Despite the government’s recent efforts to integrate dozens of terrorist watch list databases, terrorists may still be slipping through major cracks in homeland defenses by stealing identities and using computers to create fraudulent travel documents, officials told Congress yesterday. Testifying before the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, Ronald D. Malfi, director of the General Accounting Office’s Office of Special Investigations, said that during the past three years, his staff has successfully created fraudulent identities and documents on home computers that allowed officials to do everything from entering the U.S. from foreign countries to buying firearms and gaining unfettered access to government buildings. “We created fictitious identities and counterfeit identification documents, such as driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and Social Security cards … using inexpensive computer software and hardware that are readily available to any purchaser,” said Malfi. “In March 2002, we breached the security of four federal office buildings in the Atlanta area using counterfeit law enforcement credentials to obtain genuine building passes, which we then counterfeited.” Full Story
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