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In The News
Colonies of 'Cybots' May Defend Government Networks - The Cybot Age could soon be upon us. But be not afraid; this isn't Star Trek. We're not talking droves of evil cyborgs bent on galaxy domination.If all goes as planned, in just a few years colonies of software robots -- "cybots" -- linked into a "hive" mind could be defending the largest computer systems in America against network intruders. Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory say the program behind the cybots — Ubiquitous Transient Autonomous Mission Entities (UNTAME) — will be very different from current cybersecurity systems. Joe Trien, who leads the team at the lab's Computational Sciences and Engineering Division, said what will make cybots so useful is that they will be able to form groups, function autonomously and respond almost immediately. Trien likened the UNTAME framework to the Borg, a fictitious race of cybernetic organisms in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" that assimilated other cultures throughout the galaxy. "The difference between an agent-based system and UNTAME is that the cybots are designed to function on their own and they can regenerate," he said. "It works with other robots, and what it does is known by the collective. So when you lose a robot, the collective hasn't lost the information that robot was able to achieve up until the point it was killed." That's a quantum leap from current network "intelligent agents," which specialize in a single task and report to a central node or human administrator. Trien said there is little danger that cybots will organize and take over the world, stressing that the real-life "cyborg collective" would be bound by human directives. But he did acknowledge that there is a risk of malicious cybots running awry. "There's always that risk, and that's why we’re hesitant right now," Trien said. "If we don't put some boundaries on these cybots, they could turn against us. The potential is always there." UNTAME's new levels of speed and automation will likely prevent hackers from targeting one area of an network while using a diversion at another location. And that couldn't come a better time. Cyberattacks on government computer networks spiked 40 percent last year, according to US-CERT, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team. President Obama is now making computer security a priority and is asking Congress for $355 million to make private and public cyber systems more secure, as part of his Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative. Consumers lost nearly $240 million as a result of cybercrime in 2007, an all-time high and an increase of nearly $40 million from 2006, according to a report released by the National White Collar Crime Center and the FBI. Trien warned that a coordinated cyberattack today could cripple critical U.S. infrastructures with "little investment or expertise" on behalf of a hacker. "You could be a cyber-terrorist sitting anywhere around the world, and you could shut down the United States' economy if you were able to break into critical networks," he said. "We're very vulnerable." Not only could UNTAME help save thousands, even millions of dollars lost to cyber criminals, Trien points out that it will also also be cost-effective because once the system is set up, it runs itself. "You basically automate the process and do it real-time instead of having an individual doing it," Trien said. "What took you hours may now take you seconds." But the laboratory-tested prototype is at least two years away from private or municipal use, depending on resources made available through developers, Trien said. Lawrence McIntyre, one of the project's developers, said several kinks need to worked out before the program is used in real-world scenarios, including perfecting UNTAME's artificial intelligence system, which hasn't been "well developed yet," he said. "You have to make it easy for people to understand and easy for people to use," McIntyre said. "At this point, it's a very 'researchy-type' software." Commissioned in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, the project — which began in the early 1990s — was launched to response to security flaws in government computer systems. UNTAME has already garnered interest from the Air Force Research Laboratory, which leads the way in military-related computer security. "We've had several in-depth discussions," Trien said of ongoing talks with Air Force officials. "The Air Force has established long-range research objectives and we've discussed the possibility of assisting them in reaching their goals." Established in 1943, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee is the Department of Energy's largest multipurpose, nonweapons laboratory. The 10,000-acre facility, which houses more than 4,000 staffers, initially served as the Manhattan Project's site to develop nuclear weapons. Following World War II, research efforts at Oak Ridge shifted to fields like biology, physics, medicine and national security. "If we don't do something to harden our network security and information, we're vulnerable to attack," Trien said.
Oak Ridge's Supercomputer Is World's Fastest For Research - The upgrade to the Cray XT Jaguar supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) makes it the world’s fastest system available to open, unclassified research, officials said Monday. The Jaguar, housed at the Oak Ridge National Leadership Computing Facility, is capable of reaching a peak 1.64 “petaflops” (one thousand trillion mathematical calculations per second). Sen. Lamar Alexander said, “This new upgrade in supercomputing at Oak Ridge is just one of the many fascinating developments that is helping keep our state on the forefront of scientific research. It will preserve our brainpower advantage – especially along the Oak Ridge Corridor – so that we can create good jobs here instead of seeing them move overseas.” Sen. Bob Corker said, “America's economic future depends upon our ability to remain competitive in the areas of science, engineering and mathematics. Today's announcement from the Department of Energy further solidifies Oak Ridge National Lab as a global leader in supercomputing and advanced scientific research. Upgrades to Jaguar and the planned development of a new supercomputer, Kraken, will produce lasting benefits for our state's economy and for American industry and innovation. It's exciting to think that solutions to some of the world’s most pressing and complex problems could be discovered right here in Tennessee.” Rep. Zach Wamp said, “Our nation’s top scientists will now be able to accomplish in hours the same world class research that previously took months to finish. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory has once again proven it can consistently complete major projects on time, on budget and exceed its original performance goals. The science accomplished in Oak Ridge will ultimately produce more and better American jobs, advanced consumer products and will dramatically increase our country’s scientific leadership around the world.” Among the most powerful open scientific computing systems in the world, Jaguar is already in high demand by scientists wishing to take advantage of the machine’s blistering speed, it was stated. Officials said, "The Jaguar petaflops system is unique in the balance it represents among speed, power, and other elements essential to scientific discovery. Jaguar will enable companies to reduce development costs and shorten the time required to market new technologies. It is the result of a partnership among DOE, ORNL and Cray, Inc. that has pushed computing capability at a rapid pace."
