US report defines China’s considerable cybersecurity, space-based threats
China continues to be a significant military and cybersecurity threat that will require the United States to adapt and change to counter such threats.
Those were but a couple of the conclusions from the Department of Defense 's wide-ranging "Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2012" annual report to Congress about the status of China and its burgeoning power to influence world events, for better or worse. Read more
CIA posts Top 10 world-wide Internet and mobile phone usage lists?
The folks at the Central Intelligence Agency had an interesting way to celebrate today's World Telecommunications & Information Society Day. It pulled what it termed " interesting information on mobile phone and internet usage" from its The World Factbook- the CIA's reference resource. Read more
DARPA seeks Holy Grail: Quantum-based data security system
Information security systems based on quantum computing techniques are one of the holy grails of the industry but the scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency want to change that with a program that could develop such a system in 3 years. Read more
NASA counts 4,700 potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids
NASA continues to get a better handle on the asteroids buzzing around in space saying today that there are roughly 4,700 potentially hazardous asteroids, or as NASA calls them PHAs. NASA says these PHAs are a subset of a larger group of near-Earth asteroids but have the closest orbits to Earth's - passing within five million mi Read more
FBI finds scammers impersonating the FBI now one of worst online threats
In a weird turn of events the most common Internet crime complaints in 2011 were those involving scams that involved fraudsters pretending to be the FBI according to the yearly online crime report issued through the FBI's partner, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). Read more
FAA needs stiffer penalties for idiots who point lasers at aircraft
Submitted by Layer 8 on Wed, 05/16/12 - 12:07pm.It's pretty clear the penalties for pointing a laser at an aircraft, which can cause temporary blindness or make airliner pilots take evasive measures to avoid the laser light just are not stiff enough to deter the knuckleheads who insist on pulling the stunt. Read more
DARPA program to power instant translation of multi-lingual email, messaging and speech
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded a $7.1 million contract to SRI International to start building the latest in a long line of technologies that seek to translate and understand multiple languages.
In the news: The fantastic world of steampunk technology Read more
US grabs more domain names, $1.4 million from online counterfeit operations
The Department of Justice today said it snatched up more than $1.5 million from the distribution of counterfeit sports apparel and jerseys being sold online.
According to court documents, investigation by federal law enforcement agents revealed that subjects whose domain names had been seized in a November 2010 In Our Sites operation continued to sell counterfeit goods using new domain names. In particular, the individuals, based in China, sold counterfeit professional and collegiate sports apparel, primarily counterfeit sports jerseys. Read more
FBI Chief dishes on technology, insider threats and cyber criminals
Technology has allowed the FBI to better fight all manner of crime but it has also enabled cybercriminals and others to rapidly morph and change tactics that can be difficult to keep up with. Read more
US sets $1.4M to get unique metaphor-recognizing software system humming
An innovative project, called Autonomous Dynamic Analysis of Metaphor and Analogy, or ADAMA, aims to build a software system that can automatically analyze metaphorical speech in five different languages by analyzing huge quantities of online data got off the ground this week when the U.S. Army Research Laboratory awarded a $1.4 million contract to the team conducting the research. Read more
Air Force offers 111 airmen for NASA astronaut duty
In a classic case of many being called but few actually chosen, the Air Force today said nominated 111 airmen to become NASA astronauts. Read more
DHS looking for forensic tools to lift evidence from solid state drives
The Department of Homeland Security is looking for tools to help the law enforcement community better pull forensic evidence from solid state drives found in smartphones and GPS devices in particular. Read more
DARPA system to blend AI, machine learning to understand mountain of text
Submitted by Layer 8 on Fri, 05/04/12 - 11:47am.The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will next this month detail the union of advanced technologies from artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, machine learning, natural-language fields it hopes to bring together to build an automated system that will let analysts and others better grasp meanings from large volumes of tex Read more
CISOs morph into soothsayers, managers of double-digit security spending increases
Security issues are exerting a ton of pressure and monetary concerns on the executives in charge of keeping corporate networks and assets safe. Read more
Do you really need a social media will?
Death is never one of my favorite topics so it was with tepid interest I read an email concerning death and social media from none other than your US government. Seems they say we all need a component of our wills that stipulates how our cyber memory will be handled once we die. I cannot disagree but the idea somehow gives me the willies.
In other news: The weirdest, wackiest and coolest sci/tech stories of 2011 Read more
IBM targets mobile, BYOD customers with cloud software, security services
IBM today rolled out a comprehensive package of software and services to help customers handle growing mobile device-based workforces. Read more
NASA: Mars Lab mission 100 days from landing on red planet
NASA noted that as of last Friday its biggest Mars explorer ever will be within 100 days of landing on the surface or the red planet.
NASA said at that precise time, the mission has about 119 million miles (191 million kilometers) to go and is closing at a speed of 13,000 mph (21,000 kilometers per hour). Read more
Forget those fancy mega yachts – military auctioning DARPA’s super stealth boat
Developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for the Navy in 1984 and pretty much kept secret until 1993, the experimental stealth ship now finds itself on the auction block and currently there is a bid of $99,075 on the web site for the boat. Read more
Notion of extraterrestrial life more whimsical than factual?
Princeton University researchers are throwing some cold water on the hot notion that astrobiologists and other scientists expect to one day find life on other planets. Read more
On the trail of NASA’s space potty
Leave it to the Smithsonian to get every detail right when laying out new exhibits.
First, as part of the Space Shuttle Discovery's exhibit at its new home in the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia will be the spacecraft's original space toilet or waste containment system as it is more technically known.
More: NASA Space Shuttle Discovery's spectacular final flight Read more
- About Layer 8
- Layer 8 is written by Michael Cooney, an online news editor with Network World
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