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Networking

Submission + - Vint Cerf Warns Users of IPv4 Depletion (bbc.co.uk)

Nigel Stepp writes: The reason IPv6 has not been deployed after a decade is still hotly debated. Vint Cerf has now publicly cited lack of ISP support as the primary roadblock, which has been one opinion. Coverage of the IPv6 issue in mainstream media has been rare, and such a notable figure publicizing it in these terms will most likely shape how the next few years unfold.

From the BBC News article, 'Internet Service Providers urgently need to roll out the next generation of net addresses for online devices, internet pioneer Vint Cerf has said.'

Specifically, Vint seems to think creating user demand is essential: 'The reason [ISPs] haven't — which is quite understandable — is that customers haven't asked for it yet," said Mr Cerf, adding, "my job, whether with my Icann hat on or not, is to persuade them to ask for it.'

Security

Submission + - Apocalypse Soon? Naval Group to Discuss Extinction 2

Maria Williams writes: Wired says Should the U.S. military be thinking more about asteroid shields, lifeshield bunkers and antimatter weapon shields? Oh, and an alien shield.

If these defensive systems/catastrophic scenarios are something you feel the Navy should be pondering, visit the Lifeboat Foundation's plea for donations. Lifeboat Foundation is dedicated "to helping humanity survive existential risks." The Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group contacted the foundation because it wants its future leaders to have the "opportunity to gain insights into the activities of the Lifeboat Foundation and have discussion about different programs you have to help 'safeguard humanity'."
Spam

Submission + - CAPTCHA broken - thanks to a virtual stripper (bbc.co.uk) 3

Dynamoo writes: "A few months ago there was some speculation that spammers had managed to break the security CAPTCHA for many webmail systems and were using them to spread viruses and junk email. The problem was that no-one could actually demonstrate a mechanism to defeat the security code.

However, an novel approach has been documented by the BBC, suggesting that a virtual stripper application may be partly to blame. The woman in the application progressively undresses if the user types in the correct CAPTCHA code.. a code that is actually being generated by the Yahoo! mail security check. The application itself is a trojan, dubbed TROJ_CAPTCHAR.A by Trend."

Biotech

Submission + - AIDS came to US via just one migrant from Haiti (wor.ldne.ws)

amigoro writes: "The AIDS virus entered the United States via Haiti, probably arriving in just one immigrant in about 1969, and from there spread worldwide, according to new research published this week in the online Early Online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Our results show that the strain of virus that spawned the U.S. AIDS epidemic probably arrived in or around 1969. That is earlier than a lot of people had imagined," said senior author Michael Worobey."
Security

Submission + - AT&T Invents Surveillance Programming Language (wired.com)

Anonymous Coward writes: "From the company that brought you the C programming language comes Hancock, a C variant developed by AT&T researchers to mine gigabytes of the company's telephone and internet records for surveillance purposes. The language powers AT&T's nightly tally of who its customers routinely call and can be used to compute maps of where cell phone users roam and parse TCPDUMP logs. AT&T secured patents for the data-mining techniques. The manual for the language includes a Hello World variant that shows you how to write a program that will parse logs of IP addresses and record them into permanent hashes. The program for parsing millions of records as they flow into permanent data farms sounds oddly close to the data mining the NSA performed after 9/11 to find targets for its warrantless spying on American citizens calls and emails."
Google

Submission + - Google Maps, Predator Drones Turned Tide on Wildfi (baselinemag.com)

Absalom621 writes: California firefighters and rescue workers went to battle with the massive wildfires sweeping through San Diego and Orange counties with a powerful new weapon: near real-time mapping and fire movement intelligence. When the fires got too hot for spotter planes to take readings, visualization experts at San Diego State University worked with NASA and Google to produce maps that tracked the fires and helped direct resources. The results may have saved lives and property. http://preview.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1540,2208915,00.asp
Internet Explorer

Submission + - AntiVirus Products fail to find Simple IE malware (beskerming.com) 4

SkiifGeek writes: "Didier Stevens recently took a closer look at some Internet Explorer malware that he had uncovered and found that most antivirus products that it was tested against (courtesy of VirusTotals) failed to identify the malware through one of the most basic and straight forward obfuscation techniques — the null-byte. With enough null-bytes between each character of code, it is possible to fool all antivirus products (though additional software will trap it), yet Internet Explorer was quite happy to render the code.

Whose responsibility is it to fix this behaviour? Both the antivirus / antimalware companies and Microsoft's IE team have something to answer for."

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