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Submission + - Anonymous Tor Cloud project closes down (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: The Tor browser is used by many to stay anonymous online — and it's something that has been embraced by the likes of WikiLeaks as a way to safely gather information whilst hopefully avoiding the surveillance of the NSA. One lesser known project from the same stables is the Tor Cloud service, and Tor has announced that it is closing down.

Based on the Amazon EC2 cloud computing platform, Tor Cloud provided a way to share computing resources and allow faster uncensored access to the internet. However, the project is plagued with "at least one major bug ... that makes it completely dysfunctional" and after failing to find anyone to undertake the work, the decision was taken to shutter Tor Cloud. This does not mean that Tor itself is dead — far from it — and developers are being encouraged to create their own forked versions of Tor Cloud.

Submission + - Putting keys in freezer could prevent car break-ins (wcnc.com) 1

Submitted by turkeydance
turkeydance writes: If you have a car with a hands-free key fob, you could become the target of a break-in tactic that you probably didn't know was possible. AAA Carolinas' Dave Yelverton says this type of key fob typically unlocks a car if it's within about 30 centimeters.

"Your car is continually trying to reach out and touch this key," Yelverton said. "And when it finds the key, you can open the door without touching the car without using the key. You can just leave it in your pocket."

But there are break-in cases across the country, where a power amplifier device may have been used to unlock the cars. Yelverton says the amplifier would take that signal from the car and fire it out as far as 100 meters.

Submission + - WikiLeaks' Anonymous Leak Submission System Is Back After Nearly Five Years (wired.com)

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: On Friday, WikiLeaks announced that it has finally relaunched a beta version of its leak submission system after a 4.5 year hiatus. That file-upload site, which once served as a central tool in WIkiLeaks' leak-collecting mission, runs on the anonymity software Tor to allow uploaders to share documents and tips while protecting their identity from any network eavesdropper, and even from WikiLeaks itself. In 2010 the original submission system went down amid infighting between WikiLeaks’ leaders and several of its disenchanted staffers, including several who left to create their own soon-to-fail project called OpenLeaks.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says that the new system, which was delayed by his legal troubles and the banking industry blockade against the group, is the final result of “four competing research projects" WikiLeaks launched in recent years. He adds that it has several less-visible submission systems in addition to the one it's now revealed. “Currently, we have one public-facing and several private-facing submission systems in operation, cryptographically, operationally and legally secured with national security sourcing in mind,” Assange writes.

Submission + - FBI Slammed On Capitol Hill For 'Stupid' Ideas About Encryption (dailydot.com)

Submitted by blottsie
blottsie writes: At a hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, the FBI endured outright hostility as both technical experts and members of Congress from both parties roundly criticized the law enforcement agency's desire to place so-called back doors into encryption technology.

"Creating a technological backdoor just for good guys is technologically stupid," said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), a Stanford University computer science graduate. "That's just stupid."

Submission + - Google Announces 'Password Alert' to Protect Against Phishing Attacks

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Google has announced Password Alert, a free, open-source Chrome extension that protects your Google Accounts from phishing attacks. Once you’ve installed it, Password Alert will show a warning if you type your Google password into a site that isn’t a Google sign-in page. This protects you from phishing attacks and also encourages you to use different passwords for different sites, a security best practice. Once you’ve installed and initialized Password Alert, Chrome will remember a “scrambled” version of your Google Account password. It only remembers this information for security purposes and doesn’t share it with anyone. If you type your password into a site that isn't a Google sign-in page, an alert will tell you that you’re at risk of being phished so you can update your password and protect yourself.

Submission + - Who Owns Pre-Embryos? (newyorker.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Scientifically and legally, frozen embryos are not the same as a living child. Nevertheless, they can inspire legal battles that resemble custody disputes. This article follows a case between a couple who had been dating for five months when the woman received a cancer diagnosis. Before beginning chemotherapy, she and her boyfriend of five months decided to harvest and set aside some fertilized eggs, just in case. (If the treatment saved her but destroyed her ability to have kids, and the couple stayed together and decided they wanted kids, the pre-embryos would preserve that option.) She survived, but their relationship didn't. With no explicit contract in place, the disposition of the pre-embryos is now hotly contested. "[R]eading over the case, one gets the sense that there’s a fundamental lack of language to describe what’s at stake. There may be an emerging field of law and legal precedent, but the terms at hand don’t adequately capture the nature of the dispute."

