• NYC, Lockheed locked in bitter litigation

    Lockheed Martin and New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) are locked in a no-holds-barred legal battle over who is responsible for the problems in installing security CCTVs to monitor MTA’s tunnels, platforms, and stations; Lockheed stands to receive either $80 million or $138 million from the MTA should the judge rule in the company’s favor; in the event that the MTA wins the lawsuit, Lockheed would pay the city approximately $92 million

  • ShotSpotter to detect gun firing in Huntington Station

    To combat rising gun violence in Huntington Station, Long Island, Suffolk County has decided to deploy the ShotSpotter gunfire detection system; ShotSpotter, an acoustic surveillance system, uses microphones that pick up the sounds of gunfire. Patrol cars with laptop computers can then detect the origin of the shots within ten feet

  • Questions about TSA's approach to security technology

    The massive push to improve airport security in the United States after the attacks of 9/11 led to a gold rush in technology contracts for an industry that mushroomed almost overnight; since it was founded in 2001, the TSA has spent roughly $14 billion in more than 20,900 transactions with dozens of contractors; in addition to beefing up the fleets of X-ray machines and traditional security systems at airports nationwide, about $8 billion also paid for ambitious new technologies; critics question whether TSA was too eager to look for technological solutions to basic security problem, and willing to write checks for unproven products

  • China's dominance in rare Earth elements to weaken

    China currently has a lock on the rare Earth elements market: in 2009 it provided 95 percent of the world’s supply, or 120,000 tons; other countries used to produce rare Earth elements, but environmental and economic considerations led to the near death of the industry outside of China; the growing unease with China’s dominance — and its willingness to exploit this dominance for political gain — have led to a renewed interest in reopening abandoned mines; U.S. company Molycorp has just secured the permits and funding to restart production at a mine in Mountain Pass, California, which would become the first U.S. source of rare Earth elements in more than a decade; full operations will start by the end of next year; by 2012, the revamped U.S. mine is expected to produce around 20,000 tons of rare Earth materials per year

  • Hoyos Corporation (formerly Global Rainmakers): Identifying 50 people per minute

    The company says its HBOX device can scan fifty people a minute; it is used by the Philadelphia Port Authority as well as Bank of America at lobby entry points; the company made headlines recently with an ambitious city-wide deployment in Leon, Mexico

  • Adding biometrics to E-Verify would reduce illegal immigration

    A new white paper argues that adding biometric technology to E-Verify would bolster DHS’s legal employment verification system; the paper author, former senior FBI official, says that better verification of employment credentials would significantly reduce the flow of illegal immigrants because it will make that much harder for illegals to find a job

  • IrisID: technology for when identity authentication is required

    IrisID technology is used around the world in all applications that require identity authentication from basic access control — getting in and out of a facility or building — to binding the identity of an individual to a document or token; the company’s technology has been chosen as the recognition platform for India’s Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) program; the effort aims to identify 1.2 billion people and improve delivery of benefits to under-served individuals

  • Saudi Arabia to be world's second largest market for homeland security

    The cumulative Saudi market for homeland security, forecast to become the largest in the world after the United States, is expected to be worth around $97 billion in the 2010-18 period; areas of major expenditure are the control of both the Iraq and Yemen borders and raising of a special force to protect vital oil installations

  • More companies shun Mexico as violence spirals

    Growing numbers of companies are deciding to limit their investments in Mexico because of spiraling drug-related violence in one of the world’s most important emerging markets; Mexico continues to lure foreign investment with its low wages, location next to the United States, and the advantages of the North American Free Trade Agreement; for some companies, particularly those that do not yet have operations south of the border, the violence has become daunting

  • BAE develops vehicles for ground war of the future

    A range of technologies could improve the effectiveness and fuel efficiency of current military vehicles, while laying the groundwork for future fighting vehicles; BAE looked at 567 technologies and 244 vehicle concepts, which had to fit only two criteria — the vehicle could weigh no more than 30 tons, and had to carry an equivalent punch to a Challenger 2 tank; the company settled on seven future vehicles

  • General Atomic says its Blitzer rail gun already "tactically relevant"

    Last Friday the U.S. Navy tested a rail gun with muzzle energies of 64 megajoules; the gun aims to deliver a projectile to a target 200 miles away at speeds of up to Mach 7+; not to be outdone, General Atomics has just released information about how, back in September, it tested its own rail gun — dubbed the Blitzer; while the Navy researchers are still preoccupied with the velocity of the projectile and muzzle energy, GA says it is farther along in weaponizing its system, which it describes as already “tactically relevant”

  • DoE report warns of U.S. vulnerability to China's rare-earth supplies

    A U.S. Department of Energy report draws attention to the need to diversify the supply of rare Earth metals needed for clean technology and defense; China currently supplies 97 percent of the world’s rare Earth elements; the largest U.S. producer of rare earths last week announced a $130 million funding deal with Japanese company Sumitomo that promises the financier “substantial quantities of rare-earth products”

  • ASIS International, BSI release Business Continuity Management ANSI standard

    ASIS International, BSI have released Joint Business Continuity Management ANSI Standard; the standard provides auditable criteria with accompanying guidance for developing and implementing a business continuity management system that improves an organization’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a disruptive event

  • SEGA develops urinal-based video game to keep rest room's floors clean

    SEGA installs video games in public men’s rooms; the user controls the game by peeing on sensors in a urinal; SEGA hopes to persuade restaurants and other retail establishments that by giving users goal-oriented mini-games to focus on, their men’s room floors might stay a bit cleaner as gents have somewhere to aim

  • Underground security tech to revolutionize border security

    The University of Arizona College of Engineering is testing an invisible border monitoring system that could revolutionize the way the U.S. conducts homeland security; the border-monitoring system, known as Helios, consists of laser pulses transmitted through fiber-optic cables buried in the ground that respond to movements on the surface above; a detector at one or both ends of the cable analyzes these responses; Helios is sensitive enough to detect a dog and can discriminate between people, horses, and trucks