Yorker advises Greeks on Olympic security

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.yorkdispatch.com/Stories/0,1413,138~10023~2190329,00.html

By JACK SHOLL
The York Dispatch
June 03, 2004 

As Greece prepares for the start of the summer Olympic games in two
months, its government is taking steps against potential terrorist
attacks in Athens.

Intelligence experts say major events like the Olympics present
potential targets. Although physical attacks are one possibility,
another is a computer assault, such as hacking into the Olympic
security systems.

High-tech security: "We do everything today on the computer," said
James Walsh of Red Lion, a retired special agent with the U.S. State
Department who just returned from Greece.

Walsh now consults for governments and companies, and trained the
Hellenic National Police Force in computer security.

"We haven't had a massive computer attack in the past," he said. "But
we're gearing up for it. The potential for a huge problem is there."

Walsh specializes in computer forensics, a relatively new field that
combines law enforcement with computer technology. He helped the U.S.  
government start its first computer forensics program and now teaches
a "Digital Evidence" class in the Continuing Education Program at
Georgetown University Law School in Washington, D.C.

Crafting a response: Walsh taught Greek police how to respond to
possible cyber-terrorism. Because of the nature of the work, he's
reluctant to talk about how and why terrorists could disrupt or hack
into the Olympic computer systems. But, he points to a general
example: "Imagine the problems if terrorists could interrupt vital
banking transactions in the world."

Such speculation is backed by hard realities.

Although the motivation turned out to be financial gain, he cites an
identity-theft case he worked on. The individual, he says, now serving
a 71/2-year prison sentence, had created three separate identities,
each with its own false passport, birth certificate, and bank account
and credit records.

A U.S. State Department visa inspector flagged one of the passports
when the man returned from a trip to Africa.

Walsh was called in.

The person had erased all e-mails and records from his laptop
computer, but Walsh recovered from the computer's hard drive many
documents that unearthed the three identities.

York County detective: Walsh, 57, received a B.S. in criminal justice
from York College and an M.A. in public administration from Harvard
University. He was York County Chief of Detectives from 1977 to 1981.

During his government career, Walsh was a special agent for the
Diplomatic Security Service of the U.S. State Department, the
department's own security force. The unit focuses on passport and visa
fraud, terrorism and counterterrorism, and counterintelligence.

Many of his assignments were abroad, where he advised American
ambassadors, including the ambassador in Ankara, Turkey, on
intelligence and law enforcement matters.

He also helped protect foreign dignitaries in the United States who
were not at the head of state level -- heads of state are protected by
the U.S. Secret Service and other agencies -- as well as officials
from countries not recognized by the U.S.

That included supervising security details for the presidents of
Northern Cyprus and Bosnia; the Crown Princes of Japan and Spain; the
Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson; and the U.S. Ambassador from Saudi
Arabia, Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz.

> From home bases in Washington and New York, Walsh's 20 years of
government service took him all over the world, from the Middle East
to Western and Eastern Europe to Central and South America.

"Not bad for a little old boy who was a county detective in York," he
said with a laugh.



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