• Push for nation-wide car tracking system in U.S.

    Two companies quietly shopping new motorist tracking options to prospective state and local government clients; goal is to create a nation-wide car tracking system in the United States by using existing and newly installed red light cameras and speed cameras

  • New York State offers an enhanced driver's license

    New York State leads the nation in the adoption of enhanced license technology, and state residents may now apply for an enhanced driver’s license; they have an incentive to do so, because beginning 1 June 2009 U.S. citizens will have to present either a passport or an enhanced driver’s license when re-entering the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, and the Caribbean

  • Major Iranian shipping company designated for helping proliferation

    The U.S. Department of the Treasury, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution, designated a major Iranian shipping company as helping in Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons

  • DHS: Progress and priorities, I

    Since its creation more than five years ago, DHS has made significant progress — uneven progress — in protecting the United States from dangerous people and goods, protecting the U.S. critical infrastructure, strengthen emergency response, and unifying department operations

  • Lufthansa selects Smiths Detection for cargo security

    Lufthansa will deploy Smiths Detection’s 500DT trace explosives detectors in all of its eighteen U.S. airport locations; the 500DT was recently placed on the TSA Qualified Products List

  • The H-1B program: Mend it, don't end it

    Any required labor-market test must facilitate extraordinary alacrity; delays of years, months, or even weeks are unacceptable; similarly, H-1B workers should be paid the same wage as their U.S. counterparts: The H-1B program should not be a means by which “cheap foreign labor” is imported

  • L-3's millimeter wave scanning technology tested at ten U.S. airports

    Two technologies — backscatter X-rays and millimeter wave — compete in the airport security scanning market; TSA is currently testing millimeter wave at ten airports, and the fact that the technology is faster than its rival may make it the scanning technology of choice

  • Detecting disease in less than 60 seconds

    Traditional testing for disease outbreak or bioterror attack can take days — even weeks — to confirm a diagnosis and isolate those infected; we may not have that much time, and University of Georgia researchers develop a quicker virus identification method

  • Bay Area's FasTrak road tolls easy to hack

    Toll transponders can be cloned, allowing fraudsters to travel for free while others unwittingly foot the bill; more seriously, criminals could use the FasTrak system to create false alibis by overwriting one’s own ID onto another driver’s device before committing a crime

  • Facial recognition trials at Manchester Airport

    Five gates at Manchester Airport will be equipped with face recognition devices; gates can only be used with people from the United Kingdom and EU who are over 18 and hold a new-style chipped passport

  • American Airlines, TSA end weeklong feud

    TSA inspector at O’Hare used an air temperature probe attached to the exterior of seven unattended American Eagles to hoist himself onto nearby jet bridges and access the planes; sensitive devices had to be recalibrated, resulting in delays

  • NYC airports to get $400 million for explosive detectors

    Responding to post 9/11 federal mandates, three New York City-area airports invested about $400 million in security upgrades; the federal government has agreed to reimburse the airports for the expenses

  • All is not clear with the Clear "fast pass" program

    TSA suspended Verified Identity Pass (VIP) from the Registered Traveler program because one of VIP’s computer, containing the personal details of 33,000 customers who had registered for the program; the lap top was found, and TSA reinstated VIP; Priva technologies, locked in a legal battle with VIP over trademarks, is unhappy

  • New U.K. center's mission: Use science to make world safer

    The Institute for Security, Science and Technology at Imperial College London will scour the research world for innovations which would make the world safer

  • Rapiscan in $27 million inspection system contract

    Maker of container inspection system receives $27 million order for its flagship cargo and vehicle inspection system