Today's news

  • Cyber espionageExperts: Flame represents a new level of state-sponsored cyber attacks

    The latest cyber espionage malware, Flame, represents a new level of sophistication in state-sponsored cyberattacks; experts note that Flame circumvented anti-virus programs, and remained undetected between two and five years; one expert says: “[Flame] uses multiple exploit combinations so it is pretty significant that it hid itself, but maybe the best ones have not been discovered yet”; another expert says: “The failure to detect Flame means simplistic signature-based detection is obsolete”

  • DisastersSimulating the effects of different actions to minimize disaster’s consequences

    The European CRISMA project prepares for disasters by developing a decision-support tool to help the authorities, responders, communities, and private parties to prioritize the most important measures for saving lives and mitigating the effects of the crisis

  • Military technologyStudents build slingshot-driven test for artillery shells

    The current method the U.S. Air Force uses to study the behavior of artillery shells causes these shells to be destroyed in the process; the Air Force wants to know more about the behavior of artillery shells as they accelerate and decelerate – and Rice University students invents a device to stop high-velocity projectiles without destroying them

  • Law enforcementUsing mathematical modeling to predict burglary patterns

    Pattern formation in physical, biological, and sociological systems has been studied for many years; despite the fact that these subject areas are diverse, the mathematics that describes underlying patterns in these systems can be surprisingly similar; mathematical tools can be used to study such systems and predict their patterns

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  • BusinessHarris awarded DHS communications contract with a $3 billion potential value

    Harris has been awarded a 5-year, IDIQ DHS contract to support tactical communications for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its partner agencies; the contract has a $3 billion ceiling

  • GeoengineeringGeoengineering may lead to whiter sky

    One idea for fighting global warming is to increase the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere, scattering incoming solar energy away from the Earth’s surface; scientists, however, theorize that this solar geoengineering could have a side effect of whitening the sky during the day

  • ASIS International 58th Annual Seminar and Exhibits – September 10-13, 2012 – Philadelphia, PA – FREE Expo Registration in Advance – Click here to register
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  • ScienceLivermorium and Flerovium added to the periodic table of elements

    The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) the other day officially approved new names for elements 114 and 116, the latest heavy elements to be added to the periodic table; the names of the two new elements: Flerovium for element 114, with the symbol Fl, and Livermorium for element 116, with the symbol Lv, late last year

  • BiosafetyVeterinary profession trends short-change biosecurity, food security, public health

    More than half of veterinary students in the United States seek training in companion animal or pet medicine – with fewer and fewer graduate veterinary students pursuing Ph.D. training which would prepare them for academic careers, key jobs in the public sector, and some positions in industry; the result is a dwindling supply of veterinarians to fill jobs overseeing and enforcing food safety and animal health standards, conduct research in human drug development and advances in pet health, and participate in wildlife and ecosystem management, infectious disease control, biosecurity, and agro-terrorism prevention

  • Explosives detectionNIST releases new standard reference material for detecting PETN and TATP

    The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a new standard reference material (SRM) to aid in the detection of two explosive compounds that are known to be used by terrorists; researchers designed the new test samples to simulate the size and behavior of residues that remain after handling the explosives PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate) and TATP (triacetone triperoxide)

  • BiometricsAging process confounds iris recognition biometrics

    It is commonly assumed that biometric template aging does not occur for iris biometrics; there may well be a need to examine this assumption; two University of Notre Dame scientists found that the rate at which a state-of-the-art, commercial iris-matching software system failed to match two images of the same iris — known as the false non-match rate — increased by 153 percent over three years

  • Disaster communicationSpace Data, partners test high-altitude disaster communication

    Since 2004, Space Data has logged more than 250,000 flight hours in near space altitudes between 65,000 and 90,000 feet in conducting more than 20,000 flights of its balloon-borne platforms; near space technology has become a critical communications relay capability for the U.S. military, particularly for deployed forces overseas; the FCC wants this technology to be available for first responders

  • Emergency communicationHigh altitude-based emergency communication system

    Oceus Network will conduct a test of its emergency communication system in high altitude: it will place its 4G LTE Xiphos portable 4G LTE broadband network on a balloon which will carry Xiphos to near-space altitude; by placing an emergency communication system on an airborne platform, a zone of coverage is created to restore critical communications in the first hours after a catastrophic event

  • Emergency notificationNotiFind wins notification system award at DRI International 2012 Conference

    SunGard Availability Services’s crisis communication tool NotiFind was named Notification System of the Year by the DRI International Commission; the company says that the award shows industry recognition of the solution as a tested emergency and incident notification system

  • BiometrcisAdvanced investigative facial recognition solution for law enforcement

    Animetrics shows ForensicaGPS, a new facial biometric tool for local, state, and federal law enforcement; the company says ForensicaGPS allows law enforcement to identify criminal suspects, even from a low-resolution photo or video surveillance

  • BusinessQinetiQ North America to provide cybersecurity services to DOT

    QinetiQ North America (QNA) was awarded a new task order by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center to provide cybersecurity services to protect the U.S. transportation and control systems and critical infrastructure

  • BusinessTASC wins three task orders from DNDO

    TASC, Inc. was awarded three task orders by DHS to provide its Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) with advanced systems engineering and integration and other decision-support services. The task orders are valued at a total of $54 million, including base and option years

  • EnergySpaced-based solar power holds promise

    Solar power gathered in space could be set to provide the renewable energy of the future; researchers have already tested equipment in space that would provide a platform for solar panels to collect the energy and allow it to be transferred back to earth through microwaves or lasers

  • EnergyGrid adjustments cancel out some of wind power’s carbon savings

    Wind energy lowers carbon emissions, but adding turbines to the current grid system does not eliminate emissions proportionally, according to a new report; researchers tested how wind energy affects carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and found that adjusting for wind power adds inefficiencies that cancel out some of the CO2 reduction

  • Nuclear powerEntergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station gets new 20-year license

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) yesterday announced its decision to renew the operating license for Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Massachusetts; the approval means the NRC has concluded there is no safety or environmental issue that precludes renewal of the plant’s license to operate for an additional twenty years

  • Nuclear disastersSandia Labs technology used to clean up Fukushima after disaster

    A Sandia Lab-developed technology — crystalline silico-titanate, or CST — is a molecular sieve that can separate highly volatile elements from radioactive wastewater; the technology has been used to remove radioactive material from more than forty-three million gallons of contaminated wastewater at Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

  • Cybersecurity educationNSA launches cyber operations academic program

    The NSA has launched National Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Cyber Operations Program; the program is intended to be a deeply technical, inter-disciplinary, higher education program grounded in the computer science (CS), computer engineering (CE), or electrical engineering (EE) disciplines, with extensive opportunities for hands-on applications via labs and exercises

  • Infrastructure protectionCalifornia coastal planners protect infrastructure from climate change

    California’s coastal planners and resource managers say there is a need to prepare for changes along the coast that might result from rising sea levels and other impacts, such as more floods, loss of beach access, coastal erosion, and potential damage to transportation infrastructure, including highways, roads, and ports