INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FORCULTURAL PROPERTY PROTECTION
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Reposted from ArtCrimeResearch.org
The Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA) warmly invites applications to its postgraduate certificate program in the study of art crime and cultural heritage protection. In 2019, the program will be held from May 31 through August 15, 2019 in the heart of Umbria in Amelia, Italy.
In its 11th year, this academically-challenging, eleven course program will provide in-depth, postgraduate level instruction in important theoretical and practical elements related to art and heritage crime. By examining art crime’s interconnected world, participants will experience an integrated curriculum in a participatory setting. The program’s courses will include comprehensive, multidisciplinary lectures, classroom-based discussions and presentations, and field classes that serve as the backdrop for exploring art crime, its nature, and its impact.
Each course associated with the program has been selected to underscore the value of, and necessity for, a longitudinal multidisciplinary approach to the study of this type of criminal behaviour, as well as its trends and motivating factors. Designed to expose participants to an integrated curriculum in a highly interactive, participatory, student-centered setting, the ARCA professional development program utilises instructional modules that include both classroom and in situ field lectures as well as “hands-on” learning from case studies, organised research, and group participatory assignments and discussions.
Participants are encouraged and challenged from the outset of the program to develop their scholarly interests, and to evolve as independent thinkers and researchers while simultaneously contributing to the theoretical discourse.
At the conclusion of the program, participants will have a solid mastery of a broad array of concepts pertaining to provenance, art market due diligence, illicit trafficking, cultural property protection, and cultural security.
November 30, 2018 – Early Application Deadline January 30, 2019 – General Application Deadline
Minerva scholarship applications will be accepted through February 01, 2019.
As spaces on the program are limited, candidates are strongly advised to submit their application materials as soon as possible. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until census is achieved, after which candidates will be placed on the waiting list.
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October 16, 2018 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
6250 Hollywood Boulevard Los Angeles, California 90028
Free
Catastrophic events caused by severe weather, increasingly sporadic threat conditions, and malicious behavior continue to change how we live, work and play. Although preventing all critical events is out of our control, the use of global threat intelligence in conjunction with proactive response planning and strategies can help you rapidly respond to - and even avoid - sudden, unexpected disruptions. To help address some of the common challenges security, business continuity, operations and risk professionals face when managing critical events, we have organized a series of concentrated half-day workshops. Attendees will walk away with actionable best practice strategies to ensure employees are kept safe and business disruptions are minimized or even avoided altogether. Hear from industry experts who are using best practice strategies and leveraging technologies to keep their employees safe, assets protected, and their businesses running. Faster. This is an event run in collaboration with ASIS International and their Security Management Publication.
Click here to Register Now!
HEART (Heritage Emergency and Response Training) 2018 will take place December 10–14, 2018, at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. This year’s HEART program builds upon the program launched last year in DC and further refined through regional programs in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. HEART 2018 seeks applications from cultural heritage professionals and emergency management professionals from all 56 states and territories and Indian Country.
The application deadline is October 9, 2018. For complete details about this program and instructions on how to apply, please visit https://culturalrescue.si.edu/hentf/training/
HEART is sponsored by the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, a public-private partnership co-sponsored by FEMA and the Smithsonian Institution. This training is made possible by the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Reposted from The Hill
FBI Director Christopher Wray in an interview marking 17 years since Sept. 11, said the U.S. is “safer” but the threats facing the country have “evolved.”
Wray added cyber threats are “at an all-time high.”
“Terrorism today moves at the speed of social media,” he said.
The FBI director also said that the FBI is focused on “homegrown violent extremists.”
“We’re also very focused now on homegrown violent extremists which are people who are largely here already in the United States ... and these are people who are largely radicalized online,” he said.
Wray revealed the FBI has made about 102 terrorism-related arrests in the last year. He said that of 5,000 terrorism investigations, the bureau investigated 1,000 “homegrown violent extremists.”
Wray said the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force receives “about 15,000” tips a year.
“Basically 40 tips a day, two tips an hour,” he said.
The FBI director spoke about the role of social media companies in preventing terrorism, saying the Bureau is attempting to work with tech giants to get them to address terrorism on their platforms “voluntarily.”
