• Border securityFingerprints to be used at U.S.-Mexico border

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers working at the Paso Del Norte (PDN) international crossing in El Paso have initiated work on a system which uses fingerprints to expedite the pedestrian entry process; CBP says the new system will result in more efficient processing of arriving pedestrian traffic

  • TransportationMexican trucks cited for 1 million violations since 2007

    Trucks transport roughly $275 billion worth of goods — or 70 percent of the total — that pass between the United States and Mexico annually; the trucks from Mexico, however, often fail to meet U.S. safety standards

  • Biometric CCTV market to hit $3.2 billion in 2016

    Analysts project that the biometric CCTV market will be a $3.2 billion industry by 2016, with an annual growth rate of 33 percent; the security camera industry has already seen rapid growth as the private and public sector have installed surveillance systems to help combat crime and provide real-time information; over the next decade, analysts from the Homeland Security Research Corporation (HSRC) project that the next trend in this field will be the increasing integration of biometric technology into surveillance cameras; HSRC’s report projects that these technological developments will help drive the CCTV market and create significant growth opportunities for the security camera industry, biometric and IT systems manufacturers, and security systems integrators

  • Identity authenticationIrisID: technology for when identity authentication is required

    IrisID technology is used around the world in all applications that require identity authentication from basic access control — getting in and out of a facility or building — to binding the identity of an individual to a document or token; the company’s technology has been chosen as the recognition platform for India’s Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) program; the effort aims to identify 1.2 billion people and improve delivery of benefits to under-served individuals

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  • Public healthCapitalism to strengthen U.S. response capability to epidemics, bioterrorism

    The H1N1 flu pandemic highlighted critical gaps in the response capability of the United States, among them: the United States relies almost entirely on foreign suppliers for influenza vaccines and, perhaps as important, production of vaccines for a novel disease strain can take as long as six months; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) wants to reinvent the U.S. medical countermeasures enterprise, from new doctrines for regulatory approvals to nimble, domestic manufacturing capability developed in partnership with the private sector

  • InfrastructureMetal thefts threaten U.K. infrastructure

    The last two years have seen the price of refined copper more than double; at the end of 2008 it was selling it at a low of less than £2,000 a ton, but by earlier this month it had reached more than £5,000; one result is the epidemic of metal theft in the United Kingdom; there have been more than 5,000 such thefts from the railways and the gas and electricity networks this year; and the police says this theft campaign now threatens U.K. infrastructure

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  • Showcasing Israeli homeland security technology

    Next week’s Homeland Security International Conference in Tel Aviv will showcase Israel’s homeland security technology; Israel is already the world’s third-largest exporter of defense technology; in homeland security technology, it is among the Top 10 exporting countries; Brazil, India, Mexico, and Thailand, among others, are markets opening up for Israeli homeland security products

  • NY DMV says facial recognition technology is working

    The use by the State of New York DMV of facial recognition technology has been instrumental in identifying more than 1,000 cases of possible fraud, according to state officials; more than 100 felony arrests have been made so far, including an Egyptian citizen holding four New York licenses under separate names, one of which was on the federal “no-fly” list, and a former hit man who sought to establish a second identity after release from prison

  • Pervasive surveillanceMinority Report comes to Leon, Mexico

    Leon, Mexico, a city of one million, has began implementing an iris scan biometric system from New York-based Global Rainmakers; the system, rolled out across the city; anyone taking money out of an ATM, paying for items in a store, or simply catching a bus will have their eyes scanned by hi-tech sensors; criminals will automatically be enrolled, their irises scanned once convicted; law-abiding citizens will have the option to opt-in; the company’s CEO believes people will choose to opt-in: “When you get masses of people opting-in, opting out does not help. Opting out actually puts more of a flag on you than just being part of the system. We believe everyone will opt-in”

  • DSC continues to innovate in security monitoring, Internet security communications, and wireless security products

    DSC is a big player in electronic security, manufacturing control panels and IP alarm monitoring products; the Toronto-based company has manufacturing facilities in Canada and Italy, and its products are sold in 140 countries

  • Samsung, GVI Security to in collaboration which will lead to one product line

    Samsung, a manufacturer of video security products offering IP, thermal, and analog cameras, network and digital video recorders, establishes a strategic partnership with GVI Security, a provider of video security solutions to the homeland security, institutional, and commercial markets, to provide optimal security solutions to customers in North and Latin America

  • University of Missouri upgrades access control system to provide enhanced security, emergency management

    The University of Missouri has upgraded access control and security software in its Residential Life Buildings complex — twenty-four on-campus buildings where 6.700 students live; the security system — Matrix System’s Frontier — offers many features which campuses and other public facitilites will find useful

  • Biometric access control secures U.K. construction sites

    Large, sprawling construction sites need to be secured; two U.K. companies join forces to offer an all-in-one biometric site access system for construction sites; the solution uses hand geometry or iris scanning technology to record access to a construction site

  • Global Entry to become permanent

    DHS secretary Janet Napolitano has decided to make the Global Global Entry system — a quicker way through customs and border control — permanent; U.K. and U.S. authorities are also working on an iris recognition scheme, similar to the Dutch Privium project, to fast-track entry to the United Kingdom

  • Border securityU.S. considers facial recognition, eye scans at border

    DHS proposes to spend billions of dollars collecting fingerprints and eye scans from all foreign travelers at U.S. airports as they leave the country; already, the United States demands biometric data, typically fingerprints and digital photos, from arriving air and sea travelers with visas; the aim is to try to ensure the person matches the individual who was given the visa overseas. Canadians and Mexicans are currently exempt