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Submission + - Security Researcher Creates Database of 300k Known-Good SCADA Files

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: A prominent security researcher has put together a new database of hundreds of thousands of known-good files from ICS and SCADA software vendors in an effort to help users and other researchers identify legitimate files and home in on potentially malicious ones.

The database, known as WhiteScope, comprises nearly 350,000 files, including executables and DLLs, from dozens of vendors. Among the vendors represented in the database are Advantech, GE, Rockwell, Schneider and Siemens. The project is the work of Billy Rios, a former Google security researcher who has worked extensively on ICS and SCADA security issues. WhiteScope is a kind of reverse VirusTotal for ICS and SCADA files, allowing people to determine which files are known to be good, rather than which are detected as malicious.

He said via email that the current iteration of the database is just the first version and that it represents about half of the software he has.

“I have 300,000 files in WhiteScope right now, and I plan to have half a million files in WhiteScope by the end of the year. I’ll have over a million the first quarter of 2015,” Rios said.

“Getting access to the software is the most difficult part, to get the artifacts that allowed WhiteScope to be created, it took over 5 years. If someone was more focused, they could probably do it in less time.”

Submission + - 10-Year-Old iTunes DRM Lawsuit Heading To Trial (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Plaintiffs in the Apple iPod iTunes antitrust litigation complain that Apple married iTunes music with iPod players, and they want $350 million in damages. The lawsuit accuses Apple of violating U.S. and California antitrust law by restricting music purchased on iTunes from being played on devices other than iPods and by not allowing iPods to play music purchased on other digital music services. Late Apple founder Steve Jobs will reportedly appear via a videotaped statement during the trial, scheduled to begin Tuesday morning in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Submission + - Scientists Have Finally Sampled the Most Abundant Material on Earth

Submitted by rossgneumann
rossgneumann writes: The most abundant material on Earth didn’t have a name, and, in fact, hadn’t been seen—until now. For the first time ever, scientists have gotten their hands on a sample of bridgmanite, a mineral that is believed to make up more than a third of the volume of the Earth. In a new paper published in Science late last week, Oliver Tschauner of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and his team describe bridgmanite for the first time.

Submission + - German Probe Into NSA Activity Reveals Germany Spying On Its Own Citizens (thelocal.de)

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes: The Local (DE) reports, "The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence service, spied on some citizens living abroad, a former lawyer for the spies told MPs on Thursday. Dr Stefan Burbaum ... said that some Germans were targeted as “office holders”, a legal loophole the spies used to circumvent the law that protects Germans citizens from being spied on by its own intelligence agency. ... the German spies argue that a citizen working for a foreign company abroad is only protected in his private life, not in his professional communications ... "The office holder is the legal person," Burbaum said. ... “This construct of an office holder is just as absurd in practice as it appears in the law,” Konstantin von Notz of the Green party said. Further, foreigners' communications conducted abroad are not protected, even if they are in contact with German people or work for a German company. MPs ... criticized the BND's ability to operate in a “lawless zone” when it came to spying on foreigners. ... the BND regularly retains traffic which it had not received specific permission to investigate which it collects during such trawls. In this way, access acquired under the “G10 law” becomes a “foot in the door” to otherwise closed-off sources of data, Burbaum said." — The parliamentary investigation was initiated by reports that Chancellor Merkel's phone was being tapped by NSA but later it was found that at least five countries were tapping Merkel's phone.

Submission + - Three key reasons for Apple's Mac App Store troubles (fastcompany.com)

Submitted by harrymcc
harrymcc writes: When Apple launched the Mac App Store in 2011, expectations were high. But it hasn't had anywhere near the success of its iOS counterpart, and recently, some major developers have pulled apps altogether. Over at Fast Company, my colleague Jared Newman talked to developers about their frustrations, which range from technical matters (highly restrictive sandboxing) to financial ones (no ability to sell paid upgrades).

