Pics included

Some photos of the 'massive' Iranian naval maneuvers ...

Video included

I wonder if the tasing had been the other way around he would have been talking about how dangerous it makes the LPO ...

Police say he would distract young women shoppers, and then cut their buttocks with a razor blade or box cutter.[nbcwashington.com]

"If we could do away with knife fights, or knife-related assaults, we would resolve a lot of issues in the Victorian community."[ninemsn.com]

"Continuing the week long celebration of wreaking utter havoc on global financial systems, militaries, and governments, we are announcing our next target: the online piggie supply store SpecialForces.com," the group wrote in a Pastebin posting today.[cnet.com]

Hatanaka and U.S. Army Japan commander Maj. Gen. Michael Harrison later agreed that senior U.S. Combatives instructors will train at the Japanese school, while Japanese troops will learn Combatives at Camp Zama, Munoz said. The first exchange is slated for February, he said.[stripes.com]

The Navy wants the "Switchblade" drone designed by AeroVironment to become a flying scout capable of spotting enemy ships over the horizon, even as the "mother" submarine remains hidden underwater.[msn.com]

Indian Navy is set to receive a major boost when the much-awaited Russian 'Nerpa' nuclear attack submarine would join its fleet "in the next few days" on a 10-year lease worth USD 920 million.[indiatimes.com]

They could use the vulnerability in the GSM technology -- which is used by most telecom operators globally and by billions of people -- to make calls or send texts to expensive, premium phone and messaging services in scams, said Karsten Nohl, head of Berlin-based Security Research Labs.[reuters.com]

Video included

Deeply satisfying ...

Anonymous struck again on Monday morning -- and the backlash by the infamous hacking group may not be over yet. Anonymous, which took down Strategic Forecasting's Web site over the weekend, has vowed to strike again. This time, the targets are Stratfor members who are speaking out to support the firm.[newsfactor.com]

Chinese submarines are a hell of a lot noisier than anyone expected. The sound you hear is the Pacific balance of power tipping in Washington’s favor.[wired.com]

Drone-maker AeroVironment has created a special maritime-ready unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which stealthily hovers over the sea eying enemy ships and transmitting what it sees to a lurking submarine.[dailytech.com]

Some interesting thoughts on the Stratfor breach ...

Video included

You can't see what the third suspect was doing but the two that went over the counter were so much dead meat to an armed defender (assuming that #3 wasn't in a position to intervene) ...

No surprise that the government of the nation's second-largest city got cold feet when it cameto trusting sensitive law enforcement email to the cloud. It is, however, an indictment that maydelay other enterprises from accepting public cloud-basedemail.[techtarget.com]

Video included

"That pace, that sprint away from the bank doesn't appear to be consistent with someone who is 60 or 70 years old. It appears to be someone younger in age, given the pace of that sprint, FBI Special Agent Darrell Foxworth said.[cbs8.com]

Video included

If this is legit, it's probably best not to mess with them ...

In today’s information security environment, there can be little doubt that the human element is the weakest link in cybersecurity. Recent high-profile security compromises, including the RSA breach, started with targeted phishing – underscoring the vulnerability of human interactions in the cybersecurity chain.[crn.com]

Encrypted USB unlocks with onboard PIN pad.[pcmag.com]

You're right; we've written a lot of articles about how to protect yourself over the years, but sometimes it can be confusing as to exactly what's happening behind the scenes.[lifehacker.com]

Interesting technical discussion ...

So, my question to fellow Slashdotters is 'Do you encrypt your email? If not, 'Why not?' and 'Why has email encryption using PGP or something similar not become more commonplace?' The use of cryptography used to be a hot topic once upon a time."[slashdot.org]

There is some interesting discussion in the comments ...

Microsoft has warned people of a localised strain of malware that masquerades as a message from a country's local law enforcement.[zdnet.co.uk]

CryptDB, on the other hand, manages to emulate fully homomorphic encryption for most of the functions of the SQL databases used in many applications, computing only with encrypted data and adding just 15% to 26% to those applications’ computing time.[forbes.com]

A new piece of malware encrypts images, documents and other files stored on infected systems and advertises a demo version of a paid-for program that can recover them.[pcworld.com]

Washington State armed citizens are being lobbied to push for adoption of a proposed statute that will strengthen the Evergreen State’s lethal force self-defense law, a measure that was introduced in January and now waits for more co-sponsors.[examiner.com]

Following a defeat in a karate match, a B Com II-year student who holds a black belt in the martial art, hung herself to death in Begum Bazaar on Saturday evening.[indiatimes.com]

Unfortunately, the really important lessons don't seemed to have been taught in this case ...

Although the government is set to announce its selection of the F-35 fighter jet as a successor to the Air Self-Defense Force's frontline jet, concern remains over whether the next-generation fighter can be delivered to Japan during fiscal 2016 as promised.[yomiuri.co.jp]

Motorola’s Assured Mobile Environment uses an encrypted hardware card that can be inserted into most commercial handhelds on Android and Linux platforms.[gcn.com]

Yesterday, a security researcher discovered that Google Wallet, a groundbreaking app that lets you store and process credit cards with a simple tap of the phone, stores unencrypted pretty much everything except your credit card numbers and CVV numbers.[pcmag.com]

This is very cool ...

Good advice in general, but especially now ...

Video included

This is darned impressive from a 'good fortune' standpoint ...

Video included

This is one of the most enlightened LP ops I've seen lately. No one is getting hot. They're all just hooking on and acting as sources of drag as he tries to leave ... (I refer to this approach, when performed as a coordinated technique, as 'The Octopus'.) I bet by the time the cops arrives, the perp just wanted to lie down and take a nap.

Lancope, Inc., a leader in flow-based security, network and application performance monitoring, today unveiled its top five security predictions for 2012.[sacbee.com]

Sounds about right ...

Gungrabbers equate armed self-defenders with ‘executioners’[examiner.com]

How ... uh ... unfortunate ...

Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo says a man in the casino south of Ferndale told security guards yesterday afternoon he had a bomb in a suitcase.[privateofficernews~.com]

It's way more intense when you have someone standing there saying it's so than when you have some cheesy note left tucked in the toilet paper dispenser or something ...

Mobile developers building applications for Android devices are making many of the same mistakesas enterprise developers, and those poor coding practices may be rendering encryption and othersecurity features ineffective, according to a new study.[techtarget.com]

Adobe is working on a patch for a newly discovered Adobe Reader vulnerability that is currently being exploited in the wild to infect computers with malware.[pcworld.com]

Video included

Pima County Sheriff's deputies are looking for a suspect that snatched a purse from a woman loading groceries into her car outside a northside supermarket, and his accomplice, who nearly hit the victim and another person as he drove away. This is the third attack in three days by the same suspects in the same supermarket, PCSD officials state.[kvoa.com]

Running into the escape path isn't a particularly bright move. She appears to be lucky that the perp swerved to miss hitting her ...

With associates positioned within the United States military, gang members have taken advantage of opportunities to acquire military-grade weapons, such as assault rifles, grenades, and body armor, according to a recent report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) National Gang Intelligence Center.[washingtonexaminer.com]

The value of quantum cryptography in telecommunication networks has now been proven, Swiss scientists and engineers claim, by demonstrating its long-term effectiveness in a real-time network.[kursweilai.net]

Interesting ...

If the Carrier IQ saga and Wikileaks spyware docs weren’t enough mobile insecurity for you, the hits keep coming. Scientists from NC State have identified an exploit in select Android phones that allows an app to get permissions to do nearly anything: record calls, take pictures or video, log SMS, and track locations.[geek.com]

The melee resulted in about a dozen people hurt. Many of the injuries were sustained when fans jumped onto the field from a barrier as high as 15 feet in places, said Michael Authement, director of operations for emergency medical provider LifeNet EMS. Others were stomped on in the push to get to the field, he said.[wsj.com]

This is a 'Darwinian' problem, not a security problem ...

It is amaz­ing and even quite sad how in this advanced age of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, some­thing as impor­tant as self defense is still so vastly mis­un­der­stood.[military.com]

Interesting analysis ...

Witnesses have described the bandit as an older man, but authorities have suggested that the suspect may be wearing a theatrical mask to appear old.[myfoxspokane.com]

I'm surprised that they don't release video of him walking. There's a good chance someone would recognized the body dynamic and dime on him for the $20K ...

With Cloud adoption on the rise, how will you secure your Cloud-bound data?[zdnet.com]

Video included

Hilarious ...

Video included

Looks like gangland to me ...

Research In Motion is introducing a software tool that gives corporate customers the option of linking employees' personal iPhones to the BlackBerry network without compromising security.[reuters.com]

If you need an 8GB USB stick that is both hardware encrypted and physically locked then you probably have a secret worth paying $130 to protect.[wired.com]

I'm not sure the physical security is all that useful but ...

The test launch of Russia's Bulava ballistic missile has been postponed until a later date, a source in the Defense Ministry said on Monday.[ria.ru]

Video included

The suspect is seen attacking a 71-year old man in the building's lobby.[ny1.com]

Bastard appears to be barely able to pull that off ...

Witnesses describe the gunman who's been holding California banks with regularity as being in his sixties or seventies. But appearances can be deceptive, and the so-called "Geezer Bandit" might even be a "whippersnapper."[cbsnews.com]

Drone aircraft, best known for their role in hunting and destroying terrorist hide-outs in Afghanistan, may soon be coming to the skies near you.[latimes.com]

Out for work-space reconfiguration and Holiday

See you next Sunday evening ...

Defense giant Lockheed Martin plans to add 50 jobs over five years as it ramps up production of a robotic yellow submarine that can inspect underwater oil platforms.[palmbeachpost.com]

According to published reports, the Oct. 16 brouhaha began with an exchange of angry words in a dog park at Fort Walla Walla Park and ended with one man shooting the other in his leg.[examiner.com]

Interesting ...

I find myself at a strange place as far as weaponry goes these days. I’m open-minded enough to consider everything I come across at least somewhat objectively. And practical enough to imagine that I apply only the useful bits of information I find. Or…maybe not.[thetruthaboutguns.com]

Carrier IQ software, installed on more than 141 million mobile phones, tracks GPS location, websites visited, search queries, and all keys pressed.[informationweek.com]

This is certainly irritating ...

The Presentation Master is a secure USB drive—and minimalist multitool—that incorporates controls for Microsoft PowerPoint presentations via a Bluetooth connection.[gizmodo.com]

Cool pics included

The jinxed submarine HMS Astute has successfully fired its first missile during a test mission in the Gulf of Mexico, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed[dailymail.co.uk]

Authorities in Riverside County are investigating more than a dozen business robberies over the past month, and they say robbers are getting smarter about their disguises.[nbclosangeles.com]

The baddies are getting smarter so the goodies need to get smarter, too ...

Attackers in Brazil have found a way to sneak around antivirus programs by using cryptography.[pcworld.com]

The Taliban have published what they claim are the government's security plans for a national convention in Kabul that 2,000 elders are expected to attend this week to discuss Afghanistan's future relationship with the United States and peace talks with the insurgents.[independent.co.uk]

Ben Franklin pointed out that 3 people could keep a secret as long as 2 of them were dead ...

The guards were taken hostage about 10am (AEDT) by two inmates inside a cell in a highly secure maximum-security area for prisoners considered to be a risk to staff.[abc.net.au]

Gee, whillickers ...

The Middle East is so frequently embroiled in violence that the world failed to note the region’s descent into cold war. That blindness could have continued had it not been for several dramatic incidents that brought the depth of loathing between the Sunni Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Shiite Republic of Iran into sharp focus.[jpost.com]

Mugeerza thought a home alarm system and a network of security cameras would be enough to protect his property from thieves. Turns out, he was wrong.[abclocal.go.com]

Unless there's someone there to intervene, the alarms and cameras just tell the baddies that there's something there worth protecting with alarms and cameras ...

Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups could be targeting buses around the nation because they are easier to attack than airplanes, according to the Transportation Security Administration.[dailymail.co.uk]

Unless they can find a way to make them fall out of the sky, it sounds like it's a job for plain ole police work ...

 

More than 3,000 police and soldiers backed by armored personnel carriers raced into Brazil’s biggest slum before dawn Sunday, quickly gaining control of a shantytown ruled for decades by a heavily armed drug gang.[washingtonpost.com]

They've been working on this for about a year now. I think the main issue may be that they really don't have anything they can do with the tens or hundreds of thousands of people living this way ...

Even I get [infected] sometimes ...

Technical difficulties - posting will resume when resolved

Thereare currently no workarounds users can follow to prevent getting infected byDuqu, other than to continue being vigilant and not open suspicious filesattached to emails.[eweek.com]

Anonymous, infamous for its ties to Wikileaks and for hacking bank and law enforcement websites, said it would publish the identities and addresses of Zeta members and their associates, like corrupt police officers, taxi drivers and journalists, if the ruthless drug cartel did not release the hacker, who was recently kidnapped at a street protest.[signalnews.com]

This should prove interesting to follow ...

Israeli aircraft Tuesday dropped leaflets warning residents of the Gaza Strip to stay away for 300 meters from the Gaza-Israel border, after three days of violence.[xinhuanet.com]

Four countries, including China, have agreed joint security operations on the Mekong River where 13 Chinese sailors were murdered last month.[xinhuanet.com]

Israel is extending its Jericho III missile's range, developing intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capabilities and expanding its nuclear-tipped cruise missile enabled submarine fleet, The Guardian, quoting an independent committee report, said Monday.[ynetnews.com]

However, this wiretap arrangement doesn’t apply to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), which provides service for business customers and operates at a higher level of encryption. In fact, RIM maintains that it doesn’t even have the keys to encrypted emails on the BES, which is part of the reason this service is popular among corporate users.[pcmag.com]

The big story last week was the capture and summary execution of Libya’s strongman and self-styled African King of Kings, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. As I watched the gruesome footage of Gaddafi’s humiliation and death, at the hands of a baying mob, I was reminded of the words of Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States, who said that “The only thing new in this world is the history that you don’t know.” History is full of examples of self-assured and near mythical despots coming to an ignominious and brutal end. Let us consider a few random examples to illustrate the point.[monitor.co.ug]

Hundreds of people cowered for about two hours inside a shopping mall in this resort town Saturday while security forces traded sporadic gunfire with armed men in the parking lot and then searched stores for suspects.[washingtonpost.com]

"I'm not going to take anything off the table," House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith, D-Wash., said on Thursday during an event at the American Enterprise Institute. However, "I do think that we've made rather significant reductions in our nuclear force, and I would be reluctant to go further."[nationaljournal.com]

Until they become unambiguously compromised, the nuke subs are probably the scariest weapons in our arsenal. No enemy wants his whole society reduced to a smoking glass crater ...

Also ...

Russia has successfully fired an intercontinental ballistic missile from a submerged submarine, military officials said.[upi.com]

And furthermore ...

To establish a secure link while remaining 100 metres underwater, submarines could transmit photons of laser light to satellites, for retransmission to base. With the key exchanged, the submarine could then communicate via laser pulses with guaranteed security.[newscientist.com]

A little How to: Encryption action from PC world ...

Russian shipyards are refusing to build submarines for the Russian Navy. This is the result of the government trying to rein in rapidly rising prices charged for military equipment. Actually, this is part of a larger battle against corruption, or suspected corruption, in Russian defense procurement. The situation has put the Defense Ministry in a difficult position.[strategypage.com]

Hmmm ... things are tight all over ...

The warning stems from an incident Thursday night. Police say a middle-aged woman was assaulted and robbed near a south Minneapolis Cub Foods. A witness, with a permit to carry, saw the incident, chased the attacker, and fired off at least one shot killing the suspect.[kare11.com]

Video included

This is an example of a robbery that would have gone a whole new direction if the vic had been minimally armed and ready to go. The perp had his back completely turned to the vic for a very long time ...

The United States dismantled the oldest nuclear bomb in its Cold War arsenal -- and one of the most powerful it ever built -- on Tuesday as part of President Barack Obama's nuclear security policy.[reuters.com]

As of today, Startpage, by Ixquick, the "world's most private search engine," automatically encrypts ALL searches. Startpage was the first search engine to offer SSL encryption in 2009, and today it again breaks new ground by making SSL encryption the default.[marketwatch.com]

Cool pics included

Now the conflict is over we can reveal British nuclear-powered submarine HMS Triumph had been stationed beneath the waves off Libya – and firing missiles.[mirror.co.uk]

Police took the gun from Martinez-Rodriguez and later interviewed him. He told police he worked as a securiity guard during the party at the Oasis Banquet Hall with five other security officers. He told police he fired his handgun in the air after hearing several gunshots from the parking lot.[ktvn.com]

Shooting over people's heads is a really bad idea ...

"When the People's Daily conducted an online poll on whether people would help a senior citizen who had fallen in the street, more than 80 per cent of those tallied said that they would not help out of fear they would be blamed and saddled with damages."[cbc.ca]

You know your judicial system is a mess when this happens ...

After discontinuing a security feature that let cardholders generate a one-time use number for transactions last month, Discover Financial Services did an about-face and reinstated its Secure Online Account Numbers program.[moneyland.time.com]

I'm surprised that all the CC issuers aren't embracing this ...

Google is rolling out default end-to-end encryption to people who use the site to seek for images, news and general webpages, a change that will better protect search queries and results from eavesdroppers.[theregister.co.uk]

Seems unlikely to protect you from Google's eavesdropping ...

China says the Dalai Lama’s support for Buddhist clerics who set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule is a type of terrorism in disguise.[washingtonpost.com]

That's credible ...

