<h2>Digital Front</h2>
In a speech on Wednesday, the Australian government revealed that it&#8217;s been engaged in a targeted cyberwar against ISIS.
&#8220;Just as the Coalition forces were preparing to attack the terrorists’ position, our offensive cyber operators were at their keyboards in Australia — firing highly targeted bits and bytes into cyberspace,&#8221; said Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) Director-General Mike Burgess, who runs the agency&#8217;s cyberwar efforts, during <a href="https://asd.gov.au/speeches/20190327-lowy-institute-offensive-cyber-operations.htm">a speech</a>.
<h2>Recruitment Drive</h2>
As part of the offensive, Burgess said, ASD operatives posed online as ISIS leaders to obstruct recruiting efforts and disabled ISIS communication systems. In a puzzling digression, he also pushed back against cliches about hackers.
&#8220;There&#8217;s always a geek — invariably a guy — wearing black and working in low-lighting, instantly hacking into systems at will,&#8221; Burgess said. &#8220;Usually, they are cavalier — with no regard for the law — punching the &#8216;enter&#8217; key to blow up buildings or do impossible things with electrical surges. The real hackers in ASD couldn’t be further from this stereotype.&#8221;
<h2>Targeted Effort</h2>
Burgess talked about disabling enemy communications and remote operatives helping coordinate maneuvers among soldiers on the ground. He mentioned propaganda campaigns and also how ASD develops cybersecurity tools for the government.
&#8220;Whatever the technique, our objective is to use our offensive cyber capabilities to keep Australia and Australians safe,&#8221; Burgess said.
READ MORE: <a href="https://gizmodo.com/australia-shares-secrets-of-its-offensive-cyberwar-agai-1833599689">Australia Shares Secrets of Its Offensive Cyberwar Against ISIS to Entice New Hacker Troops</a> [Gizmodo]
More on cyberwarfare: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/british-army-viral-content-division">The British Army Has an Official Viral Content Division</a>

"Just as the Coalition forces were preparing to attack the terrorists’ position, our offensive cyber operators were at their keyboards in Australia — firing highly targeted bits and bytes into cyberspace."

Australia reveals its cyberwar against ISIS, asks for help

Military Hackers

Mike Burgess, Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate, revealed some aspects of the agency's cyberwar against ISIS and called for recruits.

Australia Reveals Cyberwar Against ISIS, Asks for Help

Australian hackers are hard at work.

<h2>Stick Up</h2>
Bank robbers have traded in masks and guns for VPNs and proxy servers, and there&#8217;s more of them than ever.
In the last 12 months, 67 percent of financial institutions — banks, credit unions, and the like — that participated in a <a href="https://www.carbonblack.com/resources/threat-research/modern-bank-heists-the-bank-robbery-shifts-to-cyberspace/">cybersecurity report</a> published this month by security firm Carbon Black said that they were hit by an <a href="https://futurism.com/hackers-stole-20-million-mexican-bank">increasing rate of attempted cyberattacks</a> and hacks. On top of that, 79 percent said that the hackers were becoming more and more sophisticated. It&#8217;s no surprise that crime is moving online and that security means more than thick vault doors. But cybersecurity practices haven&#8217;t quite kept up with the sheer volume of hackers targeting banks, as the report says that many attacks were at least partially successful.
<h2>Project Mayhem</h2>
Instead of settling for a quick buck, many of the attacks included in the report were intended to disrupt banking services or delete financial records — a hack strategy that&#8217;s increased by 160 percent over the last 12 months. And once the hackers are in, 32 percent of banks said that the hackers were digging in their heels and fighting back against efforts to lock them out of the system.
&#8220;It&#8217;s something that we should be very concerned about,&#8221; Tom Kellermann, Carbon Black&#8217;s chief cybersecurity officer, <a href="https://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2019/Mar/26/technology-obsession-blinding-banks-from-real-cybercrime-threat/">told BobsGuide</a>, “because what that says to me is that [cybercriminals] are willing to shoot the hostages now, they&#8217;re willing to burn down the infrastructure, and destroy segments of a financial institution because they&#8217;re angry that you are reacting to them in the first place.&#8221;
<h2>Putting Out Fires</h2>
Many banks&#8217; cybersecurity vulnerabilities are introduced when they launch a new platform, be it online banking, mobile banking, or anything of the like.
Kellermann told Bobsguide that banks&#8217; tendency to launch new services and platforms without a proactive focus on security &#8220;is a systemic mistake and it is a terrible mistake.&#8221; Too often, Kellermann said, security teams are left running around and putting out fires rather than proactively seeking out and securing their vulnerabilities.
&#8220;They&#8217;re doing this to increase access to their systems,&#8221; Kellermann said. &#8220;What they&#8217;re not understanding is that if you build it they will come and not all of them will be righteous.&#8221;
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2019/Mar/26/technology-obsession-blinding-banks-from-real-cybercrime-threat/">Technology obsession blinding banks from real cybercrime threat</a> [Bobsguide]
More on cybersecurity: <a href="https://futurism.com/cybersecurity-us-defense-cisa">The US Finally Has a Defense Agency Devoted to Cybersecurity</a>

