This is one in a regular series on the latest innovation in mobile apps and mobile technology in the federal government.
The Transportation Security Administration has developed a mobile application which, on the surface, helps travellers, but which also makes the TSA’s job of weeding out potential threats to the system easier as well. It also allows customer feedback in real time. Keep reading →
As we head into a holiday weekend in which millions of travelers are expected to take to the skies across the U.S., it’s hard to fathom the task at hand for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA): keep travelers safe without causing long, annoying lines and bringing holiday travel to a grinding halt.
This week, former TSA Administrator Kip Hawley sat down for a podcast interview with Chris Dorobek to discuss what TSA has done right and wrong over the past 10 years and what it can do to improve security in the future. Keep reading →
More than a dozen CIOs and senior IT managers from the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday told a gathering of industry executives that mobile computing and communications technologies are among the agency’s top strategic IT imperatives.
Speaking at the DHS Information Technology Industry Day, members of the DHS CIO Council and other senior IT program managers underscored the urgent need to modernize outdated systems for new mobile applications while maintaining the agency’s need for security and reliability. Keep reading →
Looking for a way to keep up with who’s who among the senior management at the Department of Homeland Security?
An updated feature on DHS’s websites not only lists nearly 40 of DHS’s top department and component excutives–with links to each of their profiles–but also provides an email sign up provision to be notified when changes are made to the list. Keep reading →
In February 2011, a college student from Saudi Arabia was arrested in Texas for plotting to bomb U.S. targets after trucking company officials alerted authorities about a suspicious chemical they were hired to carry. A few weeks earlier, a Greyhound bus driver in Virginia persuaded a hijacker to let the passengers offload. They notified the police, who were able to defuse the situation and arrest the individual.
These separate incidents had one common thread-the transportation employees had been trained through a federal terrorism and security awareness program known as “First Observer.”
The nationwide program, led by William (Bill) Arrington of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), recruits and trains volunteers from the trucking, school bus and motor coach industries, law enforcement as well as sports stadium personnel, parking lot attendants and other highway transportation professionals to observe, assess and report suspicious activities that might pose a serious public threat. Keep reading →