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Homeland Security secrets caught in the web
http://phaedo.typepad.com/phaedo/hsomb_122904.pdf (3 pgs.)
ISN SECURITY WATCH (20/01/05) - The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appears to have inadvertently published a batch of confidential daily briefing papers on the internet at some point in mid-January. Online news provider ZDNet reported that copies of the DHS's "Operations Morning Brief" could be found through the Google search engine's cache. ZDNet reported that the documents all began with the same text block: "WARNING: This document is FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY. It contains information that may be exempt from public release under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552). This document is to be controlled, handled, transmitted, distributed, and disposed of in accordance with DHS policy relating to FOUO information and is not to be released to the public or other personnel who do not have a valid "need-to-know" without prior approval of the Homeland Security Operations Center." Users who entered that text as a Google search query in parentheses could view HTML text versions of the DHS briefing papers, spanning a period from 26 November 2004 to 6 January 2005. Although the PDF documents have since been removed, Google created a cached snapshot of the files that had been posted at on the website of the US Office of Energy Assurance (www.ea.doe.gov). The reports are between one and three pages each and appear to carry daily reports and threat warnings for internal use by the DHS. They are marked "FOUO" (For Official Use Only), and deal mostly with what appears to be low-level criminal or suspicious activity. Most bulletins have four to seven short news items ranging from visa violations to threats against critical infrastructure. The most frequent notices deal with immigration and identity fraud. A few cases are reported of individuals being refused entry to the US or boarding for air travel because their names matched entries on a "no- fly" blacklist. There are several reports of suspected threats or actual damage to critical installations such as power plants, water reservoirs, or high-voltage power lines. In a few such cases, the bulletins included fairly detailed information on the location and critical nature of such installations. Finally, some issues of the DHS Operations Morning Brief contain observations of "suspicious activity" by "concerned citizens". In some cases, the "suspicious" activity involved Middle-Eastern-looking men speaking a language other than English, but other more ominous reports said suspected extremists might have been staking out landmarks and government buildings, possibly for future attacks on US soil.
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