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]