• Better baggage security through simulation

    Aussie researcher develops software which allows airport managers to examine how baggage handling operations at a typical airport would cope with upgrades to security systems

  • TSA to assume responsibility for watch list matching responsibilities

    There have been many — many, many — complaints about the accuracy and effectiveness of DHS no-fly watch list; TSA takes responsibility from individual airlines for matching names on the list with passengers

  • Innovative shoe scanner to make travel safer, lines shorter

    University of Manchester researcher develops a technology which allows security personnel to spot people with concealed items in their shoes as they walk through passport control or through traditional security checks

  • TSA meets initial screening cargo goal

    Congress has mandated through the 9/11 law that 50 percent of cargo on passenger carrying aircraft be screened by February 2009 and 100 percent of cargo be screened by August 2010; TSA says it currently screens all cargo on narrow body, passenger-carrying aircraft; these account for more than 90 percent of all passenger carrying aircraft in the United States

  • TSA to require background checks of private jets' passengers

    There are about 15,000 corporate jets in the United States, flying out of 315 small airports; until now, there was no security scrutiny of these planes and the hundreds of thousands of passengers who use them every year; this is going to change

  • UAVs-mounted aircraft defense system demonstrated

    Until now there have been two leading approaches to protecting civilian aircraft from shoulder-fired missiles: One approach proposed placing the defensive systems on the planes to be protected, the other advocated surrounding airports with a protective umbrella; a third approach has now been demonstrated: Mounting defensive systems on UAVs loitering high in the sky

  • TSA to deploy remote detection machines at airports

    Terrorists may not only blow up a plane, but also explode a bomb in an airport lounge or near a crowded ticket counter; TSA tests machines that can detect explosives at a distance

  • Detroit airport to offer germ-free security checkpoints

    Worried about microbes, bacteria, and fungi released at airport security checkpoints as travelers take off their shoes and place their belongings in a tray? At Detroit Metro Airport’s new North Terminal you will not have to worry, with the application of new anti-microbial treatment

  • Northrop tests Guardian anti-missile system

    On 8-9 September, Northrop Grumman successfully tested the Guardian anti-missile system; from heights exceeding 50,000 feet, the system successfully detected, tracked, and directed a laser to intercept a target missile

  • Seucring airports by reading people's minds (or bodies)

    DHS is testing a machine which, from a distance, senses changes in individuals’ perspiration, respiration, and heart rate typically associated with anxiety one feels before committing a terrorist act

  • DHS: Progress and priorities, I

    Since its creation more than five years ago, DHS has made significant progress — uneven progress — in protecting the United States from dangerous people and goods, protecting the U.S. critical infrastructure, strengthen emergency response, and unifying department operations

  • Lufthansa selects Smiths Detection for cargo security

    Lufthansa will deploy Smiths Detection’s 500DT trace explosives detectors in all of its eighteen U.S. airport locations; the 500DT was recently placed on the TSA Qualified Products List

  • L-3's millimeter wave scanning technology tested at ten U.S. airports

    Two technologies — backscatter X-rays and millimeter wave — compete in the airport security scanning market; TSA is currently testing millimeter wave at ten airports, and the fact that the technology is faster than its rival may make it the scanning technology of choice

  • Detecting disease in less than 60 seconds

    Traditional testing for disease outbreak or bioterror attack can take days — even weeks — to confirm a diagnosis and isolate those infected; we may not have that much time, and University of Georgia researchers develop a quicker virus identification method

  • Facial recognition trials at Manchester Airport

    Five gates at Manchester Airport will be equipped with face recognition devices; gates can only be used with people from the United Kingdom and EU who are over 18 and hold a new-style chipped passport