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Security

Submission + - Penn student at center of worldwide hacking invest (philly.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: When a suspicious computer server crash at the University of Pennsylvania last year denied service to 4,000 students, faculty and staff, technicians called the FBI — triggering a case that would take agents around the world and lead to the arrest of a brilliant but brash Penn junior. Ryan Goldstein, a 20-year-old bioengineering major, conspired with a New Zealand hacker known as AKILL to use Penn's computer system as a staging ground for a 50,000-computer attack against several online chat networks, authorities said. The FBI and Secret Service are expected to announce indictments today against Goldstein, a Florida man, and three others. Police recently executed related raids in New Zealand, Florida, California and Pennsylvania. The latest came Tuesday near Philadelphia. An FBI agent from the region is in New Zealand this week, and more arrests are possible. "We've been executing search warrants all over the world in this case," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Levy. View article for more.
Space

Submission + - Space pioneers wanted

Submitted by axehind
axehind writes: The ESA is preparing for future human exploration missions to Mars. They are currently looking for 12 volunteers to take part in a 520-day simulated Mars mission. The simulations will take place here on Earth inside a special facility in Moscow. A precursor 105-day study is scheduled to start by mid-2008, possibly followed by another 105-day study, before the full 520-day study begins in late 2008 or early 2009. Do you think you got what it takes?
Supercomputing

Submission + - "Mission Completed" says Grid.Org

Submitted by JAMDoc
JAMDoc writes:
On Friday, April 27, 2007, Grid.org announced it has completed its mission to demonstrate the viability and benefits of large-scale Internet-based grid computing, and will be retiring its famous efforts to support critical health research.
Grid.org was the largest and most ambitious public interest grid venture ever attempted, and thanks to Grid.org and its millions of members, dozens of similar global grid projects have been able to catch on and succeed by following its footsteps.
Here ends Grid.Org's revolutionary grid-processing effort. Having utilized the computing power of 3.7 million systems world-wide, Grid.Org chugged the equivalent of more than 500,000 years of data processing. Grid.Org's projects included drug screens for cancer, anthrax, and smallpox as well as a major contribution to the human proteome folding project.
Announcements

Submission + - Japan to Launch Magnetic Trains in 2025

Submitted by SpeedyTrain
SpeedyTrain writes: Magnetic trains zooming at a landscape-blurring 310 miles an hour will connect Tokyo and Nagoya by 2025, one of Japan's biggest railway operators said Friday. The new magnetically levitated, or "maglev," trains would slash the 100-minute travel time down the country's busiest transportation corridor and are envisioned as a successor for Japan's iconic bullet trains, or shinkansen, first introduced to the world in 1964.
Censorship

Submission + - Judge Dismisses Don't Date Him Girl Lawsuit

Submitted by
Joe Tracy
Joe Tracy writes: "The lawsuit filed by Todd Hollis against the Website Don't Date Him Girl has been dismissed on a technicality. The judge determined that the lawsuit was filed in the wrong state. The defamation of character lawsuit received a lot of publicity on TV shows like Dr. Phil and the Today show. Don't Date Him Girl allows women to "anonymously" post information on people they've dated and include a picture, name, and other personal identifying information of that person. You can read about the dismissal of the suit at http://onlinedating.typepad.com/industry/2007/04/d ont_date_him_g.html"
Google

Submission + - Google Earth highlights Darfur

Submitted by jc42
jc42 writes: NPR, PCworld, and some 400 other news sources (according to Google News) are reporting on a new Google feature: Google Earth, in cooperation with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum now presents details of the growing disaster in Darfur. They give a virtual tour of the area, with details of events in many villages in the words of local residents. So in addition to their "Do no evil" motto, they apparently now have a policy of exposing evil. Needless to say, the Sudan government didn't exactly cooperate with this project.
The Internet

Submission + - Court Reverses Penalty Over MySpace Post

Submitted by PDone
PDone writes: A judge violated a juvenile's free-speech rights when he placed her on probation for posting an expletive-laden entry on MySpace criticizing a school principal, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled. The three-judge panel on Monday ordered the Putnam Circuit Court to set aside its penalty against the girl, referred to only as A.B. in court records.
Encryption

Submission + - AACS Licensing Authority Throws The First Grenade

Submitted by mrneutron2004
mrneutron2004 writes: In an effort to stem the tide of discovered encryption keys, the AACS Licensing Authority announced that is has "taken action, in cooperation with relevant manufacturers, to expire the encryption keys associated with the specific implementations of AACS-enabled software." So, those with some clue will wait for BackupHDDVD and AnyDVD HD to get updated. Meanwhile the average clueless consumer who rarely even thinks about updating anything will soon be in for a shock when their HD disc playing software goes into self-destruct mode with new HD releases. The end result? Perhaps, and this is just an educated guess, more and more legitimate consumers will likely be turned into encryption cracking evildoers, simply because they want to play what they PAID FOR. Sigh... Why is this so predicatable? http://www.fastsilicon.com/latest-news/aacs-licens ing-authority-throws-the-first-grenade-into-the-fo .html?Itemid=60
Security

Submission + - User-Privilege Flaw Hits Vista

Submitted by
IT071872
IT071872 writes: "According to PC world, A security firm has discovered one of the first security flaws to directly affect Windows Vista, a bug that it claims allows local users to escalate their privileges.

The flaw involves Windows' system for managing user security levels, User Account Control (UAC), which was introduced with Vista. UAC is designed to limit the damage that can be caused by mass attacks such as worms by giving standard users limited privileges, a practice common with other operating systems."
Security

Remote Control To Prevent Aircraft Hijacking 544

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the fly-by-really-long-wire dept.
Snad writes "The UK's Evening Standard is reporting that Boeing plans to roll out aircraft remote control systems in a bid to eliminate the threat of terrorist hijackings, and prevent any repetition of the events of September 11 2001. 'Scientists at aircraft giant Boeing are testing the tamper-proof autopilot system which uses state-of-the-art computer and satellite technology. It will be activated by the pilot flicking a simple switch or by pressure sensors fitted to the cockpit door that will respond to any excessive force as terrorists try to break into the flight deck. Once triggered, no one on board will be able to deactivate the system. Currently, all autopilots are manually switched on and off at the discretion of pilots. A threatened airliner could be flown to a secure military base or a commercial airport, where it would touch down using existing landing aids known as 'autoland function'.'"

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