• Germany reconsiders millimeter wave scanners

    Last month the European Parliament banned the use of millimeter wave scanner at European airports because the scanners’ sensitivity allow security personnel to see anatomically correct nude images of passengers; Germany wants to revisit the issue

  • Making facial recognition technology more effective

    Facial recognition technology holds the promise of identifying individuals in a crowd — and from distance; in real-world environments, however, the task becomes difficult, if not impossible, when the systems acquire poor facial images; NIST researchers offer a solution

  • Immigration Alert: Employing immigrants during economic slowdown

    There are important employer obligations to consider when employing immigrants during an economic downturn

  • Briefly noted

    Napolitano offers Obama pragmatic take on immigration… Microsoft, ESRI to help improve DHS operations… Inbox: Brits baying for blood over ID

  • IMO calls on UN to take tougher action on piracy

    The International Maritime Organizations urges countries with the naval capacity to do so “to take part actively in the fight against piracy and armed robbery against ships”

  • TSA, American Airlines launch paperless boarding

    Paperless boarding pass will allow passengers to receive boarding passes electronically on their cell phones or PDAs

  • Flexible, flapping flying machines may be on the horizon

    Rigid wings and rotors have made aircraft very successful; nature, however, prefers flexible, flapping flying structures — just look at birds; indeed, the most efficient and acrobatic airfoils in nature are the flexible wings of the bat; Brown University researchers want to adopt the bat’s approach to flying for human use

  • Grappling with the pirate problem

    The Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia, and the Gulf of Aden, are among the most sensitive choke points in global commerce; trouble is, the stable, the comparatively wealthy Southeast Asian countries that line the Malacca Strait have committed their naval and coastal forces to stamping out hijackings and piracy, but the Gulf of Aden is bordered by poor or dysfunctional countries like Djibouti, Yemen, and particularly Somalia

  • Briefly noted

    Raytheon awarded contract for exploratory nuclear detection research… Navies may get tougher on piracy after tanker seizure… U.S. donates nuclear detection equipment to Nigeria

  • Thruvision offers T-ray security scanner

    Terahertz radiation offer the promise of effective scanning of passengers without revealing anatomically correct images of their bodies

  • Modern-day piracy poses growing threats, challenges

    Forget Captain Kidd, wooden legs, or treasure maps; modern pirates are equipped with supercharged speedboats, large-caliber weaponry, and all the radio intercept technology they need to identify and locate valuable ocean-going booty; on 9/11 we saw what damage a jumbo jet could do when used as a weapon; how about a supertanker as a weapon?

  • Two former DHS leaders on DHS under a new administration

    Amit Yoran and Dwight Williams held important positions at DHS; now in private industry, they offer their view and the challenges the department will face next year

  • Briefly noted

    Pentagon to ask Obama for $581 billion budget for next fiscal year… Security requirements for private aircraft arriving and departing the United States

  • Disease-carrying travelers still a threat

    It is now eighteen months since the Andrew Speaker saga: Despite having drug-resistant tuberculosis, and although his name appeared on no-fly lists, Speaker managed to fly to Greece for his wedding, travel to Italy, and come back to the United States; GAO says some improvements have been made, but problems remain

  • Briefly noted

    ESTA Authorization required for all visa waiver countries as of 12 January… Georgia vet school leak kept quiet… Microsoft infuses “long awaited” with new meaning