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Ervin: DHS Fails Security Mission |
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Source: Government Computer News - Posted by Eric Lubow
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Clark Ervin was strolling down a Manhattan street in April 2005 when the red light on his BlackBerry indicated he had a message. The former inspector general of the Homeland Security Department looked at the device and saw that the Associated Press had reported the results of the latest IG investigation on airport security. Those results showed no improvement in screeners’ abilities to detect deadly weapons, compared with the results of similar investigations done in 2001 and 2003. “It was far easier than it should have been even after the [Sept. 11, 2001] attacks for government investigators to sneak these weapons through,� said Ervin, who served as the department’s first IG for about two years. He recounted the story in his keynote speech today at the 26th Annual Management of Change Conference sponsored by the American Council for Technology and by the Industry Advisory Council, to illustrate an important point.
That point is that DHS, for the most part, has failed in its mission to secure the country from attacks in key security areas, such as aviation, ports, mass transit, borders, intelligence, emergency preparedness and response, and cybersecurity. “The American people remain far more vulnerable to a terror attack than we should be,� said Ervin, who currently is the director of the Homeland Security Initiative at the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit, cultural think tank that promotes nonpartisan inquiry on various topics. The Homeland Security Initiative examines issues related to homeland security, assesses the progress the government has made in securing the homeland, and makes recommendations for making the country safer.
Read this full article at Government Computer News
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