely that Homeland Security is simply trying to get out from underneath the REAL ID Act and pay lip service to having implemented it."

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Experts urge assault against terrorists' Web efforts

Michael Martinez — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Internet experts Tuesday told a House panel that the United States needs to immediately improve its efforts to understand and respond to the online activities of terrorists who want to harm the country.

Witnesses before the House Homeland Security Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment Subcommittee questioned the robustness of military and intelligence community efforts to understand how terrorist entities, particularly the al Qaeda network, are using online tools to spread their messages.

In prepared testimony for the mid-afternoon hearing, Georgetown University professor Bruce Hoffman said the ability of the United States to counter ideological enemies like al Qaeda will depend on understanding the resonance of their messages and recruiting strategies, both of which involve the Internet.

He argued that so far, the United States has monumentally failed to understand al Qaeda. "Until we recognize the importance of this vital prerequisite," Hoffman said, "America will remain perennially on the defensive."

Rita Katz, director of the Search For International Terrorist Entities Institute, told lawmakers that the "jihadist movement" will continue to grow if the Internet remains a "safe haven" for terrorists. She said the challenge will not just be to monitor the online activities of terrorist suspects, but also to identify and exploit the online weaknesses of terrorist groups and mine for information that can help to defuse offline terrorist efforts.

"For as long as jihadists on the Internet can engage in terrorist activities unfettered and unmonitored," Katz said, "the U.S. will not be able to cause significant, lasting damage to the global jihadist movement."

Mark Weitzman, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's task force against hate and terrorism, said officials need the political will to act against the use of online tools to spread terrorist ideologies. He said it is particularly important that the government recruit researchers with the technical and linguistic skills to comprehend what they find online.

"In many ways, we have ceded the Internet to our enemies, and the result has been extremely harmful," Weitzman said. "However, even in a globalized world, there is no reason to believe that this condition is permanent."

WiredSafety.org founder and Executive Director Parry Aftab, meanwhile, warned the committee that blocking or limiting access to certain types of online technologies within the United States would not make the Internet a safer place for those who use it.

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Identity security technologies called key to protecting homeland

Michael Martinez — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0400

But she said the department must be given flexibility in analyzing what technologies best meet the needs of specific missions.

Kathleen Kraninger, the director of the department's screening coordination office, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization and Procurement that the department carefully analyzed its technological options before adopting specific applications for several high-profile screening programs.

Secure identification technologies play a key role in several ongoing Homeland Security initiatives, including one that requires U.S. air travelers to carry valid enhanced passports when traveling to and from Bermuda, Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico. High-tech cards being tested for the so-called Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative are equipped with radio-frequency identification chips that are readable by scanning devices.

Kraninger said in prepared testimony that speeding the document authentication process is a crucial aspect of the travel initiative, as it is designed to help mitigate traffic along the border. She said the department has worked to minimize the amount of information on the cards, which will include only unique identifiers so they do not physically contain any sensitive information that may be lost.

She said the department also deliberately moved to set minimum standards for implementing a federal law that mandates benchmarks for driver's licensing systems. She said that under the so-called REAL ID Act, states must be given the flexibility to do what is best for them.

"The role of the federal government in this case is to ensure commonality of approach, which includes minimal physical security features as well as quality and integrity of the issuance process because of the role driver's licenses play in the U.S. as a core identity document," she said.

Others who testified at the hearing tried to sell the benefits of specific technological solutions.

Neville Pattinson, the vice president of the ID security firm Gemalto, said on behalf of the Secure ID Coalition that "smart card" technologies can offer a unique blend of efficiency and privacy. The cards he touted feature computer chips that can be read from short distances.

He asked the committee to review whether RFID cards are the best fit for the travel initiative, as well as for enhanced driver's licenses being tested by some states to meet the REAL ID mandate.

But Kathryn Alsbrooks, director of U.S. federal programs for LaserCard, said her company's optical memory card is best suited for various government initiatives. That type of technology is currently used by Homeland Security for permanent resident "green cards," as well as by the State Department for a special border visa card.

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VA is slow to upgrade tech security, GAO says

Michael Martinez — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0400

report released Wednesday.

The Government Accountability Office said the department is moving slowly to address the data security weaknesses exposed by an incident that compromised the personal information of roughly 26.5 million veterans. GAO found that the department has not fulfilled 20 of the 22 recommendations it issued along with the VA's inspector general last year about how the data system can be strengthened.

"Because these recommendations have not yet been implemented, unnecessary risk exists that the personal information of veterans and others, such as medical providers, will be exposed to data, tampering, fraud and inappropriate disclosure," the new GAO report said.

The breach occurred when a computer drive containing sensitive data was stolen from the home of a department tech specialist. It was the largest data breach in U.S. government history.

According to GAO, the only two of its recommendations the department has implemented in response to the breach involve regular reporting about the development of the VA's security plan and developing a process for managing an action plan.

When asked Wednesday by Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, about whether the department is on track in its mission to become the federal government's "gold standard" in data security, VA Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology Robert Howard said he does not know.

"It's a difficult question," he said at a hearing on the department's overall IT efforts.

Howard said the department has made significant progress in certain areas, particularly with enhancing its system for identifying and reporting security gaps. He insisted that 2008 will be an important year because the department will be implementing several key contracts.

Lawmakers at the hearing also tried to gauge the department's progress toward centralizing its IT system and enhancing its e-health capabilities.

VA Secretary Jim Nicholson approved a new organization structure for the department earlier this year. Part of that effort involves transferring 6,000 employees to its technology office. The department's delivery of health care is a key part of the realignment plan.

Nicholson told House lawmakers on Tuesday that the department is struggling to deal with backlogs in claims for veterans of the Iraq war. A recent audit completed by the department's inspector general also identified gaps in its e-health system that affected patient data and led to long wait times for appointments.

Howard acknowledged the department's struggles to upgrade its e-health system. But he said the pressure Congress is putting on both the Defense and VA departments is helping the process.