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Seventeen years after the 9/11 terror attacks, lawmakers are stepping up their warnings about how the next assault on the U.S. could be a cyberattack. Airports and airlines increasingly rely on cyber networks to operate, yet there are no federal regulations specifically governing their use. Lawmakers say they are drafting legislation that would impose new standards for cybersecurity as experts argue U.S. airlines are vulnerable to attacks.
Joel Otto, the vice president of strategy and business development for Rockwell Collins Information Management Systems’s business unit who has spent three decades working in aviation, said those working in aviation are more concerned about making sure a plane takes off, flies and lands safely than about any specific example of an attack, like that mentioned by Katko.
“While you worry about the potential outcomes, what you more worry about is that any bad outcome is a bad outcome,” he said, adding that cybersecurity is now considered as important as safety within the aviation industry.
Because the industry’s standards have not been adopted into federal law, there could be discrepancies in how those standards are applied, experts say.
A survey cited by the federally-operated Airport Cooperative Research Program in its guide last year on best cybersecurity practices found that 32 out of the 41 responding airports had cybersecurity programs in place. However, only 49 percent of respondents felt that the measures offered adequate protection from cyberattacks. And reports last year that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was able to breach a plane on a tarmac also amplified concerns about airlines’ cybersecurity. Internal DHS documents, obtained by Motherboard earlier this year, also indicate that some agency officials believe it’s only a “matter of time before a cyber security breach on an airline occurs.” The impact of those potential cyberattacks has been partially realized at at least one U.S. airport this year.
The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport shut down its WiFi networks in March as a precaution after Atlanta was targeted by a massive, days-long ransomware attack. Christopher Porter, the chief threat intelligence specialist for the cybersecurity firm FireEye who testified at last week’s hearing, said during an interview this week that a federal baseline on cybersecurity could more clearly lay out the roles of airlines, airports and federal officials in the case of an attack.
Organizations like the Aviation Information Sharing and Analysis Center (A-ISAC) offer a way for the federal government, airlines, airports and aircraft manufacturers to share information about potential cyber threats. But experts said more needs to be done to loop in all parties when it comes to cyber. “There may be parts of the aviation sector that have underinvested in cybersecurity because they can't justify it as a business expense, but everyone will be required to do it,” Porter said of a potential federal framework. “I think that would make it a lot easier for them to bring things up to par.”
Reposted from the Express UK
Terrorists and criminals are being hunted at museums using FBI-style “behavioural observation” techniques. The attractions are now seen as key targets for terrorists, with one 18-year-old female plotter being found guilty earlier this year of planning a grenade attack at the British Museum.
Guards at the Victoria and Albert Museum are among those trained to identify suspects using criteria such as facial expression, movement and voice.
The method is a form of criminal profiling used by agencies such as the FBI and has also helped reduce minor crime such as pickpocketing and theft from backpacks.
A source said: “The system uses key criteria to identify persons of interest. Staff are trained to seek out anyone suspicious, approach and confront them.
“Potential criminals have certainly been identified and there has been a significant fall in petty crime since the system was brought in.”
A V&A spokesman confirmed that it has developed techniques aimed at keeping the public safe.
He said: “The V&A takes security very seriously. We have developed a range of tactical options that we use to protect our visitors, staff, collections and buildings.
“We do not discuss our security assessment or tactical options openly but work closely with the police and other partners to ensure we provide an appropriate response to any perceived risk.”
Behavioural observation uses scientifically researched primary indicators to identify potential trouble makers.
These include what a person is looking at, their clothes, how they walk and how they act in a certain location.
The methods are usually applied in security hotspots such as airports, ports and at celebrity events and this is the first time they have been used in museums.
The training began last year and security staff have been told it is part of a wider approach to countering the threat of terrorism.
The system is also believed to be used in other London attractions, including the Natural History Museum.
A spokesman said they prefer not to comment on security but he added: “We continually review our security measures based on advice given by the Metropolitan Police. We have enhanced security procedures to protect our visitors, staff and the collection.”
