The Security Blotter

Stunts show vulnerabilities at London landmarks

By Kathleen Carr

November 01, 2004 — CSO —

No harm donebut stunts show vulnerabilities at London landmarks. A pair of recent events led to embarrassing questions around the British capital. First came Jason Hatch, an activist seeking child visitation rights for fathers, who donned a Batman costume and scaled the front wall of Buckingham Palace on Sept. 13 to unfurl a poster near the balcony where the royal family appears on ceremonial occasions. He stayed on the ledge for more than five hours before police arrested him, The Associated Press reported.

Three days later, eight men opposing a law to ban fox hunting used a forged letter to enter the House of Parliament building, where five of the men eluded doormen and stormed onto the debate floor, according to The Associated Press. Guards in black stockings and tailcoats dragged them out of the hall for police questioning. Parliamentary and security officials are investigating the incident. There had not been such an intrusion in Parliament since 1642, one official told the AP.

Little experience required: Teen cited in ID theft. On Sept. 10, police arrested a 15-year-old boy from Hapeville, Ga., for allegedly developing an elaborate identity theft scam that included a fake private detective agency complete with voice mail and postal address. The boy, who lives with his mother just outside Atlanta, spent about $600 to procure names and Social Security numbers from an unknown source. He then matched the names to victims' phone numbers online. After allegedly fooling the victims into believing he was investigating possible ID theft, he was able to get their credit card numbers and make purchases. He ran up a tab close to $30,000, victimizing 12 people before he was caught, police told The Associated Press.

Can you do background checks on your neighbor's employees? Prosecutors in Massachusetts allege a 29-year-old man set off a pipe bomb at the offices of Amaranth Bio, a biotechnology lab in Watertown, Mass., on Aug. 26. The bomb exploded in the early morning hours and broke glass in the office; no injuries were reported. After the suspect's arrest, the company announced on its website that according to police, the suspect had no relation to Amaranth Bio, but was a former employee of another tenant in the same building.

Soft target cited: Terror warning at U.S. veterans hospitals. The FBI and the Homeland Security Department issued a nationwide warning on Aug. 27 that al-Qaida may attempt to attack hospitals run by the Veterans Affairs Department, and unspecified military medical facilities in Bethesda, Md., and Aurora, Colo., according to The Associated Press. The warning indicated evidence of "possible reconnaissance activities" at federal medical facilities, which could include unusual interest in security measures at the buildings, discreet use of video cameras, and individuals seen observing security drills or procedures.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi says the threat highlighted no specific facility and the agency is operating as usual.

Inside job alleged at France's Library. Police in Paris are investigating the head of the French National Library's Hebrew-language archives, Michel Garel, in a case involving 146 missing historic documents and manuscripts. One of the documents, a 332-page manuscript dating to 1250, was sold at auction at Christie's in New York in 2000 for $300,000, The Economist reported. It was recently recognized by a researcher in Israel who alerted authorities about its provenance. Authorities in August said their investigation goes beyond Garel, adding that one person could not have made so many texts vanish, Libération reported. Garel has denied any wrongdoing.

Read more about data protection in CSOonline's Data Protection section.

Other stories by Kathleen Carr

• Print