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Botnet

Symantec Finds Server Containing 44 Million Stolen Gaming Credentials 146

Posted by Soulskill from the who-wants-to-buy-a-level-80-paladin dept.
A Symantec blog post reports that the company recently stumbled upon a server hosting the stolen credentials for 44 million game accounts. It goes on to explain how the owners of the server made use of a botnet to process that mountain of data: "Now it's time to turn those gaming credentials into hard cash. But how do you find out which credentials are valid and thus worth some money? Three options come to mind: 1) Log on to gaming websites 44 million times! 2) Write a program to log in to the websites and check for you (this would take months). 3) Write a program that checks the login details and then distribute the program to multiple computers. Option one naturally seems next to impossible. Option two is also not very feasible, since websites typically block IP addresses after multiple failed login attempts. By taking advantage of the distributed processing that the third option offers, you can complete the task more quickly and help mitigate the multiple-login failure problems by spreading the task over more IP addresses. This is what Trojan.Loginck's creators have done."

Submission + - GPS-based air traffic control system taking off (skunkpost.com)

Submitted by crimeandpunishment
crimeandpunishment writes: Many drivers can't get along without their GPS. Soon pilots and air traffic controllers may be the same way. The Obama administration has given airlines the green light to moving toward a GPS-based air traffic control system. The new system will let pilots see the same aircraft location displays that controllers see, along with other aircraft on the ground. It's expected to take at least a decade before the new system is complete. The new equipment will cost up to $4 billion to install...which airlines and small plane owners say they can't afford.
Security

Submission + - Adobe May Change to Monthly Patch Cycle (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Adobe, which has been under fire for the security of its flagship products, Flash and Reader, for some time now, may be on the verge of changing its patching process to push fixes out on a monthly schedule, which would coincide with Microsoft's monthly Patch Tuesday releases. The change would be the second major adjustment to Adobe's patching process in the last year or so. In 2009 the company moved to a scheduled quarterly patch release process in an effort to give its customers a better chance to plan for testing and deployment. That change was generally well-received and Adobe has been releasing its patches on the same day as Microsoft's Patch Tuesday. Now Adobe may change the schedule again in order to get patches out more quickly. The company is considering releasing its security fixes for Reader on a monthly schedule, the same day as Microsoft releases its patches
Robotics

Submission + - Willow Garage Launches Era Of Open Source Robots (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by kkleiner
kkleiner writes: Last night open source robot company Willow Garage officially announced its pr2 robot to the world at its headquarters in Menlo Park, CA. Willow Garage founder Scott Hassan gave a speech on how his company is going to usher in a new era of robotic advancement. Eleven of Willow Garage's prized PR2 robots performed a synchronized flag dance that wowed the crowd. Demos of robot prowess were presented throughout the night and we were able to get up close to see the PR2 in all of its metallic and silicon glory. It is no exaggeration to say that Willow Garage is about to revolutionize the field of robotics. Still not convinced? Check out a highlight video of Willow Garage's ambitious open source initiative.
Games

Submission + - Blizzard Boss Says DRM Is A Waste Of Time (thinq.co.uk) 2

Submitted by Stoobalou
Stoobalou writes: Blizzard founder, Frank Pearce reckons that fighting piracy with DRM is a losing battle.

His company — which is responsible for the biggest videogame of all time, the worryingly-addictive online fantasy role player World of Warcraft — is to release Starcraft 2 on July 27th and Pearce has told Videogamer that the title won't be hobbled with the kind of crazy copy protection schemes which have made Ubisoft very unpopular in gaming circles of late.

Starcraft 2 will require a single online activation using the company's Battle.net servers, after which players will be allowed to play the single-player game to their hearts' content, without being forced to have a persistent Internet connection.
The Military

Submission + - USAF Vehicle Breaks Record for Hypersonic Flight (go.com)

Submitted by s122604
s122604 writes: Defense consortium hypersonic vehicle breaks a record:
"Its scramjet engine accelerated the vehicle to Mach 6, and it flew autonomously for 200 seconds before losing acceleration. At that point the test was terminated. The Air Force said the previous record for a hypersonic scramjet burn was 12 seconds.
Joe Vogel, Boeing's director of hypersonics, said, "This is a new world record and sets the foundation for several hypersonic applications, including access to space, reconnaissance, strike, global reach and commercial transportation."
With this and the X-47B, there seems to be a renewed interest in extreme performance (in terms of flight envelope) vehicles..
The Media