Reposted from NY Times
Foreign terrorist groups and their affiliates had a bad year in 2017 as the United States and other countries fought back against the Islamic State, but Al Qaeda and Iranian-backed militias remain deadly threats, according to an annual government terrorism report that was released on Wednesday.
There were 8,584 terrorist attacks around the world in 2017, a 23 percent decline from 2016, according to the State Department report. As a result, more than 18,700 people were killed, about a quarter of whom were the perpetrators themselves.
That death toll represented a 27 percent drop from the previous year, the report said.
Much of the reason for the decline was the improved security situation in Iraq, according to Ambassador Nathan Sales, the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism.
Still, more than half of all terrorist attacks worldwide took place in just five countries: Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Pakistan and the Philippines. And 70 percent of all deaths from terrorist attacks occurred in a different, if overlapping, set of five countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia and Syria.
The security situation in Afghanistan continued to worsen as a result of coordinated attacks by the Taliban, including the group’s affiliated Haqqani network, the report noted. Some of the attacks were planned and launched from safe havens in Pakistan, a source of continuing irritation in relations between Washington and Islamabad.
Although four countries are designated as state sponsors of terrorism, the report highlighted Iran as a top threat.
The Trump administration has made its tough approach to Iran a central tenet of its foreign policy. President Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal this year, and his top administration officials have excoriated the clerical government in Tehran at almost every opportunity.
The report said Iran is undermining legitimate governments and American interests in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. The seven-year civil war in Syria has given Hezbollah, an Iran proxy, valuable battlefield experience, the report said.
The other three state sponsors of terrorism are North Korea, Syria and Sudan.
Broadly, the terrorism landscape grew more complex in 2017, according to the report.
While the Islamic State lost much of the territory it controlled in Iraq and Syria, it shifted to a more dispersed model — encouraging attacks by sympathizers around the world using whatever weapons were at their disposal. Such efforts led to high-profile attacks in Manchester, England; Barcelona, Spain; and New York.
In a news briefing, Mr. Sales emphasized that while the Islamic State garnered much of the world’s attention in 2017, Al Qaeda quietly expanded its membership and operations. He called Al Qaeda a “determined and patient adversary.”
“Although ISIS has gotten the headlines,” he said, referring to the Islamic State, “we remain focused and determined to confront Al Qaeda wherever we find it.”
Smaller terrorist groups were also mentioned in the report, which has a lengthy listing of organizations from around the world, including Boko Haram in several African countries and Real I.R.A. in Northern Ireland. Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba were cited as threats to South Asia generally.
Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, was highlighted for what the report said were its efforts to rebuild its military capabilities to support terrorist attacks against Israel. The Trump administration has rescinded nearly all the aid the United States traditionally provided to Palestinians, cuts that threaten many of the schools, clinics and hospitals that Palestinians depend upon.
Whether such cuts will encourage or discourage extremism among Palestinians has yet to be seen.
Under the Trump administration, the Pentagon has pivoted from a yearslong focus on fighting foreign extremist groups. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has called Russia and China a “primary focus of U.S. national security,” and there are plans to slash the number of military counterterrorism forces in Africa.
Reposted from AP News
As people return to work after summer vacations, it’s a good time to make sure everyone in the organization is sensitive to the need for computer security. Here are some basics that bosses should emphasize to their staffers:
PASSWORDS
Start with creating a strong password. It’s probably a good idea for the company to have minimum requirements for passwords used to access its systems. Those requirements should include a mix of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Many businesses are using two-factor authentication, which requires people to enter a code in addition to the login/password combination. They may also require staffers to periodically change their passwords.
The IRS has guidelines for creating passwords on its website, www.irs.gov ; search for “Tax Tip 2018-129.” While the information is intended for tax professionals, it is useful for anyone.
PHISHING ALERTS
Bosses should remind everyone to be vigilant about phishing scams, which can plant malicious software on a computer or phone. Everyone should understand that they shouldn’t click on any link or attachment in an email unless they’re sure it’s legitimate. It should be standard operating procedure to check a sender’s email address to be sure it’s correct and not suspicious, and the body of an email should be checked for any oddities that can be hallmarks of phishing scams.