Submission + - VW Bus Powered By Attached Solar Panels--Proof of Concept for Solar Vehicles (xconomy.com)

Submitted by mlamonica
mlamonica writes: When I heard the CTO of healthcare startup Vecna built a 1966 Volkswagen bus with solar panels on the roof, I thought it would make for a fun story about his side project. But I found that his work is much more: it's a proof of concept that solar-powered cars--that don't require plugging in to charge--can work in certain applications. One key to engineering such a vehicle is having it run directly from the panels, bypassing battery charging and the associated losses as much as possible. Story has photos of the bus.

Submission + - Google Rents Block Long Video Screen in Times Square With 24 Million Pixels

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: The NYT reports that the largest and most expensive digital billboard in Times Square stands eight stories tall and is nearly as long as a football field, spanning the entire block from 45th Street to 46th Street on Broadway and contains nearly 24 million LED pixels, each containing tiny red, blue and green lights. At a going rate of more than $2.5 million for four weeks, the megascreen ranks as one of the most expensive pieces of outdoor ad real estate on the market. A digital art exhibition by the critically acclaimed Universal Everything studio collective will animate the screen until November 24, when Google will take over as the exclusive, debut advertiser with a campaign that runs through the New Year. Size matters in Times Square,” said Harry Coghlan. “Sometimes it just comes down to wanting to stand out, and it comes down to ego."

One of the oldest forms of advertising, billboards are attracting new attention as digital displays allow for new levels of real-time interactivity. Each day, more than 300,000 pedestrians are estimated to enter the Times Square “bow tie,” where Seventh Avenue intersects with Broadway between 42nd and 47th Streets. “People go to the Grand Canyon to see the most visually stunning natural canyon in the world” says Tim Tompkins."They come to Times Square to see the most digitally striking canyon in the world,."

Comment Re:How do you do it? (Score 1) 51

by ripvlan (#48433451) Attached to: Polyphonic Overtone Singing Explained Visually With Spectrograms

Yes - well... if you prayed to learn how to perform this kind of singing...then consider your prayer answered !!

Actually - I started looking at his whole channel and found his random "man on the streets" of Japan to be quite entertaining. I haven't been back to Japan for over 10 years so I found it interesting and fun to watch. I remember buying hot sake in a can - press a button and it would begin heating. They have such cool soda machines over there. YouTube surfing at its best.

Back to work.

Submission + - Group Sets Out to 3D Print a 42 Story Tall Model of Earth in 10.5 Million Pieces (3dprint.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Great Globe project is an educational program which has set out to 3D print a 42 story tall 1:100,000 scale model of the Earth. The model will be printed in 10.5 million different pieces by school children around the world in an effort to education them about geography, history, and other subjects. The project aims for completion within 3 years.

Comment Re:TFA is a crappy piece of socialist propaganda (Score 1) 496

by ripvlan (#48427479) Attached to: As Amazon Grows In Seattle, Pay Equity For Women Declines

well actually - women are paid less to do the same job as men. Why not hire more women? Not as many women apply for these jobs.

Why? This is where the debate begins. Nature, nurture, environment? An article I read recently on the subject is that women don't want to work in a heavily sexist "man" environment - especially around men who say "there isn't a problem, just need more qualified women, if they existed they'd work here! but they are off pursuing other jobs that interest them"

Another article suggested that it was nurture - they weren't encouraged to follow the same educational tracks. The argument used here is to look at school funding for sports - big money is in boys basketball and football (and hockey up here)...but try to divide that spending up and boost/equalize girls sports is usually stopped. Why? 'cause girls don't play those sports, or don't do it well so nobody wants to watch. However if spending was made available maybe they'd have more opportunity and get good at it...leading to us wanting to watch.

Subsidizing bus fare is seen as a way to make it easier for some people to come to work. Getting qualified people to the office is good for Amazon. Locally IBM has a van that drives across the state. Low income people can't (don't want to) afford the gas to drive to work. However they life so far outside the city area that their cost of living is lower - and they are every bit qualified to do the job. IBM can't find people within 15 miles willing to take the low paying jobs due to cost of living.... so they pay for the shuttle van. Win-win - folks with lower cost of living look at these jobs as good-paying, IBM has qualified folks willing to work at "reasonable" rates. It was good business to get into the transportation business.

