The Federal Aviation Administration this week said that a record number of drone sightings reported by airline pilots and others has increased dramatically this year -- from a total of 238 sightings in all of 2014, to more than 650 by August 9.The FAA said pilots of a variety of different types of aircraft – including many large, commercial air carriers – reported spotting 16 unmanned aircraft in June of 2014, and 36 the following month. This year, 138 pilots reported seeing drones at altitudes of up to 10,000 feet during the month of June, and another 137 in July.+More on Network World: Hot stuff: The coolest drones+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Federal Aviation Administration this week said that a record number of drone sightings reported by airline pilots and others has increased dramatically this year -- from a total of 238 sightings in all of 2014, to more than 650 by August 9.The FAA said pilots of a variety of different types of aircraft – including many large, commercial air carriers – reported spotting 16 unmanned aircraft in June of 2014, and 36 the following month. This year, 138 pilots reported seeing drones at altitudes of up to 10,000 feet during the month of June, and another 137 in July.+More on Network World: Hot stuff: The coolest drones+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The US Naval Research Lab is developing an unmanned aircraft that can fly, land in the water and swim like a fish.The Navy calls its flying/swimmer FLIMMER and says it is a combination airplane/submarine that at first flies to a location, then lands on the water and submerges. After that it can swim like a fish.
+More on Network World: Hot stuff: The coolest drones+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The US Naval Research Lab is developing an unmanned aircraft that can fly, land in the water and swim like a fish.The Navy calls its flying/swimmer FLIMMER and says it is a combination airplane/submarine that at first flies to a location, then lands on the water and submerges. After that it can swim like a fish.
+More on Network World: Hot stuff: The coolest drones+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The notion of vacuum electronics may sound ancient in high-tech terms but a new program from the scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency aims to transform the widely-used equipment into the next century.According to DARPA, vacuum electron devices (VEDs) are critical components for defense and civilian systems that require high power, wide bandwidth, and high efficiency, and there are over 200,000 VEDs currently in service.+More on Network World: DARPA wants to make complex 3D printing trustworthy, dependable, safe+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The notion of vacuum electronics may sound ancient in high-tech terms but a new program from the scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency aims to transform the widely-used equipment into the next century.According to DARPA, vacuum electron devices (VEDs) are critical components for defense and civilian systems that require high power, wide bandwidth, and high efficiency, and there are over 200,000 VEDs currently in service.+More on Network World: DARPA wants to make complex 3D printing trustworthy, dependable, safe+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The IRS this week said some 4,000 victims have lost over $20 million to scammers and the rip-offs continue at a startling pace.+More on Network World: FBI and IRS warn of pervasive, maddening business, consumer scams+ The IRS noted what it called a number of new variations on old schemes:
Scammers alter what appears on your telephone caller ID to make it seem like they are with the IRS or another agency such as the Department of Motor Vehicles. They use fake names, titles and badge numbers. They use online resources to get your name, address and other details about your life to make the call sound official. They even go as far as copying official IRS letterhead for use in email or regular mail.
Brazen scammers will even provide their victims with directions to the nearest bank or business where the victim can obtain a means of payment such as a debit card. And in another new variation of these scams, con artists may then provide an actual IRS address where the victim can mail a receipt for the payment – all in an attempt to make the scheme look official.
