Tag: Cold War

CIA Declassifies Cold War-Era Plans for a ‘Nuclear Bird Drone’

“During the Cold War, the CIA considered building a bird-sized drone designed to spy on the communist bloc,” reports Popular Mechanics. “The drone would carry ‘black box’ spy packages into Russia and China, as well as take secret photographs — all while hiding in plain sight disguised as a bird…” The project envisioned a fleet of 12 bird-shaped drones, powered by…

Hackers Could Use IoT Botnets To Manipulate Energy Markets

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: At the Black Hat security conference on Wednesday, [researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology] will present their findings, which suggest that high-wattage IoT botnets — made up of power-guzzling devices like air conditioners, car chargers, and smart thermostats — could be deployed strategically to increase demand at certain times in any of…

Revealed: the CIA’s nuclear-powered bird drone

Newly declassified CIA documents have revealed details of a secretive Cold War spy drone that looked like a bird. Known as Project Aquiline, the unusu… Source: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/338612/revealed-the-cias-nuclear-powered-bird-drone…

Larry King Duped Into ‘Disinfomercial’ on Social Media By China (and Possibly Russia)

For 25 years, until 2010, Larry King had a live interview show on CNN. But now ProPublica reports “In the twilight of a remarkable radio and television career spanning more than six decades, battling health problems but determined to stay in the public eye, King was ensnared in an international disinformation scheme.” It involved filming Larry King asking questions, and then…

The Cold War Bunker That Became Home To a Dark-Web Empire

The New Yorker this week has a story about a Dutchman named Xennt, who lived underground in a vast nuclear bunker in Germany with his family, friends, and an assortment of clever misfits. The story is about the dark web, a server empire used by cybercriminals, an encrypted phone network, a five-year investigation by the German police, and an Irish crime…

Open-Source Intelligence Analyst Spotted Russian Missile Test In Arctic

An anonymous reader quotes Forbes:
U.S. Navy submarines have spent years shadowing Russian warships, hoping to snap photographs of missile tests through the periscope. It is the stuff of Cold War legends, taking intelligence, skill, courage and patience. Now by pure chance, a commercial satellite flying 488 miles above the Earth has captured exactly that. The unusual event took place in the…

Bots Still Trying To Reach Cyberbunker 2.0 Addresses 9 Months After Raid

Long-time Slashdot reader UnderAttack writes: In September last year, German police raided what was known as “Cyberbunker 2.0”, a former cold war nuclear bunker turned into a “bulletproof” hosting facility. A student of the internet security-training company SANS Technology Institute analyzed traffic reaching out for the former Cyberbunker’s IP address space. Over two weeks, thousands of bots called “home” still looking…

As Russia Stalks US Satellites, a Space Arms Race May Be Heating Up

Russia “is now challenging the United States’ long-standing supremacy in space and working to exploit the U.S. military’s dependence on space systems for communications, navigation, intelligence, and targeting.” That’s the argument made in The Bulletin by a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer who writes about technology and military strategy, Cold War history, and European security affairs (in an article shared…

Cold War Satellites Inadvertently Tracked Species Declines

sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit in 1957, the United States responded with its own spy satellites. The espionage program, known as Corona, sought to locate Soviet missile sites, but its Google Earth-like photography captured something unintended: snapshots of animals and their habitats frozen in time. Now, by comparing these images with…