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Printer

Epson Is Trying To Kill the Printer Ink Cartridge 223

Posted by Soulskill from the print-with-lasers dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Inkjet printer cartridges have been the bane of many small businesses and home offices for decades. It's interesting, then, that Epson is trying something new: next month, they're launching a new line of printers that come with small tanks of ink, instead of cartridges. The tanks will be refilled using bottles of ink. They're reversing the economics, here: the printer itself will be more expensive, but the refills will be much cheaper. Early reports claim you'll be spending a tenth as much on ink as you were before, but we'll see how that shakes out. The Bloomberg article makes a good point: it's never been easier to not print things. The printer industry needs to innovate if it wants us to keep churning out printed documents, and this may be the first big step.

Submission + - Epson Trying To Kill the Printer Ink Cartridge (wsj.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Inkjet printer cartridges have been the bane of many small business es and home offices for decades. It's interesting, then, that Epson is trying something new: next month, they're launching a new line of printers that come with small tanks of ink, instead of cartridges. The tanks will be refilled using bottles of ink. They're reversing the economics, here: the printer itself will be more expensive, but the refills will be much cheaper. Early reports claim you'll be spending a tenth as much on ink as you were before, but we'll see how that shakes out. The Bloomberg article makes a good point: it's never been easier to not print things. The printer industry needs to innovate if it wants us to keep churning out printed documents, and this may be the first big step.
Government

FAA Has Approved More Than 1,000 Drone Exemptions 62

Posted by Soulskill from the filling-the-skies dept.
coondoggie writes: The Federal Aviation Administration today said it has issued 1,008 exemptions to businesses wanting to fly unmanned aircraft in the national airspace. Such small drones have been on the bad side of the news in the past few days: there have been at least three complaints about the diminutive aircraft flying near the flight path of JFK airport in New York. All three of the flights landed safely but the events prompted New York Senator Charles Schumer to call for "tougher FAA rules on drones," as well as geofencing software that could prohibit a done from flying higher than 500 feet, and keep it two miles away from any airport or sensitive area.

Submission + - Researchers Use ZigBee Sniffing Drone to Find, Fingerprint, and Map IoT Devices (praetorian.com)

Submitted by pjauregui
pjauregui writes: Today, security researchers at Praetorian released a new interactive map that showcases exposed and potentially vulnerable Internet of Things (IoT) devices in major cities. If you’re familiar with SHODAN, which allows you to search for open ports on industrial networks, Praetorian is applying a similar idea to IoT devices operating in residential, commercial, and industrial zones. The project just started, so right now it’s limited to Austin, but they’ve already mapped over 1,500 unique devices in that one city and the goal is to quickly expand this to other major metro areas across the US. They also show manufacturer statistics, such as how many Phillips Hue lighting devices were found in the sample set they released.

To do this, they’re using a customized IoT-hunting drone that’s specially equipped to ‘sniff’ out ZigBee IoT beacons. Once a device is discovered, it's then analyzed to determine its security settings, manufacturer ID, channel, extended source, and other unique attributes of the device. Here’s a link to the real-time map they have for the Austin area: https://www.praetorian.com/iotmap/

Based on the data released, security itself doesn't seem to be at the heart of the project at this point. At its core, the project is currently "driven by exploration" and discovery in the IoT space. Though it does appear that the project will take a heavier security-focus at some point:

According to Gartner, 4.9 billion connected things will be in use during 2015, up 30 percent from 2014, and will reach 25 billion by 2020. In today’s connected world, the perception of security risk alone, even if not realized, can still negatively impact consumer confidence necessary for new technologies to meet their full market potential. Recent, high-profile data breaches have heightened consumers’ awareness of data security and privacy issues. As a result, consumer adoption may suffer until vendors can adequately address security and privacy concerns. Joining the Internet of Things adds many new layers of complexity for any product environment. New technologies, existing technologies working together in new ways, limited standards, and competing protocols all add to the challenge of delivering a secure connected product to the market. From smart homes, connected lighting, smart grids and retail services to connected cars, industrial automation, and physical plant operation, Internet of Things security testing and assurance is critical for delivering and deploying secure connected products. We'll be sharing a lot more about IoT security as the project evolves.
Yahoo!

