• U.S. ships will be required to post guards when sailing near Somalia

    The U.S. Coast Guard will require U.S.-flagged ships sailing around the Horn of Africa to post guards and ship owners to submit anti-piracy security plans for approval

  • Somali pirates benefit from a global network of informers

    These are not your father’s pirates: Somali pirates benefit from information sent to them by informers planted in key shipping hubs around the world; this information includes vessels’ cargo, layout, and route — and is transmitted early enough to allow the pirates enough time to practice their assault based on the information they received

  • U.S. 100% screening law in doubt

    In 2007, Congress passed a law requiring 100% screening of U.S.-bound air cargo; in February, TSA reached the 50% screening milestone, but the agency says 100% screening is not likely anytime soon; other countries do not mind, saying unilateral U.S. moves on screening violate their sovereignty

  • High-seas piracy triggers higher insurance rates for shippers

    Here is a problem ideally suited for contemporary courses at business schools: Shippers face a a choice: if they send their ships to sail through the piracy-infested Gulf of Aden, they now have to pay much higher insurance; they can instead choose to take long trips around the Africa’s southern tip; both choices add millions to the cost of each journey; which one is preferable?

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  • DHS to Congress: reconsider cargo mandate

    Congress passed a law requiring DHS to ensure that all U.S.-bound containers are scanned abroad by 2012; DHS told legislators that this mandate “needs to be thoughtfully reconsidered”

  • Securing the homeland: Asset tracking in a layered security environment // by Ted Langhoff and Nishant Pillai

    The need to effectively secure and track cargo, not just at the port, but throughout the supply chain — long before its arrival in the United States — has become an important priority and factors significantly into efforts to ensure U.S. national security

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  • GAO: TSA may not meet deadline for cargo checks

    Passenger planes carry about 7.6 billion pounds of cargo a year; all suitcases have been screened since 2002, but cargo has been subject to much looser inspection requirements, raising concerns that terrorists could slip a bomb into a package; TSA was given an August 2010 deadline or guarantee that all cargo carried on passenger planes is being screened

  • Project allowing Mexican long-haul trucks into U.S. ends

    Two years ago the Department of Transportation launched a pilot project allowing Mexican long-haul trucks to carry their cargo from the Mexican origin all the way to the U.S. destination, without transferring the cargo to an American carrier; Congress removed funding for the project from the omnibus spending bill

  • U.S. airline security measures hamper exporters from the Marshalls

    Businesses in Micronesia are worried about a new TSA security directive which stipulates that freight can no longer be accepted from individual shippers, and must be forwarded through a cargo agent, consolidator, or freight forwarder

  • Big problems with RFID deployment at Los Angeles-Long Beach ports

    The first day of using RFID tags caused a reported 1,500 trucks to be turned away from the Port of Los Angeles and delays of more than an hour at the Port of Long Beach

  • Accord reached on intensified campaign against Somali piracy

    Nine countries around the Gulf of Aden sign an accord enhancing cooperation in the fight against piracy in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden

  • CBP highlights C-TPAT accomplishments

    The Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program (C-TPAT) was established in 2001 to build cooperative relationships that strengthen and improve international supply chain and U.S. border security; DHS says program is achieving its goals, with more than 8,000 applicants validated since 2003

  • TSA has processed more than 1 million commercial HAZMAT applications

    Since the HAZMAT driver’s license screening process was launched nearly four years ago, TSA has completed a review of 1,015,660 applications and approved more than 1 million

  • Congress to address port security

    Chairman of a congressional panel returns from a visit to Honk Kong, Vietnam, and the Philippines and says Congress should make a decision next year on whether or not to move toward a 100 percent container inspection policy

  • New U.S.-bound cargo security rule to go into effect in January

    Current security regulations required importers and shippers to file entry information with U.S. Customs fifteen days before a ship arrives at a U.S. port; new regulations will require that shippers file much more detailed information — and do so before they even load the merchandise onto their ship at the port of origin; U.S. Customs will demand that suspicious cargo, or cargo about which the information is incomplete, not be loaded