Security

Crank this vending machine 70 times in emergency

Japan marked the first anniversary of the March 11, 2011, earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters this week, and over the past year Japanese companies have been working on technology for use in similar emergencies.

One thing that struck me when I was in Tokyo after the quake was the darkened streets and vending machines, which had been dimmed amid electricity shortages. Up north in the tsunami-hit areas of Tohoku, I saw many vending machines that weren't working because entire neighborhoods had no power.

Vending machine maker Sanden, which has some 30 percent of the global market, has been showing off a hand-cranked vending machine for emergencies when the power's out and solar generation isn't available or feasible. … Read more

Lost your phone? There's a 50/50 chance of getting it back

Do you know where your Samsung Galaxy S II is? When did you last see your iPhone 4S? If you've lost your smartphone, you'd better resign yourself to never seeing it again, as new research reveals that barely half of smartphones get returned.

For its Smartphone Honey Stick Project, security firm Symantec decided to see what happens to lost phones When you misplace your phone, will you ever see it again? And how safe is your data when it's in the hands of a stranger?

Symantec, the folks behind Norton Antivirus, deliberately lost 50 smartphones in lifts, shopping centers, and public transport stops in New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Ottawa. The phones were then tracked to see whether the person finding them tried to have a snoop around.

Read more of "Lost your phone? There's a 50/50 chance of getting it back" at Crave UK.… Read more

Google hires DARPA Director Regina Dugan

One of the Pentagon's most tech-forward leaders is heading to a new job at Google. Regina Dugan has been the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which works on military technology for the U.S. Department of Defense, for the past three years.

"Regina is a technical pioneer who brought the future of technology to the military during her time at DARPA," a spokesperson for Google told CNET. "She will be a real asset to Google, and we are thrilled she is joining the team."

Although Google confirmed Dugan's hire, it … Read more

Five ways to protect yourself from Wi-Fi honeypots

AUSTIN, Texas--Darren Kitchen spent this weekend walking around the SXSW festival with an unobtrusive but relatively evil red box attached to his backpack: it impersonated Wi-Fi networks in hopes of convincing laptops, phones, and other wireless devices to connect to it.

Kitchen's hot-spot honeypot worked. During just a few minutes in the lobby of the Omni Hotel here, he disrupted dozens of Wi-Fi connections and rerouted them to his own "network" that replaced all Internet pages with a video of the Nyan Cat kitten flying through space. Someone with malicious intent could have done far worse.

Kitchen, … Read more

MK2 arms perfect for gun-toting military robots

It has rolling treads, three fingers, and opposable thumbs. The MK2 robot arm and torso system looks like a cybernetic cowboy in the making.

Ohio-based HDT Global says its MK2 system can be deployed on any robotic mobile platform, such as Qinetiq's Talon bomb-disposal robot, pictured above.

With two fingers and a thumb, its dextrous hands (as seen in this vid) can use a variety of tools. Or users can swap them out for end effectors such as scoops for digging.

The remote-operated system can be configured to have up to 27 degrees of freedom, or axes of movement, with two arms. It could be used to lift a 110-pound 155-mm projectile, extract a detonator, or unzip a suspicious backpack that someone has left behind. … Read more

Are TSA's body scanners easy to fool?

The Transport Security Administration's body scanners have enjoyed a level of controversy similar to that of Rush Limbaugh.

Though they've never called women names, the machines have led females to strip to their bra and panties in protest.

Now, Jonathan Corbett--who was the first to sue the TSA over its invasive machines--claims that the body scanners can be easily duped.

His explanation seems quite simple: if you strap your evil-doing object to your side, rather than to your front or back, the scanners provide no visual contrast with the background and therefore won't spot the object.

On his blog, … Read more

Does your future boss have a right to see your Facebook page?

Normally an employer who logs into your Facebook or Google+ account to peruse your private messages, photos, and wall posts would be violating federal computer hacking laws.

Unless, of course, you give them permission.

That's the legal loophole that at least some employers are using to learn more about their prospective hires. In theory, it's voluntary, but in reality, if you don't log into your account and let an interviewer poke around, you may not get the job.

Job seekers applying to Maryland's Division of Corrections have been asked during interviews to "log into their … Read more

Friday Poll: Will the Privacy Bill of Rights matter?

I have this strange feeling that I'm being watched. Gmail is hinting in an ad that I should consider self-publishing that novel I'm working on. Thesaurus.com seems to know exactly which jackets I looked at recently on Backcountry.com.

The Obama administration's recently unveiled Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights is supposed to tip the balance of power back to Web users. It gives them the right to control what data is collected, how it is used and shared, and to have that data secured. Enforcement information, however, is still sketchy.

The document is expected to be used as the basis for new privacy legislation.

Online privacy is a sizzling topic in light of Facebook privacy missteps, Google's consolidation of privacy policies, and sneaky data collection by mobile apps. … Read more

Stanford University researchers break NuCaptcha video security

When it launched in 2010, NuCaptcha touted its proprietary technology as being able to "provide the highest level of security available" by using video streams to display those distorted letters you type in to prove you're really a human.

Now, however, the company's claims of providing "the next generation of Captcha security" look a tad optimistic.

A team of Stanford University researchers said today that they discovered a way to break the security of a recent version of NuCaptcha's video Captcha by borrowing concepts from the field of machine vision, which developed techniques … Read more