New U.S. Tack to Defend Power Grid
Christian Science Monitor (10/30/07) P. 1; Clayton, Mark
Despite the U.S. government's efforts to secure the nation's critical
infrastructure from cyber attack, hackers as well as attack simulations
continue to be more successful, prompting lawmakers to call for a massive
overhaul of cybersecurity defenses. "Times are changing very quickly here,
and cybersecurity that was good enough even a couple of years ago--the
strategy and approach--is obsolete," says U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit
director Scott Borg. While the greatest concern was once losing control
over an infrastructure system such as the power grid, now the biggest
threat is that cyber attacks could be used to cause serious physical damage
to infrastructure system. Losing control of a system may lead to a loss of
power for a few hours or even days, but physical destruction of, for
example, an electrical turbine through a cyber attack would be even more
devastating. A recently released video by the Idaho National Laboratory
demonstrates how a cyber attack could be used to physically destroy a large
electrical generator, a technique that could be replicated and adapted to
destroy larger and more valuable equipment. "There's a great danger right
now that government will spend a lot of money trying to provide better
perimeter defenses around the email systems of government, when they should
be thinking a lot more about critical infrastructure like the grid," Borg
says. To safeguard against such threats U.S. lawmakers are pushing for a
new approach. Instead of focusing on building ever-stronger firewalls to
keep hackers out, lawmakers want a system that focuses on building
infrastructure that can quickly bounce back following an attack. The House
Homeland Security subcommittee is expected to unveil a blue-ribbon
commission tasked with developing a national cybersecurity strategy to be
ready for the next president.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
New Computer Architecture Aids Emergency Response
Indo-Asian News Service (10/31/07)
Princeton University professor Ruby Lee presented a paper on a new
computer architecture for securing the transmission of information during
the recent ACM Computer and Communications Security conference in
Alexandria, Va. Developed with disaster management in mind, the Secret
Protection architecture works on a "transient trust" basis to prevent
people other than first responders from gaining access to crucial rescue
information. For example, terrorists or anyone else who does not need to
know the floor plans of a building or have access to satellite maps of an
area would not be able to intercept such information. The Secret
Protection architecture makes use of a "device root key" and "storage root
hash" embedded in the hardware of an electronic device to initialize it,
and then ends the access to the sensitive information when there is no
longer a legitimate need to know the essential data, or when the emergency
is over. "Computers were not originally designed with security as a goal,"
Lee says. "I'm trying to rethink the design of computers so they can be
trustworthy while at the same time retain all their original design goals,
such as high performance, low cost and energy efficiency."
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
World's Most Complex Silicon Phased-Array Chip
Developed
University of California, San Diego (10/30/07)
University of California, San Diego electrical engineers, with backing
from DARPA, have developed a phased array radio frequency integrated
circuit that is expected to be used in U.S. defense satellite
communications and radar systems and eventually for high-speed wireless
data transfers. "This is the first 16 element phased array chip that can
send at 30-50 GHz," says UCSD professor of electrical engineering Gabriel
Rebeiz. "The uniformity and low coupling between the elements, the low
current consumption and the small size ... are all unprecedented. As a
whole system, there are many many firsts." The chip can only transmit
data, but Rebeiz says the researchers are working on a chip that can
transmit and receive data, which can be done by building the receiver chip
based on the designs in the transmitter chip. The chip also contains all
the CMOS digital circuits needed for complete digital control of the phased
array. Rebeiz is also the lead on another project aimed at developing
silicon CMOS phased array chips that could be built into laptops for high
speed data transfers. "If you wanted to download a large movie file, a
base station could find you, zoom onto you, and direct a beam to your
receiver chip," Rebeiz says. "This could enable data transfer of hundreds
of gigabytes of information very quickly, and without connecting a cable or
adhering to the alignment requirements of wireless optical data transfer."
