Border Security System Left Open

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

Via Wired News.

[snip]

A computer failure that hobbled border-screening systems at airports across the country last August occurred after 
Homeland Security officials deliberately held back a security patch that would have protected the sensitive computers 
from a virus then sweeping the internet, according to documents obtained by Wired News.

The documents raise new questions about the $400 million US-VISIT program, a 2-year-old system aimed at securing the 
border from terrorists by gathering biometric information from visiting foreign nationals and comparing it against 
government watch lists.

The Aug. 18 computer failure led to long lines at international airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and 
elsewhere, while U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, officials processed foreign visitors by hand, or in some 
cases used backup computers, according to contemporaneous press reports.

[snip]

More:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70642-0.html

Background, from 19 August 2005:
http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/2005/08/international-travelers-at-airports.html

- ferg


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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