Big Brother In Mother Russia: Putin's New Anti-Terror Bill Wants ALL The Data

Oh, Vlad.  Just when the rest of the world is getting really good at pretending we want to value human rights and raise awareness, you have to go and sign into law an anti-"terrorism" bill so rights-infringey, even some of the pro-Kremlin crowd thinks it goes too far…

Big Comrade is watching you...
(Image courtesy thetimes.co.uk.)

Bomb 'Bots Vs. Bad Guys: How Explosives And Xbox Controllers Can Take Down Terrorists

We may joke a lot about the impending horrors of how robots are coming for our jobs, but many times, for the most part, these replacements ultimately will bode well for the labors of the industrial or commercial world.  More importantly, at the top of the line, in each of these instances, the robots are being deployed by human beings capable of critical thinking and (theoretically) feeling emotions.  Now, we will find ourselves being increasingly placed in difficult situations where there are strong arguments both for and against the usage of robots in delicate human-induced situations…

A bomb robot in Arlington, TX, during the 2011 Super Bowl.
Will more such machines quell our quandaries?
(Image courtesy qz.com.)

Pride Vs. Prejudice: Anonymous Gaily Hacks ISIS Twitter Pages

When acts of terror occur, one wonders at the source of the vitriol towards certain intended targets. Often, it seems that ignorance, hatred, and other motivators of malevolent acts may be based in a person (or a fanatical subculture’s) self-hatred, or repression of certain aspects of their lives. This creates a strong means of turning the terror back upon itself...for instance, in this faaaaaaabulous way.

Oh myyyy.
(Image courtesy techly.com.au.)

If You Suspects Something, Text Something: New Anti-Terror App For New Yorkers

Are you remaining vigilant in these trying times, citizen?  Well just in case you were thinking of keeping to yourself and minding your own damn business, the government doesn't want you to, and there's a new app to abet that.

Your activism needs no more than the swipe of a finger.
That should probably be worrisome, right?
(Image courtesy ny.gov.)

IS Hacks U.S. Central Command Twitter Feed, Posts Prankish "Leaks" Like The Trolls They Are

It seems that our once-raging war against terrorism has now, at least publicly, been downgraded to some unpleasant cyberbullying.

As reported by the BBC, the United States Central Command's Twitter account was hacked by the revolutionary Islamic fundamentalist group IS, who referred to their online troll brigade as "the CyberCaliphate" in the attack.  Their "CyberJihad" didn't seem to accomplish much more than ruffling a few feathers, despite the "leak" of "secrets" like a few upper-echelon bureaucrats' mailing addresses.

Nerdy terrorists.  Great, just what we need.
(Image courtesy bbc.com.)

The Centcom Twitter account, which was known to report on strikes against IS (before the account was taken down after the hack-attack), provoked a standard "appropriate measures" response as to what was being done in retaliation.  The hack occurred while President Obama was giving a speech on cybersecurity.

Several maps and diagrams were "released" by the hackers, but these appeared to be vague logistics of maritime armaments along the Chinese coast, as well as maps of various installations in North Korea.  Nothing was more of a "secret" than a little googling couldn't uncover, with much of the (completely non-threatening) information sourced from U.S.-based think tanks.

The full feed.  This could easily be an Islamic twelve-year old.
(Image courtesy Reuters.)

According to Reuters, The Defense Department wasn't flustered, stating the government "views this as little more than a prank, or as vandalism...It's inconvenient, it's an annoyance but in no way is any sensitive or classified information compromised," Pentagon spokesman Army Colonel Steve Warren said.Nevertheless, when posted in conjunction with incendiary (fake) headlines reading "PENTAGON NETWORKS HACKED!", the IS troll brigade probably raised a few heartbeats in Washington.  For a minute.  Then we continued bombing them in real time, without needing to tweet about the success.  The "CyberJihad's" silence in America will speak to that.

Unfortunately in France, the AnonGhost cyberterrorism group, a pro-Islamic organization, have tried to terrorize French websites in wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks.  The UK Mirror reports that larger and more notorious computerized collective Anonymous have vowed revenge for the Charlie Hebdo attacks and have been plaguing IS sites throughout the last week.  This e-poking might escalate to even further name-calling and photoshopped images of completely unbelievable terrorist victory.  In the meantime, they can continue to spam the internet with narcissistic content worthy of a facebook-addicted tween.

Just...no.  Not happening, guys.
(Image courtesy mirror.co.uk.)

If You Smell Something, Yell Something: Mass-Produceable "Electronic Nose" To Monitor For Gas Attacks

While relatively rare in the world of terror attacks, deadly gas remains a threat as an insidious, easily-deployed weapon of mass destruction. However, a new sensor can help curtail gas-based attacks and save lifes.

According to factor-tech.com, an "electronic nose" is in development at the Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain, to be used on public transport in an effort to identify deadly gases. Fifteen sensors in the device would alert an attached data acquisition system and computer (via sensitive metal oxide semiconductor sensors) to help discern the nature of a toxic airborne attack, such as sarin gas.

Cristian Olguín, a researcher on the project, explains, “The use of the electronic nose technology aims to create a device that detects these warfare gases in an efficient, quick, simple and cheap way.” The affordability and precision of the device would make it a popular option for monitoring the air in and around trains, planes, and many other hubs of public connection all over the world. The device is also small enough to be portable, which could have valuable applications for both military operators and civilians living in embattled areas.

Methodology of monitoring the volume of unpleasant-smelling commuters is unfortunately still limited to first-person analysis.

Our lives can go on like normal now!  Thanks, electronic nose!

British and US Spy Agencies Compromise Yahoo Chat

It needs to be said: the actions of intelligence agencies such as the NSA and the British GCHQ amount to an act of war against innocent civilian populations around the world.  This brings their actions into line with the definition of terrorism, the use of force or the threat of the use of force against civilian populations to achieve political ends.  It is time for people to stand up and call these government agencies out for what they are: state sponsored terrorist groups.  From The Guardian:

Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal.
Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and saved them to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were an intelligence target or not.

In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery – including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.

Yahoo reacted furiously to the webcam interception when approached by the Guardian. The company denied any prior knowledge of the program, accusing the agencies of "a whole new level of violation of our users' privacy".