• Texas university offers maritime degree

    The growing security mandates imposed on U.S. sea ports, and need to manage these mandates with but minimal disruption of the flow of commerce, have led Texas Southern University to begin to offer a new degree program in maritime transportation; the bachelor’s and master’s degrees will prepare students in three areas: maritime logistics, security, and environmental compliance

  • Manchester airport recalibrate facial recognition machines to shorten lines

    Five facial recognition machines at Manchester airport produced many false negatives, causing long lines of irate passengers; to shorten lines, the machines’ sensitivity was recalibrated from 80 percent to 30 percent; experts say the machines are now useless: tests show that at 30 percent, the machines cannot distinguish between Gordon Brown and Mel Gibson — or between Osama bin Laden and actress Winona Ryder

  • Rapiscan wins U.K. contract for its mobile cargo scanner

    The company says the Eagle Mobile 4500 can scan shipping containers and trucks in less than twenty minutes while also being capable of penetrating dense cargo at increased inspection rates without impeding the flow of commerce; Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs wants several of these scanners deployed at U.K. ports of entry

  • Less bureaucracy at the border reduces poverty

    The need for more security at the borders, together with typical behavior of large bureaucracies, reduce the positive effects of cross-border commerce

  • DHS to Congress: reconsider cargo mandate

    Congress passed a law requiring DHS to ensure that all U.S.-bound containers are scanned abroad by 2012; DHS told legislators that this mandate “needs to be thoughtfully reconsidered”

  • Full-body imaging systems deployed to airports

    Millimeter wave and backscatter technologies may be a popular alternative to searches, but privacy remains an issue

  • U.S. to provide radar surveillance to Cameroonian coasts

    The United States will provide Cameroon with sophisticated radar gear to monitor the country’s coastal water; the United States is concerned not only about the safety of Cameroonian coasts but also about that of the entire Gulf of Guinea, plagued by sea-hijackings

  • U.S. installs more cameras on Canada border

    The federal government has focused security efforts on the U.S.-Mexican border, but DHS says “the terrorist threat on the northern border is higher”; in response, DHS will add 64 cameras to the 20 cameras already installed (note: the U.S.-Canada border is 4,000-mile long)

  • Lawmakers to add $550 million to Mexico border security

    The two leaders of the Senate homeland Security Committee introduce legislation to channel another $550 million for more federal agents, investigators, and technological improvements

  • GAO: TSA lax on U.S. security of commercial trucking, buses

    Billions of dollars have been invested in improving air travel security; critics charge that ground transportation security has been treated as an after thought; there are more than a million U.S. companies which help transport 65 percent of the daily freight across the United States; busing companies carry 775 million passengers a year, more than the airline industry; GAO says both trucks and buses operate virtually free of security restrictions

  • Securing the homeland: Asset tracking in a layered security environment // by Ted Langhoff and Nishant Pillai

    The need to effectively secure and track cargo, not just at the port, but throughout the supply chain — long before its arrival in the United States — has become an important priority and factors significantly into efforts to ensure U.S. national security

  • DHS to focus on employers in new immigration emphasis

    The new policy will aim enforcement efforts at those who hire illegal workers; DHS says immigration raids will continue

  • TSA's Cleared List reaches 80,000

    TSA’s Cleared List — that is, a list of people who found their names on the Terrorist Watch List and who successfully appealed to have their named removed from that list — has reached 80,000; critics of the Watch List say this proves that it is just too easy to have a name added to the Watch List

  • U.S. intelligence chief: Mexico not on brink of collapse

    There is a debate among different U.S. intelligent services about how close to a collapse Mexico is; Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence, says the drug cartels’ escalating violence is a product of their weakening state not their strength

  • Tiny sensors form robust intruder detection system

    Tel Aviv University researcher develops tiny sensors — each the size of dew drop; the sensors can be programmed to monitor sounds, metals, temperature changes, carbon monoxide emissions, vibrations, or light