Government
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of California Los Angeles recently released information on a collaborative project regarding the viral mechanisms of infection by creating screening libraries based on CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)... Read More »
Speaking at the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock emphasized that international law enforcement is the most important line of defense in the struggle against nuclear terrorism.
The 2016 NSS took place from last week in Washington, D.C. It served as the... Read More »
The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) held a three-day meeting last week discussing how to better coordinate various agencies in combating worldwide cybercrime.
The meetings included 67 participants from 30 different countries, including 10 private sector companies.
A... Read More »
Speaking at a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services expert consultation on Zika Virus in the Americas in Washington on Thursday, Dr. Sylvain Aldighieri of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) addressed the current state of Zika surveillance in the Americas.
While the ability to... Read More »
The United States is increasingly turning to biodefense as threats against the homeland continue to grow, but the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey's Dr. Raymond Zilinskas recently warned that the larger problem remains that no one knows the true state of American... Read More »
The Centers for Disease Control on Wednesday detailed the valuable work its crisis communicators do during disease outbreaks, natural disasters, biological threats and other disaster-related incidents.
Crisis communicators work primarily through detailed plans and outlined goals, all of which... Read More »
The RAND Corporation released a new report on Thursday that highlights new counterterrorism tactics and technologies to help prevent potential disasters in various cities throughout Europe.
The new report illustrates the essential role of counterterrorism technologies used by diverse... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) released the findings on Tuesday of its ninth meeting of the Emergency Committee convened by the WHO director-general under the International Health Regulations regarding the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa.
The findings from the meeting were mostly... Read More »
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), along with Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA), recently sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) criticizing the department’s response to the ongoing spread of the Zika... Read More »
U.S. Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) released statements on Monday regarding the ongoing privacy battle between Apple and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).
“The government’s decision to drop its case against Apple, however, does not mean that America is ready to... Read More »
The INTERPOL Digital Security Challenge, which took place last week in Singapore, gave participants from 26 countries a scenario that gave them 52 hours to identify a blackmailer demanding a 10,000 bitcoin ransom.
“Cybercrime investigations are becoming more and more complex and this challenge... Read More »
The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) held a workshop on Friday in Lyon, France, to enhance the capacity of authorities in Iraq to better prevent, detect and respond to biological threats.
“I am confident this workshop will deepen our levels of awareness – not just on... Read More »
The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Friday introduced by Rep. Donald Payne, Jr., (D-NJ) to improve coordination between state and local partners on funding priorities for homeland security grants.
“Emergency preparedness takes a whole community, but too often there is a... Read More »
The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) released information on Thursday regarding its new Non-Traditional Agent Defense Test System, a collection of specialized test chambers designed to test chemical protection agents, as well as detection and decontamination equipment.
The... Read More »
The Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense’s “National Blueprint for Biodefense” warned that “the United States is underprepared for biological threats,” adding that “biological events may be inevitable, (but) their level of impact on our country is not.”
To combat a biological... Read More »
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), along with the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction (SCC-WMD) and the Joint Force Headquarters for Elimination (SJFHQ-E), released its 2016-2020 strategic plan on Thursday.
The four-point plan... Read More »
U.S. Reps. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) and Rick Larsen (D-WA) on Wednesday introduced a bill to help the U.S. keep its competitive edge in the electromagnetic spectrum domain and aid warfighter readiness when needed.
The Electronic Warfare Capabilities Act will aid in getting electronic warfare... Read More »
The House Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), recently voted seven bipartisan bills out of committee aimed at strengthening the nation’s counterterrorism defense while keeping Americans safe.
Two bills are specifically aimed at counterterrorism initiatives.... Read More »
Scientists from both the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) joined together at a March 7-8 conference to discuss progress and the objective projections for a joint biosurveillance project.
"The goal of the program is to enhance readiness by... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the details for its latest Grand Challenge on Wednesday - ensuring that the rapidly growing number of military and civilian wireless devices can function with the increasingly crowded electromagnetic spectrum.
DARPA officials... Read More »
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), and rankings members Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) and John Conyers (D-MI) announced the formation of a working group on encryption on Monday.
The group will work to find... Read More »
The Senate passed the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Modernization Act of 2016, S. 1180, on Monday.
The bipartisan legislation, co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), would modernize the nation’s public alert and warning system to ensure... Read More »
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agency announced on Monday that its Office of Field Operations (OFO) at the Hidalgo and Anzalduas International Bridges had seized $2,350,000 worth of cocaine and methamphetamine.
The seizures came from two unrelated incidents and led to the arrests... Read More »
The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the Counterterrorism Screening and Assistance Act of 2016, H.R. 4314, authored by Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), on Tuesday.
“Today the House acted decisively to shut down the jihadist superhighway that allows extremists to get to their safe... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, welcomed the finding’s of the Office of Management and Budget’s Fiscal Year 2015 annual report that evaluated the implementation of the Federal Information Security Management Act... Read More »
FLIR Systems, Inc., announced on Monday that it has been awarded new contracts totaling $38 million for FLIR man-portable multispectral targeting systems and integrated mobile long-range multispectral imaging and command and control systems.
The buyer is an international military customer, but... Read More »
The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) announced on Thursday that it had dispatched a team to the Sonoran Desert for a project supporting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville Center, and the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG).
The YPG... Read More »
Soligenix, Inc., announced on Wednesday that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has exercised its option to accelerate the regulatory activities with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Soligenix's heat stable ricin toxin vaccine RiVax.
The NIAID’s... Read More »
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) on Tuesday released a monthly assessment on terror threats that face the United States and its allies.
“This week’s Islamist terror plots in Canada and Europe are a grim reminder of the heightened threat environment America... Read More »
Fire Chief Rhonda Mae Kerr, International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) president and chair of the board, testified on Tuesday that the agency is greatly concerned about the Obama administration’s “draconian” cuts to FEMA’s grant program in the FY 2017 budget proposal.
Kerr... Read More »
Homeland Preparedness News recently interviewed Dr. Asha George, co-director of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, a bipartisan organization recommending changes to U.S. policy and law to strengthen national biodefense.
HPN: The Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense is strongly... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced more than $1.6 billion on Monday for 10 DHS preparedness grants programs as part of the release of a FY 2016 Notices of Funding Opportunity.
Funding will be provided to state, local tribal and territorial governments, along with... Read More »
In the wake of the House passage of a three month Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization patch - H.R. 4721 - ahead of its March 31 expiration, U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA) released a statement calling for even further action.
“As the House acts to clear the way for a... Read More »
U.S. Army Cyber Command and Second Army (ARCYBER) recently announced that it had launched several new initiatives to realize Secretary of Defense Ash Carter’s vision for greater cooperation between DOD and Silicon Valley.
One of these initiatives is the Silicon Valley Innovation Pilot, which... Read More »
The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) announced on Monday that it has built an enhanced threat detection device called CASTLE that increases the range of detection for CBRNE threats.
CASTLE, which stands for CBRNE assessment science and technology lab at ECBC, greatly... Read More »
