From lithium to sugar: unveiled the future of batteries

The study is gripping scientists from different years, replace the lithium batteries present in smartphones, laptops, tablets, and numerous electronic devices with sugar batteries. Just like that, it seems that the exposure to very high temperatures generates sugar anodes capable of storing energy for batteries. This would have the 20% more than electric storage capacity of the lithium ion. So there would be more duration and considerably lower costs. In addition, the lithium is a non-renewable mineral presents on Earth in very scarce quantity and therefore destined to finish in time. The lack of presence makes it expensive even though it’s harmful to both humans and the environment.

Together with the sugar, sodium may also be a viable alternative at a cost of advantage. To this is added the unlimited availability of the mineral.

In reality, the story of the sugar batteries is a kind of laboratory curiosity that, in recent years, it has enjoyed some fleeting moment of glory. Other hand never before have been achieved so promising results as those obtained by the Japanese giant, Sony, given that the prototypes of this kind previously made were able to produce an amount of energy too small to find a practical use.

If this is true, in a short everyday electronic devices could be powered by batteries economic and completely biodegradable and with environmental impact extremely content.

The researchers think to immetter this technology on the market within 5 years. In a perspective of technological innovation, which in recent times has seen the implementation in everyday life of advanced systems such as biometric access control or GPS tracking systems, batteries sugar could remedy to the increasingly frequent alarms of gradual exhaustion of fossil fuels and add an important element to the incessant search for alternative sources and renewable energy.

From Spain a system to fool biometric scanners.

Researchers at the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid and West Virginia University have discovered a way to mislead iris biometric scanners used for access control in certain places.

When security systems based on iris scan create an imprint of the iris itself, they do not store the image to compare it in future with the real iris each time a person try to enter the place put under control. They, in fact, transform the image into a code consisting of about 5000 bits of data. This code is usually based on approximately 240 points of the image and is unique. Each person has his owm and when someone stands in front of the scanner, the code given by his iris is compared with those in the database. If the system finds a correspondence, the door opens.

And what about if a hacker were to gain access to this database, could he somehow reconstruct through the code a sort of artificial iris able to fool the security system? Until recently, this was pure science fiction. Today, as shown by researchers of Madrid and West Virginia University, this is really possible, thanks to a genetic algorithm which allows to reconstruct, after about 200 attempts, the image of an iris very similar to the original one and able to enter in his place.

What was considered one of the safest security systems in the world, based on the uniqueness of each individual, today, thanks to this research, begins to show its weaknesses. And what about if these studies applied to the locks based on fingerprint scanners? Nevertheless, these biometric systems are still the most inaccessible…

Endoacustica Europe

Organized crime wants your personal data

According to a report recently published by Verizon, approximately 85 per cent of thefts of personal data and unauthorized access to restricted information (out of which, 38 per cent is represented by theft of usernames and passwords) can be directly or indirectly linked to organized crime.

Always according to this report, more than 70 per cent of these thefts is perpetrated by outside parties, while 50 per cent of attempts comes from insiders, such as for example collaborators, staff members or business partners, or from an improper use of access credentials, which gave staff the opportunity to take a sneak peek where they should not.

If on one hand, external intrusions exploit weak spots in computer systems, which at times may happen to inadvertently leave a backdoor open, which can be accessed by a hacker, on the other hand inside attacks are a breach of the trust relationship between boss and employees, or between partners.

For this reason, it is absolutely vital to adopt an efficient access control system or procedure, which can unequivocally define who has the right to access to certain data or information, and who doesn’t. For example, still according to Verizon’s report, by adopting simple precautions it is possible to thwart up to 96 per cent of data theft or unauthorized access attempts.

These precautions may range from data protection via encryption and encoding at different levels according to the importance of the data stored, to physical measures to limit access to certain rooms in your workplace and allow only authorized people to get through.

For more information on how to maintain security and privacy of information in your office and workplace, and on several data protection options, we advise that you visit the Endoacustica website.

A fingerprint lock, and your office is secure

Those who store sensitive data or highly confidential documentation in their office know well that, no matter how cautions you can be, during their absence this information is at risk, either because of curiosity or a simple carelessness, and might leak out.

Therefore, one should be equipped with a protection system that grants access to the room, and of course to the documents and information stored in there, only to selected and authorized personnel. To achieve this result, a normal key lock may not be enough, as even the key might get lost or stolen.

The wisest thing to do is using a 100% secure solution: a biometric fingerprint lock. Such a lock does not need keys which may get lost or end up in the wrong hands, since a key is not needed. All you need to do is run the fingertip of your forefinger and, if your fingerprint was previously stored and authorized, you will gain access to the restricted area.

It is possible to store up to 78 different fingerprints; to add a further layer of security, a PIN opening code can also be set up, to be entered once your fingerprint has been recognized.

Biometric protection is commonly used to protect sensitive areas, for example restricted rooms inside a military installation or a presidential building. Now, such a level of security is available for everyone, at a reasonable price, to protect your office, a place which maybe does not contain military secrets, but where it is certainly vital that confidential information stays confidential!

For more information on fingerprint locks, we recommend that you visit the Endoacustica website.