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Privacy

Submission + - Safari leaks client certificates (whirlpool.net.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If you have client certs installed in your iPhone or iPad that contain your employment details or other personal information be very careful what sites you visit.
When browsing to a website that requests an x509 client certificate from Safari, the user is prompted to select a client certificate. Selecting cancel results in safari sending a client certificate anyway. The server now has all the personal information stored in the client cert.

Submission + - How to scrub unethical company from resume? 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I few years ago I worked for Berico Technologies (one of the axis of evil partners from the HB Gary hacking scandal). I had nothing to do with the shenanigans Berico was involved in — I worked for an entirely different division of the company. The team I worked with was a nice group of people, fairly typical as far as DC area developers go, none of whom were involved in the scandalous behavior either.

Lately I have been job hunting — the Berico Technologies bullet raises eyebrows with the more diligent interviewers. A few have questioned why I would work for such a company. My reply that 90% of the employees there were innocent (as was I) is sometimes believed and sometimes not. Long story short: I am tired of defending my time at Berico.

So. What to do? What was Berico has since split up into several companies. In some cases they are simply shell companies to hide the Berico name, in other cases they are subsidiaries that simply retreated into their acronym, and the original Berico still exists as sort of a honeypot to divert attention from the spin offs. The owner seems to have been kicked out of DC so to speak and is last been seen skulking about the Baltimore startup community. Should I simply plop the name of the company which was formed from my former division at Berico on my resume? After all if they can hide behind that name why can't I? Perhaps just omit the experience completely?
Education

Submission + - Valve unveils Steam for Schools, Portal in the classroom (tekgoblin.com)

Submitted by
tekgoblin
tekgoblin writes: "Well this is pretty awesome, Valve has made an entrance into the education sector. They plan to release a new version of Steam for education uses in schools.

Valve will call this service Steam for Schools, an education version of the Steam client that allows administrators to limit what its users can access. The idea of Steam for Schools is to use the platform as a teaching aid. Valve has already put together a number of educational lesson plans for using Portal 2 and its level editor to teach math and physics."
Privacy

Submission + - Older Means Wiser to Computer Security (net-security.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Growing up in the digital age, 18 – 25s may appear to be a more tech-savvy generation, but that does not translate into safer computing and online practices. A new study reveals that they are the most at-risk group, and prone to cyber-attacks. That makes this group even more vulnerable to online security threats. Younger users tend to prioritize entertainment and community over security, perhaps due to overconfidence in their security knowledge. For example, they’re more concerned about gaming or other social activities than their online security. They also have less sophisticated security software, and hence, have reported more security problems than other groups.
Piracy

Submission + - Reject ACTA, European Parliament trade committee recommends (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by Qedward
Qedward writes: The European Parliament's trade committee, INTA, voted on Thursday not to postpone a crucial parliamentary vote on the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

The committee also decided, by 19 votes to 12, to recommend to the Parliament that the trade deal be rejected. INTA is the lead committee examining the international agreement, and its recommendation will carry weight with the rest of the Parliament.

The Parliamentary plenary vote on the treaty is now scheduled for July 3.
Biotech

Submission + - Biotech report says IP spurs innovation (nature.com)

Submitted by
ananyo
ananyo writes: "A report presented at the 2012 BIO International Convention in Boston, Massachusetts suggests that patents do not stifle progress when they occur at early phases of research, as some have suggested.
Over the past decade, increases in patents have been matched by growth in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors in India, Brazil, Singapore and other countries with emerging economies. The strength of patent rights can be quantified in an index ranging from 0 (no patent rights) to 5 (very strong). Over time, the countries that US biotech and pharmaceutical companies have invested in have moved up the IP barometer, the report (PDF) says."
Intel

Submission + - Is Microsoft waiting on Intel for Surface tablets? (pcpro.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
Barence
Barence writes: "One of the curious things about Microsoft’s Surface announcement is the release timetable. The Windows RT model is expected to arrive at the same time as Windows 8; but the Surface for Windows 8 Pro, running real desktop Windows, isn’t due until three months after that, which probably means after Christmas.

