Lifeboat Foundation

Deep learning techniques have recently proved to be highly promising for detecting cybersecurity attacks and determining their nature. Concurrently, many cybercriminals have been devising new attacks aimed at interfering with the functioning of various deep learning tools, including those for image classification and natural language processing.

Perhaps the most common among these attacks are adversarial attacks, which are designed to “fool” deep learning algorithms using data that has been modified, prompting them to classify it incorrectly. This can lead to the malfunctioning of many applications, biometric systems, and other technologies that operate through deep learning algorithms.

Several past studies have shown the effectiveness of different adversarial attacks in prompting deep neural networks (DNNs) to make unreliable and false predictions. These attacks include the Carlini & Wagner attack, the Deepfool attack, the fast gradient sign method (FGSM) and the Elastic-Net attack (ENA).

A strain-sensing smart skin developed at Rice University that uses very small structures, carbon nanotubes, to monitor and detect damage in large structures is ready for prime time.

The “strain paint” first revealed by Rice in 2012 uses the fluorescent properties of nanotubes to show when a surface has been deformed by stress.

Continue reading “Strain-sensing smart skin ready to deploy” »

A new computer algorithm developed by the University of Toronto’s Parham Aarabi can store and recall information strategically—just like our brains.

The associate professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering, in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, has also created an experimental tool that leverages the new algorithm to help people with memory loss.

“Most people think of AI as more robot than human,” says Aarabi, whose framework is explored in a paper being presented this week at the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Conference in Glasgow. “I think that needs to change.”

SpaceX’s CRS-25 mission is set to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from launchpad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Launch is targeted for 8:44 p.m. EDT (00:44 UTC), Friday, July 14. The Dragon spacecraft will deliver new science investigations, supplies, and equipment for the international crew, including an image spectrometer to be mounted on the exterior of the station to better understand how dust plumes affect our climate, and a study of immune aging and potential for reversing those effects. It also will carry an investigation from a team of students at Stanford University that will test the process of creating biopolymer soil composite, a concrete alternative, in microgravity. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/spa…highlights.

Credit: NASA

Continue reading “Watch NASA’s SpaceX CRS-25 Launch to the International Space Station” »

The China National Space Administration’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft has finished its mission to image the entire Martian surface.

“NGS experts believe these materials were applied ahead of an exhibition in the early twentieth century,” the organization said in a press release. “Van Gogh often re-used canvases to save money. However, instead of painting over earlier works, he would turn the canvas around and work on the reverse.”

The portrait shows “a bearded sitter in a brimmed hat with a neckerchief loosely tied at the throat,” NGS says. The portrait has an intense stare, and the right side of his face is in shadow, while his left ear is clearly visible.

When you visit a website, the page can capture your IP address, but this doesn’t necessarily give the site owner enough information to individually identify you. Instead, the hack analyzes subtle features of a potential target’s browser activity to determine whether they are logged into an account for an array of services, from YouTube and Dropbox to Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and more. Plus the attacks work against every major browser, including the anonymity-focused Tor Browser.

“If you’re an average internet user, you may not think too much about your privacy when you visit a random website,” says Reza Curtmola, one of the study authors and a computer science professor at NJIT. “But there are certain categories of internet users who may be more significantly impacted by this, like people who organize and participate in political protest, journalists, and people who network with fellow members of their minority group. And what makes these types of attacks dangerous is they’re very stealthy. You just visit the website and you have no idea that you’ve been exposed.”

The risk that government-backed hackers and cyber-arms dealers will attempt to de-anonymize web users isn’t just theoretical. Researchers have documented a number of techniques used in the wild and have witnessed situations in which attackers identified individual users, though it wasn’t clear how.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — It’s a question that’s puzzled doctors for decades: Why does cancer spread to where it spreads? Well, scientists may finally have an answer. Researchers at the University of…