Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Stanford Research Outs Would-Be Hacker Marketplace

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: What if there were an Uber for hackers? Well, there is. It's called Hacker's List, and it made the front page of the New York Times this year. Anyone can post or bid on an 'ethical' hacking project.

According to new Stanford research, however, the site is a wreck. 'Most requests are unsophisticated and unlawful, very few deals are actually struck, and most completed projects appear to be criminal.'

And it gets worse. 'Many users on Hacker’s List are trivially identifiable,' with an email address or Facebook account. The research dataset includes thousands of individuals soliciting federal crimes.
Privacy

CareFirst Admits More Than a Million Customer Accounts Were Exposed In Security Breach 82

Posted by timothy from the camel-cased-in-triplicate dept.
An anonymous reader writes with news, as reported by The Stack, that regional health insurer CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, has confirmed a breach which took place last summer, and may have leaked personal details of as many as 1.1 million of the company's customers: "The Washington D.C.-based firm announced yesterday that the hack had taken place in June last year. CareFirst said that the breach had been a 'sophisticated cyberattack' and that those behind the crime had accessed and potentially stolen sensitive customer data including names, dates of birth, email addresses and ID numbers. All affected members will receive letters of apology, offering two years of free credit monitoring and identity threat protection as compensation, CareFirst said in a statement posted on its website." Free credit monitoring is pretty weak sauce for anyone who actually ends up faced with identity fraud.

Submission + - Will the nascent Cuban startup community thrive?

Submitted by lpress
lpress writes: The Cuban startup community has some things going for it, including well educated users, hackers and developers and a resourceful, cooperative culture. That's the good news, but obstacles include nearly nonexistent Internet connectivity, a lack of capital and business experience and a bureaucratic government that may favor state enterprises. Let's hope the community takes off.
 

Submission + - How Java Changed Programming Forever

Submitted by snydeq
snydeq writes: With Java hitting its 20th anniversary this week, Elliotte Rusty Harold discusses how the language changed the art and business of programming, turning on a generation of coders. 'Java’s core strength was that it was built to be a practical tool for getting work done. It popularized good ideas from earlier languages by repackaging them in a format that was familiar to the average C coder, though (unlike C++ and Objective-C) Java was not a strict superset of C. Indeed it was precisely this willingness to not only add but also remove features that made Java so much simpler and easier to learn than other object-oriented C descendants.'
Businesses

Take Two Sues BBC Over Drama About GTA Development 81

Posted by timothy from the too-soon-too-soon dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Take Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, is suing the BBC for trademark infringement over its planned "making of GTA" drama, Game Changers. The 90-minute movie was created without the involvement of the studio, which rarely comments on the GTA series' development outside of organised press events. (It is expected that it will draw upon the public conflict between Sam Houser and notorious anti-gaming crank Jack Thompson, via the expose "Jacked" by David Kushner.) After direct negotiations with the BBC failed, Take Two brought suit to "ensure that [their] trademarks are not misused." The details of the suit, Rockstar's objections, and the penalties sought, are not yet known.

Submission + - Army develops blast-proof wallpaper (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: U.S. army engineers are developing a new blast-proof wallpaper prototype that they claim could help protect soldiers from the impact of an explosion and flying debris. The lightweight adhesive fabric is lined with ballistic Kevlar fibers embedded in flexible polymer film. Nick Boone, a research mechanical engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said that the rolls of paper could be easily transported by military troops and used to quickly line the walls in temporary buildings. Without the wallpaper, a wall that is hit will “rubblize,” said Boone, hurling shards of rock and mortar at the soldiers inside. However when the blast occurs with the wallpaper installed, he explained that the fabric acts as a “catcher's net,” and is able to contain the flying rubble and prevent debris from injuring soldiers.

Submission + - What to expect at Google I/O 2015: Google Cloud, Google Now for Apple Watch, and

Submitted by smaxp
smaxp writes: Google will celebrate independent software developers that build software with its products and services with two days of tech talks from the company's top technologists at the upcoming Google I/O conference. It's the one conference where developers get better seats at the keynote talks than the press. Google will surprise, delight, and throw a couple of haymakers at its competition.

Submission + - Take Two sues BBC over drama about GTA development

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Take Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, is suing the BBC for trademark infringement over its planned "making of GTA" drama, Game Changers. The 90-minute movie was created without the involvement of the studio, which rarely comments on the GTA series' development outside of organised press events. (It is expected that it will draw upon the public conflict between Sam Houser and notorious anti-gaming crank Jack Thompson, via the expose "Jacked" by David Kushner.) After direct negotiations with the BBC failed, Take Two brought suit to "ensure that [their] trademarks are not misused". The details of the suit, Rockstar's objections, and the penalties sought, are not yet known.