Is it possible that Microsoft is holding out for Intel's 22nm Haswell chips, wonders PC Pro's Darien Graham-Smith? With Ivy Bridge barely out of the gate, it seems absurdly early to be talking about its successor. But leaked Intel documents from the first quarter of this year suggested that Haswell would be released as early as March 2013. For a major partner project such as the Surface Pro, it’s perfectly plausible that Intel could step up its timetable to provide a first batch of Haswell chips in January."
The Courts

Submission + - US District Court: Game elements in Tetris clone infringe Tetris Co.'s copyright

Submitted by elegie
elegie writes: In the US, a District Court has ruled that the Tetris clone "Mino" infringes the Tetris Company's copyrights with regard to elements of the Tetris game design and gameplay. On one hand, a lawyer said that "a puzzle game where a user manipulates blocks to form lines which disappear" would be noninfringing. At the same time, the Mino game's reuse of such Tetris elements as the dimensions of the playing field and the shape of the blocks constituted infringement. In addition, the Tetris game's artistic elements were not inseparably linked to the underlying mechanics and replicating an underlying idea and/or functionality (which would likely be uncopyrighted) would not justify copying visual expression from an existing game.
Security

Submission + - Android app lets you steal contactless credit card data (scmagazine.com.au)

Submitted by mask.of.sanity
mask.of.sanity writes: An Android application capable of siphoning credit card data from contactless bank cards has appeared on the Google Play store. The app was developed by a security penetration tester for research purposes and will steal card numbers and expiry dates, along with transactions and merchant IDs. It requires a near field device capable phone, or accessory.

Submission + - Rare Photo of Bee Sting Wins Award for UC Davis Photographer (techtodayshow.com)

Submitted by
ayman_mastermind
ayman_mastermind writes: "UC Davis Communications Specialist Kathy Keatley Garvey in the Department of Entomology took this amazing shot, capturing a honeybee stinging a man, with its abdominal tissue trailing behind. The photo won the first-place gold feature photo award in an Association for Communication Excellence competition"
Space

Submission + - On Mitt Romney's Reading List: A Book Predicting Space War and Lunar Bases (examiner.com)

Submitted by
MarkWhittington
MarkWhittington writes: "one of the books that Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is reading is “The Next 100 Years,” by George Friedman of Stratfor. The book postulates foreign policy trends for the remainder of the 21st Century. It also provides an illumination of what sort of space policy questions Romney is being exposed to.The book predicts the development of space based solar power satellites, the deployment of manned "battlestars" in Earth orbit, and military bases on the moon."
The Courts

Submission + - Free Speech For Computers? (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "Law professor Tim Wu sheds light on a growing legal concern: the extent to which computers have a constitutional right to free speech. 'This may sound like a fanciful question, a matter of philosophy or science fiction. But it’s become a real issue with important consequences,' Wu writes. First it was Google defending — and winning — a civil suit on grounds that search results are constitutionally protected speech. Now it is doubling down on the argument amidst greater federal scrutiny. 'Consider that Google has attracted attention from both antitrust and consumer protection officials after accusations that it has used its dominance in search to hinder competitors and in some instances has not made clear the line between advertisement and results. Consider that the “decisions” made by Facebook’s computers may involve widely sharing your private information. ... Ordinarily, such practices could violate laws meant to protect consumers. But if we call computerized decisions “speech,” the judiciary must consider these laws as potential censorship, making the First Amendment, for these companies, a formidable anti-regulatory tool.'"
Oracle

Submission + - Larry Ellison Buys His Own Hawaiian Island 1

Submitted by nrozema
nrozema writes: Oracle co-founder and billionaire Larry Ellison is buying the Hawaiian island of Lana'i, the six-largest island in the U.S. archipelago. Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie confirmed in a written statement that the current landowner filed a transfer application with the state's Public Utilities commission Wednesday to sell its 98 percent share of the 141-square-mile island to Ellison.
Android

