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Communications

US House Passes Ban On Caller ID Spoofing 171

Posted by Soulskill from the posted-by-sir-isaac-newton dept.
smarek writes "The 'Truth in Caller ID Act' passed the US House of Representatives on Wednesday. The legislation is trying to outlaw Caller ID spoofing. In some cases, this spoofing has led to individuals giving out information that has led to identity theft. Last year the NYPD discovered over 6,000 victims of Caller ID spoofing, who together lost a total of $15 million. A companion bill has already been passed by the Senate, and the two are on their way to 'informal conference to reconcile any differences.' The bill that results will most likely pass." PCWorld's coverage notes that callers will still be able to block their information entirely, and that the bill may have negative consequences for legitimate phone-related services, such as Google Voice.

Submission + - Escapist Website Mass Bans Users Who Mention Adblo (escapistmagazine.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: One user posted a thread on the forums complaining about an ad. Other users responded that they used adblock so never saw any ads. Down comes the banhammer wiping out several users that have post counts in the thousands and years of membership, just for mentioning the name of the hated extension.

There are no terms of use prohibiting adblock or listing blocking of ads as a bannable offense.

The thread was quickly locked and will probably be deleted.
Canada

Submission + - inexpensive 3D printer built by grad student & (reprap.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: this was just posted to hackaday, and I think it might be of interest to your readership:

My name is Peter, a PhD student in the Cognitive Science Lab at McMaster University. My dad and I have built an inexpensive and fairly simple-to-build 3D printer from a few inkjet printers and about $200-$300, which is about a third to half the price of the next cheapest kit (a Makerbot). While the design is Makerbot-inspired, it makes some simplifications that dramatically reduce it's complexity and make it far easier to produce. Infact, many of the parts were created with a table saw and a hand drill, tools fairly common in most any garage.

thanks

Submission + - Palm WebOS Hacked Via SMS Messages

Submitted by gondaba
gondaba writes: Security researchers at the Intrepidus Group have hacked into Palm's new WebOS platform, using nothing more than text messages to exploit a slew of dangerous web app vulnerabilities. The white hat hackers found that the WebOS SMS client did not properly validate input/output validation on any SMS messages sent to the handset, leading to a rudimentary HTML injection bug. Coupled with the fact that HTML injection leads directly to injecting code into a WebOS application, the attacks made possible were quite dangerous (especially considering they could all be delivered over a SMS message).
Privacy

Submission + - Google trying to scare us out of optin

Submitted by pcause
pcause writes: This article in Ars Technica discussed a proposal by a Virginia Congressman to give you back control of your privacy and make use of your personal and behavioral information opt-in. This scares the pants off of Google and they are trying to scare us with stories of how horrible the Internet will be if we have privacy. It will be terrible for Google's business, as they make more money the more they abuse your privacy, and they make a LOT of money!
Networking

Submission + - What is the Future of Firewalls? 1

Submitted by jlmale0
jlmale0 writes: When I mess with my WAP/router at home or coordinate with the network team at work, it seems like I'm stuck in 1995. We're still manually listing IP address/port combinations for our firewall rules. There's a certain simplicity to this when dealing with a single system, but there are firewalls everywhere these days. What's available for managing complex firewall arrangements? What's being developed? Can I take a visio diagram, run it through a script and get a list of firewall rules? What about a gui that illustrates the current system configuration and then lets me drag and drop systems across firewalls, and have the individual firewall ports automatically configured? What about tying a firewall into an authentication system so that when jdoe logs in, only then are the firewalls opened to pass her traffic? What about managing distributed firewalls so that one repository of rules opens up your system's firewalls, the DMZ firewall, and the public firewall all at once?

