OSHKOSH, Wisconsin — The Boomerang, designed by aviation legend Burt Rutan, is one of those creations that draws a crowd due to its innovation, unmatched performance and unusual appearance. When word got out earlier this summer that a crew was working on the asymmetric airplane and would have it here at Airventure, it generated tremendous excitement.

Never mind that the design is more than 15 years old and has been here several times.

But the fact it is old news doesn’t matter. The unusual airplane still turns heads and, perhaps more often, leaves people scratching their heads. Rutan calls it h...

Vulnerabilities in electronic systems that control prison doors could allow hackers or others to spring prisoners from their jail cells, according to researchers.

Some of the same vulnerabilities that the Stuxnet superworm used to sabotage centrifuges at a nuclear plant in Iran exist in the country’s top high-security prisons, according to security consultant and engineer John Strauchs, who plans to discuss the issue and demonstrate an exploit against the systems at the DefCon hacker conference next week in Las Vegas.

Strauchs, who says he engineered or consulted on electronic security systems...