Monitoring HazMat Shipments
I.J. Hudson, Tech Reporter

A truckload of explosive materials leaves I-94 in Chicago and heads toward the Sears Tower. Within 15 seconds an alarm goes out from a central monitoring point to local law enforcement and other agencies. The truck is intercepted. A terrorist attack is averted.

That's the scenario envisioned by MillenniuM Information Systems of Rosslyn, VA.

Every day, about 80-thousand trucks carry hazardous materials on our highways. A few of those trucks cause traffic and cleanup problems. But some security people worry these shipments could be used as weapons by terrorists.

MillenniuM has developed a service that could tie together GPS information from trucks, driver information, cargo information, and share alerts with law enforcement as well as weigh stations and toll takers. Handheld computers linked wirelessly to the system through the Internet could show pictures and allow workers to send alerts. "They can confirm or deny any information we have in this system versus what the trucking company says they should be carrying, or where they should be going," says Christopher Bender, one of Millennium's Technology gurus.

The same system could have an air component to check passengers against FBI, CIA, INS and other agency watch lists as reservations are being made, or at the ticket counter. The system is not asking for intelligence, just a "yes" or "no" to the question, "Is this person on your watch list?"

The proposed system also flags suspicious habits. Richard Reid, the man accused of trying to light explosives in his shoes on a flight from Paris to Miami, paid cash for his ticket and did not check any baggage: two red flags in this system, even if Reid were not on any agency watch list.

Sean Bordner is a Senior Developer with Millennium: "He cleared the FBI. He cleared everybody else. But because of those two flags right there, it could have been just one of those two flags, he still got triggered by us."

Triggered does not necessarily mean arrest, but the system would forward alerts to security - on laptops, handheld computers or web-enabled cell phones.

The biggest obstacle to making a system like this work: "The reluctance of federal agencies to want to share their data, when all we're asking for is a yes or no answer," says John Yagesh, Millennium's President. Yagesh says sharing information that is already out there could securely speed up the movement of passengers through airports, and improve the odds of catching bad guys. Yagesh estimates the cost of his company's service and maintenance would run about 2-milllion dollars a year. Government agencies could add components as they saw fit once the infrastructure was tied together.

MillenniuM has sent its proposal to the Department of Transportation, Department of Defense, the FBI and others.

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