US military will spend $23 billion on cyber defense, create its own secure 4G network

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The US Department of Defense told a Washington thinktank yesterday that it would spend $23 billion in the next four years to kick its cyber defenses up a gear. That’ll include building out a “secure 4G wireless network that will get iPads, iPhones and Android devices online by mid-2014,” according to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey. The DoD recently approved Blackberry 10, iOS and Samsung Galaxy devices with Knox, and General Dempsey himself was packing a smartphone he said would “make Batman and James Bond jealous.” While there were no details about how such a mobile network would be locked down, he did say that all 15,000 of the Department’s computer networks would be consolidated into an enterprise cloud system to increase security. All that is to combat a “17-fold” cyber warfare increase in just over two years — no doubt including recent Chinese hacking that the White House took the rare step of recently highlighting.

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Via: The Verge

Source: US Department of Defense, The Brookings Institution

DARPA threat detection technology uses a camera to see targets, software and soldier brains to identify them

DARPA threat detection technology uses a camera to see targets, software and soldier brains to identify them

DARPA aids our military in myriad ways, from designing one shot, one kill weapons to creating robotic pack mules to carry soldiers’ gear. It’s also been building tools for soldiers to better survey their environment and identify threats, and its latest such tool is called the Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System (CT2WS). CT2WS is comprised of a 120-megapixel electro-optical video camera with a 120-degree field of view feeding a laptop running cognitive visual processing algorithms. Those algorithms identify potential targets in the video feed, which are shown to a soldier wearing an EEG cap that monitors brain signals. You see, the human brain is particularly good at perceiving threats, and CT2WS looks for the particular brain wave that occurs when we see one. The human component drastically improves the accuracy with which the system can identify enemies from afar. How accurate? Testing in desert, tropical and open terrain showed that without a solider/EEG filter, the system had 810 false alarms out of 2,304 threat events in an hour. Incorporating the filter resulted in only five false alarms per hour, plus it was able to identify 91 percent of the potential targets successfully. Not good enough, you say? Add commercial radar into the mix and the army becomes omniscient — the system then identified 100 percent of the test targets.

Continue reading DARPA threat detection technology uses a camera to see targets, software and soldier brains to identify them

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DARPA threat detection technology uses a camera to see targets, software and soldier brains to identify them originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Confirmed: AT&T offers complimentary unlock of in-contract iPhones for deployed military personnel

Finally. A bit of closure. AT&T has confirmed the long-lived speculation of its policy to unlock in-contract iPhones for our military men and women deployed overseas. To qualify for the complimentary service, active military members must have an account in good standing and provide the carrier with deployment verification — that’s it, no other hoops to jump through.

The revelation was made today as part AT&T’s new Device Unlock Portal, which allows off-contract iPhone owners to apply online to have their handsets unlocked. Previously, this unlock service was available only through the carrier’s retail outlets, online chat support or by dialing 611. As a quick rehash of the non-military policy, all users — either current or former AT&T subscribers — must have completed their contractual obligations to AT&T, and the phone cannot be flagged as lost or stolen. All those eligible should certainly apply for the service, as an unlocked iPhone is infinitely more useful when traveling abroad — a reality that deployed military members know all too well.

[Military photo via Shutterstock]

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Confirmed: AT&T offers complimentary unlock of in-contract iPhones for deployed military personnel originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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