also in this issue · gsn hsa 2017 awards winners announced – page 10 departments of homeland...

January 2018 Edition | GSN Magazine | The News Leader in Physical, IT and Homeland Security

Also in this issue:GSN HSA 2017 Awards Winners Announced – 0

Departments of Homeland Security and Justice Release Data on Incarcerated Aliens-94% of all Confirmed Aliens in DOJ Custody are Unlawfully Present – Page 46

Automated Border Control Kiosks Reach 71% Deployment – Page 6

Pilot Project Helps Secure First Responder Apps From Cyberattacks – Page 6

Top five emerging cybersecurity trends for 2018 - Page 7

GSN January 2018 Digital Edition Table of Contents


Top fi ve emerging cybersecurity trends for 2018 from Netwrix

Executive Order Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption

Exterior View of the Aircraft Explosive Testing Simulator during a Test

Departments of Homeland Security and Justice Release Data on Incarcerated Aliens-94% of all Confi rmed Aliens in DOJ Cus-tody are Unlawfully Present

Automated Border Control Kiosks

GSN announces Winners and Finalists in the 2017 Homeland Security Awards Program

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More than 170 members of House of Representatives Join Effort to Create Independent Commission to investigate foreign interference in U.S. Elections Louisiana parish protects children in schools with real-time chemical detection technology, by George Lane

AMICO Security expects to play major role in Trump’s border security initiative

USCIC updates how processing times are posted: specifi c dates rather than weeks or months States and localities respond to Donald Trump’s immigration plans

Robots, not immigrants, are replacing U.S. manufacturing workers

Rule will streamline approval of new technologies DOJ issues fi nal rule about unfair immigration-related employment practices

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Cybersecurity

Top five emerging cybersecurity trends for 2018Netwrix sums up the top cyberse-curity trends that will define the way organizations develop their IT strategies in the coming year.

Netwrix Corporation, provider of a visibility platform for user behavior analysis and risk mitigation in hy-brid environments, outlines the top 5 emerging IT security trends likely to affect the way organizations will approach cybersecurity in 2018.

Although external cyber attacks continue to become more sophis-ticated, the primary security threat still comes from insiders. To keep up with the evolving threat land-scape, organizations may have to rethink their security strategies and come up with new approaches to tackling cybersecurity issues. Netwrix predicts that the following trends will play a significant role in 2018:

1. Blockchain for IT security. Blockchain technology enables data storage in a decentralized and distributed manner, which elimi-nates a single point of failure and prevents hackers from compro-mising large volumes of data. Due to its ability to quickly identify the

data that has been manipulated, blockchain may become the core technology for highly regulated industries, like banking and law.

2. Focus on insider threats. Netwrix’s IT Risks Survey found that most organizations lack visibility into user behavior, which makes them vulnerable to insider threats. The need to keep sensitive information secure and prevent insider breaches will force organizations to make more efforts to establish stricter control over user activity in their IT environments.

3. Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust Assessment. Since protection against be-hind-the-perimeter attacks is not sufficient today, Gartner suggests a Continuous Risk and Trust Assessment Approach (CARTA), which sees security as a continuous process that changes all the time and has to be regularly reviewed. Real-time assessment of risk and trust will enable organizations to make better decisions regarding their cybersecurity posture and mitigate the risks associated with aberrant user activities.

4.Growing demand for advanced analytics. Because security software generates massive amounts of data, organi-

zations need advanced analytics to gain a complete picture of what’s going on in their IT environments. The growing adoption of user and

entity behavior analytics (UEBA) technology will help companies understand their weak points better and promptly respond to any activ-ities that might pose threat to data integrity.

5. Organization-specific approach to IT security. Organizations will expect vendors to offer more personalized security solutions that address specific pain points depending on a company’s size, IT environment complexity and budget. This will give business-es an opportunity to implement products that better match their needs, and small vendors with a single focus will be able to compete with larger but less flexible software providers.

In 2017, external threats, such as state-sponsored attacks and cloud hacks, were the hottest topics for IT professionals. We expect that in 2018, the main focus will be on insider threats, since rogue or negligent employees and intruders with stolen credentials may pose a bigger risk to security than outsider hackers. Organizations will likely do their best to minimize insider risks — by keeping a closer watch on user activities, analyzing user behavior, and regularly assessing risks to proactively spot weaknesses and improve their security posture.

Michael Fimin, CEO and Co-founder of Netwrix

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Border Control GSN January 2018 Digital Edition Table of Contents

More than 170 members of House of Representatives Join Effort to Create Independent Commission to investigate foreign interference in U.S. Elections

Louisiana parish protects children in schools with real-time chemical detection technology, by George Lane

AMICO Security expects to play major role in Trump’s border security initiative

USCIC updates how processing times are posted: specifi c dates rather than weeks or months

States and localities respond to Donald Trump’s immigration plans

Robots, not immigrants, are replacing U.S. manufacturing workers

Rule will streamline approval of new technologies

DOJ issues fi nal rule about unfair immigration-related employment practices

GSN announces Winners and Finalists in the 2017 Homeland Security Awards Program

Will Congress fund President Trump’s executive order on border enforcement?

Resentment and hatred from the Middle East: Why they hate us

Cloudera and Docker, Inc. partner to vastly improve the security of data

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FEATURES

HID Global predicts top trends for 2017 in the Identity Technology industry

Heightening security verifi cation with self-service kiosks

Card personalization now making Government ID cards more secure with better visual security

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SPECIAL REPORT ON ACCESS CONTROL & IDENTIFICATION

SPECIAL REPORT ON VIDEO SURVEILLANCE, SOFTWARE, MANAGEMENTHikvision supports school security and success for students with disabilities

New Thermal Chassis Surveillance Camera Offers Continuous Zoom


LGBT Military Community calls on General Mattis to make clear his support for ALL service members & their families during confi rmation hearing

General Mattis says no to roll back open LGBT Military Service as Secretary of Defense

DHS Science and Technology Directive Explosive Division (EXD) releases new incident management planning tool for fi rst responders

GTT solutions awarded supplier status for Crown Commercial Service TMT2 framework agreement

Upgrades to allow for more frequent, reliable and faster rail service along the Northeast Corridor recommended

The Chemistry behind the Flint Water Crisis: Corrosion of Pipes, Erosion of Trust, by George Lane

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Federal & Legislative


I therefore determine that serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.I hereby determine and order:Section 1. (a) All property and interests in property that are in the United States, that hereaft er come within the United States, or that are or hereaft er come within the possession or control of any United States person of the following persons are blocked and may not be trans-ferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in:

(i) the persons listed in the Annex to this order;

(ii) any foreign person determined by the Sec-retary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General:

(A) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse;(B) to be a current or former government offi -cial, or a person acting for or on behalf of such an offi cial, who is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in:

(1) corruption, including the misappropri-ation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption

Executive Order Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or CorruptionBy the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the Na-tional Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Account-ability Act (Public Law 114-328) (the “Act”), section 212(f ) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (8 U.S.C. 1182(f )) (INA), and section 301 of title 3t, United States Code,

I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, fi nd that the prevalence and severity of human rights abuse and corruption that have their source, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States, such as those committed or directed by persons listed in the Annex to this order, have reached such scope and gravity that they threaten the stability of international political and economic systems. Human rights abuse and corruption under-mine the values that form an essential foundation of stable, secure, and func-tioning societies; have devastating impacts on individuals; weaken democratic institutions; degrade the rule of law; perpetuate violent confl icts; facilitate the activities of dangerous persons; and undermine economic markets. Th e Unit-ed States seeks to impose tangible and signifi cant consequences on those who commit serious human rights abuse or engage in corruption, as well as to pro-tect the fi nancial system of the United States from abuse by these same persons.

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related to government contracts or the ex-traction of natural resources, or bribery; or(2) the transfer or the facilitation of the transfer of the proceeds of corruption;

(C) to be or have been a leader or official of:(1) an entity, including any government entity, that has engaged in, or whose mem-bers have engaged in, any of the activities described in subsections (ii)(A), (ii)(B)(1), or (ii)(B)(2) of this section relating to the leader’s or official’s tenure; or(2) an entity whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order as a result of activities related to the leader’s or official’s tenure; or

(D) to have attempted to engage in any of the activities described in subsections (ii)(A), (ii)(B)(1), or (ii)(B)(2) of this section; and

(iii) any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General:

(A) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in sup-port of:

(1) any activity described in subsections (ii)(A), (ii)(B)(1), or (ii)(B)(2) of this sec-tion that is conducted by a foreign person;(2) any person whose property and inter-ests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or(3) any entity, including any government entity, that has engaged in, or whose mem-bers have engaged in, any of the activities described in subsections (ii)(A), (ii)(B)(1), or (ii)(B)(2) of this section, where the activity is conducted by a foreign person;

(B) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose

property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or(C) to have attempted to engage in any of the activities described in subsections (iii)(A) or (B) of this section.

