The Department of Homeland Security says it is delaying by more than a month the release of its solicitation for a potential $395 million contract to provide Security Operations Services (SOC) for its headquarters components. DHS says the solicitation is still under review by its Office of Procurement Operations Contract Review Board and won’t be issued until mid-Jan. 2016. The solicitation had been slated for release around Nov. 30. The SOC services will enable DHS to monitor, detect, analyze, mitigate and respond to cyber threats on its enterprise.
The Secure Identity & Biometrics Association has released a plan listing potential actions that policymakers could take to address the threat of terrorists posing as refugees, including having governments provide biometric capabilities such as facial, iris and fingerprint capture to relief agencies such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. SIBA also suggests that European Union member states should equip national and local law enforcement agencies with multimodal biometric capture devices for use with refugee populations. It also says that biometric smart cards should be issued to potential refugees to replace Syrian identity documents and that the U.S. use existing channels to supply nations with mobile biometric capabilities.
The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology branch and the Environmental Protection Agency have demonstrated new technology to enable more effective radiological decontamination. The Radiological Gross Decontamination and Waste Management First Responder project with the EPA is part of a National Urban Security Technology Laboratory managed research and development portfolio for S&T’s First Responders group and is focused on increasing local capabilities to respond to and recover from radiological incidents. The demonstration included state, local and federal responders, scientists and industry representatives applying these technologies on a city-wide scale using equipment already on hand.