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What’s standing in the way of NIEM adoption?

chuckgeorgo — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:46:52 +0000

I posted this response to a question on the LinkedIn NIEM group where someone asked about the slow rate of NIEM adoption; i thought i would cros post my response here.

What’s standing in the way of NIEM adoption?It’s about leadership.

It’s about reducing complexity.
It’s about getting the word out.
It’s about opening up proprietary protocols.
It’s about conformance.
It’s even about standards.

What’s really standing in the way? Two things…a) utility and b) a market for it.

I think it would also be wise for us to take a few pages out of the eCommerce, EDI, EBXML world (and honestly, the internet as a whole). EDI became a standard because large companies said “if you want to do business with me, then you will stop faxing me POs and start sending them to me in this new thing called EDI. When XML appeared on the scene the same companies converted their information exchanges to EBXML and vendors and service providers folllowed suit – one might say if it weren’t for the EDI-to-EBXML movement, we might not even be talking about GJXDM or NIEM today; EBXML was groundbreaking in ts day.

So what’s in the way? I’ll look at this in terms of two things I mentioned above:

Utility of NIEM- The “technology Acceptance Model” tells us that for increased adoption of a technology, it must be “useful and easy to use.” Today, however, we are having difficulty getting people to see the utility of NIEM, and it certainly has not proven itself to be easy to use either. Now, to be fair, NIEM started off life as dictionary of common data elements (words if you will) with working views of syntax and semantics. Then we have IEPDs. These are like sentences strung together, and by different authors, and the difficulty is that we don’t have a good way to know how well those sentences are strung together, whether or not we can assemble those sentences into comprehensible paragraphs, or even what “stories”(and where in those stories) those sentences might belong. In other words, I don’t think NIEM is coupled tightly enough to the business processes of Justice and Public Safety agencies. To become more useful, we must dust off JIEM, revalidate the inventory of Justice exchanges, and specifically tie them to NIEM IEPDs. And while we do this, we must clean up the inventory of IEPDs, remove ones that are toublesome, and reference those IEPDs back to the Justice business process and exchanges in JIEM.
A Market for NIEM- Unfortunately, reuse has NOT always result in cost savings. There are a number of examples where agencies have had bad experiences with implementing NIEM, whether it was because of lack of skill of the integrator, poor IEPD design, poor project planning, immature integration tools, or good old politics, saying an agency will save money by using NIEM is not a strong position right now. To resolve issue (after we join NIEM and JIEM) I think we must attack the problem at the root–in the technology acquisition process. Stop with the buttons and bumper stickers and neat shirts (I have one too). What we need to do is drive NIEM use through RFPs and contracting processes. Of course, we have to first clean up the clearinghoue, but then we must help agencies to craft RFP language that they can use to call for use of NIEM and “NIEM-enabled” web services to effect the information exchanges called out in the business processes to be suported by the new technoogy acquisition. While some vendors have demonstrated leadership in this area, the real driver (in a free market economy) is the contracting process–vendors will invest in their ability to adopt and integrate NIEM if it’s in their financial interest to do so–they do have payrolls to meet and investors to keep happy. Some shining light in this quest is also the effort by IJIS and others who are working hard to establish a “standards-like” effort to clean up IEPDs and to help vendors demonstrate conformance (or compliance) to those standards for their products.

Your comments/thoughts are welcomed….r/Chuck

Video Analysis/Analytics: Can we use it to detect criminal behaviors and activities?

chuckgeorgo — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:10:08 +0000

I just found this report published by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS). Developed by Nils Krahnstoever, General Electric (GE) Global Research, it describes the development of a wide range of intelligent video capabilities relevant to law enforcement and corrections, and describes features of video surveillance that can help to enable early detection and possibly prevention of crimal incidents.

