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Category: security – Page 62

Student-made invisibility coat aims to hide wearers from AI cameras

The accuracy of pedestrian identification was reduced by 57% when the students tested the outfit on on-campus security cameras.

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Chinese students have successfully developed a coat that can make people invisible to security cameras. So the SCMP story goes, the coat looks the same as regular camouflaged clothing, but it can trick digital cameras, especially ones with AI.

This is achieved, so it is claimed, by virtue of the patterning of the coat that was developed using a complex algorithm. The coat also comes with inbuilt thermal devices that can emit various temperatures at night.

New liquid-coated air filters can improve early detection and analysis of airborne pathogens

Researchers from the University of Maine and University of Massachusetts Amherst have designed new liquid-coated air filters that allow for improved early detection and analysis of airborne bacteria and viruses, including the one that causes COVID-19. The team has published their findings in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

While conventional air filters help control the spread of disease in like hospitals and travel hubs, they struggle to keep the pathogens they capture viable for testing. The inefficiency can inhibit scientists’ ability to identify biological threats early on, which could hinder any response and protection measures.

The research team, led by Caitlin Howell, a UMaine associate professor of biomedical engineering, developed a composite membrane with a liquid layer for filters that is better suited for capturing viable bacterial and viral samples for analysis. They modeled the membrane after the Nepenthes pitcher plant, which has a slippery rim and inner walls that cause insects to fall and become trapped within its digestive fluid. By keeping the bacteria and they capture feasible for examination, researchers say their novel liquid-coated air filters can enhance air sampling efforts, early pathogen detection and biosurveillance for national security.

Advanced “Lab on a Chip” — Scientists Have Created a Powerful, Ultra-Tiny Spectrometer

Researchers in the field of optical spectrometry have created a better instrument for measuring light. This advancement could improve everything from smartphone cameras to environmental monitoring.

The research, led by Finland’s Aalto University, developed a powerful, incredibly small spectrometer that fits on a microchip and is run by artificial intelligence. Their research was recently published in the journal Science.

The study used a relatively new class of super-thin materials known as two-dimensional semiconductors, and the result is a proof of concept for a spectrometer that could be easily integrated into a number of technologies such as quality inspection platforms, security sensors, biomedical analyzers, and space telescopes.

Scientists create AI neural net that can unlock digital fingerprint-secured devices

Computer scientists at New York University and Michigan State University have trained an artificial neural network to create fake digital fingerprints that can bypass locks on cell phones. The fakes are called “DeepMasterPrints”, and they present a significant security flaw for any device relying on this type of biometric data authentication. After exploiting the weaknesses inherent in the ergonomic needs of cellular devices, DeepMasterPrints were able to imitate over 70% of the fingerprints in a testing database.

An artificial neural network is a type of artificial intelligence comprising computer algorithms modeled after the human brain’s ability to recognize patterns. The DeepMasterPrints system was trained to analyze sets of fingerprint images and generate a new image based on the features that occurred most frequently. This “skeleton key” could then be used to exploit the way cell phones authenticate user fingerprints.

In cell phones, the necessarily small size of fingerprint readers creates a weakness in the way they verify a print. In general, phone sensors only capture a partial image of a print when a user is attempting to unlock the device, and that piece is then compared to the phone’s authorized print image database. Since a partial print means there are fewer characteristics to distinguish it than a full print, a DeepMasterPrint needs to match fewer features to imitate a fingerprint. It’s worth noting that the concept of exploiting this flaw is not unique to this particular study; however, generating unique images rather than using actual or synthesized images is a new development.

Hive Social turns off servers after researchers warn hackers can access all data

Hive Social, a social media platform that has seen meteoric growth since Elon Musk took over Twitter, abruptly shut down its service on Wednesday after a security advisory warned the site was riddled with vulnerabilities that exposed all data stored in user accounts.

“The issues we reported allow any attacker to access all data, including private posts, private messages, shared media and even deleted direct messages,” the advisory, published on Wednesday by Berlin-based security collective Zerforschung, claimed. “This also includes private email addresses and phone numbers entered during login.”

The post went on to say that after the researchers privately reported the vulnerabilities last Saturday, many of the flaws they reported remained unpatched. They headlined their post “Warning: do not use Hive Social.”

Google discovers Windows exploit framework used to deploy spyware

Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has linked an exploit framework that targets now-patched vulnerabilities in the Chrome and Firefox web browsers and the Microsoft Defender security app to a Spanish software company.

While TAG is Google’s team of security experts focused on protecting Google users from state-sponsored attacks, it also keeps track of dozens of companies that enable governments to spy on dissidents, journalists, and political opponents using surveillance tools.

The search giant says the Barcelona-based software firm is one of these commercial surveillance vendors and not just a provider of custom security solutions as it officially claims.

Dr Svitlana Volkova — Forecasting The Future — Chief Scientist — National Security Directorate, PNNL

Dr. Svitlana Volkova, Ph.D. (https://www.pnnl.gov/people/svitlana-volkova) is Chief Scientist, Decision Intelligence and Analytics, National Security Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which is one of the United States Department of Energy national laboratories, managed by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science.

Dr. Volkova is a recognized leader in the field of computational social science and computational linguistics and her scientific contributions and publication profile cover a range of topics on applied machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and social media analytics.

Dr. Volkova’s research focuses on understanding, predicting, and explaining human behavior, interactions, and real-world events from open-source social data and her approaches help advance effective decision making and reasoning about extreme volumes of dynamic, multilingual, multimodal, and diverse real-world unstructured data.

Dr. Volkova has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University, Center for Language and Speech Processing, and an M.S. in Computer Science, from Kansas State University.

High-Laser-Energy Shot Puts NIF Back on Track Toward Ignition

Someone else posted about this, but this is from LLNL. I love what they do, and Twitter reminded me of the many Photonics shares I have. This is cool, and Ill post more links.

November 7, 2022

A record high-laser-energy NIF target shot on Sept. 19 produced about 1.2 million joules of fusion energy yield. Compared with the groundbreaking 1.35-megajoule (MJ) experiment of Aug. 8, 2021, this experiment used higher laser energy and a modified experimental design.

The NIF and Photon Science Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory conducts cutting-edge research in the fields of laser inertial confinement fusion, high energy density physics, and advanced photonics for the advancement of national security, energy security, discovery science, and national competitiveness.