Let's get a conversation started. What cool projects do I need to know about? What cool management features would you like to see? What's next for firewall management?
Security

Submission + - U.S. Infrastructure At Risk From Cyber Attacks (net-security.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Nearly three-quarters of federal IT decision-makers who work in national defense and security departments or agencies say the possibility is “high” for a cyber attack by a foreign nation in the next year, according to a Clarus Research Group survey. Additionally, a third of these respondents say they have already experienced such a cyber attack within the last year. Only six percent of respondents rated the federal government’s overall ability to prevent or handle possible threats from cyber attacks on critical IT infrastructure in the U.S. as “excellent.” Difficulty integrating multiple technologies, aligning IT needs with department objectives and in complying with requirements were identified as the greatest challenges in managing IT security operations today.
Microsoft

Submission + - One in three Brits ok with piracy (pcauthority.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A third of UK citizens believe that it is acceptable to use pirated software at home or at work, according to a new survey conducted by Microsoft. Microsoft was keen to point out the risks of using illegal software, claiming that it has led to the introduction of a computer virus in 62 per cent of cases, a loss of personal data in 31 per cent of cases and a system crash in 38 per cent of cases. The company has timed the launch of its research to coincide with the debate on the Digital Economy Bill. If the proposed legislation is passed by parliament as it stands, persistent illegal downloaders and file sharers will be punished by being disconnected from the internet.

Submission + - Comcast Given Power To Throttle Online Gaming (goozernation.com)

Submitted by averyzoe
averyzoe writes: In a surprise ruling today, a Federal Appeals Court ruled that the FCC does not have the power to require Internet providers to give equal access to all Internet content.......the ways that Internet providers could use this ruling to their benefit are quite disturbing. Spending too much time on World of Warcraft? Your cable service could throttle your usage, making many online games difficult, if not impossible to use.

Submission + - Proximity Sensor Question

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: My wife works at a nursing home, and they have a patient that "escapes" from the area she's supposed to be in. They're looking for some sort of system that would alert them when this patient reaches the threshold of the door, so they can keep her from wandering off. This system needs to be specific to the patient. They don't want to have an alarm going off every time someone walks through the door. The patient is in a wheelchair, so my initial thought was having a proximity sensor that you attach to the patient's wheel chair and put an alarm on the door frame that would go off when she goes through the door. I'm having trouble finding something that would work for an application like this. Finding a solution would be nice, because if the nurses can't keep track of the patient, she's going to have to go under lock and key in the dementia ward. Any thoughts on something that would work for this?

Submission + - Name That Element - Think Heavy (nytimes.com)

Submitted by mr crypto
mr crypto writes: A team of Russian and American scientists has discovered a new element that has long stood as a missing link among the heaviest bits of atomic matter ever produced. The element, still nameless, appears to point the way toward a brew of still more massive elements with chemical properties no one can predict.

Submission + - Unitrends Announces Certification for Ubuntu (unitrends.com)

Submitted by esj35
esj35 writes: Unitrends, the leader in affordable, vertically integrated, disk-based all-in-one data protection appliances, announced that all of its backup appliances have been certified for use with the Ubuntu operating environment through a partnership with Canonical, the commercial sponsor of the Ubuntu project. Unitrends now supports Ubuntu 9.10 Netbook Remix, Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop Edition, and Ubuntu 9.10 Server Edition and is actively working to certify Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

“Ubuntu has experienced phenomenal growth not only on the desktop but with the Ubuntu Server Edition as well,” said Dr. Mark Campbell, chief operating officer, Unitrends. “Through our partnership with Canonical, Ubuntu users now have a powerful data protection solution with a compelling licensing model that eliminates restrictions on storage capacity or clients so that Ubuntu users have the protection they need for their data without the hidden costs of traditional data protection options.”

“The Unitrends data protection appliance solution is a valued addition to the products that support the Ubuntu community,” said John Pugh, Software Partner Manager, Canonical. “Backup and recovery of data is a mission critical application for today’s business users and the Unitrends solution delivers both the superior performance and reliability Ubuntu users desire. We are pleased to partner with Unitrends in delivering this product response to our customers.”

Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is and always will be free. It is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. Whether used at home, at school or at work, Ubuntu contains all needed applications, from word processing and email applications, to web server software and programming tools.

Availability
Unitrends appliances supporting disk-to-disk backup and recovery for Ubuntu are available now. Unitrends also offers a radically simple licensing approach with no client charges or limits for all of its appliances and its exclusive No Limits licensing for its Recovery-7 Series appliances. For more information, please visit: http://www.unitrends.com./

About Canonical

Canonical provides engineering, online and professional services to Ubuntu partners and customers worldwide. As the company behind the Ubuntu project, Canonical is committed to the production and support of Ubuntu – an ever-popular and fast-growing open-source operating system. It aims to ensure that Ubuntu is available to every organization and individual on servers, desktops, laptops and netbooks.

Canonical partners with computer hardware manufacturers to certify Ubuntu, provides migration, deployment, support and training services to businesses, and offers online services direct to end users. Canonical also builds and maintains collaborative, open-source development tools to ensure that organizations and individuals can participate fully in innovations within the open-source community. For more information, please visit www.canonical.com.

About Unitrends
Unitrends provides enterprise-level data protection, at the lowest total cost of ownership in the industry, through a family of scalable disk-based data protection appliances that integrate and protect existing heterogeneous computer and storage systems through a single, intuitive, graphical user interface. Unitrends uses a common backup and recovery engine for providing protection for over 100 different versions of operating systems and applications. This means you can support various versions of Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware, Sun Solaris, Novell OES, Novell Netware, Novell GroupWise, Novell eDirectory, Linux, FreeBSD, Apple MacOS X, IBM pSeries/AIX, HP HP-UX, SCO UnixWare, SCO OpenServer, IBM iSeries/OS400, and SGI IRIX on notebooks, PCs, workstations, and servers and on DAS, NAS, or SAN storage – all using a single backup appliance.

Information about Unitrends can be found at http://www.unitrends.com./
Government

Submission + - Massachusetts Gambling Bill Criminalizes Online Po (pokernewsdaily.com)

Submitted by timothy
timothy writes: Awesome: 'A gambling bill introduced by Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo criminalizes internet gambling and online poker. The bill calls for two casinos.' Not that they're against *gambling,* you see ... just against being deprived of such a perfect fleecing opportunity.
Hardware

Submission + - Largest Sodium Sulfur Battery Powers Texas Town (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by separsons
separsons writes: The largest sodium sulfur battery in America, nicknamed "BOB," can provide enough electricity to power all of Presidio, Texas. Until now, the small town relied on a single, 60-year-old transmission line to connect it to the grid, so the community frequently experienced power outages. BOB, or "Big-Old Battery," began charging earlier this week. The house-sized battery can hold four megawatts of power for up to eight hours. Utilities are looking into similar-sized batteries to store power from solar and wind so that renewables can come online before the country implements a smart grid system.
Firefox

Submission + - Mozilla warns of unknown root certificate authorit (zdnet.com) 1

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Mozilla warns of unknown root certificate authority in Firefox

In a startling revelation, the open-source Mozilla project says that its flagship Firefox browser contains a root certificate authority that doesn’t seem to have a known owner.

Here’s the disclosure by Kathleen Wilson, who serves as a peer for the “CA certificates module” within the Mozilla project:

“I have not been able to find the current owner of this root. Both RSA and VeriSign have stated in email that they do not own this root. Therefore, to my knowledge this root has no current owner and no current audit, and should be removed from NSS.” A separate bug report identifies the root certificate authority as “RSA Security 1024 V3.”

Interestingly, that root certificate authority is shown as valid in Apple’s System Roots but not in Microsoft’s.

Mozilla’s own Gervase Markham is worried about the implications:follow Ryan Naraine on twitter

The lack of transparency in 2002 re: the source of added roots means we have no idea whether e.g. some malicious actor slipped an extra one into whatever list they were keeping internally to Netscape, and has been MITMing people ever since.

ZDNet : http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=6016

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