Security Flaws in Popular ML Toolkits Enable Server Hijacks, Privilege Escalation

On the same subject

• 

  May 27, 2021 | International, Aerospace

  Tempest: UK’s sixth generation fighter to enter design phase imminently

  The UK’s sixth generation fighter jet programme, Tempest, is on track and ready to enter the design phase imminently.

• 

  October 9, 2020 | International, C4ISR, Security

  Space Development Agency wants someone to launch its first 28 satellites

  Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — Now that the Space Development Agency has selected four contractors to build its first 28 satellites, the organization is looking for a launch provider to ferry them into orbit. According to a solicitation posted Oct. 6, the agency plans to select one company to provide launch services for all 28 satellites, with the first launch taking place in September 2022. Those 28 satellites will comprise tranche 0 of SDA's National Defense Space Architecture, a new proliferated constellation providing a whole host of services primarily from low Earth orbit. Among other things, the NDSA is anticipated to provide beyond-line-of-site targeting, hypersonic missile warning and tracking, and a space-based mesh network that will connect all of the services as part of the Pentagon's new Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) approach. The constellation will ultimately include hundreds of satellites, but SDA isn't putting them all up at once. Rather, the agency has adopted a spiral development approach, where the most mature and ready technology is added to the constellation in two year tranches. This launch solicitation covers the first tranche, otherwise known as tranche 0. Slated to go into orbit in fall 2022, tranche 0 is what SDA calls its “war fighter immersion tranche.” “Its goal is to provide the data in a format that the war fighters are used to seeing on tactical timelines that they can be expected to see once we actually become operational,” SDA Director Derek Tournear told C4ISRNET. “The whole purpose of tranche 0 is to allow the war fighters to start to train and develop tactics, techniques and procedures so that they can create operational plans for a battle where they would actually incorporate these data.” With just 28 satellites, tranche 0 will not provide global, persistent coverage. Instead, it will provide periodic, regional capabilities. Tranche 0 will feature the inaugural satellites in the transport and tracking layers. The 20 transport layer satellites will form the base of a space-based mesh network, passing data from satellites to weapon systems along a high-speed, on-orbit corridor. Tournear has previously stated that the transport layer will serve as the space component of CJADC2, the Pentagon's effort to connect sensors to shooters across domains and services. The inaugural tracking layer will be made up of eight satellites. The tracking layer will be used to detect and track hypersonic threats, working with the transport layer to pass tracking data and custody from satellite to satellite—collaborating to keep an eye on globe-traversing missiles that can evade current missile warning capabilities. SDA has selected Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems to each build 10 of the transport layer satellites, while SpaceX and L3 Harris will split the eight tracking layer satellites. Because the SDA has given vendors flexibility in the designs of their satellites, there is some variety to the weight of the space vehicles being launched into orbit. While all 20 transport layer satellites will weigh approximately 200 kilograms, give or take 20 kilograms, there is a significant difference in the size of the eight tracking layer satellites. One vendor—either SpaceX or L3 Harris—will be contributing four tracking layer space vehicles weighing approximately 1,068 kg each. The other vendor's space vehicles will be significantly lighter at just 249 kg. In total, SDA is looking to put as much as 10,164 kg of hardware into orbit. The agency wants all 28 satellites delivered to two circular, 950 km near-polar orbits, with the tranche divided evenly into two planes of 14 satellites. The launch provider has until March 31, 2023, to put all payloads on orbit and has discretion as to how many launches it will use to do that. The goal is to have as many satellites up as close to September 2022 as possible. Proposals are due by Nov. 5 at 4 p.m. EST. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/10/08/space-development-agency-wants-someone-to-launch-their-first-28-satellites/

