Federal News

Super Bowl Sunday Terror Chatter High (WorldNetDaily) “There is a high likelihood of a major terrorist attack [this] Sunday, say international terror analysts and intelligence sources,” and “the warning is made on the basis of several factors, according to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin:

“Terror attacks seem to follow the release of al-Qaida videos by about 30 days. Some intelligence analysts are noting the significance of the release of videos recently by both Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri,” and “some analysts suggest that the release of communiqués by both al-Zawahiri and bin Laden might be the precursor to a mega-attack--something even rivaling Sept. 11.” [View article]

Customs and Border Protection Assists With Super Bowl Security U.S. Customs and Border Protection is supporting several security functions at the 2006 Super Bowl. In cooperation with the Detroit Police Department and dozens of additional federal, state, and local agencies, Customs has been working for months to ensure that visitors to the Detroit area enjoy one of the most-watched sporting events in the world. [View press release]

DHS and GAO Trade Barbs on Katrina Investigation (Government Executive) “The Government Accountability Office on Wednesday issued the preliminary findings of an investigation into the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, pinning most of the blame for problems at the federal level squarely on the Homeland Security Department,” reports Government Executive. “The department fired back late Wednesday, calling the report ‘premature and unprofessional’ and saying GAO did not contact DHS staff for comment.” [View GAO article] [View report]

Northern Command Prepares for Possible Pandemic (DefenseLink) “U.S. Northern Command recently hosted representatives from more than 40 international, federal and state agencies for an exercise designed to provoke discussion and determine what governmental actions, including military support, would be necessary in the event of an influenza pandemic in the United States,” reports American Forces Press Service. “… Exercise attendees analyzed topics such as public health care, maintaining civil order and providing continuity of government and private operations in case of widespread infection and worker absenteeism.” [View article]

DHS Streamlines Removal of Illegal Aliens Since September, the Department of Homeland Security has been implementing Expedited Removal, a process that quickly returns illegal aliens to their countries of origin, while maintaining protections for those who fear persecution. DHS has implemented the process between the ports of entry at all nine Border Patrol sectors on the Southwest border. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention and Removal officers have devoted significant detention space to these efforts and have removed more than 4,750 aliens under the program. The removal process applies to aliens who have spent 14 days or less in the United States and are either apprehended within 100 miles of the border with Mexico or Canada or arrive by sea and are apprehended within 100 miles of a coastal border area. Expedited Removal will now be implemented along the entire U.S.-Canadian border and all U.S. coastal areas as part of the Secure Border Initiative. [View press release]

DHS Plans Cybersecurity Exercise Next Week (Government Computer News) “The Homeland Security Department will test how well it works with other federal agencies and private IT companies to protect cybersecurity in a national exercise Feb. 6-10,” reports Government Computer News. “The Information Technology Information-Sharing and Analysis Center will take part in the exercise, known as Cyber Storm, with DHS to test its draft concept of operations for responding to cybersecurity incidents.” [View article]

DHS Seeks Comments on Software Security (Federal Computer Week) “The Homeland Security Department wants public comment on two draft documents that are part of a federal program to improve software security,” reports Federal Computer Week. “… The documents are part of the Software Assurance Program that DHS created as part of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. The program is designed to reduce vulnerabilities and exploitation of weaknesses to improve software security, particularly in software that critical infrastructure uses.” [View article] [View Federal Register announcement]

NSA’s Trailblazer Initiative Loses Way (SecurityFocus) “A program intended to mine the Internet and telecommunications for bits of data related to terrorism is still on the drawing board, despite costing an estimate $1.2 billion over the past six years, according to a Baltimore Sun investigation,” reports SecurityFocus. “The National Security Agency … has spearheaded the initiative, known as Trailblazer, aimed at connecting the dots between various information sources, such as e-mail, cell phone calls and instant messages. After spending almost $1.2 billion on the project since 1999, only a ‘few isolated analytical and technical tools have been produced,’ the article stated.” Trailblazer “is reportedly a key technology for enabling the NSA to more broadly identify and eavesdrop on terrorism suspects.” [View article]

