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Category: security – Page 20

South Australia has the most wind and solar and no baseload: So why is it the only state not fretting about a vulnerable grid?

South Australia has the highest wind and solar share – an average of around 72 per cent over the last 12 months – vastly more than other state in Australia, and higher than any other gigawatt scale grid in the world.

Renewable energy critics, particularly those that don’t understand the way that grids work, instantly assume that this means South Australia’s grid must be weak and unreliable. But that is simply not true, and a new report from Australian Energy Market Operator on “system strength” underlines why this is so.

System strength is an important part of grid security, and – according to AEMO – describes the ability of the power system to maintain and control the voltage waveform at a given location, when the grid is running normally and particularly when it has to deal with a major disturbance.

Scientists exploit photo-induced chirality in thin films to improve authentication tech

In today’s world, the fight against counterfeiting is more critical than ever. Counterfeiting affects about 3% of global trade, posing significant risks to the economy and public safety. From fake pharmaceuticals to counterfeit currency, the need for secure and reliable authentication methods is paramount. Authentication labels are commonly used—such as holograms on bank notes and passports—but there is always a need for new unfalsifiable technologies.

This is where research recently published in Applied Sciences comes into play. Led by a team of scientists from Oxford University, the University of Southampton, and Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron, the work focuses on developing a new technology for writing and reading covert information on labels.

This technology leverages the unique properties of Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films, which can change their structure when exposed to specific types of laser light. By using circularly or linearly polarized laser light, the researchers can encode hidden information in these thin films. This information can then be revealed using a simple reading device, making the technology both advanced and accessible.

Unmatched Data Capacity and Security With Revolutionary Vortex Beams

Researchers have developed an innovative optical technology capable of enhancing data transmission by utilizing spatial-frequency patching metasurfaces.

This approach allows light beams to carry significantly more data across multiple independent channels, overcoming traditional optical beam limitations. Its applications extend to secure communication, encryption, and advanced optical systems.

Revolutionary optical technology for data transmission.

Eavesdropping on underwater signals from the air

“This work shows that sensitive information can be leaked in ways that previously haven’t been considered,” said Poorya Mollahosseini, a graduate student at Princeton and the paper’s co-lead author with Sayed Saad Afzal, a graduate student at MIT.

How are underwater communications protected?

The security of underwater communications relies heavily on the inability of sound traveling underwater to penetrate the surface, the researchers said. Signals that carry information are transmitted underwater as sound waves. Because water and air have very different densities, the water’s surface acts as a barrier for sound. When underwater sound waves hit the surface, they mostly just bounce off.

Dawn and dusk satellite quantum key distribution using time- and phase-based encoding and polarization filtering

Free-space optical communication links promise better security and increase bandwidths but can suffer from noise in daylight. This is particularly detrimental in quantum communications where current mitigation techniques, such as spectral, temporal, and spatial filtering, are not yet sufficient to make daylight tolerable for satellite quantum key distribution (SatQKD). As all current SatQKD systems are polarization-encoded, polarization filtering has not been investigated. However, by using time-and phase-encoded SatQKD, it is possible to filter in polarization in addition to existing domains. Scattered daylight can be more than 90% polarized in the visible band, yielding a reduction in detected daylight between 3 dB and 13 dB, such that polarization filtering can reduce the brightness of 780 nm daylight to below the unfiltered equivalent at 1,550 nm. Simulations indicate that polarization filtering increases the secure key rate and allows for SatQKD to be performed at dawn and dusk. This could open the way for daylight SatQKD utilizing shorter near-infrared wavelengths and retaining their benefits.

Published by Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Radiation-tolerant FPGAs for space applications from Microchip Technology achieve government QML Class V

CHANDLER, Ariz. – The radiation-tolerant RTG4 field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) with lead-free flip-chip bumps from Microchip Technology Inc. in Chandler, Ariz., have earned the Qualified Manufacturers List (QML) Class V status from the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA).

These radiation-tolerant FPGAs are for critical space programs. QML Class V is the highest level of qualification for space components for human-rated, deep-space, and national security space programs.

RTG4 FPGAs offer more than 150,000 logic elements, and come in flip-chip package construction where flip-chip bumps connect the silicon die and the package substrate for extended the longevity.

Urgent: Critical WordPress Plugin Vulnerability Exposes Over 4 Million Sites

A critical authentication bypass vulnerability has been disclosed in the Really Simple Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) plugin for WordPress that, if successfully exploited, could grant an attacker to remotely gain full administrative access to a susceptible site.

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024–10924 (CVSS score: 9.8), impacts both free and premium versions of the plugin. The software is installed on over 4 million WordPress sites.

“The vulnerability is scriptable, meaning that it can be turned into a large-scale automated attack, targeting WordPress websites,” Wordfence security researcher István Márton said.

Six US Banks Issue Urgent Debit Card Alerts, Forcing Mandatory Replacements for Many, After Third-Party Security Breach

Six US banks are reporting potential security breaches of debit cards, with several forcing affected customers to get replacements.

In new filings with the Massachusetts state government, Mainstreet Bank, Savers Bank, The Village Bank, Watertown Savings Bank, Webster Five Cents Savings Bank and Eagle Bank say some debit cards may have been compromised following a security breach of a merchant’s payment card platform.

A copy of a notice sent to Eagle Bank customers was recently posted on the government site, stating an unnamed Mastercard merchant allowed unauthorized access to account information.

DoD Releases 2024 UAP Annual Report: 757 New Sightings Recorded Amid Growing National Security Concerns

The Department of Defense (DoD), alongside the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), delivered its 2024 Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) to Congress this week, fulfilling requirements outlined in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022, with amendments from the FY 2023 NDAA. The report, produced by the DoD’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), presents a comprehensive update on UAP sightings and analyses, covering incidents reported from May 2023 through June 2024.

According to the report, AARO received a total of 757 UAP reports during this period. Out of these, 485 incidents occurred within the last year, while the remaining 272 involved sightings from 2021 and 2022 that had not been previously cataloged. These new additions bring the total number of UAP cases reviewed by AARO to over 1,600 as of June 1, 2024.

The DoD emphasizes that UAP reports are critical to national security. Every incursion into designated air, sea, or space zones is taken seriously, with each sighting undergoing a systematic, data-driven analysis. AARO’s mandate includes examining these sightings for potential threats to service members, U.S. facilities, and sensitive operations.