Ateo
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Report: Border Security Upgrade Botched
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/jan/10/gao-report-border...
The Department of Homeland Security is under fire again for its project management, this time involving a $1.5 billion upgrade of a critical computer
system that border law enforcement relies on to screen people entering the country by land, sea and air.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office says that a plan to modernize the computer data system, known as TECS, has been plagued by
missed deadlines and poor oversight. The upgrade was supposed to be operating by September 2015, but the report said it’s doubtful that deadline will
be met.
“After spending millions of dollars and over four years on TECS modernization, it is unclear when it will be delivered and at what cost,” the report
concluded.
The system is used by Customs and Border Protection at ports of entry, such as San Ysidro, to screen people entering the country against a number of
different law enforcement lists and databases. It’s also used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a case management system for investigations
involving money laundering and child pornography, as well as holding information about intelligence activities and phone surveillance, the report
said.
The system is massive. It’s used to screen over 900,000 people daily and some 465,000 vehicles and contains the border crossing history of nearly 1
billion travelers. By 2015 it will contain 1.1 terabytes of data, a terabyte being equal to 1,000 gigabytes.
The system was initially configured in the 1980s and has become obsolete. Currently the government says it will spend between $40 million and $60
million per year by 2015 just to keep the system functioning.
The GAO report said a plan launched in 2008 to upgrade TECS has not gone well. Both ICE and customs embarked on plans to modernize their parts of the
system. ICE estimated its total cost for upgrading and deploying the new system would be $818 million, and CBP said its cost would be $724 million.
In June of last year, ICE determined that its planned system upgrade was “not technically viable” and scrapped it, deciding to start over after
spending at least $19 million, the report said.
Customs and Border Protection has spent $226 million so far and is somewhat further along. The report said the agency can’t say how long it will take
to finish and is redoing the estimated cost and schedule.
The auditors said that CBP should come up with a master schedule for the entire project.
In a written response, the Department of Homeland Security said that was not needed because its current system used for tracking the project is fine.
The agency agreed with several recommendations by the auditors but said the report didn’t recognize some significant progress that has been made.
Specifically some upgrades to the system were deployed at air and seaports last year.
This is the latest in a string of reports by auditors and government watchdogs criticizing how Homeland Security and the border law enforcement
agencies have managed projects. In the past decade an estimated $100 billion has been appropriated for security ranging from new fences, equipment and
manpower to high-tech surveillance and warning systems that have not always panned out. The agency spent hundreds of millions on a high-tech fence
system that didn’t work as planned and was abandoned in 2011.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who has been a persistent critics of mismanagement by homeland security, said in a statement that the latest report is
another blow to the agency.
“Today’s GAO report provides another illustration of how DHS spends more taxpayer dollars and gets less for the American people,” said Coburn, who is
the ranking member of a Senate committee that oversees the agency.
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motoged
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I wear my aluminum foil hat and vest every time I cross into the US of A....that way I feel totally secure that my extensive criminal past, my
insensitive interpersonal transgressions, my telephone/e-mail , my unpaid bills, and my array of general sins recorded by Big Brother will all go
undetected.
(Let's see if this post puts me into "secondary" more frequently  )
Don't believe everything you think....
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bajalearner
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I am surprised that such a large federal department is having such problems. I think when DHS is as old as the US postal service, DHS will run as
smoothly and within budget as does the USPS or the department of defense. I am sure we just need to give DHS more money and more time. Oh, and
if we question there efficiency, it will onlty add to their problems so "the american people" should return our heads to the sand. It would be the
patriotic thing to do. We elect good and honest people to lead us.
Are there any keywords in the above that will trigger a bleep in the NSA's data base?
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Ateo
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Ha ha Ged.
The thing I found strange in the article is the "system" they've been using is suddenly "obsolete". The writer doesn't elaborate on this. How is it
obsolete all the sudden? When you pull up to the booth I'm pretty sure they know who you are, have your criminal history pulled up, and know how long
you've been in Mexico. How is this obsolete? This writer did a bad job in my opinion. Very vague............
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TMW
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Maybe the US Government should hire the hackers in Russia to do all future computer upgrades and installs.
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DocRey
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Viola! Surely this is the reason for my recent misadventure with our beloved CBP!
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rts551
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one reason for the upgrade. look at ow much info they are keeping n us. And some here were wondering why they were pulled into secondary.
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monoloco
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Ateo
Ha ha Ged.
The thing I found strange in the article is the "system" they've been using is suddenly "obsolete". The writer doesn't elaborate on this. How is it
obsolete all the sudden? When you pull up to the booth I'm pretty sure they know who you are, have your criminal history pulled up, and know how long
you've been in Mexico. How is this obsolete? This writer did a bad job in my opinion. Very vague............ |
Yeah but they can't currently pull up all your recent text messages, emails, GPS data, medical records, and the contact list from
your phone. With such a primitive system how can we expect them to protect us from all the terrorists that hate us for our freedoms?
"The future ain't what it used to be"
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durrelllrobert
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Mood: thriving in Baja
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By the way..
congrats on your new avatar!
Bob Durrell
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