Day: June 7, 2021

Everbridge, Inc., the leading global player in critical event management (CEM), recently announced the completion of its acquisition of xMatters, a leading provider of IT Service Operations, Cybersecurity and DevOps incident response management. On April 6, 2021, Everbridge announced a definitive agreement between the parties pursuant to which Everbridge would acquire all of the outstanding equity of xMatters. Everbridge’s end-to-end CEM platform, combined with xMatters’ solutions, digitally transforms how organizations manage, respond to, and mitigate IT and cyber incidents, helping organizations protect and enable revenue while reducing expenses. CEM can be deployed rapidly on a modular basis supporting hundreds of positive RoI use cases, including for people and life safety, operations and business continuity, supply chain risk, IoT and the smart enterprise, and IT incidents and cybersecurity “xMatters’ strong position within many of the Fortune 1000 and Global 2000 adds even greater value to our CIO and C-suite customers and prospects across large enterprises. For many of these C-level decision makers, IT incident and cyber response management remains critical to protecting revenue, productivity and reputation – one of Everbridge’s fastest growing use cases,” said David Meredith, CEO of Everbridge, “xMatters’ technology will complement our successful IT alerting business, providing a natural combination to further strengthen our CEM for digital solution. Our two companies share award-winning cultures as best places to work, and we are excited to welcome the talents of the xMatters team into the Everbridge family.” “The combination of our xMatters team and technologies with Everbridge will enable us to provide our collective customers and partners with a highly-differentiated, end-to-end platform for transforming digital service resilience,” said Troy McAlpin, CEO at xMatters, “For our customers, digital business is their lifeblood and when that business is interrupted every second counts. With our acquisition now complete, we’re looking forward to further extending the power of critical event management (CEM) across an enterprise’s IT incident, digital service delivery, cyber security, and DevOps environments to help organizations ensure uninterrupted customer experiences.” With the rising challenges and opportunities associated with the Future of Work, Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, and 5G, Everbridge’s CEM suite of software solutions digitally transforms how organizations keep their digital and physical operations running, mapping risk intelligence with the automated tools to manage the full-lifecycle of an IT disruption or services issue. Automating and streamlining how organizations manage, respond to, and mitigate a crisis, as well as protecting revenue while improving cost efficiencies, CEM represents a ‘must have’ set of standards and best practices that forward-looking CEOs and boards increasingly incorporate into how they govern operational risk from unplanned events. According to a Gartner report, it is predicted, “By 2025, 70% of CEOs will mandate a culture of organizational resilience to survive coinciding threats from COVID-19, cybercrime, severe weather events, civil unrest and political instabilities.” Another Gartner report stated, “Organizations that have been able to optimize their IT support model are able to free up resources to be reinvested into projects that advance the organization’s strategic initiatives and begin reducing their technical debt. However, organizations that are hampered by labor-intensive IT support models find themselves overwhelmed with operational activities.” Summarized Meredith, “The acquisition of xMatters represents another significant step in Everbridge’s commitment to better serve customers and create increased shareholder value. We intend to leverage our large, combined R&D teams to further innovate with data analytics and AI Ops, and to drive innovation and value for our customer base.”  

Delta Scientific has announced the successful testing of its Model DSC635, a single shallow foundation bollard design that stopped and destroyed a 15,000 pound test truck with less than two feet of static penetration and 6.14 feet of dynamic. The simulated bomb load remained intact on contained on the truck bed. The test vehicle weighed 15,000 pounds and was traveling over 50 miles per hour. The fronts wheels were pushed back behind the cab and the engine ended up on the passenger side of the seat. The truck was stopped and completely disabled. “Delta is proud of our long history of innovation and full scale crash testing,” states David Dickinson, CEO of Delta Scientific. The DSC635 bollard has a height of 44 inches and a diameter of 15.75 inches with a cover. Delta’s bollards can be furnished with an array of decorative covers to enhance the look and match the aesthetic of the surrounding structures. These covers include stainless steel, powder coated aluminum, and fiberglass with custom styling and painting also available. Lights, beacons and audible devices can also be added to the bollards for additional safety protocols. Delta has been manufacturing shallow foundation bollards and barricades (24 inches or less) for decades. Shallow foundation bollards are the perfect solution for sidewalks, campuses, parking structures and government/ corporate facility perimeters where underground utilities and space limitations pose a problem for traditional deep foundation bollards. Delta’s shallow foundation bollards are often used to protect building perimeters and sports stadiums as static arrays and used in conjunction with the Delta’s active bollards and vehicle barricades at entrances and exits. Delta Scientific Corporation is the leading manufacturer of vehicle access control equipment with over 260,000 square feet of production facilities in Palmdale, Calif. Delta’s three product lines consist of high-security vehicle barricade systems, parking control equipment and guard booths. Delta Scientific has been engineering and manufacturing vehicle access control equipment since 1974 and sells its products worldwide.  

