department – Tech Today w/ Ken May

NASA tests small nuclear reactor that could power a habitat on Mars

Everyone from Elon Musk to Donald Trump wants to send a manned mission to Mars in the not too distant future, but there are quite a few problems that need to be solved before we can achieve that goal. A major one is the issue of energy. Long-term stays on Mars, or anywhere else for that matter, will require lots of energy, as will the trip back to Earth. However, loading a rocket up with all of the necessary fuel won’t work — we would need too much. So a way to create fuel on the go is a must and researchers at NASA, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Department of Energy announced today that they’ve conducted successful tests of a system that can do just that. Kilopower is a small nuclear reactor that can generate a reliable power supply. Versions range from 1 kilowatt — enough to power a basic toaster — to ten kilowatts and Kilopower project researchers said in a Space.com article that around four or five of the latter would be needed to power a habitat on Mars . “Kilopower’s compact size and robustness allows us to deliver multiple units on a single lander to the surface that provides tens of kilowatts of power, ” Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said during a press conference today. Testing of the Kilopower system has gone smoothly so far and in March, the team plans to conduct a full-power test. To hear more about how Kilopower works, check out the video below. Via: Reuters

FBI tried and failed to unlock 7,000 encrypted devices

In an 11-month period, the FBI failed to gain access to around 7, 000 encrypted mobile devices, BBC News reports , which is about half of those targeted by the agency according to FBI Director Christopher Wray. In a speech given at the Association of Chiefs of Police conference yesterday, he said that device encryption was “a huge, huge problem, ” for the agency. The FBI publicly went after Apple following the 2015 San Bernardino terror attack as it sought access to the shooter’s locked iPhone 5c — a request that Apple staunchly refused . It eventually got around the issue by paying an undisclosed vendor reportedly $900, 000 for software that gave the agency access to the phone. While that incident garnered a lot of attention, it certainly wasn’t the first time the FBI made it clear that encrypted smartphones were a headache for the agency. In 2014, then Director James Comey said that secure communications could lead to “a very dark place” and called on Congress to change the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act accordingly. Further, while the FBI presented the San Bernardino attacker’s phone as a special case of national security, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice was pursuing nine similar requests around the same time. Wray said at the conference, “I get it, there’s a balance that needs to be struck between encryption and the importance of giving us the tools we need to keep the public safe.” But as cybersecurity expert Alan Woodward told BBC News , encryption is here to stay. “Encryption that frustrates forensic investigations will be a fact of life from now on for law enforcement agencies, ” he said. “Even if the equipment manufacturers didn’t build in such encryption it would be possible to obtain software that encrypted data in the same way.” Source: BBC News

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FBI tried and failed to unlock 7,000 encrypted devices

In 3-1 vote, LA Police Commission approves drones for LAPD

Enlarge (credit: Peter Linehan / Flickr ) The Los Angeles Police Department, one of the nation’s largest municipal police forces, approved a one-year pilot program for drones—making it the largest city in the nation to undertake such an evaluation. According to the Los Angeles Times , the LA Police Commission approved a set of policies that limits “their use to a handful of tactical situations, searches or natural disasters.” Each drone flight must also be signed off by a “high-ranking office on a case-by-case basis.” The drones are also not to be weaponized. The decision, which was announced Tuesday, was made despite vociferous protest. Already the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department uses drones, as do other agencies in California , including the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Organization. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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In 3-1 vote, LA Police Commission approves drones for LAPD

