defcon 9/30: asteroid attack, doomsday, the moon & 2012

asteroid attack!: putting earth's defences to the test*

dhs report: US at risk of cyber attack*
confessions of a cyber czarist*
new nsa center unveiled in budget documents*
senate kills accountability for cyber-security 'czar'*
russia's doomsday device supposedly still active & being upgraded*
cyber control: white house or dhs?*
halfpasthuman.com: 'web-bot project' makes prophecy of 2012 apocalypse*
nasa retargets moon-attack probe*

US sends 2 missile defense satellites into orbit

from ap: Two satellites are heading to orbit as part of a missile defense program demonstration. The pair was launched aboard a Delta 2 rocket on Friday morning as part of the Space Tracking and Surveillance System demonstration for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. According to Bob Bishop, media relations manager for satellite developer Northrop Grumman, the satellites will demonstrate technology that can detect infrared and visible light from missiles launched from earth. The space surveillance system will provide global tracking for the ballistic missile defense system. Data from the satellites' onboard sensors will be used by the military to intercept missile targets.

defcon 9/24: f the cc, felonies, netflix & spacejunk

fcc to propose 'net neutrality' rules*
fcc position may spell the end of unlimited internet*
should the president have the power to turn off the internet?*
presidential internet kill switch may still be alive*
feds move to control the internet*
cybersecurity: one step forward*
cybersecurity vs cyberwarfare*
obama cyberczar to regulate the information highway*
will the US president have the authority to shut down the internet?*
former US cyber czar joins wurldtech's advisory board *
fcc: congress said we could spank comcast for p2p blocking*
plea deal clears intel analyst of felony hacking*
dozens report strange lights over massachusettes*
millions under surveillance by obama's new internet spy program*
white house takes a big step into the cloud withapps.gov*
netflix pays out $1m for better recommendations*
netflix prize 2: (privacy) apocalypse now?*
authentication said key to cybersecurity*
pentagon wants 'space junk' cleaned up*
too much radiation for astronauts to make it to mars*

scientists confirm water on the moon

from theregister.co.uk: Analysis of the lunar surface by three different spacecraft has provided "unambiguous evidence" of water on the Moon, Space.com reports. India's Chandrayaan-1, NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and the agency's Deep Impact probe have all detected the presence of either water or hydroxyl - one hydrogen atom and one oxygen atom linked by a single bond. The NASA-built Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) aboard Chandrayaan-1 "detected wavelengths of light reflected off the surface that indicated the chemical bond between hydrogen and oxygen". The M3 suggested water/hydroxyl in the top few millimetres of the lunar surface - the limit of its penetrative capability - and detected a water signal which "got stronger toward the polar regions". Cassini passed by the Moon in 1999, en route to Saturn, and also noted a globally-distributed water/hydroxyl signal, once again stronger towards the poles.

related update: spacecraft spies frozen water in martian craters*

who wants to work at cybercom?

where you, too, can help "fight the net" like it's an "enemy weapons system" & engage the public in psychological warfare designed to manipulate public opinion!
from hitn jobspot: If you want to do interesting and challenging work and to make a contribution to national defense, DISA is a great place for you. DISA provides secure and reliable communications and computing support that enable the President and our military forces to communicate globally through voice, video, and data transmission. DISA is a leader within the Federal Government in implementing "people programs" and offers a broad range of quality-of-life and training programs. For more information, go to www.disa.mil.

obama honors ibm's blue gene supercomputer

from techradar: President Obama today presented IBM and its Blue Gene family of supercomputers with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The Medal is the highest honour for technological achievement in America, and was created in 1980 to encourage innovation and competitiveness... IBM has earned the National Medal of Technology and Innovation on seven other occasions. This time, it's for the Blue Gene supercomputers that have helped map the human genome, investigate medical therapies, design nuclear weapons, simulate radioactive decay and predict climate trends. President Obama will personally bestow the award at a special White House ceremony on October 7.

defcon 9/17: the moon & malware, the cloud & psyops

lawmakers criticize obama spacepanel for dissing moon plan*
pressure builds on obama to appoint cybersecurity coordinator*
uk police 'encouraged' to hack more*
hathaway on cyber security for the 1st time after leaving the white house*
white house collects web users' data without notice*
audio: cloud computing for governments*
internet security software company says 9/11 searches infected with malware*
intel agencies plan to beef up cybersecurity*
US special ops make psyop websites targeted at uk*
france approves internet piracy bill;
allows 'authorities' to cut web to people who download illegally*

some thoughts on losing the internet

what online activists should do to prepare for worst-case scenario
from corbett report Yesterday morning my worst nightmare was realized: I turned on my computer, opened my internet browser and...nothing happened. Then, after an excruciatingly long time in which nothing stubbornly continued to happen, something bad happened: an error message popped up to tell me that the connection to the server at corbettreport.com could not be found. In the two years I've been running the site I've never been unable to connect to the server before. Thinking it may have been a server problem with my web host, I tried to check YouTube. And my email. I was so desperate I even tried CNN. But each time the same error taunted me: server not found. My internet connection was down.

