U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao announced the launch of this year’s Stop. Trains Can’t. public education campaign, which will run through November 8. This national $6.6 million safety campaign will run on radio, digital, and social media, educating drivers not to gamble with their lives at rail grade crossings. The campaign will also target high-risk highway-railway crossings in Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Indiana, Tennessee, and Texas.
Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad F. Wolf released the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Homeland Threat Assessment (HTA). This first-of-its-kind report synthesizes threat information across DHS including intelligence and operational components.
Amid ever-changing technology, embracing modern security solutions and capabilities can be a challenge for many, especially those who have spent years accustomed to tried-and-true products, like the traditional keyed padlock. Today, decision makers working in the security sector are tasked with sorting through the blitz of new technology offerings and introductions.
The University of Florida Police Department is installing license plate recognition technology on campus and will partner with the Gainesville Police Department and Alachua County Sheriff’s Office that is currently using the technology to share information for aiding in investigations, responding to incidents, etc.
Independent polling firm Schoen Cooperman Research recently conducted a nationwide poll on Americans’ views of facial recognition technology. The survey of 1,000 adults found that most Americans support the use of facial recognition across a wide range of applications with 75% supporting facial recognition technology at airports.
The Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at Albany International Airport is now using new technology that confirms the validity of a traveler’s identification and confirms their flight information in near real time. This technology will enhance detection capabilities for identifying fraudulent documents at the security checkpoint.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has launched a crowdsourcing challenge to spur new methods to ensure that important public safety data sets can be de-identified to protect individual privacy. The Differential Privacy Temporal Map Challenge includes a series of contests that will award a total of up to $276,000 for differential privacy solutions for complex data sets that include information on both time and location.
Travel has been limited to prevent the spread of COVID-19; however, as restrictions relax and organizations start to return to operations, we’re beginning to see an increase in business travel. In fact, in May, Business Travel News estimated that 31% of travelers expected to start planning business travel within the next month and 50% of meeting planners anticipated resuming meetings from the months of June to September.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) joined with public and private-sector partners to conduct an interagency Tabletop Exercise (TTX) called “National Harbor 2020 – Recovery Phase Exercise,” September 29 – 30, to test the processes and plans required by regional government and business partners following a notional catastrophic incident at National Harbor outside of Washington, D.C.