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Comment Misplaced Hysteria (Score 1) 445

by thatblackguy (#23196174) Attached to: Google Turns Over Data on Suspected Pedophiles In Brazil
"Google released a statement yesterday saying it was complying with the Brazilian court orders following a ruling Thursday by a Brazilian judge that threatened Google with a fine of $23,000 a day for noncompliance." from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR2006090100608.html They had a court order, it was fine. No need to get all pissy about it.
Security

Submission + - VM-based rootkits proved easily detectable (stanford.edu)

Submitted by paleshadows
paleshadows writes: A year and a half has passed since SubVirt, the first VMM (virtual machine monitor) based rootkit, was introduced. The idea spawned two lively slashdot discussions: the first, which followed the initial report about SubVirt, and the second, which was conducted after Joanna Rutkowska has recycled the idea (apparently without giving credit to the initial authors). Conversely, in this year's HotOS workshop, researchers from Stanford, CMU, VMware, and XenSource have published a paper titled " Compatibility Is Not Transparency: VMM Detection Myths and Realities" which shows that VMM-based rootkits are actually easily detectable. The introduction of the paper explains that

"While commodity VMMs conform to the PC architecture, virtual implementations of this architecture differ substantially from physical implementations. These differences are not incidental: performance demands and practical engineering limitations necessitate divergences (sometimes radical ones) from native hardware, both in semantics and performance. Consequently, we believe the potential for preventing VMM detection under close scrutiny is illusory — and fundamentally in conflict with the technical limitations of virtualized platforms."

The paper concludes by saying that

"Perhaps the most concise argument against the utility of VMBRs (VM-based rootkits) is: "Why bother?" VMBRs change the malware defender's problem from a very difficult one (discovering whether the trusted computing base of a system has been compromised), to the much easier problem of detecting a VMM."
Security

Submission + - Hackers Unite For Burmese Freedom (thesietch.org)

Submitted by
farnishk
farnishk writes: "The Burmese military government (junta) has held 50 million Burmese people under an iron fist for 20 years, and effectively under a dictatorship since 1962. Free communication with the outside world is strictly controlled and filtered, and all media is effectively state controlled: "The state controls Burma's main broadcasters and publications. For the most part, the media are propaganda tools and tend not to report opposing views except to criticise them. Editors and reporters are answerable to the military authorities." (BBC News) Bloggers and other cyber activists within Burma risk their lives by publishing any information counter to the government line, but they still do it because they believe that freedom of expression is worth that sacrifice. You don't have to make such a sacrifice, but if you have computer skills, can breach firewalls, routers and web site security then you could greatly assist the people of Burma. By taking down official Burmese government propaganda and posting pictures, information about the protests, information about the lies of the Burmese junta, and news of the huge support being offered by the rest of the world — preferably in Burmese — then you could help free the people from this terrible regime. The suggested targets — which are perfectly legal to hack into from most countries — are listed on the page http://www.blog.thesietch.org/2007/09/29/hackers-unite-for-burmese-freedom/."
Programming

Submission + - How to be a better programmer without college 1

Submitted by Joshua_15
Joshua_15 writes: I've worked as a developer for about 10 years now. I have several certifications but not a lot of college or computer science training. What options are out there for those of us who can not afford to go to college (or do not have the time) to pick up on some more advanced programming and computer science principles? How do you go from self taught programmer to kernel hacker? What comes after teach yourself PHP in 24 hours?
Security

Submission + - Oft-Burglarized Store Uses Hidden GPS (wpxi.com)

Submitted by dave981
dave981 writes: This story takes RFID tag security to the next level — GPS tags that call home: After five burglaries at his store this summer, Chris Rowland decided to plant Global Positioning System devices in some of his merchandise. The decision paid off with burglary No. 6. The devices informed Rowland that the stolen items were at an apartment complex less than half a mile from his store. Later, the devices showed the merchandise had been moved to a house in Lawrence. Rowland called police, who recovered the merchandise.
Linux Business

