TSA Security Officer Joins Contractor Under Investigation for Security Lapses

A new report says Patricia Titus, the chief information security officer for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), is leaving her post next month to take a job with Unisys, a DHS and TSA contractor.

In an article on the Wired website, Kim Zetter says the move is surprising, given that the Washington Post claims Unisys is under investigation for failing to protect the DHS’s computer network.

“Unisys won a $1 billion contract with the DHS in 2002 to secure and manage the IT network for the DHS and TSA but, according to congressional investigators, failed to properly install and manage intrusion detection systems on the networks then allegedly falsely certified to the DHS that the network had been protected to cover up its neglect,” Zetter says.

Zetter cites the WashingtonPost story, which claimed a Unisys employee had detected a possible intrusion but downplayed it. The intrusions, on 150 computers, were traced to a Chinese-language web site for hackers.

Zetter says, however, that Unisys has disputed some of the claims in the Washington Post article.

To read the full article, click here: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/02/tsa-security-of.html