Livermore, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who often played futuristic heroes in his movie career, came face-to-face with the world's largest laser system. The governor went to the Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons lab in Northern California on Monday and examined its $3.5 billion superlaser, known as the National Ignition Facility. Work on the stadium-sized project is expected to be completed by March 2009, and scientists said Monday they believe the laser could hold the key to a new source of energy. It is designed to focus 192 lasers at a single target the size of a pencil eraser to create a huge release of energy known as fusion ignition, the energy source that powers the sun and the stars. "This laser has many exciting applications," an enthusiastic Schwarzenegger said after reviewing the facility. "What's most exciting about it is the potential to revolutionize our energy future." The National Ignition Facility will simulate the pressures and heat of a nuclear explosion, meaning scientists can study the performance and readiness of nuclear weapons without detonating a nuclear device.
Washington -- A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist or fascist dictatorship. "It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may -- may not, I hope not -- but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism." Broun cited a July speech by Obama that has circulated on the Internet in which the then-Democratic presidential candidate called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military. "That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun said. "When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist." Obama's comments about a national security force came during a speech in Colorado about building a new civil service corps. Among other things, he called for expanding the nation's foreign service and doubling the size of the Peace Corps "to renew our diplomacy." "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set," Obama said in July. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." Broun said he also believes Obama likely will move to ban gun ownership if he does build a national police force. Obama has said he respects the Second Amendment right to bear arms and favors "common sense" gun laws. Gun rights advocates interpret that as meaning he'll at least enact curbs on ownership of assault weapons and concealed weapons. As an Illinois state lawmaker, Obama supported a ban on semiautomatic weapons and tighter restrictions on firearms generally. "We can't be lulled into complacency," Broun said. "You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I'm not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I'm saying is there is the potential." Obama's transition office did not respond immediately to Broun's remarks.
Report: Veins Could Replace Fingerprints as Secure Form of ID - Forget fingerprinting. Companies in Europe have begun to roll out an advanced biometric system from Japan that identifies people from the unique patterns of veins inside their fingers. Finger vein authentication, introduced widely by Japanese banks in the last two years, is believed to be the fastest and most secure biometric method. Developed by Hitachi, it verifies a person's identity based on the lattice work of blood vessels under the skin. Easydentic Group, a European leader in the biometric industry based in France, has announced that it will be using Hitachi's finger vein security in a range of door access systems for the U.K. and European markets. In Japan, thousands of cash machines are operated by finger vein technology. Hitachi announced today that it will introduce 20,000 finger vein authentication systems at shops and kiosks belonging to two Japanese companies, which will use the devices to protect the privacy of customer information by requiring storeworkers to authenticate themselves before accessing the customer database. The pattern of blood vessels is captured by transmitting near-infrared light at different angles through the finger, usually the middle finger. This can be done in a small instrument attached to a wall or as part of an ATM machine. The light is partially absorbed by hemoglobin in the veins and the pattern is captured by a camera as a unique 3-D finger vein profile, which is turned into a simple digital code which is then matched with a pre-registered profile to verify an individual's identity. Even twins are said to have different finger vein patterns. Hitachi claims that because the veins are inside the body, invisible to the eye, it is extremely difficult to forge and impossible to manipulate. While fingerprints can be "lifted" and retinas scanned without an individual realizing it, it is extremely unlikely that people's finger vein profiles can be taken without them being aware of it, the company said.
The World Bank Group's computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year........It is still not known how much information was stolen. But sources inside the bank confirm that servers in the institution's highly-restricted treasury unit were deeply penetrated with spy software last April. Invaders also had full access to the rest of the bank's network for nearly a month in June and July. In total, at least six major intrusions — two of them using the same group of IP addresses originating from China — have been detected at the World Bank since the summer of 2007, with the most recent breach occurring just last month. In a frantic midnight e-mail to colleagues, the bank's senior technology manager referred to the situation as an "unprecedented crisis." In fact, it may be the worst security breach ever at a global financial institution. And it has left bank officials scrambling to try to understand the nature of the year-long cyber-assault, while also trying to keep the news from leaking to the public.
