The University of Illinois at Chicago will lead a $3 million project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to design, develop and evaluate a system that will identify security vulnerabilities in web software. UIC will receive $1.4 million of the funding, and the rest will support co-investigators at the University of Texas at Dallas and The Johns Hopkins University. The system will spot security weaknesses in the millions—sometimes billions—of lines of code that run websites including, banking and online shopping, that are attractive to hackers. Once identified by the system, called GAMEPLAY (for Graph Analysis for Mechanized Exploit-generation and vulnerability Patching Leveraging human Assistance for improved Yield), the vulnerabilities will be automatically probed to determine whether they really could be leveraged by hackers. GAMEPLAY will then generate patches for these vulnerabilities, known as “exploits” to computer scientists. … [Read more...] about UIC to Lead $3M Initiative to Develop System to Identify, Patch Software Security Holes
Patching drywall nail holes
This Japanese robot contractor can install drywall
Japan’s Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, or AIST, has developed a humanoid robot that can carry out simple construction tasks, like installing drywall. You can watch in the video above how the HRP-5P robot steps up to a piece of drywall, uses hooks to maneuver it into its rotating hands, and nails it into the wall. First spotted by TechCrunch, the robot works about as fast as a teen doing Habitat for Humanity, but still, it gets the job done. AIST imagines the HRP-5P being used on construction sites in response to Japan’s aging population and labor shortages. The research institute is aiming for autonomous replacement of labor at assembly sites for large structures, such as buildings, houses, aircrafts and ships. This development makes true a couple of predictions that have been years in the making. According to a 2013 Oxford University study that quantifies the likelihood of job automation, it actually places the extremely specific job of ‘Drywall … [Read more...] about This Japanese robot contractor can install drywall
Finding Security Holes In Hardware
At least three major security holes in processors were identified by Google’s Project Zero over the past year, with more expected to roll out in coming months. Now the question is what to do about them. Since the beginning of the PC era, two requirements for hardware were backward compatibility and improvements in performance with each new version of processors. No one wants to replace their software every time they upgrade their hardware, and companies that tried to buck that trend never fared well. But it turns out that security doesn’t age well, and what worked in the past may not work in the future. Security that was considered state-of-the-art five years ago may be broken in a matter of hours today using more powerful computers and information available all over the Internet. And adding in a level of abstraction with virtual machines, which can isolate one application from another in a multi-tenant cloud environment, is no longer a guarantee there won’t be … [Read more...] about Finding Security Holes In Hardware
Small air leak in Russian capsule patched at International Space Station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronauts scrambled Thursday to patch a tiny hole in a Russian capsule that was allowing air to leak from the International Space Station.NASA and Russian space officials stressed the six astronauts were in no danger.The leak was detected Wednesday night — possibly from a micrometeorite strike — when it caused a small drop in cabin pressure. It was traced to a hole about 2 millimeters (less than one-tenth of an inch) across in a Soyuz capsule docked at the space station.Thursday morning, the crew taped over the hole, slowing the leak. Later, the two Russian spacemen put sealant on a cloth and stuck it over the area, while their colleagues took photos for engineers on the ground. Flight controllers, meanwhile, monitored the cabin pressure while working to come up with a better long-term solution.Mission Control outside Moscow told the astronauts to let the sealant dry overnight and that more leak checks would be conducted Friday. The … [Read more...] about Small air leak in Russian capsule patched at International Space Station
Google posts June 2018 Android security patch and Pixel OTAs
Google released the June 2018 Android security patches which address a variety of security concerns. Google also released the latest factory images and OTAs for Google Pixel and Nexus devices. If you have a non-Pixel/non-Nexus device, you have to wait for your OEM/carrier to distribute the security patches. Each month, Google releases security patches for Android devices. We’re only four days into June, and we’ve already got the latest patches for Android and the latest OTAs for Pixel and Nexus devices.However, keep in mind that if you’re not using a Pixel or Nexus device — and are not using a custom ROM — these Android security patches don’t help you. It’s up to your OEM and your wireless carrier to test and distribute the patches to your device. Editor's PickGoogle could end late security updates with new OEM agreements During a speech at the annual Google I/O developer conference, Google's head of security for Android David … [Read more...] about Google posts June 2018 Android security patch and Pixel OTAs