• Auto-EDS explosive detection system to be tested at Waco airport

    The Transportation Security Administration has chosen two small airports — Waco Regional Airport in Texas and Hyannisport, Massachuseets — to test a new explosive detection system

  • Cobham acquires Argotek

    The trend of large defense contractors acquiring smaller companies specializing in IT security continues; the latest: U.K.-based Cobham buy U.S. specialist Argotek; Cobham says Argotek’s expertise will be in demand for upcoming projects such as the U.S. Comprehensive National Cyber Initiative

  • New security measures on passenger planes may hurt cherries growers

    About a quarter of the cherries grown in Washington state — some 1.3 million 20-pound boxes — are flown in the cargo hull of passenger planes to Pacific Rim countries like Japan and Korea; growers of highly perishable crops like cherries worry that a new requirement that all cargo on U.S. passenger flights undergo a security scan could create lengthy delays, leaving crops to rot in hangars as they await inspection

  • Where angels dare to tread: Angel investors profit

    U.K. angel investors see substantial profit; a study of 1,080 investments — more than half were directed at early-stage pre-revenue start-ups — show that: 56 percent of investments made a loss; 44 percent led to positive returns; 9 percent generated more than 10-times the capital invested; the average internal rate of return (IRR) was 22 percent over four years

  • Centerlink replaces PINs with voice recognition

    Australia’s welfare agency Centerlink has switched from PINs to voice recognition system to identify and manage clients; clients who routinely access self-service functions, such as lodging payment forms and updating the welfare agency with simple information about income, are most suitable for the system

  • France opens naval base in the Gulf

    President Nicolas Sarkozy today opens the first French military base in the Gulf; France is eying multi-billion dollar deals for nuclear reactors and sophisticated weapons for countries in the region

  • Shipping executive calls for armed federal security on U.S. ships

    Liberty Maritime Corp.’s Philip Shapiro calls for Congress to remove the legal barriers to arming ships so that they may provide their own security

  • RFID market to reach $5.56 billion by end of 2009

    In 2008, the average price per RFID tag was $1.13; the total value of tags being sold in 2008 was $2.23 billion; this figure will increase to $5.56 billion in 2009

  • U.S. Army orders 150 of ReconRobotics' reconnaissance robots

    Minnesota company receives order for 150 of its Recon Scout IR miniature reconnaissance robots; the Recon Scout IR is less than 7.5 inches long and three inches wide, and weighs just 1.2 pounds, making it easy to carry in a pocket or on a vest

  • Florida orders Raytheon's radiation detection system

    Florida orders Raytheon’s Mobile Nuclear Radiation Detection System; the state will use the SUV-mounted system to watch out for nuclear threats on highways, bridges, overpasses, tunnels, ports of entry, and public venues such as major sporting events and other large events

  • GE Security sees South Africa as springboard into Africa's security market

    GE Security employs 1,500 employees in South Africa; the company had revenues of about $3.5 billion in 2008; company sees South Africa as a springboard to triple its business across sub-Saharan Africa in the next five years

  • Products block unauthorized RFID reading of contactless cards

    More and more countries and organizations move toward adopting RFID-enabled, biometric e-IDs — driver’s licenses, passports, national IDs, and more; trouble is, these e-documents are susceptible to digital pickpocketing; a U.K. company offers solutions

  • The Irish Technology Leadership Group expands

    ITLG, comprising Irish and Irish-American business leaders in Silicon Valley, is opening an office at Westpark Shannon; the new office will seek to link established and new start-ups in the region with leading and emerging companies in California

  • How soon they forget: Organizational memory and effective policies // Jon Shamah

    Large organizations, either in the private sector or public sector, always have a churning of staff; the problem is that within one or two cycles of churn, anecdotal knowledge, and other unwritten information, just gets lost from the organizational memory; when something bad happens, few people know those solutions which have proven to work in the past and those that have failed miserably

  • Mobile WiMax to be rolled out in Atlanta in June

    Clearwire says it will roll out mobile WiMax in Atlanta next month, with other cities to follow