Web-based tip line may solve some school security issues
At a private Web site, students can now send secret messages to staff at Westfield High School in Texas about their own -- and other people's -- problems, The Houston Chronicle reports.
In the Houston area, Westfield and at least two other schools have tried the e-mail system developed by a Houston nonprofit organization and now run by AnComm, a Mississippi-based company with its own MySpace page. More than 40 schools use it nationwide....
Early Christmas: Retail theft rising quickly for holiday season
Before the holiday shopping season gets into full swing, crooks may already be hard at work, The San Jose Mercury News reports. The crooks typically don't wait until after Thanksgiving, when malls will be packed with customers and stores have more employees around.
"We see a lot of organized retail crime activity right now," says Joseph LaRocca, vice president for loss prevention for the National Retail Federation. "They're stocking up for the holidays."
...
ASG Security Summit emphasizes enterprise security
Five tips to properly delete sensitive data
Security system produces measurable results for school
The number of fights reported in the Pharr - San Juan - Alamo (PSJA) High School district in Texas for the first two months of the school year decreased 58 percent from the same period last year, according to district disciplinary records. ...
Passenger and luggage screening hits the rails
New York passengers boarding Amtrak trains will be among the first in the nation to be subject to random screenings by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) as part of a pilot security program. ...
What do executives think of security? Survey has mixed results
Companies most attuned to security issues are those with the most exposure to a range of security risks, according to a survey by The Conference Board, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security....
FBI raids home of fake boarding pass maker
A 24-year-old computer security student working on his doctorate at Indiana University-Bloomington recently created a Web site that allowed anyone with an Internet connection and a printer to create and print fake boarding passes for Northwest Airlines flights.
Federal law enforcement raided the home of the site's creator, Christopher Soghoian, taking computers and other equipment and leaving behind a search warrant....
Employees successfully sue company for in-office surveillance
Officials at Hillsides, a residential facility for abused children in California, decided to set up a hidden video camera in two employees' joint office after suspicions cropped up that someone was accessing pornography at night.
California's Second Appellate District has ruled that the two employees need not establish that they were actually viewed or recorded to succeed on an invasion of privacy claim, reports the California Employment Law Letter....
RFID-enabled credit cards may be vulnerable, study finds
U.S. consumers carry more than twenty million credit cards and debit cards equipped with RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) chips, which communicate transaction data over short distances via radio, thus eliminating the need to swipe cards or hand them to merchants.
Consumers can instead make payments simply by waving their cards -- or even just their wallets -- near point-of-sale terminals. But while the technology is appealing to both consumers and merchants, the convenience of RFID credit cards has a flip side, according to the RFID Consortium for Security and Privacy....
School district may authorize guns for plain clothes security
The Clarke County School District in Athens, Ga., is considering allowing high school security supervisors to carry guns on campus, The Associated Press reports.
School resource officers, or uniformed police officers assigned to the district's middle and high schools, already carry weapons, as does Frank Platt, the district's security director....
Security programs causing speed issues for IT
According to a survey of IT security buyers and professionals, 70 percent of IT professionals are concerned about performance capabilities of security appliances.
"As security appliances, such as unified threat management platforms, are widely implemented in organizations, there will be issues with maintaining wire speeds," says Victoria Fodale, program manager and analyst for In Stat, a technology research company. ...
Security cameras tested aboard N.J. buses
People on board or driving next to New Jersey Transit buses might want to be on their best behavior because they could be on the bus-cam.
NJ Transit is testing two different types of windshield-mounted cameras to determine if they help security inside the bus, help drivers avoid accidents and enable investigators to reconstruct circumstances leading to crashes, The Asbury Park Press reports.
Two tests are under way to test two types of cameras.
One test is for a conventional camera system, while others buses will test the "Drive Cam" system from San Diego-based Drive Cam....
Next-generation Web browsers focus on security
Botnets threaten critical infrastructure
Internet security provider McAfee Inc. has highlighted the serious threat botnets pose to corporations, government organizations, national infrastructure and Homeland security in a case study.
The scope of this threat is underscored by recent events in Central America, where botnets repeatedly brought down the national infrastructure of a single country....
One-third of corporate employees violate password policies
Passwords are largely ineffective at protecting corporate data due to common human error, a study by Nucleus Research and KnowledgeStorm finds. More than a third of employees write down or electronically record their passwords, creating significant vulnerabilities.
Even worse, lowering the quantity of passwords, changing password complexity, or altering password change frequency had no impact on employee actions....
Thieves targeting cameras
Cooperation key to school security, Bush summit concludes
After leading a school security summit last week, President Bush challenged the United States last week to turn its remorse into action to keep school children safe.
"In many ways, I'm sorry we're having this meeting," Bush said. "In other ways, I know how important it is that we're having this meeting."...
Honeywell's Fritts to receive SIA honor
Port act a victory for cargo chain security
The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and the National Retail Federation (NRF) are hailing President Bush's recent signing of the Security and Accountability for Every (SAFE) Port Act as a victory for security of the cargo chain.
Congress passed the legislation on Sept. 30. It enhances the multi-layered, risk-based cargo security system the U.S. government has developed since the Sept. 11 attacks. Among other provisions, the bill establishes a $400 million annual port security grant program, codifies existing port security programs such as the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) and requires the Department of Homeland Security to develop plans for resuming trade in the event of an attack on ports....
Information theft highlights the latest bank security problems
"Lock bumping" back to forefront
Thieves are cashing in on a not-so-new break-in technique that can give them access to locked materials in seconds.
Criminals can pop open thousands of ordinary pin tumbler locks with a technique called bumping -- when a specially-cut key is inserted and knocked on, causing all the pin tumblers in the lock to split and the lock opens....
Security barriers pose safety hazard?
State-of-the-art ID check technology available to schools
Security tips for school administrators
President Bush today called experts together after three deadly shootings at schools in Wisconsin, Colorado and Pennsylvania (see securitysolutions.com/news/school-shootings-security-concerns/).
In panel discussions led by members of Bush's Cabinet, speakers said the best response is basic: get parents, school leaders, students and police to work together.
"Our first line of prevention is really having good intelligence," said Delbert Elliott, director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence in Boulder, Colo. He said schools should encourage kids to speak up when they hear classmates boasting of violent plans. The Bush Administration, compelled to respond to the violence of the last two weeks, said a public sharing of ideas would help because the nation is suddenly focused on school safety.
With school security top-of-mind, here is a checklist to help school administrators determine potential weaknesses in campus security, from Patrick V. Fiel Sr., a public safety adviser specializing in education for ADT Security Services Inc.:...
