• Urgent inquiry as more personal data missing in Britain

    Another data loss blunder in Britain, as a disc containing the personal details of 5,000 employees of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), who may include many prison officers, went missing

  • Germany tightens data protection laws after scandals

    After a wistle-blower revealtions, the German authorities decided o find for themselves how easy it was managed to obtain personal information on consumers; government agents managed, in only a few days, to buy six million items of personal data — for just €850 euros ($1,230); the government decided that tightening of regulations was necessary

  • Handgun to the front

    Defending against a handgun threat is more difficult on the street than in a training facility; the right training under the right conditions would increase the chances of surviving a possibly lethal encounter with an armed assailant

  • Israel foils Hezbollah attempts to kidnap Israelis abroad

    In February, Hezbollah’s secretive head of operation, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed in a brilliant covert operation in the middle of Damascus; Israel denied any involvement, but the Lebanese organization said it would retaliate; Israel has since been worried about Israelis abroad being kidnapped

  • New fingerprint analysis technique to be used to identify bomb makers

    University of Leicester researchers develop new technique to identify fingerprints on metal; technique can pick up fingerprints on metal even after they have been wiped off

  • U.K. to spend £40 million on mobile biometrics for police

    Project Midas will allow police to use fingerprint information to identify people at the scene of incidents in real or near real time

  • Prisons of the future: High-rise structures, smart cards for inmates

    Israel is building new prisons based on new concepts: High-rise structures which will deter escapes (how many prisoners will risk a jump from the tenth floor?), and smart cards which will allow inmates to roam unescorted — but monitored

  • Science and the anthrax case: Case closed?

    The authoritative scientific journal Nature says that the FBI’s evidence against Bruce Ivins is impressive, but that the case is not closed as many important questions remain unanswered

  • Mexicans turn to radio implants as kidnapping for ransom soar

    Kidnapping for ransom has become a growth industry in Mexico; in response, more and more Mexicans are having tiny radio transmitters implanted under their skin so they can be quickly tracked and rescued

  • Legal skirmish over Defcon talk shows divide on disclosing security flaws

    Gag order slapped on MIT students who prepared a talk about Boston transit authority security flaw reignites debate over what “responsible disclosure” of security flaw means

  • Microchips in e-passports easily forged

    Dutch researcher uses his own software, a publicly available programming code, a £40 card reader, and two £10 RFID chips to clone and manipulate two passport chips to a point at which they were ready to be planted inside fake or stolen paper passports; the altered chips were then passed as genuine by passport reader software used by the UN agency that sets standards for e-passports; the researcher took less than an hour to alter the chips

  • Calls for tougher debit card regulation

    On Tuesday the Justice Department announced the indictment of eleven people for stealing and selling more than 40 million credit card and debit card numbers; watchgroups say this is evidence, if one were needed, that federal laws governing debit cards should be tougher — and more uniform

  • Backed against the wall

    The very term “having one’s back against the wall” implies that one is in a tight spot; this is not necessarily the case, as the wall may often be used as a tool or weapon allowing the individual being attacked to defend himself and gain control of the situation

  • New DNA sequencing techniques convince FBI of Ivins's culpability

    Since 2001 techniques for sequencing microbial DNA have vastly improved and there has been a massive effort to sequence more anthrax samples

  • Bullet-tagging technology to help combat crime

    U.K. researchers develop new bullet-tagging technology: tags are applied to gun cartridges by being embedded in cartridge coatings made from polylactic acid, sucrose ester, and tetrahydrofuran; the tags attach themselves to the hands or gloves of anyone handling the cartridge, but a portion of the tag remains on the cartridge even after it has been fired, making it possible to make a definite link between a cartridge fired during a crime and whoever handled it