• Real disasters hurt annual national disaster drill

    This year the federal government’s annual nationwide disaster drill was hampered by actual disasters; due to an unusually severe series of natural disasters across the country, several states, local agencies, and federal employees were unable to participate in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Level Exercise as they were too responding to real emergencies

  • Increased use of UAVs leads to new job opportunities

    The growing importance of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is producing new job opportunities across the United States, with more likely to come as drones enter the civilian realm; the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International estimates that 23,000 jobs could be added over the next fifteen years if drones are allowed in U.S. skies

  • DHS to equip border agents with new body armor

    The Customs and Border Protection buys $48,629,750 worth of personal body armor from North Carolina-based KDH Defense systems

  • Some smartphones are more vulnerable to attack

    New research shows that some smartphones specifically designed to support the Android mobile platform have incorporated additional features that can be used by hackers to bypass Android’s security features, making these phones more vulnerable to attack

  • Raytheon tests smallest air-launched weapon in its portfolio

    Unmanned vehicles continue to evolve, and defense contractors build munitions form them; Raytheon has completed captive carry tests of its Small Tactical Munition Phase II configuration, paving the way for flight tests

  • Admiral Thad Allen joins Booz Allen as senior vice president

    On Monday defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton named Admiral Thad Allen (USCG-Ret) as a senior vice president. The distinguished Four-Star Admiral and former Commandant of the Coast Guard is best known for his roles in managing the federal responses to Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

  • Five years after E.coli outbreak, California farmers still struggling

    Farmers in Salinas Valley, California, the “salad bowl of the United States,” are still struggling to regain consumers’ trust five years after spinach grown and bagged on a local farm was linked to a deadly E. coli outbreak that killed three people and sickened 206

  • Chinese rare earth embargo would be “disastrous,” says mining executive

    Mike Parnell, the CEO of U.S. Rare Earths, Inc., recently took the time to chat with Homeland Security NewsWire’s executive editor Eugene K. Chow; in the interview Parnell discusses the potential consequences of a full Chinese rare earth metal embargo, efforts to develop alternatives to rare earth metals, and the progress made in making the drilling process more environmentally friendly

  • British law enforcement exploits flaw in iTunes to spy

    British law enforcement agencies and Apple are coming under sharp criticism after it was discovered that authorities exploited a security flaw in iTunes to spy on individuals

  • House Intelligence panel investigates Chinese telecom giants

    As Chinese telecom giants Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp continue to eye the lucrative American market, they have come under increasing scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers who fear their technology could be used by Chinese hackers to steal U.S. secrets; the two Chinese companies are now the subject of a House Intelligence Committee investigation aimed at determining whether they are a threat to the United States

  • NICE joins European transportation security consortium

    Secured Urban Transportation - European Demonstration (SECUR-ED) consortium aims create a pan-European improvement in mass transportation security which promotes the entire public transport sector; the consortium comprises thirty-nine members, which include all the major stakeholders from across Europe; NICE Systems announced it is a member of the consortium

  • Defunct security company to pay nearly $8 million in back wages

    The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland has approved a global settlement that allows the U.S. Department of Labor to recover $7,968,744 in back wages, fringe benefits, and 401(k) plan assets for more than 2,000 security guards formerly employed by USProtect Corp., a defunct Silver Spring company that provided security services for federal buildings across the country

  • Hackers fail in AT&T cyberattack

    Last week AT&T announced that it had successfully fended off an attack by hackers; the company said it is still unclear what the hackers’ intentions were, but no accounts were breached

  • DERMALOG sets fingerprint ID speed record

    DERMALOG Identification Systems has set a new speed record for identifying fingerprints; the company’s newest system, the DERMALOG Next Generation AFIS, correctly identified an individual’s ten fingerprints in .89 seconds from a database containing more than 129 million fingerprints

  • SAIC wins $90 million contract to support DHS relocation

    Government contractor Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) was recently awarded a $90 million subcontract to assist in the relocation of DHS’ headquarters; SAIC will work as a subcontractor for General Dynamics, which received the $876 million prime task order in July by the General Services Administration