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PreparednessDHS unveils more Than $1.8 billion in FY 2010 preparedness grants
DHS announces more than $1.8 billion in preparedness grants; the grants are designed to help states, urban areas, tribal governments, and non-profit organizations enhance their protection, prevention, response, and recovery capabilities for risks associated with potential terrorist attacks and other hazards.
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Gulf of Mexico oil spillSecond pipe may have crippled BP well's defenses
The discovery of a second drill pipe joins a list of clues that is helping scientists understand the complexities of the Deepwater Horizon accident, and learn lessons which will inform changes in how deep-water drilling is conducted; evidence emerges that BP cut safety corners because the drilling fell behind schedule; one expert says: the accident "absolutely was preventable--[the rig lacked] "a regulatory presence onboard that said, "I don't care how late it is, you do it right or you go home."
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Online monitors of Yorkshire flood risk
The U.K. Environment Agency now offers individuals and businesses at flood risk in Yorkshire a real-time Web-based monitoring of local river and sea levels; the data from more than 1,700 monitoring stations across England and Wales will complement personalized phone and text-message alerts from the Environment Agency's free flood-warning service
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X Prize Foundation may offer $3 to $10 million award for Gulf Oil Spill solutions
X Prize Foundation, known for offering prizes to innovative and future-oriented innovations, is considering offering a prize of between $3 and $10 million for a viable solution to stopping the oil spill in the Gulf; the foundation in the process of developing a multi-million dollar competition to help alleviate the effects of the oil spill in the Gulf; the X Prize Foundation is best known for what was originally called the Ansari X Prize -- a $10 million competition open to anyone who could build a reusable, privately built craft capable of reaching outer space
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InfrastructureA surge protector to end all surge protectors
If an equipment failure, terrorist attack, or lightning strike causes a power surge, also known as a fault current, that fault current can cascade through the grid and knock out every substation and piece of equipment connected to the problem site; DHS's Resilient Electric Grid project aims to develop a superconductor cable designed to suppress fault currents that can potentially cause permanent equipment damage
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DHS adopts ASIS's resilience standard for private sector organizations
DHS has adopted ASIS International's Organizational Resilience Standard as part of a program designed voluntarily to bolster the resilience of private organizations during man-made and natural disasters and emergencies
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The gridIt may be impossible to protect the North American grid against catastrophic events
Making sure the North American grid continues to operate during high-impact, low-frequency (HILF) events -- coordinated cyber and physical attacks, pandemic diseases, and high-altitude nuclear bomb detonations -- is daunting task; the North American bulk power system comprises more than 200,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines, thousands of generation plants, and millions of digital controls; more than 1,800 entities own and operate portions of the system, with thousands more involved in the operation of distribution networks across North America
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Hurricane season2010 hurricane season is going to be a busy one
The 2010 hurricane season, which began 1 June, is going to be a busy one: the National Hurricane Center forecasts a 70 percent chance of eight to fourteen storms reaching hurricane strength, and three to seven becoming dangerous "major" hurricanes of category 3 and above
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2010 hurricane season unusually active
As if the on-going oil spill were not enough, people who live near the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic should brace themselves for an unusually active hurricane season this year (the hurricane seasons lasts from 1 June to 30 November); FSU researchers say there will be an average of seventeen named storms with ten of those storms developing into hurricanes in the Atlantic this season; the historical seasonal average is eleven tropical storms with six of them becoming hurricanes
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New forensic tool advances data recovery
Data recovery for images will be applied to other file types; new text tool will make it possible to recover more data from corrupted hard drives; the text tool will examine fragmented chunks of files that may be distributed across a disk and analyze their content to see which ones likely go together
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Oil spill, flooding create perfect storm for commerce, shipping
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Icelandic volcanic eruption, and flooding in Tennessee have created a "perfect storm" for businesses that rely on an efficient supply chain; in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities the impacts of the spill may only be beginning; New Orleans is still down 200,000 to 250,000 residents in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The impending oil catastrophe could lead to further flight as jobs are lost and people default on their businesses and homes
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Mobile communications helps in business continuity
The essential step for companies to survive disasters: enable people to work from home; instead of using technology to recover from an incident, we are now at the point where we can use it to prevent the incident having much of an effect; the key is to build technology into the company's operations from the start
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Commercial networks are now victims of targeted cyberattacks
State-sponsored groups with deep technical skills and computing resources have long been directing targeted cyberattacks at government organizations and military targets; the Chinese intelligence services' cyberattacks on Google are but the latest indication that cybercrooks are expanding their horizons and start aiming targeted attacks at commercial networks
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Odds and endsEnd-of-the-world shelter company selling bunker space
A California-based company offers people a chance to survive the end of the world; for $50,000 per person, the company will sell you a spot in an underground shelter guaranteed to survive nuclear attacks, bio terrorism, chemical warfare, super volcano eruptions, asteroids, solar flares, tsunamis, earthquakes, pole shifts, the return of Planet X, and social and political anarchy;
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Onyx targets business continuity acquisitions
Energetic and acquisitive U.K. VAR Onyx refreshes DRS proposition after recent buy-out and aims for more consolidation; company claims that many disaster recovery packages do not cater effectively for smaller firms, particularly in London
The Long View
IT securityTrend: Businesses increasingly rely on SAS for security
More and more companies have gravitated toward the idea of "software as a service" (SAS) -- using software that is delivered remotely instead of hosted on in-house servers; more and more companies are now offering security products as services -- but is it the best approach to security?
Be preparedPractical guides to disaster recovery planning in SMEs
Gartner says that "40% of all SMBs will go out of business if they cannot get to their data in the first 24 hours after a crisis"; two papers aim to help SMBs prepare for disaster
Guest columnHow soon they forget: Organizational memory and effective policies // Jon Shamah
Large organizations, either in the private sector or public sector, always have a churning of staff; the problem is that within one or two cycles of churn, anecdotal knowledge, and other unwritten information, just gets lost from the organizational memory; when something bad happens, few people know those solutions which have proven to work in the past and those that have failed miserably
The 25 most dangerous places for offshore outsourcing
Are you thinking about outsourcing your company's back-room work to companies in Bogota, Bangkok, or Johannesburg? Think again; here is a list of the 25 worst outsourcing cities
TrendIndia to see a large, broad growth in expenditures on domestic security
A series of terrorist attacks, culminating in the coordinated attack in Mumbai last month, convinced both government and industry in India that more security -- much more security -- is required to cope with mounting threats to domestic peace; business opportunities abound for companies in IT security, biometric, surveillance, detection, situational awareness, and more
TrendAsia at risk of era of mega-disasters
Asian countries are heading toward an era of mega-disasters; cities in the Himalayan belt, China, Indonesia, and the Philippines could experience earthquakes where the death toll could top one million
AnalysisEven in tough times, IT security should not be short changed
In tough economic times, IT managers -- as do other managers -- look for ways to cut costs and expenses; they should realize, though, that in tough economic times IT security may become even more important than during more normal times
