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Following reports that U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to close the State Department’s Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues (S/CCI), a group of U.S. representatives sent him a letter urging him not to do so.
The S/CCI office organizes responses to cyber threats, mitigates... Read More »
U.S. Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ) recently chaired a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee to examine the role that technology plays in predicting, deterring, and detecting illicit activity along the nation’s southern border with Mexico.
The hearing comes as U.S. Customs and Border... Read More »
In Seoul, South Korea, dozens of countries are gathering this week to discuss the future of the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), which seeks to protect the world from infectious disease threats and has formed the backbone of biosecurity initiatives across the globe for more than three years.
... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently selected the University of California - San Diego (UCSD) to be part of a research team on a project aimed at curbing the spread of infectious diseases like Zika virus and dengue fever.
UCSD’s selection by DARPA now entitles it to a... Read More »
Global aviation security is undergoing another change, this time in response to measures laid out by U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly earlier this year.
Foremost among the changes, which affect all 180 airlines and 280 last-point-of-departure airports globally, are the lifting... Read More »
A new mathematical model developed at Upstate Medical University in New York will help guide researchers to make monthly predictions on when populations are at greatest risk of contracting mosquito-borne diseases, like Zika virus and dengue fever,
The model was developed by Upstate Medical... Read More »
Recent testing conducted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on large-scale vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED) at Fort Polk will be used to develop new mitigation capabilities and secure vulnerable targets in the Middle East.
The DHS Science and Technology... Read More »
A combination of Google search data and government-supplied clinical data can be used to accurately track mosquito-born illnesses like Dengue fever in developing countries, researchers at Harvard University recently found.
Researchers used Google Trends to track the top 10 dengue related search... Read More »
More than 300 public safety professionals representing 20 African nations convened in Khartoum, Sudan for an educational event hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), where participants trained in various aspects of response operations, radiological hazards, and emergency public... Read More »
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) does not have valid evidence to support the effectiveness of its list of behavioral indicators for individuals who may post a threat to aviation security, according to a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).... Read More »
The City of Phoenix. Arizona received a boon for its terrorism preparedness efforts last week with the announcement that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would be providing them $1,565,000 in grant funds for that purpose.
The funds were provided through the 2016 Complex Coordinated... Read More »
The Epidemiology Unit of Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health (MoH) recently reported a total of 80,732 cases of dengue fever throughout the first six months of 2017, a figure that is 4.3 times higher than the average number of cases reported from 2010-2016 and includes 215 deaths.
According to the... Read More »
Battelle recently received a Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) Homeland Defense and Security Technical Area Task (HD TAT) award with a total value of $13,781,575 to support the National Guard Bureau’s (NGB) Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Division initiative.
The... Read More »
The House Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade recently advanced legislation that aims to establish international border security standards to close security gaps that could potentially allow foreign terrorist fighters to travel internationally. ... Read More »
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced that Christopher R. Hetner will remain as senior advisor for cybersecurity policy to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton.
Hetner, who served under previous SEC Chairman Mary Jo White and Acting Chairman Michael Piwowar, will continue his... Read More »
During a recent hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) questioned Ret. Brigadier General Stephen Cheney on how much the United States needed to be thinking about upgrading the security of critical energy infrastructure as it related to recent... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions said on Wednesday it plans to acquire GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) raxibacumab, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved monoclonal antibody used for the treatment of inhalation anthrax, in an all-cash transaction valued at up to $96 million.
Raxibacumab is approved... Read More »
The House Appropriations Committee recently passed the FY2018 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations bill, which contains a number of provisions for critical programs related to aviation security, border enforcement, natural disaster response, cyberattack mitigation, and illegal... Read More »
The International Space Station’s (ISS) microgravity environment could provide a means of improving the understanding of toxic nerve agents, such as sarin and VX, and how to combat them, according to a researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-supported Countermeasures Against... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) recently awarded two multi-year grants to Molly Duman Scheel, associate professor of medical and molecular genetics at the Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend, to assist her work in abating mosquito-borne illnesses in order to keep military... Read More »
At a recent meeting of the National Governors Association (NGA), outgoing NGA Chair Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-VA) provided an update to his year-long initiative on strengthening state cybersecurity defenses.
Beginning in 2016, McAuliffe launched a project, titled Meet the Threat: States Confront... Read More »
Two Zika virus vaccine candidates were shown to protect the developing fetus of female mice from infection and associated birth defects, according to a recent study conducted by the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB).
The findings, which were published in a recent issue of... Read More »
A recent discovery made by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) Schools of the Health Sciences revealed a loophole in which the influenza virus packages its genetic material to give rise to new strains of the flu.
The research, detailed in a recent issue of the journal Nucleic... Read More »
More than 135 researchers, representing 10 medical centers designated by the U.S. government as a Regional Ebola and other Special Pathogen Treatment Center (RESPTC), recently convened at the National Ebola Treatment and Education Center (NETEC) at Emory University in Atlanta for a two-day event to... Read More »
In response to fiscal concerns raised by a number of sheriffs in Arizona, U.S. Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ) recently introduced legislation that would reauthorize a program to reimburse state and local governments for incarcerating undocumented immigrants who commit crimes in the United States.... Read More »
Fifteen analytical chemists representing Latin American and Caribbean member states to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), recently convened at the Laboratory for the Verification of Chemical Weapons (LAVEMA) in Madrid, Span for a two-week training course on the analysis of controlled chemical... Read More »
In the wake of reports that the Electronic Immigration System (ELIS) issued more than 20,000 green cards in error, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) sent a letter to Acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director James McCament, requesting information regarding his department’s... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents recently made a large seizure of cocaine after intercepting a fishing vessel along the Miami River.
The incident began as CBP agents, along with one Border Patrol agent, boarded the vessel to process four crew members and their cargo as they... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. said on Friday it plans to acquire Sanofi’s ACAM2000 business, the only vaccine licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for active immunization against smallpox, in an all-cash transaction totaling up to $125 million.
ACAM2000 is the primary smallpox... Read More »
Border Patrol agents stationed along Interstate 5 near San Clemente, California recently made a seizure approximately 58 pounds of illicit narcotics during a single traffic stop.
The incident began as agents stopped a 2006 Chevrolet Equinox SUV driven by a 45-year old U.S. citizen. During... Read More »
Prior to an international conference of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) Secretary General Jürgen Stock emphasized the need for military successes to be translated into actionable intelligence for global police forces.
The information... Read More »
Following reports that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have been working with inoperable radios and associated communications equipment, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) sent a letter to Acting CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, asking if his department was doing enough to ensure that CBP... Read More »
In response to the recent Senate introduction of the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, which would effectively repeal the Prevention and Public Health Fund in FY2018, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) came out strongly against the legislation, citing the detrimental effects... Read More »
Tulane University was recently awarded $12 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to test a potential new drug treatment against the Lassa virus and to develop a vaccine candidate against the disease.
The awards were issued through NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and... Read More »
U.S. Reps. Tim Murphy (R-PA) and Greg Walden (R-OR) recently sent a public letter to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), regarding the Blue Ribbon Panel’s review of the 2014 smallpox virus incident on the NIH campus that called into question a number of missed opportunities to discover vials... Read More »
