• House will see floor battle today over Keystone XL pipeline

    Republican and Democrats lawmakers are set to engage in a fierce battle on the House floor over the fate of the Keystone XL project. Representative Lee Terry’s (R-Nebraska) proposed legislation to allow TransCanada to start construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which runs from Hardisty, Canada through seven states to Houston, Texas. The bill will come to the House floor today.

  • Senate panel reaches compromise on foreign workers

    The Senate Judiciary Committee reached a compromise which would make it much easier for American tech companies to hire foreign workers. Most U.S. high-tech companies would not be required to offer tech jobs to Americans before they are able to hire foreign workers. The only companies required to do so are companies which depend on foreign workers for more than 15 percent of their workforce.

  • Senator Hatch champions tech industry’s priorities in immigration reform

    As the Senate Judiciary Committee continues to consider the bipartisan immigration reform bill, both supporters and opponents of the bill agree that one senator has emerged as a key voice on the issue: the 79-year old Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Hatch has emerged as a champion of the U.S. technology industry, and while he supports the broad goal of immigration reform, he insists on shaping the legislation so it addresses the priorities and preferences of the tech industry, priorities and preferences which he sees as essential not only for the health of the industry, but for the health of the U.S. economy more generally.

  • Social sites’ privacy practices “seriously deficient”

    The privacy management of sixteen popular social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter, is “seriously deficient,” according to a new study. Researchers found a disconnect between privacy statements and the site’s actual privacy controls.

  • U.S. to help protect private companies from malicious cyberattacks

    The U.S. government said it will help protect private companies from cyber attacks. DHS secretary Janet Napolitano said a system is being developed which will monitor Internet traffic directed to critical infrastructure businesses and block attacks on software programs.

  • Cybersecurity framework for critical infrastructure: analysis of initial comments

    On 12 February 2013 President Obama issued the “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity” executive order, which called for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to work with industry to develop a voluntary framework to reduce cybersecurity risks to the nation’s critical infrastructure, which includes power, water, communication, and other critical systems.

  • DHS advises Michigan State U on football stadium safety

    By all accounts, Michigan State University’s basketball team has been doing better over the years than the school’s football team (just think Magic Johnson). The university wants to raise the profile of its football team, and is building a new, $24 million stadium — but DHS advised the university that the stadium’s north side stands are too close to the gas tanks and pumps which serve the school’s motor pool. The university is now moving the gas tanks to a new location.

  • Obama administration shifting cybersecurity legislative strategy

    The Obama administration’s has shifted its cybersecurity legislative strategy. Rather than emphasize DHS-monitored regulations – an approach which stalled in Congress last summer because of Republican opposition — the administration is focusing on getting Congress to help promote the voluntary adoption by industry of standards being developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) following a February 2013 executive order signed by President Obama.

  • A “cauldron of events” has brought the nuclear industry to a halt

    Until two years ago, people talked of a nuclear energy renaissance. Now the talk is about nuclear malaise. The Fukushima scare, the emergence of alternative energy sources as a result of fracking, and the lack of action on climate change – which means that limits on fossil fuels are not coming any time soon – have, in the words of one experts, brought the nuclear industry to a halt.

  • Increasing supplies of North American oil changing global markets

    The supply shock created by a surge in North American oil production will be as transformative to the market over the next five years as was the rise of Chinese demand over the last fifteen, a new report says. The shift will not only cause oil companies to overhaul their global investment strategies, but also reshape the way oil is transported, stored, and refined.

  • Bird flu in live poultry markets source of viruses causing human infections

    Following analysis of H7N9 influenza viruses collected from live poultry markets in China, it was found that these viruses circulating among birds were responsible for human infections. These results provide a basis for the government to take actions for controlling this public health threat.

  • U.S. considering revamping wiretap laws

    The White House is reviewing an FBI plan to overhaul surveillance laws in order to make it easier for law enforcement officials to wiretap citizens using the Internet to communicate rather than phone services.

  • Illnesses in U.S. on the rise as a result of decline in foreign food inspections

    More Americans get sick every year as a result of food-borne pathogens. The reason: inspections at foreign food factories shipping food and food ingredients to the United States have declined in recent years, and border inspections of food coming into the country could be next to be reduced. Experts say this decline in inspections is especially worrisome since Americans consume more imported food – or food made with imported ingredients – every year, and foreign food production and processing facilities often do not meet U.S. sanitation and hygiene standards.

  • Small, medium businesses suffer record levels of cyber attacks

    More small businesses than ever are facing the threat of losing confidential information through cyberattacks, according to research published today by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

    The 2013 Information Security Breaches Survey has shown that 87 percent of small businesses across all sectors of the U.K. economy experienced a breach in the last year. This is up more than 10 percent and cost small businesses up to 6 percent of their turnover, when they could protect themselves for far less.

  • Silica particles purify water by acting as oil magnets

    Engineers develop an innovative method designed to purify water through the rapid removal of oily pollutants. The technology involves the deployment of surface engineered silica particles, which act as oil magnets in water, adsorbing oil, yet repelling water.