James Clapper tells senators the vulnerabilities in connected devices that hackers exploit can also be used for surveillance by foreign countries.

Specifically, the security issues around these various devices—from electric grids to connected and autonomous cars to household appliance—pose a threat to data privacy, data integrity and continuity of services, Clapper wrote in his report to the committee. In addition, they could become pathways for foreign countries to gain access to information.

"Smart devices incorporated into the electric grid ... can threaten data privacy, data integrity, or continuity of services," he said. "In the future, intelligence services might use the IoT for identification, surveillance, monitoring, location tracking, and targeting for recruitment, or to gain access to networks or user credentials."

The data from IoT products can potentially be hugely valuable. Many include microphones and motion sensors, for example, such as new smart TVs, kids' toys and voice-controlled products like Amazon's Echo.

As the data recovery firm couldn't get Roddenberry's old computer to power on, it had to sleuth the physical layout of the tracks on the disk. That alone took three months to reverse engineer; Cobb credits his own "Scotty," Jim Wilhelmsen, with figuring it out.

Cobb said when the operating system files were excluded, about 2-3MB of data was recovered from the 200 floppies. That may seem like a minuscule amount by today's standards, but in the 1980s, document files were small. Roddenberry's lost words were substantial.

PCWorld reached out to the Roddenberry estate but was told it had no comment on the data or its plans for the newly discovered writing of Gene Roddenberry.

Luca Lo Castro said he had come across shortcomings in the encryption of communication after buying Texecom’s Premier Elite Control Panel and ComIP module and assembling it.

An independent expert in alarm security, quizzed by El Reg, acknowledged this as a security shortcoming while suggesting it would be beyond the capability of most would-be burglars with access to no more than basic electronic tools like wire strippers, a multi-meter, and crocodile clips.

Our independent alarm security expert tells us that much of the physical security market is a long way behind best practice found in information security. And the problem is exacerbated because alarms are designed to be installed and last 10 to 15 years. That means a lot of legacy products, compared to the two to three year product lifetime we are seeing on general IoT products.

Just a few days ago, those who owned an iPhone 5S or older began to complain. They were perturbed that when they opened the app store they were confronted with, gasp, a pop-up that pushed the iPhone 6S upon them.

The more consumers use ad blockers -- and some estimates suggest ad blocking is becoming very popular -- the more companies have to find different ways and different places to interrupt (I mean impress, of course) consumers. The easiest channels to control are the ones you own.

To purists, it must be slightly surprising, even depressing that Apple might market its wares in less subtle, less melodious ways.

Analyst firms and vendors have been predicting rapid growth for the IoT, with the number of connected devices, systems and sensors—from industrial machines and home appliances to cars, buildings and wearable devices—jumping over the next several years. Cisco Systems, for example, is predicting the number of connected "things" globally will grow from 25 billion last year to more than 50 billion in 2020.

"Smart commercial buildings will be the highest user of Internet of Things (IoT) until 2017, after which smart homes will take the lead with just over 1 billion connected things in 2018," Gartner Research Vice President Bettina Tratz-Ryan said in a statement.

The first prototype of a sodium-ion battery has just been revealed by the RS2E, a French network bringing together researchers and industrial actors. This technology, inspired by the lithium-ion batteries already used in portable computers and electric vehicles, could lead to the mass storage of intermittent renewable energy sources.

Being three times lighter than sodium ions, lithium ions also make it possible to produce very lightweight batteries, an undeniable asset when it comes to portable electronics.

The ultrasonic pitches are embedded into TV commercials or are played when a user encounters an ad displayed in a computer browser. While the sound can't be heard by the human ear, nearby tablets and smartphones can detect it.

The officials said that companies with names including SilverPush, Drawbridge, and Flurry are working on ways to pair a given user to specific devices. Adobe is developing similar technologies.

Estimates suggest that emissions on the road could have been 40 times worse than in the testing environment.

A new notice posted this morning on the EPA's Web site and sent to Volkswagen includes vehicles using the larger 3-liter V-6 TDI engine. The notice lists those vehicles as the "VW Touareg," "Porsche Cayenne," "Audi A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8, A8L, and Q5."

The states of Washington, New York, Michigan, and Vermont already have adopted the spy-friendly, voluntary program that links your license with the Department of Homeland Security. For the moment, the cards are designed to be used instead of passports at US land borders in a bid to speed up the entrance lines from Mexico and Canada.

The American Civil Liberties Union, for instance, is decrying the move to RFID chips in driver's licenses as a "civil liberties nightmare."