Radiation mapping has evolved over the past decade, but there are still areas researchers would like to improve.
Scientists at the Berkeley Lab in the US are training a four-legged robot to detect and map radiation in any environment. This could revolutionize nuclear safety, security, and emergency response.
Thor Swift/Berkeley Lab.
Boston Dynamics’ Spot
Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Bard have taken the world by storm this year, with companies investing millions to develop these AI tools, and some leading AI chatbots being valued in the billions.
These LLMs, which are increasingly used within AI chatbots, scrape the entire Internet of information to learn and to inform answers that they provide to user-specified requests, known as “prompts.”
However, computer scientists from the AI security start-up Mindgard and Lancaster University in the UK have demonstrated that chunks of these LLMs can be copied in less than a week for as little as $50, and the information gained can be used to launch targeted attacks.
📢 Security Advisory : Two major security flaws in the Curl data transfer library exposed. CVE-2023–38545, the worst of them, could lead to code execution.
Learn more about them here: https://thehackernews.com/2023/10/two-high-risk-security-flaws-discovered.html.
Patch your systems and software immediately.
https://informatech.co/3Ff6TaR by @wirelesswench
Microsoft flagged two zero-day security vulnerabilities under active attack in October’s Patch Tuesday update, which affect Microsoft WordPad and Skype for Business. The release also features a critical-rated, wormable bug in Message Queuing that could instill terror for admins of vulnerable systems.
The two bugs are part of a cadre of 103 total CVEs addressed by the computing giant this month. The patches run the gamut of Microsoft’s portfolio, including Azure, ASP.NET, Core, and Visual Studio; Exchange Server; Office, Microsoft Dynamics, and Windows.
Appropriately for October, the number of critical-rated vulnerabilities comes in at an unlucky 13; and notably, a full 20% of the fixes in the update relate to Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ).
Multiple high-severity security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in ConnectedIO’s ER2000 edge routers and the cloud-based management platform that could be exploited by malicious actors to execute malicious code and access sensitive data.
“An attacker could have leveraged these flaws to fully compromise the cloud infrastructure, remotely execute code, and leak all customer and device information,” Claroty’s Noam Moshe said in an analysis published last week.
Vulnerabilities in 3G/4G routers could expose thousands of internal networks to severe threats, enabling bad actors to seize control, intercept traffic, and even infiltrate Extended Internet of Things (XIoT) things.
Posted in biotech/medical, government, security
America in the near future has lost the war against drugs. Paranoia reigns as 2 out of every 10 Americans have been hired by the government to spy on the other 8 in the name of national security and drug enforcement. Enter Fred, a reluctant undercover cop recruited by the government. To maintain his cover, Fred regularly ingests the popular Substance D. The drug has caused Fred to develop a split personality, of which he is unaware; his alter ego is Bob Arctor, a drug dealer. Fred’s superiors set up a hidden holographic camera in his home as part of a sting operation to snare Bob. A “scramble suit” that changes his appearance allows Fred to appear on camera as Bob and prevents his colleagues from knowing his true identity. The camera in Fred/Bob’s apartment reveals that Bob’s friends regularly betray one another for the chance to score more drugs.
The 2 SOPS or 2nd Space Operations Squadron commander, Lt Col Robert Wray… More.
Of all the missions the Space Force performs daily for a grateful nation, there is none more ubiquitous and essential than GPS. Today’s soldiers and sailors depend on reliable, accurate, and secure GPS as much as they do any weapon they employ. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is just as dependent on GPS to enable basic mobility and underpins every other sector of the modern global economy. The criticality of secure global navigation and timing to both warfighting and the national economy makes it unique – we simply could not go a day without space. In so few words, GPS’ future is ground zero for the new space race.
The 2 SOPS or 2nd Space Operations Squadron commander, Lt Col Robert Wray reminds me that “14 of the 16 critical infrastructures designated by the Department of Homeland Security rely on 24/7 GPS to operate for the country.” But the newest GPS satellites in use today are the same school bus sized ones Gen. Hyten has lamented are, “juicy targets” for our adversaries – marvels of modern engineering, yes, but no longer sufficient to meet modern needs.
Alternatives to GPS, categorically called Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), are growing rapidly because the old GPS system we rely on offers neither the precision nor security needed in an increasingly autonomous, rule based, and precisely timed world. What exactly needs to change then, aside from smaller, faster satellites as technology becomes more efficient and readily available? There are major challenges with the current system that today’s Guardians are already working on. But to usher in a new and improved GPS capability, the government needs to adopt artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance squadron operations, work to better integrate commercial software into current GPS constellation to get the most out of current capabilities, and continue to invest in the next generation of leaders. Private capital has begun aligning with companies aiming to solve these future deficiencies, in a race against pacing threats like China and Russia.
The results of the Chi-Nu physics experiment at Los Alamos National Laboratory have contributed essential, never-before-observed data for enhancing nuclear security applications, understanding criticality safety and designing fast-neutron energy reactors. The Chi-Nu project, a years-long experiment measuring the energy spectrum of neutrons emitted from neutron-induced fission, recently concluded the most detailed and extensive uncertainty analysis of the three major actinide elements—uranium-238, uranium-235 and plutonium-239.
“Nuclear fission and related nuclear chain reactions were only discovered a little more than 80 years ago, and experimenters are still working to provide the full picture of fission processes for the major actinides,” said Keegan Kelly, a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Throughout the course of this project, we have observed clear signatures of fission processes that in many cases were never observed in any previous experiment.”
The Los Alamos team’s final Chi-Nu study, on the isotope uranium-238, was recently published in Physical Review C. The experiment measured uranium-238’s prompt fission neutron spectrum: the energy of the neutron inducing the fission—the neutron that crashes into a nucleus and splits it—and the potentially wide-ranging energy distribution (the spectrum) of the neutrons released as a result. Chi-Nu focuses on “fast-neutron-induced” fission, with incident neutron energies in millions of electron volts, where there have typically been very few measurements.
NASA Celebrates Arrival of OSIRIS-REx and Bennu Asteroid Samples on Earth
In a historic moment that marks the culmination of a seven-year interstellar odyssey, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has successfully delivered its first precious cargo to Earth. The long-awaited rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu has yielded a treasure trove of samples that are now undergoing meticulous examination by scientists and researchers.
The momentous touchdown occurred on Sunday, September 24, at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. Subsequently, the valuable package was carefully hoisted onto a waiting helicopter before embarking on the final leg of its journey to a high-security clean room. Access to this pristine environment is strictly limited to a select group of six individuals.
The operations are based on an outdoor docking system that incorporates the firm’s AtlasPRO tricopter drones meant for surveillance.
Providing fool-proof security at airports proves to be challenging due to various logistical limitations, primarily due to its size, even though the airport security system is typically organized clearly and logically.
Issues like frequent communication breakdowns with the board, poor visibility in bad weather, the inaccessibility of the runway due to icing in some areas, and unauthorized entry into the airport’s boundaries can delay responses to unexpected life-threatening situations.
