• DHS IG identifies weaknesses in airport passenger screening

    DHS IG inspects the operation of advanced passenger scanning technologies in sixteen unnamed U.S. airport, and reports: “We identified vulnerabilities in the screening process at the passenger screening checkpoint at the eight domestic airports we conducted testing”

  • Security specialist: Canada's new airport security scanners a waste of money

    An Israeli airport security experts tells Canadian lawmakers that full-body scanners can be easily fooled, and that they will not prevent explosives from being taken on board; he recommended the adoption of the Israeli approach to air travel security, which combines good intelligence, behavioral profiling, and a “trusted traveler” system

  • South Africa holds a large aviation security drill in advance of the World Cup

    In advance of the June-July 2010 World Cup tournament, South Africa this weekend is conducting a comprehensive aviation security drill; the exercise will resemble security precautions which will be put in place during the soccer event, which begins 11 June; an expansive security envelope will be established around the stadiums where the games are played, and other air travel restriction will go into place; the drill this weekend will examine how the SA security forces respond to various violations of these security rules

  • APTA seeks public transportation security funding

    A recent survey of U.S. public transit systems identifies $6.4 billion in security needs; Federal funding provided in FY2010 for public transportation security totaled only $253 million; industry group urges Congress to allocate at least $1.1 billion in the FY2011 budget for ground transportation security

  • Problems hobble new U.S. air traffic control computers

    A new, $2.1 billion computer system crucial to modernizing the U.S. air traffic control system has misidentified aircraft and had trouble processing radar information; if the problems continue they could delay the FAA’s NextGen program to replace the current air traffic control system, which is based on Second World War-era radar technology, with a new system which is based on GPS technology

  • Woman who sneaks applesauce through airport gets off

    A 58-year old woman trying to bring applesauce and snacks on board for her 93-year old mother who was flying from California to Tennessee, is arrested, strip-searched, and jailed; the woman said she was given permission to bring the snacks with her, but TSA personnel at the gate refused to let her through; a judge says the case will be dismissed if she stays out of trouble for six months

  • They screen pets, don't they?

    The Israeli security authorities are now alerting pet owners that their pets, if they look like “suspicious animals,” may be subjected to X-ray screening before boarding; if the owners refused, the pet would not be allowed on the flight; more than four million pets are flown across the world each year

  • They screen pets, don't they?

    The Israeli security authorities are now alerting pet owners that their pets, if they look like “suspicious animals,” may be subjected to X-ray screening before boarding; if the owners refused, the pet would not be allowed on the flight; more than four million pets are flown across the world each year

  • New sensor helps find parking spaces -- and make air traffic, shipping safer

    Every vehicle — a car in a parking lot or on the road, an airplane on the tarmac, a ship — slightly deforms its surrounding Earth’s magnetic field due to the vehicle’s metallic components and electronic devices; magnetic field sensors can detect these small changes; in contrast to surveillance cameras, which are influenced by fog or rain, magnetic field sensors are unaffected by weather conditions

  • NJIT physicist: Terahertz imaging is the ultimate defense against terrorism

    THz imaging systems have an inherent advantage over millimeter wave imaging systems owing to the intrinsically improved spatial resolution that one can achieve with the shorter wavelength THz systems (typically 300 micrometer wavelength) compared to longer wavelength millimeter wave systems; instruments using terahertz imaging are widely used in laboratories and have shown some limited use in commercial applications — but a THz imaging system for security screening of people has not yet reached the market; the NJIT THz device has great promise

  • TSA: Tablets and Netbooks need not be taken out of their cases to be screened

    TSA allows that electronic items smaller than the standard sized laptop need to be removed from a bag or a case at an airport security check-point to be scanned; TSA says this applies to the Apple iPad and netbooks, as well as the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble nook, and other e-book readers

  • Senator Collins: U.S. airport full-body scanners inferior to those deployed in Amsterdam

    Maine’s junior U.S. senator says the full-body scanners DHS is deploying in the wake of the Christmas Day airline bomb threat are not the best devices available

  • U.S. institutes new, targeted security protocols for travelers to U.S.

    The United States is replacing broad screening of all in-coming travelers with a more targeted approach; the intelligence-based security system is devised to raise flags about travelers whose names do not appear on no-fly watch lists, but whose travel patterns or personal traits create suspicions

  • U.S. loosens security measures for travelers from 14 Muslim countries

    Following the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound plane, the United States imposed much stricter security measures on travelers to the United States from fourteen Muslim countries; DHS announced over the weekend that these measures will now be loosened, and that new measures, utilizing “real-time, threat-based intelligence” will be used instead

  • FAA bolsters cybersecurity with help from IBM

    Malware introduced into the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) computer network which monitors and controls U.S. aviation can bring down a plane and cause havoc as surely as liquid explosives or underwear bombs can; the IBM is teaming up with the FAA to build a cybersecurity system which will improve defense against cyberattacks on the U.S. civilian aviation network; the flexible model used in the prototype system will be designed to look retrospectively at event occurrences and system compromises, and it will also be able to correlate historical traffic patterns with dynamic data from monitors, sensors, and other devices capturing information about network traffic and user activity in real time