back to article Snooping passwords from literally hot keys, China's AK-47 laser, malware, and more

The week surrounding America's "Huzzah, we kicked out the Brits, and will now spell color any way we like" Day, on July 4, is traditionally one of the slowest periods in the annual business tech news cycle. IT security, on the other hand, never rests. We've covered Google cracking down on non-HTTPS sites, Fortnite cheats …

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  1. PhilBuk
    Meh

    Is The Power Supply Portable?

    The article is a bit short on details but I wonder if the 3.3Kg weight includes the power supply? At the end of the article it says that the laser could be mounted on cars, boats and planes - for the power?

    Phil.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Is The Power Supply Portable?

      So it's powered by 3kg of over stressed LiFe batteries made in China by the lowest bidder on a government contract, and then handled by squaddies.

      Seems like the most effective use as a weapon would be to give them to your enemy

      1. shedied

        Re: Is The Power Supply Portable?

        Give them to the enemy, but with all the warning labels ripped off, thereby giving them something to ponder:just where would the Chinese go to get the cheap bootleg hardware??

        1. Jellied Eel Silver badge

          Re: Is The Power Supply Portable?

          just where would the Chinese go to get the cheap bootleg hardware??

          They don't need to go anywhere. OK, so a lot of Chinese students go off to Western universities to learn STEM skills. Chinese universities also teach STEM courses domestically. But it's a simple numbers game. So there's a billion Chinese spread across the normal population bell curve for aptitude. If the most apt are funnelled through a decent education, China has a skill base more than capable of challenging the West for hardware.

          And for the cheap bootleg hardware, China didn't need to go anywhere. Thanks to Western businesses desire to cut costs, engineering and manufacturing jobs were decimated in the West & stuff like iPhones sent to China for production. So instead of cheap soft toys and plastics, China's had the technology to produce sophisticated hardware gifted to it. So it's hardly suprising China's technology caught up, and is overtaking the West.

    2. JeffyPoooh
      Pint

      "...Chinese have developed a laser rifle..."

      And in related news, JeffyPoooh Instant Inventions Incorporated hereby places into the public domain the concept of employing surface arrays of innumerable precision retro-reflectors to send 98% of the high power laser beam 'right back at ya'.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "...Chinese have developed a laser rifle..."

        Are sharks included?

      2. keith_w
        Mushroom

        Re: "...Chinese have developed a laser rifle..."

        "And in related news, JeffyPoooh Instant Inventions Incorporated hereby places into the public domain the concept of employing surface arrays of innumerable precision retro-reflectors to send 98% of the high power laser beam 'right back at ya'."

        Bullard Reflects: Author: Jameson, Malcolm: Published: 1941: Publisher: Astounding Science-Fiction:

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is The Power Supply Portable?

      South China Morning Post has articles about this and the view is that the power requirements do not match the alleged Li-batteries inside. In addition atmospheric attenuation will be a huge problem.

      Another problem is blooming where heating of the atmosphere changes the refractive index which deflects the beam so that it no longer follows a straight line, a problem well known back in the days of SDI.

      1. Mark 85

        Re: Is The Power Supply Portable?

        So it would be more practical in space then.

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

      3. jmch Silver badge

        Re: Is The Power Supply Portable?

        "In addition atmospheric attenuation will be a huge problem."

        Even more so in China with their massive smog problem. The air in Beijing is noticeably yellow.

        1. DropBear
          Trollface

          Re: Is The Power Supply Portable?

          Oh dear, the soldiers of the future are going to look absolutely faaabulous in their glittery sequin-covered uniforms...! Or perhaps could it be that the time of shiny spandex is finally here (again)...?

    4. JCitizen
      FAIL

      Re: Is The Power Supply Portable?

      This is most likely propaganda, and not a real prototype at all.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ATM Pin Theft?

    "It's a cute surveillance technique, but one can't help wondering about its practicality. After all, if you have the kind of access to a target that allows this kind of thermal imaging then why not just use a plain old camera to watch typed passwords, install a keylogger, or just look over their shoulder."

