• 21st Century Technologies acquires D.C.-area cyber-security firm

    21st Century Technology (21CT), a developer of advanced intelligence analytics software to combat terrorist threats and cyber threats, acquires a specialist in defenses against network intrusions

  • Lookingglass named finalist for Best Cyber Security Company

    Lookingglass Cyber Solutions’s ScoutVision allows corporations to monitor networks and infrastructure they are not in control of, but rely upon for day-to-day operations; the company is finalist in Maryland Incubator of the Year Awards program

  • Video study finds risky food-safety behavior more common than thought

    New study finds that that risky practices in restaurants, cafeterias, and other food-service places happen more often than previously thought; one expert says: “Meals prepared outside the home have been implicated in up to 70 percent of food poisoning outbreaks, making them a vital focus area for food safety professionals”

  • FIFA warns South Africa that stampede must not be repeated

    Sepp Blatter, FIFA president, believes that the crowd stampede during last Sunday’s Nigeria-North Korea warm-up game, in which 16 people were trampled, came close to giving the World Cup finals a tragedy before they had started — but may serve as a wake-up call to South Africa’s security services to take security at the games more seriously

  • Corporate set stays away from World Cup

    Not only individual soccer fans stay away from the World Cup in South Africa, which opens tomorrow — corporations stay away, too; FIFA has admitted defeat by putting 38,000 corporate tickets on the open market; worried about personal safety of top executives and rich clients, and fearful of cost and criticism that they are spending on jaunts, corporations decided not to buy corporate tickets for the games

  • BP's oil spill depleting oxygen in Gulf, decimating Gulf's abundant sea life

    The magnitude of the BP oil spill disaster becomes clearer; scientists confirm the massive oil spill spread more than forty nautical miles from the disaster site and at a depth of 3,300 feet; scientists have said that in addition to being nearly impossible to clean up, the oil plumes could deplete oxygen in the Gulf, decimating its abundant sea life

  • Altegrity to buy Kroll for $1.13 billion in cash

    Altegrity, which does a range of contract work, mostly for the U.S. federal government, including security clearance investigations for the U.S. government and training and consulting for police departments at home and abroad, will buy Kroll, the corporate intelligence unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos., for $1.13 billion in cash; acquisition will strengthen Altegrity’s business outside the United States

  • Demand for stand-alone terrorism coverage down

    Reinsurers would like to place more terrorism business, but the demand for stand-alone terrorism coverage is on the wane; the market could tighten if the Obama administration proceeds with its plan to scale back the federal government’s terrorism insurance backstop, which has been in place since 2002

  • Biometrics and cloud computing

    More and more biometric-enabled identity cards are being issued by governments; taking these cards into the streets and other remote locations will increase the demand for mobile biometric devices; these mobile devices permit a country to take biometric-based critical services directly to citizens, rather than requiring citizens to come to the technology

  • New solution offers biometric security to mobile devices

    Aussie company offers a biometric security solution for mobile devices; a Bio-button token is authenticated by the user, and as long as the Bio-button remains in the range of the mobile device, the authentication will remain active. This means that if the phone or mobile device is stolen, lost, or moved away from the token, the pairing is disconnected and the authentication broken

  • Biometric ID card contractors escape the U.K. government's axe

    The new U.K. government has canceled the national biometric ID scheme and said that the National Identity Register will be destroyed, but companies with large biometric contracts — CSC, with a £385 million contract, whose Application & Enrollment System will be used to issue the passports, and IBM, with a £285 million contract for the National Biometric Identity Service — should emerge relatively unscathed, as their contracts will escape the government’s axe

  • Tougher requirements for Ontario private security guards

    The Ontario government has toughened the requirements for becoming a private security guard in the province; mere months ago, all it took was “a pulse and a pen” to qualify as a security guard in Ontario, as one expert put it; the criteria are more arduous now; changes were made in part to ensure the quality of guards in the end-of-June G8 and G20 summits to be held Huntsville and Toronto

  • U.S. military to adopt NFL's instant replay technology

    U.S. Air Force drones collected roughly 1,800 hours of video a month in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009, nearly three times as much video than in 2007; sifting through this growing mountain of information is difficult, so the military wants to use the same instant replay technology used in professional football games; after all, U.S. broadcasters handle 70,000 hours daily of video

  • Yarn passes in-vehicle flame test

    Fire in an enclosed space, such as an aircraft, is extremely dangerous as occupants can die from smoke inhalation before there is any danger from the flames. Flame-retardant materials delay the spread of fire, but these typically contain halogenated substances that emit thick black smoke and toxic gases; new material developed which meets halogen-free flame-retardant regulations

  • Marine camera, integrated software offer improved underwater surveillance, security

    Underwater surveillance is one of the more difficult tasks for security personnel; darkness, humidity, murkiness, low temperature all make it difficult for camera equipment to capture clear images of elements in water; a new marine camera with integrated software offers a solution