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Aliya Sternstein

Senior Correspondent Aliya Sternstein reports on cybersecurity and homeland security systems for Nextgov. She has covered technology for nine years at such publications as National Journal's TechnologyDaily, Federal Computer Week and Forbes. Before joining Government Executive, she covered agriculture and derivatives trading for Congressional Quarterly. She has been a guest commentator on C-SPAN, WTOP and Federal News Radio. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Tech Roundup

February 1, 2013 Radio Static The Homeland Security Department spent $430 million on a fruitless plan to enable radio users departmentwide to communicate on the same frequency, according to an internal audit released in November 2012. Of 479 radio users the DHS inspector general tested, only one knew how to tune in to ...

U.S. agents rescue sex slaves through data fusion

January 31, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Immigration and Customs Enforcement is freeing sex slaves partly through software that identifies their geographic locations by synching financial transactions, phone records and other discordant data, ICE officials said on Wednesday. Typically, datamining incenses civil liberties advocates, but sifting through mounds of personal information is helping U.S. law enforcement and ...

ICE gives thousands of employees iPhones for work and play

January 29, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Following a three-month iPhone trial, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has turned on security software to protect employees’ work and personal data on as many as 17,000 government-owned devices. Personnel allotted iPhones are allowed to download apps for private use, as long as the software and data do not violate business ...

FBI to start querying national iris index this year

January 28, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Later this year, the FBI expects to begin using scanned images of criminals’ eyes to verify the right convicts are released after completing their sentences and those on the lam are recaptured. Following an arguably successful launch of a nationwide facial recognition trial in 2012, the bureau is on track ...

FBI and DHS team up to nab border intruders with iris recognition

January 25, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The FBI is partnering with the Homeland Security Department to identify border trespassers by exchanging digital eye scans of booked offenders, bureau officials said. Iris recognition -- which matches a digital image of the unique, colored portion of an individual’s eye against archived photos -- quickly ensures authorities have fingered ...

Homeland Security looks to fast-track technology development

January 24, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Federal officials are contemplating a shift to a faster, two-year schedule for fielding security innovations at border checkpoints and other domestic locations that support homeland security. The traditional government procurement cycle can prolong system testing, alone, for half a decade. Officials describe “rapid prototyping” as a relatively novel process for ...

FBI joins TV’s ‘White Collar’ to uncover real fraud

January 23, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow After the Tuesday night series return of White Collar, the FBI and USA Network began partnering with viewers to catch actual fraudsters. The dramedy, now in its fourth season, follows the chases of an FBI agent and his partner, a con artist currently cooperating with the bureau to stay out ...

Secret Service mulls bionic ears to detect gunfire at large events

January 22, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The Secret Service is shopping for camouflaged sensors that can decipher gunshot details amid city hubbub, contracting documents suggest. The agency, responsible for guarding inaugurations and other U.S. special events, would exercise sole control over the surveillance system, rather than let private analysts send assessments, as many cities are starting ...

DHS warns of password-cracker targeting industrial networks

January 18, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The Homeland Security Department is alerting key businesses to a new hacking technique that guesses the passwords of technology that controls power generation and other complex industrial processes. The attack kit targets Siemens S7 programmable logic controllers -- the same machinery pursued by Stuxnet, a worm discovered in 2010 that ...

Tool will help TSA connect the dots among scattered pieces of digital evidence

January 17, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The Transportation Security Administration has awarded a contract for technology to mine digital evidence scattered across emails, the cloud, hard drives and digital files stored in the agency’s internal network, according to the system developer. The tool digests huge volumes of disorganized information, known as big data, according to officials ...