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Security

Lax Security At Russian Rocket Plant 116

Posted by timothy from the who-cares-where-they-come-down dept.
theshowmecanuck writes "Reuters reports that there is little or no security at one of the main factories in Russia responsible for military and Soyuz rocket manufacture. Blogger Lana Sator was able to walk right into the empty (off hours) facility through huge gaps in the fences that no-one bothered to repair, and there was no security to stop them aside from some dogs that didn't bother them either. In fact Lana even has one picture of herself posing next to an apparently non-functional security camera, another of her sitting on what looks like to be possibly a partially assembled rocket motor (someone who knows better can fill us in), and has about 100 photos of the escapade all told on her blog about this (it's in Russian... which I don't speak... any translators out there?). Russian officials are said to be deeply concerned. I wonder if this has any bearing on why Russian rockets haven't been making it into space successfully, or whether it and the launch failures are all part of some general industrial malaise that is taking place."
Security

SCADA Vulnerabilities In Prisons Could Open Cell Doors 134

Posted by timothy from the prison-break-meets-wargames dept.
Orome1 writes "Many prisons and jails use SCADA systems with PLCs to open and close doors. Using original and publicly available exploits along with evaluating vulnerabilities in electronic and physical security designs, researchers discovered significant vulnerabilities in PLCs used in correctional facilities by being able to remotely flip the switches to 'open' or 'locked closed' on cell doors and gates."
China

Submission + - China paper warns Google may pay price for hacking (reuters.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Google has become a "political tool" vilifying the Chinese government, an official Beijing newspaper said on Monday, warning that the U.S. Internet giant's statements about hacking attacks traced to China could hurt its business. The tough warning appeared in the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the leading newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, indicating that political tensions between the United States and China over Internet security could linger.

Last week, Google said it had broken up an effort to steal the passwords of hundreds of Google email account holders, including U.S. government officials, Chinese human rights advocates and journalists. It said the attacks appeared to come from China.

Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/06/us-google-china-idUSTRE7550CV20110606
The Military

Submission + - US Army goes with CryEngine3 for Military Sim (operationreality.org)

Submitted by Samfer
Samfer writes: The United Sates Army has decided to spend $57 million USD to enlist the help of Intelligent Decisions Inc. and Real Time Immersive Inc. utilizing the CryEngine 3 with the goal of developing the most realistic military simulator to date. The vast majority of the $57 million price tag for this technology will be going towards the actual equipment, which will feature the most advanced motion-tracking technology available today. You can view some of the technology preview videos of the game at the bottom of this post.
Apple

Submission + - Alaska Airlines Jettisons Paper Manuals (engadget.com)

Submitted by fullymodo
fullymodo writes: "Alaska Airlines has become the first major US airline to hop on board the paperless bandwagon. While it's not quite ready to ditch paper navigation charts just yet (though that is under consideration), the airline has announced that it will be replacing its traditional flight manuals with iPads, which will be loaded up with the GoodReader app and PDFs of 41 different manuals and other materials."
So explain why I have to shut off my non-wi-fi-capable ebook reader during take-off and landing?
Android

Submission + - Sprint Pushes Uninstallable FPS NOVA With Firmware 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: 'If you could change the way wireless companies did things, what would you do?' asked Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. How about stopping the use of Sprint's firmware updates to download apps that aren't wanted and can't be removed, Dan? Sprint confirmed to CNET's Elinor Mills that those strange apps she was shocked to find on her Android phone — sci-fi shooter N.O.V.A. and Blockbuster — with a long list of permissions that couldn't be uninstalled had been sneakily downloaded onto her phone during a firmware update. 'Sprint does offer a variety of partner applications that are optimized for use on our wireless phones,' a Sprint representative explained in an e-mail. 'From time to time, we will provide new apps to our customers in conjunction with a software maintenance release. Also, Sprint, in conjunction with Google, is taking steps to develop a technical solution that would allow customers to remove any unwanted applications that have been preloaded or pushed in an over-the-air software update.' Other Sprint customers have voiced displeasure with the practice. 'Unbeknownst to me, my 5-year-old found N.O.V.A. on my phone and was shooting the guns and weaponry and killing enemies in the N.O.V.A. game,' an unhappy camper wrote on an HTC customer forum thread. 'Thanks a lot HTC and Sprint for forcing violence on my 5-year-old! I am protective of my kids and would never install a game like this on my phone, but now you forced this app onto my phone and I can't uninstall it! I'm very frustrated and VERY ANGRY!'
Linux

Submission + - 7 of the Best Free Linux GPS Tools (linuxlinks.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation satellite system consisting of a network of satellites which provide positioning, navigation, and timing services in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth.