Was this a problem with my modem? My internet provider? Was the internet down in my part of Japan? The whole country? Ironically enough, my first reaction in such a situation is generally to check the internet for answers, but what do you do when you don't have the internet? Well, given that it was 6:00 A.M. there wasn't much that I could do. And even if it had been regular business hours, as an English speaker in Japan it's not quite as simple as just phoning up your ISP. There's a special English help line the number for which I would have had to look up (you guessed it) online.

All at once the prospect of a day without the internet spread out before me in all its horror: No emailing anyone to set up interviews for my podcast. No interviews for that matter (I conduct them by Skype and record them to my hard drive). No checking the news...the real news, I mean, not the corporate pabulum that is spoonfed to the masses via TV. It was a good thing I already had my mp3 player loaded up with podcasts, otherwise I would have had to resort to...what? Staring blankly out the window of the train on the way to work like my fellow passengers? Well, no, I could have brought a book, but I suddenly realized why so many people complain about their commute rather than look forward to it as the highlight of their working day. Personally, I'd much rather listen to MediaMonarchy.com than sit at my desk pretending to look busy.

Of course, if anyone is aware of just how important the internet is or just how much is at stake if we were to lose it, it's me. Having produced video after video and article after article and podcast episode after podcast episode on the subject, I understand that the powers that be are threatened by this technology and desperately want an excuse to start clamping down on it (as they already have done in country after country). That's why it's vital that people oppose legislation that threatens their online freedoms, or even—as in the case of the recently re-introduced Rockefeller-sponsored cybersecurity bill—gives the White House the power to shut down the internet.

But still, knowing something intellectually and actually experiencing it are two different things. In the end, it turns out the entire incident was the result of a billing mistake that was quickly resolved, but it has nonetheless brought many of the issues around internet freedom and activism into sharp focus for me. We cannot take the internet for granted and we all have to prepare for the possibility that it might not be here tomorrow. To that end, I offer this list of simple steps every activist can take in the event that our main form of communication is suddenly severed, for whatever reason.

Save all files locally: This may seem like an obvious idea, but it bears repeating, especially as we move into an era of "cloud computing." If you need a copy of a document that you've created, you should never assume you'll always have access to it through the internet...even on your own website. Save a copy on your hard drive, external drive, CD, DVD or somewhere where you will always have access to it.

Download all important infomation: When you see an important news story, download an html copy to your hard drive. This is very easy to do in any internet browser and only takes a few seconds, but it insures that important information cannot be permanently flushed down the memory hole. Also, if you see a good video, don't just passively enjoy it and don't bank on its being available the next time you click on it (especially given YouTube's propensity for taking down politically-sensitive material these days). Visit websites like Keepvid.com or use Firefox extensions like Download Helper to make sure you can store a copy on your hard drive. Also, never use email as a way of storing contacts, phone numbers, and other important information...as I have until now.

Build up your offline network. As great as the internet is, it is only a tool for connecting people. If you spend as much time building up contacts offline as you do online (even just swapping phone numbers with important contacts) then you can help to mitigate the effect of an internet outage. Besides, your mother was right: it's a beautiful day outside and sometimes you just need to take a break and get some fresh air.

US navy to conduct massive atmospheric experimental tests

from livescience: A rocket experiment set to launch Tuesday aims to create artificial clouds at the outermost layers of Earth's atmosphere.

The project, called the Charged Aerosol Release Experiment (CARE), plans to trigger cloud formation around the rocket's exhaust particles. The clouds are intended to simulate naturally-occurring phenomena called noctilucent clouds, which are the highest clouds in the atmosphere.

"This is really essentially at the boundary of space," said Wayne Scales, a scientist at Virginia Tech who will use computer models to study the physics of the artificial dust cloud as it's released. "Nothing like this has been done before and that's why everybody's really excited about it."

The experiment is the first attempt to create artificial noctilucent clouds. A previous spacecraft, called Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM), launched in 2007 to observe the natural clouds from space.

CARE is slated to launch Tuesday between 7:30 and 7:57 p.m. EDT (2330 and 2357 GMT) from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Noctilucent means "night shining" in Latin. Although difficult to spot with the naked eye, the clouds are best visible when Earth's surface is in darkness and sunlight from below the horizon illuminates the high-altitude clouds.

These clouds, also known as polar mesospheric clouds, are made of ice crystals. The natural ones tend to hover around 50 to 55 miles (80 to 90 km) above the Earth. CARE will release its dust particles a bit higher than that, then let them settle back down to a lower altitude.

"What the CARE experiment hopes to do is to create an artificial dust layer," Scales told SPACE.com. "Hopefully it's a creation in a controlled sense, which will allow scientists to study different aspects of it, the turbulence generated on the inside, the distribution of dust particles and such."

CARE is a project of the Naval Research Laboratory and the Department of Defense Space Test Program. The spacecraft will launch aboard a NASA four-stage Black Brant XII suborbital sounding rocket.

Scientists will study its progress from ground based instruments as well as the STP/NRL STPSat-1 spacecraft in Earth orbit. Researchers will track the CARE dust cloud for days or even months to study its behavior and development over time.

