• Critical Interoperable Messaging Capability for First Responders

    “With no dedicated public safety messaging and collaboration platform, many public safety and emergency response officials are leveraging non-secure, consumer-grade messaging tools,” says DHS’s Kathryn Coulter Mitchell. The address this problem, DHS ST has awarded more than $1.5 million to advance the development of the Bridge 4 Public Safety (Bridge4PS) messaging and collaborating platform for first responders.

  • WMD Threat Sensors Deployed on Police Vehicles

    DARPA’s SIGMA+ program completed a 3-month test in Indianapolis, in which CBRNE sensors were deployed on IMPD vehicles.

  • DHS Strategic Framework for Addressing Climate Change

    Two weeks ago, the Biden administration released four reports, by DHS, the intelligence community, the Department of Defense, and the National Security Council, on how climate change-driven developments — among them:  worsening conflict within and between nations; increased dislocation and migration as people flee climate-fueled instability; heightened military tension and uncertainty; infrastructure destruction; worsening public health; food and water shortages; financial hazards, and more – are posing an increasingly more serious challenge to global stability and to U.S. national security.

  • Northern Skies Provide the Backdrop for Testing Border Security Tech

    The purpose of demonstrations and tests recently conducted in Montana North Dakota was to evaluate specialized air domain awareness technologies such as radar systems; electro-optical and infrared cameras; radio frequency detection systems; and acoustic devices to see how effectively each can monitor, safeguard, and secure the various terrains and airspace that surround the northern border between the U.S. and Canada.

  • Rising Temperatures Reshaping, Exacerbating Global Security Landscape

    More than just altering the environment, climate change is threatening to permanently and dangerously reshape the global security landscape. These are the conclusions of a series of new assessments by U.S. military, intelligence, and security officials. “As climate change converges with other drivers — especially geostrategic competition, emerging technology and global-demographic trends — it is reshaping the risk landscape,” DHS said in its assessment. “The corrosive impact of these trends will make nations increasingly vulnerable to domestic instability, with sweeping implications for regional and border security and core national security interests.”.

  • FEMA’s Initial Response to COVID-19

    During the first months of FEMA’s response to the spreading COVID-19 pandemic, the United States faced a debilitating shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare personnel and ventilators for seriously ill patients in hospitals. DHS IG examined the effectiveness of FEMA’s response.

  • Calif. Sheriff Sued for Sharing Drivers’ License Plate Data With ICE, CBP, Other Out-of-State Agencies

    License plate scans occur through Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs): high-speed cameras mounted in a fixed location or atop police cars moving through the community that automatically capture all license plates that come into view, recording the exact location, date, and time that the vehicle passes by. The information can paint a detailed picture of our private lives, our daily schedules, and our social networks.

  • The Sound and the Fury: Inside the Mystery of the Havana Embassy

    More than a year after American diplomats began to suffer strange, concussion-like symptoms in Cuba, a U.S. investigation is no closer to determining how they were hurt or by whom, and the FBI and CIA are at odds over the case. A ProPublica investigation reveals the many layers to the mystery — and the political maneuvering that is reshaping U.S.-Cuba relations.

  • U.S. Unveils New Cybersecurity Requirements for Rail, Air

    DHS has unveiled new measures to make sure the U.S. air and surface transportation sectors will not be crippled by ransomware or cyberattacks. The new measures will apply to “higher risk” rail companies, “critical” airport operators, and air passenger and air cargo companies.

  • Hacking for Homeland Security

    On Monday (4 September), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the launch of the third Hacking for Homeland Security (H4HS). Participating students will focus on challenges associated with cybersecurity information sharing within transportation, the latency issue at screening checkpoints, and address greenspace issues after natural disasters.

  • Innovative Air Domain Awareness Technology

    DHS S&T is evaluating an innovative air domain awareness technologies to help protect the airspace along our northern border with Canada.

  • Biden Unveils Plan of Attack for COVID-19

    Keep schools open, mandate vaccines for all federal employees, and increase testing—these are three of the goals President Joe Biden outlined Thursday during a briefing on America’s ongoing battle against COVID-19.

  • Apollo Program-Style Pandemic Preparedness Plan

    Last week, the Biden administration announced a new biosecurity plan which it likened to the Apollo program of the late 1960s. This $65 billion proposal would be one of the largest investments in public health in American history and would “remake the nation’s pandemic preparedness infrastructure in the wake of Covid-19.”

  • DOD Imagery Information Aids Wildland Firefighters

    With continuing significant fire activity in the western United States this year, the Department of Defense (DoD) is delivering requested personnel, equipment, and facilities, to assist our Federal, State, and local partners fighting wildland fires. One of the tools provided by the DoD is the Firefly system pilot program (Firefly), a capability from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). 

  • CDC Sets Up New Disease Forecasting Center

    The CDC announced a new center — the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics — designed to advance the use of forecasting and outbreak analytics in public health decision making. Among other missions, the new center will accelerate access to and use of data for public health decision-makers who need information to mitigate the effects of disease threats, such as social and economic disruption.