If this is, in fact, Colton Harris-Moore traveling east across the United States he’ll be captured soon enough.

One of them there Living Ghosts, or something ...

Naxal watch

Maoist rebels killed at least 27 paramilitary troops in an ambush in eastern India on Tuesday, the latest in a series of bold attacks by the guerrillas, a senior police official said.

It's almost like the CRPF insists on underestimating the Naxals ...

Looking for self-defense tips to help keep you or your loved ones safer? Here are 10 self defense tips to help you become more adept at self-defense.

A good list ...

The FBI was reportedly unable to get past the advanced encryption system, and returned the hard drives to the Brazilian police.

That’s when the trespasser walked across the street and shot the security guard. Boyd says when she walked outside the guard was laying face down.

Remember: Today's the day, EVERYDAY ...

To me, a “human security perspective” is a set of propositions and analytical assumptions about the relationship between the security sector and the protection of fundamental human rights.

I respond in the comments at the linked story ...

Intelligence on Obama's foreign policy, particularly toward Russia, appears to have been their top priority, according to prosecutors, who charged each of the 10 arrested in the U.S. with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. attorney general. None was charged with espionage.

In the old days, they would just arrest an equal number of our spies and then trade ...

A pedal-powered sub ...

Surveillance camera images of the robbery suspect show a dapper older gentleman wearing a white newsboy cap, sunglasses and a crisp, white button-down shirt.

I wonder why they don't show the video instead of vidcaps. It's hard to imagine him exposing his face that way and not getting fingered ... unless it's a mask, in which case, showing how he walks may help someone identify him.

Surveillance video of the incident shows one of the attackers sucker punch Dolicine, knocking him unconscious. Rather than let him be, the men take turns punching him and throwing heavy objects at his head, including a barricade and a heavy metal rope stand.

The depravity of the assailants is incredible ... what do you tell your buddies ... "Ooh, did you see how after he was completely unconscious and defenseless I was able to work up the courage to sneak back in and hit him in the face with that stanchion" ... "I'm a veritable 8-year-old-girl of manliness, now" ... "I wish I'd have thought to sissy-kick his shins" ...

The Netherlands will commit a submarine to the battle against piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean near Somalia, Dutch Defense Minister Eimert Van Middelkoop told reporters Monday.

This is a really good idea. It's hard to be invisible to an enemy that can operate in what amounts to a parallel universe where they can approach to within killing distance of you without you even knowing that they're there ...

Something to keep in mind

It's worth remembering that there are folks that do nothing but go around looking for other people's errors that they can exploit for profit, and then exploiting those errors.

The best way to avoid making exploitable errors is to be mindful of what you're doing and to think things through.

Don't ask yourself how likely a bad outcome is  to occur without also asking yourself how high the price will be IF that bad outcome occurs.

And don't ask yourself what's awaiting you on the other side without also asking yourself what you deserve to have awaiting you on the other side ...

The lawyer representing Liu's family argued that as a healthy grown-up, Xiao should have foreseen that the result of self-defense would be killing someone. But in press interviews, most spectators said they believed what Xiao did was justifiable and asked the judges for leniency.

Sounds like they do things a little differently there ...

Asher is the first to tell you that his industry is a tricky one for both providers and customers. “People claim full security on their products but inevitably, there are back doors either known or unknown.” Often, security can seem like an unwinnable arms race – the minute a system is installed or upgraded new threats are already in the wild.

All security measures follow this pattern ...

Here's a cool pic ...

When he learned that an Enterprise rental car was stolen from the small airport, he thought about Colton Harris-Moore, the notorious teenage fugitive from Camano Island.

Interesting story ... guy seems to have his invisibility in order, anyway ...

This article is designed to help you understand how to improve the security of your home. All of the suggestions are relatively simple and do not cost a great deal to implement. While there are no foolproof methods for preventing burglaries, the tips in this booklet can make your home more crime resistant.

This is a fairly comprehensive list ...

The HTTPS Everywhere Firefox extension was inspired by Google's encrypted Web search option, the EFF said in announcing the tool on Thursday.

