Category Archives: Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton

Lack of Security Risk Assessments cited as Contributing to Benghazi Embassy Attack

Posted on by
Reply

Just two weeks ago, we were talking about the lack of coordination between DHS agencies and known intelligence on the brothers responsible.

Now we have the Benghazi Senate hearings, and here is the same problem again – lack of coordination between different parts of the State Department, and with the Defense Department, AND with the CIA and the intelligence community.

Add to this, the appalling cuts in funding for diplomatic security, and a flawed process about what needs to be done about security and protection to our embassies around the world.

“In these tight budget times, the committee has had to make some tough choices to prioritize funding.”, said a GOP aide in The Hill article (GOP cuts to embassy security draw scrutiny), by Alexander Bolton on September 18, 2012.   In spite of the uncertainly of the Arab Spring, the demonstrations every Friday in streets from Bahrain to Tunesia, the embassies had their budgets cut.

Of course, security experts are used to this, security doesn’t directly generate revenue, and it is often one of the first functions on the chopping block.  However, to cut funding to the critical embassy functions in this volatile environment, is obviously a very bad decision on the part of the GOP.

For example, the security risk assessment which are routinely done on these embassies are not done on a systematic basis.  As a risk expert, these security risk assessments should be done WEEKLY, and they should be automated so they can instantly be compared to environments in other embassies, and comparisons made by month, by year, and trends can be tracked.

If we can’t afford to do these assessments and just as important, if we can’t afford to fix the problems that assessments reveal, then we should not have embassies in these places.

The security risk assessments that are done properly must also include complete threat assessments.  ”We need to develop a paradigm for managing risk“, said Gregory Hicks, a Foreign Service Officer who testified today on Capitol Hill.

These paradigms for managing risk already exist and they have been totally ignored by the State Department, which makes it almost impossible to get a clear, unfiltered view of the security situation at any embassy, at any point in time.

At least both sides of the political aisle agree, we do not want this to happen again!  Benghazi is not a political problem, it is a massive security failure problem!

 

Why DHS & FBI Need Google’s Help to Track Terrorists

Posted on by
Reply

The Boston Marathon bombings were bad enough.  The loss of life was terrible, but the runners and their families who lost legs and feet because they wanted to give their Dad a hug at the finish line were worse.

One week later, we all watch with trepidation as the first bomber is killed and the second captured bleeding in a boat in Watertown.

THE MOST TERRIBLE NEWS OF ALL IS THAT IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN PREVENTED!!  This is EXACTLY the situation that DHS was supposed to catch.  This is EXACTLY why the agencies were ORDERED to share information, and still these guys can tweet all they want, show violent Islamic videos on their web sites and call for Jihad and NOBODY NOTICES!!

This is made even more incomprehensible because the U.S. government was ALERTED BY THE RUSSIANSthat one of them was DANGEROUS.

What do we need to do to get these agencies to start paying attention to these potential terrorists? DO WE NEED TO MAKE THEM WEAR A RED SHIRT?

If the IRS can keep track of every American and in 2 minutes call up their entire history of taxes, and the Department of Labor can calculate your benefit rates in less than 1 minute, and Social Security keep track of all your information – why can’t DHS and the FBI  keep a contact database current?

Why can’t they have a person who scans these web sites and Facebook sites for Jihadist pages and then cross-references them with the site’s owner?   Why can’t a trip to a violent region of the world trigger a PING, as I heard one congressman call it.

Every company in the world has a simple Contact database on their own customers and suppliers that gives them years of data.   WHY CAN’T WE BE PROTECTED FROM THESE TERRORiSTS.

This one wasn’t hiding in the shadows – he was ON SOCIAL MEDIA!   He wasn’t locked up in a cabin – he was traveling internationally,   his brother was getting a scholarship.  And they did this FOR YEARS!!

This intelligence failure is just exactly like 9/11 all over again.  These agencies are so procedural that they cannot connect the dots.  Ok – they’re human. But we have super computers that CAN connect the dots and do profiles and create alerts…

Maybe we should call Google and get some help.  We obviously need it.

