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Security

Submission + - BBC Twitter Accounts Hacked by Pro-Assad Syrian Electronic Army (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by
DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: "Following BBC Weather on Twitter seems like it wouldn't throw up too many surprises, possibly news of the odd blizzard now and again. But today, the account's 60,000 follower got a little more than "chance of a light drizzle" when the pro-Assad Syrian Electronic Army hacked the account, along with a couple of other BBC accounts in an apparent protest at what it sees as reports which don't show the Syrian regime in the best light."
Government

Submission + - Are 3-D Printed Guns Really Legal? (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "Defense Distributed, a U.S. nonprofit that aims to make plans for guns available owners of 3-D printers, recently received a federal firearms license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobocco and Firearms. That license doesn't cover semi-automatic weapons and machine guns, though — and there are questions about whether the legislation that defines that license really apply to the act of giving someone 3-D printing patterns. Experts on all sides of the issue seemd to agree that no clarification of the law would happen until a high-profile crime involving a 3-D printed weapon was committed."

Submission + - Making your own phone is easier than you might think (newscientist.com)

Submitted by
Big Hairy Ian
Big Hairy Ian writes: "Our reporter builds a handcrafted cellphone using widely available parts and online instructions

SUDDENLY, my phone rings. It chirps out a tinny version of what sounds like the Christmas carol Angels We Have Heard on High. I am giddy with amazement.

On the fifth floor of the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, David Mellis has just plugged in the mobile phone I spent all afternoon soldering together. That's right: I just built a cellphone. By hand.

Mellis is a graduate student in the High-Low Tech lab, a group of engineering evangelists trying to bring technology know-how to people who perhaps thought it was out of reach. In 2005, he helped found Arduino, a company that makes easy-to-program microprocessors and sells them on simple circuit boards. The idea is to help people make electronic products without needing a degree in computer science.

They're popular among hobbyists, hackers and the sort of people who end up working at the Media Lab but they're hardly mainstream. Mellis wondered if he could take the idea further."
Security

Submission + - New OS X Trojan Adware Injects Ads Into Chrome, Firefox, Safari

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new trojan specifically for Macs has been discovered that installs an adware plugin. The malware attempts to monetize its attack by injecting ads into Chrome, Firefox, and Safari (the most popular browsers on Apple's desktop platform) in the hopes that users will generate money for its creators by viewing (and maybe even clicking) them. The threat, detected as "Trojan.Yontoo.1" by Russian security firm Doctor Web, is part of a wider scheme of adware for OS X that has "been increasing in number since the beginning of 2013," according to the company.
Android

Submission + - Critical Samsung Android Phone Vulnerabilities (net-security.org)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: Tired of waiting for Samsung to fix a string of critical flaws in their smartphones running Android, Italian security researcher Roberto Paleari has decided to inform the public about the seriousness of the matter and maybe make the company pick up the pace. Mindful of the danger that the vulnerabilities present to the users if they are exploited by malicious individuals, he decided not to share any technical details, but to just give a broad overview of what their misuse would allow. This includes a silent installation of highly-privileged applications with no user interaction and an app performing almost any action on the victim's phone.
EU

Submission + - EU research suggests online music piracy does not harm legitimate sales (europa.eu)

Submitted by
waterbear
waterbear writes: "Two researchers at the European Commission's 'in-house science service' IPTS, Luis Aguiar and Bertin Martens, report results of their study http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=6084 of "the effects of illegal downloading and legal streaming on the legal purchases of digital music". Among their conclusions is that Internet users do not seem to view illegal downloading as a substitute for legal digital music. They find that a 10% increase in clicks on legal streaming websites leads to up to a 0.7% increase in clicks on legal digital purchase websites, but a 10% increase in clicks on illegal downloading websites leads only to a 0.2% increase in clicks on legal purchase websites. A BBC report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21856720 of this research summarizes that "music web piracy does not harm legitimate sales", and also says that music industry reaction to the report is heavily critical, calling it "flawed and misleading"."

Submission + - Wrong fuel stops presidential Beast (cnn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Fueling your car with the wrong type of fuel happens even to POTUS :-D, this happens when you put Gasoline instead for Diesel in the tank....
Earth

Submission + - Why Earth Hour Still Matters (greenprophet.com)

Submitted by An dochasac
An dochasac writes: Earth Hour's simple suggestion to turn off your lights for one hour on Saturday March 23rd has grown into an international social movement powerful enough to have become controversial. Writing for Slate Magazine, Bjørn Lomborg argued that it is a waste of time and energy. Thankfully it is still legal to do something that at the very least gives us a better view of a starry night sky, of comet Panstarrs and of our own potential to change the world. Here is why Earth Hour still matters.
Digital

Submission + - Belkin completes Acquisition of Linksys (varindia.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Belkin has announced completion of its acquisition of Linksys. Linksys' technologies, including its routers and the popular and innovative Smart Wi-Fi portfolio and services, will be managed and maintained as a separate brand and product portfolio.

