• How prepared is the U.S. for a bioterror attack?

    The current U.S. bioterror detection program: A federally funded, locally run program with an $80 million annual budget, deploying a network of vacuum pumps that draw surrounding air through filters, sniffing for signs of biological agents

  • Bipartisan WMD commission: U.S. failing to address urgent biothreat

    Interim report assesses progress in preventing WMD proliferation and terrorism

  • Massive earthquakes shake scientific thought

    Experts who dismissed notions that far-away quakes could be linked are beginning to think again after huge tremors rocked Samoa and Indonesia on the same day, followed by another major convulsion in Vanuatu

  • DHS recommends three emergency management standards

    DHS, under its Voluntary Private Sector Preparedness Accreditation and Certification Program (PS-Prep), is proposing the use of three existing emergency management and business continuity standards; the three were selected from twenty-five standards submitted to DHS for consideration

  • Asteroid collision: How to defend Earth, I

    There are thousands of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) orbiting Earth; some of them are of a civilization-ending size, others are smaller — they will take out “only” a country or a city were they to collide with Earth; scientists say we should focus our minds on this danger

  • How high is the risk of civilization-killing asteroids?

    Planetary bombardments: scientists at a planets meeting discuss the risks of an asteroid colliding with Earth; researchers are worried about asteroid Apophis, which will come uncomfortably close to Earth on 13 April 2029; one scientist said that “It’s 10 times more likely that an unknown asteroid will slam into us from behind while you’re looking at Apophis”

  • Is California's Big One coming?

    In 1992 and in 2004, remote earthquakes caused changes to the San Andreas fault; in both cases, there were distinct changes in the movement of fluids and an increase in the frequency of micro-earthquakes deep within the fault below Parkfield; what will be the effect on the fault of the recent Sumatra earthquake?

  • Statement by Secretary Napolitano on the eighth anniversary of 9/11

    Napolitano: “September 11 as a day of remembrance, and also a day of service; by serving our communities and our country today and throughout the year, we commemorate our past while also preparing for our future”

  • Simulation to help in preparing for wildfires

    Increasingly complex systems which combine simulation and monitoring tools could help emergency services prevent future ecological disasters on the scale witnessed in Greece this week

  • Eleven questions to ask -- and answer -- about your organization's crisis plan

    The H1N1 influenza virus has caused anxiety as businesses, schools, and governments contemplated the prospect of widespread quarantines and shutdowns; other disasters may have similar consequences; is your organization ready?

  • Predicting hurricanes

    Researchers developed a new computer model that they hope will predict with unprecedented accuracy how many hurricanes will occur in a given season

  • Practical guides to disaster recovery planning in SMEs

    Gartner says that “40% of all SMBs will go out of business if they cannot get to their data in the first 24 hours after a crisis”; two papers aim to help SMBs prepare for disaster

  • Schneier: Science fiction writers can help, or hurt, homeland security

    If you begin with the assumption that 9/11 was a failure of imagination, then who better than science fiction writers to inject a little imagination into counterterrorism planning? Bruce Schneier says the science fiction writers may contribute to fresh thinking about security — but that an over-reliance on risk analysis and scenario brainstorming can be detrimental

  • U.K. security services acted properly with the information they had

    Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee: “we cannot criticize the judgments made by MI5 and the police based on the information that they had and their priorities at the time”

  • U.S. unprepared for severe solar storms

    Mankind’s vulnerability to disruptions caused by severe solar storms has increased as a result of the increasing dependence of human societies on technology and electricity; a storm on the scale of the 1859 Carrington Event could damage the U.S. electrical grid to such an extent that vast regions of the country could be without power for weeks, perhaps months.