military

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US Army Funds Wearable That Could Treat Sleep Disorders in Real Time

Andrew Orr ·

The U.S. Army is funding a special skullcap that aims to analyze how the brain disposes of waste during sleep. Eventually, the goal is for the device to treat sleep disorders for soldiers in real time.

The $2.8 million award issued through the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium is for the first year of what the research team anticipates will be a multiyear grant from the U.S. Army. The primary goal is to noninvasively measure and modulate the flow of cerebrospinal fluid as it circulates through the brain and clears waste.

I can’t resist linking to Galactic Cowboys.

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‘Military Grade’ is Hardly More Than a Marketing Term

Andrew Orr ·

In early 2020 I wrote an article explaining what it means when companies use phrases like “military grade encryption” or “bank level security.” I wrote “they might seem like marketing buzzwords” but I should’ve said, “they totally are buzzwords.” This usage isn’t limited to discussions around encryption. Mel Magazine says it refers to MIL-STD-810 and it’s not the tough, high quality standard we think it is.

Commercially, Hollings adds, “there’s no governing body that says, ‘Okay, you met the requirements for MIL-STD-A-10.’ So effectively anyone can say their product is military standard.” This obviously isn’t great for civilian consumers, while ex-military like Hollings just scoff at the designation […]

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How the ‘Untappd’ Beer App Was Used to Track Military, CIA Movements

Andrew Orr ·

Researchers were able to use beer rating app Untappd to track the location history of military and CIA personnel.

Examples of users that can be tracked this way include a U.S. drone pilot, along with a list of both domestic and overseas military bases he has visited, a naval officer, who checked in at the beach next to Guantanamo’s bay detention center as well as several times at the Pentagon, and a senior intelligence officer with over seven thousand check-ins, domestic and abroad. Senior officials at the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Air Force are included as well.

Not even the CIA is safe against the data industrial complex.

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PSA: People Have Been Getting Fake Military Draft Texts

Andrew Orr ·

The U.S. Army is warning Americans about fake military draft texts going around. They tell you to report to the nearest Army recruiter “for immediate departure to Iran.”

Some of the fake texts used real names of Army recruiting commanders — while others used fictitious names — lending the false appearance of authenticity, said Kelli Bland, a spokeswoman for the US Army Recruiting Command.

US military conscription was suspended in the 1970s. To resume the draft, Congress would need to enact legislation, according to the Selective Service System, the independent agency that would manage the draft in an emergency.

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Pentagon Warns Military Not to Use Home DNA Kits

Andrew Orr ·

A Department of Defense memo warns U.S. military members about the privacy risks of home DNA kits.

The memo provides little details on how genetic profiles could endanger security, other than noting that potential “inaccuracies” in health information could pose a risk to military personnel, who are required to report medical issues. Most of the health reports provided by DNA companies typically pertain to medical risks, though, such as a predisposition to cancer, rather than diagnosing a condition.

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504th Military App Could Expose Soldiers’ Data

Andrew Orr ·

The 504th military app gives soldiers weather updates, training changes, and other logistics. But its terms of service say it collects a lot of personal data, and if the app was hacked it could potentially expose top-secret information.

The app’s permissions — which suggested it could pull GPS location data, photos, contacts and even rewrite memory cards — frustrated soldiers who have taken extreme precautions they felt were glossed over by Trotter and other senior leaders…The worst-case scenario, he said, was “our cover might be blown.” While the app said permissions could be disabled, the soldiers said there was a failure of confidence it was secure. Senior leaders checked the phones of subordinates to ensure they had the app installed, soldiers in the unit said.

Why it’s especially concerning: “The app developer, Straxis LLC, is based in Tulsa but has a subsidiary in southern India.”

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Travel Platform Autoclerk Just Leaked 179GB of Military Data

Andrew Orr ·

Hosted on AWS servers, Autoclerk leaked 179GB of military data containing sensitive personal data of users and hotel guests.

The most surprising victim of this leak wasn’t an individual or company: it was the US government, military, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Our team viewed highly sensitive data exposing the personal details of government and military personnel, and their travel arrangements to locations around the world, both past and future. This represented a massive breach of security for the governmentagencies and departments impacted.

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Colorado Students Secretly Photographed for Military Research

Andrew Orr ·

From 2012 to 2013, students at the University of Colorado’s Colorado Springs campus were secretly photographed as part of a research project. The U.S. Navy wanted to improve its facial recognition algorithms.

To conduct the study, [professor] Boult set up a long-range surveillance camera in an office window about 150 meters away from the West Lawn of the Colorado Springs campus, a public area where passers-by would not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The camera surreptitiously photographed people walking in the area of the West Lawn on certain days during the spring semesters of 2012 and 2013.

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Air Force Bug Bounty Program Goes Live For Hackers

Andrew Orr ·

Today the Air Force announced a program for sharing vulnerabilities that it will launch next month. The Air Force bug bounty program will let hackers comb several public Air Force websites for software vulnerabilities. Cash prizes are available for discovered bugs, and this new program also does something new that others of its kind don’t. Andrew Orr reveals all.