A new study from McCann-Erickson has found that people around the globe are more worried about loss of personal privacy than they are about most other issues, including rising terrorism, climate change and the growing number of pandemics. The only thing that worries them more is the possibility of another global financial crisis.[mediapost.com]

Security researchers on Tuesday issued a warning about a virus, dubbed Duqu, that's similar in nature to the Stuxnet worm that targeted Iranian critical infrastructure last year.[pcmag.com]

IT security experts have long loved totroll through hacker forums to gather intelligence on emergingthreats and even (as in the ill-fated case of HBGaryFederalCEO Aaron Barr) try to profile the hackers themselves. Butas a report from IT security firm Imperva shows, many of theso-called hacker portals out there are more hangouts for newbie hackers(and possibly a few budding FBI informants) looking at how to getstarted in the game.[arstechnica.com]

Travelers say the questions typically focus on where they are headed, for how long and the purpose of the trip. More probing questions include whether carry-on bags have liquids or why the traveler is holding so much cash.

If a traveler doesn't have the wherewithal to interfere with a flight, where they're going, for how long and their purpose are totally irrelevant as are there intentions or any other consideration.

Video included - but you may wish you hadn't watched

This is really, really messed up ...

The encryption level prevents even government entities from accessing the information. “RIM cannot accommodate any request for a copy of a customer's encryption key, since at no time does RIM, or any wireless network operator or any third party, ever possess a copy of the key.”[greeleygazette.com]

I sure would have felt a lot better about this statement if they had made it loud and often while they were 'in talks' with these governments over the last few years ...

Video included

While Rayon McIntosh, the McDonald's cashier who was arrested after beating two unruly customers with a metal rod at the West 3rd Street joint, was charged with felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon, many people seemed to support his reaction.[gothamist.com]

Unfortunately, in most states the fact that they provoked you doesn't grant you permission to pound them into paste ...

The U.S. is abandoning plans to keep U.S. troops in Iraq past a year-end withdrawal deadline, The Associated Press has learned. The decision to pull out fully by January will effectively end more than eight years of U.S. involvement in the Iraq war, despite ongoing concerns about its security forces and the potential for instability.[usatoday.com]

If we actually do this, I believe it will go a long ways toward convincing the 'good' folks over there (if there are any, and it stands to reason that there are) that we really do intend to liberate and then leave ...

The recriminations spread into the cabinet of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who faced warnings that he had only emboldened Hamas by giving so much for so little.[telegraph.co.uk]

Sounds like a rather heinous slap to Hamas, if you asked me ...

More than 10 hours later, they had pulled off one of Brazil's biggest bank heists -- emptying out more than 100 safe-deposit boxes for a multimillion-dollar bounty of rubies, Colombian emeralds, antique Rolex watches and cash.[reuters.com]

Hackers successfully broke into 93,000 accounts at Sony over the last few days, once again impacting users of the Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network (PSN) and Sony Online Entertainment services.[nakedsecurity.sophos.com]

Under the proposed legislation, a court must presume a person (the property owner or lawful occupant) was justified in killing an intruder, regardless of whether the property owner reasonably believed the force was necessary to defend against imminent death or substantial harm.[wisbar.com]

"Good Dynamics is a platform that allows application developers to easily secure their apps on mobile devices without having to become security experts."[pcworld.com]

Video included

Thieves pretending to sell gold are caught on camera as they quietly switch out a bag of real gold worth thousands of dollars for a bag of fake gold worth nothing.[thedenverchannel.com]

There are lessons here, the main one being that people are planning to exploit every mistake you make ...

Many large-scale entertainment venues and other places that drawlarge crowds in Las Vegas and beyond use armed security guards. But the DGE and state Attorney General's Office must study the issue before taking the next step, Gilbert said.

What's to study. Vegas had pervasive armed Security, moved away from it, realized that it wasn't cost effective, and then move back. Apparently, it's okay for the scumbags to have guns in AC ...

The attack, developed by researchers at Germany's Ruhr University, takes about seven hours to recover the secret key protecting the Mifare DESFire MF3ICD40. The hack leaves no trace that the card has been compromised, and requires equipment costing $3,000.[theregister.co.uk]

Cool pics included

The latest state-of-the-art hunter-killer submarine set to join the Royal Navy, HMS Ambush, has successfully completed her first dive.[dailymail.co.uk]

Video included

The clerk that went to the right has some astonishingly large wallendas ...

If you follow the news, you probably know what happened to Sony PlayStation Network. In which case you also know why companies need to implement solid encryption solutions.[tmcnet.com]

The storage device connects to your computer via USB 3.0 port and has a data rate of up to 5 Gbps making it perfect for lots of photos and video backups. The drive inside the unit uses 256-bit AES full disk encryption as well.[slashgear.com]

Pics included

The 600-ton Fateh is among semi-heavy submarines belonging to Iran's Army which will probably been used to carry out coastal missions along with other submarines, including Ghadir, Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.[presstv.com]

They're probably OK as long as you don't have any western subs hunting you ...

An American mother and her son were two of four people shot to death in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on Tuesday.[ibtimes.com]

HTC held true to its promise to look into the security vulnerability that surfaced over the weekend, an apparent glitch that allows any app requesting internet access to take a peek at a user account information, GPS location, system logs, and other potentially private data. While HTC assured us that user data isn't at risk of being harmed by its own software, a third party malware app could exploit the security flaw and cause some trouble. The outfit is already building a patch, and will ship it out in an over the air update after a short testing period with its carrier partners.[engadget.com]

Hmmm, they're being refreshingly up-front about the whole thing ...