The study also points out, in a number of places, limitations of the technology, based on response activities and envronmental factors. it’s worth a read, here is the table of contents; you can read the document here Automated Detection and Prevention of Disorderly and Criminal Activities:

Table of Contents

1 Abstract
2 Executive Summar

2.1 Data Collection
2.2 Crime Detection and Prevention
2.3 System Evaluation and Feedback
2.4 Law Enforcement Relevance and Impact
2.5 Dissemination of Research Results
2.6 Next Steps

3 Introduction
4 Data Sets and Data Collections 17

4.1 GE Global Research Collection
4.2 Airport and “Behave” Data
4.3 Mock Prison Riot Data

4.3.1 Venue
4.3.2 Installation
4.3.3 Camera Views
4.3.4 Calibration

5 Motion and Crowd Pattern Analysis 25

5.1 Multi-camera Multi-target Tracking
5.2 Detection and Tracking of Motion Groups
5.3 Counting and Crowd Detection
5.4 Simple Group-Level Events
5.5 Group Interaction Model
5.6 Group Formation and Dispersion
5.7 Agitation and Fighting
5.8 Advanced Aggression Detection

5.8.1 Feature Tracking
5.8.2 Motion Analysis
5.8.3 Motion Classification and Clustering
5.8.4 Results

6 Identity Management

6.1 PTZ Camera Control

6.1.1 Introduction
6.1.2 Related Work
6.1.3 Experiments
6.1.4 Discussions

6.2 Identity Maintenance

7 Social Network Estimation

7.1 Introduction
7.2 Experiments
7.3 Conclusions

8 Data Collection and System Testing at Mock Prison Riot 2009

8.1 Collection and Testing Approach
8.2 IRB Approval
8.3 Collected Video Data
8.4 Mock Prison Riot Detection and Tracking
8.5 PTZ Control
8.6 Behavior and Event Recognition

8.6.1 Meeting / Approaching / Contraband Exchange
8.6.2 Aggression Detection
8.6.3 Fast Movement
8.6.4 Distinct Group Detection
8.6.5 Flanking Detection
8.7 Performance Evaluation
8.7.1 Sequence “Utah Leader Attack” (Nr. 00)
8.7.2 Sequence “Utah Leader Attack 2” (Nr. 01)
8.7.3 Sequence “Gang Killing other Gang” (Nr. 02)
8.7.4 Sequence “Gang Killing other Gang 2” (Nr. 03)
8.7.5 Sequence “Gang Killing other Gang 3 – Unrehearsed” (Nr. 04)
8.7.6 Sequence “Aborted Attack” (Nr. 05)
8.7.7 Sequence “Aborted Attack 2” (Nr. 06)
8.7.8 Sequence “Gang Argument – Prisoners get attacked” (Nr. 07)
8.7.9 Sequence “Gang Initiation” (Nr. 08)
8.7.10 Sequence “Contraband Exchange” (Nr. 09)
8.7.11 Sequence “Multiple Contraband Exchange” (Nr. 10)
8.7.12 Sequence “Contraband with Fight” (Nr. 11)
8.7.13 Sequence “Blended Transaction” (Nr. 12)
8.7.14 Sequence “Shanking followed by Leaving” (Nr. 13)
8.7.15 Sequence “Gang Hanging Out Followed By Several Fights” (Nr. 14)
8.7.16 Sequence “Fight Followed by Guards Leading Offender Off” (Nr. 15)
8.7.17 Sequence “Fight Followed by Guards Leading Offender Off” (Nr. 16)
8.7.18 Sequence “Contraband – Officer Notices” (Nr. 17)
8.7.19 Sequence “Argument Between Gangs – Officer Assault” (Nr. 18)
8.7.20 Sequence “Contraband exchange followed by guard searching inmates” (Nr. 19)
8.7.21 Sequence “Prisoner being attacked and guard intervening” (Nr. 20)
8.7.22 Sequence “Fight breaking out between gang members and officers breaking it up” (Nr. 21)
8.7.23 Sequence “Fight between gangs. Guards breaking fight up” (Nr. 22)
8.7.24 Sequence “Fight between gangs. Guards breaking fight up” (Nr. 23)
8.7.25 Sequence “Gangs fighting. Guards breaking fight up.” (Nr. 24)

A Public Dissemination
B Reviews and Meetings

B.1 Technical Working Group Meeting
B.2 Kick-Off Meeting at NIJ
B.3 Sensor and Surveillance Center of Excellence Visit
B.4 2008 Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness Expo (TCIP)
B.5 Mock Prison Riot 2009
B.6 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision 2009

