Bert the Turtle - Slashdot User

Submission + - Science proves zombies could annihilate humans (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by cb95amc on Tuesday August 18, 2009 @05:44AM

cb95amc writes: If zombies actually existed, an attack by them would lead to the collapse of civilisation unless dealt with quickly and aggressively. That is the conclusion of a mathematical exercise carried out by researchers in Canada. They say only frequent counter-attacks with increasing force would eradicate the fictional creatures. The scientific paper is published in a book — Infectious Diseases Modelling Research Progress. In books, films, video games and folklore, zombies are undead creatures, able to turn the living into other zombies with a bite. But there is a serious side to the work. In some respects, a zombie "plague" resembles a lethal rapidly-spreading infection.

Submission + - Pi calculated to record 2.5 trillion digits (examiner.com) 6

Submitted by

Joshua

on Tuesday August 18, 2009 @03:57AM

Joshua writes: "Researchers from Japan have calculated Pi to over 2.5 trillion decimals using the T2K Open Supercomputer (which is currently ranked 47th in the world according to a June, 2009 report from Top500.org). This new number more than doubles the previous record of about 1.2 trillion decimals set in 2002 by another Japanese research team. Unfortunately, there still seems to be no pattern."

Submission + - E-crime cops make 21 convictions in three years (pcpro.co.uk) 1

Submitted by

Barence

on Thursday July 16, 2009 @07:33AM

Barence writes: "The UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency's e-Crime unit has recorded only 21 convictions in the past three years. The figures came to light following a question tabled by Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling, who asked the Government to release details of the e-Crime unit's performance. Home Secretary Alan Johnson revealed the unit was involved in 22 prosecutions and 21 convictions between April 2006 and March 2009. The Home Secretary went on to defend the unit's performance in his response. "Prosecution is however only one of a number of tools available to help achieve harm reduction in line with the Home Secretary's priorities in this area," Johnson said. The figures will once again ignite criticism that the UK is a soft touch for e-crime."

Submission + - Security Threats 3 Levels Beyond Kernel Rootkits

Submitted by GhostX9 on Thursday July 16, 2009 @05:20AM

GhostX9 writes: Tom's Hardware recently interviewed security expert Joanna Rutkowska. Many think that kernel rootkits are the most dangerous attacks, but Joanna and her team have been studying exploits beyond Ring 0 for some time. Joanna is most well known for the red pill/blue pill virtualization attack (Ring -1) and in this interview chats a little bit about Ring -2 and Ring -3 attacks that go beyond kernel rootkits. What's surprising is how robust the classic BluePill proof-of-concept is:

'Many people tried to prove that BluePill is "detectable" by writing various virtualization detectors (but not BluePill detectors). They simply assumed that if we detect a virtualization being used, this means that we are "under" BluePill.This assumption was made because there were no products using hardware virtualization a few years ago. Needless to say, if we followed this way of reasoning, we might similarly say that if an executable makes network connections, then it must surely be a botnet.'

Submission + - HM Revenue lose 25 Million users' personal data

Submitted by Bert the Turtle on Tuesday November 20, 2007 @12:06PM

Bert the Turtle writes: The UK HM Revenue and Customs have announced that personal data for 25 million people has been "lost" while being transported on password-protected CDs by unrecorded means. This highlights the privacy issues faced by large organisations / governments collecting huge amounts of digital data. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7103566.stm

Comment Why the drama? (Score 1) 712

by Bert the Turtle on Monday September 24, 2007 @03:28AM (#20725711) Attached to: EU Think Tank Urges Full Windows Unbundling

Seems like a sensible plan. Afterall, don't all the computer shops force you to separately buy an over-priced USB lead to go with a new printer? Why not do the same for an OS? Then, those in the know can do like we do with the USB leads - get it somewhere cheaper.

Submission + - Prince to give new album away for free

Submitted by

Bert the Turtle

on Friday July 06, 2007 @10:02AM

Bert the Turtle writes: "The artist formally known as Prince is planning to give his newest album away for free with a major British newspaper and to thousands of gig-goers. Spokespeople for the entertainment industry have suggested that this might incur sanctions. Some more details here"

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