• Asia to drive growth of CCTV market

    A string of terrorist attacks in India, Indonesia, and Pakistan has driven governments and private organizations in Asian countries to invest more in security; CCTV manufacturers will benefit from this trend

  • Collecting – and interpreting -- sensor data

    The U.S. military is relying an ever-greater number of cameras and sensors to collect information; there is a need to turn this mountain of data feeds into usable information for soldiers; Virginia-based Samoff offers its TerraSight product as a solution

  • Thermal imaging enters the mainstream

    FLIR guides thermal imaging into the mainstream; FLIR, a leading thermal imaging equipment manufacturer, helps the trend by lowering its price point; a residential thermal imaging camera can now be purchased for $3,500

  • Boston mayor wants to block Yemeni tankers from Boston Harbor

    Yemen is disintegrating, and jihadists are moving in; the mayor of Boston says it is unsafe to allow tankers delivering liquefied natural gas from Yemen into Boston Harbor; “They cannot be coming into a harbor like Boston, where there is less than 50 feet between the tankers and residential areas,’ the mayor says of Yemeni tankers’

  • New visa to make it easier for foreign entrepreneurs to launch start-ups in U.S.

    A proposal will be debated in Congress to create a new class of visa eligibility; the start-up visa would be granted to foreign entrepreneurs if their business plan attracts either $250,000 from a venture capital operating company that is primarily U.S. based or $100,000 from an angel investor; they must also show that the business will create five to ten jobs or generate a profit and at least $1 million in revenue

  • U.S. Army emphasizes new body armor

    The U.S. Army wants better armor for its soldiers; weight has long been an issue with the body armor the Pentagon issues to troops, and the Pentagon has signed an $18.6-million contract with KDH Defense Systems to send 57,000 new, lighter plate carriers to Afghanistan to decrease the load soldiers carry

  • ManTech to acquire Sensor Technologies Inc.

    ManTech will pay $242 million in cash for Sensor Technology; Sensor’s largest customer is the U.S Army through several contracts, including its prime position on the S3 Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract, on which it has received more than $2.5 billion in task orders to date

  • A first: Arizona firm punished under hiring law

    For the first time in Arizona, a company employing illegal immigrants has been punished for violating the law; the company has its business license suspended for ten days and was put on a 3-year probation; the punishment is symbolic because the company is already out of business

  • Contractor surge: 56,000 contractors to accompany the 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan

    The Obama administration’s decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan is just one aspect of the surge; these troops will be accompanies by up to 56,000 additional contractors; as of September, the Defense Department had 104,101 contractors employed in Afghanistan

  • Food facilities failing to register with FDA

    The Bioterrorism Act of 2002 requires food facilities — exempting farms, retail facilities, and restaurants — to register with the FDA; the FDA had expected about 420,000 domestic and foreign food facilities to register because of the 2002 law; according to an FDA spokesman, as of 14 December, 392,217 facilities had registered — 157,395 in the United States and 234,822 foreign facilities that export to the United States

  • Feeling Software’s solution helps manage multi-camera security and surveillance

    Whether a company operates 50 or 5,000 cameras, Feeling Software’s Omnipresence makes it simple to understand every video feed in the surveillance system at a glance; with advanced camera navigation, each individual feed is used to automatically generate the bigger security picture.

  • Safer ride: Lockheed ,A-V deliver vehicle-mounted anti-IED devices

    IEDs kill more U.S. and coalition soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan than any other weapon used by militants; Lockheed Martin received a $940 million contract to produce a counter-IED jamming device, and the first of these vehicle-mounted systems are being delivered to the theater.

  • Digital Sandbox launches risk analysis initiative for Hampton Roads, central Virginia

    Infrastructure catalog is essential first step in risk management strategy; Digital Sandbox will identify and catalog potential natural hazards and terrorist threats as well as critical infrastructure and key resources throughout the area.

  • Aussies set to relax airport security

    A federal government’s white paper sets out a more relaxed blueprint for airport security in Australia; passengers will again be able to take things like nail clippers and knitting needles in carry-on baggage but more checked baggage will be subject to screening and there will be tighter controls on security staff at airports.

  • SRI to open new facility in Tampa, Florida

    California-based SRI will tomorrow open a new research facility in Tampa, Florida; the company says that the many organizations in the area doing marine research will help it in developing maritime security technologies – among them underwater sensors to improve security at U.S. ports, which the company describes as the “soft underbelly of the soft underbelly” of the United States; SRI is also active in luring other technology companies to the Tampa area for the purpose of creating a technology cluster there.