Comment Re:Was it real (Score 1) 157
According to my Facebook information, I am 97 years old. Luckily, my employer did not check it out when making me an offer.
Submission + - MIT Scientist Not Worried About Japan Reactors (wordpress.com) 1
lenwood writes: "Detailed essay by MIT engineering research scientist Josef Oehmen stating in detail why he's not concerned about the safety of Japan's nuclear reactors. "The situation is serious, but under control... there (was) not and will not be any significant release of radioactivity." Very interesting read, and he's been updating it based on comments."
Submission + - State Dept. Voice Scorns Manning Torture, Resigns (independent.co.uk) 4
traindirector writes: U.S. State Department chief spokesman P.J. Crowley resigned today under pressure from the Obama White House after expressing concern about the Department of Defense's excessively harsh treatment of Bradley Manning, the alleged leaker of a significant cache of State Department cables. In response to a question at MIT on Friday regarding the U.S. Government's apparent torture of the soldier, Crowley responded that the harsh handling of Manning was "ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid". He stood by his remarks in his statement of resignation today: 'My recent comments [...] were intended to highlight the broader, even strategic impact of discreet actions undertaken by national security agencies every day and their impact on our global standing and leadership. The exercise of power in today's challenging times and relentless media environment must be prudent and consistent with our laws and values. Given the impact of my remarks, for which I take full responsibility, I have submitted my resignation.'
Comment Re:I'll be first to say WTF (Score 1) 700
I don't know how you got moderated Informative; there are so many mistakes. Only RSA relies on the difficulty of factoring; ElGamal does not. It relies on discrete logarithm. Factoring is not NP-hard (neither is discrete log). Polynomial algorithm can still be sufficiently slow to be infeasible, e.g. n^100 is slow enough.
Yes, cryptography assumes that decryption is hard to do, but enough ciphers have been broken, so that we should take any unproven assumptions with a good helping of NaCl. Even if something is claimed to be provably secure, you should always check what was proven: resistance to what kind of attack is now guaranteed and under what assumptions. It's quite possible to break a provably secure cipher using a different kind of attack. For example, one-time pad is provably secure, if you never reuse it. If you reuse OTP, then your cipher can be broken (it actually happened). Also, without additional protection you may be able to change encrypted text even without being able to read it.
Please, check the statements that you post as facts.
Submission + - Hacking smartphones using a 'baseband' attack (goodgearguide.com.au)
angry tapir writes: "University of Luxembourg research associate Ralf-Philipp Weinmann plans to demonstrate a new hacking technique on an iPhone and an Android device at next week's Black Hat conference, showing how they could be converted into clandestine spying systems. Weinmann says he can do this by breaking the phone's "baseband" processor, used to send and receive radio signals as the device communicates on its cellular network. Until recently, mobile phone attacks had focused on another part of the phone: the programs and operating systems that runs on the device's CPU."
Submission + - Sites Demand SMS Payment for Fake Flash, Firefox (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: Phishers and scammers have developed a new tactic for separating victims from their money that involves getting them to pay for software that's normally free, such as Mozilla Firefox or Adobe Flash.
The new scam is offering users the opportunity to download applications such as Flash, Firefox and Opera, that are free in their legitimate forms. The attackers ask only that victims then send an SMS message to a premium rate number that will cost them in the vicinity of $5.60. One of the downloads offered is a beta version of Firefox 4 that allegedly includes an anti-virus update. The fake software downloads are being pushed by a variety of sites, many of which are in Russian.
The new scam is offering users the opportunity to download applications such as Flash, Firefox and Opera, that are free in their legitimate forms. The attackers ask only that victims then send an SMS message to a premium rate number that will cost them in the vicinity of $5.60. One of the downloads offered is a beta version of Firefox 4 that allegedly includes an anti-virus update. The fake software downloads are being pushed by a variety of sites, many of which are in Russian.
Comment Re:Language (Score 1) 1153
The languages we know affect what thoughts we can think. While it is very zen to say that words hide meaning, empirical evidence seems to indicate that we cannot conceive of ideas that we do not have language to express.