Akaka said the accuracy of the information in the VA system is imperative and Congress will not be able to effectively direct resources to the department if it cannot rely on the data the department provides.

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Interior spending bill generous to tech programs

Michael Martinez — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0400

The $27 billion proposal approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee contains provisions for technology initiatives at various government agencies. The Environmental Protection Agency would be the biggest benefactor; it is slated to receive more than $770 million for science and technology programs.

The bill, S. 1696, also would reserve millions of dollars for tech-related state and tribal assistance grants, including the Environmental Information Exchange Network, that are supported by the EPA. The network is a repository of environmental data. The legislation would direct $10 million for grants to support the project.

The committee report on the measure also noted the EPA's intention to increase its support for nanotechnology research within its base budget. Nanotechnology involves the manipulation of matter at atomic and nuclear levels. The committee recommended that the EPA work with the National Academies of Science to develop a safety roadmap for nano research.

The proposal also would allocate $121 million for the regulation and technology account at Interior's surface mining and enforcement office. The committee recommended $6 million more for that office than the White House requested in February.

More than a $1 billion would be allocated for U.S. Geological Survey, $40 million of which would go toward satellite operations. The survey project allows access to images processed by U.S. spy satellites for environmental research purposes.

The Senate panel also attached a wide range of pet projects to the bill. According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, the measure includes nearly 450 total earmarks worth roughly $900 million -- almost five times as many as a bill cleared by the House earlier this summer.

Tech-related earmarks include $2 million for a water information-sharing and analysis center requested by Robert Bennett, R-Utah. He also requested $250,000 for an oil-and-gas Internet leasing test in his home state. Washington Democrat Patty Murray also requested $1 million to help the Washington Family Forest Foundation with its landowner management database.

The House passed its Interior appropriations bill, H.R. 2643, in June. That measure includes $119 million in earmarks, including $1.65 million requested by lawmakers in Maryland and Virginia for the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network. The project connects Web sites that contain information about the bay and its surrounding areas.

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Homeland Security chief vows to move forward with ID law

Michael Martinez — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Chertoff acknowledged at the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures that it will be a challenge for states to implement the so-called REAL ID Act, especially if they are not given more federal funding to do so. But he said he would not support legislative efforts to repeal the controversial law and insisted that insecure travel documents in the hands of terrorists are dangerous.

"I frankly will not support pulling the plug on this," Chertoff said.

Several states across the country already have decided not to comply with the law. The Homeland Security Department still has not issued final compliance regulations, but it has estimated that it will cost states about $23 billion to implement the mandate.

Chertoff said one of the reasons it has taken his department so long to issue guidelines is because it has been working to address state-level concerns about cost and privacy. But when asked if he thought Congress needs to fix some of the law's weaknesses through additional legislation, Chertoff said that the country can not afford for the REAL ID plan to be derailed.

"Anyone who believes the current system [of issuing licenses] is secure is kidding themselves," he said.

In recent months, states also have been acting independently on the immigration front. According to a report released by NCSL earlier this week, 170 immigration bills have been enacted so far this year in 41 states.

Chertoff lamented the demise of federal immigration legislation in the U.S. Senate this summer, which he said he hoped would have provided funds for the "back office" of the REAL ID plan. Attempts by senators to include additional REAL ID funding in the homeland security spending measure for fiscal 2008, which passed the Senate last month, also were defeated.

In a separate speech, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., touted recent efforts by Congress to bolster homeland security. She lauded the passage of legislation to implement the remaining recommendations of the panel that investigated the 2001 terrorist attacks. The law, among other things, contains stringent requirements for screening cargo on ships and airplanes. It also directs funding to improve the emergency communications infrastructure used by first responders.

"Never again will the efforts of our courageous first responders be hampered by an inability to communicate in real time," she said.

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Coalition stands firm in support of national ID law

Michael Martinez — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0400

More than a dozen states already have decided that they will not comply with the so-called REAL ID Act. Last week, the Senate also rejected a proposal to direct $300 million to help states meet the requirements of the law.

The Coalition for a Secure Driver's License, a nonprofit that was started by families affected by the 2001 terrorist attacks, is one of the few groups still rallying support for the implementation of REAL ID. Spokesman Neil Berro said in a Tuesday interview that he was not deterred by the Senate inaction.

President Bush did not reserve any money for REAL ID compliance in his February budget proposal. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said in a floor speech that the federal government should be responsible for bearing some of the cost if it is going to impose such a mandate on the states. He tried to attach his funding proposal to the homeland security appropriations measure for fiscal 2008, which the Senate passed.

The Homeland Security Department estimated earlier this year that it will cost states as much as $23 billion to implement the law. The American Civil Liberties Union and others that oppose REAL ID called Alexander's amendment a "sucker money" proposal and argued that it would have done little to help states comply with a flawed statute.

Privacy advocates have charged that REAL ID effectively would create an invasive national ID system. State legislators who have rejected the law also call it an unfunded federal mandate.

Berro said those who oppose REAL ID have capitalized on fears about intrusions on civil liberties. But he said potential terrorist attacks are a more serious threat to those freedoms.

Legislation to repeal the law has been introduced in both chambers of Congress. A bill by Sens. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and John Sununu, R-N.H., would reinstitute a negotiated rulemaking process to develop federal driver's licensing standards.

According to Berro, the country cannot afford to move backward on the issue. He cited a Zogby poll conducted earlier this year that indicated the majority of Americans actually favor stronger ID standards.

"The common-sense sensibility of most Americans was reflected in that poll," he said.

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Commerce Department touts public safety grant program

Michael Martinez — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0400

The department's National Technology Information Administration, in consultation with the Homeland Security Department, has been tasked with allocating nearly $1 billion in grants to improve the ability of state and local public safety networks to communicate with each other across different jurisdictions. The grants will be awarded by the end of the year.

Congress has authorized NTIA, which advises the White House on telecommunications issues, to transfer roughly $960 million as part of the public safety interoperable communications grants program. The money will is being allocated for the general purpose of helping state, local and federal first responders communicate better during natural or man-made disasters.

