Innovative app could revolutions crime fighting

Our Grass Roots Intelligence Program has the potential to give civilians the power to help law enforcement. With 300 million plus, the US population can be a strong bulwark against crime and terrorism in our heartland. Currently, we must rely on placing 911 calls with little to no ground truth (photos, video, coordinates) attached. GRIP applications will help law enforcement at multiple levels analyze tips and gather intelligence at great speeds.

“On a larger scale, GRIP could enable law-enforcement agencies to communicate when they converge in major events, such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks or the Chandler mall shooting. Officers can let each other know who is doing what to minimize danger and confusion, and save lives.”

[ Full Article ]

Under Suspicion At The Mall Of America

As explained in the NPR news article, while citizens and private authorities can provide useful intelligence for federal pattern searching, innocent citizens can be implicated by false positives. A filtering mechanism like the one in our GRIP technology helps minimize the human collateral damage by significantly reducing false positives, and tracking the accuracy of sources.

Since Sept. 11, the nation’s leaders have warned that government agencies like the CIA and the FBI can’t protect the country on their own — private businesses and ordinary citizens have to look out for terrorists, too. So the Obama administration has been promoting programs like “See Something, Say Something” and the “Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative.” Under programs like these, public attractions such as sports stadiums, amusement parks and shopping malls report suspicious activities to law enforcement agencies. But an investigation by NPR and the Center for Investigative Reporting suggests that at one of the nation’s largest shopping malls, these kinds of programs are disrupting innocent people’s lives.

[ Full Article ]

Army Taps Android Phones for ‘Wearable Computers’

As the Army become more and more invested in mobile technology, stronger devices are needed. Not only do they need to be tough, but also must be used on a safe network. Cummings SAIFE framework will allow for trusted communications on off-the-shelf or specialty devices.

 

“In late July, the Pentagon’s acquisitions overseers put Nett Warrior on ice while they reviewed whether it made any sense to make soldiers wear eight pounds of gear to do less than what a phone weighing a few ounces (plus a tactical, encrypted radio) can offer. Evidently, the answer is no. A new solicitation from Nett Warrior is basically preparing to go shopping for smartphones.”

 

[ Full Article ]

New data-gathering system heralded as advance in war against terrorism

New skills developed in west Chandler may win worldwide acclaim for preventing acts of crime and terrorism. But if the technology generates privacy concerns, it likely will end up on the radar of civil libertarians.

Cummings Engineering, a startup housed in the city’s Innovation Incubator west of the Price/101 Freeway, has announced receipt of a patent for its so-called Grass Roots Intelligence Program, known by the acronym GRIP.

(more…)

Security > Practicality

As mobile hardware becomes more capable and enticing to the military, one need still remains: security. Still another problem is the possibility of software or hardware obsolescence before the device/program is deemed worthy to be used. Why not use existing devices with software that is hardware agnostic?

At Cummings Engineering we know that security can be practical. We believe in complete interoperability and our products are designed as such.

[ Full Article ]

Crime & Terrorism Prevention Technology Patented in Chandler, AZ

CHANDLER, AZ– Cummings Engineering today announced the issuance of a patent which will ultimately be used to help prevent acts of crime and terrorism.  The patent protects Cummings Engineering’s development of a Grass Roots Intelligence Program (GRIP). GRIP is a unique system for collecting, filtering and analyzing vast amounts of data that may otherwise appear unrelated or inconsequential.  Applicable for crime prevention at the local, state and federal levels, the technology itself will eventually be available as an app on any mobile device.

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Hacking the heart

It is one thing to take control of someone’s phone, computer, or security system and quite another to command a life-saving apparatus.

[ Full Article ]

Radio jamming is child’s play

Boy, children’s toys are getting more and more technical.  Here is a snippet from an article posted just yesterday:

“The portable radios used by many federal law enforcement agents have major security flaws that allowed researchers to intercept hundreds of hours of sensitive traffic sent without encryption over the past two years, according to a new study . . .”

[ Full Article ]

Storage of Personal Data in Smart Phones

A recent sampling of smart phone applications revealed sensitive data, like passwords and financial transaction histories, are stored in the clear.

While the OS of smart phones provides a certain amount of separation between applications, limiting access to their data, it relies on the Operating System to be bullet-proof such that rogue software cannot find a platform-specific weakness that gives them escalated permissions to access data that is not theirs. More so, it is completely useless against an attacker that has physical access to your phone.

Excerpts from the article:

Some 76 percent of the apps tested stored cleartext usernames on the devices, and 10 percent of the tested applications, including popular apps LinkedIn and Netflix, were found storing passwords on the phone in cleartext.

Mint.com’s iPhone and Android apps — which are used for maintaining financial account information — were found to store user transaction history and balance information on the phone. The Android version of the Mint app stores the user’s PIN on the phone unencrypted, ViaForensics found.

“If I get my hands on someone’s lost phone, it could take me ten minutes to find an account username and password,” said Ted Eull, techology services vice president at ViaForensics, in an interview.

[ Full Article ]

Watch your back (pocket)

Now more than ever it is important to be updated on the most recent malware and spyware attacks. As we begin using our mobile devices for more important tasks like banking or paying rent, malicious entities will try to take advantage.

“Once the spyware app is running, the snooper can log in to the spyware service’s Web interface to see, in real time, what the target is up to. This can get really creepy — these programs can use your phone’s GPS to track your precise location in real time, activate your phone’s camera or microphone, record phone calls, save and display your chats and text messages (even ones you erase) and more.”

[ Full Article ]

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