    1. Waseem Alkurdi

      Re: ATM Pin Theft?

      Or oil the keyboard and see which keys get smudged. Nice school trick!

  3. Androgynous Cow Herd

    “It can burn through clothes in minutes”

    “You there...hold still so I can shoot you with my laser! Would you mind removing your overcoat?”

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: “It can burn through clothes in minutes”

      Due to the Geneva convention it's necessary to have combat functions such as burning clothes rather than blinding the enemy. Of course if it did just happen to burn the enemys eyes out this would just be an unforseen accident.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: “It can burn through clothes in minutes”

        s/minutes/seconds/ ... when I was a dumb kid, an Army quartermaster (if that was true) said they already had laser weapons but they couldn't use them because it was possible to slowly track across an enemy's e.g. arm and cut it off... and that was prohibitively inhumane. Gotta love the classics-- a small remotely launched bit of mass delivering kinetic energy to randomize some bit of flesh has never been a war crime per se.

        1. VikiAi

          Re: “It can burn through clothes in minutes”

          DOOM-RAY - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2eKvh3q7ac

      2. Mark 85

        Re: “It can burn through clothes in minutes”

        The Geneva Convention part is interesting. I understand the US didn't sign it (but usually follows it) but did the Chinese sign it?

        1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

          Sorry, Mark 85, but you are wrong - although not entirely. As you can see here, the US has signed all four protocols, but only ratified two, the first and the last.

          I don't exactly know what impact that has, but it must be significant.

          As for China, it has signed and ratified the first three protocols, but not the last.

          1. Mark 85

            Thanks Pascal. Eons ago in the military, I recall we had training on the Convention but at this point, I don't recall hearing "ignore #2 and #3". We pretty much covered it all. It was very late 60's and napalm was still being used.

  4. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Will there be tarrifs on this?

    Didn't the founding fathers guarantee my rights to buy Chinese ray guns without any pesky government interference ?

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: Will there be tarrifs on this?

      No. They did not.

      On the other hand, should these things prove functional enough for civilians to actually want one[0], I rather suspect that if you are sane, not a convicted felon, and can prove you're bright enough to request the right forms & correctly dot the ts and cross the is, you'll be able to purchase one. Kinda like your common or garden M1928A1.

      [0] I seriously doubt it, where's the fun in target shooting when you incinerate the target before you can see where you hit it? And not being able to make tin cans jump takes it out of the plinking market. And of course groceries, having a central nervous system, will move off before allowing themselves to be placed lovingly into the freezer. Besides, the power to weight ratio says no ... I can easily carry a couple hundred rounds of conventional ammo, lugging around a small power plant+fuel to keep one of these things ready to shoot would be problematic. Kinda like 'leccy cars, when you think about it.

      1. Charles 9

        Re: Will there be tarrifs on this?

        You can buy an assault weapon. It just has to be one made before 1985, protected by the Constitutional prohibition on retroactive laws.

        1. jake Silver badge

          Re: Will there be tarrifs on this?

          Not sure what your comment has to do with this thread, Chuck. Nobody mentioned ability or lack of ability to purchase assault weapons (whatever the fuck those are).

  5. Waseem Alkurdi

    The headline!

    the week surrounding America's "Huzzah, we kicked out the Brits, and will now spell color any way we like" Day, on July 4, is traditionally one of the slowest periods in the annual business tech news cycle.

    Thanks for bringing a hearty laugh to a face who desperately needed it!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Huzzah, we kicked out the Brits

    You may be surprised to discover how many Christians consider themselves Good Americans, yet will reflexively roll out the admonition by Paul to 'be subject to earthly authorities' every time you declare shenanigans on the government-- even though deciding your government is corrupt, and throwing it out, is the most American thing anyone can do. I'm not saying that would make someone a Good Christian, I'm merely saying it's kind of impossible to be both.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Huzzah, we kicked out the Brits

      dbtx noted, "...impossible to be both."

      Old saying: "The ability to hold contradictory ideas simultaneously is a sign of intelligence."