No way out ...

You asked for it, so you got it. Readers in the comments section of the story “Surveillance Video Released in Alleged Officer Beating” have called shenanigans against 8 News NOW for not releasing the entire video. So here it is.

Security interaction with subject in the bar ...

I'm going to limit my comments to the first of the three videos. It's always risky to assume too much from any particular segment of surveillance video, but I think a few comments are in order.

It looks like the subject has been playing some video poker and having a few beers. It then looks like he had a flash of anger at having lost the last of his credits. In anger, he slams his beer bottle down on the counter and then probably demands another from the bartender. The bartender realizes that the subject has had enough (and probably had enough prior to drinking the beer that occupied the bottle he just slammed on the bar). The bartender then likely told the subject that he would be happy to serve him a cup of coffee, which didn't fly with the subject so the bartender called for Security. In that the subject didn't put the bottle through the CRT, Security should, at this point, just be wanting the subject to 'call it a night' and go home or to some other property (or anywhere he will no longer be a problem for them).

1) The officers keep a good distance from the subject until there are enough of them to ensure the outcome (They keep their invisibility fairly high relative to the subject until they've marshaled their invincibility).

2) The first officer contacts the bartender and makes sure he knows what's going on before they approach the suspect (This is also an invisibility move but this time it's making sure that they're acting in a manner that will keep them invisible relative to the casino big-shots, the prosecutor and/or the contingency attorneys).

3) The officers then approach the subject and tell him to set down the bottle and call it a night. This is where it appears that they may have made an error. The officers need the subject to leave , but they leave no adequate opening for the subject to leave through (if they intended to detain the subject from the get-go, the officers would have been quite a bit more tensed up on the approach rather than being all relaxed and waiting to see how this one was going to go, and there wouldn't have  been any need for all the discussion).

Upon being ordered to leave the premises, there is no direction that the subject can go in that won't result in him going TOWARD a Security Officer. Under the circumstances, the subject is going to feel that doing such would most certainly be perceived by the Security Officers as provocative.

This is not some obscure technical consideration.

The subject is now drunk and no doubt frightened because of all the uniformed attention he's suddenly getting. The fear will have dumped adrenaline into his system and this flood of adrenaline will have narrowed his perception of available options to three: fight, flight or freeze.

The Security Officers have sufficient numbers to ensure victory, so fighting isn't a valid option, and they've formed a half circle around him with the bar blocking the other 180deg so there is no way for him leave without it looking like he's starting to fight, so flight isn't a valid option. All that's left is freezing, or standing still, and that's what he does. Security apparently takes that as recalcitrant non-compliance rather than fearfulness and proceed to detain him (never assume that smack-talking precludes fearfulness, it doesn't).

Had they formed a quarter circle around him with an obvious opening in the direction they wanted him to go, it's possible that the detainment and everything that took place afterward could have been avoided.

The Security Officer's concern about the beer bottle they refer to in the subsequent video is most likely concern that the bottle will be thrown through a window or something rather than concern that it will be used on one of them.  I say this because when they approach him they're close enough to prevent him from breaking it and then cutting one of them, too close to avoid being hit if he uses it for a striking weapon and not close enough to prevent him from using it that way. The urge to throw it through something can normally be suppressed by having an 'interceptor' out in the general direction you want the subject to go in so he knows he won't get away if he does throw it, but not close enough for his movement in that direction to feel like it will be perceived as threatening.

Caveat: Despite having participating in hundreds of this sort of Op, I could still be misreading this one. Don't take any of what I say here as criticism of the Security Officers or their performance. SecOps tend to have a life of their own and don't always go according to the nearly non-existent text-books. I offer these comments strictly to provoke thought about some less obvious aspects of our craft.

Smash and grab

In each case, the thieves would smash the front window and steal the cash register. Wichita police say none of the registers had a lot of cash in them.

