Conflict & Security archives

• 26 April 2007
  "The US Army hopes, within a few years, to deploy a plasma shield – a machine that generates a protective screen of dazzling mid-air explosions – to stun and disorient an enemy. The device uses a technology known as dynamic pulse detonation (DPD). A short but intense laser pulse creates a ball of plasma, and a second laser pulse generates a supersonic shockwave with the plasma to generate a bright flash and a loud bang. The Plasma Acoustic Shield System will eventually combine a dynamic pulse detonation laser with a high power speaking for hailing or warning, and a dazzler light source. PASS has already been demonstrated by the system's makers, Stellar Photonics. 'It uses a programmed pattern of rapid plasma events to create a sort of wall of bright lights and reports (bangs) over the coverage area,' says Keith Braun of the US Army's Advanced Energy Armaments Systems Division at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, US, where the system is being tested." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 25 April 2007
  "The number of new pieces of malicious software has doubled in the last year with the web being used increasingly to distribute the code, a report says. In the first quarter of 2007, security firm Sophos identified 23,864 threats, up from 9,450 on this time last year. In the same period the firm said it was identifying 5,000 web pages per day infected with so-called malware. The report was released during InfoSec, Europe's largest conference on online security issues, in London. 'With computer users becoming increasingly aware of how to protect against email-aware viruses and malware, hackers have turned to the web as their preferred vector of attack,' said the report." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 24 April 2007
  "Teens generally don't think twice about including their first names and photos on their personal online profiles, but most refrain from using full names or making their profiles fully public, a new survey finds. The Pew Internet and American Life Project reported Wednesday that two-thirds of teens with profiles on blogs or social-networking sites have restricted access to their profiles in some fashion, such as by requiring passwords or making them available only to friends on an approved list. The study comes amid growing concerns about online predators and other dangers on popular online hangouts like News Corp.'s MySpace and Facebook, which encourage their youth-oriented visitors to expand their circles of friends through messaging tools and personal profile pages. Social-networking sites have responded by offering users more controls over how much they make public and warning them about revealing too much." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 23 April 2007
  "The Bush administration is offering Russia a new package of incentives to drop its strong opposition to American missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, including an invitation to begin linking some American and Russian antimissile systems, according to senior administration and military officials. The package includes American offers to cooperate on developing defense technology and to share intelligence about common threats, as well as to permit Russian officials to inspect the future missile bases. American officials said the initiatives were proposed at least in part at the urging of European allies, and reflected an acknowledgment at the highest levels of the Bush administration that it had not been agile in dealing with Russia — and with some NATO allies — on its plan to place defensive missiles and radar in Poland and the Czech Republic." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 19 April 2007
  "Stealthy, targeted cyberattacks via e-mail continue to rise, e-mail security specialist MessageLabs said Wednesday. During March, MessageLabs intercepted 716 e-mail messages that were part of 249 targeted attacks aimed at 216 of its customers, the Gloucester, England-based provider of hosted e-mail filtering services said in a research report. Of the attacks, almost 200 consisted of a single malicious e-mail designed to infiltrate an organization, MessageLabs said. 'These numbers represent a significant increase when compared to the same period last year when attack rates reached one or two per day,' MessageLabs said. Security experts have said that limited-scale attacks are the most dangerous." Learn more at News.com.

• 18 April 2007
  "Since 9/11, some security experts have pushed the idea that peer-to-peer alert systems that rely on openness and the crowd can save lives, particularly when centralized communications and decision-making break down. That argument is back in force following Monday's mass slayings of 32 people at Virginia Tech. As the carnage unfolded, eyewitnesses IM'd terrifying firsthand accounts to their friends, some of which appeared on blogs and MySpace within minutes of the shootings. Yet students complained that the first official word they heard about a killer on campus came a full two hours after two students were shot to death in a nearby dorm, just as their suspected attacker opened fire again in an academic building on the other side of campus." Learn more in Wired News.

• 17 April 2007
  "On the eve of the first United Nations Security Council debate on global warming, the UK foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, warned US businesses to invest in carbon-free technology or lose out to Europeans. The theme of the open debate, a UK initiative, is energy, security and climate. The UK currently holds the Security Council presidency. 'Clean-tech is going to be a massive market' and the largest economic opportunity of the century, Beckett said on Monday to business leaders in New York, US. 'Those who move into that market first – first to design, first to patent, first to set the technology standard, first to sell, first to invest, first to build a brand – have an unparalleled chance to make money,' Beckett said. Beckett chairs a meeting on Tuesday that the UK called to convince reluctant UN members that climate changes poses a threat to international security." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 16 April 2007
  "For years, Elizabeth Kushigian never had a problem flying back-and-forth to Costa Rica, where she runs a local micro-lending nonprofit. But in 2004, she suddenly found it impossible to re-enter the United States without being ordered into a special isolation room at Miami International Airport. There, she'd wait for extra scrutiny. 'I was in the line where you come in and stamp your passport, and each time they would scan the passport and look at (the) screen and stiffen,' Kushigian says. 'I was on some sort of list. I don't know why; it could have been because of something I did in the '60s and in the early 1980s, I did some civil disobedience on behalf of El Salvador.' Kushigian is just a member of a growing club of American citizens whose lives have been touched by a slew of government watch lists proliferating with little oversight or redress mechanisms since the 9/11 attacks." Learn more in Wired News.

• 12 April 2007
  "Despite being designated by the United States and the United Nations as a "global terrorist," Yemen's Sheikh Abdul Majid al-Zindani continues to be protected by the Yemeni government. Most recently, Sultan al-Barakani, chairman of the ruling General People's Congress Caucus, said that the U.S. government had failed to send the Yemeni government information incriminating al-Zindani in terrorism, stating that, "we don't have any evidence that Sheikh al-Zindani was involved with al-Qaeda" (Yemen Times, April 2). Sheikh al-Zindani is one of the most perplexing characters to emerge from the war on terrorism" Learn more in the Jamestown Foundation.