As new staffers are trained, they should learn about the kinds of emails they can expect to receive. The more familiar they are with a company’s customers, vendors and other contacts, the better they’ll be at spotting suspicious emails.
LOCKING PHONES AND LAPTOPS
Staffers who can access the company’s systems including its email via smartphones and laptops — whether they’re personal or company-provided — should be required to lock their devices with codes or passwords.
DOWNLOADING UPDATES
If the company has an information technology staffer or department, it should be aware of security and other updates issued by Microsoft and other companies. Each company device should be updated. If there isn’t a dedicated IT staffer, the owner or another manager needs to be sure that all updates are downloaded.
THE OWNER’S RESPONSIBILITY
A survey issued earlier this year by insurer Hiscox found that only half of small businesses said they had a clear cybersecurity strategy. Making systems as secure as possible often gets put on the back burner while an owner works with customers and staffers.
Companies without IT staffers should consider bringing in a consultant who can assess what’s needed to increase security. Among the items companies need are anti-virus and anti-malware software, firewalls, encryption software and offsite storage that continually creates new versions of all of a company’s data. Those versions will be critical if a company’s computers are victims of ransomware attacks that render files and documents unusable.
Reposted from ArtNet
The ancient city of Palmyra, which has been badly damaged by ISIS, could reopen to tourists as early as next summer, the Syrian government has announced. The historic site, located in Syria’s Homs Governate province, was once among the country’s top attractions, with as many as 150,000 visitors a year.
“The authorities now have a project to repair all the damage caused to Palmyra’s Old City,” Talal Barazi, the provincial governor of Homs, told Sputnik News. “This is the world history and it belongs not only to Syria,” he added noting that UNESCO, Russia, Poland, and Italy are among the countries and institutions which have pledged to offer assistance in Syria’s efforts “to restore the artifacts and historical value of Palmyra.”
Once called the “Pearl of the desert,” Palmyra, famous for its well-preserved Greco-Roman ruins, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980, renowned for its unique blend of Greek, Roman, Persian, and Islamic cultures. In 2013, following the 2011 outbreak of the Syrian Civil War and the rise of ISIS, it was added to the list of endangered world heritage sites.
Since that time, ISIS has twice occupied Palmyra, first beginning in May 2015. The government expelled the terrorist group from the ancient city in March 2016, only to lose it again in December of that year. After two years of protracted battles, the Syrian Army retook the site for good in March of 2017—but not before the terrorist group had destroyed some of the city’s most historic treasures.
While it controlled the historic site, ISIS publicly beheaded Palmyra’s 82-year-old head of antiquities, Khalid al-As’ad, when he refused to reveal where he had hidden important statue. The group destroyed such ancient wonders as the Temple of Bel, the Temple of Baal Shamin, the Arch of Triumph, and columns in the Valley of the Tombs. (The terrorist group has wrought similar cultural destruction throughout Syria and Iraq, a cultural cleansing effort to eliminate evidence of non-Islamic history.)
Since the city was retaken, UNESCO has been leading the charge for its restoration and recovery, with a $150,000 “Emergency Safeguarding” project for the Portico of the Temple of Bel. The organization has deplored “the destruction of Syria’s exceptional archaeological, urban, and architectural heritage,” which includes five other World Heritage Sites.
The nearby city of Homs is also being restored at an estimated cost of $2 billion, reports the Art Newspaper. The reconstruction of its 2,000-year-old central market, which began three years ago, should be complete by spring 2019.
In October, the National Museum of Damascus successfully completed restoration work on the 2,000-year old limestone Lion of Al-lāt statue, a 15-ton piece sculpture that had been broken into pieces by ISIS. Two funerary statues secreted out of the city by Al-As’ad were restored last year by Italian experts, who reconstructed broken fragments using 3-D printing and nylon powder.
“When I saw the destruction for the first time, I was hit with such distress,” Daria Montemaggiori, part of the restoration team at Rome’s Central Restoration Institute, told CNN. “The work of restoration allows us to erase the act of violence.”
Additional restoration work on statues and sculptures recovered from Palmyra is taking place in Damascus, with the assistance of specialists from the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. The terrorist group smashed large-scale artworks from the Museum of Palmyra that workers were unable to remove for safekeeping ahead of the occupation.
