Online Data a Gold Mine for Terrorists

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August 9, 2004 (Computerworld) -- The widespread availability of sensitive information on corporate Web sites appears to have been largely overlooked by IT and security managers who responded last week to the Department of Homeland Security's warning of a heightened terrorist threat against the financial services sector.
Freely available on the Web, for example, are 3-D models of the exterior and limited portions of the interior of the Citigroup Inc. headquarters building in Manhattan -- one of the sites specifically named in the latest terror advisory issued by the DHS. Likewise, details of the Citigroup building's history of structural design weaknesses, including its susceptibility to toppling over in high winds, the construction of its central support column and the fire rating of the materials used in the building, are readily available on the Web.
A Citigroup spokeswoman declined to comment, referring the matter to the building owner, Boston Properties Inc.
Similarly, the Web site of the Chicago Board of Trade includes photographs of the facility's underground parking garages, floor plans of office suites, and contact names and phone numbers for the telecommunications service providers that serve the building.
Maria Gemskie, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Board of Trade, said the exchange could not comment publicly about specific security precautions being put in place. But she stressed that "all aspects of security are taken very seriously and we are looking into [our Web content] as well."
But information like that posted on the exchange's Web site can be a gold mine for terrorists, security experts said. A senior intelligence official at the DHS, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the recent capture of al-Qaeda computer expert Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan in Pakistan yielded a computer filled with photographs and floor diagrams of buildings in the U.S. that terrorists may have been planning to attack.
"Not thinking through the security implications of some of the information put online can be a very dangerous mistake," said Amit Yoran, director of the National Cyber Security Division at the DHS. "The Pentagon has looked very closely at this issue, and certainly corporate America should do the same." In fact, Yoran said the situation is serious enough that the DHS may need to look into publishing best-practices guidelines for companies to follow.
Unheeded Warnings
Eric Friedberg, managing director of New York-based security firm Stroz Friedberg LLC, said the warnings about sensitive Web site postings that his company took to the private sector two years ago have "fallen on deaf ears" .
MacDonnell Ulsch, managing director of Janus Risk Management Inc. in Marlboro, Mass., said making this type of information available is inexcusable.
"It may make it easier for contractors and service providers

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Online Data a Gold Mine for Terrorists

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