September 2010
1 post
Technology identifies troubled individuals →
Be careful what you think in public….
August 2010
1 post
W.A.S.P (Wi-Fi Aerial Surveillance Platform) →
When two guys interested in computer security get bored, it’s usually a recipe for trouble. Our recipe started cooking back in October of 2009 and the results were something we call the WASP (Wi-Fi Aerial Surveillance Platform). It’s an autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that we built in our garage with onboard war-driving geWhen two guys interested in computer security get...
May 2010
4 posts
Car hackers can kill brakes, engine, and more →
In a paper set to be presented at a security conference in Oakland, California, next week, the security researchers say that by connecting to a standard diagnostic computer port included in late-model cars, they were able to do some nasty things, such as turning off the brakes, changing the speedometer reading, blasting hot air or music on the radio, and locking passengers in the car.
Pentagon Researches Brain Implants that Stimulate... →
How to set up a flash drive to automatically copy... →
It’s fun with autorun.inf, however it’s mildly lame since there is a command window for bit while it’s doing it’s thing. Not super slick hacker cool, but neat trick, i guess.
April 2010
1 post
February 2010
1 post
WatchPranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology
November 2009
4 posts
Optogenetics: optical stimulation plus genetic... →
In the summer of 2007, a team of Stanford graduate students dropped a mouse into a plastic basin. The mouse sniffed the floor curiously. It didn’t seem to care that a fiber-optic cable was threaded through its skull. Nor did it seem to mind that the right half of its motor cortex had been reprogrammed.
One of the students flipped a switch and intense blue light shone through the cable into...
1 tag
Oops: Backscatter x-ray machines "tear apart DNA" →
Though touted as completely safe because the level of radiation is so low, travelers have been nervous about the devices — and not just because it shows off a nice outline of their privates to the people manning the machines — but because they remain scared of the health problems they might propose.
Looks like a little healthy paranoia might have been a good thing. While the...
October 2009
1 post
September 2009
1 post
August 2009
1 post
“In Morgan’s novel, set in the 25th Century, human memories are backed up and...”
– James McTeigue, on an adaptation of Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon (via urbanbuddha)
July 2009
5 posts
The Real Story of Trading Software Espionage →
Much has been made of the 32MB of Goldman Sachs’ proprietary algorithmic trading code (“trading secrets”) allegedly stolen by Sergey Aleynikov, now portrayed in the financial media as the new Julius Rosenberg, Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen and John Walker all rolled into one. That may prove to be true; but while it makes for a great news story at this point in time, it highlights...
Snooping through the power socket →
Security researchers found that poor shielding on some keyboard cables means useful data can be leaked about each character typed.
By analysing the information leaking onto power circuits, the researchers could see what a target was typing.
Federal Web sites knocked out by cyber attack →
A Drug That Could Give You Perfect Visual Memory →
A group of Spanish researchers reported today in Science that they may have stumbled upon a substance that could become the ultimate memory-enhancer. The group was studying a poorly-understood region of the visual cortex. They found that if they boosted production of a protein called RGS-14 (pictured) in that area of the visual cortex in mice, it dramatically affected the animals’ ability to...
June 2009
13 posts
Cash to become extinct as chips take off →
Cash is accelerating down the path to extinction as new technologies threaten to mark the end of loose change within a decade.
Bank and credit union bosses say cash won’t be alone, with wallets and credit cards also likely to disappear too.
They told The Advertiser’s round table forum that cash and cards will be replaced by computer chips embedded in mobile phones, watches...
Clones of 9/11 hero dog unveiled in Los Angeles →
Symington was presented with Trakr’s offspring after winning a competition organized by California firm BioArts International — the “Golden Clone Giveaway” — to find the world’s most “cloneworthy” dog.
Slowloris HTTP DoS →
Typical flooding attacks require tons and tons of packets and end up denying service to other applications as a result. By creating a flood of TCP requests, sure you can take down an upstream router, or a web server, but it’s overkill if you really just want to take down a single website. Slowloris does this without sending an overabundance of TCP or HTTP traffic, and it does so without increasing...
Pentagon Wants Cyborg Insects to Sniff WMD, Offer... →
The Pentagon is looking for better ways to prevent chemical weapon attacks. So military researchers are implanting insect larvae with WMD-detectors - turning them into cyborg-critters that specialize in tracking down mustard gas.
Experts Say Houston Dome May Help Environment →
One solution to counter the almost overwhelming environmental challenges facing Houston is to cover it with a giant geodesic dome.
Get your own portion of viral terror via SMS →
Sounds very similar to that scene in Live Free Or Die Hard.
'Robocop' gadget developed for police →
A police scanner reminscent of the hi-tech gadgets in films such as Robocop which can detect weapons hidden beneath a criminal’s clothing has been developed.
