EC Approves Advent International Deal for Safran’s Identity Business
The European Commission has cleared the proposed $2.7 billion acquisition by Advent International of Safran Group’s Morpho identity solutions enterprise with the one condition that Morpho’s smart card payment business in France be divested. Advent and Safran agreed that Morpho’s French subsidiary CPS, which supplies payment smart cards to banking customers in France, will be divested to maintain competition in Europe. Advent International, a U.S.-based private equity firm, last October announced the agreement for Safran’s biometrics and identity solutions business, which will be combined with Oberthur Technologies (OT), a leader in embedded digital security technology. Advent owns a stake in OT. Safran, which is based in France as is its identity business, also recently, sold its detection division to Britain’s Smiths Group so that it can focus on its core aerospace and defense work. Safran Identity and Security (I&S) offers a range of biometric capture technologies, identity matching systems, and other identity solutions, and also has a strong presence in the U.S. The business had about $2 billion in sales in 2016. OT had about $1.3 billion in sales in 2015. Bpifrance, a subsidiary of the French state, will also make an equity business in I&S alongside Advent.
DHS S&T Selects Mississippi for Small UAS Testing Range
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) branch has selected a site in Mississippi for the flight testing of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) in support of its research and development efforts. Mississippi State University in Starkville will lead the R&D project, which was competitively awarded, the school says. The demonstration range includes about 2,000 square miles of restricted airspace at altitudes up to 60,000-feeet, mainly in southern and coastal Mississippi. The range makes use of various sites including Camp Shelby, which is used by the Army for training and for joint forces training, buffer zones at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, and Singing River Island. S&T has been using other sites in the U.S. for testing sUAS. An agency spokesman says that contracts are still being worked out for the new site. Mississippi State says that the DHS S&T Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Demonstration Range Facility “will support homeland security operations and training by providing UAS flight and exercise support facilities that will support operational evaluation of UAS in a variety of applications and scenarios.”
DNDO, PNNL Advance Nuclear Forensics
Following a four-year effort, the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) have launched a new nuclear forensics capability that improves the ability to traced the origins of plutonium, an advancement that helps investigators know where nuclear material may have come from. “The new Plutonium Processing Signatures Discovery capability, along with other nuclear forensics clues and law enforcement and intelligence information, will help in identifying the origin of interdicted nuclear materials and the perpetrators responsible,” Dr. Wayne Brasure, acting director of DNDO at the Department of Homeland Security, says in a blog post in April. He adds that “In the event of a nuclear weapon detonation, knowing where radioactive material came from can help investigators determine who’s responsible.” He says plutonium is processed in different ways, which can create different characteristics in the radioactive element, creating “nuclear forensics signatures.”
Smiths Detection Partners with Duke Univ. in Deep Learning Research
Smiths Detection says it has partnered with Duke Univ. to do deep learning research for airport screening. Smiths Detection says the work involves a deep learning digital solution project to advance airport checkpoint X-Ray system screening capabilities. The project builds on a contract Duke has with the Transportation Security Administration for a deep learning initiative to refine and apply state-of-the-art machine learning techniques in the security space.
DHS S&T Helps Commercialize Cyber Security Technology
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) says it has transitioned a malware technology called Hyperion to the commercial marketplace through its Transition to Practice program. Hyperion, which was originally developed by the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was licensed non-exclusively by R&K Cyber Solutions in 2015. R&K spun off its Hyperion business to form Lenvio in 2016 to focus on further development and commercialization. Lenvio, now under exclusive license, will be able to position the Hyperion platform as a competitive product and keep growing the company. Hyperion is the eighth technology transferred to the commercial market out of government and academic laboratories under the S&T program. Hyperion is used for malware forensics, detection and software assurance.
Crossmatch Launches Line of Mobile-Friendly Fingerprint Modules and Readers
Crossmatch this week introduced Nomad, a new line of mobile-friendly fingerprint modules and readers that it says are “ideal” for integration into smart devices like tablets and purpose-built handhelds. The company says the fingerprint modules are “extremely compact, impervious to sunlight and offered in a range of FAP levels.” Crossmatch says the Nomad USB readers’ low profile and lightweight design is suited to jump kit applications requiring Appendix F certification. The new line also features a wireless reader for mobile 10 fingerprint livescan acquisition using the FBI’s 4-4-2 methodology.
NEC Launches NeoFace Express Facial Recognition System
NEC Corp.’s U.S.-based this week launched NeoFace Express, what it says is a “key component of a rapid-access biometric platform.” The company says the facial recognition based access control system sets the sets the stage for the future of travel, access and identity recognition. The system offers a “sleek design” and “delivers frictionless, seamless enrollment, verification and identification in a variety of settings, such as airports, border management, stadiums, ports of entry and exit, amusement parks, enterprises and other high-demand, high traffic areas.”