(b) The prohibitions in subsection (a) of this section apply except to the extent provided by statutes, or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted before the effective date of this order.Sec. 2. The unrestricted immigrant and nonimmi-grant entry into the United States of aliens deter-mined to meet one or more of the criteria in section 1 of this order would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and the entry of such persons into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmi-grants, is hereby suspended. Such persons shall be treated as persons covered by section 1 of Proclama-tion 8693 of July 24, 2011 (Suspension of Entry of Aliens Subject to United Nations Security Council Travel Bans and International Emergency Economic Powers Act Sanctions).Sec. 3. I hereby determine that the making of do-nations of the types of articles specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and in-terests in property are blocked pursuant to this order would seriously impair my ability to deal with the na-tional emergency declared in this order, and I hereby prohibit such donations as provided by section 1 of this order.

Sec. 4. The prohibitions in section 1 include:(a) the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; and(b) the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.Sec. 5. (a) Any transaction that evades or avoids, has

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Federal & Legislative


the purpose of evading or avoiding, causes a viola-tion of, or attempts to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.(b) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the pro-hibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.Sec. 6. For the purposes of this order:(a) the term “person” means an individual or entity;(b) the term “entity” means a partnership, associa-tion, trust, joint venture, corporation, group, sub-group, or other organization; and(c) the term “United States person” means any Unit-ed States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including for-eign branches), or any person in the United States.Sec. 7. For those persons whose property and inter-ests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, I find that because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pur-suant to this order would render those measures inef-fectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in this order, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to this order.Sec. 8. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including adopting rules and reg-ulations, and to employ all powers granted to me by IEEPA and the Act as may be necessary to implement this order and section 1263(a) of the Act with respect to the determinations provided for therein. The Sec-retary of the Treasury may, consistent with applicable law, redelegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies of the United States. All agencies shall take all appropriate measures within their authority to implement this order.

Sec. 9. The Secretary of State is hereby authorized to take such actions, including adopting rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to me by IEEPA, the INA, and the Act as may be necessary to carry out section 2 of this order and, in consulta-tion with the Secretary of the Treasury, the report-ing requirement in section 1264(a) of the Act with respect to the reports provided for in section 1264(b)(2) of that Act. The Secretary of State may, consistent with applicable law, redelegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies of the United States consistent with applicable law.Sec. 10. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General, is hereby authorized to determine that circumstances no longer warrant the blocking of the property and interests in property of a person listed in the Annex to this order, and to take necessary action to give effect to that determination.Sec. 11. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, is hereby authorized to submit recurring and final reports to the Congress on the national emergency declared in this order, consistent with section 401(c) of the NEA (50 U.S.C. 1641(c)) and section 204(c) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1703(c)).Sec. 12. This order is effective at 12:01 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, December 21, 2017.Sec. 13. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or en-tities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

DONALD J. TRUMPTHE WHITE HOUSE,December 20, 2017.

ANNEX1. Mukhtar Hamid Shah; Date of Birth (DOB) August 11, 1939; alt. DOB No-vember 8, 1939; nationality, Pakistan2. Angel Rondon Rijo; DOB July 16, 1950; nationality, Dominican Republic3. Dan Gertler; DOB December 23, 1973; nationality, Israel; alt. nationality, Demo-cratic Republic of the Congo4. Maung Maung Soe; DOB March 1964; nationality, Burma5. Yahya Jammeh; DOB May 25, 1965; nationality, Th e Gambia6. Sergey Kusiuk; DOB December 1, 1966; nationality, Ukraine; alt. nationality, Russia7. Benjamin Bol Mel; DOB January 3, 1978; alt. DOB December 24, 1978; nationality, South Sudan; alt. nationality, Sudan8. Julio Antonio Juárez Ramírez; DOB December 1, 1980; nationality, Guatemala9. Goulnora Islamovna Karimova; DOB July 8, 1972; nationality, Uzbekistan10. Slobodan Tesic; DOB December 21, 1958; nationality, Serbia11. Artem Yuryevich Chayka; DOB Sep-tember 25, 1975; nationality, Russia12. Gao Yan; DOB April 1963; nationality, China13. Roberto Jose Rivas Reyes; DOB July 6, 1954; nationality, Nicaragua

Continued from page 33

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Airport & Aviation Security

Each day, more than twenty-six thousand commercial fl ights transport passengers and cargo to destinations around the world. Sev-eral U.S. government agencies work together to secure these fl ights, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T). S&T’s Commercial Aircraft Vul-nerability and Mitigation (CAVM) program, part of the Homeland Se-curity Advanced Research Projects Agency Explosives Division, sup-ports testing and evaluation eff orts to assess potential vulnerabilities and evaluate countermeasures that can mitigate the impact of explo-sives on commercial aircraft . Re-cently, CAVM partnered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center (ATC) to develop a reusable Aircraft Explosive Testing Simulator that facilitates the ex-plosive testing of new generation commercial aircraft .Exterior View of the Aircraft Ex-plosive Testing Simulator during a TestTh e majority of current commercial aircraft have alumi-num fuselages, and CAVM has conducted a signifi cant amount of explosive vulnerability testing on a wide range of those aircraft types. However, newer generations of commercial aircraft fuselages are

being made with composite materi-als, such as carbon fi ber reinforced plastic. Understanding the potential vulnerability of composite aircraft to explosives requires testing, but the new generation composite aircraft fuselages are less available and more expensive than legacy aluminum fuselage structures. Th is made it essential to develop a sustainable and representative testing solution so evaluations of new composite aircraft structures to explosive-based threats could continue as needed.“Th e lack of availability of new generation composite commercial aircraft structures for use in de-structive explosive testing necessi-tated development of alternate test

methods and tools,” said Nelson Carey, CAVM Program Manager. “Doing so is essential to provide S&T and its U.S. government cus-tomers with accurate and effi cient methods for conducting commer-cial aircraft explosive vulnerability assessments.”Based on this need, ATC devel-oped the Aircraft Explosive Testing Simulator that could be used for repeated explosive testing. Th e simulator consists of a steel cyl-inder that can be pressurized to simulate conditions of an in-fl ight aircraft . Th e cylinder has an open-ing where composite test panels are installed and subjected to testing for a variety of explosive threat scenarios. Th e composite aircraft

Exterior View of the Aircraft Explosive Testing Simulator during a Test

Interior View of the Simulator’s Composite Panel Test Fixture

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Interior View of the Simulator’s Composite Panel Test Fixture

test panels are provided through an interagency agreement with the FAA and the National Institute for Aviation Research, an FAA Center of Excellence. During a test, evaluators place an explosive threat inside the simu-lator, which is then pressurized to simulate airline operational fl ight profi les. Once the explosive is deto-nated, instrumentation gathers data on internal and external pressure resulting from the blast, and high speed video instruments gather information on the panel’s physical condition, looking for any defor-mation, breach, or crack growth.

Aircraft vulnerability experts from S&T’s Transportation Security Lab-oratory then conduct a post-blast inspection and analysis to deter-mine the structural response of the composite test panel to the specifi c explosive threat condition. Finally, evaluators remove the panel from the simulator and install a new one in its place, allowing for multiple tests to be conducted within a short time period.

“Th e Aircraft Explosive Testing Simulator provides a rapid, recon-fi gurable and cost eff ective tool for acquiring test data on composite aircraft structural response to internal explosive threats,” Carey explains, highlighting the impact the tool has on testing eff orts.Not only does the Aircraft Explo-sive Testing Simulator help S&T develop a better understanding of how explosives aff ect composite commercial aircraft , it also al-lows experts to compare results with previous tests on aluminum structures. CAVM researchers will use the data to learn about com-

posite-based commercial aircraft structure vulnerability to terror-ist-based internal explosive threats. Th is research supports the Trans-portation Security Administration’s sponsor requirements to investigate the vulnerability of new generation composite construction commer-cial aircraft to internal explosive threats.S&T is already sharing its fi ndings from the simulator with other

government partners. Th e Depart-ment of Defense’s (DoD) U.S. Army Research Laboratory is using the data to develop numerical analysis models and tools to help simulate composite structure response for diff erent and more complex threat scenarios. Additionally, CAVM recently hosted a round of tests with TSA, FAA, DoD, TSL, and the French government’s Alterna-tive Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). Th e event was part of an international eff ort to strengthen aviation security by bringing together offi cials from around to globe to share fi ndings

and discuss shared goals.Th e Aircraft Explosive Testing Simulator is the latest S&T-funded technology that will help enhance the nation’s aviation security. As threats continue to evolve, it is cru-cial to have tools that can effi ciently gather accurate data on potential vulnerabilities and the countermea-sures employed to overcome them.

“Interagency cooperation in support of CAVM eff orts is essential for extending limit-ed resources and insuring a maximum rate of return on research and development investment,” Carey said.

Border Control

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WASHINGTON – President Trump’s Executive Order on Enhancing Pub-lic Safety in the Interior of the Unit-ed States requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the De-partment of Justice (DOJ) to collect relevant data and provide quarterly reports on data col-lection eff orts. On December 18, 2017, DHS and DOJ re-leased the FY 2017 4th Quarter Alien Incarceration Report, complying with this order.[1] Th e report found that more than one-in-fi ve of all persons in Bureau of Prisons custody were foreign born, and that 94 percent of confi rmed aliens in custody were un-lawfully present.“While the administration is work-ing diligently to remove dangerous criminal aliens from our streets, this report highlights the fact that more must be done,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Niel-sen. “We will continue to pursue President Trump’s immigration pri-orities, including securing the border, enhancing interior enforcement, and pursuing a merit-based immigration system, but Congress must act imme-diately to adopt obvious solutions to strengthen DHS and DOJ eff orts to confront dangerous criminal aliens.”

