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Submission + - New Lifeform Possibly Discovered (livescience.com)

Submitted by AstroPhilosopher
AstroPhilosopher writes: Scientists from Russia appear to have discovered an unknown microbe. In 2012 scientists took a water sample from Lake Vostok located more than two miles below Antarctic ice. It’s believed that this water is pristine, unaltered for at least a million years. Among the sample was a bacterium that is said to be only 86 percent similar to other types known to exist. After running the bacteria’s DNA through a global database, they could not find any known bacterium that matches the sample; they even couldn’t determine the bacteria’s descendants. At the moment, the scientists are awaiting confirmation from their peers. However, the bacterium is currently listed as unclassified and unidentified.
Google

Submission + - Google will cut 1,200 more jobs at Motorola Mobility (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Motorola Mobility is cutting 1,200 staff, in addition to a reduction of 4,000 staff it announced in August, to focus on high-end devices. "These cuts are a continuation of the reductions we announced last summer," said Motorola. "It's obviously very hard for the employees concerned, and we are committed to helping them through this difficult transition." Motorola's mobile business has been overwhelmed in the smartphone market by larger players such as Samsung Electronics, Apple, Sony, Huawei Technologies and ZTE.

Submission + - Bradley Manning Pleads Guilty (latimes.com) 1

Submitted by
Entropy98
Entropy98 writes: "Army Pfc. Bradley Edward Manning pleaded guilty Thursday to 10 charges that he illegally acquired and transferred highly classified U.S. government secrets, agreeing to serve 20 years in prison for causing a worldwide uproar when WikiLeaks published documents describing the inner workings of U.S. military and diplomatic efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the globe.

The 25-year-old soldier, however, pleaded not guilty to 12 more serious charges, including espionage for aiding the enemy, meaning that his criminal case will go forward at a general court-martial in June. If convicted at trial, he risks a sentence of life in prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan."
Patents

Submission + - New Bill Would Require Patent Trolls to Pay Defendants' Attorneys (law360.com)

Submitted by
Zordak
Zordak writes: "According to Law 360, H.R. 845, the "Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes" (SHIELD) Act of 2013 would require non-practicing entities that lose in patent litigation to pay the full legal costs of accused infringers. The new bill would define a "non-practicing entity" as a plaintiff that is neither the original inventor or assignee of a patent, and that has not made its own "substantial investment in exploiting the patent." The bill is designed to particularly have a chilling effect on "shotgun" litigation tactics by NPEs, in which they sue numerous defendants on a patent with only a vague case for infringement. Notably, once a party is deemed to be an NPE early in the litigation, they will be required to post a bond to cover the defendants' litigation costs before going forward."
Censorship

Submission + - High Court Orders UK ISPs to Block Kickass Torrents, H33T and Fenopy (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The website blocking phenomenon has continued today in the UK, with the High Court adding three major torrent sites to the country’s unofficial ban list. Following complaints from the music industry led by the BPI, the Court ordered the UK’s leading Internet service providers to begin censoring subscriber access to Kickass Torrents, H33T and Fenopy.
Android

Submission + - Firefox 20 Beta for Android Gets Per-Tab Private Browsing

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Firefox 19 was released released less than a week ago, but already Mozilla has made a new Firefox for Android beta available. This new release adds per-tab private browsing, customizable home screen shortcuts, and support for 25 million more phones. Per-tab private browsing is of course the biggest new feature. It allows you to switch between private and standard tabs within the same browsing session, meaning you don’t have to relaunch the Firefox app every time.
China

Submission + - Don't Blame China For Security Hacks, Blame Yourself (informationweek.com)

Submitted by kierny
kierny writes: Chinese APT attacks are the information security version of the Kardashians: Quick to gain news attention, but otherwise vapid, says John Pescatore, director of emerging security at the SANS Institute. Cue hype over "the Chinese are coming!":

Clearly, the panic button has been pushed. But as happens too often with outbreaks of sudden or uncontrolled anxiety, it misses the point: Don't worry about China. Worry instead if the pitiful state of your information security defenses will allow any attacker to wield nothing more than malicious email attachments to steal valuable intellectual property or even state secrets.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft admits to being hacked too (networkworld.com)

Submitted by colinneagle
colinneagle writes: Once upon a time, Microsoft claimed that falling prey to social engineering tactics and then being hacked was a "rookie mistake." But now is the time for companies to jump on the bandwagon, to admit they were targeted by cyberattacks and successfully infiltrated. The stage is so crowded with 'giants' at this point, that there are fewer 'bad press' repercussions than if only one major company had admitted to being breached. Microsoft now admitted, hey we were hacked too.

"As reported by Facebook and Apple, Microsoft can confirm that we also recently experienced a similar security intrusion," wrote Matt Thomlinson, General Manager of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Security. Unlike the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal there was no mention of Chinese hackers. Is there a moral to these sad tales? Perhaps only that anyone can become a victim.

However, back in 2011, John Howie, Microsoft's senior director in the Online Services Security & Compliance (OSSC) team, basically claimed that unlike RSA or Sony, Microsoft sites are unhackable and can't be DDoSed. In regards to the breach at RSA, Howie told Computing News, "RSA got hacked because someone got socially engineered and opened a dodgy email attachment. A rookie mistake." Furthermore "Sony was coded badly and failed to patch its servers. These are rookie mistakes." Howie added, "At Microsoft we have robust mechanisms to ensure we don't have unpatched servers. We have training for staff so they know how to be secure and be wise to social engineering."

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