The applications will be due one month after grant guidance is issued in July. Grants will be awarded in September. The money will be available to public safety agencies in all of the states and territories.

At a public meeting, Commerce Department Program Specialist Laura Pettus said draft guidelines are being finalized. She said the federal government is not going to dictate interoperability solutions to states and localities but that grant applicants will be required to address certain questions, such as how they intend to improve spectrum efficiency.

Pettus did not provide any advanced details about what the guidance may entail, though she did note that NTIA is planning to use Homeland Security's "risk-based" grant formula as a starting point. She also said NTIA is looking to direct no less than 80 percent of the grants to local public safety entities.

John Bunting, a regional inspector general for audits at the Commerce Department, advised the audience, which included officials from both the private and public sector, how to avoid auditing problems in drafting grant requests. He said the grant program is going to offer an important opportunity for public safety officials to improve their infrastructure.

"We have one time and one time only to get this right," he said.

Interoperability has been a buzz word on Capitol Hill since the 2001 terrorist attacks. The issue took center stage again in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina rocked the Gulf Coast region.

Funds for the interoperability grants are being borrowed from the anticipated auction of the 700 mhz spectrum that will be relinquished by television stations as they make the congressionally mandated switch to digital signals.

In an interview, Rocky Lopes, a homeland security project manager for the National Association of Counties, said he hopes federal officials recognize the importance of local first responders in emergencies as funds are allocated.

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Immigration offices flooded with visa petitions for tech workers

Michael Martinez — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0400

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services began accepting applications on Monday for the 65,000 H-1B visas available for fiscal 2008, and the window for applications is almost certain to close by Tuesday evening.

USCIS spokeswoman Chris Rhatigan said that more than 150,000 H-1B petitions had been received by service centers in California and Vermont by the close of business on Monday -- more than double the amount visas that are available. USCIS is required to accept applications for at least two full businesses days.

Rhatigan said USCIS would begin manually entering the data for all the H-1B applications it receives during the first two days into a computer-generated system that will randomly select which ones will be evaluated for approval. She did not estimate how long the data entry process would take because it is not yet certain how many applications will be entered into the system.

"The computer-generated process makes this a fair and impartial system," she said.

The overflow of applications means that it will be a toss-up as to whether even the applications that were received the moment the filing process opened will be approved. Companies throughout the technology sector are looking to use the visas to fill vacancies for highly skilled jobs with foreign workers.

"As bad as a lot of people thought it would be, this is a lot worse," said Peter Roberts, an immigration lawyer at McCarter & English in Stamford, Conn. "The impact on companies is going to be commensurately worse."

Roberts also noted it is troubling that companies are seeking the visas to fill so many positions they do not feel can be staffed adequately otherwise.

Robert Hoffman, a lobbyist for Oracle and the co-chairman of the Compete America coalition, said closing the application process so quickly effectively will lock out students who are set to earn their degrees this spring. Applications for the next round of H-1B visas available for fiscal 2009 will be accepted in April of next year.

"It really indicates how important it is for Congress to address this issue," Hoffman said.

Two House members have floated a proposal to boost the current cap on H-1B visas to 115,000. But that proposal, sponsored by Reps. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., is part of a comprehensive immigration reform package that addresses a host of other border security and citizenship issues - so its fate currently depends on whether Congress can pass expansive immigration overhaul legislation.

"We have every reason to believe Congress is serious about comprehensive immigration reform," Hoffman said. "It would address both the short-term and long-term problems."

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Defense panels to address technology issues

Michael Martinez — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0500

A change in tone in both panels was evident this month in hearings conducted on the Iraq war. On the Senate side, Carl Levin, D-Mich., has replaced John Warner, R-Va., as chairman. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., has taken charge on the House side.

Leadership changes at the subcommittee level could have an even bigger effect on tech-related policy, especially on how it relates to the war on terrorism.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., now chairs the House Terrorism and Unconventional Threats Subcommittee. Spokesman Derrick Crowe said Smith has a laundry list of high-tech priorities for the panel, including harnessing technology for the Defense Department, investing in research and development projects to develop technologies against future threats, and exploring alternatives forms of energy.

Several high-tech operations, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, fall under the jurisdiction of Smith's panel. Crowe said Smith plans to work to ensure that the Pentagon continues to invest wisely in critical research projects, and cited research at DARPA that laid the foundation for the modern Internet.

In the past, Smith also has pushed to create a special information technology acquisition office at the Pentagon to research commercial IT systems that could be of use to the military.

On the Senate side, Rhode Island's Jack Reed has taken charge of the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee. That panel also has jurisdiction over DARPA, as well as the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency and U.S. Special Operations Command, or SOCOM.

Hawaii's Daniel Akaka has assumed leadership of the panel's Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee. His panel oversees military construction, information technology and base tech policies, among other things.

New faces also will help shape the personalities of the panels in the 110th Congress. Several new members on the House panel represent hubs for the defense tech industry.

CongressDaily reported last week that Pennsylvania Democrat Joe Sestak has pledged to push for cash for a large Boeing plant just outside of his district that manufactures aircraft for the Army and Marines. Sestak last fall defeated Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., who served as vice chairman of the Armed Services panel.

General Dynamics' Electric Boat business is based in the backyard of Connecticut Democrat Joe Courtney. Electric Boat has received several multimillion-dollar contracts recently to develop maritime defense technologies.

On the Senate side, freshmen Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Sen. James Webb, D-Va. have joined the committee. Webb, a former Republican, served as Navy secretary during the Reagan administration. Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, also is a newcomer to Senate Armed Services.

The technology-related workload for both of the panels is likely increase next month when President Bush issues his fiscal 2008 budget. The defense technology industry is eager to learn how much money Bush will request for its kind of initiatives.

At his confirmation hearing in December, new Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he will continue some of the military transformation efforts of his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld.

According to a recently disclosed memorandum, the Army is planning budget cuts in the $160 billion high-tech Future Combat Systems program, one of the key components of Rumsfeld's transformation plan.