Russian software vendor Elcomsoft has released a product that it says can crack BlackBerry smartphone passwords, if the BlackBerry owner has enabled a media-card encryption security setting.[fudzilla.com]

Fans initially were searched with security wands as they entered the stadium Sunday. But with big lines backing up, a team spokesman says the Packers and local police decided 30 minutes before kickoff to go back to their previous system of pat-downs.[boston.com]

In news that will no doubt be of great concern to owners of HTC smartphones, a security team is claiming to have uncovered a "massive security vulnerability" in HTC Android devices that allows any application with Internet access to gain access to private data, including user accounts, email addresses, GPS location, text message data and phone numbers. The vulnerability is said to affect HTC smartphones running the latest version of HTC's software, including the EVO 3D, EVO 4G, Thunderbolt, and others.[gizmag.com]

Mexican schools appear increasingly vulnerable to the country's drug violence, with five human heads dumped outside one school and threats of a grenade attack on another in the past week alone.[AFP]

It's just a matter of time until this is happening in San Diego or Phoenix if we don't knock it off ...

All of the products tested included the ability to remotely wipe personal data from a lost or stolen phone. The report states that "None of the products deleted all of the data irretrievably in the remote wipe test. In all cases it was possible to recover photos, music, documents and so on from the external storage card, even using a free program." Another potential problem occured when the security software accomplished its remote data wipe by resetting the phone's state to factory defaults. Admittedly, doing so wiped out personal data, but it also wiped out all apps, including the security app itself. After this step you could no longer track the phone's location.[pcmag.com]

 Hmmm ... troubling ...

79% of businesses rated as PCI-compliant fell out of compliance over the course of the year. In other words, their information security and risk management practices got worse.[informationweek.com]

State RCW 9A.16.110 – the only law like it anywhere in the country – provides reimbursement for anyone who must defend himself or herself in court after having to defend themselves against a violent crime and winding up facing criminal charges. Simply put, people subjected to prosecution for having acted in self-defense should not be financially penalized.[examiner.com]

You would think that Democrats would be leery about trying to undo this even under the guise of cost-cutting. No one is going to buy that as the reason for it.

Something has gone terribly wrong on the plant floor at ACME Specialty Chemical International Inc.[pcworld.com]

INL is probably a good place for this work to be done. They have a long history of being at the forefront of high-tech matters ...

“The 9- and 5-year-old boys were playing in the driveway when he called them over, while their mother was sitting inside a parked car,” Benton said. “Before Pochervina could speak to them, she asked him what he wanted and he said he ‘was going to ask if they’d seen someone wearing a Michael Myers ‘Halloween’ mask.’”[heraldnews.suntimes.com]

Video included

They prey on the kindness of strangers, creating a diversion that involves a man or woman in trouble and then ripping off the people who come to their aid or get stuck behind them.[myfoxspokane.com]

You should have your valuables in your front pockets or secured inside your bag if you're going to be in crowds ...

Brandishing shotguns and semiautomatic pistols, members of the 112th U.S. Congress took a class of visiting schoolchildren hostage today, barricading themselves inside the Capitol rotunda and demanding $12 trillion dollars in cash.[theonion.com]

[H/T to The Agitator]

A 24-year-old engineer was arrested on Friday on suspicion of cracking the EasyCard encryption system and changing the value of cards to make purchases at convenience stores, Taipei EasyCard Corp said yesterday, maintaining that its security system remains sound.[taipeitimes.com]

The problem is that it can take weeks to get a customer's data, assuming they have hundreds of gigabytes (GB) to upload. By sending the customers a portable hard drive, which the customer can then load up with data and send back, the initial image in the cloud is easily and quickly created.[examiner.com]

SEDs are one of the information security industry's best kept secrets. They solve many common data loss problems, are easy to use and manage with minimal impact on system performance. Yet relatively few businesses and governments use SEDs, according to Robert Thibadeau, who assembled the original team at disk-maker Seagate, the company that pioneered SED technology.[computerweekly.com]

Lots of interesting digital stuff today ...

The Software Protection Initiative (SPI) under the direction of the Air Force Research Laboratory and the US Department Of Defense recently created Lightweight Portable Security (LPS). Like the name indicates, this is a small Linux desktop distribution that’s designed for secure use.[zdnet.com]

With the decrypting of a protected PayPal browser cookie at a security conference Friday, it became official: the internet's foundation of trust has suffered yet another serious fracture that will require the attention of the industry's best minds.[theregister.co.uk]

Colombian authorities have seized a submarine which they say belongs to the rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, with the capacity to carry ten tonnes of cocaine.[itn.co.uk]

The ticker makes it very simple for you to eavesdrop when one of your Facebook friends says something to someone you've never heard of - and even see what the stranger originally wrote too.[nakedsecurity.sophos.com]

The high-tech scanner, bought by TSA at a cost of roughly $150,000, can detect hidden explosives, guns or knives tucked into underwear or ammunition packed into body orifices. But it cannot, the agent told me, see clearly through a shiny shirt.[washingtonpost.com]

A fascinating new example of Mac malware has been discovered, that appears to be adopting an old Windows-style disguise to fool users into running it.[nakedsecurity.sophos.com]

"Most of the friends I know, if they don't have their alarm systems hooked up, they're doing it. If they don't have a gun, they're buying one. If they don't have a dog, they're looking for them," added Smith.[wwltv.com]

Sounds like a solid program ... 

Interesting ... but your mileage may vary ...

The family of a man shot and killed by a North County security guard was awarded nearly $2 million by a jury on Wednesday.[10news.com]

The story says that the Security dude is responsible for paying 60% of the $1.8M. Either he's one highly paid Security Guard or their going to have a really hard time collecting that part of it ...

IronKeyhas sold its USB-based security hardware business to Imation, freeing upresources for IronKey to focus on its cloud-based security services forenterprises.[eweek.com]

If you depend on Ironkey thumb-drives,  it will be necessary to monitor this development ...

A federal judge in New Jersey has sentenced a lead transportation security officer at Newark Liberty Airport to six months of home confinement for stealing money from passengers’ bags as they underwent security screenings.[washingtonpost.com]

Video included

Palmer moves downstairs, still shooting, and then outside. He walks across the lawn. Police arrive and shoot Palmer. He collapses. “He just looked like he was wanting to get shot,” said Couch, “He was asking for somebody to please shoot me.”[ky3.com]

Too bad there wasn't anyone available to accommodate him a little sooner ...

