Category: International

A counter terrorism operation coordinated by INTERPOL and AFRIPOL has enabled frontline police across Africa to detect potential terrorists and seize dangerous and prohibited goods. The pan-African operation codenamed ‘FLASH-PACT,’ aimed at strengthening the ability of border officers on the frontlines to identify suspected terrorists and dismantle the networks behind them, took place in two phases between July and September. Using INTERPOL’s global criminal databases for wanted people, stolen travel and identity documents, and stolen vehicles, law enforcement worked together with INTERPOL and AFRIPOL to locate, intercept and stop criminals trying to cross regional borders. Operation FLASH PACT: Intelligence-led, collaborative and strategic Underlining the need for a pan-African, multi-stakeholder effort against terrorism, the operation involved police, customs, border forces and counter-terrorism experts, including INTERPOL Regional Counter-Terrorism Nodes in Abidjan and Nairobi. Participating countries focused their operations at airports, seaports, land border crossings and a range of pre-identified terrorist hotspots. Ahead of tactical operations, investigators collected and examined data to establish a clear threat picture on regional terrorism using globally sourced data from INTERPOL’s 195 member countries. Stronger borders, stronger national security With stolen travel documents a key asset for terrorist mobility, particularly foreign terrorist fighters returning from conflict zones, the operation saw INTERPOL’s databases queried more than six million times, resulting in some 400 hits on INTERPOL’s travel and identity documents database. Access to INTERPOL databases at border control points saw nine people flagged as Red Notice subjects. An INTERPOL Red Notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. Highlighting how terrorist activity often converges with other crime areas, more than 20 people were identified as wanted by INTERPOL for a wide range of serious crimes including fraud, money laundering, drugs and wildlife trafficking. One man was flagged as the subject of an INTERPOL-United Nations Security Council (UNSS) Special Notice which alerts the global law enforcement community to individuals that are subject to sanctions imposed by the UNSS. The three most common sanctions are asset freezing, travel ban and arms embargo. Several INTERPOL Blue Notice subjects were detected attempting to cross borders in the participating countries. A Blue Notice serves to collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a crime. “Western and Eastern Africa have seen increased terrorism in the past decade. This is quickly spreading its devastating impact southwards, causing death, fear and destruction – a devastation for African communities and economies,” said INTERPOL’s Executive Director of Police Services Stephen Kavanagh. “Counter-terrorism operations like FLASH-PACT are clear evidence of the joint commitment AFRIPOL-INTERPOL partnership as it allows us to share expertise on local terrorist networks, better understand their methods, motives and financing and ultimately identify and arrest those who chose to spread terror,” added Mr Kavanagh. Officers in Uganda and Benin detained six travellers using forged passports, and in Mozambique police authorities arrested a man in possession of an AK-47 assault weapon, two magazines and 51 rounds of ammunition. In another case, police seized 360 rolls of explosives and a detonating cord. More than 250 travellers were arrested for attempted illegal immigration, and several stolen luxury vehicles were recovered in Tanzania.  A powerful partnership INTERPOL, AFRIPOL and the African Union work side by side on matters of joint interest, sharing resources and expertise, and developing combined responses to Africa’s policing needs. “As a regional police organization, AFRIPOL provides a framework for police cooperation at the strategic, tactical and operational levels in all African states, helping us build stronger, meaningful capabilities for African law enforcement through our partnership with INTERPOL,” said AFRIPOL’s Acting Executive Director, Ambassador Jalel Chelba. “It is important to underline the role of joint operations such as FLASHPACT in enhancing cooperation and security for African countries. INTERPOL’s support has enabled the sharing of intelligence information which leads to a greater security through arrests and seizures,” added Ambassador Chelba. Operation FLASH-PACT is the first counter-terrorism operation organized by the two police Organizations since the establishment of AFRIPOL by the African Union in 2014. The operation was coordinated with the help of INTERPOL’s Support Programme for the African Union (ISPA) which assists AFRIPOL in developing its strategic framework and operational functions across the continent and in fighting transnational crime and terrorism with INTERPOL and other regional policing bodies.  

