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Submission + - Chronic stress could lead to depression and dementia, scientists warn (independent.co.uk)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: A major review of published research suggests that chronic stress and anxiety can damage areas of the brain involved in emotional responses, thinking and memory, leading to depression and even Alzheimer's disease.

Dr Linda Mah, the lead author of the review carried out at a research institute affiliated to the University of Toronto, said: "Pathological anxiety and chronic stress are associated with structural degeneration and impaired functioning of the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, which may account for the increased risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression and dementia."

Submission + - The clock is ticking for the US to relinquish control of ICANN (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: The US is not afraid to throw its weight around; it likes not only to be involved in things, but to be in control. For decades, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) — the non-profit organization that manages IP addresses and domain names — has been overseen by the US Department of Commerce, much to the chagrin of people around the world. Most upset are those who point to the independent nature of the internet, and the need for any body with global power to be similarly indpendent. Later this year ICANN is set — at long last — to completely separate from the US government.

While this does hinge on US government approval, by the end of September, ICANN could instead be in the hands of businesses, individuals, and multiple global governments. While the changing of hands should not alter the way ICANN operates, it is hoped that it will go some way to restoring faith that may have been lost after revelations about online surveillance by the NSA and other US government agencies.

Submission + - Ransomware Hits Three Indian Banks, Causes Millions in Damages (softpedia.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ransomware has locked computers in three major Indian banks and one pharmaceutical company. While the ransom note asks for 1 Bitcoin, so many computers have been infected that damages racked up millions of dollars. According to an antivirus company that analyzed the ransomware, it's not even that complex, and seems the work of some amateur Russians.

Submission + - Some Phillips s307 Android Smartphones Come With a Pre-Installed Trojan

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Some Phillips s307 Android smartphones come with a pre-installed trojan (Android.Cooee.1) that shows ads and animations on the user's main screen, and cannot be removed without a firmware update or after going through a complicated series of steps. This is because the trojan is packed right inside the Android OS system loader and removing it bricks your phone if you don't load an alternative loader instead.

Something like this happened in September when G DATA discovered 20+ smartphones with the same problem. Most of them were from unknown Chinese manufacturers and not a big company like Phillips.

Submission + - Serious Flaw Patched In Intel Driver Update Utility (csoonline.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: The flaw in a utility that helps users download the latest drivers for their Intel hardware components stems from the tool using unencrypted HTTP connections to check for driver updates. It was discovered by researchers from Core Security and was reported to Intel in November. The Core Security researchers found that the utility was checking for new driver versions by downloading XML files from Intel's website over HTTP. These files included the IDs of hardware components, the latest driver versions available for them and the corresponding download URLs. Intel Driver Update Utility users are strongly advised to download the latest version from Intel's support website.

Submission + - Cryptsy Bitcoin Trader Robbed, Blames Backdoor in the Code of a Wallet (softpedia.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Cryptsy, a website for trading Bitcoin, Litecoin, and other smaller crypto-currencies, announced a security incident, accusing the developer of Lucky7Coin of stealing 13,000 Bitcoin and 300,000 Litecoin, which at today's rate stands more than $5.7 million / €5.2 million. Cryptsy says "the developer of Lucky7Coin had placed an IRC backdoor into the code of [a] wallet, which allowed it to act as a sort of a Trojan, or command and control unit." Coincidentally this also explains why two days after the attack was carried out, exactly 300,000 Litecoin were dumped on the BTC-e exchange, driving Litecoin price down from $9.5 to $2.

Submission + - Oil Train Blockade Activists Declare Win Despite Trespass Convictions (kuow.org)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: Five climate change activists who blocked an oil train in Everett were convicted Friday of trespassing – but the jury gave environmentalists something to celebrate anyway.

The Delta 5, as the activists are called, had hoped to argue that blocking the BNSF Railway train tracks in September 2014 was necessary because of the looming threat of climate change.

But at the end of the trial in Snohomish County District Court, the judge told the jury that such a "necessity defense" would not stand and shouldn’t be considered in their deliberations. That meant climate change couldn’t play a role in their final decision.

It was a blow to the environmentalists.

But in an unexpected turn, the jury decided the activists are guilty of trespassing but not guilty of obstruction.

That means the Delta 5 won’t have to pay restitution for financial harm they caused BNSF Railway by blocking its trains.

They will be placed on probation and face fines of under $1,000. They will not serve jail time.

Submission + - After Juniper and Fortinet, Now Cisco Too Removes a Backdoor As Well

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Last December, after Juniper disclosed the presence of a backdoor in its ScreenOS operating system installed on its firewall equipment, Cisco started a company-wide audit to search for similar issues. Their efforts concluded in the discovery of a backdoor account on some of its access points. Additionally, the company also found and fixed two other bugs with a severity score of 10/10 that allowed unauthenticated remote attackers access to the configuration settings of some of its devices.