"Last summer I was threatened over and over and over again," he said. "People were threatening my wife, they were threatening my grandchildren."[cnn.com]

As a general rule, if your getting a lot of threats, you may want to consider the possibility that you're being a d-bag ...

Navigation-and-emergency-services company OnStar is notifying its six million account holders that it will keep a complete accounting of the speed and location of OnStar-equipped vehicles, even for drivers who discontinue monthly service.[wired.com]

[H/T to tidyread.com]

Micron Technology, Inc. today introduced a new version of its popular RealSSD(TM) C400, featuring self encryption for unmatched data security.[marketwatch.com]

Work has begun on the first Virginia-class submarine to be built on an accelerated two-submarine-a-year basis, Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. announced Monday.[hamptonroads.com]

South Korean patrol boats and corvettes are able to detect a mere 30 percent of submarines at a time when North Korea is increasing the frequency of submarine infiltration drills.[chosun.com]

“BEAST is different than most published attacks against HTTPS,” Duong wrote in an email. “While other attacks focus on the authenticity property of SSL, BEAST attacks the confidentiality of the protocol. As far as we know, BEAST implements the first attack that actually decrypts HTTPS requests.”[theregister.co.uk]

Japan's biggest defencecontractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd , said onMonday hackers had gained access to its computers, with onenewspaper saying its submarine, missile and nuclear power plantcomponent factories had been the target.[reuters.com]

The airline has cleared the backlog of passengers who had to be re-screened when two people went through an exit the wrong way and bypassed security checks.[abc.net.au]

This certainly lends confidence ...

Mr Dixon, 40, – who uploaded the private security video on to YouTube showing Zara Phillips’s husband kissing and cuddling the unnamed woman in Queenstown last Sunday – has been arrested and charged with accessing a computer system for dishonest purposes.[telegraph.co.uk]

This sounds like one of those things where someone thought they were doing someone a favor without bothering to ask whether it would be construed that way if it were done to them ...

One man was shot to death and a woman was wounded during an apparent carjacking that authorities believe began inside the parking garage of an Atlantic City casino early Sunday. [nbcnewyork.com]

One of the world’s leading Muslim clerics will issue a global declaration against terrorism at a speech in London on Saturday. Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri will make the declaration at the ‘Peace for Humanity Conference 2011’ at Wembley Arena.[independent.co.uk]

On Wednesday, the House overrode Gov. John Lynch’s veto of Senate Bill 88. The Senate had overridden the veto the week before. The bill changes state weapons laws in four important ways.[unionleader.com]

The discovery of a "suspicious vehicle" near an Atlantic City casino caused several street closures and the temporary shutdown of a parking garage earlier tonight, but authorities determined the vehicle to be harmless, according to a casino spokesman and witnesses at the scene.[nj.com]

Cool pic

HMS Anson ...

Dozens of employees at Honolulu’s airport were fired or suspended after an investigation found workers did not screen checked bags for explosives, the Transportation Security Administration said Friday.[washingtonpost.com]

The new terms of service pushed out this week — which are mandatory for all PSN users — include an agreement that waives the right of any individual to sue Sony on a collective basis (i.e., through a class action)[whowatchesthewatchers.wordpress.com]

Instead of having one account number for all of an organization’s charges, the payee receives a unique 16-digit account number for each single payment with purchasing controls embedded in the system.[askbte.com]

At the Defence Security and Equipment International arms fair in London's Excel Centre, there is no shortage of options for dishing out bad days, weeks, months and whole lifetimes.[nzherald.co.nz]

Inside the bag were six assault rifles, a grenade launcher, a rocket launcher, 20 ammunition magazines for various-sized weapons and three packages of what appeared to be C-4 plastic explosives, a Border Patrol news release said.[reuters.com]

It's odd that everyone knows how to stop this but no one is willing to do it.

Also:

Signs left near the bodies declared the pair, both apparently in their early 20s, were killed for posting denouncements of drug cartel activities on a social network. "This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the Internet," one sign said. "You better (expletive) pay attention. I'm about to get you."[cnn.com]

Russia's first Graney class nuclear-powered attack submarine set course on Monday for scheduled sea trials, the Sevmash shipyard said.[rian.ru]

A year back, the Government of India warned telecommunication operators to avoid importing mobile network infrastructure components from China. The warning was based on fear of China misusing the equipment to monitor India. Back during the Cold War era, one of the theories presented for the West’s success was Russia using photocopiers by Xerox. It is believed that these photocopiers were fitted with cameras allowing the CIA to monitor Soviet communication.[zdnet.com]

The recent attack on the lesser-known certificate authority known as DigiNotar, and previously on Comodo, has security experts pondering the future of certificate-based encryption and authentication. For many people, SSL or what is now generally known as TLS is some arcane security measure that involves certificates and usually results in an ‘s’ being appended to the protocol they are using.[memeburn.com]

Islamic leaders from multiple local organizations and mosques met Sunday morning in Dearborn to publicly recognize the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, as well as to stand against terrorism.[rochester.patch.com]

Most religions seem to have canonical support for the killing of non-believers (or folks who have the misfortune of being in the way at an inconvenient time) but the difference between churchy neighbors and tangos is that the tangos practice or encourage the practice of harming others without first-order necessity such as self defense or counter-injustice ... of course, as we learned from Reagan - Trust, but verify!

He sneaked into the computer systems of a security firm on the outskirts of Amsterdam. He created fake credentials that could allow someone to snoop on Internet connections that appeared to be secure. He then shared that bounty with people he declines to name.[nytimes.com]

The following are the chronology of the U.S. anti-terrorism campaign over the past 10 years.

It's interesting to see what Xinhua found the key moments to have been ...

Worse, the Pakistani nuclear arsenal now includes an inexpensive, small, mobile, tactical missile with a miniaturized nuclear warhead. These were designed to be deployed on the battlefield against potential invasion by India.[huffingtonpost.com]

I used to be disgusted, now I'm just amused ...

