Officials from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Customs Service recently said they're working to ensure that the millions of containers imported into the United States every year don't contain materials for potential terrorist attacks, the National Journal's Technology Daily reports.

Among the efforts, described at a recent cargo security conference: TSA would like an information-sharing analysis center (ISAC) for the trucking industry to promote information sharing critical to counter terrorism.

George Rodriguez, TSA's director of cargo security, said some trucking companies had scanned shipping data and packages for fake addresses, for example. Rodriguez's former employer, Yellow Freight, nabbed illegal narcotics shipments by tracking such irregularities, he added.

Meanwhile, Jayson Ahern, assistant commissioner for the Office of Field Operations at the Customs Service, said his agency and foreign nations were working to implement an initiative that would allow customs inspectors to "pre-screen" cargo before it reached the United States.

The agency has signed agreements with Belgium, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands and Singapore, among others, and is beginning to implement the initiative in those countries.

TSA is also deploying Operation Safe Commerce, a project that will test approaches to new security practices at maritime ports. The $28 million program will begin testing in the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, Seattle and New York to "see what works," Rodriguez said.