“Linksys has a rich heritage, a passionate customer base and a wide product line, all of which fuelled our decision to acquire the company and our plan to maintain the Linksys brand,” said Chet Pipkin, CEO, Belkin. “The Linksys’ portfolio will continue to exist and evolve to include even richer user experiences and network management functionality. Smart Wi-Fi is an innovative and easy way for consumers to stay connected to their home network and we look forward to continue investing in it by adding more features and products.”

Linksys’ customers and retailers will continue to see new Linksys’ products come to market in the near future, starting with several announcements in the spring time frame. By maintaining the Belkin and Linksys brands in home networking, Belkin aims to address a broader range of consumers with distinct networking solutions and will create the premier ecosystem for mobile devices and smart homes.

Support for Linksys’ products remains available through the existing Linksys support channels. For service, Linksys customers should go to the support page on the Linksys’ website. All valid warranties will be honoured for current and future Linksys’ products.

“A lot of exciting things are happening in today’s connected lifestyle segment, and we are honoured to continue the Linksys brand and enable new connected experiences,” added Pipkin. “Linksys and Belkin are now one team. We are ready to do fantastic things as a team and deliver products that delight consumers and support the increasingly connected, mobile world.”
United States

Submission + - Declassified LBJ Tapes Accuse Richard Nixon of Treason

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "After the Watergate scandal taught Richard Nixon the consequences of recording White House conversations none of his successors has dared to do it. But Nixon wasn't the first. He got the idea from his predecessor Lyndon Johnson, who felt there was an obligation to allow historians to eventually eavesdrop on his presidency. Now David Taylor reports on BBC that the latest set of declassified tapes of President Lyndon Johnson's telephone calls show that by the time of the Presidential election in November 1968, LBJ had evidence the Nixon had sabotaged the Vietnam war peace talks — or, as he put it, that Nixon was guilty of treason and had "blood on his hands". It begins in the summer of 1968. Nixon feared a breakthrough at the Paris Peace talks designed to find a negotiated settlement to the Vietnam war that he knew would derail his campaign. Nixon therefore set up a clandestine back-channel to the South Vietnamese involving Anna Chennault, a senior campaign adviser. In late October 1968 there were major concessions from Hanoi which promised to allow meaningful talks to get underway in Paris. This was exactly what Nixon feared. Chennault was despatched to the South Vietnamese embassy with a clear message: the South Vietnamese government should withdraw from the talks, refuse to deal with Johnson, and if Nixon was elected, they would get a much better deal. Meanwhile the FBI had bugged the ambassador's phone and transcripts of Chennault's calls were sent to the White House. Johnson was told by Defense Secretary Clark Clifford that the interference was illegal and threatened the chance for peace. The president gave Humphrey enough information to sink his opponent but by then, a few days from the election, Humphrey had been told he had closed the gap with Nixon and would win the presidency so Humphrey decided it would be too disruptive to the country to accuse the Republicans of treason, if the Democrats were going to win anyway. In the end Nixon won by less than 1% of the popular vote, escalated the war into Laos and Cambodia with the loss of an additional 22,000 American lives, and finally settled for a peace agreement in 1973 that was within grasp in 1968."
Science

Submission + - New Drug May Reverse Autism Symptoms (thefutureofthings.com)

Submitted by
Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth writes: "Researchers from the University of San Diego in California have used a newly discovered function of an existing drug, to reinstate cell communications in a mouse model of autism, reversing the symptoms of the disorder and giving hope for millions of children worldwide."
EU

Submission + - Decade-old espionage malware found targeting government computers (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by alancronin
alancronin writes: Researchers have unearthed a decade-long espionage operation that used the popular TeamViewer remote-access program and proprietary malware to target high-level political and industrial figures in Eastern Europe.

TeamSpy, as the shadow group has been dubbed, collected encryption keys and documents marked as "secret" from a variety of high-level targets, according to a report published Wednesday by Hungary-based CrySyS Lab. Targets included a Russia-based Embassy for an undisclosed country belonging to both NATO and the European Union, an industrial manufacturer also located in Russia, multiple research and educational organizations in France and Belgium, and an electronics company located in Iran. CrySyS learned of the attacks after Hungary's National Security Authority disclosed intelligence that TeamSpy had hit an unnamed "Hungarian high-profile governmental victim."

Submission + - NASA: Voyager-1 has not yet left the solar system (nasa.gov)

Submitted by skade88
skade88 writes: From the JPL's Voyager's team blog: "The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA's Voyager 1 has left the solar system," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space. In December 2012, the Voyager science team reported that Voyager 1 is within a new region called 'the magnetic highway' where energetic particles changed dramatically. A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space and that change of direction has not yet been observed."

