• Space arms race a step closer

    Growing worries about Chinese anti-satellite (ASAT) capabilities lead Pentagon to field the first system explicitly designed to help counter anti-satellite missiles and other threats

  • Serious RFID vulnerability discovered

    A group of a Dutch university’s digital security researchers discovers a major security flaw in a popular RFID tag; discovery can have serious commercial and national security implications; as important as the discovery itself was how the researchers handled the situation

  • MI5 seeks powers to trawl records in new terror hunt

    As part of the Brown government’s new counterterrorism strategy, which places emphasis on thwarting a cyber-attack on the United Kingdom, MI5 seeks total access to commuters’ travel records to help them meet the threat

  • European consortium to make RFID tags more affordable

    To make RFID more popular, there is a need to make them cheaper; a team of major technology companies is confident that the cost will be reduced once the tags can be printed because electrically conductive and semiconducting plastics can be used in high-volume printing processes

  • New camera vastly improves surveillance

    Revolutionary camera design could have far-reaching implications for the military, crime prevention, and enforcement as well as traffic analysis and emergency response support; design is based on an array of light sensitive chips placed at the focal plane of a large multiple-lens system

  • Boeing shows biological detection UAV

    UAVs have been performing more and more military and homeland security missions; Boeing demonstrates the use of its ScanEagle UAV in detecting, intercepting, and flying through simulated biological plumes or clouds to collect airborne agents

  • RAF buys UAVs to fight Taliban

    U.S. forces have been using UAVs with ever-greater lethality against al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan; the United Kingdom is buying three Reaper UAVs at £10 million each — it will eventually buy twelve — to help British forces in Afghanistan

  • Researchers show principles of mind-reading machine

    Researchers have developed a more sophisticated way to extract visual stimuli from brain signals; they developed a computational model that uses functional MRI (fMRI) data to decode information from an individual’s visual cortex; system may help in decoding dreams, and may offer a more humane interrogation technique

  • Data sharing among local, state, and federal law enforcement grows

    The 9/11 attacks demonstrated the need for more information and intelligence sharing among law enforcement services a the local, state, and federal levels; more and more intelligence sharing systems are being put in place by private companies to help law enforcement cope with — and meaningfully and effectively use — the vast new sources of data now open to them; privacy advocates worry

  • Vidsys, Objectvideo partner to offer security information solution

    Integration of ObjectVideo’s intelligent analytics with VidSys’ Physical Security Situation Management software would improve response by connecting intelligent monitoring to quick investigation

  • Bosch acquires Extreme CCTV

    Video surveillance is a growing market, and Bosch moves in by acquiring Canadian specialist in infrared illuminators

  • Pointer Telocation shows Cellocator CelloTrack

    The GPS-based asset tracking market is growing, and a specialist introduces an advanced system to help companies in asset management, inventory control, loss prevention, and security

  • 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

  • DHS defends handling of Project 28

    Project 28, built by Boeing along twenty-eight miles of the Arizona-Mexico border, was meant to showcase advanced border security technologies which DHS would use in the more ambitious $8 billion border surveillance system along the U.S.-Mexico border; DHS initially said that the project’s technology failed to deliver on its promise, and gave Boeing a three-year extension; DHS now defends its handling of the project

  • RFID technology to help track donated blood

    Donated blood passes through many hands between donation and patient; to date, there is no good way to track donated blood “vein-to-vein,” with the result being many blood transfusion-related problems; RFID technology will help