Short Takes – 9-4-23

Why is .US Being Used to Phish So Many of Us? KrebsOnSecurity.com article. Pull quote: “Domain names ending in “.US” — the top-level domain for the United States — are among the most prevalent in phishing scams, new research shows. This is noteworthy because .US is overseen by the U.S. government, which is frequently the target of phishing domains ending in .US. Also, .US domains are only supposed to be available to U.S. citizens and to those who can demonstrate that they have a physical presence in the United States.” Self-certification is the cheap and lazy way to control things.

Space junk in Earth orbit and on the Moon will increase with future missions. NextGov.com commentary. Pull quote: “All this activity creates hazards and debris. Humans have left a lot of junk on the Moon, including spacecraft remains like rocket boosters from over 50 crashed landings, nearly 100 bags of human waste and miscellaneous objects like a feather, golf balls and boots. It adds up to around 200 tons of our trash.”

India's moon rover completes its walk as scientists look for signs of frozen water. NPR.org article. Pull quote: “"Currently, the battery is fully charged. The solar panel is oriented to receive the light at the next sunrise expected on September 22, 2023. The receiver is kept on. Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments!" the statement said.”

After ‘Absurdly Long’ 100-Day Freeze, Rat Kidneys Were Successfully Transplanted. ScientificAmerican.com article. “For the new study, just before vitrification the team flooded the rat kidneys' vasculature with iron oxide nanoparticles and a newly developed cryoprotective solution that can preserve the organs at extremely low temperatures. After 100 days, they thawed the organs with an alternating magnetic field, which caused the nanoparticles to oscillate and evenly warm the tissue. The researchers then flushed the nanoparticles and cryoprotective solution out of the organs before replacing the rats' native kidneys with these transplants. The recipients were able to live without medical support.”

Is the U.S. Government’s Cyber Informed Engineering Implementation Guide the long-awaited breakthrough in CIP? SCADAMag.Infracritical.com review. Pull quote: “While one can understand the desire for a quick win it must be understood that the problems faced in CIP today have been present for many years and have become more complex with the application of the latest and dynamically changing technologies.   The Guide offers a way to organize the work and manage the chaos in trying to understand what needs to be protected, what threatens them and how the identified assets can be protected right from the beginning of a project rather than expensively fixing it later which is where we are at now.  It is also free from an IT bias toward data protection and puts the focus on what is needed: protecting the physical process in keeping with the desired parameters.”