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WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, along with officials from the Roadway Safety Foundation (RSF), presented seven life-saving projects with National Roadway Safety Awards in a virtual ceremony hosted on Oct. 8 from Capitol Hill.

According to an RSF news release, the seven winners were selected from a nationwide field of applicants, which are sponsored jointly by the Federal Highway Administration and the RSF.

Begun in 1999, the biennial program honors projects and programs that cost-effectively help the nation achieve progress toward eliminating highway fatalities and serious injuries.

Congratulations to todays seven honorees for the remarkable work theyve done to protect the traveling public, Buttigieg said. They are proof that we have no shortage of willpower or good ideas for improving roadway safety.

Preliminary data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that 38,680 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2020 a 7.2 percent increase from 2019. This increase occurred despite a 13.2 percent decrease in vehicle miles traveled due to the pandemic and is the highest number of fatalities since 2007.

Projects like these save lives by significantly discouraging dangerous driving, Greg Cohen, executive director of the RSF, said.

Countless future travelers, whose lives and limbs will be spared by these innovations, will owe an unknowing debt of gratitude to todays honorees. We urge DOTs across the nation to look at Bellevue and other awardees innovations and replicate them wherever possible

The awards covered two categories: Infrastructure and operational improvements and program planning, development and evaluation.

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) won for its use of Work Zone Safety Technologies for Arterial Roads, which are burdened with higher fatality rates than interstates. FDOT studied the use of Active Work Zone Awareness Devices (AWADs), which employ radar in combination with LED signs to warn drivers of upcoming work zones, displays their travel speed and delivers safety messaging. FDOT went a step further by linking the AWADs to drivers using the Waze navigation app. The initiatives results include vehicle speeds entering arterial work zones dropping by 10.6 percent, safe driving behavior increasing by 39 percent, and risky driving declining by 34 percent.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) won for its Long-Life Pavement Markings Safety Initiative to reduce lane departure crashes in a state where 14,000 fatal and serious-injury lane departure crashes occurred between 2015 and 2019.

Designed to help drivers better see markings when driving on curvy roads, in inclement weather or at night, NCDOT tested the long-life markings on more than 400 miles of roadway, recording an overall 13 percent reduction in lane departure crashes.

The long-life markings also are designed to provide at least five to seven years of adequate retro-reflectivity and pavement delineation, as compared with approximately two years from standard markings, thereby being more cost efficient in the long term.

The Village of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, won for its Community-Wide Safety Improvements. Confronting a decade-long increase in crashes involving the most vulnerable road users, the Milwaukee suburb deployed a series of low-cost solutions to reduce risks to pedestrians and cyclists.

These included dynamic speed feedback signs, yield to pedestrian signage, design changes such as high-visibility crosswalks, installation of median in the center of highways, lengthier pedestrian intervals at signals and better street lighting. A simple but noteworthy improvement is the installation of Danish Offsets.

Widely deployed in Denmark, crosswalk paths are oriented to provide more direct sight lines for pedestrians to observe oncoming vehicles. Since 2015, community-wide crashes are down 39 percent.

The City of Bellevue, Washington, won for its application of a Video Analytics Program, which is utilizing cutting-edge video analytics to identify safety challenges in near-real-time, enabling the city to proactively address those challenges.

The smart technologies convert raw video from existing traffic cams into flow, speed and conflict event data. In addition to identifying hot spots, Bellevues video analytics program also provides rapid insight on how countermeasures perform. As just one example, Bellevue made traffic signal operations changes at 124th Avenue Northeast and Northeast Eighth Street and observed a 60 percent reduction in critical conflicts at the intersection.

The Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization won for its innovative Complete Streets Master Plan, which is measurably improving safety on Wilton Drive in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, area and promises similar benefits on other local roadways.

With the single highest number of pedestrian fatalities in the entire nation (1,675 between 2010 and 2019), Broward worked with localities and other stakeholders to redesign the bustling Wilton Drive, eliminating a vehicular travel lane in each direction in order to install buffered bike lanes, mid-block crossing medians, wider sidewalks, better lighting and other improvements.

Witnessing a 66 percent decrease in bicycle and pedestrian crashes and a 75 percent reduction in severe-injury and fatal crashes alongside a 50 percent improvement in corridor travel times Broward is moving forward with similar improvements for 20 other projects.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) won for its 2020-24 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) to reverse a trend of rising fatalities and injuries on state roads. With an average of 10 people dying every day on California roads, Caltrans created a highly targeted approach to safety with its SHSP update.

It designates high-priority challenge areas, expands and diversifies membership of the SHSP committee, implements the program with innovative tools, and evaluates progress on a continual basis.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) won for its all-new Safety Scoring Tool. With fatalities on Texas rural non-interstate roads occurring at twice the rate of other Texas roads, TxDOT partnered with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute to develop a user-friendly means of evaluating the safety performance of rural highway design elements.