“Th e American people deserve a law-ful system of immigration that serves the national interest,” Attorney Gen-eral Sessions said. “But at the border

and in communities across Ameri-ca, our citizens are being victimized by illegal aliens who commit crimes. Nearly 95 percent of confi rmed aliens in our federal prisons are here ille-gally. We know based on sentencing data that non-citizens commit a substantial-ly disproportionate number of drug-re-lated off enses, which contributes to our na-tional drug abuse cri-sis. Th e simple fact is that any off ense com-mitted by a criminal alien is ultimately pre-ventable. One victim is too many. It’s time for Congress to enact the President’s immigra-tion reform agenda so that we start welcom-

ing the best and brightest while turn-ing away drug dealers, gang mem-bers, and other criminals.”

Section 16 of the Executive Order directs the Secre-tary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General to collect relevant data and provide quarterly reports regarding: (a) the immigration sta-

tus of all aliens incarcerated under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of Prisons; (b) the immigration status of all aliens incarcerated as federal pre-trial detainees under the supervision of the United States Marshals Service;

Departments of Homeland Security and Justice Release Data on Incarcerated Aliens-94% of all Confi rmed Aliens in DOJ Custody are Unlawfully Present

“Congress must act immediately to adopt obvious solutions to

strengthen DHS and DOJ eff orts to confront dangerous criminal aliens.”

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moval.Information Regarding the Immigra-tion Status of Aliens Incarcerated as Federal Pretrial DetaineesUSMS identifi ed 19,311 aliens and foreign-born inmates under ICE in-vestigation detained at USMS facili-ties. Further details regarding these 19,311 foreign-born inmates are as follows:

• 11,459 (59%) were aliens who are subject to a fi nal order of removal; • 6,230 (32%) remain under ICE investigation; • 1,261 (6.5%) were unlawfully present and now in removal pro-ceedings; • 358 (less than 2%) were lawful-ly present but are now in removal proceedings; and • 3 were aliens who have been granted relief or protection from removal.

Immigration Status of All Convict-ed Aliens Incarcerated in State Pris-ons and Local Detention Centers Th roughout the United StatesTh e Departments continue to prog-ress towards establishing data col-lection of the immigration status of convicted aliens incarcerated in state prisons and local detention centers through the Department of Justice’s Offi ce of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Homeland Security’s Offi ce of Im-migration Statistics.[1] Th e FY 2017 2nd Quarter report is available at: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/pursuant-executive-or-der-public-safety-department-jus-t i c e - re l e as e s - d at a - i nc arc e r at -ed-aliens-0. Data for the 3rd quarter of FY 2017 is available at: https://

and (c) the immigration status of all convicted aliens in state prisons and local detention centers throughout the United States.A total of 58,766 known or suspected aliens were in in DOJ custody at the end of FY 2017, including 39,455 per-sons in BOP custody and 19,311 in USMS custody. Of this total, 37,557 people had been confi rmed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforce-ment (ICE) to be aliens (i.e., non-citi-zens and non-nationals), while 21,209 foreign-born people were still under investigation by ICE to determine alienage and/or removability.Among the 37,557 confi rmed aliens, 35,334 people (94 percent) were un-lawfully present. Th ese numbers include a 92 percent unlawful rate among 24,476 confi rmed aliens in BOP custody and a 97 percent un-lawful rate among 13,081 confi rmed aliens in USMS custody.Th is report does not include data on the foreign-born or alien populations in state prisons and local jails be-cause state and local facilities do not

routinely provide DHS or DOJ with comprehensive information about their inmates and detainees—which account for approximately 90 percent of the total U.S. incarcerated popula-tion.Information Regarding Immigration Status of Aliens Incarcerated Under the Supervision of the Federal Bureau of PrisonsTh e Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has an operational process for maintaining data regard-ing foreign-born inmates in its custo-dy. On a quarterly basis, BOP supplies this information to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE, in turn, analyzes that informa-tion to determine the immigration status of each inmate and provides that information back to BOP.Out of the 185,507 inmates in BOP custody, 39,455 (21%) were report-ed by BOP as foreign-born. Further details regarding these 39,455 for-eign-born inmates are as follows: • 20,240 (51%) were unautho-

rized aliens who are subject to a fi nal order of removal; • 14,979 (38%) re-main under ICE investi-gation; • 2,374 (6%) were unlawfully present and now in removal pro-ceedings; • 1,852 (less than 5%) were lawfully present aliens but are now in removal proceedings; and • 10 were aliens who have been granted relief or protection from re-

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Border Control


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According to Acuity Market Intelligence, border author-ities have embraced digital identification and biomet-ric-based automation to simplify and accelerate bor-der control processing. Acu-ity’s latest report on border control kiosks reveals that 71 installations deploying 2283 border control kiosks are active at 59 ports of en-try across the globe. These include Automated Border Control (ABC) Kiosks, Au-tomated Passport Control (APC) Kiosks, and Primary Inspection Ki-osks (PIK).

“As airports and other ports of entry struggle to keep up with increasing volumes of global travelers, automa-

tion is the only solution for border control,” says Maxine Most, Princi-pal at Acuity Market Intelligence. “integrated digital Identification technology, including document readers and biometrics, allow bor-der agents to securely facilitate low

risk international travelers while focusing expensive, high value human resources on genuine threats.”

“The number of border con-trol kiosks increased more than 60% over last year with CAGR projected to exceed 20% for the next 3 years,” Most says. “The US and Canada dominate the mar-ket landscape with 60% and 35% of all border control kiosks deployed. Though only about 100 kiosks are

deployed at ten locations across the Caribbean, Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East, Acuity expects the use of these highly efficient and cost-ef-fective border control solutions to

Automated Border Control Kiosks Reach 71% Deployment

Border Control

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The kiosk: 20 years and counting

What a great 20 years the SITA kiosk has had. As we approach the end of its 20th anniversary year, it’s exciting to think about what lies ahead as kiosks continue their rise in smoothing the fl ow of passengers, both on and off airport.

It’s true that some naysayers have in the past pondered the demise of the kiosk. But we’ve witnessed the opposite to be the case. SITA kiosk use, the world over, has done nothing but spread.

In fact, as of today SITA has installed 6,000-plus kiosks at more than 225 com-mon-use airports.

Far from retreating into the background, we’ve seen kiosks emerge out of the check-in domain and into the forefront of other airport activities, taking on more and diff erent responsibilities along the steps of the journey.

Myriad tasksToday they’re relied on for myriad tasks, from check-in to bag tagging, and more. Some 55% of airports have al-ready implemented bag-tag printing at kiosks, for exam-ple (2017 SITA Airline & Airport IT Trends Insights).

In the kiosk’s 20th year we also saw a milestone devel-opment as SITA introduced a Common Use Payment

Service - the fi rst and only payment solution allowing transactions by multiple airlines through a single pay-ment terminal, which is now being deployed at SITA’s common-use kiosks and bag-drop stations.

Eyes on the borderNow, all eyes are on border, where - with the rise of biometrics - we see great opportunities for kiosks as we at SITA continue to work with airports, governments and

border agencies around the world to bring in the changes.

Indeed our work in the US shows that our biometric-en-abled kiosks can securely process passengers on arrival,

reducing the time passengers spend in line by as much as 40%.

I recall an Acuity Market Intelligence study a couple of years ago on airport eGates and kiosks at the border. It talked about the role of kiosks and the ‘holy grail’ for immigration and passenger processing being to provide a truly seamless and almost unnoticeable airport experi-ence.

Making air travel easierTh at is embodied in the visions and goals of strategic

industry initiatives to enhance the passenger experience, such as Simplifying the Business, Fast Travel, Smart Security, and now the IATA and ACI initiative NEXTT (New Experience in Travel and Technologies).

Proving its longevity, the kiosk has been very much part and parcel of these key industry-wide initiatives, making air travel ever easier and meeting air transport community needs as they evolve. So here’s to the kiosk, for the next 20 years and beyond …

by Rico Barandun , Head of Solution Specialists, Passenger and Bags, SITA

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The kiosk: 20 years and counting

industry initiatives to enhance the passenger experience, such as Simplifying the Business, Fast Travel, Smart Security, and now the IATA and ACI initiative NEXTT (New Experience in Travel and Technologies).

Proving its longevity, the kiosk has been very much part and parcel of these key industry-wide initiatives, making air travel ever easier and meeting air transport community needs as they evolve. So here’s to the kiosk, for the next 20 years and beyond …

It’s 20 years since changed the face of air-

port departure halls with the introduction

of self-service ki-osks. With more

than 12,000 installed worldwide,

they now off er everything from

check-in to border control to autonomous robotics.

ITA’s fi rst kiosks were introduced as a trial in 1997 by Air Alaska, designed

not only to improve the check-in process for passengers by reducing queuing, but also to test the appetite for self-service.Twenty years on, nine out of 10 airports have kiosks. What started as an effi cient and simple platform for check-in has evolved to include bag tagging, lost baggage tracking, fl ight transfers, and border control.

