The Senate turns to information technology in search of measures to prevent terrorism
A subcommittee of the US Senate held a hearing for experts last Friday
On the question of how technology can be used to help prevent it
future terrorist attacks. While innovative methods such as monitors
For facial recognition in computers, and systems for scanning the retina of the eye were discussed
Already, the members of the committee argued that something more conventional should be done
that information technology can offer - information sharing.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat from California, and chairman of the committee
The special for terrorism, technology and government information systems asked my head
The Ministry of Justice and Foreign Affairs regarding the lack of computer systems for the field of immigration,
which was revealed by the hijackers on September 11. representatives of the two ministries
They said that the information systems of many government authorities suffer from a lack of capacity
to share information, sometimes even within the same organization. Thus, for example, it became possible
For the kidnappers to stay in the US even when their visa has expired.
"There are many computer systems in the immigration system," said a representative from the Ministry of Justice.
who added that these deficiencies were discovered a month before the attacks. "But the thing is not
will last a long time.” The Ministry of Justice has begun to reorganize the entire information system
his in October 2000 and plans to complete it in the first half of 2002
added
But only correct sharing of the information and joint access to the database is not
enough The quality of the data entering the database is also important. Historian John Keel,
Arizona Republican recommended new Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge
and said that any information received must come to the attention of all
the factors.
The president of Oracle, Larry Ellison met the day before with Feinstein and Kiel
and offered to donate free Oracle software licenses to use the software
To build a national database to save the residents' identification information.
Feinstein announced at the hearing. The company also offered to donate 1,500 of their time
Engineers to create the database that can be integrated into the applications
existing of the federal authorities.
Another company NEC offers to build systems for biometric identification of owners
Passports, visas and entry systems. For example, the passport can be
Applied on a smart card that carries the identity as well as biometric information
that will fit the border control systems, and the entry systems into the country will have to
Include a database of fingerprints of all suspected terrorists and
Scans for those fingerprints.
