• Sightlogix: ruggedized outdoor surveillance gear

    The company was founded to address the need to create a rugged and automated outdoor video system which reduces the number of false alarms caused by outdoor environmental variations; the company’s cameras attain a large range of coverage area, reducing the number of necessary cameras, mounting poles, communications links, video, and storage channels

  • Safety concerns remain about Westinghouse AP1000 reactor design

    The United States and the United Kingdom are yet to approve the latest reactor design from Westinghouse; regulators in both countries are not convinced that the reactor can effectively withstand man-made or natural disasters; these concerns notwithstanding, China is pushing forward with an ambitious nuclear energy program which will see sixty AP1000 reactors built by 2010; the scope and pace of the Chinese program, and the fact that at its core is a reactor with possible design weaknesses, are a cause of more concerns

  • Former Goldman-Sachs programmer convicted of stealing source code

    A former Goldman-Sachs programmer faces fifteen years in prison after being convicted Friday of stealing the company’s high-frequency trade technology; the programmer was convicted of stealing the source code for Goldman-Sachs’ high-frequency trade technology — a market trading system described by Futures Magazine as “like day-trading on near fatal doses of amphetamines”

  • Intellectual Ventures on the patent-suit path again

    Critics accuse Intellectual Ventures of being a patent troll; the outfit has between 30,000 and 50,000 patents squirreled away in around 1,100 shell companies, and it has just filed sued for patent infringement against nine high tech companies

  • TSA approves for-pay faster security lines at airports

    TSA has given the green light to a “trusted traveler” lane at another one of the U.S. busiest airports; the lane at Denver International Airport is operated by New York-based Alclear LLC, a company that pre-screens fliers, giving them quicker access to security checkpoints

  • New underwear line reminds TSA of the 4th Amendment

    If you are not happy with the new, intrusive security measures TSA has mandated at airports across the United States, you may wish to buy “4th Amendment Wear”; metallic ink printed on shirts spells out the privacy rights stated in the amendment and is designed to appear in TSA scanners; the 4th Amendment Wear line also includes non-metallic options, including underpants for both adults and children; should a passenger be stripped down, instead of the full amendment, they will receive a more direct message: “Read the 4th Amendment Perverts”

  • Mexico violence destroys border cities' ties, tourism

    Narco-gang violence is killing tourism and cooperation along the U.S.-Mexico border; the violence — and a dramatic tightening of border security by the United States over fears of terrorism — have also strangled cooperative relationships among officials of many “sister cities”; in many cases, professional friendships and cross-border ties among city leaders, and police and fire departments, have fallen by the wayside

  • New report assesses opportunities in the border security market

    A new report assess business opportunities presented by business security — what the research firm calls “one of the most exciting emerging markets within the global defense and security marketplace”; the report examines the commercial prospects for companies involved in supplying products ranging from integrated networks of video surveillance cameras and radar systems to unmanned platforms in the air and on the ground

  • Border-security crisis boosts Tucson's economy

    An economic boost for Arizona city from the border crisis; with the University of Arizona, and some fifty companies already involved with border security in some way, Tucson’s future could hold more high-tech, high-paying jobs; research firm MarketResearch.com concludes that worldwide spending on border security products and services will reach $15.8 billion in this year alone

  • Alutiiq: versatile security solutions provider

    Formed in December of 1999, Alutiiq, a wholly owned subsidiary of Afognak Native Corporation, an Alaska Native Corporation (ANC), provides services to the federal government including: physical security and guard services, electronic security/surveillance systems, emergency management/law enforcement, IT and technical support, construction, logistics, operations, and maintenance, engineering, training, and energy and oilfield services

  • Microsoft partner in China trains hackers, steals 50 MB of U.S. gov't e-mail

    A Chinese security firm called Topsec got access to the Windows source under a 2003 agreement designed to help companies improve the security of the Microsoft operating system; the company, rather than help Microsoft make Windows more secure, worked closely with Chinese intelligence to exploit Windows weaknesses: they helped the Chinese government train hackers — and steal more than 50 MB of secret U.S. government e-mails; Topsec started out in 1995 with funding of just $4,400, and by 2002 had earnings about $440 million; it is now China’s largest provider of information security products and services

  • Eye-movement biometrics holds promise, but skeptics want to see more

    Each of us has a unique pattern of eye movements; an Israeli company says its eye-movement biometric system exploits this fact for a simple, hard-to-fool approach; the system tracks the way a person’s eye moves as they watch an icon roaming around a computer screen; the way the icon moves can be different every time, but the user’s eye movements include “kinetic features” — slight variations in trajectory — which are unique, making it possible to identify him; the system can also be used as a lie detector, or a drug and alcohol test

  • New opportunities for biometrics and smart cards

    The biometric microprocessor card market is growing by leaps and bounds; the microprocessor smart card market will hit 5.32 billion units shipped in 2010 and rise to 6.02 billion units in 2011; the growth owes to rising sales of e-ID cards, especially from the European residence permit, and growth in e-services for citizens

  • Biometrics revenues to reach 8.9 billion Pounds by 2015

    Worldwide revenue from biometric technology is set to treble in the coming years, reaching 8.9 billion Pounds in 2015; as well as the usual access control uses of biometrics, corporations are beginning to utilize the technology to protect their data

  • ICx Technologies: comprehensive, layered approach to security

    At the recent ASIS exhibition and seminar, Homeland Security Newswire took the time to walk through the ICx Technologies booth and speak to some of their subject matter experts; CommandSpace® & ThreatSense™, solutions which provide a comprehensive, layered approach to perimeter security and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear security for critical facilities, respectively, were on display