Access Control
& Security Systems

A report issued by the Commission for the Review of FBI Security Programs reveals significant deficiencies stemming from what the report calls "a pervasive inattention to security, which has been, at best, a low priority." The report also criticizes FBI handling of documents following the Sept. 11 attacks.

"We must capitalize on this historic opportunity to make badly needed improvements," says FBI director Robert S. Mueller in a response to the review of the Commission led by former FBI Director and Director of Central Intelligence, Judge William Webster. "While we can never completely eliminate the possibility of a trusted person betraying his country, we can, we must, and we are making these changes part of our everyday way of doing business."

The report points to an October 10 lifting of restrictions on FBI investigative files, which helped investigators share information among themselves. The problem, according to the report, is that the officials who lifted the restrictions never consulted FBI security experts. Many of the files included secret wiretaps and searches.

"While much remedial work remains to be done, I am pleased that FBI Director Robert Mueller already has instituted a number of important reforms to improve internal security at the Bureau," says Attorney General John Ashcroft in a statement. "Under Director Mueller's leadership, a new Security Division has been established that will centralize responsibility for internal security at an executive level within the FBI. In addition, the FBI has taken steps to limit access to sensitive information, eliminate vulnerabilities of information technology systems, expand the use of polygraph examinations, and increase security awareness and training."

The Webster Commission was formed in response to lapses that helped Robert Hanssen -- an FBI Supervisory Special Agent -- elude U.S. capture while spying for Russia and the Soviet Union for more than 20 years. According to the report, Hanssen supplied Russian and Soviet officials with diskettes full of national security information. Hanssen "usually collected this material in the normal routine of an FBI manager privy to classified information."

This month in Access Control

• Targeting The Customer
• Electronic Pedigrees
• One Hero Among Many
• Who? What? When? Where? Why?
• More from September's issue