73407313
submission
tranquilidad writes:
According to a story in the Washington Post, China hacked into the computer system of the United States' Office of Personnel Management last December. This was the second major intrusion in less than a year. According to an AP story, personally identifiable information of approximately 4 million individuals may have been compromised. The compromised information was related to security clearances and employee records. Using new tools, the breach was discovered in April. The agency's director said, "Protecting our federal employee data from malicious cyber incidents is of the highest priority at [Office of Personnel Management]."
65908551
submission
tranquilidad writes:
As previously discussed in Slashdot, CurrentC is a consortium of merchants attempting to create a 'more secure' payment system. Some controversy surrounds CurrentC's requirements regarding the personal information required, their purchase-tracking intentions and retail stores blocking NFC in apparent support of CurrentC. Now news breaks that CurrentC has already been breached. CurrentC has issued the standard response, "We take the security of our users' information extremely seriously."
64786175
submission
tranquilidad writes:
In a paper published by the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, two authors ascribe the majority of northeast pacific coastal warming to natural atmospheric circulation and not to anthropogenic forcing. In AP's reporting, Ken Caldeira, an atmospheric scientist with the Carnegie Institution for Science says the paper's authors, '...have not established the causes of these atmospheric pressure variations. Thus, claims that the observed temperature increases are due primarily to "natural processes are suspect and premature, at best."' The paper's authors, on the other hand, state, '...clearly, there are other factors stronger than the greenhouse forcing that is affecting...temperatures,' and that there is a 'surprising degree to which the winds can explain all the wiggles in the temperature curve.'
55364595
submission
tranquilidad writes:
Russia was concerned enough about the U.S. development of a Prompt Global Strike (PGS) capability in 2010 that they included restrictions in the the new Start treaty (previously discussed on Slashdot). It now appears that China has entered the game with their "Ultra-High Speed Missile Vehicle." While some in the Russian press may question whether fears of the PGS are "rational" it appears that the race is on to develop the fastest weapons delivery system. The hypersonic arms race is focused on "precise targeting, very rapid delivery of weapons, and greater survivability against missile and space defenses" with delivery systems traveling between Mach 5 and Mach 10 after being launched from "near space".
