• Android phones more vulnerable to cyber attacks than Apple iPhone

    Android smart phones are more susceptible to hacking and viruses than Apple’s iPhone; the Android operating system is open source, allowing hackers to understand the underlying code; Apple iPhone may have a safer operating system, but it is not impervious to attacks; McAfee warns that 2011 will see hackers increasingly target mobile devices like Android phones, iPads, and iPhones

  • Disgraced doctor had secret businesses to exploit vaccine fears

    Disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield, who used fraudulent data to “prove” a relationship between vaccination of children and autism — triggering a health crisis in 1998 — has been revealed to have planned to benefit from his fraud: in a prospectus to investors, from whom Wakefield was trying to raise an initial 700,000 Pounds, he predicts the investors could make up to 28 million Pounds($43,367,082; 33,290,350 Euros) a year from the diagnostic kits his company would sell to parents who Wakefield had intentionally scared with his “revalations” about the source of autism

  • New generation of UAVs being tested

    These are not your father’s UAVs; a new generation of UAVs represent a major technological advance over the Predator and Reaper drones that the Obama administration has deployed as a central element of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan; unlike most of the current fleet of more than 7,000 drones, the new remotely piloted planes will have jet engines and the ability to evade enemy radar; three members of the new generation of drones being flown in the coming weeks are speedier, stealthier, and higher-flying than their predecessors

  • Multi-biometrics combined in one system

    Lithuania’s Neurotechnology releases software that integrates fingerprint, iris, facial, and palm-print biometrics into a single system; MegaMatcher 4.0, Neurotechnology has incorporated palm-print technology along with the latest versions of its VeriFinger, VeriEye, and VeriLook biometric software development kits, all of which are built on a common architecture and feature a common programming interface

  • NEC releases software that configures access policy automatically

    NEC Corporation announced the development of technology that collectively distributes and configures access policy to a variety of computing resources in a cloud computing environment; the newly-developed technology helps to reduce operation costs and to improve security

  • Aussie "inland tsunami" now threatens Brisbane

    The flood zone in northern Australia covers an area larger than France and Germany combined; incessant rain and wide-spread floods have destroyed infrastructure and severely hampered economic activity; the worst is yet to come: Brisbane river has broken its banks, sparking fears that the city — Australia’s third largest and home to two million people - will be flooded by Thursday; public health experts fear that outbreaks of Ross river virus — a debilitating disease transmitted by mosquitoes, which is endemic in Queensland — will increase

  • Pentagon prohibited from purchasing Chinese solar panels

    Obama signs military appropriations bill that prohibits the Pentagon from purchasing Chinese solar panels; the “Buy American” provision is part of a larger trade dispute with China over subsidies; the Pentagon is investing heavily in solar to reduce its energy consumption and increase fighting effectiveness; the bill is likely to raise costs for the military

  • Government IT contractors remain optimistic about future

    Government services and information technology (IT) contractors remain optimistic about future growth; the defense industry still remains as “an $800 billion marketplace,” despite budget cuts and an increasing move by the federal government to insource contracts; IT firms are particularly positive about growth in key areas like cyber security, intelligence, and simulation; federal spending on cyber security is projected to reach $13.3 billion annually by 2015

  • California police use electric motorcycles

    The Scotts Valley Police Department is the first law enforcement agency in California to accept delivery of a Zero DS electric motorcycle; it will be a benchmark for evaluating the performance capabilities of the Zero DS in law enforcement situations, such as responding through traffic and on local bike trails

  • New Israeli technology speeds up warfare

    Israel is among several nations harnessing digital and satellite technology to develop C4I systems — short for “command, control, communications, computers and intelligence” — that integrate battlefield information.; one Israeli officer says the goal is to have “all the elements of a force —- seeing the same tactical picture, and you can move information from one to the other completely seamlessly”

  • New laser weapon dazzles, confuses pirates

    There were 430 pirate attacks last year, an increase of 5.6 percent on the previous year; in a bid to develop a suitable non-lethal weapon to help fend off this threat, BAE Systems studied pirate behavior; the conclusion was that an automatic weapon was needed, one that would not put any of the crew at risk, and one which would distract suspected pirates rather than harm them

  • Igloo-shaped Poo-Gloos eat sewage, clean water

    Inexpensive igloo-shaped, pollution-eating devices nicknamed Poo-Gloos can clean up sewage just as effectively as multimillion-dollar treatment facilities for towns outgrowing their waste-treatment lagoons, according to a new study

  • Floods wreak havoc on Queensland infrastructure, threaten Aussie economy

    Queensland is Australia’s largest coal exporter and accounts for about 20 percent of the nation’s A$1.28 trillion economy; the state’s worst in fifty years have forced the evacuation of 4,000 people and affected about a million square kilometers, or an area the size of France and Germany combined; it may cost more than A$5 billion to repair the damage the deluge has caused; Australia had its third-wettest year on record during 2010; the rain has destroyed cotton crops, halted coal deliveries, shut mines, and prompted producers including BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group to declare force majeure, a legal clause allowing them to miss contracted deliveries

  • NSF funds new water sustainability project

    A 45 million grant from the National Science Foundation will allow University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers to turn a comprehensive lens on Madison’s water in all its forms — in the lakes, streets, faucets, ground, and atmosphere; the study will examine the complex links between the water system and factors such as land use, climate change, human activities, development, and ecosystems

  • Sourcefire expands westward

    Maryland-based Sourcefire acquires Palo Alto-based Immunet for $21 million, expanding the company’s cybersecurity services; the acquisition will allow Sourcefire to accelerate its cloud-based initiative and provide a platform to expand its security services