Milestone Systems, a leading provider of open platform video management software, today, has unveiled plans to bring its pioneering video technology beyond the traditional security market with new specialized solutions, including a special healthcare solution. Speaking at the 2022 Milestone Partner Summit (MIPS) in Dubai, Milestone Systems’ CEO Thomas Jensen revealed details of how the provider of XProtect, an open-platform video management software, aims to empower people, businesses and societies with data-driven video technology software that serves end users both in and beyond the traditional video security industry. As part of this exciting growth strategy, the Danish-headquartered company – which surpassed 1,000 employees worldwide last year – aims to more than double its annual turnover within the next five years. Milestone’s CEO also committed to continue to strengthen the company’s position as a responsible technology organization. “We are preparing to revolutionize our industry by using data-driven video technology both in and beyond security.” said Jensen. New Specialized Solutions While maintaining its core safety and security video management offering, Milestone – which last year delivered a record net revenue of 1.1 billion Danish kroner – will introduce video solutions for various industries from 2023 onwards. Next year, it will launch new solutions aimed at the healthcare industry, starting with video-enabled solutions for hospitals. “We see a future in which data-driven video technology is a game-changer, that will help to make the world a better place for us all,” Jensen told the gathering of Milestone’s top partner resellers, system integrators, security specialists, and service providers. Jensen outlined how XProtect, which can be integrated with the widest choice of devices and other security solutions, currently enables people to understand the world they see by viewing recorded or real-time video data. Through the responsible use of data-driven video technology, XProtect will soon be able to predict events before they happen, which will further enhance Milestone’s offering in and beyond security. As Milestone continues to invest in strengthening its core platform and XProtect software, the company aims to serve as a blueprint for how other leading technology firms can engage in responsible business practices that benefit societies at large. “The technology industry has been a bit like the wild west. During the last 20 years, technology companies became immensely powerful, maybe too powerful,” said Thomas Jensen, “The result was techlash – a backlash against technology companies with societies demanding that their power be regulated. “Techlash was a warning – the ‘wild west’ is over. The consequence for us is that current and future generations have very different expectations of technology companies than just five years ago. That’s the next industry challenge; we call it responsible technology.” Strong Ethical Behavior Milestone, which celebrates its 25th anniversary next year, has always had strong ethical behavior as part of its DNA. Jensen noted that Milestone co-authored the Copenhagen Letter in 2017, a declaration calling on tech companies to put people first when designing and using technology. This commitment was then incorporated into Milestone’s End User Licensing Agreements. Thomas said, “Looking ahead, we want people to feel safe knowing that they can trust our technology. Together with our partners, we will lead the way to strengthen our commitment to responsible technology by introducing further initiatives and putting greater focus on how we develop technology and how our customers use our technology.” Reflecting on Milestone’s ambitious growth strategy, Thomas Jensen highlighted how the company has broken new boundaries in the past. “Together with our partners and a handful of other pioneering technology companies, we helped to define modern video surveillance. We helped lead the transformation from analog to IP technology in the safety and security industry,” he said. “Looking ahead, we are preparing to revolutionize our industry again by using data-driven video technology both in and beyond security,” he said, “Together with our partners, our role is to deliver business outcomes – which is about focusing on the value we deliver to our customers – that will help make societies more productive.” Milestone Systems is a leading provider of open platform video management software; technology that helps the world see how to ensure safety, protect assets and increase business efficiency. Milestone enables an open platform community that drives collaboration and innovation in the development and use of network video technology, with reliable and scalable solutions that are proven in more than 500,000 installations worldwide. Founded in 1998, Milestone is a stand-alone company in the Canon Group.  