Today, a chip & pin and contactless payment facility allows passengers to pay for fl ights, upgrades, meals, even media downloads for the fl ight.

PervasiveKiosks today are all-pervasive across the airport, both landside and airside. SITA’s latest iteration

of the kiosk can even do both, as an autonomous robot able to move independently around the airport as needed.

And soon passengers will be able to use kiosks with fast, secure biometric enrolment and registration capabili-ties to create a secure single token as they fi rst enter the airport, remov-ing the need to show a passport or boarding card as they progress to the aircraft .

Th e humble kiosk of the 1990s has certainly matured in the past 20 years, to become a core part of the airport infrastructure.

Easier, cheaper

Kiosk advances

BORDER BENEFITS

Th e border is a relatively new fron-tier for kiosks. “A key development has been the introduction of kiosks designed to speed up and simplify immigration procedures,” continues Barandun.“Th e use of secure self-service kiosks for verifi cation of biometric travel documents is increasingly adopted as a means not only of enhancing passenger service, but at the same time allowing immigration special-ists time to focus on the minority of higher risk travelers.“With an average transaction time of just 90 seconds, wait times for users of SITA iBorders® BorderAutomation ABCKiosks are reduced by up to 60%.”

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What GAO Found GAO’s prior work has shown that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should complete, document, and make available analyses of key questions related to its ,. In August 2016, GAO report-ed that several key factors were not included when DHS evaluated its organizational consolidation of CBRNE functions. For exam-ple, DHS did not fully assess and document potential problems that could result from consolidation or include a comparison of benefits and costs. Further, DHS conduct-ed limited external stakeholder outreach, thus the proposal may not sufficiently account for stake-holder concerns. Attention to these key areas, identified from GAO’s analysis of previous organizational consolidations, would help provide DHS, Congress, and other stake-holders, such as DHS components with assurance that important aspects of effective organizational changes are addressed as part of the agency’s CBRNE reorganization decision-making process. GAO previously recommended that DHS complete, document, and make available analyses of key questions related to its consolidation propos-al, including: (1) what problems, if any, consolidation may create; (2) a comparison of the benefits and costs the consolidation may entail;

and (3) a broader range of external stakeholder input including a dis-cussion of how it was obtained and considered. DHS did not concur, asserting that the recommendation did not acknowledge the extent to which these questions were dis-cussed both internally within DHS and externally with Congress and that DHS’s decision to consolidate CBRNE functions had already been made which would make additional analysis redundant. GAO closed this recommendation as not imple-mented. While GAO has not fully assessed DHS’s most recent reor-ganization plans, GAO continues to believe that documenting infor-mation and analyses used to assess the benefits and limitations of its consolidation plan would assist DHS in fully demonstrating how its proposal will lead to an integrated, high-performance organization. GAO’s prior work found that key

mergers and organizational trans-formation practices could further benefit DHS in its proposed CBR-NE consolidation. GAO reported in July 2003 on key practices and implementation steps for mergers and organizational transformations that range from ensuring top lead-ership drives the transformation to involving employees in the imple-mentation process to obtain their ideas and gain their ownership for the transformation. In August 2016, GAO recommended that DHS use key mergers and organi-zational transformation practices identified in GAO’s previous work to help ensure that lessons learned from other reorganizations are con-sidered during the consolidation effort. DHS concurred with the recommendation and stated in its October 2017 consolidation notice to Congress that it will consult the practices during consolidation implementation. GAO will monitor DHS’s implementation of the key practices which will help to ensure that lessons learned from other or-ganizations are considered during the consolidation effort.

Why GAO Did This Study Chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive weapons, also known as weapons of mass de-

DHS’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Program Consolidation Efforts

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Border Control

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Law enforcement and other entities charged with protecting national security are spending more time than ever planning and implementing se-curity measures that ensure national security and improve public safety. This is for good reason: from the energy grid to sport-ing events to airports, security personnel know these venues are enticing targets for terrorist attacks due to the large amount of people and resources clus-tered together in one place.In a world of heightened ex-tremism, lone wolf attacks, and general global instability, it is not beyond imagination to foresee a scenario where a small team of terrorists seizes a U.S. airport. With the prospect of hostage taking and hijack-ings looming large, the response time for emergency personnel and law enforcement becomes critical. First responders must lo-cate the terrorists and their hostages quickly to coordinate an effective response. This requires enhanced detection capabilities that can seamlessly distribute information to decision makers and emergency personnel to identify and respond to threats in real time. To stay a step ahead of attackers, security and emergency personnel need a common operational picture

to communicate with civil and feder-al agency authorities. This picture is not only essential in coordinating a rescue, but also in securing addition-al areas of the airport facility that the

terrorists have yet to seize as well as collect evidence for both investiga-tive and legal purposes.

With many entities tasked with restoring airport security, organi-zations need the right technology to assist them. An important tool emerging in security today is a video intelligence system that assists emer-gency responders and officials in

reaching their security objectives. Not Your Old-School CC-TV Cam-erasMany people imagine video surveil-lance cameras to be a single camera

mounted on a wall pointing in a particular direction and trans-mitting video to a single televi-sion. In this scenario, multiple cameras in different locations within the same building work in isolation and only detect motion and images. Most people do not realize that video intelligence has evolved tremendously in recent years. Today’s video intelligence system consists of a wide range of disparate sensor data com-bined into a single portal. The integration of sensor data into

one place is a critical development for law enforcement working in time sensitive situa-tions.

Back in our besieged airport, authorities do

not have time to monitor separate video camera, alarm systems, GPS, and other audio, visual, and social media monitoring systems separate-ly. Officials need data from these sensors to be organized in such a way that patterns can be quickly detected to ensure rapid decision-making. As law enforcement officials ana-lyze the data received from multiple

Using video intelligence to protect critical public infrastructure By Kimbry McClure

Solutions Architect, Office of CTO at Hitachi Data Systems Federal Corporation

Deploying a video intelligence platform gives law enforcement a technological

asset that keeps pace with terrorists

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sensors, a video intelligence system triages the data received. During the airport terrorist attack, law en-forcement is able to discern that the screaming coming from an airport personnel-only hallway is more important to respond to than the traveling high school band playing their instruments in the airport concourse. First responders have the ability to triage behaviors because the video intelligence system has au-tomated the monitoring process on a scale much larger than manpower can provide. Automating data collection, organi-zation and storage gives law en-forcement attempting to prevent or respond to a terrorist attack a more speedy, meticulous and eff ective overall security strategy. Authorities no longer have to allocate manpow-er to spending time searching and investigating each person who is in a facility. Since diff erent people present various behaviors, some that indicate a higher security risk than others, video intelligence systems fl ag these behaviors for law enforcement and give them the knowledge needed to make critical decisions.

Overcoming the UnknownAdding automation to data collec-tion and analysis provides other benefi ts. Criminals and terrorists are constantly changing their tactics. As a result, law enforcement does not always know the behavior profi le to match the changing tactics. Th e inte-

gration of a video intelligence system provides law enforcement fl exibility to quickly and easily input into the system new behaviors for the sensors to monitor. Without unifi ed data management, authorities would need to take more time and manpower to update the sensors on what new behaviors to track. Authorities may also face uncertainty over which agencies, groups and de-cision makers need access to which data points. Today’s homeland security and emergency response strategies involve multiple agencies, organizations and decision mak-ers. Th ese groups require that data be shared in real-time to establish a common operating picture. Th e video intelligence system overcomes data sharing challenges by creating a single portal to store and view infor-mation. As a result, information can be shared with ease between various coordinating entities.

How to Implement a Modern Video Intelligence SystemMany in government are concerned about how much value they will receive when implementing new technology systems. Th e good news is a modern video intelligence system is not only eff ective, but also simple to implement. Th e system’s design focuses on an interface that is integrated into an organization’s current IT systems, including legacy IT. Th erefore, the video intelligence system is built based on customiza-

tion and fl exibility. Additionally, the video intelligence system includes sensors, compute power and on-board storage that can be installed and implemented rapidly. Deploying a video intelligence platform gives law enforcement a technological asset that keeps pace with terrorists and criminals today and in the future. By placing these tools under a single management layer, law enforcement can devote more resources to what truly matters: ensuring public safety.

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Federal employees dodged a bullet this year, with the flop of proposed cuts to their retirement and health benefits, but they shouldn’t put away the flak jackets yet.After proposing a 1.9 percent feder-al pay raise for next year, President Trump will urge a pay freeze for federal employees and call for cuts to domestic security programs in fiscal 2019, according to reports released by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Democrats.Ironically, this comes as Congress nears passage of tax legislation that Trump claims will significantly stim-ulate the economy. If that’s the case, then why is a freeze necessary?If you believe federal employees are over compensated, then no other rational is needed.That rationale was behind failed Republican proposals to cut feder-al retirement and health insurance benefits.The two reports are based on budget guidance from the Office of Manage-ment and Budget (OMB), dated Nov. 28, overruling Department of Home-land Security (DHS) requests. The guidance was leaked to the panel’s Democratic staff by a whistleblow-er. Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), the committee’s top Democrat, had the staff issue summaries of the OMB document. One report focuses on personnel, the other on counterter-rorism programs.