As for the article in question in this thread post - it is very opinionated and not scientific at all "as I go around town I see the ratio of men to women as..." Really - all of his conclusions are based upon what he sees out the window? How very...uninformed this article is.

Look - its an opinion piece - and you're welcome to yours as well. Try to do better than the original author.

Submission + - Wells Fargo refuses to honor 30-year old CD because they can't find it (kpho.com)

Submitted by BUL2294
BUL2294 writes: The Consumerist and KPHO-TV Phoenix are reporting the story of a widow who attempted to cash a Certificate of Deposit (CD) at Wells Fargo that had been issued to her late husband for just over $18,000 in 1984. She has been battling with them since 2009, after finding the CD among other paperwork, and a decision in the court case is expected in January. The CD was issued by First Interstate bank, which merged with Norwest, which was bought by Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo has no record of the CD, but the physical document itself mentions that it has to be surrendered to receive payment, or could have been paid out by signing an indemnity form--which they also do not have. In addition, there's a fight over whether the CD is worth $60,000 or $400,000, as the CD was self-renewing and was issued when interest rates were 10.9%.

Ultimately, this is a case of data getting lost within 30-years worth of mergers and system changes. Both the existence of this instrument and its terms are probably on some long-lost tape that may no longer be readable, or paper copies were shredded years ago. That being said, we entrust that our banks and regulators can dig up such historical information... So what happens when they can't? As was evidenced during the US mortgage crisis, banks are terrible at appropriate document retention, so how could they prove what was paid out and when? More importantly, how much of banks' historical / legacy accounts are complete guesses?

Submission + - Interviews: Ask Adora Svitak About Education and Women In STEM and Politics

Submitted by samzenpus
samzenpus writes: Adora Svitak is a child prodigy, author and activist. She taught her first class on writing at a local elementary school when she was 7, the same year her book, Flying Fingers was published. In 2010, Adora spoke at the TED Conference. Her speech, "What Adults Can Learn from Kids", has been viewed over 3.7 million times and has been translated into over 40 different languages. She is an advocate for literacy, youth empowerment, and for the inclusion of more women and girls in STEM and politics. 17 this year, she served as a Youth Advisor to the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, DC. and is a freshman at UC Berkeley. Adora has agreed to take some time from her books and answer any questions you may have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one per post.

Submission + - DDoS Attacks Continue To Fall In Size And Frequency

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: DDoS attacks continue to fall in size and frequency in 2014, making them easier to handle for tier one carrier networks with excess capacity, but still tricky to manage for organizations with less bandwidth. The newest up-and-coming countries of origin for DDoS attacks will be Vietnam, India and Indonesia in 2015. While these countries don’t have the necessary bandwidth to launch massive DDoS attacks, the volume of compromised end point devices, such as mobile phones, make them prime sources of new botnets. China topped the list of leading sources of DDoS attacks in Q3 2014, followed by the United States and Russia.

Submission + - Martin Jetpack Closer to Takeoff in First Responder Applications (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Last year's redesign of the long-awaited Martin Jetpack was accompanied by plans to begin commercial sales in 2014, starting with emergency response services and individual sales to follow thereafter. The release date for the first responder Jetpack has since been revised to 2016, a prediction bolstered by the fresh announcement of a partnership between Martin Aircraft Company and US company Avwatch to develop air-based, first responder solutions for the US Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense.

Submission + - Self-Filling Water Bottle Invention Can Turn Air Humidity into Drinking Water (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: An Austrian industrial design student has invented a water bottle that fills itself during cycling journeys by converting humidity in the air into safe drinking water.

The Fontus system was developed by Kristof Retezár, an industrial design student at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna who is a Dyson Awards finalist.

Designed to be attached to a bicycle frame, Fontus consists of a condenser unit powered by a solar panel that is attached to a bottle.

When the bike is in motion, moist air is blown into a channel in the condenser unit where it cools and condenses.

The water droplets then roll into the water bottle, and at present the prototype is able to produce a drop of water a minute in air that features approximately 50% humidity at temperatures of at least 20C (68F).

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