Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Hacking Team Uses UEFI BIOS Rootkit (trendmicro.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The dissection of the data from the Hacking Team leak has yielded another critical discovery: Hacking Team uses a UEFI BIOS rootkit to keep their Remote Control System (RCS) agent installed in their targets’ systems. This means that even if the user formats the hard disk, reinstalls the OS, and even buys a new hard disk, the agents are implanted after Microsoft Windows is up and running.

Submission + - Google Throws Teachers Under the Bus, Blames Them for Tech's Diversity Problem 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Over at the Google Research Blog, Director of Education and University Relation Maggie Johnson gives the diversity-challenged search giant an attaperson for its computer science outreach efforts, but throws teachers under the bus in her list of "reasons why the pipeline for technical talent is so small and why the diversity pipeline is even smaller." Johnson writes: "Many teachers are oblivious to or support the [CS] gender stereotypes by assigning problems and projects that are oriented more toward boys, or are not of interest to girls. This lack of relevant curriculum is important. Many women who have pursued technology as a career cite relevant courses as critical to their decision." Johnson also points to an earlier Google white paper that blames parents' lack of support and encouragement for keeping many girls from considering computing as a career. In the comments, retired Stanford prof Jeffrey Ullman and others challenge the low CS/CE Bachelor's degree production figures that Google offers as evidence of a looming CS worker shortage. "There seems to be a bit of misinformation here," Ullman explains. "The 16K BS/CS figure [cited by Google] appears to be taken from the most recent (2013-4) Taulbee study. But that looks at only the PhD-granting institutions." Hey, good enough for government work!

Submission + - Pluto Probe Phones Home, Data Size As Expected, Craft Feels Good (youtube.com)

Submitted by Tablizer
Tablizer writes: YouTube User comments: "These are key moments. The probe only gets one chance to fly by the Pluto system, and it had to pass through a potential debris field around Pluto (think thin rings) and couldn't report back to Earth during the closest approach phase due to the probe's design. This is essentially the good-or-fail "phone home" news-point of the mission. The data collection size (comparable to file size) and craft conditions are reported back to be as expected, and the error log (count) is empty. After spending a decade or more on the project, this is the 4th quarter game 7 mission championship moment."

Submission + - US Government detained Laura Poitras every time she flew .. (techdirt.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Since the 2006 release of “My Country, My Country,” Poitras has left and re-entered the U.S. roughly 40 times. Virtually every time during that six-year-period that she has returned to the U.S., her plane has been met by DHS agents who stand at the airplane door or tarmac and inspect the passports of every de-planing passenger until they find her (on the handful of occasions where they did not meet her at the plane, agents were called when she arrived at immigration).

Each time, they detain her, and then interrogate her at length about where she went and with whom she met or spoke. They have exhibited a particular interest in finding out for whom she works.

Submission + - Critical Internet Explorer 11 Vulnerability Identified After Hacking Team Breach

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After analyzing the leaked data from last week's attack on Hacking Team, Vectra researchers discovered a previously unknown high severity vulnerability in Internet Explorer 11, which impacts a fully patched IE 11 web browser on both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. The vulnerability is an exploitable use-after-free (UAF) vulnerability that occurs within a custom heap in JSCRIPT9. Since it exists within a custom heap, it can allow an attacker to bypass protections found in standard memory.

Comment PCSO not Police (Score 2) 674

by Martin Spamer (#50106701) Attached to: Man Arrested After Charging iPhone On London Overground Train

PCSO is a Police Community Support Officer, these are not Police Officers, they have very limited powers (they cannot Arrest somebody) and are typically wannabe that cannot cut the grade and have very limited knowledge of the law and in this case even the English language given their confusion of the semantics difference between Abstration and Extraction.

UK Trains provide charging points for laptops and mobile phones and have signs announcing this, and this is also on the national rail website . These are low power and not suitable for a heavy load like a vacum cleaner.

"WiFi and power points for laptops and mobile phone chargers are available on some trains"
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/...

The guy was immediately 'de-arrested' and released by the custody Sergeant and why he will get compensation is due course for false arrest.

Submission + - The Next Java Update Could Make Yahoo Your Default Search Provider

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: At the company's shareholder meeting on Wednesday, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced a partnership with Oracle that could result in Yahoo becoming your default browser. Starting this month, when users are prompted to update to the next version of Java, they'll be asked to make Yahoo their default search engine on Chrome (and Internet Explorer, for what it's worth). And, according to a Wall Street Journal report, the button will be checked by default, so if you aren't looking out for it, you might unwittingly find yourself a Yahoo user.

Comment Search Hijacking shows increasing desperation (Score 1) 176

by Martin Spamer (#49847047) Attached to: Yahoo Killing Maps, Pipes & More

Whenever I get called in to cleanup unwanted malware from the PCs of family and friends it is most commonly search hijacking by Yahoo.

This increasingly desperate behaviour is ultimately counter productive, the Yahoo brand is trash and some friends actually call the search hijacking they suffer the "Yahoo Virus".

Submission + - Sourceforge staff takes over a user's account and wraps their software installer (arstechnica.com) 11

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Sourceforge staff took over the account of the GIMP-for-Windows maintainer claiming it was abandoned and used this opportunity to wrap the installer in crapware. Quoting Ars:

SourceForge, the code repository site owned by Slashdot Media, has apparently seized control of the account hosting GIMP for Windows on the service, according to e-mails and discussions amongst members of the GIMP community—locking out GIMP's lead Windows developer. And now anyone downloading the Windows version of the open source image editing tool from SourceForge gets the software wrapped in an installer replete with advertisements.

Submission + - Higgs Boson Mass Explained in New Theory (quantamagazine.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Three physicists who have been collaborating in the San Francisco Bay Area over the past year have devised a new solution to a mystery that has beleaguered their field for more than 30 years. This profound puzzle, which has driven experiments at increasingly powerful particle colliders and given rise to the controversial multiverse hypothesis, amounts to something a bright fourth-grader might ask: How can a magnet lift a paperclip against the gravitational pull of the entire planet?

Submission + - Scientist fools millions into thinking chocolate helps weight loss (io9.com)

Submitted by __roo
__roo writes: Did you know chocolate helps you lose weight? You can read all about this great news for chocoholics in the Daily Star, Daily Express, Irish Examiner, and TV shows in Texas and Australia, and even the front page of Bild, Europe's largest daily newspaper. The problem is that it's not true. A researcher who previously worked with Science to do a sting operation on fee-charging open access journals ran a real—but obviously flawed—study rigged to generate false positives, paid €600 to get it published in a fee-charging open access journal, set up a website for a fake institute, and issued press releases to feed the ever-hungry pool of nutrition journalists. The doctor who ran the trial had the idea to use chocolate, because it's a favorite of the "whole food" fanatics. "Bitter chocolate tastes bad, therefore it must be good for you. It’s like a religion."

Slashdot Top Deals

It's a naive, domestic operating system without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption.

Close