He believes such technology could be available within three years.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
AT&T Invents Programming Language for Mass
Surveillance
Wired News (10/29/07) Singel, Ryan
AT&T researchers have developed Hancock, a C language-based programming
language designed to mine the company's telephone and internet records for
surveillance data. A recently discovered AT&T research paper published in
2001 shows how the phone company uses Hancock-based software to process
tens of millions of long distance phone records to create "communities of
interest," or calling circles that show who people are talking to. Hancock
was developed in the late 1990s to develop marketing leads and as a
security tool to see if new customers called the same numbers as previously
disconnected fraudsters, which the research paper called "guilt by
association." Hancock-based programs work by analyzing data as it enters a
data warehouse, a significant difference from traditional data-mining tools
that tend to look for patterns in static databases. A 2004 paper published
in ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems demonstrates how
Hancock can sort through calling card records, long distance calls, IP
addresses and Internet traffic dumps, and even track the movement of a cell
phone as it switches between signal towers.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
'Nature-Made' Computers
University of Maryland (10/30/07)
University of Maryland professor Ray Phaneuf has developed a technique
that uses a man-made template that nature follows to create usable parts
for modern technology. The template causes atoms to structure themselves
in a defined pattern that can be used for a variety of purposes, such as a
semiconductor in a laptop, a cell phone component, or a sensor in a
wearable device. The template is built using photolithography, in which
the template is chemically developed by exposure to light, and by
nanoscraping, which uses an atomic force microscope to scrape a pattern
into a template. Phaneuf says the template process can be used to mass
produce tiny components very rapidly and effectively while reducing costs,
shrinking device sizes, and improving functionality in ways previously
impossible. He says the template technique is a step toward "cocktail"
computer manufacturing in which a computer could be mixed like mixing a
drink. He says that when you apply the idea of cocktail computing "to
manufacturing nanoscale computer components, collections of atoms become
ordered, accessible, controllable and reproducible--characteristics crucial
to their use in high-tech devices." Phaneuf says the cocktail computer and
template process could be used in quantum computing to form qubits.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Students Mostly Not Ready for Math, Science College
Courses
San Antonio Express-News (TX) (10/31/07) Ludwig, Melissa
The United States is falling behind other countries in educating students
in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. One problem is that
many high school students continue to elect not to take upper level math
and science courses in high school, which can put them several years behind
other students who take advanced placement courses. Some states are taking
action to improve high school graduates' chances of succeeding in
college-level science and math. For example, in Texas, all freshmen in
high school this year will be required to take four years of math and
science. High school, however, is not the only problem as once students
get to college not many are choosing STEM-related majors. Many science and
math departments are designed to weed out students who are not immediately
successful, even though, with a little time and effort from teachers, they
could become successful science and math students. The big lecture format
is also part of the problem. "Unfortunately, this lecture and sitting
quietly approach is just not effective with many students," says University
of Maryland, Baltimore County President Freeman Hrabowski. Hrabowski says
switching from lectures to group work in large, introductory chemistry
classes raised passing rates from 70 percent to about 87 percent.
Mentoring can also help keep students in STEM fields, particularly with
underrepresented minorities and women. "You have to have a role model, and
you don't get a role model in a class of 500," says Lorne Davis, head of
the physics department at Texas Lutheran University.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Terabyte Storage for Cell Phones
Technology Review (10/31/07) Bullis, Kevin
The first incarnation of a memory technology that could supplant the flash
memory currently used in portable devices and lead to terabyte storage for
cell phones could be rolled out commercially within 18 months. Nano-ionic
memory offers substantially higher speeds than flash memory, while certain
experimental memory cells have rivaled DRAM in speed. A University of
Arizona research group working on the technology demonstrated that the
device could be fabricated from materials conventionally employed in
computer memory chips and microprocessors, which could expedite integration
with existing technologies and require less retooling at manufacturing
facilities. Coaxing manufacturers to switch to the new materials could be
a challenge. Ionic memory also uses very little power and could
theoretically achieve higher storage densities than current technology.
The memory facilitates information storage by reconfiguring atoms to form
stable and potentially very tiny cells, each of which could potentially
store multiple information bits and be stacked to boost storage density.