C Mock Prison Riot Data

C.1 Data Recorded while Processing
C.2 Sequences Processed in Detail
C.3 Data Recorded without Processing

D Techinical Details of the PTZ Camera Control

D.1 Problem Formulation
D.2 Objective Function

D.2.1 Quality Measures
D.2.2 Quality Objective
D.2.3 Temporal Quality Decay

D.3 Optimization

D.3.1 Asynchronous Optimization
D.3.2 Combinatorial Search

E Techinical Details of Social Network Analysis 110

E.1 Building Social Network

E.1.1 Face-to-Track Association via Graph-Cut

E.2 Discovering Community Structure via Modularity-Cut

E.2.1 Dividing into Two Social Groups
E.2.2 Dividing into Multiple Social Groups

E.2.3 Eigen-Leaders

INSA recommends actions for improving homeland security intelligence

chuckgeorgo — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:02:42 +0000

Today is the ten-year anniversary of 9/11/2001. As we honor the sacrifies of those who perished in the horrible events of that day, we must remember that it is is really what we do EVERY DAY that will help to prevent future attacks on our soil, or the soil of our friends and allies. At the heart of issue is “homeland security intelligence”…the information and data that we will need to deter, detect, and disrupt the activities of those to wish us harm.

On September 7, 2011, the Intelligence and National Security Alliance’s (INSA) Homeland Security Intelligence Council (HSIC) released a white paper proposing significant recommendations for Homeland Security Intelligence. The white paper, entitled “Intelligence to Protect the Homeland: Taking stock ten years later and looking ahead,” examines what has been learned in the last ten years and what will be needed from the intelligence community to protect the homeland from future attacks. My friend and colleague Joe Rozek, who chairs the INSA Homeland Security Intelligence Council, commented:

“The HSIC has worked tirelessly for months and today we are proud to offer our analysis and recommendations to the intelligence and homeland security communities on the 10 year anniversary of September 11th, Homeland Security Intelligence is a discipline that will depend on the successful fusion of foreign and domestic intelligence to produce the kind of actionable intelligence to protect the homeland. Yet, underpinning our analysis is the foundational principle that respect for privacy and civil liberties is an inherent, inseparable part of our national security and core values as a nation.”

The major recommendations in the HSIC white paper include:

Adopting a common definition for Homeland Security Intelligence (HSI) to better facilitate its collection, analysis, and use in decision making, as well as development as a discipline;
Departing from the “command and control” or top-down hierarchical model and moving toward an integrated enterprise characterized by coordination of intelligence and analysis efforts among federal, state, local, tribal law enforcement and intelligence agencies;
As appropriate, bringing select private sector partners into the enterprise; and
Ensuring the protection of Americans’ privacy and civil liberties through widely applicable training and accountability standards to ensure lawful and aggressive detection and deterrence of terrorist operations in the U.S.

Take some time to read this white paper and I’d be interested in your comments and thoughts…r/Chuck

NOWHERETOHIDE.ORG completes ISO/IEC 27001:2005 Lead Auditor (TPECS) competency

chuckgeorgo — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 02:14:02 +0000

The British Standards Institute (BSI) issued ISO/IEC 27001:2005 Lead Auditor (TPECS) certificate to Chuck Georgo today. ISO/IEC 27001

ISO/IEC 27001 is an Information Security Management System (ISMS) standard published in October 2005 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

ISO/IEC 27001 formally specifies a management system that is intended to bring information security under explicit management control. Being a formal specification means that it mandates specific requirements. Organizations that claim to have adopted ISO/IEC 27001 can therefore be formally audited and certified compliant with the standard.

NOWHERETOHIDE will be publishing a series of blog posts over the next few weeks to help educate organizations about the standard, its criteria, and strategies for achieving compliance.

It is important to understand that ISO/IEC certification is not a one-off exercise. To maintain the certificate the organization will need to both review and monitor the information security management system on an on-going basis.

New Scrum Guide Posted: Gone are the Chickens and Pigs

chuckgeorgo — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 21:05:49 +0000

Scrum is a process framework that has been used to manage complex product development since the early 1990s. It’s a framework within which you can employ various processes and techniques for developing software products. The authors, Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, just relased an updated guide to implementing Scrum; you can get a copy of it by clicking here–> Scrum Guide 2011 ,or on the picture.

