Apocalypse soon: the scientists preparing for the end times

The men were too absorbed in their work to notice my arrival at first. Three walls of the conference room held whiteboards densely filled with algebra and scribbled diagrams. One man jumped up to sketch another graph, and three colleagues crowded around to examine it more closely.

Number of websites explodes past a billion (and counting)

The number of websites has burst above one billion and is growing apace, according to figures updated in real time by online tracker Internet Live Stats. Tim Berners-Lee, considered the father of the World Wide Web, touted the milestone on Twitter — one of the most prominent websites in the mushrooming but sometimes murky Internet world. It comes as the agency responsible for managing addresses on the Internet expands choices far beyond “.

Newly Revealed NSA Program Allows Online Global Internet Mapping

The NSA’s “Treasure Map” project is aimed at conducting global cyber attacks and mapping the Internet in its entirety to include end users’ devices, Der Spiegel has revealed. “The breathtaking mission is described in a Treasure Map presentation from the documents of the former intelligence service employee Edward Snowden… It instructs analysts to ‘map the entire Internet – Any device, anywhere, all the time.” the media outlet reports.

The Obamacare Website Was Hacked In July, But Officials Only Noticed It 10 Days Ago

A computer server hosting information for Healthcare.gov, the flagship Obamacare website that millions of Americans have trusted with their social security numbers, income totals and other sensitive personal information, was the subject of a hacker attack earlier this summer, officials said Thursday. The federal government wasn’t aware it had been hacked on July 8 until just ten days ago.

Who is putting up ‘interceptor’ cell towers all over the United States?

Mysterious “interceptor” cell towers in the USA are grabbing phone calls — but they’re not part of the phone networks. And, two experts told VentureBeat today, the towers don’t appear to be projects of the National Security Agency (NSA). The towers were revealed by Les Goldsmith to Popular Science last week.

Scientists Claim That ‘Artificial Human Farms’ Could Replace Animal Testing In Three Years

Artificial humans are set to replace the controversial technique of animal testing, scientists have claimed. The micro-chipped human machines due to be available in three years time will remove the need for experiments that claim the lives of up to 90 million animals each year, according to the Sunday Times. Artificial organs such as lungs, liver, and kidneys are already being used to test cosmetics, chemicals and drugs.

Cyberattacks: Perpetual state of siege for U.S. companies

The financial industry — indeed, most of the business world — works within a state of almost perpetual cybersiege at a level few consumers grasp. And the costs and dangers are growing for those who seek to protect their assets and their customers. “The constant barrage of attacks is real,” says J.

A briefcase-size radio weapon could wreak havoc in our networked world

In decades past, the few key electronic systems that existed worked at higher voltages than today’s machines and at lower frequencies, making them less sensitive to EM disruption. Today, though, any digitally controlled infrastructure presents a target: Power, telecommunications, finance, water, natural gas, and more are all coming under the ever-finer control of computers.

‘Robo Brain’ will teach robots everything from the Internet

Robo Brain – a large-scale computational system that learns from publicly available Internet resources – is currently downloading and processing about 1 billion images, 120,000 YouTube videos, and 100 million how-to documents and appliance manuals. The information is being translated and stored in a robot-friendly format that robots will be able to draw on when they need it. To serve as helpers in our homes, offices and factories, robots will need to understand how the world works and how the humans around them behave.

Is Big Brother spying on your computer – with your own cell phone?

As you know if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, I’ve written several articles on OPSEC. This one hits a lot closer to home. In order to live in a technological society, you have to give up certain expectation of privacy from those who have the technology to tap into certain systems.