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International News

As Hamas Takes Over, Uncertainty Takes Hold (Baltimore Sun) “In the days since Hamas claimed a stunning victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, the surprise and jubilation have been displaced by growing concern about jobs, international aid and the direction in which Palestinian society might be headed under Hamas leadership,” reports the Sun. “… the course Hamas is charting for the Palestinians became riskier when Egypt said Hamas needed to renounce violence and recognize Israel, if it were to form the next Palestinian government.… Separately, Israel announced that it has suspended the transfer of $45 million in tax rebates and customs payments to the Palestinian Authority.” But Hamas told the press it will not recognize Israel, will not disarm, and is not worried about losing millions in aid. [View article]

Europeans Insist Hamas Must Disavow Terrorism (New York Times) “European leaders, whose countries are major financial donors to the Palestinian Authority, on [26 January] registered disquiet verging on hostility toward the Hamas triumph in the Palestinian elections,” reports the New York Times. “… Like the United States, the European Union regards Hamas as a terrorist organization and insists that it cannot work with an institution that supports the violent overthrow of Israel.” [View article]

Israel Won’t Negotiate With Hamas (Miami Herald) “Israel will not negotiate with the Palestinians’ Muslim fundamentalist Hamas movement, despite its landslide victory in Palestinian legislative elections, Israel’s chief American envoy told The Miami Herald” on 27 January. “‘Our position was and is that Hamas should not have participated in these elections,’ said Ambassador Daniel Ayalon.” He “echoed widely accepted Middle Eastern analysis that the victory was largely a ‘protest vote’ against internal financial mismanagement and corruption by the Palestinian Authority … But, because Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, ‘We can’t confuse democracy with elections,’ Ayalon said.” [View article]

Security Breach of Dutch Biometric Passport (The Register) The “Dutch TV programme Nieuwslicht (Newslight) is claiming that the security of the Dutch biometric passport has already been cracked,” reports the Register. The program stated that “the passport was read remotely and then the security cracked using flaws built into the system, whereupon all of the biometric data could be read.” Security experts said “that a skimming exercise could potentially yield all biometric data from a passport (or indeed a biometric ID card), giving ID thieves and would-be forgers a considerable leg up in the construction of fakes.” [View article]

Iran Said to Have Nuclear Warhead Plans (Yahoo! News; Reuters) “Britain and Germany warned Iran on [28 January] it could be hauled before the UN Security Council over its nuclear ambitions, but both countries said they still hoped for a diplomatic way out of the impasse,” reports Reuters. But “the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said in a report Tuesday that Iran obtained documents and drawings on the black market that serve no other purpose than to make an atomic warhead,” reports the Associated Press. If the matter is referred to the UN Security Council, “Iran said, [that] would lead to a halt in surprise U.N. inspections beginning Saturday and prompt [Iran] to resume frozen nuclear activities.… Iran insists its nuclear program is civilian only and has no other purpose than to generate power.” [View Reuters article] [View Yahoo! article]

U.S. Tells Bangladesh to Curb Terror Finance (Lebanon Daily Star) The United States on 26 January “asked Bangladesh to take several steps including curbing militancy and terror financing so that it does not face sanctions under the US Terrorist Financing Act,” reports the Daily Star. “The visiting US State Department Assistant Secretary for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca … said Washington is deeply concerned about the rise of [a] militancy and human rights scenario in Bangladesh and wants to see quick and positive solutions to the problems” and “strongly asked Bangladesh to stop money laundering, as” the United States “believes the militants are getting their funds through such unlawful channels.” [View article]

UN May Use ‘Flu-casters’ if Pandemic Hits (Reuters) “The United Nations is considering using ‘flu-casters’, modelled on television weather forecasters, to publicise vital information if a global flu pandemic strikes,” reports Reuters. “They could broadcast latest developments from emergency-response facilities at the U.N.’s World Health Organisation in Geneva, according to David Nabarro, the U.N.’s top influenza coordinator.… The WHO’s Geneva bunker, a $5 million facility built in a former cinema, is the world’s nerve-centre for tracking bird flu and other deadly diseases” and would “become a global command centre if the H5N1 bird flu virus” caused a pandemic. “The screen-filled bunker could link the ‘flu-casters’ with TV networks via satellite feeds.” [View article]

