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Submission + - Soon-to-be dad's starry DIY nursery project goes viral (ezcashcreator.com)

Submitted by Sinisa Jovicic
Sinisa Jovicic writes: Soon-to-be dad's starry DIY nursery project goes viral On January 30, Brian d’Arcy of Philadelphia posted an animated GIF of his latest project to Reddit (see above), saying, “My wife and I are expecting our first son in June so I decided to install a fiber-optic star ceiling in the nursery I am building!” Fellow Redditors' prodding for how-to shots led Brian to create the subsequent Imgur album, My Son’s Star Ceiling, which has garnered some 300,000 views in a week.

Submission + - Do Data Breaches Count as Negligent Security? (tumblr.com)

Submitted by Andrewiston
Andrewiston writes: There was a time when ‘negligent security’ primarily referred to preventable security breaches at brick-and-mortar locations, but not anymore. The recent data breaches of major US retailers Target and Neiman Marcus show that cybercrime is leading to a type of personal injury or professional malpractice (financial loss) for consumers, and it’s the retailers’ responsibility to take the necessary steps to protect their customers.

Submission + - A Modest Proposal, re: Beta vs. Classic 19

Submitted by unitron
unitron writes: Dice wants to make money off of what they paid for--the Slashdot name--, or rather they want to make more money off of it than they are making now, and they think the best way to do that is to turn it into SlashingtonPost.

They should take this site and give it a new name. Or get Malda to let them use "Chips & Dips".

Leave everything else intact, archives, user ID database, everything except the name.

Then use the Beta code and start a new site and give it the slashdot.org name, and they can have what they want without the embarrassment of having the current userbase escape from the basement or the attic and offend the sensibilities of the yuppies or hipsters or metrosexuals or whoever it is that they really want for an "audience".

Submission + - /. Beta comments don't work, users upset. (slashdot.org) 4

Submitted by magic maverick
magic maverick writes: Since the new /. Beta came to light, many /. users and commentators have tried it out. However, they are almost universally condemning the new commenting system. It simply isn't as good as the so called Classic system. Some users, however, haven't a bad thing to say. Mainly because they haven't had a chance to even use the new system. It simply doesn't load. One user, Magic Maverick , who lives in a third-world country with crappy Internet, had this to say:

I come to /. for the comments, but with the new Beta, I can't even see anything! It just says:

''Shazbot! We ran into some trouble getting the comments. Try again... na-nu, na-nu!

It seems like the "developers" need to take some advice from people who actually know what they are doing. I'm happy to help explain what graceful degradation means if they like...

Submission + - Dice Holdings, Inc, deleting unflattering stories from Slashdot firehose 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Stories submitted to the Slashdot firehose that take a negative view on the site's redesign are being deleted. 4 hours ago, it was full of anti-beta posts. Now they are gone. That's right. A forum that usually leaves V14GRA spam in place for posterity is deleting user content.

Submission + - "Honey Encryption" to Bamboozle Attackers with Fake Secrets

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Tom Simonite writes at MIT Technology Review that security researcher Ari Juels says that trickery is the missing component from the cryptography protecting sensitive data and proposes a new encryption system with a devious streak. It gives encrypted data an additional layer of protection by serving up fake data in response to every incorrect guess of the password or encryption key. If the attacker does eventually guess correctly, the real data should be lost amongst the crowd of spoof data. The new approach could be valuable given how frequently large encrypted stashes of sensitive data fall into the hands of criminals. Some 150 million usernames and passwords were taken from Adobe servers in October 2013, for example. If an attacker uses software to make 10,000 attempts to decrypt a credit card number, for example, they would get back 10,000 different fake credit card numbers. “Each decryption is going to look plausible,” says Juels. “The attacker has no way to distinguish a priori which is correct.” Juels previously worked with Ron Rivest, the “R” in RSA, to develop a system called Honey Words to protect password databases by also stuffing them with false passwords. Juels says that by now enough password dumps have leaked online to make it possible to create fakes that accurately mimic collections of real passwords and is currently working on creating the fake password vault generator needed for Honey Encryption to be used to protect password managers. This generator will draw on data from a small collection of leaked password manager vaults, several large collections of leaked passwords, and a model of real-world password use built into a powerful password cracker. "Honeywords and honey-encryption represent some of the first steps toward the principled use of decoys, a time-honored and increasingly important defense in a world of frequent, sophisticated, and damaging security breaches."

Submission + - Edward Snowden Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Submitted by SmartAboutThings
SmartAboutThings writes: Edward Snowden has a chance of getting the 2014 Nobel Peace Price, as two Norwegian members of the Parliament have nominated him – Baard Vegard Solhjell, a former environment minister and Snorre Valen. For those who don't know, the Nobel prize has been running since 1901 and is awarded annually in Oslo, Norway. So, the fact that members of the Norwegian Parliament have proposed him for the Nobel Peace Prize could improve his chance of winning. After all, if Obama got this prize, why wouldn't Snowden get it?

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Tips For a Brand-New Linux User? 1

Submitted by Maxus Atom
Maxus Atom writes: So, I've recently been given a 2007 ThinkPad installed with Ubuntu 13.10. I'm pretty knowledgeable about the computers, I'm fluent in two coding languages (Lua and JavaScript), but when I look at Ubuntu, though I've gotten pretty far on my own, I'd like to know if I'm missing anything. I've been prowling the forums learning how to use it, but it seems people don't really respond to my questions on Absolute Beginners. I'd like to know what there is for me to optimize my Ubuntu experience.

Submission + - Keyless Remote Jamming 1

Submitted by Chicago Bill
Chicago Bill writes: Some time ago I was having a problem with my keyless transmitter at a particular location. I just had it installed a week prior. I locked my vehicle with my manual key and went into a local music store. I contacted a friend and told him that there would be a slight delay in meeting him because I needed to stop by the place where I had the wireless lock/alarm installed because it wasn't working. Low and behold, the store manager overheard my conversation and told me that everyone has the same problem when they are parked in the vicinity of the music store. After leaving the store, I stopped at another location and my wireless controller began to work. Later that week I went back to the music store with my portable scanner and checked the operational frequency of my unit at 434 mhz. There I found a very strong signal. The manager allowed me to check inside the store, and as he was turning off breakers, the signal stopped. It was discovered that a remote wireless light controller module in the store was sending out the signal. I was told that the particular unit that was causing the problem was discontinued. The manager gave me a brochure on this particular unit and I discovered otherwise. Most vehicle key controllers operate ate 434 and 315 mhz. The case in Hollywood, Florida a few years ago was caused by a pirate radio station nearby operating at 104.7mhz. The 3rd harmonic of 104.7 is 314.1 mhz, and if close enough, would have been received on a cheap scanner.

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