The parallels between fiction and real life have always been amazing. Science fiction and futuristic fiction gadgets have often predicted gadgets which have actually found expression in real life years later. So now Brazilian police are getting sunglasses inspired from the movie, RoboCop. These sunglasses use face recognition technology to scan faces and pick out criminals.

The sunglasses actually have a high speed camera which can scan as many 400 people in a second and compare the biometric features wirelessly with a data base of known criminals. If there is a positive match, a red light will come on, telling the officer of the fact and he will also receive instructions as to what to do next.

What’s more the sunglasses can be used up to 50 yards away and scan up to 46,000 biometric points on each face. If the crowd is thinner, then the camera will work over a larger distance – even 12 miles away.

Brazil is gearing up for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic games and it is a known fact that criminals are usually present at such events. It can also be used to spot known terrorists or even small time criminals like pickpockets. In the initial trial stages, the cops will probably use them at crowded events like concerts and sporting events and then iron out any bugs apart from becoming familiar with the technology.

The news wires have been afire the last couple of days with regard to the Apple iPhone storing sensitive tracking information. Apple has been tight lipped about the process to date, and are under a lot of pressure from numerous avenues.

What Does it Do?

Late Wednesday at a conference technology experts Pete Warden and Alasdair Allen announced that they had discovered that the iOS4 upload for iPhones and iPads tracked users whereabouts. The report goes on to inform readers that the devices have hidden files that contain a running log as to the users location in longitude and latitude, including time stamped information.

All of this information is maintained on the device and then also uploaded to a PC once connection is made.

Why?

The reason why at this time is unknown. Apple and their associates refuse to return calls and have not issued a public comment. It is somewhat disturbing that users are unaware, not to mention that the data is being stored on the device itself, as well backups and then again if the device is connected to another source. Essentially the data once on a PC or other source is readily available to anyone that has access. The information is documented in an open style with no encryption or protection. The iOS 4 was released in 2010 so all devices would have been tracking this information since then.

What Can I Do?

The data is being stored on your device and system under a file called consolidated.db
For the most part only you will have access to this information unless you up-load to public computer systems such as, work, friends, family etc. For now simply encrypting your backup data will help. This can be done in the I-tunes platform. Deleting the file off your base systems or locations is also possible.

Conclusion

This information is pretty much common occurrence for any wireless device. Creators and carriers of the devices and networks can always access your current and past location. There are legal implications and in order to obtain this information a court order is typically required. The fact that this information is being stored and transferred in this fashion is rather bothersome. Perhaps this is just a bug in the programming, or an App that was programmed wrong. Perhaps it is a marketing tool to see where and what the users are doing? There is no certain reasoning, many have voiced their opinions some feel there is a conspiracy, others feel it is a programming error.

It will be interesting to hear what the people from Apple have to say.
Stay tuned.

News of the World has admitted to its complicity in the phone hacking scandal which has been dogging its footsteps for years now. Its parent company News International has offered an unreserved apology and admission of liability ‘in certain civil cases that meet specific criteria’. This has come after more than four years of consistent online denials.

It has apparently set aside £20 million to compensate victims of its hacking. Over the years, it has come to out of court settlements with many of those whose phones had been hacked into and some cases are still pending as the victims refused to settle. News of the World privately admitted that there may be as many 100 victims in the phone tapping scandal. News International, however, still holds that it will continue to pursue cases where it feels that there is no legitimate claim.

About a week ago, Neville Thurlbeck, the paper’s chief reporter, and Ian Edmondson, an assistant editor who has been sacked had been arrested. It looks like more arrests may be in the offing. These are the latest development in the hacking scandal which News of the World has been embroiled in the past six years.

It all started when the paper published a story in 2005 about Prince William’s knee injury. Royal aides alleged that phone voicemail messages were intercepted. This started a police enquiry. A little more than a year after Clive Goodman, the NoW’s royal editor, faced a criminal trial and was jailed for four months. Goodman had used mobile phone numbers and secret codes used by network operators to hack into voicemails of celebrities. Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was responsible for the hacking was jailed for six months. NoW editor at that time, Andy Coulson also resigned, though he said he was unaware of the hacking.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa) says that it is illegal to access another person’s phone. Also in play is the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Even if UK’s security services need to listen in on telephonic conversations, they have to apply for warrants to do so. So, New of the World’s act was patently illegal.

