Monday, June 16, 2014

Indian engineering graduates' degrees to be recognised across 17 countries

NEW DELHI: Engineering graduates from India will find it easier to take advantage of international prospects as their degrees will now be recognized across 17 major countries including the United States, Japan and Australia. On Friday, India became a permanent member of the Washington Accord, an international agreement for accrediting undergraduate engineering degree programs.

International mobility of engineering graduates from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has not been an issue given the global recognition of these institutes, but   this has not been the case with the graduates from the 1,300-odd other engineering colleges in the country.

With India becoming a permanent member of the Washington Accord, Indian engineering graduates will be considered to have met the academic requirements necessary to take up the practice of engineering in any of the signatory countries. The Washington Accord aims to promote mobility and quality assurance across countries. Besides recognition for Indian engineering degrees, membership of the international accreditation agreement will ensure a minimum global quality for all engineering institutions in the country.

Congratulating the officials of the human resource development ministry and the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), human resource development minister Smriti Irani said, "This will ensure highest quality assurance standards to be implemented in our technical and engineering programmes and provide global mobility to our engineering graduates. Graduates having degrees, which have been so accredited, would have substantial international equivalence of their achievement levels across the signatory nations. This will substantially enhance their employment opportunities around the world."
The decision to give India permanent membership, seven years after it acquired provisional membership, was taken at the meeting of the International Engineering Alliance in Wellington, New Zealand, on Friday. The membership is effective immediately.
This brings to a close India's 15-year quest for permanent membership. In 2000, the All India Council for Technical Education (the NBA was part of the council) initiated efforts for membership of the Washington Accord but no real progress was made.

Another attempt was made in 2003, even though India's proposal was considered fit for appraisal in June 2003, delays by the government in pursuing the case meant that India missed out being considered at the 2005 meeting of the Washington Accord members.

Despite efforts in fits and starts, India's serious quest for membership began with a push from former HRD ministerKapil Sibal through moves including granting of autonomous status to the NBA. The Washington Accord requires countries to have a mandatory national accreditation system. In September 2013, the IITs agreed to be brought under the NBA's accreditation umbrella, a move that helped India's case enormously. 
Source:http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Friday, June 13, 2014

5 cool concepts for futuristic travel

There is little doubt that the billions of cars around the world are having an impact on the environment. This can only get worse as time passes, however are we take a look at 5 cool concepts for futuristic travel to help cut down on the amount of cars on the road and to make it easier to get from point A to point B in the future.
The Superbus Project
superbus
[Image Courtesy of En-Derin]
Let’s face it buses have a long way to go if they are to look cool and they are always running late. The Superbus Project was designed to be cool looking along with offering luxury travel and travel on demand, what’s better is that it would be a more eco-friendly form of mass transit. The Superbus has a design that takes on the appearance of a fancy stretch limousine and has 16winged doors that rise up. The Superbus would have lots of safety features implemented and could travel up to 155mph. The best part about this concept is that you would not have to wait around at a bus stop and it wouldn’t run to a time and be late, as you could send a text message or web message and it would pick you up at your doorstep.
The SARTRE
sartre
[Image Courtesy of En-Derin]
Freeway convoys are another concept and there is an EU funded project with the name of SARTRE that allows people to use their own cars while at the same time giving them free time on the commute to work. This works by there being a lead vehicle and all other cars, called the road train, following on in a line. The lead car would be professionally driven and this car would be designed to take control of all cars behind it. It would take control and release them based on signals given by the individual drivers of the road train cars. When the cars are in the convoy the drivers don’t have to steer or apply brakes or the accelerator, they can sit back and relax.
The Schweeb concept
schweeb
[Image Courtesy of En-Derin]
There are some people who have taken to riding bikes on their commute to work, instead of their cars. This concept takes bike riding a step further, it is called the Schweeb. It consists of pods that the passenger sits in and pedals, which are attached to rails above the pods. Pods can be joined to allow families to travel together and it would offer zero-emission travel along with getting you fit at the same time. It would be ok for small trips, but longer ones would be exhausting.
The Elevated Bus
elevated-urban-bus-concept
[Image Courtesy of En-Derin]
The Elevated Bus concept could put an end to congestion on the streets. Passengers on the bus sit up on the top deck, while the bottom deck remains open and vehicles are able to drive right through it. This means that traffic is not brought to a standstill when passengers get off the bus and the bus would run on rails and be able to hold 1400 passengers.
The Moving Platforms Concept
nonstop-train
[Image Courtesy of En-Derin]
While high speed trains are fast they do have the downside of them having to slow down and stop at stations and then pick up their speed again. This is where the Moving Platforms concept comes into its own. With this concept there is a high speed train that doesn’t have to stop as there is a train dock which travels at the same speed as the train and docks with the moving train. Passengers then get off the main train and onto the docking train, while moving, which can then stop at stations, while the main train continues without having to slow down.
Via [En-Derin]
Source:http://interestingengineering.com/