With full-size fireproof safes available for $2-300, it's unlikely that the registers contained the previous days receipts. It's more likely the money in the registers was the next day's opening bank and was likely between $50 and $100. Each owner lost a window and a cash register because they didn't have a system for providing the opening employee with a fresh bank that didn't involve leaving it in the till. At closing, the register should be left with the drawer open and the empty tray standing up in view of the front windows; not to protect the opening bank that you would otherwise leave in the cash register, but to protect the much more expensive cash register and windows.

The woman said she “panicked” when she realized she had taken the man's wallet, so she gave it to a friend. She denied having plans to take the man's wallet, according to the report.

Amazing how she panicked and then her and her friends executed a near-textbook team pick-pocketing operation ...

Casino security told deputies a man drove the Jeep into the parking lot then left in another vehicle. Deputies found items in the Jeep that suggested the driver would likely return and set up the stakeout.

Hmmm ... sounds like someones spidey senses were tingling ...

But USB devices introduce several security risks that computer users did not have to cope with since the demise of the floppy disk. Programs like USB Dumper can for instance copy all contents of a connected USB-stick directly to the host computer’s storage devices without the USB-stick owner ever knowing that this happened.

Police are investigating several reports of slashed tires in downtown Jackson. They found a dozen cars with at least one punctured tire, and some with all four cut. Police have some leads, but no one is in custody.

Specifically engineered for the way troops fight today, BAE Systems' Ultra Lightweight Warrior (ULW) system of innovative body armor is designed to offer adaptable protection and dramatic weight savings for soldiers.

The Dallas-based company, Platinum Security and Consulting, has been warned that several guards shouldn't have been working because of their criminal histories.

You get what you pay for ... if you're lucky ...

"When the incident initially occurred with my son I contacted The Grove to make sure they had video surveillance in the valet area," the father told the gossip Web site. "They assured me they did. But detectives told me that when they contacted The Grove for the surveillance video it had "mysteriously disappeared".

Loss of U.S. leadership in supercomputing and simulation would have staggering consequences.

Space watch

The capsule could be seen moving slightly ahead of the spacecraft, and escaped the mother ship's fiery disintegration, which the scientists on board described as a "magnificent display".

Welcome back ...

Naxal watch

Though corporate India has successfully adopted a string of strategies to tackle issues related to land acquisition, the recent move by the government forcing mining companies to share profits of their operations with land losers may overhaul the current strategies of land acquisition and compensation.

In a major success for anti Naxal operations in Karnataka, police have arrested senior Maoist leader Nilaguli Padmanabh in Shimoga District. 

Data encryption laws, such as the ones in Nevada and Massachusetts, are designed to make it more difficult for the thugs roaming the wild, wild Web to steal your personally identifiable information (PII).

Here are 10 everyday items that are open to fresh attacks from criminals.

It pays to be a late adopter ...

The DataTraveler 5000 utilizes patented Secured by SPYRUS™ technology which supports hardware-based 256-bit XTS-AES data encryption and Suite B elliptic curve cryptography.

With that, Electric Boat and its sub-building partner, Northrop Grumman Newport News celebrated the “keel-laying” of the Mississippi, the first milestone in the life of the ninth fast-attack nuclear submarine of the Virginia class.

Under the cover of darkness, two people dressed as ninjas broke into Ferris High School Saturday night and stole a bounty of electronic items, Spokane TV station KXLY reported.

I'm kinda surprised that all crime isn't conducted in ninja outfits ...

Since the nationwide gun ban took place last January 10, the number of crimes across the country fell by 12 percent, the Philippine National Police said on Thursday, a day after the restricted period lapsed.

Sure it has ...

The victims were waylaid by an undetermined number of armed men while on board 2 motorcycles with 2 more intelligence operatives in Barangay Union, Gamu towon.

"The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity," said Richard Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics Division.

A key eyewitness has claimed that the shots that killed six people at Pathum Wanaram Temple during the red-shirt protest last month came from red-shirt guards, not soldiers, a special investigation department source said Tuesday.

''The aim of the Maoists and Naxals is not Dantewada. They want to take over the country's economy and democracy by targetting the Centre,'' he said.

