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Submission + - Malware Researchers Discover Russian Banks Talking to Trump's Private Servers (slate.com)

Submitted by ewhac
ewhac writes: After news broke of Russian hackers infiltrating the Democratic National Committee's servers, malware researchers decided to see if other politically-motivated intrusions were taking place. Among others, they monitored DNS traffic relating to the Trump Organization, looking for evidence of intrusion. Instead, they discovered traffic from Russia that did not match the patterns typical of malware or botnets. Rather, the patterns looked like ordinary human-driven traffic, as one might expect from email being exchanged between servers — specifically, from servers operated by Russia's Alfa Bank. Further, Trump's server only accepted connections from a limited number of IP addresses. Even more curious, when the malware researchers reached out to Alfa Bank to inquire about the unusual traffic, but before speaking to the Trump campaign, the DNS entry for Trump's server was clumsily deleted. As one researcher put it, "The knee was hit in Moscow, the leg kicked in New York." Four days later, the Trump Organization registered a new DNS name for the same server; the first DNS lookup for that name came from Alfa Bank in Russia. While the evidence is not conclusive, it is undeniably suggestive that Trump has more than just an "arms-length" relationship with Russia, and warrants further investigation.

Submission + - People Who Use Facebook Live Longer, Study Finds (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Study after study has demonstrated a link between strong social connections and reduced mortality risk. But does that hold true as our social interactions increasingly take place in online spheres? A new study out of Yale and the University of California suggests that it does. The study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that people who use Facebook live longer than those who do not, and that certain types of Facebook activities — like posting pictures and accepting friend requests — are associated with a lower risk of mortality. "There's a big debate about online social media. There are people that worry that worry it substitutes for healthy social interaction,"co-author James Fowler, a social scientist from University of California, San Diego, told CBC News. The researchers started with 12 million Facebook profiles, then narrowed it down to four million people whose identities could be verified through California's voter registration list. Then they used data from the California Department of Public Health to compare those people to voters who don't use the social networking platform. They found the risk of dying in a given year was 12 per cent lower for Facebook users than non-Facebook users. That doesn't mean Facebook is necessarily good for you, Fowler cautions. Correlation does not prove causation, so it's impossible to say whether being on Facebook makes you healthier, or whether healthy people are more likely to be on Facebook. Still, Fowler said the study does help debunk some of the negative associations people have with social media. "The fact that we found such a strong positive relationship between health and social networks speaks against the hypothesis that they're making us unhealthy in some way," he said.

Submission + - Physicists Induce Superconductivity In Non-Superconducting Materials (phys.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers at the University of Houston have reported a new method for inducing superconductivity in non-superconducting materials, demonstrating a concept proposed decades ago but never proven. The technique can also be used to boost the efficiency of known superconducting materials, suggesting a new way to advance the commercial viability of superconductors, said Paul C.W. Chu, chief scientist at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH (TcSUH) and corresponding author of a paper describing the work, published Oct. 31 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research, demonstrating a new method to take advantage of assembled interfaces to induce superconductivity in the non-superconducting compound calcium iron arsenide, offers a new approach to finding superconductors that work at higher temperatures. Superconducting materials conduct electric current without resistance, while traditional transmission materials lose as much as 10 percent of energy between the generating source and the end user. That means superconductors could allow utility companies to provide more electricity without increasing the amount of fuel used to generate electricity. To validate the concept, researchers working in ambient pressure exposed the undoped calcium iron arsenide compound to heat — 350 degrees Centigrade, considered relatively low temperature for this procedure — in a process known as annealing. The compound formed two distinct phases, with one phase increasingly converted to the other the longer the sample was annealed. Chu said neither of the two phases was superconducting, but researchers were able to detect superconductivity at the point when the two phases coexist. Although the superconducting critical temperature of the sample produced through the process was still relatively low, Chu said the method used to prove the concept offers a new direction in the search for more efficient, less expensive superconducting materials.

Submission + - AT&T Falsely Claimed Pro-Google Fiber Rule Is Invalid, FCC Says (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Federal Communications Commission has given a helping hand to Louisville, Kentucky, in the city's attempt to enforce local rules that would make it easier for Google Fiber to compete against AT&T. AT&T sued the local government in Louisville and Jefferson County in February to stop a One Touch Make Ready (OTMR) ordinance designed to give Google Fiber or other new competitors faster access to utility poles. Today, the US government submitted a statement of interest (full text) on behalf of the FCC, which says that one of AT&T’s primary legal arguments is incorrect. AT&T—also known as BellSouth Telecommunications in Kentucky—argued that the Louisville ordinance is preempted by the FCC’s pole-attachment rules. The local ordinance "conflicts with the procedures created by the FCC, and upsets the careful balances struck by the FCC in crafting its pole attachment regulations," AT&T's lawsuit said. But that is false, the FCC says. The FCC does have rules ensuring reasonable access to utility poles, but states are allowed to opt out of the federal pole-attachment rules if they certify to the commission that they regulate the rates, terms, and conditions of pole attachments. Kentucky is one of 20 states that has opted out of the federal regime and imposed its own rules, the FCC noted. Accordingly, the federal pole-attachment regulations enacted under Section 224 [of the Communications Act] simply do not apply here,” the FCC wrote. More generally, One Touch Make Ready rules are consistent with federal communications policies and regulations that seek expanded broadband deployment, the FCC also wrote.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Here's a scenario for you 'self driving car' advocates to consider:

