The Trump administration today unveiled a new program that will allow vetted U.S. companies to conduct cyber surveillance and offensive cyber operations against foreign transnational criminal organizations. A presidential memorandum signed August 12 directs the National Coordination Center to establish and manage the program, expanding the government's fight against cybercrime by tapping the technical capabilities of the private sector. It builds on a March executive order that called for greater private-sector involvement, but goes significantly further by establishing a formal operational framework for the initiative.
The White House argues that American companies possess a "critical offensive cyber advantage" whose capabilities have "historically been underutilized" in efforts to identify and disrupt criminal networks operating online. There are two broad categories of authorized activity. "Cyber Surveillance Operations" can involve secretly accessing foreign information systems without authorization to gather intelligence, including information that could later be used for offensive operations. "Cyber Effects Operations," meanwhile, can result in the "manipulation, disruption, denial, degradation, or destruction" of information systems, networks, or infrastructure.
It's worth noting that companies will not be free to launch their own operations. The memorandum requires program officials to "review every cyber operations package and provide written approval and direction" before a participating company can act. Operations that could cause death or serious injury, or "rise to the level of use of force or armed attack under international law," are classified as "Critical Outcomes" and cannot be approved through the standard process. The program includes safeguards requiring companies to halt and report operations that unintentionally affect U.S. persons or systems, as well as any imminent threats to critical infrastructure.
The White House argues that American companies possess a "critical offensive cyber advantage" whose capabilities have "historically been underutilized" in efforts to identify and disrupt criminal networks operating online. There are two broad categories of authorized activity. "Cyber Surveillance Operations" can involve secretly accessing foreign information systems without authorization to gather intelligence, including information that could later be used for offensive operations. "Cyber Effects Operations," meanwhile, can result in the "manipulation, disruption, denial, degradation, or destruction" of information systems, networks, or infrastructure.
It's worth noting that companies will not be free to launch their own operations. The memorandum requires program officials to "review every cyber operations package and provide written approval and direction" before a participating company can act. Operations that could cause death or serious injury, or "rise to the level of use of force or armed attack under international law," are classified as "Critical Outcomes" and cannot be approved through the standard process. The program includes safeguards requiring companies to halt and report operations that unintentionally affect U.S. persons or systems, as well as any imminent threats to critical infrastructure.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Wired reports that consumer neurotechnology is rapidly moving from the lab into workplaces and homes, with companies including Apple, Meta, and Snap developing products that can monitor or interpret brain activity. Researchers warn that as these systems improve, neural data could become the next major privacy battleground. Some neuroscientists are already calling for a series of core rights, coined "neurorights," that protect "mental privacy," "identity," and personal "agency." Here's an excerpt from the article: Over the past two decades, researchers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which tracks the iron in the hemoglobin supplying oxygen to neurons, have been building up increasingly detailed maps and inventories of the mammalian cortex. Thanks to huge advances in machine-learning artificial intelligence -- computer algorithms that are able to sort through enormous amounts of information and use statistical methods to make classifications and predictions -- fMRI scans can now be used to identify everything from depressive thoughts to the nuanced feelings of envy and schadenfreude. Other algorithms have been able to accurately piece together reconstructions of movie clips watched by subjects, just by analyzing their brain scans; or have detected, in probing the brain activity of swing voters in the US presidential election, responding to photographs and videos of presidential candidates, which candidates provoked anxiety or even disgust, and which elicited positive responses or feelings of empathy.
In just the last few years, neuroscience researchers have progressed from decoding images and emotions as they play across the cortex to sounds, words, phrases, and even language. In 2023, in a remarkable demonstration of this emerging technology, a woman called Ann Johnson, who had been paralyzed for 18 years by a brain-stem stroke, was able to speak again through the insertion of a grid of 253 electrodes onto the surface of her brain, which translated her neuronal signals into sentences, in real time, at a rate of 78 words per minute (just about half the speed of standard conversation). The research team at the University of California, led by neurosurgeon Edward Chang, had combined this brain-computer interface with an animated avatar of Johnson's head, which spoke in her own voice, as reconstructed from a recording of a 15-minute toast she had given at her wedding. Just as the avatar's mouth spoke Johnson's words as she thought them, so its expressions were similarly influenced by the nuances of her brain activity, which turned her thoughts about facial gestures into displays of emotion -- from smiles to pursed lips and frowns.
