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Submission + - IG Audit: 6.5 Million People With Active SSNs Are 112 or Older (ssa.gov) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Many people are living longer, but not to age 112 or beyond — except in the records of the Social Security Administration.

The SSA's inspector general has identified 6.5 million number-holders age 112 — or older — for whom no death date has been entered in the main electronic file, called Numident. The audit, dated March 4, 2015, concluded that SSA lacks the controls necessary to annotate death information on the records of number-holders who exceed "maximum reasonable life expectancies.

Some of the numbers assigned to long-dead people were used fraudulently to open bank accounts. And thousands of those numbers apparently were used by illegal immigrants to apply for work:
"During Calendar Years 2008 through 2011, SSA received 4,024 E-Verify inquiries using the SSNs of 3,873 numberholders born before June 16, 1901," the report said. "These inquiries indicate individuals' attempts to use the SSNs to apply for work."

Submission + - Martian canyons may have been carved by wind (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Ancient canyons scar the surface of Mars, a relic from a time billions of years ago when rivers flowed on its surface. But water may not be the only factor that shaped these canyons—the wind whipping through them could be just as important, according to a new study of river canyons on Earth. Scientists studying chasms in the Andes mountains in northeast Chile have found that wind carves some canyons 10 times faster than water. The discovery may be significant for understanding how much water flowed on the surface of ancient Mars.

Submission + - Do Tech Companies Ask For Way Too Much From Job Candidates? (dice.com)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: The short answer: Yes. Many employers’ “required” skill sets seem to include everything but the ability to teleport and build a Shaker barn; the lengthy requisites of skills and experience seem achievable only by candidates who’ve spent the past four decades using a hundred different programming languages and platforms to excel at fifty different, complicated jobs. Why do a lot of tech companies do that? Dice asked around and discovered a bunch of different reasons. Companies want to make investments in talent, but the inherent costs of that talent also make them wary of hiring anyone but the absolute best. The need to find the right talent, and the concern over cost, often leads to employers producing job descriptions too broad for the actual position. There's also pure idiocy: PHBs don't know what they want, don't understand the technology, and throw just anything into the description that pops to mind. Is there any way to stop this scourge?

Submission + - NSA director argues for 'red button' autonomy against unattributed cyber-attacks (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: U.S. Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers — director of the National Security Agency and Commander of United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) — has suggested that cyber-attacks can begin and escalate so quickly that USCYBERCOM would need powers to retaliate immediately, without (as it is currently obliged) referring the matter to the United States Strategic Command. In testimony [http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Rogers_03-11-14.pdf — PDF] to the 'House Armed Services Committee on cyber operations and improving the military’s cybersecurity posture' on March 4th, Adm. Rogers argues for 'development of defensive options which do not require full attribution to meet the requirements of law and international agreement'.

Submission + - Canada's Largest Media Co. Demands Content Blocking & Net Neutrality Violati (michaelgeist.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Kevin Crull, Bell Media's President delivered a much-anticipated keynote speech at the Prime Time in Ottawa conference on Friday. Titled "The New Reality: Broadcasting in Canada", Crull's claim was that the new reality for broadcasting in Canada is unsustainable and requires massive regulatory change. Canada's largest media company proceeded to outline a series of radical reforms that would raise television fees, block access to U.S. channels, violate net neutrality rules, and make Netflix less attractive to consumers.

Submission + - PrintDisplay: DIY Displays and Touchscreens Anyone Can Print (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: For years now, we've been promised miraculous new flexible touchscreen displays, but the deployment of such technology in big consumer products, like say the LG G Flex, hasn't started any revolutions just yet. That could soon change thanks to a team of computer scientists from Germany's Saarland University who have developed a technique that could allow anyone to literally print their own custom displays, including touchscreens.

Submission + - Listen To a Microsoft Support Scam As It Happened (csoonline.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: You know full well that Microsoft will never call you and ask to 'access your computer' to help fix a problem. Yet this is a ruse that many unsuspecting computer users fall for and wind up with their machine hacked. CSO writer Steve Ragan, turns the tables during a phone call with a scammer — and he records it all for us to hear. Do yourself a favor and play it for your parents.

