State Department tests info sharing. The State Department launched a pilot project last week in India and Mexico to share information across agencies, using technology to plug security holes such as the kind that allowed some of the 11 September hijackers to obtain U.S. visas. The goal is to create a collaborative environment to enable federal employees worldwide to check information in real-time. The 20-week pilot project with 2,500 users is being run in Mexico, India, and Washington, DC. Contributing agencies will be responsible for updating information in the system, enabling embassy officials to check the databases of 40 government agencies to see if the applicant has a record before deciding to issue the individual a visa. (Federal Computer Week, 20 May) Report warns of poor security at Research Reactors with weapons-grade Uranium. As Russia and the U.S. step up security of their nuclear materials, a new report raises concerns about inadequate safeguards of uranium used at hundreds of civilian research reactors in 58 countries. The report released on 20 May urges the U.S. and Russia to launch a global effort to end the use of highly enriched, or weapons-grade, uranium at these research facilitates. In most cases the uranium was provided by either the U.S. or Russia. "Security at these hundreds of buildings varies widely from excellent to appalling," said the report. "In some cases security is provided by a single sleepy watchman and a chain-link fence." The report said that despite the heightened awareness since the terrorist attacks, "the U.S. and global response to the threat of nuclear terrorism are not remotely commensurate with the threat." (Associated Press, 20 May) Magaw says airports can meet deadline. The chief of the new federal Transportation Security Administration said on 20 May, the nation's airports will meet the 31 December deadline for screening of all checked baggage but it may require using a combination of two different types of explosive detection equipment. John Magaw said explosive trace detectors may have to be used in some airports rather than larger detection machines in order to meet the deadline, which he said is the "biggest challenge" facing airports. About 429 airports are impacted by the new federal security requirements. (UPI, 20 May) Orlando Water Supply Threatened. Security to all of Orlando's water purification and distribution facilities were beefed up as the result of an uncorroborated and vague threat. Details of the threat were not released due to an ongoing investigation. According to Jim Solomons, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriffs Department, Members of the Central Florida Regional Homeland Security Task Force met on 19 May and "implemented appropriate safety and security measures." (CNN, 19 May) Worm infects Kazaa network. Ever popular file sharing networks are coming under attack as antivirus experts detect a "first of its kind" worm crawling through the Kazaa network. Security watchers warned on 20 May of the "Benjamin" worm, which attacked users of the peer-to-peer network over the weekend. Because of the popularity of file sharing networks such as Kazaa, Benjamin is not short of victims. When Benjamin infects a computer, it creates a directory accessible by other members of the Kazaa network. It then regularly and frequently copies itself into this directory under a multitude of different names, duping users searching for similarly named files. Once the worm is downloaded onto another machine and executed, it repeats the process. Benjamin is the first worm found to infect the Kazaa network, but other file sharing systems - Gnutella, for example - have come under attack in the past. (Vnunet.com, 20 May) ~dmh
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