The US government's use of unmanned drones has been an open secret for some time. It has been over three years since President Obama admitted that multiple Americans have been killed in drone strikes overseas, and also since the FBI admitted to using surveillance drones to monitor US citizens. This year, the Pentagon has even … Continue reading Drone security lags behind counter-drone tech
Tag: pentagon
At the end of this month, regulations will come into effect requiring defense contractors to implement "insider threat" detection and prevention programs, with the aim of stopping security breaches. Yet the approach the Pentagon is taking seems to favor its larger contractors, while potentially stifling innovation from smaller competitors and contributing to the problem it … Continue reading DoD ‘insider threat’ rules may favor biggest contractors, make problem worse
Today, Nov. 11, 2016, three days after Donald Trump's election win, is Veterans Day. It is the 98th anniversary of the armistice that ended fighting in World War I. It marks fifteen years and two months since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. A large majority of military veterans voted for Trump, by about … Continue reading Vets voted for ‘unpredictable’ Trump over Clinton’s status quo foreign policy
In a development that is probably enthusiastically embraced by a subsection of them, video-gamers-turned-drone-operators for the US military are apparently taking another step in the direction of melding with machines: getting their brains jolted with electricity to stay awake as an alternative to taking stimulant drugs. Scientists working for the Defense Department have successfully "used … Continue reading Brain zaps for drone operators the latest in Pentagon ‘super soldier’ tech
The Pentagon is not known for good bookkeeping. As some readers may recall, the Defense Department's Inspector General reported in June that the DoD cannot account for trillions in spending. So the release of a definite number last week - $58 billion - might come as a relief - except that it's not an amount … Continue reading $58 billion in cancelled DoD projects just a drop in a bucket of unknown depth
As hacking fears remain in the media spotlight leading up to the presidential election, a debate is raging in Washington, D.C. over how to best approach cybersecurity and other technological challenges. While there is no consensus, however, there seems to be a common thread among many suggestions: the answer is to hold somebody accountable for … Continue reading Officials, tech execs suggest more bureaucracy, scapegoating as cybersecurity solutions
Following news today that a National Security Agency contractor, Harold Thomas Martin, was arrested over a month ago and secretly detained since then for allegedly stealing classified documents, many questions remain unanswered, but some details are known. Martin worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, the same defense and intelligence community contractor that whistleblower Edward Snowden had been … Continue reading Detained NSA contractor doesn’t fit ‘insider threat’ profile, raising questions
Less than a month after the release of the infamous "28 pages" of a congressional 9/11 investigation that had been withheld for over a decade, which dealt with alleged ties between the government of Saudi Arabia and some of the hijackers, the Pentagon and State Department announced a new arms sale totaling more than $1 … Continue reading A billion more in arms for Saudi intervention in Yemen civil war
Following this week's announcement of a new U.S. bombing campaign in Libya, several opinion pieces have been written denouncing President Obama's decision to allow the airstrikes without further authorization from Congress, as well as Congress' inaction on explicitly authorizing force against Islamic State extremists. "Just five years after bombing Libya to dispose of Muammar Gaddafi, … Continue reading Libya campaign underscores lack of US military oversight, accountability
Back in March, the Pentagon announced a new public-private partnership to form a "Defense Innovation Advisory Board" chaired by Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet, parent company of Google, with other board members to be selected jointly by Schmidt and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. This week, a list of additional board members was released … Continue reading New military tech board includes billionaires, ex-covert ops boss, anti-conspiracy theorist
MirrorWilderness.com 