DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY CAN’T EVEN SECURE ITS BUILDINGS AGAINST PEOPLE IT FIRED – By Sam Biddle (The Intercept) / Dec 29, 2022
Officials have known about the widespread security failure for 15 years without fixing it.
FOR THE FOURTH time since 2007, an internal audit shows the Department of Homeland Security isn’t deactivating access cards in the hands of ex-employees, leaving its secure facilities vulnerable to intruders.
A new report by Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General shows that the department is systemically failing to revoke tens of thousands of “personal identity verification” cards that allow staff to enter sensitive, secure facilities and access internal data networks, despite being warned about the problem for 15 years. The issue is made worse, the report continues, by the fact that Homeland Security’s internal record-keeping is so shoddy that it was impossible to determine how many ex-staffers have working access cards they aren’t supposed to.
Like many modern office workers, Homeland Security hands out office-unlocking keycards to its employees to make sure strangers can’t wander in off the street. And, like most workplaces, the department is supposed to follow a standard policy: When an employee is no longer an employee, for whatever reason, their card is to be promptly deactivated.
