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Sandia's rescue robot wins technology prize
The remote-control robot contains color video cameras, a thermal imaging camera, microphones, and sensors that act as eyes and ears for rescue crews and provide air-quality information; two-way audio enables survivors to communicate with rescuers
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Sector Report for Tuesday, 18 October 2011: Law Enforcement Technology
This report contains the following stories.
Plus 1 additional story.
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FBI training elite deep-diving counterterrorism unit
To bolster its counterterrorism capabilities, the FBI has created an elite group of special agents trained to track terrorism underwater
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Also noted
Forensic meteorologists help solve crimes | Lawmakers propose changes to Electronic Privacy Act, limit law enforcement reach | Defense contractors pitching military tech to cops | French judge blocks cop-watching site | Oklahoma bomb squads show off skills in “robot rodeo”
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New Jersey approves two Tasers under stricter safety regulations
Following the increasingly controversial use of Tasers in which several individuals died after being stunned, New Jersey has approved of two new Taser models that comply with new safety standards
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Civil rights groups urge Supreme Court to rule against GPS tracking
In advance of the Supreme Court hearing on the use of GPS tracking by law enforcement agencies, several civil liberties groups are urging the court to rule in favor of privacy rights
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Are gadgets interfering with cops’ driving?
A recent study found that the amount of technology inside a police car may be distracting drivers and leading to accidents
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Army contracting scandal reaches DHS
A $20 million contracting scandal involving the Army Corps of Engineers has now grown to include DHS; last week, Representative Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts) expanded the congressional probe to gather information on EyakTek, an Alaskan-native corporation that has received more than $1 billion in set-aside contracts from DHS and the Army
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Detecting criminals coming back to the scene of the crime
Law enforcement officials believe that perpetrators of certain crimes, most notably arson, do come back to the scene of the crime to witness their handiwork; similarly, U.S. military in the Middle East feel that improvised explosive device (IED) bomb makers return to see the results of their work in order to evolve their designs; scientists have developed a method to identify these individuals
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DHS developing "pre-crime" surveillance tech
Researchers at DHS are working to develop technology that could catch individuals before they commit a crime
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U.S.: Iranian agents tried to kill Saudi ambassador to U.S.
The U.S. attorney general Eric Holde rannounced yesterday that the U.S. government has foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States; Iran wired $100,000 into a U.S. bank account in August as a down payment for the hit; the assassins — the Iranians thought they were members of a Mexican drug cartel — were to receive $1.5 million if the hit was successful
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German police uses backdoor Trojan to monitor Skype calls
A backdoor Trojan capable of monitoring online activity and recording Skype calls has been detected — and is allegedly being used by the German police force
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TraceSpan Communications shows new interception device
DOCSIS Phantom intercepts target communications directly from the line and collects a hundred percent of the information in both directions, to and from the ISP or communications provider; the device allows interception of all data, including peer-to-peer communication, even when it does not pass through the ISP server
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Calif. Allows warrantless searches of cell phones
California Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill which aimed to prohibit California police from conducting warrantless searches of the cell phones of people under arrest
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Former colleagues: accused anthrax killer could not have done it
Two former colleagues of Bruce Ivins, a scientist who worked at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID) in Frederick, Maryland, and who was accused by the FBI of being behind the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, said he could not have done it (Ivins committed suicide in July 2008)
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More headlines
The long view
Tantalizing Method to Study Cyberdeterrence
Tantalus is unlike most war games because it is experimental instead of experiential — the immersive game differs by overlapping scientific rigor and quantitative assessment methods with the experimental sciences, and experimental war gaming provides insightful data for real-world cyberattacks.
Using Drone Swarms to Fight Forest Fires
Forest fires are becoming increasingly catastrophic across the world, accelerated by climate change. Researchers are using multiple swarms of drones to tackle natural disasters like forest fires.
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 Arms Imports Nearly Double, U.S. and French Exports Rise, and Russian Exports Fall Sharply
States in Europe almost doubled their imports of major arms (+94 per cent) between 2014–18 and 2019–23. The United States increased its arms exports by 17 per cent between 2014–18 and 2019–23, while Russia’s arms exports halved. Russia was for the first time the third largest arms exporter, falling just behind France.
How Climate Change Will Affect Conflict and U.S. Military Operations
“People talk about climate change as a threat multiplier,” said Karen Sudkamp, an associate director of the Infrastructure, Immigration, and Security Operations Program within the RAND Homeland Security Research Division. “But at what point do we need to start talking about the threat multiplier actually becoming a significant threat all its own?”
The Tech Apocalypse Panic is Driven by AI Boosters, Military Tacticians, and Movies
From popular films like a War Games or The Terminator to a U.S. State Department-commissioned report on the security risk of weaponized AI, there has been a tremendous amount of hand wringing and nervousness about how so-called artificial intelligence might end up destroying the world. There is one easy way to avoid a lot of this and prevent a self-inflicted doomsday: don’t give computers the capability to launch devastating weapons.