Countermeasures
In urging Congress to reject public health cuts proposed by the Trump Administration, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) said on Wednesday that the fiscal year 2019 budget proposal reflects a “narrow and short-sighted understanding of national safety and well-being.”... Read More »
The John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Health Security recently on Wednesday a preliminary analysis of health security funding in President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2019 (FY2019) budget, which highlighted several major budgetary and organizational... Read More »
Homeland security stakeholders will gather on March 5-6 in Virginia at the 6th Annual Joint Civil and Department of Defense (DoD) Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Symposium, where participants will have the opportunity to discuss challenges and improvements to the nation’s... Read More »
A federal judge sentenced a New Jersey man to life in prison on Tuesday for detonating and attempting to detonate a series of bombs in New York City and New Jersey in September 2016.
Ahmad Khan Rahimi, 30, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, planted improvised explosives devices (IEDs) in Chelsea, one... Read More »
Whether an infectious disease ever reaches U.S. shores or not, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are now warning of the damage they could still do to U.S. interests--notably, its export economy.
In articles published in Health Security, the agency noted that there are 49... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Indiana suggested that an independent cybersecurity agency board should be established to investigate cyber attacks and data breaches after conducting a comprehensive academic review.
The board’s structure would resemble the National Transportation Safety... Read More »
Researchers at the University of Delaware have been awarded a five-year grant by the Army Research Office to develop technology that will enable soldiers to detect improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from a distance.
The $1 million grant will help researchers develop an augmented reality system... Read More »
The shift in Project BioShield Act of 2004 funding from its original 10-year appropriations cycle to year-by-year funding has posed challenges for the program by creating an uncertain climate for private-sector firms investing in developing medical countermeasures (MCM) against chemical,... Read More »
Following President Donald Trump’s release of his Fiscal Year 2019 budget proposal last week, U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN) applauded the inclusion of a control shift of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to the Department of Health... Read More »
In the lead up to Valentine's Day last year, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers inspected more than 1 billion cut flower stems and intercepted 823 dangerous pests, making January and February one of the busiest times for the agency’s agriculture specialists.
About 89 percent of... Read More »
President Donald Trump delivered on Monday his Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Budget to Congress, which requests $47.5 billion in discretionary budget authority for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a 7.8 percent increase from the FY 2018 President’s Budget.
“The budget demonstrates the... Read More »
James Madison University students will explore new approaches that the Transportation Administration (TSA) can use to better connect passengers to personal belongings in the spring semester of the Hacking 4 Defense (HD4) class.
Administered through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)... Read More »
With midterm elections approaching in November, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) warned on Monday that federal and state officials remain unable to ensure that elections are secure from outside attacks.
Klobuchar and former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson discussed... Read More »
Indictments have been issued against 36 defendants by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), targeting them for potential roles in the Infraud Organization--an Internet-based operation which has defrauded victims throughout the world of more than $530 million.
Of those charged, 13... Read More »
The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) pushed back on a recent report about Russian hackers penetrating state-based voter systems on Thursday, reiterating that just one state voter system was breached and that efforts to shore up cybersecurity have been ongoing.
NASS responded... Read More »
Police in Buenos Aires recently arrested an internationally wanted murder suspect after the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) facial recognition unit identified his image as a likely match.
During an investigation by police in Argentina, INTERPOL’s National Central Bureau... Read More »
Republican senators announced plans on Friday to introduce legislation that would create a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, allocate $25 billion for border security, and make reforms the nation’s immigration system.
The Secure and Succeed Act... Read More »
Bills that would mandate that all multi-line telephone systems connect directly to 9-1-1 systems and would require the FCC to establish minimum call completion standards for intermediary phone providers in rural areas cleared the House of Representatives on Friday.
The Kari’s Law Act was... 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 »
A study by the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) has found that light exposure may provide a path to killing airborne flu through the use of far ultraviolet C (UVC) light.
In findings published in Scientific Reports, CUIMC determined that... Read More »
Leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee pressed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for answers on Thursday amid reports that citizenship applications were approved without background checks and green cards were erroneously issued.
U.S. Sens. Ron... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) recently awarded a total of $5,643,466 across seven organizations to develop new tools for cybersecurity researchers.
“Cybersecurity research and development, and the ability to develop new solutions will be... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DoJ) are striving to improve incident response involving individuals with mental illness, but challenges remain, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) review released on Thursday.
Under the 21st Century Cures... Read More »
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 »
Bavarian Nordic, a biotechnology company based in Denmark, announced this week the results of a successful Phase 3 clinical trial that demonstrated the safety and efficacy of its investigational, non-replicating smallpox vaccine, IMVAMUNE.
The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious... 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 »
As hundreds of thousands of attendees sought return flights following Super Bowl LII, the local branch of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) set a one-day record for security screenings.
In total, MSP TSA screened 60,883... 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 »
