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Posts Tagged ‘piracy’

It’s safe to say MMOWGLI won’t look like a massive multiplayer round of Black Ops or Counter Strike. ONR isn’t looking for players that are particularly adept at collecting frags with a virtual rifle, but rather for minds from academia, the defense industry, government organizations and other defense- and naval-related fields that might produce solutions to a set of difficult problems. Like how to defend a growing swath of a major shipping lane from determined bandits in small, fast boats.

But it's also looking for suggestions from the larger crowd, as the game is open to anyone who wishes to sign up. Gameplay is more like tweeting. Log in and two text boxes appear. One asks what new resources could turn the tide in the fight against Somali piracy. The second asks what new risks could arise that would transform the piracy situation. You get 140 characters to answer each.

Players then vote on each other's suggestions and, if they wish to, make suggestions to improve them. The more "yea" votes a player gets, the more points he or she stacks up. There are three rounds, one week per round. By the end of the game the ONR hopes to know two things: how it might solve the Somali piracy problem, and whether or not MMOWGLI actually works. If it yields successful solutions to the piracy scenario, it could be applied to a variety of difficult global problems in the future.

Prepare to be boarded

Designed for anti-piracy operations, the swashbuckling ‘bot is actually a two-part system, which Recon Robotics describe as “marsupial.” Essentially, a smaller mobile robot fitted with an infrared camera is housed inside a larger robot. The duo is then launched from some kind of launcher or cannon from another boat or perhaps an unmanned robotic vessel. After magnetically adhering to the hull and climbing up the side of the ship, the larger bot deploys the smaller one on deck so it can roll around and beam video footage to its handlers.

Guaranteed to ease the storming of any (metallic) ocean-going vessel. Eyepatch not included. Video below.

[The Register via Innovation News Daily]

British defense giant BAE Systems is testing a new green-light laser, which can automatically modulate its intensity depending on the weather and distance to target. Piracy has been on the rise, according to the International Maritime Bureau — there were 430 pirate attacks last year, including an audacious attack on a U.S. warship in the Indian Ocean.

Most pirate ships tend to be small 20-foot skiffs, explains BAE’s Bryan Hore, so the 3-foot-wide beam was designed to target an entire pirate vessel and its crew.

From almost a mile away, it’s bright enough to simulate accidentally looking at the sun, according to New Scientist. Sunglasses would only make it worse, because they would make the laser appear even brighter against the darkened background. It wouldn’t cause any lasting harm, but the bright light would be distracting and could make it harder for pirates to aim their AK-47s, Hore stated.

During the siege of Syracuse 2,200 years ago, the Greek physicist Archimedes purportedly used a network of mirrors to focus sunlight into heat rays and set invading ships on fire. The historical myth has been sufficiently busted (with help from President Obama), and now some historians think the heat ray was used to baffle the marauders instead of setting them ablaze.

BAE has tested its laser from ranges up to three-quarters of a mile. If it obtains enough funding, the laser could be ready for sale in about a year.

[New Scientist]

Pirate Parties International, which, notably, does not have direct ties to PiratPartiet (the Swedish political party with two MPs and links to The Pirate Bay and WikiLeaks), still has to constantly deal with the seizing of various servers. Trying to keep these servers safe from the authorities is no easy task, one that is constantly being fought. The group tried back in 2007 to store its servers on Sealand, a former British naval base off the coast of Suffolk that (mostly) seceded and claimed independence as a micronation. (Side note: The history of Sealand is fascinating and often hilarious--its Wikipedia page is highly recommended.) But the deal fell through, so PPI often has brainstorming sessions to come up with new ideas.

Some of those might be more feasible than others.

Last week, the group's mailing list included discussion of a possible airborne server, hooked up to either a blimp (solar-powered, of course, like the Nephelios) or a weather balloon. That craft would both keep it safe and, in the words of one Swedish engineer, "hopefully irritate the crap out of authorities in as many countries as possible." Of course, this idea isn't totally practical, since the group has limited resources and an airborne server presents a whole host of problems (not least of which is how to keep it in the air for an extended period of time).

