• ETrade cyberattack shuts down trading

    Over the holiday season, Australia’s second-largest online brokering service, ANZ Bank’s ETrade was hit by a series of cyberattacks, temporarily locking out customers

  • Connecticut examines ways to bolster electrical grid during disasters –

    Following Tropical Storm Irene and the29 October nor’easter that left thousands of homes without power across the northeast, Connecticut is considering new regulations that could bolster the power grid and improve resiliency during natural disasters

  • California’s flood-protection system crumbling

    California has a patchwork of aging flood-protection system; it was built over the last 150 years by individuals, localities, and the state government; experts say this system, now protecting an estimated $69 billion in assets, is woefully inadequate

  • SF Bay wetlands losing battle against sea level rise

    San Francisco Bay’s tidal marshes protect coastlines against flooding, provide nursery areas for commercial fisheries and filter pollutants from seawater and the atmosphere; these marshes may face a grave threat from sea level rise in the next century

  • California lawmakers work to improve utilities’ disaster preparedness

    California lawmakers are considering a bill to better prepare public utilities for emergencies and disasters following a series of severe storms that left thousands without power across the state

  • Wireless sensors effective in protecting critical infrastructure

    A key to critical infrastructure security is effective monitoring of such infrastructure; a European research project has now successfully demonstrated a wireless sensor-based solution for cost-effective monitoring of electricity distribution networks and water networks

  • Predators may have contributed to 2007 Wall Street collapse

    A new study retraces events to show that at a critical point in the financial crisis, the stock of Citigroup was attacked by traders by selling borrowed stock (short-selling) which may have caused others to sell in panic; the subsequent price drop enabled the attackers to buy the stock back at a much lower price

  • Fukushima reaches cold shutdown conditions, critics scoff

    Last week Japanese officials declared that the beleaguered Fukushima Daiichi power plant had become stable enough for engineers to complete a “cold shutdown”; officials also stated that the facility had ceased to leak substantial amounts of radiation, a claim received skeptically by critics

  • Building earthquake-proof buildings

    Researchers in Australia are leading an international project to help identify buildings most vulnerable to earthquakes and the best ways to strengthen them

  • Improving pothole repairs

    The alarming increase in the number of road potholes in the United Kingdom — an outcome of reduced road maintenance, increasing traffic volumes, heavier loads, and repeated adverse weather — is creating potentially hazardous driving conditions, causing serious concerns to the authorities as well as to the public; engineers are looking foe ways to improve pothole repairs

  • “Smart Connector” to detect, pinpoint damage to cellular cables

    Researchers have developed the Smart Connector, a new sensor that once installed in the connecting units of coaxial cables can provide information about equipment damage and pinpoint the exact location through self-diagnosing technologies — some of the most advanced in the field today

  • Electrical grid needs cybersecurity oversight: study

    In a recently released report, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say that a single federal agency should be tasked with protecting the United States’ electrical grid from cyberattacks; the Obama administration has proposed that DHS assume responsibility for the grid, while Congress has submitted proposals for both the Department of Energy and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)

  • Scarce minerals, metals threaten manufacturing

    The growing scarcity of certain minerals and metals is leading to explosive prices and delivery delays; since the relationships among these resources are strong, both the causes of and the solutions to scarcity are complex; for a manufacturing organization with a global supply chain, this can spell trouble

  • Changing bridge fabrication and inspection practices

    As today’s engineers investigate the rebuilding of much of the nation’s infrastructure, a lot of which was constructed in the 1950s, they are using much improved materials and analysis tools; a Virginia Tech civil engineer predicts his new work on a fracture control plan for steel bridges promises to change bridge fabrication and inspection practices

  • MIT report warns U.S. electrical grid vulnerable

    A new report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology warns that the U.S. electrical grid is vulnerable to cyberatacks; according to the report, the U.S. electrical grid’s cybersecurity vulnerabilities stem from weaknesses in processes, technology, as well as the actual physical environment