• UAVs set to give U.K. defense a lift

    The U.K. government is funding new research aimed at getting permission to fly drones anywhere in Britain, in a move which could benefit defense companies BAE Systems, EADS, and Thales but upset civil liberty concerns.

  • Debate revived over the security threat small planes pose

    There are about 200,000 small and medium-size aircraft in the United States, using 19,000 airports, most of them small; last Thursday’s suicide attack on an office building in Austin, Texas revives debate over the security threat small planes pose, and how strict the security measures applied to general aviation should be

  • Incentives for private industry, risk-based inspection for cargo containers

    There is no consensus on the number of cargo containers entering U.S. ports each year — the figures quoted range from 11.6 to 15 million; there is a consensus, however, that implementing the Congressionally mandated 100 percent inspection of these containers is a Herculean task; some suggest instead a risk-based inspection combined with more incentives to the private sector to make containers secure

  • Private security firms eyeing Haiti contracts

    Private security firms eager to gain lucrative security contracts in earthquake-ravaged Haiti; a mid-march conference in Miami would bring together security companies and Haitian officials to examine the market; critics, including some current and former Haitian officials, worry about the trend toward privatizing essential reconstruction services

  • Federal loans notwithstanding, Georgia nuclear power plant faces hurdles

    The Obama administration has signaled its interest in expanding the U.S. domestic nuclear power industry by giving $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for a Georgia nuclear power plant expansion; critics say that the American tax-payer is at risk; that the original nuclear reactor design has been rejected by the NRC, and that there is no solution for the nuclear waste problem

  • U.S.-China farm trade tensions grow

    U.S. companies, steel producers, and unions have filed dozens of domestic trade complaints against Chinese imports; economists say the imports of food based on labor intensive crops are next in line for trade friction between the United States and China

  • How real is the threat of cyberattack on the United States?

    Some experts compare the economic impact of a major cyberincident to the 2003 Northeast blackout, which cut service to fifty million people in the United States and Canada for up to four days; economists place the cost of that event between $4.5 [billion] and $10 billion — which they regard as a blip in the $14.2 trillion U.S. economy

  • Intellectual Ventures: A genuine path breaker or a patent troll?

    Intellectual Ventured has amassed 30,000 patents, spent more than $1 million on lobbying last year, and its executives have contributed more than $1 million to Democratic and Republican candidates and committees; the company says it wants to build a robust, efficient market for “invention capital”; critics charge that some of its practices are closer to that of a patent troll

  • Gartner: only 6 percent of companies survive longer than two years after losing data

    Gartner Group says that 43 percent of companies were immediately put out of business by a “major loss” of computer records, and another 51 percent permanently closed their doors within two years — leaving a mere six percent “survival” rate; Zenith Infotech says it can help

  • Smiths Detection, 20/20BioResponse in global distribution agreement

    The agreement is for BioCheck powder screening test kits; the biological threat assessment tool will strengthen Smiths Detection’s portfolio of emergency and first response solutions

  • Hackers to compete for $100,000 for smartphone, browser hacks

    Hackers will compete for a $100,000 in prizes for exploits that successfully penetrate Apple’s iPhone 3GS, Research in Motion’s Blackberry Bold 9700, a Nokia device running the most recent version of Symbian, and a Motorola phone running Google’s Android

  • U.S. gives loan guarantees for new nuclear power reactors in Georgia

    Deal is major step toward restarting the U.S. domestic nuclear industry; the Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized DOE to issue loan guarantees for projects that avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and employ new or significantly-improved technologies

  • U.K.: New nuclear reactors might not stand up to terrorist attacks

    Last September the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission rejected the Westinghouse-Toshiba design for a new reactor because a key component might not withstand events like earthquakes and tornadoes; this week, the U.K.’s nuclear safety watchdog said it might decide to reject the same reactor design because it could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks

  • LGS on Lockheed Martin team for $31 million DARPA cyber assurance contract

    LGS selected by Lockheed Martin as a subcontractor for a 31 milllion dollar DARPA-funded contract to develop cyber procedures which will provide military untis with dynamic bandwidth allocation

  • Killing malaria bugs dead with laser

    Mosquito-killing laser demonstrated; if bed nets are the low-tech solution to combat the deadly malaria — caused by a parasite transmitted when certain mosquitoes bite people — the laser is a high-tech one; the laser detection is so precise, it can specify the species, and even the gender, of the mosquito being targeted