Tag Archive for: tags

Renewing car tags online might take an extra step after security breach to county provider


Arkansans are experiencing a few hiccups when renewing their car tags online as a result of a service provider for many counties being hacked last year, Scott Hardin, spokesman for the Department of Finance and Administration, said Tuesday.  

The state’s 2.7 million passenger vehicles are required to be assessed at the county level before they can be renewed at the state level each year. As a consequence of the hacking of Apprentice Information Services of Rogers in November, many counties’ computer systems were unable to provide online services, according to reports from KAIT-TV in Jonesboro to the Texarkana Gazette. The county computer systems are still unable to communicate with the state’s computer systems, Hardin said. 

Pulaski County, the state’s most populous, is among the counties impacted by the security breach, Hardin said. 

The county systems have not been linked back up to the state’s computer system to ensure there’s no chance the state’s computer system could be made vulnerable to hackers. 

As a workaround for the online car tag renewals, the state is allowing residents unable to renew online to call the Department of Finance and Administration’s motor vehicle help desk to explain the situation. The help desk can override the requirement to assess the vehicle before renewing with the state. The help desk will notify the county that the vehicle has been renewed but has not been assessed, Hardin said. 

We want to be sure Arkansans understand vehicle renewal remains available both in person and online,” Hardin said via email. “However, for customers using the online option, one extra step (calling or emailing to request an override) may be required for those in counties affected by the security breach.”

An assessment is an owner’s declaration of personal property to the county so that property taxes can ultimately be paid on the vehicle, Hardin said. 

The issue only impacts online renewals. Arkansans who prefer to avoid these hiccups can still physically go to a county assessor’s office for assessment and one of the 134 state revenue offices for renewal. 

Hardin said the department recommends car owners try to renew online first. If…

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NSF tags FAU researcher for post-quantum cryp


“RINGS: Bringing Post-Quantum Cryptography to Large-Scale NextG Systems.”

image: Florida Atlantic University’s Reza Azarderakhsh, Ph.D., in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, was among 34 investigators nationwide selected by the NSF.
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Credit: Florida Atlantic University

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced a new investment of more than $37 million aimed to develop intelligent, resilient and reliable next generation – of NextG – Networks. NextG promises faster cellular, Wi-Fi and satellite networks, all of which can be used to enhance data streaming, wireless communications, analytics and automation.

Florida Atlantic University’s Reza Azarderakhsh, Ph.D., in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, was among 34 investigators nationwide selected by the NSF. He has received a $1 million grant for his project titled, “RINGS: Bringing Post-Quantum Cryptography to Large-Scale NextG Systems.” FAU is the only institution working on taking post-quantum cryptography to next generation systems. Azarderakhsh is leading the research with collaborators from Florida International University and Marquette University in Wisconsin.

The NSF investment called RINGS, which is short for Resilient and Intelligent Next-Generation Systems, is a public-private partnership that focuses on accelerating research to increase the competitiveness of the United States in NextG networking and computing technologies and ensure the security and resilience of NextG technologies and infrastructure.

The RINGS program is NSF’s single largest effort to date to engage public and private partners to jointly support a research program and includes companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft and agencies including the U.S. Department of Defense and National Institute of Standards and Technology.

For the NSF, this translates into improved national defense, education, public health and safety,…

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Bronx T-Mobile store workers use merchandise security tags to help NYPD track and arrest armed robber in Manhattan – New York Daily News


Traceable electronic security tags on merchandise stolen from a Bronx cell phone store helped cops track down an armed robber after a wild chase Saturday on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, police said.

Two armed men ransacked a T-Mobile location on E. 149 St. near Union Ave. in Woodstock about 3:20 p.m., cops said.

One of the men fled on foot while the other drove off with the stolen goods in a gray BMW.

Quick-thinking store employees began tracking the stolen electronics through security tags the thieves overlooked, police said.

Aided by the store workers and the trackers, cops followed the trail to the Upper East Side, where they soon found the BMW.

When they tried to pull over the car at E. 96 St. and Third Ave., the driver hit the gas, ramming a police vehicle as he tried to escape.

The crook made it just three blocks east when responding officers stopped the BMW on the southbound FDR Drive at E. 96 St.

The suspect ditched the BMW, ran one block up the highway, and tossed something into the East River before cops put him under arrest.

One of the arresting officers injured his wrist during the struggle.

The robber’s name and charges against him were not immediately released. His partner in crime was still being sought late Saturday.

The NYPD’s Harbor Unit and Aviation Unit were searching for the object he threw in the water Saturday evening.

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COMTek Tags Samsung Over Data-Dump Security Solutions – Intellectual Property



United States:

COMTek Tags Samsung Over Data-Dump Security Solutions


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Communication Technologies, Inc.
(d/b/a COMTek) has filed a
second complaint over a single patent broadly directed to a script
for automating the removal of information from a computing system.
This one, filed in the Eastern District of Texas against
Samsung (
2:21-cv-00444
), targets features for erasing all data after a
determined set of unsuccessful attempts to enter a passcode, within
certain Samsung devices (i.e., Galaxy-series phones and
tablets, as well as Tizen-series products) that support its Knox
mobile security solution and/or Knox Tizen Wearable operating
system (Wear OS). Litigation against the first defendant in this
campaign, Citrix Systems, was dismissed with
prejudice from the District of Massachusetts after roughly five
uneventful months.

The asserted patent (
6,725,444
) issued in April 2004 with an estimated priority date
in December 2000. Joseph E. Fergus is the patent’s sole named
inventor; Fergus assigned the asset, during prosecution, to COMTek,
which appears to have provided IT services from its formation, by
Fergus, in Virginia in 1990 through early 2019. In late 2020, the
company’s website bore a 2009 copyright, archived press
releases through 2010, and noted government contracts, the most
recent of which appeared to have lapsed in April 2019. (COMTek
appears to have other government contracts with end dates that have
yet to pass.) The message…

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