"[Cybercriminals] are willing to shoot the hostages now."

Banks are under siege by sophisticated hackers

Black Hat

A new report shows that banks are being hit by more and more attempted cyberattacks, and they may not always be proactive about their security practices.

Banks Are Under Siege by Sophisticated Hackers

The past 12 months have been particularly difficult for bank security teams.

<h2>Classic Prank</h2>
Certain members of YouTube star PewDiePie&#8217;s fanbase have started infecting people&#8217;s computers with homemade ransomware, according to a <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/pewdiepie-fans-keep-making-junk-ransomware/">new investigation</a> by ZDNet, in the ongoing push to get the YouTuber back on top as the channel with the most subscribers in the world.
In the past, mischievous PewDiePie fans have hacked publicly-accessible printers and spammed comments online, urging people to subscribe to the online gamer-turned <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/10/pewdiepie-is-back-making-more-racist-comments/">controversial YouTube personality</a> — but an actual virus represents a dangerous escalation in similar tactics.
<h2>Slapdash</h2>
When a computer gets hit by ransomware, it encrypts the hard disk until you meet the hackers&#8217; demands, sort of like a <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/newspapers-cyberattack-foreign">digital hostage situation</a>.
Developing ransomware and calling it a prank, as PewDiePie fans have done, is one thing. But the PewDiePie-inspired ransomware is made so poorly, according to ZDNet&#8217;s analysis, that it&#8217;s doing permanent damage: Because the authors of the first PewDiePie ransomware failed to save encryption keys, even if victims met the demands, their files were lost for good.
<h2>Second Thoughts</h2>
Another ransomware attack holds computers hostage until PewDiePie reached 100 million subscribers on YouTube — and if his rival channel T-Series did so first, the files would be permanently deleted.
The person behind that attack, realizing just how much trouble they could get themselves into after having infected a few computers, <a href="https://github.com/000JustMe/PewCrypt">publicly released their code</a> so people could decrypt their files and move on.
But still, it&#8217;s unlikely that PewDiePie&#8217;s fans are about to stop their notoriously obnoxious campaign any time soon.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/pewdiepie-fans-keep-making-junk-ransomware/">PewDiePie fans keep making junk ransomware</a> [ZDNet]
More on ransomware: <a href="https://futurism.com/atlanta-hacking-ransomware-cybersecurity">Hackers Are Holding The City of Atlanta Hostage</a>

It's so sloppy that it's permanently deleting people's files.

New virus steals your files until PewDiePie gets 100M subscribers

Troll Campaign

Fans of YouTube star PewDiePie have taken to ransomware attacks in order to try and drive up PewDiePie's subscriber count.

New Virus Steals Your Files Until PewDiePie Gets 100M Subscribers

Another ransomware variant encrypts your files unless you subscribe to PewDiePie — but even if you do, it deletes them anyway.

