On-board computers and sensors could stop the next car or truck-based attack

In the wake of car- and truck-based attacks around the world, most recently in New York City, cities are scrambling to protect busy pedestrian areas and popular events. It’s extremely difficult to prevent vehicles from being used as weapons, but technology can help.

Right now, cities are trying to determine where and how to place statues, spike strip nets and other barriers to protect crowds. Police departments are trying to gather better advance intelligence about potential threats, and training officers to respond – while regular people are seeking advice for surviving vehicle attacks.

These solutions aren’t enough: It’s impractical to put up physical barriers everywhere, and all but impossible to prevent would-be attackers from getting a vehicle. As a researcher of technologies for self-driving vehicles, I see that potential solutions already exist, and are built into many vehicles on the road today. There are, however, ethical questions to weigh about who should control the vehicle – the driver behind the wheel or the computer system that perceives potential danger in the human’s actions.

A computerized solution

Approximately three-fourths of cars and trucks surveyed by Consumer Reports in 2017 have forward-collision detection as either a standard or an optional feature. These vehicles can detect obstacles – including pedestrians – and stop or avoid hitting them. By 2022, emergency braking will be required in all vehicles sold in the U.S.
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FedEx says cyber attack to hurt its fiscal 2018 results

Package delivery company FedEx Corp said its fiscal 2018 results would be hurt in part due to disruption of operations in its TNT Express unit following a cyber attack last month.

The Netherlands-based TNT Express is still experiencing widespread service delays following the attack, FedEx said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

FedEx said it was unable to estimate when services at the unit would be fully restored.

FedEx added that no data breach or data loss to third parties is known to have occurred as of July 17.

The company said it was evaluating the financial impact of the cyber attack, but it was likely to be "material".

Shares of FedEx fell as much as 2.7 per cent to $213.07 in early trading.

In June, a new cyber virus spread from Ukraine to wreak havoc around the globe, crippling thousands of computers.

FedEx said it has experienced loss of revenue due to decreased volumes at TNT Express, incremental costs from contingency plans and remediation of affected systems.

The company said it did not have an insurance in place that covered the impact from the cyber attack.
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Cyberattack hits Ukraine then spreads internationally

Computer systems from Ukraine to the United States were struck on Tuesday in an international cyberattack that was similar to a recent assault that crippled tens of thousands of machines worldwide.

In Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, A.T.M.s stopped working. About 80 miles away, workers were forced to manually monitor radiation at the old Chernobyl nuclear plant when their computers failed. And tech managers at companies around the world — from Maersk, the Danish shipping conglomerate, to Merck, the drug giant in the United States — were scrambling to respond. Even an Australian factory for the chocolate giant Cadbury was affected.

It was unclear who was behind this cyberattack, and the extent of its impact was still hard to gauge Tuesday. It started as an attack on Ukrainian government and business computer systems — an assault that appeared to have been intended to hit the day before a holiday marking the adoption in 1996 of Ukraine’s first Constitution after its break from the Soviet Union. The attack spread from there, causing collateral damage around the world.

The outbreak was the latest and perhaps the most sophisticated in a series of attacks making use of dozens of hacking tools that were stolen from the National Security Agency and leaked online in April by a group called the Shadow Brokers.

Like the WannaCry attacks in May, the latest global hacking took control of computers and demanded digital ransom from their owners to regain access. The new attack used the same National Security Agency hacking tool, Eternal Blue, that was used in the WannaCry episode, as well as two other methods to promote its spread, according to researchers at the computer security company Symantec.

The National Security Agency has not acknowledged its tools were used in WannaCry or other attacks. But computer security specialists are demanding that the agency help the rest of the world defend against the weapons it created.
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Boko Haram attack leaves 13 dead, dozens hurt in Nigeria

At least 13 people are dead after Boko Haram launched the deadliest attack in months on the northeast Nigeria city that is the birthplace of the extremist group, police said on Thursday.

The attack came just hours before a visit by the country's acting president.

Nigeria late last year declared that Boko Haram had been crushed but attacks continue, often with young women strapped into explosives for suicide attacks.

The jihadists attacked late Wednesday in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, as evening prayers were ending, targeting four locations around the city. Thirteen people were killed, including four attackers, Police Commissioner Damian Chukwu said.

Extremists also clashed with soldiers outside the city in Alidawari village and Jiddari Polo suburb, where homes were set on fire, Chukwu said. Nigerian forces killed three Boko Haram insurgents in that fighting, he said, and one attacker was captured alive.

Acting president Yemi Osinbajo arrived in Maiduguri on Thursday to launch a food relief program for hundreds of thousands of people who have fled their homes in the wake of Boko Haram attacks in the region. The eight-year insurgency has killed more than 20,000, kidnapped thousands and spilt into neighbouring countries, creating a vast humanitarian crisis with thousands said to be near starvation.

The attacks late yesterday in Maiduguri took place in various locations around the Chad Basin Development Authority headquarters just before 9 pm, resident Alhaji Bashir said. The targets included a mosque, he said.

Young members of a civilian defense group, who have come together to combat the Islamic extremists, saw one suicide bomber at the headquarters. "One of the youth vigilantes rushed to hold him, and the bomb went off and killed the suicide bomber and three other persons," Bashir said.

In another attack, a female suicide bomber entered a crowd of worshippers leaving prayers and detonated her explosives, he said.

Dozens of injured people filled the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital on Thursday, said Abba Shehu, a private security worker.

"It is a horrible sight we have here," he said. "I could not count the number of injured casualties at the accident and emergency ward, most of them sitting on the floor as the place is crowded and no beds to properly admit them.
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