The Dubai Mall: The Biggest Mall

The world’s biggest and most elaborate shopping mall has to be the Dubai Mall, in Dubai (obviously) and it is situated at the foot of the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. The mall is home to more than 1,200 stores and cost more than $20 billion to construct.
The-Dubai-Mall-3
[Image Courtesy of DubaiMall]
The shopping mall is four times the size of the Westfield Centre in London and it opened in 2007after the opening had to be delayed twice. When it opened it had 600 retailers, making it the largest commercial project along with the biggest ever mall opening in retail history. The shopping mall spreads out over 12 million square feet, which is about the equivalent of 50 football stadiums.
dubaimall_uae1_main
[Image Courtesy of DubaiMall]
In total there is more than 5.9 million square feet of floor areas. The car park is almost the same size as the shopping mall and holds a capacity of 16 000 cars. Each and every year the Dubai shopping mall sees around 26 million people walk through its doors.
The-Dubai-Mall-4
[Image Courtesy of DubaiMall]
The Dubai shopping mall is home to more than just the 1,200 shops, one of the biggest attractions to the mall is the Dubai Aquarium. This also happens to be one of the largest aquariums in the world at a size of 51m x 20m x 11m and has one of the biggest viewing panels offering a view into the aquarium. The aquarium is home to more than 33,000 animals over 85 different species and400 rays and sharks. Visitors to the shopping mall can see a ‘Living Ocean’ and the ‘Rocky Shore’ and meet a penguin colony, otters, piranha fish and catfish.
dubai-mall-aquarium
[Image Courtesy of DubaiMall]
The Dubai aquarium also has a 270 degree walkthrough tunnel made of glass for close up views of the aquarium. The aquarium comes with a lunar cycle lighting system which means that the whole ambiance of the tank is changed and this depends on the time of the day.
On level two of the Dubai Mall is the Reel Cinemas Movie Megaplex and this is one of the largest movie theatres in the whole of the UAE as it is home to 22 cinemas, which play the latest movies. It is also the very first movie theatre to have one cinema that is totally devoted to Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles movies.
farbenspiel-der-dubai-fountain-954015f7-60de-474f-82da-bf492787c777
[Image Courtesy of DubaiMall]
The Dubai shopping mall is also the place to experience the Dubai Fountain which is on the 30 acreBurj Kalifa Lake. The fountain sends jets of water as high at 500 feet into the air, this is around the same size as a 50 storey building. The fountain is an amazing 900 feet in length and is comprised of five circles, with each having their own sizes, along with two arcs in the middle. The Fountain performs each day to music and a light show.
Via [DubaiMall]
Source:http://interestingengineering.com/

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

14-year-old code crackers hack Winnipeg ATM

QMI_WS20140605CP05Caleb Turon (left) and Matthew Hewlett hacked a Bank of Montreal ATM and then alerted bank staff to the vulnerability of the ATM. The 14 year olds were late returning to school from lunch, but had a note from the bank indicating they were helping with security. (Chris Procaylo/Winnipeg Sun/QMI Agency)
WINNIPEG -- A couple of 14-year-old computer whizzes have the Bank of Montreal upgrading its security after the teens hacked an ATM machine.