A good comparison of the differences between the 2010 version and the 2011 version was done by Charles Bradley and I recommend you go to his blog by clicking HERE to read it.

Steve Porter, of www.Scrum.org describes one aspect of Scrum – the Chickens and the Pigs – that is gone…

One particular change was arguably small and cosmetic, but it really has significance in my opinion. So much so, that I offered to write this brief article to explain why the change was made and how you can interpret these changes as you go about implementing them in your projects.

Every Scrum practitioner has heard the fable of the chicken and the pigs. I won’t recount it here, but it is an embedded part of Scrum lore. Ken Schwaber created the pigs and the chicken metaphor in the early days of Scrum and it has been used repeatedly to separate the people who are committed to the project from the people who are simply involved.

Over the years, the labels have generated their share of controversy. Some argue that the terms are harmful to the process because they are derogatory. Others say that the negative connotation conjures a power dynamic that drives negative behaviour. Either way, you won’t find any references to animals, barnyard or otherwise, in the new Scrum Guide.

Why was it removed? Ken and Jeff felt it was better to discuss accountability directly in the Scrum Guide, as opposed to through metaphor. However, I think I can provide some additional insight. I was present at some of the discussions that led to the 2011 update and many people, including me, found that the labels were being used in a way that does not contribute positively to a team’s ability to perform its core function.

Enjoy…r/Chuck

Facebook Privacy Settings: U.S. Navy Recommendations

chuckgeorgo — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:38:00 +0000

Received this from a friend today…some good information about Facebook privacy and how to set your Facebook privacy settings…

Facebook Privacy Settings-USN-2011

Cyber-Crime – Cyber-Warfare…you say tomato, I still say tomato…but are we prepared?

chuckgeorgo — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 15:58:31 +0000

War has been defined as “a state of organized, armed and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, societal disruption, and usually high mortality.[Wikipedia]” Cyber Warfare has been defined as “politically motivated hacking to conduct sabotage and espionage. [DOD]”

While some of what we’ve recently can be construed as Cyber Warfare (including the recent hacktivism), the bulk of what’s really going (largely beneath the surface) is a) efforts by organized criminal elements using new technologies and capabilities to do what they have always done—steal money, or b) continued acts by nation states to steal military secrets (espionage) or corporate secrets (economic espionage).

While the latter (b) get the big press, I am worried that that the former (a) is actually the bigger problem of the two. I was personally hit by identity theft a few years ago when a group got access to my credit card details from a retailer I had done business with. This group proceeded to charge 250 rubles (about $9US) twice a month to one of my credit cards. While not a significant amount of money for me, I would guess that they had thousands of victims like me, and together, the monthly booty would add up quite quickly. Two hypotheses…

More of this type of cyber-crime is occurring today than the stuff showing up on the front page of any newspaper; and
What we mean when we say “Cyber Warfare” is really just the 21st century version of crime; criminals using cyber means.

I’m also afraid that our law enforcement forces (internationally) are nowhere near being prepared to dealing with crime using cyber technologies—two points from a National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA) Forum I recently attended:

One of the sessions I participated in was entitled “Why Does the Crime Rate Continue to Decline?” The speaker (a well-respected professor) informed us that crime in America is actually down to the levels it was in 1964—this represents a significant drop. I asked the question “Did crime really drop or have criminals begun to use technology to steal rather than a pistol?” His response was “criminals aren’t smart enough to use computers.” I found this very hard to believe. Criminals have always adapted to stay a step ahead of law enforcement, and I fear that they now have a significant upper-hand, especially if law enforcement feels the way the speaker did and they fail to re-tool their ranks to detect, deter, and dismantle the new cyber-oriented criminal threats.
Another session I attended was entitled “A Clear and Present Threat: A Look at Cybercrime.” In this session, one of the speakers spoke of the growing problem of crime in virtual worlds—people with avatars in virtual worlds are stealing other peoples virtual property and assets, and real lawsuits are being tried in real courts by real people. If you don’t believe me, read this article – Virtual add-ons draw real-world lawsuits – that I found in researching this further. I would submit that today’s criminals are more tech/cyber-savvy and have realized that there are safer (cyber) ways to steal money and property without having to physically point a gun at someone’s face.