Former Epix exec pleads guilty over $7 million fraud

In 2009, Viacom, Lionsgate and MGM joined forces to launch a premium movie channel called Epix, with Emil Rensing as its Chief Digital Officer. Turns out hiring Rensing was a bad move: according to the Justice Department , he has just pleaded guilty to defrauding the network $7 million over his five-year employment with the company. The former exec apparently used his position to forge contracts between the network and vendor companies he himself owned and controlled. He then used the names of business associates and acquaintances as vendor personnel, setting up fake email accounts for each one of them to make them look legit. Rensing would apparently use those dummy accounts to pose as the people whose identities he stole in order to communicate with the network about payment. The vendors never performed the services they promised, though, and the real people behind the names had no idea what the exec was doing. Acting US Attorney Joon H. Kim said in a statement: “Emil Rensing, an executive at a premium cable network, defrauded his employer out of more than $7 million by causing the network to pay companies Rensing controlled for services that were never rendered. To conceal his role in the payments, Rensing used false and stolen identities and dummy email accounts. I want to thank the FBI for their work to hold Rensing accountable for his crimes.” A few months ago, Rensing pleaded not guilty to embezzling $8.5 million — people familiar with the matter said part of that amount is likely made up of legitimate expenses. He has changed his plea now that the amount is down to $7 million, admitting guilt to one count of wire fraud, which could lead to a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and three years of supervised release. It was probably the best course of action for him, since his deal with prosecutors didn’t require him to plead guilty to aggravated identity theft, as well. According to Variety , Rensing is far from the only entertainment executive who got tempted by all the millions thrown around in the industry. The publication says the industry is “ripe for thievery” since media companies have grown so big in recent years, overwhelming their financial departments. As a result, questionable transactions take years to discover, if they’re even discovered at all. Source: Reuters , US Department of Justice

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Former Epix exec pleads guilty over $7 million fraud

Facebook will hire 3,000 moderators to tackle livestreamed violence

Following a spate of suicides and murders that were streamed or hosted on Facebook for hours before they were taken down, Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the company will be hiring an additional 3, 000 people to its global community operations team over the next year. That will bring the total size of the department to 7, 500, and the manpower will be dedicated to reviewing “the millions of reports we get every week, and improv(ing) the process for doing it quickly.” Zuckerberg wrote that these reviewers will “help us get better at removing things we don’t allow on Facebook like hate speech and child exploitation, ” and that the social network will continue working with law enforcement and local community groups who “are in the best position to help someone if they need it.” In addition, Facebook will make it simpler for members to report problems and speed up the process for its reviewers to determine which posts violate community standards. The company previously opened up access to its suicide-prevention tools to all its users, and developed an AI system to identify potentially suicidal people. One of the biggest criticisms against Facebook in the recent incidents is its delay in addressing the problematic content on its video platform. Zuckerberg appears to acknowledge that issue in this post, saying “If we’re going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly. We’re working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner — whether that’s responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down.” Hiring more people over a year is a prolonged step towards alleviating the problem, but it will hopefully make for speedier response to such situations in future. Source: Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook post)

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Facebook will hire 3,000 moderators to tackle livestreamed violence

Virally growing attacks on unpatched WordPress sites affects ~2m pages

Enlarge (credit: Wordfence ) Attacks on websites running an outdated version of WordPress are increasing at a viral rate. Almost 2 million pages have been defaced since a serious vulnerability in the content management system came to light nine days ago. The figure represents a 26 percent spike in the past 24 hours. A rogues’ gallery of sites have been hit by the defacements. They include conservative commentator Glenn Beck’s glennbeck.com, Linux distributor Suse’s news.opensuse.org, the US Department of Energy-supported jcesr.org, the Utah Office of Tourism’s travel.utah.gov, and many more. At least 19 separate campaigns are participating and, in many cases, competing against each other in the defacements. Virtually all of the vandalism is being carried out by exploiting a severe vulnerability WordPress fixed in WordPress version 4.7.2, which was released on January 26. In an attempt to curb attacks before automatic updates installed the patch, the severity of the bug—which resides in a programming interface known as REST—wasn’t disclosed until February 1. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Virally growing attacks on unpatched WordPress sites affects ~2m pages

