Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Increasing Use of Robots in China’s Factories
June 4th, 2012Via: Reuters: The giant orange robotic arms that swiftly weld together car frames at the Great Wall Motors factory in Baoding might seem like the perfect answer to China’s fast-rising labor costs – they don’t ask for a raise, get injured or go on strike. For Great Wall, a private sector Chinese car maker that […]
Flame ‘Could only have been written by a large team of highly skilled software engineers’
June 2nd, 2012Via: Ars Technica: At least 20 modules available for the malware bring a menu of highly advanced spying capabilities to the unknown people who control it. One plugin turns on the internal microphone of infected machines so Skype conversations can be secretly monitored in real time. A separate module scans nearby Bluetooth-enabled devices for names […]
U.S. and Israel Created Stuxnet, Lost Control of It
June 1st, 2012Via: Ars Technica: In 2011, the US government rolled out its “International Strategy for Cyberspace,” which reminded us that “interconnected networks link nations more closely, so an attack on one nation’s networks may have impact far beyond its borders.” An in-depth report today from the New York Times confirms the truth of that statement as […]
‘The Last Days of Cash’
May 31st, 2012IEEE: A Special Report on the Future of Money – The Last Days of Cash – How E-Money Technology is Plugging Us into the Digital Economy
Anti-Censorship Tool Used in Syria and Iran Compromised; Logs Keystrokes, Phones Home to Server in U.S.
May 31st, 2012Via: Security Week: Simurgh, a privacy tool used in Iran and Syria to bypass Internet censorship and governmental monitoring, is being circulated with a backdoor. The compromised version has been offered on P2P networks and via web searches. Research conducted by CitizenLab.org has shown that malicious version isn’t available form the original software source, only […]
Volvo’s Self-Drive ‘Convoy’ Hits the Spanish Motorway
May 30th, 2012What could possibly go wrong? Avi Rubin – All Your Devices Can Be Hacked: Via: BBC: A convoy of self-driven cars has completed a 200km (125-mile) journey on a Spanish motorway, in the first public test of such vehicles. The cars were wirelessly linked to each other and “mimicked” a lead vehicle, driven by a […]
Japan: Mobile Phone with Geiger Counter
May 30th, 2012I’m surprised that it took so long to appear. Via: Wired: Following Fukushima’s nuclear disaster, Japanese citizens have been especially wary of radiation exposure. SoftBank on Tuesday revealed a new smartphone to answer such concerns. The company’s Pantone 5 107SH is the world’s first phone with a built-in geiger counter, capable of measuring radiation levels […]
Solar Powered Ground Sensors That Can Transmit Information for Decades
May 29th, 2012Via: Wired: America is supposed to wind down its war in Afghanistan by 2014. But U.S. forces may continue to track Afghans for years after the conflict is officially done. Palm-sized sensors, developed for the American military, will remain littered across the Afghan countryside — detecting anyone who moves nearby and reporting their locations back […]
Made in China: Backdoor Found in Chip Used by U.S. Military
May 29th, 2012Via: Information Age: A microchip used by the US military and manufactured in China contains a secret “backdoor” that means it can be shut off or reprogrammed without the user knowing, according to researchers at Cambridge University’s Computing Laboratory. The unnamed chip, which the researchers claim is widely used in military and industrial applications, is […]
Flame Virus
May 29th, 2012Via: Reuters: Security experts said on Monday a highly sophisticated computer virus is infecting computers in Iran and other Middle East countries and may have been deployed at least five years ago to engage in state-sponsored cyber espionage. Evidence suggest that the virus, dubbed Flame, may have been built on behalf of the same nation […]
