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Security

Submission + - Should Auditors Be Liable for Certifications? (channelinsider.com)

Submitted by
dasButcher
dasButcher writes: "Enterprises and mid-size business rely on auditors and service providers to certify their systems as compliant with such security regs and standards as PCI-DSS or SOX. But, as Larry Walsh speculates, a lawsuit filed by a bank against an auditor/managed service provider could change that (http://blogs.channelinsider.com/secure_channel/content/data_security/breach_lawsuit_could_reset_security_liabilities_to_service_providers.html). The bank wants to hold the auditor liable for a breach at its credit card processor because the auditor certified the processor as PCI compliant. If the bank wins, it could change the standards and liabilities of auditors and service providers in the delivery of security services."
Idle

Submission + - Illegal CD's smell different. (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
sgt scrub
sgt scrub writes: "I've never thought about sniffing my CD's before buying them but that is all about to change. According to this Yahoo! news article, dogs can be trained to tell the difference between a legit copy of a DVD and one from those pesky pirates.
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — A DVD-sniffing anti-piracy dog named Paddy has uncovered a huge cache of 35,000 discs in Malaysian warehouses, many destined for export to Singapore, industry officials said on Wednesday.
Paddy was given to Malaysia by the MPA to help close down piracy syndicates who churn out vast quantities of illegal DVDs. The dog is specially trained to detect chemicals in the discs."
Books

Submission + - Copyright lobby targets 'Pirate Bay for Books' (afterdawn.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: TTVK, a Finnish national copyright lobby, is threatening a book renal service called Bookabooka for allegedly running the "Pirate Bay for Books" . Bookabooka however does not offer a torrent tracker service, nor does it enable a user in any way to download eBooks; it simply provides a place for book owners to rent textbooks to each other via the traditional mail service. It is mandatory that all textbooks must be originals. The service is used by a lot of School and University students, and it does not handle the shipping or returns of the textbooks. Nevertheless, the Finnish book publishers' association (Suomen Kustannusyhdistys) is convinced the service is breaching the copyright laws and threatening their business. TTVK has given Bookabooka until Friday to cease operations or face a lawsuit. Bookabooka's founders have vowed to keep the service online and ignore the threat.
Security

Submission + - Brazilian Pirates Hijack US MIlitary Satellites (radioreference.com)

Submitted by
blantonl
blantonl writes: "This article in Wired explains how Brazilians all over the country are using modified amateur radio equipment to communicate with each other using US Military communications satellites — effectively creating their own CB radio network on the backs of the US Military. Recent efforts to crack down have resulted in arrests of some of the users, however the behavior still continues today."
Medicine

Submission + - Blood Cells Act As Embryonic Stem Cells

Submitted by crumplezone
crumplezone writes: In a recent study, U.S. researchers have reprogrammed cells found in circulating blood into cells that are molecularly and functionally indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells, a revolutionary achievement that provides a readily accessible source of stem cells and an alternative to harvesting embryonic stem cells. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090420142421.htm
Security

Submission + - 100 million prize to hack an election system

Submitted by Roborat
Roborat writes: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20090420-200435/Hacking-poll-results-to-take-lots-of-time

Cayetano earlier filed a Senate resolution setting aside P100 million as an incentive to anyone who can convincingly show the weakness of the automated poll system to be used in the 2010 elections.

"There are fears that election automation, though it promises to significantly curb cheating present in the manual system and shorten the waiting time for results from weeks or months to mere two days, it may actually induce a bigger and more sophisticated method of election cheating if the system is vulnerable to manipulation," Cayetano said.

Cayetano said that if any information technology expert (IT) or even a computer hacker could prove that the computerized counting system would not be secure from fraud and tampering, "Comelec should cancel the contract (to the winning bidder), save the P11.3 billion and sue for damages in the event of such successful hacking."
Security

Submission + - Computer Spies Breach $300-bil Fighter-Jet Project (reuters.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: WASHINGTON — Computer spies have broken into the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project — the Defense Department's costliest weapons program ever — according to current and former government officials familiar with the attacks.

