Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Christmas Cheer

Submission + - Dashing Through the Snow on a WiFi-Sniffing Sleigh

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "Our cars will no longer collect any WiFi information at all," promised Google Engineering VP Brian McClendon last summer. You'll notice, however, that McClendon didn't rule out the use of sleighs. And McClendon, coincidentally, is also involved with the top-secret NORAD and Google Santa GPS project (Google Chimney View?). So, what if a WiFi sniffing antenna and Kismet found their way onto Santa's sleigh and 'accidentally' collected your personal data last night? Hey, mistakes can happen, right?
Piracy

Submission + - RIAA, MPAA recruit MasterCard as Internet Police (myce.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Two weeks ago, MasterCard felt the wrath of Anonymous Operation Payback-style DDoS attacks after refusing to process payments that were intended to fund WikiLeaks, the website which began leaking confidential US diplomatic cables last month. Now, the company is preparing to head down another controversial path by pledging to deny transactions which support websites that host pirated movies, music, games, or other copyrighted content.

MasterCard lobbyists have also been in talks with entertainment industry trade groups, including the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and have made it clear that the company will support the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), sources close to the talks have said.
The Internet

Submission + - FCC Vote: Reactions Are Pouring In (allthingsd.com) 1

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: It’s now official. At 1:05 pm Eastern Time today the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to enact a controversial set of proposed rules on network neutrality, effectively getting the government into the business of regulating the Internet in ways it hasn’t done before. Congressional Republicans are already planning on holding hearings next year. The reactions are all over the map, and no one is exactly happy. Arik Hesseldahl collected a few of the reaction statements....
Security

Submission + - 70% TSA Failure Rate at Some Airports (go.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Nearing the height of last year's Christmas travel season, TSA screeners at Bush Intercontinental Airport somehow missed a loaded pistol, one that was tucked away inside a carry-on computer bag.

"I mean, this is not a small gun," Seif said. "It's a .40 caliber gun."

Seif says it was an accident which he didn't realize until he arrived at his destination. He says he carries the glock for protection but forgot to remove it from his bag. He reported the incident as soon as he landed, shocked at the security lapse.

"There's nothing else in there. How can you miss it? You cannot miss it," Seif said.

Authorities tell ABC News the incident is not uncommon, but how often it occurs is a closely guarded government secret. Experts say every year since the September 11 attacks, federal agencies have conducted random, covert tests of airport security.

A person briefed on the latest tests tells ABC News the failure rate approaches 70 percent at some major airports. Two weeks ago, TSA's new director said every test gun, bomb part or knife got past screeners at some airports.
United States

Submission + - Paypal account frozen for making Wikileak donation (rathergather.com) 3

Submitted by kaptink
kaptink writes: Reddit user 'hellokevin11' blogs:

"I go to log into my business account, and it's locked. The girl on the phone told me it's because my account handles a large amount of money (it's a biz account), I recently sent a lot of money ($4000) overseas, and I also sent money to wikileaks. My account is being investigated for illegal activities and I have to account for what the money was used for. They want invoices and such."

I've been blacklisted as well. "This account has been permanently locked. All information associated with this account has been blocked from the PayPal system and cannot be registered with another account."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Amazon Takes Wikileaks Offline, Sells Cables (swns.com) 1

Submitted by
Khyber
Khyber writes: "Irony, thine name is Amazon. After shutting down Wikileaks, an Amazon user has re-packaged a set of the cables in an E-book format and is selling them on Amazon. Of course, through this, Amazon makes a profit from part of the sale, and has yet to issue any statement regarding this. Many users of the site are expressing extreme displeasure at Amazon profiting from something they they originally had available for free, and there might be a possible backlash just in time for the Christmas season."

Submission + - Wikileaks: Shell Corporation runs Nigeria

Submitted by Maxo-Texas
Maxo-Texas writes: The Guardian's analysis of wikileaks documents has revealed that Shell Corporation has inserted employees into every aspect of the Nigerian government and basically runs the company. In what is a view into our corporate controlled future, while the country has billions of dollars in oil income, 70% of the population lives below the poverty line.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/08/wikileaks-cables-shell-nigeria-spying

"The company's top executive in Nigeria told US diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant department and so knew "everything that was being done in those ministries". She boasted that the Nigerian government had "forgotten" about the extent of Shell's infiltration and was unaware of how much the company knew about its deliberations."
Botnet

Submission + - Operation Payback's Command and Control System

Submitted by
Predius
Predius writes: "Fun with Anonymous — Infiltrate the hive

Anonymous has been in the news again lately for loosely coordinated DDoS attacks on high visibility targets in the name of defending Wikileaks. Their weapon of choice is a modified LOIC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOIC) install, a 'network stress tool' written to include IRC driven command and control. Volunteer LOIC installs become part of the 'Hive Mind' which Anonymous directs to attack chosen targets.

The command and control of LOIC is actually VERY simplistic. Figuring it out takes very little effort thanks to the modified LOIC install including nearly the full source of all code used to make the prepackaged binaries.

