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Drug cartels now use ultralight aircraft to smuggle drug into U.S.
The drug cartels south of the U.S. border have a new weapon in their arsenal: Ultralight aircraft; these ultralights can carry up to 300 pounds of narcotics
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US-CERT warns of swine flu-related phishing scams
The swine flu outbreak is about two weeks old, but criminals are already e-mailing millions of phishing e-mails which purport to offer the latest information about the disease
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No dog left behind: DARPA seeks dog-training machines
Impatient with old-fashioned dog trainers and their archaic techniques of squeaky toys and personal affection, DARPA solicits ideas for machines which would “automates the training of complex behaviors in animals without human intervention”; the training machines should also be able to collect performance metrics that will “indicate” a dog’s “intelligence, capability, and progress”
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Outsourcing Winter Olympic security increases costs to RCMP
The Canadian government says the security budget for the 2010 Winter Olympics, to be held in Vancouver, is $900 million; it is five-times greater than the original $175 million budget; many Canadian and American security companies stand to benefit
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The security of the U.S. communications network, II
A few vandals, equipped with pliers, last Thursday cut fiber-optics cables in the San Francisco Bay area, paralyzing wireless, Internet, phone, and emergency communication for more than twelve hours; what does this tell us about the vulnerability to disruption of the .S. communication network?
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The security of the U.S. communications network, I
A few vandals, equipped with pliers, last Thursday cut fiber-optics cables in the San Francisco Bay area, paralyzing wireless, Internet, phone, and emergency communication for more than twelve hours; what does this tell us about the vulnerability to disruption of the U.S. communication network?
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AT&T increases reward in cable vandalism to $250,000
Late last eek vandals cut fiber optic cables in three California counties, disrupting communication and commerce; AT&T increases reward for information which will lead to capturing the vandals
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Officials ponder the lessons of Columbine
Next week will mark ten years to the Columbine High shooting; hundreds of millions have been invested in school security, but money is drying up, and emphasis on campus security is weakening; some say say simpler, cheaper measure would be best in any event
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CCTV doorbell could deter, catch crooks
New CCTV-equipped doorbell takes pictures of people ringing your doorbell, and stores picture for future use
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Dubious distinction: U.S. produces most cybercriminals -- and victims
Cybercriminals defrauded victims out of an estimated $265 million, with the average victim losing about $1,000; two out of three cybercriminals — and 93 percent of victims — were Americans
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DHS to focus on employers in new immigration emphasis
The new policy will aim enforcement efforts at those who hire illegal workers; DHS says immigration raids will continue
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The notion that cybercrime exceeds drug trade is a myth
The number of $1 trillion — as in “cybercrime now generates $1 trillion a year for cybercriminals” — appears to be a myth, even it if is repeated by IT security and communication companies
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U.S. intelligence chief: Mexico not on brink of collapse
There is a debate among different U.S. intelligent services about how close to a collapse Mexico is; Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence, says the drug cartels’ escalating violence is a product of their weakening state not their strength
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U.K. police equipped with additional helicopters
The U.K. government has created a capital grant to buy helicopters for local police units; Oxford-based Eurocopter benefits
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New anti-crime approach: vigilant windows
Windows are coated with special polymer which contains nanoparticles that convert light into fluorescent radiation; this radiation is channeled to the edges of the window where it is detected by sensors; when a person approaches the window, the sensors wirelessly relay this currency information to a computer program, which alerts security officials of the potential intruder
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The long view
Why Was Pacific Northwest Home to So Many Serial Killers?
Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgway, George Russell, Israel Keyes, and Robert Lee Yates were serial killers who grew up in the Pacific Northwest in the shadow of smelters which spewed plumes of lead, arsenic, and cadmium into the air. As a young man, Charles Manson spent ten years at a nearby prison, where lead has seeped into the soil. The idea of a correlation between early exposure to lead and higher crime rates is not new. Fraser doesn’t explicitly support the lead-crime hypothesis, but in a nimble, haunting narrative, she argues that the connections between an unfettered pollution and violent crime warrant scrutiny.