<h2>Ocean&#8217;s Once</h2>
In April 2018, hackers stole the equivalent of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-cyber/mexico-central-bank-says-hackers-siphoned-15-million-from-five-companies-idUSKCN1IH38Q" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$15 million from Mexican banks</a> — and now we know how they probably did it.
Penetration tester and security advisor Josu Loza was one of the experts called in to respond to the April heist, and on March 8 he <a href="https://youtu.be/wnxRZy0K6Bw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">presented his findings</a> at the RSA Security conference in San Francisco.
Based on his analysis, Mexico&#8217;s central bank wasn&#8217;t doing nearly enough to protect its clients&#8217; money — but other financial institutions could avoid the same fate if they&#8217;re willing to work together.
<h2>Easy Money</h2>
On Friday, Wired published a <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/mexico-bank-hack/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">story</a> detailing the information Loza shared with the audience at RSA&#8217;s conference. Based on his assessment, the success of the heist was due to a combination of expert bank hackers willing to spend months planning their crime and a banking network rife with security holes.
During the presentation, Loza made the case that the hackers might have accessed the Banco de México&#8217;s internal servers from the public internet, or perhaps launched phishing attacks on bank executives or employees to gain access.
Regardless of how they first got access, Loza said, the main problem was putting too many eggs in one security basket. Because many of the networks lacked adequate segmentation and access controls, he argued, a single breach could provide the bank hackers with extensive access.
That enabled them to lay the groundwork to eventually make numerous money transfers in smaller amounts, perhaps $5,000 or so, to accounts under their control. They&#8217;d then pay hundreds of &#8220;cash mules&#8221; each a small sum — Loza estimated that $260 might be enough — to withdraw the money for them.
<h2>Cyber Insecurity</h2>
The bank hackers are still at large, but the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/hacker-drain-1-million-cash-atm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">heist</a> appears to have served as a wake-up call for the Banco de México.
&#8220;From last year to today the focus has been implementing controls. Control, control, control,&#8221; Lazo said during his presentation, according to Wired. &#8220;And I think the attacks aren&#8217;t happening today because of it.&#8221;
He also noted the need for companies to collaborate to defend against cyberattacks.
&#8220;Mexican people need to start to work together. All the institutions need to cooperate more,&#8221; Loza said. &#8220;The main problem on cybersecurity is that we don’t share knowledge and information or talk about attacks enough. People don&#8217;t want to make details about incidents public.&#8221;
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/mexico-bank-hack/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HOW HACKERS PULLED OFF A $20 MILLION MEXICAN BANK HEIST</a> [Wired]
More on hacking: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/hacker-drain-1-million-cash-atm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hacker Figures out How to Drain $1 Million in Cash From ATM</a>

Stealing the money wasn't nearly as hard as it should've been.

Here's how hackers stole $15 million from Mexican banks

Money Walks

In April, bank hackers stole the equivalent of $20 million from Mexico's central bank thanks to a network rife with security flaws.

Here’s How Hackers Stole $15 Million From Mexican Banks

A security advisor shares what he found in the heist's aftermath.

<h2>Cracking Down</h2>
Voting booths are <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/us-election-system-children-hack">notoriously buggy</a>. Whether they&#8217;ve been actively hacked or just improperly calibrated, every election season is rife with complaints that machines misrecorded ballots or that an election has been compromised by hackers.
To prevent us from having to take a technological step backwards to paper ballots, U.S. Department of Defense&#8217;s research division DARPA is working with cybersecurity firm Galois to develop open source voting machine technology that would let people verify that their votes were tallied correctly, <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/yw84q7/darpa-is-building-a-dollar10-million-open-source-secure-voting-system">according to Motherboard</a>.
<h2>Open Source</h2>
The ultimate goal isn&#8217;t to sell machines, but to develop tech that would beef up existing voting machine vendors&#8217; security.
&#8220;We will not have a voting system that we can deploy. That’s not what we do,” Linton Salmon, the DARPA scientist managing the project, told Motherboard. &#8220;We will show a methodology that could be used by others to build a voting system that is completely secure.&#8221;
<h2>Kicking The Tires</h2>
To make sure that any new voting machines built with DARPA software are actually better than today&#8217;s, the plan is to invite experts ranging from academic computer scientists to hackers to test it out and search for vulnerabilities, according to Motherboard.
One way that the new system might improve upon others is by printing out a sheet showing a voter&#8217;s selections so that they can look it over before feeding it into a separate machine that will actually record the vote.
&#8220;That receipt does not permit you to prove anything about how you voted, but does permit you to prove that the system accurately captured your intent and your vote is in the final tally,&#8221; Galois principal scientist Joe Kiniry told Motherboard.
READ MORE: <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/yw84q7/darpa-is-building-a-dollar10-million-open-source-secure-voting-system">DARPA Is Building a $10 Million, Open Source, Secure Voting System</a> [Motherboard]
More on election security: <a href="https://futurism.com/digital-voting-election-fraud">Could Digital Voting Create a Society That Is Truly Governed by the People?</a>

Voters would be able to verify that the machine actually read their votes correctly.

DARPA is building an open source voting machine

Hanging Chads

DARPA is developing technology that could finally lead to secure voting machines. It plans to have experts from professors to hackers kick the tires.

