We've been concerned about the security of Java for a while now. There was that vulnerability that affected like a billion computers, and Apple went so far as to remove Java plugins from all OSX browsers. Now even the Department of Homeland Security is in on the act with a special message: "Yo, shut off that Java jazz".

Numerous metropolitan subway systems around the country include spans that pass under bodies of water. If one of those lines were to spring a leak, the resulting flooding could be catastrophic. The Department of Homeland Security might have developed the answer—a giant, inflatable tube plug.

Animal has discovered the list of words that the Department of Homeland Security specifically target when they monitor Tweets and Facebook posts and it's, um, comprehensive. Ever tweet about the weather? Or used 'closure', 'cloud', 'home grown', 'bart', 'subway' or hell even 'social media' in your posts? YOU'RE…

Taking disabled people's toys, exposing women's breasts, making women remove their prosthetic breasts: seems TSA agents never stop figuring out new ways to be sadistic. Now comes word that some agents made a wheelchair-bound, 95-year-old woman with final-stage leukemia take off her adult diaper for pat-down purposes.

We've discussed the printer ink cartridge bombs used by a group of terrorists about a month ago and we've pondered just how evildoers hide their bombs, but now we're discovering exactly how terrifyingly well those explosives avoid detection.

Can the body scanners used by the TSA save images? It seems unreasonable to geeks that a computer cannot save any images at all—ever. But according to a statement made to Gizmodo by the TSA, that's the case.

You might think the British have it bad, being caught on CCTV camera up to 300 times a day each—but this new 360-degree video camera is being tested by the US Department of Homeland Security right now.

Jeff Moss, who you may know as the founder of the hacking conference DefCon, was sworn in yesterday as one of the new members of the Homeland Security Advisory Council. And we think it's a shrewd and thoughtful move.

The Department of Homeland Security is planning a study to find out if human body odor can be used as a biometric identifier and/or a means of detecting a lie.