• The top 11 contaminants in U.S. drinking water

    U.S. citizens may upset to learn — should be upset to learn — that their drinking water contain disturbing amounts of pharmaceuticals and hormonally active chemicals; the concentrations are small, for now, but individuals with some health conditions should consult their physicians

  • New sensors to monitor health of U.S. infrastructure

    Northeastern University researchers are working on developing new sensor systems for cars and trucks that will allow road and bridge infrastructure to be assessed in real-time across the United States

  • Software analyzes news reports to identify terrorists

    Rice University researchers develop artificial intelligence-based computer program which can scan news reports quickly to identify which terrorist group is behind a terrorist attack being covered in the reports

  • Back to Ben Gurion? Israel at the gates of Gaza

    The strategy Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak is pursuing in Gaza harks back to an earlier Israeli approach — the unalloyed realism of David Ben Gurion; this approach has served Israel well; alternative approaches have not

  • The cyber security agenda of the new administration

    U.S. national leaders do grasp the importance of network security and information assurance — but seeing the problem is not the same thing as solving it

  • Gaza campaign highlights strength, limitations of air power

    Israel’s air war over Gaza is impressive: astonishingly accurate intelligence, continuously updated by a fleet of UAVs; aerial-platform-acquired intelligence instantly overlaid on existing human intelligence; improved ISR systems shorten sensor-to-shooter loop; small infantry units to communicate directly with available aircraft to request rapid fire against a target

  • FBI: U.S. facing "cybergeddon"

    FBI experts say that cyber attacks pose the greatest threat to the United States after nuclear war and weapons of mass destruction — and these attacks are increasingly hard to prevent

  • Gaza civilians suffer as a result of Hamas's tactics -- and Israel's

    Israeli drew many lessons from its inconclusive 2006 war in Lebanon; one of the more important ones is that Israel had been too restrained, too careful about distinguishing between Hezbollah and the state of Lebanon (i.e., civilian population and institutions) — with the result being too many Israeli soldiers dead and an inconclusive end to the fighting; whether the different, more ruthless tactics used in Gaza will succeed remains to be seen

  • Security specialist Core Systems sees U.S. prisons as opportunity

    Belfast-based Core Systems provides biometric equipment to prisons in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland; it is now expanding to the United States; with a prison population of 2.2 million; “In the prisons business, the United States is the market leader,” says Patricia O’Hagan, company’s co-owner

  • U.K. Home Office denies remote snooping plan

    There have been discussions among EU ministers about giving police more authority to snoop on crime and terror suspects remotely, but the legal framework to do so is yet be created; what is more, techies says it cannot be done

  • Israel uses new ISR systems, ordnance

    Advocates of air power were humbled in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, but they hope to be vindicated in the Israel-Hamas conflict; Israel uses new ISR systems which shrink the sensor-to-shooter loop, and new bunker-busting ordnance

  • TSA has processed more than 1 million commercial HAZMAT applications

    Since the HAZMAT driver’s license screening process was launched nearly four years ago, TSA has completed a review of 1,015,660 applications and approved more than 1 million

  • Britain may outsource large surveillance database

    The U.K. Home Office is moving forward with a £12 billion plan for a massive database to track phone calls, e-mails, and chat conversations in the country; the Home Office said it is considering outsourcing the database’s maintenance to private firms

  • U.S. air travel database fails own privacy tests

    DHS privacy report says the department is in violation of U.S. law and the DHS-EU agreement on the handling of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data

  • Not yet ready for prime time: RFID technology

    RFID technology is incorporated into more and more documents (e-passports, enhanced driver’s licenses); trouble is, the technology still suffers from privacy and security vulnerabilities