Intel Analyst Charged With Hacking Anti-Terror Program

An analyst at a Defense Department spy satellite agency faces federal hacking charges after allegedly poking around in a top-secret system used in a classified terrorism investigation involving the FBI and the U.S. Army.

Brian Keith Montgomery worked on a covert program for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency — the spy agency in charge of satellite and aerial image collection. On April 9, he was carrying out his duties when he saw a message that “provided significant detail about a classified operation” that was unrelated to his job, according to an affidavit filed by a Pentagon investigator.

The operation is not detailed in the affidavit (.pdf), but there is a reference to the 902nd Military Intelligence Battalion, an Army counterintelligence unit based at Fort Meade in Maryland, with a presence at more than 50 other locations inside and outside the United States. The 902nd faced controversy in 2005, when NBC News published documents showing the the unit had been spying on American anti-war protesters. Under the guise of fighting terrorism, the group had filed intelligence reports on legal demonstrations, including a weekly protest at an Atlanta recruiting station, and a protest at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

According to the government, Montgomery ignored a security warning in the message he saw, and twice logged in to a classified system used in the terrorism investigation: first on April 9, when he stayed on for two hours, and then on April 14. He’d gotten the password from another classified message to which he also had legitimate access.

Curiously, just by accessing the system, Montgomery endangered the terrorism investigation, and “caused harm to the U.S. Army and the FBI,” according to the affidavit by Dexter Wells, an agent with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

Montgomery’s alleged motives are unclear, but he told DCIS that he was very interested in the information in the program, Wells wrote. Montgomery also told investigators that he thought he was allowed to log in to the system, and hadn’t noticed a warning saying that only officials participating in the operation were allowed to use the password.

via Intelligence Analyst Charged With Hacking Top Secret, Anti-Terror Program | Threat Level | Wired.com.

Metro Transit Police to Add Anti-Terrorism Teams

The federal government will pay almost $10 million for the Metro Transit Police to put 20 officers on five anti-terrorism teams, Metro officials announced Wednesday.

The department has a Special Response Team, said spokeswoman Cathy Asato, but the force has not had specific teams focused on counterterrorism. A Department of Homeland Security transit grant program will provide the money to create them.

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“They’re going to recruit from within to form these anti-terror teams,” Asato said, “then we’ll recruit 20 new officers to fill their spots.”

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DHS Certifies Handheld Biodetection Kits For Counter-Terrorism

Universal Detection Technology, a developer of early-warning monitoring technologies to protect people from bioterrorism and other infectious health threats and provider of counter-terrorism consulting and training services, reported today that its handheld biodetection kits have been certified by the Department of Homeland Security as an “Approved Product for Homeland Security” under the Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies (SAFETY) Act of 2002.

The SAFETY Act provides incentives for the development and deployment of anti-terrorism technologies by creating a system of “risk management” and a system of “litigation management.” The purpose of the act is to ensure that the threat of liability does not deter potential manufacturers or sellers of anti-terrorism technologies from developing and commercializing technologies that could save lives.

The handheld detection kits have been extensively used by first responders and private industry throughout the country. The equipment has been evaluated by the U.S. DOD, as well as by the United Kingdom military. The equipment’s capacities feature the following:

• No cross-reactivity with near neighbor strains
• No cross-reactivity to household powders
• No set up time
• No expensive reader needed
• No decontamination requirements
• No false positives
• No false negatives
• No hook effect

“The size and ease of use of these kits makes them ideal for emergency situations where time is of the essence,” says Jacques Tizabi, UNDT’s Chief Executive Officer. “UNDT’s kits are some of the most user friendly and accurate products currently on the market.”

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