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Security

Submission + - A 512-byte "evil maid" bootloader steals user passwords (github.com)

Submitted by iago-vL
iago-vL writes: Security researcher Alex Weber has implemented a so-called "evil maid" attack in a custom bootloader, weighing in at an impressive 512 bytes. This bootloader can be written to any USB device. When booted, it displays a face CHKDSK screen, which prompts for the user's password. It saves the password to the USB device, marks itself as unbootable and reboots. The machine will start up normally, and the user never knows they were compromised! Check out the termcap or video to see it in action!
Cloud

Submission + - Good neighbor? Microsoft data center in rural Washington (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
rrkaiser
rrkaiser writes: "Cloud data centers use huge amounts of electrical power and get located so they can use cheap utility power. Microsoft built a data center in rural Quincy, Washington who was happy to welcome the new-comer and its influx of dollars and taxes. Now? Quincy sees a mixed blessing, knows better about being neighbors with a economic giant."
GUI

Submission + - Programming Languages For Desktop Applications (phoronix.com)

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: Bart Massey, an X.Org Foundation Board of Directors member brought up open questions concerning why desktop applications are harder to develop than for mobile/web and whether the choice of programming languages is to blame. During the talk he also observes how the classic widget metaphor requires a lot of boilerplate code and abstraction which might not be intuitive to manage anymore. On the other hand creating apps with rich interactivity in a browser is rather clunky too. The audience brings up QML as one solution to help the burden. What are your thoughts?
Biotech

Submission + - Marijuana Compound May Halt Cancer Spread (medicaldaily.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers found that the compound cannabidiol was capable of switching off the gene responsible for metastasis in many kinds of aggressive cancers without producing the psychoactive properties of the cannabis plant.
Security

Submission + - Flame C&C Server Analysis Reveals New Malware in the Wild (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Forensic analysis of a number of Flame malware toolkit command-and-control servers revealed an additional three unidentified pieces of malicious code are under the control of the attackers, including one in the wild. Researchers at Kaspersky Lab, Symantec, CERT-Bund/BSI, and the International Telecommunication Union's Impact Alliance said today they also pinpointed the first work done on the Flame espionage campaign was carried out in 2006, much earlier than the 2010 date development was initially thought to have begun.

Alexander Gostev, chief security expert at Kaspersky Lab, called the discoveries examples of cyber espionage conducted on a massive scale.

The attackers, researchers said, spent significant resources covering their tracks and disguising the project from hosting providers. The C&C platform used by Flame was made to look like an ordinary content management system and unlike most botnet control panels that rely on labels such as malware command and infection, these attackers used common terms such as data, download, client, news, blog, ads and more. Also, the C&C panel was not set up to send commands to the victim, instead, the attackers uploaded special tar.gz archives and scripts were processed by the server that extracted the archive contents. The script also encrypted all the files received from a zombie machine using Blowfish, and the Blowfish key is then encrypted. No one other than the attacker would have the private key to decrypt the files.
NASA

Submission + - First word on results from GRAIL, NASA's Moon gravity mission (nature.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Nature has advance word on the first science results from GRAIL, NASA's twin probes launched a year ago which are mapping the gravity of the Moon from lunar orbit. This is coming out in advance of any official publication or NASA release, so the data isn't available, but the story trails what the PI Maria Zuber told a Harvard CFA colloquium (http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/events/colloquia/fall12/zuber.html ) last week are some of the team's key scientific findings: including that the Moon's crust is substantially thinner than once thought; and some of the more speculative impact basins haven't been confirmed.
Power

Submission + - Has the time for nuclear fusion finally arrived? (guardian.co.uk) 1

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: Harnessing nuclear fusion to create cheap, safe and sustainable energy used to be a futuristic joke. But its day is almost upon us

A fusion reactor called Iter is currently under construction in France and is due to start operation in 2020. Its principal goal is to determine the viability of fusion at the scale of a power station. Success is widely anticipated and there are already plans afoot to build a "demonstration power plant" to start operating in the 2030s.

The construction phase of Iter is projected to cost €13bn ($17bn), a sum that is dwarfed by the annual subsidy to the fossil fuel industry, which the International Energy Agency estimated to be at least $400bn in 2010 alone. Moreover, the cost is shared between the seven Iter members (the European Union, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US) and amounts to a UK contribution of a mere few tens of millions each year. The stakes are surely too high to quibble about funding at this level.

Submission + - Room Temperature Superconductivity Found in Graphite Grains (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by siddesu
siddesu writes: Here's an interesting recipe. Take a spoonful of graphite powder and stir it into a glass of water. Leave for 24 hours at room temperature and then filter the powder. Finally, bake overnight at 100 degrees C and allow to cool.

And voila! A material that superconducts at over 300 kelvin--room temperature. At least that's the claim today from Pablo Esquinazi and buddies at the University of Leipzig in Germany.

Submission + - Opus - the codec to end all codecs (xiph.org) 4

Submitted by
jmv
jmv writes: "It's official. The Opus audio codec is now standardized by the IETF as RFC 6716. Opus is the first state-of-the-art, fully Free and Open audio codec ratified by a major standards organization. Better, Opus covers basically the entire audio-coding application space and manages to be as good or better than existing proprietary codecs over this whole space. Opus is the result of a collaboration between Xiph.Org, Mozilla, Microsoft (yes!), Broadcom, Octasic, and Google. See the Mozilla announcement and the Xiph.Org press release for more details."

Comment For all the dudes who're crying about (Score 2, Insightful) 483

by orodos (#41292551) Attached to: GoDaddy Goes Down, Anonymous Claims Responsibility
Losing business, etc. Sucks, but there's a trade-off when you decide to conduct business on the internet. Who cares whodunit, hacking is a part of e-culture. The internet is free, and there are some rad dudes out there expressing their freedom - just like you. You have some pretty unrealistic expectations if you expect 100% uptime. Honestly, life would be pretty boring if everything just worked like 'it should.'

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