Submission + - Britain's oldest human brain preserved for 2500 years by mud (techienews.co.uk)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: Oldest human brain in the UK is believed to have been preserved for over 2,500 years by mud, archaeologists have revealed. The brain was found inside a decapitated skull, with the jaw and two vertebrae still attached, at an Iron Age dig site near York, UK, in 2008. Based on radiocarbon dating of a sample of the jaw bone, researchers have determined that the person lived in the 6th century BC and is likely to be a man between 26 and 45 years old. A team of 34 experts have been working to study and conserve the brain since its discovery. An examination of the vertebrae in the neck shows that he was first hit hard on the neck, and then the neck was severed with a small sharp knife. York Archaeological Trust said the skull had been buried in wet, clay-rich ground providing an oxygen-free burial.

Submission + - Scotland Yard Chief: Put CCTV in every home (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Homeowners should consider fitting CCTV to trap burglars, the country's most senior police officer declared yesterday. Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said police forces needed more crime scene footage to match against their 12million images of suspects and offenders. And he called on families and businesses to install cameras at eye level – to exploit advances in facial recognition technology.

Submission + - Mars 'Webcam' To Be Made Available for Public Use

Submitted by randomErr
randomErr writes: If your group can make a good use case you can control of the ESA's Mars Express webcam. Proposals by schools, youth groups and astronomy clubs are due by March 27. The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC), is a low-resolution camera intended for visuals of the Beagle lander separation. In May, Mars will be in solar conjunction. Signals between Earth and Mars Express will be disrupted by the sun so for three days the VMC camera can be freely pointed at almost any target in it's orbit.

Submission + - Solar Impulse plane begins epic global flight

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A record-breaking attempt to fly around the world in a solar-powered plane has got under way from Abu Dhabi. The aircraft — called Solar Impulse-2 — took off from the Emirate, heading east to Muscat in Oman. Over the next five months, it will skip from continent to continent, crossing both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in the process. Andre Borschberg was at the controls of the single-seater vehicle as it took off at 07:12 local time (03:12 GMT). He will share the pilot duties in due course with fellow Swiss, Bertrand Piccard. The plan is to stop off at various locations around the globe, to rest and to carry out maintenance, and also to spread a campaigning message about clean technologies.

Submission + - GitLab acquires Gitorious (gitlab.com)

Submitted by sckirklan
sckirklan writes: QUOTE:
As reported by the Next Web GitLab and Gitorious announce today they are joining forces in an effort to strengthen the development of GitLab’s open source Git management application and provide Gitorious customers with an enhanced user experience.

Submission + - BlackPhone, in wake of Gemalto fallout, receives $50 million in funding. (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The BlackPhone, a $600-plus encrypted Android handset designed to keep the prying eyes of criminals and the government out of mobile communications, is now fully owned by Silent Circle thanks to the company raking in investment cash.

Terms of the buyout deal with Spanish smartphone maker Geeksphone, the phone's hardware manufacturer, were not disclosed. Silent Circle said Thursday that it has raised $50 million and plans on showing off an encrypted "enterprise privacy ecosystem" at World Mobile Congress next week. A BlackPhone tablet is on the way, too.

Submission + - Google Taking Over New TLDs (sealedabstract.com)

Submitted by bobo the hobo
bobo the hobo writes: In the corner of the internet where people care about DNS, there is a bit of an uproar at Google's application for over a hundred new top-level domains, including .dev, .lol, .app, .blog, .cloud and .search. Their application includes statements such as:
By contrast, our application for the .blog TLD describes a new way of automatically linking new second level domains to blogs on our Blogger platform – this approach eliminates the need for any technical configuration on the part of the user and thus makes the domain name more user friendly.

And also limiting usage of .dev to Google only:
Second-level domain names within the proposed gTLD are intended for registration and use by Google only, and domain names under the new gTLD will not be available to the general public for purchase, sale, or registration. As such, Charleston Road Registry intends to apply for an exemption to the ICANN Registry Operator Code of Conduct as Google is intended to be the sole registrar and registrant.

Submission + - Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov shot dead in Moscow.

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: BBC News Reports

An unidentified attacker shot Mr Nemtsov four times in central Moscow, a source in the law enforcement bodies told Russia's Interfax news agency. He was shot near the Kremlin while walking with a woman, according to Russian-language news website Meduza. "Several people" had got out of a car and shot him, it added. Mr Nemtsov, 55, served as first deputy prime minister under the late President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, various sources report a massive gathering of protestors at the site of the shooting.

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