Matthew Hewlett and Caleb Turon, both Grade 9 students, found an old ATM operators manual online that showed how to get into the machine's operator mode.
On Wednesday over their lunch hour, they went to the BMO's ATM at the Safeway on Grant Avenue to see if they could get into the system.

"We thought it would be fun to try it, but we were not expecting it to work," Hewlett said. "When it did, it asked for a password."

Hewlett and Turon were even more shocked when their first random guess at the six-digit password worked. They used a common default password. The boys then immediately went to the BMO Charleswood Centre branch on Grant Avenue to notify them.

When they told staff about a security problem with an ATM, they assumed one of their PIN numbers had been stolen, Hewlett said.

"I said, 'No, no, no. We hacked your ATM. We got into the operator mode'," Hewlett said. "He said that wasn't really possible and we don't have any proof that we did it.

"I asked them, 'Is it alright for us to get proof?'
"He said, 'Yeah, sure, but you'll never be able to get anything out of it.'

"So we both went back to the ATM and I got into the operator mode again. Then I started printing off documentation like how much money is currently in the machine, how many withdrawals have happened that day, how much it's made off surcharges.

"Then I found a way to change the surcharge amount, so I changed the surcharge amount to one cent."

As further proof, Hewlett playfully changed the ATM's greeting from "Welcome to the BMO ATM" to "Go away. This ATM has been hacked."

They returned to BMO with six printed documents. This time, staff took them seriously.

"They brought the branch manager out to talk to us," he said. "He was quite concerned and said he would have to contact head security."

Hewlett and Turon had a concern of their own -- they were late for school. So Turon asked for a note on BMO letterhead explaining their tardiness. His request was granted by the bank's financial services co-ordinator.

"Please excuse Mr. Caleb Turon and Matthew Hewlett for being late during their lunch hour due to assisting BMO with security," the note began.

Not surprisingly, the note raised eyebrows when it was presented at the school.
"The secretary read it over and asked, 'What kind of security were you assisting them with?'" Hewlett said.

In an e-mail statement Friday, Ralph Marranca, BMO's director of media relations, said they were aware of the incident and have taken steps to block unauthorized access.

"Customer information and accounts and the contents of the ATM were never at risk and are secure," he said.

Matthew's father, Brad Hewlett, said he and his wife are proud of their son's remarkable skills, but sometimes they have to act as his moral compass. Matthew has endured serious health issues since an early age and had a double liver transplant three years ago, but it hasn't slowed him down, Brad said.

"He's self-taught and into more than just computers -- it's physics and chemistry, everything," he said.
"He presented at the University of Manitoba last year for a program that he wrote that sort of goes down the path for artificial intelligence. The first two people judging didn't have a clue what he was talking about. The third was a software engineer and the question she kept asking was, 'Did you get any help with this?'

"And he sure didn't get it from me."

