• WWII-like message encryption now available for e-mail security

    A Singapore-based company offers an e-mail encryption system based on the Verman cipher, or one-time pad, which was invented in 1917 and used by spies in the Second World War; the Vernam cipher is unbreakable because it produces completely random cipher-text that secures data so that even the most powerful super computers can not break the encryption when it is used properly

  • Pressure continues to remove MEK from terrorist watch-list

    Prominent former U.S. officials who support the removal of the Iranian opposition group MEK  from the U.S. Department of State terrorist watch-list bristle at the despite indirect warnings from the U.S. Treasury Department that their support for the group could constitute a crime

  • NY-NJ Port Authority centralizes security operations

    The Port of Authority of New York and new Jersey has created a stand-alone Security Department and is now searching for a Chief Security Officer to oversee all security and safety functions, resources, and personnel

  • Isotec Security receives Safety Act designation

    Isotec Security’s Automated Weapons Control Portals has been awarded SAFETY Act designation by DHS; the company notes that no strategic, public facility, or bank using the solution has suffered an armed incursion or successful armed robbery

  • Missouri announces additional funding for Disaster Recovery Jobs Program

    Missourigovernor announces an investment of $16.5 million in federal National Emergency Grant (NEG) funding to create temporary jobs for workers in twenty-nine Missouri counties affected by tornadoes, floods, and severe storms last year

  • Advanced technologies shed more light on the killing of Trayvon Martin

    Since only two people know what happened in the confrontation between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, and since one of them is dead, investigators must rely on circumstantial evidence — and on advanced technology; two such technologies — voice biometrics and redigitized imaging — help shed more light on the fateful February night

  • Sanctions unlikely to affect Iran’s nuclear aim

    The likelihood of economic sanctions persuading the Iranian leadership to abandon its quest for nuclear weapons is very low; the record of economic sanctions is not good: long-standing international sanctions remain in place against North Korea, Ivory Coast, and Somalia without noticeable effects on their policies; embargoes against Serbia and Libya ended, as with Iraq, only after military intervention forced change

  • ACLU: Cell phone tracking by police widespread

    ACLU obtains information from over 200 law enforcement agencies; finds widespread police use of cell phone location tracking along with variance in legal standards, technology used

  • France debates its anti-terror approach

    The French are debating their anti-terrorism policies in the wake of the worst terrorist attacks on French soil; the debate centers on whether or not the authorities have the right approach to combating terrorism 

  • Post-communist depression

    A new study reveals how a radical economic policy devised by Western economists put former Soviet states on a road to bankruptcy and corruption

  • Fusion presents low proliferation risk

    American researchers have shown that prospective magnetic fusion power systems would pose a much lower risk of being used for the production of weapon-usable materials than nuclear fission reactors and their associated fuel cycle

  • Torturing in interrogations tend to be unexpectedly harsh yet ineffective

    Government officials have argued that “enhanced interrogation techniques” are necessary to protect American citizens, but the effectiveness of such techniques has been debated; a recent study argues that when torture is used to elicit information, it is likely to be unexpectedly harsh yet ineffective

  • Nuclear summit focuses on terrorist nukes

    The Seoul nuclear summit focused on the risk of nuclear terrorism; there are two risks: first, fissile materials, which terrorists may use to construct a dirty bomb, is kept at thousands of medical, research, and industrial facilities around the world – often without sufficient security; second, constructing a Hiroshima-type bomb is not as difficult as we may think

  • A nuke blast in D.C. would not destroy city: report

    A study finds that a 10-kiloton bomb detonated in Washington, D.C. would destroy many buildings and kill many people, but it would not completely destroy the city; says one expert: “If you are thinking about (a city) being wiped off the face of the earth, that’s not what happens”

  • New laws help cut metal thefts

    Metal thefts have become a plague to businesses throughout the country; some states pass laws which require licenses and permits to buy and sell non-ferrous metals; Spartanburg, South Carolina, also requires that buyers pay for the purchases with checks rather than cash, in order to create a paper trail to the seller of the metal