Secuirty Beat

June 2006

Trouble in the Skies

Reported by Stew Magnuson

As the Department of Homeland Security continues to pay for tests on systems designed to thwart shoulder-fired missiles from taking down commercial airliners, a potential barrier looms on the horizon.

Any time a U.S. commercial aircraft carrying such technology flies overseas, it would be in violation of federal laws prohibiting the export of military technology.

DHS is currently in phase three of a congressionally mandated program to test the feasibility of laser-based counter missile systems. Affordability, maintenance costs and logistical concerns are seen as some of the major roadblocks to implementation. The Arms Export Control Act and its International Traffic in Arms Regulations, better known as ITAR, regulates the export of military technology overseas.

“If you put this technology on a commercial airplane, as soon as you fly overseas, you’ve exported it,” James Tuttle, DHS program executive for the aircraft protection program, said at an Institute for Defense and Government Advancement conference.

Two contractors, BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman, are working on competing laser-based technologies that both derived from military research. The technology would fall under two categories of the munitions list. One is aircraft and associated equipment. The other is fire control, range finder, optical and guidance and control equipment.

Gaining a waiver is a complicated process that involves negotiations with the State Department and Congress.

“We know some laws are going to have to change, but we want to make sure we are protecting the technology,” Tuttle said. Tamper-proof seals on the devices would be a possible solution, he added.

When testing is complete, Congress will have to decide whether to fund the system.

An additional hurdle will be the Federal Aviation Administration, which has the responsibility of approving any technology incorporated onto a commercial airliner.

“Congress has a lot of decisions to make to say the least,” Tuttle said.

In-Line Security System Could Save Millions

While the Transportation Security Administration struggles to hire and keep baggage screeners, the Government Accountability Office said changing the explosive detection system for checked bags would save millions for taxpayers and reduce labor costs.

Cathleen Berrick, GAO’s director of homeland security and justice issues, said a study of nine airports showed that changing to an in-line system, where bags are scanned on conveyor belts that deliver bags to planes, would save taxpayers $1 billion over seven years. The cost of installing such a system to all but one of the airports would be recovered within one year.

Current systems require transportation security officers to hand feed stand-alone machines. This results in disability due to back injuries, and makes the process more labor intensive.

One of the nine airports studied, however, would require extensive structural changes and result in a $90 million loss over seven years.

Gregory Principato, president of Airports Council International-North America, said the cost of installing in-line systems should be borne entirely by the federal government “given its direct responsibility for baggage screening established in law, in light of the national security imperative for doing so, and because of the economic efficiencies of this strategy,” he told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

The airport at Lexington Blue-Grass Airport in Kentucky paid for its own in-line system, and reduced the number of TSA screeners from 30 per shift to four.

At passenger checkpoints, TSA needs to improve its research and development of a new explosive detection system, Berrick found. Manufacturers have made little progress in reducing false positives, she added.

Alliance Endorses Bar Code for Real ID

A consortium of government and industries involved in document security has recommended two-dimensional bar codes to fulfill a requirement for machine-readable personal data on driver’s licenses and other official identification cards, when the Real ID Act goes into effect in 2008.

The act calls for the Department of Homeland Security to specify a technology that can be uniformly applied throughout the United States to replace the hodgepodge of current systems. Secretary Michael Chertoff has indicated that he favors radio frequency identification (RFID) chips, which contain small antennae that can be read by low frequency transceivers.

Reed Stager, chair of the Document Security Alliance government affairs committee, told National Defense that 2-D barcodes were chosen over RFID because they are more secure and less expensive, and the technology is already in use in 45 states.

While the alliance has no formal authority, its recommendations carry some weight. About 70 industry partners and several government agencies involved in document fraud issues are part of the organization. These include the FBI, Social Security Administration, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and Departments of Treasury, Transportation and Homeland Security.

Privacy groups have expressed concern that RFID chips placed in IDs that are carried in wallets or handbags could be surreptitiously read by criminals through transceivers.

Bar codes cannot be read without the user’s knowledge, Stager said. Also, the additional fees for new IDs would be on par with current fees since the technology is widely used. The watchdog group, Citizens Against Government Waste, estimates that RFID-based IDs would cost about $90.

The 9/11 commission called for more stringent and uniform regulations in the issuance of birth certificates and driver’s licenses. The Real ID Act calls for states to comply with national standards by May 2008.

