• Tech giants buying tech security companies

    Tech security appears to be recession-resistant industry; tech giants position themselves to benefit from the greater emphasis on IT security in the U.S. 2010 budget by buying smaller cybersecurity companies; the prices are attractive: VCs who, a few years ago, invested in promising security start-ups can no longer count on cashing in by going public

  • Heavier passengers to pay more for flying

    Air cargo flies this way: if something is twice the weight, you pay twice as much; airline industry analysts say that the day of passengers paying according to their weight may not be far

  • London airport in trials of facial recognition security

    Stansted Airport outside London is testing security gates with facial recognition software as the first part of an eventual roll out of the new security gates to ten more U.K. airports

  • Swine flu vaccine is not going to be ready for a while yet

    Even if the World Health Organization declares the current swine flu to be a pandemic, vaccine will arrive too late for many

  • UK Biometrics in talks with defense giant BAE

    UK Biometrics is in talks with global defense contracting giant BAE about using UK Biometrics systems to safeguard BAE ultra-security-sensitive production sites

  • Oregon needs to raise Hagg Lake dam for fear of earthquakes

    In Oregon they expect the Big One — a massive earthquake — sometime in the next fifty years; one measure of preparation is to raise the height of dams so that earthquake-generated waves in the reservoirs behind the dams would not spill over and flood the neighboring territory

  • Greece bans Google Street View mapping service

    The Greek government bans Google from gathering detailed, street-level images within the country for a planned expansion of the company’s panoramic Street View mapping service; government wants assurances about privacy issues

  • SAIC to deploy tsunami monitoring system for Thailand

    The Thai government has awarded SAIC a contract to produce and deliver a sea-based system that can warn against the threat of a tsunami; the new system will replace the current NOAA Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting Tsunamis (DART) buoy system in the Bay of Bengal, which was provided to Thailand in 2006

  • Somali pirates benefit from a global network of informers

    These are not your father’s pirates: Somali pirates benefit from information sent to them by informers planted in key shipping hubs around the world; this information includes vessels’ cargo, layout, and route — and is transmitted early enough to allow the pirates enough time to practice their assault based on the information they received

  • Boeing's takes X-45C out of storage, renames it Phantom Ray

    The proposed 2010 U.S. defense budget is historic at least in one respect: for the first time, the U.S. Air Force will be buying more unmanned flying systems than manned ones; Boeing takes its X-45C unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) out of storage and renames it Phantom Ray; it will be completed and readied for flight by the end of 2010, and will be suitable for missions including ISR, SEAD, electronic attack, hunter/killer, and autonomous aerial refueling

  • Highlights of the U.S. 2010 defense budget

    U.S. defense budget increase 4 percent over 2009, to $533.8 billion; weapons procurement, at $107.4 billion, comes third after Operations & Maintenance ($185.7 billion) and personnel costs ($136 billion)

  • iPod helps U.S. fight insurgents in Iraq

    The U.S. military is using iPods and iPhones to help troops carry out operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; devices are used for biometric identification, and will soon be used as guidance systems for bomb disposal robots and to receive aerial footage from unmanned drone aircraft

  • Initial $50 million of stimulus package for airport security awarded

    DHS announced the award of the first $50 million out of a total of $1 billion made available by the stimulus package for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA); money will fund explosive detection systems and advanced technology X-ray units that will streamline baggage screening at U.S. airports

  • How DHS plans to use the stimulus package's funds

    The stimulus package has added billions of dollars to the DHS budget; the department details how it plans to spend the money

  • U.S. military wants jumping robot

    DARPA funds a program to develop a hopping robot; the robot will be able to jump stairs and go over obstacles; it will be used for urban reconnaissance and intelligence gathering — although DARPA admits it could also be fitted with a raft of weapons; one of the requirement for the hopping robot: “’stick’ accurate landings”