Disparities in European Security; TSA to Inspect Port Security in Maine; Founder of Redbus Denies Hacking; More Evidence of Warnings About Columbine

Disparities in European Security

According to a BBC News story today, a survey sponsored by McAfee warned that many European firms were just reacting to virus outbreaks instead of preparing to beat back future threats. Forty-eight percent of the European companies surveyed see security as mostly a matter of fixing breaches that viruses, worms and malicious hackers attempt to exploit. In the U.K. and the Netherlands, more than 40 percent of companies are doing nothing about blended threats. French, German and Swedish firms were best prepared. TSA to Inspect Port Security in MainePortland Press Herald. The TSA offered to make the visit late last month when it rejected a request from Portland to provide federal screeners to the city’s seaport in addition to its airport. Jeffrey Monroe, Portland’s director of ports and transportation, has said the city plans to be the first port in the nation to require cruise and ferry passengers and baggage to go through a screening process similar to the one used in airports. Local officials and U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe are pushing for a federal takeover of port security operations in order to standardize screening procedures among the nation’s ports, and shift the cost from shipping companies and port communities to the federal budget.

Federal security officials from the Transportation Security Administration will be in Portland, Maine, today to see firsthand the efforts to tighten security in Maine’s largest seaportand hear why local officials think the federal government should take on part of the job, according to the

Founder of Redbus Denies HackingTimesOnline.com reports that Cliff Stanford, the technology entrepreneur who made many millions from the sale of Demon Internet, was yesterday released on bail after being interviewed by police for a second time on suspicion of hacking into another company that he founded. He is suspected of committing offences under Britains Computer Mis-use Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, both of which cover high-tech crimes such as hacking and electronic eavesdropping. Stanford founded Redbus in 1999 but resigned after falling out with John Porter, the chairman at the time. He has twice tried and failed to overthrow the board, and recently sold all his shares in the company. Porters e-mail has apparently been tampered with. Stanford has not been formally charged, and claims to have done nothing.

The U.Ks

More Evidence of Warnings About ColumbineThe Rocky Mountain News reports today. The discovery has shocked victims families, sparked a new investigation and raised afresh the specter of a coverup. Last Thursday, an investigator was going through materials that the former case investigator, John Hicks, had left behind when he resigned from the department. The detective found a police report dated Aug. 7, 1997, stuffed in the pocket of a three-ring binder. That report, about the youths nighttime missions of drinking, shooting and vandalism, was made seven months before Columbine parents Randy and Judy Brown alerted sheriff’s officials to Harris’ Web pages after he threatened to kill their son. Their 1998 affidavits were filed with the 1997 report, suggesting a connection should have been made. A warrant had been drafted to search Harriss house, but never followed up on, the Rocky Mountain News reports. Mink, who took office in July after his predecessor resigned, has requested Colorados Attorney General to launch an independent investigation into the handling of the report, focusing on how and why these documents were overlooked and improperly managed.

A disclosure from Colorados Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink yesterday reveals that a “concerned citizen” tipped off authorities to the exploits of Columbine High School killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold months earlier than has ever been known,