Tuesday, September 4, 2007

DHS stops using Google Earth

At the end of last month DHS made some changes to their web sites dealing with the Chemical Security Assessment Tool (CSAT). None of the changes was earth shattering from a security point of view; they ditched the use of Google Earth for determining latitude and longitude and replaced it with Microsoft’s TerraServer. With the wide use of GPS receivers that can provide the same data this may not seem important, but it could mean the difference in a couple thousand hits between these two sites. As is the normal procedure, DHS made no announcement of the changes to their site and certainly did not provide a reason for change.

 

The pages that were changed were:

 

Chemical Security Assessment Tool (8-29-07)

 

Accessing the Chemical Security Assessment Tool (CSAT) (8-27-07)

 

CSAT Top-Screen Questions (PDF, 79 pages - 778 KB)

 

When they changed the CSAT Top-Screen Questions document they added the TerraServer link and instructions; there had been no mention of Google Earth in the previous document. Presumably they made the same change to the Top-Screen pages, but you have to be registered as achemical site to see those pages, so I cannot verify the change on the Top-Screen page.

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