Submission + - IT Should Favor Stewardship Over Control (infoworld.com)
snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Bob Lewis argues in favor of a seismic shift in IT strategy, one that favors 'stewardship' of applications and devices rather than control. 'When IT lost control of information technology as PCs empowered individual users, the U.S. economy expanded; when we regained control, the economy contracted. The same thing happened when someone who almost always wasn't in IT put just about every company in the country on the Web, along with lots of new companies that kept their Web development teams carefully separate from IT — and when IT regained control of Web development,' Lewis writes. 'Correlation doesn't, of course, prove causation, but the lack of linkage between IT keeping tight control and economic success isn't the best news for those in our profession who spend most of their time locking down plans and details.'"
Submission + - New York Times Struggles With Paywall Attacks (ibtimes.com)
RedEaredSlider writes: With The New York Times' controversial paywall set to go live this afternoon at 2 p.m., discussion of the move has made the natural transition to methods of bypassing it.
As expected, a number of loopholes and hacks have appeared. One of the more notorious methods appeared almost instantly. Using a Twitter account named @FreeNYT, an anonymous user aggregated every article the newspaper posted the Twitter. The site caught The Times' notice and before long, The Times requested that Twitter suspend the account, arguing that it violated its trademark.
Another loophole uses four lines of CSS and JavaScript. Canadian developer David Hayes managed to strip the Time's website of any mention of digital subscriptions in addition to getting past the paywall. The hack was released in the form of NYTClean, a bookmark easily installed in web browsers.
As expected, a number of loopholes and hacks have appeared. One of the more notorious methods appeared almost instantly. Using a Twitter account named @FreeNYT, an anonymous user aggregated every article the newspaper posted the Twitter. The site caught The Times' notice and before long, The Times requested that Twitter suspend the account, arguing that it violated its trademark.
Another loophole uses four lines of CSS and JavaScript. Canadian developer David Hayes managed to strip the Time's website of any mention of digital subscriptions in addition to getting past the paywall. The hack was released in the form of NYTClean, a bookmark easily installed in web browsers.
Submission + - Iranian Hacker Claims Credit For Comodo Hack (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: Someone claiming to be the person behind last week's attack on a registration authority tied to Comodo has posted an explanation of the methods he supposedly used and the reasons for the attack. The rambling, disjointed message claims that the Comodo attack was not the act of an organized, state-sponsored group, but was instead the work of a lone actor who stumbled upon a way in.
"I was looking to hack some CAs like Thawthe, Verisign, Comodo, etc. I found some small vulnerabilities in their servers, but it wasn't enough to gain access to server to sign my CSRs. During my search about InstantSSL of Comodo, I found InstantSSL.it which was doing same thing under control of Comodo. After a little try, easily I got FULL access on the server, after a little investigation on their server, I found out that TrustDll.dll takes care of signing. It was coded in C#. Simply I decompiled it and I found username/password of their GeoTrust and Comodo reseller account," he said.
"I was looking to hack some CAs like Thawthe, Verisign, Comodo, etc. I found some small vulnerabilities in their servers, but it wasn't enough to gain access to server to sign my CSRs. During my search about InstantSSL of Comodo, I found InstantSSL.it which was doing same thing under control of Comodo. After a little try, easily I got FULL access on the server, after a little investigation on their server, I found out that TrustDll.dll takes care of signing. It was coded in C#. Simply I decompiled it and I found username/password of their GeoTrust and Comodo reseller account," he said.
Submission + - Open means something different at Google (businessweek.com) 4
pcause writes: Google says that they aren't making Honeycomb available to outside devs. Guess they are committed to being open as they define open at any given moment.
Submission + - Comcast Trying to Avoid Dubious Title 1
An anonymous reader writes: The folks over at the Consumerist annually now run their "Worst Company in America Tournament", a light-hearted way to allow annoyed consumers to vent some of their accumulated angst. You'll perhaps recall that Comcast won the award last year, going so far as to beat out companies like Ticketmaster and Bank Of America for the "honor."
Eager to avoid a repeat, the Consumerist notes that Comcast has sent out numerous memos urging employees to stuff the ballot box over at the website.
Eager to avoid a repeat, the Consumerist notes that Comcast has sent out numerous memos urging employees to stuff the ballot box over at the website.
Submission + - SSL Cert Weaknesses Exposed By Comodo Breach (infoworld.com)
snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Woody Leonhard delves deeper into the Comodo SSL scandal and finds the breach calling into question the integrity of the SSL certification process itself. 'While the press has focused on the sensational fact that Comodo's site was hacked from an Iranian IP address, we really should be asking three questions: How did somebody working with an Iranian IP address get a username and password from Comodo with enough clearance to create SSL certificates? Why did Comodo issue SSL certificates for google.com, live.com, yahoo.com, mozilla.org, and skype.com? Why are browser updates used to revoke SSL certificates?'"
Submission + - 'OMG' And 'Heart' Symbol Included In New OED (ispyce.com) 2
autospa writes: More technology-inspired words have entered the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as well as the first graphical symbol to signify a word in the dictionary's history. The popular abbreviation of Oh My God; OMG, which is popular among mobile texters has got a place in the Oxford English Dictionary. The latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary with 5,437 new words, includes several inspired by the web and technology, like 'ego-surfing' and 'dot bomb', as well as the first ever graphical symbol for heart to be given a definition.
Submission + - BCGurus taking aim at open source, take down video (acquia.com)
rDouglass writes: BCGurus, an Adobe Business Catalyst reseller, hoped to stir up the pot and go viral with a video featuring them, at a firing range, shooting the logos of open source projects such as Drupal, Joomla!, Wordpress. The open source response, and likely pressure from Adobe, have now forced them to backtrack and remove the video.
Submission + - Fukushima Engineer Says He Covered Up Flaw (bloomberg.com)
proprioceptionZ writes: A story of a smelting glitch that was too expensive to address.
Submission + - The Secrets Of SEO Copywriting (articleforfree.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Those new to the world of search engine optimisation could be forgiven for thinking that it’s all about links. There are many SEO companies and link suppliers that base their whole business model on buying and selling links to influence rankings, so believing that links are the most important thing with regards to your website’s rankings is easily done.
Submission + - Gemlike 3D microscope lens developed (gizmag.com)
cylonlover writes: Engineers from Ohio State University have developed what they say is the world's first microscope lens capable of obtaining three-dimensional images. While 3D microscopy has already been achieved, it has previously required the use of multiple lenses, or of a single camera that moves around the object being imaged. The new device, however, is just a single lens that sits in place on an existing microscope.
Submission + - Hexacopter Can Detect Motion and Breathing (ispyce.com)
autospa writes: TiaLinx Inc. of California has debuted a long-standoff mini-UAV that acts as a motion detector and can detect the breathing of people in hiding. The Phoenix40-A unmanned aerial vehicle can be programmed to fly to or land at multiple waypoints and has been integrated with TiaLinx's fine beam ultra-wideband, multi-Gigahertz radio frequency sensor array.
Submission + - Firefox 4.0 (Final) Now Available For Download (conceivablytech.com)
An anonymous reader writes: It isn't officially announced yet, but the download link for Firefox 4 (final) is already live. If you have downloaded Firefox 4 RC2 (released last Friday), you already run the final code, according to Mozilla. The official launch of the new browser is still scheduled for tomorrow, March 22.
Submission + - Academic institution chooses Cisco for networking (ine.com)
joetechAddy writes: Cisco invests in Malaysia University's networking infrastructure. This will be used for campuses routing Gbps connections for learning and research.