He used the gun to shoot and kill Anthony Nelson, 29, who was on parole since December following a three-year prison sentence for a drug conviction, after Nelson entered the senior citizen’s home and shot through a window.

The technology industry is facing an "erosion of trust" from customers because of concerns over privacy violations and cybersecurity problems, Hewlett-Packard's general counsel said Tuesday.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft snapped new photos of Saturn's biggest moon Titan during a recent flyby over the moon's northern pole that targeted the home of the cloudy moon's largest methane lake.

CHP Officer Maurice Walker said Monday more than 50 vehicles have been hit along the 10, 15, 91 and 215 freeways in recent weeks. Most of the cars have had their back windows shattered, but no one has been injured.

With many botnet operators maintaining dozens or sometimes hundreds of C&C servers around the world at any one time, the effect of taking a handful of them offline is negligible, experts say, making takedown operations increasingly complicated and time-consuming.

The guard was breaking up a fight in the 1400 block of Boulevard Southeast when one of the participants pulled a gun, police said. The guard shot the man in the chest.

He'll be dealing with the ramifications for a good long time, but he IS still alive to deal with them ...

In one year's time, Dawn's ion propulsion system can increase the spacecraft's speed by 8,850 km per hour, while consuming the equivalent of only 16 gallons of fuel.

As Instapundit would say: Faster, please. 8O)

Naxal watch

According to Swami Ramdev, the famous Yoga guru, the Naxal problem arose due to neglect of the local people and the problem could be solved if government takes steps to develop those areas.

Not usually ...

Terming Naxalism as a "very complex" issue, Justice K G Balakrishnan, who took over as the chairman of NHRC today, said "due consideration" should also be given to rights of security personnel engaged in fighting the menace.

The intense policy debate in government over using the Army in anti-Naxal operations revolves around weighing a politically fraught scenario where armed forces will need to be given a free hand in dealing with the Red ultras operating in dense forests.

Whoa, whoa, WHOA ... no one ever said anything about there being red ultras in the forest ... I'm outta here ...

Symantec Corp. today announced it has completed its acquisition of PGP Corporation and GuardianEdge, two privately-held leaders in the email and data encryption markets.

Korea's encryption technology for mobile communication software has been set as a global standard.

Hmmm ... haven't really heard anything about this ...

The capsule is a universal life-saving container, sitting 30 people and providing safety during deep-water tests of nuclear-powered submarines of new generations.

Russia's security chief warned Thursday that terrorists intend to disrupt preparations for the 2014 Sochi Olympics, according to state news agency Itar-Tass. Alexander Bortnikov, head of the Federal Security Service, was quoted as saying the Winter Games face the same kinds of threats that led to the cancellation of the 2008 Paris-Dakar motor rally.

Our own PCWorld testing in the summer of 2009 was unable to give a comprehensive score to the free Panda Cloud AV because the service was still new and feature incomplete, and the Panda scanning methodology used in the cloud did not fit with the testing model used by PCWorld. However, our review did find that "Panda's app produced an impressive 99.4 percent overall detection rate."

Police are trying to identify a man who they said was attempting to steal anhydrous ammonia from tanks at a Millstadt fertilizing plant. And thanks to a photo captured on surveillance video at the plant, police are confident they will get the culprit.

Hmmm ... not much of a threat, he's not even wearing a mask ...

Despite pious promises in the past about 'looking East', it is clear that the Indian establishment, including the media and the foreign ministry, remain obsessed with the West and Pakistan. Events unfolding in Thailand have remained under the radar in India, even though the parallels are ominous, both regarding India and Nepal.

Over the years, we've written about loads of different ways to hide and encrypt your private data from others, but if you're really serious about protecting your data, you can actually hide your entire operating system. Here's exactly how to do it.

The IAEA reported Monday that Iran is successfully enriching a small stock of uranium to nearly 20 percent purity – a development that could mean Iran is preparing the way to move rapidly to the 90-percent level needed for a nuclear weapon. Iran maintains its nuclear program is solely for peaceful power-generation purposes. The report also confirmed that Iran has amassed a stockpile of low-enriched uranium large enough to produce two nuclear weapons if purified to the requisite 90-percent level. That fact was already known, but confirmation appears likely to knock further support out from under the agreement announced last month among Iran, Brazil, and Turkey to remove about half of Iran’s stockpile to Turkey.