[...] The more invasive the recording equipment, the richer and more detailed the data. Surgical interventions are at the vanguard of neuroscience and remain very rare -- fewer than 100 people on the planet have brain-computer interfaces like Johnson's embedded beneath their skulls. Yet almost inevitably, a concerted trickle-down effect is occurring. In the summer of 2023, a team at the University of Texas demonstrated that they could use fMRI to translate brain scans into words and sentences, after subjects listened to 16 hours of the storytelling podcasts The Moth Radio Hour and The New York Times' Modern Love to train an AI model. When the subjects then listened to new podcasts, the algorithm was able to convert the gist of what they heard, as it manifested in their brains, into words, phrases, and sentences that roughly captured the stories. As the team's lead computational neuroscientist, Alexander Huth, put it in an interview with Science, "Our thought when we actually had this working was, 'Oh my God, this is kind of terrifying.'" Now noninvasive, wearable brain scanners are beginning to proliferate beyond the lab, making their way into our workplaces and, through the vast global consumer market, into our homes too.
In just the last few years, neuroscience researchers have progressed from decoding images and emotions as they play across the cortex to sounds, words, phrases, and even language. In 2023, in a remarkable demonstration of this emerging technology, a woman called Ann Johnson, who had been paralyzed for 18 years by a brain-stem stroke, was able to speak again through the insertion of a grid of 253 electrodes onto the surface of her brain, which translated her neuronal signals into sentences, in real time, at a rate of 78 words per minute (just about half the speed of standard conversation). The research team at the University of California, led by neurosurgeon Edward Chang, had combined this brain-computer interface with an animated avatar of Johnson's head, which spoke in her own voice, as reconstructed from a recording of a 15-minute toast she had given at her wedding. Just as the avatar's mouth spoke Johnson's words as she thought them, so its expressions were similarly influenced by the nuances of her brain activity, which turned her thoughts about facial gestures into displays of emotion -- from smiles to pursed lips and frowns.
[...] The more invasive the recording equipment, the richer and more detailed the data. Surgical interventions are at the vanguard of neuroscience and remain very rare -- fewer than 100 people on the planet have brain-computer interfaces like Johnson's embedded beneath their skulls. Yet almost inevitably, a concerted trickle-down effect is occurring. In the summer of 2023, a team at the University of Texas demonstrated that they could use fMRI to translate brain scans into words and sentences, after subjects listened to 16 hours of the storytelling podcasts The Moth Radio Hour and The New York Times' Modern Love to train an AI model. When the subjects then listened to new podcasts, the algorithm was able to convert the gist of what they heard, as it manifested in their brains, into words, phrases, and sentences that roughly captured the stories. As the team's lead computational neuroscientist, Alexander Huth, put it in an interview with Science, "Our thought when we actually had this working was, 'Oh my God, this is kind of terrifying.'" Now noninvasive, wearable brain scanners are beginning to proliferate beyond the lab, making their way into our workplaces and, through the vast global consumer market, into our homes too.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
:format(webp)/s3/static.nrc.nl/images/gn4/stripped/data152099479-cdf534.jpg)
De criminele organisatie wist grote hoeveelheden cocaïne via de haven van Rotterdam Europa in te smokkelen. Een deel van de opbrengsten werden geïnvesteerd in vastgoed aan de Costa del Sol.
/s3/static.nrc.nl/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/13020900/ANP-533314781.jpg)
bauplenut has added a photo to the pool:
Whale watching at Townsville, vicinity of Cape Cleveland.
27 individual whales spotted this day.
bauplenut has added a photo to the pool:
Whale watching at Townsville, vicinity of Cape Cleveland.
27 individual whales spotted this day.
bauplenut has added a photo to the pool:
Whale watching at Townsville, vicinity of Cape Cleveland.
27 individual whales spotted this day.
bauplenut has added a photo to the pool:
Whale watching at Townsville, vicinity of Cape Cleveland.
27 individual whales spotted this day.
Zelenskyy announces recapture of 745 sq km in Oleksandrivskyi sector; plea from stranded Ukrainian frontline troops. What we know on day 1,632
Continue reading...Christopher Nolan’s epic will be released on Friday across most of the country’s 800 Imax screens, at a time when western films have been struggling
The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster juggernaut, has overcome an onslaught of attacks from the world’s richest man and stared down criticism from a classicist who translated the poem, to become one of the year’s most celebrated and highest-grossing films.
But this week, the film faces one of its biggest challenges yet.