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Activist: DHS considering outsourcing work for ID law

Michael Martinez — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Homeland Security sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget proposed regulations for the so-called REAL ID Act. The department recommends that a private data aggregator be responsible for key elements of the law's implementation, according to a document posted by Bill Scannell, a spokesman for the Identity Project.

OMB is allowed 90 days to review the draft regulations.

Civil libertarians have cited concerns that REAL ID effectively creates a national ID system. Scannell did not say if Homeland Security recommended a particular vendor, but he claimed that Secretary Michael Chertoff personally ordered a plan to hire a private data aggregator for license and ID card checks.

Homeland Security is granting the right to control our identity to private industry," Scannell wrote on the Web site UnRealID.com. "It will be Identity-Mart Inc."

A Homeland Security spokesman declined to comment on the issue.

Some states already are moving to reject REAL ID. A bill authored by Montana state Rep. Brady Wiseman would direct the state's Justice Department not to implement the law. The proposal has been referred to the state House Judiciary Committee.

According to Wiseman's bill, REAL ID is "inimical to the security of the people of Montana, will cause unneeded expense and inconvenience to those people, and was adopted by the U.S. Congress in violation of the principles of federalism contained in the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution."

A study released last year by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Governors Association estimated that REAL ID will cost states at least $11 billion over the next six years to comply.

Sens. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and John Sununu, R-N.H., introduced legislation at the end of last year to repeal REAL ID. Their bill would have reinstated language from a 2004 intelligence law establishing a rulemaking process for the development of federal standards for driver's licenses and ID cards. Akaka and Sununu, are expected to re-file that proposal in the 110th Congress.

Wiseman's bill would make Montana the first state to opt out of REAL ID. A measure to reject the law almost succeeded in New Hampshire last spring, but it died in the state Senate.

Supporters of that bill cited various concerns about REAL ID, particularly about whether New Hampshire would be forced to return pilot funding it had received to comply with the law. There also was resistance from civil libertarians who argued it would threaten the privacy of New Hampshire residents.

Anti-REAL ID bills are expected in several other states in 2007. State lawmakers approved a resolution at NCSL's annual conference last summer demanding funding from the federal government to comply with the law.

Wiseman said he would be opposed to REAL ID regardless of how much money it will cost states to comply. "No amount of funding is going to make compliance okay for me," he said. "This isn't about money."

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Panelists spar over national, mandatory ID cards

Michael Martinez — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0500

At a roundtable discussion hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus, a panel of technology experts traded barbs over the REAL ID Act, a 2005 law that requires states to modernize their ID systems by a 2008 deadline. Under the law, citizens will have to have federally approved IDs to travel on airplanes or access some types of federal services, such as Social Security.

Sens. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and John Sununu, R-N.H., last week introduced a bill to repeal REAL ID. Their proposal would have replaced the law with language from a 2004 intelligence act that established a rulemaking process to examine standards for driver's licenses and ID cards. The senators are expected to file the bill again in the 110th Congress.

Jennifer Kerber of the Information Technology Association of America said the approach proposed by the bill is sensible. She said REAL ID, which was part of an $82 million military spending bill in 2005, killed the rulemaking process initiated by the intelligence law.

Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, said REAL ID requires state and local governments to invest a lot of money into ID cards that will not necessarily make people more secure. He said ID-based security is "incredibly risky and incredibly flimsy."

Harper cited a study issued jointly this fall by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Governors Association. The study estimated that it will cost states $11 billion over the next six years to comply with REAL ID.

Dan Bailey, a senior research analyst at RSA Laboratories, also said he expects that REAL ID will impose a heavy financial burden on the states. But he said the cost of compliance will decline over time as technologies used for IDs become cheaper.

Lawmakers in New Hampshire were only a few votes shy this past spring of making the Granite State the first in the country to reject REAL ID. State Rep. Neal Kurk, the author of the failed anti-REAL ID bill, said earlier this fall that he intends to introduce the measure again when the legislature reconvenes next year.

But Meg Hardon of Infineon Technologies, a computer chip manufacturer that produces "smart card" contactless applications, said policymakers also should be mindful of the costs of not having a secure ID system.

Harper said the REAL ID debate should not be over whether to have an over-arching national ID system or no ID system at all. Instead, he said lawmakers should focus on building ID systems that serve specific uses for specific purposes.

The panel also examined several other ID technology-related issues on Thursday, including the use of radio-frequency technologies in e-passports and pass cards as part of federal programs to bolster security and speed travel at points of entry into the United States.

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Panelists: Combating data theft is not complicated

Michael Martinez — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Darryl Lemecha, the chief information officer at the data brokerage ChoicePoint, said during a panel discussion hosted by the E-Gov Institute that his company learned the hard way about the importance of credentialing the parties with which it does business. ChoicePoint disclosed in 2005 that it had sold data to a criminal enterprise, exposing the personal information of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

According to Lemecha, more than 40 percent of recently reported data breaches were the result of stolen or lost equipment. Intrusions caused by hackers are much less frequent, he said. "The majority of the breaches that occurred were due to simple things."

Companies and federal agencies can only prevent these problems from occurring in the future if they instill a culture of behavior in their employees that is practiced consistently, Lemecha said.

The stakes are higher for the government and private sector to take the necessary precautions to protect data because the techniques used by data thieves have progressed so rapidly in recent years, said Jack Hembrough, the CEO and president of Application Security.

He said he recently told his wife before she made an online purchase that criminals are not trying to steal her credit-card information, but rather they are trying to infiltrate the database of the company processing her payment that includes information on thousands of people, including her.

Hembrough was particularly critical of Oracle, which recently released a security patch to fix more than 100 holes in its software products. He said the day after Oracle released the patch, hackers around the world most likely were attacking all of the gaps announced by the company in hopes that some of its customers neglected to install the fixes.

But many businesses cannot afford to completely block access to their databases because they need to share information in order to survive, Hembrough said. All of the attention that data breaches have received in the news recently has made the issue tricky, he said. "Everyone's looking over our shoulder."

