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Submission + - New Solar Capacity Beats Coal and Wind, Again (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Solar energy installations beat both wind generated and coal-fired energy for the second year in a row, according to a new report from GTM Research. While solar only makes up about 1 percent of U.S. energy, in 2014, it added nearly as many new megawatts as natural gas, which is approaching coal as the country’s primary energy source. Solar capacity grew 32 percent from 2013 to 2014 and GTM is predicting it will grow 59% YoY this year. Just two years ago, in 2012, coal represented 41% of new energy capacity and solar only 10%. Last year, coal was down to 23% of new electrical capacity. Solar capacity growth last year represents a 12-fold increase over the amounts being installed in 2009. Key to solar adoption has been falling costs across market segments and states.

Submission + - Lawsuit Claims Major Automakers Ignored Security Flaws (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: A Dallas-based law firm has filed a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California claiming Ford, GM and Toyota all ignored basic electronic security measures that leave vehicles open to hackers who can take control of critical functions and endanger the safety of the driver and passengers. The suit, filed on behalf of three vehicle owners and "all others similarly situated" is seeking unspecified damages and an injunction that would force automakers to install proper firewalls or encryption in vehicle computer bus systems, which connect dozens of electronic control units. "Toyota, Ford and GM have deliberately hidden the dangers associated with car computer systems, misleading consumers," attorney Marc Stanley said. The lawsuit cites several studies revealing security flaws in vehicle electronics. A 2013 study by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) found researchers could make vehicles "suddenly accelerate, turn, [and] kill the brakes." A study released last month by Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) also claims automakers have fallen far short in their responsibility to secure their vehicles' electronics.

Submission + - Clinton regrets, but defends, use of family email server (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that, in hindsight, her decision to use a private email server to conduct official business was not the best one. But she is defending it and said the system was secure. Clinton, at news conference in New York, said the email server that she used had been set up for former President Bill Clinton. The system had "numerous safeguards" and is on home property protected by the U.S. Secret Service, she said. "There were no security breaches," said Clinton. "I think the use of that server, which started with my husband, proved to be effective and secure," she said. It still remains unclear about just how appropriate Clinton's system was. As a general rule, government IT policies don't give federal employees the option of using their own email accounts to exclusively conduct government business.

Submission + - Why Israel Could Be The Next Cybersecurity World Power (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: Beersheba is a small town in southern Israel, more than an hour's drive away from Tel Aviv and the bulk of the country's population. But the city is a hotbed of cybersecurity startups driven in part by a graduate program at the local university and the country's military and intelligence apparatus's keen interest in the subject.

Submission + - Intel Announces Xeon D SoC Line Based On Broadwell Core Architecture (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Intel is targeting big core performance and intelligence in a microserver form factor with its new Xeon D family of processors, the company's first ever Xeon-based System-on-Chip (SoC) design. The Xeon D line Intel is announcing today is built on their 14nm process technology and combines the performance and features of its traditional Xeon chips with the size and power savings of an SoC. According to Intel, Xeon D delivers up to 3.4x faster performance node and up to 1.7x better performance per watt compared to the company's Atom C2750. The Xeon D is the third generation of the family and it's actually based on Intel's Broadwell architecture. Intel unveiled two new Xeon D processors today, the D-1540 (8 cores, 16 threads, 2GHz, 45W TDP) and D-1520 (4 cores, 8 threads, 2.2GHz, 45W TDP). These chips have memory controllers capable of addressing up to 128GB. They also feature an integrated platform controller hub (PCH), integrated I/Os, and two integrated 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports. Again, all of this is based on Intel's Broadwell core CPU architecture, so performance per watt should be strong.

Submission + - The Largest Solar Power Plants on Earth (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Governments and businesses appear to be in a race to deploy as much renewable energy as possible, with 36% of all new electric capacity last year coming from solar energy alone. The amount of solar power installed in the U.S. has increased from 1.2 gigawatts (GW) in 2008 to an estimated 17.5 GW today, and the price to purchase solar power is quickly reaching parity with that created by coal-fired power plants. Government-sponsored and utility-grade solar plants, in particular, are growing in size, from tens of megawatts a few years ago to hundreds of megawatts and even gigawatts in size. For example, India expects to deploy a 10,000 megawatt solar project over the next decade. Both India and China plan on adding a total of 100 gigawatts of capacity over the next five to seven years. Computerworld put together a deck on the world's largest solar plants to date, which encompasses both photovoltaic plants and concentrated solar power fields (CSPs). CSPs use thousands of software-controlled mirrors to track the sun in two dimensions and reflect it onto boilers in tall towers that produce steam for turbines.