That brings us to the claim that security concerns are behind the move to abandon Windows. The reports suggest that Google has banned the use of Windows in response to the Operation Aurora attacks which Google alleged were state-sponsored attacks from the Chinese government. The flaw in that logic is that it assumes the attacker would be unable to compromise alternative platforms like Linux or Mac OS X. Microsoft Windows--by virtue of its dominant market share--is the target of the vast majority of general malware attacks, so switching from Windows may reduce the daily operational risks. But, when it comes to precision, targeted attacks, alternative OS platforms don't provide any better defense so dropping Windows would not have prevented the Operation Aurora attacks.

 And while we're on the subject ...

In a press release, Intego states that a number of apps and screen savers distributed through sites like MacUpdate, VersionTracker, and Softpedia are installing a little more software than users bargain for; Apple's Mac OS X Downloads site also contained entries for some of the apps, though the download links appear to now be inactive. The spyware in question is called OSX/OpinionSpy and it's a variant of Windows spyware that has existed since 2008.

Security video of a March confrontation between a principal and a student at a Dartmouth, N.S., high school was posted on YouTube on Friday. The video appears to show Ken Fells, who at the time was principal of Graham Creighton Junior High, wrestling with 14-year-old Josh Boutilier. Frank, a bi-weekly gossip magazine published in Halifax, posted the silent video after releasing still images of the scuffle earlier in the week.

The Principle's methodology seem to be fairly restrained and it's pretty obvious that the student knew he was in trouble and was trying to evade the Principal rather than just minding his own business and getting attacked. Whether the principal's actions were appropriate will depend on what led up to it (and possibly what happened in the little room out of camera view), but the Principal's actions that are seen on the video seemed to be well within the scope of his duty to maintain order in his school.

A rapid Pacific submarine volcano eruption has exhaled a steam and ash cloud in the air and left a trail of debris on the surface of the water near Sarigan Island in the Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. officials said Monday. Game McGimsey, a volcanologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, said the vent, lying 1,000 feet under the surface, issued a cloud 40,000 reaching feet in the air.

On an alternative possibility, that of the Cheonan being sunk by a mine, he explained, "The laying of an influence mine is extremely difficult, and the explosive power of a mine is more than 5 times that of a torpedo. So, judging by the destroyed Cheonan, the possibility of this being the cause is very low." In any case, Lee is totally convinced by the marking, “1-beon” on the torpedo drive shaft, saying it is a normal thing in North Korea and represents irrefutable evidence of his nation’s culpability. He commented, “In North Korea, even torpedoes are repaired by hand. For maintenance, a torpedo needs to be disassembled then checked for defects, rust must be removed, and other maintenance done. When a torpedo is being disassembled, sometimes a part can be lost or confused with another part of another torpedo. That is why they mark them with numbers and assemble them accordingly. The same method is used when they repair the detonator on an influence torpedo. The torpedo detonator only weighs about three kilograms, yet still it is disassembled and reassembled. So, it must be numbered several times.”

Very interesting assertions ...

Thai watch

Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s list of political firsts has one more entry. He is now wanted as a "terrorist," becoming the first former Thai leader to be slapped with that charge. But this fourth mark of distinction – following his becoming the first prime minister to complete a four-year term in this kingdom, the first premier to be re-elected for a consecutive term and the first former Thai leader to be convicted on corruption – carries with it a sense of irony.

In their last report before the United Nations Security Council votes on sanctions against Iran, international nuclear inspectors declared Monday that Iran has now produced a stockpile of nuclear fuel that experts say would be enough, with further enrichment, to make two nuclear weapons.

I think this is probably inaccurate because I doubt Israel is planning on letting it go that far ...

