White House, NSF, NASA tout ambitious drone application plans

The National Science Foundation will devote $35 million in research funding over the next five years to accelerate the safe, intelligent, design and control of unmanned aircraft applications.+More on Network World: Hot stuff: The coolest drones+The announcement was part of a wide-ranging White House Office of Science and Technology Policy proclamation to, as it said, promote the safe integration and innovative adoption of unmanned aircraft systems across the United States.The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is today hosting a workshop on “Drones and the Future of Aviation.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Kill a smartphone password with a scan of your eye

Remembering passwords can be a headache; instead, why not log into your computer with a scan of your eye?The hardware and software to make iris scanning a key feature is now reaching smartphones and PCs. The process is simple: An infrared scanner on a device will scan your iris, and verify its authenticity against encrypted information stored on the device.It's a notable feature in Samsung's Galaxy Note7 smartphone, which was announced on Tuesday. The smartphone has an iris scanner -- used to log in -- on top of its screen.There's an uneasy feeling about the flash of light projected into your eye, but experts believe iris scanning is a more secure form of biometric authentication than fingerprints.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Kill a smartphone password with a scan of your eye

Remembering passwords can be a headache; instead, why not log into your computer with a scan of your eye?The hardware and software to make iris scanning a key feature is now reaching smartphones and PCs. The process is simple: An infrared scanner on a device will scan your iris, and verify its authenticity against encrypted information stored on the device.It's a notable feature in Samsung's Galaxy Note7 smartphone, which was announced on Tuesday. The smartphone has an iris scanner -- used to log in -- on top of its screen.There's an uneasy feeling about the flash of light projected into your eye, but experts believe iris scanning is a more secure form of biometric authentication than fingerprints.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel’s Kim Stevenson To Lead IoT Business

Intel is counting on its IoT Group to offset losses from the decline in PC sales.

IBM Assembles X-Force Red for Security Testing

Because Watson can't do it all.

Cowboys running back aaalmost adds to our iPhone injury list

Dallas Cowboys running back Darren McFadden nearly worked his way into our next big list of real life ways people have been hurt using their phones.McFadden broke his elbow over Memorial Day weekend and his coach initially told the media that it happened when the running back attempted to catch a falling iPhone. That fit right in with injuries we came across when digging through a recent batch of U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission data, collected from about 100 hospitals reporting emergency room visits into the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. We discovered lots of trips and falls, not to mention a few animal bites allegedly caused by ringing phones startling the pets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

This tiny device can infect point-of-sale systems and unlock hotel rooms

Millions of point-of-sale systems and hotel room locks can be hacked by temporarily placing a small, inexpensive device several inches away from their card readers.The device, due to be presented Sunday at the DEF CON conference in Las Vegas, is the creation of Weston Hecker, a senior security engineer at Rapid7. It was inspired by MagSpoof, another device created last year by security researcher Samy Kamkar.MagSpoof can trick most standard card readers to believe a certain card was swiped by generating a strong electromagnetic field that simulates the data stored on the card's magnetic stripe. Kamkar presented it as a way to replace all your cards with a single device, but Hecker took the idea and investigated what else could be done with it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

This tiny device can infect point-of-sale systems and unlock hotel rooms

Millions of point-of-sale systems and hotel room locks can be hacked by temporarily placing a small, inexpensive device several inches away from their card readers.The device, due to be presented Sunday at the DEF CON conference in Las Vegas, is the creation of Weston Hecker, a senior security engineer at Rapid7. It was inspired by MagSpoof, another device created last year by security researcher Samy Kamkar.MagSpoof can trick most standard card readers to believe a certain card was swiped by generating a strong electromagnetic field that simulates the data stored on the card's magnetic stripe. Kamkar presented it as a way to replace all your cards with a single device, but Hecker took the idea and investigated what else could be done with it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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Russia hacks, plunders the U.S. No bullets fired

It seems so simple, and I hope it’s not: Russia has invaded the U.S. and assaulted the U.S. presidential election, and they haven’t fired a single shot.It would seem all roads lead to the Russian government having their fingers in the U.S. Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Committee. And WikiLeaks now becomes the New New Gun poised at the collective heads of U.S. politicians—by their revelations and their intent.+ Also on Network World: U.S. cyber incident directive follows DNC hack +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Russia hacks, plunders the U.S. No bullets fired

It seems so simple, and I hope it’s not: Russia has invaded the U.S. and assaulted the U.S. presidential election, and they haven’t fired a single shot.It would seem all roads lead to the Russian government having their fingers in the U.S. Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Committee. And WikiLeaks now becomes the New New Gun poised at the collective heads of U.S. politicians—by their revelations and their intent.+ Also on Network World: U.S. cyber incident directive follows DNC hack +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: A Game of Pwns

Despite their perpetual status as old news, passwords and their security weaknesses continue to make headlines and disrupt security in ever-expanding ways, and the usual advice about better protection continues to go unheeded or, more worryingly, fails to address the threats any longer. As attacks continue to improve, they show that a cracked password for a given user account often has significant value beyond just the compromised environment. —Cloud Security Alliance

The post Worth Reading: A Game of Pwns appeared first on 'net work.

