Hackers took control of a unclassified email system in Pentagon in 2015

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  16 Dec 2016 , 08:54

Russian hackers seized control last year of the unclassified email system used by the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, CBS News reported on Thursday, citing an interview with then-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey.

Dempsey, who did not appear on camera, said he was alerted to the August 2015 attack by an early morning phone call from the director of the National Security Agency, Admiral Mike Rogers, according to CBS. The email system is used by the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, an organization of some 3,500 military officers and civilians who work for the chairman.

The hackers seized the passwords and electronic signatures used by Dempsey, an Army general who retired in September 2015, and hundreds of other senior officers to sign on to the network, according to CBS. The only way to stop the attack was to take the network down, CBS said.

The attack, which U.S. officials now blame on Russia, was not spying, but a full-on assault whose only apparent purpose was to cause damage and force the Pentagon to replace both hardware and software, which took about two weeks to accomplish, according to CBS.

The motive for the attack was believed to be Russian anger at economic sanctions orchestrated by the Obama administration in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea and interference in Ukraine, CBS said.

The Pentagon declined to comment. U.S. officials have accused Putin of supervising his intelligence agencies’ hacking of the U.S. presidential election in an effort to help Republican Donald Trump. Russian officials have denied accusations of interference in the Nov. 8 election won by Trump.

Reuters

European Union plans to develop rockets to stop dependance on Russia

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  27 Oct 2016 , 12:42

EU officials said on Wednesday they planned to invest 12 billion euros by 2020 to develop new rockets to launch satellites for defence and data-driven businesses and reduce reliance on Russian launchers. With limited options to launch orbiters and Russia controlling a large share of the market, businesses currently wait years for a window to put satellites in space.

The European Commission wants to help Europe’s top rocket contractor, Airbus Safran Launchers, to develop the Ariane 6 rocket by 2020 to better compete with U.S. and Russian rivals on cost and payload size. Existing Ariane launchers cost roughly 150 million euros compared to 80 million for Russia’s Soyuz, EU officials said.

“We don’t want to use the other launchers. We are now using the Soyuz because there is no other way,” Europe’s Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska told reporters. With the global space industry growing faster than any other sector, the EU unveiled its strategy on Wednesday to ensure it does not fall behind in sectors, including defence, that use earth-observation data.

“We know who are the biggest global space powers: It is the U.S., it is Russia and China and India are coming so we want to be second or third,” Bienkowska said. The Commission plans to promote the use of its own global satellite navigation system Galileo in mobile phones and make the data available for business. Europe will launch more than 30 satellites over the next decade to complete Galileo, which will work in tandem with the U.S. GPS system, EU officials said.

“Galileo data will be much more precise than GPS,” Bienkowska said. Russia and China have launched their own global positioning systems to underpin their defence industries and civilian commerce. Europe is the world’s third largest satellite manufacturer and the 28-nation bloc hopes investment in the space sector can increase the number of related jobs from the current 230,000.

“The benefit for the economy from one euro invested in space is seven euros back,” Bienkowska said.

Reuters

Three day conference showcases emerging materials for defence and Infrastructure

  16 Oct 2016 , 11:44

A three-day conference-cum-exhibition on material engineering technology and heat treat ended with a showcase of the latest advancements in materials and processes for industrial application specifically in the defence and infrastructure sector. Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar inaugurated the conference on Wednesday in the presence of industrialist Sajjan Jindal and scientist R A Mashelkar.

Speaking on the occasion, Parrikar said that India shares $1 billion of the global heat treat market which is growing at 12 per cent per annum. He added that this exhibition is truly international as 300 participants from all over the world have congregated on a single platform. “With the growing population of the world, resources are getting scarce and expensive. Materials & Engineering conference focuses on developing new materials, processes, theories and computational models to understand materials,” Parrikar added.

“Emerging Materials for Defence and Infrastructure” was the theme for the three-day event. “The fast growing Asian economies have created market opportunities for heat treatment technologies, products, services and equipment. The growth of the Indian infrastructure and automotive industry is providing the demand for most heat treating activities. Over all, the potential for growth of furnace building activity and heat treatment activity is huge, driven primarily by the growth of the auto sector,” said Prem Aurora, Chairman of ASM International India Chapter that organised the event.

IANS