The Harlow Report - GIS

Search the Harlow Report

ISSN 0742-468X
Since 1978
On-line Since
Y2K
Autodesk Structural Engineering

Industry Notes


Government • Technology • Utilities


National Homeland Security Knowledgebase

In Government …

$3 Billion in DHS Preparedness Grant Programs

The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency today released Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 Application Guidance and Fact Sheet for Preparedness Grants for 14 federal grant programs, totaling more than $3 billion available in federal funding to assist state and local governments in strengthening community preparedness. More than $27 billion has been provided since 2002 to strengthen the nation's ability to prevent, protect, respond and recover from terrorist attacks, major disasters or other emergencies.

Details Here

FBI: Several nations eyeing U.S. cyber targets

About two dozen nations have developed cyber-attack capabilities and have their eyes on targets inside the U.S. government or businesses, the top cybercrime law enforcement official in the U.S. said.

“There are countries who have an interest in obtaining information from the U.S., in terms of the electronic theft of data,” said Shawn Henry, the assistant director in charge of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Division.

Henry declined to name countries, but he called organized attacks on U.S. cyber targets a “significant threat” during a press conference Wednesday. Over the past year, cyber attacks against U.S. targets have become increasingly sophisticated, said Henry, appointed to the top post in the Cyber Division in September.

Details Here

New York City's Taxicab Greening Curbed

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s goal of making New York City greener by requiring all yellow taxis to achieve higher fuel efficiency by 2012 was halted Oct. 31, 2008, by a federal judge. The plan was to start Nov. 1, 2008, and would have mandated that most new taxis were hybrid vehicles, therefore changing the fleet of Ford Crown Victorias currently zipping through the city.

Details Here

Government • Technology • Utilities
U.S. CERT: Technical Cyber Security Alerts

In Technology …

HP working on touchscreen laptop; new netbook

Hewlett-Packard Co., aiming to boost its personal computer sales amid a deteriorating economy and soft holiday season, is increasingly turning to touch-screen technology. The computer giant is now developing a consumer notebook machine with a touch screen that will debut before year end, said people familiar with the matter. It will include special H-P software that supports the touch screen, but other details, such as pricing, remained unclear.

The new laptop is the latest in a series of touch-oriented devices, including an upcoming line of cellphones, that will become a priority of H-P's consumer strategy as it tries to differentiate itself from rivals such as Dell Inc., these people said.

Details Here

Microsoft AD connectors aim to ease identity management in the cloud

By creating a tool to help link Active Directory to cloud services in a simple manner, Microsoft gives IT managers a path that permits corporate data to move outside of the enterprise.

Microsoft recently released a community technology preview for its Services Connector, a tool that links Active Directory to cloud services in a way that does not compromise corporate security. A beta is expected in early 2009. The Services Connector is used along with Microsoft’s Federated Gateway as a two-pronged means of managing identity rights in a services environment.

Details Here

The Flaw at the Heart of the Internet

Dan Kaminsky, uncharacteristically, was not looking for bugs earlier this year when he happened upon a flaw at the core of the Internet. The security researcher was using his knowledge of Internet infrastructure to come up with a better way to stream videos to users. Kaminsky's expertise is in the Internet’s domain name system (DNS), the protocol responsible for matching websites’ URLs with the numeric addresses of the servers that host them. The same content can be hosted by multiple servers with several addresses, and Kaminsky thought he had a great trick for directing users to the servers best able to handle their requests at any given moment.

Details Here

Government • Technology • Utilities
Current Electricity Sector Threat Alert Levels

In Utilities …

Hawaii as clean energy hub for the U.S.?

Hawaiian Electric Co., Hawaii’s largest utility, and the governor signed an agreement earlier this month to move the state away from dependence on fossil fuels for electricity and ground transportation. The goal is to create 70 percent of Hawaii’s energy use from clean energy sources by 2030. Currently, the state gets about 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources. The accord seeks to make renewable energy easier to use by integrating it into the power grid. Under the agreement, Hawaiian Electric commits to not build any new coal plants, integrate up to 1,100 megawatts of renewable energy into the power grid, and convert existing fossil fuel generators to biofuels using locally grown crops. A U.S. senator said it is essential that Hawaii emphasize its energy independence efforts because of the state’s isolation and the steady long-term rise of oil prices. “It’s not going to be easy, but we must do it, because of all the 50 states in the union, our state is the most vulnerable,” the senator said. “We have no fossil fuels, so we have to manufacture our own energy.”

Details Here

San Francisco weighs takeover of electrical system

Nearly a dozen times over the past century, San Francisco voters have rejected ballot measures to support a takeover of the city’s privately run electrical system. But advocates of public power have not given up their goal of wrestling control from Pacific Gas and Electric Co., and this year are linking support of the measure to combating global warming and securing energy independence. Proposition H would amend the city charter to require that San Francisco get 51 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar by 2017, 75 percent by 2030, and 100 percent by 2040. The ballot measure also would require the city’s Public Utilities Commission to study ways to reach its clean energy goals, including a transition to a municipal utility similar to those run by about 40 other California cities, including Los Angeles and Sacramento. The proposition would authorize the Board of Supervisors to issue revenue bonds to fund an acquisition of PG&E’s San Francisco operations or construction of a new electrical system — depending on what the study finds. Under current state law, investor-owned utilities are required to generate 20 percent of their electricity from renewables by 2010, but PG&E and its counterparts in Southern California are expected to miss that target by at least three years, according to the California Public Utilities Commission

Details Here

Standardized nuclear plant design eluding utility firms

The nuclear plant design favored for new plants by Progress Energy, Duke Energy, and three other utilities is the subject of multiple design changes that energy industry watchdogs say undermine the concept of a pre-certified design and could delay the construction of new reactors while adding billions to the cost. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) certified the plant design of Westinghouse Electric Co.’s AP1000 at the end of 2005. A Westinghouse spokesman acknowledges that design changes have been made, but he says the changes are minor and represent less than 10 percent of the overall design. He says Westinghouse is responding to new NRC requirements, such as demonstration of safety in the event of an airplane crash. The utilities have not requested the changes under consideration. A scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists says utilities are requesting the design changes to suit individual sites. For example, he says TVA sought modifications for its Alabama plant’s seismic design to fit the soil type of the site. The spokesman says that if each applicant seeks reactor modifications for its site, the result could be many more changes, each of them requiring regulatory review. He says design changes add time to the review process and likely would add cost to the plants. The outcome of the AP1000 review could affect how other utilities move forward with their plans for new nuclear generation.

Details Here

Government • Technology • Utilities