Although the budget documents concern DHS, the personnel summa-ry says “OMB intends to issue a pay freeze for federal civilian employees in 2019.” Quoting the administra-tion’s document, the staff report adds: “OMB has instructed DHS: ‘Per governmentwide guidance, no civilian pay raise is included in the recommended level for the FY 2019 Budget.’ ”

The counterterrorism report says the administration “intends to seek $568 million in cuts to counterterrorism programs” from 2017 levels. That would include decreases in programs on violent extremism, port and pub-lic transportation security, domestic nuclear detection and emergency management grants.According to the staff report, OMB wants to eliminate Visible Intermod-al Prevention and Response teams, which “are multidisciplinary groups of security officers deployed to var-ious locations to prevent and deter acts of terrorism” and cut $27 million

from Federal Air Marshals.“I’m worried that the Office of Man-agement and Budget is overriding what local, state, and national leaders have told me they most need to keep us safe,” McCaskill said. “With recent terrorist attacks in our country and throughout the globe, counterter-rorism programs shouldn’t be on the chopping block.”The staff noted that OMB’s budget

guidance does not necessarily repre-sent the administration’s final spend-ing plan. Agencies can appeal budget office guidance. The DHS appeal was due Dec. 1.Federal employees had a three-year freeze on their basic pay rates during the Obama administration. Another freeze “may present challenges for DHS components wishing to retain qualified employees. Morale and attrition within DHS have long been problems that the Department has struggled to fix,” the committee staff

Democrats say Trump to seek federal pay freeze and cuts to domestic security

“Federal employees all across the country go to work every day

to serve our veterans, secure our skies, and support our troops. And yet federal employees make around

35 percent less than private setor”

More on page 54

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with whom they compete for quali-fied applicants. This is especially true as DHS components have historically struggled to meet hiring mandates.”

OMB did not respond to a request for comment. Leaders of the two largest federal employee unions that represent DHS staffers and employ-ees in many other agencies blasted the proposed cuts.

“Federal employees all across the country go to work every day to serve our veterans, secure our skies, and support our troops. And yet fed-eral employees make around 35 per-cent less than private sector workers in the same jobs.,” said J. David Cox Sr., president of the American Fed-eration of Government Employees. His figure refers to data developed by the Federal Salary Council, but it is disputed by conservative researchers.

“For the Administration to say they are going to freeze government employees’ pay next year is insulting to these hardworking civil servants and the sacrifices they make for our country. They know they’ll never get rich working for the federal govern-ment, but they believe in the mission and are willing to accept a lighter paycheck for the privilege of serving their country…Federal employees deserve a pay raise, not a pay freeze.”National Treasury Employees Union President Tony Reardon said “we are alarmed by media reports that inter-nal documents contain a proposal to freeze pay for all civilian federal employees. We are still fighting for a fair raise in 2018, above the 1.4

percent across the board raise the administration is calling for. Private-sector wages for 2018 are

expected to rise by 3 percent.

“Unlike previous years without pay increases,” he added, “a pay freeze in 2019 would come during a time when the private-sector job market is healthy and the overall economy is growing…It would make it harder for the government to recruit and re-tain the highly-skilled professionals needed to protect our security, our economy and our public health. A pay freeze would be a callous attack on middle-class Americans who have chosen to serve their country and their fellow citizens.”

see link IN TEXT FOR ADDITION-AL INFO

report said.“The absence of a pay increase for law enforcement personnel may not allow DHS to remain competitive with other law enforcement agencies with whom they compete for qualified applicants. This is especially true as DHS compo-nents have historically struggled to meet hiring mandates.”

OMB did not respond to a request for comment. Leaders of the two largest federal employee unions that represent DHS staffers and employees in many other agencies blasted the proposed cuts.

“Federal employees all across the coun-try go to work every day to serve our veterans, secure our skies, and support our troops. And yet federal employ-ees make around 35 percent less than private sector workers in the same jobs.,” said J. David Cox Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees. His figure refers to data developed by the Federal Salary Coun-cil, but it is disputed by conservative researchers.

“For the Administration to say they are going to freeze government employees’ pay next year is insulting to these hard-working civil servants and the sacrifices they make for our country. They know they’ll never get rich working for the federal government, but they believe in the mission and are willing to accept a lighter paycheck for the privilege of serving their country…Federal employ-ees deserve a pay raise, not a pay freeze.”National Treasury Employees Union President Tony Reardon said “we are alarmed by media reports that internal documents contain a proposal to freeze

pay for all civilian federal employees. We are still fighting for a fair raise in 2018, above the 1.4 percent across the board raise the administration is calling for. Private-sector wages for 2018 are expected to rise by 3 percent.

“Unlike previous years without pay in-creases,” he added, “a pay freeze in 2019 would come during a time when the pri-vate-sector job market is healthy and the overall economy is growing…It would make it harder for the government to recruit and retain the highly-skilled pro-fessionals needed to protect our security, our economy and our public health. A pay freeze would be a callous attack on middle-class Americans who have cho-sen to serve their country and their

https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/media/minority-media/breaking-us-senate-report-re-veals-internal-disagree-ments-over-funding-counterter-rorism-programs-in-administra-tions-fy-2019-budget-proposal

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WASHINGTON - The Democratic staff of the Senate Homeland Securi-ty and Governmental Affairs Com-mittee today issued a report detailing the Administration’s intended fund-ing cuts to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) state, local, and national counterterrorism programs based on an FY 2019 budget docu-ment DHS received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which was provided to the Commit-tee by a whistleblower.“I’m worried that the Office of Man-agement and Budget is overriding what local, state, and national leaders have told me they most need to keep us safe,” McCaskill said. “With recent terrorist attacks in our country and throughout the globe, counterter-rorism programs shouldn’t be on the chopping block.”Federal agencies develop their bud-gets for the upcoming fiscal year and submit a request to OMB, typically in the fall. OMB then reviews the proposed budget, ensuring it aligns with the President’s priorities, and communicates its funding decisions to the agency through a process referred to as “passback.” At times, OMB provides less money than

requested; in other instances it pro-vides more. In late November 2017, a whistleblower provided OMB’s nonpublic “passback” document to the Democratic staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmen-tal Affairs Committee. The document is titled the Department of Home-land Security Fiscal Year 2019 Bud-get and Policy Guidance and details OMB guidance from the President to the Department of Homeland Security regarding its FY 2019 bud-get proposal. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Democrat Staff report examines counterterrorism cuts in the “passback” document, including DHS’s initial FY 2019 budget propos-al and OMB’s responsive guidance directing more drastic cuts.Key findings from the report, Over-ruled: White House Overrules Department of Homeland Security Budget Requests for Counterterror-ism Programs: • Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams are multi-disciplinary groups of security officers deployed to various loca-tions to prevent and deter acts of terrorism. Rejecting DHS’s request,

OMB instructed DHS to completely eliminate VIPR Teams and cut an ad-ditional $27 million for Federal Air Marshals. • Denying DHS’s request, OMB ordered DHS to seek $11 million in additional cuts for the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. • The Administration intends to seek $568 million in total cuts to DHS counterterrorism programs from FY 2017 enacted budget levels.McCaskill has previously emphasized the importance of DHS’s counterter-rorism programs. She has repeatedly questioned DHS and other national security officials about potential cuts to the programs during Senate hearings, and a report issued by the Homeland Security and Governmen-tal Affairs Committee Democratic staff earlier this year highlighted the impact of the Administration’s pro-posed FY 2018 budget cuts.The report from the Senate Home-land Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Democratic staff, led by the staff of Ranking Member Claire McCaskill, is available online HERE.

U.S. Senate Report Reveals Internal Disagreements over Funding Counterterrorism Programs in Administration’s FY 2019 Budget ProposalAfter receiving whistleblower document, Democratic staff of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee issues report showing that the White House rejected key counterterrorism elements of the Department of Homeland Security’s budget request

“For the Administration to say they are going to freeze government employees’ pay next year is insulting to these hardworking civil servants and the sacrifices they make for our country. They know they’ll never get rich working for the federal govern-ment, but they believe in the mission and are willing to accept a lighter paycheck for the privilege of serving their country…Federal employees deserve a pay raise, not a pay freeze.”National Treasury Employees Union President Tony Reardon said “we are alarmed by media reports that inter-nal documents contain a proposal to freeze pay for all civilian federal employees. We are still fighting for a fair raise in 2018, above the 1.4

percent across the board raise the administration is calling for. Private-sector wages for 2018 are

expected to rise by 3 percent.