• 10 April 2007
  "Dating used to be largely a matter of spending time with a love interest, discovering the good, the bad and the ugly in person. If you were lucky, friends helped fill in some of the blanks. These days, the Internet -- and the ability to check people out before they ever meet up -- has forever changed the rules. For better or worse, 'googling' your date has become standard practice. 'I often tell my friends that are still in the dating sphere to use the power of Google to their advantage,' says Katie Laird, a 24-year-old Web marketing professional and self-proclaimed 'social software geek' from Houston. The results can be enlightening, surprising -- and sometimes, a little disturbing. So Laird's advice also comes with a warning: 'Don't google what you can't handle.' Hers is the voice of experience. In her dating life, she regularly did online research on her dates and turned up, among other things, 'bizarre' fetishes and a guy who was fascinated with vampires." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 9 April 2007
  "Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of the country’s nuclear test, Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from the North, in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior American officials. The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopia was in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia, a campaign that aided the American policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa. American officials said that they were still encouraging Ethiopia to wean itself from its longstanding reliance on North Korea for cheap Soviet-era military equipment to supply its armed forces and that Ethiopian officials appeared receptive." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 6 April 2007
  "As in many areas of the country, more 911 calls here come from cellphones than land lines. But 40 percent of the nation’s counties, most of them rural or small-town communities like this one, cannot yet pinpoint the location of cellphone callers, though the technology to do so has been available for at least five years. The delay has been life-threatening. Last December, the Cherokee County 911 operators in this eastern Oklahoma town listened for 27 minutes and 34 seconds to the screams and retching of a caller, Misty Kirk, as an intruder beat her in front of her two daughters, ages 3 and 4. There was little else they could do. Ms. Kirk, convinced that her assailant, whom she identified as her ex-husband, was angry enough to kill her, had managed to dial 911 on her cellphone and throw it under the sofa, praying that she would be found and rescued." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 5 April 2007
  "An Australian army captain sold military rocket launchers to underworld arms dealers, according to police in New South Wales, Australia. The Herald Sun reports that Australian feds and state cops swooped in a series of dawn raids yesterday, nabbing the officer and a former colleague. A 63-year-old woman was also arrested. According to deputy police commissioner Terry Collins, the seized captain was the 'mastermind and a key player in regard to the theft and distribution of these (rocket launchers) to criminal elements'. The apparent existence of a Down Under black market for rocket launchers has been getting sustained media interest in Australia for a while. Alleged backstreet arms dealer Taha Abdul Rahman was arrested in January and charged with a variety of offences relating to seven stolen launchers, after apparently selling one of them to a police nark last year." Learn more in the Register.

• 4 April 2007
  "FBI investigators have visited Second Life's Internet casinos at the invitation of the virtual world's creator Linden Lab, but the U.S. government has not decided on the legality of virtual gambling. 'We have invited the FBI several times to take a look around in Second Life and raise any concerns they would like, and we know of at least one instance that federal agents did look around in a virtual casino,' said Ginsu Yoon, until recently Linden Lab's general counsel and currently vice president for business affairs. Second Life is a popular online virtual world with millions of registered users and its own economy and currency, known as the Linden dollar, which can be exchanged for U.S. dollars. Yoon said the company was seeking guidance on virtual gaming activity in Second Life but had not yet received clear rules from U.S. authorities." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 3 April 2007
  "Britons are a nation of spies, rifling through their partners' text messages, tapping phone conversations and even tailing loved ones with web cams and satellite navigation systems, a survey reveals. The most favored way of keeping tabs on a partner is checking their text messages, with more than half (53 percent) of those questioned admitting sneaking a peek. The number shoots up to 77 percent in the 25 to 34 age group. The second most popular way of finding out if a partner has been a love-cheat is to read their e-mails -- 42 percent told the UK Undercover Survey that they had carried out such a ploy. The third is the old-fashioned one of rummaging through a partner's pockets, (39 percent), a technique popular with women. Men prefer to break another unspoken rule -- reading a partner's diary." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 2 April 2007
  "As it increases its use of robots in war zones, the military will begin using an explosive-sniffing version that will allow soldiers to better detect roadside bombs, which account for more than 70 percent of U.S. casualties in Iraq. Fido is the first robot with an integrated explosives sensor. Burlington, Massachusetts-based iRobot Corp. is filling the military's first order of 100 in this southwest Ohio city and will ship the robots over the next few months. There are nearly 5,000 robots in Iraq and Afghanistan, up from about 150 in 2004. Soldiers use them to search caves and buildings for insurgents, detect mines and ferret out roadside and car bombs. As the war in Iraq enters its fifth year, the federal government is spending more money on military robots and the two major U.S. robot makers have increased production." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 28 March 2007
  "On a chilly January evening, police officer Abdullah Dadgar is giving his new partner a tour of Oakland's notorious east side. 'There was a shooting in front of that liquor store, guys firing AK-47s,' he says, steering his squad car past dilapidated buildings and sidewalks strewn with refuse. A few moments later: 'There was a homicide in that alley over there.' Then: 'The Norteños had a gang war around this area.' He goes silent for a while and adds as an afterthought, 'There's been a shooting spree on pretty much every block we just passed.' Dadgar's partner shifts uncomfortably in the passenger seat. He stares wide-eyed at the gangbangers and prostitutes congregated on every other corner. Occasionally he glances down at the Panasonic Toughbook in his lap. A computer programmer who recently moved to California from China, Stanley Bai has never been in a police car before. He's riding along tonight to test a new software program." Learn more in Wired News.

• 27 March 2007
  "Bombs triggered by the presence of people with specific biometric traits may soon be feasible, warns a report. Written by the Royal Academy of Engineering, the report looks at how technology is eroding personal privacy. It shows how abuse of technology can expose people to harm by, for instance, terrorists crafting bombs that use the biometric data stored on passports to target specific nationalities. It urges people to get more involved in the ways data about them is gathered. Professor Nigel Gilbert, one of the report's authors, said the idea was not to scare people but to show what could happen when novel technologies and personal privacy interact. 'No technology is 100% perfect, and no engineer will tell you that any technology is 100% perfect,' said Professor Gilbert. 'We need to think very carefully about contingency plans,' he said, 'about what can go wrong and what we are going to do about it when it does go wrong." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 26 March 2007
  "Fewer than half of the UK's 29m adult internet users believe they are responsible for protecting personal information online, a survey suggests. One in six of the 2,441 people surveyed felt responsibility rested with banks. The research, for a government-backed online safety campaign, found 12% had suffered online fraud in the last year - at an average loss of £875. The same number (5%) had experienced fraud while shopping online as had had their bag, wallet or mobile stolen.The survey, devised by Get Safe Online in conjunction with the BBC News website, marks the start of an internet safety week to help raise awareness of online issues. Get Safe Online managing director Tony Neate said: 'The internet now is the real world. We don't blame the police when we get burgled and we must take responsibility for what we do online in the same way we do for securing our houses and cars.'" Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 23 March 2007
  "An inquiry into the growing use of surveillance in society is to be held by an influential committee of MPs. The Commons Home Affairs committee is about to announce the inquiry, leader of the Commons Jack Straw told MPs. The Information Commissioner last year warned the UK risked 'sleep-walking into a surveillance society'. It is thought the inquiry will include the impact of identity cards, the expansion of the DNA database and the large rise in the use of CCTV cameras. Shadow home secretary David Davis said the move was welcome, adding: 'Under Labour we have progressively moved towards a surveillance society with the government's obsession with ID cards and the DNA database being just two examples.'...There are up to 4.2m CCTV cameras in Britain - about one for every 14 people. The UK also holds 3.6 million DNA samples - the world's biggest database." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 22 March 2007
  "The U.S. military is working on computers than can scan your mind and adapt to what you're thinking. Since 2000, Darpa, the Pentagon's blue-sky research arm, has spearheaded a far-flung, nearly $70 million effort to build prototype cockpits, missile control stations and infantry trainers that can sense what's occupying their operators' attention, and adjust how they present information, accordingly. Similar technologies are being employed to help intelligence analysts find targets easier by tapping their unconscious reactions. It's all part of a broader Darpa push to radically boost the performance of American troops. 'Computers today, you have to learn how they work,' says Navy Commander Dylan Schmorrow, who served as Darpa's first program manager for this Augmented Cognition project." Learn more in Wired News.