Panomera® camera for Milestone XProtect® VMS users: As many ‘virtual PTZs’ as you like Dallmeier is a gold sponsor at this year’s Milestone Partner Summits (MIPS) in Dubai (11-13 October) and Minneapolis (24-26 October). Interested Milestone partners can find out more about the German manufacturer’s Panomera® and Domera® camera systems and the use of the systems with Milestone XProtect® video management software at the Dallmeier booth With the patented Panomera® cameras, the images from up to seven detail sensors and one overview sensor are intelligently combined in a camera system to form a high-resolution overall image of the object space. This eliminates the need for time-consuming and confusing switching between camera perspectives and unnecessary searches on building and environment maps. The number of cameras required as well as the number of screens to be observed is reduced many times over. XProtect® operators can now open and arrange all ‘submodules’ as often as they like via the user interface and zoom in on any number of areas within the submodules at the same time. At the same time, the high-resolution display of the overall scene is always maintained. The benefit corresponds to the combination of a powerful megapixel camera with any number of high-resolution ‘virtual’ PTZs. Perhaps the most versatile camera in the world The Dallmeier Domera® dome cameras are the German manufacturer’s answer to many problems with classic video camera systems. Among the features of the Domera® are a resolution of up to 4K, an integrated AI video analysis as well as the remotely controllable three-axis adjustment with the Dallmeier RPoD (Remote Positioning Dome) and a modular construction system with which more than 300 conceivable product variants can be realised. The adaptive IR and white light LEDs of the Dual Matrix LED ring mounted outside the bubble ensure a particularly high image quality at night. This also makes it more difficult for spiders to take hold and results in significantly fewer light reflections (e.g., from scratches). On the Milestone Marketplace, customers and partners can access the Dallmeier Panomera® Plugin and find out about the benefits of integration in Milestone XProtect®.  

Illicit trade is a growing threat to society as it incurs economic, societal and security costs. From counterfeiting and smuggling to the illegal sale or possession of goods and services, governments are losing billions in tax revenues, legitimate businesses are undermined, and consumers are exposed to unregulated products. To counter this threat, some 450 law enforcement officials as well as security and industry experts from 70 countries and nine organizations are meeting at the 15th International IP Crime Conference, both in person and online. INTERPOL and the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) in partnership with Underwriters Laboratories are co-hosting the three-day event (19-21 September). Amongst key topics, participants will discuss online piracy, operational and investigative support to fight IP crime globally, money laundering, pharmaceuticals – consumer health and safety, women in IP and capacity building. Global Threat of IP Crime IP crime touches all industry sectors, affecting the global economy and endangering public health. According to some estimates, the global trade in illicit pharmaceuticals alone represents more than USD 4 billion a year. “A significant challenge is too many people still think of counterfeiting and piracy as a victimless crime, but these are serious transnational organized crimes run by extensive and complex criminal enterprises,” said INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock. “INTERPOL is here to help law enforcement, and partners, gain the knowledge, skills and best practices needed to face these threats and disrupt the criminal groups making huge profits from a very real human cost,” Secretary General Stock added. Coordinated action against illicit markets Unregulated and counterfeit medicines target the most vulnerable groups in society and endanger lives. Growing consumer demand and the COVID-19 pandemic has also led to the increased sale and supply of illicit medical products from unauthorized and unregulated websites. In this context, INTERPOL coordinates regional and global law enforcement operations to help its member countries fight against illicit markets. For example, Operation Pangea XV in June 2022 resulted in the seizure of an estimated USD 11 million in illicit medicines. At the same time, law enforcement agencies shut down or removed more than 4,000 web links containing adverts for illicit products. “Close collaboration is essential to help combat illicit markets and protect valuable intellectual property. The Korean National Police Agency will be at the forefront of these coordinated efforts,” said YOON Hee Keun, Commissioner General of Korean National Police Agency. In partnership with UL, INTERPOL has developed a global online training platform, the International Intellectual Property Crime Investigators College (IIPCIC), which provides opportunities for selfpaced training and educational webinars. The interactive training platform has become an important educational tool for law enforcement and rightsholders worldwide, ensuring frontline officers have access to the necessary training and information.  

