• Saudi Arabia to be world's second largest market for homeland security

    The cumulative Saudi market for homeland security, forecast to become the largest in the world after the United States, is expected to be worth around $97 billion in the 2010-18 period; areas of major expenditure are the control of both the Iraq and Yemen borders and raising of a special force to protect vital oil installations

  • Critics: Trusted Traveler will allow Mexican cartels to bypass airport security

    Two weeks ago DHS announced plans the roll out of Trusted Traveler program with Mexico; under the program, Mexicans who have undergone background checks and are deemed low security risks will be able to fly into major U.S. cities and breeze through customs without being questioned by U.S. Customs agents; critics say Mexico’s drug cartels will quickly learn how to exploit loopholes in the plan by recruiting Mexicans with clean backgrounds to attain trusted traveler status, and then use them to smuggle drugs and other contraband into the United States; Mexican citizens are already eligible for expedited land border crossings through another trusted traveler program, Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI); last week, two SENTRI trusted travelers were caught trying to bring contraband across the border into the U.S. through the SENTRI-only express border passage

  • More companies shun Mexico as violence spirals

    Growing numbers of companies are deciding to limit their investments in Mexico because of spiraling drug-related violence in one of the world’s most important emerging markets; Mexico continues to lure foreign investment with its low wages, location next to the United States, and the advantages of the North American Free Trade Agreement; for some companies, particularly those that do not yet have operations south of the border, the violence has become daunting

  • BAE develops vehicles for ground war of the future

    A range of technologies could improve the effectiveness and fuel efficiency of current military vehicles, while laying the groundwork for future fighting vehicles; BAE looked at 567 technologies and 244 vehicle concepts, which had to fit only two criteria — the vehicle could weigh no more than 30 tons, and had to carry an equivalent punch to a Challenger 2 tank; the company settled on seven future vehicles

  • Fourth International Symposium on Agroterrorism announced

    The fourth International Symposium on Agroterrorism is scheduled for 26-28 April 2011, at the Hyatt Regency and Westin Crown Center Hotels in Kansas City, Missouri; it will focus on the need closely to communicate and coordinate among private industry, law enforcement, government agencies, science, academia, and the health and medical professions in order to protect the global food supply

  • General Atomic says its Blitzer rail gun already "tactically relevant"

    Last Friday the U.S. Navy tested a rail gun with muzzle energies of 64 megajoules; the gun aims to deliver a projectile to a target 200 miles away at speeds of up to Mach 7+; not to be outdone, General Atomics has just released information about how, back in September, it tested its own rail gun — dubbed the Blitzer; while the Navy researchers are still preoccupied with the velocity of the projectile and muzzle energy, GA says it is farther along in weaponizing its system, which it describes as already “tactically relevant”

  • DoE report warns of U.S. vulnerability to China's rare-earth supplies

    A U.S. Department of Energy report draws attention to the need to diversify the supply of rare Earth metals needed for clean technology and defense; China currently supplies 97 percent of the world’s rare Earth elements; the largest U.S. producer of rare earths last week announced a $130 million funding deal with Japanese company Sumitomo that promises the financier “substantial quantities of rare-earth products”

  • ASIS International, BSI release Business Continuity Management ANSI standard

    ASIS International, BSI have released Joint Business Continuity Management ANSI Standard; the standard provides auditable criteria with accompanying guidance for developing and implementing a business continuity management system that improves an organization’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a disruptive event

  • SEGA develops urinal-based video game to keep rest room's floors clean

    SEGA installs video games in public men’s rooms; the user controls the game by peeing on sensors in a urinal; SEGA hopes to persuade restaurants and other retail establishments that by giving users goal-oriented mini-games to focus on, their men’s room floors might stay a bit cleaner as gents have somewhere to aim

  • Underground security tech to revolutionize border security

    The University of Arizona College of Engineering is testing an invisible border monitoring system that could revolutionize the way the U.S. conducts homeland security; the border-monitoring system, known as Helios, consists of laser pulses transmitted through fiber-optic cables buried in the ground that respond to movements on the surface above; a detector at one or both ends of the cable analyzes these responses; Helios is sensitive enough to detect a dog and can discriminate between people, horses, and trucks

  • Sightlogix: ruggedized outdoor surveillance gear

    The company was founded to address the need to create a rugged and automated outdoor video system which reduces the number of false alarms caused by outdoor environmental variations; the company’s cameras attain a large range of coverage area, reducing the number of necessary cameras, mounting poles, communications links, video, and storage channels

  • Safety concerns remain about Westinghouse AP1000 reactor design

    The United States and the United Kingdom are yet to approve the latest reactor design from Westinghouse; regulators in both countries are not convinced that the reactor can effectively withstand man-made or natural disasters; these concerns notwithstanding, China is pushing forward with an ambitious nuclear energy program which will see sixty AP1000 reactors built by 2010; the scope and pace of the Chinese program, and the fact that at its core is a reactor with possible design weaknesses, are a cause of more concerns

  • Former Goldman-Sachs programmer convicted of stealing source code

    A former Goldman-Sachs programmer faces fifteen years in prison after being convicted Friday of stealing the company’s high-frequency trade technology; the programmer was convicted of stealing the source code for Goldman-Sachs’ high-frequency trade technology — a market trading system described by Futures Magazine as “like day-trading on near fatal doses of amphetamines”

  • Intellectual Ventures on the patent-suit path again

    Critics accuse Intellectual Ventures of being a patent troll; the outfit has between 30,000 and 50,000 patents squirreled away in around 1,100 shell companies, and it has just filed sued for patent infringement against nine high tech companies

  • TSA approves for-pay faster security lines at airports

    TSA has given the green light to a “trusted traveler” lane at another one of the U.S. busiest airports; the lane at Denver International Airport is operated by New York-based Alclear LLC, a company that pre-screens fliers, giving them quicker access to security checkpoints