• 21 March 2007
  "A security researcher has found a way hackers can make PCs of unsuspecting Web surfers do their dirty work, without having to actually commandeer the systems. That's possible with a new security tool called Jikto. The tool is written in JavaScript and can make PCs of unknowing Web surfers hunt for flaws in Web sites, said Jikto creator Billy Hoffman, a researcher at Web security firm SPI Dynamics. Hoffman, who developed the tool as a way to advance Web security, plans to release Jikto publicly later this week at the ShmooCon hacker event in Washington, D.C. 'This is going to drastically change the scope of evil things you can do with JavaScript,' Hoffman said. 'Jikto turns any PC into my little drone. Your PC will start attacking Web sites on my behalf, and you're going to give me all the results.'" Learn more at News.com.

• 20 March 2007
  "Cyber-crime is alive and kicking in the USA, and playfully swimming through its riches like Scrooge McDuck in a money vault, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center annual report reveals today. In 2006 US consumers filed 207,492 complaints about internet crime and reported record losses of $198.4m. Online auction fraud, such as receiving a different item than expected, topped the list, accounting for 44.9 per cent of complaints. Undelivered merchandise and payments were next in line, accounting for 19 per cent. Greedy fools are still falling for the 419 scam (which the FBI calls 'Nigerian Letter Fraud'). On average, victims last year lost $5,100 a pop to the countless princes of Nigeria, by sensibly moving their Majesties' assets to the US. Another notable email scam, with 115 complaints received last year, goes straight for the jugular: the fraudster demands money in return for not murdering the recipient through a hired assassin." Learn more in the Register.

• 19 March 2007
  "The number of computers hijacked by malicious hackers to send out spam and viruses has grown almost 30% in the last year, according to a survey. More than six million computers world wide are now part of a 'bot network', reported security firm Symantec. Computer users typically do not know that their PC has been hijacked. More than a third of all computer attacks in the second half of 2006 originated from PCs in the United States, the threat report said. While the total number of bot-net PCs rose, the number of servers controlling them dropped by about 25% to 4,700, the twice-yearly report said. Symantec researchers said the decrease showed that bot network owners were consolidating to expand their networks, creating a more centralised structure for launching attacks." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 16 March 2007
  "Privacy bodies have welcomed Google's decision to anonymise personal data it receives from users' web searches. The firm previously held information about searches for an indefinite period but will now anonymise it after 18 to 24 months. 'This is an extremely positive development,' said Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a US-based watchdog. 'It's the type of thing we have been advocating for a number of years.' However, governments could still force Google to hold onto data or hand it over to authorities. 'By anonymising our server logs after 18 to 24 months, we think we're striking the right balance between two goals: continuing to improve Google's services for you, while providing more transparency and certainty about our retention practices,' a statement from the search giant said." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 15 March 2007
  "You've heard of the canary in the coal mine: In the presence of poisonous gas, the bird will sway or drop dead, alerting miners to get out. Now researchers have learned that the collective buzzing of honeybees can provide a similar biological alert. But unlike canaries, bees can differentiate between chemicals and will produce different sounds based on what toxin they detect, scientists say. Bees could help soldiers and security workers detect toxic chemicals such as those potentially used in terror attacks, the researchers say. The insects can also alert beekeepers to illness in a hive, because bees make different sounds when suffering from various maladies, such as infections or parasites. Researchers with Bee Alert Technology, a company affiliated with the University of Montana in Missoula, aim to create a handheld device that can warn humans of the dangers that bees detect." Learn more in the National Geographic News.

• 14 March 2007
  "Consumers are bombarded with warnings about identity theft. Publicized threats range from mailbox thieves and lost laptops to the higher-tech methods of e-mail scams and corporate data invasions. Now, experts are warning that photocopiers could be a culprit as well. That's because most digital copiers manufactured in the past five years have disk drives - the same kind of data-storage mechanism found in computers - to reproduce documents. As a result, the seemingly innocuous machines that are commonly used to spit out copies of tax returns for millions of Americans can retain the data being scanned. If the data on the copier's disk aren't protected with encryption or an overwrite mechanism, and if someone with malicious motives gets access to the machine, industry experts say sensitive information from original documents could get into the wrong hands." Learn more in Wired News.

• 13 March 2007
  "Scotland Yard has uncovered evidence that Al-Qaeda has been plotting to bring down the internet in Britain, causing chaos to business and the London Stock Exchange. In a series of raids, detectives have recovered computer files revealing that terrorist suspects had targeted a high-security internet 'hub' in London. The facility, in Docklands, houses the channel through which almost every bit of information on the internet passes in or out of Britain. The suspects, who were arrested, had targeted the headquarters of Telehouse Europe, which houses Europe’s biggest 'web hotel', containing dozens of 'servers' , the boxes which contain the information that makes up the web." Learn more at the Times Online.

• 12 March 2007
  "The lab is climate-controlled to 104 degrees Fahrenheit and 66 percent humidity. Sitting inside the cramped room, even for a few minutes, is an unpleasantly moist experience. I’ve spent the last 40 minutes on a treadmill angled at a 9 percent grade. My face is chili-red, my shirt soaked with sweat. My breath is coming in short, unsatisfactory gasps. The sushi and sake I had last night are in full revolt. The tiny speakers on the shelf blasting 'Living on a Prayer' are definitely not helping. Then Dennis Grahn, a lumpy Stanford University biologist and former minor-league hockey player, walks into the room. He nods in my direction and smiles at a technician. 'Looks like he’s ready,' Grahn says...The test isn’t about my endurance; it’s about the future of the American armed forces." Learn more in Wired News.

