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CORPORATE OFFICE

Per Mar Security Services
Per Mar Centre
1910 East Kimberly Rd
Davenport, IA 52807
Tel# 1-800-4-PERMAR (737627)
Fax # 563-359-6700

"Five Diamond Certification" awarded [more...]

Wi-Fi Signal Theft Catching Attention from Law Enforcement [more...]

Web Archive Sued Over Copyright Violation [more...]

Google Has Potential for Privacy Risk [more...]

Congress Poised to Expand Daylight-Saving Time [more...]

Portable-Media-Device Security: Is Your Organization Equipped? [more...]

US Postal Service Flaws Remain [more...]

Time Capsule: Profiling the Mad Bomber [more...]

Vocabulary - Property Flipping [more...]

"Five Diamond Certification" awarded

Our Central Station has been awarded the prestigious "Five Diamond Certification" from the Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA).

This certification signifies that 100% of our Central Alarm Station Dispatchers are certified as having passed the CSAA Central Station Operator Level I Training Course. This program of study covers virtually all phases of central station communications with customers, law enforcement, fire, and emergency services communications centers. These communications are the life-saving link between the residential and business customers served by Per Mar's Central Alarm Station and the law enforcement, fire and emergency services.

In order to achieve the "Five Diamond Certification," every dispatcher must have not only passed the course, but demonstrated:

• Proficiency in alarm verification;
• Proficiency in communications with the Public Service Answering Points, such as the Emergency 911 centers;
• Knowledge of electronic communications equipment;
• An understanding of the codes and standards of such organizations as Underwriters Laboratories (UL), Factory Mutual (FM), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and others; and,
• Proficiency in the area of emergency preparedness under a wide range of conditions.

In addition, please know that those Central Alarm Stations awarded the "Five Diamond Certification" have demonstrated an exceptionally high degree of responsibility to their local community and their customers through the investment of time, money and commitment to 100% quality operator training.

There are approximately 2,700 Central Alarm Stations in the United States, with fewer than 100 having achieved the "Five Diamond Certification."

Please join me in congratulating Dory Walker and her team on this achievement.

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Wi-Fi Signal Theft Catching Attention from Law Enforcement

The very common practice of Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) signal theft is now going to get you arrested, at least for one man in Florida. Benjamin Smith III was arrested in St. Petersburg and will be going to trial shortly on third-degree felony charges of unauthorized access to a computer network. Smith had been stealing the signal from the home of Richard Dinon, who noticed Smith outside of his home one day in a parked SUV, working on his laptop. Dinon called the police, who arrested Smith. This is the third case of unauthorized wireless access in Florida that has led to arrest. Wi-Fi signal theft is as common or more common than software piracy, but only a handful of arrests have occurred thus far nationwide.

To ensure that your Wi-Fi signal is being used only by those who should have access, be sure to enable the encryption capabilities of the router or access point of your connection.

With the proliferation of Wi-Fi use by businesses, the threats of signal theft and its consequences to businesses are significant. Furthermore, businesses may be liable for employees who choose to hack into the Wi-Fi networks of other businesses.

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Web Archive Sued Over Copyright Infringement

The Internet Archive, home of the widely utilized Wayback Machine, has been sued by Healthcare Advocates of Philadelphia for alleged copyright infringement. The lawsuit states that the Internet Archive's access to Healthcare Advocates' old Web pages, stored in the Internet Archive's database, was unauthorized and illegal. The Internet Archive uses Web-crawling "bot" programs to make copies of publicly accessible sites on a periodic, automated basis. Those copies are then stored on the archive's servers for later recall using the Wayback Machine. The suit alleges that the bot programs bypassed the security measures on Healthcare Advocates website, allowing the Archive to store older versions of the website. Healthcare Advocates had intended to make certain information on their website restricted due to previous litigation. According to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the circumventing of technological measures designed to protect copyrighted materials is illegal.

The Internet Archive's repository now has approximately one petabyte (roughly one million gigabytes) worth of historical Web site content, much of which would have been lost as Web site owners deleted, changed and otherwise updated their sites.

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Google Has Potential for Privacy Risk

Surely you have "Googled" yourself before to see what information about you is public. At the very least, you have likely made Google your primary choice for a search engine, and you may even have a blog through Google or a Gmail (Google email) address. Utilizing Google for these and other services, however, invariably links your IP address (your unique numeric Internet address) to your Google activities.

With such a grand scope of public and personal information that appears to only be growing, the concern is that the Web giant simply knows too much: what we read, where we surf and travel, and to whom we write. Having all of this information under the same digital umbrella makes Google a primary target for abuse by criminals in search of useful or compromising information or overzealous law enforcers conducting investigations. Google ensures the public that its security measures are as advanced as their search engine, but leaks are always possible through creative hacking or through the activities of a rogue employee.

As the Web giant expands its' technology and services, Google's name, a mathematical term used to describe 10100, is more appropriate than ever.

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Congress Poised to Expand Daylight-Saving Time

In an effort to reduce energy consumption, Congress is taking the final steps to extend daylight-savings time for an additional two months, starting it on the first Sunday in March and ending it on the last Sunday of November. The bill, which has made its way to and will likely be approved by the full House-Senate conference committee, needs then only the president's approval to go into effect immediately. The shift would hypothetically reduce the amount of electricity used in the evening by families and businesses during the two-month extension. Daylight-savings was initially implemented in the U.S. only during wartimes: in 1918 for one year and from 1942 to 1945. The U.S. permanently adopted daylight-savings in 1966. Certain areas of Indiana and Arizona still do not adhere to daylight-savings.

Should the bill pass, the airline industry projects large losses due to lost European time slots. However, the US economy expects to save 1/10 of 1% on energy expenditures.

