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NSA may have put secret back door in new encryption protocol
The U.S. government released NIST Special Publication 800-90 — a new official standard for random-number generators — earlier this year; the document contains four different approved techniques (Deterministic Random Bit Generators); one of those generators — the one based on elliptic curves and championed by the NSA — is three orders of magnitude slower than its peers; Why?
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Border Web cameras along Texas-Mexico border go online again
Texas governor Rick Perry found the funds to have virtual watch up and running — again — as early as January; Texans can register to have 200 border cameras feed images to their home PCs; if they see people crossing the border, the can call or e-mail authorities
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Frost & Sullivan to make UAV presentation
UAVs play an ever-growing role in defense and homeland security missions; Frost & Sullivan will brief interested investors on the potential of the European market for UAVs
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GeoEye's technology monitors endangered gorilla population
Specialist in satellite, aerial, and geospatial information donates high-duality maps of Africa’s Virunga National Park to help in mapping mountain gorilla habitat
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Using visualization to see through fuzzy data
Finding method in the madness: DHS’s S&T Directorate supports efforts, building on Edward Tufte’s work, to use visualization to find patterns in and make sense of fuzzy data
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Carbon fiber UAV sets flight duration record
QinetiQ Group’s Zephyr breaks record for the longest duration unmanned flight — 54 hours — nearly doubling Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4A Global Hawk 2001 record of 30 hours, 24 minutes
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More opposition in Europe to Galileo
Growing opposition in Europe to the Galileo Project, Europe’s response to the U.S. GPS network; behind schedule and over budget, many ask whether the benefits of the system would outweigh its costs
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Former spooks run intelligence gathering and analysis outfit
Erik Prince’s security empire has an outfit called Total Intelligence Solutions which collects intelligence about natural disasters, business-friendly governments, overseas regulations, and global political developments for clients in industry and government
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UAV-fired missile kills five militants in Pakistan's North-West territory
U.S. deployed weapons-carrying UAVs to Iraq and Afghanistan; the administration plans to rely more heavily on these systems in hunting down and killing al Qaeda operatives now operating freely in Pakistan’s lawless North-West Territories
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Combining RFID tags with sensors
RFID tags are also in use to track the location of items to which they are attached; a German research institute develops RFID sensors to continuously monitor moisture, temperature, light, and acceleration; new tags will keep a closer eye items throughout the supply chain, and may be used to secure cargo containers
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Wilkes-Barre installs CCTVs
This is not yet U.K.-like CCTV coverage, but more and more American cities install CCTVs to monitor their streets
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Maryland State Police to gather critical infrastructure data from air
Johns Hopkins’s APL develops new technology which allows officers to monitor critical infrastructure facilities digitally from the air and quickly locate, inspect important structures during patrols
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Belgian police employ blind officers to analyze wiretap recordings
As wiretapping of potential criminal and terrorist-related activity in Belgium grows, so is the need of the Belgian police for individuals with acute and sensitive hearing to analyze wiretaps; police found that some blind individuals have that extra sensitivity to sounds which allows them better to analyze wiretaps
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Coast Guard to beef up Arctic mission
As global warming melts the ice around the Northern Pole, neighboring nations are eager to stake a claim to the heretofore frozen region’s natural reaches; the melting will also allow a route for ships from Europe to Asia which is 4,000 miles shorter than the route through the Panama Canal; the U.S. Cost Guard wants to keep an eye on all this
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Questions raised about effectiveness of terror watch-list
There are now about 755,000 names on the U.S. terror watch list; since 2004, about 200,000 names have been added to the list each year; legislators, security experts say it has become unwieldy
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The long view
How DHS Laid the Groundwork for More Intelligence Abuse
I&A, the lead intelligence unit of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) —long plagued by politicized targeting, permissive rules, and a toxic culture —has undergone a transformation over the last two years. Spencer Reynolds writes that this effort falls short. “Ultimately, Congress must rein in I&A,” he adds.