(Credit:
General Dynamics Canada )
Depleted uranium armor may provide great protection against other tanks, but it's useless against hackers bent on penetrating the networks that tankers and other crews increasingly rely on to move and shoot.
Looking to fill the order for "digital armor," General Dynamics Canada and Secure Computing have teamed up to develop Meshnet, a hardware/software firewall designed to protect networks and digital devices inside tanks and other military vehicles from hostile computer and virus attacks.
Without adequate firewall protection, a tech-savvy enemy could infiltrate the net to eavesdrop, ambush or "blind" a crew by cutting off its information flow. This was reportedly the case during Israel's incursion into South Lebanon last year, where Hezbollah hackers were allegedly able to monitor IDF communications, giving the guerrillas a leg up in attacking Israeli armor.
Inside the M1 Abrams
(Credit: U.S. Army)Sidewinder consolidates all major Internet security functions into a single system, providing "best-of-breed" antivirus and spyware network protection "against all types of threats, both known and unknown," according to Secure Computing.
The software is packed onto a circuit board slotted inside Meshnet's "ruggedized" olive-drab, conduction-cooled chassis. This not only allows it to operate in the hot, dusty jolt-prone tank interior, but also to avoid clashing with the overall color scheme.
If you're feeling swamped in unsolicited e-mail, you're not alone. Enterprise security vendor Secure Computing this week reported spam increases 53 percent above July's daily average and 70 percent above June's average. That's not, however, a record. The current level of spam is equivalent to those reported during December 2006.
Reasons for the August bump in spam are varied. One, there's been a resurgence of the Storm worm, which is known to relay spam.
Two, enterprise security companies are seeing a higher level of attachment-based spam. In addition to the usual suspects of PDF and Excel attachments, security vendor McAfee reports the first sighting of FDF-based spam. FDF is the format used by Adobe to export data from PDF form fields.
Finally, U.K. antivirus vendor Sophos reported last week seeing an increase in what are called pump-and-dump stock scams. The latest victim, Prime Time Group, which has interests in the retail oil and gas, convenience stores and automotive services, has opened a Non Objecting Beneficial Owners list (NOBO list) investigation in an attempt to find the parties responsible.
John Shepherd-Barron, father of the automated teller machine
(Credit: BBC)Forty years ago this week, life changed. There's been plenty of hoopla over the 40th anniversary of the "Summer of Love" and the Beatles appearing on American TV, but this event even affects life on Antarctica: the birth of the ATM. Yes, there's an ATM for researchers down at McMurdo Sound.
Before the first ATM was installed by Barclay's Bank near London in 1967, there was a lot of standing in line and writing of checks, though there were probably a lot fewer $20 bills in the United States back then.
More than $25 billion will be withdrawn from bank accounts around the world today from 1.5 million of the ubiquitous dispensers. In keeping with our status as the most indebted nation in history, we Americans have more than a quarter of the world's ATMs.
Despite some security threats and occasional hacks, there seems to be no worry that ATMs will continue to be the teller of choice for most consumers. And for the record, when you're visiting its birthplace, the United Kingdom, don't ask for the nearest ATM. They're called "cash machines."
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