The scoring tool assesses the total effects of changes in lane and shoulder width, horizontal and vertical curve geometry, clearances to objects, and other factors. The tool is now required for all rural two and multi-lane non-access controlled projects, ranging from routine maintenance to complete reconstructions, fostering a proactive, rather than passive or reactive, approach to safety.

The honorable mentions are: The Florida Department of Transportation for its Local Technical Assistance Program to improve the skills and increase the knowledge of the transportation workforce on roadway safety via virtual training and technical assistance; the Montana Department of Transportation for its reconstruction of an antiquated segment of U.S. Highway 89 that provides a key entrance to Glacier National Park; and the Town of Portland, Ct. for its formation of a grassroots Complete Streets Group to coordinate with local officials in writing, adopting, and implementing a Complete Streets Policy.

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NSA honors 'life-saving' projects throughout nation - TheTrucker.com - The Trucker

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Washington [US], October 8 (ANI/Sputnik): The National Security Agency (NSA) is working with big defense industrial base companies on information sharing on cyber issues, Defense Department Acting Chief Information Officer Kelly Fletcher said during an interview at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit on Thursday.

"To talk a little bit about what NSA is doing, I think it's very cool. They're focused on big defense industrial base companies, and when they say they're a collaboration center, they are a collaboration center. They are really trying to say 'Hey, we have some exquisite information.' It's the NSA. But also these commercial entities, these big companies, they have some pretty unique and interesting information. So we're working to collaborate, sort of for the common good," Fletcher said.

The US government's pivot to a so-called "zero trust" cyber architecture - which assumes all devices in a network to be untrustworthy by default - will require the support of industry partners as well as the Defense Department, Fletcher added.

In May, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order to improve information sharing between the US government and private industry partners on cyber issues. The order also provided for implementation of stronger cybersecurity standards in the federal government by securing cloud services and developing a zero-trust architecture. (ANI/Sputnik)

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Pentagon says NSA working with big companies on cyber information sharing - Yahoo Singapore News

India has to augment its commercially available indigenous satellite communication solutions, tracking capabilities across geographies and protection of space assets, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval said on Monday.ISpA: PM Modi launches industry body to advance the cause of private space tech companies

PM Modi Monday launched a premier industry association of space and satellite companies. Indian Space Association will undertake policy advocacy and engage with all stakeholders in the Indian space domain. It is represented by leading homegrown and global corporations with advanced space and satellite technologies capabilities such as Larson & Toubro, Nelco (Tata Group), OneWeb, Bharti Airtel Mapmyindia and others.

"Economic growth and technology development are the most important ingredients of national power. In such an environment, the national governments can no longer be the only stakeholders in evolving policies for national security and development," he said.

"Hitherto, exclusive domains such as space that were dominated by the public sector, therefore, need to be opened up to the private sector to ensure that we remain ahead of the curve," the national security advisor (NSA) said.

Doval said, "Private investments in the space sector will generate high tech jobs, facilitate technology absorption, and ensure involvement of foreign partners through joint ventures."

These steps will make India a manufacturing hub of space assets, he said

Doval said that a strong private sector industry will also contribute to meeting growing security challenges.

"India needs to focus on augmenting capacities in several areas such as...commercially available indigenous satellite communication solutions, research and development into futuristic technologies, tracking capabilities across geographies and protection of space assets," Doval said.

Creating an appropriate regulatory environment to address safety, security and legal liability issues will be central to this effort, he said.

The NSA said rapid strides have been made by the private sector in development of niche technologies.

"Many of these technologies are dual use. They have revolutionised activities in several areas including navigation, remote sensing, weather monitoring, agriculture, satellite communication and broadband internet," he said.

According to some estimates, the global space industry is poised to grow exponentially, the NSA said.

"With appropriate policy and regulations, the Indian private sector can become a co-traveller on India's space journey," he mentioned.

The excellent work done by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to develop an ecosystem of high quality suppliers provides India a solid base on which to upscale the involvement of private sector in space domain, the NSA noted.

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India has to augment tracking capabilities across geographies, protection of space assets: NSA Ajit Doval - Economic Times

Kremlin strongly disagrees with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's accusations that Russia utilises its energy resources as a weapon, according to spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

"This is an incorrect conclusion. To begin with, Europeans acknowledge that Russia is fully complying with all of its responsibilities on a state-by-state basis. Second, Russia is prepared to immediately consider new contracts, which are an undisputed damper on present market volatility; this is not a secret; it has been stated numerous times," Peskov said in a press conference.

The Kremlin official highlighted that Russia has never interrupted gas deliveries 'even in the most difficult periods,'because it never uses energy resources as a political pressure tool.

