Communicators. Golf Hotel Whiskey – The free online magazine for pilots. Plans - Golf Hotel Whiskey. Structurae - International Database and Gallery of Structures. Intelligence Resource Program. Asymmetrical Online War. In 1975, John Brunner wrote a science fiction novel, “The Shockwave Rider,” about a lone programmer who creates a computer worm that exposes a repressive regime’s secrets and ultimately undermines a tyrannical government. Life invariably seems to find a way to imitate art, but as the world’s computer systems and networks continue to fall prey to hackers, the resemblance has become eerie.
The Internet has transformed many things in the world, but one of its most remarkable effects has been to change the balance of power, not between states, but between entire nations and their citizens. “It’s a completely surreal realization that nation states can be seriously confronted by teenagers, but that’s where we’re at,” said John Perry Barlow, the Grateful Dead lyricist who co-founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1990 to help defend young computer hackers. “One very smart person can take on an entire nation state.” One can take on the security apparatus of the Web as well. NYTimes admits back doors and kill switches (via PROMIS) in military hardware. The Hunt for the Kill Switch. Three years ago, the prestigious Defense Science Board, which advises the DOD on science and technology developments, warned in a report that the continuing shift to overseas chip fabrication would expose the Pentagon's most mission-critical integrated circuits to sabotage.
The board was especially alarmed that no existing tests could detect such compromised chips, which led to the formation of the DARPA Trust in IC program. Where might such an attack originate? U.S. officials invariably mention China and Russia. Kenneth Flamm, a technology expert at the Pentagon during the Clinton administration who is now a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, wouldn't get that specific but did offer some clues. So what's the best way to kill a chip? A kill switch is any manipulation of the chip's software or hardware that would cause the chip to die outright--to shut off an F-35's missile-launching electronics, for example. Or the extra circuits could be added to the design itself.
Schneier on Security. UTM & Lat/Lon Conversions. 16) Live Ships Map - AIS - Vessel Traffic and Positions. Disaster Charter - Recent Activations.