Because the optical observations are crucial, the launch can only take place if the weather is clear both at the launch site and at multiple observation stations along the Atlantic coast and in Bermuda.

If CARE cannot launch Tuesday, the team can try again between Sept. 16 and Sept. 20.

defcon 9/10: czars, satellites, da vinci & anonymous

obama close to appointing cybersecurity chief*
cyberattack? the internet power grab by the obama white house*
the US needs a cybersecurity czar now*
theories emerge on secret satellite launch*
da vinci code fans targeted by real international conspiracy*
'anonymous' declares war on australia over internet filtering*

emp prep: 'e-bomb' doomsday conference starts today

from danger room: It’ll fry pace makers, destroy iPhones, and turn laptops into useless paperweights. It’s the scariest thing most people outside the Washington Beltway have never heard of: electromagnetic pulse weapons. And you can learn all about it starting today at the EMPACT conference in Niagara Falls, New York.

Electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, is a burst of electromagnetic radiation that fries electronics, from satellites to toaster ovens. The effects of a nuclear EMP were first observed after the 1962 Starfish Prime nuclear test, which knocked out satellites and electronics. EMP weapons are specifically designed to maximize this electronics-killing effect, which can be done by detonating a high-altitude nuclear explosion. Though the effect is most commonly associated with a nuclear blast, the U.S. military, among others, has been looking at conventional weapons that harness the EMP effect. Those who worry about these weapons say that a single EMP attack could shut down the continental United States, creating mass havoc caused by the breakdown in infrastructure.

As the conference description notes: “Two Congressional Commissions, the EMP Commission and the Strategic Posture Commission, have warned that terrorists, rogue states, China and Russia could, using a single crude nuclear weapon delivered by a primitive missile, inflict an EMP attack that would cause the collapse of critical civilian infrastructures–such as infrastructures for electric power, telecommunications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water–across the entire continental United States, that are vital alike for the sustenance of our modern society and the survival of its citizens.”

Concerns about EMP weapons have long attracted a devoted band of doomsdayers, including Roscoe Bartlett, the Republican congressman from Maryland, and former representative Curt Weldon, who has warned of plasma attack weapons (a non-nuclear EMP). Both are speakers at the EMPACT conference.

Though well known and a source of lively debate among policy wonks and nuclear weapons scientists for decades, the threat of EMP weapons haven’t made much headway into popular culture (and a number of scientists dispute the danger of such weapons). The organizers of the conference, EMPACT America Inc. are trying to change the popular perception of EMP with the conference, as well as with Armageddon-esque videos like this:

As an interesting aside, the conspiracy-plagued High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, the radar array in Alaska, has been proposed as a facility that could be used to research ways to “scrub” the upper atmosphere, mitigating the effects of EMP.

defcon 9/3: powergrab, spyware, surveillance & cyborgs

expanding cybersecurity powers for president provokes debate*
white house seeks to capture & archive citizens’ comments on its socialnet sites*
obama's latest cyberspace power grab*
cybersecurity act returns with fresh coat of paint*
what's really wrong with the cybersecurity bill?*

world war 3.0: 10 critical trends for cybersecurity*
dhs needs to plug some cybersecurity holes, audit finds*
new browser red-flags disputed facts on the web*
code for skype spyware released to thwart surveillance*
ebay to sell skype for $1.9b*
google 'evangelist' sees web, brain implant link*
gmail knocked offline for 'majority' of users*
your cyborg eye will talk to you*
i have been abducted by aliens, says japan's 1st lady*

state govs saying 'no thanks' to mystery laptops

from ap: Even during tight budgetary times, a growing handful of state governors are proving too wary to accept laptop computers that have shown up at their offices this month, unsolicited. The FBI was investigating after the governor's offices in West Virginia, Vermont, Wyoming and Washington state received between three and five laptops — but none had ordered any of them. "They immediately raised a red flag," said Matt Turner, spokesman for West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin. "No one said, 'Hey, we got a free gift.'" The laptops were made by Hewlett-Packard or came from its Compaq brand. The world's leading PC maker said it told law enforcement that it intercepted and turned around similar deliveries ordered for six additional states...

Officials in Washington and Wyoming said those computers had been purchased with credit cards whose account numbers did not match any issued by those states. West Virginia State Police Sgt. Mike T. Baylous declined to comment on how the laptops shipped there may have been paid for. "The State Police and the FBI are working jointly to get to the bottom of why these computers were sent to West Virginia," Baylous said Thursday. Agent Jay Bartholomew, the FBI's supervisory senior resident agent in Charleston, declined to comment Thursday...

"I don't know what's on them, but I'm assuming we didn't receive these as a gesture of goodwill," said Kyle Schafer, West Virginia's chief technology officers. "We take very strong measures to protect ourselves from the outside world." As a result, none of the governor's offices report turning on any of the machines. They instead either shipped them back or handed them over to law enforcement...

West Virginia has become particularly sensitive to potential scams. Earlier this year, someone ran up $475,000 on a state licensing board's phone bill after it mistakenly posted its conference call account codes online. The state's auditor was also tricked into rerouting nearly $2 million meant for vendors into bank accounts set up by what investigators say is a Kenyan-based fraud ring.