Submission + - Taylor Momsen Did Not Write This Slashdot Headline

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "David Carr writes that headlines in newspapers and magazines were once written with readers in mind, to be clever or catchy or evocative but now headlines are just there to get the search engines to notice. Hence the headline for this story that includes a prized key word for one of the "Gossip Girls" — just the thing to push this slashdot summary to the top of Google rankings. "All of the things that make headlines meaningful in print — photographs, placement and context — are nowhere in sight on the Web," writes Carr. Headlines have become, as Gabriel Snyder, the recently appointed executive editor of Newsweek.com, says, “naked little creatures that have to go out into the world to stand and fight on their own.” In this context, “Jon Stewart Slams Glenn Beck” is the ideal headline, guaranteed to pull in thousands of pageviews. And while nobody is suggesting that the Web should somehow accommodate the glories of The New York Post's headlines in that paper’s prime, some of its classics would still work. "Remember “Headless Body in Topless Bar,” perhaps the most memorable New York Post headline ever? It’s direct, it’s descriptive, and it’s oh-so-search-engine-friendly. And not a Taylor Momsen in sight.""
Media

Submission + - Odd Piracy: Sewing Patterns to Ship Hull Designs (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: Video, music, games and even books are well known pirated materials but Ars is covering four really odd industries that claim to be suffering from digital piracy over P2P networks. They are sewing patterns, boat hull designs, sheet music and electronic embroidery files. These industries already suffered from knockoffs before the internet so it seems intuitive that the piracy and copying of designs or sheet music would continue as technology progressed. Does anyone know of oddly popular digitalized items to pirate that would be the last thing you would find on a P2P network?
Privacy

Submission + - 60% of Facebook Users Consider Leaving Over Privac (net-security.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Will changes to Facebook's privacy settings be enough to address user concerns? A poll of 1588 Facebook users conducted by Sophos has revealed the extent of member concerns over the popular social network's privacy settings. The online survey shows that almost two thirds of Facebook users are considering leaving, with 16% of those polled claiming to have already stopped using Facebook as a result of inadequate control over their data.

Submission + - First Anarchist's Cookbook Convictions (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by analysethis
analysethis writes: In the UK last month the author/compiler of the well-known-in-internet-circles 'terrorist handbook' pleaded guilty to seven counts of collecting information that could have been used to prepare or commit acts of terrorism, with a maximum jail term of 10 years. Today the first people caught with downloaded copies have been put behind bars — a white supremacist father and son pairing getting 10 & 2 years respectively, convicted of three counts of possessing material useful for acts of terror. How many will be emptying their recycle bins after this conviction?

As of writing, the book is still freely available on Amazon.com to buy.
Earth

Submission + - SketchUp Helps Community Build School in Guatemala

Submitted by
Peace Corps Online
Peace Corps Online writes: "Jim Fanjoy, an architect in the Peace Corps, has been using Google SketchUp for a school project in Guatemala using the models to help communicate with members of his team and to help bridge the language barrier between his design group and the local work force because the renderings SketchUp produces are easily understandable by laypeople. "In the US, we've spent centuries formalizing a system of presenting design data, and everyone in the construction industry has been trained to read plans, sections, and elevations," says Fanjoy. "In the third world, though, most construction is done by semi-literate craftsmen with a good intuitive sense of what works, but no experience with drawings." Fanjoy decided to present the entire set of drawings in a non-traditional way that could be understood by the work crew using axonometric and three-point projections, carefully placed section cuts, and a lot of layers to show how the building would look during different phases of construction. "Since SketchUp can be found in almost any design office, it also makes a good communication medium between consultants," says Fanjoy. "I emailed my SketchUp model to an engineer in the US, to get his feedback on a few structural issues." Fanjoy has worked closely with the community to determine their needs, and regularly checks on the construction to make everything is being done properly. "Watching the Director of the school unloading building materials from the truck, the students (boys and girls) with their mothers carrying heavy building materials from the truck to the warehouse, and fathers digging the foundation, one sees that this school is not a hand-out, but a true partnership between the community and Computers for Guatemala.""

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