• More than $3 billion lost in 2007 in phishing attacks

    New survey shows the 3.6 million U.S. adults lost an average $886 each to phishing schemes, totaling in $3.2 billion loss; the good news: More victims were able to recover some of their losses relative to previous years; phishing and malware attacks will continue to increase through 2009 because it is still a lucrative business for the perpetrators

  • Integrating smart cards with biometrics a growing market

    The market for integrated smart cards and biometric products earned $249.1 million in 2007 and is expected to reach $822.2 million by 2013; market driven by growing interest in national biometric IDs; market grew in 2006 by 55.2 percent, despite many of the national ID projects not operating at full scale

  • Bankrupt Pay By Touch to auction off its assets

    Pay by Touch came to market with a big splash; its system was installed in more than 700 U.S. retail locations; its biometrics and personalized marketing businesses, however, lost $137 million last year on only $600,000 in revenue; it sought buyers, but there were no satisfactory offers, so it is planning to auction off its assets

  • Bain's effort to acquire 3Com on verge of collapse

    Bain Capital and a Chinese partner wanted to buy 3Com for $2.2 billion; 3Com’s TippingPoint unit sells security software used by U.S. government agencies, and persistent questions were raised over the national security ramifications of the deal; Bain and Huawei Technologies have now withdrawn their application to CFIUS

  • Aussie company in $20 million wave energy project for Maui

    Australian specialist in wave energy to build three platforms off the coast of Maui; project aims to provide up to 2.7 megawatts

  • Textual analysis reveals corporate fraud

    The textual analysis technique can be used to identify language patterns in management communications which are inconsistent with either the company’s financial performance or with the communications of other companies in the same industry, indicating fraud

  • Australian biometrics software developer finds success in U.K.

    Aussie biometric company finds success in the United Kingdom, with recent order from Wales bringing to company’s U.K. orders to more than $1 million; company still awaits similar recognition at home in Australia

  • Lockheed Martin wins FBI database contract

    Lockheed Martin built and maintains the FBI’s current ten-fingerprint database, so it was expected to win the contract for the agency’s new database — and it did; contract potential value is $1 billion

  • World’s first commercial-scale tidal stream

    The tidal farm scheme would be capable of generating 10.5 MW of power drawn entirely from the sea’s major tidal currents; project will be built off the north-west coast of Anglesey, north Wales

  • Spain to explore oil reserves on its east coast

    Spanish oil company signs up a leading Norwegian engineering company to do infrastructure work for to oil exploration projects off the east coast of Spain

  • Chinese hackers target government

    The Chinese government has embarked on a massive industrial espionage campaign aimed to hasten China’s rise to global technological and economic dominance while at the same time weakening Western companies; Aussie intelligence says Australia is now also a target of that campaign

  • India's Tata Group, U.S. company to manufacture defense equipment

    India is worried about China’s growing military might; Indian companies see an opportunity here, and more and more of them are looking to enter the defense market — with U.S. companies as partners; the U.S. government, too, is intensifying its defense cooperation with India

  • airBaltic selects cockpit security from AD Aerospace

    One key security upgrade which resulted from the 9/11 attacks has been the installation of impregnable cockpit doors; locked doors means that the pilots need other means to monitor area right outside the cockpit — and airBaltic chooses AD Aerospace’s gear for that

  • Lumidigm completes $7 million funding round

    VCs continue to show interest in biometric technologies; Series C funds will support customer-centric deployments of multispectral imaging fingerprint systems

  • Magal Security Systems receives $45 million in contracts

    Israeli smart-fencing company receives contracts from several U.S. critical infrastructure operators; recent developments along the Gaza-Stip-Egypt border offer Magal new opportunities