The new regulations were issued weeks after the authorities conceded that the confession used to erroneously convict a farmer for a murder was based on torture. The case came to light only after the supposed victim turned up alive and the defendant had spent 10 years in prison. It has provoked national outrage.

These numbers are crazy. There simply isn't any justification for this kind of spending.

As usual, I agree with Bruce on this one ...

An Asiatic Black bear attracted attention in a Japanese zoo, after keepers discovered it spent hours twirling a stick.

It DOES look pretty cool, but I don't think it bodes well for whatever passes for bear sanity ...

Philippine watch

As TTAG predicted, the Philippine government is moving to extend its temporary, election-related gun ban to infinity—and beyond! The state-dominated media is, surprise, lining up behind the idea.

Hmmm ... certainly didn't see that coming ... did we ...?

The Armed Forces of the Philippines has deployed around 300 soldiers to run after the communist rebels who staged an ambush on Sunday in Camarines Sur, which resulted to the death of six soldiers.

Jamaica watch

For those that have been following the news, Jamaica has been going through a lot of violence as the authorities there try to find Christopher Coke. As the numbers rise daily on the number of people who have died in the gun fights between the government and the gangs, it prompts a question that many people often wonder whenever there is gun violence: do gun bans actually limit the number of crimes committed with a gun? When trying to answer that question, it is important to look at the numbers. Jamaica, despite the numerous killings going on right now, normally has 60 murders for every 100,000 people a year. For a small island of only 3 million people, that’s a lot of yearly murders. But, what is interesting to note is that before the 1974 handgun ban in Jamaica, there were far fewer murders. But, when the guns were taken out of the hands of law abiding citizens, suddenly something very serious happened…

Gaza watch

Embedded videos of the action as the IDF boarded Mavi Marmara with paintball guns and holstered sidearms...

Navy commandoes slid down to the vessel one by one, yet then the unexpected occurred: The passengers that awaited them on the deck pulled out bats, clubs, and slingshots with glass marbles, assaulting each soldier as he disembarked. The fighters were nabbed one by one and were beaten up badly, yet they attempted to fight back. However, to their misfortune, they were only equipped with paintball rifles used to disperse minor protests, such as the ones held in Bilin. The paintballs obviously made no impression on the activists, who kept on beating the troops up and even attempted to wrest away their weapons.

The video makes it look like the peace activists new the IDF was trying to do things all civilized-like and they  decided to take advantage of it. Hmmm ... must have forgotten that next time IDF might bring Uzis ...

I mentioned here recently the launch of the Japanese university UNITEC-1 spacecraft, which was launched towards Venus along with the primary payload JAXA Akatsuki. UNITEC-1 was the first student built spacecraft to fly from earth towards interplanetary space. Initially it appeared to be working but now comes word that unfortunately the spacecraft has gone silent and is feared lost: First student-built interplanetary mission goes silent - New Scientist - May.29.10.

Space is a very hostile environment. Congrats for sending it out and it lasting as long as it did ...

Naxal watch

Mahato told the newspaper that he was "sorry" for the attack on Gyaneshwari Express train near Jhargram on Friday that left 148 people dead and over 200 other injured hours after West Bengal Police held PCPA leaders Umakanto Mahato and him responsible for the incident. "We're sorry. We never wanted these innocent civilians to die. Trust me, we targeted the goods train. But somehow, we were fed wrong information that the goods train would cross through this track and we removed pandrol clips from a long stretch. We didn't want to harm civilians. There must have been some miscalculation," Mahato to The Indian Express.

DOH!

As part of its plan to arm paramilitary troops, including those operating in Naxal-hit areas, with high-tech weapons, government has sanctioned procurements of armoured and bullet proof vehicles besides arms valuing nearly Rs 300 crore.

As the new DGP, Sivanandhan said Maharashtra police will study the best practices adopted by police in various states and try to implement them here. He said new equipment was being procured but training personnel to use these gadgets was equally important. When journalists asked him about purchasing better quality bulletproof jackets, Sivanandhan said the outgoing DGP had formed a committee for it. “They [the committee members] have completed half the process. We will hasten it and procure them [the jackets],” he said.