Short Takes – 2-4-25

Claroty Questions CISA and US FDA’s Suggestion of Backdoor Transmitting via Patient Monitors. CyberRiskLeaders.com article. Pull quote: “Claroty says that absent additional threat intelligence, the absence of any hidden functionality is important because it demonstrates a lack of malicious intent, and therefore changes the prioritisation of remediation activities. Said differently, this is not likely to be a campaign to harvest patient data and more likely to be an inadvertent exposure that could be leveraged to collect information or perform insecure firmware updates.”

Musk’s DOGE effort could spread malware, expose US systems to threat actors. CSOOnline.com article. Pull quote: “Michael Daniel, president and CEO of the Cyber Threat Alliance, says the unprecedented nature of Musk’s actions makes it difficult to call, but he thinks there could be serious legal consequences for Musk, his workers, and compliant government officials. “You’ve got the potential for all sorts of legal violations, privacy act violations,” he tells CSO.”

House GOP forced to punt preliminary vote on Trump legislative agenda bill. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “Before crafting the actual bill, however, lawmakers must advance a budget resolution — which lays out the parameters of the legislation — through the Budget Committee, on which a host of hard-line conservatives [Reps Norman (R,SC), Cline (R,VA), Roy (R,TX), Clyde (R,GA), and Brecheen (R,OK)] sit and have the power to thwart any effort. Legislation needs majority support in the committee before heading to the House floor for a vote of the entire chamber.

Boeing has now lost $2B on Starliner, but still silent on future plans. ArsTechnica.com article. Pull quote: “Although Mulholland was not in charge during Starliner's most recent setbacks, it was under his leadership that engineers made the design decisions that led to many of Starliner's problems. These include the software woes that kept the spacecraft from reaching the space station on the 2019 test flight and the use of valves in the ship's service module that were susceptible to corrosion. In 2023, just a couple of months before Starliner was supposed to launch on the crew test flight, officials discovered a design problem with Starliner's parachutes and found that Boeing installed flammable tape inside the capsule's cockpit.”

Waffle House adds egg surcharge amid rising egg prices. Fox5Atlanta.com article. Pull quote: “According to Waffle House's statement, they plan to continue to use "quality, fresh-cracked, Grade A Large eggs" in their customers' favorite meals as long as they are available. They also said that although they hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived, they cannot predict how long the egg shortage will last. In the meantime, they will continuously monitor egg prices and will adjust or remove the surcharge as market conditions allow.” Includes copy of Waffle House press release.

NASA wants a 'Super-Hubble' space telescope to search for life on alien worlds. Space.com article. Pull quote: “That could soon change, thanks to a new NASA flagship telescope being designed to seek out strange new worlds that could support life as we know it. Called the Habitable Worlds Observatory, the telescope is so massive it may even need to ride a next-gen megarocket like SpaceX's Starship to reach space; it will also require new technological innovations to hunt for Earth's twin across the light-years. Yet, even with such hefty demands, this project was tapped as a top priority for NASA in the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 (Astro2020), an influential report that aims to set a roadmap for the astronomy community within the decade following its release.”

Can this revolutionary plastics-recycling plant help solve the pollution crisis? Nature.com article. Pull quote: “If that makes it sound like a panacea for plastics recycling, think again. In practice, as Mura explains, the plant is currently picky about its diet of plastic waste, which must be shredded and sorted in ways similar to those used for mechanical recycling. And because, as with pyrolysis plants, not all of the facility’s products will be reborn as plastic, some critics say that the process shouldn’t count as recycling — an accusation that Mura rejects.”

As EV vehicles get heavier, they’re also getting more dangerous, safety experts say. MercuryNews.com article. Pull quote: “Griswold said this began an “arms race” among automakers. According to a 2013 UC Berkeley study titled “Pounds That Kill,” weight was found to be a critical factor in fatal auto crashes. The study found that each 1,000-pound increase in a striking vehicle’s weight increased the probability of a fatality in the struck vehicle by 47%.”

NOTE: No Executive Orders were published in today’s Federal Register.