Red-light camera firm pays Chicago $20 million to settle bribery case

Enlarge / A red light camera is located at La Brea Ave. and Santa Monica Blvd. in Los Angeles. (credit: Glenn Koenig / Getty Images News) Redflex, the embattled red-light camera vendor, has agreed to pay $20 million to the City of Chicago as part of its recent deal with federal prosecutors. The formal settlement comes less than two months after the Department of Justice and Redflex reached a ” non-prosecution agreement ,” one in which Redflex would not be prosecuted in exchange for paying restitution and damages. At the time, Redflex also agreed to pay $100,000 to the city of Columbus, Ohio to settle similar allegations. Starting in 2003, Redflex secured major contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the Windy City. In 2012, the Chicago Tribune revealed allegations that the city’s deals with the company were not entirely above board . The mayor later booted the company out of the city, giving Xerox a similar red-light camera contract. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

The US Army successfully flies its hoverbike prototype

The Army has proven that the hoverbike its contractors are developing actually works during a flight demo with the Department of Defense. Dr. William Roper, director of the Strategic Capabilities Office for the Secretary of Defense, watched the large rectangular prototype quadcopter take off at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland on January 10th. The hoverbike began as a Kickstarter project by creator Malloy Aeronautics. Once Malloy secured a contract with the military, it teamed up with defense company Survice Engineering Co. to continue the bike’s development. It has since become a joint project between the Army and the US Marine Corps. Officially known as Joint Tactical Aerial Resupply Vehicle, or JTARV, the hoverbike could someday be used to carry supplies to soldiers on the field. Tim Vong, associate chief of the Army Research Lab’s Protection Division, said it’s like having “Amazon on the battlefield, ” since it’ll allow the military to deliver resupplies in less than 30 minutes. It’ll take some time before the military deploys JTARV, though. To start with, its developers are looking to make a hybrid propulsion system to give it a longer range (up to 125 miles) than it has today as an electric-powered prototype. Further, they want to increase the payload it can carry to 800 pounds, as well as to load it with an advanced navigation system and mission planning. Vong says they’re looking to “end up with a modular, stable platform that can be used for even more dynamic and challenging missions.” Source: US Army

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The US Army successfully flies its hoverbike prototype

FBI finds 14,900 more files from Hillary Clinton’s email server

Just because the US Attorney General isn’t bringing charges over Hillary Clinton’s private email server doesn’t mean that it’s all over — far from it. FBI investigators have unearthed 14, 900 more files (email and documents) on the server, or almost 50 percent more than Clinton’s lawyers originally turned over to the State Department. Just what’s in those documents isn’t clear, although they come from a disc the FBI obtained that includes email and attachments sent directly to or from the former Secretary of State. Clinton’s attorneys had initially turned over ‘just’ 30, 000 messages that they considered work-related, although the FBI didn’t find signs that she or her staff had deleted anything in a bid to hide it. Whatever the contents, Clinton will face added pressure. A judge in a lawsuit over public records has tossed the State Department’s proposed plans to release documents starting October 14th, and is pushing for an earlier release. That won’t happen too much sooner if the judge is successful (the Department will only have to present a revised plan on September 22nd), but it’ll be enough to shake up the government’s disclosure strategy. Source: Washington Post

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FBI finds 14,900 more files from Hillary Clinton’s email server

New Homeland Security policy demands warrants before deploying StingRays

The Department of Homeland Security announced a substantial policy change Wednesday regarding how it employs cellphone-tracking tools like the StingRay system. These cell-site simulators have been in use for more than a decade. They allow law enforcement to find cell phones either by directly searching for a known device or find an unknown device by sniffing for signaling information from the simulator’s immediate vicinity and triangulating that data. The new policy explicitly demands that DHS personnelle acquire a warrant before deploying the devices unless an exception, such as the imminent loss of human life, destruction of evidence, or to prevent the escape of a fugitive felon. Wednesday’s announcement follows a similar decision by the Department of Justice last month. [Image Credit: Getty] Via: Verge Source: Department of Homeland Security

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New Homeland Security policy demands warrants before deploying StingRays