Government
Recognizing the threat that unpredictable biohazards could pose, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has proposed development of a new biosurveillance technology that would rapidly screen unfamiliar bacteria to establish their capacity to harm.
The program, “Friend or Foe,”... Read More »
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appointed four members to the Board of the First Responder Network Authority on Thursday who have backgrounds in public safety, wireless broadband, and network engineering.
Richard Ross, police commissioner of Philadelphia; David Zolet, CEO of the Logistics... Read More »
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar held a briefing this week on preparedness and response efforts for seasonal and pandemic influenza.
Secretary Azar discussed his experience overseeing HHS ongoing flu activities and his time working with other public health leaders during his... Read More »
Reps. Filemon Vela (D-TX) and Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) recently introduced a bill designed to enhance U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) support, staffing, and resources.
The lawmakers said the Border and Ports Security Act would increase the CBP’s capacity to screen passengers and... Read More »
Revelations that mobile devices can reveal the identities, activities and locations of U.S. service members stationed abroad prompted members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to call for a Department of Defense (DoD) review on Wednesday.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, U.S.... Read More »
Amid concerns about potential espionage, the federal government would be prohibited from procuring telecommunications equipment or services from China-based Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. under a bill introduced in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.
In 2012, the Permanent Select Committee on... Read More »
Threats posed by ISIS fighters returning home as the terrorist organization loses territory were a focus of recent discussions between the heads the United Nations (UN) and Interpol about global security issues and priorities.
UN Secretary General António Guterres and Interpol Secretary... Read More »
An Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) fact-finding mission (FFM) is currently investigating recent allegations about the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic.
The FFM’s mandate is “to establish facts surrounding allegations of the use of toxic... Read More »
Federal agencies would be given new tools to track white supremacist and other extremist groups and to coordinate multi-agency efforts under a bill introduced in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Under the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, H.R. 4918, the Department of Homeland Security,... Read More »
The Chemical Biological Test Division of the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center Engineering Directorate earned the Director of Army Safety Risk Management Award for establishing new approaches to laboratory safety practices.
Brig. Gen. David Francis, commanding general of the Combat... Read More »
A New York man who pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to provide material support to ISIS and conspiring to attack federal agents was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Tuesday in federal court.
Munther Omar Saleh, 22, was arrested in 2015 after he allegedly attacked an FBI agent who was... Read More »
The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) plans to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons is not supported by the administration’s budget, and Department of Energy (DoE) environmental cleanup could cost billions more than projected, according to a recent Government Accountability... Read More »
Top officials at the Department of Homeland Security conceded Wednesday to a weariness and anxiety about the repeated congressional efforts to agree to a longtime spending plan, resulting in recurring threats of a government shutdown until a budget is voted.
Elaine Duke, deputy secretary of DHS,... Read More »
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) recently joined 10 congressional colleagues in demonstrating support for funding of three Homeland Security labs.
Officials said correspondence to the Senate and House Appropriations Committees backs full funding of the National Urban Security Technology Laboratory... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate recently issued a press release highlighting its Coast Guard Search and Rescue Visual Analytics (cgSARVA) system.
cgSARVA, a visual, user-centered platform, helps USCG decision-makers identify boat stations most... Read More »
Following Super Bowl LII on Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) outlined two years of planning and coordination among local officials and 27 DHS entities that contributed to a successful event.
The DHS National Protection Programs Directorate (NPPD) conducted more than 200... Read More »
Gregory Allen Justice, an engineer who worked for a cleared government contractor in California, was recently sentenced to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to attempting to commit economic espionage, attempting to violate the Arms Export Control Act and violating the International... Read More »
A framework would be established for law enforcers to legally access email communications stored on overseas cloud-based servers, and U.S. officials would be authorized to negotiate bilateral data sharing agreements with foreign countries, under a Senate bill announced on Monday.
The Clarifying... Read More »
A meeting between Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Canada’s Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Ralph Goodale on Monday focused on raising global security standards.
Nielsen and Goodale discussed standards pertaining to cyber security, counterterrorism,... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is proposing an ambitious new program to counter proliferation of weapons of mass destruction: checking suspects’ epigenetic markers to track history of exposure to associated materials.
The program is being called Epigenetic... Read More »
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) representatives met with privacy advocacy groups on Friday to discuss the implementation of the Biometric Entry/Exit Program and public-private partnerships being forged to ensure traveler safety.
Currently, biometric facial recognition technology is being... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently selected Booz Allen Hamilton as the first prime contractor under the government-wide Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Dynamic and Evolving Federal Enterprise Network Defense (DEFEND) Program.
DHS gave Booz Allen a $621 million... Read More »
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) positioned 20 bomb-sniffing dogs at the Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) Airport to handle an influx of travelers in the days leading up to and following Super Bowl LII.
TSA usually screens approximately 34,000 travelers at the airport on a typical... Read More »
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced new sanctions against six individuals and seven entities tied to Hezbollah on Friday in an effort to cripple the terrorist organization’s business operations.
The six individuals targeted by OFAC sanctions, all... Read More »
The 2018 Joint Civil & DoD CBRN Symposium presented by the Defense Strategies Institute will take place on March 5-6 at the Mary M. Gates Learning Center in Alexandria, Virginia. The event will provide a forum for members of the Department of Defense, federal government, private industry, academia,... Read More »
Pointing to pledges made in the State of the Union speech earlier this week, both the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and HIV Medicine Association have asked Congress and President Donald Trump to raise budget caps for both defense and nondefense spending.
Their reasoning is that... Read More »
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) will begin to aggregate and analyze data to identify and target prescribers and pharmacies moving unusually large amounts of opioid drugs, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced.
Sessions said a “surge” of DEA agents would be directed to the... Read More »
The Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP) of Switzerland recently hosted, in collaboration with the Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the second workshop on Schedule 1 facilities at Spiez Laboratory in Switzerland.
The workshop... Read More »
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that newer applications for asylum will be processed before older filings in an effort to mitigate potential fraud and abuse in the backlog of pending asylum applications,
The asylum applications backlog had reached 311,000... Read More »
After being sworn in as the director of the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) on Thursday, Dr. Eric Moore called for effective partnerships with chemical and biological defense stakeholders, academia and industry to develop technologies of the future for warfighters.
Moore,... Read More »
In response to reports that the fitness-tracking platform Strava shared user information that could be used to identify military installations, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sought information about company data security practices and potential changes on Wednesday.
Strava... Read More »
Wireless providers taking part in the wireless emergency alerts (WEA) system will be required to deliver notification more precisely to geographical areas that are affected by the warning under action taken by the FCC on Tuesday.
The FCC will require participating wireless carriers to target... Read More »
A storied system developed by the Science and Technology Directorate’s Center of Excellence and utilized by the U.S. Coast Guard is going a long way to analyzing its stations’ strengths and weighing how best they can be utilized.
The assessment was released by the Coast Guard and... Read More »
The FBI does not currently have a hard-and-fast threshold or indicators to determine the appropriate response when America’s small businesses face cyber attacks, according to testimony before a House panel on Tuesday.
The House Small Business Committee convened a hearing to probe the federal... Read More »
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended on Tuesday that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) begin to independently validate that life extension programs (LEPs) for nuclear weapons are meeting management best practices.
Given that LEPs used to refurbish or replace... Read More »
