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In-building public-safety communication a growing business
The 9/11 attacks exposed a major weakness: rescue personnel had no communication coverage inside the towers; regulations now require that first responders have communications coverage everywhere in a building — or at least 95 percent of it; as businesses and local governments face deadlines for complying with these requirements, businesses offering in-building communication services will benefit
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Patent systems may discourage innovation: study
The traditional view is that patents foster innovation. A new study suggests instead that they may hinder technological progress, economic activity, and societal wealth
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Sweeping food safety bill passes House
House passes new, sweeping food safety bill requiring more government inspections and imposing new penalties on those who violate the law
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Apple says jailbreaking may knock out transmission towers
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked the U.S. Copyright Office to instruct Apple to allow “jailbreaking ” — that is, modification of the iPhone’s software without Apple’s approval; Apple responded that modifying the iPhone’s operating system could crash a mobile phone network’s transmission towers or allow people to avoid paying for phone calls
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DHS unveils improved online presence
DHS unveils new Web site; National Threat Advisory graphic is given much less prominence
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U.S. considers cloud security standards
Cloud computing is gaining among businesses, so the U.S. government says it may step up with a set of cloud-security standards to meet government requirements for protecting sensitive data
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Concerns over E-Verify effectiveness as illegal immigration detentions drop
The Obama administration has mandated that by 8 September, all contractors who do work with the federal government must use E-Verify to ensure their prospective employees can legally work in the United States; senators say it is too easy to fool the current E-Verify system
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Opponents of Israeli Biometric Law: "It's a Step to a True Police State"
Debate heats up in Israel over the creation of a national biometric database; the law empowers the Interior Ministry to set up a database that would include biometric identification information on every Israeli citizen
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Napolitano highlights differences between Real ID and PASS ID
DHS secretary Napolitano, in her previous post a governor of Arizona, opposed the Real ID Act and the mandates it imposes on states; now, as DHS secretary, she is charge of implementing the act; Napolitano offers the PASS ID program as a compromise
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The Obama administration would require federal contractors to use E-Verify
The Obama administration said it would support a George Bush administration regulation that would only award federal contracts to employers who use E-Verify to check employee work authorization
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DHS's Einstein 3 plans raise questions
DHS wants to use Einstein 3 to bolster cybersecurity; the deployment of this powerful program has its critics, though
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To claim that swine flu has been "contained" is premature
We have not yet reached the “containment” phase of the swine flu epidemics; to say we have is PR, not public health policy
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U.S. designates North Korea's NCG as a nuclear-proliferation violator
NCG is a North Korean nuclear-related company in Pyongyang; today, the U.S. Department of State froze the assets of the and took other measures to isolate it from the U.S. financial and commercial systems
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U.S. treasury targets North Korea's missile proliferation network
U.S. Treasury invokes Executive Order 13382 to freeze the assets of Hong Kong Electronics; since 2007, the company has transferred million so f dollars worth of missile equipment to North Korea
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U.K. Home Office makes ID card trial voluntary
Bowing to pressure, the Home Office has abandoned attempts to force workers at Manchester and London City airports to carry ID cards, opting to make the trial voluntary
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The long view
Luigi Mangione and the Making of a ‘Terrorist’
Discretion is crucial to the American tradition of criminal law, Jacob Ware and Ania Zolyniak write, noting that “lawmakers enact broader statutes to empower prosecutors to pursue justice while entrusting that they will stay within the confines of their authority and screen out the inevitable “absurd” cases that may arise.” Discretion is also vital to maintaining the legitimacy of the legal system. In the prosecution’s case against Luigi Mangione, they charge, “That discretion was abused.”
Are We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?
Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”