      By this measure, some people must be friggin' geniuses.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Does 'hold' mean grasp and compare and consider, or believe and internalize? FWIW, a genius can still 'doublethink'.

        1. Mark 85

          Does 'hold' mean grasp and compare and consider, or believe and internalize? FWIW, a genius can still 'doublethink'.

          Probably those who hold contradicting viewpoints don't think much or at least consider the contradiction. Most politicians seem to do this....

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Huzzah, we kicked out the Brits

      " even though deciding your government is corrupt, and throwing it out, is the most American thing anyone can do. "

      Congratulations on once again achieving the first part.

      Please proceed with phase 2.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        proceed with phase 2

        I should, if I considered myself a Good American, but I don't. So long as representative democracy is the game, and the majority keeps voting for this to stay the same -- bloody warped as it is-- then I have little to do for it but to finish whining. Like I said at work to a True Believer in all of this (and its current superuser), all I'm tryin' ta do is come up with something useful or find out something true and deliver it to the human race. Spoiler Alert: it won't be another Constitution.

        1. Charles 9

          Re: proceed with phase 2

          Then what do you propose in its place? A benevolent dictatorship?

          1. onefang

            Re: proceed with phase 2

            "Then what do you propose in its place? A benevolent dictatorship?"

            Yes, so long as it stays benevolent.

            1. Aodhhan

              Re: proceed with phase 2

              The Democrats have wanted to remove representative democracy from the constitution for about 20 years now, and replace it with a modified socialism model. Yet, like all socialistic models, there is no real solution to how a country will pay if everyone received free ...everything.

              American's don't celebrate kicking the Brits out of the country on July 4th. This is the day American's celebrate independence from a ridiculous monarchy. Since America had to give England two epic beat downs (don't forget about 1812) before they learned their lesson, another holiday was created for this azz-whooping. It's just not very PC these days to openly celebrate making another country your beotch; so this holiday isn't widely known.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: what do you propose in its place

            Nothing. Former pseudo-employer used to say almost the same: 'what are you going to replace it with?' As if replacing it was my job, my business, my right, but it was just rhetorical BS anyway. It will be replaced, entirely without my help or any decision on my part. And that's cool. It would seem like a rather convenient way to dodge all responsibility for society's good condition but that's just what you'll say being a person who still subscribes to all of that. Of course there are still requirements I accept and others I even embrace... 'somehow reshaping the government' is not one of them. In the meantime, all that should be required of me (besides following the law) is just what I already said I intend to do: come up with something useful, or find out something true, and bring it out. Then the slice of objectively good things I already absorbed won't all be wasted on me.

  7. vtcodger Silver badge

    I think I must be missing something here

    "That microcode-level mitigation left some AMD-powered systems unable to boot, and now has been given the boot from Ubuntu Linux computers."

    If the computer won't boot, how does one (un)patch it?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I think I must be missing something here

      "If the computer won't boot, how does one (un)patch it?"

      Linux systems typically leave the previous kernel available as a boot option. That'll use* the un-borked microcode from before the update, that broke the latest kernel, boot that and update again.

      * I'm not 100% sure of this - the microcode is part of initrd which is what the bootloader (Grub) uses to start the system - so I think this would work.

      1. Waseem Alkurdi

        Re: I think I must be missing something here

        * I'm not 100% sure of this - the microcode is part of initrd which is what the bootloader (Grub) uses to start the system - so I think this would work.

        I confirm that. The Linux kernel dynamically loads microcode to /sys/devices/system/cpu/microcode.

        That's also how it's done in the README file shipping w/ microcode updates.

  8. Blockchain commentard

    15mm calibre weapon. Er, is the laser beam 15mm? If not, it's not a 15mm calibre weapon. And it looks like it was cribbed off YouTube - lots of 'laser assault rifles' on there, all bursting black balloons (white/light coloured ones are too reflective it seems)!!!

    Who can hold a weapon perfectly still for a few seconds whilst it's burning your enemy?

