Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Moscow Metro Says New Tracking System Is to Find Stolen Phones; No One Believes Them
July 30th, 2013Via: Ars Technica: On Monday, a major Russian newspaper reported that Moscow’s metro system is planning what appears to be a mobile phone tracking device in its metro stations—ostensibly to search for stolen phones. According to Izvestia (Google Translate), Andrey Mokhov, the operations chief of the Moscow Metro system’s police department, said that the system […]
The Great Chinese British Firewall: Censorship Extends Beyond Pornography
July 28th, 2013If this was forced on me, here’s what I’d do (short of leaving the country): Manually whitelist a VPN provider in a more free country and then run everything through that connection. I’m sure I’ll hear pretty quickly if cryptogon.com is blocked by default once this thing is up. Via: IBT: U.K. Prime Minister David […]
FBI Using Drones for Warrantless Surveillance Inside U.S.
July 28th, 2013Via: The Verge: Earlier this year, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) publicly revealed for the first time in a hearing that it has been using drones to conduct surveillance operations inside the country, a striking admission, given that domestic drone is a subject of intense debate and there’s still not a clear set […]
Hacker Dies a Week Before Showing Techniques for Attacking Implanted Heart Devices That He Said Could Kill a Man from 30 Feet Away
July 26th, 2013Via: Reuters: Well-known hacker Barnaby Jack has died in San Francisco, a week before he was due to show off techniques for attacking implanted heart devices that he said could kill a man from 30 feet away. The San Francisco Medical Examiner’s office said he died in the city on Thursday. It gave no details. […]
Cnet Source Claims U.S. Government Trying to Obtain Keys to Encrypted Web Sessions from Companies
July 25th, 2013Via: Cnet: The U.S. government has attempted to obtain the master encryption keys that Internet companies use to shield millions of users’ private Web communications from eavesdropping. These demands for master encryption keys, which have not been disclosed previously, represent a technological escalation in the clandestine methods that the FBI and the National Security Agency […]
Ace Of Spades For Michael Hastings: DARPA Contractors Take Control Of Moving Vehicles— “And The Next Thing You Know, You’re On The News”
July 25th, 2013In his book, The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan, Michael Hastings recalled the incident. “We’ll hunt you down and kill you if we don’t like what you write,” the staffer threatened, according to Hastings, who responded: “Well, I get death threats like that about once a year, so […]
DARPA Hydra: Mothership That Deploys Both Submersible and Aerial Drones
July 24th, 2013Via: NBC: Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are in the news constantly, but what about unmanned underwater vehicles? They could also be important in both war and peace, which is why the Defense Department’s research arm, DARPA, is looking into a mobile submarine base from which to launch drones. The project, still in the earliest […]
Extremely Compartmentalized Information?
July 24th, 2013Update: 12 October 2014: “Exceptionally Compartmented Information,” or ECI Via: The Intercept: The National Security Agency has had agents in China, Germany, and South Korea working on programs that use “physical subversion” to infiltrate and compromise networks and devices, according to documents obtained by The Intercept. The documents, leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, also […]
Hillbilly Tracking of Low Earth Orbit Satellites
July 24th, 2013Via: Travis Goodspeed’s Blog: In this article, I’ll demonstrate a method for modifying a naval telecommunications dish to track moving targets in the sky, such as those in Low Earth Orbit. My dish happily sits in Tennessee, while I direct it using my laptop or cellphone here in Europe. It can also run unattended, tracking […]
The Bell Labs of Quantum Computing
July 23rd, 2013Via: MIT Technology Review: Raymond Laflamme can’t yet sell you a quantum computer. But he’ll sell you a $13,000 logic board for measuring entangled photons. It’s a start. Laflamme is head of the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, a research center that’s part of a quixotic, grandiose effort by Mike Lazaridis, […]