Source:http://www.torontosun.com

Army vet creates Tankchair

What happens when the wife of an army vet so tragically becomes paralysed? The Tank-Wheelchair! Army veteran, Brad Soden came up with the idea after his wife became paralysed from the waist down in 1999. He promised his wife he would build her something after she said the words, “Go on without me“, but after “two years and a bunch of beers” he manufactured the Tankchair in his garage, after many engineers told him it just wasn’t possible.
tankchair[Image Courtesy of Brad Soden]
The Tankchair is equipped with 12 and a half inch wide heavy duty treads that allow for movement across all terrains, allowing his wife to still look after their farm. “Muddy field, cross it. You want to go fishing with your buddies, go fishing. If it snows, cross the snow,” says Soden, who wanted to create a chair that could tackle all terrains and obstacles.
Soden has no engineering background and didn’t even go to college but years of hard grafting and putting in hard work to research and development he finally came up with his solution to let the disabled live their lives as fully as they used to.
Tankchairs start at $19,500 and come customised to customer specifications, things such as reclined back support or increased braking ability. “Money doesn’t drive me, it’s all about the smiles on the families and those we helped.” And he sticks to his word, all the revenue from chair sales goes straight back into research and development for future improvements on the chair.
tankchair3[Image Courtesy of Brad Soden]
The frame is made from either steel or aluminium depending on application and is built to last 15-20 years. The two battery powered motors mean the chair can plough up a snowy hill with no problems. Muddy terrain is a breeze to the chair.
I’m not a big rah-rah type of guy,“ he said in the video. “I get more pleasure watching other people have fun. You see a kid smile, or you see happiness, and the tears of it … I can’t really describe it. Man, I can’t tell you. It’s just really cool.
tankchair2[Image Courtesy of Brad Soden]

Source:http://interestingengineering.com/

Apple’s 7-1 Split


Apple’s 7-for-1 split went live today, and its share price dipped under the $100 mark, as the technology company greatly increased its share count.

The market is up today, but Apple has picked up more than twice the bounce that the NASDAQ has received, climbing north of 1 percent. It’s not a massive rally, but no one anticipated more. Apple’s split is noteworthy given its massive scale; the company is the most valuable public one in the world, with a market capitalization of around $565 billion. So, Apple’s 1 percent lift today is worth north of $5 billion.

Staggering figures aside, Apple’s share price is now a modest $93.70, making it a prime target for inclusion in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), a price-weighted exchange. Previously, Apple’s share price made it all but impossible to include given the exchange’s weighting procedure. Call it the Berkshire problem, if you will.

If Apple was selected to be part of the DJIA, it could see its shares pick up momentum as funds tracking that index pick up its stock. That’s speculative, and merely potential of course.
Apple’s publicly stated reason for the split was to make its shares more accessible to a wider investment class.

Source:http://techcrunch.com

Monday, June 9, 2014

CIA joins social media, is immediately trolled

Screenshot from the facebook page

Though the US Central Intelligence Agency may use Facebook, Twitter, and the like to keep tabs on targets of interest, the spy agency has only now officially joined social media--a move hastened by an imposter who was using the agency's name online.

The agency’s first tweet, which earned the CIA nearly 200,000 Twitter followers in just a few hours, was the appropriately sarcastic, “We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.” There were already 40,000 followers after just a single hour online, with the agency's debut on Facebook sparking a similar conversation on that platform. 

By expanding to these platforms, CIA will be able to more directly engage with the public and provide information on the CIA's mission, history, and other developments,” CIA Director John Brennan said in a press release Friday. “We have important insights to share, and we want to make sure that unclassified information about the agency is more accessible to the American public that we serve, consistent with our national security mission.” 

The CIA admitted as far back as 2011 that its agents and employees regularly scan social media to spy on intelligence targets. It already had multiple accounts on Flickr and YouTube, but only debuted on Twitter Friday because it had spent months lobbying Twitter to stop someone else who was already using the @CIA handle. 

There was someone out there impersonating CIA via Twitter,” spokesperson K. Jordan Caldwell told NBC. “Earlier this year, CIA filed an impersonation complaint with Twitter and they secured the @CIA account for us, which is routine for government agencies. This has been a lengthy process. It's been in the works for a long time.” 

The poser wasn't a member of the Syrian Electronic Army, or even a veteran of the agency's “enhanced interrogation” techniques, but the Cleveland Institute of Art, which was cursed with the same abbreviation as one of the most powerful cloak and dagger agencies in the world. 

We just deleted that one because it was kind of confusing,” Jessica Moore, the institute's web manager, told the Wall Street Journal. “Some people would mention us in their tweets and they were clearly thinking they were talking with the 'real CIA,' the Central Intelligence Agency.” 

