Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Security

Submission + - GPRS Can be Hacked Easily Claims German Researcher (itproportal.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: A German technology researcher on Wednesday showed global mobile makers and technology firms how General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) can easily be tapped, intercepted, and decrypted with an average mobile phone and a few applications. According to the New York Times, Karsten Nohl, a computer engineer and a mobile security researcher demonstrated the fellow researchers gathered to attend Chaos Communication Camp, a Berlin-based hackers event how to intercept the voice or data messaged sent across mobile devices over the GPRS easily owing to weak protection provided by mobile network carriers for data information. Nohl in collaboration with his colleague Luca Melette tapped the information within a radius of five kilometers using a seven year old inexpensive mobile phone from Motorola.
Blackberry

Submission + - U.K. Riot Plans To Control Social Media Won't Work (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "U.K. government proposals to prevent individual users accessing social media during periods of civil disorder were not technically viable and would be legally highly problematic. “It is all bluff,” said BT’s former CTO. Facebook, Twitter and specifically Research In Motion’s messenger service, BBM, have been blamed for helping to fuel the violence that has plagued several British cities this week. Speaking to an emergency session of the House of Commons Thursday, the U.K. Prime Minister, David Cameron told MPs: "when people are using social media for violence we need to stop them. So we are working with the Police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality. I have also asked the police if they need any other new powers." Nick Tyler, senior associate at Reed Smith’s London office, said attempts to block individuals from accessing particular websites could fall foul of both article 8 and 10 of the Human Rights Act. “It would go to the heart of democracy and liberal society,” he said. “There is a confusion here between preventative measures, stopping people from doing things, and investigative matters, investigating things once they have done it. “I would say it would be very difficult to use the law to stop people from accessing these sites. The government would have to do the sort of thing China did during the Olympics,” he said."
Government

Submission + - Obama Reverses Again, Closing Datacenters (smartertechnology.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After quadrupling the number of government datacenters over his first three years, Obama's Administration is reversing course and closing the most recently opened datacenters. With one datacenter reportedly the size of three football fields, my question is what happens to all those recently purchased servers? Will the government hold a server fire sale? Count me in!
Science

Submission + - 'Electronic Skin' Grafts Gadgets to Body (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Researchers have developed ultrathin electronics that can be placed on the skin as easily as a temporary tattoo. The scientists hope the new devices will pave the way for sensors that monitor heart and brain activity without bulky equipment, or perhaps computers that operate via the subtlest voice commands or body movement. The devices can even be hidden under actual temporary tattoos to keep the electronics concealed, giving them potential applications for espionage.
Cloud

Submission + - Police Arrests 12 Over Facebook Use Inciting Riots

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Scotland Yard vowed to track down and arrest protesters who posted “really inflammatory, inaccurate” messages on Facebook, but it didn’t stop at just two people. While two teenagers were arrested earlier this week in connection with messages posted on Facebook allegedly encouraging people to start rioting, 10 more have now joined them.
Security

Submission + - Why Companies Knowingly Ship Insecure Devices (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: A recent survey which included responses from 800 engineers and developers that work on embedded devices, revealed that 24% of respondents knew of security problems in their company’s products that had not been disclosed to the public before the devices were shipped. But just what that means in terms of attitudes towards security may be more complex than it seems.

Additionally, just 41% said their company has “allocated sufficient time and money to secure” its device products against hacks and attacks. Despite this, 64 percent felt that when engineers call attention to potential security problems, “those problems are addressed before the device is released.”

So what exactly does this illustrate about the state of security in the development process? The answer, some say, is a jumbled collage of business pressures, bug prioritization and varying attention to security.
Intel

Submission + - Intel Funds Ultra-Thin Laptops (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by bonch
bonch writes: Intel has set aside $300 million to fund ultra-thin laptops it calls 'Ultrabooks'. The Ultrabook will be less than 21 millimeters thick and will wake from sleep in less than seven seconds. Acknowledging the influence of the iPad and MacBook Air, Intel said Apple had told them that they needed to lower power-consumption or lose them as a customer, calling it 'a wake-up call.' Nigel Dessau, chief marketing officer of AMD, said his company is skeptical of ultra-thin laptops but will work with customers on low-power solutions. 'We are all going that way.'
Space

Submission + - The Signature of Parellel Universes in the CMB? (discovery.com)

Submitted by
astroengine
astroengine writes: "An emerging new idea in cosmological circles is that the universe had a Big Bang, but only one of countless creation moments in a "megaverse" that is eternally inflating with multiple big bangs, like a string of firecrackers going off. But how can such a hypothesis have any observational evidence?

