• Briefly noted

    Early spotting of a potential IT train wreck… Getting the facts straight on cybersecurity

  • New DHS network still has problems

    HSIN was launched in 2004 to provide a secure, Internet-based system to share terrorism information with federal, state, and local agencies and the private sector, but ran into problems; last year DHS decided to replace it with a new system, but that one, too, has problems

  • ISF annual congress in Barcelona, 16-18 November

    More than 500 IT security leaders will meet in Barcelona in November for the ISF 19th annual congress

  • EU moves on data breach notification law

    Security professionals debate the recommendations of independent research to introduce tough European data breach and security regulations

  • Briefly noted

    U.S. Army signs $75 million contract for passive RFID… U.S. government to take over screening from airlines… IT security sector faces major changes… Senators propose changes at DHS

  • 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

  • A first: quantum cryptography used within a commercial network

    European consortium demonstrates transmission of quantum-encrypted data within commercial telecommunications network

  • IT security hinders innovation

    New IDC reports says businesses are struggling to find the right balance between security and innovation; information security concerns have caused 80 percent of companies surveyed to back away from new innovation opportunities

  • Setback: Laser breaks "unbreakable" quantum communications

    Quantum encryption was supposed to make communication completely secure — because quantum mechanics makes it impossible for an eavesdropper to emulate the receiver’s photon detection methods; researchers find flaw in commonly used encryption devices which does allow an eavesdropper to fool the receiver

  • 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

  • Schwarzenegger terminates RFID skimming

    As RFID technology becomes more pervasive — people now use it to gain access to offices, properties, children’s nurseries, parking lots, and others areas — concerns have been growing about wireless “skimming” of the information on the RFID tags; California now bans the practice

  • China spying on Skype users

    Canadian researchers find that China engages in a massive surveillance campaign of users of Tom-Skype, a joint venture between Chinese mobile firm TOM Online and U.S.owened Skype; sensitive words such as “Tibet,” “Taiwan independence,” the Falun Gong, and political opposition to the Communist Party of China are censored and logged

  • 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

  • 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

  • DSRL in £13 million Dounreay decommissioning contract

    Britain’s Dounreay fast reactor was proclaimed as “the system of the next century”; this was in the 1960s; the last 15 years have seen the site develop into a nuclear reactor decommissioning project