Lifeboat Foundation

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Mayhem ruled the day when seven AIs clashed here last week — a bot named Mayhem that, along with its competitors, proved that machines can now quickly find many types of security vulnerabilities hiding in vast amounts of code.

Sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the first-of-its-kind contest sought to explore how artificial intelligence and automation might help find security and design flaws that bad actors use to penetrate computer networks and steal data.

Mayhem, built by the For All Secure team out of Carnegie Mellon University, so outclassed its competition that it won even though it was inoperable for about half of the contest’s 96 270-second rounds. Mayhem pivoted between two autonomous methods of finding bugs and developing ways to exploit them.

Continue reading “Artificial Intelligence Just Changed the Future of Information Security” »

I will like to see how this stacks against China’s Quantum net, QC platform, AI, and hackers in the future. Not sold at this point until we truly have a QC infrastructure in place.

At DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge, bots showed off their ability to help a world wallowing in vulnerable code.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Mayhem ruled the day when seven AIs clashed here last week — a bot named Mayhem that, along with its competitors, proved that machines can now quickly find many types of security vulnerabilities hiding in vast amounts of code.

Continue reading “Artificial Intelligence Just Changed the Future of Information Security – Defense One” »

The ultimate test of wits in computer security occurs through open competition on the global Capture the Flag (CTF) tournament circuit. In CTF contests, experts reverse engineer software, probe its weaknesses, search for deeply hidden flaws, and create securely patched replacements.

On August 4, 2016, DARPA will hold the Cyber Grand Challenge, the world’s first all-computer CTF tournament. It will take place live on stage co-located with the DEF CON conference in Las Vegas. The public is invited to attend and observe as automated systems take the first steps towards a defensible, connected future.

Continue reading “Welcome to DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge” »

If human beings are ever to colonise other planets – which might become necessary for the survival of the species, given how far we have degraded this one – they will almost certainly have to use generation ships: spaceships that will support not just those who set out on them, but also their descendants. The vast distances between Earth and the nearest habitable planets, combined with the fact that we are unlikely ever to invent a way of travelling that exceeds the speed of light, ensures that many generations will be born, raised and die on board such a ship before it arrives at its destination.

A generation ship would have to be a whole society in microcosm, with hospitals and schools, living quarters and perhaps entertainment districts, a security force, maybe even a judiciary. It would need to be able to provide food for its crew, and that might require agriculture or aquaculture, perhaps even domestic animals (which might also be needed for the colonisation effort). Its design therefore presents a major challenge: not just to engineers but also to social scientists. How should the crew be selected and the environment structured to minimise interpersonal conflict? What size of population is optimal for it to remain committed to the single overarching project of colonising a new planet without too much of a risk of self-destructive boredom or excessive narrowing of the gene pool? Does mental health require that a quasi-natural environment be recreated within the ship (with trees, grass and perhaps undomesticated birds and small animals)?

As well as the technological and social challenges confronting the designers of such ships, there are fascinating philosophical and ethical issues that arise. The issue I want to focus on concerns the ethics of a project that locks the next generation into a form of living, the inauguration of which they had no say over, and that ensures their options are extremely limited.

Continue reading “Would it be immoral to send out a generation starship?” »

Could this help on the whole IoT security challenge — TBD.

A $9.4 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) could lead to development of a new technique for wirelessly monitoring Internet of Things (IoT) devices for malicious software – without affecting the operation of the ubiquitous but low-power equipment.

The technique will rely on receiving and analyzing side-channel signals, electromagnetic emissions that are produced unintentionally by the electronic devices as they execute programs. These signals are produced by semiconductors, capacitors, power supplies and other components, and can currently be measured up to a half-meter away from operating IoT devices.

Continue reading “DARPA-Funded Project Could Develop New Technique for Wirelessly Monitoring Malicious Software on IoT Devices” »

I see many uses for this such as provider services including front office & hospital admissions, security in assessing people in line or trying to gain entry, etc.

Machines are taking over more and more tasks. Ideally, they should also be capable to support the human in case of poor performance. To intervene appropriately, the machine should understand what is going on with the human. Fraunhofer scientists have developed a diagnostic tool that recognizes user states in real time and communicates them to the machine.

The camera firmly focuses on the driver’s eyes. If they are closed for more than one second, an alarm is triggered. This technique prevents the dangerous micro-sleep at the wheel. “It is not always as easy for a machine to detect what state the human is in, as it is in this case,” says Jessica Schwarz from the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE in Wachtberg, just south of Bonn.

Continue reading “Computers will be able to assess humans’ state of mind” »

Excellent write up on a paper submitted to the International Association for Cryptologic Research, by a group of UK and Belgian researchers are offering up a dig-sig scheme to assist in the addressing of Digital signatures (one of the fundamental parts of cryptography) in a post-quantum world. Expect the heat to rise on QC security as China’s launch date nears for the new Quantum Satellite.

Boffins smokin’ idea to share parts of keys to cook quantum-proof crypto.

Beijing and Moscow have agreed that they will “proactively consider strengthening bilateral coordinating measures” to tackle the threat posed by the US and the Republic of Korea’s plan to deploy a powerful antimissile system on the Korean Peninsula.

The consensus was reached during the fourth China-Russia Northeast Asia security consultation in Mosow on Thursday, according to a news release of the Foreign Ministry on Friday.

Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Kong Xuanyou and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov co-chaired the meeting.

Get ready, set, GO!!!

The culmination of the Cyber Grand Challenge, the world’s first tournament of automated computer security systems hosted by DARPA, will take place next month in Las Vegas, Nevada.