DARPA Is Building an Open Source Voting Machine

The goal is to make elections secure without reverting to paper ballots.

<h2>Viral Marketing</h2>
If you work in finance, your printer may have recently spewed out a bizarre warning about the future of your industry.
The warning, which took the form of a <a href="https://beware-of-bots.com/media/print/i_do_help_you.pdf">glitchy-looking letter</a> conveyed the warning that 94 percent of finance professionals could be replaced by AI by 2024. It&#8217;s been sent to over 623,000 printers with publicly-accessible ports, according to its creators — an ambitious piece of futuristic protest art for the era of automation.
&#8220;It&#8217;s 94% likely that by 2024 I will replace millions of accountants, auditors and financial analysts, no matter how experienced or talented ‘they’ may be,&#8221; the letter reads, maintaining the voice of an AI narrator. &#8220;The same fate will befall all professions based on structured and algorithmic processes.&#8221;
<h2>Cyber-Nagging</h2>
The project, called <a href="https://beware-of-bots.com/media/print/i_do_help_you.pdf">Beware of Bots</a>, is the brainchild of Vlad Sitnikov, the same guy who told Futurism he wanted to <a href="https://futurism.com/startrocket-giant-ads-night-sky-cubesats">launch giant billboards into space</a>.
This time, his advertising has gone hyperlocal — in the philosophical opposite of that annoying &#8220;learn to code&#8221; movement, he urges people to pivot to graphic design and other creative fields that artificial intelligence is less likely to automate.
&#8220;I will not be able to replace creative professions in the near future,&#8221; the letter reads, still in the voice of the AI. &#8220;Only 8% of graphic designwork will be replaced by bots by 2024.&#8221;
Sitnikov could stand to profit from the hack: the letter he sent to thousands of hacked printers contains a coupon for a design course by author Michael Janda, with whom Sitnikov collaborated, and he was working on behalf of Skillbox, the online learning platform hosting Janda&#8217;s courses.
<h2>Singles In Your Area</h2>
To reach the finance bros&#8217; printers, Sitnikov built a bot that accessed what&#8217;s called port 9100, through which many printers send and receive data. It&#8217;s not uncommon for hackers to exploit these publicly-accessible ports, so the hack itself isn&#8217;t all that revolutionary.
Accessing internet-connected printers by exploiting port 9100 is <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/06/hacker_160000_printers/">technically illegal</a>, though most exploits tend to be harmless pranks. However,others have previously exploited port 9100 to <a href="https://readwrite.com/2016/03/28/racist-hack-spews-flyers-sm4/">commit hate crimes</a> or <a href="https://www.smartspate.com/how-to-hack-50000-network-printers/">send spam</a>.
What is new, however, is using the vulnerability for a viral marketing campaign. While this ad comes under the guise of benevolence, Sitnikov&#8217;s campaign could open the doors to all sorts of advertisements churning out of your printer.
READ MORE: <a href="https://lbbonline.com/news/bot-hacks-printers-worldwide-to-warn-humans-that-their-jobs-are-at-risk-from-ai/">Bot Hacks Printers Worldwide to Warn Humans That Their Jobs Are at Risk from AI</a> [Little Black Book]
More on viral marketing: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/british-army-viral-content-division">The British Army Has an Official Viral Content Division</a>

The warning comes bundled with an advertisement, because of course it does.

This guy is hacking printers to warn about job-stealing AI

Everything's An Ad

Beware of Bots is a new marketing campaign that hacked printers to send out a warning about automation, urging people to switch careers.

This Guy is Hacking Printers to Warn About Job-Stealing AI

The "warning" also includes a coupon for his partner's courses.

