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Submission + - Russia vetoes U.N. resolution on nuclear weapons in space (spacenews.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Russia cast the only vote against the draft resolution that reaffirmed provisions in the Outer Space Treaty prohibiting the placement of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in space. Thirteen other members of the Security Council voted in favor of the resolution while China abstained. As a permanent member of the Security Council, though, Russia’s vote acted as a veto preventing adoption of the resolution.

The Outer Space Treaty already forbids those, so this is basically a symbolic move on both sides. But to the extent that the Outer Space Treaty's prohibition is weakening, the prospects for a nuclear Orion spaceship improve.

Submission + - Open Sourcing DOS 4 (hanselman.com)

Submitted by stikves
stikves writes: Microsoft releases one of the most popular versions of MS-DOS as open source today:

Ten years ago, Microsoft released the source for MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0 to the Computer History Museum, and then later republished them for reference purposes. This code holds an important place in history and is a fascinating read of an operating system that was written entirely in 8086 assembly code nearly 45 years ago.

Today, in partnership with IBM and in the spirit of open innovation, we're releasing the source code to MS-DOS 4.00 under the MIT license. There's a somewhat complex and fascinating history behind the 4.0 versions of DOS, as Microsoft partnered with IBM for portions of the code but also created a branch of DOS called Multitasking DOS that did not see a wide release.

https://github.com/microsoft/M...

Submission + - US 'Know Your Customer' Proposal Will Put an End to Anonymous Cloud Users (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Late January, the U.S. Department of Commerce published a notice of proposed rulemaking for establishing new requirements for Infrastructure as a Service providers (IaaS) . The proposal boils down to a 'Know Your Customer' regime for companies operating cloud services, with the goal of countering the activities of "foreign malicious actors." Yet, despite an overseas focus, Americans won't be able to avoid the proposal's requirements, which covers CDNs, virtual private servers, proxies, and domain name resolution services, among others. [...] Under the proposed rule, Customer Identification Programs (CIPs) operated by IaaS providers must collect information from both existing and prospective customers, i.e. those at the application stage of opening an account. The bare minimum includes the following data: a customer’s name, address, the means and source of payment for each customer’s account, email addresses and telephone numbers, and IP addresses used for access or administration of the account.

What qualifies as an IaaS is surprisingly broad: "Any product or service offered to a consumer, including complimentary or “trial” offerings, that provides processing, storage, networks, or other fundamental computing resources, and with which the consumer is able to deploy and run software that is not predefined, including operating systems and applications. The consumer typically does not manage or control most of the underlying hardware but has control over the operating systems, storage, and any deployed applications. The term is inclusive of “managed” products or services, in which the provider is responsible for some aspects of system configuration or maintenance, and “unmanaged” products or services, in which the provider is only responsible for ensuring that the product is available to the consumer."

And it doesn’t stop there. The term IaaS includes all ‘virtualized’ products and services where the computing resources of a physical machine are shared, such as Virtual Private Servers (VPS). It even covers ‘baremetal’ servers allocated to a single person. The definition also extends to any service where the consumer does not manage or control the underlying hardware but contracts with a third party for access. “This definition would capture services such as content delivery networks, proxy services, and domain name resolution services,” the proposal reads. The proposed rule, National Emergency with Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities, will stop accepting comments from interested parties on April 30, 2024.

Submission + - South Korean military set to ban iPhones over 'security' concerns (straitstimes.com)

Submitted by Kitkoan
Kitkoan writes: South Korea’s military is considering a comprehensive ban on iPhones in military buildings due to increasing concerns about possible leaks of sensitive information through voice recordings, according to multiple sources on April 23.

The sources, a group of ranking officers who wished to speak on condition of anonymity, said that the Air Force headquarters released an internal announcement on the military’s intranet server on April 11, instructing a complete prohibition on any device capable of voice recording and which does not permit third-party apps to control inherent functions, effective June 1, with iPhones cited as items subject to the ban.

According to the document, the decision to ban iPhones in the military came from joint meetings held by the headquarters of the army, navy and air force, located at Gyeryongdae in South Chungcheong province.

Comment Culture is more than quaint food. (Score 1) 145

by couchslug (#64424166) Attached to: 'The Man Who Killed Google Search'

India is a mess because of its culture or its citizens would have
no reason to flee to the US and rest of world.

Emigration is flight, an act of desperation, and in this case undermines Western culture to no benefit to the recipient. Anyone imagining all cultures interchange should move there and test that belief.

Submission + - Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 'Noble Numbat' Officially Released (9to5linux.com) 1

Submitted by prisoninmate
prisoninmate writes: 9to5Linux reports: "Powered by Linux kernel 6.8, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS features the latest GNOME 46 desktop environment, an all-new graphical firmware update tool called Firmware Updater, Netplan 1.0 for state-of-the-art network management, updated Ubuntu font, support for the deb822 format for software sources, increased vm.max_map_count for better gaming, and Mozilla Thunderbird as a Snap by default."

"Ubuntu 24.04 LTS also comes with an updated Flutter-based graphical desktop installer that’s now capable of updating itself and features a bunch of changes like support for accessibility features, guided (unencrypted) ZFS installations, a new option to import autoinstall configurations for templated custom provisioning, as well as new default installation options, such as Default selection (previously Minimal) and Extended selection (previously Normal)."

Submission + - Driving Dystopia: Connected Vehicle Data Now Up For Grabs By Intel Agencies (thetruthaboutcars.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Connected vehicles now appear to be on the table as a new vector for government surveillance. On Saturday, President Joe Biden signed a bill that reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after the Senate passed it late on Friday (60-34).

The bill saw overwhelming support from Democrat legislators and sufficient Republican backing to be pushed through. Any amendments floated that were intended to shield American citizens from getting scooped up in the net without the government first procuring a warrant were struck down while it was still moving through the House earlier in the week.