• 

  June 27, 2019 | International, Other Defence

  Tired of sweating in your ACUs? Try these new hot-weather cammies

  By: Todd South FORT BELVOIR, Va. – Beginning in July, soldiers in Hawaii and at Fort Benning, Georgia will be able to buy the Army's newest field uniform – the Improved Hot Weather Combat Uniform. Following the first delivery of 2,000 uniforms to those sites, the Army will roll out more batches of the uniform in six more waves through February 2020 when it will be available at all military clothing stores. Don't sweat it yet. The IHWCU is not a clothing item required for inspections but it is an option that soldiers will have to use how they see fit in hot climates and even in garrison in situations where they would wear the Army Combat Uniform. The IHWCU maintains the same Operational Camouflage Pattern as the current ACU and comes in at about the same price, which runs approximately $100 for the set, depending on sizes, Col. Stephen Thomas, project manager, soldier protection and individual equipment at Program Executive Office-Soldier told Army Times. The most notable change when the two uniforms are side by side is that the IHWCU has no breast pockets. But changes go deeper once a user dons the lighter, more breathable and streamlined uniform built to help keep soldiers cool with improved airflow but also more comfortable with a new material that dries from soaking wet within 60 minutes. Thomas got to experience that firsthand recently when wearing the new uniform to a Pentagon meeting and getting caught in a downpour. “As soon as we pull in, the bottom falls out of the sky,” the career light infantryman said. Walking through security, he was leaving puddles of water but by the time he finished his first meeting he was essentially dry. The seven waves of deliveries will start at 2,000 for the first wave and conclude with a 5,000- to 6,000-uniform wave next year. After that production will depend on demand, Thomas said. If soldiers like them and buy them, then the Army will order up more. The seasoned colonel recalled a more distant uniform change having a certain effect. When he was a second lieutenant, the Army had the standard Battle Dress Uniform, but it was heavier than necessary for hot climates. So, similarly the Army produced a “lightweight” summer BDU, which also was not a required clothing item but quickly became the standard uniform most soldiers wore for comfort. “What ended up happening is it became a uniform of choice,” Thomas said. “I think this will have the same results.” The new uniform uses a 57 percent nylon and 43 percent cotton blend to reduce the weight of the uniform by a pound and increasing drying rates and air flow. Other not immediately recognizable but important additions include reinforced elbow and knee areas, helping to prevent ripping. Changes to contours by designers have used a “raglan” sleeve that is more fitted, less baggy with less bunching or binding as is sometimes common with the current ACU, Thomas said. The knee areas are also better tailored to allow for movement where the ACU can sometimes snag or drag when wet, said Lester Smith, systems acquisitions manager at PEO Soldier. And the crotch gusset allows for the same freedom of movement in the trousers, also preventing drag and keeping the pants in a better position, especially when loaded down with cargo pocket items or wet. How the Army developed the uniform includes laboratory and field testing by scientists at the then-Natick Soldier Systems Center in Massachusetts. That work kicked off in 2015, after soldiers pointed out problems with the existing uniform options for hot, wet environments such as those often encountered by soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii and soldiers rotating through the ongoing Pacific Pathways exercises that partners U.S. soldiers with Indo-Pacific region militaries, many in very hot, often jungle environments. The results were pushed to PEO Soldier in 2017, which did a large scale test with 25th Division soldiers and others beginning in January 2018 and which resulted in further changes and adjustments that ultimately became the soon-to-release IHWCU. Along the way, the Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, 25th Infantry Division, 6th Ranger Training Brigade, Jungle Operations Training Center and Maneuver Center of Excellence contributed to testing and evaluations. Pentaq, NIB, Goodwill Industries and ReadyOne are the companies producing the uniform for military clothing stores. Key features of the new IHWCU include: Blouse Single-breasted Raglan sleeve front with a five (5) button closure Fold-down collar with a fusible interlining Long sleeves with cuffs with one button and three buttonholes for an adjustable cuff tab The top of the button down closure is open to accommodate a pen Front placket has a loop tape for the Rank Patch Coat has two bellow-style top opening upper sleeve pockets and includes an eyelet drain-hole Sleeves have an elbow reinforcement patch Both sleeves have an Identification Friend or Foe tab cover that can be opened and closed using hook and loop fastener IFF tab cover is centered and sewn onto the sleeve above the upper sleeve pocket Double turned and cleaned finished hem Trousers Covered fly with a four (4) button/ buttonhole closure, or three (3) button/buttonhole closure, depending on size Seven (7) belt loops Two (2) side hanging pockets Two (2) front side pleated cargo pockets with three (3) button/ two (2) buttonhole closure flaps High end of cargo pockets at front of pocket rather than rear like ACU Two (2) lower leg side pockets with one (1) button/ one (1) buttonhole closure flaps Side cargo pockets shall have three (3) sewn-in eyelets hidden by the bellows Double needle seat patch and a pleated knee reinforcement incorporated into the pant leg at the knee One (1) piece single gusset Two (2) front side hanging pockets Mesh fabric attached on the inside of the trousers at the bottom of the legs as inner cuffs Bottom of the trousers leg hems, the inner cuffs, and the waistband shall have drawstrings How the IHWCU came to be First they stripped down the ACU and then added the following items: Chest, calf and back pockets were removed to reduce weight and dry time. Blousing strings were eliminated from trousers to allow for airflow and drainage. The elbows, knees and seat were reinforced with 330 denier nylon, a thicker nylon that increases durability and abrasion resistance. Crotch gussets, extra patches of fabric that reduces stress on the seams, were added to prevent blowouts common to the Flame Resistant ACUs. Buttons were used on the ACU blouse instead of a zipper, with the intent to increase air flow. Another hot weather version in early testing incorporated mesh into the uniform design and had all of the same changes as the stripped down ACU except it used a zipper instead of buttons. With this version soldiers didn't need to blouse their boots because a mesh material inside the trouser leg along the ankle. By tucking in the mesh, soldiers could get air flow and also keep insects or leeches from getting at them. Some early testing added a “knit yoke” or wicking material to the back of the trouser waist band. That add-on was to wick away pooling sweat that often accumulates there. Wicking draws moisture away from the body so that it can evaporate. They also looked at two different Army Combat Shirt changes, testing both a cooling material for the torso and collar and also a wicking version. Between 2015 and 2016 the Army conducted four uniform user test evaluations, three of those only on material, not design. The first was a 50/50 nylon/cotton weave with ripstop reinforcement, just like the standard ACU. The second had the same blend but used a “twill weave” to make it stronger and more tear resistant. The third used a 38/38/24 blend of nylon, cotton and PTFE, polytetrafluoroethylene: a compound use in Teflon coatings. The fourth version was 100 percent nylon ripstop. Without cotton it takes on less water and weighs less but is still as strong as nylon. The fifth version was a 57/43 nylon/cotton blend, which was the final choice for the current IHWCU. Full article: https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/06/26/tired-of-sweating-in-your-acus-try-these-new-hot-weather-cammies/