In Through The Out Door

The FBI has confirmed to Popular Mechanics that it’s not only adding palm prints to its criminal records, but preparing to balloon its repository of photos, which an agency official says ‘could be the basis for our facial recognition.’ It’s all part of a new biometric software system that could store millions of [...]

Throughout history wars have been triggered by events. Being at war is a state or condition. To be legal, a war must be declared by a branch of the government entrusted by the Constitution with this power. In the Constitution of the United States, Article I provides Congress the power to declare war. War is [...]

Is the US falling behind when it comes to science and technology? Not according to an evaluation by the RAND Corporation, performed at the behest of the Department of Defense. The report does identify some areas of concern, and makes some specific recommendations.
[From RAND study: US still #1 in R&D, but sees areas of [...]

More bloggers than ever are being arrested around the world, highlighting the dangers of citizen journalism, according to a new report from the University of Washington.
[From Governments step up blogger arrests]

Recently much attention is being given to the topic of cyber warfare and rightfully so. Our computers and networks are under continuous attack from all over the world. The level of sophistication of these attacks and the quality of the code written to perform these attacks both have raised significantly in the past year. Experts [...]

[From Secret Spy Court Repeatedly Questions FBI Wiretap Network ]

Your papers please: TSA bans ID-less flight

If you think selling Web 2.0 in your organization is hard, some early backers of a Wikipedia-like project at the Central Intelligence Agency were called traitors and told they “would get someone killed” by their efforts. But Intellipedia — the CIA’s version of Wikipedia — now is so heavily used by [...]

“Chinese hacking is getting some serious Congressional attention. Two House members said Wednesday their Capitol Hill computers, containing information about political dissidents from around the world, have been hacked by sources apparently working out of China. Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf says four of his computers were hacked. New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith says [...]

“Former black-hat hacker Noah Schiffman details why DARPA’s National Cyber Range project is bound to fail. The NCR is proposed as a simulation of the Internet, including replicating ‘human behavior and frailties.’ Schiffman argues that if the Defense Department is really building something of this scope, it might as well use the actual [...]

Space Wars - Coming to the Sky Near You?

The cover story of the current issue of National Journal reports in depth on China’s cyber-aggression against US targets in the government, military, and business. We have discussed China’s actions on numerous occasions over the years. The news in this report is the suggestion that Chinese cyber-attakers may have been involved [...]

Did China’s Hackers Shut Off the Lights?— Hackers working on behalf of China’s People’s Liberation Army have penetrated networks controlling electric power grids in the United States, computer security experts believe. And that may have precipitated a massive blackout …

[From Did China's Hackers Shut Off the Lights? (Updated) (Noah Shachtman/Danger Room)]

I would link to the press release, but it doesn’t exist. New photography this week highlights the 3rd Yuan Class submarine has been launched. The first photo is a comparison of the first two Yuan class submarines launched, with the remaining photo’s of the 3rd Yuan recently launched.
The 2008 [...]

The Challenge From China

Dr. Andrew S. Erickson is one of the premier sources on Chinese Maritime analysis, and a blog favorite. Previous coverage of his work here and here. Last year Dr. Erickson published New U.S. Maritime Strategy: Initial Chinese Responses, an examination and insightful study of China’s reaction to the new US Maritime [...]

How dangerous is China? Ask the Russians, who are organizing their lawyers to go after the one place China seems to take seriously, their wallet. There has been some very interesting discussions taking place over in Russia, and it turns out, while they didn’t really care that the Type 39 Song [...]

Has China “secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region”? Thomas Harding, writing in the London Daily Telegraph early this month, has declared that it is.
According to Hardy, “Satellite imagery, passed to The Daily Telegraph, shows that a substantial harbour has been built [...]

[From Proposed Cybersecurity Bill To Pressure DHS ]

There are new developments in the case of the counterfeit Cisco routers, which we have been discussing for some time. The NYTimes updates the story after an FBI PowerPoint presentation made its way onto the Web. It seems that experts at Cisco have examined some of the counterfeit routers in detail [...]