• Administration Unveils New Border Measures to Curb Unlawful Migration to U.S.

    President Joe Biden announced Thursday measures to crack down on migrants seeking to enter the United States without authorization. The measures will make it easier for border authorities to quickly expel migrants who enter the U.S. between legal crossing points and revive country agreements where would-be asylum-seekers, who passed through a third country, must show they failed to receive protections there before asking for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.

  • Plum Island One Step Closer to Permanent Preservation

    Plum Island is one step closer to permanent preservation. Plum Island is currently owned by the United States government and has been home to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center for nearly 70 years. The Department of Homeland Security is in the process of excessing the island, opening it up for transfer to another entity.

  • Protecting DoD Microelectronics from Adversary Influence

    The NSA publicly released four Cybersecurity Technical Reports to help the Department of Defense protect field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based systems from adversary influence.

  • S&T Makes Headway on Infrastructure Investment

    Critical infrastructure is the backbone of life as we know it here in the U.S.—there are, of course, the roads and highways we travel, but also the electric grids that power our lives and livelihoods, the public transit systems that facilitate connection, the cyber networks that enable commerce and communication, and much, much more.

  • Better Defense Planning Could Use Statistics to Try to See into the Future

    The war in Ukraine is not the first time—nor will it be the last—that the Department of Defense (DoD) has been forced to respond rapidly to unexpected threats or to reorient priorities when the assumptions guiding its force planning changed.

  • Intrusive Surveillance and Interrogation of Portland Demonstrators by DHS Agents

    DHS surveillance of 2020 protestors in Portland, Oregon was broader and more intrusive than had previously been knows. DHS agents created individual dossiers on many of the protestors, dossiers which included lists of friends and family, travel history, social media postings, and other records unrelated to securing federal property or homeland security. Documents also reveal that Trump appointees at DHS endorsed baseless conspiracy theories in justifying what Senator Ron Wyden D-Oregon) called “violations of Oregonians’ civil rights.”

  • DHS Unveils New Cybersecurity Performance Goals for Critical Infrastructure

    DHS released the Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPGs), voluntary practices that outline the highest-priority baseline measures businesses and critical infrastructure owners of all sizes can take to protect themselves against cyber threats.

  • Ensuring Our Workforce Is Cyber Ready

    Remaining vigilant and prepared to protect our nation’s cybersecurity is one of DHS S&T’s highest priorities. To meet this goal, S&T is harnessing the intellectual power of America’s universities and leveraging some of the best and brightest subject matter experts and academic minds via S&T Centers of Excellence (COE).

  • Better Regulating Drone Use Requires Communication, Not Surveillance

    In 2018, Congress gave the DHS and DOJ sweeping new authorities to destroy or commandeer privately-owned drones which pose a “credible threat” to a “covered facility or asset” in the U.S. as well as intercept the data it sends and receives. The definition of “credible threat” was left entirely to the discretion of DOJ and DHS.

  • Tracking Threats and Harassment Against Local Officials

    Following the 2020 presidential election, there has been a growing wave of threats against and harassment of election officials. Nearly 60 percent these threats and acts of intimidation took place in the five states which Trump falsely claimed he had won: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona.

  • DHS to Stabilize Its Historic Lighthouse on Plum Island

    DHS S&T is leading a project aiming to stabilize the historic Plum Island Light Station. The lighthouse was constructed in 1869 and put into service in 1870. Plum Island, New York, is located approximately 1.5 miles from the eastern end of Long Island’s North Fork. The island is wholly owned by the DHS and primarily serves as a secure location for DHS S&T’s Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC).

  • Seismic Shifts Underway in Global Semiconductor Market as U.S. Accelerates Decoupling from China

    Historically, the U.S. had the lion’s share of the global semiconductor industry (37 percent in 1990), but its dominance has been eroded by North Asian markets over the past three decades. In August, the administration committed to bolstering the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing sector with $50 billion in funding under the CHIPS and Science Act, with the potential to create 40,000 new jobs.

  • New Small Business Innovation Sources Tapped for Classified Efforts

    DOD often seeks innovative and creative solutions to complex, classified challenges, but the DOD is currently only able to access a limited pool of companies cleared to work on them. Pilot program aims to expand pool of small companies cleared to work on classified defense projects.

  • DHS Debuts First Fully Electric Law Enforcement Vehicle

    DHS became the first federal agency to debut a battery electric vehicle (EV) fitted for performing law enforcement functions. The Ford Mustang Mach-E is the first of a variety of EVs DHS plans to field across its varied law enforcement missions throughout the United States.

  • U.S. Plans to Boost US Biotechnology Manufacturing

    The administration announced Monday steps to bolster the “bioeconomy” in the United States, a classification that covers research and development across a broad swath of products, including medical supplies, sustainable new fuels and food, as well as technologies meant to help fight climate change. The order comes barely a month after President Biden signed a major piece of legislation, the CHIPS Act, meant to supercharge U.S. manufacturing of semiconductors, an area in which the U.S. has lost its once-dominant global position.