More than 50 organizations, including the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), will participate in the first national, multi-jurisdictional nuclear emergency response exercise to be conducted since 1999. Exercise Unified Response, May 26-28, will allow CNSC to evaluate and improve its emergency response capabilities in keeping with its mandate. Since the Fukushima accident in 2011, CNSC,… Keep Reading
Twenty-seven law enforcement officers and prosecutors from Panama and Honduras have joined the fight against transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) after graduating Friday from an elite training program at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Ga., the Department of Homeland Security announced. The International Taskforce Agent Training class, conducted by US Immigration and… Keep Reading
As of April 1, almost 1.02 million international students were enrolled in nearly 9,000 US schools using an F (academic) or M (vocational) visa, marking a two percent increase from January. Seventy-five percent of all international students were from Asia, with 29 percent from China. Saudi Arabia and India had the greatest percentage increase of… Keep Reading
Esri and Alchemy Management have selected five of the nation’s leading fire rescue departments to take part in the 2014 National Community Risk Reduction (CRR) Leadership Program. As part of the program, Esri announced that it will train fire rescue staff on how to use mapping software to identify community risk, establish risk prevention programs… Keep Reading
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) Office of University Programs announced two funding opportunities for US academic institutions to conduct homeland security research and education. The first opportunity is a cooperative agreement, up to $20 million over a five-year period, to fund the creation of a new DHS S&T Center… Keep Reading
University of Central Florida bested nine other finalist teams to win the 2014 Raytheon National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC), held April 25-27 in San Antonio, Texas. The competition pitted the top ten college and university teams from across the country against each other to keep a fictional business running while under constant cyber-attack. Raytheon… Keep Reading
Last month, CyberPatriot announced the winners of the 2014 CyberPatriot National Finals Competition, a national high school cyber defense competition designed to expose students to the foundations of cybersecurity. On March 29, 2014 CyberPatriot VI concluded its week-long National Finals Competition at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. Team "Azure"… Keep Reading
Representatives from government, public safety and private aerospace companies learned more about the offerings of Texas’ only federally-designated test site for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) during the “Range-Users Roundup” at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi on April 8 and 9. “The sky truly is the limit,” said Dr. Luis Cifuentes, vice president of research, commercialization and… Keep Reading
Austin, Texas-based Smarter Security, Inc., a provider of premium, innovative entrance control and outdoor security solutions, announced that a university in the Midwest ordered more than fifteen Door Detective CL units to help stop unauthorized access through dormitory exit doors. The company said that “prior experience and success with Fastlane optical turnstiles led to the… Keep Reading
Mercyhurst University announced that it will name its new school in intelligence and information science after Tom Ridge, the nation’s first Secretary of Homeland Security and former 43rd Governor of Pennsylvania. The Tom Ridge School of Intelligence Studies and Information Science aims to prepare students for careers in national security, law enforcement and business. Mercyhurst’s… Keep Reading
Tailored for schools, a new multimedia communications platform developed by Mutualink provides K-12 schools with the capability to establish a direct link with police, fire, EMS and other first responders in emergency situations. The all-in-one device acts as a gateway for real-time voice, video, data and text communications, giving first responders increased situational awareness and… Keep Reading
For whatever reason, the numbers of active shooters in the US dramatically increased after 2008. Active shooters grew from about one every other month between 2000 and 2008, to more than one a month between 2009 and 2012. And they’ve been ascending ever since, culminating with 15 active shooters last year who slaughtered 39 people… Keep Reading
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi researchers have been conducting missions twice a day with the University’s RS-16 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and another UAV owned by American Aerospace Advisors. Another series of test flight missions this week over South Texas ranchland. The university’s Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence and Innovation — which will open soon… Keep Reading
Researchers at the University of Missouri (MU), working with Guild BioSciences, a biotech company in Charleston, SC, announced development of a new method for anthrax detection that can identify anthrax in just a few hours. Currently, first responders have only tests that can provide a screen for dangerous materials in 24 to 48 hours. “Normally… Keep Reading
Argon Electronics has been contracted by the United States Air Force throughthe Air Force Civil Engineer Center to deliver their PlumeSIM CBRN training system to enhance CBRN exercises during the Silver Flag Exercise Site at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. PlumeSIM will be used with Argon’s M4 JCAD simulators to create highly realistic CBRN and… Keep Reading
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev President Rivka Carmi this week announced the establishment of a national cyber complex in Beer-Sheva called CyberSpark. "Beer-Sheva will not only be the cyber capital of Israel but one of the most important places in the cyber security field in the world," Netanyahu said at… Keep Reading
A new Washington, DC-based academic and research, the National Cybersecurity Institute (NCI) at Excelsior College, announced that it will officially open its doors on January 14th. The institute is dedicated to assisting government, industry, military and academic sectors meet the challenges in cybersecurity policy, technology and education through a variety of initiatives, an announcement this… Keep Reading
Some of the most imperative technical training and knowledge that emerged from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were defense tactics against the improvised explosive device (IED) threat. While IEDs were one of the biggest threats to troops during the conflicts, the biggest threat today is losing the lessons we learned. If we don’t protect… Keep Reading
The former assistant director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology believes there needs to be a re-evaluation of federal surveillance practices that weaken commercial products and services. These practices include weakening standards and placing "back doors" into products that are accessible to US government agencies, said Carnegie Mellon University’s Jon Peha, a… Keep Reading
Researchers at a Homeland Security Center of Excellence have developed a software “toolkit” that provides real-time data in a manner that allows law enforcement and other first responders to swiftly analyze high-volume criminal, traffic and civil incident data and related emergency management and disaster preparedness events so they can more strategically allocate resources. Called the Visual… Keep Reading