“Current and former top executives at SolarWinds are blaming a company intern for a critical lapse in password security that apparently went undiagnosed for years,” reports CNN. The password in question, “solarwinds123,” was discovered in 2019 on the public internet by an independent security researcher who warned the company that the leak had exposed a SolarWinds file server… It is still…
Tag: Defense Department
Xiaomi Sues US Seeking To Reverse Investment Ban
AmiMoJo shares a report: Xiaomi has sued the U.S. Defense and Treasury departments, challenging a blacklisting that blocks American investors from buying the Chinese smartphone giant’s securities. The lawsuit came after the Defense Department determined earlier this month that China’s biggest smartphone maker was affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army. Beijing-based Xiaomi called the blacklisting “unconstitutional” and seeks a court ruling…
US Space Force Members Are Now Called ‘Guardians’
Slashdot reader destinyland writes: The U.S. Space Force celebrated its one-year anniversary Friday with a new announcement: that members of this branch of the military will be referred to as “guardians.” They’re describing it as “A name chosen by space professionals, for space professionals.” The site Space.com notes that the phrase is a nod to the original long-standing “Space Command” branch…
Arecibo telescope receiver platform crashes onto dish
The telescope has been inoperable since mid-November, when multiple engineering companies reported that safety in and around it could not be guaranteed. Now their fears have come to pass. No one was injured. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/arecibo-telescope-receiver-platform-crashes-onto-dish…
Microsoft Plans Cloud Contract Push With Foreign Governments After $10 Million JEDI Win
Microsoft is signing deals with foreign governments to offer cloud-infrastructure packages similar to the bundle it assembled for the U.S. Defense Department, according to CNBC, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, cloud offering for the Defense Department provides cloud-based computing and storage resources at all government security classification levels, as well…
Trump Administration Says Huawei, Hikvision Backed By Chinese Military
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The Trump administration has determined that top Chinese firms, including telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies and video surveillance company Hikvision, are owned or controlled by the Chinese military, laying the groundwork for new U.S. financial sanctions, according to a document seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The list of 20 companies that Washington alleges…
Microsoft VP Asks AWS To ‘Stand Down’ On JEDI Cloud Protests
A Microsoft executive urged Amazon Web Services to “stand down on its litigation” opposing the award of the military’s lucrative JEDI commercial cloud transformation contract, arguing the ongoing legal and administrative challenges are keeping the best tools out of the hands of U.S. warfighters. From a report: The statement from Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for communications, came in response…
Pentagon Formally Releases 3 Navy Videos Showing ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena’
The Pentagon on Monday formally released three unclassified videos taken by Navy pilots that have circulated for years showing interactions with “unidentified aerial phenomena.” CBS News reports: One of the videos shows an incident from 2004, and the other two were recorded in January 2015, according to Sue Gough, a Defense Department spokeswoman. The 2004 incident occurred about 100 miles out…
Supreme Court To Consider Limiting America’s ‘Anti-Hacking’ Law
America’s Supreme Court “is finally considering whether to rein in the nation’s sweeping anti-hacking law, which cybersecurity pros say is decades out of date and ill-suited to the modern Internet,” according to the Washington Post’s cybersecurity writer:
The justices agreed to hear a case this fall that argues law enforcement and prosecutors have routinely applied the law too broadly and used it…
Pentagon Watchdog Clears Microsoft’s $10 Billion Win Over Amazon
The Defense Department’s watchdog found no evidence that the Pentagon’s controversial decision to award a $10 billion cloud-computing contract to Microsoft was the result of interference from President Donald Trump, though it said its probe was limited by the White House. From a report: The 317-page report issued Wednesday by the inspector general also found that giving the JEDI contract to…