CA Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a package of legislation that will strengthen the state's ability to respond to emergencies and natural disasters. These include a bill that merges the Governor's Office of Emergency Services (OES) and Office of Homeland Security (OHS) into the California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA).  To read the Governor's press release, click here...

The Space Foundation has published a white paper "ITAR and the U.S. Space Industry." The paper examines the effect of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which govern the export of space technology, click here...

Why does this matter to SF Bay InfraGard?  The bay area continues to be one of the major developers of both commercial and military space technology.  The ITAR regulations directly impact the operations of not only companies like Lockheed Martin and Loral but many of the large and small high tech companies in the region who have dual-use technologies.

GAO says ... "The DHS team, established in 2003 to analyze cyber threats and disseminate warning information, has failed to conduct predictive cyber analysis to identify and protect against future threats, encourage information sharing among government and private sector entities, and manage its workload."

To download this GAO report, click here...
CERT, U.S. CERT

Testimony of Charles E. Allen, DHS Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis and the Chief Intelligence Officer, before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment.  To read, click here...

Santa Clara County supervisors have approved funding today for a county-wide emergency alert system for use in the case of a catastrophic event or disaster.

Multiple formats will be used to communicate with residents of the 15 cities in the county as well as unincorporated areas, informing them of evacuation areas, shelter locations and other life-saving information targeting the county's roughly 1.8 million residents and 565,000 household.  

Summary of Proceedings - Board odf Supervisors Santa Clara County - September 23, 2008, click here...

Santa Clara now joins most other counties in the region who have implemented similar systems. 

Wired article reports that fear of a terrorism could create a mass outbreak of a psychosomatic illness -- even in the absence of any real attack -- -- creating a fake epidemic that could overwhelm hospitals attempting to treat real victims.  To read more, click here...

There are apparently strong signals that Pentagon leadership has decided that the U.S. Strategic Command in Omaha, Neb., will create and run a joint cyber command, dashing any hopes the Air Force had to own all things cyber in the DoD ... To read more, click here...

The Homeland Security Department has been designated to lead the largely classified government wide Comprehensive Cybersecurity Initiative, signed into law by President Bush in January 2008.

To read more, click here...

Other opinions ... 

Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency says DHS should not oversee cybersecurity, click here...

Analysis: An end to DHS' cyber role?  Click here...

GAO Report - DHS Needs to Better Address Its Cybersecurity Responsibilities / Testimony
Before the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology, Committee on Homeland Security, House of Representatives / September 16, 2008

Four demonstration NET Guard teams will be comprised of volunteers with information technology (IT) and communications expertise to assist states and localities in responding to and recovering from incidents that cause significant damage or destruction to IT and communications infrastructure.  Teams will be local assets, managed at the local level, and deployed in response to a request from local or state authorities.

To read the DHS/FEMA press release, click here...

In a presentation last week at the DNI Open Source Conference Dr. Dwight Toavs, a professor at the Pentagon-funded National Defense University, presented a primer on how to use virtual worlds to plan a terrorist attack.  To read a WIRED article, click here..

The Department of Justice is "harmonizing" several sets of Attorney General guidelines to produce a consolidated set of guidelines governing domestic FBI operations that is transparent and as consistent as possible between criminal and national security investigations and foreign intelligence collection.

To read the US DOJ background briefing transcript on the "Consolidated Attorney General Guidelines", click here...

Proposed new FBI rules draw civil liberties worries ... to read this article on Reuters on-line, click here...

The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee working on legislation next week that would provide the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with additional authority to help protect the nation's power grid from a cyberattack. To read more, click here..

Congressman John Dingel the chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce in his opening remarks said -  A successful remote cyber attack on a power plant's utility control systems could do more than cause a brief black out or brown out. The Idaho National Laboratories has shown how a hacker can remotely turn a large generator into a smoldering piece of scrap metal in minutes. Known as the "Aurora" Vulnerability, this type of attack could destroy generating equipment and impair the generation and delivery of electricity across North America for weeks or months, its consequences cascading on consumers, our economy, our health care system, and our national defense assets.  

The first integrated circuit was demonstrated at Texas Instruments on September 12, 2008.
Wired has published an interesting history, click here ...

How lessons from the US governments response to pirates in the early 1800's can help the next President of the United States improve information security.  To read this article, click here...

A disgruntled city computer systems administrator has been arrested and accused of commandeering San Francisco's new multimillion-dollar computer network, altering it to deny access to other administrators. To read more, click here...

Follow-Up / July 17, 2008 - Experts say lax security allowed San Francisco network hijacking.  To read more, click here...

Follow-Up / July 23, 2008 - Jailed systems administrator gives SF Mayor the passwords.  To read more, click here...

Follow-UP / July 23, 2008 - Bail reduction denied.  To read more, click here...

Follow-Up / July 24, 2008 - SF computer system was rigged to fail during back-up power test.  To read more, click here...

Follow-Up / September 9, 2008 - Computer tampering incident could end up costing the city $1 million.  To read more, click here...

Address by DHS Secretary Chertoff at the Brookings Institute.  The read the text of this address, click here ...

Critical Infrastructure and Homeland Security Protection Accomplishments.  To read this DHS Fact Sheet, click here...