Now ask yourself, how many law enforcement officers are prepare to investigate this type of crime, let alone basic identity theft, software piracy, child pornography, and cyber-extortion? And what about their readiness to preserve digital evidence in computers, laptops, routers, firewalls, servers, and handheld devices?

Today these skill sets are confined to special divisions within a police department, segregated from the bulk of the force. I would like to offer that just like the weapon, handcuffs, and radio on their utility belt,it’s time to equip many more, if not all law enforcement officers with the training and tools to understand, detect, and investigate cyber-crime…we’ll never get fully ahead of the problem, but maybe we can catch-up a bit.

your comments and thoughts welcome…r/Chuck

Security, Privacy, and Innovative Law Enforcement Information Sharing: Covering the bases

chuckgeorgo — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:49:51 +0000

So it’s no great revelation that public safety has benefited greatly from public private partnerships, and I’m cool with that, especially when we are dealing with technology that saves lives. However, a press release hit my email inbox today that made me think of the risks to security and privacy when we implement innovative technologies.

Before I get into the story it, let me be v-e-r-y clear…I am NOT here to debate the effectiveness or morality of red-light/speed enforcement systems, nor am I here to cast dispersions on any of the organizations involved in the press release…this blog posting is strictly about using the Gatso press release to emphasize a point about security and privacy - when we engage in innovative law enforcement technology solutions, we need to take extra care to adequately address the security and privacy of personally identifiable information.

Here’s the press release from Gatso-USA:

GATSO USA Forms Unique, Strategic Partnership with Nlets

Earlier this month, GATSO USA was approved as a strategic partner by the Board of Directors of the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (Nlets). Nlets is….general narrative about NLETS was deleted. The approval of GATSO is an exciting first for the photo-enforcement industry.

Nlets will be hosting GATSO’s back office and server operations within the Nlets infrastructure. GATSO will have access to registered owner information for all 50 states plus additional provinces in Canada. The strategic relationship has been described as a “win-win” for both organizations.

From Nlets’ perspective, there are key benefits to providing GATSO with hosted service. Most importantly, it virtually guarantees personal data security. Due to this extra step of storing personal data behind the DMV walls of Nlets, the public can be assured that security breaches — such as the recent incident with PlayStation users — are avoided.

From GATSO’s perspective, hosting the system with Nlets will provide a ruggedized, robust connection to comprehensive registered owner information — without the security issues faced by other vendors in this industry. Nlets was created over 40 years ago…more stuff about NLETS was deleted).

The main points I took away from this press release were:

Nlets is going to host the back-end server technology that GATSO needs to look up vehicle registration information of red-light runners;
Gatso is going to have access to vehicle registration information for all vehicles/owners in ALL 50 states in the U.S. and (some) provinces in Canada; and
And, because it’s behind Nlets firewalls, security is not an issue.

Again, please don’t call me a party-pooper as I am a huge advocate for finding innovative ways to use technology to make law enforcement’s job easier. However, I am also painfully aware (as many of you are) of the many security and privacy related missteps that have happened over the last few years with technology efforts that meant well, but didn’t do enough to make sure that they covered the bases for security and privacy matters. These efforts either had accidental leakage of personal information, left holes in their security posture that enables direct attacks, or created opportunities for nefarious evil-doers with legitimate access to use that access to sensitive information for other than honorable purposes.

After I read the press release, I thought that it would be a good case-study for the topic of this blog - it involved innovative use of technolgy for law enforcement, a psuedo-government agency (Nlets), two foreign-owned private companies, and LOTS of PII sharing - some might even say it had all the makings of a Will Smith movie.

To help set the stage, here are a few facts I found online:

Gatso-USA is a foreign company, registered in New York State, operating out of Delaware; its parent company is a Dutch company, GATSOmeter BVGatso.
Gatso does not appear to vet all of the red-light/speed violations itself; it uses another company – Redflex Traffic Systems to help with that (Redflex is not mentioned in the press release).
Redflex seems to be a U.S. company, but it has a (foreign) parent company based in South Melbourne, Australia.
Finally, there are no-sworn officers involved in violation processing. Red-light/speed enforcement cameras are not operated by law enforcement agencies; they outsource that to Gatso, who installs and operates the systems for local jurisdictions (with Redflex) for free, (Gatso/Redflex is given a piece of the fine for each violation).

