• Prototype Self-Service Screening System Unveiled

    TSA and DHS S&T unveiled a prototype checkpoint technology, the self-service screening system, at Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas, NV. The aim is to provide a near self-sufficient passenger screening process while enabling passengers to directly receive on-person alarm information and allow for the passenger self-resolution of those alarms.

  • Autonomous Vehicle Technology Vulnerable to Road Object Spoofing and Vanishing Attacks

    Researchers have demonstrated the potentially hazardous vulnerabilities associated with the technology called LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, many autonomous vehicles use to navigate streets, roads and highways. The researchers have shown how to use lasers to fool LiDAR into “seeing” objects that are not present and missing those that are – deficiencies that can cause unwarranted and unsafe braking or collisions.

  • Testing Cutting-Edge Counter-Drone Technology

    Drones have many positive applications, bad actors can use them for nefarious purposes. Two recent field demonstrations brought government, academia, and industry together to evaluate innovative counter-unmanned aircraft systems.

  • European Court of Human Rights Confirms: Weakening Encryption Violates Fundamental Rights

    In a milestone judgment—Podchasov v. Russia—the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that weakening of encryption can lead to general and indiscriminate surveillance of the communications of all users and violates the human right to privacy.

  • China Shows How Western Governments Should Stockpile Minerals

    The US, Australia and partner countries should take a page from China’s stockpiling playbook. They should build up stockpiles of critical minerals, managing inventories to optimize prices for domestic mineral producers and consumers and to guard against decreased supply and increased demand in wartime.

  • How Climate Change Primed Texas to Burn

    Over the past 10 days, five wildfires in the region have burned more than 1.2 million acres. The largest of them — dubbed the Smokehouse Creek Fire, for a creek near its origin — stretches across an area larger than Rhode Island. The state’s high plains get a month more fire weather now than they did in the 1970s.

  • Texas Requires Utilities to Plan for Emergencies. That Didn’t Stop the Panhandle Fires.

    Experts say utilities need to be ready for extreme weather, which could be a challenge in a state where discussing climate change is often taboo. A review of portions of the state’s electricity code shows utilities have to plan for maintaining their equipment and responding in emergencies, but how they do so is largely left to the companies.

  • High-Energy Laser Weapons: How They Work and What They Are Used For

    Laser weapons have been a staple of science fiction since long before lasers were even invented. More recently, they have also featured prominently in some conspiracy theories. Both types of fiction highlight the need to understand how laser weapons actually work and what they are used for.

  • Scientists Put Forth a Smarter Way to Protect a Smarter Grid

    Proliferation of programmable devices presents more gateways for cyberattack. That makes the electric grid, increasingly chock full of devices that interact with one another and make critical decisions, vulnerable to bad actors who might try to turn off the power, damage the system or worse.

  • Demand for Computer Chips Fueled by AI Could Reshape Global Politics and Security

    A global race to build powerful computer chips that are essential for the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools could have a major impact on global politics and security. The US is currently leading the race in the design of these chips, also known as semiconductors. But most of the manufacturing is carried out in Taiwan.

  • AI Chip Race: Fears Grow of Huge Bubble

    A global contest is underway to build powerful chips for the next generation of artificial intelligence. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is calling for a $7 trillion investment.

  • Hurricanes and Power Grids: Eliminating Large-Scale Outages with a New Approach

    Large scale-power outages caused by tropical cyclones can be prevented almost entirely if a small but critical set of power lines is protected against storm damages.

  • South Korea’s Demand for Critical Minerals

    Korea’s geostrategic situation feeds a sense of strategic and economic insecurity—it is close to an assertive China prepared to demonstrate displeasure by imposing costly economic coercion measures, while the ever-present threat from North Korea drives the south’s priorities for military resilience, including a hi-tech military industry.

  • Israeli Tech to Help Modernize Pacific Northwest Power Grid

    Exodigo gets federal funding to help Pacific Northwest National Laboratory transition to underground electric power lines.

  • Artificial Intelligence Is Game Changer for Election Interference: FBI

    U.S. security officials are bracing for an onslaught of fast-paced influence operations, from a wide range of adversaries, aimed at impacting the country’s coming presidential election. FBI Director Christopher Wray issued the latest warning in a meeting with security professional Thursday, saying that technologies such as artificial intelligence are already altering the threat landscape.