Submission + - Watching a Botnet From the Inside (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: When you hear about botnets such as Rustock, Mariposa or Grum being taken down, one of the tactics that's usually involved is sinkholing. The technique, which involves pointing the infected machines to a server controlled by good guys rather than attackers, often is used as one of the last steps to take the botnet offline. But some recent work done by researchers at Damballa took a slightly different tack and used the sinkhole as a way to study a recently discovered botnet in operation, and what they found in their traffic analysis was pretty interesting.
The Damballa researchers had come across the botnet, which they have not named, in recent weeks and were looking at the way that the network used a domain-generation algorithm to come up with new command-and-control domains for infected machines to contact. Many botnets use this same method, as it give them the ability to react quickly when one domain is taken down or blacklisted by a large number of security products. When that happens, the botmaster can simply send out an instruction for all of the bots to connect to the new domain. Or the bots can be programmed to connect to various new domains at regular intervals, based on the date or other variables.
In this case, the researchers saw that a lot of bots were trying to connect to some domains that had not been registered yet. So they did some quick statistical analysis and picked out some of the most frequently requested domains and registered the domains themselves. The Damballa researchers then pointed the domains to a sinkhole maintained by the Georgia Tech Information Security Center and sat back and watched the action.
The Damballa researchers had come across the botnet, which they have not named, in recent weeks and were looking at the way that the network used a domain-generation algorithm to come up with new command-and-control domains for infected machines to contact. Many botnets use this same method, as it give them the ability to react quickly when one domain is taken down or blacklisted by a large number of security products. When that happens, the botmaster can simply send out an instruction for all of the bots to connect to the new domain. Or the bots can be programmed to connect to various new domains at regular intervals, based on the date or other variables.
In this case, the researchers saw that a lot of bots were trying to connect to some domains that had not been registered yet. So they did some quick statistical analysis and picked out some of the most frequently requested domains and registered the domains themselves. The Damballa researchers then pointed the domains to a sinkhole maintained by the Georgia Tech Information Security Center and sat back and watched the action.
Submission + - What REALLY Makes a Password Secure? (carbonblack.com)
rmurphydigital writes: "We're so often told to create complex online passwords that are easily remembered, but security experts know there's actually very little security in that. In order for a password to be secure, it needs to be truly random and unique. Here's the math behind why."
Submission + - Man who protested TSA by stripping is acquitted by judge (oregonlive.com)
AbrasiveCat writes: In an update to an earlier Slashdot story http://idle.slashdot.org/story/12/04/18/1637222/man-protests-tsa-with-nudity, the Portland Oregon man who was arrested after stripping naked at a TSA checkpoint at Portland Airport was acquitted of indecent exposure charges. He successfully argued that he was protesting TSA actions, and his actions were protected speech under the Oregon Constitution.
So our answer from Alice's Restaurant for everyone to strip for TSA.
"You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement."
So our answer from Alice's Restaurant for everyone to strip for TSA.
"You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement."
Comment Re:Caching? (Score 5, Interesting) 292
I have two children two years apart, in the public school system in the northeast US. Our school district is rated fairly well for the state, better than most but not as good as some.
Now that the context is established, let me say that I have been shocked and somewhat dismayed to see the annual changes to curriculum and approach at the elementary school. While I do understand that gains have been made in understanding childhood development and education, I really struggle to understand this constant churn from year to year. The students struggle with it as well. This is particularly noticeable in basic approaches to reading, spelling, and math. As an example, one year the focus will be on memorizing a list of 10 words, spelling them, and using them in sentences. The next year, the spelling quizzes are gone completely. Maybe this is a response to the standardized testing regimen that all schools are focusing on, but I have a tough time not feeling like this is some kind of ill-considered trend-chasing experiment and our communities' children are the unwitting guinea pigs.
While I'm in rant mode let me also express my surprise to find that precious little time is being spent on learning basic math facts. These children are being exposed to grouping, estimating, while they still don't know their basic addition/subtraction/multiplication/division tables. Having these facts committed to memory up front will save them a lot of time and effort down the road when they are trying to digest weightier subject matter. (Before you jump all over me, yes as a parent I have worked with my offspring to get them to know their math facts) Rote memorization may be boring, but it too is a skill that must be learned and why not learn it early on in the same way that's worked for at least the past 200 years? It's *not* broken!
OK so now that the rant is over - yes, caching is good and should be encouraged. Even if the texts are changing daily or weekly and being served "from the cloud" - there are still major performance gains and efficiencies to be found on the network with a little simple cache engine.
