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Archive for the 'Security' Category

Smart Cards: Dumb?

Posted by Sam Churchill on September 2nd, 2008

According to Engadget, Mythbusters was all set to do a show exposing the weak security behind most RFID implementations of Smart Cards, but was shut down by lawyers from “American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else… [who] absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode.”

Since Discovery [...]

NY Gives Tyco 45 days to Fix Network

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 29th, 2008

The New York State Office for Technology issued a letter of default to a unit of Tyco Electronics on Friday over a $2 billion contract to build an emergency communications network, giving the company’s M/A-COM Inc 45 days to fix “significant” problems, reports Reuters.

Tyco Electronics said it was disappointed in the move and has [...]

NY State’s Public Service Net: Failure?

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 22nd, 2008

New York State should ditch a $2 billion plan for a statewide wireless network for emergency workers, unless the already delayed system can be fixed, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said on Thursday.
“After three rounds of failed testing, it is apparent that this system is not ready to move forward. M/A-COM has not met its contractual [...]

Gmail Down

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 11th, 2008

Gmail, Google’s e-mail service, is offline for many users right now. Those wondering if they are alone in experiencing the outage can find comfort on Twitter, says C/Net, which is up and sizzling with Gmail down alerts. To track the spread of the outage (and to find out when it is corrected), take a [...]

DefCon 16

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 11th, 2008

Did he ever return,
No he never returned
And his fate is still unlearn’d
He may ride forever
‘neath the streets of Boston
He’s the man who never returned.
– Kingston Trio

Defcon 16, August 8-10, 2008 in Las Vegas, anticipates 5,000 to 7,000 attendees at the annual hacker fest. Lock hacks, contests, and intrigue at Defcon, says C/Net.
The highlight was the [...]

4.9 GHz Band Growing

Posted by Sam Churchill on July 31st, 2008

The 4.9 GHz Public Safety Radio band offers public safety agencies an opportunity to deploy advanced services unavailable in other bands, such as permanent “hot spot” devices in high-use areas or temporary incident command centers erected at an incident scene.

Research and Markets says there is sufficient mobile communication capacity for agencies charged with protecting [...]

Tracking Soldiers, Mapping Relief

Posted by Sam Churchill on July 18th, 2008

DARPA wants to electronically RFID tag US combat soldiers so they can then be swiftly found and rescued if they get into trouble.

The “Individual Force Protection System“, is being pursued by contractor Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).
According to this presentation (pdf), given last year by DARPA officials, IFPS would consist of a small, three-inch [...]

Fiber Held Hostage in SF

Posted by Sam Churchill on July 18th, 2008

San Francisco’s unfolding cliffhanger, with a city network administrator holding the city’s network hostage, sound’s like a “B” movie plot –- but it represents the real threat that IT departments face, says Network World.
Infoworld may have the inside scoop:

Rather than a case of a rogue administrator attempting to cause damage to the network [...]

Wildfire

Posted by Sam Churchill on July 14th, 2008

There’s a wildfire, Dr. Stone — Andromeda Strain
A remotely piloted aircraft carrying a NASA sensor flew over much of California earlier this week , gathering information that will be used to help fight more than 300 wildfires burning within the state.
NASA’s unmanned Ikhana aircraft, derived from a General Atomics Predator uses a sophisticated Autonomous [...]

Alaska Gets Terabit Fiber

Posted by Sam Churchill on July 13th, 2008

Alaska Communications Systems (ACS) has begun cable-laying operations to link Anchorage with Florence, Ore., providing an eight-fold boost to the bandwidth, according to the company. The project, dubbed AKORN, short for Alaska Oregon Network (10K), is meant to meet the demand for bandwidth by large-capacity users including government, the military, banks and corporations.

The system [...]