If the CIA is used to infiltrating foreign governments and aiding assassinations, though, it was still unprepared for Twitter trolling. Tweets immediately began pouring into the agency's timeline from all over the world. Whether it be journalists, comedians, companies, or conspiracy theorists, seemingly all of Twitter felt compelled to make a joke that had been made dozens of times before. 

Certainly the most effective trolling so far has come from the New York Review of Books, which launched an assault on the CIA's Twitter feed complete with the torture methods used by the CIA and the date each incident occurred. 

Each of the flurry of tweets included a link to the 2009 NY Review of Boks article titled “US Torture. Voices from the Black Sites," which “reveals for the first time the contents of a confidential Red Cross report about the CIA's secret offshore prisons.” The link was unavailable for much of the afternoon Friday, most likely because the site in question was overwhelmed with the sudden amount of traffic that came from the hundreds of retweets and favorites. 

Along with compelling the Cleveland Institute of Art to give up its Twitter moniker, the CIA's debut on Twitter is also timely because it comes as a number of US government agencies have increasingly relied on social media to communicate with the public. The trend began a year ago after the Edward Snowden leak, when the National Security Agency sought to shift the conversation with its own Twitter account. 

Other US government departments have attempted to use social media not only to get out their message, but at times to actively combat America's enemies in sometimes bizarre online spats,” explained Lee Ferran of ABC News. “The State Department's Think Again Turn Away Twitter account, for instance, directly engages in arguments with pro-jihadi computer users. Terrorist groups, like the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda-allied group Al-Shabab in Somalia, already have a robust social media presence, which they use to spread their own propaganda.” 

Source:rt.com

5 strange military weapons you might not know exist

There are many weapons that people have heard about, but there are some that are so strange that they are almost unbelievable and which the majority of people will have never heard of. Here we take a look at 5 of the weirdest military weapons that are the real deal but which are some of the most obscure.
The Bat Bomb
bat_bomb_canister
[Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]
The Bat Bomb was made in the US to be used in World War II against Japan and as the name suggests it contained 40 bats in hibernation inside the tubing. Each of the bats had a napalm bomb strapped to it (think the animal rights campaigners would have had something to say about this) along with a timer.
The bombs deployed their own parachute, which would allow the bats time to fly out of the bomb and find a place in which to roost. The napalm bomb would then explode and hopefully destroy the place the bat had chosen to rest, along with buildings around it.
Anti-tank Dogs
anti-tank-dog
[Image Courtesy of WikimediaCommons]
The Russians were caught off guard in World War II by the Nazi betrayal and as the Nazis advanced on the territory of the Russians the Soviets strapped explosives to dogs, which they had trained to run underneath the tanks of the Germans. It was said that this method managed to destroy 300 tanks belonging to the Germans. This programme was continued until as late as 1996.
The Sovit Ekranoplane
soviet-unions-lun-class-ekranoplan
[Image Courtesy of igor113]
The Lun-class Ekranoplane was 300 feet in length and flew no more than four meters above the level of the ground thanks to an effect that the plane’s wings generated. This was supposed to be a transport vessel that was revolutionary as it was larger than any other plane and was far faster than ships. The plane could also carry nuclear warheads; however it wasn’t used in action and never went into wide production.
Pigeon Guided missiles
pigeon-missile-1
[Image Courtesy of DepartmentofDefense]
B. F. Skinner devised Project Pigeon, which were pigeon guided missiles. The project was in fact cancelled as it was said to be impractical, even though the missiles did show a great deal of promise when it was proposed. The missile featured an array of lenses at the front and these sent an image of the target to a screen on the interior. The pigeons inside the missile had been trained to peck at the target they could see on the screen and this corrected the missiles flight path.
The Kaiten Torpedo
kaiten-torpedo
[Image Courtesy of WikipediaCommons]
The Imperial Japanese Navy built Kaiten torpedoes and they were used in service between 1944 and 1945. These torpedoes needed to be manned and they were actually a variation of the Japanese suicide weapons that they tended to turn to during the end of the war. These torpedoes were launched from the submarines and could be steered so as to make the maximum amount of damage to their enemy.
Source:http://interestingengineering.com/

