As many as four million employees could have their personal information compromised in what some U.S. officials have called “the biggest breach ever of the government’s computer networks.”
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the breach saying that at the beginning of May hackers had violated the systems of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Interior Department.
“Protecting our Federal employee data from malicious cyber incidents is of the highest priority at OPM,” OPM Director Katherine Archuleta said in a statement. “We take very seriously our responsibility to secure the information stored in our systems, and in coordination with our agency partners, our experienced team is constantly identifying opportunities to further protect the data with which we are entrusted.”
Sen. Susan Collins told the Associated Press investigators believe the hack came from China.
Collins called the attack “yet another indication of a foreign power probing successfully and focusing on what appears to be data that would identify people with security clearances.”
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) intrusion system detected the hack, although many files were copied before the system alerted officials.
“DHS is continuing to monitor federal networks for any suspicious activity and is working aggressively with the affected agencies to conduct investigative analysis to assess the extent of this alleged intrusion,” A DHS statement read.
A report before the House Homeland Security Commission says that a estimates show over 20,000 foreign fighters sympathetic to ISIS have gone to the middle east to join the group or attempt to join them.
Nick Rasmussen, the head of the National Counterterrorism Center said that fighters are joining at a rate never seen in previous conflicts of similar nature like Somalia, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Supporters from 80 countries are believed to be in Syria.
The report says that approximately 150 Americans have attempted to travel to the war zone to join ISIS. Officials say that while some have been caught, a majority were able to make it to ISIS territory.
The new estimate is double the previous and experts say it could top 30,000 in the next few months.
“This new total reflects an increase in members because of stronger recruitment since June following battlefield successes and the declaration of a caliphate, greater battlefield activity and additional intelligence,” an unidentified CIA official told CNN this week.
The chairman of the Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, said the report brings him serious concerns.
“I am worried about our ability to combat this threat abroad, but also here at home,” he said. “I wrote to the president recently as part of my ongoing investigation and raised concerns that we have no lead agency in charge of countering domestic radicalization and no line item for it in the budgets of key departments and agencies. I am also concerned that the few programs we do have in place are far too small to confront a challenge that has grown so quickly.”
If you will be flying anywhere in the United States over the next few months, prepare for a few extra minutes in the security line.
Al Qaeda published a new “online recipe” for creating bombs that cannot be detected by the current security measures in place at airports. The result is that the TSA will be conducting random spot checks of carry on baggage at all airports.
Jeh Johnson, head of Homeland Security, met with airline officials to provide them the details of the terrorist thread. The guidelines from Al Qaeda not only included the bomb mixture but also told bombers where to sit on the planes for maximum damage.
“We have no specific, credible intelligence of an attack of the kind in Paris last week being planned by terrorist organizations in this country,” Johnson said in a statement. “But, the reasons for these measures should be self-evident to the public: the recent attacks in Paris, Ottawa, Sydney, and elsewhere, along with the recent public calls by terrorist organizations for attacks on Western objectives, including aircraft, military personnel, and government installations and civilian personnel.”
“The chief Al-Qaeda bombmaker Ibrahim Al-Asiri is innovative in his designs and isn’t to be underestimated,” security expert Ryan Mauro told FoxNews.com. “For Al Qaeda, it is still somewhat of a victory if they can get an explosive on an airliner or even just inside an airport, regardless of whether the device ignites properly.
The United States will force all flights from countries that have Ebola outbreaks to five airports to allow more through screening for the virus.
Anyone flying into the U.S. from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea will now have to travel through JFK in New York, Newark in New Jersey, Dulles in Washington, D.C., Atlanta or Chicago. The move goes into effect immediately according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“We are working closely with the airlines to implement these restrictions with minimal travel disruption,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement. “If not already handled by the airlines, the few impacted travelers should contact the airlines for rebooking, as needed.”
Johnson said that 94% of passengers from those areas reportedly already come through those airports, so it should have minimal impact on the worldwide airline flight schedules.
“We currently have in place measures to identify and screen anyone at all land, sea and air ports of entry into the United States who we have reason to believe has been present in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea in the preceding 21 days,” Johnson said.
A Washington-based travel group told Reuters that an average of 150 per day come into the U.S. from those countries.
A Congressman has revealed information that the administration had been trying to hide regarding the capture of four terrorists attempting to sneak into the country through the unsecured southern border.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah told reporters he was informed that four individuals with ties to Middle Eastern terrorist organizations were arrested attempting to enter the country the day before the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Rep. Chaffetz was on a committee questioning Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson who testified in the hearing that “no specific cases came to mind” when asked about terrorists being stopped coming into the country. When the revelations from Rep. Chaffetz were mentioned, Johnson said he’d heard the reports but didn’t know how much credence to give them.