• 9 March 2007
  "For a long time anti-virus software has been in the front line when it comes to stopping malicious programs infecting PCs. But as the creators of viruses and other malicious programs adapt their methods to exploit the weaknesses of anti-virus software, some are looking to other methods to help them stay safe. One such is Brent Rickels, the one-man IT department for the First National Bank of Bosque County in Texas, who has thrown out his anti-virus software and has a much quieter life as a result. 'I just wanted to be able to sleep at night,' he said explaining the decision to stop using anti-virus. 'There had to be something better by now,' Mr Rickels told the BBC News website. 'Anti-virus is such a reactive model. The bad guys out there have copies of Symantec and Trend Micro and all of the anti-virus software and are using it to develop their stuff on and get their stuff past it,' he said." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 8 March 2007
  "The Democratic Republic of Congo's top atomic energy official is being held over allegations of uranium smuggling. Atomic energy centre director Fortunat Lumu and an aide have been questioned since their arrest on Tuesday. A large quantity of uranium is reported to have gone missing in recent years, although state prosecutor Tshimanga Mukeba did not reveal any figures. He told the BBC an 'important quantity' of uranium was taken from the nuclear centre and they were investigating. DR Congo's daily newspaper Le Phare reported that more than 100 bars of uranium as well as an unknown quantity of uranium contained in helmet-shaped cases, had disappeared from the nuclear centre in Kinshasa as part of a vast trafficking of the material going back years. But the BBC's Kinshasa correspondent, Arnaud Zajtman, says that as of yet, no evidence has been made public to support the allegations made by the newspaper. Uranium is the basic raw material of both civilian and military nuclear programmes." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 7 March 2007
  "Pictures of homeless cats and dogs could soon be helping users get access to secure websites and services. By using pictures that humans can easily distinguish, researchers hope to foil computerised efforts to get at valuable web services that perhaps offer e-mail accounts or sell tickets for popular shows. The research plan to use pictures was showcased at Microsoft's annual Techfest - a conference that gives the software giant's researchers chance to publicise what they are working on. Also on show at Techfest were Microsoft's latest efforts to improve the way people search for information that may help the company in its battle with rivals Google and Yahoo. Hundreds of researchers from labs in China, India, the US, and Cambridge in the UK gathered at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington for the event. Although usually restricted to Microsoft workers, this year Techfest was opened up to customers, government officials, and the media." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 6 March 2007
  "A White House privacy board is giving its stamp of approval to two of the Bush administration's controversial surveillance programs - electronic eavesdropping and financial tracking - and says they do not violate citizens' civil liberties. Democrats newly in charge of Congress quickly criticized the findings, which they said were questionable given some of the board members' close ties with the Bush administration. 'Their current findings and any additional conclusions they reach will be taken with a grain of salt until they become fully independent,' said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee. After operating mostly in secret for a year, the five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Board is preparing to release its first report to Congress next week. The report finds that both the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program and the Treasury Department's monitoring of international banking transactions have sufficient privacy protections, three board members told The Associated Press in telephone interviews." Learn more in Wired News.

• 5 March 2007
  "China announced its biggest increase in defense spending in five years on Sunday, a development that quickly prompted the United States to renew its calls for more transparency from the Chinese military about the scope and intent of its continuing, rapid arms buildup. Jiang Enzhu, a spokesman for the National People’s Congress, the Communist Party-controlled national legislature, said China’s military budget would rise this year by 17.8 percent to roughly 350 billion yuan, or just under $45 billion. 'We must increase our military budget, as it is important to national security,' Mr. Jiang said at a news conference. 'China’s military must modernize. Our overall defenses are weak.' But China’s military modernization efforts, particularly its drive to develop advanced weaponry, have been raising concern from Washington to Tokyo to New Delhi, where officials are worried that the buildup could be as much offensive as defensive." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 2 March 2007
  "A disgruntled hacker with a personal grudge against Symantec, which provides anti-virus software to leading Fortune 500 companies, could be behind a new, crippling computer virus that's already hit a division of at least one big U.S. corporation on Thursday. If it spreads, technology experts warn the latest strains of the insidious RINBOT computer virus could hijack network systems of businesses worldwide. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant with Boston-based IT security firm Sophos, said his company has been aware of 'a number' of new versions of the RINBOT or DELBOT virus produced since Feb. 15. 'We believe this latest strain is the 7th version of RINBOT which first emerged in March 2005,'Cluley said. According to Cluley, this version is designed to exploit security vulnerabilities embedded in anti-virus software." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 1 March 2007
  "Once upon a time, tempestuous divorces might have included one spouse snooping through the other's private correspondence or eavesdropping on private conversations taking place in another room. That kind of snooping was, for the most part, entirely legal. But when the same kind of snooping happens in electronic form, it can be a federal crime. That doesn't seem to be the case here. Jeffery Havlicek filed for a divorce from his wife Amy Havlicek in Ohio's Greene County Common Pleas Court. Amy had been chatting through e-mail and instant messages with a woman named Christina Potter. Jeffery suspected that Potter and his wife, Amy, were romantically involved in a lesbian 'relationship of some sort,' his attorney would later say in a legal brief." Learn more at News.com.

• 28 February 2007
  "Cyberinvestigators are nearly drowning in the massive amounts of digital data seized from criminal suspects, a government official said Wednesday. As digital evidence increases in importance, authorities seize anything that can hold data. This includes computers, CDs, USB keys, MP3 players, cell phones and game consoles, Jim Christy, a director of the U.S. Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center, said in a presentation at the Black Hat DC Briefings & Training event here. "This is everything that you got and gave for Christmas," Christy said. In one case, investigators found child pornography on a modified Xbox, he said. 'The challenge is that with digital proliferation, the data volume is tremendous these days.' A single terabyte of data equals about 8,333 old-fashioned, five-drawer file cabinets filled with papers. 'That's an awful lot for an examiner to go through,' Christy said. Digital evidence can answer key questions in a legal case, but efficient tools to sift through massive amounts of data don't exist today, Christy said." Learn more at News.com.

• 27 February 2007
  "The next time you walk by a shop window, take a glance at your reflection. How much do you swing your arms? Is the weight of your bag causing you to hunch over? Do you still have a bit of that 1970s disco strut left? Look around — You might not be the only one watching. The never-blinking surveillance cameras, rapidly becoming a part of daily life in public and even private places, may be sizing you up as well. And they may soon get a lot smarter. Researchers and security companies are developing cameras that not only watch the world but also interpret what they see. Soon, some cameras may be able to find unattended bags at airports, guess your height or analyze the way you walk to see if you are hiding something. Most of the cameras widely used today are used as forensic tools to identify crooks after-the-fact. But the latest breed, known as 'intelligent video,' could transform cameras from passive observers to eyes with brains." Learn more in USA Today.

