bratgitarre - Slashdot User

Mozilla Reveals Firefox 4 Plans 570

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday May 11, 2010 @09:00AM from the just-make-it-faster dept.

Barence writes "Mozilla has given a breakdown of its plans for Firefox 4. Perhaps the most striking change to Firefox 4 is the user interface, which takes a great deal of inspiration from Google Chrome. 'Something UI designers have known for a long time is that the simpler an interface looks, the faster it will seem,' said director of Firefox Mike Beltzner during the presentation. Also mooted was the ability to give applications such as Gmail and Twitter their own permanent tabs for easy access, and the introduction of a 'switch to tab' button, allowing power users running hundreds of tabs to quickly find the one they want. Beltzner said Mozilla was also looking at replicating Chrome's tactic of silently updating the browser in the background, removing the annoying wait when Firefox first loads up."

Comment Re:UltraVNC - Single Click (Score 1) 152

by bratgitarre on Thursday April 29, 2010 @01:02PM (#32032874) Attached to: Free Remote Access Tools For Windows and Mac Compared

Also, if your dealing with a shop that has to be PCI-DSS or as part of a PA-DSS application, the PCI folks want to see at least 256bit AES encryption. The 128-bit solution isn't enough. So far the closest we've found is Logmein and we only support clients on Windows or OSX.

So, let me get this straight. 128-bit AES in a popular, trusted , open source, "point to point" application isn't good enough. However Logmein, originally developed in Eastern Europe (and probably now supported from India or China) which is a closed box controlled by servers you have no idea what they're doing is fine because they somewhere have the magical text "256bit AES". Right.

Hey, buzzword compliance is what standards are all about!

Submission + - Videos/Reports of Unexplained Fireball Pour In (cnn.com) 1

Submitted by insufflate10mg on Thursday April 15, 2010 @11:05AM

insufflate10mg writes: Incredible footage, undeniable evidence and massive numbers of people in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin phone in reports of an unbelievably large fireball. The footage from many surveillance cameras in the cities show a fireball seemingly larger than the city itself. Some are speculating it was a meteor, but the conspiracy theorists have dawned their tinfoil hats and feel the government will HAVE to explain this one!

Comment Re:They could go even further... (Score 2, Insightful) 578

by bratgitarre on Saturday February 20, 2010 @11:45PM (#31215774) Attached to: Fingerprint Requirement For a Work-Study Job?

They could do even better than that, they could take relative position information you described and then hash it. Hashes are one way, no one can recover the respresentation once it is hashed.

even with a "secure" hash, if the recorded data has low entropy, you can still guess it in an offline dictionary attack. If you believe otherwise, please post your /etc/shadow for us, thanks!

But seriously, it's besides the point whether they store hashes or high-res pictures of your fingers. Whoever gets their hand on the database can still identify the prints you leave everywhere. High-res pictures just make it easier for them to impersonate you to other fingerprint scanners.

Submission + - Study: 73% use bank passwords everywhere 1

Submitted by shmG on Wednesday February 03, 2010 @03:25PM

shmG writes: Most security experts would recommend not using the same password across multiple websites, especially those used on sensitive financial information, but a new study is showing that the majority of Internet users are ignoring that advise. Security researcher Trusteer reported that 73 percent of bank customers use their banking password on multiple websites.

Submission + - Huge phishing attack on emissions trade in Europe (spiegel.de)

Submitted by bratgitarre on Wednesday February 03, 2010 @02:18PM

bratgitarre writes: A targeted phishing scam on companies trading with greenhouse gas emission certificates in Europe has reaped millions, Der Spiegel reports. By sending phishing e-mails to companies in Australia and New Zealand purporting to be from the German Ministry for Environmental Protection (German article, Google translation) the criminals obtained login credentials for companies owning polluting permissions. They then swiftly sold them to other polluters in various European countries. Damages are probably huge for a single incident, as "one medium-sized German company alone had lost allowances worth €1.5 million ($2.1 million)". German federal officials, who can trace some of the transactions, claim that out of 2000 certificate sellers seven responded to the scam.

Comment Re:Use PGP/GNUPG auth (Score 1) 170

by bratgitarre on Friday November 06, 2009 @05:28PM (#30010038) Attached to: Man-In-the-Middle Vulnerability For SSL and TLS

In TSL's RSA mode the user is actually generating the session key, and in the Diffie-Hellman modes s/he generates at least half of it.

