• On needles and haysacks: New way to deal with large datasets

    The ability to gather vast amounts of data and create huge datasets has created a problem: Data has outgrown data analysis; for more than eighty years one of the most common methods of statistical prediction has been maximum likelihood estimation (MLE); Brown University researchers offer a better way to deal with the enormous statistical uncertainty created by large datasets

  • Analyzing e-mail messages to find insider threat

    Researchers develop a technology based on Probabilistic Latent Semantic Indexing (PLSI) to detect changes in the words and terms individuals in an organization use in their e-mail messages — to fellow employees and to outsiders; research shows that certain verbal and terminological changes indicate criminal or even terrorist intent

  • Computer science helps in combating terrorism

    The University of Maryland develops the SOMA Terror Organization Portal (STOP); SOMA (Stochastic Opponent Modeling Agents) is a formal, logical-statistical reasoning framework which uses data about past behavior of terror groups in order to learn rules about the probability of an organization, community, or person taking actions in different situations

  • Detecting insider threats early

    Insiders pose serious threats to organizations ranging from multinational companies to military installations; one way to spot insider threats is to use data mining techniques to scour e-mail and build up a picture of social network interactions; the technology could prevent serious security breaches, sabotage, and even terrorist activity

  • New search tools help separate the wheat from the (data) chaff

    If there is a problem which is worse than having too little information, it is having too much of it; three new tools developed by researchers at a German institute help cope with this wheat-from-the-chaff problem

  • Analysis // by Ben Frankel: U.S. still fighting for sanctions on Iran, but with a weaker hand

    The Bush administration shot itself in the foot by releasing a confusing and partially misleading intelligence assessment of Iran’s nuclear weapon activities; the administration dealt a near-fatal blow to the effort to intensify economic sanctions on Iran, instead creating a situation in which the world will either have to accept a nuclear-armed Iran or go to war to stop it

  • FBI worried about surge in sales of book detailing airport security gaps

    A book detailing gaps in airport security enjoys a surprising surge in sales; the FBI, which keeps track of sales of books which may benefit terrorists — and also of similar library books being checked out — wants to know more

  • Chinese espionage ring discovered

    Chinese spy ring based in New Orleans broken up; two individuals of Chinese origin bribe Pentagon official d=to deliver sensitive information concerning Taiwan

  • Role of U.S. companies in building China's internal security system reviewed

    The Chinese government decided last year to invest heavily in security technology — especially intelligent CCTVs equipped with facial recognition capabilities; the Chinese say it has to do with security for the Summer Olympics; the sheer scope and breadth of the project, though, means that the new security system aims to strengthen the government’s ability to repress basic freedoms; role of U.S. companies questioned