Dallmeier Electronic, a leading German manufacturer of video cameras, recording and software systems, announces the establishment of its own national subsidiary in Türkiye. With immediate effect, the newly founded Dallmeier Türkiye will support interested installers and security service providers with additional sales, pre-sales, and support staff. A Dallmeier Türkiye showroom and a demo centre complement the offering Prominent customers such as Istanbul Airport, Alsancak Stadium or the Merit Hotel & Casino Group trust the video security systems of Germany-based manufacturer Dallmeier. In addition, more and more small and medium-sized commercial enterprises, banks, stadiums, and numerous public clients in Türkiye are using the video security solutions ‘Made in Germany.’ Dallmeier has been active in Türkiye since 2009. Due to the steadily increasing demand, Dallmeier has now decided to establish its own national company, Dallmeier Türkiye. This gives installers and integrators access to all necessary resources for smooth project handling: At the recently opened branch in the Hacettepe TechnoCity in Ankara, everything revolves around comprehensive and practice-oriented customer care – from presales advice to technical support. Patented technology ensures low operating costs At the heart of many Dallmeier solutions are the patented Panomera® cameras. Customers benefit from a unique cost-benefit ratio – thanks to the combination of several video sensors with different focal lengths in one optical unit, Panomera® reduces the number of cameras required many times over compared to conventional solutions. This results in savings in all project areas – from implementation, infrastructure, and civil engineering to ongoing operational and administrative costs. Panomera® systems can be used in sports stadiums, large company premises, airport aprons and runways, car parks and public spaces. Best-of-breed or everything from a single source Dallmeier also offers 4K single sensor cameras, recording, video analysis and software solutions for a wide range of applications. The solutions can either be used as Dallmeier complete solutions or through open interfaces such as ONVIF, with a wide range of third-party systems. In addition, there are integrations with a variety of security and analysis systems as well as with common VMS systems such as Milestone or Genetec. Short distances and a holistic offer for integrators Dallmeier Türkiye sells exclusively through integrators and installers. At its premises in Ankara, the company offers them a complete portfolio of innovative technologies and comprehensive services. From consulting and the Dallmeier 3D planning service, with which customers and partners can precisely define all details of their future system by means of a ‘digital twin’ even before the project begins, to the Factory Acceptance Test, which puts the entire system through its paces before handover, to support during ongoing operation. In addition to a meeting room and a showroom for product demonstrations, partners also benefit from training rooms for comprehensive ‘hands-on’ training. “For installers and integrators, the establishment of Dallmeier Türkiye is an important message. With Dallmeier, they can distinguish themselves through a variety of cost-saving innovations. Therefore, paradoxically, our integrators can offer solutions with products from a supposed high-wage country with which they are more than competitive. And this with higher quality and interesting margins. With the Ankara office, we now offer all the resources necessary for our partners to offer their customers high-quality solutions and services. Channel neutrality is also very important to us. When a partner registers a project with us, he can be sure that we guarantee him appropriate project protection” Orhan Yorukoglu Sales Director, Dallmeier Türkiye “Quality in security solutions is becoming increasingly important in Türkiye. With the solutions from Germany, we offer the highest standard worldwide both in hardware quality but also in data protection and cybersecurity. Moreover, Dallmeier’s products are always focused on providing the customer with an actual solution to their problems and not just another camera product,” said Dieter Dallmeier, Founder and CEO, Dallmeier. “Türkiye has been an important market for Dallmeier for over ten years, with solid and dynamic growth. With the establishment of our own national company, our local partners have everything they need for a smooth process of pre and post sales, planning and consulting.”  

Gallagher, the leading security solutions manufacturer, announced the expansion of its technical support services to the Americas with a dedicated team of people based in Atlanta, Georgia. Operating from September 5 onwards, the team in the Americas will create stronger connections in the region, while also alleviating the New Zealand team’s current load of operating all day and all night. “It’s an evolution of our technical support. We’ve been providing 24/7 technical support from New Zealand and we’re growing really quickly elsewhere, particularly in the Americas. So, this expansion has been a couple of years in the making,” said Shane Keesom, Gallagher’s Technical Support Manager. “Expanding our global support capabilities is a natural progression of our vision to provide exceptional customer experiences. The team here in the Americas adds to the diversity within our global team,” said Paul Wilson, the Gallagher’s Director of Technical Services for North America. The new team consists of four engineers, servicing the entire globe during their shift, with one member who is able to provide technical support in Spanish too. “This is going to be gold, being able to talk to our partners and customers in their own language and lingo,” said Matthew Dean, Gallagher’s Technical Support Team Leader.  

