Defence

Ten months after launch, NASA's asteroid-deflecting DART spacecraft neared a planned impact with its target on Monday in a test of the world's first planetary defense system, designed to prevent a doomsday collision with Earth.The cube-shaped "impactor" vehicle, roughly the size of a vending machine with two rectangular solar arrays, was on course to fly into the asteroid Dimorphos, about as large as a football stadium, and self-destruct around 7pm EDT (4:30 IST) some 6.8 million miles (11 million km) from Earth.The…

The Indian government has developed a facial recognition system that can identify anti-social elements with or without disguise, with face masks or monkey caps on, even in low-resolution images at restricted zones as well as public places.The Ministry of Defence (MoD), in its latest report titled 'AI in Defence', revealed the Face Recognition System under Disguise (FRSD), along with other AI-based systems, chiefly developed for the Indian Army.'Face recognition in the wild' on surveillance camera feeds is a difficult…

Vulnerabilities in the system of online insurance broker Policybazaar led to exposure of personal details of lakhs of its customers, including defence personnel, a cyber security research firm claimed on Wednesday. CyberX9 said Aadhaar and PAN card details as well as addresses and phone numbers of customers were exposed due to the vulnerabilities and that the issue was reported to Policybazaar on July 18.On July 24, Policybazaar informed stock exchanges that it had noticed the vulnerabilities on July 19 and that no…

Xiaomi filed a complaint in a Washington district court on Friday against the US Defense and Treasury Departments, seeking to remove the Chinese smartphone maker from an official list of companies with ties to China's military.The US Defense Department, under the Trump administration in mid-January, added Xiaomi and eight other companies to the list, which requires American investors to divest their holdings in the firms by a set deadline.In the complaint, addressed to Biden-appointed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and…

Singapore has passed amendments to two Bills that will clear the way for a new digital intelligence unit to be established as part of the country's armed forces. The government has described the move as necessary amidst intensifying "cyber intrusions" that threaten critical systems. First mooted in March, the new digital and intelligence service (DIS) unit would be set up as a fourth service under the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and responsible for combating online attacks. The DIS team would work alongside the three…

The group's eldest member Jin turns 30 in December BTS/Instagram South Korea’s Defence minister Lee Jong-sup, while speaking at the parliamentary session, has said that members of K-pop group BTS might still be able to perform overseas while serving in the military. The issue has been a matter of debate for long with many fans hoping an exception would be made for the boyband, where all able-bodied men aged between 18 and 28…

SoftBank Group Chief Executive Masayoshi Son mounted a defence of his investing decisions on Thursday, saying the value of the Japanese conglomerate's holdings has recovered to pre-coronavirus outbreak levels."We have worried a lot of people who thought that SoftBank is finished or is 'SoftPunku'," Son told a shareholder meeting, using a play on the word "puncture" used colloquially in Japanese when something is broken.The rise in corporate value was driven by the growth of SoftBank's stake in Chinese e-commerce giant…

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will launch 75 AI-powered defence products today in New Delhi at the first-ever ‘Artificial Intelligence in Defence’ symposium and exhibition organised by the Ministry of Defence’s Department of Defence Production. The event will include an exhibition showcasing cutting-edge AI-enabled solutions developed by services, research organisations, industry, start-ups, and innovators, as well as the market launch of AI products. In a statement about the event, Defence Secretary Ajay…

The Ministry of Defence has acquired the government's first quantum computer. Quantum computers can execute incredibly complex calculations extremely quickly and solve the problems regular computers can't. The Ministry of Defence, in partnership with British company Orca Computing, is exploring applications for quantum technology in defense. In this thread, our community discusses quantum computers and their impactful uses.Slogging (Slack Blogging)Your Slack? Insightful words by highly intelligent people. Your tech blog?…

Final rehearsals for NASA's planetary defence test are already underway. The one-of-a-kind mission, which will launch next week, is set to intentionally crash a spacecraft into an asteroid to deflect its path. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) will attempt to hit the moonlet asteroid Dimorphos, which orbits a larger asteroid called Didymos. None of these asteroids pose any threat to Earth and this mission is only intended as a test and technology demonstrator, according to the space agency. The mission, which…