Hackers Exploit Adobe Flash Vulnerability In Yahoo Ads 77

Posted by Soulskill from the go-big-or-go-home dept.
vivaoporto notes a report that a group of hackers have used online ad networks to distribute malware over several of Yahoo's websites. The attack began on Tuesday, July 28, and was shut down on Monday, August 3. It was targeted at Yahoo's sports, finance, gaming, and news-related sites. Security firm Malwarebytes says the hackers exploited a Flash vulnerability to redirect users to the Angler Exploit Kit. "Attacks on advertising networks have been on the rise ... researchers say. Hackers are able to use the advertising networks themselves, built for targeting specific demographics of Internet users, to find vulnerable machines. While Yahoo acknowledged the attack, the company said that it was not nearly as big as Malwarebytes had portrayed it to be."
Social Networks

Facebook Allows Turkish Government To Set the Censorship Rules 121

Posted by timothy from the but-everyone-loves-the-king-of-thailand dept.
New submitter feylikurds writes: Facebook has been blocking and banning users for posting Kurdish or anti-Turkish material. Many screenshots exists of Facebook notifying people for such. You can insult any single historical figure that you like on Facebook except one: Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal 'Ataturk'. However, he should not receive special treatment and be protected from criticism, but rather should be treated and examined like everyone else. In order to be accessible within Turkey, Facebook has allowed the repressive Turkish government to set the censorship rules for billions of their users all around the globe. Facebook censors Kurds on behalf of Turkey. To show the world how unjust this policy is, this group discusses Facebook's censorship policy as it relates to Kurds (Facebook account required) and how to get Facebook to change its unfair and discriminatory policy. Makes re-reading Hossein Derakhshan's piece worth the time.
Botnet

Cleaning Up Botnets Takes Years, May Never Be Completed 74

Posted by timothy from the down-there-somewhere-let-me-take-another-look dept.
Once a botnet has taken root in a large pool of computers, truly expunging it from them may be a forlorn hope. That, writes itwbennett, is: the finding of researchers in the Netherlands who analyzed the efforts of the Conficker Working Group to stop the botnet and find its creators. Seven years later, there are still about 1 million computers around the world infected with the Conficker malware despite the years-long cleanup effort. 'These people that remain infected — they might remain infected forever,' said Hadi Asghari, assistant professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The research paper will be presented next week at the 24th USENIX Security Symposium in Washington, D.C. (And "Post-Mortem of a Zombie" is an exciting way to title a paper.)
Microsoft

Behind the Microsoft Write-Off of Nokia 200

Posted by timothy from the just-haven't-earned-it-yet-baby dept.
UnknowingFool writes: Previously Microsoft announced they had written off the Nokia purchase for $7.6B in the last quarter. In doing so, Microsoft would create only the third unprofitable quarter in the company's history. Released on July 31, new financial documents detail some of the reasoning and financials behind this decision. At the core of the problem was that the Phone Hardware business was only worth $116M, after adjusting for costs and market factors. One of those factors was poor sales of Nokia handhelds in 2015. Financially it made more sense to write it all off.
Hardware Hacking

Leading the Computer Revolution In a Totalitarian State 75

Posted by Soulskill from the do-it-yourself-hardcore-edition dept.
szczys writes: How do you enter the information age when computers, and the components that go into them, are embargoed by other countries and imports of any value are restricted by your own? This and a myriad of other barriers didn't stop Voja Antonic from building his own computers and teaching others how to do so during the 70s, 80s, 90s, and beyond.

He managed to get a TRS-80 into Yugoslavia by having a friend cut the cables between the two boards and send them separately to avoid getting caught in customs. He bootstrapped his own personal computer and published the plans in the country's first computer magazine. It was built by over 8000 people. Check out these stories and his experience of living in the Eastern Bloc and through the war in '90s, all while continuing to build and promote computers in what is now Serbia.
Security

Researchers Create Mac "Firmworm" That Spreads Via Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapters 119

