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Submission + - Seafloor sensors record possible eruption of underwater volcano (washington.edu)

Submitted by vinces99
vinces99 writes: If a volcano erupts at the bottom of the sea, does anyone see it? If it is Axial Seamount, about 300 miles offshore and 1 mile deep, the answer is "yes." Thanks to high-tech instruments installed last summer by the University of Washington to bring the deep sea online, what appears to be an eruption of Axial Volcano on April 23 was observed in real time by scientists on shore.

“It was an astonishing experience to see the changes taking place 300 miles away with no one anywhere nearby, and the data flowed back to land at the speed of light through the fiber-optic cable ... in milliseconds,” said John Delaney, a UW professor of oceanography who led the installation of the instruments as part of a larger effort sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Delaney organized a workshop on campus in mid-April at which marine scientists discussed how this high-tech observatory would support their science. Then, just before midnight on April 23 until about noon the next day, the seismic activity went off the charts. The gradually increasing rumblings of the mountain were documented over recent weeks by William Wilcock, a UW marine geophysicist who studies such systems. During last week’s event, the earthquakes increased from hundreds per day to thousands, and the center of the volcanic crater dropped by about 6 feet in 12 hours.

“The only way that could have happened was to have the magma move from beneath the caldera to some other location,” Delaney said.

Submission + - Humans Dominating Poker Super Computer (roboticstrends.com)

Submitted by IoTdude
IoTdude writes: The Claudico super computer uses an algorithm to account for gargantuan amounts of complexity by representing the number of possible Heads-Up No-limit Texas Hold’em decisions. Claudico also updates its strategy as it goes along, but its basic approach to the game involves getting into every hand by calling bets. And it's not working out so far. Halfway through the competition, the four human pros had a cumulative lead of 626,892 chips. Though much could change in the week remaining, a lead of around 600,000 chips is considered statistically significant.

Submission + - Researchers Bypasses Google Password Alert for Second Time

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: A security researcher has developed a method–actually two methods–for defeating the new Chrome Password Alert extension that Google released earlier this week.

The Password Alert extension is designed to warn users when they’re about to enter their Google passwords into a fraudulent site. The extension is meant as a defense against phishing attacks, which remain a serious threat to consumers despite more than a decade of research and warnings about the way the attacks work.

Just a day after Google released the extension, Paul Moore, a security consultant in the U.K., developed a method for bypassing the extension. The technique involved using Javascript to look on a given page for the warning screen that Password Alert shows users. The method Moore developed then simply blocks the screen, according to a report on Ars Technica. In an email, Moore said it took him about two minutes to develop that bypass, which Google fixed in short order.

However, Moore then began looking more closely at the code for the extension, and Chrome itself, and discovered another way to get around the extension. He said this one likely will be more difficult to repair.

“The second exploit will prove quite difficult (if not near impossible) to resolve, as it leverages a race condition in Chrome which I doubt any single extension can remedy. The extension works by detecting each key press and comparing it against a stored, hashed version. When you’ve entered the correct password, Password Alert throws a warning advising the user to change their password,” Moore said.

Submission + - Want 30 Job Offers a Month? It's Not as Great as You Think

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Software engineers suffer from a problem that most other industries wish they had: too much demand. There's a great story at the Atlantic entitled Imagine Getting 30 Job Offers a Month (It Isn't as Awesome as You Might Think). This is a problem that many engineers deal with: place your resume on a job board and proceed to be spammed multiple times per day for jobs in places that you would never go to (URGENT REQUIREMENT IN DETROIT!!!!!, etc). Google "recruiter spam" and there are many tales of engineers being overwhelmed by this. One engineer, fed up by a lack of a recruiting spam blackhole, set up NoRecruitingSpam.com with directions on how to stop this modern tech scourge. How many of you slashdotters have been the victim of recruiting spam?

Submission + - AT&T bills 83-yr old customer $24,298.93 for landline dial-up service (latimes.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: 83-year-old Woodland Hills, California resident Ron Dorff usually pays $51 a month to AT&T for a landline, which he uses to access the Internet via an old-school, low-speed AOL dial-up subscription.... but then, in March, AT&T sent him a bill for $8,596.57. He called AT&T and their service rep couldn't make heads or tails of the bill, so she said she'd send a technician to his house. None came, so Dorff figured that everything was ok.

