• NSA: Perfect Citizen program is purely "research and engineering effort"

    Perfect Citizen, a new National Security Agency (NSA) project, would deploy sensors in networks running critical infrastructure such as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants; the sensors would detect intrusion and other unusual activity indicating a cyberattack on U.S. critical infrastructure; NSA spokeswoman says the program is “purely a vulnerabilities-assessment and capabilities-development contract—- This is a research and engineering effort” and “There is no monitoring activity involved, and no sensors are employed in this endeavor”

  • TSA will miss 1 August air cargo screening deadline

    TSA will miss the congressionally mandated 1 August deadline of having 100 percent of cargo carried on planes screened; all cargo loaded onto passenger planes departing from domestic airports will be checked for explosives by the deadline, but screening all international cargo entering the United States has proved more challenging; the reason: an estimated 2.8 billion pounds of air cargo arrives in the United States every year on passenger aircraft from 94 different countries; the cargo is handled in the global air cargo supply chain by a vast number of participants; each of these 94 countries has unique air cargo security programs and regulatory requirements, many of which differ significantly from those required by TSA

  • Rising number of domestic terrorism cases make Muslim Americans grapple with homegrown jihad

    Recent arrests of Muslim men in terrorism plots lead some adherents to ask whether there is a need for more urgency in approaching the risks of homegrown jihadists; says one Muslim scholar: “There is this tug of war inside ourselves of trying to reconcile Islam and being an American”

  • U.S. government releases more mobile apps

    The U.S. government is increasing the pace of releasing mobile apps to the public; more than 100 apps are either available now or currently under development (though not all will be issued to the public); the latest apps to be released: FBI Most Wanted, My TSA, and product recalls

  • 7/7 London bombings: "The rules of the game have changed"

    Two weeks after the 7 July attacks, the then prime minister, Tony Blair, called a press conference at which he warned: “Let no one be in doubt. The rules of the game have changed”; he outlined twelve new measures that aimed to transform the landscape of British counterterrorism; together, they were intended to offer a greater degree of collective security; each came at considerable cost to the liberties of both individuals and groups of people; the controversial Terrorism Act 2006 passed after the 7 July bombings has led to increased arrests and convictions

  • Report: Terrorism in Britain "mostly home grown"

    New study finds that that 69 percent of terrorist offenses in the United Kingdom were perpetrated by individuals holding British nationality; 46 percent of offenders had their origins in south Asia including 28 percent who had Pakistani heritage; 31 percent had attended university and 10 percent were still students when they were arrested; 35 percent were unemployed and living on benefits

  • Attacks on trains: what the numbers say

    Terrorists see public surface transportation as a killing field; despite their continuing obsession with attacking commercial aviation, when it comes to wholesale killing, trains and buses offer easily accessible concentrations of people

  • Lawmakers say Chinese investment in a U.S. steel mill poses national security risks

    A Chinese steel company — China’s fourth largest — plans to invest in a Mississippi-based steel maker; this is the first investment by a Chinese company in a U.S. mill; fifty U.S. lawmakers write the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury urging him to block the deal; they argue that the investment poses a national security risk as Anshan Steel is controlled by the Chinese government

  • U.K. will regulate license number plate recognition cameras more tightly

    There are 4,000 automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras in the United Kingdom, logging more than 10 million vehicles every day; since the launch of the ANPR network in 2006, the government has accumulated 7.6 billion images; these images include details of number plates and the date, time, and place of capture — and, often, the picture of the driver and passengers; the Home Secretary has called for tighter regulation of the ANPRs, and also for limiting access to the image database; ministers will consider how long these records can be held (the current limit is two years); seventy-two ANPR cameras in Birmingham will soon be removed after it emerged that their installation, in areas with large Muslim populations, had been funded through a Home Office counter-terrorism fund

  • Florida implements ICE's Secure Communities program

    The United States DHS has deported 30,700 illegal aliens with level 1, 2, or 3 crimes in their past; of these, 1,800 illegal aliens have been removed from Florida; as Florida implements the Secure Communities program, the expectation is that the number of deportees will increase

  • IT security accounts for largest share of homeland security spending

    Aviation security may be more visible than IT security, but a new research says that the former accounts for only 4.6 of the homeland security market, while the latter accounts for 23 percent; public and private homeland security spending will grow from $69 billion 2010 to $85 billion by 2014

  • Scotland Yard: U.K. proposed budget Cuts "will increase terrorism risk"

    The U.K. government wants the Scotland Yard to find £150 million in savings as part of “eye-watering” Treasury budget cuts; the assistant commissioner of Scotland Yard, says these cuts cannot be made without increasing the risk of a terrorist attack

  • U.S. gives $2 billion to solar energy companies

    The Obama administration awarded nearly $2 billion to two solar energy companies for three large solar energy projects — in Arizona, Indiana, and Colorado; the projects will create more than 3,000 jobs, power 70,000 homes, and produce millions of solar panels each year

  • U.S. intensifies covert campaign against Iran's nuclear weapons program

    Since 1960, Israel relied on covert — and, at times, less covert — campaign to prevent Egypt, Iraq, and Syria from acquiring nuclear weapons; Libya, too, was persuaded to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons; during the past decade and half, both the United States and Israel have been directing their covert anti-nuclear efforts toward the Iranian nuclear program; one analyst notes that sabotage campaign is a tactic, not a diplomatic strategy — but the history of successful non-proliferation efforts is often a history of kicking the nuclear can down the diplomatic road until new leadership comes to the conclusion that it has more to gain by abandoning illicit nuclear activity than by acquiring a bomb

  • Iran shipped advanced radar systems to Syria

    Iran has supplied Syria with advanced radar system which would make it more difficult for Israel to over-fly Syrian air space in the event of an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities; the radar would also offer protection to thousands of Hezbollah medium- and long-range missiles warehoused on Syrian soil just across the border with Lebanon