• The DHS intelligence sharing it is and isn’t doing

    The problems with inter-governmental information sharing are not the result of technology; technology per se rarely is the genuine factor leading to institutional error; certainly it can be, but all too often it is slandered and defamed as if it were human; in agency after agency, however, DHS computers simply do what they are told to do as determined by their managers who follow formal or informal institutional policies

  • More efficient bioterrorism response plan

    In the event of a bioterror attack on a building (think: the 2011 anthrax attack on the offices of two Democratic Senators, Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick Leahy of Vermont), the current approach to decontamination is to clean up the building until no pathogens can be detected; researchers suggest, however, that whether or not pathogens are found depends greatly upon how extensively the buildings are tested

  • New insights into terrorist threats to ground transportation

    A new analysis of terrorist attacks, and attempted attacks, on ground transportation shows that from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, terrorist groups used chemicals to attack surface transportation; from the mid-1990s on, multiple bombs became the new prototype for terrorist attacks

  • Formation of hate groups associated with presence of big-box stores

    In a new research, economists say that the presence of big-box retailers, such as Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and Target, may alter a community’s social and economic fabric enough to promote the creation of hate groups; the researchers say that the number of Wal-Mart stores in a county is more significant statistically than factors commonly regarded as important to hate group participation, such as the unemployment rate, high crime rates, and low education

  • DHS cuts grants to states, emphasizes maintenance

    Over the past few years, DHS has been cutting funding for grants to state and emergency response agencies; the billions of dollars given to states after 2011 have been used to buy many pieces of first-response and law-enforcement equipment, and DHS now emphasizes the maintenance of that equipment

  • WWII-like message encryption now available for e-mail security

    A Singapore-based company offers an e-mail encryption system based on the Verman cipher, or one-time pad, which was invented in 1917 and used by spies in the Second World War; the Vernam cipher is unbreakable because it produces completely random cipher-text that secures data so that even the most powerful super computers can not break the encryption when it is used properly

  • Pressure continues to remove MEK from terrorist watch-list

    Prominent former U.S. officials who support the removal of the Iranian opposition group MEK  from the U.S. Department of State terrorist watch-list bristle at the despite indirect warnings from the U.S. Treasury Department that their support for the group could constitute a crime

  • NY-NJ Port Authority centralizes security operations

    The Port of Authority of New York and new Jersey has created a stand-alone Security Department and is now searching for a Chief Security Officer to oversee all security and safety functions, resources, and personnel

  • Isotec Security receives Safety Act designation

    Isotec Security’s Automated Weapons Control Portals has been awarded SAFETY Act designation by DHS; the company notes that no strategic, public facility, or bank using the solution has suffered an armed incursion or successful armed robbery

  • Missouri announces additional funding for Disaster Recovery Jobs Program

    Missourigovernor announces an investment of $16.5 million in federal National Emergency Grant (NEG) funding to create temporary jobs for workers in twenty-nine Missouri counties affected by tornadoes, floods, and severe storms last year

  • Advanced technologies shed more light on the killing of Trayvon Martin

    Since only two people know what happened in the confrontation between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, and since one of them is dead, investigators must rely on circumstantial evidence — and on advanced technology; two such technologies — voice biometrics and redigitized imaging — help shed more light on the fateful February night

  • Sanctions unlikely to affect Iran’s nuclear aim

    The likelihood of economic sanctions persuading the Iranian leadership to abandon its quest for nuclear weapons is very low; the record of economic sanctions is not good: long-standing international sanctions remain in place against North Korea, Ivory Coast, and Somalia without noticeable effects on their policies; embargoes against Serbia and Libya ended, as with Iraq, only after military intervention forced change

  • ACLU: Cell phone tracking by police widespread

    ACLU obtains information from over 200 law enforcement agencies; finds widespread police use of cell phone location tracking along with variance in legal standards, technology used

  • France debates its anti-terror approach

    The French are debating their anti-terrorism policies in the wake of the worst terrorist attacks on French soil; the debate centers on whether or not the authorities have the right approach to combating terrorism 

  • Post-communist depression

    A new study reveals how a radical economic policy devised by Western economists put former Soviet states on a road to bankruptcy and corruption