• Hurricane proofing Houston's power

    In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, residents, politicians, and utility officials say it is time to consider burying electric lines underground in order to hurricane-proof Houston

  • FCC restarts public safety network in the 700 MHz band

    The Federal Communication Commission revives plans for a nationwide emergency network; decision follows disappointing results of the “D Block” auction

  • Washington State, Microsoft sue cyber fear mongers

    Washington State has one of the nation;s toughest anti-spyware laws, and the state attorney general joins with Microsoft to sue companies which use fear to sell security products

  • Invisibility cloak as a protection against tsunamis

    Rather than fortifying sea platforms and coastal towns to withstand tsunamis, it may be possible to use invisibility cloaks to make off-shore platforms, islands, and even cities “invisible” to waves

  • Web browsers affected by Clickjacking

    US CERT issues a warning about a new cross-browser exploit technique called “Clickjacking”; clickjacking gives an attacker the ability to trick a user into clicking on something only barely or momentarily noticeable; thus, if a user clicks on a Web page, they may actually be clicking on content from another page

  • Stolen laptops "broadcast" their location to rightful owners

    Huskies researchers develop a software tool which uses the Internet as a homing beam; if the thief uses the stolen laptop to connect to the Internet, the owner receives information on the laptop location (and Macintosh owners also recvied a picture of the thief)

  • Engineers to quake-proof Cal stadium on free-floating blocks

    Engineers have solved one of the world’s great retrofit puzzles: how to keep UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium from crumbling into a pile of concrete rubble during a major earthquake

  • U.S.-based computers launch most cyberattacks in 2008

    Computers, or hackers, based in the United States launched most of the cyber attacks in the world between January and September 2008; China-based computers were in second place, and Brazil came in third; United States also led in the number of computers compromised

  • FSU joins coalition working to improve U.S. power grid

    Seminoles center joins the other sixty-nine member companies and organizations of the GridWise Alliance to push for modernizing the U.S. power grid

  • Briefly noted

    Smart cluster bomb hunts down targets… Anthrax-case documents reveal bizarre Ivins’s behavior… New FISMA bill receives committee OK… L-1 in $5.9 million Mississippi driver’s license contract…

  • Satellite phone company Iridium acquired for $591 million

    Iridium made a name for itself for going bankrupt eight years ago and being bought for $25 million; it later donated satellite phones to first responders in the aftermath of Katrina; now it is being acquired for half a billion dollars

  • GPS vulnerable to spoofing

    GPS technology is ubiquitous in civilian and military applications; Cornell University researchers raise uncomfortable questions by demonstrating how GPS navigation devices can be readliy duped by transmission of fake GPS signals that receivers accept as authentic ones

  • Cyber Storm II drill shows ferocity of virtual attack

    In March governments from Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States ran the largest-ever cyber war games, Cyber Storm II; the drill tested critical infrastructure including dam walls, telecommunications, and government computer networks

  • NATO in major anti-terror drill

    NATO will hold a two-week comprehensive anti-terrorrism drill in Sardinia; 15 nations, 10 agencies will coordinate land, air, sea, space assets in an effort to smooth communication, information sharing, and operational execution

  • Briefly noted

    Aussie cyber security needs work… D.C. policy carry iPhones… Surveillance radar in Indonesian straits… HUD awards Iowa critical infrastructure funds…