Now add this to the IT breaches occurring as the result of sub-contracting. Better to laugh than cry, ne? I do believe the operative word here is "DUHHHH". Nice piece on fake ID recently, too.

By the way, anyone catch that little gem recently posted about Lockheed subcontracting to the Russian Firm? I believe in the new world disorder.I love it. This is the best piece in my sci-fi collection.

Agents Breach Security at Federal Offices

By JESSE J. HOLLAND .c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (May 25) - Congressional investigators posing as law enforcement officers with fake IDs were waved unchallenged through the entrances of Washington's most secure government buildings and even into some Cabinet secretaries' offices, officials said Thursday.

Over the past three months, the General Accounting Office investigators faked their way into 19 federal agencies and two airports - including the FBI, the Pentagon, the CIA, the Justice Department and the State Department.

The exercise, conducted at the request of Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., chairman of the House Judiciary crime subcommittee, exposed how age-old cop-to-cop courtesies could be a security breach.

Federal security guards never challenged any of the badges of the men they thought were fellow officers and the agents' briefcases were never checked, GAO Assistant Controller General Robert Hast said.

''They've just never looked at this possibility,'' Hast said. ''I think what we found was a unique hole in the system that can be plugged up.''

The agents were even able to videotape their penetration of several of the agencies without the guards noticing, said Ronald Malfi, one of the GAO agents who got inside eight federal buildings in one day using fake badges.

''We could have caused a lot of damage,'' he said before showing the videotape to a House subcommittee.

Red-faced agencies scrambled to prove they had plugged their security up. At the Pentagon, federal officers will no longer be allowed to walk around unescorted and will have to check in their weapons.

At the State Department, officials plan to reissue a department notice to remind personnel of visitor access and escort policies, including a section on escorting armed visitors.

At FBI headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, police and law enforcement officers from outside the FBI will have to surrender their weapons before entering unless they have been given permanent building passes.

''The only way to wake people up was to shock them and this is pretty shocking,'' said House Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill.

Hast, a former Secret Service agent, cautioned that the test was not an indictment of federal security in general but of guards' lackadaisical attitude toward people who they think are fellow law enforcement officers.

''I do not believe that the White House would have been penetrated by this kind of scam,'' he said.

Part of the problem is that there are so many different types of federal and state law enforcement badges that it's hard to tell the real ones from the fake ones, Malfi said. ''There are too many law enforcement credentials to be able to recognize them all,'' he said.

Hast admitted his investigators, also former Secret Service agents, looked, talked and walked like cops, something most average people would not be able to do. ''A trained intelligence officer, someone who has had training, would be able to do that, however,'' he said.

''I was surprised that there were so many'' places they could get into, Attorney General Janet Reno admitted. But she added, ''Anytime you expose vulnerabilities, it's a good thing.''

Eighteen of the 21 sites were penetrated on the first attempt. The other three sites required a second visit before guards let them inside, Hast said.

The report said 16 of the sites housed the offices of Cabinet secretaries or agency heads. At 15, undercover investigators were able to stand immediately outside the suites of the Cabinet secretary or agency head. Five agencies even let the GAO investigators into the suites, Hast said.

''At 15 of the sites, our agents entered a restroom in the vicinity of these offices and could have left a valise containing weapons,'' Hast said.

The investigators also penetrated security at Reagan National Airport outside Washington and at the Orlando, Fla., international airports. The Washington airport's security was worse than the Florida airport's, they said.

AP-NY-05-25-00 1854EDT

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

-- fallen walls (trumpeter@jericho.com), May 25, 2000

Answers

it won.t be long,1st the pain---then the gain.

-- al-d. (dogs@zianet.com), May 25, 2000.

it won.t be long,1st the pain---then the gain. this forum focuses,onthe problem---instead of THE problem-solver. society will never be changed by man,s wisdom--only GOD,S. WHY IS IT SO HARD TO BE HUMBLE???? GOD RESIST,S THE PROUD.

-- al-d. (dogs@zianet.com), May 25, 2000.

Al,

This is what cranks people off about you. What did your answers have to do with the post? Was the sig line enough to set of another religious rant?

Fallen:

Unless there is some sort of universal ID for law enforcement agencies, I don't see how things like this won't happen. You can buy a badge anywhere and every agency uses its own form of ID card. How is anyone supposed to be able to confirm if the ID is real unless they call the department issuing the ID every time someone comes through? Even then, you could set up a fake phone number going to a confederate who would confirm your false identification. No easy answers that I can see.

-- Jim Cooke (JJCooke@yahoo.com), May 25, 2000.

I saw this report on ABC news today. I'm not sure what to make of it. Most "secure" sites that I am aware of require a picture ID card that contains a chip. The chip is scanned electronically. No security personnel are required, you just hold it up to the scanner; you don't even have to "swipe" it. The door won't open unless the bearer has clearance to enter.

I must admit, this report doesn't jive with my experience. I don't know why.

-- Spindoc' (spindoc_99_2000@yahoo.com), May 26, 2000.

JIM, behind the scenes[spiritually]there is a battle going-on. for the souls of men & nations. 'a nation in decline' ring a bell???

-- al-d. (dogs@zianet.com), May 26, 2000.

Just waiting for the "implanted ID chip" thing. Has been widely reported that they're working on that idea. In MIT's Technology Review, even. And I'm not a doomer. Just reporting what they're talking about.

The sad thing is, these magazines talk about this stuff as if it will just happen, without any debate or resistance.

That's the media.

-- Chicken Little (panic@isover.now), May 26, 2000.

Chicken Little,

The "implanted ID chip" thing already exists. Our pets can get implants that allows them to be identified and located using GPS. It is free when you buy their licences. The implants are put in using a simple seringe.

NASA is developing a flying vehecle that you get into, put in your destination, and it flies you there using computer control. They expect them to be ready within 10 years.

It is even possible, using satalite imaging, to photograph a persons movements when they are out in the open. That sounds frightening to many, but in a situation where, say a child is taken from a playground, it would help in tracking the perpitrator and maybe getting to them before the child is harmed or killed. Is the trade-off for our own privacy woth the benifits? I don't think we are going to be given a choice in the matter. But then if we were allowed to decide if we wanted every new technology that comes along, none would ever happen.

It a whole new world happening.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), May 26, 2000.