• Rep. Peter King: DHS has more "refined" approach to terrorism

    The likely incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Representative Peter King (R-N.Y.) has been one of the administration’s loudest critics on issues of counterterrorism and homeland security in the past year; he had repeatedly criticized White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, and has called for his firing; King has a softer tone toward the administration now, a week after the federal government prevented a series of possible attacks against cargo jets — and two month before assuming the chairmanship of the House Homeland Security Committee

  • U.K. outlines counter-terrorism priorities

    The Home Secretary’s priorities are to: enhance protective security measures, invest in conflict prevention and stopping overseas terrorist plots, refocus the U.K. strategy for preventing radicalization, and strike a better balance between liberty and security

  • Plotters had no control over where cargo bombs would go off

    The plotters behind last week’s unsuccessful mail bombings could not have known exactly where their Chicago-bound packages were when they were set to explode; the communication cards had been removed from the cell phones attached to the bombs, meaning the phones could not receive calls, making it likely the terrorists intended the alarm or timer functions to detonate the bombs; each bomb was attached to a syringe containing lead azide, a chemical initiator that would have detonated PETN explosives packed into each computer printer toner cartridge; both PETN and a syringe were used in the failed Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner linked to an al Qaida branch in Yemen

  • Not your father's police dept.: Tarrytown police adopts latest technology

    Tarrytown police cruisers are now rolling with the latest technology and software; two of the software systems at the fingertips of the police are the Mobile Plate Hunter 900 and the TraCS (Traffic and Criminal Software) system; used in conjunction with dual, rear-mounted license plate readers, an officer can catch an offending driver, check a driver’s background, and print up a ticket and a court summons in a matter of minutes

  • New Jersey towns warm up to electronic traffic ticketing

    Officers will be able electronically to issue summonses and tickets for moving and nonmoving violations in a fraction of the time it takes to write them by hand; the efficiency should free officers to do more police work — a benefit as departments deal with reduced manpower, said officers and advocates of the technology

  • Detecting terrorist plots the old-fashioned way

    New study of eighty-six terrorist plots since 1999 found that 80 percent were discovered through old-fashioned police work or tips from the public, not technology-driven counter-terrorism operations; the authors said the authorities should cultivate good relations with “communities with persons in or near radical movements, an ability that is jeopardized by indiscriminately targeting individuals and groups due to their race, ethnicity, religion or ideology”

  • U.K. defense cuts may benefit engineering industries

    The U.K. defense industry is bracing itself for tens of thousands of private-sector job losses following the government’s budget cuts; for all the negativity of defense cuts, an influx of engineers into the employment market, combined with investment in infrastructure, raises the question of whether other industries might stand to benefit

  • Bombs in flight -- Friday's false alarm not false

    Friday’s emergency activity concerned with finding explosive devices initially reported as a false alarm — early reports indicated no explosives were found; this proved to be wrong in subsequent reports, live devices containing PETN were found in the U.K. and Dubai; in the instance of the Dubai device, the bomb package had been flown on two passenger flights; U.S. intelligence analysis identify bombmaker; Yemeni authorities arrest and later release female student on suspicion of complicity

  • U.K.'s government unveils £200 billion National Infrastructure Plan

    David Cameron announces infrastructure plan to rebuild the economy a week after sweeping government cuts; the plan calls for a government commitment of over £40 billion directed to infrastructure projects, including a Green Investment Bank that provides up to £1 billion toward a commercial scale carbon capture and storage demonstration projects; £30 billion for transportation, including a high speed rail network, maintenance, and investment in local roads and rail and funding towards the Network Rail

  • False alarm at U.S., U.K. airports

    Several United Parcel Service flights arriving at U.S and U.K. were moved to areas isolated from other aircraft, and searched for explosive devices; to this point no explosives have been found

  • Northrop shows big-gun armed robot

    Northrop took its Carry-all Mechanized Equipment Landrover, or CaMEL — a 60-inch-tall treaded vehicle capable of carrying an impressive 1,200 pounds of stuff — and put a massive .50 caliber M2 machine gun on it; Israel has already ordered 60 of them, and the U.S. Army is considering (after an unpleasant experience with an earlier armed robot in Iraq two years ago)

  • Congressional cybersecurity leadership after the elections

    If Republicans win both houses of Congress next Tuesday, there will be many changes at the relevant committees regarding the handling of cybersecurity matters; in the Senate, though, changes may be less noticeable — with bills heretofore informally dubbed Lieberman-Collins and Rockefeller-Snowe remaining the same, but with the names reversed

  • Cybersecurity only bright spot among disappointing administration privacy grades

    The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) gave the Obama administration a “B” grade on its cybersecurity efforts; the 2010 report card shows declining grade — relative to 2009 — for the administration efforts in the cyber privacy areas; EPIC gave President Obama a dismal “D” on civil liberties in 2010, compared to a “C+” in 2009

  • Whistling past the graveyard: the Bushehr reactor

    Iran is already inching toward a uranium-based nuclear weapon, and yesterday it started loading fuel into the core of its first nuclear plant at Bushehr, thus embarking on the plutonium path to the bomb; yes, the agreement between Iran and Russia, which operates the reactor, calls for Russia to retain control of the spent uranium rods — so that Iran could not separate weapon-grade plutonium from them; but what if Iran were to renege on the agreement, keep the spent uranium, and begin to process it? Would Russia invade Iran to regain control of its uranium?

  • Police, SAS train for Mumbai-style attack in U.K.

    Commandos of Britain’s elite Special Air Squadron(SAS) are reportedly conducting a series of counter-terrorism exercises to train the country’s police to foil 2008 Mumbai-style attacks on England; police armed response units are being given more powerful weapons; the job of the police would be to contain the situation while the job of the SAS (Special Air Service), if called upon, would be to resolve it