Ed Meagher, the chief information officer for the Interior Department, said it is imperative for government officials and businesses to implement privacy policies that are enforceable, a point echoed by Lemecha.

It is much easier to craft an enforceable policy when access to information is appropriately distributed to employees based on their roles, Meagher said. "Most companies are better prepared for a product recall than they are for a data breach."

Hembrough said it would be easier for the government and private sector to respond to breaches that affect the data of individuals in multiple jurisdictions if there were one federal law instead of separate state laws.

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Democrats may give voting machines more scrutiny

Michael Martinez — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Voting-rights activists are hopeful that the newly elected Democratic Congress will be more inclined to examine e-voting security issues, especially in light of glitches that complicated several races Nov. 7.

The House Administration Committee this past fall held a hearing to examine the security of paperless voting systems, but some lawmakers were frustrated that it was held so late in the session. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, was the chairman of that committee until January, when he resigned amid a corruption probe.

More than 200 House lawmakers have co-sponsored a bill by Rush Holt, D-N.J, that would require voting machines to produce paper trails. Spokesman Patrick Eddington said Holt plans to reintroduce the measure next session with only minor changes, if any.

"It will be a different environment," Eddington said of the prospects for the bill under Democrats.

Ney was one of the original co-sponsors of a 2002 federal law widely known as the Help America Vote Act. He and the other principle authors of the statute said in a 2004 letter to Holt that the law needed to be fully implemented before measures like his should be considered.

Doug Chapin, the executive director of Electionline.org, said proposals for paper e-voting receipts might receive more attention next Congress, but it remains to be seen how high it will rank among Democratic priorities. "If I were Rep. Holt, I would feel better about my bill's chances in light of this past week's events," he said.

Chapin also noted that John Conyers, D-Mich., who is likely to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has been active on the e-voting front. He played a key role in investigating voting irregularities reported during the 2004 presidential election in Ohio.

In the other chamber, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is likely to take the leadership post on the Rules Committee. Feinstein this fall pledged to introduce a bill similar to Holt's, H.R. 550.

Feinstein's proposal also would mandate that voting machines produce paper records, and it would require that those paper trails be audited by election officials. Furthermore, the measure would require that all voting software be certified by the Election Assistance Commission.

A flurry of e-voting-related bills was floated in both chambers earlier this fall. Among them was Senate a bill to provide funding to states and counties to purchase emergency paper ballots for the election that was just held.

Brad Friedman, a critic of e-voting and the author of the Web log BradBlog.com, said he is encouraged that the issue appears to have gained momentum. But he said paper trails alone will not solve the problems posed by electronic machines. He warned that if Holt's bill fails to address that, it would become a sequel of the 2002 act rather than a solution to it.

"What we need is a paper ballot for every vote cast, not a paper trail," he said.

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E-voting glitches give election watchers pause

Michael Martinez — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

According to a report released this fall by Election Data Services, more than a third of counties are administering elections this year on new equipment. In an afternoon teleconference, Jonah Goldman of the Lawyers' Community for Civil Rights Under Law said that by noon, a steady flow of complaints had been heard from voters in Ohio.

The organization helped lead an effort by the nonpartisan Election Protection coalition to monitor and report e-voting problems throughout the country. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Voting Rights Institute and People for the American Way also were part of the effort.

According to Goldman, a hotline set up by Election Protection had received more than 9,000 complaints, many of them in Ohio.

AP also reported that struggles with e-voting machines caused long lines in several counties in the Buckeye State, including Cuyahoga County, the site of a disastrous spring primary. Some voters in the Cleveland area said that election officials there did not successfully activate machines until polls had been open for 10 minutes.

Matt Zimmerman, a staff attorney at EFF, said voters in Florida and Illinois also flagged early setbacks. He said EFF is preparing litigation in Broward County, Fla., where polls opened three hours late.

Various reports of e-voting trouble also streamed in from Colorado, Indiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Utah.

The Denver Post reported that Democrats in Colorado are calling for polling places to remain open longer because computer glitches caused lengthy backups in Denver. A spokesman for the Denver Election Commission attributed some of the computer snags to power failures in the city.

Election officials in the city said most of the problems were solved by mid-morning, but many voters were forced to leave for work before they were able to cast ballots.

E-voting news from polling places was relayed though Web logs during the day. Talking Points Memo reported of complete machine failures in Arlington Heights, Ill., and Sullivan County, Tenn. Power Line blog's forum also flagged setbacks in Pennsylvania. Technology Daily's new blog, Tech Daily Dose, reported some of the details as covered in the blogosphere.

There were even accounts of lawmakers and election officials having problems at the polls. CNN reported that South Carolina Gov. Terry Sanford was turned away from his precinct because he failed to provide sufficient identification.

Goldman said the early reports of e-voting snafus again highlighted Ohio as the state "where it's all happening." On the national scale, he said the early results were further evidence that officials at all levels of government are "bad consumers" when it comes to e-voting.

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Public-safety officials urged to embrace innovation

Michael Martinez — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

The study by the Aspen Institute found that the American safety community needs to abandon specialized systems and equipment, and adopt new strategies that take advantage of solutions already being implemented by the private sector and the military.

By creating a "network of networks" across an Internet-based infrastructure, the safety community can work to develop cost-effective methods to allow for interoperable communications among emergency responders that can include existing radio systems.

"The system whereby local agencies operate their own information and communications technology to support their emergency services is a relic of an antiquated technology model," the report said. "This relic, unfortunately, is reinforced by prevailing cultural norms, current spectrum policy, the lack of incentives to migrate to a new model, and decentralized management."

According to the report, federal policymakers must create incentives for officials to dedicate themselves to systems that provide more functionality than dedicated land mobile radio networks. The federal government must provide leadership by providing funding and spectrum licenses, and that can pave the way for state governments to oversee the management of their own communications systems, the report said.