Use of space-borne positioning and timing data is now commonplace, in everything from freight movement to synchronisation of computer networks. Cellular and data networks, shipping and air transport, financial systems, railways, agriculture, and the emergency services all make frequent use of GPS. There are also many different recreational uses of GPS. The one that first springs to mind is for tracking in motor vehicles. GPS helps drivers find the best route to a specified location, summon help in the event of an emergency, plot the location of the vehicle on a map, or find the nearest bank.

This article focuses in selecting the best free software for undertaking a wide variety of GPS related tasks. Hopefully, there will be something of interest here for anyone who needs to keep track of where he or she is, to find the way to a specified location, or determine what direction and how fast they are going.
Security

Submission + - Sony Lesson: Managers Not Talking Hurts Security (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "The series of Sony security disasters over the past few months quickly went from tragedy to farce as one site after another fell to hackers. The worst part is that most of the breaches used similar techniques, but continued to succeed because the heads of Sony's far-flung business units didn't communicate with each other. Kevin Fogarty thinks that this is less a security failure than a management failure."
Security

Submission + - Senate Bill Would Derail DNSSEC (techweb.com)

Submitted by ancientribe
ancientribe writes: A key provision in the Protect IP intellectual property protection bill just approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee (and expected to ultimately become law) could sabotage Internet security and, specifically, DNSSEC, according to a who's who of Internet infrastructure and security experts. That group--which includes Dan Kaminsky, who discovered and helped get patched a serious flaw in DNS, Steve Crocker, an IETF pioneer; David Dagon of the Georgia Institute of Technology and a co-founder of Damballa; Danny McPherson, chief security officer for VeriSign; and Paul Vixie, principal author of the pervasive BIND DNS server software and creator of several DNS standards-- has published a paper describing how DNS filtering could disrupt DNS security efforts and inadvertently help cybercriminals.
Security

Submission + - 1 in 5 American drivers inept on the road (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "These stats are scary, though not surprising if you do any amount of driving: 1 in 5 drivers on the road today cannot meet the basic requirements to get a driver's license, meaning that nearly 37 million American drivers — roughly 18%- would not pass the written drivers test if taken today.

Those stats come courtesy of the 2011 GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test that showed drivers in Kansas ranked best in the nation while drivers in Washington, D.C. were worst. In fact, GMAC said 1 of 3 of all drivers in New York and Washington, D.C. failed the test. The state with the lowest percentage of failures is Wyoming, with only 1 of 20 failing the test."
Iphone

Submission + - App Attaches Virtual Images to Real Objects (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Fans of the movie "They Live" will recall the special sunglasses in the film, that allowed the unknowing public to see that certain people were actually aliens, and that seemingly ordinary billboards in fact displayed messages like "OBEY" and "CONSUME." The new Aurasma app for iPhone 4 and iPad 2 is kind of like those glasses. OK, it doesn't actually reveal the true nature of things, but it does allow you to see otherwise unseeable videos and other images that fellow Aurasma users have virtually attached to real-world scenes and objects. If you were to point your phone's camera at a certain building, for instance, you would see real-time video of that building on your screen, but perhaps with another user's computer-generated monster climbing up the side of it to promote an upcoming event.

Submission + - Drug helps overwrite bad memories (scienceblog.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Recalling painful memories while under the influence of the drug metyrapone reduces the brain’s ability to re-record the negative emotions associated with them, according to a new study by a team of University of Montreal researchers. The finding challenges the theory that memories cannot be modified once they are stored in the brain. “Our findings may help people deal with traumatic events by offering them the opportunity to ‘write-over’ the emotional part of their memories during therapy,” said the team lead. One major hurdle, however, is the fact that metyrapone is no longer commercially produced.
Power

Submission + - Gudersen testifies on reactor safety (fairewinds.com)

Submitted by
mdsolar
mdsolar writes: "Arne Gundersen, known to slashot for discovery of Entergy's lies under oath about underground pipes at the the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, has been trying to call attention to problems with reactor containment for years. Those problems have surfaced in spades at Fukushima and now the the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards is ready listen. Watch the testimony."

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