“Unlike previous years without pay increases,” he added, “a pay freeze in 2019 would come during a time when the private-sector job market is healthy and the overall economy is growing…It would make it harder for the government to recruit and re-tain the highly-skilled professionals needed to protect our security, our economy and our public health. A pay freeze would be a callous attack on middle-class Americans who have chosen to serve their country and their fellow citizens.”

see link IN TEXT FOR ADDITION-AL INFO


https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/media/minority-media/breaking-us-senate-report-re-veals-internal-disagree-ments-over-funding-counterter-rorism-programs-in-administra-tions-fy-2019-budget-proposal

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Cybersecurity

GSN Magazine | The News Leader in Physical, IT and Homeland Security

Washington, D.C.—A pilot project by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Tech-nology Directorate (S&T) resulted in the successful remediation of po-tential cybersecurity vulnerabilities in mobile applications (apps) used by the nation’s public-safety pro-fessionals, supporting the creation of an on-going mobile app-testing program.In emergency and disaster situa-tions, mobile devices and apps en-able public-safety professionals to receive and share critical informa-tion in real-time, which enhances the delivery of life-saving services. As reliance on mobile technology grows, it is important that mobile apps used by public safety are free of malware or vulnerabilities.The pilot testing project—“Secur-ing Mobile Applications for First Responders”—was a joint effort of the Homeland Security Advanced Research Project Agency’s Cyber Security Division, S&T’s First Re-sponder Group (FRG), Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) and Kryptowire, LLC, the developer of a leading mobile app-vetting platform that was funded by S&T.Its dual goals were to improve mobile app security for the pub-lic-safety community and deter-mine the need for a sustainable model for testing the security and

privacy-protection capabilities of public-safety apps. To these ends, the pilot sought to determine the degree to which the selected pub-lic-safety apps are vulnerable to cyberattacks—malware, ransom-ware and spyware—or had coding vulnerabilities that could compro-mise the device’s security, expose personal data or allow for eaves-dropping.“This pilot project illustrates the efficacy, benefits and value an on-going app-testing program will pro-vide to the public-safety commu-nity and the nation,” said Vincent Sritapan, S&T’s Program Manager for Mobile Security Research and Development. “During the testing phase, numerous cyber vulnerabili-

ties were identified and remediated. This model can be used to ensure all apps used by the public-safety professionals are secured against cyberattacks and other security and privacy weaknesses.”For the study, APCO selected 33 popular apps (iOS and Android versions counted separately) creat-ed by 20 developers that are offered through AppComm, its public-safe-ty application directory. The pilot was conducted over three months by the team using Kryptowire’s mo-bile app software testing platform integrated into APCO’s AppComm website. The testing scrutinized each app’s security, privacy, and information and device access.The pilot-testing project discovered

Pilot Project Helps Secure First Responder Apps From Cyberattacks

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potential security and privacy con-cerns—such as access to the device camera, contacts or Short Message Service messages—in 32 of 33 popular apps that were tested. Eigh-teen apps were discovered to have critical flaws such as hard-coded credentials stored in binary, issues with handling Secure Sockets Layer certificates or susceptibility to “man-in-the-middle” attacks.Pilot project leaders worked with each app developer to remediate identified vulnerabilities. So far, ten developers successfully remediated their apps, and as a result of the pi-lot project, the security and privacy

concerns of 14 mobile apps were addressed.Most developers who fixed their app’s vulnerability(ies) reported investing approximately one hour on remediation. Remediation steps included removing old or unused code, enabling built-in security provided by the operating system, and ensuring the functionality re-quested is necessary for operations.“As more apps are adopted for public-safety missions, it is critical that a formal, ongoing app-evalu-ation process with incentives for developer participation be adopted to ensure current and new mobile

apps are free of vulnerabilities,” said John Merrill, Director of the S&T FRG Next Generation First Re-sponder Apex program.For more information about the pilot testing project results and recommendations, please visit our “Securing Mobile Applications for First Responders” website.

ADDITIONAL INFO: PDF icon DHS S&T Report: Securing Mobile Apps for First Responders (December 2017482.29 KB

Conclusion and Next StepsApps that are used for public safety services must be re-liable and secure. Many app users assume the develop-er has taken the necessary steps to secure the app and the user’s data and/or the app store tested the app before public release. From the pilot, the partners concluded that:

• Mobile apps used by first responders and members of the public for emergency response or other public safety purposes are vulnerable

• App security evaluation s can be accom-plished using semi -automated testing

based on established criteria, combined with human analysis to make a risk -based assessment

• Continuous app security evaluations are necessary any time a mobile app is updated or a new version is submitted

• Developers are willing to pay for app eval-uations if the right incentives are in place

• Education for the first responder com-munity is needed to raise awareness of the state of mobile app security and increase demand for app security evaluation

A foundational question of the pi-lot was whether there is a financial model to support public safety app evaluations . The pilot’s findings pro-vide preliminary evidence for this financial model to be true. Develop-ers recognize sufficient value in an app evaluation process to support a model in which developers pay for a subscription to a public safety app certification program. Not only did this finding validate the importance of the pilot, it suggests that expanding and refining a testing program for the broader public safety app ecosystem is feasible and desirable. Engagement with the app develop-er community for public safety apps is necessary to encourage and raise awareness of the need to build securi-ty in during the development process and to test the security of the apps prior to releasing them to an app store and the public . DHS S&T is investing in mobile app security R&D to inte-grate security into mobile app devel-opment platforms. The result of this

research will enable developers using the platform to improve the security of their mobile apps.The pilot also generated several les-sons learned about the security cri-teria, testing platform and workflow. Notably, a knowledgeable mobile app security evaluator is essential to effec-tive remediation and confidence in the evaluations. A mobile app analysis tool, although automated, should still require a human in the loop to make a risk- based assessment and decision. It is expected that introducing addi-tional variables such as the preferenc-es, policies and laws for individuals or sponsoring public safety agencies will increase the nuances of app evalua-tions and the need for human judg-ment as part of the process. The next step is to carry the lessons learned from the app testing pilot into consultation with public safety stakeholders , including state and lo-cal public safety agencies and entities such as the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) and SAFECOM.

The preferences, policies and laws af-fecting public safety organization use of mobile apps will dictate the ulti-mate form of a sustainable app eval-uation process. Ongoing consultation and an awareness program for public safety stakeholders at the local, trib-al, state and federal levels is essential for the establishment and continued success of an app evaluation process supporting the public safety mission.

practices during consolidation implementation. GAO will monitor DHS’s implementation of the key practic-es which will help to ensure that lessons learned from other organizations are considered during the consoli-dation effort.

Why GAO Did This Study Chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explo-sive weapons, also known as weapons of mass destruc-tion (WMD), have the potential to kill thousands of people in a single incident. In 2013 Congress directed DHS to review its WMD programs, including the con-solidation of CBRNE mission functions. DHS recently notified Congress that consolidation would begin in December 2017. This testimony is based on GAO findings from an August 2016 report on (1) the extent to which DHS’s CBRNE consolidation proposal assessed the benefits and limitations of consolidation and (2) GAO’s key practices from past organizational transformations that could benefit the CBRNE consolidation effort. GAO re-viewed DHS consolidation planning documents, inter-viewed relevant officials and obtained selected updated information on DHS planning efforts.

What GAO Recommends GAO made two recommendations to DHS in 2016 to (1) complete, document, and make available analyses of key questions related to its consolidation proposal; and (2) use the key mergers and organizational trans-formation practices identified in GAO’s previous work. DHS did not concur with the first recommendation and it was closed as not implemented. DHS concurred with the second recommendation and has not yet implemented it. GAO will continue to monitor DHS’s efforts to address the second recommendation.

For more information, contact Chris Currie at (404) 679-1875 or [email protected].

struction (WMD), have the potential to kill thousands of people in a single incident. In 2013 Congress directed DHS to review its WMD programs, including the consolidation of CBRNE mission functions. DHS recently notified Con-gress that consolidation would begin in December 2017. This testimony is based on GAO findings from an August 2016 report on (1) the extent to which DHS’s CBRNE consolidation proposal assessed the benefits and limitations of consolidation and (2) GAO’s key practices from past organizational transformations that could benefit the CBRNE consolidation effort. GAO reviewed DHS consolida-tion planning documents, interviewed relevant officials and obtained selected updated information on DHS planning efforts.

What GAO Recommends GAO made two recommendations to DHS in 2016 to (1) complete, document, and make available analyses of key questions related to its consolidation proposal; and (2) use the key mergers and organizational transformation prac-tices identified in GAO’s previous work. DHS did not concur with the first recommendation and it was closed as not implemented. DHS concurred with the second recommendation and has not yet implemented it. GAO will continue to monitor DHS’s efforts to address the second recommendation.

For more information, contact Chris Currie at (404) 679-1875 or [email protected].

GAO CONT...

Border Control

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Autonomous drones are set to take over border patrols, crime hotspot monitoring and more, says South Africa’s

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)s, commonly known as drones, will soon be a common sight over border zones, crime hotspots and city streets, as public safety and security officials and police depart-ments discover the cost saving and efficiencies offered by drone patrol ‘armies’, says Airborne Drones, a South African-based international manufacturer of enterprise-grade drones.

“Drones provide the ideal solution to the problems and limitations faced by other surveillance meth-ods such as GPS tracking, CCTV camera observation, biometric surveillance and ground patrols,” says Airborne Drones South Africa. “Aerial surveillance is increasingly being harnessed for security mon-itoring; but traditionally, this has been carried out using helicopters - which are costly to deploy - and with drones controlled by a user - which can be somewhat limited in terms of operating hours. However, drone surveillance does present an easier, faster, and cheaper meth-od of data collection, as well as a number of other key advantages. Specialised security drones can

enter narrow and confined spaces, produce minimal noise, and can be equipped with night vision cameras and thermal sensors, allowing them to provide imagery that the human eye is unable to detect. In addition, these UAVs can quickly cover large and difficult-to-reach areas, reduc-ing staff numbers and costs, and do not require much space for their operators.”