• 26 February 2007
  "X-ray vision has come to the airport checkpoint here, courtesy of federal aviation security officials who have installed a new device that peeks underneath passengers’ clothing to search for guns, bombs or liquid explosives. The new body scanning machine, which went into use on Friday at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and will be tested later at airports in Los Angeles and New York, will screen only volunteers, at least initially. Transportation Security Administration officials want to make sure the machine is reliable and fast enough to replace the traditional pat-down — and that it does not provoke too many protests. Security officials examining the head-to-toe images work in a closed booth, hidden from public view, agency officials said. Special 'privacy' software intentionally blurs the image, creating an outline of a body that is clear enough to see a collarbone, bellybutton or weapon, but flattens details of revealing contours." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 23 February 2007
  "An Egyptian blogger was convicted Thursday and sentenced to four years in prison for insulting Islam, the Prophet Muhammad and Egypt's president, sending a chill through fellow Internet writers who fear a government crackdown. Abdel Kareem Nabil, a 22-year-old former student at Egypt's Al-Azhar University, an Islamic institution, was a vocal secularist and sharp critic of conservative Muslims in his blog. He also lashed out often at Al-Azhar — the most prominent religious center in Sunni Islam — calling it 'the university of terrorism' and accusing it of encouraging extremism. His conviction brought a flood of condemnations from Amnesty International and other international and Egyptian rights group and stunned fellow bloggers. 'I am shocked,' said Wael Abbas, a blogger who writes frequently about police abuses and other human rights violations in Egypt. 'This is a terrible message to anyone who intends to express his opinion and to bloggers in particular.'" Learn more in USA Today.

• 22 February 2007
  "A laser developed for military use is a few steps away from hitting a power threshold thought necessary to turn it into a battlefield weapon. The Solid State Heat Capacity Laser (SSHCL) has achieved 67 kilowatts (kW) of average power in the laboratory. It could take only a further six to eight months to break the 'magic' 100kW mark required for the battlefield, the project's chief scientist told the BBC. Potentially, lasers could destroy rockets, mortars or roadside bombs. For many years, solid state, electrically powered lasers like SSHCL were only able to operate at a fraction of the 100kW mark. Then, in March 2005, the system achieved 45kW. Hitting 67kW, said SSHCL programme manager Bob Yamamoto, meant 100kW was now within reach." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 21 February 2007
  "India and Pakistan have signed an agreement aimed at reducing the risk of accidental nuclear war in the region. The deal was signed during talks in Delhi between Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee. India also said it would share with Pakistan details of the investigation into the bombing of a cross-border train on Sunday. The blasts and blaze they caused killed 68 people, most of them Pakistanis. Details of the deal limiting the risk of an inadvertent nuclear conflict were not made available, but officials say it includes confidence-building measures related to each country's nuclear arsenal. Both countries have nuclear-capable weapons and have come close to war several times. Two years ago, they agreed to give each other notice of nuclear missile tests and in 1985 they signed an accord not to attack each other's nuclear installations. The two sides condemned the blasts on the Samjhauta (Friendship) Express from Delhi to Lahore and vowed to continue with the peace process." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 20 February 2007
  "Iran may be as few as six months from being able to enrich uranium on an industrial scale, the head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said. In an interview with Britain's Financial Times published Tuesday, Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said intelligence estimates put Iran at least five years from being able to develop nuclear weapons. ElBaradei is scheduled to issue a report Wednesday on Iran's compliance with a U.N. Security Council demand that it halt nuclear fuel work such as uranium enrichment, which could be used to make fissile bomb-grade material. The nuclear issue, ElBaradei told the Financial Times, 'is the tip of the iceberg' and is indicative of other unresolved matters between Iran and the West. 'It masks a lot of grievances, security grievances, competition for power in the Middle East, economic issues, sanctions, it has to do with human rights, support for extremist groups. There are a lot of other issues that need to be resolved,' he told the newspaper." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 16 February 2007
  "Home computer users who leave default passwords on network hardware unchanged could be at risk from attack say security experts. Researchers created an attack that surreptitiously redirects a user to nefarious sites once they have visited a booby-trapped webpage. The attack works by re-writing the address book in network hardware to point victims to the scam sites. About 50% of users leave default passwords unchanged, suggests research. The theoretical attack was explored in a paper written by researchers from the University of Indiana and security firm Symantec. In the paper the authors detail how to compromise the routers many people use to share broadband connections between machines in their home." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 15 February 2007
  "How much can you tell about a criminal from their shoeprints? A lot, it seems, which is why Britain is launching the world's first online collection of prints. But could any of us be nicked for wearing the same shoes as a bank robber? You would think that the impressions you are leaving behind with your Reeboks, Nikes, Converse All Stars, whatever, are nothing special. Those kind of shoes come rolling off the production line in their thousands every day, don't they? But the brand you are wearing, the scuffs and damage your shoes have suffered, and the way you have worn them down in particular places, make that print identifiable as yours and can place you at the scene of a crime, say experts. That's why for years detectives have sought footwear imprints - the second most common evidence type left at crime scenes - that can be analysed against the shoe of a suspect. Under new laws those prints can be taken from suspects who pass through custody, even if they have not been charged." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 14 February 2007
  "Balancing the needs of the police to investigate crimes online with the privacy of individual web users has become controversial as governments seek to extend their snooping rights in cyberspace. Already European ISPs and phone companies are in the process of implementing an EU directive which forces them to retain a variety of communication data for up to two years. Now, a republican congressman, Lamar Smith, has put forward a bill for discussion in the US Congress that could see a similar regime operating Stateside. Experts think it is unlikely that the US will introduce draconian data retention laws any time soon, not because they do not want to but because similar European legislation is currently in varying degrees of disarray. 'It would be a case of a European disease moving to the US. There are so many silly aspects to the EU legislation, not least that implementation is practically impossible,' said Gus Hosein from advocacy group Privacy International. Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 13 February 2007
  "Dozens of dolphins and sea lions trained to detect and apprehend waterborne attackers could be sent to patrol a military base in Washington state, the Navy said Monday. In a notice published in this week's Federal Register, the Navy said it needs to bolster security at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, on the Puget Sound close to Seattle. The base is home to submarines, ships and laboratories and is potentially vulnerable to attack by terrorist swimmers and scuba divers, the notice states. Several options are under consideration, but the preferred plan would be to send as many as 30 California sea lions and Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins from the Navy's Marine Mammal Program, based in San Diego. 'These animals have the capabilities for what needs to be done for this particular mission,' said Tom LaPuzza, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Program. LaPuzza said that because of their astonishing sonar abilities, dolphins are excellent at patrolling for swimmers and divers." Learn more in Wired News.

