• Obama administration to unveil nuclear weapons policy

    The administration’s Nuclear Posture Review was initially scheduled for release late last year, and then again for 1 March, but it is coming; it will lay out the administration’s justifications and strategy for maintaining a nuclear arsenal, and will be important in guiding work throughout the energy department, including at the primary weapons laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California

  • German court says EU phone, e-mail data retention policy must be changed

    In 2006 the EU approved a law requiring phone and e-mail providers to hold customer data for six months in case the data is needed by law enforcement; a German Federal Constitution Court called the law “inadmissable” and ruled that changes would be needed to limit its scope

  • Debate revived over the security threat small planes pose

    There are about 200,000 small and medium-size aircraft in the United States, using 19,000 airports, most of them small; last Thursday’s suicide attack on an office building in Austin, Texas revives debate over the security threat small planes pose, and how strict the security measures applied to general aviation should be

  • Air traffic control shortage endangers New York air security

    The New York air traffic system is the busiest air system in the United States, and the second busiest in the world, with more than 107 million passengers each year; some 5,000 flights per day arrive in and depart out of the six major airports in the New York City metropolitan area; the Federal Aviation Administration says 270 air traffic controllers are needed for the New York area, but the actual number of fully trained and certified air traffic controllers has never risen above 211; that number has now dropped to 158

  • Deadline for Massachusetts' “Written Information Security Program” looms

    As of 1 March 2010, Massachusetts will require that all Massachusetts companies — and even companies operating outside the Commonwealth, but which do business in Massachusetts — to implement stringent personal data privacy law, the data protections pertain to not just electronically stored and transmitted information but also hard copy formats

  • How real is the threat of cyberattack on the United States?

    Some experts compare the economic impact of a major cyberincident to the 2003 Northeast blackout, which cut service to fifty million people in the United States and Canada for up to four days; economists place the cost of that event between $4.5 [billion] and $10 billion — which they regard as a blip in the $14.2 trillion U.S. economy

  • House sponsors of the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act hopes for quick Senate approval

    The The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act by an overwhelming majority; Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) says: “When you’re talking about science and technology and national security….those are elements we should all be able to work together (on); Democrat, Republican, and that’s what we saw on the House floor”

  • Intellectual Ventures: A genuine path breaker or a patent troll?

    Intellectual Ventured has amassed 30,000 patents, spent more than $1 million on lobbying last year, and its executives have contributed more than $1 million to Democratic and Republican candidates and committees; the company says it wants to build a robust, efficient market for “invention capital”; critics charge that some of its practices are closer to that of a patent troll

  • Farmers, ranchers urged to be aware of agroterrorism

    South Dakota’s U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson says all aspects of agriculture can be targets of terrorists, but Johnson said meat production is the most vulnerable; “Livestock are the number one target for terrorists attacking the agriculture system…. If you want to get a bunch of cattle sick at once, it’s not rocket science on how to do it”

  • Muslim religious group: Airport body scanners violate Islamic law

    A leading Muslim organization in the United States issues a ruling saying that whole-body scanners violates Islamic laws on modesty; the organizations urges all Muslims to choose pat-downs instead; TSA says that the pat-down option is available to all passengers

  • McAfee: China leads world in hacked computers

    A new study finds that more personal computers in China — about 1,095,000 computers — than in any other country have been hacked to make them zombies, then grouped into botnets to engage in massive e-mail attacks on Web sites; the prevalence of botnets is a sign of how vulnerable computer networks are to infiltration

  • Engineers group gives Illinois infrastructure low marks

    The ASCE says that the dilapidated Illinois infrastructure is endangering the state’s future prosperity; the group examined nine infrastructure elements; the two that got the highest grade – C+ — are aviation and bridges; the others fared worse

  • New Hampshire considering banning biometrics in ID cards

    The New Hampshire legislature is considering a bill which would ban biometric data, including fingerprints, retinal scans, DNA, palm prints, facial feature patterns, handwritten signature characteristics, voice data, iris recognition, keystroke dynamics, and hand characteristics from being used in state or privately issued ID cards, except for employee ID cards

  • Student sues TSA, saying he was detained for five hours over English-Arabic flashcards

    A Pomona College student who takes Arabic classes in school was stopped by TSA and FBI agents at the Philadelphia International Airport because he was carrying English-Arabic flashcards; the student, backed by the ACLU, is suing, charging that he abusively interrogated, handcuffed, and detained for five hours; TSA says the student’s behavior was erratic

  • A nuclear Iran may be good for U.S. defense industry

    A defense expert says that the emergence of a nuclear-armed Iran will lead to growth in exports of American weapons systems, training, and advice to U.S. Middle Eastern allies; this would give the American defense industry a needed shot in the arm; Boeing has been making noise about shifting out of the defense industry, which would mean lost American jobs and would also put the United States in a difficult position should it be threatened by a rising military power like China; “a nuclear Iran could forestall such a catastrophe”