Why Gang Leader’s Girlfriends Want to Work in Your Physician Practice

Posted on by
Reply

In a very interesting article titled Why Gang Members Want Your Identity Fox Business News reporter Kate Rogers examines a disturbing trend of stealing electronic patient records and using them to commit crimes.  They want your social security number and address and then they can use them to submit phony tax returns!

My CPA told me that many of his long-time clients file their carefully prepared returns and IRS writes back to say they were already submitted!

Detective Craig Catlin of North Miami Beach Police called it an ‘epidemic’ among city gangs.  He said, “Every gang member is doing this, it’s a business to them – they’re doing burglaries and having other members commit the fraud”.

As a medical professional – why should you care? Because gang leaders are having their girlfriends get jobs at physician offices and hospitals, and they stay for one day or one week, just long enough to steal all the medical records.  Then they have a ‘Tax Party’ and file hundreds of false tax returns!  They can make $50,000 in one evening.  They just need the records.

How to prevent this from happening to you, which, of course, would also result in a HIPAA fine of up to $1,500,000 dollars, is to be very strict with background checks and be very wary of unsolicited job seekers.

Additionally, having active, and online monitoring in effect will send out a warning to new individuals that their every keystroke is tracked and watched.  Of course, banning zip drives and using encryption are also strong controls to add.

Walk through your office today – count the tattoos and draw your own conclusions.

 

Chemical Weapons – the True December 21st Potential Disaster

Posted on by
Reply

Maybe the Mayan Calendar has forecast a deadly chemical attack that would poison the world, not a pole shift after all.

Know much about chemical weapons?  They are semi-easily dispersed. They can decimate a population in the time it takes a plane to fly overhead.  They are gruesome death.

The U.S. actually keeps track of all chemical weapons – and biologic weapons, too.  Did you know that inspectors all over the world fan out when a nation state fails (and sometime before) and can tell you exactly what it is and where it is kept.

My friends in this business have traveled all over the former Soviet Union, counting the anthrax vials in a deserted laboratory in the middle of a forest, for example, and making careful notes, not just on the location of the now-deserted laboratory, but also checking the state of security for those sites.

Is the facility secured? Is there a guard service?  Are there card access or cypher locks on the doors?  Are the windows locked and secured?  Is there access from the roof?

Is there a tree too close to the roof that could be used for access?

All these plans and assessments can be hauled out at times like these, helping to keep the world safe from chemical and biological weapons.  At least, that’s what we are all hoping, and counting on.

Happy Saturday!!

How long does it take for OSHA to develop standards – like for Workplace Violence?

Posted on by
Reply

Why OSHA standards take so long to develop

The Government Accountability office reports to Congress on items of interest to Congress and their constituents.  One area that was recently examined was how long it takes OSHA to update standards, or develop new standards.  Here’s a look at the results:

By: David LaHoda, April 30th, 2012

A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on why OSHA standards take, on average, more than seven years to complete found that “increased procedural requirements, shifting priorities, and a rigorous standard of judicial review” contributed to the lengthy time frame.

In responding to the GAO report, Randy Rabinowitz, OMB Watch’s director of regulatory policy said: “In the years since its creation, OSHA’s charge to protect workers from harm has been undermined by Kafkaesque demands for additional reviews of existing rules mandated by new statutes and executive orders,” according to The Hill. While OSHA’s internal inability to remain focused on priorities and regulatory follow-through was the counter argument presented by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“While some of the changes, such as improving coordination with other agencies to leverage expertise, are within OSHA’s authority, others call for significant procedural changes that would require amending existing laws,” according tot he GAO report.

The GAO report recommended that that OSHA and NIOSH improve collaboration on researching occupational hazards. In that way OSHA could better “leverage NIOSH expertise in determining the needs for new standards and developing them.”

For the entire 55-page report go to http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-330