• CBP tests streamlined cargo security procedure

    U.S. Customs & Border Protection’s (CBP) launched Simplified Entry Pilot, which allows participants to file a streamlined data set much earlier in the import process, thus providing more time to identify security threats

  • FBI seeking wiretap-ready Web

    As communications have changed in recent years from the traditional telephone system to the Internet, the FBI has found itself facing greater difficulty in carrying out surveillance operations; the agency is asking Internet companies not to oppose a coming proposal which would require them to provide a surveillance backdoor

  • Number, diversity of targeted cyberattacks increased in 2011

    The number of vulnerabilities decreased by 20 percent in 2011, but the number of malicious attacks leaped by 81 percent in the same period; targeted attacks have spread to organizations of all sizes and types

  • LMR market to reach $16.2 billion by 2017

    Next generation mobile/wireless technologies continue to suffer from coverage and reliability issues, which are key considerations for law enforcement, emergency medical services, disaster recovery, and other public safety applications; as a result, a large number of critical services continue to remain committed to narrowband analog connectivity such as a Land Mobile Radio network; this is good news for the future of the LMR market.

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  • New app to keep food safer

    FoodCheck, an application developed for Android tablet devices, can minimize dangerous and costly errors in food preparation by automating the process of controlling and monitoring food by using wireless temperature monitoring

  • Laser weapon to protect ships from anti-ship missiles

    Northrop Grumman tests next-generation high-energy, solid-state lasers; the test demonstrated that the laser could burn through the skin and critical components of a target drone used to simulate anti-ship cruise missile threats to U.S. Navy ships

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  • U.S. severe weather insurance losses in April nearly $1 billion

    A series of severe weather events across central and southern sections of the United States caused upward of $1 billion in insured losses. Economic losses were even higher during the month of April

  • Detecting suicide bombers from a safe distance

    Suicide bombings have now spread to Syria; a Florida company produces equipment designed to aid in the detection of a suicide bomber at standoff distances, before a terrorist can reach his intended target

  • Steps organizations should take to prepare for disasters

    Even if your company has not been affected by tornados, tsunami waves, or wildfires, all employers need to be prepared for the mayhem that natural disasters cause

  • Stun guns increase chances of citizen injury, but protect police officers

    Across the United States, some 260,000 electronic control devices, or stun guns, are in use in 11,500 law enforcement agencies; the use of these stun guns by police significantly increases the chances of citizen injury, yet also protects the officers more than other restraint methods, according to the most comprehensive research to date into the safety of stun guns in a law enforcement setting

  • Reason-based behavioral recognition system wins award

    A reason-based behavioral recognition system for video surveillance developed by Houston, Texas-based BRS Labs wins an award at London’s Counter Terror Expo

  • Android app for radioactivity detection

    Just-release Android app uses software and the smartphone’s camera to measure radioactivity levels, allowing users to find out whether their environments are safe; the software is the civilian version of technology developed under contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and with DHS

  • Seattle police takes steps to quell drone concerns

    The Seattle Police Department recently acquired a small camera-equipped drone, but it remains unused while city policymakers work to calm privacy concerns

  • Kansas City to deploy ShotSpotter technology

    Kansas City police and the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority have agreed jointly to deploy the Shot Spotter, an acoustic technology that provides detailed information on gunshots fired

  • British state-backed reinsurer has £4.5 billion to cover Olympic Games terror-related losses

    Pool Re, the British state-backed reinsurer which covers commercial property losses from  terror attack-related activities, has £4.5 billion ($7.327 billion) of assets to cover the Summer Olympic Games. Pool Re said it had no plans to jack up premiums for the event. If the damage from bombings or other terror-related incidents were to cost more than that amount, the British taxpayer, under the Pool Re structure, would step in to cover the difference. Pool Re was set up in the 1990s when the U.K. government was worried that the terror campaign pursued by Irish militant groups could make London property uninsurable and damage the national economy.