• U.S. unprepared for severe solar storms

    Mankind’s vulnerability to disruptions caused by severe solar storms has increased as a result of the increasing dependence of human societies on technology and electricity; a storm on the scale of the 1859 Carrington Event could damage the U.S. electrical grid to such an extent that vast regions of the country could be without power for weeks, perhaps months.

  • Obama to call for better security for computers

    President Barack Obama today will outline his administration’s plans to bolster U.S. cybersecurity; the president will announce the creation of a cyber czar position

  • EU to rely on advanced network technology to bolster resilience

    EU security agency recommends greater use of advanced networking technologies such as IPv6, DNSSec, and MPLS to strengthen the resilience of communication networks

  • Rules about hazmat trains worry Pennsylvania officials

    Officials in Pennsylvania’s York and Adams counties are uneasy about the prospect of having hazardous material roll through their counties

  • Fly ash as source material for fireproof concrete

    Australia’s coal-fired power plants produce 13.5 million tons of fly ash every year; researchers show that this ash may be used as valuable source material for fireproof concrete;

  • ABI Research: DHS a "potential goldmine" for wireless kit providers

    Obama’s stimulus package earmarks $6.8 billion for wireless communications upgrades and new deployments; the health care and education market will receive some of it, but the real money is in selling wireless equipment to DHS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a new ABI Research report says

  • Aussie government to make Great Australian Firewall optional

    The Australian government proposed to create a firewall which would protect Australians from disagreeable Web contents such as child pornography; when the proposed blacklists were leaked, however, they were shown to include content like poker sites, Wikipedia pages, religious sites, ordinary pornography, and business sites

  • U.S. will create cybersecurity czar

    President Obama is set to name a cyber security czar; announcement to be timed with the release of the administration’s much-anticipated cybersecurity review; the czar would have two bosses — the national security adviser and the White House economic adviser — in order to strike a balance between homeland security and economic concerns

  • Opposition growing to LNG project near Baltimore

    Virginia-based gas company AES wants to build a liquefied natural gas terminal in eastern Baltimore County; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission placed 169 conditions, mostly related to safety and environment, on its approval of the project; residents in the neighboring communities say the company is far from meeting these conditions

  • Cobham acquires Argotek

    The trend of large defense contractors acquiring smaller companies specializing in IT security continues; the latest: U.K.-based Cobham buy U.S. specialist Argotek; Cobham says Argotek’s expertise will be in demand for upcoming projects such as the U.S. Comprehensive National Cyber Initiative

  • U.S. military developing simple-to-use cyber attack devices

    Most soldiers are not IT specialists, so DARPA is looking to develop simple-to-use cyber warfare gadgets which would allow nonspecialists to penetrate satellites, VoIP networks, and supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA)

  • Dounreay nuclear dismantling team to use giant robot

    The U.K.’s experimental fusion nuclear reactor was ordered shut down and dismantled; dismantling team unveils a design for a 75-ton robot which will cut up radioactive equipment

  • Glass-based coating for reinforcement bars for sturdier infrastructure

    Researchers develop glass-based coating for reinforcement bars that helps prevent corrosion and strengthens the bond between steel and concrete; the material could help engineers build stronger bridges and increase the longevity of other steel-reinforced structures

  • Wanted: high school hackers, crackers, and other digital deviants

    The Pentagon is looking for a few good high-school hackers; in an effort to counter sustained Chinese and Russian hacking of U.S. government and industry networks, the Pentagon is launching a new military-funded program aimed at leveraging an untapped resource: the U.S. population of geeky high school and college students

  • SCADA more vulnerable than ever

    Modern SCADA networks are more vulnerable than ever because they use open networking standards (such as TCP/IP), are now deployed under less secure operating systems (Windows), are connected to other networks (including Internet), and cannot be easily updated and rebooted