military

A military and security intelligence firm that fell victim to a hacking attack has suffered another embarrassment, even while analysis reveals that hundreds of military and political officials had their digital details exposed by hackers. As ... reported last month , hackers struck Stratfor (or "Strategic Forecasting"), a Texas-based security consulting and analysis firm. They captured details of some 4,000 clients, cheekily using the stolen credit card information to make charitable donations. Stratfor customers recently received an email apparently sent by CEO, George Friedman, asking ... (view more)

The Pentagon has announced plans to issue a new strategy that would correlate computer attacks from a foreign nation to that of an act of war. In the event that a critical American computer system was ever compromised, the US President would reserve ... the right to consider a variety of responses, including retaliatory cyber-attacks, economic sanctions, and even a military strike. Defining a Major Computer Attack Naturally, a simple remote attack orchestrated by a single, independent hacker would not constitute a military response. However, a computer attack that could potentially result in ... (view more)

U.S. soldiers are being issued iPod touches; however, it's not a morale-boosting exercise or a way to combat boredom, but a low-cost way to give them access to important portable tools. In the past, the Army gave soldiers dedicated electronic ... devices for key tasks such as on-the-spot translation. However, officials found this proved expensive, particularly when they had to issue different devices for different tasks. This approach also meant the military bore the costs of researching and developing the hardware and didn't get as many economies of scale as with consumer devices. (Source: cnet. ... (view more)

Current and former national security officials speculate that the U.S. electrical grid is under attack from Russian and Chinese cyber-spies. No damage has been done to the system yet, but the threat remains in place should a war or other national ... security crisis hit the U.S. One senior intelligence official says that the Chinese and the Russians have attempted to map infrastructure which includes the electrical grid, nuclear power plants, financial networks and our water and sewage systems. (Source: wsj.com ) Constant Attacks Against Military Networks Alleged The report of the intrusions came ... (view more)

A 29-year-old New Zealand man reportedly got more than he bargained for when he bought an MP3 player from an Oklahoma thrift shop. When Chris Ogle hooked up his MP3 player to sync with his computer, he found 60 files containing military information ... including the names and personal details of American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq including: cellphone numbers, information that appeared to be from a mission briefing, details of military equipment deployed to the bases, and social security numbers. (Source: tvnz.co.nz ) Files found were marked with a warning saying the release of ... (view more)

The American armed forces have launched their own video-sharing site. TroopTube is designed to allow military personnel and their loved ones to exchange messages without the drawbacks of mainstream sites such as YouTube. The move follows a decision ... last year to block overseas military sites from accessing a dozen of the leading online video sites. That wasn't down to content concerns; rather military bosses felt streaming video was too much of a burden on the network links between the US and foreign bases. It was rumoured that at one stage the bandwidth was so clogged that it affected the ... (view more)

The latest Orwellian request from the Pentagon reportedly involves seeking contractors to provide a "Multi-Robot Pursuit System" that will let packs of robots "search for and detect a non-cooperative human." (Source: newscientist.com and dodsbir.net ... ) Questions arise as to where that type of technology could end up. Last year, iRobot struck a deal with Taser International to mount stun guns on its military robots. How long will it be before we see packs of rogue droids hunting down pesky demonstrators with paralyzing and deadly weapons while making wrong decisions? Steve Wright of Leeds ... (view more)

Think a blog site could compromise national security? Well, the military feels that it's certainly a possibility. A recent report on the American Scientists web site by the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion believes Twitter has become a tool for ... a number of threatening groups. The American intelligence community clearly isn't tickled with Twitter. The 304th warn that the web site's combination of GPS (Global Positioning System) technologies, digital maps, and other mobile tools could help terrorists plan and execute attacks on U.S. targets. The military isn't just worried about terrorists ... (view more)

You'd think stolen military gear would be sold quietly. However, it turns out anything from jet parts to body armour is available through eBay and Craigslist. The Government Accountability Office has announced the results of a unique form of covert ... ops: sending military investigators online posing as sellers. They were able to buy items not intended for public use, like night vision goggles and enhanced body armour vests. Worryingly, the haul also included army combat uniforms. Selling such clothing to non-military buyers has been illegal since January, 2007 because Iraqi insurgents were ... (view more)

It seems not even the tough, intimidating reputation of the U.S. military is enough to scare away hackers. According to recent reports, two major American military science labs have been infiltrated by what may have been a rival government. The ... break-in was announced this past weekend by the ORNL, or Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Also hacked was the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Nex Mexico. A spokesperson for Oak Ridge described the hack as a "sophisticated cyber attack," one that led to the unauthorized use of a database containing private details for visitors between 1990 ... (view more)