• Russia braces for new wave of terror attacks in metropolitan areas

    Russia’s cities are bracing themselves for a renewed terrorist bombing campaign after two “black widow” suicide bombers launched a rush-hour attack on the Moscow metro killing 38 people and injuring 64; the Monday explosions were the deadliest suicide attacks in Moscow since 2004, when the bombing of a metro train killed 41

  • Moscow explosions: a small blip or long-term drag on the Russian economy?

    The terrorism behind the Moscow subway explosions could become an economic drag on the Russian economy if it changes perceptions of security risks in Russia; research shows that a sustained low-level terror campaign can raise long-term security concerns and hurt economic growth more than even a very dramatic single event: the 9/11 terror attacks punctured America’s sense of domestic security in a single day, but nevertheless, a year after the attacks, the U.S. economy was growing again; on the other hand, two decades of Basque terrorist activity in Spain — activity which caused far fewer fatalities than 9/11 — created a 10 percent drop in per capita gross domestic product in that area of Spain

  • Children must go through full body scanners at U.K. airports

    U.K. transport minister says that to exclude children from going through full body scanners risked undermining the security measures at U.K. airports; the government’s code of practice on the scanners said airport security staff had all been vetted, including a check of criminal and security service records

  • Top U.S. cyber official: cyber threat poses existential threat to U.S.

    Senior Obama administration official: “I am convinced that given enough time, motivation and funding, a determined adversary will always — always — be able to penetrate a targeted system”; as a result: “The cyber threat can be an existential threat — meaning it can challenge our country’s very existence, or significantly alter our nation’s potential”

  • U.K. police targets Internet cafés in anti-terror effort

    The U.K. police are testing a new tool in the fight against terrorism: surveillance of Internet cafés; owners and patrons are asked to watch for — and report to the authorities — suspicious behavior; owners are asked to scan the hard drives in their shop on a regular basis to look for suspicious browsing and communication patterns; monitoring of Internet cafés’ computer use has been tried in several
    countries, including India and the United States; civil libertarians worry that without a clear definition of suspicious behavior or suspicious Web
    browsing, individuals with outside-the-mainstream political or religious views may be targeted

  • First: Private security guards shoot and kill a Somali pirate

    More and more ships sailing through the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden hire private security guards for protection; on Tuesday, private security guards on a Panamanian-flagged cargo ship shot and killed a Somali pirate; the killed pirate was part of a group of pirates using high-speed skiffs controlled by a mother ship

  • DHS to work with ISP to test Einstein 3 cyber security system

    DHS will work with a commercial ISP to test the partially classified Einstein 3 system; Einstein 3 is designed to do real-time, deep packet inspection and threat-based decision making on data traffic entering or leaving federal agency networks

  • Smartphones, PDAs may be used to avoid long security lines at airports

    TSA is looking at installing devices in airports that home in and detect personal electronic equipment; the goal is to track how long people are stuck in security lines; information about wait times could then be posted on Web sites and in airports across the United States; civil libertarians worry

  • Bluetooth signals monitor airport security-line waiting times

    Purdue University researchers use Bluetooth signals from cell phones and other wireless devices to track how long it takes travelers to get through security lines at the Indianapolis International Airport; the data can be used to help airports make more accurate staffing decisions and aid security officials comparing wait times at airports across the country

  • Backlog at Baltimore crime lab a concern

    The Baltimore Police Department’s crime lab has a backlog of thousands of analysis requests — roughly 3,100 cases for testing bodily fluids, 3,000 cases for drug analysis, and more than 400 cases for DNA analysis; lab delays caused high-profile trial delays, spike in dropped drug cases

  • New Hampshire legislature overwhelmingly defeats biometrics restrictions bill

    The New Hampshire legislation considered a bill which would have banned the use of biometrics in identification cards issued by the state and private entities, except in the case of employee identification cards; the bill also would have barred a state or private group from requiring individuals to submit biometric information as a condition for doing business; the bill was overwhelmingly defeated in a vote last Thursday

  • Trucking industry says it is prepared for terrorism threat

    Trucking industry says that contrary to a scenario in a recent report on the subject, in which a gasoline tanker is hijacked and disappears, a rigorous daily delivery schedule means an out-of-route tanker would be reported very quickly, with or without tracking gear; industry calls for a single, uniform background checking approach

  • SF fiery crash highlights cities' vulnerability to tankers used as weapons

    More than 800,000 trucks carry shipments of hazardous materials every day across the United States; background checks of those hauling hazardous materials are designed to prevent fugitives, the mentally ill, and those convicted of terrorism, espionage, or murder from obtaining a HAZMAT hauling license; one security expert: “It’s very difficult now to purchase explosives … but it’s not that hard to steal a truck full of gasoline, and you can do quite a bit of damage”

  • Noticeable increase in the number of Americans arrested for al Qaeda-related terrorism

    The domestic landscape of terrorism in the United States is changing: there is no escaping the fact the most alarming thing about a string of recently arrested terror suspects is that they are all Americans; more than a dozen Americans have been captured or identified by the U.S. government and its allies over the past two years for actively supporting jihad; some, according to prosecutors, were inspired by the U.S. involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; others, like the accused Pennsylvania woman, wanted to avenge what they considered an insult to the Prophet Mohammed; many traveled overseas to get terrorist training; some used home computers to foment plots; says a terrorism expert: “There really is no profile of a terror suspect; the profile is broken, [and] it’s women as well as men, it’s lifelong Muslims as well as converts, it’s college students as well as jailbirds”

  • Pentagon contractor said to have set up a private unit to kill militants in Pakistan, Afghanistan

    A U.S. government contractor alleged to have diverted funds to set up a unit of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants; “While no legitimate intelligence operations got screwed up, it’s generally a bad idea to have freelancers running around a war zone pretending to be James Bond,” one U.S. government official said