Well, according to researchers from University College London, patterns in the ubiquitous cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation may be the thumbprints of other universes that have been spawned alongside our own. What's more, they're not alone in this thinking. (Let's just hope they're not being duped by the cosmic equivalent of seeing bunny shapes in clouds.)"
Earth

Submission + - Man-Made Organisms to Compete with Nature (smartertechnology.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A Presidential Commission charged with recommending safeguards against man-made organisms devouring natural resources has decided nothing needs to be done, except keep an eye on things (what it calls "prudent vigilance"). Meanwhile, researchers are forging ahead with plans to create killer microbes that attack human cancer cells, but of course stop and volunteer to die when the cancer is gone. Sound like a movie script? Where will this end? You decide.
Facebook

Submission + - LinkedIn Pulls a Facebook on Privacy (businessinsider.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If you're a member of LinkedIn--the social network with a business bent--you might want to review some changes made in the service's privacy policy--if you can find it. LinkedIn has volunteered your name and photograph to be used for advertising if it feels like it wants to use them.

Submission + - Terrorist target mexican nanotechnology professors (m-x.com.mx)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new mexican terrorist organization sent an explosive device to an ITESM professor due to his research in nanotechnology. ITS or Individuals with Wild Tendencies in english, is a group that claims to be against the "nanotechnology revolution" in fear of a nanomachine take over that will mean the end of civilization. The group has published in their website that they plan to target individuals in this research field to ensure the survival of mankind. Mexican authorities are investigating the case.

Comment Re:"Rentals" make no sense (Score 1) 39

by bwayne314 (#37039792) Attached to: GameFly To Jump Into Digital Game Rentals
Don't mind me, just a poor student coming through... I will still be pirating whatever cracked games I can just because its less hassle (anyone been reading the Diablo 3 news btw? forced permanent tether?) and also happens to be cheaper.

Don't you think that this stage of gaming "experimentation" has been going on long enough to draw rational conclusions about the market by now? Do you think that this industry, that twirls around billions of dollars, has not yet paid some very smart people to predict the market outcome in the long term? Of course they have, and the results are in - the most important slice of the clientele doesn't care and doesn't know about implications of DRM, the average housewife/grandma/baseball-dad has no clue, you could convince them to buy a blank CD for their kids if the cover looked cool enough.

This is the target audience of the industry, because this is the largest chunk of the world population with a modicum of spending cash.

Catching teenagers and nerds for pirating is just the cherry on top after the soccer-mom payoff.
Transportation

Submission + - Human-Powered Helicopter Breaks World Record (umd.edu)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The University of Maryland just announced that its human-powered Gamera helicopter recently broke the national record for longest human-powered flight while simultaneously setting the world record for the longest human-powered flight by a woman. Student Judy Wexler lifted the Gamera off the ground for a full 12 seconds — the previous national record was only four seconds. The pilot manually powers the hand and foot pedals to force Gamera into flight. Constructed from balsa wood, foam, mylar and carbon fiber, the machine itself weighs in at only 210 pounds.
Sun Microsystems

Submission + - Sun Unleashes An Earth-directed X6.9 Class Flare (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Lee
Daniel_Lee writes: The sun on Tuesday emitted an Earth-directed X6.9 flare at 3:48 a.m. EDT, as measured by the NOAA GOES satellite, according to NASA. The Solar flare peaked at 4:05 a.m..

These gigantic bursts of radiation cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to harm humans on the ground, however, they can disrupt the atmosphere and disrupt GPS and communications signals. In this case, it appears the flare is strong enough to potentially cause some radio communication blackouts. It also produced increased solar energetic proton radiation — enough to affect humans in space if they do not protect themselves.
Idle

Submission + - 10 Bizarre Fiber Cuts (level3.com) 1

Submitted by ffejie
ffejie writes: Fred Lawler, SVP of Global Field Services at Level 3 has an amusing look at some strange fiber cuts that he's seen in his days maintaining a large fiber network across the US. Whether it's squirrels, vandals, storms or truckers, it seems everyone has a new way to destroy the fiber that keeps the global communications infrastructure afloat.

Slashdot Top Deals

It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one.

Close