“Autonomous, long-range security drones are at the vanguard of new policing methods”, says Airborne Drones South Africa. “Offering live video feeds to ground control stations, these drones can range au-tonomously over pre-programmed flight paths for extended periods of time, allowing for ongoing routine patrols across wide areas such as borders, maritime regions and high security installations. Should an incident be detected, ground crews can then follow objects or intruders from a safe distance, providing vi-sual support to safety and security teams. UAVs can provide detailed visual documentation of sites, en-abling effective analysis, risk man-agement and security planning.”

“Numerous countries are already rolling out security drones to sup-port their public safety and defence initiatives”, says Airborne Drones. UAVs are also instrumental in

managing transport infrastructure safety and security and event se-curity, from event security infra-structure through to spectator and crowd control and safety, to overall health and safety planning around the world.

Israel has long harnessed advanced drones for military surveillance, and recently sold a fleet of so-called ‘spy drones’ to the Irish army; the US FBI has also used drones for surveillance and tracking for sev-eral years. In Australia, a new $50 million Defence Cooperative Research Centre will develop long-range drones, automated vehicles and robots to help Australian soldiers fight the wars of the fu-ture. India is currently looking to military-grade UAVs for maritime and other surveillance and intelli-gence gathering, Brazil’s São Paulo last month became the first Latin American city to use drones for public security surveillance, and the German city of Hamburg this week said it would deploy surveil-lance drones as part of its arsenal against an expected 100,000 dem-onstrators at the G20 summit this weekend.

In Australia’s New South Wales, the authorities are even using helicop-ter and drone surveillance along the coast to protect holiday makers

Drone maker says UAVs set to take over at border patrols, criminal hot spots

20 21


from rip currents and sharks.

“Drones are ideally suited for reconnaissance or rapid situation awareness with application for ground force units to detect and monitor potential threats; and they also provide an additional oversight in instances where security guards are deployed to ensure their adher-ence to patrolling routines. Th eir speed, size, maneuverability and additional technologies make UAVs the perfect supplement to ground security teams seeking to perform monitoring tasks more quickly and effi ciently. Drones have a compet-itive edge over stationary cameras, as intruders can’t easily step out of

sight, and they can cover areas that are normally out of reach. Security drones add a whole new dimension to surveillance, safety and security, and as such, we can expect them to be commonly in use in every coun-try in the world within just a few years,” says Airborne Drones.

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Communications


Future communications networks that are less vulnerable to hacking could be closer to reality with an in-vention that measures the properties of single-photon sources with high accuracy.

Built by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technol-ogy (NIST), the device could help bring about “quantum communications” networks, which would use individual particles of light to send bits of informa-tion. Because each bit of information can be embedded in the quantum properties of a single photon, the laws of quantum mechanics make it difficult, if not impossible, for an enemy to intercept the message undetected.

Both the telecommunications and computer industries would like such networks to keep information secure. The NIST method may help over-come one of the technical barriers standing in their way by measuring photons’ spectral properties—essen-tially their color—10,000 times better than conventional spectrometers.

Individual photons have a limitation: They cannot travel through fiber-op-tic cables for more than about 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) without

likely being absorbed. A quantum network able to handle worldwide communications would need peri-odic way stations that could catch photons and retransmit their infor-mation without loss. The NIST team’s invention could help such a “quan-tum repeater” interact effectively with photons.

Key to the operation of the quantum repeater would be a memory compo-nent that uses an ensemble of atoms to store the photon’s information briefly and retransmit it at the right moment. Its operation would involve an atom’s energy structure: As an atom catches the photon, the atom’s energy level rises to a higher state. At the desired moment, the atom returns to its original state and emits the energy as another photon.

Not just any photon can readily interact with this atom, though. It needs to be exactly the right color, or wavelength, needed to make the atom’s outer electron jump to a high-er state. To make usable repeaters,

engineers need to measure photons’ wavelengths far more precisely than conventional spectrometers can.

The NIST team goes past convention with a technique called electro-magnetically induced transparency (EIT), which starts out by using atoms’ ability to block light of a spe-cific wavelength.

Astronomers can tell what gases form the atmosphere of a far-off world because light passing through it makes the gas molecules vibrate at frequencies that block out light of particular colors, creating telltale

dark lines in the light’s spectrum. EIT essentially creates a single dark line by beaming a laser at atoms whose vibrations block much of its light. A second laser, tuned to nearly the same wavelength as the first, is directed at the same atom and the in-terference between these two nearly identical beams alters the darkness. Instead of a simple dark line, it cre-ates a line with a narrow transparent hole through which photons only of an extremely specific wavelength can pass.

By making fine adjustments to the second laser’s wavelength, the team

New NIST Spectrometer Measures Single Photons with Great Precision

“ ...information can be embedded in the quantum properties of a single photon, the laws of quantum mechanics make it difficult, if not impossible, for an enemy

to intercept the message undetected.”

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found it could move the hole back and forth across the dark line’s width, giving them a way to make highly precise measurements of a passing photon’s wavelength.

To give a sense of how precise their spectrometer is, the team gave the example of a common laser pointer that shines in a single narrow color range, creating a pure-colored point on a screen. The typical spectrum width of a laser pointer is right around 1 terahertz (THz). The NIST invention can measure the color of a single-photon-lev-el signal that has a spectrum 10 million times narrower than the laser pointer, resulting in a performance 10,000 times better than typical conventional spectrometers.

“Additionally, we can extend our EIT spectrometer’s performance to any other wavelength range using other processes developed by our group without sacrificing its spectral resolution, high wavelength accuracy and high detection sensitivity,” said Lijun Ma, an optical engineer on the NIST team. “We think this will give the industry the tool it needs to build effective quantum repeaters.”

WASHINGTON – In the aft ermath of recent terrorist incidents, U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) today introduced bipartisan legislation authorizing the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Counterterrorism Advisory Board, whose mission is to bring to-gether the intelligence, operational, and policy-making elements from across DHS to devise joint strategies to deter and disrupt potential terror-ist attacks.

“Th is bill is about ensuring that ev-eryone inside the Department of Homeland Security committed to preventing and responding to terrorist incidents are able to communicate and coor-dinate eff ectively with each other,” said McCaskill, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Secu-rity and Governmental Af-fairs Committee. “Th e men and women heroically con-tributing to our counterter-rorism eff orts are the best in

the world and this bill will augment their eff orts.”“Th e Counterterrorism Advisory Board (CTAB) is an important com-ponent of the Department of Home-land Security’s work in preventing terrorist attacks by identifying and re-ducing security threats and vulnera-bilities,” said Senator Rubio. “Th is bill will ensure that the CTAB facilitates a cohesive operational strategy so that DHS components and their partners are best enabled to detect, deter and disrupt terrorist operations.”

“Th e Department of Homeland Secu-rity is tasked with preventing terror-ist attacks on our homeland, and we

must ensure that the full resources of the Department and the entire federal government are coordinated in focus-ing on this critical mission,” said Sen-ator Hassan. “I call on members of both parties to support this bipartisan bill that will help ensure coordination of the Department’s counter-terror-ism operations and keep our commu-nities safe.” Th e Counterterrorism Advisory Board (CTAB) was established in 2010 aft er the failed “underwear bomber” attack on a Northwest Air-lines fl ight in 2009 revealed a need for better coordination and ongoing situational awareness for senior lead-ership.Since its creation, CTAB has met to make recommendations about whether to issue a National Th reat Alert System alert, and has aided in the response to aviation threats, border threats, homegrown violent extremists, and cyber threats. Th e Senator’s Counterterrorism Adviso-

ry Board (CTAB) Authori-zation Act of 2017 codifi es the board for four years and ensures that DHS will con-tinue to succeed in its coun-terterrorism mission.

A copy of the Senators’ leg-islation is available online HERE.

After recent terrorist incidents in U.S., Senators codify Department of Homeland Security’s Counter-terrorism Advisory Board

Federal and Legislative


https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/DHS-adviso-ry-board-legislation.pdf

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“ Th is bill will ensure that the CTAB facilitates a cohesive operational strategy so that DHS components and their partners are best enabled to detect, deter and disrupt terrorist operations.” — Senator Marco Rubio



https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/DHS-adviso-ry-board-legislation.pdf

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Drone maker says UAVs set to take over at border patrols, criminal hot spots

GSN’s Homeland Security Awards

GSN HSA2017AWARDS

Best Application Security SolutionAppthority – Platinum Winner

Best User & Entity Behavior Analytics Solu-tionBay Dynamics – Platinum WinnerGurucul – Gold Winner

Best Anti-Malware SolutionBromium – Platinum Winner

Best Application Security SolutionWaratek – Platinum WinnerCode Dx, Inc – Gold WinnerSargent and Greenleaf – Silver WinnerBromium - Finalist

Best Email Security/ Loss Management SolutionBromium – Platinum Winner

Best identity Management PlatformCentrify – Platinum WinnerCyberArk – Gold WinnerForum Systems – Silver WinnerLieberman Software Corporation - Finalist

Best Continuous Monitoring & Mitigation SolutionDFLabs – Platinum WinnerNetwrix Corporation – Gold WinnerSolarWinds Worldwide, LLC – Silver WinnerCyberArk - Finalist

Best Physical Logical Privileged Access Man-agement SolutionsCyberArk – Platinum WinnerForum Systems – Gold Winner

Best Cyber Operational Risk IntelligenceDFLabs – Platinum WinnerRedSeal – Gold WinnerRiskSense – Silver Winner

Best Compliance/Vulnerability AssessmentNetwrix Corporation – Platinum WinnerWombat Security Technologies, Inc. – Gold Winner

Best Network Security/Enterprise FirewallOPAQ Networks – Platinum Winner

Best Multifactor Authentication SolutionsOptimal IdM – Platinum Winner

Best Endpoint Detection and Response Solu-tionSecdo – Platinum Winner

Best Security Incident and Event (SIEM) Man-agementSolarWinds Worldwide, LLC – Platinum Winner

Best Industrial Cybersecurity SolutionVeracity Industrial Networks, Inc – Platinum Winner

CATEGORY #1CYBER SECURITY PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONSJudging in this category is based on a combination of client organization, technologi-cal innovation or improvement, fi lling a recognized government IT security need and fl exibility of a solution to meet current and future organizational needs.


