• An HSNW conversation with Harold Wolpert, CEO of Avalias

    Avalias’s solutions allow an organization to approximate the experience of a disaster, and to help the personnel charged with defense and mitigation to perfect and rehearse their responses to disaster; Harold Wolpert, CEO of Avalias: “Our technology is taken for granted. That’s because it can be”

  • The security of the U.S. communications network, I

    A few vandals, equipped with pliers, last Thursday cut fiber-optics cables in the San Francisco Bay area, paralyzing wireless, Internet, phone, and emergency communication for more than twelve hours; what does this tell us about the vulnerability to disruption of the U.S. communication network?

  • DHS seeks nuclear detection research

    DHS is looking to award $3 million this summer for nuclear detection technology exploratory research that could lead to a dramatic improvement in the U.S. nuclear detection capabilities

  • AT&T increases reward in cable vandalism to $250,000

    Late last eek vandals cut fiber optic cables in three California counties, disrupting communication and commerce; AT&T increases reward for information which will lead to capturing the vandals

  • Officials ponder the lessons of Columbine

    Next week will mark ten years to the Columbine High shooting; hundreds of millions have been invested in school security, but money is drying up, and emphasis on campus security is weakening; some say say simpler, cheaper measure would be best in any event

  • DHS adds $100 million to emergency food bank

    DHS secretary Napolitano announces $100 million in stimulus package funds for Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP); EFSP, created twenty-six years ago, has so far distributed more than $3.4 billion in federal funds for food and shelter

  • Iran makes a major step toward the bomb

    Iran inaugurated its the country’s first nuclear fuel production plant, allowing it to produce enough plutonium for two bombs a year; at the same time it is increasing the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges; Iran already has enough enriched uranium for one bomb

  • Seeing through concrete, clearly

    Insurgents and terrorists fight from within civilian structures, making it difficult for soldiers and first responders to respond without injuring many civilians; DARPA wants a solution which would allow soldiers to look through concrete walls and give them a detailed picture of a building’s interior — right down to the fixtures

  • Smart bandage tells doctors about state of wound healing

    Dutch researchers develop a smart bandage which updates doctors about the wound healing process; bandage made of printed electronic sensors; the researchers’ next goal: add an antenna to transmit information about the patient’s health remotely to the attending physician

  • CCTV doorbell could deter, catch crooks

    New CCTV-equipped doorbell takes pictures of people ringing your doorbell, and stores picture for future use

  • Gates expects Israel to hold back on Iran -- at least in 2009

    U.S. secretary of defense Robert Gates says he does not think Israel would attack Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2009: “I guess I would say I would be surprised…if they did act this year”

  • NYPD wants to expand anti-terror program to midtown

    NYPD wants to duplicate in midtown the measures under way near Ground Zero; these measures will allow allow police to do everything they do downtown — scan license plates, monitor surveillance video cameras, and use radiation and bioterrorism detectors — between 34th and 59th streets, from river to river

  • Dubious distinction: U.S. produces most cybercriminals -- and victims

    Cybercriminals defrauded victims out of an estimated $265 million, with the average victim losing about $1,000; two out of three cybercriminals — and 93 percent of victims — were Americans

  • DHS to focus on employers in new immigration emphasis

    The new policy will aim enforcement efforts at those who hire illegal workers; DHS says immigration raids will continue

  • Soldiers' helmets serve as sniper location system

    Commodore researchers develop a networked helmet that help soldiers and first responders fighting in a hazardous urban environment pin-point and display the location of enemy shooters in three dimensions and accurately identify the caliber and type of weapons they are firing