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SSA 2013 will attract 600 exhibitors and more than 10,000 attendees
Safety & Security Asia (SSA) 2013 is back for its 24th biennial presentation in Singapore on 7-9 May 2013 at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. The Safety & Security Asia series is the most established event of Southeast Asia’s security market in the last twenty-four years, making it the a valuable platform for security technology companies to showcase their products and solutions to the region’s market, especially in the cyberspace arena. SSA 2013 will attract 600 exhibitors from thirty countries and more than 10,000 attendeesfrom forty countries.
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GovSec keynote speakers: Gen. Stan McChrystal, former Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann
The two keynote speakers in this year’s GovSec, held13-15 May at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., will be two leaders – one on the battlefield, the other on the gridiron: Gen. Stan McChrystal and former Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann. The event will feature many more presentations and panel discussions on important topics, including counter and anti-terrorism, critical infrastructure protection, cybercrime & cyberterrorism, continuity/emergency planning, and law enforcement strategies. The event will also offer a rich product showcase and exhibition.
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Uranium mining debate divides Virginia
In Virginia a fight has begun over whether to drill for uranium. Some feel the drilling, which would create about 1,000 jobs and bounty of tax revenue in addition to nuclear fuel, is important for a state whose main industries, such as tobacco and textiles, are failing. Those who oppose the drilling fear the contamination of drinking water in case of an accident, and a stigma from uranium which would deter people and businesses from moving to the area.
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Keystone pipeline clears another hurdle as Nebraska governor approves project
On Tuesday, Nebraska governor Dave Heineman notified President Obama that he approved the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to go through the state. This marks a significant step forward in the project, which was delayed by the administration last year.
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Pakistan bans two video games for depicting country as terrorist haven
A government-licensed trade organization in Pakistan has banned two popular video games because they depict Pakistan as a country soft on terrorism. A trade association order to member stores instructed that the games be removed off the shelves of video game stores.
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Fracking generates less wastewater per unit of gas, but more overall
Hydraulically fractured natural gas wells are producing less wastewater per unit of gas recovered than conventional wells would. The scale of fracking operations in the Marcellus shale region – which stretches from New York to Virginia and accounts for about 10 percent of all natural gas produced in the United States today — is so vast, however, that the wastewater it produces threatens to overwhelm the region’s wastewater disposal capacity.
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Thwarting facial-recognition, photo-tagging software
Information about when and where photographed subjects were when their pictures were taken is readily disclosed through photos taken, and the information is disclosed and distributed without their permission. The problem has become even worse due to the popularization of portable terminals with built-in cameras and developments in SNS and image search technologies. Japanese researchers offer a solution: goggles or glasses which, when equipped with near-infrared LED emitter. :
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DOE addresses rare earth, critical materials shortage
The U.S. Department of Energy announced earlier this month that a team led by Ames Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, has been selected for an award of up to $120 million over five years to establish an Energy Innovation Hub which will develop solutions to the domestic shortages of rare earth metals and other materials critical for U.S. energy security.
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New approach to military manufacturing
In the past, fighter aircraft, tanks, and other complex military systems have been built in a craftsman-like process by a small number of highly specialized contractors. This is a costly approach and DARPA is attempting to replace it with a more efficient “correct by construction” process similar to that practiced by the semiconductor industry, which has an impressive track record in getting systems right in the first place.
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Five people injured as guns go off at gun shows
“Gun Appreciation Day” rallies were held in cities around the country this weekend, and gun shows were doing brisk business; five people were injured as guns went off accidentally in three such shows.
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Global demand for food and energy is growing, and so does land and water “grabbing”
As world food and energy demands grow, nations and some corporations increasingly are looking to acquire quality agricultural land for food production. Some nations are gaining land by buying up property — and accompanying water resources — in other, generally less wealthy countries.
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Privately run detention center locks up immigrants for months
Hundreds of immigrants who have committed minor offenses have been locked up for weeks or months at a time in a Broward County, Florida facility run by a private company. The majority of the immigrants have been accused of entering the country illegally or staying longer than were allowed to.
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Tires shipped from Arizona to a U.K. contained black widow spiders
Two shipments of tires from an Arizona company to a U.K.-based client contained dozens of deadly Black Widow spiders; it appears that the spiders nested in the tires in Arizona, and hatched a brood of young spiders while the shipment was on its 5,000-mile journey to England.
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Military systems hibernate on the sea floor, then woken up remotely
Almost half of the world’s oceans are more than four kilometers deep. This provides considerable opportunity for cheap stealth, but the vastness and depth make retrieval costs prohibitive. DARPA wants to developing deployable, unmanned, distributed systems which hibernate on the deep-ocean floor in special containers for years at a time. These deep-sea nodes would then be woken up remotely when needed and recalled to the surface
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DARPA’s first FANG Challenge begun yesterday
More than 700 participants, organized in 150 teams, yesterday begun collaboration to design the mobility and drivetrain systems of a next-generation, amphibious infantry fighting vehicle. The goal of the competition is to compress the design-to-production time of a complex defense system by up to a factor of five.
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More headlines
The long view
Ransomware Attacks: Death Threats, Endangered Patients and Millions of Dollars in Damages
A ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, a company that processes 15 billion health care transactions annually and deals with 1 in 3 patient records in the United States, is continuing to cause massive disruptions nearly three weeks later. The incident, which started on February 21, has been called the “most significant cyberattack on the U.S. health care system” by the American Hospital Association. It is just the latest example of an increasing trend.
Chinese Government Hackers Targeted Critics of China, U.S. Businesses and Politicians
An indictment was unsealed Monday charging seven nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their involvement in a PRC-based hacking group that spent approximately 14 years targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses, and political officials in furtherance of the PRC’s economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives.
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.
LNG Exports Have Had No Impact on Domestic Energy Costs: Analysis
U.S. liquified natural gas (LNG) exports have not had any sustained and significant direct impact on U.S. natural gas prices and have, in fact, spurred production and productivity gains, which contribute to downward pressure on domestic prices.