Underground beer fridge

Summer is here and it is the perfect time for those BBQs in the back garden or just hanging out with a few friends and enjoying a beer. If you like your beer cold but you just hate the thought of getting up and going to the fridge to get a refill, you might like this new invention to come from a Danish company that keeps your beers cold outside in the garden. It works by keeping your beer cans in a1.13m tube underground, so essentially eCool is a beer fridge.
article-0-1E5C602D00000578-750_306x423
[Image Courtesy of eCool]
This new device comes with the name of the eCool and it allows you to store as many as 24 cans of your favourite beer right in the garden underground. This means that it can take advantage of the fact that underground is cooler and so it keeps your beer cool. When the system is installed in the garden it lies underground and you can just pull out a beer and the next automatically comes to the top where it waits for you.
article-0-1E5C602900000578-911_306x423
[Image Courtesy of eCool]
The company say that the system could be installed using a shovel, however they do recommend the easy way of installation, this is using a garden drill. This is the perfect system for those who are eco-friendly as the beer is kept cold without having to use any electricity.
article-0-1E5C60AC00000578-862_634x734
[Image Courtesy of eCool]
The eCool system means that you always have a cold beer to hand and it’s very easy to install. It is a total of 113 cm in height, with a weight of 12kg and 22 to 30 cm in diameter. You can store as many as 24 cans in the system and you don’t have to drink them all in the same day, the cans can remain in place for up to one year.
article-0-1E5C602D00000578-750_306x423[Image Courtesy of eCool]
The eCool system could be installed on grass or even on a wooden deck, with a hole drilled through it. So before the World Cup starts you might want to consider grabbing yourself one of these if you are having your friends around to watch.
Via [eCool]
Source: http://interestingengineering.com/

Nanpu Bridge: A Bridge to Success

Nanpu Bridge
The Huangpu River in China is the last main tributary of the Yangtze River on its way to East China Sea. Huangpu is 113 km long and crosses one of the fastest growing and significant cities in China –Shanghai. Nanpu Bridge is one of the first bridges over Huangpu that connects central Shanghai and the Pudong district on the other side of the river. The district develops fast, just like the city at all, which is one of the main reasons for building Nanpu. It is also expected that the bridge will help for continuing of this development. The bridge, accessible via impressive spiral connections, is also a link between Zhongshan South Road and Lu Jiabing Road. Except all other positives, it is also a touristic attraction and local landmark.
The local people respect Huangpu as a mother river and consider that it is the cradle of Shanghai and something like a spiritual protector of the city. But along with that, the river separates the city and makes the contact between the halves difficult. This is why Shanghai residents have been dreaming about big bridge between Pudong District and Puxi District for long time ago. Since 1920’s if we must be more accurate.
The Songpu Bridge was built in 1975 but it couldn’t solve the problem of the huge traffic around the river entirely because it is too far from the center of Shanghai. This led to the necessity of second bridge over Huangpu River. The Nanpu Bridge project was approved in August, 1986, and the construction began after two years of preparations – in 1988. Two years later the Chinese government decided to turn Pudong District into general development region, which significantly increased the importance of Nanpu Bridge.
nanpu bridge
The bridge was completely built on 20th of June, 1991, and the official opening ceremony was on November 19th, the same year. After the traffic opening on December 1st, 1991, Nanpu Bridge became the fourth largest cable-supported bridge in the world.
The design of Nanpu belongs to two institutions: Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute, and Tongji Architectural Design and Research Institute. Funding was provided mainly by Asian Development Bank. Its overall cost was 820 million Chinese yuans and became excellent base for the following building of two other bridges: Yangpu and Xupu.
Nanpu Bridge is 8346 m long, but the biggest part of this longitude belongs to its elevated spiral approaches – 7500 m, and the main part across the river is 846 m long. It stands roughly 46 meters above the water level which allows for passing of no more than 55 tons heavy ships.
nanpu bridge
The bridge is supported by two main H-shaped, 150 m tall towers and double cable planes. The body of the bridge was constructed by using steel and concrete. The lower layer of deck is created by utilizing a large “beam” frame while the upper layer is reinforced with concrete. The bridge surface and the steel deck were electronically welded, after which the junction was reinforced with concrete. This method was used for first during building of Chinese bridges.
Source:http://interestingengineering.com/

