Smiths Detection Consolidating North American Facilities
Smiths Detection says it will close three facilities in North America and consolidate their activities at existing plants during the next year as part of its Fuel for Growth program. The company says the job losses associated with the consolidation haven’t been finalized. “These are very tough decisions and have not been taken lightly,” says Richard Ingram, president of Smiths Detection. “But first and foremost we must get Smiths Detection back on the road to growth and sustained profitability as soon as possible.” The company says facilities in Toronto, Danbury, Conn., and Ijamsville, Md., will close. Production of handheld chemical identification sensors, trace detection consumables, and software development will transfer to its North American headquarters in Edgewood, Md. Development and production of trace products will be concentrated in Britain while production of small X-Ray systems at the recently opened Malaysia facility will be increased to take advantage of the manufacturing efficiencies at the new plant. The Fuel for Growth program, which was announced last year by Smith Detection’s parent Smiths Group, is aimed at saving Smiths Detection close to $24 million annually.
DHS S&T Plans to Join Open Geospatial Consortium
The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate has issued a notice saying it intends to procure principal membership in the Open Geospatial Consortium, which is an international industry-government-university consortium that develops geospatial interface standards for the Internet, wireless, location-based services, and information technology. S&T says that the OGC is the only standards organization of its kind in the geospatial arena and that its work focuses especially on technology demonstrations, test beds, interoperability, and government-private sector collaboration.
GD’s Fidelis Unit Partners With CrowdStrike On Cyber Threat Intelligence
General Dynamics [GD] says its Fidelis Cybersecurity Solutions business unit has partnered with cyber security technology and service firm CrowdStrike to provide its customers with a broader range of threat intelligence, in particular giving them information to attribute malicious activity to specific threat actors. GD Fidelis customers will benefit from CrowdStrike’s Intelligence Exchange in addition to its own threat research services and software products. “Our participation in the Intelligence Exchange broadens the scope of intelligence we provide our customers and with the integration through Fidelis XPS, we enable our customer to apply that intelligence in real-time to operationalize the detection and remediation of threats,” says Peter George, president of GD Fidelis Security Solutions.
DHS Selects Schools In Alaska, New Jersey For New Maritime Research Center
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) branch says that is standing up a new Center of Excellence for Maritime Research (CMR) to help address challenges in the maritime domain. The new center will be led by the Univ. of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) and Stevens Institute of Technology (SIT). The S&T Directorate will provide each university partner with an initial $1 million cooperative agreement for operations through June 2015. “SIT is already contributing to the security of the United States through its research on maritime security challenges, and we anticipate UAA will make similarly significant contributions in the Arctic maritime environment,” says Matthew Clark, director of S&T’s Office of University Programs. DHS says that new security challenges and risks are emerging as more of the maritime environment is used. For example, it says, in the Arctic where recreational and commercial activities are increasing as a result of ice melt, “so will DHS’s requirement to understand conditions above, below, and on the surface in this extreme cold environment.”
Alion Launches Risk Assessment Tool for Chemical Industry
Alion Science and Technology has released a risk assessment tool for the chemical industry that is based on technology developed for the Department of Homeland Security. Alion says its CounterMeasures Chemical Assessment Tool provides a standardized, easy-to-implement approach for conducting security assessments, adding that users can easily assess hard assets such as hardware and vehicles, and chemical assets. Alion says that CounterMeasures was the engine behind the DHS’ Voluntary Chemical Assessment Tool, which the department chose to transition to a fully commercial program operated by Alion. “The ability to identify vulnerabilities and model and quantify the level of risk can assist the industry in minimizing these risks, helping them safeguard vital assets throughout the supply chain,” says Terri Spoonhour, Alion senior vice president and manager of the Distributed Simulations Group.
AtHoc Receives U.S. Patents for Emergency Mass Notification System
AtHoc, Inc. says the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded the company a patent centered on the use of mobile alerting and safeguarding information security throughout the alerting cycle, further expanding its intellectual property. AtHoc says its customers have been using the technology behind the patent since 2011. The company says the technology provides high system resiliency for emergency communications during crises, allowing organizations to securely issue alerts from a mobile device in the event of internal network failure while safeguarding personally identifiable information behind their firewall.