Scammers try to scare people Continue reading
It’s been 25 years since two thieves, dressed as Boston police officers made off with $500 million worth of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.The FBI this week released new video it says was captured by Museum security cameras 24 hours before the Gardner heist which the agency hopes might trigger some new leads in the very cold case.+More on Network World: The weirdest, wackiest and coolest sci/tech stories of 2015 (so far!)+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The FBI said there has been a significant uptick in the number of businesses being hit with extortion schemes where a company receive an e-mail threatening a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack to its Website unless it pays a ransom, usually in varying amounts of Bitcoin.The report comes from the FBI’s partner, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) which stated that victims that do not pay the ransom receive a subsequent threatening e-mail claiming that the ransom will significantly increase if the victim fails to pay within the time frame given. Some businesses reported implementing DDoS mitigation services as a precaution.“Businesses that experienced a DDoS attack reported the attacks consisted primarily of Simple Discovery Protocol (SSDP) and Network Time Protocol (NTP) reflection/amplification attacks, with an occasional SYN-flood and, more recently, Wordpress XML-RPC reflection/amplification attack. The attacks typically lasted one to two hours, with 30 to 35 gigabytes as the physical limit,” the IC3 stated in the warning.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Federal Aviation Administration today said it has issued 1,008 exemptions to businesses wanting to fly unmanned aircraft in the national airspace.The FAA said most of the exemptions allow aerial filming for uses such as motion picture production, precision agriculture and real estate photography. The agency also said it has issued grants for new and novel approaches to inspecting power distribution towers and wiring, railroad infrastructure and bridges.+More on Network World: The weirdest, wackiest and coolest sci/tech stories of 2015 (so far!)+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When the co-pilot of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceshipTwo prematurely unlocked the feathering -- or braking system on the spacecraft it set off a chain of events that lead to a chain of events that brought the ship down.+MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: The weirdest, wackiest and coolest sci/tech stories of 2015 (so far!)+That was but one of the findings released today by the National Transportation Safety Board which has ben investigating the Virgin Galactic crash 10 months ago that killed the copilot and badly injured the pilot.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Your wackiestIn 2015 the science world has been dominated by space event – NASA’s flyby of Pluto and subsequent deluge of information about that dwarf planet. Then we have another NASA probe – Kepler – pointing out one closest-to-Earth planet discoveries to date. There have been tons of other interesting stories though regarding 3D printed cars, drones, high-tech singers and more. Take a spin:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The United States is sorely unprepared for electromagnetic threats – which could originate in space from the Sun or a terrorist nuclear device exploded in the atmosphere -- to the nation’s electric grid.That was the main conclusion from a number of experts testifying before a Senate committee hearing entitled “Protecting the Electric Grid from the Potential Threats of Solar Storms and Electromagnetic Pulse” this week.+More on Network World: NASA’s cool, radical and visionary concepts+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Many people criticize the federal government for myriad problems, but there is at least one program in recent years that has been a success – the use of competitions or crowdsourcing to address sometimes complex problems. And because of those accomplishments you can expect many more such contests in the future.+More on Network World: DARPA’s $4M cyber-threat clash down to seven challengers+The White House Office of Science and Technology notes that in January 2015 the government will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the America Competes Act which in combination with Challenge.gov has prompted more than 400 public-sector prize competitions which have doled out some $72 million in prizes. Some agencies like NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as well as private entities like the X Prize Foundation have used competitions to address high-tech challenges for years with great success.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
What matters most in improving employee engagement levels--defined as the sense of purpose and commitment employees feel toward their employer and its mission— is valuing employees, that is, an authentic focus on their performance, career development, and inclusion and involvement in decisions affecting their work. The key is identifying what practices to implement and how to implement them.+GAO: Early look at fed’s “Einstein 3” security weapon finds challenges+Those thoughts were but a few found in a report on employee engagement from the watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office this week which took a look at how private- and public-sector organizations increased levels of engagement to see what can lead to better organizational performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The FBI in concert with Interpol and other worldwide law enforcement teams say they have taken down the international cybercriminal site marketplace Darkode and arrested 70 people involved with the site.
Darkode was an online, password-protected forum in which hackers and other cyber-criminals convened to buy, sell, trade and share malware, ransomware, information, ideas, and tools to facilitate unlawful intrusions on others’ computers and electronic devices, the FBI said.
+More on Network World: GAO: Early look at fed’s “Einstein 3” security weapon finds challenges+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It is one of the major issues of letting large unmanned aircraft share the sky with commercial airliners: preventing a disaster by keeping the two aircraft apart – or “well clear” in flight.Commercial airliners and many larger private planes have onboard technology (and air traffic controllers as well as live pilots) to detect and avoid other aircraft in the sky but unmanned systems do not. +More on Network World: NASA’s cool, radical and visionary concepts+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
CIA
Sometimes some of the coolest stories get lost in history. The CIA recently noted one of them – famous French food chef and author Julia Child’s critical involvement in developing a shark repellent recipe for military personnel and explosives during WWII.+More on Network World: The hot art in the CIA’s cool art collection+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When it comes to the government protecting all manner of state and personal information, the feds can use all the help it can get.
One of the most effective tools the government has is the National Cybersecurity Protection System (NCPS), known as “EINSTEIN.” In a nutshell EINSTEIN is a suite of technologies intended to detect and prevent malicious network traffic from entering and exiting federal civilian government networks.
+More on Network World: NASA’s cool, radical and visionary concepts+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When it began a year ago, there were 104 teams competing for $4 million in prize money in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s ambitious tournament -- known as the Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC) -- to see who can build the best fully automatic network defense system.+More on Network World: NASA’s cool, radical and visionary concepts+This week DARPA said that after a couple dry runs and a significant qualifying event the field of CGC teams is down to seven who will now compete in the final battle slated to take place at DEFCON in Las Vegas in August 2016.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Michael Cooney