Smartphones Open Doors, Detect Dirty Bombs and Now Sniff for Toxin Chemicals

So what can smartphones not do? In Japan, you can buy a vendor meal. In the U.S., some phones can open doors for a level of access control. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is studying a plan to plant radiation detection into consumer phones so that they call to indicate the coverage of a dirty bomb attack.

And now there is an iPhone app to alert to deadly chemicals. Scientists at NASA’s Ames Research Center, working with DHS, have created a portable chemical sniffer. It’s about the size of a postage stamp, can plug into 30-pin dock connectors, and can quickly detect airborne traces of ammonia, chlorine gas, and methane. The device senses chemicals in the air using a “sample jet” and a multiple-channel silicon-based sensing chip, which consists of 16 nanosensors, and sends detection data to another phone or a computer via telephone communication network or Wi-Fi.

Got an idea for another security use of a cellphone or smartphone? Email zaludreport@bnpmedia.com

In this webinar, we review the rise of cloud access control and access control as a service, its advantages and disadvantages, and how to select the optimal cloud access control solution for your company.

Security leaders need to accept and act on this reality and take measured and thoughtful steps to mitigate the risk and train staff about the growing likelihood of such violent incidents in their facilities and workplaces.