Comment Re:What about FirefoxOS? (Score 1) 107
Well... At this point I will agree with you. I really saw the Firefox OS developer device, its real and works.
Submission + - Obama Calls for Patent Reform to Topple Trolls (eff.org)
osoriojr writes: "In a welcome turn of events, President Barack Obama spoke directly to the patent troll problem and the need for more comprehensive patent reform yesterday in a "Fireside Hangout" — a live question and answer session hosted in a Google+ hangout. The President was responding to a question by the prominent electrical engineer and entrepreneur Limor "Ladyada" Fried, who in 2009 won an EFF Pioneer Award for her work with free software and open-source hardware.
Obama acknowledged that the much-touted patent reforms that came in his first term "only went about halfway to where we need to go." Specifically, he describes patent trolls as "a classic example," of the problem, and that "they don't actually produce anything themselves.""
Obama acknowledged that the much-touted patent reforms that came in his first term "only went about halfway to where we need to go." Specifically, he describes patent trolls as "a classic example," of the problem, and that "they don't actually produce anything themselves.""
Comment What about FirefoxOS? (Score 2) 107
I was at the FirefoxOS announcement in Brazil. They gave a developer device to many developers because it is on its first steps. I think it will have a very long way to beat the Canonical OS.
Submission + - Zeus trojan targeting five major banks in Japan (thehackernews.com)
osoriojr writes: "Zeus continues to strike online bank accounts and users, and technology designed to thwart these Trojan attacks continually fails to keep up. Symantec recently came across a new Zeus file targeting five major banks in Japan."
Submission + - Researchers Attack Android's Encryption by Freezing the Smartphone, Literally (paritynews.com) 1
hypnosec writes: Researchers have showcased a novel way through which encrypted data of an Android smartphone can be read by accessing the cryptographic key stored in the phone’s memory by freezing the phone. Two researchers, Tilo Müller and Michael Spreitzenbarth, over at the University of Erlangen in Germany cooled down a Galaxy Nexus phone, loaded with Android 4.0 and with encryption enabled, below 10 degrees by putting it in a freezer. This cooling ensures that the data within the volatile memory is retained for a short period of time without any power supply. To ensure that they still have access to this ‘frozen’ memory content they disconnected and reconnected the battery in less than 500ms such that it results into a reboot. Rebooting the phone in ‘fastboot’ mode, they flashed the FROST recovery image onto the Galaxy Nexus. Connecting the device to a Linux system that had FROST utilities pre-installed the duo, using a special tool that uses the cold boot attack [PDF], went onto to read the contents of the phone's memory including the cryptographic keys.
Submission + - The computer that never crashes (newscientist.com)
puddingebola writes: From the article, "A computer that mimics the apparent randomness found in nature can instantly recover from crashes by repairing corrupted data.
Dubbed a "systemic" computer, the self-repairing machine now operating at University College London (UCL) could keep mission-critical systems working. For instance, it could allow drones to reprogram themselves to cope with combat damage, or help create more realistic models of the human brain."
Dubbed a "systemic" computer, the self-repairing machine now operating at University College London (UCL) could keep mission-critical systems working. For instance, it could allow drones to reprogram themselves to cope with combat damage, or help create more realistic models of the human brain."
Submission + - Tim Cook never wanted to sue Samsung (networkworld.com)
colinneagle writes: While Steve Jobs' ire in regards to Android is well known, a recent report from Reuters relays that current Apple CEO Tim Cook never wanted to sue Samsung in the first place.
"Tim Cook, Jobs' successor as Apple chief executive, was opposed to suing Samsung in the first place, according to people with knowledge of the matter, largely because of that company's critical role as a supplier of components for the iPhone and the iPad. Apple bought some $8 billion worth of parts from Samsung last year, analysts estimate."
In various earnings conference calls, Tim Cook has repeated that he hates litigation, but has still toed the party line by exclaiming that Apple welcomes innovators but doesn't like when other companies rip off their intellectual property.
"Tim Cook, Jobs' successor as Apple chief executive, was opposed to suing Samsung in the first place, according to people with knowledge of the matter, largely because of that company's critical role as a supplier of components for the iPhone and the iPad. Apple bought some $8 billion worth of parts from Samsung last year, analysts estimate."
In various earnings conference calls, Tim Cook has repeated that he hates litigation, but has still toed the party line by exclaiming that Apple welcomes innovators but doesn't like when other companies rip off their intellectual property.
Submission + - Yet another costly government software upgrade failure (latimes.com)
g01d4 writes: "California's computer problems, which have already cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, have mounted as state officials cut short work on a $208-million DMV technology overhaul that is only half done. Last week, the controller's office fired the contractor responsible for a $371-million upgrade to the state's payroll system, citing a trial run filled with mishaps. More than $254 million has already been spent." It's hard not to feel like the Tokyo man in the street watching the latest round of Godzilla the state vs. Rodan the big contractor.
Submission + - Ubuntu Phone OS Will Be Available For Download On 21 February (muktware.com)
sfcrazy writes: Canonical has announced that Ubuntu Phone OS will be available for download on 21 February, just 3 days before the MWC kickstarts.Canonical will also be conducting a flash mob during MWC at its booth where you can bring your Nexus phone and get it flashed to Ubuntu.
