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Minnesota company recalls two years of food products
Plainview Milk Products Cooperative is recalling two years of food products — instant non-fat dried milk, whey protein, fruit stabilizers, and gums— due to possible salmonella contamination
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Pervious concrete may eliminate need for storm drains
A Minnesota town experiments with a new concrete paving method that lets rainwater pass right through the street surface to prevent damaging runoff
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GAO unimpressed with new radiation detectors
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended further testing of next-generation radiation detectors; at more than $800,000 apiece, the new devices cost nearly 300 percent more than the machines in operation
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DHS 2010 spending bill supports biometrics
The legislation includes $352 million for the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, known as US-VISIT, the department’s largest biometric program; this is $52 million more than the fiscal 2009 amount
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Method discovered to process encrypted data without knowing its content
IBM researcher solves thorny mathematical problem that has confounded scientists since the invention of public-key encryption several decades ago; the breakthrough makes possible the analysis of encrypted information — data that has been intentionally scrambled — without sacrificing confidentiality
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NYC to receive $50 million for radiation detection
The House approves the homeland security appropriation bill — with three Republican amendments; one of them, offered by Rep. Peter King of New York, added $50 million to restore funding for the Securing the Cities program, created to place radiological and nuclear sensors around New York City
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Disk containing secret defense-contract details sold in Ghana for $40
Journalism students buy a hard-drive containing secret information on multi-million dollar contracts between Northrop Grumman and the Pentagon; they bought the drive at Ghana “digital dump” for $40
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Obama to seek sweeping changes for cybersecurity
High administration official says that the administration wants to create “far-reaching incentives” for prioritizing cybersecurity in the private sector, which controls much of the nation’s critical IT infrastructure
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Trust but verify, II
British and Norwegian scientists ran the first field trials of a device that could solve the problem of reliable verification: a gamma ray detector linked to a hand-held “information barrier”
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U.K. government: Best cyber defense is cyber offense
New National Security Strategy document includes, for the first time, a public cyber security strategy; unnamed high government source: “We don’t want to engage in cyber war but we can’t remain a target for criminals to take a pop at”
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House of Representatives increases DHS's budget by 7 percent
The bill doubles the funding for airports to purchase explosives detection systems, bringing it to $1.1 billion; the report accompanying the bill expresses concerns that many funds appropriated in earlier years have yet to be drawn down
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Licensing cybersecurity professionals, II
Even with all the unanswered questions, some cybersecurity experts are happy just to be having the conversation on the topic; they say that all the focus on cybersecurity will turn more attention on training and certification efforts
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House panel votes for mandating safer technology at chemical plants
In a setback to the chemical industry, the House Homeland Security Committee approved a bill yesterday that could make chemical facilities use safer technologies and open them to civil lawsuits when they violate regulations
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Licensing cybersecurity professionals, I
There is a move in Congress to require the Commerce Department to develop or coordinate and integrate a national licensing, certification, and periodic recertification program for cybersecurity professionals
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Lockheed Martin in management contract continuation of FBI database
Lockheed martin wins $47 million, five-year contract to continue to manage the FBI’s criminal justice database; the contract calls for converting paper fingerprint, palm print, and photo records into high-quality electronic records for the FBI
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The long view
Kinetic Operations Bring Authoritarian Violence to Democratic Streets
Foreign interference in democracies has a multifaceted toolkit. In addition to information manipulation, the tactical tools authoritarian actors use to undermine democracy include cyber operations, economic coercion, malign finance, and civil society subversion.
Patriots’ Day: How Far-Right Groups Hijack History and Patriotic Symbols to Advance Their Cause, According to an Expert on Extremism
Extremist groups have attempted to change the meaning of freedom and liberty embedded in Patriots’ Day — a commemoration of the battles of Lexington and Concord – to serve their far-right rhetoric, recruitment, and radicalization. Understanding how patriotic symbols can be exploited offers important insights into how historical narratives may be manipulated, potentially leading to harmful consequences in American society.
Trump Aims to Shut Down State Climate Policies
President Donald Trump has launched an all-out legal attack on states’ authority to set climate change policy. Climate-focused state leaders say his administration has no legal basis to unravel their efforts.
Vaccine Integrity Project Says New FDA Rules on COVID-19 Vaccines Show Lack of Consensus, Clarity
Sidestepping both the FDA’s own Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), two Trump-appointed FDA leaders penned an opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine to announce new, more restrictive, COVID-19 vaccine recommendations. Critics say that not seeking broad input into the new policy, which would help FDA to understand its implications, feasibility, and the potential for unintended consequences, amounts to policy by proclamation.
Twenty-One Things That Are True in Los Angeles
To understand the dangers inherent in deploying the California National Guard – over the strenuous objections of the California governor – and active-duty Marines to deal with anti-ICE protesters, we should remind ourselves of a few elementary truths, writes Benjamin Wittes. Among these truths: “Not all lawful exercises of authority are wise, prudent, or smart”; “Not all crimes require a federal response”; “Avoiding tragic and unnecessary confrontations is generally desirable”; and “It is thus unwise, imprudent, and stupid to take actions for performative reasons that one might reasonably anticipate would increase the risks of such confrontations.”
Luigi Mangione and the Making of a ‘Terrorist’
Discretion is crucial to the American tradition of criminal law, Jacob Ware and Ania Zolyniak write, noting that “lawmakers enact broader statutes to empower prosecutors to pursue justice while entrusting that they will stay within the confines of their authority and screen out the inevitable “absurd” cases that may arise.” Discretion is also vital to maintaining the legitimacy of the legal system. In the prosecution’s case against Luigi Mangione, they charge, “That discretion was abused.”