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Submission + - A Closer Look at the Syrian Electronic Army

Submitted by tsu doh nimh
tsu doh nimh writes: Yesterday saw the publication of two stories focusing on two different Syrian men thought to be core members of the Syrian Electronic Army, the hacking group that took credit for recent break-ins that compromised the Web sites of The New York Times, The Washington Post and other media outlets. Working with a source who says he hacked into the SEA's servers this year, Vice.com profiles a fairly high-profile SEA member who uses the nickname "ThePro" and outs him as a young man named Hatem Deeb. Separately, Brian Krebs managed to get hold of the SQL database for the SEA's Web site after it was allegedly hacked this year, and follows a trail of clues back to one of two administrators of the SEA, which leads to another Syrian guy — a Web developer named Mohammed Osman, a.k.a. Mohamed Abd AlKarem.

Submission + - Guy DDoS's his old boss and gets caught (krebsonsecurity.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Brian Krebs writes about a story abouy a hacker who gets caught doing DDoS attacks against his former employer. He ends up learning the hard way what NOT to do when launching DDoS attacks using Booter services.

Submission + - Researchers Buy Twitter Bots to Fight Twitter Spam (krebsonsecurity.com)

Submitted by tsu doh nimh
tsu doh nimh writes: The success of social networking community Twitter has given rise to an entire shadow economy that peddles dummy Twitter accounts by the thousands, primarily to spammers, scammers and malware purveyors. But new research on identifying bogus accounts has helped Twitter to drastically deplete the stockpile of existing accounts for sale, and holds the promise of driving up costs for both vendors of these shady services and their customers. Krebsonsecurity.com writes about a paper (PDF) being released today at the USENIX conference that details how researchers spent almost a year and $5,000 buying up accounts from 27 twitter account merchants, and then built templates to help Twitter detect accounts sold by these merchants — all with the aim of getting more of these bot accounts shut down before they can be used to spam legitimate Twitter users. The story goes into great detail on the lengths to which these account merchants will go to evade Twitter's anti-bot security measures.

Submission + - DEF CON Advises Feds Not to Attend Conference (krebsonsecurity.com)

Submitted by tsu doh nimh
tsu doh nimh writes: One of the more time-honored traditions at DEF CON — the massive hacker convention held each year in Las Vegas — is "Spot-the-Fed," a playful and mostly harmless contest to out undercover government agents that attend the show each year. But that game might be a bit tougher when the conference rolls around again next month: In an apparent reaction to recent revelations about far-reaching U.S. government surveillance programs, DEF CON organizers are asking feds to just stay away: "I think it would be best for everyone involved if the feds call a âtime-outâ(TM) and not attend DEF CON this year," conference organizer Jeff Moss wrote in a short post at Defcon.org. Krebsonsecurity writes that after many years of mutual distrust, the hacker community and the feds buried a lot of their differences in the wake of 911, with the director of NSA even delivering the keynote at last year's conference. But this year? Spot the fed may just turn into hack-the-fed.

Submission + - How Much is Your Gmail Account Worth to Crooks? (krebsonsecurity.com) 1

Submitted by tsu doh nimh
tsu doh nimh writes: If you use Gmail and have ever wondered how much your account might be worth to cyber thieves, have a look at Cloudsweeper, a new OAuth service launching this week that tries to price the value of your Gmail address based on the number of retail accounts you have tied to it and the current resale value of those accounts in the underground. From KrebsOnSecurity: "The brainchild of researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Cloudsweeperâ(TM)s account theft audit tool scans your inbox and presents a breakdown of how many accounts connected to that address an attacker could seize if he gained access to your Gmail. Cloudsweeper then tries to put an aggregate price tag on your inbox, a figure thatâ(TM)s computed by totaling the resale value of other account credentials that crooks can steal if they hijack your email."

Submission + - Eye-surgery by magnetically-guided microrobots moves toward clinical trials (robohub.org)

Submitted by Sabine Hauert
Sabine Hauert writes: According to robotics researcher Simone Schürle from ETH Zurich’s Multi-Scale Robotics Lab (MSRL), the OctoMag is a magnetic manipulation system that uses electromagnetic coils to wirelessly guide microrobots for ophthalmic surgery. With this system, mobility experiments were conducted in which a microrobot with a diameter of 285 um (about four times the width of a hair) was navigated reliably through the eye of a rabbit, demonstrating the feasibility of using this technology in surgical applications.
China

Submission + - Bit9 Breach Dates to July 2012, Tied to Attacks on U.S. Defense Firms (krebsonsecurity.com)