CATEGORY #2VENDORS OF PHYSICAL SECURITY PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONSJudging in this category is based on a combination of an increase in client organization, technological inno-vation or improvement, fi lling a recognized govern-ment IT security need and fl exibility of a solution to meet current and future organizational needs.

VIDEO SURVEILLANCE SOLUTIONSBest Thermo, Nightvision, Infrared CamerasFLIR Systems, Inc. – Platinum WinnerCohuHD Costar Gold Winner – Gold Winner

Best City-Wide Video Surveillance Logos Technologies - – Platinum Winner

COMMUNICATIONS SOLUTIONSBest Interoperable First Responder CommunicationsLRAD Corporation – Platinum Winner

BARRIERSBest Perimeter Protection, Intrusion Detection SystemAMICO – Platinum WinnerPureTech Systems – Gold WinnerFLIR Systems, Inc. – Silver Winner

Best Crash Barriers (Fences, Gates, Barriers, Bollards)TCP-Security Solutions – Platinum Winner

DETECTION PRODUCTSBest Nuclear/Radiation Detection SolutionFLIR Systems, Inc. – Platinum Winner

Best Chemical Detection Product or SolutionRapiscan Systems – Platinum Winner FLIR Systems, Inc. – Gold Winner

Teknoscan Systems Inc. – Silver Winner

Best Explosives Detection Product or Solu-tion Rapiscan Systems – Platinum Winner

Best Active Shooter Gunshot Detection Solu-tionShooter Detection Systems – Platinum Winner

SERVICES EDUCATIONBest College/University in Homeland SecurityBellevue University – Platinum Winner

Best Disaster Preparedness, Recovery, Clean-upHigh Rise Escape Systems Inc. – Platinum Winner

Vendors of ITBest Access Control HardwareSargent and Greenleaf – Platinum Winner

CATEGORY 3GSN 2017 Government Excellence AwardJudging in this category will be based on one or more of the following criteria in the development of success-ful strategy and increase in public safety, providing a notable solution to a recognized problem, reduction in cost and/or major increase in effi ciency and eff ective-ness, decisive successful action and response to threat or emergency.

Most Notable Federal Government Security Program, Project of InitiativeFederal Risk Management Process Training Program (RMPTP)

Most Notable Law Enforcement Interdiction, Arrest, Counter Terrorism or Crime Protection Program – Federal, State or LocalFederal Risk Management Process Training Program (RMPTP)

Most Notable Federal Government Security Program, Project of InitiativeDepartment of Homeland Security Science and Tech-


Border Control

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Self-service initiatives are helping. Check-in is now widely carried out before arriving at the airport, either on the internet or increasingly on mobile devices. Even travelers checking in at the airport often head for kiosks rather than queuing for a counter agent.

Other airport bottlenecks are being tackled to further ease the journey to the aircraft. Bag drop has taken

some time to straighten out, but for baggage-laden passengers in the major travel markets it’s becoming a standard part of the journey. And we’re now starting to see automated boarding gates appearing

at some airports.

LAST OBSTACLE It puts the spotlight rmly back on airport security processes as one of the last remaining obstacles to achieving the vision of a hassle-free journey from curb to aircraft.

Compared to other passenger facil-itation initiatives, progress has been slow and largely invisible to the casual traveler through airports.

But improvements are on the way. Governments are starting to get aclear message from the industry that a one-size ts all approach to border management doesn’t work well.

Devoting a large amount of re-sources to the vast majority of passengers that are of no interest to law enforcement agencies is hugely inef cient.

FASTER FACILI-TATION

For Jamaica, as a tourist hotspot, mak-ing it easy for

travelers to come and go

is a priority. To help, the govern-ment is eliminating the need for outbound passengers to queue at immigration checkpoints at the country’s two major airports, Nor-man Manley International Airport in Kingston, and Sangster Interna-tional Airport in Montego Bay.

Instead, the Government’s Pass-port, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) will conduct a risk analysis of each of the 4.8 million passengers these airports handle each year, before they leave the island.

To make it possible, PICA has turned to iBorders TravelerData

from SITA. Passenger information for its millions of passengers will be processed by SITA’s systems each year.

2 AIR TRANSPORT IT REVIEW | ISSUE 2 : 2013 The service processes and checks advance passenger information (API) from airlines and presents it to PICA in readily programmable format for fast risk assessment.

The new service will process and manage API data from more than 40 carriers ying in and out of Jamaica. This intelligent pre-depar-ture analysis has the added bene t of removing the manual immigra-tion check for outgoing passengers at

the airports.

If ying with one of the airlines that are active on the system, passengers can go straight to the lounge and shopping areas after clearing secu-rity and completely avoid queuing at an immigration checkpoint.

ACTIONABLE “It’s part of the growing trend of in-telligence-led border management that focuses resources on high risk passengers using data from airline and government agency databases,” says Dan Ebbinghaus, VP of Gov-ernment and Security, SITA.

As Self-Service Empowers Passengers and the Industry’s Players, IT Intensifies the Spotlight on Security Processes

Security puts a huge strain on airport infrastructure and resources. Many of them are operating well beyond their intended capacity.

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“By performing a risk assessment on passengers in advance of the flight, the multitude of low risk passengers can go through a more streamlined security process at the airport, improving throughput rates. At the same time, high risk passengers can be denied boarding or given additional security checks.”

Two critical components make the system work. The rst is data that can be turned into actionable infor-mation. This

is used to build a pro le of the passenger – turning the passenger from an ‘unknown’ person into a ‘known’ – and forms the basis of the risk assessment.

Airlines collect API and Passen-ger Name Record (PNR) data on behalf of governments, which SITA processes, filters and transmits to meet the legal requirements of the different countries requesting the information.

VERIFICATION The second requirement is to verify that the person going through the airport security processes is the same person on which the risk as-sessment was done. Often this is a slow manual process carried out by border agents, causing long queues.

But advances in biometrics technol-ogy have made automated border

control gates a far more effective and faster means of verifying the identity of a passenger.

Biometrics can be collected either on departure or at arrival, by an agent or through a kiosk or au-tomated gate. The bene t of auto-mated border gates for passengers is considerable. Waiting times at border checkpoints can be reduced from hours to seconds.

BIOGRAPHIC- BIOMETRIC

“The ability to integrate biographic data with the biometric is essential for ensuring the integrity of the process and achieving end-to- end border management,” says Ebbing-haus.

The good news for holidaymakers and indeed all travelers is that such automated systems are rapidly be-ing adopted, and should be wide-spread in the future.

END-TO-END BORDER MANAGEMENTis an integrated approach to data collection, identity verification and risk management.In an end-to-end approach:• Border management solutions must be aligned to government special c requirements.• Security is robust only with consistent, full coverage of all borders.• Turning data into intelligence is key to success.• Automation is only valuable in the backdrop of intelligence.

SITA AT A GLANCEThe air transport industry is the most dynamic and exciting community on earth – and SITA is its heart.

• Our vision is to be the chosen technology partner of the industry, a posi-tion we will attain through flawless customer service and a unique portfolio of IT and communications solutions that covers the industry’s every need 24/7.

• We are the innovators of the industry. Our experts and developers keep it fuelled with a constant stream of ground-breaking products and solutions. We are the ones who see the potential in the latest technology and put it to work.

• Our customers include airlines, airports, GDSs and governments. We work with around 450 air transport industry members and 2,800 customers in over 200 countries and territories.

• We are open, energetic and committed. We work in collaboration with our partners and customers to ensure we are always delivering the most effec-tive, most efficient solutions.

• We own and operate the world’s most extensive communications network. It’s the vital asset that keeps the global air transport industry connected.

• We are 100% owned by the air transport industry – a unique status that enables us to understand and respond to its needs better than anyone.

• Our annual IT surveys for airlines, airports and passenger self-service are industry-renowned and the only ones of their kind.

• We sponsor .aero, the top-level internet domain reserved exclusively for aviation.

In 2012, we had consolidated revenues of US$1.57 billion.For further information, please visit www.sita.aero

Kiosks were seen from the outset as offering tangible benefits for everyone,” according to Rico Barandun, Portfolio Director at SITA.

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