Posted by Soulskill from the publicity-fixes-bugs dept.
BIOS4breakfast writes: Wired reports that later this week at BlackHat and Defcon, Trammell Hudson will show the Thunderstrike 2 update to his Thunderstrike attack on Mac firmware (previously covered on Slashdot). Trammell teamed up with Xeno Kovah and Corey Kallenberg from LegbaCore, who have previously shown numerous exploits for PC firmware. They found multiple vulnerabilities that were already publicly disclosed were still present in Mac firmware. This allows a remote attacker to break into the Mac over the network, and infect its firmware. The infected firmware can then infect Apple Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapters' PCI Option ROM. And then those adapters can infect the firmware of any Mac they are plugged into — hence creating the self-propagating Thunderstrike 2 "firmworm." Unlike worms like Stuxnet, it never exists on the filesystem, it only ever lives in firmware (which no one ever checks.) A video showing the proof of concept attack is posted on YouTube.
Google

Inside the Failure of Google+ 279

Posted by Soulskill from the a-day-late-and-a-billion-users-short dept.
An anonymous reader writes: An article at Mashable walks through the rise and fall of Google+, from the company's worries of being displaced by Facebook to their eventual realization that Google services don't need social hooks. There are quotes from a number of employees and insiders, who mostly agree that the company didn't have the agility to build something so different from their previous services. "Most Google projects started small and grew organically in scale and importance. Buzz, the immediate predecessor to Plus, had barely a dozen people on staff. Plus, by comparison, had upwards of 1,000, sucked up from divisions across the company." Despite early data indicating users just weren't interested in Google+, management pushed for success as the only option. One employee said, "The belief was that we were always just one weird feature away from the thing taking off." Despite a strong feature set, there was no acknowledgment that to beat Facebook, you had to overcome the fact that everybody was already on Facebook.
Space

Pictures of a Comet From 9 Meters Away 46

Posted by Soulskill from the whole-nine-meters dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Back in November, the European Space Agency triumphantly put a lander on the surface of a comet and then tragically lost contact with it when it failed to anchor and couldn't harvest enough energy to stay operational. In June, the lander awoke and for a short time was able to send more data back. Now the ESA has published a bunch of pictures and scientific papers about the data gleaned from Philae's short windows of activity, including images of its descent to the surface. Phil Plait summarizes and analyzes the release. The most impressive image is from a mere 9 meters over the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. An animated gif shows the lander's descent near the surface through a handful of pictures. Two shots of the same area from the Rosetta probe show where Philae bounced off the surface, ejecting an estimated 180kg of material in the process. It's a fascinating, close-up look at a very distant and unusual world.

Submission + - Researchers create Mac "firmworm" that spreads via Thunderbolt Ethernet adapters

Submitted by BIOS4breakfast
BIOS4breakfast writes: Wired reports that later this week at BlackHat and Defcon, Trammel Hudson will show the Thunderstrike 2 update to his Thunderstrike attack on Mac firmware (previously covered on Slashdot). Trammel teamed up with Xeno Kovah and Corey Kallenberg from LegbaCore, who have previously shown numerous exploits for PC firmware. They found that multiple vulnerabilities that were already publicly disclosed were still present in Mac firmware. This allows a remote attacker to break into the Mac over the network, and infect its firmware. The infected firmware can then infect Apple Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapters' PCI Option ROM. And then those adapters can infect the firmware of any Mac they are plugged into — hence creating the self-propagating Thunderstrike 2 "firmworm". Unlike worms like Stuxnet, it never exists on the filesystem, it only ever lives in firmware (which no one ever checks.) A video showing the proof of concept attack is posted here.
The Internet

The Web We Have To Save 114

Posted by Soulskill from the get-off-my-lawn dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Hossein Derakhshan endured a six-year prison term in Iran for doing something most of us would take for granted: running a blog. He has a unique perspective — he was heavily involved in internet culture, becoming known as Iran's "blogfather," before suddenly being completely shut off from the online world in 2008. Seven months ago, he was released. When he got settled, he took up his old work of blogging, but was surprised by how much the web has changed in just a few years. Now he decries our reliance on monolithic social streams that prioritize image and meme sharing over the thing that makes the web the web: links.

"The hyperlink represented the open, interconnected spirit of the world wide web—a vision that started with its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee. The hyperlink was a way to abandon centralization—all the links, lines and hierarchies—and replace them with something more distributed, a system of nodes and networks. Blogs gave form to that spirit of decentralization: They were windows into lives you'd rarely know much about; bridges that connected different lives to each other and thereby changed them. ... Since I got out of jail, though, I've realized how much the hyperlink has been devalued, almost made obsolete."

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