Archive for the 'Technology' Category
90-Year-Old Cryptanalytic Efforts Must Stay Secret, Says NSA
August 9th, 2016Via: The National Security Archive: The National Security Agency is withholding 90-year-old information on early American cryptanalytic efforts against Russia and the Soviet Union from a 20-year-old document on the grounds that releasing the information could “reasonably be expected to cause identifiable or describable damage to national security.” Specifically, the NSA claims that the release […]
Quantum Computers: Chips with Built-In Optics
August 9th, 2016In case you don’t know about Lincoln Lab: The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Via: MIT News: Although quantum systems with as many as 12 qubits have been demonstrated in the lab, […]
Australia’s Insane Decision to Collect Names in Latest Census
August 9th, 2016Via: Salinger Privacy: Although there are certainly heightened privacy and security risks of accidental loss or malicious misuse with storing names and addresses, the deliberate privacy invasion starts with the use of that data to create a Statistical Linkage Key (SLK) for each individual, to use in linking data from other sources. Please don’t believe […]
Researchers Crack Open Unusually Advanced Malware That Hid for 5 Years
August 9th, 2016Via: Ars Technica: Security experts have discovered a malware platform that’s so advanced in its design and execution that it could probably have been developed only with the active support of a nation state. The malware—known alternatively as “ProjectSauron” by researchers from Kaspersky Lab and “Remsec” by their counterparts from Symantec—has been active since at […]
BBC to Spy on Internet Users Watching BBC Without Paying TV Licence Fee
August 5th, 2016Via: Mirror: The BBC is to spy on internet users in their homes – and sniff out those watching iPlayer without paying the TV Licence fee. The Beeb is set to employ Wi-Fi detection vans to prosecute people illegally watching its programmes online. From September the broadcaster will use information from private Wi-Fi networks in […]
Mercedes Is About to Unveil an Entire Fleet of Electric Vehicles
August 5th, 2016Via: Bloomberg: Mercedes-Benz is planning its own distinct line of electric vehicles, challenging BMW and Tesla Motors Inc. in a bet that alternative-fuel cars have the potential to become profitable. Mercedes will add two electric sport utility vehicles and two sedans, according to two people familiar with the plan, who asked not to be named […]
MIT and DARPA Pack Lidar Sensor Onto Single Chip
August 5th, 2016Via: IEEE: Applications such as autonomous vehicles and robotics heavily depend on lidar, and an expensive lidar module is a major obstacle to their use in commercial products. Our work at MIT’s Photonic Microsystems Group is trying to take these large, expensive, mechanical lidar systems and integrate them on a microchip that can be mass […]
Sea Hunter Unmanned Sub Chaser Completes First Sea Trials
August 3rd, 2016Via: New Atlas: The Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) has completed its first round of sea trials, during which main contractor Leidos says it met or surpassed its performance goals. Co-sponsored by DARPA and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the autonomous 132-ft (42-m) trimaran, which is designed to track potentially hostile […]
Neural Dust
August 3rd, 2016Via: UC Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley engineers have built the first dust-sized, wireless sensors that can be implanted in the body, bringing closer the day when a Fitbit-like device could monitor internal nerves, muscles or organs in real time. Because these batteryless sensors could also be used to stimulate nerves and muscles, the technology […]
Private Company Wins U.S. Clearance to Fly to the Moon
August 3rd, 2016…including cremated human remains? Via: Reuters: A Florida-based company won U.S. government permission on Wednesday to send a robotic lander to the moon next year, the firm’s founder said, marking the first time the United States has cleared a private space mission to fly beyond Earth’s orbit. The Federal Aviation Administration’s unprecedented go-ahead for the […]
