Ryan Satterfield was testing out his new Parrot drone in his backyard in Camarillo, California, when suddenly he wondered: Could it get hacked? Since Satterfield, founder of information security company Planet Zuda, uncovers hacking vulnerabilities for a living, it didn’t take long for him to discover a way to take over the aircraft remotely. He…
Category: Technology
Military Defense News: “Railgun” Projectiles That Can Travel at Mach 6
New “bullets” for military railguns, which could strike enemy targets traveling at a whopping six times the speed of sound, are being tested. Electromagnetic railguns and lasers are two technologies the military is harnessing as an alternative to gunpowder. The U.S. Navy is pioneering the futuristic weapons that could play a vital role in future…
Cyber-Warfare: Policing The Dark Web and How it Can Effect National Sovereignty
Cops hack into foreign computers to find cyber criminals As crime continues to proliferate on the so-called dark web, law enforcement agencies are sometimes having to work outside of their jurisdiction. When a suspected criminal acts on the dark web, authorities are unlikely to know where in the world he or she is physically located….
Israel Watch: Israeli Drones Set To Take Over The World’s Skies
Israel is by far the largest exporter of military drones in the world. Take the AirMule from UrbanAero. It could have flown right off the pages of a Batman comic book. Designed to take off and land vertically with up to 1,400 pounds of cargo and zip through the air at over 100mph, this drone is…
In the FBI’s Crypto War, Apps May Be The Next Target
IF THERE’S ANYTHING the world has learned from the standoff over the encrypted iPhone of San Bernardino killer Syed Rizwan Farook, it’s that the FBI doesn’t take no for an answer. And now it’s becoming clear that the government’s determination to access encrypted data doesn’t end with a single iPhone, or with Apple, or even…
Smart Guns: An Unproven Technology
An Interview with Wayne Weber, President of Heckler and Koch USA. The trend of making conventional objects “smart” is continuing unabated, and now even firearms are beginning to have computers integrated into them. The Cipher Brief spoke to Wayne Weber, President of Heckler & Koch USA, about the rise of smart guns. He says that…
Military Defense News: U.S. Navy Sinks Frigate with Anti-Aircraft Missile
A modified SM-6 destroyed USS ‘Reuben James,’ and that’s a big deal For more than 28 years, the frigate USS Reuben James served out a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy. Then two years after she retired, the former Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate ate an American missile and sank off the Hawaiian coast. It was no accident. In…
“Eyes in the Sky”: Pentagon Admits Conducting Spy Flights Over U.S. Soil
The Pentagon has deployed drones to spy over U.S. soil for non-military missions over the past decade, but the flights have been rare and legal, the Pentagon inspector general says. The report, made public under a Freedom of Information Act request, said fewer than 20 flights occurred between 2006 and 2015, and all have been…
“Predictive Policing”: The Cyber Version of “Stop and Frisk”
Thanks America! How China’s Newest Software Could Track, Predict, and Crush Dissent Armed with data from spying on its citizens, Beijing could turn ‘predictive policing’ into an AI tool of repression. What if the Communist Party could have predicted Tiananmen Square? The Chinese government is deploying a new tool to keep the population from uprising. Beijing is building…
Fingerprint Spoofing: Yeah there’s An App for That
So That Thumbprint Thing on Your Phone Is Useless Now Researchers found a cheap, easy way to copy your fingerprints a few months after millions of Americans had theirs stolen by hackers. Last year, when the Office of Personnel Management notified 22 million people that their personal information was compromised in a massive data breach, one…