Month: December 2016

(credit: Erik B)

On Tuesday, US District Judge Charles Breyer announced that Volkswagen Group and regulators had reached a $1 billion settlement over a portion of the 80,000 3.0L diesel vehicles that are still driving on US roads equipped with illegal emissions-system-defeating software.

VW Group says it will buy back 20,000 of those cars. The German company hopes to offer a fix for the remaining 60,000, although approval for the fix is still pending the approval of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

This tracks with earlier rumors that VW Group would buy back 20,000 older Audi and VW SUVs due to the more complicated nature of the fix that would be required to make those cars compliant with federal emissions standards. Those same rumors suggest that the remaining 60,000 cars could be brought into compliance with a mere software fix, potentially saving VW Group billions in buyback costs or more involved fixes.

Enlarge / The USNS Bowditch, doing its thing.

This past week, a submarine rescue vessel from the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) came up along the USNS Bowditch, a US Navy civilian oceanographic vessel—and sent out a boat to snatch one of two uncrewed ocean "gliders" being recovered by the Americans. The snatch-and-grab triggered a week-long diplomatic standoff accompanied by tweets from the President-elect:

China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters - rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 17, 2016

We should tell China that we don't want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2016

China gave the glider back today. A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson claimed that his country's sailors saw the glider as a potential hazard and were acting responsibly when they grabbed it. "I want to say we strongly dislike the term 'steal' as it's entirely inaccurate," the spokesperson said. Earlier, Chinese officials claimed that the gliders were likely being used to spy on China's operations in the South China Sea or perhaps locate routes traveled by PLAN's submarine fleet.

The gliders are long-endurance, slow-moving submarine drones that are used for oceanographic data collection. They can be remotely controlled on runs lasting as long as 30 days, and they use shifts in their own buoyancy to propel them.

Enlarge / Vice President-elect Mike Pence looks on as President-elect Donald Trump shakes the hand of Peter Thiel during a meeting with technology executives at Trump Tower, December 14, 2016 in New York City.

The future of NASA and human spaceflight has led to a civil war of sorts within the upper echelons of the incoming Trump administration. As Ars reported last month, there are essentially two pathways forward for NASA in the Trump administration—one favors the status quo, while the other favors increased commercialization. For a time, the forces for status quo and continuation of the Space Launch System rocket had the upper hand. But now advocates for the increasing commercialization of NASA have struck back, led by Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel.

About two weeks ago, the first formal member was named to NASA's "landing team:" Chris Shank, a longtime confidant of former NASA administrator Mike Griffin and his director of strategic communications. With Shank as their leader, several other members of the initial landing team also had connections to Griffin, who favors a model in which NASA develops and builds its own rocket and spacecraft, rather than handing over the reins to commercial companies such as SpaceX or Blue Origin.

During this time, momentum began to build for another Griffin protégé, Doug Cooke, to become NASA administrator. Other advocates for the status quo were also considered, including former astronaut Charles Precourt. While NASA's human destination might change from Mars back to the Moon under these candidates, they were expected to continue support for large government contractors such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK, and Aerojet Rocketdyne. They would also continue support for the development of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft.

Enlarge / EnviroGreen's homepage. Just because a website has pictures of a lush forest doesn't mean it represents a company that does good things for the environment. (credit: EnviroGreen)

According to an indictment filed in Chicago federal court (PDF) late last week, 45-year-old Brian Brundage cut some serious corners while running his e-recycling businesses. He was arrested on Monday on charges of income tax evasion, mail fraud, and wire fraud.

Brundage is the former owner of Chicago-based Intercon Solutions and the current owner of EnviroGreen Processing, based in Gary, Indiana. Both recycling companies purported to sell e-recycling services to companies and government organizations that needed to get rid of old electronics. Brundage promised his clients that their old computers, TV monitors, and various other devices would be broken down into their component parts and recycled in keeping with federal guidelines.

Instead, feds allege that Brundage shipped some of those electronics for illegal disposal in landfills overseas. Those electronics included Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) from old computer and TV monitors, which contained “hazardous amounts of lead,” as well as batteries. The electronics that weren't shipped to Asia were destroyed inappropriately on the premises of his businesses or stockpiled indefinitely in warehouses, which is forbidden by federal guidelines.

Guns, bullets, and malware samples—all now controlled under the Wassenaar Arrangement. (credit: Aurich Lawson)

If you work involves exploiting vulnerabilities in software, congratulations—you're potentially an arms merchant in the eyes of many governments. Your knowledge about how to hack could be classified as a munition.

A United States delegation yesterday failed to convince all of the members of the Wassenaar Arrangement—a 41-country compact that sets guidelines for restricting exports of conventional weapons and "dual use goods"—to modify rules that would place export restrictions on technologies and data related to computer system exploits. And while the US government has so far declined to implement rules based on the existing convention, other countries may soon require export licenses from anyone who shares exploit data across borders—even in the form of security training.

The changes governing "intrusion software" were adopted by the Wassenaar plenary in 2013, and they were set to be implemented by member countries last year. Those changes were intended to prevent repressive regimes from gaining access to commercial malware—such as the code sold by the Italy-based Hacking Team to Sudan, and the surveillance tools from Blue Coat that were resold to Syria's Assad regime and used to catch dissident bloggers.