<h2>Submarine Screen Door</h2>
According to a new internal review, the U.S. Navy is being overwhelmed by a wave of hacks and cyberattacks.
The problem is so bad — and the Navy&#8217;s cybersecurity so inadequate— that the Navy doesn&#8217;t even know how much sensitive information has been stolen, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/navy-industry-partners-are-under-cyber-siege-review-asserts-11552415553?ns=prod/accounts-wsj">according to The Wall Street Journal</a>, which reviewed the 57-page internal report.
&#8220;We are under siege,&#8221; a senior Navy told the WSJ. &#8220;People think it’s much like a deathly virus — if we don’t do anything, we could die.&#8221;
<h2>One Way To Go</h2>
According to the report, the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/navy-laser-weapon-research">Navy&#8217;s lax digital security</a> has jeopardized America&#8217;s position as the world&#8217;s military leader. The leaks of classified intel, which reportedly included plans for anti-aircraft missiles that could take down supersonic ships, have senior Navy officials justifiably concerned.
The report says that China has &#8220;derived an incalculable near- and long-term military advantage from [the hacks], thereby altering the calculus of global power,&#8221; according to the WSJ, which reviewed a copy of the report.
<h2>Too Cool For School</h2>
Hackers have also been targeting the Navy&#8217;s corporate and academic partners that may have looser security than the military.
&#8220;In the era of great power competition, it should come as no surprise that Chinese hackers are targeting academic institutions ripe with valuable information about U.S. military capabilities,&#8221;  wrote U.S. Senator Edward Markey in a letter about the hacks.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/navy-industry-partners-are-under-cyber-siege-review-asserts-11552415553?ns=prod/accounts-wsj">Navy, Industry Partners Are ‘Under Cyber Siege’ by Chinese Hackers, Review Asserts</a> [The Wall Street Journal]
More on cybersecurity: <a href="https://futurism.com/bizarre-malware-disabling-safety-systems-industrial-plants">Bizarre Malware Is Disabling Safety Systems at Industrial Plants</a>

"People think it's much like a deathly virus — if we don't do anything, we could die."

US Navy struggling to deal with an onslaught of hackers

Loose Lips

According to a damning new internal review, the U.S. Navy is getting hacked so much that it can't even tell how much intel has been stolen.

US Navy Struggling to Deal With an Onslaught of Hackers

The Navy is so vulnerable to hackers it doesn't even know how much intel was stolen.

<h2>Access Denied</h2>
The Russian Federal Security Service just ordered internet providers to block several internet addresses, including servers for the encrypted email service ProtonMail and some of the connections necessary to run the censorship-dodging browser Tor.
The internet service providers complied, and while Russian ProtonMail users can currently access their inbox, they can neither send nor receive messages through the service, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/11/russia-blocks-protonmail/">according to TechCrunch</a> — a worrisome escalation of the Russian government&#8217;s war on privacy.
<h2>Blackhole</h2>
Citing national security after several fake bomb threats were emailed to Russian police earlier this year, the Russian government is using what&#8217;s called <a href="https://www.noction.com/blog/bgp-blackhole-community">BGP blackhole filtering</a>, a technique that keeps people from reaching their destinations while surfing the web by dropping their connections when they try to reach a blocked site.
While ProtonMail says it&#8217;s developing a workaround, the move marks <a href="https://futurism.com/russia-internet-security-test">another major blow</a> against Russians&#8217; ability to preserve their digital privacy and avoid government censorship.
<h2>Back Door&#8217;s Locked</h2>
ProtonMail&#8217;s CEO, Andy Yen, told TechCrunch that the way Russia blocked the service was &#8220;particularly sneaky,&#8221; as the front-end servers are still accessible but the back-end delivery system is blocked. So people can still visit the site, but no messages can get in or out.
&#8220;We have also implemented technical measures to ensure continued service for our users in Russia and we have been making good progress in this regard,&#8221; Yen told TechCrunch. &#8220;If there is indeed a legitimate legal complaint, we encourage the Russian government to reconsider their position and solve problems by following established international law and legal procedures.&#8221;
READ MORE: <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/11/russia-blocks-protonmail/">Russia blocks encrypted email provider ProtonMail</a> [TechCrunch]
More on Russian censorship: <a href="https://futurism.com/google-censoring-search-results-russia">Google Is Censoring Search Results to Hide Russian Corruption</a>

Citing phony bomb threats, the Federal Security Service wants access to email servers.

Russia blocks access to ProtonMail

No Passing Notes

Citing national security, Russia just blocked access to servers necessary to run the encrypted email service ProtonMail and the anonymized web browser Tor.

Russia Blocks Access to ProtonMail

Russians can still access their inboxes, but can't send or receive messages on the encrypted email service.