The investigator apparently eavesdropped on personal messages, hacked into emails, intercepted voice mail messages and hacked the phones of actors, celebrities, politicians, intelligence officers, sportspeople and even members of the royal household. All this information was used for news stories, which means that many of the reporters and staff members of NoW were aware of the dubious means of getting the information, which earlier NoW had denied.

Among the victims who have already settled claims are Max Clifford, publicist, Gordon Taylor, PFA chief executive and Jo Armstrong, PFA legal adviser. There are still 24 active cases pending before the court including Steve Cougan, actor and comedian, Sienna Miller, actress, Chris Tarrant and Andy Gay, both TV presenters and others.

In existence and use are highly advanced scanners which can scan people and even objects. But the current scanners have some limitations. Now a scanner has been made which can detect hidden objects in solids. It uses millimeter wave and microwave signals in real time and special software decodes all the information.

It can thus detect objects in structures and solids and display the images on the computer. The focus can be moved so that the entire structure can be scanned. Originally developed in 2007, researchers led by Dr. Reza Zoughi at Missouri S&T have developed a device which is smaller in size and more efficient. Research is still ongoing to find a system which can show images in 3D.

Using technology which is similar to that used by body scanners at airports, this new device has many possible uses. Apart from crime fighting and medical uses, the scanner can possibly be customized in the near future to be used for ‘critical inspection needs, including detecting defects in thermal insulating materials that are found in spacecraft heat insulating foam and tiles, space habitat structures, aircraft radomes and composite-strengthened concrete bridge members’ said Dr. Zoughi.

Not too long back, witnesses looked through photos of criminals in files or albums and tried to identify them or match them with the person they saw. If required, or if they could not identify the person, they would sit with the artist and get sketches made. With computerization all this has become much easier. It becomes easier to make the sketches and go through all the pictures. Of course this helps only if witnesses have actually seen the criminal and it is not going to be of much help if the perpetrator has worn a disguise like a mask.

But there is still no foolproof way to actually identify the criminals. Now with the development of new software which uses algorithms instead of pixels, the identification becomes a tad easier. What this software does is that it makes the sketches according to the inputs received and then matches them to the database of mug shots that the police have.

The subjective element is then reduced and the computer tries to match the sketches with the database. Obviously the system works faster than human beings can because it can process information speedily. The computer system is being pioneered at Michigan State University. Currently the success rate is only 45 percent. However, it helps narrow down the list of suspects and helps the police in their investigations. The field test of this will take at least a year more.

A small virtually invisible camera clipped to the uniform of the police officer can help fight crime. When police officers go to a crime scene to talk to people, they either take notes or also take photos. But if they wear video recorders, they will have to do neither, as the camera will record everything.

In West Michigan, police officers are wearing body cameras to capture crime scenes. This way there is less room for error and other officers, too, can see and hear what has been recorded. These tiny body cams cost only about $100. Many police cars have cameras on their dashboards, but these have limitations as the cruiser has to be close enough to record.

If personal cams and dashboard cams can be synchronized, it will be even better. One benefit of the body cam is that it can improve police efficiency and community relations. Another benefit to the police officers is that they are protected against false allegations.

In a case of the cruiser of Kent County Sheriff’s Deputy Melissa DeBoer being hit by another car at a signal, she activated the dashboard camera. As the camera could actually record what had happened 30 seconds prior to being activated, it was able to catch all the action. She was able to ticket the driver who was at fault.

The body cameras are being worn in Lafayette, in Erlanger and other places on a trial and evaluation basis. They can be activated either by voice command or by pressing a button. The short battery life of the body cams is one disadvantage, which has to be worked around.

The British economy is suffering huge monetary losses as cyber crime figures keep mounted. Current estimates are £27 billion – a staggering figure. The major chunk of the loss is borne by British businesses, the sum estimated being £21 billion. The rest is dividing into losses by the government and citizens.

Unfortunately these figures are only guesstimates – the actual losses may be higher as many companies simply don’t report losses due to fear of brand erosion or damage to their reputation. Security minister Baroness Neville-Jones met industrial leaders to start work on a program to battle this very real threat.

