The air is electric in Rio right now, and not just because of the surveillance cameras scattered all around the city Rio’s hundreds of surveillance cameras are easy to view on the 85 square meter display in the panopticon-style Center for Integrated Command and Control or the equally huge screen in the Operations Center…
Category: Technology
Modern Crime: Will Cyber-Assassinations Soon Be A Reality?
As we hurtle forward into the digital, connected future, ever more objects are becoming targets for hackers and malicious software. Where once hacks only affected computers, they now bring down everything from cars to power grids and thermostats to secretive nuclear enrichment programs. So how long until a hack doesn’t just cause a nuisance or…
Modern Crime: Inside a Russian Hacker Ring
A man with intense eyes crouches over a laptop in a darkened room, his face and hands hidden by a black ski mask and gloves. The scene is lit only by the computer screen’s eerie glow. Exaggerated portraits of malicious hackers just like this keep popping up in movies and TV, despite the best efforts…
Surveillance State: Hackers Have Found a Pulsating New Way to Spy on You on Your Phone and FitBit
Hackers may be pickin’ up good vibrations from your phone. All the better to surveil you with, my dear. Researchers at the Electrical and Computer Engineering school of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign discovered that the vibration motor in your devices can operate like a microphone, according to the researchers’ paper. That means, if…
Surveillance State: DIVA Software Designed to Spot Suspicous Behavior BEFORE it Happens
The program is called Deep Intermodal Video Analytics—or DIVA—and it seeks to locate shooters and terrorists before they strike. The intelligence community is working on amping up people-recognition power to spot, in live videos, shooters and potential terrorists before they have a chance to attack. Part of the problem with current video surveillance techniques is the difficulty…
Military Defense News: “Virtual Eye” Gives Soldiers The Edge in Urban Warfare
DARPA’s VirtualEye program could change the way soldiers maneuver on the urban battlefield. In just a few years, American soldiers might have the ability to see what’s inside a room before they ever breach it. And while it may not sound like much, that ability could transform the way combat operations are conducted in urban…
Espionage Files: Counterintelligence for U.S. Companies Operating Abroad
In January, the CEO of American Superconductor publicly detailed how traditional economic espionage methods carried out by a small Chinese firm resulted in over a billion dollars in loss to his company. Since at least 2011, much attention has been given to the rampant cyber espionage threat against U.S. firms, ultimately pushing U.S. businesses to…
Technology: Sci-Fi Classics That Accurately Predicted the Future
With all this talk lately of “Minority Report” type technology in Bio-Metrics and other Security apparatus, I thought it would be interesting to look at other sci-fi movies that nailed it as far as actual current or “coming soon” technology. -SF Did you know a kid’s cartoon predicted 3D-printed food in 1962? Or that…
Surveillance State: New Israeli Facial Imaging Claims to Be Able to ID Terrorist and Pedophiles?
I know we joke a lot about national security technology becoming more and more like “Minority Report”, but folks, this is already been purchased by DHS. This is Happening. -SF “Faception” Technology can match an individual with various personality traits and types with a high level of accuracy A Tel-Aviv based start-up company says it…
Future Warfare: 21st Century DIY Insurgency
It started innocuously enough. The prime minister-for-life never missed the annual “Liberation Day” parade. With the drums and platoons thundering, nobody noticed as the quadcopter, barely larger than a sparrow, floated down toward the dais, its faint whirr drowned out by the industrial machinery rolling by in formation. It was at once a child’s birthday…