• 12 February 2007
  "Picking a password is a tricky business. And the temptation is to go for something that is easy to remember like our partner's birthday, a pet's name, or a film star. The trouble is, given just a few attempts it also makes it pretty easy to crack. 'Hackers today will often use a dictionary style attack. This means they can very quickly use all of the words in the dictionary as well as common celebrity or sports names,' explained McAfee security analyst Greg Day. 'For example, many people still use what they think is a smart technique of switching out some of those characters for numbers, for example changing an A into a 4. But that's a very commonly known technique. I think what worries us more these days is we use online communities, like MySpace or Bebo, to meet and chat with other people, and people are so willing to hand over this information - favourite film star, etc. As a password stealer I only need to chat to you for a few minutes and I can probably commonly guess your password." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 9 February 2007
  "The final design for a 'doomsday' vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government. The Svalbard International Seed Vault will be built into a mountainside on a remote island near the North Pole. The vault aims to safeguard the world's agriculture from future catastrophes, such as nuclear war, asteroid strikes and climate change. Construction begins in March, and the seed bank is scheduled to open in 2008. The Norwegian government is paying the $5m (£2.5m) construction costs of the vault, which will have enough space to house three million seed samples. The collection and maintenance of the collection is being organised by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which has responsibility of ensuring the 'conservation of crop diversity in perpetuity'. 'We want a safety net because we do not want to take too many chances with crop biodiversity,' said Cary Fowler, the Trust's executive director." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 8 February 2007
  "Keeping information secure in this age of laptop-lugging workers is the tech industry's most formidable challenge, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates says. Speaking Tuesday to an annual gathering of 15,000 computer security experts in San Francisco, Gates invoked the metaphor of a medieval castle to explain the problem: Programmers build bigger moats and thicker fortress walls -- but they don't bother to protect the corporate crown jewels when members of their fiefdom exit the castle and leave the drawbridge open. 'We used to think of the data center as a glass house that was very isolated,' Gates said. 'But if we look (at) what actually goes on -- consultants come into your company, employees who are not onsite need full access -- we cannot think of that glass house as the way to define what can connect to what. We need a far more powerful paradigm.'" Learn more at CNN.com.

• 7 February 2007
  "If you have a credit card or just bought a copy of Windows Vista, you're familiar with security holograms -- those sparkly bits of film that vouch for the validity of everything from driver's licenses to software and sports league items. It turns out, they're aren't as secure as they are sparkly. Experts say the number of counterfeit holograms affixed to equally counterfeit merchandise has tripled in the past three years, as the technology to make them has spread. Today, crafting a convincing duplicate of a security hologram has never been easier or more profitable. 'The hardest part is peeling the original off,' says Jeff Allen, one of the pioneers of holography. 'You can duplicate a hologram, and the duplicate becomes a master you can use for production.' Embossed holograms first turned up on credit cards as a security device in the 1980s. Today, software makers and CD manufacturers use them for package seals, and high-end clothing companies ranging from sports league to Italian runway designers have them on their labels. They're also found on driver's licenses, ID cards, tax stamps, and dozens of other places where they're meant to certify the genuineness of an article, whether it's a Microsoft program, a Chicago Bears T-shirt or a pair of Roberto Cavalli jeans." Learn more in Wired News.

• 6 February 2007
  "In the Matrix, characters could see bullets in slow motion as they sped toward them. Now, the U.S. military can too. An Air Force contractor has developed the first high-speed camera that can follow speeding bullets midflight. It may lead to "active armor" that intercepts speeding rounds out of the air, or personal-protection devices that deflect incoming bullets with rapidly inflating Kevlar air bags. Developed for the Air Force's Munitions Directorate by Nova Sensors of Solvang, California, the Variable Acuity Superpixel Technology system, or VAST, can also track anything slower than a bullet -- which is pretty much everything -- and is likely to find many other applications, from traffic management to robot vision. 'This is truly breakthrough technology in terms of new capabilities for infrared focal plane arrays,' says Mark Massie, president of Nova Sensors. Nova Sensors' system includes software that mimics the fovea in human and animal eyes. The fovea is the dense region of light receptors at the center of the eye used for detailed vision: reading, driving a car or examining objects closely." Learn more in Wired News.

• 5 February 2007
  "The annual RSA Conference this week is expected to show evidence of a maturing security industry with an increasing role for big-name companies. The event has long moved far beyond its origins as a get-together for cryptogeeks. It has developed into an annual gathering for corporate IT pros and a showcase for hundreds of companies, small and large, that hawk security products and services to businesses. This year is the 16th anniversary of the event. Again change is in the air. 'We're going to see a flight to quality, consolidation and quite a bit of merger and acquisition activity (in 2007),' said Andrew Jaquith, Yankee Group. 'That's what's different about this year's RSA Conference; there is the slight whiff of blood in the air. You can sort of hear the screeching noises of the vultures overhead.' Security is becoming more structured and part of the IT infrastructure at companies, instead of being added on later, analysts said. Companies including Oracle, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems and Intel are vying for a piece of the pie, which may hurt the smaller industry players, they said." Learn more at News.com.

• 2 February 2007
  "In the event of a severe flu outbreak, schools should close for up to three months, ballgames and movies should be canceled, and working hours should be staggered so subways and buses are less crowded, the federal government said Thursday in issuing new pandemic flu guidelines to states and cities. Health officials acknowledged that such measures would greatly disrupt public life, but argued that they would provide the time needed to produce vaccines and would save lives because flu viruses attack in waves lasting about two months. 'We have to be prepared for a Category 5 pandemic,' said Dr. Martin S. Cetron, director of global migration and quarantine for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in releasing the guidelines. 'It’s not easy. The only thing that’s harder is facing the consequences. That will be intolerable.' Officials are, for the first time, modeling the new guidelines on the five levels of hurricanes." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 1 February 2007
  "Americans lost about $49.3 billion in 2006 to criminals who stole their identities, an 11.5 percent decline that may reflect increased vigilance among consumers and businesses, a study released Thursday shows. Losses declined from a revised $55.7 billion in 2005, according to the third annual study by Javelin Strategy & Research. They had increased in each of the prior two years. The average identity theft fraud fell 9 percent to $5,720 from $6,278, while the median--where half were larger and half were smaller--held steady at $750. 'Businesses are doing a better job screening, and consumers are doing better at locking up information and monitoring their accounts,' James Van Dyke, founder and president of Pleasanton, Calif.-based Javelin, said in an interview. 'The dollar amount is dropping,' he added, 'but $49 billion is still a lot of money.'" Learn more at News.com.