These two characteristics would enable a thumb drive to store a terabyte of
data, for example. Devices based on the University of Arizona's nano-ionic
memory technology could be available in the next year and a half, says
University of Arizona professor Michael Kozicki.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
European Expert Platform to Address Measurement of Human
Emotions
Innovations Report (10/30/07)
European researchers expressed concern that the emotional distinction
between man and robot one day could become blurred, during the launch
workshop for the platform FEEL EUROPE. A new project funded by the
European Union, FEEL EUROPE will bring together more than 30 scientists,
engineers, and other experts throughout the continent to discuss strategies
for measuring human feeling and emotions. Klaus-Peter Hoffmann from the
Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering in Germany and Eduardo
Fernandez of the University of Miguel Hernandez in Spain are the
coordinators of the project, which will publish a white paper in 2008 that
provides an overview and suggests some future technical applications. The
discussion could lead to new research involving cognitive technical systems
such as human computer interfaces, systems for emotional learning, or
robots that are capable of expressing emotions. "We thought of children
and teenagers: imagine them growing up surrounded by robots that keep
smiling while they get a hack on the shin," said Hoffmann. "This could
severely inhibit the development of their social competence." According to
the vision paper, the project will have to make use of the various
assessment techniques and new signal algorithms to measure emotions.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
More Than Just a Game
Saginaw Valley State University (10/29/07) Oakley, Mary
The students of the Saginaw Valley State University chapter of ACM are
developing a video game from scratch involving students from a variety of
disciplines. ACM chapter president Michael Klamerus says the idea was
developed largely through word of mouth and by an unofficial survey about
video games. Mark White, a project producer and engine architect on the
project, says the group is planning a more formal survey to develop the
best setting and storyline for the game's target audience. The project is
open to more than just computer students, and the group is looking for a
diverse group of students to help. "Our project is geared for somewhere
between a total of 15 to 60 students, over half of that being somewhere in
the arts between music, graphic design, and English," says White, who
believes that working on a demanding, multi-disciplinary project such as a
video game provides valuable experience to students in any field. "It's
because they end up spending more time learning more deeply the portions of
the field they are interested in," White says. "Also, they learn all the
soft skills that we don't have time to teach in classes of how does
somebody with a strong science background talk to somebody with a liberal
arts background and actually get something done."
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
INRIA Researchers Scoop 2007 Excellencia Prize
HPC Wire (10/24/07)
The Excellencia Prize 2007 was awarded to five young women engineers who
have made significant achievements in both their professional and personal
lives. INRIA Rennes Bretagne-Atlantique research director Christine Morin
is the winner in the fundamental research category. Morin works on
designing operating systems for high-performance computing in computer
clusters. Since June 2006, Morin has been the coordinator for XtreemOS, a
project funded by the European Union that focuses on grids and operating
systems for supercomputing applications. Morin believes that young girls
need fuller and more concrete information to develop an interest in the
sciences. "There's nothing motivating in the information given to high
school girls," Morin says. "They're just given a list of professions
instead of concrete examples of careers, testimonials, and an idea of what
the real prospects are." Christine Azevedo-Coste won in the applied
research category. Azevedo-Coste is a research scientist at the Sophia
Antipolis-Mediterranee research center of INRIA where she works on applied
robotics for use in rehabilitations programs for people with motor
disabilities. Jacqueline Lambert from Philae Technologies won for her
"passion in software," and Alexadra Pauty-Assie from the Health Insurance
branch of French Social Security won for her work in the use of technology.
Finally, Telecom INT engineer Sandra Carrie won in the promising engineer
category for her work in space telecommunications.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Holiday Snapshots Used to Model the World in 3D
New Scientist (10/29/07) Knight, Will
Michael Goesele of TU Darmstadt in Germany and colleagues at the
University of Washington and Microsoft Research have developed a new method
of creating realistic 3D models using hundreds of public images. "The
system provides an opportunity to use the billions of user-contributed
images available online to 'reconstruct the world' without relying on
specialized equipment," Goesele says. Goesele says photo-sharing sites
such as Flickr contain enormous possibilities for remote stereo imaging
provided that the photos can be analyzed correctly. "We were curious and
wanted to try how far we could push a reconstruction system by running it
on these very general, real-world datasets," he says. Goesele and his team
developed software that could sort through a collection of photos and
eliminate ones that are too dissimilar, such as those from drastically
varying angles, contrasting lighting, or with a person standing directly in
front of the object. The system then uses a combination of different
computer vision techniques to create a 3D model of the structure. A
process called "structure from motion" is used to identify 3D points on the
surface using images taken from different angles. The rest of the surface
is then built on top of those points using more images. "The quality of
the reconstructions we can achieve from mere Internet data is comparable to
models acquired with traditional methods such as very expensive laser
scanning systems," Goesele says.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Europe Tips $8.5 Billion Research Program to Replace
Medea+
EE Times (10/29/07) Clarke, Peter
The European collaborative research program Medea+, which focuses on
microelectronics, announced that the Cluster for Application and Technology
Research in Europe on NanoElectronics (Catrene) will be the follow-up
project that focuses on nanoscale electronics. Catrene is a four-year
project, with the option of a four-year extension, that will begin
operation under the Eureka program starting on Jan. 1, 2008. Catrene is
expected to use 4,000 person-years of effort, with about a $8.5 billion
budget for the four years. A new feature of the Catrene project is
Lighthouse Projects, which will focus research and development programs on
major socioeconomic issues such as transportation, health care, security,
energy, and entertainment. Catrene's primary technology goals include
maintaining and increasing Europe's strength in intellectual property in
the electronics industry and developing leadership in lithography,
silicon-on-insulator materials, and component packaging, and to strengthen
European expertise in applying semiconductor processes and technology to
new, efficient electronics designs and applications.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Japan's Answer for an Aging Society: Robots
International Herald Tribune (10/30/07) Fujioka, Toru
The Japanese government is promoting robotic technology as a way to boost
productivity by 50 percent over the next five years as well as complement
an aging and dwindling workforce. "Japan faces a stark choice: raise
productivity or see living standards fall," says Morgan Stanley's Robert
Feldman. "Robots could be a part of the solution." Japan established a
robot competition in 2006 that attracted 152 entries. The first winner of
the Robot of the Year award is a yellow, cylinder-like robot known as the
RFS-1, developed by Fuji Heavy Industries, that can vacuum floors in office
and apartment buildings autonomously, including using elevators by itself.