At a roundtable discussion Tuesday, Phil Weiser, the report's author and a University of Colorado law professor, said it will be particularly challenging to persuade leaders and emergency responders to think beyond existing specialized systems and focus on building toward those that leverage innovation. "It's going to be a hard transition," Weiser said.

David Aylward, director of the Comcare Alliance, a nonprofit aimed at improving emergency response, said the report's acknowledgement of opportunities to use technologies and systems that are not limited to traditional responders is revolutionary. He said he hopes it enlightens leaders to solutions they have not previously considered.

"There is not one state in the union where the governor is doing what this report calls for," he said.

Morgan O'Brien, chairman of the public-safety communications firm Cyren Call, said federal regulators need to acknowledge there is a slim amount of spectrum that can be used to support broadband for emergency responders. His firm has urged the FCC to establish a trust to license spectrum for safety communications.

He said the first thing the FCC's new Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau should do is take an inventory of spectrum. "The first thing they need to do is own up to that reality," he said. "It's going to be a resource fight."

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Officials discuss policy, politics of health IT

Michael Martinez — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

At a health information technology summit, Leavitt said an executive order issued by President Bush last month to promote healthcare efficiency and IT use within the federal government was a major step because it involves the largest and most important player in the health sector. He said the order sends a message to the rest of the industry that the federal government is committed to changing its behavior in marketing and procuring health care.

According to Leavitt, the progress of health IT legislation has not been delayed by a lack of interest on Capitol Hill but rather by an influx of interest in the issue. The interest has generated numerous bills on the topic.

"I would argue it's not a lack of political will," he said. "I would argue that it's an abundance of political will."

Leavitt also said sociology, not technology, is preventing the industry from moving forward. But he said he is optimistic about creating a system predicated on "value-based competition."

"I believe this is a very important moment in healthcare history," he said. "I say that because all the components of change are in place."

In a separate address at the summit, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett said the healthcare industry is lagging behind others in America that have deployed technology to make themselves more competitive. "Fundamentally, this industry is moving at glacial speed," he said.

Those with purchasing power have to provide incentives for the adoption of technology because the healthcare industry is incapable of modifying itself as it is, according to Barrett. He said the debate cannot be about who pays for the changes, and there is a pressing need for a performance-based system that stimulates competition. "I don't think the current situation, status quo, is acceptable," Barrett said.

Pollsters Mark Mellman of the Mellman Group and Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies also addressed the conference. Both said all signs indicate that this year's election will not be friendly to incumbents and that health IT is unlikely to be an issue that will help candidates score political points.

Mellman said part of the frustration among voters with the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress can be attributed to the performance of the economy, and the affordability of quality health care is a major common concern. But he said health IT is a tricky issue to communicate to voters. Now-New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine learned that last year when he made a health IT plan part of his campaign platform, Mellman added.

According to McInturff, it is particularly difficult for candidates to communicate the urgency of health IT issues without being overly critical of hospitals and health organizations that can be valuable allies during a campaign.

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Auditor blasts California's emergency management work

Michael Martinez — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

A report issued by state Auditor Elaine Howle found that the state has been slow in spending the $1.3 billion in federal grants it has received in the past five years and that as much as $239 million could be taken back if it is not put to use properly.

As of June, according to the audit, the state had spent only 42 percent of the $954 million in homeland security funds awarded between 2001 and 2005. The state also received $386 million in bioterrorism grants.

Some of the grants expire by the end of this year, the audit said.

"In one instance, nearly 10.5 months passed between the start of the award period and the awarding of the allocations by the governor's office of homeland security," the report said. "Further, reasons offered by local jurisdictions to explain the slow spending include the state's slow process for reimbursing local jurisdictions for their homeland security expenses and the short time allowed for developing budgets coupled with a time-consuming budget-revision process."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday announced plans to use a $9 million security grant to fund a public health laboratory at the University of California at Los Angeles.

The report also faulted the governor's Office of Emergency Services for falling behind schedule in its review of emergency plans for counties. In a letter to Schwarzenegger, Howle said the state's organizational structure is neither "streamlined" nor "well-defined." She said the relationships among various state agencies and committees also are ambiguous.

"If this situation continues, this labyrinthine structure could adversely affect emergency response and reduce the state's efficiency and effectiveness in investing the federal grant funds," she said.

The audit recommended that Schwarzenegger immediately test the responsiveness of state medical and health systems, identify steps to expedite the spending of security grants and streamline the state's preparedness structure. Some of that could be accomplished by defining in law the relationships among various state agencies and legislative branches, the report said.

It also urged the state's emergency services office to develop a system to track and review its response plans.

Matthew Bettenhausen, director of the state's homeland security office, said in a letter to Howle that he agreed with most of the audit's recommendations. But he said some blame for the failure to move quickly on emergency preparedness should be laid on the federal government.

He said the office is "extraordinarily frustrated with the ever-changing and myriad complex requirements imposed by the federal government across the multitude of separate homeland security grant programs."

Bettenhausen also asserted that California responders gained valuable experience during the past several years managing real-life emergencies, and that a program authorized by Schwarzenegger in 2004 to administer yearly, full-scale emergency exercises has helped boost security.

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Firms launch security card coalition

Michael Martinez — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

The Secure ID Coalition, which is comprised of Gemalto, Ifineon Technologies, Oberthur Card Systems, Royal Phillips Electronics and Texas Instruments, is aiming to promote the appropriate use of "smart card" technologies that allow digital security solutions for ID documents.

In a telephone interview, Tres Wiley, the director of e-documents at Texas Instruments, said similar industry groups are becoming too large and include so many different kinds of companies that they are no longer able to provide useful advice. The Secure ID Coalition will focus on promoting contact-less smart cards instead of those that are embedded with radio-frequency identification chips, which are readable from longer distances.

The coalition was unveiled at the National Conference of State Legislatures annual meeting here.

Neville Pattison, the director of government affairs at Gemalto, said one of the group's primary goals will be to advertise the security benefits of smart cards over other technologies, including RFID.