If you want to convince us, don't put up a carefully orchestrated sales job ...

The Mexican navy says it has broken up a sophisticated communications network used by the Zetas drugs cartel in the eastern state of Veracruz.[bbc.co.uk]

IT IS another escalation in the computer security arms race. Software that can uncover all of a person's online activity could, in the hands of the police, put more sex offenders behind bars - but it may also be exploited to develop new ways of avoiding being caught.[newscientist.com]

Some cool abandoned sub pics ...

How many Americans have been killed in terrorist attacks insidethe United States since the September 11, 2001, atrocities?Arguably 16.[reason.com]

Microsoft is rolling out a worldwide patch that deems all DigiNotar SSL certificates to be untrustworthy except for OSes in the Netherlands, as requested by the Dutch government.[pcworld.com]

Video included

This looks to me like the group (or at least the two guys that were all lovey-dovey) became self-conscious of their own behavior because Vic #1 wasn't responding to them in what they considered to be the 'expected' way and walked out, and then after they walked out, someone in the group said something like "Are you going to let him get away with that" and Perp #1, in his intoxicated state, couldn't resist going back and sucker-punching Vic #1.

If they were doing it on a PC, they would have perhaps asked themselves if the PC was secure. With smartphones, people aren't yet conscious about the risks involved. The fact is, smartphones, as they become popular, are also becoming vulnerable to cyber-crimes.[timesofindia.com]

People are just barely starting to think about Security on their PCs ...

Speaking via a video link, Assange told an audience at a Berlin technology trade fair that a Guardian journalist had published the password to the encrypted files in his book, creating a situation where some people got access to the uncensored files while others did not. "We had a case where every intelligence agency has the material and the people who are mentioned do not have the material," he said from a mansion about two hours' drive from London, where he is under virtual house arrest pending extradition proceedings to Sweden on unrelated sexual assault allegations.[AP via google.com]

This should be interesting to watch unfold ...

BAE Systems have tested a new camouflaging system called “Adaptive” that can instantly blend a combat vehicle into its natural surroundings by making it invisible to infrared and other surveillance technology.[zdnet.com]

Some more pics here ...

Video included

Surveillance video shows a victim fighting off two men during an assault in New Hampshire. The suspects tried to get alcohol from a convenience store.[whdh.com]

He's certainly a wiry little dude ...

Here’s ten tips to keep yourself safe from common disasters that I see each year as a university TA.[whatsyourtech.ca]

The [Canadian] navy’s last operational submarine is now sidelined until 2016, leaving the service without an underwater capability and potentially throwing into question the future of the submarine fleet.[vancouversun.com]

Going dark through September 1 due to work and work-related travel

Signs of a fissure developing in the "all-weather" China-Pakistan relations became evident with Chinese officials in the border province of Xinjiang blaming Pakistan for the renewed spate of violence on Sunday in Kashgar town, which left nine people dead.[indiatimes.com]

Interesting ...

"President Cristina has requested us to come up with a nuclear propulsion development project for our submarines" said Defence minister Puricelli during a press conference.[bernama.com]

Their argument was that non-aligned security researchers who find security-related bugs ought to be paid for disclosing them to the relevant vendor. No money, no report.[nakedsecurity.sophos.com]

Even with crystal-clear surveillance photos of the serial slasher, he's still on the loose.[wjla.com]

Maybe you could share the actual video with us so that our subconscious' might key in on the way he walks and so forth ...

Within the ranks of Anonymous, one member had crossed a line: He granted an interview to a reporter, discussing his role in the shadowy hacker group.[huffingtonpost.com]

It would seem that they understand the Second Natural Law of Security: It's cheaper to be invisible than it is to be invincible.

Unlike traditional browser cookies, Flash cookies are relatively unknown to web users, and they are not controlled through the cookie privacy controls in a browser. That means even if a user thinks they have cleared their computer of tracking objects, they most likely have not.[wired.com]

The modernization and recent blue water operations of the Chinese navy are altering the naval power balance in the Pacific.[timesdispatch.com]

With India grappling with a depleting underwater combat arm, coupled with both Pakistan and China fast bolstering their own fleets, the Navy has appointed a senior officer to oversee and fast-track all submarine acquisition plans.[indiatimes.com]

As a submarine moves, it churns the oceans around it, creating an easily detected disturbance. Could a high-tech mesh cloak keep the surrounding waters calm?[theatlantic.com]

One of five people charged in the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent admitted Tuesday that the motivation behind the ambush killing was to rob the agent's night vision equipment.[sacbee.com]

If not for a computer scientist’s hobby of collecting old telegraph codebooks, a crucial chapter in modern cryptography might have been lost to history.[nytimes.com]

Linux: Lightweight Portable Security (LPS-Public) is a bootable live CD designed by the Department of Defense so that government employees can access data from a public computer without worrying about security violations.[lifehacker.com]

Terrorists kill for two basic reasons: They want to disrupt and destroy institutions or symbols of a political order they despise and they want to intimidate people not touched by the attack directly.[cnn.com]

There is a third reason: they long for what Nietzsche referred to as 'the happiness of the knife'.

Fricosu update

The U.S. Department of Justice took a thinly veiled swipe at an online civil liberties group that's arguing a Colorado woman can't be forced to decrypt her laptop for police inspection.

Eleven years after 118 submariners met a grisly death at the bottom of the ocean in the Kursk, a British team has developed the most advanced underwater rescue system in the world. Andrew Preston watches them go into action[dailymail.co.uk]

China is following a two-prong strategy with its impressive maritime build-up. The West is making a mistake if it underestimates the implications.[the-diplomat.com]

In a recent opinion, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli affirmed the rights of concealed-handgun permit holders to possess firearms on campus despite an apparent conflict with University of Virginia policy.[timesdispatch.com]

Video included

Pretty brazen ... of course, there's almost no chance of armed resistance thereabouts ...

Video included

From Oslo: Not sure how long this will be up as it likely violates the relevant TOS ...

