Tag Archive for: number

T.S.A. Confiscated Record Number of Guns at U.S. Airports in 2022

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The Transportation Security Administration intercepted a record number of guns at airport security checkpoints this year, the agency said on Friday, prompting it to increase the maximum fine for firearm violations. The move comes amid surges in air travel and gun sales across the country.

The agency said that it had stopped 6,301 guns — more than 88 percent of which were loaded — from passing beyond security checkpoints. By the end of the year the administration expects to have intercepted about 6,600 guns in carry-on bags, a 10 percent increase over the previous record of 5,972, set in 2021.

Officials increased the maximum fine for a firearms violation by nearly $1,000, to $14,950, “in order to reduce the threat of firearms at checkpoints,” the agency said in a news release.

“When a passenger brings a firearm to the checkpoint, this consumes significant security resources and poses a potential threat to transportation security, in addition to being very costly for the passenger,” the T.S.A. administrator, David Pekoske, said in a statement.

The announcement came about three months after the agency said that it was on pace to break the record once again, as air travel in the United States neared prepandemic levels.

Besides a drop in 2020, when travelers stayed home amid pandemic lockdowns, the number of firearm interceptions by the T.S.A. has steadily increased each year since 2010.

Passengers are allowed to bring guns in checked baggage, so long as the weapons are unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container. Passengers must also declare guns at the check-in counter. But guns are not allowed in carry-on bags at any T.S.A. checkpoint, even if a passenger has a concealed weapon permit.

That distinction may be behind the thousands of mishaps in recent years, some experts say. Travelers may be unfamiliar with the rules for bringing firearms on planes, especially if they have not traveled since the start of the pandemic, said Sheldon H. Jacobson, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an expert on aviation security.

“The majority of people are not doing it with malicious intent,” Dr. Jacobson said. “They’re simply…

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UNSW takes top spot for number of new start-ups and spinouts

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UNSW Sydney has ranked number one nationally for the greatest number of new start-up and spinout companies founded in 2021 through technology developed at UNSW. The latest Survey of Commercialisation Outcomes from Public Research (SCOPR) Summary Report revealed that UNSW supported 10 spinouts – 14 per cent of the 69 companies established across Australia. This figure is up from five companies in 2020, where UNSW placed an equal third. Of the 10 spinouts, six were founded by UNSW staff members. 

The spinouts established in 2021 include: 

Infinity Avionics provides optical sensors, thermal sensors, and radiation sensors designed for space asset monitoring, space robotics, space-based manufacturing, and earth observation. Infinity Avionics was named the Start-up of the Year in the 2022 Australian Space Awards. 

EnerJin provides hardware and data platforms to enable clients to assess solar energy generation potential in unconventional locations. 

Zyteum is a revolutionary technology company changing the face of Internet of Things (IoT) security and transactions such as distributed supply chain. 

CHELTech develops technology that can provide an efficient and cost-effective way to produce hydrogen from splitting water using renewable energy.  

RadioDynamic Therapeutics commercialises a unique UNSW drug delivery technology where drug release is spatially localised and triggered by light and/or clinical radiation.  Key applications are in rectal cancer and gene therapies. 

Kandui Technologies manufactures products from waste materials and has partnered with The SMaRT Centre at UNSW, which has developed a series of waste-to-product technologies.  

Vesi Water provides market disruptive, smart and sustainable solutions to the water industry utilising proprietary technology developed in collaboration with UNSW to harvest fresh water from airborne humidity, creating fresh water where none exists. 

LM Plus develops unique liquid metal-based technology that can improve the efficiencies of the electronic and optical-based systems of the future. 

Healthy@Home develops telehealth solutions for chronic condition management including Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)…

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They got my bank info, my phone number and some VERY PRIVATE photos! The stars whose social media accounts were hacked… | Entertainment

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Hackers are lurking all over the internet, waiting to pounce of your lack of online security and hack into your social media accounts.

Being rich and famous does not mean you are safer, either. In fact in makes you a PRIZE TARGET!

Stars such as Harry Styles, Emma Watson and even the creator of Facebook himself have been hacked…

Read on to find out who else’s cybersecurity has been breached…

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Optus cyber attack: What can hackers do with your Medicare number and should you be worried? | SBS News

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Almost 15, 000 valid Medicare numbers were reportedly accessed through a massive Optus data breach, but Services Australia says this is not enough information for hackers to be able to access victims’ Medicare details.
When Optus first reported the breach on 22 September, it did not initially disclose the fact that Medicare numbers were among the sensitive details stolen by the cybercriminals.
On Wednesday, Health Minister Mark Butler said he was concerned by the delay in Optus telling the government about the Medicare data breach.
“All of this data is obviously of potential value to criminals, and that’s why consumers are rightly so concerned,” he told ABC radio.
“We were not notified, as I’m advised, that – among passport details, driver’s licence details and others – Medicare details had also been the subject of this breach, so we’re very concerned obviously about the loss of this data and working very hard to deal with the consequences of that, but particularly concerned that we were not notified earlier and consumers were not notified earlier about the breach of Medicare data as well.”
So what could somebody actually do with your Medicare number, and should you be concerned?

Here’s what we know.

Should you be concerned?

Services Australia is reassuring affected customers their Medicare details cannot be accessed by using just the Medicare card number.
Vanessa Teague is CEO of Thinking Cybersecurity, cryptographer, and associate professor at the Research School of Computer Science at the Australian National University.
She says it is difficult to determine whether or not cybercriminals would be able to access customers’ Medicare using other information obtained during the hack.
“The last time I checked, you needed not only the number and the expiry date and so forth on the card, but also the dates of birth of the other family members on that card,” she said.

“It doesn’t seem impossible that a family of four with two older kids with mobile phones might all have signed themselves up together, and it’s possible that for those families, all of that information might be in the leaked Optus data.”

“Different people are going to be concerned about different things, and different individuals…

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