By default LOIC expects the user to direct it. Upon providing an IRC server, port and channel it switches to Hive Mind mode and connects to IRC automatically and joins the specified channel to await instructions. Instructions must be posted by a channel owner or operator, or in the topic of the channel. As security, all LOICs use predefined username patterns as well as specific user and real name info.

Nick: LOIC_XXXXXX (Replace the X's with upper or lower case letters, must be 6 total to match the channel invite mask.)
Username: IRCLOIC
Realname: Newfag's remote LOIC
Server: thealps.anonops-irc.com or irc.anonops-irc.com port 6667
Channel: #loic
CTCP Version Reply: SmartIrc4net 0.4.0.28389

From the LOIC README:
-------------------------------------------
==============================
|| CONTROLING LOIC FROM IRC ||
==============================

As an OP, Admin or Owner set a channel topic or type message with (as an example
):
!lazor targetip=127.0.0.1 message=test_test port=80 method=tcp wait=false random
=true

To start attack type
!lazor start

Or just append "start" in the END of the topic
!lazor targetip=127.0.0.1 message=test_test port=80 method=tcp wait=false random
=true start

To reset options back to default:
!lazor default

To stop attack:
!lazor stop

And remove "start" from topic (if exists)
You can also replace "start" by "stop" in the END of the topic.
-------------------------------------------

There are bots in the channel that periodically do version checks on all bots in the channel, so make sure you get the version string right. Also there are real users who monitor for odd activity, so I suggest just idling with your LOIC simulation and setting up a second connection to poke around with using normal looking credentials. So far they have been fairly quick to g-line suspected fake LOICs that botch any of the credentials and post repeated warnings to attack any found 'with anger'.

#OperationPayback is where the live chaos is, mostly a shouting match of various self proclaimed 'hacktivists' with a few trying to direct the horde with various degrees of sucess. This channel is also handy to monitor as changes to the attack plan will be announced along with start times.

As various external sources disable Anonymous assets, either irc servers directly via DoS attacks or by disabling the domains used new replacements are announced here as well. The Hive appears to be very slow in recovering from these hits given that the simplistic control structure doesn't include a means to auto-update the hive settings, relying on constant user monitoring and intervention instead. There is active discussion in #newloic on an upgraded or replacement tool in progress."

Submission + - Amazon selling Wikileaks Cable documents as a book (amazon.co.uk) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Perhaps they didn't filter this book before approving it but a book with the leaks from cablegate is available as a Kindle ebook for download. Many amazon users have written 'reviews' condemning amazon and vowing never to use amazon again. How long before this one is pulled?
Privacy

Submission + - Online Tracking Firms Launch Opt-Out Program (ecrmguide.com)

Submitted by storagedude
storagedude writes: Threatened by the prospect of tougher U.S. online privacy legislation, a handful of data collection companies have banded together to create a voluntary system for consumers to opt out of online data collection or edit the data collected. The Better Advertising Project's Open Data Partnership is a long way from a viable solution — scores of tracking and big-name online companies have yet to sign on to the effort — but it is nonetheless the first attempt to put all this online tracking data in one place. Some companies are even putting a brave face on the inevitability of some kind of a national do-not-track system. As Bill Franks, chief analytics officer of Teradata's SAS program, put it: "At the end of the day, whether it was a law or a simple agreement, if the customers trusted you'd use their data appropriately, you'd make more progress.
Image

Kentucky Announces Creationism Theme Park 648

Posted by samzenpus from the ride-the-dinosaur dept.
riverat1 writes "On December first, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear announced that a creationism theme park is expected to open in 2014. Park developers are seeking state tourism development incentives and could receive up to $37.5 million over a 10-year period. Gov. Steve Beshear said he does not believe the incentives would violate the principle of church-state separation because the 14-year-old tax incentives law wasn’t approved for the purpose of benefiting the Ark Encounter. The park will have a 500 foot replica of the Ark with live animals on it and a Tower of Babel explaining how races and languages developed. The park will be turned over to Answers in Genesis after it is built. They are a non-profit organization which may allow them to discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion."

Comment Re:News flash: NASA discoveres there's life on ear (Score 2) 380

by thehostiles (#34422694) Attached to: NASA Confirms Discovery of Organism With Phosphorus-Free DNA

I understand what you're saying here, but from everything we know (and we know a lot), the periodic table of elements is universal.

Some molecules (such as carbon or hydrogen) are simply so unique that they cannot be replaced by anything else. Nothing has the stability and bonding ability of carbon.
Similar things were thought about phosphate groups. Unfortunately, we were wrong.

The long and short of it is that no matter how hard you try, you'll never have an organism without hydrogen or carbon because there is simply no substitute. Same goes for a LOT of other things.
Sure, there will always be a lot of diversity and changes, but some things are simply universal.

We do have random, but it's random contained within limits set by chemistry and physics

Slashdot Top Deals

If all else fails, lower your standards.

Close