“Over the last 351 days, yet by Homeland Security’s own numbers, 157,000 people got away. And the people we did capture, they come from 143 different countries. Thirteen were from Syria, six were from Iraq, four were from Iran,” Chaffetz said. “We have a porous border. We are worried about every story on the news tonight is about ISIS. I’m worried about them actually coming to the United States and crossing that porous border and getting into the homeland.”
Johnson did admit that since so many people cross the border it would be impossible to stop every terrorist that would try to enter the country.
Experts say that the catastrophic destruction of an electromagnetic pulse attack on the nation could be prevented but that most non-military groups and citizens are not ready.
The executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security says that technology to avoid losing power and electronics from electromagnetic pulse exists and that it’s financially viable to upgrade the nation’s power grid for this protection.
“The problem is not the technology,” Peter Pry told Fox News. “We know how to protect against it. It’s not the money, it doesn’t cost that much. The problem is the politics. It always seems to be the politics that gets in the way.”
Pry said the total cost to upgrade the entire nation is less than what is given in foreign aid to Pakistan each year.
The worst case scenario estimated from a 2011 study on the impact of an EMP on the electric grid would be 500,000 dead within the first few minutes.
The Department of Homeland Security has stepped in and saved a Christian family from being deported to Germany where they likely would have lost custody of their children.
A spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Fox News that they were going to allow the Romeike family to remain in the United States despite efforts by the Obama administration to have them deported.
Just days after a federal judge ruled the administration could deny the family’s request for asylum based on the grounds they were being discriminated against in Germany because of their Christian beliefs, DHS said that they would use “prosecutorial discretion” and officially drop any actions to deport the family.
Germany forced all children to attend state-approved schools and prohibits the homeschooling of children in an attempt to keep religious groups from being able to teach their faith to their children.
The family had initially been given asylum in 2010 on religious grounds but the Obama administration appealed that decision and won when the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal on Monday.
A security threat issued this week by Homeland Security regarding shoe bomb attacks on international flights into the U.S. is due to intelligence reports showing Al-Qaeda plotting the attacks.
DHS issued the warning after Ibrahim Hassaon al-Asiri, a Saudi Arabian man who plotted other failed shoe bomb attacks for the terrorist group, reportedly has developed a new method of hiding explosives in shoes.
U.S. officials label al-Asiri the best terrorist bomb maker in the world.
The bulletin to security screeners around the world calls on them to use swabs containing explosive detecting chemicals on shoes because an X-ray may not be able to detect the devices.
Increased security has already been seen in London and Amsterdam.
The DHS report says that the current plot is not connected in any way to plot involving the current Olympic games.
The Department of Homeland Security has announced the cancellation of a program that had drawn the ire of privacy advocates nationwide.
Homeland Security Secretary ordered the immediate end to a plan by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to collect data on all license plates in the United States and storing them in a massive database.
ICE officials has claimed in their initial request for proposals that the collection of the plates would help law enforcement be able to find and track fugitives. The database would also be used to help track down immigrants in the country illegally.
“The solicitation, which was posted without the awareness of ICE leadership, has been cancelled,” ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said in prepared statement. “While we continue to support a wide range of technologies to help meet our law enforcement mission, this solicitation will be reviewed to ensure the path forward appropriately meets our operational needs.”
Members of Congress reacted swiftly to the announcement in praising the withdrawal of the proposed program but wondered how something like this could be made public without the knowledge of those in charge of ICE.
As another major winter storm bears down on the northeast, the Department of Homeland Security is working to make it harder and more expensive for New Jersey communities to keep ice off the roads.
New Jersey officials were trying to obtain tons of salt from Maine that would be delivered along the East Coast by barge for communities that have run out during the heavy winter of 2013-2014. However, Homeland Security has prohibited the shipments claiming they violate the 1920 Federal Maritime Act.
The 1920 Act says that no ship flying a flag other than American or flying no flag at all cannot transfer goods from one American port to another. The law was put in place to protect the U.S. shipping industry from foreign competition.
The barge was not an American ship and so it had to sail away empty, leaving the much needed road salt sitting at a port in Maine.
The mayor of Jersey City said he’s been waiting two weeks for salt shipments from smaller suppliers. They received 200 tons Tuesday and are hoping another 300 would arrive before the current storm front strikes. Mayor Steve Fulop noted the city usually uses 800 tons of salt for a winter storm.
The city has had to rely on much more expensive liquid brine and sand for city streets.
Officials say they are trying to work with Homeland Security to obtain larger shipments.