The United States joining the Law of the Sea Treaty would help strengthen the U.S. Defense Department’s position in the Pacific, at a time when the Pentagon places more emphasis on that region, top DoD officials said.

Planetary Resources made a media splash recently by announcing a plan to mine asteroids for metals and water. But those same materials are available on the moon, too, and other would-be extraterrestrial prospectors are eyeing lunar missions. So which target is more promising?

Security engineers at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma have proposed using the concept of "bullet time" as a cyber-defense strategy by slowing down internet traffic, including malicious data, to give networks time to deal with attacks. To do this, when a cyber attack has been sensed, an algorithm sends hyper-speed signals accelerating ahead of the malicious data packets to mobilise defences.

A secure communications channel between the U.S. and Russia set up to prevent misunderstandings that might lead to nuclear war is likely to expand to handling new kinds of conflict — in cyberspace.