Short Takes – 4-28-25

Grand Jury indicts Lexington man in connection with incidents at poultry plant. WISTV.com article. Pull quote: ““There were times that he increased the amount, there were times where he decreased that amount of chemicals, but he did that after he was fired, and his access to his computer was actually a federal crime. It’s one that could have had substantial harms for the consumers as well as this company if he wasn’t caught by the FBI,” said Brook Andrews, acting U.S Attorney, District of South Carolina.”

Russian Anti-Drone GP25 Adaptor. ArmourersBench.com article. Pull quote: “It undoubtedly provides the operator with a means of engaging a drone but it also has drawbacks. The reloading process is comparatively slow meaning that the user is likely to only have one chance to engage a drone if it is one of the faster FPV drones and is unlikely to otherwise match a conventional shotgun in terms of reload times when engaging drones engaged in munitions dropping or observation. It also means the grenadier has to choose what to have loaded ready in his GP-25 in various situations. The limited availability of underbarrel grenade launchers also means that, depending on the unit, only one soldier per squad will have the ability to use the adaptor.” US Army M79 and M203 grenade launchers fire a buckshot round (20 metal pellets weighing 1.6g each (in Vietnam US gunners would frequently add shot to the round). The M79 had a flechette round which I suspect could be fired from an M203. These would probably be more effective.

New IACS/OT oriented and evidence-based effort underway for improving incident management. SCADAMag.Infracritical.com blog post. Pull quote: “Once an anomalous event in the system under consideration has been detected, reporting becomes possible. Asset owners/operators should have policies and procedures related to reporting IACS security-related events in a timely manner. What exactly to report and to whom is a problem identified in the WP. It was also noted that a poor understanding of what is an incident will make risk analysis and management difficult.”

Axiom Space’s Chief Revenue Officer tapped as new CEO. SpaceFlightNow.com article. Includes brief review of Axiom history and future plans. Pull quote: “Axiom Space said in a statement that he was pivotal in overseeing the reception of Private Astronaut Missions to the International Space Station from Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) through Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4), which is due to launch in late May.”

iOS and Android juice jacking defenses have been trivial to bypass for years. ArsTechnica.com article. Pull quote: “As I reported in 2023, these warnings are mostly scaremongering, and the advent of ChoiceJacking does little to change that, given that there are no documented cases of such attacks in the wild. That said, people using Android devices that don’t support Google’s new authentication requirement may want to refrain from public charging.”

House GOP leaders move to forestall potential Signalgate votes. Politico.com article. Pull quote: “Under House rules, once a resolution of inquiry is introduced and referred to a committee, that panel has 14 legislative days to take it up or it becomes privileged on the House floor. The language included in the Rules measure Monday would essentially block that provision through Sept. 30.” Is anyone in the leadership worried about some moderate Republicans voting against the rule because of this inclusion like we saw with the anti-Luna provision?