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Portable-Media-Device Security: Is Your Organization Equipped?

The recent popularity and influx in the transferring and sharing of data has left many organizations questioning their internal security protocols and paved the way for software developers who market products that protect against the unauthorized transfer of information through removable media devices such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports. Two companies, Centennial Software and AdvancedForce InfoSecurity Solutions offer software which permits companies to dictate what information is available to its' employees. DeviceWall, developed by Centennial Software, gives companies the ability to manage and restrict access to USB ports on employee computers. Similarly, DeviceLock, created by AdvancedForce InfoSecurity Solutions allows company administrators to control the input and output devices on corporate workstations. A 2005 survey conducted by Centennial Software further exemplifies the need for software solutions to help mitigate the peril that exists with USB ports. Specifically, the survey revealed that 70 percent of security incidents at Fortune 1000 companies were internal and 70 percent of employees have stolen corporate information. Furthermore, an alarming 50 percent of all companies surveyed had placed no controls on portable media devices. From entry-level employees to executive team members, there is no differentiation between those that could, if presented with an opportunity, seize your organization's most confidential and privileged information.

Both DeviceWall and DeviceLock provide multiple layers of protection, including but not limited to the complete blocking of USB ports, partial blocking based on registered product numbers, and permitting only human-interface devices such as mice and keyboards. Alert features that notify administrators when improper use has occurred are also available on DeviceWall. The next targeted step in the movement to secure data downloaded from company computers is encryption of portable media devices.

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Tip: Don't let your organization serve as an open target for disloyal employees to exploit. Allocate the appropriate funds in your IT security department and invest in enhanced security measures like DeviceWall and DeviceLock, or do some researching yourself into the other products available on the market.

US Postal Service Flaws Remain

The post-9/11 world has challenged everyone from governments, security agencies, and individuals, to dedicate resources and heighten awareness to the very real threat of terror. The latest news of the tragedy in London and ongoing suicide bombings in the Middle East often take center stage in our minds. Many have forgotten about the possibility of bioterrorist attacks. In the latter months of 2001, five U.S. citizens died due to anthrax exposure, all of whom were subject to such exposure through our mail system. Widespread panic ensued and millions of dollars were spent to thwart the success of such attacks in the future. It did not take long, however, for the concern to diminish and today, only 27 of the country's 283 distribution centers have the proper equipment for detecting biological agents in the mail.

Now, 500 million dollars is about to be approved for the addition of inspection technology across the system. Critics, primarily the Government Accountability Office (GAO), argue that it's not enough. In addition to the time it will take to implement new technologies, some maintain that the new guidelines for responding to anthrax contamination are still missing key elements. For example, the plan does not outline any proactive, protective measures that postal employees and customers can take to prevent contamination. Postal authorities insist the criticisms are taken seriously and the good news is that most experts agree that those most likely to attack lack the sophistication necessary to exploit the defects in the system.

Source: MSNBC.com, Fred Francis, Today Show correspondent, included as part of NBC News series, "12 Ways to Make America Safer."

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Quote of the Month: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
-Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)

Time Capsule: Profiling the Mad Bomber

Criminal profiling has been glamorized on primetime television and in popular literature, but few know of its beginnings…

From 1940 to 1941 and from 1950 to1956, an individual was terrorizing New York City by placing bombs in public locations, mostly targeting energy giant Consolidated Edison (Con Ed). The perpetrator taunted police by leaving bizarre notes, sometimes handwritten, sometimes in block letters, calling himself "F.P." The media dubbed him "The Mad Bomber."

The Mad Bomber, in an apparent act of patriotism, took a hiatus from his bombing activities during World War II, but promised in writing to resume his terrorism once the conflict ended. The city itself should have been enjoying a post-war economic and spiritual boom in 1950, but that's when the Mad Bomber resumed his activities when he planted a bomb in Grand Central Station.

The police were baffled by the case, and despite receiving numerous letters from F.P., had virtually no leads. Inspector Howard Finney of the New York City crime lab decided to use unconventional means to aid the otherwise fruitless search. He enlisted the help of a Manhattan criminal psychiatrist named Dr. James Brussel. Primarily in private practice, Dr. Brussel also served as the Assistant Commissioner of Mental Hygiene for the State of New York - a position that led to numerous consultations with police forces and appearances at police conferences. He was also a neuropsychiatrist for the Army in two wars. The concept of criminal profiling wasn't precisely new, but it was certainly experimental and had not been used effectively to solve a major case. Brussel devised a profile for the bomber based on the police case file. The profile stated that F.P. was likely a middle-aged male, a former employee of Con Ed, a foreigner with a high school education, who lived in Connecticut, was highly paranoid, was likely unmarried and lived with a single female relative or relatives that were not his mother. Brussel even predicted what F.P. would be wearing when arrested, a buttoned double-breasted suit. Furthermore, suspecting that the bomber may come forward, Dr. Brussel recommended that the police broadcast the profile, which they reluctantly did.

The bomber became angrier in his letters and spoke of an injury he sustained while on the job. Eventually a Con Edison employee who was reviewing terminated employee files noticed one file that fit Brussel's profile, and furthermore included the injury the bomber had previously mentioned. Shortly thereafter, police arrested George Metesky, a dapper, man who lived in Waterbury, Connecticut with two unmarried sisters. He was wearing a double-breasted suit, buttoned.

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Vocabulary - Property Flipping

Property flipping is a sophisticated form of mortgage fraud. A property is flipped when a broker purchases a property, creates a fraudulent appraisal of the property at a higher value, quickly sells the property to an associate (who may in turn sell the property to another associate), and then fails to make payments on the property. The unsuspecting lender forecloses on the property, only to discover that the actual value is much lower than the amount of the loan. The broker makes a substantial gain while the lender takes the loss.

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