• New UAV to loiter the sky for five years without landing

    Boeing has been given $89 million to build Vulture — a large solar-powered UAV intended to cruise the stratosphere for five years without landing; the idea is to achieve a platform which combines the good qualities of both satellites and aircraft with none of the downsides of either

  • Boeing hints at interest in buying Northrop

    In the face of likely deep cuts in some areas of the U.S. defense budget, speculations circulate that Boeing is looking to purchase companies active in those areas of the defense budget which are growing — UAVs, cyber security, and intelligence and surveillance systems; a likely candidate for acquisition: Northrop Grumman, a key player in these fields

  • Vulnerable IT infrastructure means loss of revenue

    Europeans businesses are losing approximately 17 billion Euros a year in revenue owing to IT disruptions; on average, European businesses suffer IT failures lasting an average of fourteen hours per company a year, amounting to nearly one million hours of down-time costs

  • GTEC buys Zytel, bolstering cyber, intelligence capabilities

    GTEC pays $26.8 millions in cash for Maryland-based Zytel; little is known about Zytel’s actual products — all the company’s work is classified and all employees are cleared at the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information level — but it develops cybersecurity and mission systems in support of the critical intelligence, counterterrorism, and cyber-warfare missions of its national-security clients

  • 1st Detect in $735,000 contract for chemical detection in the field

    Phase II SBIR contract from the Joint Science & Technology Office for Chemical and Biological Defense will allow the company to design and develop a novel sample inlet system intended to improve the sensitivity of mass spectrometers used for chemical detection in the field

  • New cargo security business alliance announced

    The association’s mission is to provide a platform where leaders in the intermodal shipping industry can share ideas and discover synergies to complement the rapidly expanding intelligent supply chain market

  • HP to buy security software company ArcSight for $1.5 billion

    Hewlett-Packard agreed to buy security software company ArcSight for $1.5 billion; ArcSight’s software helps companies protect their digital assets from cyber attacks and fraud, and aids in regulatory compliance. While many analysts said HP overpaid, they also said the deal fits with its broader enterprise strategy. Some, though, questioned the company’s financial discipline; the deal is the latest in a rash of consolidation in the security technology sector; last month, Intel Corp agreed to buy McAfee for $7.7 billion, and in May, Symantec Corp bought Verisign Inc.’s payment authentication unit for about $1.3 billion

  • New report: UAVs for Border Security -- market & technologies outlook 2010-15

    The use of UAVs in border security missions around the world is expanding rapidly from very little activity today; this expansion will create new markets and new business opportunities, particularly for integrated capabilities guided by an operating concept and turn-key packages that include equipment, training, operations, and maintenance

  • AuthenTec and UPEK merge to form formidable biometrics provider

    Florida-based AuthenTec merges with fingerprint biometric company UPEK; AuthenTec will be expanding its intellectual property to nearly 200 issued and filed U.S. patents, “the largest patent portfolio in the industry today,” the company says; UPEK had $18 million in revenues last year and has made $11.7 million in the first half of 2010

  • Biometric companies see government as the driver of future market growth

    Observers say that most of the growth in the biometric market will be driven by government spending; many still agree that the marketplace for biometrics is likely to continue to grow, but one of the bigger points of contention is that some are arguing that the growth will not be in United States but more likely in Central and South America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia

  • U.K. Borders Agency in immigration biometrics deal with IBM

    The deal is valued at £191 million, and the government says it will save tax payers £50 million. or nearly 20 percent, from the contract price with IBM by cutting aspects of the planned system that were no longer needed

  • Mobile biometric and document device for borders

    NEC shows a tablet computing device for biometric identity enrollment and verification using multiple biometrics — and which can also read travel documents; the company says the device will be sold to border control agencies

  • Chinese practices aim to cripple U.S. energy sector

    The U.S. United Steel Workers (USW) union has filed a claim with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, alleging that China has used hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies, performance requirements, preferential practices, and other trade-illegal activities to cripple U.S. industry and gain dominance of the world’s alternative and renewable energy sector.

  • U.K. funds £12 million project for quick detection of farm-based disease

    A new device will be able to detect a variety of different infections, making it useful for outbreaks of human diseases, as well as animal ones; by providing a fast verdict on whether an area such as a farm is subject to an outbreak and needs to be quarantined, it could help stop the spread of the disease

  • Sandia Labs developed an IED-disabling water-blade device

    A device developed by Sandia National Laboratories researchers that shoots a blade of water capable of penetrating steel is headed to U.S. troops in Afghanistan to help them disable deadly IEDs; the portable clear plastic device is filled with water and an explosive material is placed in it that, when detonated, creates a shock wave that travels through the water and accelerates it inward into a concave opening; when the water collides, it produces a thin blade