Safeguarding the private and public sector from insider threats
containing a bomb actually sat in the building’s lost and found for nearly three weeks before it was noticed.
The bag was safely detonated by the local bomb squad after it was found to contain wires and electrical components.
Senator Susan Collins (R – Maine) plans to reintroduce a bi-partisan bill to reform FPS and amend federal security requirements at government office buildings, which have not been updated since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
In addition to reforming FPS, government agencies as well as the private sector have been actively exploring technological solutions to help detect insider threats.
Scott Schober, the president and CEO of Berkeley Varitronics Systems (BVS), and Dennis Wolfe, the national sales manager of Virtual Imaging, Inc., a subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., were also present at the panel to discuss the latest technologies under development to address these security vulnerabilities.
Schober’s company specializes in the production of detection devices that can sense when cell phones have been smuggled into secure facilities like prisons, sensitive compartmentalized information facilities (SCIFs), and other confidential areas.
In particular, prisons and businesses have struggled with keeping cell phones out of secure areas.
At prisons they are often used to coordinate crimes, plan escapes, or conduct gang activity, while in the private sector or in government facilities cell phones can be used to steal sensitive data, record conversations, or photograph confidential processes.
Schober says that cell phone smuggling “is a problem that is getting worse and worse in certain areas.”
To keep cell phones out of these restricted areas, BVS has developed discreet devices that can “[measure] the energy coming out of the phone when it is transmitting” to detect when they are present.
These scanners also have the capability to pinpoint a specific device’s location within a 100 foot radius.
To add an additional layer for screening, Dennis Wolfe discussed the latest in body scanning technology to prevent individuals from hiding contraband items like plastic explosives, narcotics, and weapons on or in their body.
Wolfe argued for the increased use of full body scanners that relied on transmission technology rather than backscatter and millimeter wave technology like those most commonly used in airport scanners.
According to Wolfe current body scanners deployed at most airports and prisons “have a very severe weakness because they really can’t see anything below a tenth of an inch below your skin.”
As a result, Wolfe says that the “bad guys” are exploiting this security vulnerability and sneaking in contraband items hidden
