• First: Private security guards shoot and kill a Somali pirate

    More and more ships sailing through the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden hire private security guards for protection; on Tuesday, private security guards on a Panamanian-flagged cargo ship shot and killed a Somali pirate; the killed pirate was part of a group of pirates using high-speed skiffs controlled by a mother ship

  • Premier IT technology show offers glimpse at intense rivalry among manufacturers of new gadgets

    Terrorists and criminals equip themselves with the latest technology, and law enforcement must keep pace; the Federal Office Systems Exposition, a major information technology event which opened on Tuesday and closes today, shows that the future is intense in the evolving cyberspace rivalry among manufacturers and battles against crime and terrorist threats; a balanced view offered by speakers on different panels suggested that for every device displayed to counter crime and defeat terrorism there would be risk of new products falling into the wrong hands and challenging the main concepts behind the invention

  • Airport sensor detects explosives hidden in the body

    Smiths Detection says that the 16HR-LD model of its B-Scan technology can see everything; the machine’s low-dose security technology is able to see all internal body cavities for the detection of concealed threatening objects, such as bombs and detonators

  • A small industry emerges to support would-be credit card thieves, malware writers

    There is money to be made in credit card theft, so a small industry has emerged to help commercialize the business; a software kit, known as Zeus, epitomizes the commercialization of the malware services industry: as is the case with other malicious software, Zeus can easily be bought online, in this case for between $400 and $700; detailed instructions on how to use it are readily available, too; to check whether a piece of malware is on the security companies’ blacklists, hackers can send their creations to Web sites such as virtest.com, which for just $1 will try the code out on more than twenty antivirus products; if the malware fails the test, would-be criminals can simply upload their malware to another site that will tweak it to render it unrecognizable

  • How accurate is E-Verify? Cont.

    A top DHS official says that E-Verify, the program set by DHA to allow employers to verify the legal status of employees and job applicants, is accurate and reliable; she writes that the famous Westat study “concluded that E-Verify was accurate 96 percent of the time” and that, “Since then, the Obama administration has taken steps further to improve E-Verify”

  • Private security is good business in Guatemala

    In the United States there are 1.09 million private guards — that is, one guard for every 280 people; in Guatemala, a country of 13 million people, there are between 100,000 to 150,000 guards (the exact number is not known since many of these companies do not bother to register with the authorities); this is one guard for every 85 to 130 residents; the combined number of state and federal police in the United States is 883,600; Guatemala has roughly 22,000 active police officers

  • Trucking industry says it is prepared for terrorism threat

    Trucking industry says that contrary to a scenario in a recent report on the subject, in which a gasoline tanker is hijacked and disappears, a rigorous daily delivery schedule means an out-of-route tanker would be reported very quickly, with or without tracking gear; industry calls for a single, uniform background checking approach

  • SF fiery crash highlights cities' vulnerability to tankers used as weapons

    More than 800,000 trucks carry shipments of hazardous materials every day across the United States; background checks of those hauling hazardous materials are designed to prevent fugitives, the mentally ill, and those convicted of terrorism, espionage, or murder from obtaining a HAZMAT hauling license; one security expert: “It’s very difficult now to purchase explosives … but it’s not that hard to steal a truck full of gasoline, and you can do quite a bit of damage”

  • Israel's top 10 airport security technologies, II

    No-one understands security as the Israelis do, and this is why some of the world’s best new innovative airport security technologies are being developed in Israel; since the foiled Christmas Day attempt on a Detroit-bound plane, airport authorities around the world are in a race to find novel solutions to fight terror, and the strategies and technical tactics Israel has adopted feature high on their lists

  • U.S. government pours money into cyber security technologies and R&D

    With a cumulative market valued at $55 billion (2010-15), the U.S. federal cybersecurity market will grow steadily at about 6.2 percent CAGR; new study says that Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology is in a very favorable position to emerge as a major line of cyber defense for years to come as the only technology that can deliver the good

  • Chilean economy faces major slowdown

    The two areas hit hardest by the 27 February quake account for 13 percent of Chile’s gross domestic product and 20 percent of its industrial output, and some sectors of the economy will have to rebuild from scratch

  • U.K. uses Hurt Locker robots to lure bright graduates from banking to defense

    The U.K. defense experts believe too many graduates are being diverted into lucrative jobs in finance when they could be engineers or techies, helping the U.K. defense effort; the Ministry of Defense staged an event starring bomb-disposal and mine-clearing robots from the movie ‘The Hurt Locker” to highlight the exciting technology being used in defense

  • DHS freezes funds for U.S.-Mexico border security system

    In 2006 Boeing won the contract for the ambitious Secure Border Initiative Net (SBINet) project — a system of cameras, radar, and other sensors aiming to detect illegal immigrants as they cross the U.S.-Mexico border; after countless technical glitches and many delays, DHS freezes funding for the project to allow it too assess how to deal with Boeing’s failures and decide on future steps

  • Israel's top 10 airport security technologies, I

    No-one understands security as the Israelis do, and this is why some of the world’s best new innovative airport security technologies are being developed in Israel; since the foiled Christmas Day attempt on a Detroit-bound plane, airport authorities around the world are in a race to find novel solutions to fight terror, and the strategies and technical tactics Israel has adopted feature high on their lists

  • DHS's chief of commercialization: competition for contracts stiffer than ever before

    The good news is that there is an abundance of private-sector companies that want to work with DHS; the bad news is that with competition being stiffer than ever before, companies seeking business have to try harder to differentiate themselves from the crowded field