News
Boston Bombing Likely to Boost Spending on Video Surveillance Equipmen
With history showing that high-profile terrorism events like the Boston bombing can drive increased government spending on security, global sales of video surveillance equipment could exceed the booming growth already predicted for the market.
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Iris Scans Seen Shrinking $7 Billion Medical Data Breach: Health
By Kristen Hallam | Iris scanners aren’t just for airport border-control agents and spy movies anymore.
Clinics and hospitals around the world are acquiring technology that identifies people based on physical traits to improve patient safety and stamp out fraud. HCA Holdings Inc. (HCA) hospitals in London, as well as health-care providers across the U.S., are buying so-called biometric technologies.
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Face First CEO Interviewed regarding Boston Marathon Investigation
April 17 (Bloomberg) -- FaceFirst CEO Joe Rosenkrantz discusses the use of facial recognition software in the Boston Marathon bombing investigation with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television's 'Bloomberg West'.
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Smartphone hacking comes of age, hitting US victims
By Bob Sullivan | Devastating cellphone hacks that hijack your most personal gadget and rob you of privacy and money have long been forecast. But even as smartphone users in Asia are beginning to suffer exploding bills and emptied bank accounts at the hands of hackers, U.S. users largely remain safe and blissfully unaware of the gathering threat. Not for long.
Criminals have been probing the systems that protect U.S. smartphone users for years, searching for the right combination of programming tricks and social engineering that would allow them to sneak onto users' phones. Recently, one hacker group hit the jackpot.
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Crown Casino rocked by massive betting scam
By Simon Lauder | Melbourne's Crown Casino is working with police and Victoria's gaming regulator to investigate a betting scam which is believed to have netted a high-rolling cards player $32 million.It is believed the scam involved the use of the casino's own surveillance system, but Crown is not commenting.
Crown's surveillance system includes cameras that can pan, tilt and zoom in on gaming tables.
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Vulnerability database hack highlights need to bolster cybersecurity
By Antone Gonsalves | The recent hack of the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) is one more example of the need for a stronger U.S. cybersecurity strategy. The unidentified attackers exploited a vulnerability in Adobe's Web development software ColdFusion, NIST spokeswoman Gail Porter said. The malware was inserted before Adobe issued a patch Jan. 15.
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Motorola Solutions Invests in BriefCam
March 13, 2013 – Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MSI), through its strategic investment arm Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, has announced its investment in BriefCam, the developer and provider of Video Synopsis solutions for the rapid review, analysis and indexing of surveillance video. The funds will be used to expand BriefCam’s worldwide marketing and sales activities.
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Prices fall, services rise in malware-as-a-service market
By Antone Gonsalves | Prices are falling and the number of services is increasing as developers in the online underground compete fiercely for criminals looking to purchase botnets and other tools to mount cyberattacks.
The trends in the so-called malware-as-a-service market reflect a maturing business in which any non-professional can buy or rent all the tools needed to build the malware, distribute it and then siphon credit card and banking data and other personal information from compromised PCs. Developers even offer software consoles that provide a full view of a botnet and all its nodes.
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Scientists Uncover Invisible Motion in Video
By Erik Olsen | A 30-second video of a newborn baby shows the infant silently snoozing in its crib, his breathing barely perceptible. But when the video is run through an algorithm that can amplify both movement and color, the baby’s face blinks crimson with each tiny heartbeat.
The amplification process is called Eulerian Video Magnification, and is the brainchild of a team of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
The team originally developed the program to monitor neonatal babies without making physical contact. But they quickly learned that the algorithm can be applied to other videos to reveal changes imperceptible to the naked eye.
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Lawmakers to consider requiring security plans for all schools, buses
by Jamie Grey | BOISE -- Lawmakers will soon be presented with a bill that would require schools to have safety and security plans on campuses and buses. The proposal comes in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting, and proponents say it would help keep all students and teachers safer by coordinating with law enforcement well in advance of emergency.
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Wi-Fi-Blocking Wallpaper
By Caroline Winter | Wallpaper’s no longer just about room atmospherics. High-tech versions emit light, purify the air, and even keep buildings from crumbling in bomb attacks. Now Guy Eymin Petot Tourtollet, 46, scientific director of the French pulp and paper research institute Centre Technique du Papier, has invented a snowflake-patterned wallpaper that blocks Wi-Fi signals, while still allowing FM radio and emergency frequencies to pass through.
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Hackers in China Attacked The Times for Last 4 Months
By NICOLE PERLROTH | For the last four months, Chinese hackers have persistently attacked The New York Times, infiltrating its computer systems and getting passwords for its reporters and other employees. After surreptitiously tracking the intruders to study their movements and help erect better defenses to block them, The Times and computer security experts have expelled the attackers and kept them from breaking back in.
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Fortune 500 companies back voluntary cybersecurity standards
By Jennifer Martinez |Leading U.S. companies will support a voluntary program enabling the government and industry to develop a set of cybersecurity best practices, according to a memo from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).
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New video codec to ease pressure on global networks
Geneva, 25 January 2013 – A new video coding standard building on the PrimeTime Emmy award winning ITU-T H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC was agreed by ITU members today.
The new codec will considerably ease the burden on global networks where, by some estimates, video accounts for more than half of bandwidth use.
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Infrastructure Facing $1.1-Trillion Funding Gap in 2020, ASCE Says
By Bruce Buckley | The investment shortfall in U.S. infrastructure could total $1.1 trillion in 2020 and may reach $4.7 trillion in 2040, according to a new report by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The report, released on Jan. 15, concludes that if shortfalls hit those levels, the economy could suffer significantly in the coming years, and have negative effects on businesses and households.
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Study: Retailers migrating to IP video at a staggering rate
BY JOEL GRIFFIN | According to the results of a new study conducted by the Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC) released this week at the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) BIG Show in New York City, retailers are migrating to IP video solutions at a rapid pace.
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CHP seeks millions for Bay Bridge cameras
By Michael Cabanatuan | The splashy new east span of the Bay Bridge needs a state-of-the-art system of security cameras, the California Highway Patrol has told bridge officials - and toll payers would have to pay the $31 million cost.
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Cyberstalkers Threaten Pipeline Security
By DYLAN WALSH | In a recent annual review, a team at the Department of Homeland Security that works to counter the threat of attacks on critical computer infrastructure counted 198 incidents in fiscal 2012. The events reported ranged from the use of malware to sabotage systems to phishing attacks for retrieving sensitive information. In roughly 40 percent of those cases, the target was the energy sector – “an alarming rate,” the report said.
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The Next Evolution of the Internet
By KATHY PRETZ | The next phase of the Internet is on its way: a world of networked smart devices equipped with sensors and radio-frequency identification, connected to the Internet, all sharing information with each other without human intervention. Known as the Internet of Things (IoT), it will link approximately 50 billion machines and devices by 2020, predicts Cisco Systems futurist Dave Evans.
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