Technology, integration fuel secure border opps

Homeland Security Department Secretary Michael Chertoff launched the Secure Border Initiative and its technology component, SBInet, two years ago with the goal of gaining operational control of the country’s southern and northern land borders by November 2010. The initiative has cost more than $2 billion to date and included the hiring of thousands of border patrol agents. It has also sparked a boom in information technology tools that facilitate surveillance and information sharing. The prospect of monitoring 6,000 miles of land borders and 6,000 miles of coastline in the continental United States is daunting and, some say, unrealistic.
(Washington Technology cover story)