Holidaymakers were warned yesterday to expect summer holiday travel chaos as the first signs emerged that the Government’s new border controls are causing significant delays at airports.
The introduction of sophisticated scanning machinery by the newly-created Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) has doubled the time it takes to process passengers arriving back in the country.
The new technology, which uses lasers to scan passports, has created havoc at Stansted airport and there have been reports of delays at Luton.
Airlines fear that the problem will spread as the system is extended to other airports over the next few months.
– The Telegraph
Hackers have launched an assault on websites in Italy and around the world dubbed the Italian Job in a move seen by internet security experts as the next step in the escalating problem of cyber crime.
Gangs presumed to be based in eastern Europe have probably infected more than 10,000 web pages on popular websites including travel agents, hotels, charities and government departments. Most of the sites are in Italy, though the attack has also spread to Spain and the US.
– The Guardian
Private security contractors are being killed in increasing numbers in Iraq as the US military grows more reliant on an industry that operates in the shadows for extra firepower.
Escorting supply convoys on Iraq’s treacherous roads is particularly dangerous. One operator said his company had lost ten British and one Australian ex-service members in recent weeks.
ArmorGroup, a British security company chaired by the former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, has lost 30 employees in Iraq, a death toll only exceeded by three militaries – US, Britain and Italy – in the multi-national coalition.
-The Telegraph
The Homeland Security Department, the lead U.S. agency for fighting cyber threats, suffered more than 800 hacker break-ins, virus outbreaks and other computer security problems over two years, senior officials acknowledged to Congress.
In one instance, hacker tools for stealing passwords and other files were found on two internal Homeland Security computer systems. The agency’s headquarters sought forensic help from the department’s own Security Operations Center and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team it operates with Carnegie Mellon University.
– The Guardian
Thirteen members of security staff at Birmingham airport who were filmed sleeping on duty have been dismissed. The ITV1 programme Tonight with Trevor McDonald filmed the workers from the security company ICTS UK this month. The airport is setting up a GB pound 100,000 programme to monitor subcontractors.
– The Times
Three members of staff are on the run and two security guards have been arrested after US troops uncovered horrific evidence of systemic abuse of special needs children at a state-run orphanage in central Baghdad.
The scandal came to light by chance last week after members of a patrol from the 82nd Airborne Division looked over a wall and saw several children lying lifeless on the floor of a compound.
“I saw children that you could see literally every bone in their body that were so skinny, they had no energy to move, no expression,” Sergeant Michael Beale told CBS News.
– The Guardian