Submission + - 100 Page GAO Report Blasts Federal Government on Cyber (securityledger.com)
chicksdaddy writes: "There’s been a lot of light and heat in the last week when it comes to the U.S. government and cyber security. But a just-released report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) makes clear that, in the big scheme of things, the Executive Order is just window dressing on the mess that is the Federal Government’s handling of cyber security.The report, GAO-13-187 (PDF), is a round-up and updating of previous reports that studied aspects of federal cyber security as they affect a wide range of federal agencies. The GAO’s conclusion? Uncle Sam has made negligible progress towards improving the security of its information systems, and has little to show in key areas such as responding to cyber incidents, promoting R&D on cyber security tools and technology and educating its workforce about cybersecurity. Nor is the federal government better prepared to respond to cyber attacks, despite a 782% increase in them in the last six years. In short Uncle Sam needs a plan, GAO found."
Submission + - Ubuntu for phones to arrive next week on Nexus 4 (pcpro.co.uk)
nk497 writes: "Canonical has revealed that a developer preview of Ubuntu for phones will arrive next week, on the 21st of February. The touch preview will initially only be available for the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 smartphones, but Canonical plans to support more devices. The release is designed to let developers create apps — and to give "enthusiasts" a sneak peek — ahead of the smartphone side of Ubuntu arriving in version 13.10 in October. Canonical suggested that the OS will initially only support low-end smartphones, the group plans to also support higher-end models, too, and the OS will work across mobile devices, PCs and TVs."
Submission + - Han Solo to Return for Star Wars VII (latino-review.com) 2
eldavojohn writes: El Mayimbe (who has a history of scooping movie news) has been picked up by a Fox News Latino as claiming that Harrison Ford is confirmed to return for Star Wars VII (about 7 minutes in).
Submission + - Cryptographers Aim to Find New Password Hashing Algorithm (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: Passwords are the keys to our online identities, and as a result, they're also near the top of the target list for attackers. There have been countless breaches in the last few years in which unencrypted passwords have been stolen from a database and leaked online, and security experts often shake their heads at the lack of use of encryption or even hashing for passwords. Now, a group of cryptographers is sponsoring a competition to come up with a new password hash algorithm to help improve the state of the art.
Hashing algorithms are used to secure passwords by taking the plaintext password, passing it through the cryptographic hash algorithm, and then storing the resulting digest, rather than the plaintext password itself. That way, if attackers are able to compromise the database of passwords, what they get are the hashes and not the actual passwords.
However, the algorithms used to hash passwords in most cases are functions such as SHA-1 and MD5, which have known weaknesses that open them up to brute-force attacks. So if an attacker is able to access a database of hashed passwords, he may be able to crack them, given enough time and compute power. When these algorithms were designed years ago, the hardware needed to crack a hash produced by one of them was not commonly available. But now, powerful GPUs and FPGAs are widely available and can be used by an attacker to crack hashes relatively quickly.
"Password hashing is important because it's where we have a problem. NIST has given us some great standard hashing algorithms. The problem is that these hashes aren't necessarily designed for the specific problem of password hashing — where you need something that's fast enough to hash on a server at login time, but slow enough that a GPU can't crack ten million of them," Green said.
Hashing algorithms are used to secure passwords by taking the plaintext password, passing it through the cryptographic hash algorithm, and then storing the resulting digest, rather than the plaintext password itself. That way, if attackers are able to compromise the database of passwords, what they get are the hashes and not the actual passwords.
However, the algorithms used to hash passwords in most cases are functions such as SHA-1 and MD5, which have known weaknesses that open them up to brute-force attacks. So if an attacker is able to access a database of hashed passwords, he may be able to crack them, given enough time and compute power. When these algorithms were designed years ago, the hardware needed to crack a hash produced by one of them was not commonly available. But now, powerful GPUs and FPGAs are widely available and can be used by an attacker to crack hashes relatively quickly.
"Password hashing is important because it's where we have a problem. NIST has given us some great standard hashing algorithms. The problem is that these hashes aren't necessarily designed for the specific problem of password hashing — where you need something that's fast enough to hash on a server at login time, but slow enough that a GPU can't crack ten million of them," Green said.
Submission + - New Fabrication Process May Realize Potential Of Solar Nanoantenna Arrays? (rdmag.com)
CCarrot writes: From the article:
A novel fabrication technique developed by UConn engineering professor Brian Willis could provide the breakthrough technology scientists have been looking for to vastly improve today’s solar energy systems.
For years, scientists have studied the potential benefits of a new branch of solar energy technology that relies on incredibly small nanosized antenna arrays that are theoretically capable of harvesting more than 70% of the sun’s electromagnetic radiation and simultaneously converting it into usable electric power.
The technology would be a vast improvement over the silicon solar panels in widespread use today. Even the best silicon panels collect only about 20% of available solar radiation, and separate mechanisms are needed to convert the stored energy to usable electricity for the commercial power grid. The panels’ limited efficiency and expensive development costs have been two of the biggest barriers to the widespread adoption of solar power as a practical replacement for traditional fossil fuels.
Unfortunately, the stumbling block for nanoantenna solar arrays has always been the inability to produce a rectifier small or fast enough to convert electron flows to usable energy at the speeds of visible (and infrared) light. Researchers at the University of Connecticut have now developed a way to use atomic deposition technology (widely used in the production of microelectronics) to create small, fast rectifiers (or 'rectennas') that should, in theory, convert the high frequency electron flows generated by the nanoantennae into usable electricity.
Could this really be the breakthrough moment that at last allows an alternative-energy source to truly compete with non-renewable sources on all fronts: convenience, availability, efficiency and cost?
Submission + - Slate Mini-Biography of Aaron Swartz (slate.com)
ElDuque writes: Slate's top story today is a long, heavily-researched article about the life of, and case against, Aaron Swartz. It covers the formative years of both Mr. Swartz and the free information / open knowledge movement he felt so strongly about.
