Global Security Challenge

GSC Blogs from June 2008 (24)



New Security Challenges in the IT Sector. What Can Europe Do? (by Moritz Schneider)

 Guest column by Moritz Schneider, political journalist from Berlin.   More than 250 million Europeans are now regular Internet users, 80% of them have broadband connections and 60% of public services in the EU are fully available online. Acco...

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Exlusive Interview with Sponsor of the $10,000 Crowded Places Idea Award

Exlusive interview with Fiona Strens, co-director of Secure-Futures Ltd, a UK-based company to catalyse innovation and investment, focused on key national security. In our interview, Fiona talks about why they sponsor the $10,000 award for the GSC Crowded...

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More on meta-materials - acoustics cloaking for sonic proof room and stealth vessels

Spanish scientists have recently published blueprints for a physically realisable acoustics cloak.  This acoustics cloak would channel sound waves around an object, much like flowing water around a smooth pebble.  This would essentially render t...

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VCs are Hungry for Security Startups (deals roundup: june 08)

Here is another roundup of recent funding rounds in security startups. We publish this list of recent VC deals regularly to inform entrepreneurs about active investors in the security space. Read here about our April deal roundup, and our May deal roundup...

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Asia's New Navy Fleets: flexing the muscles just to protect from terrorists?

As The Economist reported, there has been a massive built-up of naval capabilities by Asian countries that could be the start of a new arms race in Asia: "In the past two years China's navy has acquired new destroyers, frigates and submarines, some home-...

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New Security Association in the UK: SITC

On Wednesday, your correspondents went to the opening event of the newly established Security Innovation and Technology Consortium (SITC), backed by UK's SEEDA. SITC recently appointed Stephen Swain as its first Chief Executive Officer.  Stephen...

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2012 Olympics Budget to Rise Above �10 billion Due to Security Requirements

As reported by the Telegraph, the UK National Audit Office (NAO) says security costs, the uncertainty over the financing of the Olympic Village and a lack of a coherent plan for the legacy of the Olympic venues threaten to send the budget beyond Â&p...;

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3 New Things in France's Defence & Security: coordinator, money and NATO reintegration

Last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the results of the recently completed defence review in which he announced a few major changes, as reported by The Economist: €200 Billion for Defence "Out of 320,000 defence posts,...

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New Materials for Better Antennas...the invisible type

US Air Force put out an interesting call recently, it was for antennas made from metamaterials.  This seems to be just the beginning of applications for metamaterials, which DangerRoom.com describes as the material that might eventually lead us to in...

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GSC in Bloggerland - blogs about our international security startup competition

Here is a brief roundup of a few blogs mentioning our cause of empowering security startups:   Sharon Weinberger  at Danger Room: "More Prizes for Homeland Security Ideas" "The Global Security Challenge is offering $500,000. My all time...

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Corporate VC Funds - alternate financing route for security startups

VCs come in all shapes and sizes; with different attitudes towards entrepreneurs and different investment strategies.  But there is another group of VCs that might not jump to mind when you are looking for money. Several big industry players have fun...

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Crowded Places are a Focal Point for UK National Counter Terrorism Strategy

The National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NACTSO) of the UK, is a police unit co-located with the Centre for the Protection of the National Infrastructure and funded by the Association of Chief Police Officers. The work of NaCTSO is primarily concer...

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Mr. Chertoff, Tear Down That Wall! - more innovative technologies needed for US borders

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to put some 700 miles of fencing along the border between the United States and Mexico by the end of George Bush's term, according to an article by the Economist last week: "Opposition to the fence is ru...

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$10,000 Dollar for Best Security Idea: Submission Deadline Extended to July 31st

The Global Security Challenge announces today that the deadline for submission to our "Best Security Idea" competition has been extended to July 31st 2008, due to popular demand by researchers and innovators worldwide. We also announce today that the winn...

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A 'Cyber Force' as 4th Military Domain in the UK next to Navy, Air and Land?

Your correspondents went to the annual conference of the Cyber Security KTN in London yesterday. Besides seeing a bunch of familiar faces, there were some good debates and speakers. Graham Wright, the Director of Targeting & Information Operations for...

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Seaglider Research Starts its Commercial Launch with iRobot

Yesterday's announcement of licensing Seaglider technology to iRobot is an encouraging example of government funded research at a university that will now be commercialized through the help of a private company. iRobot acquired the exclusive license from ...

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A VC's View on Why Startups Fail

David Feinleib, who is a VC at Mohr Davidow Ventures, wrote a great article about why startups fail. David had some interesting points having been on both sides of the term sheet: "They spend too much on sales and marketing before they're ready." It's alw...

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4 Myths about Starting Up Your Own Business

An interesting story on Market Watch talks about four myths for starting up your business, that shouldn't hold you back. Here is an excerpt of the story: It takes a lot of money to finance a new business. Not true. The typical start-up only requires a...

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New X-Ray Technologies for Air-Cargo Security

We are all (way too) familiar with the airport screening of accompanied luggage, but this is only a minor fraction of what aircrafts carry. The rest consists of commercial freight, which is more difficult to scan, as the Economist reported: "Part of the r...

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Germany About to Enact Tougher Surveillance Tools for Police

Germany's government decided on a new law that would give police more rights to conduct online searches, video surveillance of homes and phone monitoring. Of course, the Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is a big supporter of this draft ...

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Next Generation of Radio Technology Needed

Communicating in a city of talkers seems to be a big problem in Washington DC.  Not only are there so many problems just in linking up disparate first responder groups but there are also major problems with radios that don't work in "dead spots" acco...

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How to Pitch to a VC? Part II on Communications

Pitching your start-up company to a venture capitalist is a tough experience and its important for entrepreneurs to have a clear elevator-pitch when presenting to a VC, as we described in Part 1 of our series for "How to Pitch to a VC". There is a funny, ...

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Dual-Technology to Broaden Your Technology's Commercial Appeal

We at the GSC are strong advocates of dual-use technologies, by which we mean the application of emerging security technologies not only to government clients but commercial entities as well. We wanted to note a recent example of how security technologies...

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Booz Allen Hamilton Supports Security Innovators as American Partner of GSC 2008

With only a few weeks left before the submission deadline for the GSC startup competition, we are delighted that Booz Allen Hamilton sponsors our American Semi-Final 2008. The event will be held on the campus of the University of Maryland on September 15t...

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