• Unisys study shows U.S. public trusts biometrics for data protection

    Privacy advocates may be worried about the proliferation of biometrics for identification purposes, but a recent Unisys survey shows that Americans are comfortable with the idea of banks and government agencies asking them for biometric data for identity verification

  • Devolution of risk management

    In response to the savings and loan scandal of two decades ago, the United States has enhanced the regulatory and compliance regime (FDICIA, SOX); problem is, compliance or regulation is necessarily historically based — it addresses the sins of the past and is not designed to anticipate the future

  • Defining on line attacks and cyberwar

    The growing number of cyberattacks — for political reasons (Estonia, Georgia) and for profit — prompts calls to define the threat more clearly

  • Twenty-one million German bank accounts for sale

    Criminals steal 21 million German bank records; reporters posing as buyers working for a gambling business managed to strike a a price of €0.55 per record, or €12 million for all the data

  • Cruise passengers flown to Dubai to avoid pirates

    The owners of the German cruise ship Columbus decided on a new way to deal with piracy off the coast of Somalia: The 246 passengers were flown to Dubai to await the ship — and the ship itself, with but a skeletal crew, sail at top speed through the dangerous waters of the Gulf of Aden, hoping to avoid being raided by pirates

  • U.K. government grants itself even more data sharing power

    A U.K. government proposal debated in Parliament this week would increase the ability of different government arms to share data

  • High-powered laser for refueling aircraft

    Moving military units from theater to theater is a challenge for the military’s lift capabilities; an integral part of such capabilities is the ability to refuel aircraft in mid-flight, which is dangerous; researchers offer a way to use laser to recharge the plane’s batteries; for now the system is limited to surveillance UAVs, but the developers envision it being used for larger planes

  • Here they go again: China demands access to Western computer security

    Another crisis in U.S.-China trade relations looms, as China, again, is about to introduce rules which would allow Chinese companies to steal Western industrial secrets, and would allow the Chinese government more tightly to monitor what the Chinese people say and read

  • Old fingerprints help solve heretofore unresolved crimes

    A forensic scientist at Northamptonshire Police and the University of Leicester has helped detectives move a step closer to solving a murder case; the key: lifting fingerprints off bullets

  • U.S. to restrict laptop searches at border

    Laptops contain e-mails, pictures, financial documents, and more; searching them may offer law enforcement officials far more revealing pictures of travelers than suitcase inspections at airports might yield

  • FBI: Growing copper theft threatens U.S. critical infrastructure

    The FBI says that, individually, isolated instances of copper theft cause big enough headaches of their own, but taken together, they present a significant problem for the United States — a threat to public safety and to U.S. critical infrastructure

  • Increased Pentagon role in U.S. domestic security

    The U.S. Department of Defense will have an increased role in domestic U.S. security; a Pentagon plan calls for up to 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe

  • Independent commission: WMD attack by terrorists likely

    An independent commission of experts, set up by Congress as part of the recommendations by the 9/11 commission, concludes that terrorists will most likely carry out an attack with biological, nuclear, or other unconventional weapons somewhere in the world in the next five years

  • European states to coordinate anti-cybercrime effort

    The 27 member states of the EU are worried about the effects of cyber crimes on the European economy; new blueprint for fighting cybercrime calls for better cooperation among national law enforcement units

  • Advances in counter-IEDs measures, but work remains

    The Pentagon has spent more than $14 billion so far to find way effectively to counter IEDs; it has even created an agency — the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization — to do the work; still, there are about 1,400 IED attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan every month, and about 350 attacks in other parts of the world; a congressional panel notes progress in countering IEDs but says much works remains