Comment Re:Viruses don't live (Score 1) 321
Is this the Matrix? Cuz if it is, we're a virus too. And I'm pretty sure that I'm alive...
Submission + - Climate modeling
CPerdue writes: From MIT,
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24079/
"Climatologists are only beginning to model the role that water vapor plays in atmospheric circulation. But the early results are surprising."
Translation; all the climate change models are wrong. We have no clue how the single biggest factor in atmospheric temperature actually behaves.
Comment Re:Cleaning the uncleanable? (Score 2, Insightful) 139
While you are arguing semantics (symantecs, lol) between hackers and crackers, I think you strongly, strongly overestimate the ability of the general populace to rise to this specific occasion.
Technology has developed at such an accelerated rate that there are few, at the least, who really know how things work. I think I've stated this before in another article, but to most people, computers are virtually magic. The level of understanding and specific knowledge required to do so is so in-depth that really, the only people who do so are those in the computer field. While that is a generalization, it also happens to be a fairly accurate one.
On to your politics argument: this is not a life or death scenario where the driving force is necessitated by a resolution. I'm not sure that the internet has reached a specific state of critical mass that requires the general populace to solve this issue. And as such, the majority of people will remain ignorant so long as they can check their email and post their tweets.
As I said, it is a novel idea to be proactive, but the suggested method is akin to trying to catch the wind with your bare hands.
Comment Cleaning the uncleanable? (Score 3, Interesting) 139
I think, ultimately, that the internet will never be cleaned up. It is very idealistic to think there are a finite number of hackers and that their methods will not become more and more sophisticated as time goes by.
The kind of "cleaned up" internet that these companies talk about requires STRICT regulation and STRICT monitoring. It is very apparent, from just the audience that posts on Slashdot, that regulation is the exact opposite of what people want.
As far as the approach, the idea of a proactive anti-virus is novel, but I think the idea of recruiting novices to help hunt expert hackers is ludicrous. All it would take is a couple of reprisals from the hackers to permanently deter the said novice from going after a hacker.
Comment Hate speech serves no purpose (Score 2, Insightful) 651
Hate speech, especially published hate speech, serves no purpose other than to degrade, criminalize or deter a particular person, race, or gender.
The real issue is people worrying about giving censorship a foot and they'll take a mile.
Comment Re:How to do a much shorter article next time (Score 3, Insightful) 171
He's not saying the future shouldn't have conflict, he's saying that future doesn't need to always emphasize how horrible EVERYTHING will turn out to be.
That's why people like Star Trek movies, they have conflict, but at the same time, they point out that the future can be bright, technology can be helpful, people can be happy and life is worth living.
Back to the main topic, corridors - they are cheap for filming. That probably influenced the reason to use them more than a necessity in "Sci-Fi" films. I recommend Cube if you'd like to see the minimalist set (hint: it's a cube and not a corridor).
Comment It's right next to the place where... (Score 1) 231
The sun don't shine.
Comment This is not as outlandish as it sounds... (Score 2, Insightful) 853
I don't think this is really that outlandish. Considering that the Obama administration has recently appointed new chairs for the Internet or the number of posts, on Slashdot alone, that talk about how internet security is the new method for waging wars, what about this is surprising people?
No one likes the idea of losing freedoms during peace times, but the second something terrible happens, people will throw it away for a blanket.
Let's face it, the majority of people out there have no idea how a computer works. It is essentially magic to them. They don't know what a "Zombie" computer is or that they are possibly assisting in a DDOS attack. The government may need to act and unfortunately they won't be able to discern who is a good computer user and who is not, so everyone is going to get cut.
Comment Scapegoat? Propaganda? Never! (Score 1) 420
This is probably just the beginning of a downward spiral. Soon, the government will be spouting off propaganda about how Western Civilization seems to be the country's downfall.
OR this could just be a big move to recruit more soccer players... probably not.
