Morning Security Brief: Rome Embassy Attacks, SFO Airport Insecurity, U.S. CT Security a Year Later, IT Security, & WTF

♦ Package bombs have exploded at the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome, injuring the two embassy workers who opened each package. "Witnesses outside the Chilean embassy said they heard a blast shortly after 3 p.m., sending police to the scene. The ANSA news agency said the person who opened the package was wounded," reports the Associated Press. "Three hours earlier, a package bomb exploded inside an office in the Swiss Embassy, seriously wounding the staffer who opened it. He was taken to the hospital with hand injuries." No one has claimed responsibility for the bombings yet. 

♦ An airline pilot used his cell phone camera to record the lack of security airport employees must pass through at San Francisco International Airport and then posted it to YouTube. "Well, folks, I just wanted to give you an idea of what type of security for the ground personnel there is. This is their screening. As you can see, there's only a card slide and one door," says the pilot on the video. "So when you see a cart, those carts aren't screened at all." A few days after the pilot posted the video, four federal air marshals and two sheriff's deputies came to his home to confiscate his federally-issued gun that he received as a Federal Flight Deck Office.

♦ The White House's top counterterrorism advisor says that the United States have plugged vulnerabilities that almost led to a horrific terrorist attack last Christmas. "John Brennan, the president's chief counterterrorism and homeland security adviser, said the country's security infrastructure has improved since Nigerian-born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly smuggled explosives hidden in his underwear onto an airplane headed for Detroit," reports NPR and the Associated Press. "I'm confident that ... we are in a much better position today than we were last year at this time," Brennan told reporters at a news conference.

♦ InformationWeek reviews the top ten IT security stories for 2010. The stories include insider threats, the U.S. cybersecurity posture, and the arrests of botnet gang members. 

♦ While the United State government's first response to WikiLeaks may have been WTF, it has once again responded with WTF. "WTF is the acronym for the newly formed WikiLeaks Task Force, a project launched by the CIA to determine how the leak of hundreds of thousands of cables and files will affect intelligence operations," reports FOXNews.com. According to the report, ""CIA Director Leon Panetta assigned dozens of CIA members to the task force to ensure the classified information now in the public domain will not hinder the agency's ability to operate."