Submission + - OpenSource Revenue Model Flawed 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If the standard revenue model for OpenSource software is to charge for the support of the software, what incentive is there to produce truly reliable products? Obviously if the software worked perfectly and easily there would be little need for product support.
Competition alone is clearly not enough to ensure companies pursue perfection. As the current closed source market shows, consumers are more than happy to use buggy, poorly designed wares as long as its familiar and common place.
Intel

Submission + - End of Moore's Law in 10-15 years? (wired.com) 1

Submitted by
javipas
javipas writes: "In 1965 Gordon Moore — Intel's co-founder — predicted that the number of transistors on integrated circuits would double every two years. Moore's Law has been with us for over 40 years, but it seems that the limits of microelectronics are now not that far from us. Moore has predicted the end of his own law in 10 to 15 years, but he predicted that end before, and failed."
Biotech

Submission + - Researcher plans on sperm-based LEDs (uc.edu)

Submitted by Wandalf
Wandalf writes: A press release by the University of Cincinnati reveals that professor Andrew Steckl, in his search for top quality biological material used for LED technology suggested salmon sperm as trap in LEDs. "Biological materials have many technologically important qualities — electronic, optical, structural, magnetic," says Steckl. "But certain materials are hard for to duplicate, such as DNA and proteins." In his search for a source that's widely available, and not subject to any organization or country he suggested salmon sperm, which is considered a waste product.
NASA

Submission + - NASA posts ancient FORTRAN code, buffs up data

Submitted by
chicomarxbro
chicomarxbro writes: "A Y2K error discovered by blogger Steve McIntyre in August forced NASA's climate chief James Hansen revise temperature data showing 1934 was actually the hottest year on record, not 1998 as previously announced. This spurred renewed calls for NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) to publicly release their historical FORTRAN code which powered the global temperature analyses. Still used today, the code has a lineage going back to the 70's. NASA finally agreed and published the code but not before making an unannounced change to the raw temperature data which bundled with the code. NASA's change to raw data collating methods. which hadn't been modified in over a decade, resulted in 1998 being put back in first place next to 1934. Some bloggers have called this stealthy revision of the raw data an "Enron like accounting game""
Communications

Submission + - Cellular masts are "safe", study finds (zdnet.co.uk)

Submitted by
superglaze
superglaze writes: "One of the biggest studies of the potential ill health effects of cellular phone masts has just been completed. The University of Essex in England has for the last 3 years been studying the issue, and has found that any short-term effects are all in the mind. As for longer term effects (like cancer or genetic mutation) the jury is still out, but this should at least put to rest the claims of those who are allegedly suffering anxiety, nausea and tiredness as a result of the masts."
The Internet

Submission + - Test Whether ISPs Are Modifying Your Web Pages (washington.edu)

Submitted by csreis
csreis writes: Last month we learned that "Some ISPs are resorting to a new tactic to increase revenue: inserting advertisements into web pages requested by their end users." Have you wondered how often this is happening? And whether it's happened to you? The University of Washington security and privacy group and ICSI have created a measurement infrastructure to help answer these questions. Please come visit our site and help out with our experiments. In the process, we'll help you figure out if some "party in the middle" (like your ISP) might be modifying your web content in flight. We plan to share our overall results with the public.
Networking

Submission + - Last-Minute Senate Amendment to appease RIAA

Submitted by Rodrigo
Rodrigo writes: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has found the time to forget about fighting that pesty Iraq War and focus on the issues that really matter: making the influence of the RIAA and MPAA a mainstay in our college campuses. The EFF has put a call to arms against the proposed Senate amendment to the Higher Education Act. The amendment aims to force certain schools to police their network or risk losing federal funding for student aid. Naturally, this policing will come at the school's expense and through "technology-based deterrents," which raise privacy concerns. Please call your representatives and make sure they know what they're voting for under Senate Amendment 2314.

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