Journal by Rick Schumann
It's the future; say, 20 years from now. 'Self-driving cars' have become fairly common. Naturally, they're wireless capable for software updates, traffic information -- and other things, like emergency control by 'proper authorities', of course. Now, here's where the dream turns into a nightmare: The 'authorities' (read as: the government) can completely control your self-driving car, totally overriding any destination you've set it for, and even to the extent of the doorlocks and the ability to
Windows

Google Discloses Exploited Windows Vulnerability 10 Days After Telling Microsoft (venturebeat.com) 101

Posted by msmash from the questionable-moves dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Google today shared details about a security flaw in Windows, just 10 days after disclosing it to Microsoft on October 21. To make matters worse, Google says it is aware that this critical Windows vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild. That means attackers have already written code for this specific security hole and are using it to break into Windows systems.In a blog post, security researchers at Google write, "The Windows vulnerability is a local privilege escalation in the Windows kernel that can be used as a security sandbox escape. It can be triggered via the win32k.sys system call NtSetWindowLongPtr() for the index GWLP_ID on a window handle with GWL_STYLE set to WS_CHILD. Chrome's sandbox blocks win32k.sys system calls using the Win32k lockdown mitigation on Windows 10, which prevents exploitation of this sandbox escape vulnerability."

Submission + - Google Discloses Exploited Windows Vulnerability 10 Days After Telling Microsoft

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google today shared details about a security flaw in Windows, just 10 days after disclosing it to Microsoft on October 21. To make matters worse, Google says it is aware that this critical Windows vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild. That means attackers have already written code for this specific security hole and are using it to break into Windows systems.

Submission + - The City That Was Saved By the Internet

Submitted by Jason Koebler
Jason Koebler writes: At a time when small cities, towns, and rural areas are seeing an exodus of young people to large cities and a precipitous decline in solidly middle class jobs, Chattanooga's government-built fiber network has helped it thrive and create a new identity for itself.

Chattanooga's success is beginning to open eyes around the country: If we start treating the internet not as a product sold by a company but as a necessary utility, can the economic prospects of rural America be saved?
China

China's New Policing Computer Is Frontend Cattle Prod, Backend Supercomputer (computerworld.com) 69

Posted by msmash from the it's-here dept.
Earlier this year, we learned about China's first "intelligent security robot," which was said to include "electrically charged riot control tool." We now know what this robot is up to, and what its developed unit looks like. Reader dcblogs writes: China recently deployed what it calls a "security robot" in a Shenzhen airport. It's named AnBot and patrols around the clock. It is a cone-shaped robot that includes a cattle prod. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which look at autonomous system deployments in a report last week, said AnBot, which has facial recognition capability, is designed to be linked with China's latest supercomputers. AnBot may seem like a 'Saturday Night Live' prop, but it's far from it. The back end of this "intelligent security robot" is linked to China's Tianhe-2 supercomputer, where it has access to cloud services. AnBot conducts patrols, recognizes threats and has multiple cameras that use facial recognition. These cloud services give the robots petascale processing power, well beyond onboard processing capabilities in the robot. The supercomputer connection is there "to enhance the intelligent learning capabilities and human-machine interface of these devices," said the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review.

Submission + - The FBI's years-long investigation into a fictional anti-goth cult (muckrock.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: In 2005, the FBI launched an investigation into the “Church of the Hammer,” a fundamentalist Christian sect which called for the wholesale slaughter of practitioners of the goth subculture. Two years later, the investigation was closed, on grounds that the Church didn’t exist. Here's the story behind that investigation into the anti-goth cult that never was.

Submission + - China's new policing computer is frontend cattle prod, backend, supercomputer (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: China recently deployed what it calls a "security robot" in a Shenzhen airport. It's named AnBot and patrols around the clock. It is a cone-shaped robot that includes a cattle prod. The U.S.-China Economic and Secruity Review Commission, which look at autonomous system deployments in a report last week, said AnBot, which has facial recognition capability, is designed to be linked with China's latest supercomputers.

Submission + - Espionage Group Uses Cybersecurity Conference Invite As A Lure (helpnetsecurity.com)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: A cyber espionage group that has been targeting organizations in Southeast Asia for years is misusing a legitimate conference invite as a phishing lure to trigger the download of backdoor malware. The APT in question is Lotus Blossom, and the security conference is Palo Alto Networks’ CyberSecurity Summit. The researchers weren’t able to get a look at the attack emails, but believe the document is delivered as an attachment. Once opened, it shows the decoy Word document while attempting to exploit an old MS Office vulnerability (CVE-2012-0158) to deliver the backdoor Trojan in the background.

Submission + - Hacker group releases list of NSA-compromised servers (itwire.com)

Submitted by troublemaker_23
troublemaker_23 writes: A group suspected of having ties to Russia has released a list of servers in various countries which have been compromised by the NSA for use in staging attacks and suggested that the best outcome for the US presidential election might be stopping it altogether.

Submission + - Secret government papers show taxpayers will pick up costs of Hinkley nuclear wa (theguardian.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: Taxpayers will pick up the bill should the cost of storing radioactive waste produced by Britain’s newest nuclear power station soar, according to confidential documents which the government has battled to keep secret for more than a year.

The papers confirm the steps the government took to reassure French energy firm EDF and Chinese investors behind the £24bn Hinkley Point C plant that the amount they would have to pay for the storage would be capped.

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy – in its previous incarnation as the Department for Energy and Climate Change – resisted repeated requests under the Freedom of Information Act for the release of the documents which were submitted to the European commission.

“The government has attempted to keep the costs to the taxpayer of Hinkley under wraps from the start,” said Dr Doug Parr, Greenpeace chief scientist. “It’s hardly surprising as it doesn’t look good for the government’s claim that they are trying to keep costs down for hardworking families.”

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