By Alan Duric
Mar 15, 2021
Government agencies have been unable to maintain trust in their cybersecurity capabilities this past year, and for good reason. The onset of the pandemic, followed by a year of tumultuous cyberattacks, has further damaged an IT infrastructure that had long been vulnerable to bad actors, nation-state and otherwise.
The perfect storm of pandemic-related events and vulnerable infrastructure has challenged federal, state and local governments. Not only did 2020 see a massive increase in data breaches, with the first quarter of the year showing a 278% increase in leaked government records, cyberattacks happened on a much larger scale, as seen with the SolarWinds hack that affected governments and businesses. These events have clearly shown that if governments continue relying on outdated and insufficient systems and protocols, the number of successful attacks will only grow in size and consequence.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s SocialCyber program aims to create a dynamic situational awareness capability that can preserve the integrity and security of open source software projects.
By Mark Rockwell
Oct 19, 2020
It only takes one small breach to dent confidence in the nation’s election systems, according to a digital rights and technology expert.
While the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and other organizations have made great strides since 2016 to shore up local election infrastructure, “cybersecurity is an active process. Threats are constantly changing and evolving, so we need to keep making the case that election officials need to prioritize cybersecurity and not be complacent, said William Adler, senior technologist for elections and democracy at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Adler s comments came during an Oct. 16 conference call with reporters. He and other officials at the technology and digital rights advocacy group explained the variety of threats facing the upcoming elections, from voter suppression to misinformation about mail-in ballots and cybersecurity. Even an unsuccessful attack, if detected and publi
By Nick Wakeman
Mar 12, 2021
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants to explore how artificial intelligence-enabled assistants can provide guidance in the form of just-in-time visual and audio feedback to help users expand their skillsets and minimize errors or mistakes.
In the Perceptually-enabled Task Guidance (PTG) program, humans would wear microphones sensors, head-mounted cameras and an augmented reality headset that all send and receive data. The system could help medics or mechanics, for example, by understanding what they’re working on and offering AR-based instructions to help them perform complex tasks.
“These sensor platforms generate tons of data around what the user is seeing and hearing, while AR headsets provide feedback mechanisms to display and share information or instructions,” said Bruce Draper, a program manager in DARPA’s Information Innovation Office. “Developing virtual assistants that can provide substantial aid to human user
By Itay Bengad
Mar 12, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has made shockingly clear how thin emergency medical services teams have been spread. It’s a reality that many teams endured before the pandemic and it will continue to experience once it’s over. As a result, EMS teams must carefully allocate their emergency response resources to properly address every potential scenario. However, in one such scenario the car accident first responders face critical operational and technological challenges in dispatching the appropriate resources. Because they have no real-time data from the scene of the accident, EMS teams must depend on witness reports, forcing them to make assumptions when it comes to sending personnel and vehicles to the scene. Not only do these haphazard decisions have implications on the health of the accident victims, but they could cost EMS teams time and money that are already too sparse to be wasted.