To learn more about the current status of the Voyager mission, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-381

The Voyager spacecraft were built and continue to be operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The Voyager missions are a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Science

Submission + - 3D TV, Without the Glasses (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: If you've pondered whether to sink a cool couple of grand into a fancy new three-dimensional TV but didn't want to mess around with those dorky glasses, you may want to sit tight for a few more years. Researchers at Hewlett Packard Laboratories in Palo Alto, California, report that they've come up with a new 3D technology that not only doesn't require viewers to wear special glasses, but it also can be viewed from a wide variety of angles. The advance could propel the development of mobile 3D devices as well as TVs.
DRM

Submission + - Defend the Open Web: Keep DRM Out of W3C Standards (eff.org)

Submitted by
jrepin
jrepin writes: "There's a new front in the battle against digital restrictions management (DRM) technologies. These technologies, which supposedly exist to enforce copyright, have never done anything to get creative people paid. Instead, by design or by accident, their real effect is to interfere with innovation, fair use, competition, interoperability, and our right to own things. That's why we were appalled to learn that there is a proposal currently before the World Wide Web Consortium's HTML5 Working Group to build DRM into the next generation of core Web standards. The proposal is called Encrypted Media Extensions, or EME. Its adoption would be a calamitous development, and must be stopped."
NASA

Submission + - Amazon's Jeff Bezos Expeditions recovers pieces of Apollo 11 rockets (bezosexpeditions.com)

Submitted by skade88
skade88 writes: So Jeff Bezos has been spending his time lately fishing up old parts of the Apollo 11 rockets. Neat stuff! I will let y'all read his words, I do not think I could be so elegant.

From his blog "What an incredible adventure. We are right now onboard the Seabed Worker headed back to Cape Canaveral after finishing three weeks at sea, working almost 3 miles below the surface. We found so much. We’ve seen an underwater wonderland – an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end, one that serves testament to the Apollo program. We photographed many beautiful objects in situ and have now recovered many prime pieces. Each piece we bring on deck conjures for me the thousands of engineers who worked together back then to do what for all time had been thought surely impossible."
News

Submission + - UK Public O.K. with creating babies from 3 people (usatoday.com)

Submitted by skade88
skade88 writes: USA Today is running a story saying the UK public is cool with creating babies from 3 different people after Britain's Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority began a public discussion of the topic at the government's request last year. The technology will be used to cure children of disorders before the child is even born. Even better, Britain's fertility regulator did not find evidence to suggest the techniques were unsafe.

From the article: "There are two procedures to avoid passing on faulty mitochondria. The first involves using an egg from one woman with mitochondrial defects and the sperm of the father. Scientists then put that embryo into an emptied egg from a second woman with healthy mitochondria. The DNA from the second woman amounts to less than 1 percent of the embryo's genes.

In the second technique, scientists transfer nuclear DNA out of a day-old embryo with defective mitochondria. The DNA is implanted into another single-cell embryo with normal mitochondria. The nuclear DNA from the donor embryo is discarded, leaving the healthy mitochondria."
Google

Submission + - Google Fiber expands to Olathe Kansas (forbes.com)

Submitted by skade88
skade88 writes: If you are one of the lucky 125,000 people who live in Olathe, Kansas, the rest of us congratulate you on your new amazing $70.00/month, 1 GB Google fiber service. Google also announced they will be letting us know about further cities that will be wired up with Google Fiber service soon. This shows that Google Fiber is not just a sandbox they are going to keep in Kansas City, Google Fiber is a real business they will keep expanding. In other exciting news, the FCC wants to see at least one community in each state with 1 Gigabit home service by 2015.
The Media

Submission + - Could Twitter Have Prevented the War In Iraq? 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "On the tenth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, Eric Boehlert writes that if Twitter had been around during the winter of 2002-2003 it could have provided a forum for critics to badger Beltway media insiders who abdicated their role as journalists and fell in line behind the Bush White House's march to war. "Twitter could have helped puncture the Beltway media bubble by providing news consumers with direct access to confront journalists during the run-up to the war," writes Boehlert. "And the pass-around nature of Twitter could have rescued forgotten or buried news stories and commentaries that ran against the let's-go-to-war narrative that engulfed so much of the mainstream press." For example, imagine how Twitter could have been used in real time on February 5, 2003, when Secretary of State Colin Powell made his infamous attack-Iraq presentation to the United Nations. At the time, Beltway pundits positively swooned over Powell's air-tight case for war. "But Twitter could have swarmed journalists with instant analysis about the obvious shortcoming. That kind of accurate, instant analysis of Powell's presentation was posted on blogs but ignored by a mainstream media enthralled by the White House's march to war." Ten years ago, Twitter could have also performed the task of making sure news stories that raised doubts about the war didn't fall through the cracks, as invariably happened back then. With swarms of users touting the reports, it would have been much more difficult for reporters and pundits to dismiss important events and findings. "Ignoring Twitter, and specifically ignoring what people are saying about your work on Twitter, isn't really an option the way turning a blind eye to anti-war bloggers may have been ten years ago," concludes Boehlert. "In other words, Twitter could have been the megaphone — the media equalizer — that war critics lacked ten years ago,""

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