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The Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic controller training program overran costs four years in a row because it didn't properly outline training needs before issuing the program contract, a Dec. 18 Transportation Department inspector general report says. The overruns totaled about $89 million. In 2008, the FAA began developing the Air Traffic Control Optimum Training Solution meant to train thousands of new controllers the agency intends to hire by 2021.

The outcome of the year's flurry of gun control legislative activity was similarly mixed, as this timeline of some of the most headline-making bills - and the fallout from them - demonstrates.

No matter the industry, your job requires you to develop a particular mindset in order to perform well. Whether you fabricate metal, perform surgery, or control operations in a large company, your mind must be focused on the task at hand. For law enforcement professionals, the right mindset necessitates some cynicism. Cynicism is an inherent part of police culture. Outside of the first responder and military network, law enforcement officers face situations unlike other professions. Officers constantly assess situations by determining the credibility and potential threat of people they encounter. In a 2012 publication, researchers Juha Kaarianen and Reino Siren noted how this practice can slip into other interactions: "The suspicious, cynical attitude of the police towards citizens is a natural consequence of their constant interactions with dangerous unreliable individuals." The cynical mind begins to diminish trust and drives constant assessment of others. Whether on- or off-duty, constant questions linger in an officer's mind: Can you trust that the person approaching you is going to simply walk by without attempting to harm you? Can you trust that the figure walking down a residential sidewalk is not looking for an easy target to attack or the next home to burglarize? A cynical mind may seem like a negative facet of police life, but the ability to carefully assess situations and react accordingly is a sign of a seasoned and well-trained officer.

"[P]eople still choose comfort over security.  If you don't enforce a password policy, don't expect your users to do it for you." A fairly large instance of the Pony Botnet Controller produced so much data, we thought it would be interesting to look into some statistics regarding this particular attack. ~1,580,000 website login credentials stolen ~320,000 email account credentials stolen  ~41,000 FTP account credentials stolen ~3,000 Remote Desktop credentials stolen ~3,000 Secure Shell account credentials stolen

The Transportation Department's information systems are vulnerable to serious security threats due to deficiencies with its enterprise architecture, controls and vulnerability remediation.

The Transportation Department's information systems are vulnerable to serious security threats due to deficiencies with its enterprise architecture, controls and vulnerability remediation.

A revamped Navy facility is making waves to see how ships fare in the unpredictable conditions out on the ocean. Officials unveiled the new maneuvering and seakeeping, or MASK, facility at Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock, Md., on Dec. 19, which simulates the kinds of waves sailors might encounter underway and tests how ships would handle them. "The engineers in this facility for the past 50 years have evaluated the maneuverability, stability and control of virtually all of our surface ships and submarines in the fleet today," NSWC Carderock division commander Capt. Rich Blank said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

One of the basic technologies that enables what we often refer to as the Internet of Things is embedded Linux, a version of Linux that runs on machines that aren't computers in the traditional sense. A lot of the new "smart" devices joining Wi-Fi networks in the home and office are running some variant of it, as do a lot of those home-Wi-Fi routers themselves. Researchers at security-software company Symantec say they've found a worm that proves that, eventually, these devices may be ripe for attack. It's called Linux.Darlloz, and it appears to have been built to infect versions of Linux found in home routers, TV set-top boxes and security cameras, and also some industrial-control systems.

A fitness test is an effective and legal device for screening first responders, but only when designed and implemented in a particular way. Though some believe that the daily demands of public safety professionals are enough to maintain adequate levels of fitness, this is a faulty and dangerous assumption. Even though the most common tasks performed by first responders do not involve physical exertion, the primary goal of training and fitness should be to ensure that first responders are able to get to, control and remove a threat to public safety. Because individuals with poor fitness may be incapable of performing these essential tasks, departments with lax or no standards are at risk for lawsuits based on negligence and deliberate indifference. Implementing overly-stringent standards is hardly a panacea for a department's litigation woes. If standards are based on, relative to, or disparately impact members of a protected class, then rejected applicants may allege discrimination under state or federal law.

Typically the work of science fiction, a zombie apocalypse has proven an effective way to engage citizens in disaster preparedness. Dispersing instructions within entertaining stories about the living dead, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention runs successful campaigns with this theme in order to share insights about how to brace for natural disasters. Getting residents prepared for emergencies helps trained first responders to become more effective in their own response within a community.

In 2014-15, the Ebola virus was a source of devastation for millions in West Africa. The disease-which quickly causes severe hemorrhaging, organ failure, and death-was primarily found in isolated parts of central Africa until the outbreak. The three nations at the center of the epidemic were Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, all of which share borders. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization confirmed more than 11,000 deaths from 28,000 cases of Ebola through the end of August 2015. The Ebola epidemic was a major test for crisis responders in the public health field. First responders and crisis response agencies can learn from the way organizations across the globe worked together to ultimately contain the virus. Examining both global and local efforts reveals some key lessons about readiness in any situation. Some of these lessons may be important immediately, as the Zika virus spreads and becomes a global threat.

The two bombs that went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, killing three and injuring more than 260 people, changed the way major outdoor events are held in the U.S. As the 2014 running of the Boston Marathon inches closer, organizers stress new security protocols that will make the race a safer experience for all.