812617
submission
dstates writes:
The Columbus Post Dispatch reports that the State of Ohio is suing Premier Election Systems (previously known as Diebold over malfunctions in electronic voting machines. Election workers found that votes were "dropped" in at least 11 counties when memory cards were uploaded to computer servers. The same voting machines are used nationwide. The company blames a conflict between their software and antivirus software for the problem and says that an advisory was issued on the subject. The Ohio lawsuit contends that the company made false representations and failed to live up to contractual obligations and seeks punitive damages.
805913
submission
dstates writes:
The New York Times reports that the launch of the private Falcon rocket failed destroying the three satellites on board. This is the third failure in a row for SpaceX, the private space exploration company founded by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk. Company spokesman said "the first stage of the launching as "picture perfect, but unfortunately, a problem occurred with stage separation, causing the stages to be held together." The first Falcon 1 launch, in March 2006, failed about a minute into its ascent because of a fuel line leak. A second rocket, launched in March 2007, made it to space but was lost about five minutes after launching.
The Falcon carried three satellites: Trailblazer, a Department of Defense quick-turnaround demonstration, a small NASA laboratory, PRESat, and NanoSail-D, a test of the solar sail concept. The rocket was also carrying the ashes of 208 people who had paid to have their remains shot into space, including the astronaut Gordon Cooper and the actor James Doohan, who played Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on the original "Star Trek" television series.
803275
submission
dstates writes:
The Washington Post reports that a new Department of Homeland Security policy allows agents to seize a laptop or other electronic device at a border crossing without the need to show any cause for suspicion. Further, the device can be held for an unspecified period of time, and both the device and its contents may be shared with other government agencies and private entities. The new policies apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens and covers "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form," including hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, beepers, video and audio tapes and "all papers and other written documentation," including books, pamphlets and "written materials commonly referred to as 'pocket trash' or 'pocket litter.'" Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) is quoted as saying "The policies . . . are truly alarming,". He is probing the government's border search practices and intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches. The full DHS policy statement is available on line.
797031
submission
dstates writes:
The automobile industry may be hurting, but Microsoft is doubling down and making a massive new investment in its automotive business unit. Microsoft already works closely with a number of car companies and will enhance that effort with more people and more resources. Sync developed as a collaboration with Ford Motor Co. allows motorists to control their cell phones, music players and navigation systems with voice commands while they drive. Microsoft is also making "Live Search" technology available to automakers to develop in-car search and navigation. Detroit native Tom Philips, the new unit leader said "There are a lot of technologies that are two to three years out that are going to provide even more connectivity and innovation. There's such a disconnect between what people experience in their cars and what they experience in the rest of their lives."
781503
submission
Statesman writes:
The Los Angeles Times reports that an Arizona crime lab technician found two felons with remarkably similar genetic profiles, so similar that they would ordinarily be accepted in court as a match, but one felon was black and the other white. The FBI estimated the odds of unrelated people sharing those genetic markers to be as remote as 1 in 113 billion. Dozens of similar matches have been found, and these findings raise questions about the accuracy of the FBI's DNA statistics. Scientists and legal experts want to test the accuracy of official statistics using the nearly 6 million profiles in CODIS, the national system that includes most state and local databases. The FBI has tried to block distribution of the Arizona results and is blocking people from performing similar searches using CODIS. A legal fight is brewing over whether the nation's genetic databases ought to be opened to wider scrutiny. At stake is the credibility of the odds often cited in DNA cases, which can suggest an all but certain link between a suspect and a crime scene.
733801
submission
dstates writes:
Scientists at the University of Leicester have developed a new method to recover fingerprints on metallic objects such as bullet cartridges, guns and bomb fragments, even after the surface has been wiped clean. The technique relies on subtle corrosion of metal surfaces caused by sweat and biological residues. To visualize the patterns, high voltage is passed through the metal while sprinkling a fine conducting powder on it. The current causes the powder to stick to the corroded areas. The patterns of corrosion remain even after the surface has been cleaned, heated to 600C or even painted over. Wonder how many cold cases this is going to open up?
676462
submission
dstates writes:
USA Today reports that Federal prosecutors used a novel interpretation of computer hacking law to indict a Missouri mother on charges connected to the suicide of a 13-year-old MySpace user. Prosecutors alleged that by helping create a MySpace account in the name of someone who didn't exist, Lori Drew, 49, violated the News Corp.-owned site's terms of service and thus illegally accessed protected computers. Legal experts warned that such an interpretation could criminalize routine behavior on the Internet (e.g. how many Slashdot items are posted by "names" who are not real people). This new interpretation also gives a business contract the force of a law: Violations of a website's user agreement could now lead to criminal sanction, not just civil lawsuits or ejection from a site.
Prosecutors argue that to access MySpace's servers, Drew first had to sign up for the service providing her name and date of birth and agreeing to abide by the site's terms of service. Those terms bar false registration information, solicitation of personal information from anyone under 18 and use of any information gathered from the website to "harass, abuse, or harm another person." By using a fictitious name, among other things, Drew violated MySpace's terms and thus had no authority to access the MySpace service, and prosecutors charged.
624580
submission
dstates writes:
Details of George Bush's Cyber Initiative are beginning to trickle out.
The Cyber Initiative was created in January to secure government against electronic attacks.
NewsWeek says that over the next seven years, Bush's Cyber Initiative will spend as much as $30 billion to create a new monitoring system for all federal networks, a combined project of the DHS, the NSA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The U.S. government has launched a classified operation called Byzantine Foothold to detect, track, and disarm intrusions on the government's most critical networks. ComputerWorld reports that all data traffic flowing through agency networks will be checked, and that it will be inspected at a deeper level than the current system is capable of now.
BusinessWeek reports that one requirement is to reduce the number of internet access points in the Federal Government from the thousands now in use to only 100 sites by June 2008. How this will impact public information resources such as the Library of Congress, National Library of Medicine or even the US Congress remains to be seen.
613736
submission
dstates writes:
The Associated Press reports Treasury Department watchdogs found inadequate controls over computer systems that make confidential taxpayer information vulnerable to hacking and theft. Lack of oversight and monitoring could allow a disgruntled employee or a hacker to disrupt computer operations and steal taxpayer data. In a detailed report, the Inspector General for Tax Administration of the Treasury Department finds inadequate security controls over routers and switches and lack of attention to audit trails that could jeopardize sensitive taxpayer information.
Also of immediate concern, the Treasury Department warns of widespread phishing schemes.
609742
submission
dstates writes:
The Washington Post is reporting that some Internet Service Providers (ISP) have been using deep-packet inspection to spy on the communications of more than 100,000 US customers. Deep packet inspection allows the ISP to read the content of communications including every Web page visited, every e-mail sent and every search entered, in short every click and keystroke that comes down the line. The companies involved assert that customers' privacy is protected because no personally identifying details are released, but they make money from advertisers who use the information to target their online pitches. Deep packet inspection is a significant expansion over tools like cookie in the ability to track a user. Critics liken it to a phone company listening in on conversations.
451304
submission
dstates writes:
The New York time has an informative article on electronic voting with some frightening statistics and interesting anecdotes. Printers on Diebold machines in Cayahoga County OH jammed 20% of the time making paper trail recounts suspect. Crashing voting machines in California reportedly resulted from Windows CE sensing fingers sliding from one key to another as a drag and drop events, and the Diebold software failing to handle the event. Of course, rather than just ignore this unanticipated condition, the OS did the right thing for a voting machine and crashed :). Why politicians can not recognize the value of a transparent open source solution for E-voting is beyond me.