Saudis Curb al-Qaeda, but Long-Term Problem Remains (Reuters) “Saudi Arabia has succeeded for now in suppressing al Qaeda but extremist ideology, regional tension and autocratic rule could make Islamist violence a reality for years to come,” reports Reuters. “‘Physically, the [al-Qaeda] infrastructure has pretty much been destroyed, but the battle is now on the ideological front. It’s still a big problem,’ said Saudi security adviser Nawaf Obaid.… Saudi Arabia says it has also moved to tone down fierce fundamentalist rhetoric in school textbooks and mosque sermons. But although the powerful religious establishment has joined the government’s propaganda war against militants, its puritanical ‘Wahhabi’ form of Islam still has the capacity to feed militancy for years to come.” [View article]

Many of Tony Blair’s Antiterror Proposals Fell Through (New Zealand Herald) “Many of the measures promised by Tony Blair in the wake of the London bombings last summer have been dropped or shelved despite his dramatic warning to terrorists that ‘the rules of the game are changing,’” reports the New Zealand Herald. “Six months after the Prime Minister’s pledge, analysis shows that only five of the 12 proposals he unveiled are likely to be implemented in full.” [View article]

Danes Face Growing Muslim Storm Over Muhammad Cartoons (BBC; London Guardian) “Denmark has advised citizens against travel to Saudi Arabia, amid growing anger across the Muslim world at Danish depictions of the Prophet Muhammad,” reports the BBC. “A newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet, one of which pictured a bomb hidden in his turban, apologised on Monday for offending Muslims.” However, “newspapers across Europe” have “reprinted the 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have sparked protests across the Middle East,” reports the Guardian, and the British Broadcasting Corporation showed them in a television news story. [View article on Danes] [View article on newspapers] [View article on BBC]

UN Thanks Cuban Women Doctors and Nurses for Work in Pakistan (Havana Granma) “The presence of Cuban women doctors and nurses in the survivors’ camp in Balakot, north Pakistan, is alleviating the situation of many Pakistani women in need of clinical attention, notes the UN, according to” Piedra Libre. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees “explains that because of their culture and customs, many Pakistani women” (the majority of the 2,800 people in the camp) “feel inhibited at using the latrines, and refuse to come out of their tents to see a male doctor even if they are sick.… those responsible for the camp decided to bring in a group of Cuban women doctors and nurses, who were immediately approached by a surprising number of victims.” [View article]

Canada Builds High-Security Center to Hold Six Terror Suspects (Toronto Globe and Mail) “The new high-security detention centre being built near Kingston to house foreign terrorism suspects is exceedingly small, with space for just six inmates,” reports the Globe and Mail. “… Just four people--all Arab nationals--are believed detained under the government’s controversial security certificates. All are resisting deportation on grounds that they fear persecution if sent home.” [View article]

U.S.-Mexican Diplomatic Relations Strained (Yahoo! News) “The U.S. Border Patrol arrested a Mexican immigration official who was allegedly trying to help a group of undocumented migrants sneak into the United States, the Mexican government said Sunday,” reports the Associated Press. The arrest came “just days after the Mexican and U.S. governments exchanged terse diplomatic notes about security on the border” after an incident on 23 January when “men dressed in Mexican military-style uniforms unloaded what appeared to be bundles of marijuana … as Texas law enforcement officers watched from the other side of the” Rio Grande. “Mexican officials have said the men were not Mexican soldiers.” [View article]

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National News

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New Bird Flu Vaccine Is 100% Effective in Animal Tests (Los Angeles Times) “Pennsylvania researchers have produced a bird flu vaccine made from a genetically engineered human cold virus and shown that it protected 100 percent of vaccinated mice and chickens,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “While production of a conventional flu vaccine requires months of work and large numbers of fertilized chicken eggs, the researchers reported [on 26 January] that they prepared their vaccine in only 36 days, growing it in a laboratory dish.… The team is working with the Food and Drug Administration to begin human tests of the vaccine … those trials could begin within weeks” and “the vaccine should be equally effective in humans because it is based on a human virus.” The research [was] “conducted in conjunction with scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” [View article]

