• British law enforcement exploits flaw in iTunes to spy

    British law enforcement agencies and Apple are coming under sharp criticism after it was discovered that authorities exploited a security flaw in iTunes to spy on individuals

  • House Intelligence panel investigates Chinese telecom giants

    As Chinese telecom giants Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp continue to eye the lucrative American market, they have come under increasing scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers who fear their technology could be used by Chinese hackers to steal U.S. secrets; the two Chinese companies are now the subject of a House Intelligence Committee investigation aimed at determining whether they are a threat to the United States

  • NICE joins European transportation security consortium

    Secured Urban Transportation - European Demonstration (SECUR-ED) consortium aims create a pan-European improvement in mass transportation security which promotes the entire public transport sector; the consortium comprises thirty-nine members, which include all the major stakeholders from across Europe; NICE Systems announced it is a member of the consortium

  • Defunct security company to pay nearly $8 million in back wages

    The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland has approved a global settlement that allows the U.S. Department of Labor to recover $7,968,744 in back wages, fringe benefits, and 401(k) plan assets for more than 2,000 security guards formerly employed by USProtect Corp., a defunct Silver Spring company that provided security services for federal buildings across the country

  • Hackers fail in AT&T cyberattack

    Last week AT&T announced that it had successfully fended off an attack by hackers; the company said it is still unclear what the hackers’ intentions were, but no accounts were breached

  • DERMALOG sets fingerprint ID speed record

    DERMALOG Identification Systems has set a new speed record for identifying fingerprints; the company’s newest system, the DERMALOG Next Generation AFIS, correctly identified an individual’s ten fingerprints in .89 seconds from a database containing more than 129 million fingerprints

  • SAIC wins $90 million contract to support DHS relocation

    Government contractor Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) was recently awarded a $90 million subcontract to assist in the relocation of DHS’ headquarters; SAIC will work as a subcontractor for General Dynamics, which received the $876 million prime task order in July by the General Services Administration

  • Universal Detection announces record revenues

    Last week Universal Detection Technology, which sells detection technology for biological, chemical, and radiological threats, reported its highest revenues for its third quarter in more than three years; Universal Detection saw its third quarter revenues increase 6,000 percent to $113,519 compared to $1,821 for the same period last year

  • Device allows summoning help where no cellular coverage is available

    People who work or travel in remote places often find themselves in areas where there is no cellular coverage; summoning emergency help is thus difficult, if not impossible; a Colorado company offers a solution

  • World record in fingerprint identification: 129 million records in one second

    A German biometric company says its new solution has set a world record: it correctly identified the ten fingerprints of one individual within a second from a database of more than 129,296,050 fingerprints

  • Game to improve defense, homeland security decision making

    Raytheon BBN Technologies has been awarded a $10.5 million multi-year contract to develop serious games that result in better decision-making by teaching participants to recognize and mitigate the effects of their own biases when analyzing information used to make decisions

  • Gartner: global security service spending to reach $35.1 billion in 2011

    Worldwide security services spending is on pace to reach $35.1 billion in 2011, up from $31.1 billion in 2010, according to Gartner, Inc.; the market is forecast to total $38.3 billion in 2012, and surpass $49.1 billion in 2015

  • Strong growth in biometrics industry projected

    Fueled by concerns about terrorism and other security concerns, the global biometrics industry is set to expand to $16.47 billion by 2017, according to a recent report by market research firm Global Industry Analysts (GIA)

  • Sprint customers first to receive wireless emergency alerts

    Thanks to Sprint, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will now be able to broadcast wireless emergency alerts to cell phones for the first time; the move allows FEMA, the president of the United States, the National Weather Service, or local and state emergency officials to broadcast warning messages and safety information through text messages

  • Europe faces rare Earth metal shortages

    The EU’s ambitious low-carbon energy production goal depends on five technologies: nuclear, solar, wind, bio-energy, and carbon capture; these technologies, in turn, depend on rare Earth metals; the EU estimates that a large-scale deployment of only one of these technologies — solar energy — will require half the current world supply of tellurium and 25 percent of the supply of indium