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Botnet

Submission + - 50 ISPs Harbor Half of All Infected Machines (net-security.org)

Orome1 writes: As the classic method of combating botnets by taking down command and control centers has proven pretty much ineffective in the long run, there has been lots of talk lately about new stratagems that could bring about the desired result. A group of researchers from the Delft University of Technology and Michigan State University have recently released an analysis of the role that ISPs could play in botnet mitigation — an analysis that led to interesting conclusions. The often believed assumption that the presence of a high speed broadband connection is linked to the widespread presence of botnet infection in a country has been proven false.
Security

Submission + - China hijacks internet traffic for 18 minutes (nationaldefensemagazine.org) 2

achyuta writes: Launching attacks on security agencies such as the Pentagon or civilians to gain sensitive information has been on for some time now. But an event which seems to have flown under the radar of the popular press, suggests that the information security war is now being waged by simply taking advantage of the way the internet works. The hostile party literally has the prey sent to them. The vice president of threat research at McAfee, Dmitri Alperovitch says "This is one of the biggest — if not the biggest hijacks — we have ever seen. What happened to the traffic while it was in China? No one knows."

Submission + - A Floating City In the Sky By 2025 (diginfo.tv) 1

dk3nn3dy writes: As a new model for environmentally friendly cities of the future, Shimizu Corporation are researching the construction of artificial islands in the equatorial ocean, which will be self-sufficient, carbon-negative cities with zero waste. At one kilometer high and wide, the cities will feature urban, arable and marine zones and can scale efficiently as the population increases. I have friends who refuse to buy apartments because all they will own is a space of air, would you be willing to buy a space of air above the ocean?
Medicine

Submission + - Miniature Human Livers Grown in Lab (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: In the quest to grow replacement human organs in the lab, livers are no doubt at the top of many a barfly’s wish list. With its wide range of functions that support almost every organ in the body and no way to compensate for the absence of liver function, the ability to grow a replacement is also the focus of many research efforts. Now, for the first time, researchers have been able to successfully engineer miniature livers in the lab using human liver cells.
Security

Submission + - Android Code May Be at Risk (esecurityplanet.com)

graychase writes: Writing for eSecurityPlanet.com, Sean Michael Kerner reports: "Google's Android mobile operating system may include a number of high-risk software flaws, according to a new report from static code analysis vendor Coverity. Coverity detected 359 software defects in the Android Froyo kernel that is used in the HTC Droid Incredible smartphone. Of those defects, Coverity has identified 88 defects or about 25 percent of the total flaw count, as being high-risk and potentially leading to security risk for Android users."

Andy Chou, Chief Scientist and co-founder of Coverity is quoted as saying, "We found that the Android kernel had about half the defect density that you would expect, compared to other industry average codebases of the same size. What that means is that a defect density of one defect per approximately one thousand lines of code is industry average, according to our measurements – for the Android kernel, the defect density was about 0.47."

Submission + - W3C: IE9 is the most HTML5 compatible browser (engadget.com)

GIL_Dude writes: The W3C posted results (http://test.w3.org/html/tests/reporting/report.htm) for their latest HTML5 compatibility tests and have found that, so far, IE 9 has the best overall results.
The Internet

Submission + - The Emergence of the Dependent Web

Pickens writes: "John Battelle writes about the increasing prevalence of websites that change what you see based on who they think you are. On the Dependent Web, what you see "depends" on a proprietary model of your identity, including what you've done in the past, what you're doing right now, what "cohorts" you might fall into based on third- or first-party data and algorithms, and any number of other robust signals. On the Independent Web, for the most part, content or services does not shift based on who you are. But Battelle writes that in the past few years a large group of sites on the Independent Web have begun to use Dependent Web algorithms and services to deliver advertising based on who you are. "With Facebook's push to export its version of the social graph across the Independent Web; Google's efforts to personalize display via AdSense and Doubleclick; AOL, Yahoo and Demand building search-driven content farms, and the rise of data-driven ad exchanges and "Demand Side Platforms" to manage revenue for it all, it's clear that we're in the early phases of a major shift in the texture and experience of the web," writes Battelle. "One thing I’m certain of: Who I am according to Google, or Facebook, or any number of other scaled Dependent Web services, is not necessarily who I want to be as I wander this new digital world.""

Submission + - Flash on iPhone via on-the-fly HTML5 conversion (cnn.com)

KindMind writes: CNN Money reports that flash is coming to the iPhone and iPad via Skyfire. Skyfire will dynamically translate Flash to HTML5 for viewing on the iPhone and iPad. Skyfire was previously noted on Slashdot as doing the same thing for Android.

But according to the article, there will be limitations: "But one major website that Skyfire won't have an effect on is Hulu, which blocked the app from downloading its videos. Hulu, which hosts TV shows and movies from the major networks and studios, is free for PC users in the United States. But mobile users have to pay $10 a month for a subscription to Hulu Plus. The app won't translate games or other non-video content that runs in Flash, however. Still, Glueck estimates that the number of websites and videos that Skyfire will open up to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users is in the 'millions.'".

OS X

Apple 10.4.11 Update Can Brick Macs With Boot Camp 425

g-san writes "Some Mac users are having problems with the latest 10.4.11 update, yours truly included. The problem seems to be caused by the presence of a Boot Camp partition and renders the Mac unable to reboot after the update fails. Note the Geniuses at the Apple stores are recommending a full disk wipe; but data can be recovered via Firewire." MacNN has a note up that if you fall victim to this "known issue" and need to reformat the disk, you can't reinstall Boot Camp because it is no longer available to OS X 10.4 Tiger users.
Data Storage

Nanotech To Replace Disk Drives Within Ten Years? 127

Ian Lamont writes "An Arizona State University researcher named Michael Kozicki claims that nanotechnology will replace disk drives in ten years. The article mentions three approaches: Nanowires (which replace electrons/capacitors), multiple memory layers on silicon (instead of a single layer), and a method that stores multiple pieces of information in the same space: 'Traditionally, each cell holds one bit of information. However, instead of storing simply a 0 or a 1, that cell could hold a 00 or a 01. Kozicki said the ability to double capacity that way — without increasing the number of cells — has already been proven. Now researchers are working to see how many pieces of data can be held by a single cell.'"

Robotic Cannon Loses Control, Kills 9 580

TJ_Phazerhacki writes "A new high tech weapon system demonstrated one of the prime concerns circling smarter and smarter methods of defense last week — an Oerlikon GDF-005 cannon went wildly out of control during live fire test exercises in South Africa, killing 9. Scarily enough, this is far from the first instance of a smart weapon 'turning' on its handlers. 'Electronics engineer and defence company CEO Richard Young says he can't believe the incident was purely a mechanical fault. He says his company, C2I2, in the mid 1990s, was involved in two air defence artillery upgrade programmes, dubbed Projects Catchy and Dart. During the shooting trials at Armscor's Alkantpan shooting range, "I personally saw a gun go out of control several times," Young says. "They made a temporary rig consisting of two steel poles on each side of the weapon, with a rope in between to keep the weapon from swinging. The weapon eventually knocked the pol[e]s down."' The biggest concern seems to be finding the glitches in the system instead of reconsidering automated arms altogether."

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