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Submission + - Osticket 1.7ST (Desoto) released! (tmib.net)

Submitted by themib
themib writes: After over three years, and 10 interim releases later the osTicket 1.7ST has finally been released. osTicket is a widely-used and trusted open source support ticket system. It seamlessly routes inquiries created via email, web-forms and phone calls into a simple, easy-to-use, multi-user, web-based customer support platform. The new version introduces a host of new features and bug fixes.

Submission + - Microsoft to name Windows Blue "Windows 8.1", not Windows 9 (pureinfotech.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Let’s make no mistake, Windows 8 is the latest Microsoft’s OS, there is an upgrade coming thus far known as “Windows Blue”, and today it's been revealed that Microsoft has decided to officially name it “Windows 8.1” and now Windows 9 as many have speculated.

Submission + - Nvidia believes Tegra 5 will outperform a PS3 (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: How close to the current generation of consoles are mobile devices? According to Nvidia, the next generation of mobile processors will in fact outperform both a PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Going on the performance bump each generation of Nvidia’s Tegra chips has brought so far, he may have a point.

The PS3 is rated at 200GFLOPS, where as the PS4 takes a massive leap forward to 1800GFLOPS. Now if you look at Nvidia’s mobile processors, the Tegra 3 ran at 12 GFLOPS, Tegra 4 is set to bring near 7x increase and will run at 80GFLOPS. So it’s actually quite a confident prediction to make that when Tegra 5 arrives it will easily achieve more than 200GFLOPS of performance.
Music

Submission + - EU: Music piracy should not be a concern for copyright holders (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
castrox
castrox writes: "Ars Technica writes that the European Commission has published research based on samples from 16,000 users. The research suggests there are no correlation between piracy and decreased sales, but very well the opposite. This leads to the conclusion that music piracy should not be a "concern for copyright holders".

A very popular belief among Slashdotters and others just got handed a official research document (from the EC, no less) to strengthen it! Link to the actual research: http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=6084"
Censorship

Submission + - Bloggers could face fines for Libel under new UK legislation (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by Diamonddavej
Diamonddavej writes: The Guardian newspaper warns that Bloggers in the UK could face costly fines for libel with exemplary damages imposed if they do not sign up with a new press regulator under legislation (Clause 21A — Awards of exemplary damages) recommended by The Leveson Inquiry into press behaviour and ethics. Kirsty Hughes, the chief executive of Index on Censorship, said this a "sad day" for British democracy, “This will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on everyday people's web use". Exemplary damages, imposed by a court to penalise publishers who remain outside regulation, could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, easily enough to close down smaller publishers such as Private Eye and local newspapers. Harry Cole, who contributes to the Guido Fawkes blog says he does not want to join a regulator, he hopes his blog will remain as irreverent and rude as ever, and continue to hold public officials to account; it's servers are located in the US. Members of Parliament voted on Clause 21A late last night, it passed 530 to 13.
Government

Submission + - FinSpy C&C Servers Found in 25 Countries Including Canada, Australia, India, (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: FinFisher spyware a.k.a. FinSpy has been updated to evade detection techniques over the last few months and has managed to increase its foothold in as many as 25 countries warn security researchers over at Toronto University’s Munk School of Global Affairs. The team of researchers has been tracking the spyware for over a year now and have found traces of the ‘lawful interception’ tool in as many as 25 courtiers with a total of 36 command and control servers. According to the researchers FinSpy has been changing tactics and behavior over the last few months, since October to be precise, in a bid to evade detection. The new countries that showed up on the list were Bangladesh, Canada, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Serbia and Vietnam. Previous studies pinpointed the spyware in 10 countries.

