Countermeasures
A federal organization with a varied history as part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate is marking 70 years of service to national security’s scientific needs this month.
The National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) has worked under a... Read More »
States Parties from Asia gathered earlier this month to discuss potential adoption of national legislation regarding chemical weapons during a Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) forum held in The Hague in the Netherlands.
The Stakeholders Forum for States Parties in Asia on the Adoption of... Read More »
More than $98 million in grants announced by the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Monday will help 179 law enforcement agencies across the nation hire 802 additional police officers in the coming years.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the funds would be awarded to state, local, and... Read More »
A visa program that allowed a terrorist who killed eight people on New York City bike path to enter the country would be eliminated under a bill introduced in the House of Representatives on Monday.
Sayfullo Saipov immigrated to the United States from Uzbekistan through the Diversity Immigrant... Read More »
In response to reports that Russia targeted voting systems in 21 states during the 2016 elections, leaders of the Congressional Task Force on Election Security called on House appropriators to fund state efforts to secure voting infrastructure on Monday.
Approximately $400 million remains... Read More »
A U.S. Border Patrol agent, Rogelio Martinez, died this week as a result of injuries sustained while responding to activity in the Big Bend Sector in Texas.
Agent Rogelio Martinez and his partner were responding to activity while on patrol near Interstate 10 in the Van Horn Station area when... Read More »
At a recent World Health Organization (WHO) conference in Moscow, Russia, 75 ministers committed to increase multisectoral action, progress and build accountability in an effort to end Tuberculosis (TB) by 2030.
The Moscow Declaration to End TB came at the first WHO Global Ministerial... Read More »
After the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) was successfully used to coordinate multi-agency responses to recent hurricanes, additional training sessions have been held for federal, state, and local officials, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Friday.
ATAK, which was... Read More »
Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee raised questions and requested additional information on Friday about the Equifax data breach that exposed the personal information of 145.5 million Americans earlier this year.
In a letter to Paulino do Rego Barros Jr., the interim CEO of... Read More »
Smiths Detection’s IONSCAN 600 recently became the first trace explosives detection system to be approved on the U.S. Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Air Cargo Screening Technology List (ACSTL) under its latest program requirements.
Developed to ensure security of cargo... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers stationed at various ports of entry along the California-Mexico international border recently seized more than 842 pounds of various narcotics over a series of incidents.
From Nov. 9. through Nov. 12., CBP agents intercepted 15 different... Read More »
The Emergent BioSolutions Inc. facility in Canton, Massachusetts, will soon be manufacturing the ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine, thanks to approval of a license by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week.
ACAM2000 is notable for being the only FDA-licensed vaccine for active... Read More »
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers discovered 211 firearms at security checkpoints at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) this year as of Nov. 16, setting a new record for the most guns found at an airport in a single year.
ATL TSA officers have discovered... Read More »
New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) recently issued a request for proposals (RFP) seeking partners for a range of city initiatives designed to facilitate the growth of New York City's cybersecurity industry.
The plan is part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's Cyber NYC initiative and... Read More »
Scientists from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and a collaboration of universities have found a biomarker indicator that can identify which patients infected with Ebola are most at risk of death.
The discovery, published in the journal Cell Host &... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) recently applauded Immigration and Customs Enforcement's ICE) announcement that “Operation Raging Bull” recently resulted in the arrest of 214 MS-13 gang members in the United States and 53 in El Salvador.
Of the 214 gang members arrested in the United States,... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Automated Indicator Sharing (AIS) was recently the focus of a House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure hearing that examined how effectively cyber threat information sharing practices are advancing national security.... Read More »
Following a career in counterterrorism and diplomacy that spanned more than two decades, Nicholas Rasmussen recently announced his resignation from his position as director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) at the end of the year.
NCTC Deputy Director Russ Travers will serve as... Read More »
According to recent analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the compound annual growth rate of defense spending will likely increase in 58 of 71 nations between 2017-2021 as the global defense environment becomes increasingly complex.
PwC Global Defense Perspectives 2017 analyzes defense... Read More »
Responding to a growing concern over laser attacks against pilots and air crews, engineers from BAE Systems have created a new system to block such transmissions and prevent deterioration of vision.
“Lasers operate at specific wavelengths,” Leslie Laycock, executive scientist at BAE Systems,... Read More »
The National Security Council’s release of a new charter for the Vulnerabilities Equities Process (VEP) drew praise from U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) on Wednesday for bolstering transparency and for bringing diverse stakeholders into the conversation.
Cybersecurity Advisor Rob Joyce... Read More »
Companies would be required to take minimum steps to prevent data breaches that expose the personal information of customers and to make timely notifications when breaches occur, under a bill introduced in the Senate on Tuesday.
The Consumer Privacy Protection Act of 2017 would establish... Read More »
In a move that would head-off the potential closure of the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) at Fort Detrick, the House of Representatives approved a mandatory study of the facility and the nation’s biodefense vulnerabilities on Tuesday.
The House approved the... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released Tuesday a pair of Joint Technical Alerts detailing tools and infrastructure used by the North Korean government to conduct malicious cyber activity.
The activity noted in the alerts is part of a... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is collaborating with first responders to prevent, detect, and mitigate illegal jamming of communications systems through exercises, data collection, outreach and education campaigns and proposed new tools.
In... Read More »
The University of California, Riverside has a team of researchers genetically engineering mosquitoes to insinuate themselves among other, disease-carrying insects and suppress the spread of infectious disease.
The team published a study this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of... Read More »
During a visit to Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) headquarters in Glynco, Georgia, on Tuesday, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke received an operation briefing, observed training programs, and toured a port of entry training simulator.
FLETC trains most of the... Read More »
Questions were raised by members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday about reports that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) discontinued funding for research on gun violence under the Trump Administration.
In a letter to NIH Director Francis Collins, U.S. Reps. Frank... Read More »
BAE Systems will develop a space evaluation and analysis testbed that enables the military to develop, integrate and analyze advanced space enterprise command and control (C2) under a contract announced by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on Tuesday.
Under the contract,... Read More »
A group of 15 Democratic senators urged the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) on Monday to subject online political ads to the same requirements as political ads aired on television, radio and satellite.
U.S. Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) submitted... Read More »
Researchers from Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories recently successfully conducted a critical experiment using plutonium in order to enhance nuclear safety.
The test was the first successfully conducted critical experiment designed by Livermore Lawrence National Laboratory... Read More »
Research from an assortment of international institutions could yield improved efforts to control and contain cholera outbreaks, thanks to two comprehensive studies that have traced 60 years of outbreaks across the world.
Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean were all the focus of the... Read More »
Steven Walker will lead the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s efforts to target investments in emerging technologies to advance national security as the 21st director of DARPA, the agency recently announced.
Prior to his appointment as director, Walker had been serving as the deputy... Read More »
Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology recently found that immunity to dengue can defend against the Zika virus and identified cytotoxic T-cells that can protect against both infections.
“In some parts of the world Zika is almost like a secondary infection,” Sujan... Read More »
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said that it agreed with the findings of recent covert testing conducted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) and said it would implement the OIG’s recommendations.
Members of the Office of Inspector... Read More »