There are no real surprises here either; there are many foreign companies that provide good law enforcement technologies to jurisdications across the U.S., and outsourcing traffic violations is not new…BUT what is new here is that a sort-of-government agency (Nlets), has now provided two civilian companies (with foreign connections) access to Personally Identifiable Information (PII) (vehicle registrations) for the entire U.S. and parts of Canada…should we be worried?

Maybe; maybe not. Here are nine questions I would ask:

Personnel Security: Will Nlets have a documented process to vet the U.S. and overseas Gatso and Redflex staff who will have access to this information through direct or VPN access to Nlets systems?
Data Security: Will Gatso or Redflex maintain working/test copies of any of the registration information outside of the Nlets firewall? If so, are there documented ways to make sure this information is protected outside the firewall?
Data Access: Will Gatso/Redflex have access to the entire registration record? or, will access be limited to certain fields?
Code Security: Will any of the code development or code maintenance be done overseas in the Netherlands or Australia? If so, will all developers be vetted?
Network Security: Will overseas developers/site suport staff have access to the data behind Nlets firewalls? What extra precautions will be taken to protect Nltes systems/networks from abuse/attack?
Code Security: Will Nlets conduct any security testing on code loaded on the servers behind their firewalls?
Stakeholder Support: Have all 50 U.S. states, and provinces in Canada, been made aware of this new information sharing relationship? Do they understand all of the nuances of the relationship? And, are they satisfied that their constituents personal information will be protected?
Audit/Logging: Will all queries to vehicle registration information logged? Is someone checking the logs? How will Nlets know if abuses of authorized access are taking place?
Public Acceptance: How do states inform their constituents that their personal vehicle registration information is being made available to foreign owned company? Will they care?

How these questions are answered will determine whether or not we should worry…

Did I miss any other important questions?

Beyond this particular press release and blog posting, I suggest that you consider asking these kinds of questions whenever your agency is considering opening/connecting its data systems to outside organizations or private companies—it may just prevent your agency from becoming a headline on tonights news, like St. Louis –> St. Louis Police Department computer hacked in cyber-attack .

The bottom-line is that whenever you take advantage of opportunities to apply innovative technologies to public safety, make sure that you cover ALL the bases to protect your sensitve data and PII from leakage, direct attacks, or misuse and abuse.

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.

r/Chuck

Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA): A summary primer

chuckgeorgo — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 03:28:10 +0000

On Monday, February 28, 2011, I attended a webinar training session hosted by the National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA) where panelists discussed the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). SORNA aims to close potential gaps and loopholes that existed under prior law and establishes the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (the “SMART Office”), a component of the Office of Justice Programs within the U.S. Department of Justice.

The SMART Office is authorized by law to administer the standards for sex offender registration and notification that are set forth in SORNA. It is further authorized to cooperate with and provide assistance to states, local governments, tribal governments, and other public and private entities in relation to sex offender registration and notification and other measures for the protection of the public from sexual abuse or exploitation. The SMART Office is a key federal partner and resource for jurisdictions as they continue to develop and strengthen their sex offender registration and notification programs

IMPORTANT AREAS OF REFORM UNDER SORNA

Extends the jurisdictions in which registration is required beyond the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the principal U.S. territories, to include federally recognized Indian tribes.
Incorporates a more comprehensive group of sex offenders and sex offenses for which registration is required.
Requires registered sex offenders to register and keep their registration current in the jurisdictions in which they reside, work, or go to school.
Requires sex offenders to provide more extensive registration information.
Requires sex offenders to make periodic in person appearances to verify and update the registration information.
Expands the amount of information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders.
Makes changes in the required minimum duration of registration for sex offenders.

OVERVIEW

SORNA was passed in July 2006, with a 3 year implementation schedule. A one year extension was added bringing the deadline to July 27, 2011; there will be no more extensions. Jurisdictions that fail to substantially implement SORNA by July 27, 2011 are subject to a mandatory 10% reduction in funding under 42 U.S.C. 3750 et seq. (“Byrne Justice Assistance Grant” funding).