Continue reading...Travis Kelce says wedding to Taylor Swift was 'the best night of my life' in first official comments
Kelce’s remarks on his marriage to Swift at Madison Square Garden comes weeks after the event, which remains shrouded in mystery
American football star Travis Kelce has described his secretive early July wedding to pop sensation Taylor Swift as “the best night of my life.”
“I appreciate everybody who came out and celebrated and, you know, had fun with us,” the Kansas City Chiefs player told a briefing.
Continue reading...
THE BOTTOM (ANP) - Het openbare waterdistributiesysteem op Saba is dinsdagavond (lokale tijd) buiten werking gesteld, zo heeft de overheid woensdag bekendgemaakt. Dat is nodig om de watervoorraden de gelegenheid te geven zich aan te vullen en om de voortdurende productie van drinkwater te ondersteunen.
De overheid hoopt donderdagavond het distributiesysteem weer aan te kunnen sluiten. Omdat de kans groot is dat Saba te maken krijgt met een nog langere periode van droogte, worden inwoners en bedrijven dringend opgeroepen om zuinig om te blijven gaan met hun watervoorraad. Dit houdt onder meer in: korter douchen, wasmachines en vaatwassers alleen gebruiken wanneer ze volledig gevuld zijn, het wassen van auto's beperken en douchewater opnieuw gebruiken voor de planten.
Het kleinste eiland van het Caribisch deel van het Koninkrijk heeft vaker te maken gehad met watertekorten. Omdat het eiland geen natuurlijke rivieren of permanente zoetwaterbronnen heeft, is het sterk afhankelijk van regenwater en ontzilt zeewater. Bij langdurige droogte kan dat tot schaarste leiden.
In zowel 2009 als 2013 en tijdens langere droogteperiodes rond 2015 en 2016 liepen de watertekorten zo hoog op dat de Nederlandse marine moest ingrijpen. De laatste keer dat de langdurige droogte voor problemen zorgde voor de drinkwatervoorziening op het eiland was in 2021.
De Algemene Rekenkamer liet twee maanden geleden in een rapport weten dat er op Bonaire, Sint Eustatius en Saba geen strategische voorraden zijn van onder meer voedsel, medicijnen en brandstof. Maar ook het gebrek aan voldoende drinkwatervoorraden baarde de Rekenkamer zorgen. Premier Rob Jetten liet daarop weten met onder meer Frankrijk en Groot-Brittannië in gesprek te willen gaan over noodvoorraden voor eilanden in het Caribisch gebied.
THE BOTTOM (ANP) - Het openbare waterdistributiesysteem op Saba is dinsdagavond (lokale tijd) buiten werking gesteld, zo heeft de overheid woensdag bekendgemaakt. Dat is nodig om de watervoorraden de gelegenheid te geven zich aan te vullen en om de voortdurende productie van drinkwater te ondersteunen.
De overheid hoopt donderdagavond het distributiesysteem weer aan te kunnen sluiten. Omdat de kans groot is dat Saba te maken krijgt met een nog langere periode van droogte, worden inwoners en bedrijven dringend opgeroepen om zuinig om te blijven gaan met hun watervoorraad. Dit houdt onder meer in: korter douchen, wasmachines en vaatwassers alleen gebruiken wanneer ze volledig gevuld zijn, het wassen van auto's beperken en douchewater opnieuw gebruiken voor de planten.
Het kleinste eiland van het Caribisch deel van het Koninkrijk heeft vaker te maken gehad met watertekorten. Omdat het eiland geen natuurlijke rivieren of permanente zoetwaterbronnen heeft, is het sterk afhankelijk van regenwater en ontzilt zeewater. Bij langdurige droogte kan dat tot schaarste leiden.
In zowel 2009 als 2013 en tijdens langere droogteperiodes rond 2015 en 2016 liepen de watertekorten zo hoog op dat de Nederlandse marine moest ingrijpen. De laatste keer dat de langdurige droogte voor problemen zorgde voor de drinkwatervoorziening op het eiland was in 2021.
De Algemene Rekenkamer liet twee maanden geleden in een rapport weten dat er op Bonaire, Sint Eustatius en Saba geen strategische voorraden zijn van onder meer voedsel, medicijnen en brandstof. Maar ook het gebrek aan voldoende drinkwatervoorraden baarde de Rekenkamer zorgen. Premier Rob Jetten liet daarop weten met onder meer Frankrijk en Groot-Brittannië in gesprek te willen gaan over noodvoorraden voor eilanden in het Caribisch gebied.