Comment What could possibly go wrong? (Score 5, Insightful) 292
Using a service-provider configured, jail-breakable device for financial transactions...
Malware is already an issue on smart phones. Also, I guarantee that this "service" is not free. Everyone involved in the transaction is going to charge something. 3% to ATT or Verizon, 3% to the payer's bank, 3% to the recipient's bank, probably another 3% to some service provider/clearing house vendor, plus complete gov't visibility which means that all taxes are guaranteed to be charged.
Yes, this may be simplified to the point where it's as easy as pulling $1.00 bill out of your pocket to buy your gum, but that $1.00 item is going to double in price to cover all the incidental charges.
Call me a luddite, but I'm perfectly happy to stick with cash.
Comment Re:Another reason to reduce animal agriculture (Score 1) 113
Mmmm Soylent Green...........
Comment Re:Stealing and breaking? (Score 1) 124
Excellent - a great new vector for MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) - you may know this better as "flesh-eating bacteria"
Comment Re:After Space Cowboys (Score 1) 147
Mega Maid is indeed the correct solution to this problem. Get me President Skroob at once!
Comment Re:i remember duke from childhood (Score 1) 222
Time to start placing bets on which will come first:
-LHC discovers Higgs boson particle
-Duke Nukem Forever ships
If the world has an apocolypse-level event like a new ice-age, or Mayan calendar doom, etc. it's considered a push and I get to keep the pot.
Comment Re:Developing countries, not US (Score 1) 620
The reason I am canceling cable TV soon is because the service is mediocre and the price is NOT reasonable.
And this is why the ISPs are in the process of putting caps on your utilization. Their business model is heavily invested in making sure they have nice predictable recurring revenue from you every month. They are going to get that money one way or the other.
Comment I want one (Score 3, Interesting) 108
But I have to wonder what the endurance is for this thing. TFA describes the requirements as:
1. Demonstrate precision hover flight within a virtual two-meter diameter sphere for one minute.
2. Demonstrate hover stability in a wind gust flight which required the aircraft to hover and tolerate a two-meter per second (five miles per hour) wind gust from the side, without drifting downwind more than one meter.
3. Demonstrate a continuous hover endurance of eight minutes with no external power source.
4. Fly and demonstrate controlled, transition flight from hover to 11 miles per hour fast forward flight and back to hover flight.
5. Demonstrate flying from outdoors to indoors, and back outdoors through a normal-size doorway.
6. Demonstrate flying indoors âheads-downâ(TM) where the pilot operates the aircraft only looking at the live video image stream from the aircraft, without looking at or hearing the aircraft directly.
7. Fly the aircraft in hover and fast forward flight with bird-shaped body and bird-shaped wings.
Based on the current crop of micro RC helicopters, I'd be surprised if this gizmo has enough battery life for more than 10-15 minutes of flight. Any real-world James Bond types out there care to chime in as to whether this is going to be sufficient to support a real-world mission?
Sounds like it would be a lot of fun for messing with coworkers in the cube farm though.
Comment Re:Idiots (Score 5, Insightful) 428
Use a jammer, go to jail. Ironic isn't it. http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=operations_2&id=cellular
OK so technically you could get a permit, but you have to wonder if prisons are relying on cellular for official communications at this point. It's become so cheap and prevalent - cellular is replacing radio for a lot of field operations comms requirements these days. (No I can't cite anything beyond what I see at my own job where some of the field crews are cellphone only at this point.) Anyway, if that is the case and prisons are using cellular for their own comms - jamming the prisoner comms becomes problematic and probably creates a safety issue for employees.
OK so technically you could get a permit, but you have to wonder if prisons are relying on cellular for official communications at this point. It's become so cheap and prevalent - cellular is replacing radio for a lot of field operations comms requirements these days. (No I can't cite anything beyond what I see at my own job where some of the field crews are cellphone only at this point.) Anyway, if that is the case and prisons are using cellular for their own comms - jamming the prisoner comms becomes problematic and probably creates a safety issue for employees.
Comment Re:The Joys of employeehood.... (Score 1) 509
An on-topic, and insightful first post? Are you new here? Well done, nonetheless!
Comment Re:Can you guys do me a favor?? (Score 1) 266
So instead of taking the time to ponder the discussion and contribute to it in a positive manner, or maybe do a little searching and come up with some new information to add to the conversation you're going to play the pauper and beg for karma points so you can get a good grade? That's really not how things work here. If you add to the conversation, you'll get modded up.
Karma whoring is lower than trolling. I wish I had a mod point to reward you accordingly. Someone please nuke this creep from orbit - it's the only way to be sure.