<h2>Deadly Malware</h2>
The world has grown accustomed to malware that steals your credit card information or demands bitcoin to access your files.
But a new hacker tool is targeting the safety systems at industrial plants around the world, according to a <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613054/cybersecurity-critical-infrastructure-triton-malware/">fascinating investigation</a> in the MIT Technology Review — the same safety systems, ominously, that protect nuclear power stations and water treatment facilities.
&#8220;In a worst-case scenario, the rogue code could have led to the release of toxic hydrogen sulfide gas or caused explosions, putting lives at risk both at the facility and in the surrounding area,&#8221; wrote MIT Tech&#8216;s Martin Giles of an incident when the malware was found to have attacked a petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia.
<h2>Lives at Risk</h2>
Researchers call the malware Triton. It&#8217;s apparently been spreading since 2014, but researchers didn&#8217;t become aware of it until around 2017.
What&#8217;s most worrisome, one source told MIT Tech, was that the malware crosses a new ethical line.
&#8220;Targeting safety systems just seemed to be off limits morally and really hard to do technically,&#8221; Joe Slowik, a former information warfare officer in the US Navy who now works at Dragos, an industrial cybersecurity firm that&#8217;s been tracking the spread of Triton, told the magazine.
<h2>Nuclear Option</h2>
At a speech last year, according to MIT Tech, former U.S. director of national intelligence Dan Coats warned that chances were growing of a debilitating cyberattack on American infrastructure.
&#8220;Here we are nearly two decades later, and I’m here to say the warning lights are blinking red again,&#8221; said Coats at the event. &#8220;Today, the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack.&#8221;
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613054/cybersecurity-critical-infrastructure-triton-malware/">Triton is the world’s most murderous malware, and it’s spreading</a> [MIT Technology Review]
More on malware: <a href="https://futurism.com/cryptomining-malware-is-infecting-corporate-networks">Cryptomining Malware Is Infecting Corporate Networks Worldwide</a>

"Targeting safety systems just seemed to be off limits morally and really hard to do technically."

Bizarre malware is disabling safety systems at industrial plants

Deadly Code

New malware is targeting safety systems at industrial plants around the world — the same systems, ominously, that protect nuclear power stations.

Bizarre Malware Is Disabling Safety Systems at Industrial Plants

It crosses a new ethical line for hackers — and it could target nuclear power plants.

<h2>Foot Recognition Software</h2>
The U.S. military is developing technology that would use a smartphone&#8217;s built-in sensors to recognize how you walk or other subtle biofeedback.
In about two months, the Department of Defense will finish testing a system that will sign people into their smartphones if the phone recognizes them based on their gait, typing patterns, grip, or other physical characteristics that the phone&#8217;s hardware can pick up, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-cybersecurity-202/2019/02/26/the-cybersecurity-202-your-phone-could-soon-recognize-you-based-on-how-you-move-or-walk/5c744b9b1b326b71858c6c39/?utm_term=.c716c0e32768">according to The Washington Post</a>.
<h2>Global Posturing System</h2>
If all goes well, the technology could roll out to most U.S. phones within the next two years.
&#8220;Our focus from the start was something usable at the commercial level,&#8221; Steven Wallace, a scientist at the Pentagon&#8217;s Defense Information Systems Agency told Post.
Wallace cited past developments, like the GPS and the internet, that started as military research projects and then spread out to the rest of society.
&#8220;I’m not going to say that we&#8217;re going to create something that’s as broad and as grand as GPS or the Internet, but there&#8217;s a history of the department working on things and those things ending up in consumer devices,&#8221; Wallace told the Post.
<h2>Personal Security</h2>
The tech under development at the Pentagon is different from China&#8217;s <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/gait-recognition-china-surveillance">gait-based surveillance system</a>. Instead of monitoring people, it&#8217;s supposed to add an extra, low-cost layer of security to government officials&#8217; phones.
If a phone detects that too many different things — how a user walks, how they grab their phone out of their pocket or bag, how they hold it while they type — are different from normal, then it will lock. That way, people can still use their phone like normal, but someone else won&#8217;t be able to pick it up and see personal information if the phone ever gets left behind.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-cybersecurity-202/2019/02/26/the-cybersecurity-202-your-phone-could-soon-recognize-you-based-on-how-you-move-or-walk/5c744b9b1b326b71858c6c39/?utm_term=.c716c0e32768">The Cybersecurity 202: Your phone could soon recognize you based on how you move or walk</a> [The Washington Post]
More on cybersecurity: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/uae-cyber-super-weapon-hack-iphones">Secret UAE Spy Team Used &#8220;Cyber Super-Weapon&#8221; to Hack any iPhone</a>

Your phone could soon recognize you by the way you pull it out of your pocket.

The Pentagon wants smartphones to recognize people by their gait

Fitness Tracker

The Pentagon is currently testing a system that would let smartphones lock out users if it doesn't recognize their gait or grip.

/Cybersecurity