Similar incidents have also breached the Air Force's air-traffic-control system in recent months, these people say. In the case of the fighter-jet program, the intruders were able to copy and siphon off several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems, officials say, potentially making it easier to defend against the craft.

The latest intrusions provide new evidence that a battle is heating up between the U.S. and potential adversaries over the data networks that tie the world together. The revelations follow a recent Wall Street Journal report that computers used to control the U.S. electrical-distribution system, as well as other infrastructure, have also been infiltrated by spies abroad.

Former U.S. officials say the attacks appear to have originated in China. However it can be extremely difficult to determine the true origin because it is easy to mask identities online.

WSJ : http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124027491029837401.html

Reuters : http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNewsMolt/idUKTRE53K0TG20090421?sp=true
Quickies

Submission + - What if our tech is good enough? (techradar.com)

Submitted by
Ant
Ant writes: "TechRadar shares how "incremental improvements just don't get us excited. Perhaps Blu-ray is the canary in the coalmine. To its makers, it's a fantastic new format, the pinnacle of home entertainment technology. To the public, it's digital video/versatile disc (DVD) with a slightly better picture and double the price tag — and most people have decided to stick with what they already have. Blu-ray isn't the only recent example of this malaise. While the launch of Windows 95 saw midnight queues, Vista's release saw nothing but tumbleweed. What if this continues and Windows 7 is met with apathy, not excitement? What if iPods stay on the shelves, personal computer/PC firms can't shift their stock and internet service providers/ISPs investing in ever-faster broadband go to the wall? It all sounds extreme, but Blu-ray's problems should send the industry a message. 'Thanks, but no thanks,' we're saying. 'What we've got is good enough.' Slowing improvements: The evolution of technology over the past few decades has been incredible. In a short space of time we've advanced from blurry black-and-white television broadcasts to crisp high definition/HD programming, from unreliable mobile phones to speedy smartphones, and from computers the size of rooms to intuitive mobile devices that can it into the palm of your hand. Yet now we find ourselves in an impossible position. In almost every sphere, the technology we have is so good that any improvements can only be incremental... Seen on Digg."

Comment changing the looks of generations .. (Score 1) 902

by zimtmaxl (#27000743) Attached to: Designer Babies
huray! what a fantastic age is comming!

Guess how many people will design their kids to
be just like their favorite idol!

Just imagine millions of Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie look-alikes - worldwide. little Obamas, Madonnas, ... Michael Jacksons(?!). Well some designs will work out better than other of course...

then there will be these exciting copyright-infringements:
" ... and she has got my nose!"
"I will sue her unless the nose is turned upside-down within a week!" ...?!

Comment Shareholders should ask a different question! (Score 2, Insightful) 580

by zimtmaxl (#26809835) Attached to: Microsoft Accused of Squandering Billions On R&D
The question of the shareholders should not be wether MS should invest into R&D or not - but why they are so bad in materializing on it.

Of course I do not have an oversight on all the projects. But I think that very many of the research that is going on at Microsoft Reseaerch is very interesting and could be fun or even useful in the future.

Examples: featured here on slashdot there was Songsmith ( http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/songsmith/index.html ). And there are many others, just look at http://research.microsoft.com./

MS has a long tradition in missing out oportunities. Because they are big and they follow a monopolist's strategy: that is to wait and see, look out for the profitable markets - then step in.

I keep telling the example of the impressive and really useful technology of RemoteScripting (although I do not know if it came from MS Research!). It was years out before the market understood the power of it.
At that time I had several clients who refused to use it, becaue it was proprietory MS (non-standard) and almost completely unknown in the industry.
Today it has become the underlying technology for something everybody knows: Ajax.

If MS had supported and promoted RemoteScripting ...

you get the point.
The Internet

Britannica Goes After Wikipedia and Google 385

Posted by CmdrTaco from the let-us-know-how-that-works-out-for-ya dept.
kzieli writes "Britannica is going to allow viewers to edit articles, with changes to be reviewed by editors within 20 minutes. There is also a bit of a rant against Google for ranking Wikipedia above Britannica on most search terms."

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