Dorff's next monthly bill was for $15,687.64, bringing his total outstanding debt to AT&T, including late fees, to $24,298.93. If he didn't pay by May 8, AT&T warned, his bill would rise to at least $24,786.16. Droff then called David Lazarus, business columnist for the LA Times, who got in touch with AT&T, who wasted little time in deciding it would waive the more than $24,000 in charges.

AT&T spokeshole Georgia Taylor claims Dorff's modem somehow had started dialing a long-distance number when it accessed AOL, and the per-minute charges went into orbit as he stayed connected for hours.

AT&T declined to answer the LA Times questions about why AT&T didn't spot the problem itself and proactively take steps to fix things? AT&T also declined to elaborate on whether AT&T's billing system is capable of spotting unusual charges and, if so, why it doesn't routinely do so.

Submission + - CareerBuilder cyberattack delivers malware straight to employers (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Security threat researchers Proofpoint have uncovered an email-based phishing attack which infected businesses with malware via the CareerBuilder online job search website. The attack involved the hacker browsing job adverts across the platform and uploading malicious files during the application process, titling the documents “resume.doc” and “cv.doc.” Once the CV was submitted, an automatic email notification was sent to the business advertising the position, along with the uploaded document. In this case, Proofpoint found that as a business opens the automatic email from CareerBuilder to view the attached file the document plays on a known Word vulnerability to sneak a malicious code onto the victim’s computer. According to the threat research group, the manual attack technique although time-consuming has a higher success rate than automated tools as the email attachments are more likely to be opened by the receiver.

Submission + - In blow, native Hawaiian panel withdraws support for world's largest telescope (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) – a state agency established to advocate for native Hawaiins — voted Thursday to withdraw their support for construction of the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) on the summit of the Mauna Kea volcano. The vote follows weeks of protests by Native Hawaiians who say the massive structure would desecrate one of their most holy places. The protests have shut down construction of the telescope, which would be the world’s largest optical telescope if completed.

The vote, which reverses a 2009 decision to endorse the project, strikes a powerful if symbolic blow against a project that, for many native Hawaiians, has come to symbolize more than a century of assaults against their land, culture and sovereignty.

Submission + - Hacking the US prescriptions system (shaftek.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It appears that most pharmacies in the US are interconnected, and a breach in one leads to access in the other ones. A security advisory released earlier today shows how a breach in an inline pharmacy granted access to prescription history for any US person with just their name and date of birth:
Medicine

Results Are In From Psychology's Largest Reproducibility Test: 39/100 Reproduced 174

Posted by samzenpus from the different-directions dept.
An anonymous reader writes: A crowd-sourced effort to replicate 100 psychology studies has successfully reproduced findings from 39 of them. Some psychologists say this shows the field has a replicability problem. Others say the results are "not bad at all". The results are nuanced: 24 non-replications had findings at least "moderately similar" to the original paper but which didn't quite reach statistical significance. From the article: "The results should convince everyone that psychology has a replicability problem, says Hal Pashler, a cognitive psychologist at the University of California, San Diego, and an author of one of the papers whose findings were successfully repeated. 'A lot of working scientists assume that if it’s published, it’s right,' he says. 'This makes it hard to dismiss that there are still a lot of false positives in the literature.'”

Submission + - Unnoticed For Years, Malware Turned Linux Servers Into Spamming Machines

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: For over 5 years, and perhaps even longer, servers around the world running Linux and FreeBSD operating systems have been targeted by an individual or group that compromised them via a backdoor Trojan, then made them send out spam, ESET researchers have found.

What's more, it seems that the spammers are connected with a software company called Yellsoft, which sells DirectMailer, a "system for automated e-mail distribution" that allows users to send out anonymous email in bulk.
Open Source

How an Open Standard API Could Revolutionize Banking 72

Posted by samzenpus from the cheap-money dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Open bank data will give us the freedom to access all banks in real time and from a single view, automatically calculating the best deals in complete transparency, which will be a significant step forward for social good and give people more control over their finances. Meanwhile, financial tech incubators, accelerators, and startups are creating a more experienced talent pool of developers ready to act upon these newly available assets. From the article: "The United Kingdom government has commissioned a study of the feasibility of UK banks giving customers the ability to share their transactional data with third parties via an open standard API. First mentioned alongside the autumn statement back in December, the chancellor has now outlined plans for a mandatory open banking API standard during the recent budget in March."
United Kingdom

