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Submission + - Five Things We've Already Forgotten About Snowden's NSA Leaks (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: The Edward Snowden saga is coming to a close. As a final act, Glenn Greenwald, who's been working closely with the whistleblower to publish leaked information about the National Security Agency, has said he will reveal a list of Americans that have been targeted by the NSA. And tonight, Snowden will be giving his first American television interview to NBC. It’s been a dizzying year of revelations about US government spying. Programs like PRISM—the ones capable of mass surveillance—have received the most media attention, and in some cases even become household names. But there are other things exposed in the string of leaks that have received relatively little media attention, despite presenting serious threats to privacy, freedom of speech, and the way we use the web. Here's a look back at some of those forgotten discoveries.

Comment Wait - what?! (Score 5, Informative) 193

by ripvlan (#47056789) Attached to: eBay Compromised

The hackers gained access to " name, [...], physical address, phone number and date of birth"

But they "did not [access] other confidential personal information"

What other personal information is there on the planet? Your name, address and DOB is pretty much everything needed for identify theft.

Okay - I guess they didn't get Health records. Seriously though - what "other confidential information" does eBay store?

Submission + - Why should Red Hat support competitors' software? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by colinneagle
colinneagle writes: The Wall Street Journal recently reported that, based on documents it reviewed, Red Hat "has chosen not to provide support to its commercial Linux customers if they use rival versions of OpenStack." But the big question is: Why would customers have expected that in the first place? Gartner analyst Lydia Leong told Network World that Red Hat isn't really doing anything wrong here. Customers shouldn't have an expectation that Red Hat would support competitors' software. "The norm would be to expect that non-Red Hat software is treated like any other third-party software," Leong says.

If Red Hat has done anything wrong, it's that it has not clearly articulated its positioning and support for non-Red Hat OpenStack distros. Red Hat did not immediately respond to a question asking for a clarification on its support policy.

The complication in all this comes from the fact that OpenStack is an open source project and there are misconceived notions that all OpenStack clouds are interoperable with one another. But Leong says just because OpenStack is open source doesn't change the expectations around vendors supporting competitors' products.

Each vendor — HP, Red Hat, Rackspace, IBM — has its own commercial interests at play here. Of course Red Hat will integrate their OpenStack distro with RHEL — that's how it makes money. And HP will do the same with its hardware. There are no purely altruistic open source companies that offer free distributions that are interoperable across all vendors.

Submission + - The Reality Of A High-Tech Scam: Less 'Hackers,' More 'Fargo' (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: High-profile breaches into Target and other huge retailers may make the world of computer fraud seem more glamarous than it actually is. Most are pretty low-rent and fairly bumbling, as in a recent case in Southern California, featuring corrupted cash registers sold to Subway franchises, fake gift cards sold over Craigslist and hand-delivered to buyers, and arrest, and only $40,000 made for all the trouble.

Comment Re:They can go to 110% and beyond (Score 1) 197

by ripvlan (#46990377) Attached to: 7.1 Billion People, 7.1 Billion Mobile Phone Accounts Activated

Yes - I have two. A cell phone and a data-only device (iPad w/LTE). Do Kindles count as a mobile activation?

I wonder if cars count?! I know people with cars that use cell technology to phone home.

I read through the article and he draws a distinction between people vs handsets. I didn't see though if it was voice devices or whether hotspot/data-only devices make up that stat (there was discussion with regards to revenue breakdowns).

Now - will mobile data allow a way to skip over the cable-internet providers and offer real competition?

Comment Re:Top Gear was worse. (Score 1) 544

by ripvlan (#46650851) Attached to: 60 Minutes Dubbed Engines Noise Over Tesla Model S

Wait - Audi created e-sound for their e-tron electric cars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Although that Top Gear episode was funny. Until this year I don't think they gave electric cars any serious consideration. Now that Porsche has an electric car to make the Hamster happy - I'd expect we'll see more of them. He can drive that until his GT3 is re-delivered.

Submission + - NTSB reminds pilots to land at correct airport (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: There are a ton of details involved in flying an aircraft no doubt but you might think landing at the correct airport would be one of those things that just wouldn't be a serious problem. Well I guess we'd be wrong on that score because today the National Transportation Safety Board has issued a Safety Alert to remind pilots to um, land at the right airport. There have been at least two wrong landing incidents in the past year that prompted the NTSB's missive entitled "Landing at the Wrong Airport." The most recent occurred in January when a Southwest Airlines 737 landed at the wrong airport in Branson, Missouri (the video in this story shows the plane leaving that airport); then last November a Boeing 747 cargo plane landed on a 6,100-foot runway instead of the 12,000-foot one at its intended airport 12 miles away.

