• Chertoff urges industry to invest in cybersecurity

    About 85 percent of the U.S. critical infrastructure is owned and operated by private industry; DHS secretary Chertoff says this fact makes cybersecurity a shared responsibility between government and the corporations that control most computer networks

  • Militaries eye biometric technology

    New report says that biometrics is useful not only for homeland security applications, but also for military uses in the theater; the military biometrics market thus offers investors new opportunities

  • Briefly noted

    Quantum cryptography: As awesome as it is pointless… Smiths Detection wins $26.7 million TSA order for advanced checkpoint X-ray systems… Motorola sells biometrics arm to Safran… Aussie government approves ProtectDrive for government use

  • GSC announces six finalists for 13 November event

    The Global Security Challenge has announced the six finalists for the competition to be held 13 November; winner will receive $500,000 grant in cash and mentorship from venture capitalists

  • Thales opens European security center

    More than 25 percent of Thales’s revenues come from its security systems, which totalled approximately €3.4 billion in 2007; the French giant launches a security research center dedicated to homeland security

  • California IT security company adds 225 jobs in Ann Arbor expansion

    Ann Arbor, Michigan, is attracting more and more IT security companies; half a dozen IT companies have already announced expansions in the Ann Arbor region this year, and their plans for Ann Arbor include the addition of nearly 1,200 jobs in the coming years

  • Technology start-ups, investment, and the financial crisis

    The U.S. financial crisis need not spell doom for technology start-ups, says Kevin Maney; one of the main reasons: “The cost of starting a tech company has dropped precipitously, thanks to cheaper/better/faster technology”

  • IT security hinders innovation

    New IDC reports says businesses are struggling to find the right balance between security and innovation; information security concerns have caused 80 percent of companies surveyed to back away from new innovation opportunities

  • Coast Guard chooses new patrol boat

    Years after Congress urged the U.S. Coast Guard to speed up its patrol boat replacement program, the service finally picked a design and a shipbuilder for its new cutters; the winner: Bollinger Shipyards

  • Send Word Now completes $14 million financing round

    As more attention is paid to alerting people of imminent or on-going disasters, investors pay more attention to companies producing effective, reliable alert systems; Send Word Now benefits

  • Washington State, Microsoft sue cyber fear mongers

    Washington State has one of the nation;s toughest anti-spyware laws, and the state attorney general joins with Microsoft to sue companies which use fear to sell security products

  • EU bans baby food with Chinese milk

    Twenty-two Chinese dairies used industrial additive melamine in their products; 54,000 Chinese babies were sickened, 4 died, and more than 10,000 are still hospitalized; 27-nation EU bans baby food with Chinese milk

  • California tells residents not to flush pharmaceuticals

    In an effort to limit the contamination of drinking water with pharmaceuticals, California launches “No Drugs Down the Drain Week”

  • The new face (well, not only face) of biometrics, II

    Next-generation enterprise biometric solutions will evolve toward being able to work both with centralized, distributed as well as mobile devices, such as smartcards or contractless smartcards

  • Texas county weighing border fence alternatives

    Cameron County, Texas, must decide which option is more beneficial to it: DHS’s fence plan which the county does not like, but which will see $37 million in contracts go to local businesses, or resubmitting the county’s alternative fence plan, which DHS had already rejected, exploiting the fact that DHS has postponed the 31 December fence deadline