Motivation, Defined →
Simply astounding sinkhole repair completed in a single week, near the center of Fukuoka, Nippon. The physical security ramifications for failure on this project must have been immense, considering the buildings immediately adjacent to the hole.
PoisonTap, The Ransacker
via Ars Technica's Security Editor Dan Goodin, comes proof that MITM exploits cost-to-deploy ratios are dropping into pocket-change territory; and, as in most commodity-based attacks, the cost to deploy and implement such devices will continue to fall, especially due to the lack of attention to detail in the physical security realm.
The World's Most Unusual Military Unit →
Grønland, Verdens Mest Usædvanlige Militær Enhed, via Denver David Robinson, contributing writer at the Christian Science Monitor, details how the Danes' Protect and Patrol Greenland, today's Must Read.
Russia's NAVY →
via the high talented Louis Martin-Vézian writing and designing at CIGeography, for Offiziere.ch and Cimsec.org. What a diffirence a quarter of a century can make... Good to see Cimsec.org mentioned!
Insiders Are The Greatest Threat, The FAA Aurora Radar Center Story →
The litany of the United States Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration's Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center in Aurora, Illinois (containing new, interesting factoids released by Prosecutors), via the superlative reportage of Jason Meisner at the Chicago Tribune. In which, one can deduce the simple, unfortunate truth: Insiders Are The Greatest Threat...
US to Train Iran in Nuclear Security Best Practice - Including Cybersecurity
Likely one of the more blatantly misguided stipulations in the corporeal abomination known as the 'Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action', lies a component of the agreement, in Annex III. Within the Civil Nuclear Cooperation area, and in Section D that apparently commits the United States of America to enter unilateral defense training (think cybersecurity folks) of the Islamic Republic of Iran against all others (in this case the all others would be defined as to the State of Israel):
'10. Co-operation in the form of training courses and workshops to strengthen Iran's ability to prevent, protect and respond to nuclear security threats to nuclear facilities and systems as well as to enable effective and sustainable nuclear security and physical protection systems;' - Joint Comprehensive Plan, Annex III, Civil Nuclear Cooperation, Section D, within Nuclear Safety, Safeguards and Security
Data Melt →
Evidence, says Zack Whittaker for Zero Day, of data disappearing from solid-state storage facilities, when the storage medium is unpowered for several days. Apparently, additional degradation takes place when temperatures rise...
The money quote:
"A recent presentation by hard drive maker Seagate's Alvin Cox warned that the period of time data is retained on some solid-state drives is halved for every 9°F (or 5°C) rise in temperature where its stored. That means if a solid-state drive is stored in a warm room, say 77°F (25°C), its data can last for about two years. But, if that goes up by a mere few degrees to 86°F (30°C), that data's retention period will be cut in half." via Zack Whittaker at Zero Day
Deployable Force Protection Adapter Red Team
"They exposed weaknesses in the armor, illustrating that "we as scientists and engineers think we have a great solution and ha-ha moments, thinking Soldiers will love this" new piece of gear. Then the Red Team would show up and show all the weaknesses, she said, so "we started solving those problems." From that point on, anything deployed to small forward operating outposts of 300 people or less gets a Red Team going over from "the construct of the operational perspective, technology perspective, and how we could integrate it in such a way not to create inherent vulnerabilities. It's been very effective." - via David Vergun writing at the United States Army