Submission + - TSA missed Boston bomber because his name was misspelled in a database (nbcnews.com) 3

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the primary conspirator in the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people, slipped through airport security because his name was misspelled in a database, according to a new Congressional report.

The Russian intelligence agency warned US authorities twice that Tsarnaev was a radical Islamist and potentially dangerous. As a result, Tsarnaev was entered into two US government databases: the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment and the Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS), an interagency border inspection database.

A special note was added to TECS in October of 2011 requiring a mandatory search and detention of Tsarnaev if he left the country. "Detain isolated and immediately call the lookout duty officer," the note reportedly said. "Call is mandatory whether or not the officer believes there is an exact match."

"Detain isolated and immediately call the lookout duty officer."

Unfortunately, Tsarnaev's name was not an exact match: it was misspelled by one letter. Whoever entered it in the database spelled it as "Tsarnayev." When Tsarnaev flew to Russia in January of 2012 on his way to terrorist training, the system was alerted but the mandatory detention was not triggered. Because officers did not realize Tsarnaev was a high-priority target, he was allowed to travel without questioning.

Submission + - Fearing HIPAA, Google Rules Out Health Apps For Android Wear (securityledger.com) 1

Submitted by chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: The Security Ledger reports (https://securityledger.com/2014/03/google-android-wear-isnt-ready-for-health-data/) that amid all the hype over what great new products might come out of Google's foray into wearable technology with Android Wear (http://www.android.com/wear/), there's one big category of application that is off the list: medical applications. The reason? HIPAA — the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which protects the privacy of patients personal health information in the U.S.

Deep down in Google’s Developer Preview License Agreement (http://developer.android.com/wear/license.html) is language prohibiting Android Wear applications that involve personal health information:

“Unless otherwise specified in writing by Google, Google does not intend use of Android Wear to create obligations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, as amended, (“HIPAA”), and makes no representations that Android Wear satisfies HIPAA requirements."

Android Wear users who "are (or become) a Covered Entity or Business Associate under HIPAA... agree not to use Android Wear for any purpose or in any manner involving Protected Health Information unless you have received prior written consent to such use from Google.”

Google’s prohibition of medical applications is interesting. The market for personal health devices is evolving quickly, and the U.S. government has already warned that – in some cases – mobile applications may count as a type of medical device regulated by the FDA.(https://securityledger.com/2013/09/fda-says-some-medical-apps-a-kind-of-medical-device/)

No word from Google yet on how it plans to enforce the ban on medical applications for Google Wear, or what process it will set up to vet and approve health-related wearables. Given the potential for wearables to be used in health monitoring and the delivery of medical care, however, its a problem that the company might want to jump on — fast!

Submission + - Land Sinking with California Groundwater Drain (nationalgeographic.com)

Submitted by Maria_Celeste
Maria_Celeste writes: In the middle of a major drought, Californians' demand for groundwater is causing at least one 2-sq-mile area to subside by 1 foot per year, according to one researcher. Other areas are subsiding as well, but at less dramatic rates. Not only does that kind of subsidence jeopardize infrastructure (roads, pipelines, etc.), it increases flood risk as well. More importantly, it could put future groundwater reserves at risk by compressing the space available for storage — and minimizing California's ability to outlast future droughts.

Submission + - Remote ATM Attack Uses SMS To Dispense Cash (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by judgecorp
judgecorp writes: A newly discovered malware attack uses a smartphone connected to the computer that manages an ATM, and then sends an SMS message to instruct it to dispense cash. The attack was reported by Symantec, and builds on a previous piece of malware called Backdoor.Ploutus. It is being used in actual attacks, and Symantec has demonstrated it with an ATM in its labs, though it is not revealing the brand of the vulnerable machines.

Submission + - WHO: Air Pollution "Killed 7 Million People" In 2012 (bbc.com)

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: The BBC reports: Seven million people died as a result of air pollution in 2012, the World Health Organization estimates. Its findings suggest a link between air pollution and heart disease, respiratory problems and cancer. One in eight global deaths were linked with air pollution, making it 'the world's largest single environmental health risk', the WHO said. Nearly six million of the deaths had been in South East Asia and the WHO's Western Pacific region, it found. The WHO said about 3.3 million people had died as a result of indoor air pollution and 2.6 million deaths were related to outdoor air pollution, mainly in low- and middle-income countries in those regions. WHO public health, environmental and social determinants of health department director Dr Maria Neira said: 'The risks from air pollution are now far greater than previously thought or understood, particularly for heart disease and strokes. Few risks have a greater impact on global health today than air pollution.' 'The evidence signals the need for concerted action to clean up the air we all breathe.' Reducing air pollution could save millions of lives, said the WHO. 'Poor women and children pay a heavy price from indoor air pollution since they spend more time at home breathing in smoke and soot from leaky coal and wood cook stoves.'

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