French military closes bit torrent site
→
According to Torrentfreak, French police arrested 10 members of the site’s staff and seized more than 20 servers after the military assisted in locating them.
A representative of the French anti-piracy organisation ALPA confirmed that it had “worked very closely with the military” to locate the semi-private site.
China to to Require Web Filtering Software on All... →
China plans to require that all personal computers sold in the country as of July 1 be shipped with software that blocks access to certain Web sites, a move that could give government censors unprecedented control over how Chinese users access the Internet.
Spy bugs may be deployed for 2012 Olympics →
BRITISH police are studying Chinese-style surveillance tactics as they prepare security for the 2012 London Olympics, a leaked Scotland Yard report has revealed.
The report, marked “restricted”, reveals that among the “Big Brother” tactics deployed at last summer’s Beijing Games was the installation of miniature microphones in thousands of taxis.
The bugs transmitted passengers’...
Spy Chips Guiding CIA Drone Strikes →
It sounds like a tinfoil hat nightmare, come to life: tiny electronic homing beacons, guiding CIA killer drones to their targets. But local residents and Taliban militants in Pakistan’s tribal wildlands say that’s exactly what’s happening. Tribesman in Waziristan are being paid to “plant the electronic devices” near militant safehouses, they tell the Guardian. “Hours or days later, a drone,...
May 2009
11 posts
The One Fiber Optic Cable No One on the Dig for... →
This part happens all the time: A construction crew putting up an office building in the heart of Tysons Corner a few years ago hit a fiber optic cable no one knew was there.
This part doesn’t: Within moments, three black sport-utility vehicles drove up, a half-dozen men in suits jumped out and one said, “You just hit our line.”
Hiding secret messages in internet traffic: a new... →
kbkarma:
From The Register.
Robots forming human-like societies: electronic... →
Within fifty generations of this electronic evolution, co-operative societies of robots had formed — helping each other to find food and avoid poison. Even more amazing is the emergence of cheats and martyrs. Transistorized traitors emerged which wrongly identified poison zone as food, luring their trusting brethren to their doom before scooting off to silently charge in a food zone…
Red Bull Cola banned in Germany for containing... →
But Red Bull Cola has protested the action. “De-cocainized extract of coca leaf is used worldwide in foods as a natural flavouring,” the paper quoted the company saying. The company added that Red Bull Cola as well as other food that contains coca leaf extract is considered safe in the EU as well as in the US.
Robot warriors will get a guide to ethics →
Smart missiles, rolling robots, and flying drones currently controlled by humans, are being used on the battlefield more every day. But what happens when humans are taken out of the loop, and robots are left to make decisions, like who to kill or what to bomb, on their own?
SKYNET.
U.S. Navy Satellites Hijacked →
Brazil and the U.S. have been arresting people who have been illegally using obsolete, but still functioning, U.S. Navy FLTSATCOM communications satellites.
Saudi 'Killer Chip' Implant Would Track, Eliminate... →
The basic model would consist of a tiny GPS transceiver placed in a capsule and inserted under a person’s skin, so that authorities could track him easily.
Model B would have an extra function — a dose of cyanide to remotely kill the wearer without muss or fuss if authorities deemed he’d become a public threat.
Wolfram|Alpha: Searching for Truth →
Kicking off our conversation, Stephen remarks that, “Wolfram|Alpha isn’t really a search engine, because we compute the answers, and we discover new truths. If anything, you might call it a platonic search engine, unearthing eternal truths that may never have been written down before.”
Despite his disclaimer, Wolfram|Alpha looks like a search engine, in that there’s a one-line box where you type...
Implants. Are. Bad. →
Any “port” or “jack” or “interface” or “anything” is recognized as a wound by your body. And it will throw all its resources trying to close it, keep it from getting infected, and reject it like a belly piercing done too shallow. This has the effect of compromising your immune system — if your body is so busy with wound care, your allergies get...
Wisconsin court upholds GPS tracking by police →
No warrant is needed for law enforcement agencies to track you via GPS in the US.
In Attics and Closets, 'Biohackers' Discover... →
These hobbyists represent a growing strain of geekdom known as biohacking, in which do-it-yourselfers tinker with the building blocks of life in the comfort of their own homes. Some of them buy DNA online, then fiddle with it in hopes of curing diseases or finding new biofuels.
April 2009
4 posts
Federal Authority Over the Internet? The... →
The bill’s draft states that “the president may order a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic” and would give the government ongoing access to “all relevant data concerning (critical infrastructure) networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access.”
At CHI Meeting, Microsoft Turns Computing... →
Japan aims for walking robot on the moon by 2020 →
Robot scientists can think for themselves →
March 2009
5 posts
Are designer babies coming? - L.A. clinic is... →