Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Security

Submission + - Enterprises Don't Understand IT Risk (net-security.org)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: A global survey of more than 1,240 IT decision makers at large enterprises – 72% of which have more than 1,000 employees – found that 33% of respondents do not believe their organizations have an accurate assessment of the level of IT risk they face from internal and external threats. This lack of confidence in risk assessment is warranted for two reasons. First, nearly one in four companies (23%) indicated that they do not have a formal IT risk management program in place. Second, a large percentage of businesses do not routinely review user access rights to data.
Government

Feds Prep For E-Gov Shutdown 290

Posted by samzenpus from the down-and-out-on-capitol-hill dept.
dcblogs writes "If the federal government is shutdown midnight Friday, the feds plan to stop updating government Web sites that aren't delivering essential services. 'Most Web sites will not continue, only those Web sites that are part of these accepted activities would continue to operate,' the senior White House official said Tuesday. 'Accepted activities,' refers to essential, life and safety-related government services. The IRS, however, will continue to accept tax returns filed electronically and to process payments. 'We need to be able to collect the money that is owed to the U.S. government,' the official said. Paper-based returns won't be processed."
Music

Sony, Universal Hope To Beat Piracy With 'Instant Pop' 369

Posted by timothy from the trying-to-quote-get-with-it-unquote dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The Guardian reports that Britain's two biggest record labels, Sony and Universal, plan to beat music piracy by making new singles available for sale on the day they first hit the airwaves hoping the effort will encourage young people to buy songs they can listen to immediately rather than copying from radio broadcasts online. Songs used to receive up to six weeks radio airplay before they were released for sale, a practice known as 'setting up' a record. 'What we were finding under the old system was the searches for songs on Google or iTunes were peaking two weeks before they actually became available to buy, meaning that the public was bored of — or had already pirated — new singles,' says David Joseph. Sony, which will start the 'on air, on sale' policy simultaneously with Universal next month, agreed that the old approach was no longer relevant in an age where, according to a spokesman for the music major, 'people want instant gratification.'"
Security

Passwords Are the Weakest Link In Online Security 277

Posted by CmdrTaco from the wish-i-spoke-british dept.
Orome1 writes "It's not surprising to find that 79% of consumers use risky password construction practices, such as including personal information and words. The recent Gawker breach and a detailed analysis of breached passwords show undeniably that passwords continue to be the Achilles' heel of the average Internet user. This insecure trend sadly doesn't shift as 26% of users reuse the same password for important accounts such as email, banking or shopping and social networking sites while 29% had their own email or social network account hacked, and over half (52%) know someone who has had a similar problem."
Education

Astonishing Speedup In Solving Linear SDD Systems 157

Posted by kdawson from the want-to-see-it-again? dept.
eldavojohn writes "A new paper (PDF) out of Carnegie Mellon University shows how to solve symmetric diagonally dominant linear systems much faster than before. The technique employs graph theory, randomized algorithms, and linear algebra to achieve an astonishing advantage over current methods to solve such systems. From the article: 'The result is a significant decrease in computer run times. The Gaussian elimination algorithm runs in time proportional to s^3, where s is the size of the SDD system as measured by the number of terms in the system, even when s is not much bigger the number of variables. The new algorithm, by comparison, has a run time of s*[log(s)]^2. That means, if s = 1 million, that the new algorithm run time would be about a billion times faster than Gaussian elimination.' Developers out there who maintain matrix packages and linear algebra tools might want to take a peak at the paper. Anyone who has modeled real-world systems will be able to tell you that speedups in linear algebra algorithms have a weighty effect on efficiency in simulations — especially as one approaches the theoretical limits of optimality. This research is currently being presented at the IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science."

Comment OK, please remember it's time travel! (Score 1) 1270

by JayJay.br (#33947088) Attached to: Given one free trip to the past in a time machine, I would..

And not space travel, so unless you're already where you want to be, there's no use in being able to be when you want to be.

Especially if you're going as far back as to be in a time where long distance travel would be hard, time-consuming, or right down impossible.

If I'm nitpicking, please blame The Big Bang Theory, season 1, episode 14.

Slashdot Top Deals

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire

Close