Such robots could provide a productivity boost to Japanese service workers,
who produce 30 percent less per hour than service workers in the United
States. Deploying an RFS-1, which is expected to last 10 years, in an
office or apartment building will cost about 5 million yen less than paying
a human to do the same job. "These robots are great," says Yuhachi Izawa,
a manager at Sumisho Building Management, the first to deploy an RSF-1 in a
Tokyo office building. "They save electricity, air conditioning, and the
cost of employing workers--and we can make them work during the night."
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Internet Pioneer Leaves Oversight Group
Associated Press (10/29/07) Jesdanun, Anick
Vint Cerf will step down from his position as chairman of ICANN at Friday'
annual board meeting, leaving the organization after eight years of
service. Cerf, who assisted in the development of the technical foundation
of the Internet during the 1970s, was the key figure in the organization's
formative years. In the years immediately following ICANN's birth, many
developing countries attempted to create a rival organization that would
give world governments more control over the Internet, however Cerf helped
U.S. diplomats resist the pressure and secure ICANN's role in the global
Internet community. While ICANN's survival is ensured, Cerf leaves an
organization that still faces many critics who complain about the speed and
openness of the domain registration process. While experts acknowledge
that ICANN will not be able to find another leader as charismatic and well
respected as Cerf, they hope that the organization will benefit from the
change by improving its transparency and efficiency. "This is a very
important test ICANN both must pass and will pass, that it can withstand a
change of its senior management," says Cerf, who must leave the unpaid
position of chairman due to term limits. "I have no hesitation at all
turning this over to a new team." Two potential successors to Cerf are
telecommunications expert Roberto Gaetano and lawyer Peter Dengate Thrush,
neither of which has the influence that Cerf did. Fellow Internet pioneer
Steve Crocker acknowledges that "we're not going to find another Vint," and
says now the managing of ICANN will be left to "ordinary mortals."
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
IMEC Research Explores the Chip/Cell Interface
EDN (10/26/07) Wilson, Ron
Direct electrical, mechanical, and chemical interfaces between organic
cells and operating integrated circuits are the focus of a continuing
research program at Belgium's Interuniversity Microelectronics Center.
Among the projects detailed at the recent annual IMEC research review
meeting was one to develop an artificial synapse consisting of a direct
interface between the interconnect points on a living neuron cell and
sensors and receptors on the surface of an IC, with IMEC research group
leader Carmen Bartic noting that the effort starts with developing the
biochemistry to build a surface coating for a circuit that will help the
cell live in prolonged contact with the chip. The next phase involves the
development of cell-chip interfaces, and IMEC's exploration in this area
considers directing the growth of a cell onto the surface of a chip so that
the cell is immobilized and its synapses aligned with transducer sites.