According to the latest report from research organization Omdia, Genetec Inc., a leading technology provider of unified security, public safety, operations, and business intelligence solutions, has been recognized as the fastest-growing access control software provider in the world for the second year in a row. The report shows Genetec taking market share from other access control vendors and strengthening its number two position globally (up from 4th in 2019). Regionally, Genetec experienced the most organic growth in the Americas and was the fastest-growing software provider in EMEA. Traditionally dominated by proprietary solutions with slow innovation cycles, the access control industry provided few options for IT and cyber-security conscious customers. Modern enterprises of all sizes are now looking to migrate to unified, open-architecture, and secure access control solutions that allow them to choose hardware that best suits their needs. This has, in large part, fueled the rapid market share gains of Genetec. “While traditional, proprietary access control vendors were hard hit the last couple of years, Genetec grew by almost 20% globally, gaining ground in both the Americas region and in EMEA,” said Bryan Montany, Physical Security Analyst at Omdia. Genetec credits its growth to the continual innovation of its unified security platform, Security Center, where access control functions go beyond locking and unlocking doors and address non-traditional applications such as enclosure management. Genetec unified solutions are designed to reveal new insights that help organizations better understand their business and operations and provide customers with a measurable return on their investment. “At a time when many traditional access control vendors are trying to maintain market share through mergers and acquisitions, Genetec is growing its access control business organically by focusing on innovative, nonproprietary, and cybersecure solutions that meet the needs of forward-thinking organizations, while laying the foundation for their future growth,” said Guy Chenard, Chief Commercial Officer, Genetec Inc. With its open approach, Genetec provides a large and growing selection of third-party access control devices. This allows organizations to choose the hardware that addresses their security needs and objectives, while avoiding the long-term setbacks of closed solutions. The open approach offered by Genetec solutions enables end users to scale up or down, broaden the capabilities of their solution, and migrate to the cloud at their own pace. With unified solutions, which bring together access control, video surveillance, and license plate recognition, physical security is evolving from a tool for mitigating risk to playing a significant role in organizations’ digital transformation. According to another recently published Omdia report, Genetec ranked #1 in video surveillance software globally for the 11th consecutive year, and recorded the fastest market share gain over the last three years. These figures coupled with the company’s global growth in access control software, further underscore its market leadership and the benefits of a unified platform.  

When building fences and landscaping their properties, homeowners should keep fire safety on the top of their minds, especially if they live in a wildfire-prone region, according to a new study. Across nearly 200 fire experiments, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) burned residential fences and mulch beds to examine the role they play in spreading fire. They found that fire hazard was generally disproportionately higher when combustible objects burned together. Flames rushed along mulch lining the base of fences, and infernos quickly swallowed up pairs of fences when they burned in close proximity to each other. In contrast, stand-alone fences clear of mulch or debris burned at a much slower pace. Based on their findings, the authors of the new report recommended that homeowners not place two fences back to back, keep other combustible surfaces far apart and take important other actions. Wildfires can spread quickly through and potentially overwhelm communities adjacent to the wilderness – the socalled wildland-urban interface (WUI). Post-wildfire studies, including NIST’s study of the 2018 Camp Fire, have pinpointed fences and mulch as culprits in spreading fire. “Fences that catch fire were often completely gone. If you looked closely, you could see some nails and screws remaining. The ones we saw partially burned were left standing because they were defended by someone,” said Report Co-author Alexander Maranghides, who is leading NIST’s Camp Fire study, “These things don’t put themselves out.” Fences and mulch can act as bridges for flames to reach buildings and as launch pads for airborne embers to ignite fires far away, but fire codes in the U.S. do not address how they should be installed and maintained, and little guidance exists to help homeowners. To help build a technical foundation for the development of guidelines in the future, the authors of the new report sought to study fence and mulch fires under conditions that are closer to real life than what has been used in previous studies. The research team burned fences, mulch beds, and combinations of both outdoors, igniting the materials several meters downwind from a wind machine used to simulate