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New Jersey's Stevens Tech to lead research on port security
Hoboken is poised to become a center for research into port security
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GAO strongly criticizes DoE over Hanford clean-up
More than 210 million liters of radioactive and chemical waste are stored in 177 underground tanks at Hanford in Washington State; most are more than fifty years old; GAO says there now “serious questions about the tanks’ long-term viability”
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Bioterrorism rule ineffective in salmonella outbreak
Rules and regulations passed in the wake of 9/11 were supposed to tighten monitoring and tracking food items, so an outbreak of food-borne illness could be quickly traced to its source; food supply-chain practices make these rules and regulations difficult to implement
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U.S. intelligence services aware of vast Chinese espionage campaign
Multifaceted Chinese espionage campaign in the United States and other Western countries aims not only to steal military secrets, but also industrial secrets and intellectual property in order to help Chinese companies better compete in the global economy; Chinese government and state-sponsored industries have relied not only on trained intelligence officers, but also on the Chinese diaspora — using immigrants, students, and people of second- and third-generation Chinese heritage
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Homeland security experts on priorities for next administration
Experts: The next administration’s top four homeland security priorities should be border security, emergency response, development of medical counter-measures to weapons of mass destruction, and port security
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Ground fighting and its tactical applications
Every grappler, Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, and wrestler thinks that if he can take the fight to the ground, he will win; there are, however, a few inherent problems with this approach
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Federal money for identity programs boost biometrics market
A slew of U.S. government programs — US VISIT, the Real ID Act, TWIC, the FBI’s next-generation database, and many more — depend on biometric technology; the estimated value of potential contracts to implement federal identity-solutions programs has more than doubled since 2006, rising from $890 million to $2 billion this year; biometric companies fiercely compete — and lobby — for contracts
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An HS Daily Wire conversation with Walter Hamilton of the International Biometrics Industry Association (IBIA)
Walter Hamilton, chairman of the Board of Directors of IBIA, talks about different biometric technologies, new and innovative biometric approaches, the role of biometric in security and commerce, biometrics in the theater of battle, and more
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September to be U.S. National Preparedness Month
DHS says that more than 1,200 national, regional, state, and local businesses and organizations have pledged their support for the department’s initiative
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Banks' PIN codes susceptible to hackers' theft
Network of PIN codes’ thieves nets millions of dollars; hackers are targeting the ATM system’s infrastructure, which is increasingly built on Microsoft’s Windows operating system and allows machines to be remotely diagnosed and repaired over the Internet
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$30.5 billion U.S. loan guarantees for advanced energy technology
The U.S. Department of Energy issues three solicitations for a total of up to $30.5 billion in loan guarantees for projects that employ advanced energy technologies that avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or greenhouse gas emissions
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Pentagon's IG resigns
Claude Kicklighter, who took over as Pentagon inspector general in April 2007, has accepted a teaching position at George Mason University; he will be executive director of the university’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Project
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DHS, Pentagon plan for transition of power
DHS, DOD, and the intelligence community are putting procedures in place to allow for smooth and seamless transition of power to the new administration in January; first war-time transition of power in more than forty years
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U.S.-EU private data sharing agreement near
The United States and the EU are near an agreement to share private data of their citizens, including credit card information, travel history, and internet browsing information; one issue yet to be resolved: the right of EU citizens to sue the U.S. government for mishandling the information
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U.S. DOE offers $1.3 billion funding for clean coal technology
The Bush administration sees clean coal as a vital component of its energy policy, and the Department of Energy announced a funding opportunity of $1.3 billion for companies and organizations doing research and development of clean coal
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The long view
How a Poisoning in Bulgaria Exposed Russian Assassins in Europe
Western security and intelligence officials say the attempted 2015 poisonings in Sofia of a Bulgarian arms dealer was a critical clue that helped expose a campaign by the Kremlin and its sprawling web of intelligence operatives to eliminate Russia’s enemies abroad and destabilize the West.
Blood and Brexit
The Troubles is the name given to the bloody war between Nationalists and Unionists in Northern Ireland, a war which began in the late 1960s and ended with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. In a tiny country of a million and a half people, over three and a half thousand were killed in the Troubles. Almost fifty thousand were seriously injured. Nick Laird, a Northern Irish novelist and poet who experienced the inter-communal violence as a teenager, writes that unless care is taken, one of the consequences of Brexit might be the resumption of violence.
Military Cyber Operations: The New NDAA Tailors the 48-Hour Notification Requirement
Congress will soon enact the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (NDAA fiscal 2020), which includes a provision that will fine-tune the range of military cyberoperations subject to the 48-hour notification requirement associated with “sensitive military cyber operations.”
Cambridge Five Spies Burgess and Maclean Lauded by Russia as Heroes of Anti-Fascism
The Russian intelligence community on Friday honored two of the notorious Cambridge Five spy ring, whose members spied for the Soviet Union from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. The Cambridge Five also included Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, and John Cairncross. The five were attracted by communism, and the Soviet Union, as young Cambridge University students in the early 1930s, after coming to believe that British – and, more generally, Western — passivity in the face of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler was aiding in the growth and spread of fascism. Maclean and Burgess defected to the Soviet Union in 1951, and for three years lived in the town of Samara on the Volga. On Friday, a plaque bearing the two Britons’ names was unveiled on the wall of the apartment where the two lived until returning to Moscow in 1955.
The Chinese Threat to U.S. Research Institutions Is Real
The Chinese government is pursuing a comprehensive, well-organized, and well-funded strategy to exploit the open and collaborative research environment in the United States to advance their economic and military expansion at our expense. Josh Rogin writes that for too long, U.S. research institutions have been asleep to Beijing’s efforts.
Was America’s Assassination of Qassem Suleimani Justified?
David Petraeus, the former American army general who served as the commander of the Central Command and later as director of the CIA, said that the killing of Qassem Suleimani was “more consequential” than the killing of Osama bin Laden or of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Economist writes that while few bemoaned the demise of the jihadist leaders of al-Qaeda and Islamic State, the killing of Suleimani on 3 January has sparked a debate over the legality, effectiveness, and impact of his assassination.