I conceive of such ideas all the time. I would share them with you, but I do not have language to express them
Comment WPA2 will work better against this hack (Score 1) 185
What is the problem? Protect your WiFi connection with WPA2 and this hack does not work. All around me almost any network is protected and these are regular folks, not some security gurus. Yes, their information may be stolen further down the wire, but this is not new. While I am all for SSL protection, this particular hack can be fought off by individual users. Even more, while HTTPS has to protect each individual site you go to, WPA2 creates a secure wireless tunnel that protects all your communications. Move along, nothing to see here :-).
Comment Re:Wow (Score 1) 676
The idea of Wikileaks (i.e. the ability to anonymously expose government secrets) is valid and needs to survive. Currently Wikileaks is the only working instance of that idea. We cannot kill it simply because it is a bad implementation. In the years to come, there may be others and one of them may work better.
No, it isn't. CRYPTOME is a much older and very respected instance.
Submission + - Congress investigates carriers' debt collections (hothardware.com)
Julie188 writes: 'Tis the season for the government to crack down on abusive practices by your secretly evil national wireless carrier. Next up: a congressional committee will be looking into a debt collection practice that prevents customers from filing lawsuits. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) will be looking into a contract clause that forces customers to waive their right to sue and instead agree to forced arbitration. He is hot on the tails of the carriers after a similar investigation of credit card companies lead to nine banks removing the forced arbitration clause from their contracts. This follows the week's earlier news that the FCC was going to try to come up with new rules to prevent wireless bill shock.
Submission + - Doctors Personal Data Sold Online (eweekeurope.co.uk)
jhernik writes: Another organisation has been found to be in breach of the Data Protection Act, after the personal information of doctors was sold online
The healthcare industry continues to live up to its reputation for suffering the most data breaches after the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found Healthcare Locums Plc (HCL) in breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA).
HCL, which is a specialist healthcare recruitment agency, lost a hard disc drive (HDD) that contained personal data of the doctors it employed, such as their security clearances and visa information.
The issue came to light when the HDD was returned to HCL by a member of the public after it had been sold on an online auction website.
The healthcare industry continues to live up to its reputation for suffering the most data breaches after the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found Healthcare Locums Plc (HCL) in breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA).
HCL, which is a specialist healthcare recruitment agency, lost a hard disc drive (HDD) that contained personal data of the doctors it employed, such as their security clearances and visa information.
The issue came to light when the HDD was returned to HCL by a member of the public after it had been sold on an online auction website.
Submission + - Is The RIAA Now In Favor Of Opt-In Copyright? (techdirt.com)
An anonymous reader writes: In a surprising statement, RIAA President Cary Sherman said at an event in Washington DC that he actually thinks "opt-in copyright" makes more sense than opt-out. For an organization that historically has always pushed for greater and greater expansion of copyright, this would be a huge policy shift. And opt-in system would certainly improve the public domain in that any works not registered would go into the public domain, which is the way copyright worked in the US for two centuries. There's recently been some interest in moving back to a registration "formalities" system, but it's surprising to see someone from the RIAA appear in support of that position as well.
Submission + - Six Lessons Learned Of New Self-Employment (lifehacker.com)
rbgrn writes: I'm a self-employed Android game developer and webmaster. It's been nearly 2 years since I've received a corporate paycheck. I left that world in January of 2009 and haven't looked back since. Was it an easy jump? Hell no. It's been hard — very hard, but I don't regret it and still consider it one of the very best things I've ever done for myself. Here are six lessons I've learned since I start working for myself. A quick and truthful read for all of you who are tired of working for the man but aren't sure what to expect when jumping off the boat.
Comment Re: The Alchemists (Score 2, Informative) 330
Mendeleev, who came up with a periodic table (the story goes that he saw it in his sleep) was not an alchemist. He is a bona fide chemist. Besides periodic table, he has two more claims to fame. He invented vodka and he was able to pour liquids from a pail into a test-tube without losing a single drop.
Submission + - Copyright Is Destroying Historic Audio (osnews.com)
Mr. Suck writes: You think only "pirates" and "freeloaders" rail against current copyright laws? Well, think again — even the Library of Congress seemingly has had enough. The topic is recorded sound preservation, and in a 181-page in-depth study, the Library of Congress concludes that apart from technical difficulties, US copyright law makes it virtually impossible for anyone to perform any form of audio preservation. The painted picture is grim — very grim.
