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An electrical engineer secretly uploaded onto his personal Dropbox account thousands of files containing sensitive information about the unmanned underwater vehicles his company was developing for the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research. A Connecticut federal jury on Monday found Jared Sparks of Ardmore, Oklahoma, guilty of multiple counts of theft of trade secrets and…
The Police Foundation doesn’t want the police to call drones “drones.” Because of the public’s association with “military-style weapons like the Predator,” the organization’s 311 page report reads, the term “drone” is “a major obstacle to law enforcement’s ability to convince the public” that police drone programs “could actually increase public safety, not jeopardize it.”…
IBM Security on Wednesday released its latest report examining the costs and impact associated with data breaches. The findings paint a grim portrait of what the clean up is like for companies whose data becomes exposed—particularly for larger corporations that suffer so-called “mega breaches,” a costly exposure involving potentially tens of millions of private records.…
Taking to the skies with a rocket strapped to your back is still a dangerous idea, despite how Hollywood typically portrays the stunt. So a product design student in the UK created a safer way to fly—under water—with a jetpack that can propel a swimmer at speeds of up to eight miles per hour. Archie…
You too can have better cybersecurity than the U.S. military just by properly setting up your router. Research analysts have discovered what they believe to be sensitive documents relating to the Pentagon’s drone, tank, and tactical programs for sale on the dark web. The manuals were obtained through a common exploit that could have been…
It was a year ago at this time that Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf gave birth to Iceberg A-68, one of the largest chunks of ice ever recorded. A new timelapse video made from satellite imagery shows the rift, calving, and subsequent journey of the iceberg over the past 12 months. Iceberg A-68 is the…
A snake is still stranded in the United States after airline security refused to allow it to board a plane to the Caribbean. Transportation Security Administration officers at Miami International Airport found a ball python hidden inside a hard drive enclosure on Monday. TSA spokesperson Sari Koshetz shared a photo of the bundled snake on…
One of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most famous mansions, known as the Ennis House, is up for sale in east Los Angeles. And even if you don’t know the house, you certainly know the movies that the famous building has appeared in, including Blade Runner (1982), The House on Haunted Hill (1959) and The Replacement Killers…
I ended the call realizing Violent J may be one of the best fathers around.
Don’t let a long flight or a loss of signal get in the way of your music and video streaming: Just about all the popular services let you cache downloads for offline use, and Netflix just upgraded its download mechanism to be smarter—downloading the next episode of shows you are watching and automatically deleting the…
Ajit Pai and the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission successfully rolled back Barack Obama-era net neutrality guidelines earlier this year, but they’re not done screwing with consumers yet. According to the Verge, the FCC is now mulling a plan that could ensure its staff will only review complaints against telecoms after the complainant has paid a…
E-payments company Paypal sent a deceased customer an email more or less stating that the cessation of life functions—and thus an inability for the customer in question to clear their remaining account balance—was a violation of site policy. Per the BBC, after 37-year-old UK woman Lindsay Durdle died of breast cancer that had spread to…
Facebook, the social media giant that recently clocked in at a total valuation of nearly $600 billion, may soon face the maximum penalties UK authorities have available to punish the company for its role in the Cambridge Analytica data-sharing scandal. And—drumroll, please—it’s $664,000. Or, as calculated by the New York Times’ Kevin Roose, less than…
Imagine being an engineer at Apple, one of the most coveted positions in tech. On top of it, you work in the ultra-secret autonomous car division. And you blow it all by leaving for a startup in China and stealing Apple’s trade secrets on the way out the door. That’s what authorities believe one man…
Today Snapchat announced its newest feature, Lens Explorer, which makes the social network a little more communal by letting users easily access Snap’s repository of user-created Lenses. While the variety is nice, incorporating user-generated content has its downsides: More often than not, it sucks. Snap introduced Lens Kit in 2017, a tool that lets creative…
Contrary to earlier reports, Orlando police confirmed Monday they will renew a contract with Amazon to pilot its controversial face recognition software, Rekognition—a move that is sure to reignite concerns of privacy and civil liberties advocates who have pushed back against law enforcement’s use of the technology. The American Civil Liberties Union released emails in…
The engineers at Citroën have apparently thrown almost 100 years of French design refinement out the window with a new product you don’t drive, but will improve your motoring experience. The carmaker’s new Seetroën glasses won’t win you any style points, but Citroën claims the glasses will eliminate any motion sickness you’re feeling after wearing…
On a picnic table before you sits an enormous bowl of potato salad. You have a bite, which tastes okay, and almost immediately start feeling ill. You, however, love potato salad. So you have another bite, which makes you feel even worse, and then another, and then another. Somewhere, deep down, you know this is…
Facebook has been under fire in India following a string of lynchings that appeared to have been prompted by false news spread on WhatsApp. It’s become such an epidemic that the Indian government has demanded something be done. For now, Facebook’s solution involves running ads in local newspapers explaining how to spot fake news. According…
The Olympics are supposed to be a series of competitions that test the physical capabilities of the competing athletes. But increasingly, it seems like it’s become a competition over which athlete brings the best gear: be it highly-engineered running shoes, swimsuits, or sleds. So why shouldn’t track and field athletes be allowed to use a…