Submitted by tsu doh nimh
tsu doh nimh writes: Last week, Bit9 — a security firm that offers application whitelisting services — disclosed that some of its customers had received malware signed with its secret digital certificates. The company has refused to say much about which customers were targeted, but a story by Brian Krebs today shows that the Bit9 certificate was stolen back in July 2012, and that the attack involved custom malware that was discovered by forensics firm Mandiant last August as the company was responding to several targeted breaches at U.S. defense contractors. The Bit9 breach is sure to add fuel to the fire over whether China's military is sponsoring these attacks, as claimed in a 70+page report issued by Mandiant earlier this week.
Bitcoin

Submission + - Ripple, the First True Bitcoin Competitor (privateinternetaccess.com)

Submitted by kangpeh
kangpeh writes: Ripple (XRP) is a new decentralized Bitcoin-like currency that doesn’t require a blockchain or mining. The Ripple network also supports sending and trading between any currency enabling true decentralized BTC exchanges. Ripple and Bitcoin can work together to expand each other’s reach. We are the first VPN to accept Ripple.

Submission + - Honda Gives Free Solar Installations (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
head_dunce
head_dunce writes: "In a first for an automaker, American Honda Motor Co.will offer free home solar systems to customers, hoping the incentive will help its green reputation and make solar power more affordable.

  "Honda and Acura customers and dealerships will be able to install solar power with little or no upfront cost, depending on the customer's choice of plans. Customers will be given a choice to pre-pay for their solar electricity or pay a monthly payment that will be lower than the cost of their current utility bill, with insurance, repairs and monitoring service included," according to the company.

Customers in SolarCity's 14-state area are eligible: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington. Interested customers can visit www.HondaSolarCity.com and get a free web or phone consultation.

The total cost of installation and equipment is typically $10,000 to $20,000 for a residential solar system, the spokesman said."

Submission + - US CEO says French workers have 'three-hour' working day (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by M3.14
M3.14 writes: In a letter addressed to French Industrial Renewal Minister, US tyre manufacturing company CEO is writing (original FR article with English letter) that it would be stupid to buy any factory in France since workers don't really work full time. He'd rather buy cheap factories in India and China instead and import tyres back to France. This really places a question where is the equilibrium between unions and companies. In this case it definitely went all the way down on union side.
Security

Submission + - Bit9 Hacked, Stolen Certs Used to Sign Malware (krebsonsecurity.com)

Submitted by tsu doh nimh
tsu doh nimh writes: Bit9, a company that provides software and network security services to the U.S. government and at least 30 Fortune 100 firms, has suffered a compromise that cuts to the core of its business: helping clients distinguish known "safe" files from computer viruses and other malicious software. A leading provider of "application whitelisting" services, Bit9's security technology turns the traditional approach to fighting malware on its head. Antivirus software, for example, seeks to identify and quarantine files that are known bad or strongly suspected of being malicious. In contrast, Bit9 specializes in helping companies develop custom lists of software that they want to allow employees to run, and to treat all other applications as potentially unknown and dangerous. But in a blog post today, the company disclosed that attackers broke into its network and managed to steal the digital keys that Bit9 uses to distinguish good from bad applications. The attackers then sent signed malware to at least three of Bit9's customers, although Bit9 isn't saying which customers were affected or to what extent. The kicker? The firm said it failed to detect the intrusion in part because the servers used to store its keys were not running Bit9's own software.
China

Submission + - Washington Post: We Were Also Hacked by the Chinese (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by tsu doh nimh
tsu doh nimh writes: A sophisticated cyberattack targeted The Washington Post in an operation that resembled intrusions against other major American news organizations and that company officials suspect was the work of Chinese hackers, the publication acknowledged on Friday. The disclosure came just hours after a former Post employee shared information about the break-in with ex-Postie reporter Brian Krebs, and caps a week marked by similar stories from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Krebs cites a former Post tech worker saying that the publication gave one of its hacked servers to the National Security Agency for analysis, a claim that the Post's leadership denies. The story also notes that the Post relied on software from Symantec, the same security software that failed to detect intrusions at The New York Times for many months.
EU

Submission + - Apple Discontinues Mac Pro in EU (macworld.co.uk)

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: Apple has been forced to remove the Mac Pro from sale in European Union after an amendment to a safety regulation left the machines incompliant. The updated electronics safety standard IEC 60950-1 increases requirements around electrical port protection and the fan guards in the system. Apple does not plan to modify their machines and will simply pull them from market in the EU. Apple wishes to warn customers and partners about the change so that they would have sufficient time to order Mac Pro units and meet any needs prior to 1 March, when the amendment comes into effect.

Submission + - Dozens suspended in Harvard University cheat scandal (news.com.au)

Submitted by johnsnails
johnsnails writes: AROUND 60 students at Harvard University have been suspended and others disciplined in a mass cheating scandal at the elite college, the campus newspaper reports.

The Harvard Crimson quoted an email from Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean Michael Smith that said more than half of the cases heard by administrators in the scandal, which erupted last year, had resulted in suspension orders.

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