Daily News Bulletin: Want to hack the Pentagon? Department puts out call to test cybersecurity

Want to hack the Pentagon? Department puts out call to test cybersecurity

The Pentagon is inviting “vetted” hackers to try and break into the military’s network as part of a program to test the vulnerability of the system, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.

Hackers who want to participate will be required to submit to a background check before being allowed to join the effort.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has been spearheading an effort to build a relationship between the military and Silicon Valley, in the hopes of staying current with the latest technological advances.

The Pentagon said the hacking initiative is modeled after similar programs that large companies have launched in the hopes of bolstering the security of their networks.

The military’s most sensitive networks will not be part of the program.

“Once vetted, these hackers will participate in a controlled, limited duration program that will allow them to identify vulnerabilities on a predetermined department system,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “Other networks, including the department’s critical, mission-facing systems will not be part of the bug bounty pilot program.”

The program will be launched in April and the Pentagon said it would prize money awards and other recognition. (USA Today)

‘Highly inaccurate’ blood pressure app highlights pitfalls of mobile health technology

An app that measures your blood pressure through your smartphone is “highly inaccurate,” according to a research letter published Wednesday in JAMA Internal Medicine. The app, Instant Blood Pressure, missed high blood pressure levels in nearly four out of five people, the researchers found.

“This isn’t something I want my patients using,” says Dr. Tim Plante, a general internal medicine fellow at Johns Hopkins University and a co-author of the letter.

The app is no longer available for sale, but it was popular between 2014 and 2015, with people buying 148,000 units, according to Plante and his colleagues. He’s concerned that those who bought it will keep using it.

“If you have people who are using an inaccurate device like Instant Blood Pressure at home, and telling their doctor, ‘my blood pressure is OK,’ you could miss a risky high reading and develop complications from that down the road,” Plante says.

Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to heart attacks and strokes.

Instant Blood Pressure’s website says that people should not rely on the app for medical advice or diagnosis. It says the app “is for recreational use only” and “it is not a replacement or substitute for a cuff or other blood pressure monitor.” The app underwent internal testing by the manufacturer, but Plante says those findings were never independently validated. (KPCC)

Sports Authority is bankrupt and closing 140 stores

Sports Authority filed for bankruptcy early Wednesday and said it will close 140 stores, nearly a third of its total.

The bankruptcy has been looming since January, when the company disclosed that it had missed a $20 million debt payment.

The store closings will take place over the next three months. The stores to be closed have yet to be disclosed. The bankruptcy filing will allow it to break leases for money-losing stores.

The company has 14,500 full- and part-time employees at its 450 stores and its offices, according to the bankruptcy filing. Nearly two-thirds of those workers are part-time. It also disclosed more than $1 billion in liabilities and assets valued between $500,000 and $1 billion.

“In terms of their long-term viability, I think they need to do more than just close stores,” said Andrew Bove, credit analyst with Standard & Poors. “There’s other issues. They’re not doing enough to get consumers in the door to spend money.”

The company has arranged to borrow up to $595 million to fund its operations while in bankruptcy. But to pay off that loan and come out of bankruptcy, it likely will have to find a buyer for the remaining stores. That will be a challenge, Bove said, but not impossible.

“It’s a well-known brand. They were the leader in the industry, so there is some value there,” he said. (CNN)

No, You Can’t Vape On Commercial Flights, Transportation Department Says

Removing any doubt about whether you’re allowed to puff away on an electronic cigarette while airborne, the Department of Transportation has explicitly banned vaping on commercial flights.

The department had previously said that it understood its “ban on smoking of tobacco to be sufficiently broad to include the use of electronic cigarettes.”

It’s the word “smoking” that was seen as a possible loophole. As most any e-cigarette user will emphatically tell you, they don’t view it as smoking because there’s no smoke— the device releases vapor instead.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement Wednesday that the department “took a practical approach to eliminate any confusion between tobacco cigarettes and e-cigarettes by applying the same restrictions to both.” He adds, “This final rule is important because it protects airline passengers from unwanted exposure to aerosol fumes that occur when electronic cigarettes are used onboard airplanes.”

The aerosol fumes are a concern, the statement says, “because there is a lack of scientific data and knowledge of the ingredients in electronic cigarettes.”

The ban applies to “all scheduled flights of U.S. and foreign carriers involving transportation in, to, and from the U.S,” according to the Department of Transportation.

Last year, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration prohibited airline passengers and crew from carrying battery-powered e-cigarettes in their checked luggage or charging the devices while on a plane, citing safety concerns.

E-cigarette manufacturers routinely market their products by arguing part of the appeal is that they can be used in places where traditional cigarettes are not allowed.(NPR)

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