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Security

Submission + - Is it time to knock infected PCs off the internet? (pcpro.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
nk497
nk497 writes: "Malware could block your access to the internet – but in some cases by those on the right side of the security fence, who are deploying tactics such as blocked ports, letters in the mail and PCs quarantined from the net to combat the most damaging threats. The DNS Changer clean up saw some PCs prevented from accessing the web. Should such tactics be used more often to prevent malware from spreading — or is that taking security a step too far?"
Crime

Submission + - Firefox, Opera Allow Phishing by Data URI Claims New Paper (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: A student at the University of Oslo, Norway has claimed that Phishing attacks can be carried out through the use of URI and users of Firefox and Opera are vulnerable to such attacks. Malicious web pages can be stored into data URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) whereby an entire webpage’s code can be stuffed into a string, which if clicked on will instruct the browser to unpack the payload and present it to the user in form of a page. This is where the whole thing gets a bit dangerous. In his paper, Phishing by data URI [PDF], Henning Klevjer has claimed that through his method he was able to successfully load the pages on Firefox and Opera. The method however failed on Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.
Education

Submission + - Khan Academy Pilot Educators on Khan Academy

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In what may surprise Khan Academy backers Google and Bill Gates, educators from the Los Altos School District where KA was initially piloted and implemented have responded to some recent KA critiques with a blog entry which notes, 'Teachers in our district have determined that the greatest value of the Khan Academy lies, not in the videos, but in the exercise modules and data generated as students work practice problems.' Not too surprisingly, when it comes to revolutionizing student learning, teachers are bullish on teachers. 'Key to this revolution are the Los Altos teachers,' the educators conclude. 'Teachers in our district are highly valued for their pedagogical perspective, content knowledge, experience, and creative abilities. When district administrators put tools in the hands of teachers and give them room to work, amazing things happen for students. Tools will come and go, but it's the teachers who create meaningful learning experiences that challenge students to grow.'
Hardware

Submission + - Photonics Computing Promises Real quantum Computing (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by
judgecorp
judgecorp writes: "The Quantum Photonics group at Bristol University is leading a group which claims to have cracked room temperature quantum computing at commercial scales, by using optical waveguides. Photons exhibit quantum properties at room temperature, and recent developments in silicon waveguides provide the components for real quantum chips, which could be in real devices within a very few years."
Security

Submission + - Metropolitan Police issued an urgent warning about a new ransom malware (thehackernews.com)

Submitted by
thn
thn writes: "that is in circulation. Ransomware (also referred to in some cases as cryptoviruses, cryptotrojans or cryptoworms) comprises a class of malware which restricts access to the computer system that it infects, and demands a ransom paid to the creator of the malware in order for the restriction to be removed.

Read more at http://thehackernews.com/2012/09/new-ransom-malware-infecting-computers.html"
Google

Submission + - Google Extends Patent Search to Prior Art - I wonder why? (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: As well as buying up patents to defend itself against the coming Apple attack on Android, Google is also readying its own technology. It has extended its Patent Search facility to include European patents and has added a Prior Art facility.
The new Prior Art facility seems to be valuable both to inventors and to the legal profession. In order to be granted a patent the inventor has to establish that it is a novel idea — and in the current litigious environment companies and their lawyers might want to show that patents should not have been granted. My guess is that this is one Google facility that won't be closing any time soon as one of its main users is likely to be Google.
Printer

Submission + - 3D printing on the micrometer scale (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: Three-dimensional printers are popping up everywhere these days. Some are small enough to fit in a briefcase and others are large enough to build print houses, but scientists at the Vienna University of Technology are going for the microscopic. Earlier this year, the university built a 3D printer that uses lasers to operate on a tiny small scale. Now they're refining the technique to enable precise placement a selected molecule in a three-dimensional material. This process, called “3D-photografting,” can potentially be used to create a “lab on a chip” or artificially grow living tissue.
Encryption

Submission + - Calculating the Cost of Full Disk Encryption (networkcomputing.com)

Submitted by
CowboyRobot
CowboyRobot writes: "Is full disk encryption (FDE) worth it? A recent study conducted by the Ponemon Institute shows that the expected benefits of FDE exceed cost by a factor ranging from four to 20, based on a reduction in the probability that data will be compromised as the result of the loss or theft of a digital device.

"After doing all of the math, Ponemon found that the cost of FDE on laptop and desktop computers in the U.S. per year was $235, while the cost savings from reduced data breach exposure was $4,650.""
NASA

Submission + - NASA craft to leave asteroid heads for dwarf planet Ceres (mnn.com)

Submitted by
DevotedSkeptic
DevotedSkeptic writes: "NASA's Dawn probe is gearing up to depart the giant asteroid Vesta next week and begin the long trek to the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt.

The Dawn spacecraft is slated to leave Vesta on the night of Sept. 4 (early morning Sept. 5 EDT), ending a 14-month stay at the 330-mile-wide (530 kilometers) body. The journey to Ceres should take roughly 2.5 years, with Dawn reaching the dwarf planet in early 2015, researchers said.

"Thrust is engaged, and we are now climbing away from Vesta atop a blue-green pillar of xenon ions," Dawn chief engineer and mission director Marc Rayman, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "We are feeling somewhat wistful about concluding a fantastically productive and exciting exploration of Vesta, but now have our sights set on dwarf planet Ceres.""

Comment Re:Scientists on both sides of this debate... (Score 1) 1367

by Lserevi (#38858435) Attached to: Don't Worry About Global Warming, Say 16 Scientists in the WSJ
> As another scientist, you are using the word "belief" in a way that almost no one, including other scientists, would use it. Perhaps. I did learn of the distinction between the two words from two evolutionary scientists -- one of whom was Stephen J. Gould -- speaking on the difference between science and faith. I have found that using two different words helps people understand the important difference between the two types of "belief".

Comment Re:Scientists on both sides of this debate... (Score 1) 1367

by Lserevi (#38852913) Attached to: Don't Worry About Global Warming, Say 16 Scientists in the WSJ
The clear majority of climate scientists *accept* anthropogenic global warming (AGW) -- they don't *believe* in it. "Accept" connotes a willingness to follow the evidence -- wherever it may lead. "Believe" connotes faith. As a scientist, I accept the theory of AGW as it would be perverse to withhold acceptance in the face of such overwhelming evidence. If better evidence is found, I'm willing to change. Believers aren't willing to change as their beliefs don't, in general, depend upon evidence.

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