Canada, U.S. to Extend Security Measures Past Games

Canada and U.S. authorities are talking about extending cross-border security measures that were implemented for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and were to end with the closing of the Winter Games.

The RCMP and the U.S. Coast Guard have jointly patrolled the waters off Vancouver since the beginning of the month, boarding nearly 200 vessels and interviewing about 500 people in their efforts to maintain security, RCMP Sergeant Duncan Pound of the border integrity program said in an interview.

Almost every small craft in the vicinity of the maritime border has been contacted to confirm the legitimacy of its voyage. Although some arrests on outstanding criminal warrants have been made and some vessels have been sent back to port for not being safe, none of the incidents involved a threat to Olympic security.'

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UK Commander Admits to Better Security Under Taliban

A senior British general in Afghanistan says that travelling across the war-torn country is more dangerous now than it was under the Taliban regime eight years ago.

Major-General Nick Carter, who leads NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, said in a BBC interview that Taliban militants had ensured security on the main highways in a very effective way.'

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Spy Bugs May be Deployed for 2012 Olympics

BRITISH police are studying Chinese-style surveillance tactics as they prepare security for the 2012 London Olympics, a leaked Scotland Yard report has revealed.

The report, marked “restricted”, reveals that among the “Big Brother” tactics deployed at last summer’s Beijing Games was the installation of miniature microphones in thousands of taxis.

The bugs transmitted passengers’ conversations to a police control room. There, officers could activate disabling devices to stop the cabs if they suspected criminal activity.

In another operation, athletes, visitors and journalists were believed to have been tracked by tiny microchips on their tickets and passes.

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Hackers claim there’s a black hole in the atom smashers’ computer network

Hackers have broken into one of the computer networks of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
A group calling itself the Greek Security Team left a rogue webpage describing the technicians responsible for computer security at the giant atom smasher as “schoolkids” — but reassuring scientists that they did not want to disrupt the experiment.
The hackers gained access to a website open to other scientists on Wednesday as the LHC passed its first test, sending its protons off on their dizzying journey through time and space, close to the speed of light.
The work of the scientists was not derailed and insiders scoffed at claims that the hackers were “one step away” from the systems controlling the experiment itself. The engineering team completed four days of scheduled work in the first 24 hours but what physicists are really waiting for is the big bang machine’s first

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Prisoner data loss firm allowed to work on database of every child in England

The private firm which lost the details of the entire prison population is being allowed to continue working on the controversial project to build a database of every child in England

PA Consulting was branded "completely unacceptable" by ministers and lost its three-year contract with the Home Office after an employee mislaid an unencrypted memory stick containing the names, addresses and expected release dates of all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales.
Its other contracts with the Home Office, worth £8million a year, are now under review.
But the firm is being allowed to continue working on the highly sensitive £224million ContactPoint scheme to create a computerised record of the names, addresses, dates of birth, parents, schools and GPs of all 11 million children in England, which has already been delayed by security concerns.
Critics said the involvement of PA Consulting – which is also working on the national ID card scheme – in the project should lead to it being scrapped completely, before any serious mistakes can be made.

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Dentist branded a terrorist after taking pictures of landmark shopping centre

When dentist Andrew Medina travelled to Birmingham for a photography exhibition, it was perhaps only natural that the amateur snapper should want to take a few pictures of his own.
But as he took pictures of one of the city's landmark buildings from the street outside, Dr Medina was approached by two security guards and accused of being a terrorist.
The dental surgeon told of his shock after the incident outside the imposing Mailbox development in the city centre.
The former Royal Mail sorting office is now a mix of designer shops, galleries, hotels, bars and restaurants, including the Malmaison hotel where Dr Medina was staying for the weekend with his girlfriend.
He said: 'I did what many thousands of people have done before: I walked out of the hotel and immediately, standing in the street I began to take photographs of this iconic Birmingham building, the building that myself and my girlfriend were happily paying to stay in.
'What happened next can only be described as horrible.'
He said he was confronted by two male security officers working for the Mailbox, and one of them proceeded to ask the 45-year-old dentist why he was taking photographs.
He described the demeanour of the security guard who questioned him as 'menacing' and said the other attempted to grab his camera. He was then told he was banned from entering the Mailbox.
Dr Medina, of Didsbury, South Manchester, said: 'I was then told that I must be a terrorist putting the Mailbox under surveillance

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