• Engineers to enhance crane-mounted cargo scanning system

    VeriTainer, a venture-backed specialist in crane-based radiation detection technology for scanning shipping containers, enters into a three-and-a-half years, $4 million n R&D agreement with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to enhance the gamma and neutron detection sensitivity of the company’s radiation scanners

  • Cobham develops more accurate, cost-effective landmine detector

    The Red Cross estimates that 60-100 million mines are in place in 62 countries, causing 800 deaths each month; clearing mines is an expensive proposition, averaging £1m/km2; much of this cost is owed to high number of false alarms from metal detectors; British company develops a dual-sensor mine detector that enables nearly 33 percent more land to be cleared within existing budgets

  • Cruise ships may be required to hand over passenger reservation data

    Security experts worry about a waterside attack using a waterborne improvised explosive device; such an attack could conceivably come while the ship was in transit or docked at port; to address this worry, DHS will require cruise ships departing and entering the United States to provide Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with passenger reservation data

  • The boom (or is it a bubble?) in federal cybersecurity

    The Obama administration and Congress are allocating more funds to cybersecurity; much of that new spending, estimated at $6 to $7 billion annually just in unclassified work, is focused on the Washington region, as the federal government consolidates many of its cybersecurity-focused agencies in the area; some VCs warn of a cybersecurity bubble

  • BP tries new, smaller capping device to plug Gulf gusher

    BP is lowering a new device — the top-hat cofferdam — in an effort to plug the oil leak at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico; the top-hat is a 5-foot-tall, 4-foot-diameter structure and it weighs less than two tons; BP built the smaller dome after a much larger, four-story containment vessel, designed to cap the larger of two leaks in the well, developed glitches Saturday

  • General Dynamics acquires explosives disposal specialist

    General Dynamics assesses that anti-U.S. militants will increase their activities both at home and against U.S. troops abroad; the company acquires a specialist in demilitarization, incineration, and disposal of munitions, explosives, and explosive wastes

  • Will the World Cup change South Africa?

    Thabo Mbeki, the disgraced former South African president, grandly claimed that the 2010 World Cup would be the moment when the African continent “turned the tide on centuries of poverty and conflict”; a BBC reporter touring the country on the eve of the tournament notes the new stadiums and roads, but says the more likely aftermath is that South Africa will have spent billions of dollars on a 30-day advert for the country that quickly fades as the sporting world moves on

  • Operation targeting counterfeit network hardware from China yield convictions, seizures

    Departments of Justice and DHS announce 30 convictions, more than $143 million in seizures from initiative targeting traffickers in counterfeit network hardware made in China; this counterfeit network hardware is a technological sleeper cell: the Chinese have manufactured counterfeit Cisco routers and switches and offered them at exceedingly low prices; U.S. vendors upgrading or replacing U.S. government IT systems used these counterfeit devices — and the FBI and other government agencies are now worried that the gear offers the Chinese undetectable back-doors into highly secure government and military computer system

  • Good value in homeland security stocks

    To find companies that may be bargains, we should look at the price-to-sales ratio (PSR), or the stock price divided by sales per share; this is a useful way of looking at a company’s value compared to its ability to generate revenue: a PSR of 0.9 means that one dollar of a company’s revenue can be bought for 90 cents; using PSR, some homeland security companies looking cheap relative to sales

  • I-95 corridor to become U.S. cybersecurity corridor

    Two areas around Washington, D.C. are already centers of high-tech industry: Telecommunications companies and government contractors dominate the Dulles Toll Road corridor in Virginia, and biotechnology firms line the corridor along Interstate 270 in Maryland; experts say the corridor along the Interstate 95 corridor between Washington and Baltimore is becoming a cybersecurity center

  • Apple patents heartbeat-recognition sensors for iPhone

    Apple’s new patent will allow iPhones to identify user’s heartbeats & mood; by integrating this technology with the iPhone, the handset can authenticate the user by seamlessly picking his or her heart rate instantly as soon as they pick up their phone; no password required or tedious scanning of fingerprints or faces

  • TIE Technologies unveils BIO Metric and intelligent video technology development project

    Edward Andercheck, chairman and CEO of TIE Technologies: “Today’s science has made it possible to identify and authenticate the ‘one of a kind’ unique BIO Signature generated by individuals entering or leaving designated areas, thereby enabling the protection of buildings and weapon systems, and empowering security in large cities everywhere.”

  • Surveillance blimps assembled in Duluth

    ISL, a U.S. defense contractor developing dirigibles for military surveillance, has been using the former Northwest Airlines maintenance base in Duluth, Minnesota, since last fall; ISL’s plans to assemble the airship in Duluth hit a rocky patch with its clients, so the dirigible has been stored in the facility since last fall, lying uninflated on the floor

  • U.S. seeks the forfeiture of a business employing illegal aliens

    In the past, U.S. federal authorities have taken action against companies that have knowingly hired illegal immigrants; punishments included fines and jail time; now, in an unusual step, federal authorities are seeking the forfeiture of an operating San Diego-area bakery

  • A rapid check service making a come-back

    Verified Identity Pass (V.I.P.) had 160,000 subscribers to its service, which offered travelers a quicker passage through airport security checks if they had pre-registered with the company, giving it their biometric information and agreeing to a background check; a year ago it went out of business after a row with its creditors; the rapid check service, with the backing of new investors, is making a come-back