• 31 January 2007
  "European governments are resisting Bush administration demands that they curtail support for exports to Iran and that they block transactions and freeze assets of some Iranian companies, officials on both sides say. The resistance threatens to open a new rift between Europe and the United States over Iran. Administration officials say a new American drive to reduce exports to Iran and cut off its financial transactions is intended to further isolate Iran commercially amid the first signs that global pressure has hurt Iran’s oil production and its economy. There are also reports of rising political dissent in Iran. In December, Iran’s refusal to give up its nuclear program led the United Nations Security Council to impose economic sanctions. Iran’s rebuff is based on its contention that its nuclear program is civilian in nature, while the United States and other countries believe Iran plans to make weapons. At issue now is how the resolution is to be carried out, with Europeans resisting American appeals for quick action, citing technical and political problems related to the heavy European economic ties to Iran and its oil industry." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 30 January 2007
  "The FBI appears to have adopted an invasive Internet surveillance technique that collects far more data on innocent Americans than previously has been disclosed. Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agents conducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities of thousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, according to current and former officials. That database can subsequently be queried for names, e-mail addresses or keywords. Such a technique is broader and potentially more intrusive than the FBI's Carnivore surveillance system, later renamed DCS1000. It raises concerns similar to those stirred by widespread Internet monitoring that the National Security Agency is said to have done, according to documents that have surfaced in one federal lawsuit, and may stretch the bounds of what's legally permissible." Learn more at News.com.

• 29 January 2007
  "Criminals controlling millions of personal computers are threatening the internet's future, experts have warned. Up to a quarter of computers on the net may be used by cyber criminals in so-called botnets, said Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet. Technology writer John Markoff said: 'It's as bad as you can imagine, it puts the whole internet at risk.' The panel of leading experts was discussing the future of the internet at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Mr Cerf, who is one of the co-developers of the TCP/IP standard that underlies all internet traffic and now works for Google, likened the spread of botnets to a 'pandemic'. Of the 600 million computers currently on the internet, between 100 and 150 million were already part of these botnets, Mr Cerf said. Botnets are made up of large numbers of computers that malicious hackers have brought under their control after infecting them with so-called Trojan virus programs." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 26 January 2007
  "Iran is ready to enter space, according to a report in Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine. The report quotes Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, as saying that a space launcher has been assembled and 'will lift off soon', carrying an Iranian satellite. The launch vehicle is thought to be based on Iran’s Shahab-3 Missile, which has a range of 1300 to 1600 kilometres (800 to 1000 miles). The fear is that it might be intended to test technology for a long-range ballistic missile. 'This has been anticipated for some time – the Iranians have been saying they will launch satellites' says Doug Richardson, editor of Jane’s Missiles and Rockets. Their first aim might be reconnaissance. 'They are concerned about what capabilities Israel has, and the only way they can find out is by observing from space,'" Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 25 January 2007
  "Last January, a Russian man with sunken cheeks and a wispy mustache crossed into Georgia and traveled to Tbilisi by car along a high mountain road. In two plastic bags in his leather jacket, Georgian authorities say, he carried 100 grams of uranium so refined that it could help fuel an atom bomb. The Russian, Oleg Khinsagov, had come to meet a buyer who he believed would pay him $1 million and deliver the material to a Muslim man from 'a serious organization,' the authorities say. The uranium was a sample, just under four ounces, and the deal a test: If all went smoothly, he boasted, he would sell a far larger cache stored in his apartment back in Vladikavkaz, two to three kilograms of the rare material, four and a half to six and a half pounds, which in expert hands is enough to make a small bomb." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 24 January 2007
  "If you feel something crawling on your neck, it might be a wasp or a bee. Or it might be something much more dangerous. Israel is developing a robot the size of a hornet to attack terrorists. And although the prototype will not fly for three years, killer Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs, are much closer than that. British Special Forces already use 6-inch MAV aircraft called WASPs for reconnaissance in Afghanistan. The $3,000 WASP is operated with a Gameboy-style controller and is nearly silent, so it can get very close without being detected. A new development will reportedly see the WASP fitted with a C4 explosive warhead for kamikaze attacks on snipers. One newspaper dubbed it 'The Talibanator.' Fred Davis, technical director of the Assessment and Demonstrations Division of the Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, confirmed that the United States has ambitious plans for future micro-munitions, which he says will be pocket-sized with mission-specific payloads." Learn more in Wired News.

• 23 January 2007
  "Cyber criminals will increasingly turn their attention to the web and away from e-mail security in 2007, according to a new report. Security firm Sophos found that the US hosts more than a third of websites hosting malicious code, as well as sending more spam than other nations. Lax security on US-hosted websites is one of the key reasons the US remains a hotspot for cyber crime, said Sophos. The UK hosts 0.5% of so-called malware and sends out 1.9% of spam. The number of websites being infected with malware - malicious software - is on the rise with Sophos uncovering an average of 5,000 new URLs hosting malicious code each day. 'The internet now represents the easiest way for cyber criminals to gain entry to corporate networks, as more users are accessing unregulated sites, downloading applications and streaming audio/video,' said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant for Sophos.' Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 22 January 2007
  "The world has nudged closer to a nuclear apocalypse and environmental disaster, a trans-Atlantic group of prominent scientists warned Wednesday, pushing the hand of its symbolic Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight. It was the fourth time since the end of the Cold War that the clock has ticked forward, this time from 11:53 to 11:55, amid fears over what the scientists are describing as 'a second nuclear age' prompted largely by atomic standoffs with Iran and North Korea. But the organization added that the 'dangers posed by climate change are nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons.' The Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded in 1945 as a newsletter distributed among nuclear physicists concerned by the possibility of nuclear war, has since grown into an organization focused more generally on manmade threats to the survival of human civilization." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 19 January 2007
  "China last week successfully used a missile to destroy an orbiting satellite, U.S. government officials told CNN on Thursday, in a test that could undermine relations with the West and pose a threat to satellites important to the U.S. military. According to a spokesman for the National Security Council, the ground-based, medium-range ballistic missile knocked an old Chinese weather satellite from its orbit about 537 miles above Earth. The missile carried a 'kill vehicle' and destroyed the satellite by ramming it. Aviation Week and Space Technology first reported the test: 'Details emerging from space sources indicate that the Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999 was attacked by an asat (anti-satellite) system launched from or near the Xichang Space Center.' A U.S. official, who would not agree to be identified, said the event was the first successful test of the missile after three failures." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 18 January 2007
  "The Bush administration will substantially alter its controversial domestic surveillance program by seeking approval for wiretaps from a secret court, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Wednesday. The surprise announcement by Gonzales said President Bush has agreed that 'any electronic surveillance that was occurring' under the program will be conducted subject to the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in Washington, D.C. The program is conducted by the National Security Agency. In a two-page letter to the U.S. Senate's Judiciary committee, Gonzales did not specify what prompted the abrupt policy change. Gonzales did say that it took 'considerable time and work' for the Justice Department to devise a method that suited both prosecutors and the judges on the court." Learn more at News.com.

