Infrastructure protection

Energy companies targeted by Web-borne malware
New report says the energy companies experienced more Web-based malware attacks than any other vertical market in the third quarter of this year, with an increased rate of exposure of 189 percent
- Read more
New reactor design lessens risk of weapon proliferation
Nuclear materials for power reactors cannot be stolen by those interested in using it for nuclear weapons while the material is in the reactor — it is too hot to handle; the risks of diversion are during the enrichment process, and while the material is being transported; to lessen the risk, researchers offer innovative reactor design
- Read more

Closed Maine suspension bridge used for anti-terror testing
DHS is using a closed Maine bridge for tests on how to fortify bridges against terrorist attacks
- Read more
GE shows a chemical sensor that does not need batteries
Researchers develop a chemical sensor that can detect minute quantities of chemicals in the air or water; it has no batters: it receives its power wirelessly from a sensor reader
- Read more

Spanish mathematicians model submarine avalanches and tsunamis
Mathematicians develop a new model to explain submarine avalanches and certain types of tsunamis.
- Read more
Thales opens European security center
More than 25 percent of Thales’s revenues come from its security systems, which totalled approximately €3.4 billion in 2007; the French giant launches a security research center dedicated to homeland security
- Read more

Portable imaging system helps response to natural disasters
Yellow Jackets researchers develop an imaging system which can be affixed to a helicopter to create a detailed picture of an area devastated by a hurricane or other natural disaster
- Read more
Better coastal defenses against large waves
Coastal defenses have to withstand great forces and there is always a risk of water overtopping or penetrating these structures; Liverpool University’s mathematician says we need new concepts for coastal defenses
- Read more

More on the danger of GPS spoofing
The military version of GPS includes security features such as encryption, but civilian signals are transmitted in the clear, unencrypted; a suitcase-size transmitting device can easily fool a GPS receiver; the power grid may be disrupted, and ankle-bracelet-wearing criminals walk about freely
- Read more
Breakthrough: Radioactive waste may no longer be dangerous to store
Aussie researchers have created a material which has the potential to filter and safely lock away radioactive ions from waste water; nanofibers which are millionths of a millimeter in size could permanently lock away radioactive cations by displacing the existing sodium ions in the fiber
- Read more

Hurricane proofing Houston's power
In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, residents, politicians, and utility officials say it is time to consider burying electric lines underground in order to hurricane-proof Houston
- Read more
Invisibility cloak as a protection against tsunamis
Rather than fortifying sea platforms and coastal towns to withstand tsunamis, it may be possible to use invisibility cloaks to make off-shore platforms, islands, and even cities “invisible” to waves
- Read more

Engineers to quake-proof Cal stadium on free-floating blocks
Engineers have solved one of the world’s great retrofit puzzles: how to keep UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium from crumbling into a pile of concrete rubble during a major earthquake
- Read more
FSU joins coalition working to improve U.S. power grid
Seminoles center joins the other sixty-nine member companies and organizations of the GridWise Alliance to push for modernizing the U.S. power grid
- Read more
Briefly noted
Smart cluster bomb hunts down targets… Anthrax-case documents reveal bizarre Ivins’s behavior… New FISMA bill receives committee OK… L-1 in $5.9 million Mississippi driver’s license contract…
- Read more

More headlines