Citizens are entitled to know whether RFID is in documents, and where and when their personal information can be read, according to a list of "citizen privacy rights" posted to the coalition's Web site.

"RFID as it is generally known is a palatable product," he said. "It is inappropriate in identity applications."

Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, have introduced an amendment to a appropriations bill calling for the use of smart cards in a pending border security and travel initiative. The Homeland Security Department has supported cards embedded with RFID.

But Wiley said the coalition also will focus on state-level issues. He said he hopes the coalition's expertise will help prevent state lawmakers from prohibiting certain technologies and from implementing problematic technological solutions. Pending bills in California would outlaw the use or tracking tags in driver's licenses and school ID cards.

"You're going to see us continue to be active at the state level," he said. "We want to make sure state legislators don't enact bans out of fear and confusion."

James Sheire, a government relations manager at Phillips Semiconductors, said the coalition also will be active in states where lawmakers have established commissions to study ID card technologies. Lawmakers in New Hampshire earlier this year contemplated rejecting a federal law mandating nationwide standards for ID cards but instead elected to launch a study commission into the issue.

"We definitely intend to get into some of those state commissions and give them the advice we can," he said.

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Innovations give candidates new avenues to voters

Michael Martinez — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Campaigns have put candidate profiles on online social networks like Facebook and MySpace. They have uploaded videos to file-sharing sites such as YouTube to broadcast their platforms and, in some cases, for a little political mischief. Some candidates even have doctored the online encyclopedia entries of their opponents to try to gain an edge.

But no one knows for certain whether any of the innovations will help candidates where it counts: at the ballot box in November.

Julie Supan, YouTube's senior marketing director, told The Washington Post last month that she believes her company's service is a "game changer" that enables anyone, including activists and even lesser-funded candidates, to produce content and reach an audience.

Web log authors and online activists loaded hordes of homemade videos onto YouTube in the run-up to this month's Connecticut Democratic primary. Millionaire challenger Ned Lamont largely funded his campaign himself, but the videos helped generate attention for his bid, and he defeated Sen. Joseph Lieberman 52 percent to 48 percent.

A similar philosophy of engaging voters also appears to be behind Campaigns Wikia, an online political encyclopedia that anyone can edit launched earlier this summer by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. In a July mission statement, Wales said Campaigns Wikia and other new online tools are "participatory media" that he hopes will usher in a new era of "participatory politics."

"Broadcast media brought us broadcast politics," he said. "And let's be simple and bluntly honest about it: Left or right, conservative or liberal, broadcast politics are dumb, dumb, dumb.

According to Wales, the wiki model could elevate debate in political campaigns by facilitating the collection of collaborative knowledge. Some candidates already are incorporating wikis into their campaign Web sites. Pete Ashdown, a long-shot Democratic candidate running against Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, allows anyone to contribute to his policy wiki.

"The candidates who will win elections in the future will be the candidates who build genuinely participative campaigns by generating and expanding genuine communities of engaged citizens," Wales said.

Campaigns also are experimenting with social-networking sites, where candidates have created profiles with details about their platforms and tidbits about their personalities.

But some campaigns also have used that arena to take shots at their enemies. Democrats in Maryland, for instance, acknowledged earlier this year that they authored a fake Facebook profile for Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich.

Fred Wertheimer, president of the nonprofit government and campaign watchdog Democracy 21, also said that applications such as YouTube could affect elections because of their broad reach. "Communications is central to politics," he said. "It is central to government. It is central to elections. It is at the core of how our system works."

But Wertheimer said it is still uncertain how YouTube and other new tools can best be exploited to communicate political messages and mobilize groups of voters. He said campaign experts are watching their performance during this year's election closely.

"It's kind of hard to get past the fact that we're still in the middle of the Atlantic floating to New America," he said.

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DHS official emphasizes importance of interoperable communications

Michael Martinez — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

But the deployment of such interoperable communications systems will require funding and coordination among state and local emergency responders, Tracy Henke, the department's assistant secretary for grants and training, said at the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"Interoperability is a mission-critical capability," she told the conference's task force on homeland security and emergency preparedness.

Homeland Security is negotiating the transfer of $1 billion from the Commerce Department to fund the development of interoperable communications systems, according to Henke. She said the cash, which has been generated through spectrum sales, will help boost interoperability projects throughout the country.

But Henke said it also is vital that some emergency responders take the first step of deploying adequate communications networks before they focus on making them work across jurisdictions. "We have areas that don't have basic operability still," she said.

Henke also told the task force that the department is re-evaluating its criteria for allocating grants but that she only expects minor changes before next year. She stressed that the department distributes the grants within the limitations imposed upon them by congressional budgets.

The department earlier this year announced a 40 percent cut in anti-terrorism grant funding for the New York and Washington metropolitan areas for fiscal 2006, a decision that has been widely criticized by federal, state and local lawmakers.

Henke said the department is working to make the process more transparent by giving state and local officials opportunities to see what items are being considered before grants are authorized.

New York state Sen. Michael Balboni said it would be helpful to have more access and input in the process, but he said it is difficult for many at the state level to make time to conduct proper reviews because of their staffing levels.

Balboni also expressed concern about the criteria used to complete the department's database of national assets. He said he would have preferred that both the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building be counted as national icons and as critical infrastructure.

Henke said that congressional appropriators set timelines for the evaluation of grant applications and that the department must work within such timeframes.

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Federal officials urge immediate preparation for pandemic

Michael Martinez — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0400

In a panel discussion hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Homeland Security Senior Public Health Adviser Lynn Slepski said private firms need to examine how various technological solutions can help them continue operating during a pandemic. "There will be a period of time when life will not be normal," she said.

Slepski said her department is putting the final stages on a toolkit that private businesses can use for guidance on how to best manage their technological infrastructures and workforces and make other preparations for disasters. She said that while teleworking and wireless applications appear to be promising solutions, businesses need to be judicious about whom they hire to handle their information technology networks.

