DHS to share aviation info with Israel

In a new partnership, the Department of Homeland Security and Israel signed an agreement this week to work together to share information more quickly about civil aviation incidents.

"The real-time exchange of information with our international partners is critical to our efforts to enhance overall global aviation security," said DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. "This agreement will allow the United States and Israel to better coordinate on, and respond to potential aviation security incidents to strengthen our mutual safety."

The near Christmas Day bombing over Detroit spurred this new agreement, one of a number of initiatives being implemented to deter terrorists from carrying out their missions.

Speaking with Napolitano, Israeli Transport and Road Safety Minister Israel Katz said the new agreement  will "further improve the effectiveness of the cooperation between the respective civil aviation security authorities." However, some experts warn that it may not be enough to stop any terrorist attack.

Tom Kellermann, vice president of security awareness at Core Security Technologies and former senior data risk management specialist for the World Bank treasury security team, told nextgov.com that "nonstate actors and terrorist groups are mobilizing in cyberspace."

"The virtual arms bazaar of hacking capabilities forces the United States and Israel to implement true defense in depth strategies," Kellermann continued. "That includes penetration testing of applications that feed data to international partners, two-factor authentication and techniques to verify the identity of anyone accessing network applications, and enhanced dynamic forensics for identifying potential intruders."

For more on this new aviation agreement:
- see this nextgov.com article
- read this DHS press release

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