Submission + - Huge electronic spying operation discovered (nytimes.com)

Submitted by homesalad on Saturday March 28, 2009 @01:39PM

homesalad writes: Researchers at the Munk Center for International Studies in Toronto have discovered a huge international electronic spying operation, dubbed "GhostNet", that has so far infiltrated government and corporate offices in 103 countries, including the office of the Dalai Lama. The operation seems to be based in China, and the information gained has been used to interfere with the actions of the Dalai Lama and to thwart individuals seeking to help Tibetan exiles. The researchers found no evidence of infiltration of U.S. government computers, although machines at the Indian embassy were compromised. A full report, "Tracking 'GhostNet': Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network" will be issued this weekend.

Submission + - Best Grad Program for Computer Science Major?

Submitted by

ryanleary

on Saturday March 28, 2009 @02:35AM

ryanleary writes: "I am currently a junior computer science major at a relatively competitive university. I am intending on remaining here for some graduate work and I would like to get a masters degree. The question is... what Masters degree to get? An MS in computer science appears to be highly theoretical, while an MS in IT seems more practical with more breadth (covering some management, HCI, Design). So, Slashdot, what looks best on a resume and where might I expect to make more money in the not-too-distant future? Computer Science, Information Technology, or something different altogether--an MBA??"

Comment Just offer some money and you're fine (Score 1) 118

by bratgitarre on Saturday January 24, 2009 @06:13PM (#26592803) Attached to: Mozilla Labs Wants To Monitor (Volunteers') Firefox Use

Just offer a small compensation from the multi-million dollar Mozilla Foundation budget and people will volunteer. As Schneier said, "If McDonald's offered a free Big Mac for a DNA sample, there would be lines around the block."

Comment Re:In other words... (Score 1) 309

by bratgitarre on Monday January 19, 2009 @12:28AM (#26512703) Attached to: Germany Legislates For Mandatory Web Filters

One thing that I'm certain would be a part of future "wishes and plans" to censor (if not already part of the proposed filter) would be Nazi paraphernalia.

This is already being done [German], at least in the state NRW. They starting blocking in 2002, and a court determined it's legal in 2005.

To provide some perspective for US readers, here's a NY Times article on how unique the First Amendment is.

CERN Releases Analysis of LHC Incident 149

Posted by timothy on Thursday October 16, 2008 @08:07PM from the training-exercise-was-too-trite dept.

sash writes "From the fresh press release: 'Investigations at CERN following a large helium leak into sector 3-4 of the Large Hadron Collider tunnel have confirmed that cause of the incident was a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator's magnets. This resulted in mechanical damage and release of helium from the magnet cold mass into the tunnel. Proper safety procedures were in force, the safety systems performed as expected, and no one was put at risk. Sufficient spare components are in hand to ensure that the LHC is able to restart in 2009, and measures to prevent a similar incident in the future are being put in place.'"

Web Singletons? 254

Posted by timothy on Thursday October 16, 2008 @07:00PM from the magrathea-dot-com dept.

tcmb writes "There are an uncounted number of web mail and picture sharing services, there are more than enough web sites for online bookmark management and friend-finding, but as far as I know there is only one Internet Archive. Which are the true web singletons, services that exist only once in this form?" And does anything approach the singular time-wasting abilities of IMDB or Wikipedia?

Schneier Calls Quantum Cryptography Impressive But Pointless 233

Posted by timothy on Thursday October 16, 2008 @04:27PM from the science-fair-project dept.

KindMind writes "Bruce Schneier writes in Wired that quantum cryptography, while an awesome technology, is actually pointless (that is, of no commercial value). His point is that the science of cryptography is not the weak point, but the other links in the chain (like people, etc.) are where it breaks down."

NSA Whistleblowers Reveal Extent of Eavesdropping 222

Posted by timothy on Thursday October 09, 2008 @05:54PM from the revealing-the-obvious dept.

ma11achy was one of several readers to write about claims made by two former military intercept operators who worked for the NSA that "Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home." Ars Technica has a brief report as well, and reader net_shaman adds a link to Glenn Greenwald's opinion piece on the eavesdropping at Salon.

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