Internet crimes are not restricted only to phishing, hacking and bank account frauds. They cover the whole gamut industrial espionage, theft of intellectual property and more. The vulnerable sectors are defence, automobile, pharmaceuticals, software and computer services along with mining, and financial services, and they have already suffered losses.

The government has committed £650m over the next four years to fight cyber crime. The Baroness said that cyber criminals are fearless because they feel they cannot be caught. This is partly true because cyber criminals may be any country in the world and are difficult to trace.

Martin Sutherland, chief executive of Detica, the consultancy which compiled the report with the Cabinet Office, said the perpetrators of cyber crime ranged from “state-sponsored” criminals to organized crime gangs down to “spotty teenagers sitting in their bedrooms”.

Cyber criminals are always one step ahead of the law, and this is because they are also more techno-savvy than ever before. While in this case, crime may pay, somebody has to bear the price for it and in this case the casualty is the British economy.

People living in England and Wales simply have to go to the police.uk website, enter their postal code and get a plethora of information regarding all kinds of crimes in their neighbourhood. They will learn of crimes like burglary, robbery, vehicle crime, violence, other crime (including rapes and sexual crimes) and anti-social behaviour, put in respective categories, which have taken place near their homes. And it appears millions have gone on the site on its first day of the site going live.

They will also learn about the police officers in charge of that area, the appeals issued by the police and details of community meetings. The Home Office hopes that this will bring a level of transparency to the whole process, as well as keeping people informed. It will also make the police more accountable.

While a section of the people have welcomed this move and this effort, there are others who are distressed by it. They don’t really want to know which crimes have taken place on their streets and in their neighbourhoods. Some are concerned that there is a possibility that higher crime areas will witness a down turn in housing prices.

There is also the fact that given so much information, how many people are actually going to access it on a regular basis for it have any effect apart from the initial curiosity value. If it is going to have a positive effect or not, only time will tell. People are more concerned about whether there is sufficient number of police working to solve the crimes and how effectively they are doing their work.

Meanwhile there have also been concerns regarding the veracity of the web site. A small street in Portsmouth has been shown to be very crime infested, but actually it is a quiet street. Crimes from nearby areas have been included, thus showing it as a high crime area, which it is not.

With growing use of the internet and mobile phone telephony, most children are now are now fully plugged in to the world of instant communication, but with that also comes potential hazards. It provides a growing opportunity for paedophiles to groom kids more easily than ever before. To counter such threats, a new mobile phone app called Child Defence has been designed that recognises the differences in the patterns of communication between children, and adults that pretend to be children.

Although this is a pretty clever software, it is by no means 100% accurate because an adult can learn the behavioural patterns of a minor and the way they communicate to something approximating a child which can then be difficult for the child to detect. Also, this software relies on the child making a judgement that might not always be accurate.

It therefore should be advised that a parent takes great care when guiding a child in using this product and children are recommended to only communicate with known friends and take identification measures before proceeding to chat.

Video of news report

Latest news shows not at all. Everybody knows there are various spy softwares available for listening in on mobile telephonic conversations, but usually these have to be installed and come at a great expense, making it impractical. However, security researchers, Karsten Nohl and Sylvain Munaut have demonstrated that open source software along with four cheap phones can enable eavesdropping on any GSM phone.

At the recent Chaos Computer Club Congress in Berlin the duo showed how they had developed the toolkit which helps them listen in to any conversation. And this is not only verbal calls, but also any data. They took the audience through the whole process. They could get hold of the phone’s unique id and intercept the data while on its way to the base station from the phone used.

To accomplish this feat they bought of four cheap Motorola phones (because their firmware is available on the net). They created open source alternative firmware without fillers and used specially created encryption keys to defeat the current data encryption system which is supposed to scramble the data.

While the pair has no interest in releasing all its secrets, it is a scary thought that hackers will be able to figure out how to do this. Mr. Nohl says that he expects people to this just for the fun of it, instead of using commercial spying software which costs upwards of £35,000.

The GSM operators need to step up and fill the security holes. Meanwhile, whether it is big businessmen or celebrities or your average person who thinks he or she is safe while using his mobile, beware – somebody somewhere may well be listening to your conversations and intercepting your data.