Submission + - RIP Alan Rickman, AKA Franz Gruber, Severus Snape

Submitted by TigerPlish
TigerPlish writes: Variety reports that Rickman has died after a short bout of cancer, and was surrounded by friends and family when he went.

While some may question how is this News for Nerds, I'm of the opinion that Harry Potter was, is, and will always be a nerd favorite.

Submission + - Nest Thermostat Bug Leaves Owners Without Heating (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google-owned smart homeware company Nest has asked users to reset their connected thermostats after a software bug forced controllers offline and left owners unable to heat their homes. The company has confirmed that a software update error had caused the thermostat’s batteries to drain, therefore making it unable to control the temperature. Users of the smart home device took to social media to express their anger at being left with cold houses. Some feared that the fault had put water pipes under pressure, risking burst plumbing.

Submission + - Google Open Sourcing Its AI Engine, TensorFlow (thegoodnation.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The world better be ready. Google has just open sourced its artificial intelligence engine in form of a software called TensorFlow. Now, Google has already used TensorFlow in a lot of its services such as speech recognition in the Google app, smart reply in Inbox and searching in the Photos app. By the way you might be surprised to give Google Photos App a try and see how amazingly this artificial intelligence called deep learning works. In short, you can have all the pictures with flowers in them only by searching “flower” when you are using the app!

Back to TensorFlow, Google believes making its masterpiece open source will actually help speed things up and improve their products as well. The world can use and contribute to this system. Google says now that they have shared with the world what they have been working on for so long (originally a Google Brain Team project by Google’s Machine Intelligence research organization) the machine learning community can exchange ideas through code. You might ask what is machine learning? To put it simply, it is a software that makes inferences based on data and can learn from its mistakes.

But that’s not all yet! Google is hoping this process will go even further so TensorFlow will not be limited to machine learning. It might even contribute to researches working with highly complex data.

As CEO Sundar Pichai clarifies, the best AI systems in the world fail to do what a 4-year-old child can do effortlessly; like remembering the name of a dinosaur after seeing only a couple examples, or understanding that “I saw the Grand Canyon flying to Chicago” doesn’t mean the canyon is hurtling over the city.

Of course, there are other big companies like Microsoft which have made progress in this area of artificial intelligence but this is Google we are talking about! Remember what type of engineers Google hires?

Yet, as any sane mind would guess, Google will not let open sourcing its AI engine give away EVERYTHING. How else can they possibly manage to stay on top of the list all the time?

Submission + - French Secretary of State says encryption backdoors are 'not the right solution' (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Patrick O'Neill
Patrick O'Neill writes: The French Parliament on Wednesday rejected a proposal to ban strong encryption by requiring tech companies to build backdoors in their code so police and intelligence agencies could access encrypted data. But French Secretary of State Axelle Lemaire criticized the proposal, saying that while the debate was healthy, "this is not the right solution according to the Government's opinion." Lemaire called backdoors "vulnerability by design" and "inappropriate."

Submission + - Russian Data Centres To Heat Water In Nordic City (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Russian search giant Yandex is set to help the Finnish city of Mäntsälä reduce its carbon emissions by up to 40%, by lending excess heat from its data centres to warm local water. Yandex data centres located in the city in southern Finland will use their waste heat output to warm the area’s water, in a project funded by Finnish energy company Mäntsälän Sähkö OY. The initiative forms part of a series of tests carried out by Nordic data centres and energy companies to put excess heat from the sites to better use. The ‘green’ experiment hopes to cut heating costs for the city’s residents by 5% over the coming year, and should slash utility providers’ gas consumption by half.

Submission + - Raspberry Pi founder wants self-driving robots for Robot Wars return (theinquirer.net)

Submitted by DW100
DW100 writes: The founder of Raspberry Pi, Eben Upton, says he wants to see self-driving robots, possibly powered by the mini Raspberry Pi, to be used in the new series of Robots Wars coming to the BBC this year. "I'd like to see driverless Robot Wars. Robots that use the addition of compute to be really fierce," he told The Inquirer. "Yeah, autonomous Robot Wars would be great."

Submission + - EU Companies Can Monitor Employees' Private Conversations While at Work (softpedia.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A recent ruling of the European Court of Human Rights has granted EU companies the right to monitor and log private conversations that employees have at work while using the employer's devices. The ruling came after a Romanian was fired for using Yahoo Messenger back in 2007, while at work, to have private conversations with his girlfriend. He argued that his employer was breaking his right for privacy and correspondence. Both Romanian and European courts disagreed.

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