Raymond Strikas, the seasonal and pandemic influenza coordinator at the Health and Human Services Department, said the country is better prepared for a pandemic than many observers expect. He said accusations made last fall after Hurricane Katrina that the government is ill-equipped to respond to disasters are off base.

According to Strikas, the threat of a pandemic should not be approached as merely a hypothetical problem. He also dismissed recent claims that avian flu is being hyped like the "Y2K" problem at the beginning of the millennium. "It's not if, it's when," Strikas said.

In a separate discussion, Andy Malay, the vice president of the federal civilian division of SAP Public Services, said his company has incorporated disaster plans into its personnel strategies. He said SAP has been taking steps to make its workforce more mobile by issuing its employees laptop computers, cellular telephones and other wireless devices.

"We've established a matrix-like organization," he said.

C. Randall Mullet, the vice president of government relations for the Con-Way trucking firm, said pandemic preparation is complicated because he is in a low-tech business that depends on high-tech systems. He also said the nature of the trucking industry makes telework impossible.

"It puts us in a situation where we have to make a lot of choices," Mullet said.

The moderator of the second panel, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Alfonso Martinez-Fonts, said government should play a pivotal role for the private sector during a pandemic by protecting critical infrastructures necessary to the economy.

The event's keynote speaker, Rajeev Venkayya, a special assistant to the White House for biodefense policy, said that many of the things businesses need to do to enhance teleworking capacities in preparation for potential outbreaks are things they should be doing anyway.

"This isn't just important for pandemic planning," he said. "This is just good business sense."

But Venkayya said there is little the federal government can do to mitigate the effects of a pandemic by tightening border security and mandating travel restrictions. He said his office also is closely examining whether school closures would have an impact on rates of illness.

"The federal government is never going to be able to solve this problem," he said.

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Democratic senators criticize administration's cybersecurity efforts

Michael Martinez — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0400

In the wake of several high-profile data breaches at government agencies this year, Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont said the administration has been reckless in its refusal to fill the position in a timely manner. He said individuals whose personal information has been compromised have paid the price for such mistakes.

"I wish we were just talking about security," Leahy said. "Unfortunately, we're talking about incompetence."

Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said it is hypocritical for lawmakers to demand that private companies secure and protect the personal information of individuals for which they are responsible when the government itself has been so careless.

The theft of a laptop computer belonging to the Veterans Affairs Department this spring exposing the personal information of more than 26 million Americans is the "tip of the iceberg," Schumer said. The computer was recovered last month. He added that data breaches at the Agriculture, Energy and Health and Human Services departments indicate complacency at all levels of government.

"The bottom line is what bank robbery was in the Depression, ID theft is to the information age," Schumer said.

According to Schumer, the Bush administration missed a crucial opportunity after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to establish measures to protect American's information technology infrastructure.

"The administration completely overlooked the pink gorilla in the room -- cyberspace," Schumer said.

Floridian Bill Nelson said Homeland Security's inaction on cyber security is demonstrative of its overall inadequacy. He said the department's response to hurricanes in his state during the past several years has been inexcusable. He called its management of cyber security "unconscionable."

Nelson said he is frustrated that lawmakers have not been given an opportunity to craft a combination of the data security bills approved by the Commerce and Judiciary committees in the past year. Leahy blamed the GOP leadership for not allowing his colleagues to bring up the proposals.

"There's no reason that these two bills can't be married up," Nelson said.

Paul Kurtz, director of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, said the Bush administration has gone "absent without leave" on information security issues and that no government body is more responsible than the Homeland Security. Kurtz said the stakes for inaction are high because the U.S. economy and government security systems depend so heavily on digital infrastructures.

"Digital systems underpin our national and economic security," said Kurtz, who dealt with cyber security issues as a former special assistant to President Bush.

Leahy echoed Kurtz's call for immediate federal action. He said a well-crafted cyber attack on the United States could be just as disastrous as a physical one, because it could happen at any time and could come from anywhere.

"The administration is big on rhetoric and awfully slow on reality," Leahy said.

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Political climate unfriendly to ID devices, backers say

Michael Martinez — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

At the Smart Cards in Government Conference, advocates for RFID and tech-based "smart cards" said mandates to use modern technologies would dramatically improve the nation's security infrastructure. But resistance to such measures and technologies is swelling, they said.

Marc-Anthony Signorino, the director of technology policy at the tech group AeA, said that a fundamental misunderstanding of RFID spurred a series of poorly written bills in California, Illinois, New Hampshire and New Mexico to limit its use.

He said lawmakers have complicated measures to limit RFID usage because they have tried to make too many exemptions for uses they enjoy, such as smart cards for accessing highway toll lanes. "The legislation ends up looking like Swiss cheese," Signorino said.

Signorino said the political climate in New Hampshire has made it especially difficult for the industry to make a case for itself. The Granite State has been particularly active on the ID front. House lawmakers there last month passed a bill to reject a 2005 federal mandate for standard driver's licenses.

"We're scared to go to New Hampshire," he said. "They have gun racks on their motorcycles. They don't want anyone telling them what to do."

Robert Atkinson, the president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said RFID and smart-card advocates are facing an uphill battle because their opponents already have shaped the debate. "The ground has been so poisoned by the other side that I think it's going to be tough to move forward," Atkinson said.

The movement against RFID and federal driver's licensing standards has garnered support from all areas of the political spectrum, according to Atkinson.

He said an "unholy alliance" of groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Eagle Forum, which is led by conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, has choked the ability of the technology industry to gather political support. "This isn't a group of fringe players," he said.

Atkinson said he does not expect the Homeland Security Department to require embedded computer chips driver's licenses because detractors of the mandate have convinced enough people that such chips will do little to improve national security. "I just don't think it's going to happen," he said.

Richard Varn, the president of RJV Consulting and a former chief technology officer, said smart-card advocates should focus on convincing lawmakers to punish bad behavior instead of banning technology. He said lawmakers throughout the country need to "beef up" cyber-crime efforts.

"They are not investing sufficient money compared to the size of the crime to efficiently combat it," he said.

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