Homeland Security Committee Confronts Cyber Crime

According to Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, the true extent of cyber crime may be impossible to judge.

“A lot of these cyber attacks go undetected and unreported because the victims are frightened to report them,” said Lieberman Monday during a Homeland Security Committee hearing.

Lieberman explained that cyber crooks had sophisticated methods, such as commandeering an unknowing individual's computer to traffic money.

Lieberman said that in 2007, the TJX Corporation, a leading retailing organization, experienced a breach of its wireless networks in which up to 94 million credit and debit card numbers were put the at risk of being used illegally.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is the Committee's ranking member, pointed to computer hacker Albert Gonzalez, who was indicted in August for his alleged involvement in the largest credit and debit breach ever in the United States, as a symbol for how dangerous cyber crime has become. Gonzalez pleaded guilty recently to charges stemming from the theft of tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers from the computers of several major retailers. Authorities believe this was not Gonzalez’s only major cyber crime.

“Protecting our cyberspace has become critically important. In the past 18 months, this Committee has held three hearings on the topic of cyber security,” said Collins.

The witnesses at Monday's hearing included Philip Reitinger, deputy undersecretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate for Homeland Security Department; Michael Merritt, assistant director of the U.S. Secret Service’s Office of Investigations; William Nelson, president and CEO of Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center; and Robert Carr, chairman and CEO of Heartland Payment Systems, Inc.

Lieberman: Climate Change Threatens National Security

By Laura Smith, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that climate change presents a growing threat to the United States.

“The environmental concerns have merged with two other major American national interests. One is economic. The second coalescence is that climate change is a matter of national security,” Lieberman said during a panel discussion with the Reserve Officers Association in Washington, D.C.

Lieberman, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, added that climate change does not threaten the stability of the U.S. alone.

“The Minister of Defense from Bangladesh is planning what they will have to do for the unrest that will occur if global warming is not checked and tides rise,” said Lieberman.

Lieberman noted that legislative changes would need to be enacted to offset the risks, conceding that while there is a resistance to change, the U.S. is making progress.

“This is not easy because of the change involved. And yet as the years have gone by the number of stake holders, including businesses that have come forward and said they want to be part of the change because they see it coming ... has grown.”