Low-flying Air Force One lookalike freaks out NYC

Posted By admin On April 27, 2009

Raw Story ^[2]
Monday, April 27, 2009

A number of buildings in New York City were evacuated Monday morning after a trio of low-flying planes flew near the Statue of Liberty.

“An Air Force One lookalike, the backup plane for the one regularly used by the president, flew low over Manhattan on Monday morning, accompanied by two F-16 fighters, so Air Force photographers could take pictures,” the New York Times reports ^[3]. “But a lack of awareness about the flyover led to the evacuation of several buildings in Lower Manhattan and Jersey City, N.J., and perplexed officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and other authorities were inundated with calls from anxious ferry passengers, office workers and residents in the area.”

“It is pre-planned, pre-coordinated with everyone involved,” FAA spokesman Jim Peters said ^[1]. “It’s a military flight over New York to take photos.”

Peters added, “We’ve gotten reports several buildings in Jersey City were evacuated.”

One eyewitness told the New York Times, “People came pouring out of the buildings, the American Express Building, all the buildings in the Financial District by the water. And even the construction guys over by 100 North End Avenue area, they all got out of their buildings. Nobody knew about it. Finally some guy showed up with a little megaphone to tell everyone it was a test, but the people were not happy. The people who were here 9/11 were not happy. New York City police were standing right there and they had no knowledge of it. The evacuations were spontaneous. Guys from the floor came out, and one guy I talked to was just shaking.”

One NYC television station received a number of phone calls from New York City residents “furious that local authorities hadn’t notified anyone about the fly-over.”

“According to many callers who flooded CBS 2 with their concerns, at about 10 a.m. the aircraft were seen flying at low altitudes over the Statue of Liberty and parts of lower Manhattan,” WCBS reports ^[5].

One sample follows: “We saw a low-flying 747 buzz the Southwest edge of Manhattan, at Battery Park City, with a fighter jet appearing to chase it on its left wing. At about Rector Street or so, it took a hard left and looked to be headed straight for Jersey City. It flew over J.C., turned south, and continued to climb over Newark. It left our sight, only to return on the same path a second time about five minutes later. It was confusing and panicked the office. We dialed 9-1-1 and considered whether to evacuate. We were told by 9-1-1 that it was ‘authorized’ to be there. We later learned, from your website, that it was part of a DOD ‘photo op.’ NotifyNYC advises it was ‘part of an approved federal activity.’ To conduct a ‘photo op,’ unwarned in advance to Lower Manhattan residents and workers, in that manner was completely irresponsible.”

Newsday notes ^[6], “About 1,000 workers gathered along the Hudson River esplanade until a security officer with a bullhorn told them it was a planned exercise.”

“After the incident, New York City released an advisory that the flyover was ‘part of an approved federal activity,’” Reuters reports ^[7].

Data Security Breaches Present Emerging Risks, Opportunities for Agents

By Patricia-Anne Tom
April 27, 2009
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2009/04/27/99922.htm

Excerpts from the news article

Data security represents both a new market opportunity to sell insurance coverage and a new risk ? especially for independent insurance agencies that may not be compliant with data security laws or have plans in place to protect their own companies from data breaches.

While data security is an evolving issue, failing to protect data can have a huge financial impact on a company. The average total per-incident cost of a data security breach was $6.65 million, compared to an average per-incident cost of $6.3 million in 2007, according to the "U.S. Cost of Data Breach Study" conducted by data protection company PGP Corp. and information management research firm The Ponemon Institute.

The PGP/Ponemon study indicated that data breach incidents cost U.S. companies $202 per compromised customer record in 2008, meaning that companies incur additional costs with an abnormal churn in lost customers. More than 84 percent of data breach cases in 2008 involved organizations that had more than one data breach. And, more than 88 percent of all cases in the study involved insider negligence.

The cost of lost business continued to be the most costly effect of a breach, averaging $4.59 million or $139 per record compromised. Lost business now accounts for 69 percent of data breach costs, up from 65 percent in 2007, compared to 54 percent in the 2006 study.

"After four years of conducting this study, one thing remains constant: U.S. businesses continue to pay dearly for having a data breach," said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of The Ponemon Institute. "As costs only continue to rise, companies must remain on guard or face losing valuable customers in this unpredictable economy."

>>>>Nevertheless, it's important for business owners to get up to speed about how to handle a breach. "If a breach occurs, the ability to respond must be timely," said Shena Crowe, Infragard Coordinator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "Companies only have about 30 days or less."

>>>>>Of course, that means agents and brokers must educate themselves. "Our major challenge as an industry right now is educating agents and brokers as to what kind of questions they need to ask their insureds, to get their arms around what kind of information their clients have," Katona said.

Among questions to consider are:

* Does the client transacts business over the Internet?
* Does the client move information to another party over the Internet?
* What are the underpinnings of the client's technology?
* Does the data environment have a firewall?
* What processes and procedures are in place for things like encryption?
* What processes and procedures are in place for people accessing company computers?

"Spend time to manuscript coverage to match the client's exposure," Cisco Systems' Lamb said.

Above all, agents and brokers should take steps to ensure they're covered themselves.

"Insurance agents and brokers, obviously, capture a lot of information to write coverage for their insureds," Katona said. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act requires companies to have certain security measures in place. For smaller agencies, absorbing the costs of securing doors or having password protection and certain security measures in place can be difficult. But "98 percent of the agents we deal with are not Gramm-Leach compliant," Katona said. "As a group of insurance agents and brokers, we have a responsibility to protect that data."