The researchers are also working on electrical and chemical sensors capable
of accurately measuring synaptic changes when neural activity occurs, as
well as nanomachine chemical dispensers that could produce tiny emissions
of chemical ions to imitate the action of a synapse in stimulating another
synapse. The ultimate goal is to incorporate such an interface into a
nerve bundle to function as a diagnostic tool, a therapeutic tool, or a
computer-controlled prosthetic interface. Another effort aims to implant
an electrical interface directly within a cell, and it involves the
fabrication of gold/platinum pillars on the surface of a chip, with
electrical links through to the underlying circuitry. The idea is that a
passing cell would absorb the chip via endocytosis. Still another IMEC
project is focusing on affixing custom-tailored nanoparticles to cells and
manipulating them--and thus molecules and cells--with nanomachines
fabricated on the surface of ICs.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
The Air Force's Cyber-Corps
National Journal (10/27/07) Vol. 39, No. 43, P. 56; Munro, Neil
U.S. officials say that in recent months foreign government-backed hackers
have stepped up their attempts to infiltrate or hurt American and other
allied information networks. Responses to the many intrusions against some
of the 650,000 computers involved in U.S. Air Force operations are handled
by the Network Warfare and Ops Squadron, which uses an arsenal of software
to counter each attack, no matter how seemingly trivial. Most of the
members of this squadron are private contractors, and a new corps of
cyber-warriors must be trained to take up the slack. This is the objective
of the Air Force Cyberspace Command, which will be organized under the
leadership of Maj. Gen. William Lord. He says the new command must also be
prepared to take the cyber-battle to the enemy by infiltrating or crippling
enemy networks, should it receive a presidential directive to do so. The
command headquarters will likely be comprised of several hundred personnel
managing perhaps 20,000 Air Force staffers, which will include lawyers,
software specialists, behavioral scientists, and electronic-warfare and
satellite experts, Lord says. The unit will provide prowess to the
Pentagon's combat commands rather than guide combat operations. The
command will also benefit the Air Force by enabling it to better compete
with the other armed services for funding and prominent roles in future
cyber-warfare commands, says FTI managing director Mark Rasch.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
What Puts the Creepy Into Robot Crawlies?
New Scientist (10/27/07)No. 2627, P. 32; Giles, Jim
Humans rarely find robots that are clearly robots, with metal limbs and
features, to be disturbing, but often become uneasy once the robot is given
human-like features such as artificial skin, eyes, hair, a face, or a
voice. The response is usually more severe when one characteristic is
particularly more human than the rest. University College London
researchers Thierry Chaminade and Ayse Saygin investigated the phenomenon
by have subjects wear brain scanners while watching videos of a life-like
robot, a robotic robot, and a person picking up a cup. Chaminade says
there is a network of neurons in the parietal cortex that is especially
active when watching the life-like robot. The parietal cortex is known to
contain "mirror neurons" that are active when someone imagines performing
an action they are observing. During all three videos subjects tend to
imagine themselves performing the same actions, but the extra neuron
activity when viewing the life-like robot could be due to the conflict
between how it moves and how it looks, creating a "breach of expectation"
that creates extra brain activity and a sense of uneasiness. Indiana
University researcher Karl McDorman continued the study by having 140
subjects view moving robots with various likenesses to humans. The results
showed that the unsettling robots also created feelings of fear, shock,
disgust, and nervousness.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Hacker Curriculum: How Hackers Learn Networking
IEEE Distributed Systems Online (10/07) Bratus, Sergey
The hacker community has devised effective methods for the analysis,
reverse engineering, testing, and modification of software and hardware,
and it behooves leaders in industry and academia to understand this culture
and be cognizant of its values, unique strengths, and weaknesses, writes
Dartmouth College's Sergey Bratus. He observes that many quirks of the
hacker culture are rooted in frustration with certain industry and academic
trends (pressure to follow standard solutions, a limited perspective of the
API, a dearth of tools for studying the state of a system, etc.), which he
believes contribute to the current abundance of software vulnerabilities.
This in turn fuels the hacker culture's impetus to fully comprehend
underlying standards and systems, which largely formalize hackers' learning
and work ethic. Among the sources hackers tap to acquire skills are
classic textbooks highly rated by fellow hackers, electronic magazines,
online forums dedicated to specific technical areas, source code from
released tools, talks and private communications at hacker conventions, and
IRC communities. Hackers have a tendency to adopt a cross-layer approach
that tracks data through multiple tiers of interfaces, in accordance with
three guiding principles. Bratus lists these principles as inspecting the
system state or network on all levels down to the bit level; injecting
arbitrary data into the system or network; and identifying and
second-guessing deployment peculiarities. The author concludes that in
many respects, hacker culture "produces impressive results that enrich
other computing cultures, and its influence and exchange of ideas with
these other cultures are growing. So, understanding the hacker learning
experience and approaches is becoming more important day by day."
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