“The work is very complicated; the terrorists have broken the sculptures into many pieces,” Maher al-Jubari, the director of the laboratory of national museums in Syria, told the Telegraph. “We collected everything in one box and marked the parts. Now my task is to glue them together with a special solution.”
Reposted from The Boston Globe
Why, 28 years later, is the mystery of the Gardner art heist still so irresistible? With a $10 million reward on offer, how hasn’t a single piece of the half-billion-dollar haul surfaced? Gone in 81 minutes, how have the Gardner thieves escaped capture for so long?
With first-ever interviews, unprecedented access and over a year of investigative reporting, “Last Seen” takes us inside the ongoing effort to bring back the jewels of the Gardner collection.
Persons featured in the first episodes:
Anthony Amore has worked as security director for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum since 2005. In his role at the museum, he also is responsible for assisting the FBI in solving the heist. By his own account, Amore still speaks at least daily with Geoffrey Kelly, the top FBI agent on the case, and works with him to pursue leads, conduct interviews, communicate with reporters, art investigators and even members of the public about the case. He has even accompanied federal agents on the numerous searches of homes and other properties.
Over the years, he has become a consultant specializing in art theft and museum security. He has written two books: “Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Story of Notorious Art Heists” (with reporter Tom Mashberg) in 2011 and “The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds and Forgeries in the Art World” in 2015. In 2018, he ran on the Republican ticket for the office of Secretary of State in Massachusetts.
Amore says he will not rest until the paintings are found. While maintaining confidentiality of the criminal investigation, Amore has said publicly he believes the heist was the work of a local criminal gang, with assistance from someone inside the museum. He believes the artwork has been stashed somewhere nearby.
Anne Hawley was the director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum when it was robbed in 1990. She had only been on the job for a matter of months when the theft occurred. The fourth director since Gardner died in 1924, Hawley’s mission was to restore vitality to the museum, which had begun to fray because of inadequate fundraising. Haunted by the loss of the masterworks and concerned that the FBI wasn’t giving the case adequate attention, Hawley took an active role in the probe. She hired a private investigative firm, encouraged Boston’s business and political leaders to get involved and even pursued leads herself. Before retiring in 2015, Hawley led a $118 million fundraising campaign that built an extension to the museum designed by famed architect Renzo Piano.
Born in 1840, Isabella Stewart Gardner became a force of nature in Boston society and a leading American art collector. A Boston newspaper in 1875 called her “one of the seven wonders of Boston.” The newspaper noted: “There is nobody like her in any city in this country. Everything she does is novel and original. She is as brilliant as her own diamonds and is as attractive. Boston is divided into two parts of which one follows science and the other, Mrs. Jack Gardner.” As a young woman, she spent her time cultivating fascinating people -- mostly young, beautiful, creative men -- and was a philanthropic force in the city. She inherited her father’s fortune and collected art. Toward the end of her life, Gardner wrote to a friend: “Years ago, I decided that the greatest need in our country was art.” And that is what she left behind in the Renaissance-style Venetian palazzo known as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Richard (Rick) Abath, 23, worked as a night watchman and made the grievous error of allowing the thieves into the museum. Authorities have long suspected that Abath, who now lives and works as a teacher’s aide in Vermont, may have been complicit. He’s cooperated fully with investigators throughout the process and claims he has passed FBI lie detector tests. However, suspicions around Abath’s possible involvement in the robbery arose again when investigators discovered the museum’s motion detector equipment had not picked up the presence of the two thieves in the museum’s Blue Room, where a Manet portrait was snatched. The last movement detected that night had been Abath’s footsteps on his initial patrol rounds.
Randy was the second security guard working on the night of the heist. This podcast is the first time he has spoken publicly about what happened that night, and has asked us to not use his last name. In 1990, he was working to land gigs as a musician, but worked at the museum to make ends meet. He had recently earned a masters in performance from the New England Conservatory of Music and had a passion for symphonic music. On the night of the heist, he wasn’t scheduled to work, but was called in because another guard called out sick. Today, he makes his money playing music, mostly on cruise ships.
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