Thousands of suspects, companies and criminal networks engaged in maritime pollution have been detected and investigated in a global INTERPOL-led operation. Operation 30 Days at Sea 3.0 (1-31 March) saw simultaneous action by 300 agencies across 67 countries resulting in an unprecedented 34,000 inspections at sea and inland waterways, coastal areas and ports to detect marine pollution violations. Frontline action followed five months of intelligence collection and analysis, enabling the identification of specific hotspots and suspects behind the criminal, deliberate pollution of the world’s waterways. Preliminary results from the operation’s tactical phase included the detection of 1,600 marine pollution offences, often triggering fines and follow-up investigations across all continents. These include: Nearly 500 illegal acts of pollution committed at sea, including oil discharges, illegal ship-breaking and sulphur emissions from vessels; 1,000 pollution offences in coastal areas and in rivers, including illegal discharges of sewage, mercury, plastics, and other contaminants, leading to serious water contamination which flows into the oceans; 130 cases of waste trafficking through ports. By using INTERPOL’s wide range of databases and analytical capabilities, countries were able to connect pollution crime with other serious offences such as fraud, corruption, tax evasion, money laundering, piracy, and illegal fishing. With surveillance down, criminals are seizing opportunities With many enforcement resources being reassigned to tackle the pandemic, criminals have been quick to exploit growing vulnerabilities in environmental security and reduced risk of detection. Authorities in Indonesia detected 65 oil spills and detained two vessels which tried to evade detection by turning off geolocation systems and concealing their national flags. A major criminal network trafficking plastic waste between Europe and Asia was exposed, triggering cooperation between authorities from both regions. So far, 22 suspects have been arrested and thousands of tonnes of waste have been prevented from being illegally shipped to Asia, where it would have likely been dumped, contaminating soils and generating considerable marine litter. Several countries from Europe, Asia and Africa reported illegal shipments of contaminated or mixed metal waste falsely declared as metal scraps. In one case, the Italian Coast Guard seized and prevented 11,000 tonnes of metal scraps mixed with plastic, rubber, mineral oil and other contaminants from being loaded onto bulk carriers headed for Turkey. Namibia, the Philippines and Croatia also reported cases of illegal waste shipments from Europe. Growing trends included COVID-19 disposable items such as masks and gloves, with 13 cases involving medical waste opened as a result of the operation. With the value of gold on the rise, agencies across Africa, Central and South America worked to track illegal mining, which often results in devastating contamination due to mercury discharges. INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock said, “The threat of pollution crime is constantly evolving, endangering the air we breathe, our water and soil. Although this is the third edition of 30 Days at Sea, it is never the same exercise. “It is thanks to a global yet agile network that we have seen the number of inspections more than double since the first edition – a clear sign that the international community will not stand for criminal attacks on our environment.” INTERPOL will assist member countries in their follow-up operations and intelligence analysis with support from its Pollution Crime Working Group. Joining forces for greater impact With INTERPOL’s Environmental Security Programme coordinating the operation globally, Europol and FRONTEX (European Border and Coast Guard Agency) provided crucial support by coordinating the European leg of 30 Days at Sea 3.0, as part of the EMPACT action plan on environmental crime. Europol’s Executive Director Catherine De Bolle said, “Marine pollution is a serious threat, which endangers not only the environment but our health and in the long run our global economy. Criminals do not care about the environment; they do not think of tomorrow, but only of increasing their profits on the back of our society. Consolidated law enforcement efforts such as 30 Days at Sea are critical to tackle these borderless crimes and protect our environmental heritage for generations to come.” “Environmental crime is one of many criminal activities Frontex targets as part of our mission as the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. This is our contribution to the protection of the environment. I’m proud that, as part of 30 Days at Sea, Frontex aerial and maritime assets monitored nearly 1 000 vessels,” said Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri. All three editions of Operation 30 Days at Sea have been carried out with funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). Participating countries Participating countries include Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Cote d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea Bissau, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Liberia, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Namibia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor Leste, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vietnam, Zimbabwe.