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Submission + - Law Enforcement Tool Used to Hack Apple's iCloud

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A Wired article published on Tuesday reports that the software used by hackers to recently obtain nude photographs of female celebrities was actually developed for law enforcement and government agencies. The source of the revelation is the web forum Anon-IB, where "hackers openly discuss using a piece of software called EPPB or Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker to download their victims' data from iCloud backups." EPPB is sold by forensics firm Elcomsoft with no requirement for "proof of law enforcement or other government credentials." The software does not utilize a backdoor but was instead developed through Elcomsoft fully reverse engineering "Apple's protocol for communicating between iCloud and its iOS devices."

Submission + - Firefox 32 Arrives With New HTTP Cache, Public Key Pinning Support

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla today officially launched Firefox 32 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Additions include a new HTTP cache for improved performance, public key pinning support, and easy language switching on Android. Firefox 32 has been released over on Firefox.com and all existing users should be able to upgrade to it automatically. As always, the Android version is trickling out slowly on Google Play. Changelogs are here: desktop and mobile.

Submission + - E-Books on a $20 cell phone (librarycity.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Moon+ Pro Reader, FBReader, Kindle, you name it--many popular Android e-book apps can run on a smartphone available for $20 and shipping.

The trick is to respect the device’s limits and keep down the number of apps you install. This fun isn't for eager multitaskers.

On the bright side, the $20 phone can do Acapela TTS, includes a 4GB memory card and works with cards of up to 32GB--easily enough for scads of pre-loaded books. Plus, the WiFi is great. And the screen of 3.2 inches isn’t that much smaller than the 3.5 inchers on the older iPads.

What could cell phone e-reading mean in the many "book deserts" of the U.S.? And how about the U.K. where miserly pols are closing libraries even though the Guardian says "a third of UK children do not own a single book and three-quarters claim never to read outside school"?

The smartphone post on the LibraryCity site tells how librarians and others could start "cell phone book clubs" to promote the discovery and absorption of books as well as smarter use of technology.

Submission + - Limiting the teaching of the scientific process in Ohio (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by frdmfghtr
frdmfghtr writes: Over at Ars Technica, there's a story about a bill in the Ohio legislature that wants to downplay the teaching of the scientific process. From the article:
"Specifically prohibiting a discussion of the scientific process is a recipe for educational chaos. To begin with, it leaves the knowledge the kids will still receive—the things we have learned through science—completely unmoored from any indication of how that knowledge was generated or whether it's likely to be reliable. The scientific process is also useful in that it can help people understand the world around them and the information they're bombarded with; it can also help people assess the reliability of various sources of information."

Comment Re:I'm open to it (Score 1) 826

by stoborrobots (#47755147) Attached to: Choose Your Side On the Linux Divide

Monolithic?

Postgresql runs a database server. That's it. Postgresql doesn't include a mailserver just because it needs to send alerts.

Apache runs an HTTP server. That's it. Apache doesn't include DNS and OCSP servers just because sites hosted on it will need name resolution and certificates.

OpenOffice, I'll give you that one. It combines multiple applications into one for historical reasons. I don't like it, but I don't use it so I don't have a dog in that fight.

Monolithic (in the sense used here) implies the combination of multiple essentially independent functions into a single application. Just because Apache and Postgresql are big applications doesn't make them monolithic.

Submission + - UPS: We've Been Hacked (time.com)

Submitted by paysonwelch
paysonwelch writes: The United Parcel Service announced Wednesday that customersâ(TM) credit and debit card information at 51 franchises in 24 states may have been compromised. There are 4,470 franchised center locations throughout the U.S., according to UPS.

The malware began to infiltrate the system as early as January 20, but the majority of the attacks began after March 26. UPS says the threat was eliminated as of August 11 and that customers can shop safely at all locations.

Submission + - An Ad-Free Internet Would Cost Everyone £140-a-Year (ibtimes.co.uk) 2

Submitted by DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: Research suggests that if we wanted to live in a world without pop-up ads for penis enlargement tablets, then it would cost everyone $230 per year. So how many people would be willing to stump up this kind of cash? Just 2% of the population apparently...

Submission + - GAO finds inadequate planning and oversight caused HealthCare.gov cost blowout (gao.gov)

Submitted by stoborrobots
stoborrobots writes: The Government Accountability Office has investigated the cost blowouts associated with how the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) handled the Healthcare.gov project. It has released a 60-page report entitled Healthcare.gov: Ineffective Planning and Oversight Practices Underscore the Need for Improved Contract Management, with a 5 page summary. The key takeaway messages are:
  • CMS undertook the development of Healthcare.gov and its related systems without effective planning or oversight practices...
  • [The task] was a complex effort with compressed time frames. To be expedient, CMS issued task orders ... when key technical requirements were unknown...
  • CMS identified major performance issues ... but took only limited steps to hold the contractor accountable.
  • CMS awarded a new contract to another firm [and the new contract's cost has doubled] due to changes such as new requirements and other enhancements...

Larry Seltzer has more over at ZDNet.

Comment Re:Er, what? (Score 1) 191

by stoborrobots (#47660395) Attached to: Reversible Type-C USB Connector Ready For Production

I can see them doing this, rather than the much simpler solution of having two ports: a Micro-B port for charging only, and a C port for data/charging.

Compliant with all regulations, simpler for the consumer (no adapter required), minimal outlay (one extra trace on the PCB, one extra component costing fractions of a cent), no questions about cables.

Comment Re:Who has the market share? (Score 1) 336

by stoborrobots (#47611925) Attached to: Windows XP Falls Below 25% Market Share, Windows 8 Drops Slightly

I would be curious to see how Azure is impacting Windows Server market share

As this is slashdot, the appropriate response would be to turn to Netcraft to confirm it...

http://news.netcraft.com/archi...

Which was from February, and should be read in the context of the February Web Server Survey:

http://news.netcraft.com/archi...

Submission + - Russian criminals steal 1.2 billion passwords (cnn.com)

Submitted by mpicpp
mpicpp writes: Russian criminals have stolen 1.2 billion Internet user names and passwords, amassing what could be the largest collection of stolen digital credentials in history, a respected security firm said Tuesday.

The news was first reported by The New York Times, which cited research from Milwaukee-based Hold Security. The firm didn't reveal the identities of the targeted websites, citing nondisclosure agreements and a desire to prevent existing vulnerabilities from being more widely exploited.

Hold Security founder Alex Holden told CNNMoney that the trove includes credentials gathered from over 420,000 websites — both smaller sites as well as "household names." The criminals didn't breach any major email providers, he said.

Holden said the gang makes its money by sending out spam for bogus products like weight-loss pills, and had apparently amassed its collection of digital credentials for that relatively innocuous purpose.

"It's really not that impactful to the individuals, and that's why they were under the radar for so long," Holden said. "They've ignored financial information almost completely."

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