Submission + - Google to pay $0 to Oracle in copyright case (examiner.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From the article:
"In a hearing in the US District Court today, it was determined that Google will pay a net total of nothing for Oracle's patent claims against them. In fact, Google is given 14 days to file an application for Oracle to pay legal fees to Google(in a similar manner to how things are done for frivolous lawsuits). However, it is not quite peaches and roses for Google, as Oracle is planning on appealing the decision in the case."
Security

Submission + - Hacker Group Demands 'Idiot Tax' From Payday Lender (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "Hacker group Rex Mundi has made good on its promise to publish thousands of loan-applicant records it swiped from AmeriCash Advance after the payday lender refused to fork over between $15,000 and $20,000 as an extortion fee — or, in Rex Mundi's terms, an "idiot tax." The group announced on June 15 that it was able to steal AmeriCash's customer data because the company had left a confidential page unsecured on one of its servers. "This page allows its affiliates to see how many loan applicants they recruited and how much money they made," according to the group's post on dpaste.com. "Not only was this page unsecured, it was actually referenced in their robots.txt file.""
NASA

Submission + - Astronomers catch asteroid in near-miss video (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: Quoting the Nature story:
It may look like a blurry blob, but researchers using the InfraRed Telescope Facility (IRTF) in Hawaii have posted a video of 2012 KT42 — a small asteroid that zipped past Earth at a distance of just three Earth radii on 29 May — the sixth closest encounter of any known asteroid. The bright asteroid appears fixed, while background stars zip past but in fact the asteroid is zipping along at 17 kilometres per second.
“You get the view of riding along with it,” says planetary scientist Richard Binzel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, who led the observations. At its closest, the asteroid was at a distance between the orbit of the space station (about 1 Earth radii) and geosynchronous satellites (about 6 Earth radii).
Iphone

Submission + - Unstoppable Fist Interview With Ragtag Studio (modojo.com)

Submitted by
buffdaily247
buffdaily247 writes: "Playing video games in the 90s often involved beating the virtual snot out of thugs in titles like Streets of Rage, Final Fight and Super Double Dragon, classic beat-em-ups that served as a means to take out our frustrations on homework, dating woes and missing episodes of DuckTales (stupid Key Club). That said, our retro sense tingled for Unstoppable Fist, a 2D brawler from the talented folks at Ragtag Studio. Featuring a mullet-wearing hero named Fist and plenty of chickens to kill, this upcoming iPhone and iPad title made its way onto our gaming radar. In fact, we had no qualms putting Unstoppable Fist on Modojo's Summer 2012 Most Wanted iOS Games list.

Unable to contain our enthusiasm, we tracked down Ragtag founders Matt Carter and Chris Cobb to learn more about the game, and how it differs from those aforementioned side-scrolling adventures."

Submission + - Rim Dropping the Price of its Playbook Down by 66% 1

Submitted by YokimaSun
YokimaSun writes: Following on from the news that Rims partner was pulling the plug on its Blackberry phones,Rim announced it was discontinueing the 16GB version of its playbook, PC Gaming News are reporting that the playbook is being discounted down by as much as 66% which is adding to the demise of Rims attempt at the Tablet Market. Can anything stop the all conquering iPad
Government

Submission + - FDA: Software Failure Behind 24% Of Medical Device Recalls (threatpost.com)

Submitted by
chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: "Software failures were behind 24 percent of all the medical device recalls in 2011, according to data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories (OSEL).
The absence of solid architecture and "principled engineering practices" in software development affects a wide range of medical devices, with potentially life-threatening consequences, the FDA warned. In response, FDA told Threatpost that it is developing tools to disassemble and test medical device software and locate security problems and weak design."
Businesses

Submission + - NASA wants to seel its cool, high-tech stuff, fast (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Looking to address harsh criticism from its own inspector general that has been painfully slow in getting important technologies out of the lab and into commercial applications, NASA today said it has opened a revamped Technology Transfer Portal which aims to streamline the way the space agency handles that business."

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