Other suggestions included a low-level satellite, which is more expensive but actually a better idea--it's permanent, it's already been done, and it operates in less dubious legal waters. Not to say that it wouldn't be great to see a giant floating balloon attached to a server in the sky, but it might only happen when pigs fly alongside it.

[Forbes]

Pirate Parties International, which, notably, does not have direct ties to PiratPartiet (the Swedish political party with two MPs and links to The Pirate Bay and WikiLeaks), still has to constantly deal with the seizing of various servers. Trying to keep these servers safe from the authorities is no easy task, one that is constantly being fought. The group tried back in 2007 to store its servers on Sealand, a former British naval base off the coast of Suffolk that (mostly) seceded and claimed independence as a micronation. (Side note: The history of Sealand is fascinating and often hilarious--its Wikipedia page is highly recommended.) But the deal fell through, so PPI often has brainstorming sessions to come up with new ideas.

Some of those might be more feasible than others.

Last week, the group's mailing list included discussion of a possible airborne server, hooked up to either a blimp (solar-powered, of course, like the Nephelios) or a weather balloon. That craft would both keep it safe and, in the words of one Swedish engineer, "hopefully irritate the crap out of authorities in as many countries as possible." Of course, this idea isn't totally practical, since the group has limited resources and an airborne server presents a whole host of problems (not least of which is how to keep it in the air for an extended period of time).

Other suggestions included a low-level satellite, which is more expensive but actually a better idea--it's permanent, it's already been done, and it operates in less dubious legal waters. Not to say that it wouldn't be great to see a giant floating balloon attached to a server in the sky, but it might only happen when pigs fly alongside it.

[Forbes]

Undersea cables handle the overwhelming majority of our communications, carrying more than 99 percent of all data traffic across the oceans. Those cables pass through choke points – generally in places where larger bodies of water narrow, such as the Suez Canal or the Luzon strait between Taiwan and the Philippines. At such points cables are vulnerable, and damage to them could down entire phone networks or stymie data flow to entire regions.

While accidents have been known to cause problems in the past – commercial fishing and ship anchors dragging the seafloor have been known to disrupt cables – foul play could really put data networks in a bind. Cables have been stolen from the seabed for the valuable metals they contain, and as problems like piracy persist in areas like the horn of Africa, it becomes increasingly likely that the specialized ships that maintain the networks could become targets.

The IEEE wants new cables laid on more diverse routes so that so many important cables aren’t bottlenecked in certain regions. More importantly – and probably less likely – it wants to create a global body overseeing the world’s submarine cables, though the commercial interests of operators could trump cooperative efforts to govern the seafloor.

If pirates, thieves, or terrorists were able to compromise a major cable hub, the results could be pretty bad. Aside from disrupting all those torrents you’re piping in from foreign servers right now, international banking could grind to a halt for an extended period, and companies that rely on overseas employees or who service international customers could be placed on indefinite hiatus, wreaking havoc on global markets.

[New Scientist]

A lot of people complained about the iPad’s closed-off software. But no one did anything about it — until now, apparently.

A well-known hacker of the iPhone, who previously defeated Apple’s restrictions on developers, has claimed in a video to have hacked the iPad. Just a day after release, the hacker, who goes by “MuscleNerd” online, said that he has gained root access to the iPad, a process known as “jailbreaking.”

“Jailbreaking” is a technical term which refers literally to limits on software placed on an operating system and more figuratively to the feelings developers have about such restrictions. An Apple device that’s been “jailbroken” can run any code, not just company-approved software available through its online stores. But such jailbreaking is a violation of Apple’s terms of service, which may mean Apple Stores will refuse to fix broken devices.

The iPad jailbreak technique is similar to an exploit of the iPhone operating system known as “Spirit.” Hackers have shown time after time that they can break into Apple’s security software for new iPhones, often within a day of release. One motivation: getting access to pirated software. It’s not known how much piracy happens as a result of jailbreaking, but it’s believed to be considerable.

Here’s MuscleNerd’s account:

Tags: hacking, ipad, jailbreaking, piracy

Companies: Apple

People: MuscleNerd