Hasta La Gadget!

RSA offering SecurID replacements following Lockheed Martin attack originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RSA SecureID dongles add a layer of protection to everything from office pilates class schedules to corporate email accounts, with banks, tech companies, and even U.S. defense contractors using hardware security tokens to protect their networks. Following a breach at RSA in March, however, the company urged clients to boost other security methods, such as passwords and PIN codes, theoretically protecting networks from hackers that may have gained the ability to duplicate those critical SecureIDs. Now, Lockheed Martin is claiming that its network has come under attack, prompting RSA to issue 90,000 replacement tokens to Lockheed employees. The DoD contractor isn’t detailing what data hackers may have accessed, but a SecureID bypass should clearly be taken very seriously, especially when that little keychain dongle is helping to protect our national security. If last month’s Sony breach didn’t already convince you to beef up your own computer security, now might be a good time to swap in ‘Pa55werD1’ for the rather pathetic ‘password’ you’ve been using to protect your own company’s trade secrets for the last decade.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: According to Reuters, Lockheed Martin sent out a statement to clarify that it promptly took action to thwart the attack one week ago, and consequently “no customer, program or employee personal data has been compromised.” Phew! [Thanks, JD]

RSA SecureID hackers may have accessed Lockheed Martin trade secrets, cafeteria menus (update: no data compromised) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 May 2011 11:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Eurocopter X3 hybrid sets new speed record of 430kmh, readies for next search and rescue mission

Eurocopter X3 hybrid sets new speed record of 430kmh, readies for next search and rescue mission originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 May 2011 09:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The federal government may be cutting corners left and right, but that hasn’t stopped the NSA from requesting nearly $900 million to help beef up its supercomputing capabilities. According to budget documents released by the Department of Defense yesterday, the NSA is looking to construct a massive new High Performance Computing Center in Maryland, designed to harness plenty of supercomputing muscle within an energy efficient framework. As with many other data centers, the NSA’s $896.5 million complex would feature raised floors, chilled water systems and advanced alarm mechanisms, but it would also need about 60 megawatts of power — the same amount that powers Microsoft’s gargantuan, 700,000 square-foot data center in Chicago. According to the DoD, however, the NSA would use that juice judiciously, in the hopes of conserving enough water, energy and building materials to obtain LEED Silver certification. Another chunk of the funding, not surprisingly, would go toward fortifying the facility. The NSA is hoping to pour more than $35 million into building security and perimeter control, which would include a cargo inspection facility, advanced surveillance, and systems designed to detect any radiological, nuclear, or chemical threats. If all goes to plan, construction would wrap up by December 2015.

NSA wants $896.5 million to build new supercomputing complex originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The US military seems to adore the idea of wearable displays, hence its continued efforts to make them a reality. We know it seems like just yesterday that DARPA tapped Lockheed Martin to build low-power, lightweight augmented-reality eyewear, and it was actually four full years ago when the wild and wonderous dream was to craft HMDs as small and light as “high-fashion sunglasses.” Well, that dream lives on, this time with holograms: the lenscrafters at Vuzix just received a cool million to develop goggles that holographically overlay battlefield data on the wearer’s vision. It all sounds very Dead Space (or, you know, like a Top Secret version of Recon-Zeal’s Transcend goggles), promising realtime analysis of anything within sight. The company believes the finished product will be no more than 3mm thick and completely transparent when turned off. If all goes well, expect this to trickle down to consumers in short order; soon you’ll have full “situational awareness” — including relationship status — of that mysterious stranger you’ve been eyeballing from across the room.

DARPA’s next-gen wearable display: augmented-reality, holographic sunglasses originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 23:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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