Robotic police officers on guard in Dubai:
Dubai deployed its first robot police officers on Sunday (May 21) which started its shift by greeting guests and patrolling the halls at the three-day Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference (GISEC).
The police department planned to have the machine on the streets in popular Dubai areas after the expo ended on Tuesday evening (May 23). For now, the robots will patrol the city’s malls and tourist attractions, taking reports of crime and allowing humans to pay fines and get information via a touchscreen on the device’s chest, in either Arabic or English. The police department are plan to add other languages including Russian, Chinese, French and Spanish and is also working on adding voice control to the robots.
“With an aim to assist and help people in the malls or on the streets, the Robocop is the latest smart addition to the force and has been designed to help us fight crime, keep the city safe and improve happiness levels,” said Brigadier-General Khalid Nasser Al Razzouqi, Director-General of Smart Services with the Dubai Police. “He can chat and interact, respond to public queries, shake hands and offer a military salute,” he added.
Dubai is aiming to have the specialised REEM device from PAL Robotics make up to 25% of its police force by 2030.
S8 iris recognition cracked:
Samsung’s latest flagship device, the Galaxy S8, has had its iris recognition cracked by a security researcher. The Chaos Computer Club, a Berlin-based hacking collective, has posted a video showing how they fooled the device with the help of just a point-and-shoot camera, laser printer and contact lens. Though the good news for Samsung is that, while it’s not difficult, it does involve some effort.
The video shows how a photograph taken from a distance of about five meters using infrared mode of the owner and then printed out on to paper, with a regular disposable contact lens placed on top of the photo of the eye to replicate the curve of an eyeball, can unlock the device. When the print was held up to the smartphone, the S8 unlocked.
"By far most expensive part of the iris biometric hack was the purchase of the Galaxy S8," the group wrote on its website.
S8’s biometrics had been cracked earlier this year also by a Spanish man who posted a video on Periscope of himself appearing to unlock his device with a photo.
ENISA critical of EU's IoT security:
ENISA, the EU’s network and security agency, is not impressed at the state of IoT security. The agency yesterday launched a paper that called for setting a policy framework for ensuring minimal security requirements of testing and certification for connected devices.
In a position paper published Monday, the group says there is “no level zero defined for the security and privacy of connected and smart devices,” no legal guidelines for IoT device and service trust, and no “precautionary requirements in place.”
