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Submission + - Tomb of Maya Holy Snake Lord Found in Guatemala

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Archaeologists have discovered a seventh century tomb of a Maya queen in Guatemala. The tomb belongs to the Maya Holy Snake Lord, Lady K'abel, one of the most powerful queens in her kingdom during the Classic Maya civilization. A team of archaeologists led by David Freidel, co-director of the expedition from the Washington University in St. Louis, found the tomb during an excavation of the royal Maya city of El Perú-Waka' in northwestern Petén, Guatemala, based on artifacts suggesting that a higher-ranked queen is buried there.
Cloud

Submission + - Apple holds the master decryption key when it comes to iCloud security, privacy (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Ars recently attempted to delve into the inner workings of the security built into Apple's iCloud service(http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/04/apple-holds-the-master-key-when-it-comes-to-icloud-security-privacy.ars). Though we came away reasonably certain that iCloud uses industry best practices that Apple claims it uses to protect data and privacy, we warned that your information isn't entirely protected from prying eyes. At the heart of the issue is the fact that Apple can, at any time, review the data synced with iCloud, and under certain circumstances might share that information with legal authorities.
Linux

Submission + - AT&T Microcell FAIL (fail0verflow.com) 1

Submitted by CharlyFoxtrot
CharlyFoxtrot writes: The geeks over on the fail0verflow blog took apart an AT&T Microcell device which is "essentially a small cell-tower in a box, which shuttles your calls and data back to the AT&T mothership over your home broadband connection." They soon uncovered some real security issues including a backdoor : "We believe that this backdoor is NOT meant to be globally accessible. It is probably only intended to be used over the IPSEC tunnel which the picoChip SoC creates. [...] Unfortunately, they set up the wizard to bind on 0.0.0.0, so the backdoor is accessible over the WAN interface."
Security

Submission + - Iran blamed for major cyberattack on BBC (techworld.com)

Submitted by Qedward
Qedward writes: Iran is privately being blamed for a major cyberattack on the BBC earlier this month that blocked access to its popular Persian TV service and disrupted the Corporation’s IT using denial-of-service.

The multi-pronged March 2 attack took down much of the BBC’s email, overloaded its telephone switchboard with automatic phone calls, and blocked a satellite feed for the BBC Persian station. BBC servers were also on the end of a DDoS.

In an unprecedented tactic, the BBC has trailed a speech to be given this week to the Royal Television Society in which Director General Mark Thompson will mention the attacks in some detail while stopping short of formally naming Iran as the perpetrator.
Privacy

Submission + - US congressman asks for FTC Carrier IQ investigati (techworld.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "US Congressman Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, has sent a letter to the FTC asking it to investigate Carrier IQ. "I have serious concerns about the Carrier IQ software and whether it is secretly collecting users' personal information, such as the content of text messages," he said in a statement. Consumer Watchdog has called for a US government investigation of Carrier IQ, the maker of tracking software for mobile phones, and its users."
Software

Submission + - RMS on Jobs: "I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad (latimes.com)

Submitted by Garabito
Garabito writes: Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, has posted on his personal site: "As Chicago Mayor Harold Washington said of the corrupt former Mayor Daley, 'I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad he's gone.' Nobody deserves to have to die — not Jobs, not Mr. Bill, not even people guilty of bigger evils than theirs. But we all deserve the end of Jobs' malign influence on people's computing." His statement has spurred reaction from the community; some even asking to the Free Software movement to find a new voice.

Submission + - Outrageous Paypal Scam Exposed (buzzfeed.com)

Submitted by
DarkStar1O9
DarkStar1O9 writes: "This is outrageous.

Summary: After an online store owner upgraded to Paypal's Virtual Terminal Service for telephone orders, he was automatically placed into a “Rolling Reserve System” where 30% of the funds from all incoming transactions are permanently withheld from his bank account for 90 days. Under Illinois state law where the owner resides, it is illegal for money brokers to withhold transactions from the owner for more than 3 days. To expose this injustice after being ignored by management who refused to remove him from the holds, he created this diagram explaining the fraud which swiftly made it to the front page of reddit.

The article also covers other business owners who have a similar problem, something definitely must be done to bring them to justice."

Submission + - Gamers Opt Out Rescues Us From Sony and EA's Lawsu (kotaku.com)

Submitted by thewickedductaper
thewickedductaper writes: With a supreme court decision earlier this year making it legal for companies to include do-not-sue clauses in their user agreements, the only recourse for customers of companies like Sony and Electronic Arts is to opt-out of the clause via written letter. Now there's a website that does it for them.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft To Bring Cable TV to 360 (cnet.com)

Submitted by
iONiUM
iONiUM writes: "From the article, '[Microsoft] announced this morning that nearly 40 television content providers--including Comcast, Verizon, and HBO in the United States--will roll out programming over Xbox Live. The company also has deals lined up with providers in the U.K., Spain, Canada, Mexico, Germany, and Italy.'
This seems like yet another step forward in killing traditional cable companies."
Software

Submission + - Windows Phone 7.5 Mango Update finally goes live (winbeta.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft's highly anticipated and long awaited update to Windows Phone has finally arrived. Windows Phone 7.5 Mango offers over 500 new features. Start checking for updates on your phone to see if your update is ready!

Submission + - FBI Cellphone Tracking Techniques Revealed (wsj.com)

Submitted by glittermage
glittermage writes: The WSJ reports on an ongoing case regarding alleged "Hacker" Daniel David Rigmaiden regarding the governments tools used to track mobile devices with or without a warrant. The Judge may allow Daniel to defend himself against the governments claims by putting the technology into the light. Sounds good to me.
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows 8 tablets available on eBay (tomshardware.com)

Submitted by Dr Max
Dr Max writes: During Microsoft's BUILD conference the company gave away 5000 Samsung tablets running a preview version of windows 8 to developers. As good as these tablets are (2nd gen core i5, dock, 64gb ssd, stylus, sd slot, 11.6 inch 1366x768 display), some are appearing on eBay with a high price; for example this guy asking $2700 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-Windows-8-Build-Developer-Tablet-Accessories-AT-T-Broadband-/290610910198?pt=US_Tablets&hash=item43a9c293f6. Toms hardware has more info http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Windows-8-BUILD-Core-i5-Trusted-Platform-AT-T,13463.html

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