real fire-spreading conditions. Downwind of the fire, the team set up a shed or mulch bed as a target. Through 187 experiments, they burned fuels alone and in combination, including fences of several common designs made of wood, vinyl or wood-plastic composites and mulch beds composed of shredded hardwood, pine bark nuggets, pine straw or rubber. The researchers captured footage of the blazes to gauge the speed and pattern of flame spread and to record how often embers ignited the target shed. They also conducted research in the lab to measure how quickly samples of fence raw materials released heat. Taking all the data together, the authors categorized the relative fire threat level for the various test conditions. “In the highest hazard category, the fences and mulch are going to carry the fire along toward your house in a matter of a few minutes, not hours,” said NIST Physicist Kathryn Butler, Co-lead Author of the report. The most dangerous fires observed were those that had multiple sources of fuel burning at the same time. In the tests where mulch lined the bottom of a fence, fire tended to swiftly advance across the beds of fine combustibles, which served as rich sources of embers and allowed flames to quickly ignite the fence along its entire length. The researchers learned that the fires could get much worse as well. When two fences made of combustible materials were placed back to back – mimicking the scenario where two neighbors each put up a fence along their property lines – the most intense flames of the entire project erupted. After the fire was established, long-reaching flames quickly shot up, completely engulfing fence panels 2.4 meters (8 feet) long and 1.8 meters (6 feet) tall in as little as four minutes. Embers sparked fires on the target in almost every one of these tests. “It’s very well known that when you confine a fire on the sides, it’s bad news. Keeping those hot gases between the fences with surfaces radiating intense heat to each other leads to explosive fire behavior,” Butler said. When fence panels burned alone, it was a different story. Flames slowly chewed away at the fences and did not spread very far during these experiments, with some progressing less than a meter (3.3 feet) in an hour. Although these fires burning slowly on a sole fuel source were less hazardous and more manageable, high winds that may accompany a wildfire could blow debris toward the fence, adding fuel to the fire. Butler, NIST mechanical engineer Erik Johnsson and the rest of the authors crafted seven recommendations for homeowners living in WUI zones based on their analysis. The first recommendation is to avoid doubling up on fences completely, as the study found that fences as far apart as 91 centimeters (3 feet) still produced large flames. The second says that combustible fences should be placed where they will not interfere with exit routes. Other recommendations advise keeping combustibles as far away from each other as possible, even between property lines, and clearing yards – and especially the space near or between fences – of debris, such as leaves or fallen branches. The report also indicates that homeowners should replace combustible landscape features with those consisting of noncombustible material such as stone, steel or cement, when possible. Because of the ever-present danger of embers during wildfires – even when there is a large distance between a structure and the fire – the researchers also urge homeowners to enhance their homes to resist ember ignition through a process called hardening. The detailed steps for hardening are described in a separate NIST report on mitigating wildfires. The team members intend to keep pushing forward to cover new ground in wildfire research. With additional experiments, they plan to offer additional insights on risk mitigation and eventually lay a groundwork for new guidance,…

A new way of imaging concealed objects, devised by a researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and his colleagues, might take all the fun out of hide-andseek, but could also help save lives. Imaging scenes that lie outside an observer’s direct line of sight could greatly enhance search and rescue missions, such as finding a lost child in an abandoned factory, as well as military and police surveillance operations, such as exposing a hidden terrorist or enemy stronghold. The ability to see around corners and reconstruct a full image of a hidden object or obstacle in real time also could someday improve robotic vision and the safety and accuracy of self-driving cars. (At present, the prototype method cannot create an image instantaneously.) Most conventional methods used to image objects behind an obstruction use an external source of light – ultra-short pulses of visible or infrared laser light, for example. The light source initially illuminates a wall that scatters the light into the concealed region. When the light strikes a hidden object, the object re-scatters some of the light back to the wall where it can be detected. However, imaging hidden objects using only visible and infrared light is challenging. At those relatively short wavelengths, a typical wall – no matter how smooth to the human touch – presents itself as a rough surface and scatters incoming light in all directions. It therefore reveals less information about objects than light reflected from a smooth or mirrored