UK High Court Orders Block On Popcorn Time 96

Posted by samzenpus from the no-mocie-for-you dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Five ISPs have been given orders by the UK High Court to restrict access to sites offering downloads of popular movie streaming service Popcorn Time – a move which follows complaints from the Motion Picture Association referring to the software's use as a platform for viewing pirated content. According to the new regulation, Virgin, BT, Sky, EE and TalkTalk are now required to block access to popcorntime.io, flixtor.me, popcorntime.se and isoplex.isohunt.to – all sites which link to Popcorn Time downloads. In the High Court order, Justice Birss cites under Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, that the 'Popcorn Time application is used in order to watch pirated content on the internet.' Popcorn Time operates as a BitTorrent client, despite its slick user interface, and is used mainly for illegal content – although, as its supporters argue, it is also a handy tool for streaming public domain films. It is unclear how successful the ban will be – the blocked sites are not the only places to find Popcorn Time online. Additionally, at ISP level, it will be challenging to monitor as there is not a single version or developer to seek out, with the code available as open source.

Submission + - OpenBSD 5.7 Released

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Just as per the schedule, OpenBSD 5.7 was released today, May 1, 2015. The theme of the 5.7 release is "Source Fish". There are some big changes in OpenBSD 5.7. The nginx httpd server removed from base in favor of an internally developed httpd server in 5.7. BIND (named) from base in 5.7 in favor of nsd(8) (authoritative DNS) and unbound(8) (recursive resolver). Packages will exist for BIND and nginx. This version include a new control utility, rcctl(8), for managing daemons/services, USB 3 support and more. See a detailed log of changes between the 5.6 and 5.7 releases for more information. If you already have an OpenBSD 5.6 system, and do not want to reinstall, upgrade instructions and advice can be found in the Upgrade Guide. You can order the 5.7 CD set from the new OpenBSD Store and support the project.

Submission + - Cease and Desist Notice - Neuoogle (neuoogle.com) 8

Submitted by Andy Spamer
Andy Spamer writes: I'm a small indi developer whose sole app is a search tool that uses push notifications to alerts users to new contents based on their search needs. My app is called Neuoogle and is available for iOS and Android. I've had around 2000 downloads, give the app away for free, have no ad income (I hate free apps that are full of ads). I fund all of the work on the project myself. Basically I'm small fry, but carry on with my project because I believe in the idea of my app, and also enjoy doing it.

A few months ago I applied to trademark the name Neuoogle. IPAustralia (I'm based in Oz) felt the mark was sufficiently different to Google and would not cause confusion. Shortly after my application I received a letter from a solicitor representing Google demanding I ; Withdraw my app, cancel my hosted domain (neuoogle.com), and withdraw my trademark application. I was also ordered to cease to use the name Neuoogle immediately.

I thought long and hard about my next action as this letter arrived at a bad time for me. My wife had just undergone major surgery that resulted in her being in hospital for 50 days. During this thinking period I was pestered by the Solicitor (they knew of my wife's medical condition) and threatened with significant financial repercussions should I not comply. I was also the subject of some very harsh personal attacks by the solicitor in their objection to my mark application. They accused me of being dishonest and devious and essentially being a crook. Eventually I decided I would withdraw the trademark application as I could not risk the court costs associated with trying to take on Google. I would just operate without a trademark was my thinking; after all many companies do.

In the last few days, I've gotten a follow up letter from the Solicitor. This one basically said as I had given up my mark application, I would now have to cease to operate under the brand of Neuoogle. I am still weighting up my approach to this, but again expect to be threatened and bullied into basically complying with their demands.

As I've mentioned I'm a small indi; I make no money from my app, I have no VC money. What money I'd put towards bulding the app is now gone. Medical bills over the last few months have left nothing with which to get the app redeveloped under a new name, no money for graphic design, no money for a new domain, and no money to re-advertise under whatever new name I could come up with. Financially I couldn't comply even if I wanted to.

What has really annoyed me (beyond simply being forced out of business by an evil corporate bent on world domination) is the hypocrisy of Google's objection. A simple bit of web research shows that Google have used 'deceptively similar' as both an offensive channel in attacking trademark applications that it believes overlap it's own marks, but also as a defensive approach suggesting 'deceptively similar' is different enough to warrant it's own applications that overlap existing brands should be granted.

What was once the darling of the tech industry with it's funky startup culture is becoming the evil mega corporation of James Bond and Austin Powers movies. It rides rough shod over mobile user with it's pervasive and 'unprivate' privacy policies and stamps out any dissent with ruthless deep pockets legal attacks. C'mon Google am I really that much of a threat?

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