Section 702 of FISA is supposed to be a way to quickly gather intel on the communications of foreign individuals. However, it’s long been criticized as being repeatedly abused as a way to push through warrantless spying and the latest incarnation seems to be written to do exactly that. While reauthorization was still under consideration in Congress, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) argued that FISA had been improperly used over 278,000 times by the federal government, often violating the rights of U.S. citizens.

"The original intent of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was to be able to gather information on bad foreign actors," she said. "However, as we have seen over the years, the program has been abused to spy on American citizens in direct violation of American liberty and the 4th Amendment. The FISA court found that the federal government violated its own rules over 278,000 times."

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) likewise opposed the bill, stating it effectively forced any business or person who has the ability to record or store electronic communications to spy on behalf of the federal intelligence agencies. In fact, the bill itself states “any other service provider who has access to equipment that is being or may be used to transmit or store wire or electronic communication” is now legally obligated to comply with clandestine communications monitoring on behalf of said agencies. Wyden claimed that would include “anyone with access to a server, a wire, a cable box, a Wi-Fi router, a phone, or a computer.”

It would also include automakers, who now possess some of the world’s largest data centers that compile the immense amount of information produced by today’s connected cars — many of which now incorporate in-cabin microphones and expansive camera arrays. All of that is now appears to be up for grabs, along with the vehicle's positional data and any calls or text made while using it. Moreover, without any need for warrants, there would be no record of who is being spied on or on what grounds. Intelligence agencies can effectively deputize any business or individual for an impromptu surveillance program and then force them to remain quiet about it.

Submission + - California lawmakers approve bill to make you show ID for online porn (sacbee.com) 1

Submitted by sarren1901
sarren1901 writes: Look at online porn? Soon, you might have to provide a credit card or government ID in order to do so. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers on the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee last week sided with conservative religious organizations against LGBTQ, reproductive health and civil liberty advocacy groups and voted unanimously in favor of AB 3080, a bill by Assemblyman Juan Alanis, R-Modesto, that would require pornographic websites “to take reasonable steps to ensure” that only adults are looking at them.

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/po...

Submission + - Windows vulnerability reported by the NSA exploited to install Russian malware (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by echo123
echo123 writes: Kremlin-backed hackers have been exploiting a critical Microsoft vulnerability for four years in attacks that targeted a vast array of organizations with a previously undocumented tool, the software maker disclosed Monday.

When Microsoft patched the vulnerability in October 2022—at least two years after it came under attack by the Russian hackers—the company made no mention that it was under active exploitation. As of publication, the company’s advisory still made no mention of the in-the-wild targeting. Windows users frequently prioritize the installation of patches based on whether a vulnerability is likely to be exploited in real-world attacks.

On Monday, Microsoft revealed that a hacking group tracked under the name Forest Blizzard has been exploiting CVE-2022-38028 since at least June 2020—and possibly as early as April 2019. The threat group—which is also tracked under names including APT28, Sednit, Sofacy, GRU Unit 26165, and Fancy Bear—has been linked by the US and the UK governments to Unit 26165 of the Main Intelligence Directorate, a Russian military intelligence arm better known as the GRU. Forest Blizzard focuses on intelligence gathering through the hacking of a wide array of organizations, mainly in the US, Europe, and the Middle East.

Microsoft representatives didn't respond to an email asking why the in-the-wild exploits are being reported only now.

Monday’s advisory provided additional technical details:

Read the rest at ArsTechnica.

Submission + - Voyager 1 is sending data back to Earth for the first time in 5 months (cnn.com)

Submitted by Tony Isaac
Tony Isaac writes: Voyager 1 is once again communicating back to Earth and appears to be functioning normally. Kudos to those NASA engineers who figured out how to diagnose that a chip was defective, and rewrite its code to avoid using that chip entirely! I can just imagine what kind of spaghetti code that is by now, but they figured out how to get it to work. I guess V'ger isn't quite here yet!

Submission + - Two lifeforms merge into one organism for first time in a billion years (msn.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: For the first time in at least a billion years, two lifeforms have merged into a single organism.

The process, called primary endosymbiosis, has only happened twice in the history of the Earth, with the first time giving rise to all complex life as we know it through mitochondria. The second time that it happened saw the emergence of plants.

Now, an international team of scientists have observed the evolutionary event happening between a species of algae commonly found in the ocean and a bacterium.

Submission + - Voyager 1 resumes sending information (nasa.gov)

Submitted by quonset
quonset writes: Just over two weeks ago, NASA figured out why its Voyager 1 spacecraft stopped sending useful data. They suspected corrupted memory in its flight data system (FDS) was the culprit. Today, for the first time since November, Voyager 1 is sending useful data about its health and the status of its onboard systems back to NASA. How did NASA accomplish this feat of long distance repair? They broke up the code into smaller pieces and redistributed them throughout the memory. From NASA:

So they devised a plan to divide the affected code into sections and store those sections in different places in the FDS. To make this plan work, they also needed to adjust those code sections to ensure, for example, that they all still function as a whole. Any references to the location of that code in other parts of the FDS memory needed to be updated as well.

The team started by singling out the code responsible for packaging the spacecraft’s engineering data. They sent it to its new location in the FDS memory on April 18. A radio signal takes about 22 ½ hours to reach Voyager 1, which is over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, and another 22 ½ hours for a signal to come back to Earth. When the mission flight team heard back from the spacecraft on April 20, they saw that the modification worked: For the first time in five months, they have been able to check the health and status of the spacecraft.

During the coming weeks, the team will relocate and adjust the other affected portions of the FDS software. These include the portions that will start returning science data.

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