Court Says ID Checks at Airports Are Constitutional (CNet News) “Airlines and the U.S. government have the right to keep passengers from boarding planes if they refuse to show personal identification, a U.S. appeals court ruled on” 26 January, reports Reuters. “John Gilmore, an early Sun Microsystems employee and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil liberties group, sued after Southwest and United Airlines in 2002 both did not allow him on board their flights when he refused to show any ID.” Gilmore “argued that requiring identification from airline passengers was unconstitutional, but a three-judge panel of [the] 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.… ‘He simply was told that unless he complied with the policy, he would not be permitted to board the plane,’” wrote Judge Richard Paez. [View article]

Fake Passport Ring With Terror Ties Busted (Yahoo! News) “The United States on [27 January] asked for the extradition of eight people arrested as part of a sting operation to dismantle a false-passport ring, although U.S. officials disputed Colombian suggestions the suspects were linked to Middle East terrorists,” reports the Associated Press. “According to an indictment unsealed [on 26 January] in Miami, agents posing as leftist rebels obtained counterfeit Colombian and Spanish passports that would allow them to enter the United States illegally, purportedly to traffic drugs, launder money and buy weapons.” [View article]

Ad During 24 Pushes Patriot Act (Chicago Tribune) “During a commercial break” in Fox Network’s popular 24 show, “viewers in the nation’s capital … saw an advertisement questioning the wisdom of senators who would ‘weaken’ the Patriot Act. ‘What if they are wrong?’ the commercial asked,” according to the Chicago Tribune. “… Moments before on the TV show,” fictional counterterrorism agent Jack “Bauer had just gained a crucial lead about” canisters of “nerve gas after threatening to cut out the eyes of a turncoat White House aide who was in league with the terrorists.” [View article]

Flight 93 Film Sets A&E Record (CNN) “A television movie about one of the doomed September 11 airplanes was A&E’s most-watched program ever,” reports the Associated Press. Flight 93, a dramatization of “the hijacking of the United Airlines plane and passengers’ efforts to retake it, drew 5.9 million viewers when it premiered Monday.” [View article]

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State and Local News

CDC Asks States to Create Flu Plans (USA Today) “The USA has a federal pandemic plan. But in an emergency, it will be the local response that matters the most, says Jeffrey Levi, senior policy adviser at the Trust for America’s Health, who spoke” in Washington, DC, “Wednesday at a meeting of flu experts,” reports USA Today. “… The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages states to create distribution plans for drugs and vaccines and policies on quarantine and isolation. But details on executing those plans are left to state and local health officials.” [View article]

Emergency Services Drill in California (Paradise [CA] Post) An emergency drill intended “to inform and protect the public from a dangerous nerve agent that had infiltrated the water supply system” took place in Butte County, CA, reports the Paradise Post. “‘Operation Silver Lining’ was a countywide scenario … used in a training session to organize the emergency operation centers that would be set up … in the event of a disaster.… All of the actions were simulated on paper and did not actually occur.” [View article]

New York City Plans ‘Ring of Steel’ (NewsMax) “New York city is preparing to turn lower Manhattan into a ‘ring of steel’--to protect the nation’s financial center from another major terrorist attack,” reports NewsMax. The Wall Street Journal “reported [on 25 January] that the city’s police force is modeling its security plans after London’s so-called ‘ring of steel,’ a system of encircling narrow roads, few points of ingress and egress, and battalions of closed-circuit TV cameras.” [View article]

California Natl. Guard Relief Fund Helped Few (Contra Costa [CA] Times) “A California military relief fund set up to help the families of activated National Guard members gave financial assistance to only three families last year,” reports the Associated Press. “… The California Military Family Relief Fund paid out $7,687 to three families in 2005, a tiny fraction of among 7,000 soldiers activated for duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and other postings.” Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante “blamed the National Guard for not developing awareness of the program, which grants up to $2,000 in emergency relief to needy military families.” [View article]

‘Dirty Bomb’ Sensors Are Tested at Nevada Site (Buffalo [NY] News) “Homeland Security scientists” at the Radiological-Nuclear Countermeasures Test and Evaluation Complex in the Nevada desert “are working on a $33 million program to perfect devices that can more accurately detect nuclear devices and ‘dirty bombs,’” reports the Associated Press. “… The tests aim to determine whether the 30 or so devices available commercially can distinguish a bomb from less harmful sources of radioactivity, such as a person who has had a radioactive isotope injected during a medical procedure, or household items like kitty litter and floor tiles that contain natural trace amounts.” [View article]