Submission + - Bionic athletes compete in disciplines drawn from everyday life (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Next year's Cybathlon competition will host people with physical disabilities equipped with advanced assistive devices including robotic technologies. The goal of this unique competition is to remove barriers between people with physical disabilities, researchers and the general public and to promote the development of assistive technologies that are useful for daily life. Nice interview with Robert Riener, the Cybathlon's main organizer and Professor of Sensory-Motor Systems at ETH.
Handhelds

Asus ZenFone 2 Performance Sneak Peek With Intel Z3580 Inside 108

Posted by timothy from the doesn't-work-with-google-fi-though dept.
MojoKid writes: Asus just finally made their ZenFone 2 available for sale in the US. It's an Intel-powered smartphone running Android Lollipop that's compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile, and other cellular networks that utilize GSM technology, like Straight Talk, MetroPCS, and Cricket Wireless among others.The device is packing a quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 (2.3GHz) with PowerVR G6430 graphics and 4GB of RAM, along with Intel 7262 and Intel 2230 modem tech, a 5.5" Full HD screen, a 13MP rear camera, dual-SIM support and 802.11ac Wi-Fi. The high-end model can be had for only $299, unlocked. A $199 version with 2GB of RAM and a slightly slower Intel Atom Z3560 is also available. In the benchmarks, the Zenfone 2 offers competent though middling performance but considering Asus has priced the ZenFone 2 so aggressively, it's sure to grab some attention at retail with consumers looking for a contract-free commitment.

Submission + - Gravitational anomalies beneath mountains point to isostasy of Earth's crust

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: Imagine you wanted to know what your acceleration was anywhere on Earth; imagine that simply saying “9.81 m/s^2" wasn’t good enough. What would you need to account for? Sure, there are the obvious things: the Earth’s rotation and its various altitudes and different points. Surely, the farther away you are from Earth’s center, the less your acceleration’s going to be. But what might come as a surprise is that if you went up to the peak of the highest mountains, not only would the acceleration due to gravity be its lowest, but there’d also be less mass beneath your feet than at any other location.
Apple

In 1984, Jobs and Wozniak Talk About Apple's Earliest Days 74

Posted by timothy from the one-of-those-days dept.
harrymcc writes: In 1984, Apple launched the Apple IIc computer. As part of its promotion, it produced a video with Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and other employees talking about company's founding and the creation of the Apple I and Apple II computers. Over at Fast Company, I've shared this remarkable, little-seen bit of history. It's full of goodies, from images of Jobs and Wozniak wearing remarkably Apple Watch-like timepieces to evocative photos of early computer stores.
Cellphones

Pre-Orders Start For Neo900 Open Source Phone 134

Posted by timothy from the hello-operator dept.
New submitter JoSch1337 writes: After a year and a half of development, the Neo900 project now opened its web shop for the down payments of binding pre-orders for either a full Neo900 phone or the bare circuit board to upgrade an existing Nokia N900. The up-front down payment is necessary to now secure expensive "risk parts" like the modem, 1GB RAM and N900 cases. Thus, without pre-ordering now, there might not be enough parts left after the first batch.

The Neo900 is the spritual successor of the Nokia N900. The new circuit board can be placed into an existing N900 for better specs (faster CPU, more RAM, LTE modem) than the original device while still maintaining fremantle (maemo 5) backwards compatibility. Alternatively, a fully assembled phone can be purchased as well. The Neo900 will be fully operational without any binary blob running on the main CPU. While the modem still requires a non-free firmware, it is completely decoupled from the rest of the device (think of a LTE usb stick you put in your laptop) and can reliably be monitored or switched off by the operating system.

You can follow the development of the project in the maemo forum, read about the specs of the device or consult the FAQ

Submission + - NSA Planned to Hijack Google App Store to Hack Smartphones (firstlook.org)

Submitted by Advocatus Diaboli
Advocatus Diaboli writes: "The National Security Agency and its closest allies planned to hijack data links to Google and Samsung app stores to infect smartphones with spyware, a top-secret document reveals. The surveillance project was launched by a joint electronic eavesdropping unit called the Network Tradecraft Advancement Team, which includes spies from each of the countries in the “Five Eyes” alliance — the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia."

"The newly published document shows how the agencies wanted to “exploit” app store servers – using them to launch so-called “man-in-the-middle” attacks to infect phones with the implants. A man-in-the-middle attack is a technique in which hackers place themselves between computers as they are communicating with each other; it is a tactic sometimes used by criminal hackers to defraud people. In this instance, the method would have allowed the surveillance agencies to modify the content of data packets passing between targeted smartphones and the app servers while an app was being downloaded or updated, inserting spyware that would be covertly sent to the phones."

Submission + - Takata announces largest auto recall ever (cnn.com)

Submitted by The Grim Reefer
The Grim Reefer writes: Takata is nearly doubling the size of its already massive recall for faulty airbags, making it the largest auto recall in history.

The company has already recalled airbags used in about 18 million vehicles for the problem. This move will bring that number up to about 34 million autos. That is nearly one out of every seven cars on U.S. roads today.

The recall is one of the largest consumer product recalls ever.

At least five U.S. deaths and one in Malaysia have been tied to the faulty airbags. But Japanese auto parts maker Takata, the world's No 4 maker of airbags, has previously resisted demands by regulators to get all the affected airbags off the road.

here's a list of car models, and model years, already known to use the recalled Takata airbags.

Slashdot Top Deals

Dinosaurs aren't extinct. They've just learned to hide in the trees.

Close