Submission + - Intel Updates NUC Mini PC Line With Broadwell-U, Tested And Benchmarked (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Intel recently released its latest generation of NUC small form factor systems, based on the company's new low-power Broadwell-U series processors. The primary advantages of Intel's 5th Generation Core Series Broadwell-U-based processors are better performance-per-watt, stronger integrated graphics, and a smaller footprint, all things that are perfectly suited to the company's NUC (Next Unit of Computing) products. The Intel NUC5i5RYK packs a Core i5-5250U processor with on-die Intel HD 6000 series graphics. The system also sports built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, M.2 SSD support, and a host of other features, all in a 115mm x 111mm x 32.7mm enclosure. Performance-wise the new 5th Gen Core Series-powered NUC benchmarks like a midrange notebook and is actually up for a bit of light-duty gaming, though it's probably more at home as a Home Theater PC, media streamer or kiosk desktop machine.

Submission + - The Groups Behind Making Distributed Solar Power Harder to Adopt (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Distributed rooftop solar is a threat not only to fossil fuel power generation, but also to the profits of monopolistic model of utilities. While the overall amount of electrical capacity represented by distributed solar power remains miniscule for now, it's quickly becoming one of leading sources of new energy deployment. As adoption grows, fossil fuel interests and utilities are succeeding in pushing anti-net metering legislation, which places surcharges on customers who deploy rooftop solar power and sell unused power back to their utility through the power grid. Other state legislation is aimed at reducing tax credits for households or businesses installing solar or allows utilities to buy back unused power at a reduced rate, while reselling it at the full retail price.

Submission + - NSA HDD Malware Undetectable By Anti-Virus Software, Drive Makers Perplexed (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Russian security software vendor Kaspersky Lab, which this week released a report revealing that thousands of hard drives from 30 nations have been infected by U.S.-government sanctioned malware in existence for nearly 20 years, today said there's no way of knowing if your computer is infected and intelligence agencies are surveilling it. Once a hard drive or SSD gets infected with this malicious payload, it's impossible to scan its firmware. To put it simply: For most hard drives, there are functions to write into the hardware's firmware area, but there are no functions to read it back. "It means that we are practically blind, and cannot detect hard drives that have been infected by this malware," said Igor Soumenkov, principal security researcher at Kaspersky Lab. The drives in PCs and Macs that were infected by the malware represented more than a dozen major HDD and SSD makers. Kaspersky all but said it was the NSA that created and used the spyware. Reuters also cited a former NSA employee as having confirmed the latter. Two of the largest drive makers, Western Digital and Seagate, said prior to the report, they had no idea their drives had been targeted. A WD spokesman said the company has not participated in or supported the development or deployment of cyberespionage technology by government entities, adding that "Western Digital has not provided its source code to government agencies." Seagate said its self encrypting drives are supposed to thwart reverse engineering of its firmware. "This is an astonishing technical accomplishment and is testament to the group's abilities," Kaspersky's report stated.

Submission + - Samsung's Portable SSD T1 Tested, Super-Fast Solid State External Storage (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: The bulk of today’s high-capacity external storage devices still rely on mechanical hard disk drives with spinning media and other delicate parts. Solid state drives are much faster and less susceptible to damage from vibration, of course. That being the case, Samsung saw an opportunity to capitalize on a market segment that hasn't seen enough development it seems--external SSDs. There are already external storage devices that use full-sized SSDs, but Samsung's new Portable SSD T1 is more akin to a thumb drive, only a little wider and typically much faster. Utilizing Samsung's 3D Vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology and a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface, the Portable SSD T1 redlines at up to 450MB/s when reading or writing data sequentially, claims Samsung. For random read and write activities, Samsung rates the drive at up to 8,000 IOPS and 21,000 IOPS, respectively. Pricing is more in-line with high-performance standalone SSDs, with this 1TB model reviewed here arriving at about $579. In testing, the drive did live up to its performance and bandwidth claims as well.

Submission + - Employees in Swedish Office Complex Volunteer for RFID Implants for Access (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: A Swedish office building is enabling corporate tenants to implant RFID chips into employee's hands in order to gain access through security doors and use services such as photocopiers. The employees working at Epicenter, a 15,000-square-foot building in Stockholm, can even pay for lunch with a swipe of their hand. Hannes Sjöblad, founder of Bionyfiken, a Swedish association of Biohackers, said Epicenter is not alone in a movement to experiment with uses for implanted chips that use RFID/NFC technology. There are also several other offices, companies, gyms and education institutions in Stockholm where people access the facilities with implanted chips. Bionyfiken just began a nationwide study using volunteers implanted with RFID/NFC. "It's a small, but indeed fast-growing, fraction which has chosen to try it out." The goal of the Bionyfiken project is to create a user community of at least 100 people with RFID implants who experiment with and help develop possible uses. But, not everyone is convinced it's a good idea.

John Kindervag, a principal security and privacy analyst at Forrester Research, said RFID/NFC chip implants are simply "scary" and pose a major threat to privacy and security. The fact that the NFC can't be shielded like a fob or chip in a credit card can with a sleeve means it can be activated without the user's knowledge, and information can be accessed. "I think it's pretty scary that people would want to do that [implant chips]," Kindervag said.

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