"The United States is the one that is continuously threatening penalties against purely commercial energy projects that could help to stabilise European energy markets significantly. In this case, the US is directly using energy issues as a tool for political and commercial blackmail. Russia has been and will continue to be a responsible country that is committed to its obligations and prepared to meet the growing energy resource needs of our European partners," Peskov further remarked.

The tussle began on October 7, when Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov hinted that, depending on the demand, Russia would increase natural gas providers. Following that, US NSA, Jake Sullivan stated that Russia has a history of using energy as a weapon of coercion.

After negotiations with the European Union and NATO in Brussels, Sullivan, the US NSA, claimed that the US is concerned that supply is not keeping up with rising demand for a variety of reasons.

The price of a cubic metre of gas exceeded $1,700 at the start of the bid on Wednesday, and it continued to grow throughout the day, reaching more than $1,900. However, Europe's soaring gas prices dipped on Thursday, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested his country could sell more gas to European spot buyers through its domestic market in addition to existing long-term contracts.

The European Union has been struggling to fill its gas reserves as winter approaches, as member nations rely on imports for the majority of their gas supplies.

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Kremlin refutes US NSA Sullivan's claims of Russia using energy resources as weapon - Republic World

Everything old was new again this week as ransomware came roaring back into the headlines, hitting a crucial Iowa grain cooperative, among other targets. And WIRED sat down with DeSnake, the former number two of the dark web marketplace AlphaBay, to hear about his reemergence and relaunch of AlphaBay four years after its takedown by law enforcement. "AlphaBay name was put in bad light after the raids. I am here to make amends to that," DeSnake said.

The Groundhog Day vibes continued with the annual release of Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 15. The new OS comes with a slew of privacy features, including more granular details about what your apps are up to, a mechanism to block email trackers, and a sort of VPN-Tor Frankenstein monster called iCloud Private Relay that protects your browsing activity. Use WIRED's handy guide to get up to speed and start changing some settings.

And if you want a DIY project that isn't tied to a tech company's walled garden, we've got tips on how to set up your own network attached storage (NAS) that plugs straight into your router and gives you a place to share files between your devices or easily store backups.

And there's more! Each week we round up all the security news WIRED didnt cover in depth. Click on the headlines to read the full stories, and stay safe out there.

A letter to Congress shared with Motherboard shows that the US National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and other members of the Intelligence Community use ad blockers on their networks as a security protection. "The IC has implemented network-based ad-blocking technologies and uses information from several layers, including Domain Name System information, to block unwanted and malicious advertising content, the IC chief information officer wrote in the letter.

You may use an ad blocker to make your browsing experience more pleasant, but the tools also have potential defense benefits. Attackers who try to run malicious ads on unscrupulous ad networks or taint legitimate-looking ads can steal data or sneak malware onto your device if you click, or sometimes by exploiting web vulnerabilities. The fact that the IC views ads as an unnecessary risk and even a threat speaks to long-standing problems with the industry. The NSA and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have released public guidance in recent years advising the use of ad blockers as a security protection, but the IC itself wasnt required to adopt the measure. Its members deployed ad blockers voluntarily.

The security division of Russian telecom giant Rostelecom took down a portion of a notorious botnet this week, thanks to a flaw introduced by the malicious platforms developers. The error allowed Rostelecom to sinkhole part of the system. A botnet is a zombie army of devices that have been infected with malware to centrally control coordinated operations. The platforms are often used for DDoS attacks, in which actors direct a firehose of junk traffic at a targets web systems in an attempt to overload them.

The Meris botnet is currently the largest botnet available to cybercriminals and is thought to be made up of about 250,000 systems working collectively. It has been used against targets in Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, among others. The Rostelecom partial takedown is significant, because Meris attacks are powerful and challenging for targets to combat. Earlier this month, a Meris attack on the Russian tech giant Yandex broke the record for largest-ever volumetric DDoS attack. Yandex managed to defend itself against the assault.

European law enforcement in Italy and Spain have arrested 106 people on suspicion of running a massive fraud campaign over many years, with profits totaling more than $11.7 million in the last year alone. And police said this week that the individuals involved have ties to an Italian mafia group. The suspects allegedly ran phishing schemes, conducted business email compromise scams, launched SIM-swapping attacks, and generally perpetrated credit card fraud against hundreds of victims. The activity was also allegedly connected to drug trafficking and other property-related crimes. To actually extract funds from these digital scams, the suspects allegedly laundered stolen money through a system of money mules and shell companies. In addition to the arrests, law enforcement froze 118 bank accounts and seized computers, SIM cards, 224 credit cards, and an entire cannabis plantation in connection with the bust.

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Even the CIA and NSA Use Ad Blockers to Stay Safe Online - WIRED