Countermeasures
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing Tuesday to examine the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) preparedness for and response to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.
The hearing follows a recent bipartisan... Read More »
A bipartisan bill that seeks to combat the growing opioid epidemic in the United States was advanced this week by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Authored by U.S. Reps. Niki Tsongas (D-MA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), the International Narcotics Trafficking Emergency Response by Detecting... Read More »
A bill that seeks to improve information sharing and cooperation in addressing cybersecurity risks at the nation’s ports was recently unanimously advanced by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Authored by U.S. Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA), the Strengthening Cybersecurity Information Sharing and... Read More »
Rutgers University has been awarded a $300,000 contract by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the next two years in order to address a deadly fungal infection spreading through hospitals.
Candida auris is a variant of yeast that can enter the bloodstream and is both... Read More »
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and his 10 counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) Defense Ministers Meeting-Plus met Monday at the former Clark Air Base in the Philippines to discuss mutual security challenges and their multilateral defense cooperation.
Mattis... Read More »
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security recently introduced a self-guided exercise scenario to help public health communicators and risk communication researchers prepare for transmission dilemmas they could face during a pandemic.
The SPARS Pandemic scenario book features the outbreak of... Read More »
The National Governors Association (NGA) recently announced the launch of a project aimed at preventing acts of violent extremism in throughout the United States.
Developed through a two-year training and engagement grant provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the project... Read More »
A bill that establishes an interagency task force of federal law enforcement agencies to help eradicate the illicit trade of fentanyl and heroin throughout the United States was recently introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives by U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins (R-WV).
The bill, titled the... Read More »
A bill that seeks to reauthorize U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) cargo vetting program for the first time in eleven years was recently advanced by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Authored by U.S. Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ), the... Read More »
During a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) prodded federal officials on the nation’s cyberdefenses and the need for a national doctrine for deterrence of cyber attacks.
Witnesses included Christopher Krebs, the senior official undertaking duties of... Read More »
Motorola Solutions recently introduced new integrated software-based communication solutions for first responders, which combine the company’s ASTRO 25 land-mobile radio (LMR) systems and public safety broadband.
“We are introducing new solutions and future concepts that use ASTRO 25 for... Read More »
Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke recently met with foreign leaders in the United Kingdom and at a G7 meeting in Italy to advance collaborative efforts to fight terrorism.
Duke first traveled to London where she met with UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd and other top officials from... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently announced the deployment of facial recognition biometric exit technology at the Miami International Airport for select flights.
“Through our consultations with the airlines and airport stakeholders, and based on the success of several pilots,... Read More »
U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers stationed at the El Paso Port of Entry in Texas recently made a seizure of 177 pounds of liquid methamphetamine during a single traffic stop.
The incident began as officers encountered a 2009 Ford Econoline van driven by a 38-year old Mexican... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced it is working to contain an outbreak of Marburg virus disease (MVD) that has appeared near the Kenyan border in east Uganda.
First detected on Oct. 17 by Uganda’s Ministry of Health, WHO estimated that several hundred individuals may have... Read More »
The Alliance for Biosecurity formally recognized the sustained efforts of U.S. Rep. Charles Albert “Dutch” Ruppersberger, D-Md., to improve how the United States prevents and combats biosecurity threats with its Congressional Biosecurity Champion Award.
Congressman Ruppersberger on Oct. 19... Read More »
A 23-year-old resident of Aurora, Illinois, faces 15 years in prison for attempting to travel to Syria and join the designated foreign terrorist organization known as Jabhat al-Nusrah.
The suburban Chicago man, Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, was arrested at O’Hare International Airport four years ago... Read More »
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) recently sent a letter to Nuance, a health care technology company affected by June’s NotPetya malware outbreak, asking for additional information about the incident.
The outbreak affected Nuance’s ability to provide transcription... Read More »
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Deputy Director-General Hamid Ali Rao highlighted chemical safety and security as a priority area for engagement during a recent official visit to Dhaka, Bangladesh, for the International Seminar on Advanced Chemical Safety and Security... Read More »
Acting Deputy Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Ronald Vitiello recently visited El Paso, Texas, and Cuidad Juarez, Mexico, for an event promoting cross-border relations between the two countries.
On Oct. 19, CBP personnel were in El Paso to discuss the agency’s... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers stationed at the Laredo Port of Entry in Texas recently made significant seizures of methamphetamine in three separate incidents at the port’s Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge.
According to CBP, the seizures were made after officers... Read More »
In a Massachusetts case, a 28-year-old man had been convicted of conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) terrorist group, along with terrorism and obstruction charges.
David Daoud Wright had been indicted back in April 2016 alongside Nicholas... Read More »
A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) study identified 16 public or nonprofit programs that encourage safe storage of firearms on the national and local levels and also indicated that safe gun storage has not been extensively studied.
The programs, GAO said, predominantly involved... Read More »
A World Health Organization (WHO) partner laboratory in Paris, France, tested this week samples from patients from Seychelles suspected to be ill with pneumonic plague and returned negative results.
The Seychelles Ministry of Health and WHO shipped the 10 samples to the collaborating centre for... Read More »
Aerojet Rocketdyne announced Wednesday that its propulsion systems used in Raytheon’s Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IB guided missile recently supported a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led, multinational naval exercise off the coast of Scotland.
The exercise, called Formidable... Read More »
France’s Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian recently welcomed Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü for a symposium in Paris commemorating the organization’s 20th anniversary.
In his opening remarks, Üzümcü... Read More »
Biologists from the University of California San Diego have made headway in new flu and anthrax treatments through two separate studies focused on bodily defense.
Experiments in both cases unveiled new mechanisms the body uses to defend itself, working their way up from fruit flies. The results... Read More »
The U.S. Navy and Missile Defense Agency, supported by Lockheed Martin, successfully completed a series of tests of the Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) 4.0.3 Aegis Combat System in the Atlantic Ocean.
The agency completed the tests as part of Formidable Shield 2017 (FS-17), a North Atlantic... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) launched Tuesday the Hidden Signals Challenge, a competition that seeks ideas for novel uses of existing data to discover emerging biothreats.
The competition offers a $300,000 prize.
“This Challenge is... Read More »
A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently said that Romania has significantly strengthened its regulatory framework for nuclear and radiation safety, which included the approval of a National Strategy on Nuclear Safety and Security (NSNSS).
Conducted by... Read More »
According to a recently published report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) should use sound program management and oversight practices in its technology infrastructure modernization (TIM) plan to avoid repeating past... Read More »
Raytheon’s Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) defense system recently intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile target at sea during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led multinational operational demonstration off the coast of Scotland.
The demonstration, called Formidable Shield 17, was... Read More »
Air passenger travel is steadily increasing, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, and with an influx of passengers comes the need for more highly trained canines to protect the public and support law enforcement, experts say.
The FAA reports in an aerospace forecast that passenger... Read More »
A jury in Manhattan federal court returned a guilty verdict Monday against Ahmad Khan Rahimi on all eight counts of the indictment that charged him with offenses related to his execution and attempted execution of bombings in New York City on September 17, 2016.
Rahimi faces a mandatory... Read More »
A group of House Energy and Commerce Committee members sent a letter Monday to the General Services Administration (GSA) to request information on its data security vetting for awarding government contracts.
The committee members also sent a letter recently to the Internal Revenue Service... Read More »