Submission + - Supreme Court Upholds First Sale Doctrine (salon.com) 1

Submitted by
langelgjm
langelgjm writes: "In a closely-watched case, the U.S. Supreme Court today vindicated the first-sale doctrine, declaring that it "applies to copies of a copyrighted work lawfully made abroad." The case involved a Thai graduate student in the U.S. who sold cheap foreign versions of textbooks on eBay without the publisher’s permission. The 6-3 decision has important implications for goods sold online and in discount stores. Justice Stephen Breyer said in his opinion (PDF) that the publisher lost any ability to control what happens to its books after their first sale abroad."
Science

Submission + - Skull Analysis Suggests Inbreeding May Have Been Rampant Among Early Humans (counselheal.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ancient human skulls unearthed in northern China reveal that inbreeding may have been a common practice among our ancestors, according to new research.
Skull pieces discovered at Xujiayao in the Nihewan Basin of northern China show a now-rare congenital deformation that suggests inbreeding might well have been common among early humans, according to researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Washington University in St. Louis.
Government

Submission + - GAO: Flaws in IRS Network Could Put Taxpayer Information in Jeopardy (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) believes that “serious weaknesses remain” in the ways that the Internal Revenue Service handles its internal network, problems that could directly implicate taxpayer data according to a report by the regulatory group.

The 31-page document, “IRS Has Improved Controls but Needs to Resolve Weaknesses,” (.PDF) outlines several problems with the IRS’ system including the way it authenticates users, enforces password complexity, fails to restrict access to its mainframe environment, and fails to keep patches up to date.
Android

Submission + - T-Mobile Security Flaw Allowed Eavesdropping of Wi-Fi Calls, Texts (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: A vulnerability discovered by researchers at UC Berkeley enabled attackers to eavesdrop on and modify calls and text messages sent using T-Mobile's "Wi-Fi Calling" feature.

According to Jethro Beekman and Christopher Thompson, both UC Berkeley graduate students, when an affected Android device connected to a server via T-Mobile's Wi-Fi Calling feature, it did not correctly validate the server's security certificate, exposing calls and text messages to a "man-in-the-middle" (MiTM) attack.

In short, by executing a MiTM attack, and using decrypted SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) dialog, an attacker could record all incoming and outgoing calls and text messages. “[An attacker] could record, block and reroute SIP traffic. The attacker could change it by faking a sender or changing the real-time voice data or message content. He could fake incoming traffic and he can impersonate the client with forged outgoing traffic,” the report, released Tuesday, said.

Beekman and Thompson said they notified T-Mobile of their discoveries in December 2012, and worked with the mobile operator to confirm and fix the problem. As of March 18, all affected T-Mobile customers have received the security update fixing the vulnerability, the researchers said.

This is not the first time TLS/SSL issues have come to the forefront of mobile world. Last October, researchers from two universities in Germany published a paper (PDF) that exposed the state of SSL within Android applications, which revealed that many applications failed to properly implement SSL, leaving millions of users exposed to basic Man-In-The-Middle attacks.
Science

Submission + - Sewage Plants Struggle To Treat Fracking Wastewater (cenm.ag)

Submitted by
MTorrice
MTorrice writes: "When energy companies extract natural gas trapped deep underground using hydraulic fracturing, they’re left with water containing high levels of pollutants, including benzene and barium. Sometimes the gas producers dispose of this fracking wastewater by sending it to treatment plants that deal with sewage and water from other industrial sources. But a new study suggests that the plants can’t handle this water’s high levels of contaminants: Water flowing out of the plants into the environment still has elevated levels of the chemicals from natural gas production."
Censorship

Submission + - Cubans evade censorship by exchanging computer memory sticks (mcclatchydc.com)

Submitted by
concealment
concealment writes: "But Sanchez said underground blogs, digital portals and illicit e-magazines proliferate, passed around on removable computer drives known as memory sticks.. The small computer memories, also known as flash drives or thumb drives, are dropped into friendly hands on buses and along street corners, offering a surprising number of Cubans access to information.

“Information circulates hand to hand through this wonderful gadget known as the memory stick,” Sanchez said, “and it is difficult for the government to intercept them. I can’t imagine that they can put a police officer on every corner to see who has a flash drive and who doesn’t.”

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/09/185347/cubans-evade-censorship-by-exchanging.html#.UTvnWoAWD64.reddit%23storylink=cpy"

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