Friday, June 6, 2014

Hackers to face the same jail time as killers

Hacker
Computer hackers will be punished as harshly as murderers under new plans unveiled yesterday.
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Stirring deadly civil unrest by cutting off food supplies or energy networks through sabotaging computer systems could bring life sentences.
The British Computer Misuse Act will be amended to include an aggravated offense of unauthorized access to a computer.
The existing offense of impairing a computer only carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment.
HackerBritish ministers believe that punishment does not reflect the potential damage to the British economy and risk to human life posed by an attack by internet terrorists, or a lone hacker working from a bedroom.
Interconnected
The threat has grown as businesses and government become more reliant on interconnected computer networks.
A major cyber attack on essential networks such as the National Grid, police computers or supermarkets' distribution systems could trigger "severe social disruption", the British Home Office fears, according to officials.
Under a Serious Crime Bill, cyber attacks that result in loss of life, serious illness or injury or serious damage to national security will carry a life sentence.
Attacks that cause serious economic or environmental damage will carry a 14-year prison sentence.
Britain has not seen such an attack yet.
However, cyber attacks are rated as a "tier one" threat by the UK government's National Security Strategy, alongside international terrorism or major accidents.
They are ranked as less grave threats than a chemical or nuclear attack, or an invasion of a UK overseas territory.
The Serious Crime Bill will also create a new offense related to the possession of "paedophilic manuals".
Sexual predators who download manuals on how to groom their victims will face the same sanctions as terrorists who download guides on bomb-making. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
Irish Independent

Source: http://www.independent.ie/

Hackers to face the same jail time as killers

Matthew Holehouse

Published 05/06/2014|02:30
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Hacker
Hacker
Computer hackers will be punished as harshly as murderers under new plans unveiled yesterday.
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Stirring deadly civil unrest by cutting off food supplies or energy networks through sabotaging computer systems could bring life sentences.
The British Computer Misuse Act will be amended to include an aggravated offence of unauthorised access to a computer.
The existing offence of impairing a computer only carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment.
British ministers believe that punishment does not reflect the potential damage to the British economy and risk to human life posed by an attack by internet terrorists, or a lone hacker working from a bedroom.
Interconnected
The threat has grown as businesses and government become more reliant on interconnected computer networks.
A major cyber attack on essential networks such as the National Grid, police computers or supermarkets' distribution systems could trigger "severe social disruption", the British Home Office fears, according to officials.
Under a Serious Crime Bill, cyber attacks that result in loss of life, serious illness or injury or serious damage to national security will carry a life sentence.
Attacks that cause serious economic or environmental damage will carry a 14-year prison sentence.
Britain has not seen such an attack yet.
However, cyber attacks are rated as a "tier one" threat by the UK government's National Security Strategy, alongside international terrorism or major accidents.
They are ranked as less grave threats than a chemical or nuclear attack, or an invasion of a UK overseas territory.
The Serious Crime Bill will also create a new offence related to the possession of "paedophilic manuals".
Sexual predators who download manuals on how to groom their victims will face the same sanctions as terrorists who download guides on bomb-making. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
Irish Independent
- See more at: http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/hackers-to-face-the-same-jail-time-as-killers-30330846.html#sthash.pblVAfFD.dpuf