guardian

'Interim' firepower on the way for Marine Osprey

The Marine Corps may have found an "interim" solution to the one of the V-22 tilt-rotor Osprey's many operational quandaries: How to shoot back.

This August, the Marines are expected to take delivery of BAE's (British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems) Remote Guardian System, a GAU-17 7.62-millimeter, mini-gun-equipped, remotely operated weapon that swivels to squirt out 360 degrees of accurate, sustained, suppressive fire "throughout the aircraft's entire flight envelope," according to BAE. This would be a vast improvement over the aircraft's current protection, an M240D 7.62-millimeter gun manned by a … Read more

Encryption specialists: To buy or not to buy?

A few weeks ago there were two interesting announcements involving encryption technologies. First, SafeNet acquired application and database encryption leader Ingrian while Symantec announced that it will partner with GuardianEdge to provide Full Disk Encryption (FDE) for PC security.

Why did SafeNet buy Ingrian rather than simply partner? Because SafeNet has made its mark selling security widgets not security solutions. This business model holds less appeal when large organizations fold security into their global governance, risk management, and compliance requirements. With Ingrian in hand, SafeNet can compete on these kind of enterprise deals and become a more strategic vendor to … Read more

Window or aisle, chicken or beef, laser protection or SAM in the fuselage?

The chances of your flight being hit by a shoulder-fired, laser-guided missile are good enough that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has spent more than $100 million looking into ways to prevent it.

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman just completed 6,000 hours of in-flight testing on its Guardian directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) system, all part of the DHS initiative to adapt existing military technology to protect commercial aircraft from attack by surface-to-air-missiles (SAM) similar to the U.S.-made Stinger.

The DIRCM system works by first detecting the attack, then directing an invisible, eye-safe laser to the homing/seeker … Read more

MySpace Guardian provides a false sense of security

There are plenty of options for parents who want to keep their kids safe on MySpace, not the least of which are good old-fashioned self-education (do you know how to translate "m4d sk1llz?"**) and proactive involvement in learning what kids are up to online. But for those who remain daunted by the idea of online social networking, there's the MySpace Guardian, a free downloadable toolbar that's designed to help parents track activity on their children's profiles.

Unfortunately, there's nothing about the MySpace Guardian that offers genuinely new ways to make site use safer. It … Read more