Here’s the crux of the story. Voxer founder, Tom Katis, started developing the patents in question in 2006 as a way to solve battlefield communications problems he encountered while serving a Special Forces Communications Sergeant in Afghanistan. Katis…
Author: Davi Ottenheimer
Europe, Global Security News, North America
“Military-grade encrypted signal” Helps Protect “Bike bus” of Children in Scotland From Cars
by Davi Ottenheimer •
When you read the true history of stop lights being invented in London, they originally were meant to stop all cars so pedestrians could walk basically everywhere on the streets. That was corrupted in the 1930s until it flipped around completely and no…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Gun advocates are angry Sig Sauer P320 keeps shooting people without anyone pulling the trigger
by Davi Ottenheimer •
An old saw in America is that gun manufacturers are never to blame for anything, ever. Usually it’s phrased cynically as “guns don’t shoot people”. However, a growing number of highly trained and proficient shooters in America (e.g. the police) have be…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
FBI Arrests Pro-Russian “Patriot Hackers” from Colorado and Maryland
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Recently I posed the thorny question of who should be classified a “patriot hacker”, especially when thinking about the mid-1990s. I realized with the latest news stories, now might be a good time to poke this bear a little more. We have to begin by ad…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
An Early History of Politically Motivated Hacking
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Years ago there was a “rise of hacktivism” paper at Georgetown, but it’s a PDF and mashes a lot of things together with no references… One of the curious bits in documenting these is the lack of any agreement on terminology, such as “patriot” hacking. …
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Hitchens on US-Putin relations: “If you’re faith-based you get a KGB weasel as your partner”
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Christopher Hitchens was asked in 2005 for his thoughts on US relations with Russia. He replied the stupidest thing President Bush ever said was a faith-based endorsement of Putin, which opened the door to an oppressive “one-man one-party” Russia. Furt…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Unclaimed U.S. Lynching Monuments Display Lack of Redress
by Davi Ottenheimer •
I found the following reflection on the national lynching memorial interesting because it shows the power of subtraction to display a failure in redress. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a professor of history at the Harvard Kennedy School who studies truth and…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Why Winston Churchill Named America’s M4 Tank “Sherman”
by Davi Ottenheimer •
In 1915 a man named Winston Churchill funded development a giant armored “landship” concept to break through trenches, barbed wire and machine gun nests. Prime Minister Herbert Asquith received a suggestion from a colleague: “It would be quite easy in …
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Student Arrested for Threatening Nuclear Attack Over Sports Event
by Davi Ottenheimer •
It kind of reads to me like this student might be getting the wrong ideas somewhere. …police say she threatened to detonate a nuclear reactor if the Utes football team didn’t win on Saturday. The 21-year-old woman was booked into the Salt Lake County J…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
SF Recognized for Prioritizing Pedestrian Safety
by Davi Ottenheimer • • 0 Comments
San Francisco gets a nod from the BBC as one of four cities in the world that are making positive change by actively reducing vehicle traffic, which of course increases quality of life. This northern California city moved quickly during the early pande…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of Hackbacks
by Davi Ottenheimer •
This week I’ll be presenting my latest thoughts to law students on the technical and ethical foundations for “hackback”. I’ve been asked to present on the ever popular slides from 2012 CONSEGI in Brazil called CyberFall: Active Defense (sometimes calle…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Russia’s Tank Literally Empty. Reserves Called But No Answer.