The alliance also recommended updating and refreshing ID anti-counterfeiting technologies on cards every five years. This must also be done uniformly, Stager pointed out, because criminals will “always take the paths of least resistance.” If one state’s ID is easier to fake than others, they will gravitate toward the one with the older technologies.

The alliance believes each card should have at least two covert authentication features, which cannot be seen without special technology, such as micro-writing or ultra-violet light, both of which are currently being employed by many states.

Before an identity can be verified, applicants must present such documents as Social Security cards and birth certificates. Ensuring these easily faked paper documents are not counterfeit poses several problems, Stager said. The alliance recommends scanning into a database all the so-call “genesis” documents, so they can be checked. Social Security cards can be verified through a national database. About 85 percent of states currently do so, however, birth certificates pose a “monumental problem,” he said. More than 14,000 public entities currently issue such documents, and creating a national database would take several years, he said.

High turnover for baggage screeners

The Transportation Security Administration is searching for a few good men and women to work as baggage screeners at airports. The often backbreaking work, however, offers a small starting salary, a glacially slow hiring process and little time for training because of staff shortages.

Cathleen Berrick, director of homeland security and justice issues at the Government Accountability Office, said that TSA has made improvements, but is still facing difficulty hiring and keeping personnel.

Transportation security officer salaries start at $28,000 per year, which is unchanged since 2002. A 3 percent annual raise is all employees can expect, she told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

The annual attrition rate is 23 percent for full-time screeners and 50 percent for part-timers. TSA plans call for 20 percent of the workforce to be part-timers, but the agency has had a difficult time hiring and retaining them at wages of $10 to $12 an hour with no benefits, she said. The officers are also being called to do administrative work, which is creating staffing shortages at checkpoints.

To further complicate matters, many officers are out on disability, mostly due to injuries that were suffered while lifting heavy baggage, she added. TSA estimates it will pay $57 million in workers compensation claims in 2007.

The shortages mean little time for required training, which is done on-line. Meanwhile, some airports lack high-speed Internet access.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Kip Hawley said these concerns are being addressed. The 2007 budget request includes $10 million to improve recruitment and retention. TSA is attempting to decentralize hiring and letting regional managers take charge of the process. “Our goal is, ‘Let’s train them and keep them,’” Hawley said.

Local’s role in intelligence sharing pondered

The sharing of intelligence between the federal government, and state and local law enforcement is a two way street — but one that isn’t always straight or easily traveled.

Local police agencies have received conflicting and confusing information from different federal agencies regarding potential terrorist attacks in their communities.

Meanwhile, they’re seen as invaluable source for uncovering terrorist plots.

“One of the greatest challenges will be bridging the gap between the intelligence community and the non-intelligence community,” said John Cohen, senior adviser to the information sharing environment program manager in the office of the director of national intelligence.

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act created the organization as a stand-alone entity responsible for pulling information from all sources, including the private sector and state and local entities, not just from the federal intelligence community. It is administratively part of ODNI, but works independently.

Louis Quijas, FBI assistant director of the office of state and local coordination, said the bureau, once notorious for its secrecy, is getting better at sharing information, but he has to constantly remind officials in meetings to pass information down to their counterparts.

State, local and tribal law enforcement agencies are “not junior partners in the war on terrorism, but full partners,” Quijas said.

Local agencies transmitting “suspicious activity” reports to the feds are seen as crucial participants in law enforcement efforts.

John Rollins, a terrorism specialist at the Congressional Research Service, said locals are sending such reports to the feds, but getting little in return.

They don’t know the criteria or thresholds for what information the federal government needs. And when they do send reports, they are not put in context, Rollins said.

Cohen said the 800,000 state and local officers have a critical role to play. In the course of their regular duties, they may come across a terrorist cell that is engaged in an illegal activity. “People who want to carry out theses attacks do not simply sit in a hotel room hatching their scheme … they’re involved in a whole host of activities” including drug trafficking, document fraud and cigarette smuggling.

Forty-two states have or are setting up intelligence fusion centers. There are also about 100 joint terrorism task forces in place that combine federal and local members to sort through information, Cohen said.

Still, Rollins predicted the goal of attaining information access and sharing across federal agencies and down to local entities will take a decade, or maybe more.

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