A federal jury says TASER International must pay $10 million in the March 2008 death of 17-year-old Darryl Turner after being shocked by a CMPD officer. This is the biggest jury award against the company.[foxcharlotte.com]

Dangerous malware links in Google's search results will bring up a warning as Google combats Search Engine Poisoning. Google hopes to help searchers update their antivirus software as Cisco Systems reports phishing attacks are getting more dangerous -- and profitable. An analyst warned, however, that hackers could exploit Google's warning.[sci-tech-today.com]

The rise of the Web as a communication platform as well as "hacktivism" have given whistle-blowing a makeover, and enterprises with lax security need to step up their defenses or risk putting themselves out of business.[zdnetasia.com]

Brazil has begun building four diesel-powered submarines as part of a 2008 agreement with France that includes the future construction of Latin America’s first nuclear submarine.[washingtonpost.com]

A senior Iranian army commander says enemies are amazed by Iran's huge naval achievements, emphasizing that the presence of Iran's frigates in international waters has caught them off guard.[presstv.com]

Mostly, we're amazed that they float ...

An academic team formed in a partnership between the University of Calgary and SAIT Polytechnic has used quantum technology to come up with an unbreakable method of transmitting and storing data.[vancouversun.com]

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrapped up a four-day visit to China with a rare visit to a submarine base on an island off the country's eastern coast, a day after being given access for the first time to a Su-27, one of China's most advanced operational fighter jets.[wsj.com]

Video included

Why would anyone go to a club like this ...?

Fricosu update

Defendants can't be forced into providing law enforcement authorities with the encryption key to their laptops, or it becomes self-incrimination, the Electronic Frontier Foundation argued in a court brief filed in a mortgage fraud criminal case.[eweek.com]

The result of this case will likely have serious implications for data security in general ...

USB flash drives are easy to lose if you don't keep track of them.[cnet.com]

I got to have one of these ...

Either way, Muhammad could become the first person sentenced to death in the U.S. for an act of terrorism — even if that is not the charge — since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.[latimes.com]

It would be interesting to see what definition of terrorism they're using. Shooting a couple of people and then saying you did it as terrorism doesn't make it terrorism.

It was January 2010, and investigators with the International Atomic Energy Agency had just completed an inspection at the uranium enrichment plant outside Natanz in central Iran, when they realized that something was off within the cascade rooms where thousands of centrifuges were enriching uranium.[arstechnica.com]

The Colorado prosecution of a woman accused of a mortgage scam will test whether the government can punish you for refusing to disclose your encryption passphrase.[cnet.com]

If someone gets physical access to your system (it's stolen, say, or a computer repair technician is snooping around) then the best internet security suite will be no use at all, and there's only one way to ensure you're protected: encryption.[pcadvisor.co.uk]

Video included

So ... how do you decide?

Video included

In case you still think it's a good idea to 'shoot in' and 'take them to the ground' during a real-world fight, consider this ...

Video included

The 18-year-old man was shot in the torso on June 18 after he left his apartment complex in the 8400 block of Langdon Avenue and happened to run into a tagger who had just started vandalizing the front of the building, according to the 50 second surveillance footage.[contracostatimes.com]

Wow ... broad daylight and everything ... too bad he didn't get to shoot back ...

Hacker groups that attack or steal — some estimates say there are as many as 6,000 of such groups online with about 50,000 "bad actors" around the world drifting in and out of them — are a threat, but the goals, methods, effectiveness of these groups varies widely.[netwrokworld.com]

Can't tell the players without a program? Here's one ...

Video included

Rage, revenge and a baseball bat led to a horrifying attack at a Cleveland convenience store.[the33tv.com]

All together now: Don't bring a baseball bat to a car fight!

Video included

Video released by the Atlantic County prosecutorThursday shows people running for their lives as a man shoots ontothe Boardwalk just hours after Atlantic City’s Fourth of Julycelebration ended.

It's hard to see, but the shooter appears to be a guy in a black shirt that is with the gang that goes diagonal across the street to head the other group off. The person of interest (wearing the white wife-beater and white long pants) appear to be retreating ...

Taiwan has testfired for the first time a locally developed submarine-launched missile designed to counter the threat of China's fast-expanding navy, a report Thursday.[AFP]

The Transportation Security Administration on Wednesday urged foreign security agencies to ramp up security after receiving intelligence reports that terrorists might try to surgically implant explosives in the bodies of suicide bombers.[usatoday.com]

Where do they think they're going with this ...

Video included

This is funny on so many levels (I especially like when a perp's g-bloomers fall down around his ankles in mid-crime) ...

Mexican and international human-rights organizations say the Mexican military has often planted drugs or evidence on citizens in an effort to mark up arrests and convictions. Gustavo de la Rosa, a prominent human-rights lawyer in Ciudad Juarez, has said he knows of 70 such cases in the city alone.[latimes.com]

To maintain privacy while surfing the Web, you need to encrypt the data you exchange with websites and mask where that data is coming from. Enter the Tor Network, a free service maintained by the nonprofit Tor Project and a worldwide network of volunteers dedicated to keeping the Internet free and private.[pcworld.com]

"The facts of the case showed that InTown was blatantly ignoring the safety of its customers and employees," Ogden said. "You had a hotel where the office and its employees, including the manager, had been robbed four times at gunpoint in the six months leading up to the victims' attack. The manager was begging the corporate office for a security guard to protect the guests and employees of the hotel, and he was turned down."[clarionledger.com]

It would be interesting to see whether not having the S/O was a cost effective decision or not. Of course, the most likely fundamental problem was that the vics weren't ready to go when the time came. Their not being ready may have been a function of the legal environment but still, there's something perverse about suing a business for ALSO not being ready to go ...

Smith & Wesson Corp., announced that it is now shipping its new multi-caliber self-defense revolver, the Governor, along with the recently introduced Walther PPQ polymer pistol.[ammoland.com]

Besides a V6 as your engine, your car is very likely to soon be running Linux under the hood.[zdnet.com]

Interesting ...