WPA Encryption Cracked In 60 Seconds 322
carusoj writes "Computer scientists in Japan say they've developed a way to break the WPA encryption system used in wireless routers in about one minute. Last November, security researchers first showed how WPA could be broken, but the Japanese researchers have taken the attack to a new level. The earlier attack worked on a smaller range of WPA devices and took between 12 and 15 minutes to work. Both attacks work only on WPA systems that use the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) algorithm. They do not work on newer WPA 2 devices or on WPA systems that use the stronger Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm."
Submission + - Hackers send malware-infected CDs to credit unions (threatpost.com) 2
redsoxh8r writes: Online criminals have taken to a decidedly low-tech method for distributing the latest batch of targeted malware: mailing infected CDs to credit unions . The discs have been showing up at credit unions around the country recently, a throwback to the days when viruses and Trojans were distributed via floppy disk. The scam is elegant in its simplicity. The potential thieves are mailing letters that purport to come from the National Credit Union Administration, the federal agency that charters and insures credit unions, and including two CDs in the package. The letter is a fake fraud alert from the NCUA, instructing recipients to review the training materials contained on the discs. However, the CDs are loaded with malware rather than training programs.
Submission + - New attack breaks WPA WiFi crypto in 1 minute (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: "First it was WEP, then TKIP and now WPA. A pair of Japanese researchers have developed a new technique for decrypting wireless packets encrypted with WPA , the most common wireless encryption protocol, in about a minute. The attack is an improvement on an existing technique and makes it simple for attackers to sniff and then crack supposedly secure wireless traffic. Threatpost.com reports: "The attack builds on the work done earlier by another pair of researchers who found a way to break the WPA encryption protocol that is used on many WiFi routers. Known as the Beck-Tews attack, the method involved making minor changes to packets encrypted with TKIP, a predecessor to WPA, and then sending the packets back to the access point. The vulnerability was in the way that the checksum was used. However, the attack required a significant amount of time to execute, as much as 15 minutes, making it somewhat impractical to execute in the real world. The newer attack, developed by Toshihiro Ohigashi and Masakatu Morii, improves on the Beck-Tews attack and lowers the amount of time needed to execute it to about one minute.""
Submission + - SCI-FI? China admits death row organ use (bbc.co.uk) 3
h.ross.perot writes: Like a page from Larry Niven's Known Space series, here is a real report of Criminals organs being harvested for "profit"
From the article:
China is trying to move away from the use of executed prisoners as the major source of organs for transplants.
According to the China Daily newspaper, executed prisoners currently provide two-thirds of all transplant organs.
The government is now launching a voluntary donation scheme, which it hopes will also curb the illegal trafficking in organs.
But analysts say cultural bias against removing organs after death will make a voluntary scheme hard to implement.
Submission + - FSF Attacks Windows 7's 'Sins' In New Campaign (computerworld.com) 1
CWmike writes: "The Free Software Foundation today launched a campaign against Microsoft Corp.'s upcoming Windows 7 operating system, calling it "treacherous computing" that stealthily takes away rights from users. At the Web site Windows7Sins.org, the Boston-based FSF lists the seven "sins" that proprietary software such as Windows 7 commits against computer users. They include: Poisoning education, locking in users, abusing standards such as OpenDocument Format (ODF), leveraging monopolistic behavior, threatening user security, enforcing Digital Rights Management (DRM) at the request of entertainment companies concerned about movie and music piracy, and invading privacy. "Windows, for some time now, has really been a DRM platform, restricting you from making copies of digital files," said executive director Peter Brown. And if Microsoft's Trusted Computing technology were fully implemented the way the company would like, the vendor would have "malicious and really complete control over your computer.""
Comment Re:Government Support Malware... Great... (Score 0) 114
I think you're missing the point. Releasing the source code for a piece of software can have more impact than analyzing how to defeat it.
In this particular case, releasing methods for breaching firewalls and infecting computers can create problems for a MYRIAD of software developers. Not to mention that it might help people trying to develop their own hazardous software.
I think the community all to often associates "Open Source" with all that is good and shiny without fully analyzing the repercussions of publishing the code. Think about it, if Windows, for some unknown reason, suddenly decided to go Open Source, there would be ABSOLUTE MAYHEM. Caps for emphasis.
