• Obama's emphasis on IT security a boon to Michigan companies

    Focus on cybersecurity technology offers Michigan IT companies chance to grow; the state has been quietly building a respectable range of network security companies

  • Smarter Security Systems shows vascular reader

    Austin, Texas-based company shows its new vascular patterns reader; low false acceptance rate (FAR) of 0.0001 percent, quickness (0.4/seconds per person), the ability to performs with skin conditions such as scars or dirt and any lighting conditions makes it ideal for industrial applications

  • Biometric: Promise and peril

    The trend toward digital identification and biometrics appears inexorable; this trend is a boon to companies in biometrics — but it also raises serious privacy concerns

  • Biometric technologies improve, offering greater reliability

    Biometrics is not perfect — but it is improving; biometrics is developing along two lines — physical, which is often more intrusive for the user, and behavioral, which is usually less intrusive; Fujitsu’s Jerry Byrnes: “What was James Bond 15 years ago is biometric reality today”

  • Pakistan's security gadgets market booming

    Dealers say people more interested in installing CCTVs, night-vision cameras at houses, filling stations, jewelry shops, hotels, restaurants

  • Raytheon to develop smart-map battle network for U.S. Army

    Raytheon signs contract to demonstrate smart-map computers which will allow soldiers to see enemy soldiers and each other on the digital maps even where GPS satellite navigation is unavailable

  • Flu vaccine contracts worth $46.7 million awarded

    Two companies awarded $46.7 million to supply influenza vaccine to the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies

  • Puffer machine, RIP

    The puffer machines were once thought of as a good solution for airport security: passengers would walk through a portal in which a blast of air would dislodge particles off their clothes and bodies to detect traces of explosives; things have not worked out, and TSA pulls the plug on the futuristic device

  • Opposition growing to LNG project near Baltimore

    Virginia-based gas company AES wants to build a liquefied natural gas terminal in eastern Baltimore County; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission placed 169 conditions, mostly related to safety and environment, on its approval of the project; residents in the neighboring communities say the company is far from meeting these conditions

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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