7 things you need to know about Samsung’s Galaxy Note7

There's a lot to like in Samsung's new Galaxy Note7, which will ship on Aug. 19.  The sharp screen is accentuated by a slight curve on the edges that makes the device easy to handle. It has a snappy, 64-bit processor, and it can rock games and virtual reality with the companion Gear VR headset. Samsung's attention to smaller details makes it a fine device. Here are seven things you need to know about Note7: Many similarities with Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge The Galaxy Note7 is a large-screen version of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, with a 5.7-inch 2560 x 1440-pixel display. The USB-C port is an improvement over S7's micro-USB 2.0 ports. Common features include a 12-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front camera, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth and wireless charging. The Note7 is pre-loaded with Android 6.0.1, weighs 169 grams and is 7.9 millimeters thick. It has 64GB of internal storage and an SD card slot.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Email at home hurts employees, study finds

Being always-on, along with pressure to answer email out of work hours, is leading to dangerous levels of emotional exhaustion, a study has found. As a result, employees are experiencing burnout, absenteeism and low job productivity.The report suggests that managers are kidding themselves when they think workers checking email at home adds to productivity. The folks are, in fact, feeling like they never left the workspace and aren’t able to mentally detach from work, which is something experts say is necessary for family balance and emotional health.+ Also on Network World: How to avoid becoming overwhelmed with email +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft wins battle for Boeing in war with AWS

Boeing's decision to run its aviation analytics applications on the Azure cloud computing software is a big win for Microsoft, which is chasing Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the high-stakes race to sell computing, storage and other infrastructure software over the internet. The aerospace giant based its choice largely on Microsoft’s willingness to help it develop applications to serve its 300 airline customers, which are starved for ways to optimize fuel efficiency and better manage fleets."The combination of technical acumen and depth, as well as where they're investing and how they're addressing the business customer, really matched up with our objectives," says Andrew Gendreau, director of advanced information solutions at Boeing's digital aviation unit. He tells CIO.com that Microsoft also impressed with its commitment to advancing its Cortana analytics and internet of things suites as well as augmented reality, which could play a big factor modeling aviation modeling.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Juniper swallows silicon photonics player Aurrion

With an eye towards better handling bandwidth-ravenous video streaming and data center to data center traffic, Juniper today said it would buy fabless photonics manufacturer Aurrion for an undisclosed price.“We expect that Aurrion’s breakthrough technology will result in fundamental and permanent improvements in cost per bit-per-second, power per bit-per-second, bandwidth density, and flexibility of networking systems,” said Pradeep Sindhu, co-founder and CTO of Juniper Networks wrote in a blog announcing the acquisition.+More on Network World: The weirdest, wackiest and coolest sci/tech stories of 2016 (so far!)+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

They’re back! Car hackers take control of Jeep’s steering and braking

It’s a good thing cars can’t experience emotions or one specific 2014 Jeep Cherokee would be terrified every time security pros Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek come near it. That’s the vehicle they remotely hacked in 2015; now they used the Jeep to show how an attacker can control the steering, accelerator and brakes while the Jeep is driving at high speeds.Granted, this time they were in the vehicle with a laptop physically connected to the CAN network via the diagnostic port. They reverse-engineered the electronic control unit (ECU) firmware, basically knocking it offline, so they could send fake CAN messages to tell the car what to do, such as slam on the brakes, jerk the steering wheel or hit the gas.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

They’re back! Car hackers take control of Jeep’s steering and braking

It’s a good thing cars can’t experience emotions or one specific 2014 Jeep Cherokee would be terrified every time security pros Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek come near it. That’s the vehicle they remotely hacked in 2015; now they used the Jeep to show how an attacker can control the steering, accelerator and brakes while the Jeep is driving at high speeds.Granted, this time they were in the vehicle with a laptop physically connected to the CAN network via the diagnostic port. They reverse-engineered the electronic control unit (ECU) firmware, basically knocking it offline, so they could send fake CAN messages to tell the car what to do, such as slam on the brakes, jerk the steering wheel or hit the gas.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Juniper swallows silicon photonics player Aurrion

With an eye towards better handling bandwidth-ravenous video streaming and data center to data center traffic, Juniper today said it would buy fabless photonics manufacturer Aurrion for an undisclosed price.“We expect that Aurrion’s breakthrough technology will result in fundamental and permanent improvements in cost per bit-per-second, power per bit-per-second, bandwidth density, and flexibility of networking systems,” said Pradeep Sindhu, co-founder and CTO of Juniper Networks wrote in a blog announcing the acquisition.+More on Network World: The weirdest, wackiest and coolest sci/tech stories of 2016 (so far!)+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Juniper swallows silicon photonics player Aurrion

With an eye towards better handling bandwidth-ravenous video streaming and data center to data center traffic, Juniper today said it would buy fabless photonics manufacturer Aurrion for an undisclosed price.“We expect that Aurrion’s breakthrough technology will result in fundamental and permanent improvements in cost per bit-per-second, power per bit-per-second, bandwidth density, and flexibility of networking systems,” said Pradeep Sindhu, co-founder and CTO of Juniper Networks wrote in a blog announcing the acquisition.+More on Network World: The weirdest, wackiest and coolest sci/tech stories of 2016 (so far!)+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here