Utah’s ‘Driving Privilege Card’ Works (Salt Lake [City] Tribune) “Utah’s new driving privilege cards--available to undocumented immigrants instead of regular driver licenses--are having their desired impact, a legislative audit shows,” reports the Salt Lake Tribune. “And Senate leaders say the study lends credence to their efforts to kill a bill that would repeal the one-year-old cards. The driving privilege cards were designed to allow undocumented immigrants to legally buy car insurance and get behind the wheel, but stop them from using it as official ID for government purposes, such as participating in elections. Opponents … warned that immigrants would be wary of signing up for the cards, which would single them out as illegal. But the audit showed the state’s driver license division has issued 25,000 driving privilege cards and that most of the recipients also had valid insurance.” [View article]

Altoona, PA, Uses Water Fleas as Security Measure (Philadelphia Daily News) The Altoona City Authority “will use a type of water flea to test reservoirs for toxins that could be dumped by terrorists,” reports the Associated Press. The authority “said it will use Daphnia water fleas to check water in the reservoirs.… Current testing looks for mostly organic compounds that can leach into its 13 reservoirs, but does not check for poisons, such as cyanide, ricin or soman. Use of the tiny brownish crustaceans, which are hypersensitive to poisons, will take care of that.” [View article]

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Private-Sector News

DHS Contracts for Detention Facilities (Pacific News Service) Halliburton subsidiary KBR last month “received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to provide ‘temporary detention and processing capabilities,’” reports Pacific News Service. “The contract--announced Jan. 24 by the engineering and construction firm KBR--calls for preparing for ‘an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs’ in the event of other emergencies, such as ‘a natural disaster.’” [View article] [View KBR press release]

Dogs Search for Chem/Bio Threats Signature Science is training canines to detect the signatures of chemical and biological agents. The trained dogs can detect them at levels as low as one part per trillion, at least as good as any currently fielded hand-held device, says the company. The trained canines also can wear Signature’s detection instrumentation harness to add technological detection to the dogs’ natural ability. Signature Science also trains dog handlers in chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, explosives and improvised explosive device recognition and response. [View website]

VoIP Critical to U.S. Security (Computer Business Review) VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) “must be adopted by all levels of US government in order for it to be able to adequately respond to another terrorist attack or natural disaster, Tom Ridge, the first Secretary of US Homeland Security, said in a keynote speech [on 26 January] at the Internet Telephony Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,” reports Computer Business Review. “A national governmental VoIP system along with geo-location devices [and] emergency workers could locate people, with the help of photographs, data and video, he said. VoIP also would be a way to alert and forewarn the public of impending disaster.… Ridge noted that during the Katrina Hurricane disaster in New Orleans last year, the local command center, faced with jammed satellite phones, downed landlines and cell phone towers, relied on VoIP.” [View article]

DHS Asks Industry to Help Secure Borders (Government Executive) “Homeland Security Department officials said last week they are open to ideas from the private sector on improving the nation’s border security, including outsourcing work currently done by government employees and using satellites to monitor remote regions,” reports Government Executive. At a conference in Washington on 26 January, “representatives from private companies” heard “a presentation on the department’s multibillion-dollar Secure Border Initiative.… The initiative will replace … the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System and America’s Shield Initiative.… DHS plans to develop a comprehensive border security approach that integrates surveillance technology, physical infrastructure, personnel and processes.” [View article]

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Upcoming Events

New Events (After two weeks, new events will be moved to the list below, in chronological order) InfoSec World Conference & Expo (3-5 April; Orlando, FL) Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge will be a keynote speaker at Information Security World 2006. Additional workshops will precede and follow the main conference, and a discount for early registration is available through 31 January. [View conference website] Southwest Homeland Security Conference (Phoenix; 18-19 April) Homeland security professionals, response agencies, and elected officials in the Southwestern states will focus on border security (interstate and international), terrorism prevention, catastrophe preparedness, public education and outreach, and Native American homeland security. [View conference website] Government Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams Conference (30 April–5 May; Orlando, FL) The conference theme this year is “GFIRST: A nation working together to secure cyberspace.” The conference will focus on ensuring training and disseminating and exchanging information among operational incident responders, chief information security officers, and other cybersecurity professionals. [View conference website]