• 17 January 2007
  "An MD-10 cargo jet equipped with Northrop Grumman's Guardian anti-missile system took off from Los Angeles International Airport on a commercial flight Tuesday, the company said. The FedEx flight marked the start of operational testing and evaluation of the laser system designed to defend against shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles during takeoffs and landings. Adapted from military technology, Guardian is designed to detect a missile launch and then direct a laser to the seeker system on the head of the missile and disrupt its guidance signals. The laser is not visible and is eye-safe, the company said. 'For the first time, we will be able to collect valuable logistics data while operating Guardian on aircraft in routine commercial service,' said Robert L. DelBoca, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman's Defensive Systems Division." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 16 January 2007
  "An electronic security system that identifies people by monitoring the unique pattern of electrical activity within their brain is being tested by European scientists. This novel biometric system should be difficult to forge, making it suitable for high-security applications, claim the researchers behind it. The system was developed by Dimitrios Tzovaras and colleagues at the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, in Greece. It uses an established method for measuring activity in the brain, called electroencephalography (EEG). EEG measurements identify the location and intensity of millisecond-long fluctuations in electrical activity in the brain via electrodes positioned around a person's scalp. This can help neuroscientists understand the function of different brain areas and may also be used to diagnose and monitor neurological conditions such as epilepsy and dementia." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 12 January 2007
  "Money talks, but can it also follow your movements?
  In a U.S. government warning high on the creepiness scale, the Defense Department cautioned its American contractors over what it described as a new espionage threat: Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside. The government said the mysterious coins were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada. Intelligence and technology experts said such transmitters, if they exist, could be used to surreptitiously track the movements of people carrying the spy coins. The U.S. report does not suggest who might be tracking American defense contractors or why. It also does not describe how the Pentagon discovered the ruse, how the transmitters might function or even which Canadian currency contained them." Learn more at CBS News.com.

• 11 January 2007
  "Companies spend millions on systems to keep corporate e-mail safe. If only their employees were as paranoid. A growing number of Internet-literate workers are forwarding their office e-mail to free Web-accessible personal accounts offered by Google, Yahoo and other companies. Their employers, who envision corporate secrets leaking through the back door of otherwise well-protected computer networks, are not pleased. 'It’s a hole you can drive an 18-wheeler through,' said Paul D. Myer, president of the security firm 8E6 Technologies in Orange, Calif. It is a battle of best intentions: productivity and convenience pitted against security and more than a little anxiety. Corporate techies — who, after all, are paid to worry — want strict control over internal company communications and fear that forwarding e-mail might expose proprietary secrets to prying eyes." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 10 January 2007
  "Security experts at RSA have come across a new tool that automatically creates sophisticated phishing sites, a sign that cybercrooks are getting increasingly professional. The tool, dubbed a 'Universal Man-in-the-Middle Phishing Kit' by RSA, is available on underground online marketplaces for about $1,000, Jens Hinrichsen, RSA's product marketing manager for fraud auction, said in an interview Wednesday. 'Unlike other phishing kits which have been in existence for quite some time, this kit is unique because with a very simple user interface you can choose whatever site you'd like to spoof,' Hinrichsen said. 'The arms race continues; we on the security side have to continue to escalate resources and invest in technology.'" Learn more at News.com.

• 9 January 2007
  "Britain's domestic spy agency MI5 launched a new e-mail alert service Tuesday to warn the public about changes in the security threat level. Internet users will be able to register on the MI5 Web site to receive automatic electronic updates in their e-mail in-boxes. The e-mail alerts are the latest in a series of moves by MI5 and its partner, the international spy agency MI6, to open up to the public after decades of guarding extreme secrecy. 'It's part of the service's ongoing effort to improve its public communications and contribute to the government's policy of keeping the public informed about the national threat level,' a spokeswoman for the home office said. In recent years both MI5 and MI6 have begun to emerge from the shadows, launching Web sites offering security advice and information about careers in the spy services, and even running recruitment advertisements in newspapers." Learn more at News.com.

• 5 January 2007
  "In their persistent quest to breach the Internet’s defenses, the bad guys are honing their weapons and increasing their firepower. With growing sophistication, they are taking advantage of programs that secretly install themselves on thousands or even millions of personal computers, band these computers together into an unwitting army of zombies, and use the collective power of the dragooned network to commit Internet crimes. These systems, called botnets, are being blamed for the huge spike in spam that bedeviled the Internet in recent months, as well as fraud and data theft. Security researchers have been concerned about botnets for some time because they automate and amplify the effects of viruses and other malicious programs." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 4 January 2007
  "Foreign countries, especially nations in the Asia-Pacific region, have intensified their efforts to steal sensitive U.S. defense technology, according to a Pentagon report. The Defense Security Service Counterintelligence Office recorded an annual jump of nearly 43 percent in the number of suspicious foreign contacts reported to U.S. authorities by defense contractors and other defense-related sources. The agency, which helps protect the U.S. defense industry from foreign espionage, said in an unclassified report circulated on Wednesday that spies used phony business offers and computer hackers to target advanced U.S. technology including lasers, sensors, missiles and other systems. In one case, a female spy seduced an American translator to learn his computer password. His unclassified network was later found to be infected by viruses planted by a foreign intelligence service." Learn more at News.com.

• 3 January 2007
  "A vibrating vest that writes messages on its wearer's back is being tested by researchers in the US. In future, it could be used to send important commands to soldiers or fire-fighters, warning them of imminent danger when ordinary radios cannot be used, for example. The vest is made from black spandex and fastens around a person's lower torso with Velcro. An array of 16 small vibrating motors is embedded in the back of the vest and connects to a control unit on one side. This unit contains a wireless transceiver linked wirelessly to a controlling computer. Commands sent from the computer are translated into patterns "displayed" – like Braille-on-the-back – by the vibrating motors. The wearer's back was chosen to receive messages because it is a relatively large area that is also less likely to sustain damage." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 2 January 2007
  "Located on the less fashionable north end of the Las Vegas strip, the Riviera Hotel and Casino has seen better days. Even the girls in posters for the hotel's topless revue could use a makeover. But hey, it's cheap. Which is why 6,000 hackers have descended upon it for DefCon, billed as the 'largest underground hacking event in the world.' So while the hotel is no doubt happy for the business, it's also – in classic Vegas fashion – hedging its bet. Employees received a memo warning them to be on the lookout for people skimming guests' card numbers. Credit card processing has been suspended in the food court. The Riviera doesn't need the grief...At the front of the room, a middle-aged man in khaki shorts sits with a small group having a beer. He's graying, a little thick around the middle. Across the back of his polo shirt are the words dod cyber crime response team – as in US Department of Defense." Learn more in Wired News.

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