• Stolen laptops "broadcast" their location to rightful owners

    Huskies researchers develop a software tool which uses the Internet as a homing beam; if the thief uses the stolen laptop to connect to the Internet, the owner receives information on the laptop location (and Macintosh owners also recvied a picture of the thief)

  • Engineers to quake-proof Cal stadium on free-floating blocks

    Engineers have solved one of the world’s great retrofit puzzles: how to keep UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium from crumbling into a pile of concrete rubble during a major earthquake

  • U.S.-based computers launch most cyberattacks in 2008

    Computers, or hackers, based in the United States launched most of the cyber attacks in the world between January and September 2008; China-based computers were in second place, and Brazil came in third; United States also led in the number of computers compromised

  • Satellite phone company Iridium acquired for $591 million

    Iridium made a name for itself for going bankrupt eight years ago and being bought for $25 million; it later donated satellite phones to first responders in the aftermath of Katrina; now it is being acquired for half a billion dollars

  • Keep IT security simple

    New study of corporate security breaches says that 87 percent of all security breaches could have been avoided “if reasonable security controls had been in place at the time of the incident”

  • Text messaging for emergency information

    The United States is a nation with a growing number of texters — 3/4 of Americans can text message, and one-third of them do; yet, the method is not effectively used for offering detailed emergency information during disasters

  • GAO: U.S. computer emergency readiness team is not ready

    Government Accounting Office criticizes US-CERT for lacking “a comprehensive baseline understanding of the nation’s critical information infrastructure operations” and for not exhibiting “aspects of the attributes essential to having a truly national capability,” among other things

  • IBM shows hardware-based encryption tool

    System x Vault protects data when a server’s hard drive is disposed or stolen, without affecting server performance

  • Computer model to help in smoother hurricane evacuation

    Software developed at MIT could save lives and money by improving hurricane planning

  • Terrorism: What the next president will face

    Richard Clarke, special editor of a new volume on the terrorist threat the United States is facing: “Like the cold war, this struggle is ideological at its root and will likely take many years to end. As with the cold war, however, skillful management could eventually cause the threat to go away, not with a bang but with a whimper”

  • New Orleans coped well with Gustav

    The planning and execution of hurricane emergency measure was far superior to what happened during Katrina, even if the challenge was not as demanding; analysts worry that with Gustav failing to live up to expectations of devastation, we may witness “evacuation fatigue” next time

  • Chertoff: Neglect threatens infrastructure

    DHS secretary Michael Chertoff says that lack of investment in U.S. infrastructure “[is] kind of like playing Russian roulette with our citizens’ safety”

  • Small company benefits from growing interest in security

    A recent study says that private security service demand in the United States will rise 4.7 percent annually through 2012 based on high perceived risks of crime and low expectations of public safety help; a small West Virginia security company benefits from this trend

  • New York State gives company 45 days to fix problems

    New York State awarded M/A Com a contract for building the infrastructure for the statewide wireless network for first responders; the contract was to be completed by December 2006; state comptroller office, citing the delay and nearly 20 other deficiencies, gives company 45 days to fix problem or see its contract revoked

  • New metrics to help measure enterprise security

    A non-profit IT security organization is working toward releasing a set of metrics for enterprises to measure the effectiveness of their security controls