surface and requires sophisticated algorithms and significant computing time to create even a semi-sharp image. In addition, the illumination could tip off adversaries that they are under surveillance. Other methods, which don’t require a light source, analyze shadows cast by a hidden object on a wall, or detect the heat (infrared radiation) naturally emitted by the concealed body and scattered diffusely into view. But these approaches also require extensive computing time and analysis. “A good algorithm and lots of computer power might extract an image, but not a very good one,” said Erich Grossman, NIST Physicist. Grossman and his colleagues based their new approach on detecting the tiny amounts of much longer wavelength radiation – the ‘submillimeter’ range of the spectrum of light that lies just beyond microwave radiation and which people and objects also naturally emit. At these long, invisible wavelengths, ranging from 300 micrometers up to 1 millimeter, walls made of a variety of materials appear relatively smooth and act as partial mirrors, reflecting rather than diffusely scattering into view radiation from a concealed object. To create an image, the reflected radiation has to be directed and focused. Unlike visible light, submillimeter radiation can’t be steered by glass lenses. Instead, Grossman and his colleagues relied on curved mirrors to focus the invisible light. Experimenting with their prototype, Grossman and his collaborators at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in Minneapolis demonstrated that they could construct images of objects hidden behind walls in about 20 minutes. The prototype technique employs state-of-theart indium phosphide transistors, which amplify submillimeter radiation with little noise over a wide range of wavelengths. The method does not require complex algorithms or intensive computer analysis. “What’s cool about this method is its simplicity,” Grossman said, “There’s no quantum mechanics, no relativity, there’s nothing cryogenic or anything fancy – just transistors and a basic computer and mirrors.” The entire apparatus is small enough to fit in a backpack. With NIST facilities closed during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Grossman used his own home – converting the bedroom of his daughter, who had left for college, into a makeshift laboratory. Grossman himself was the body hidden behind a wall. He tested walls made of a range of common indoor building materials to determine which ones reflected enough submillimeter radiation to form an image, including wet and dry wallboard, plywood, wood paneling, unpainted cinderblock and stone kitchen tiles. Walls that reflected at least 5% of the submillimeter radiation were best at producing images of concealed bodies. These included dry wallboard, wood paneling, vinyl floor planking, plywood, stone kitchen tiles and medium-density fiberboard. With a larger array of detectors and transistors, Grossman said that the method should be able to image hidden objects in real time. The work was supported by NIST and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).  

Tenable®, the Cyber Exposure Management company, recently announced it has achieved the Application Security distinction in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Security Competency for its cloud-native vulnerability management solution. This designation recognizes that Tenable has demonstrated and successfully met AWS’s technical and quality requirements for providing customers with a deep level of software expertise in Application Security to help them achieve their cloud security goals. Achieving the Application Security distinction in the AWS Security Competency differentiates Tenable as an AWS Partner Network (APN) member that provides specialized software designed to help companies – from startups and mid-sized businesses to the largest global organizations – to adopt, develop and deploy security into their AWS environments, increasing their overall security posture on AWS. To receive the designation, APN Partners must possess deep AWS expertise and deliver solutions seamlessly on AWS. “Tenable is proud to be an APN Partner to achieve the Application Security distinction in the AWS Security Competency,” said Ray Komar, Vice President of Technology and Cloud Alliances, Tenable, “Our team is dedicated to helping companies achieve their security goals by combining our vulnerability management expertise with the range of powerful security tools AWS provides.” AWS is enabling scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solutions from startups to global enterprises. To support the seamless integration and deployment of these solutions, AWS established the AWS Competency Program to help customers identify AWS Partners with deep industry experience and expertise. “Tenable.io has unified our vulnerability management program under one toolset,” said Patrick King, Head of IT Operations and Security, Global Payments AU/ NZ, “It’s brought together teams across different business units to use a common language around vulnerability posture. The solution is easy to use and streamlines our reporting.” Managed in the cloud and powered by Nessus technology, Tenable provides comprehensive vulnerability coverage with the ability to predict which security issues to remediate first. It’s a complete end-to-end vulnerability management solution.