TOPICS ADDRESSED IN SUPPLEMENTARY GUIDELINES

Juvenile Delinquents (post of Juveniles)
Internet Identifiers (concern over identifying children protected by the Kid’s Act 2008)
International Travel (offenders must give 21 days notice to travel)
Domestic Information Sharing – discussion portal
Acknowledgement (notice forms) assuring offender has notice forms
Ongoing Implementation Assurance
Retroactive Classes
Newly recognized tribes

TRIBAL IMPLEMENTATION UPDATE

45 Tribes have submitted materials to review.
125 Tribes are trained in TTSORS
23 Tribes on NSOPW
22 Tribes are utilizing TTSORS

CHALLENGES FOR SORNA TRIBES

Tribes face more challenges with hardware and software.
Many need more assistance in SORNA.
Problems with Tribes submitting DNA and Fingerprints.

NEW TOOLS AND ASSISTANCE FOR TRIBES

New technology assistant grant.
Indian Country TA grant.
Tool kit for Tribes.
Updated Model Tribal Code
TLOA – Tribal Law and Order Act

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED TO THE PANEL

Q1. When will the first penalty for non-compliance offence?

Answer: The first penalty will take place in FY12; again the final deadline is July 27th 2011.

Q2. What constitutes a State working towards implementation?

Answer: NCJA know the status of all states, some states have done very little, and they will need a plan to know how to use the 10% funding. Most jurisdictions are working towards implementation.

Q3. Will there be a 3rd deadline extension

Answer: Absolutely not, no more deadline extensions, the deadline stands at July 27th 2011.

Q4. States and Tribes – Can States use the grants for more staffing?

Answer: Absolutely, most grants have been used for staffing. Areas include:

Project Managers, Office Managers, Law Enforcement Officers, Data Entry Personnel, Police Officers.

Q5. One State has a problem with Sex Offenders going underground?

Answer: Yes, this is to avoid registration, they are non-compliant with SORNA, but they will be prosecuted as it is a violation of registration.

Q6. There are some concerns over juveniles registering; can you provide clarification?

Answer: All Juvenile Sex Offenders should be registered on SORNA. Juveniles are from ages 14 and over, these include all Juvenile Sex Offenders, delinquents, serial sex offenders, and juveniles with a history of aggravated sexual abuse. Some cases are exempt; i.e. Romeo and Juliet cases are excluded from SORNA.

Q7. Can some States go above SORNA with issues?

Answer: Yes, some States have done. Indiana, Alaska and Maine, the NCJA are working with them on certain issues. States can go over and beyond the requirements if needed.

Q8. Should we be concerned about privacy rights of individual Sex Offenders?

Answer: All Sex Offender registrations are public

Q9. How are tribes implementing SORNA?

Answer: Most tribes are collaborating with their States. The vast majority of Tribes will be working on implementing SORNA for many years. Help is needed for some Tribes.

Q10. If a State has been working very hard to implement SORNA, and does not have the review ready by the deadline, will the State still be penalized, or will it be taken into account the hard work achieved?

Answer: If the States submits what has been reviewed on July 27th 2011, it will be considered and noted that hard work and communication has taken place to implement, so no penalties will ensue, provided the hard work will continue. Unfortunately Tribes are not included in this.

Q11. Any other suggestions to support help in implementing SORNA in various States?

Answer: The problem here is that there is no one organization in place to oversee or overview the implementation of SORNA in every State. This is a problem, and every State is working independently. Also there still are ongoing problems with Tribes, this is a concern and they do need help.