Submission + - NSA QUANTUMINSERT attack PCAP examples (cloudshark.org)

Submitted by Jason Walls
Jason Walls writes: The folks over at Fox-IT did an in-depth analysis of one of the NSA's QUANTUM techniques, dubbed INSERT, which take advantage of a long-known TCP vulnerability. The long and short of it:

"The injection is done by observing HTTP requests by means of eavesdropping on network traffic. When an interesting target is observed, another device, the shooter, is tipped to send a spoofed TCP packet... For the attack to succeed the packet injected by the shooter has to arrive at the target before the ‘real’ response of the webserver. By exploiting this speed difference or race condition, one can impersonate the webserver."

For the packet capture savvy, Fox-IT also published some pcaps which they have shared with CloudShark (link takes you to the CloudShark summary entry on the attack that links to the annotated pcaps) and made a quick video explaining how it works.

Submission + - Median age at Google is 29, says age discrimination lawsuit (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: The typical employee at Google is relatively young, according to a lawsuit brought by an older programmer who is alleging age discrimination. Between 2007 and 2013, Google's workforce grew from 9,500 to more than 28,000 employees, "yet as of 2013, its employees' median age was 29 years old," the lawsuit claims. That's in contrast to the median age of nearly 43 for all U.S. workers who are computer programmers, according to the lawsuit.

Submission + - AdBlock Plus Wins in German Court in Setback for Microsoft and Google

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Andrew Patrizio reports at Network World that a German court has ruled that the practice of blocking advertising is legal, throwing a wrench into the plans of advertising and publishing giants like Microsoft and Google to stop AdBlock Plus, a simple add-on to Chrome and Firefox, that has about 144 million active users (PDF), up 69% in a year. German publishers Zeit Online and Handelsblatt brought the suit against Eyeo, the company that owns Adblock Plus saying Adblock Plus should not be allowed to block ads on their websites. Microsoft, Google, and some French publishers were reportedly considering a suit against AdBlock Plus as well, with the chief of a French publisher's association telling AFP that its members lose 20% to 40% of revenue due to AdBlock Plus, which has 144 million users worldwide. "The Hamburg court decision is an important one," says Ben Williams, a director of Eyeo, "because it sets a precedent that may help us avoid additional lawsuits and expenses defending what we feel is an obvious consumer right: giving people the ability to control their own screens by letting them block annoying ads and protect their privacy."

Submission + - Automakers to gearheads: Stop repairing cars (autoblog.com)

Submitted by Mr_Blank
Mr_Blank writes: Automakers are supporting provisions in copyright law that could prohibit home mechanics and car enthusiasts from repairing and modifying their own vehicles. In comments filed with a federal agency that will determine whether tinkering with a car constitutes a copyright violation, OEMs and their main lobbying organization say cars have become too complex and dangerous for consumers and third parties to handle. The dispute arises from a section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that no one thought could apply to vehicles when it was signed into law in 1998. But now, in an era where cars are rolling computing platforms, the U.S. Copyright Office is examining whether provisions of the law that protect intellectual property should prohibit people from modifying and tuning their cars.

Submission + - Do you want a great baby, or your baby? (baltimoresun.com)

Submitted by Baruch Atta
Baruch Atta writes: If you had the choice, would you choose to have a baby that was sired by a top man, genius, athletic, with the charactoristics that you wish you had, tall, blond hair, blue eyes, maybe?
Or would you rather just father your own DNA, with all it's flaws?
This story in the Baltimore Sun
Atlanta Sperm Bank Sued Tells us just what kind of trouble may be lurking even if you choose the designer baby.
"Then last June, almost seven years after Collins gave birth to a son conceived with his sperm, they got a batch of emails from the sperm bank that unexpectedly — and perhaps mistakenly — included the donor's name. That set them on a sleuthing mission that quickly revealed he is schizophrenic, dropped out of college and had been arrested for burglary, they said in a lawsuit filed March 31 in Atlanta."