Americans Ignorant of Plans to Create Artificial Life... If you've never heard of the exciting field of synthetic biology, you're not alone, but you might want to get wise to the field's controversial promise to create life from scratch. About two-thirds of U.S. residents are clueless as well, having never heard of synthetic biology. Only 2 percent in a new telephone survey of 1,003 adults said they have heard a lot about the work, which crosses biology with technology and promises to create forms of life that Nature never thought of. Synthetic biologists engineer and build or redesign living organisms, such as bacteria, to carry out specific functions. The field is a scientific playground for the genetic code, where previously nonexistent DNA is formulated in test tubes. By taking genetic engineering to the extreme, synthetic biologists aim to make life in the lab. The promise is that the novel organisms will fight disease, create alternative fuels or build living computers.
Microsoft submitted a patent application in the U.S. for a "unique monitoring system" that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read "heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure," the application states. The system could also "automatically detect frustration or stress in the user" and "offer and provide assistance accordingly."
About one in 10 Web pages is infected with malicious software that could result in a user's personal information being stolen, according to Google researchers. Sensitive data such as banking passwords and e-mail addresses could unwittingly be handed over to criminals as a result of visiting infected pages, which work by exploiting a vulnerability in the user's Internet browser, a study by Google researchers suggests. The researchers said in their report that they had analyzed approximately 4.5 million Web pages over a 12-month period and found that 450,000 had caused a test computer to make a "drive-by download," a common example of which was a "keylogger," which captures every keystroke a user makes.
Hackers Gather in Vegas to Share Tips on Attacking Networked World...........Want to break into the computer network in an ultra-secure building? Ship a hacked iPhone there to a nonexistent employee and hope the device sits in the mailroom, scanning for nearby wireless connections.
Companies Screen Employee E-Mails, Instant Messages for Sensitive Information..........Such careful oversight is becoming more common. Many organizations, fearful that inside information can slip out through innumerable digital avenues, now govern precisely what employees can or cannot put into e-mails, instant messages, Web postings and even offline documents. But employers can't hold their workers' hands all the time — so they're increasingly turning to software that tries to do it for them. Offices have had strong computer controls for years, from inbound protections like antivirus programs to filtering technologies that block porn or Web e-mail sites. This new generation of software sticks its nose into even more of what people do all day.
United Nations — Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused "a few bullying powers" of trying to thwart the country's nuclear programs and vowed to defend Iran's right to peaceful nuclear power, in an address Tuesday afternoon before the United Nations. The controversial Iranian president stressed that his country was prepared for a dialogue with world powers but refused to accept any illegal demands on Iran's nuclear program. With major world leaders watching, and just eight hours after President Bush's final speech before the general assembly, Ahmadinejad used the U.N. platform to decry a "Zionist regime," a thinly veiled reference to Israel, for what he described as persecution of other Middle Eastern peoples. "The Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse, and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters," Ahmadinejad said of Israel. The Iranian president is feared and reviled in Israel because of his repeated calls to wipe the Jewish state off the map, and his aggressive pursuit of nuclear technology has only fueled Israel's fears. And in a direct attack on the U.S., he declared that the "American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road," and urged the next presidential administration to "limit their interference to their own borders."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday said that Israel was doomed like "an airplane that has lost its engine" and reiterated his refusal to accept the Holocaust as historical truth, asserting that the Palestinians should not be made to "pay for" events that "may have occurred during World War II." "Who are these people? Where did they come from?" he asked in an interview published in Tuesday's Los Angeles Times, referring to the Jewish refugees from Europe who founded the state of Israel in 1948. "If we agree and accept that certain events had occurred during World War II, well, where did they indeed happen? In Germany, in Poland… Now what exactly does this have to do with Palestine? Why is it that the Palestinian people should pay for it?"
'Big Bang Machine'....Scientists in Geneva hope the powerful collider will reveal more about "dark matter," antimatter and possibly hidden dimensions of space and time. They could also find evidence of a hypothetical particle — the Higgs boson — which is sometimes called the "God particle" because it is believed to give mass to all other particles, and thus to matter that makes up the universe. Smaller colliders have been used for decades to study the makeup of the atom. Scientists once thought protons and neutrons were the smallest components of an atom's nucleus, but experiments showed those particles are made of even smaller ones, such as quarks and gluons. Some skeptics have expressed fears the high-energy collision of protons could imperil the Earth by creating micro black holes — subatomic versions of collapsed stars whose gravity is so strong they can suck in planets and other stars. CERN and leading physicists dismiss the fears and maintain the project is safe
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