• Experts: rare Earths elements headed for 2011 supply crunch

    The prices of rare-Earth elements remained static for decades due to plentiful supplies, lulling the high-tech industry into a false sense of security; this is no longer going to be the case, with a 300 percent spike in prices over the past year alone; with China currently producing 95 percent of the world’s supply. Japan, the United States, and other top consumers, however, are scrambling to find new sources

  • Militants kidnap 7 from Nigerian Exxon platform

    After the 9/11 attacks, Bin Laden boasted that he used an operation which cost al Qaeda $500,000 to finance to inflict a $500 billion damage on the U.S. economy; this was not a mere boast: experts say it was an indication that econo-jihad was an integral part of al Qaeda’s strategy to weaken and defeat the West; the recent BP disaster offered an example of one tactics terrorists may pursue in order to inflict serious economic and environmental damage on the United States and other countries: attack off-shore oil rigs: these rigs are utterly vulnerable to attack, and the damage such an attack can do is considerable; in Nigeria, a militant organization is already attacking oil rigs — if, for now, only to kidnap rig workers in order to blackmail their employers for money and political concessions; the ease with which such attacks are carried out should give all of us a pause

  • The U.S. rare-Earth industry can rebound -- over time

    Rare-Earth elements are not that rare; the U.S. has plenty of the metals that are critical to many green-energy technologies, but engineering and R&D expertise have moved overseas; responding to China’s near monopoly, companies in the United States and Australia are ramping up production at two rich sites for rare earths, but the process will take years

  • New biometric system harder to fool than other approaches

    Each of us has a unique pattern of eye movements; an Israeli company developed a new biometric security system which exploits this for a simple, hard-to-fool approach; the system tracks the way a person’s eye moves as he watches an icon roam around a computer screen; the way the icon moves can be different every time, but the user’s eye movements include “kinetic features” — slight variations in trajectory — which are unique, making it possible to identify him

  • U.S. Internet hosts are essential for criminal botnets

    Cybercrime is often associated with Russia and China, and rightly so — but many of the servers vital to their activities are located elsewhere; facilities provided by Internet companies in the United States and Europe are crucial to these criminal gangs’ activities

  • Shippers campaign against full screening of cargo on planes

    The TSA decided that starting last August, it would mandate the screening of all cargo on passenger planes loaded in the United States; it said its rule would not apply to cargo placed on U.S.-bound passenger flights overseas, or to cargo-only flights; the Obama administration announced new cargo rules Monday banning freight out of Yemen and Somalia; it also restricted the shipment of printer and toner cartridges weighing more than a pound on all passenger flights and some cargo flights; the overall cargo security rules were unchanged

  • Cybersecurity standard published to protect global critical infrastructure

    With industrial networks being increasingly connected to the hostile IT world, and the frequency and sophistication of malware growing exponentially, industrial stakeholders must act today to protect their critical systems; the International Instrument Users Association (WIB) releases comprehensive cybersecurity standard to protect critical industrial computers;

  • The time for cybersecurity contracting is now

    It is not just a fad: cybersecurity represented the largest request for funds in last year’s intelligence budget; it is an area for expansion government contractors cannot afford to pass up

  • Carnegie Mellon to develop flying car for DARPA

    DARPA chooses Carnegie Mellon to develop autonomous capability for flying car; the military ground vehicle would transform into flyer for scouting, resupply, and medical evacuation; the flying car would be capable of transporting four people and 1,000 pounds of payload up to 250 nautical miles, either by land or by air

  • Breakthrough: Flapless UAV gets airborne

    The conventional control surfaces of a UAV include many moving parts, require frequent, costly repairs, and account for a significant percentage of an aircraft’s noise output; British researchers developed a UAV with no moveable control surfaces — no flaps, ailerons, elevators, or spoilers; just a wing, an engine, and some holes

  • Security M&A activity breaks records

    The value of transactions in the security sector skyrockets — and most of the majors (including Honeywell, Schneider, Siemens, Johnson Controls, Bosch, and UTC) have yet to seal a deal this year; the pace of consolidation experienced in the third quarter will continue into the last quarter of 2010

  • Oil will run dry before substitutes roll out: study

    At the current pace of research and development, global oil will run out ninety years before replacement technologies; the authors of the new study say the findings are a warning that current renewable-fuel targets are not ambitious enough to prevent harm to society, economic development and natural ecosystems

  • Biometrics M&A activity reaches new heights

    The value of transactions in the security sector during September was the highest ever recorded for a single month during the last three years; in the biometrics sector, the noteworthy deals include the sale of L-1 Identity Solutions to Safran; BAE’s acquisition of L-1’s intelligence services group; Safran’s acquisition of Motorola’s Biometric Division and purchase of an 81 percent share in GE Homeland Protection; and 3M’s acquisition of Cogent

  • India's ambitious UIDAI project launched

    India’s ambitious UIDAI ID scheme aims to assign a biometric ID to country’s 1.2 billion inhabitants; Morpho helped the Indian prime minister officially launch to project by issuing the first 12-digit UIAID number during the inauguration ceremony

  • Study to assess use of wave turbines along U.S. coastline

    A Scottish company will deploy its wave-power technology along the Oregon coast for a feasibility study of wave power; the state of Oregon has given the company a grant to measure and record the frequency, intensity and height of waves as they approach the Oregon shoreline