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DHS funds Ricin detection
Positive ID announces the company’s immunodetection assay for the identification of Ricin toxin to meet DHS specifications; Ricin, a chemical warfare agent, is derived from the seeds of the castor oil plant Ricinus communis and has become a tool of terrorist groups across the world due to its easy production and high toxicity
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Smartphone can spy on computer keyboard strikes
In hundreds of millions of offices around the world, this routine repeats itself every day: People sit down, turn on their computers, set their mobile phones on their desks, and begin to work; now, what if a hacker could use that phone to track what the person was typing on the keyboard just inches away?
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Greatest cyber vulnerabilities are people, says cybersecurity expert
Dr. Cedric Jeannot, the founder and president of I Think Security, recently sat down with Eugene K. Chow, the executive editor of Homeland Security NewsWire, to discuss the latest rash in cyberattacks on companies, why hackers have been so successful, and the fallout from the RSA SecurID attacks
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Improving critical infrastructure protection
Salt River Project (SRP), the U.S. third-largest public power utility, recently announced that it had teamed with Quantum Secure to help protect its facilities
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Business group: cybersecurity critical to U.S. economic, national security
The Technology CEO Council says that Private sector steps to strengthen the U.S. digital infrastructure combined with new policies and government actions are important to America’s national and economic security
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Collaborative social media site for ID and biometric professionals
Cost overruns, project delays, and poor performance results have long been the bane of government projects, at times resulting in expensive high-profile failures; to help reduce costs and ensure that government projects meet targeted needs, a new collaborative Web-based information-sharing community aimed at bringing together identity and biometric industry professionals, academics, researchers, and government and commercial procurement officers is slated to open
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Army contracting scandal reaches DHS
A $20 million contracting scandal involving the Army Corps of Engineers has now grown to include DHS; last week, Representative Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts) expanded the congressional probe to gather information on EyakTek, an Alaskan-native corporation that has received more than $1 billion in set-aside contracts from DHS and the Army
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Danish designer wins completion for new U.K. pylons
There are 88,000 pylons in the United Kingdom, carrying 400,000 volts of electricity over thousands of miles across the country; the design of the pylons has barely changed in eighty years – and a winner has just been announced in the competition for a new pylon design
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Little progress despite $3.4 billion spent on food safety programs
In the past decade the U.S. government has gone to great lengths to secure the nation’s food supply against terrorists, but more than $3.4 billion later it has little to show for its efforts; despite all the government spending, key food safety programs and counter-terror policies have been bogged down by a murky, convoluted bureaucratic process
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Iranian airline sanctioned for ties to terrorism
On Wednesday the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on sanctioned Mahan Air, an Iranian airline, for supporting terrorism
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Sony hit by hackers again, 93,000 accounts compromised
Once again Sony has been the victim of a major cyberattack. This time as many as 93,000 accounts have been compromised from Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network, and Sony Online Entertainment
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.