- 1,500 lorries stuck in Kent as UK and France aim to restart freight
December 22, 2020
More than 1,500 lorries are stuck in Kent waiting to leave the UK as politicians thrash out a plan to reopen France’s border to trade and travel. France shut its UK border for 48 hours on Sunday amid fears of a new coronavirus variant. More than 50 countries have now banned UK arrivals. Home Secretary Priti Patel ...
- UK and EU remain far apart in post-Brexit trade talks as deadline looms
December 20, 2020
British and EU negotiators are continuing talks over the weekend but remained divided on Sunday. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said Sunday that the EU is “continuing to make demands that are incompatible with our independence. We cannot accept a deal that doesn’t leave us in control of our own laws or waters.” The EU parliament ...
- Channel crossings: Suspected people-smuggling gang arrested in raids
December 3, 2020
A suspected people-smuggling gang accused of bringing hundreds of people to the UK in small boats has been broken up, the Home Office says. A 36-year-old British Syrian man was detained at his flat in north-west London on Thursday morning, bringing the total number of arrests to 14. The group is alleged to have helped more than ...
- Ransomware attack halts Argentinian border crossing for four hours
September 6, 2020
Argentina’s official immigration agency, Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, suffered a Netwalker ransomware attack that temporarily halted border crossing into and out of the country. While ransomware attacks against cities and local agencies have become all too common, this may be a first known attack against a federal agency that has interrupted a country’s operations. According to a ...
- Facing Facts: Will Concerns About Biometrics Pose a Threat to Transportation Security?
June 17, 2020
Facial recognition technology has been responsible for numerous important law enforcement, border security and transportation security wins over the past few years, but some of the concerns that dogged the systems from the outset have not gone away. While most of the accuracy issues have improved, public concerns about unnecessary surveillance and profiling – which ...
- Australia has a new biometric border processing system
June 4, 2020
Australia’s new biometric system is now live. It will be used by the Department of Home Affairs for visa and border processing “to secure Australia’s borders and facilitate the flow of legitimate travellers”. The Enterprise Biometric Identification Services (EBIS) system is based on the Unisys Stealth(identity) multi-factor identity management and authentication solution and uses identity solutions ...
- Terrorism along Pakistan – Iran border
May 15, 2020
Reportedly an improvised explosive device (IED) hit a vehicle of the military personnel in Buleda (district Kech) Balochistan near the Pak-Iran border on May 8, killing one major of the Pakistan Army and five soldiers who were returning to their base after conducting a routine patrol in the area. The Balochistan Liberation Army, which has ...
- Many problems with cyber security of Schipihol’s border control: Court of Audit
April 19, 2020
Schiphol is very vulnerable to cyber attacks, the Court of Audit concluded after investigating the cyber security of the border control systems the Koninklijke Marechaussee uses at the airport. Two of the three systems are not properly protected against cyber attacks, NOS reports. Systems at Schiphol are hardly ever tested for how well they can stand ...
- Egypt building new wall along Gaza border
February 18, 2020
Egyptian security and military forces are working around the clock to build a new concrete wall on the Egyptian side of the border with the besieged Gaza Strip which they aim to have completed by mid-2020, Palestinian sources told Middle East Eye. Egypt embarked on the first stage of construction on 27 January in the area ...
- Israel to Build Anti-Tunnel Sensor Network Along Lebanon Border
January 19, 2020
Israel’s military announced on Sunday the start of construction of an underground network of sensors along the Lebanese frontier to detect any cross-border tunnel building. The project is getting under way a year after the Israeli military said it had destroyed a series of infiltration tunnels dug by the Lebanese Hezbollah group. “All the drilling is being ...
- US Coast Guard discloses Ryuk ransomware infection at maritime facility
December 30, 2019
An infection with the Ryuk ransomware took down a maritime facility for more than 30 hours; the US Coast Guard said in a security bulletin it published before Christmas. The agency did not reveal the name or the location of the port authority; however, it described the incident as recent. “Forensic analysis is currently ongoing but the virus, ...
- DHS Rolls Back Facial-Recognition Expansion Plan
December 10, 2019
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reconsidered a plan to use facial-recognition technology on all U.S. citizens traveling internationally through airports, deciding to roll back the plan after meeting with privacy experts. Last week the DHS said it would expand facial recognition checks to all travelers entering and leaving the U.S., including previously-exempt U.S. citizens. However, now ...
- Customs agents seize $95M in counterfeit goods along with thousands of fake IDs
November 27, 2019
U.S. customs agents in Louisville announced Wednesday they have seized illegal items worth more than $95 million since Sept. 1. The announcement came just days after U.S. Customs and Border Protections said they had confiscated around 5,000 fake IDs. Since Sept. 1, agents have intercepted and seized 164 shipments worth 75% more than seizures from 2018 at ...
- British IS terror suspect arrested at Heathrow after Turkey deportation
November 14, 2019
A man has been arrested at Heathrow airport after Turkey said it had deported a British Islamic State suspect. Scotland Yard said the 26-year-old was held “on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts under section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006”, adding that it was “Syria-related”. The man arrived on Thursday “on an inbound flight to the ...
- Essex lorry deaths: Three bailed as work to identify 39 victims goes on
October 27, 2019
Three people arrested in connection with the deaths of 39 people found dead inside a lorry in Essex have been released on bail. The suspects, two men and a woman, had been held on suspicion of manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people after the discovery in Grays last Wednesday. Lorry driver Maurice Robinson, 25, is due to ...
- Supreme Court OKs $2.5B DoD Funding for Border Wall Construction
July 29, 2019
The Supreme Court has greenlit the Trump administration’s proposal to allocate $2.5 billion in Department of Defense funds for the construction of a more than 100-mile wall along the southern border, Military.com reported Saturday. The effort requires $789 million for the 46-mile portion in New Mexico, $646 million for a 63-mile part in Arizona and other funds for smaller ...
- Maker of US border’s license-plate scanning tech ransacked by hacker, blueprints and files dumped online
May 23, 2019
The maker of vehicle license plate readers used extensively by the US government and cities to identify and track citizens and immigrants has been hacked. Its internal files were pilfered, and are presently being offered for free on the dark web to download. Tennessee-based Perceptics prides itself as “the sole provider of stationary LPRs [license plate ...
- The Kenya–Somalia Maritime Dispute and Its Potential National Security Costs
May 15, 2019
The at-times fraught relationship between Kenya and Somalia took a new turn in 2014, when Somalia submitted a compromis before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) claiming that Kenya was conducting illegal acts in what Somalia claimed to be part of its territory. The territory in question is a 100,000 square kilometer (38,610 square mile) triangular patch created by ...
- USAF Takes Big Hit as DOD Reprograms Funds to Pay for Border Wall
May 13, 2019
The Air Force is taking the biggest hit of all the services as the Pentagon reprograms funds to build a wall along the southern border, with about half of the procurement costs coming from appropriated USAF projects. The Pentagon announced May 10 it is reprogramming about $1.5 billion from appropriated operations and maintenance and overseas contingency operations funding ...
- UK: Stricter laws to tackle terrorism come into force
April 12, 2019
Measures including longer sentences for several terrorism offences and ending automatic early release for convicted terrorists have commenced two months after the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act received Royal Assent. The management of convicted terrorist offenders has also been strengthened with stricter notification requirements. It is now illegal to recklessly express support for, or publish images of flags, ...
