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Archive for the ‘law enforcement’ category

Mar 9, 2024

U.S. among 17 countries that practice forced labor, a form of ‘modern slavery,’ report finds

Posted by in category: law enforcement

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States in 1,865, with one exception: compulsory labor in prisons.

Mar 8, 2024

Thermal Drone Used To Save Woman Missing In Rugged Northwest Wyoming

Posted by in categories: drones, law enforcement

Sublette County was one of the first counties in Wyoming to add high-end drones to its law enforcement arsenal. Bingham is one of the pilots on the drone team, although he was not part of the Feb. 19 rescue.

Bingham said the drone’s thermal camera was a huge asset. The camera detected the missing woman’s heat signature in the frigid darkness with enough resolution that the woman’s body was immediately discernible from the deer nearby, which it also detected.

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Feb 21, 2024

New technology can reveal what’s hidden behind objects using algorithm

Posted by in categories: information science, law enforcement, mathematics, virtual reality

The technology can reconstruct a hidden scene in just minutes using advanced mathematical algorithms.


Potential use case scenarios

Law enforcement agencies could use the technology to gather critical information about a crime scene without disturbing the evidence. This could be especially useful in cases where the scene is dangerous or difficult to access. For example, the technology could be used to reconstruct the scene of a shooting or a hostage situation from a safe distance.

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Feb 21, 2024

Science fiction meets reality as researchers develop techniques to overcome obstructed views

Posted by in categories: information science, law enforcement, military

After a recent car crash, John Murray-Bruce wished he could have seen the other car coming. The crash reaffirmed the USF assistant professor of computer science and engineering’s mission to create a technology that could do just that: See around obstacles and ultimately expand one’s line of vision.

Using a single photograph, Murray-Bruce and his doctoral student, Robinson Czajkowski, created an algorithm that computes highly accurate, full-color three-dimensional reconstructions of areas behind obstacles—a concept that can not only help prevent car crashes but help law enforcement experts in hostage situations search-and-rescue and strategic military efforts.

“We’re turning ordinary surfaces into mirrors to reveal regions, objects, and rooms that are outside our line of vision,” Murray-Bruce said. “We live in a 3D world, so obtaining a more complete 3D picture of a scenario can be critical in a number of situations and applications.”

Feb 19, 2024

FBI, UK Crime Agency Say They Have Disrupted LockBit Cyber Gang

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, law enforcement

A coalition of international law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and UK National Crime Agency, said they have disrupted LockBit, one of the most prolific hacker groups of all time, including shutting down websites the organization used for ransomware payments.

Dec 20, 2023

Google plans to restrict election-related queries in 2024 on Bard

Posted by in categories: internet, law enforcement, robotics/AI

Google, the internet giant now a subsidiary of Alphabet, announced on Tuesday that it will limit the kinds of queries related to elections that its chatbot Bard and search generative experience can answer ahead of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election.

The company said that the new restrictions will be implemented by early 2024. The company recently made a landmark change to its location data privacy which has made it difficult for law enforcement agencies to access private location data of people near the crime scene and issue geofence warrants.

According to Reuters, the U.S. is not the only country that will witness crucial elections in 2024. India, the world’s largest democracy, and South Africa, among others, will also hold national elections in the same year.

Dec 12, 2023

Hackers Stole About $1.7 Billion This Year From Crypto Projects

Posted by in categories: law enforcement, security

The amount of funds crypto projects lost to hackers has declined by about half to around $1.7 billion so far this year, amid improved security measures and an uptick in law enforcement actions.

Nov 28, 2023

Ransomware attack prompts multistate hospital chain to divert some emergency room patients elsewhere

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cybercrime/malcode, finance, health, law enforcement

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A ransomware attack has prompted a healthcare chain that operates 30 hospitals in six states to divert patients from at least some of its emergency rooms to other hospitals, while putting certain elective procedures on pause, the company announced.

In a statement Monday, Ardent Health Services said the attack occurred Nov. 23 and the company took its network offline, suspending user access to its information technology applications, including the software used to document patient care.

The Nashville, Tennessee-based company said it cannot yet confirm the extent of any patient health or financial information that has been compromised. Ardent says it reported the issue to law enforcement and retained third-party forensic and threat intelligence advisors, while working with cybersecurity specialists to restore IT functions as quickly as possible. There’s no timeline yet on when the problems will be resolved.

Sep 23, 2023

An NYPD security robot will be patrolling the Times Square subway station

Posted by in categories: law enforcement, mapping, robotics/AI, security, surveillance

The New York Police Department (NYPD) is implementing a new security measure at the Times Square subway station. It’s deploying a security robot to patrol the premises, which authorities say is meant to “keep you safe.” We’re not talking about a RoboCop-like machine or any human-like biped robot — the K5, which was made by California-based company Knightscope, looks like a massive version of R2-D2. Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of privacy rights group Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, has a less flattering description for it, though, and told The New York Times that it’s like a “trash can on wheels.”

K5 weighs 420 pounds and is equipped with four cameras that can record video but not audio. As you can guess from the image above, the machine also doesn’t come with arms — it didn’t quite ignore Mayor Eric Adams’ attempt at making a heart. The robot will patrol the station from midnight until 6 AM throughout its trial run that’s running over the next two months. But K5 won’t be doing full patrols for a while, since it’s spending its first two weeks mapping out the station and roaming only the main areas and not the platforms.

It’s not quite clear if NYPD’s machine will be livestreaming its camera footage, and if law enforcement will be keeping an eye on what it captures. Adams said during the event introducing the robot that it will “record video that can be reviewed in case of an emergency or a crime.” It apparently won’t be using facial recognition, though Cahn is concerned that the technology could eventually be incorporated into the machine. Obviously, K5 doesn’t have the capability to respond to actual emergencies in the station and can’t physically or verbally apprehend suspects. The only real-time help it can provide people is to connect them to a live person to report an incident or to ask questions, provided they’re able to press a button on the robot.

Sep 15, 2023

US state seeks to outlaw the use of armed robots

Posted by in categories: drones, law enforcement, military, robotics/AI

The US military and its contractors would be exempt.

Robots that are autonomous or semi-autonomous and carry weapons or offensive capabilities are often called armed robots. These robots can be employed in a variety of settings, including the military, law enforcement, industry, and security.

Today, many armed robots are controlled remotely by human operators who can keep a safe distance between themselves and the devices. This is particularly prevalent with military drones, as the operators control the aircraft and its weaponry from a distance, making the machines even more dangerous to civilians.

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