SOME ADDIITONAL COMMENTS

I think it is in every parent’s interest that SORNA is implemented for the safety of their children. I do not know if parents in each state are aware of SORNA, if they are not, public meetings should be held to inform all parents of what SORNA is and how it can help track all sex offenders in and around their general area.
I am concerned about the slowness of SORNA implementation; many States need additional assistance in implementing SORNA. A point was raised that there was no one organization to assist in tracking every States’ implementation of SORNA and to produce up to date reports on the advancement of each State in implementing SORNA.
I feel such an organization could be created to assist States that are slow to implement, or are just not sure as to what is required of them. This organization could oversee all States, and keep up to date information available to the NCAJ and the Government as to where the States are at with implementing SORNA, who needs more help in meeting the deadline, and also helping with any concerns that some States may have re: privacy laws etc that may be slowing them down with their advancement.
I am also concerned about SORNA implementation with the Indian Tribes. Each Tribe is different, and has different problems in implementing SORNA, and they have concerns that are slowing them down too. They also need help in different areas, software, hardware, submitting DNA and fingerprinting. It is essential that they receive help and assistance, and possibly look into more funding for them. If they are penalized by not meeting the deadline they will lose 10% of their funding, and this will hinder them even more, and may even cause them to lose interest in SORNA. So we may need another independent organization set up to help the Tribes to implement SORNA.

The bottom line is that our children have a right to be protected, and by not having SORNA in place, we are letting our children down. Parents should be made aware of SORNA, and should write to their local government offices to inquire as to what stage SORNA implementation is at in their State.

Tips for Public Safety: Seventy-Seven Windows 7 Tips and Tricks

chuckgeorgo — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 17:00:43 +0000

If you are like me, you are still learning your way around the new Microsoft Windows 7 operating system. Well, I found a great article in the october 2009 TechNet Magazine that lists 77 tips for techies and operators…here are the first 10:

1. Pick Your Edition — Most users do not need the more expensive Ultimate Edition; stick with Professional unless you specifically need BitLocker.

2. Upgrading? Go 64-bit — As the second major Windows release to fully support 64-bit, the x64 architecture has definitely arrived on the desktop. Don’t buy new 32-bit hardware unless it’s a netbook.

3. Use Windows XP Mode — Yes, it’s only an embedded Virtual PC with a full copy of WinXP—but it’s an embedded Virtual PC with a full copy of Windows XP! This is the first profoundly intelligent use of desktop virtualization we’ve seen—and a great way to move to Windows 7 without giving up full Windows XP compatibility.

4. Use Windows PowerShell v2 — More than just a shell, this is the administration tool you’ve always wanted: Parallel, distributed processing for administrative tasks! Manage 100 machines literally as easily as you manage one with the new Remoting feature. Windows PowerShell v2 ships for the first time in Windows 7, and within six months will be available for older versions of Windows.

5. Use AppLocker — We’ve been fans of Software Restriction Policies since Windows XP, and AppLocker finally makes application whitelisting possible. Use it to enhance or even replace your anti-virus software, ensuring that only the software you want to run will run.

6. Shift to and from Explorer and CommandPrompt — The classic Windows power toy Open Command Prompt Here is now an integral part of Windows 7 Explorer. Hold down the shift key then right-click a folder to add this option to the property menu. While you’re in a command prompt, if you want to open an Explorer window with the focus of the window on the current directory, enter start.

7. Record Problems — The Problem Steps Recorder (PSR) is a great new feature that helps in troubleshooting a system (see Figure 1). At times, Remote Assistance may not be possible. However, if a person types psr in their Instant Search, it will launch the recorder. Now they can perform the actions needed to recreate the problem and each click will record the screen and the step. They can even add comments. Once complete, the PSR compiles the whole thing into an MHTML file and zips it up so that it can be e-mailed for analysis to the network admin (or family problem solver, depending on how it’s being used.

8. Make Training Videos — Use a tool like Camtasia to record short, two to three minute video tutorials to help your users find relocated features, operate the new Taskbar and so forth. Get them excited about Windows 7—and prepared for it.

9. Start Thinking About Windows Server 2008 R2 — Some of Windows 7′s more compelling features, like BranchCache, work in conjunction with the new server OS. The R2 upgrade path is pretty straightforward, so there’s little reason not to take advantage of the synergies if you can afford upgrade licenses.

10. Prepare Those XP Machines — There’s no in-place upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7, so start planning to migrate user data now, in advance of a Windows 7 upgrade deployment.

For the complete list, click here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg394259.aspx.

I also recommend that you visit the www.TechNetMagazine.com website and sign up for their free newsletters.

Finally, i have included a snapshot of 14 Windows 7 keyboard shortcuts included in the article above…enjoy!

r/Chuck