Submission + - Assange Talk Causes Judges Across The UK To Boycott/Walk Out Of Legal Conference (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Commonwealth Law Conference in Glasgow was subjected to walk outs and boycott once it became known that Julian Assange was to appear by video link from the Ecuadorian embassy to give a talk at the conference. The Guardian reports that, "Judges from Scotland, England and Wales and the UK supreme court had agreed to speak at or chair other sessions but withdrew – in some cases after arriving at the conference centre– when they found out about Assange’s appearance. Among those to boycott the conference were the most senior judge in Scotland, Lord Gill, and two judges on the supreme court, Lord Neuberger and Lord Hodge. A spokesperson for the Judicial Office for Scotland said: “The conference programme was changed to include Mr Assange’s participation at short notice and without consultation. Mr Assange is, as a matter of law, currently a fugitive from justice, and it would therefore not be appropriate for judges to be addressed by him. “Under these circumstances, the lord president, Lord Gill, and the other Scottish judicial officeholders in attendance have withdrawn from the conference.” A spokesman for the UK supreme court added: “Lord Neuberger and Lord Hodge share the concerns expressed by Lord Gill and his fellow senior Scottish judges ... “As a result of this unfortunate development, they trust that delegates will understand their decision to withdraw from the conference. ...” A spokesman for judiciary of England and Wales said: “The lord chief justice shares the concerns expressed by Lord Gill and Lord Neuberger ... He agreed with the position taken by both, and the judges of England and Wales also withdrew from the conference. ...”"

Submission + - Who is Discouraging Women From STEM Careers? (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Press2ToContinue
Press2ToContinue writes: Having worked in a STEM field (computer programming) for over a quarter of a century, I have found the idea that girls are discouraged from entering STEM fields to be curious. It certainly didn't line up with my experience in the industry. Schools have been pushing girls into math and science, not discouraging them. In my experience technology companies have been bending over backwards and jumping through hoops to get more women into IT (information technology). From programs aimed at getting high school students involved in technology to hiring decisions, there has always been a blunt, out-in-the-open emphasis on getting more women into IT.

So, if it's not “the patriarchy” pushing women down and denying them a chance to enter technology fields, what does account for women being underrepresented in technology fields? After a little research into personality types and career fields, I think I found the answer.

The Myers-Briggs personality test places people into 16 personality type categories. One researcher surveyed computer programmers to determine what personality types were represented. I compared how common the personality types were among programmers compared to how common they were in the general population, and although there is always room for error, a clear pattern emerged from my analysis placing programmers, men, and women, into a clearer picture for me to understand their under-representation.

Submission + - Twitter moves non-US accounts to Ireland away from the NSA (betanews.com) 1

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Twitter has updated its privacy policy, creating a two-lane service that treats US and non-US users differently. If you live in the US, your account is controlled by San Francisco-based Twitter Inc, but if you're elsewhere in the world (anywhere else) it's handled by Twitter International Company in Dublin, Ireland. The changes also affect Periscope.

What's the significance of this? Twitter Inc is governed by US law, it is obliged to comply with NSA-driven court requests for data. Data stored in Ireland is not subject to the same obligation. Twitter is not alone in using Dublin as a base for non-US operations; Facebook is another company that has adopted the same tactic. The move could also have implications for how advertising is handled in the future.

Submission + - Earth microbe prefers living on meteorites (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Scientists have found a microbe that is happier living on meteorites than on Earth. The organism—an archaea known as Metallosphaera sedula—was originally found in 1989 living in Italy's hot acidic sulfur springs around Vesuvius. When the researchers gave them an energy drink made of powdered meteorite, the microbes went on a space dust binge—consuming their samples in only 2 weeks as compared with the 2 months it took for them to munch through their Earth samples. The team says its work could have implications for asteroid mining, where rare metals embedded in space rocks could be extracted and brought back to Earth for use in technological advancements.

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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