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Not long after Russian dictatorship was mocked and ridiculed for coercing thousands of its own citizens to needless deaths — ill-equipped, unprepared and misled conscripts sent into “action” against Ukraine — news started circulating about its “best ta…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Ultra-processed foods harmful “much like an invading bacteria”
by Davi Ottenheimer •
New studies are confirming that ultra-processed foods are harmful, which was expected, but in ways that may have no better solution than better transparency leading to bans. …researchers have theorized that ultra-processed foods increase inflammation b…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
“Metaphors We Live By”, by Lakoff and Johnson
by Davi Ottenheimer •
This book on linguistics published in 1980 was required reading when I was in college a million years ago. It’s been coming up a lot lately, as people start to realize that disinformation is an area of research going back thousands of years. Here’s a q…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Albania Breaks Ties With Iran After 2022 Microsoft Investigation of CVE-2019-0604
by Davi Ottenheimer •
The U.S. is very confidently accusing Iran of attacking Albania, based on yesterday’s report by Microsoft about Microsoft’s usual software vulnerabilities and mis-configurations. Microsoft assessed with high confidence that on July 15, 2022, actors spo…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
The Moonbeam Song
by Davi Ottenheimer •
by Harry Nilsson from the “Nilsson Schmilsson” album (1971) Have you ever watched a moonbeam As it slid across your windowpane Or struggled with a bit of rain Or danced about the weathervane Or sat along a moving train And wondered where the train has …
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Paul’s Security Weekly #753. “Data Integrity Lights the Way: Security With the Decentralized Web”
by Davi Ottenheimer •
I joined the PSW crew for a discussion about data integrity and decentralized web.
The post Paul’s Security Weekly #753. “Data Integrity Lights the Way: Security With the Decentralized Web” appeared first on Security Boulevard.
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Lightyear Solar Electric Car Range is in Months Instead of Miles
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Answering the obvious question of “why don’t electric cars have solar panels” the new Lightyear wants you to take a look at theirs: In optimal conditions, the solar panels can add up to 44 miles a day to the 388-mile range the car gets between charges,…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Tesla in Race Against Time to Suck Owners Dry Before They’re Killed in a Fire
by Davi Ottenheimer •
What if I told you Tesla is a giant Ponzi scheme? Hopefully you’d correct me and say no, it’s actually much worse, and then explain the big difference: In classic Ponzi scheme analysis people will lose all their money. Ponzis of today are a whole lot m…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
July Tesla Sales Crashed in Germany and Norway: Not Even on Chart
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Looking at July I was at first surprised by German news about Fiat having a huge win in battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales. The Fiat 500 electric remains the top-selling all-electric car in Germany, with 2,170 new registrations in July. For reference…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Egypt Government Tells Citizens to Stop Using Energy so It Can Sell to Germany Instead
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Something seems very wrong about a story of taking energy away from domestic use in order to sell it abroad, almost like it’s a children’s morality book about what not to do. Egypt has introduced new austerity measures…. The government wants to take th…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Unsafe by Design: Tesla Fails to See Children, Red Lights, Emergency Vehicles…
by Davi Ottenheimer •
If there’s one thing, ONE THING, a car manufacturer should be able to do it’s meet baseline safety requirements of operating on public roads. For example, a car should not be engineered to systemically increase risk of accidents that involve children, …
Europe, Global Security News, North America
“FBI’s complicity in spreading hate” and the Melzer Case
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Experts in countering hate groups are openly questioning the role and strategy of the FBI, related to a domestic terrorism case and encrypted communication using Telegram. …critics say, this is a crisis the FBI helped create. […] Sutter’s role as the c…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Wyoming Congressional Race Wrecked by Terror Threats… Like It’s 1869 (KKK) Again
by Davi Ottenheimer •
In a state that calmly sent the same candidate to Congress three times before, this year safety and stability has become noticeably bad in Wyoming. The incumbent candidate (Liz Cheney) received so many violent threats during her GOP primary campaign th…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Recall Warning: BlackDiamond PIEPS Beacon
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Black Diamond is one of the best if not the best manufacturer of outdoor gear for extreme conditions. Their detailed recall notice is one of the best I’ve seen for any manufacturer of any equipment. The detailed explanation of severity is this: We’ve i…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Yelp Reviews Predict Kansas City Bar Shooting
by Davi Ottenheimer •
