• CBP highlights C-TPAT accomplishments

    The Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program (C-TPAT) was established in 2001 to build cooperative relationships that strengthen and improve international supply chain and U.S. border security; DHS says program is achieving its goals, with more than 8,000 applicants validated since 2003

  • IT security spending to grow despite economic slowdown

    Forrester Research finds that companies are still spending to protect their data — and that they will spend more in 2009; respondents to survey say security is an ongoing necessity unaffected by economic peaks and valleys

  • Security specialist Core Systems sees U.S. prisons as opportunity

    Belfast-based Core Systems provides biometric equipment to prisons in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland; it is now expanding to the United States; with a prison population of 2.2 million; “In the prisons business, the United States is the market leader,” says Patricia O’Hagan, company’s co-owner

  • $400 million ballistic missile defense award

    The Bush administration awarded Boeing a $400 million contract for Ground-based Midcourse Defense interceptors; it may well be the last large ballistic missile defense contract, as both Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress have shown little interest in the program

  • 2008 natural disasters cause record loss of life, damage

    More than 220,000 people died in events like cyclones, earthquakes and flooding; overall global losses totaled about $200 billion, with uninsured losses totaling $45 billion

  • India's bioterror plans will take some time to get off the ground

    India is augmenting its preparations for bioterror attacks; experts complain that one of the major weaknesses in India’s ability to cope with a bioterror attack is the lack of interest, so far, of the private sector in being enlisted in the effort

  • Russia's hackers a growing global threat

    There used to be a time when Russian hackers exposed chinks in American software just for the thrill of it; today they do it for cash — or for political reasons; cybercrime has outpaced the amount of illicit cash raked in by global drug trafficking

  • Uranium is good investment

    Many analysts, disoriented by the fall of uranium prices from $130+ to about $45 a pound, fail to notice that the fundamentals of the uranium market have not changed

  • Political squabbles hobble H5N1 research

    Indonesia has had the most cases of human H5N1 flu since 2005; it refuses to share the virus samples with Western pharmaceutical companies unless these companies agree to share with Indonesia the profits from the vaccine these companies develop — and also guarantee Indonesia access to a vaccine in case of a pandemic

  • Even in tough times, IT security should not be short changed

    In tough economic times, IT managers — as do other managers — look for ways to cut costs and expenses; they should realize, though, that in tough economic times IT security may become even more important than during more normal times

  • More secure European electrical grid

    Several European Transmission System Operators (TSOs) launch a new initiative designed to improve electrical systems security throughout Europe

  • Israel-made UAVs gain popularity among world's armies

    Israeli-made Heron UAVs will be introduced to the Afghani theater by the Canadian military; Turkey, India, and Georgia have struck deals for various Israeli UAVs; Russia was impressed with the UAV performance (in Georgian hands) during the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war, that the Russian military is buying them

  • AT&T awarded contract to deliver secure Internet connections to federal agencies

    The Networx program — Networx Universal and Networx Enterprise — is the the U.S. federal government’s largest telecommunications program, with a ceiling of $48.1 billion over ten years; AT&T wins a chunk of Networx Universal

  • H2-B visa program to be streamlined, simplified

    The H2-B visa program allows foreign workers into the United States for specific seasonal jobs; the program is capped at 66,000 workers per year; regulatory changes in the waning days of the administration aim to set in place policies favored by the business sector

  • Microsoft releases critical Internet Explorer patch

    The update fixes a JavaScript-related vulnerability which is being actively exploited through hacked Web sites