Hackers invade systems holding medical files on 4.5 million California patients

UCLA Health hospitals say hackers may have accessed personal information and medical records on 4.5 million patients.The California medical group admitted today that miscreants infiltrated its computer systems as long ago as September. It is possible the intruders accessed databases holding patient names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, medical records, health plan numbers, details of medical conditions, lists of medications, and medical test results.

Source: Hackers invade systems holding medical files on 4.5 million Cali patients • The Register

Aren’t centralised databases great? A one stop shop for all your customer records!

UK DRIPA privacy invasion blocked by EU courts

The judges identified two key problems with the law: that it does not provide for independent court or judicial scrutiny to ensure that only data deemed “strictly necessary” is examined; and that there is no definition of what constitutes “serious offences” in relation to which material can be investigated. For legal authority, the judges relied on an earlier decision, known as Digital Rights Ireland, by the European Court of Justice in Luxemburg, which is binding on UK courts.In their challenge, Davis and Watson argued that the law allowed the police and security services to spy on citizens without sufficient privacy safeguards.They said the legislation was incompatible with article eight of the European convention on human rights, the right to respect for private and family life, and articles seven and eight of the EU charter of fundamental rights, respect for private and family life and protection of personal data.The MPs complained that use of communications data was not limited to cases involving serious crime, that individual notices of data retention were kept secret, and that no provision was made for those under obligation of professional confidentiality, in particular lawyers and journalists. Nor, they argued, were there adequate safeguards against communications data leaving the EU.

Source: High court rules data retention and surveillance legislation unlawful | World news | The Guardian

Nice to see that at least EU courts can display sanity from time to time!

Rockets powered by microwave beams

Except Escape Dynamics didn’t fire its engine by setting alight fuel in a controlled explosion, like a traditional rocket. Instead, their engine fired using power beamed at it from a microwave antenna across the room.

]…] It aims to use a giant set of batteries to draw power from the regular electric grid (or on site solar panels, wind turbines, or other available power generation). Once they’re charged and a spaceship is ready to go, power will be sent to a set of modular, phased array microwave antennae spanning a square kilometer. Those antennae will then fire a microwave beam at a heat exchanger on the spaceship. That heat exchanger will heat up the hydrogen in the fuel tank, which is what powers the rocket on the ship into orbit.

Source: This Company Aims To Launch Rockets With Beams Of Power – Forbes

Solar Paper, the world’s thinnest and lightest solar charger by YOLK — Kickstarter goals funded!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1398120161/solar-paper-the-worlds-thinnest-and-lightest-solar?ref=category_popular

Solar Paper measures just 9 x 19 x 1.1 cm when folded, and weighs only 120g (4 oz). Watt-for-watt, it is 85 percent smaller than our closest competitor and 75 percent lighter. Most importantly, Solar Paper is just 1.1 cm deep, at its thickest point, compared to 3.8 cm for our competitor, which also weighs a full pound!

AFC Kredieten loan application data hacked, company responds: Meh, not our customers

A spokeswoman for AFC Kredieten, when asked if customers whose data had been stolen had been informed, replied: “They are not our customers. They are applicants, we had not necessarily organised a loan for them yet. AFC Credits is the victim here. What that group did is illegal and writing about it would be against the law.”

Source: Loan application data hacked, company responds: Meh, not our customers • The Register

Wow! How to not handle this! They collected the data on their website, so that makes them responsible for the data.

ProxyGambit – anonymise your internet traffic via GSM or Radio links

ProxyGambit is a simple anonymization device that allows you to access the Internet from anywhere in the world without revealing your true location or IP, fracturing your traffic from the Internet/IP through either a long distance radio link or a reverse tunneled GSM bridge that ultimately drops back onto the Internet and exits through a wireless network you’re no where near.

While a point to point link is supported, the reverse GSM-to-TCP bridge allows you to proxy from thousands of miles away with nothing other than a computer and Internet with no direct link back to your originating machine.

UK/US naval partnership – much more integration and interoperability

we will seek even more opportunities to exchange personnel.

Already a joint UK-US battlestaff have deployed on operations. I see this type of interchange becoming the norm, particularly in headquarters roles, but we are also exploring the opportunity to mutually support niche or perishable skills.

[Fourthly,] we will pursue mutual investment in the technologies that will allow us to operate together, because innovation has always been the hallmark of battle-winning navies.And absolutely crucial to this relationship, is interoperability.

Not as bolt-on or an afterthought, but right from the word go.

So, through the joint development of a Common Missile Compartment for our Strategic Missile Submarines, a common airframe for the Joint Strike Fighter, common weapon systems and stocks, common data protocols, we are establishing interoperability from the outset.

Source: UK/US naval partnership – Speeches – GOV.UK

This is pretty far reaching partnership and in line with the long standing policy of jointness being explored in eg the combined amphibious forces with the Netherlands and military partnership with the French. Given the huge costs of modern combat platforms this seems to me to be the only sensible way of being able to meet future threats, although I would rather the UK focusses her partnerships on the EU member states instead of the US, whose foreign policy is often much more ambitious (and morally questionable) than that of the UK. The US also has a long and proud history of taking secrets from their allies and returning little to nothing of value in return – eg. F-35 source code.