    And to counter it? Wear mirrored Ray-bans :-)

    1. Mark 85

      Who can hold a weapon perfectly still for a few seconds whilst it's burning your enemy

      That part's not that hard, especially if you have a tripod. It's the keeping beam in the same spot long enough to do damage on a moving target trying not to be hit that's hard.

    2. Waseem Alkurdi

      Wear mirrored Ray-bans :-)

      Did you know that Chinese factories made many many more Ray-Bans than there are "genuine" Ray-Bans?

      1. jake Silver badge

        Just in case anybody reading this doesn't know ...

        ... sunglasses are NOT laser proof here in the Real World. Not even expensive fashion mistakes like mirrored RayBans. This includes light from laser pointers and other toys. If you need to protect your eyes from laser light, you have to use filters at the correct wavelength.

        This Public Service Announcement brought to you by a bright, sunny Sunday afternoon in Northern California. We now return you to the usual commentard bickering. Have A Nice Day.

  9. onefang
    Coat

    Trust no one and keep your laser handy!

    What colour is this laser rifle? Matching coloured tin foil hats should protect against it.

    I'll get my coat, the one made entirely of tin foil.

  10. doug_bostrom

    Thermal technique will be deployed in some movie that also includes bleeping/churring noises with each key-press, long persistence phosphor displays driven by 300bps connection, stock footage of kernel compilations.

    And nowhere else.

    1. JimC

      > and nowhere else

      If I had line of sight to an ATM I'd have both visual and infrared cameras trained on it, because the two together would give me a much better chance of getting a semi obscured pin than one or the other.

  11. Stuart

    Beware the Therminato

    How does this finding differ to what seems on the surface to be exactly the same finding from 2011?

    https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-08/heat-hacking-criminals-can-steal-your-atm-pin-code-heat-your-fingers-leave-behind

    I'm sure someone can provide an example earlier than this, I didn't spend much time looking.

  12. StargateSg7

    For solving the laser beam distance divergence and refractive index issue, you also used multiple surrounding beams of MICROWAVES (aka Masers) to heat the surrounding atmosphere outside of the laser beam trajectory,

    This would theoretically form a "Virtual Waveguide" or "Fibre Optic Cable-in-Air" which will confine the laser portion within a super-heated cavity actually reflecting and not just refracting the laser beams especially those in the Green to UV wavelengths range! The photons SHOULD bounce around the maser-formed super-heated airwalls keeping the FULL POWER of the light beam (laser portion) along the entire distance without the "divergent coning" that happens in normal atmosphere.

    You can also CONFINE acoustic waves within maser-heated air cavities to form a long-distance audio emissions system and actively target a SINGLE PERSON or LOCATION to make them think they're hearing ghost voices! Or you could simply use it as a long-distance person-specific communications devices without using a cell phone!

    If the air is superheated enough by a maser or RF signal of a specific power-level you could also form virtual lenses and virtual mirrors by superheating whole areas of atmosphere cubic KM's in size to bounce other waveforms off of such as ground-penetrating radar beams, massively large acoustic waves, high energy lasers, etc.

    The US-based HAARP (High Altitude Active Auroral Research Program) specifically did this type of research in the late 1980's and 1990's using radio frequency waves rather than 30 GHz to 60 GHz microwaves in order to superheat specified portions of the atmosphere across massive distances (many 100's of KM) for virtual lens and virtual mirror formation. The "Sky Voices" phenomena was one result where powerful sound waves were beamed across hundreds of KM via the refractive and reflective characteristics of superheated pockets of air and people thought they were songs or voices from heaven when it was a bunch of US military eggheads (boffins) in Alaska and Australia having their jollies bouncing super-amplified and distorted David Bowie or Pink Floyd music from air-lens to air-lens hitting people in the South of USA or North Eastern China!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      OK, but doing a virtual waveguide, what keeps the maser from diverging if the maser is there to keep the laser from diverging? And if you're superheating air, obvs. air or something in the air has to absorb those wavelengths, would that be water vapor? And if you target a person, how do you keep the same energy-tube from engulfing your listener's head and starting to cook it? I would go and look it up but I probably already landed on more than enough watch-lists this week, for that heresy above.

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