A Yelp review of Westport Alehouse in March (written originally in February) warns people that guns are present and a shooting is likely to happen, due to how security was being operated. This was not the only warning. Multiple one star reviews comment…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Cyber Yankee: U.S. Cyber Marines in Cyber Team Cyber War
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Cyber War is scary to Americans. The military is getting geared up to help stop critical infrastructure like power companies from having a disaster. So let’s take a look at that allocation of resources. First, we see the Bay Area firefighters this year…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Social media is the new era of old information warfare
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Task and Purpose documents a rather obvious role of information for those whose profession is warfare. Over the course of a week, @DogFaceSoldier seamlessly wove a pro-vaccination narrative through a relatable twitter diary of Americana references and …
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Thief arrested for stealing R2-D2 from Disney in botched attempt to “expose weakness”
by Davi Ottenheimer •
This story is a painful story to read, as the bumbling thief tried to argue he was doing his target a favor: He claimed he was not trying to steal the items; he was exposing weakness in resort safety and attempting to get a job with Disney security. Ex…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Medal of Honor for Major John J. Duffy
by Davi Ottenheimer •
A recurring theme in Duffy’s new MOH award statement is repeatedly taking on more responsibility to benefit others, courageously disregarding self, a remarkably caring leader even under the most extreme pressure even from an enemy battalion. In the two…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Report Proves GDPR Dramatically Reduced “Useless” Apps
by Davi Ottenheimer •
The Register does a mixed job reporting on a report, as this seems to be the very buried lede. [Report co-author and lecturer at the University of East Anglia in the UK Michael] Kummer said the one-third decline looks scary but the paper does point out…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
European Parliament approves Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA)
by Davi Ottenheimer •
The Digital Markets Act: meant to stop “digital moat” mindset of Silicon Valley (i.e. Stanford) and prevent anti-competitive wealth generation models because it is clearly immoral to lock-in users. Aside from Facebook obviously being a dumpster fire of…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
U.S. “foreign internal defense was the hottest mission set”
by Davi Ottenheimer •
An article about the importance of the U.S. troops understanding foreign languages has this buried lede: …foreign internal defense was the hottest mission set, and every unit — even Navy SEALs and Delta Force, which tend to focus on direct-action opera…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
American Business Desperate for Trains as Air Travel Falls Apart
by Davi Ottenheimer •
The WSJ reports air travel reliability has deteriorated so much that business communities are scratching their head about why they can’t get on a modern high-speed train instead. This summer’s air-travel disruptions are leading some business travelers …
Europe, Global Security News, North America
American Cowboy Hat True Origins: The Mexican Sombrero
by Davi Ottenheimer •
An interesting note in True West magazine is that the cowboy hat was a product of white immigrants to stealing everything they could from Mexicans. As Texian cattlemen appropriated Mexican cattle and land, they adopted elements of the vaquero’s working…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
FTC complaint: Harley Davidson “illegally restricting customers’ rights”
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Hot off the FTC desk is a complaint that the company was violating American freedom. “Consumers deserve choices when it comes to repairing their products, and independent dealers deserve a chance to compete,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s B…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Kiss of Death: Florida Governor Blocks Healthcare for Children
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Florida’s Governor is running with scissors in opposition to science. The Florida Department of Health said Wednesday that it has not pre-ordered COVID vaccines for children under 5 because it does not recommend the shot for all children. Why it matter…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
“Humility Makes a Great Intelligence Officer”
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Marc Polymeropoulous refers to his new leadership book as a revelation about failures in the first two thirds of his career, which he then credits with making him into a good leader in the last third. Some points that stuck for me in this CSPC intervie…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
China Claims U.S. Aircraft Carriers Can’t Hide From New AI on Satellites
by Davi Ottenheimer •
A new report out of China suggests it’s using AI on satellites to find and constantly track U.S. aircraft carriers, rendering them easy prey. When USS Harry S. Truman was heading to a strait transit drill off the coast of Long Island in New York on Jun…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
New Zealand Surveillance of Retailers Exposes Recycling Fraud
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Trackers were affixed to expensive electronics to test retailer claims of recycling. A simple “fault” was created to see if anyone would take the five minutes needed to repair and resell a perfectly good device, but unfortunately they were sent to land…