• UN warns record food prices to continue

    Food prices are projected to continue skyrocketing and remain volatile leaving poor countries and consumers exposed to food insecurity, according to a recently released UN report

  • Michigan to launch cyber command center and defense teams

    To help boost the state’s economy and its role in securing the nation’s data networks, Michigan recently announced that it plans to launch a cyber command center and cyber defense response teams

  • Public-private partnership in homeland security

    The Homeland Security and Defense Business Council says that job of securing the U.S. homeland is an extensive and daunting mission that cannot be accomplished by government alone; it requires that the United States, collectively, become a resilient nation, with the capabilities needed to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate against all threats

  • Focus on terrorism allowed foreign pests to slip into U.S.

    Following the 9/11 attacks the U.S. government assigned hundreds of agricultural scientists responsible for stopping invasive species at the border to anti-terrorism duties; the result has been that dozens of foreign insects and plant diseases managed to slip undetected into the United States

  • Doyenz, Lifeboat Distribution in distribution agreement

    Lifeboat Distribution, a software distributor for disaster recovery, will distribute Doyenz’s cloud-based recovery services to thousands of its reseller partners across North America

  • Blackberry service disruption spreads across North America

    Research in Motion announced earlier today that the 3-day disruption of the company’s e-mail services has now spread across North America; it is the worst such disruption of service in two years; analysts say it is a major blow to the already-struggling company; not only individuals, but also private companies and government agencies may now reconsider their reliance on Blackberrys as their preferred mode of communication

  • TraceSpan Communications shows new interception device

    DOCSIS Phantom intercepts target communications directly from the line and collects a hundred percent of the information in both directions, to and from the ISP or communications provider; the device allows interception of all data, including peer-to-peer communication, even when it does not pass through the ISP server

  • Rising political, economic tensions over critical minerals

    The clean energy economy of the future hinges on many things, chief among them the availability of the scores of rare Earth minerals and other elements used to make everything from photovoltaic panels and cellphone displays to the permanent magnets in cutting edge new wind generators; trouble is, China currently controls about 97 percent of the mining and production of the minerals, and it is using that control to give Chinese companies an advantage and for political pressure on other countries

  • Global Security Challenge grand final 24-25 October

    Global Security Challenge grand final will be held in London 24-25 October; six start-ups and six SMEs will compete for a prize fund of $500,000

  • Voice-recognition market to reach $58.4 billion in 2015

    New report says the voice recognition technologies market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.8 percent between 2010 and 2015; the total market is valued at an estimated $38.4 billion in 2010 and is expected to reach $58.4 billion in 2015; this growth will spur additional growth in two sub-markets: voice recognition software technologies and text-to-speech software

  • M2SYS's Hybrid Biometric Platform offers flexibility

    The biometric recognition market lacks enterprise-ready, customizable, device-independent systems that allow organizations of any size to avoid being limited to one biometric modality or a single biometric device; Frost & Sullivan says M2SYS’s Hybrid Biometric Platform addresses this problem

  • Innometrik, Lumidigm integrate technologies

    Lumidigm says that Innometriks’ Rhino reader, which combines embedded Lumidigm fingerprint biometrics, smart cards, PKI, and digital signature technologies, is now handling high security applications in extreme weather and rough environments for several organizations of the U.S. Department of Defense

  • U.S. army orders 315 reconnaissance micro-robots

    Recon Scout XT weighs 1.2lbs (540g), can be deployed in five seconds, and thrown up to 120 feet (36m); soldiers and law enforcement use the Recon Scout system to determine the layout of the enclosed spaces, identify potential IEDs, and the fix the location of friendly, indigenous, or enemy personnel

  • Robotic car allows drivers to work while driving

    The overall cost of road congestion in the United Kingdom to business is likely to rise to £23-24 billion a year within the next fifteen years; increasing public transport capacity may help, but experts believe that, with people unwilling to give up cars, the solution is autonomous vehicles: they make road journeys safer, more efficient, and allow people to do work while on their way to the office

  • Mobile consumer devices transmit vital signs

    Researchers turn a smart phone into a medical monitor; an app for smart phones, and eventually tablet devices, is turning these mobile devices into sophisticated medical monitors able to capture and transmit vital physiological data