February

Airport Security Planning Courses for General Aviation (13-14 February, Columbus, OH) Ohio University and Robinson Aviation will hold two courses for general aviation facilities. For further information, please visit www.ohiou.edu/gasecurity/.[View course website]

Terrorism: Threats, Training, Tactics, and Technology (13-15 February; Fairfax, VA) Nationally renowned experts will explore terrorism, emerging threats, training, tactics, and technology. Participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of issues related to terrorism. Confirmed speakers are Brian Michael Jenkins, Ambassador Cofer Black, Admiral John Poindexter, Michael Scheuer, Walter Purdy, Colonel Danny McKnight, Jennifer Hardwick, Lieutenant John Sullivan, Lieutenant Roger Kelly, Don Hewitt, Rebecca Givner-Forbes, Ned Moran and a special guest from London. [View conference website]

5th Annual Critical Infrastructure Resilience & Infrastructure Security for the Built Environment Congress & Expo (15-17 February 2006; Washington, DC) This event will bring together government and industry officials from around the world to discuss and formulate solutions to protect the homeland. Issues such as physical security, cyber-security, standards, interoperability, biometrics, threat and vulnerability assessments, research and development efforts, and first responder requirements will be discussed. [View conference website]

March

Radiological Device and Nuclear Event Symposium (7–9 March; Richmond, VA) The symposium will be a forum for government and industry to discuss radiological and nuclear threat materials, their specific hazards, and capabilities for detection, protection, decontamination, and medical response; present results from recent Defense Dept. and Homeland Security Dept. research and development studies; and display new equipment, software, algorithms, and procedures for dealing with radiological and nuclear incidents. Contact Joseph Roehl at (540) 729-3927 or jroehl@scentczar.com. [View conference website]

Border Trade Alliance 2006 International Conference (23 March; Arlington, VA) This conference will explore the latest in infrastructure development and strategies for utilizing it. Among the topics to be covered:

• Next-generation ports of entry: The low-risk port of entry concept
• Bringing Free and Secure Trade to your border community: A Nogales case study
• New ports, new technology (technology providers and integrators discuss their innovations for the borders)
• Navigating the presidential permit process
• U.S.-Canadian and U.S.-Mexican infrastructure challenges and solutions

May

General Police Equipment Exhibition & Conference (2-4 May; Leipzig, Germany) This is a fully closed specialized trade fair with accompanying international congress, meetings (partly open) and lecture programs catering to the police and allied security markets. With its exhibition and fringe events, it promotes the interministerial and interdisciplinary transfer of information between government offices and frontline forces; advising the security community on new products and product developments together with current trends in education and training; and enhancing public security, the fight against terrorism and increased homeland security. [View conference website]

June

2006 Techno Security Conference (4-7 June; Myrtle Beach, SC) The conference will bring together private industry, government and law enforcement decision makers, and technical enthusiasts in the fields of information and network security, digital forensics, incident response, operational and physical security, auditing, and cyber-crime. Eight simultaneous tracks will feature interactive high-intensity training sessions, hands-on labs, professional certification opportunities, and networking opportunities. Topics will include homeland security; wireless security; web hacking; contingency planning; vulnerability assessments; incident response; computer, personal digital assistant, and enterprise forensics; password recovery and disk-wiping tools; intrusion prevention; Internet investigation techniques; street smarts for investigators; biometrics; and steganography. [View conference website]

6th International Conference on Complex Systems (25-30 June; Quincy, MA) This conference will investigate the properties or characteristics that appear to be common to the very different complex systems now under study and will encourage cross-fertilization among the many disciplines involved. [View conference website]

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Calls for Papers

New Calls for Papers (After two weeks, new calls for papers will be moved to the list below, in chronological order) Government Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams Conference (30 April–5 May; Orlando, FL) The conference theme this year is “GFIRST: A nation working together to secure cyberspace.” The conference will focus on ensuring training and disseminating and exchanging information among operational incident responders, chief information security officers, and other cybersecurity professionals. See the website for a list of topics. Submissions are due by 1 March. [View conference website]

Military, Aerospace, Space and Homeland Security Packaging Issues and Applications (6-8 June; Washington, DC) The International Microelectronics and Packaging Society is sponsoring a Topical Workshop and Tabletop Exhibit. Deadline for abstracts is 10 February. [View conference website]

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