71455569
submission
itwbennett writes:
The malware program, dubbed Trojan.Laziok by researchers from antivirus vendor Symantec, was used in spear-phishing attacks earlier this year against companies from the petroleum, gas and helium industries from many countries in the Middle East, but also from the U.S., India, the U.K., and others. The Trojan is spread via emails with malicious documents that exploit a Microsoft Office vulnerability for which a patch has existed since April 2012.
71454381
submission
itwbennett writes:
In a technical analysis of Facebook’s tracking practices, researchers at the University of Leuven in cooperation with researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel found that Facebook tracks everyone who visits its site, including people who don’t have an account, and even continues to track users and non-users who have opted out of targeted ads. The problem with these practices is that the cookies are placed without consent, which under EU law is only allowed if there is a strict necessity to do so.
71454075
submission
itwbennett writes:
Intel is researching new ways to up the storage capacity in mobile devices and PCs without hurting the size or price of devices. One effort underway aims to cram four bits in a storage cell, an improvement over the three bits that can be put in a single storage cell currently. By putting four bits per cell, a technique Intel calls QLC (quad-level cell), the capacity of SSDs could balloon to more than 10TB on standard 2.5-inch drives. Intel said QLC is still under research, and didn’t provide a timeline for the release of flash chips based on the technology. But this isn’t the first time a company has tried to cram four bits in a cell. M-Systems tried the same close to a decade ago, but failed. SanDisk ultimately acquired M-Systems in 2006.
71453629
submission
itwbennett writes:
For the past two years, a cyberespionage group that likely operates from Lebanon has hacked into hundreds of defense contractors, telecommunications operators, media groups and educational organizations from at least 10 countries, according to security researchers from Check Point Software Technologies. The researchers found evidence that the attackers started their operation in late 2012, but have managed to fly under the radar until now by carefully adapting their tools to avoid being detected by antivirus programs.
71420403
submission
itwbennett writes:
Two former U.S. government agents face charges related to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin while assisting with an investigation of the Silk Road underground online marketplace, with one accused of using a fake online persona to extort money from operators of the site.
71419397
submission
itwbennett writes:
Web usability is all about bridging the gap between the human and the machine, with the assumption that when you do so that neither will be operating in its 'natural' state. But in a recent blog post, usability engineer Sasha Akhavi takes the view that being mechanistic, or algorithmic, is actually a very human tendency, and one we employ when reliability is critical: 'When humans need to be reliable (and have enough resources to determine how), we ourselves become algorithmic. Armies march in lockstep according to standard drills. Legislators fit their content contributions into a programmatic framework and acquiesce to its limits. Scientists follow standard protocols. And software companies practice software development methodologies.'
71418279
submission
jfruh writes:
In theory, the European Union is supposed to act as a single national market. But one area in which practice doesn't live up to theory is geoblocking: Europeans may find that a website they can reach or content they have a legal right to stream in one EU country is blocked in another. Now two members of the EU Commission (the equivalent of a nation's cabinet) are feuding as to whether geoblocks should be eliminated: Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip said that "deep in my heart ... I hate geoblocking," while Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Günther Oettinger, worrying about protecting the European film industry, said "We must not throw the baby out with the bathwater."
71343129
submission
itwbennett writes:
With AMD's fade out from the server market and the rapid decline of RISC systems, Intel has stood atop the server market all by itself. But now IBM, through its OpenPOWER Foundation, could give Intel and its server OEMs a real fight in China, which is a massive server market. As the investor group Motley Fool notes, OpenPOWER is a threat to Intel in the Chinese server market because the government has been actively pushing homegrown solutions over foreign technology, and many of the Foundation members like Tyan are from China.
71336107
submission
itwbennett writes:
When developers dish on what makes some source code particularly 'good,' a handful of qualities tend to get mentioned frequently (think working, readable, testable). What would you add to this list?
71330139
submission
jfruh writes:
Rumors are flying around the Asian press that Samsung wants to buy AMD. The deal would make a certain amount of sense from Samsung's viewpoint, giving it crucial inroads into CPU and GPU markets and a line of attack against Qualcomm. But it would also wreak havoc with the delicate network of deals and agreements within the chipmaking industry, especially when it comes to rights to x86 intellectual property.
71330041
submission
jfruh writes:
GPS, originally designed by the U.S. Defense Department, has completely transformed navigation for military and civilians alike. But GPS isn't foolproof — it can be jammed and isn't accessible everywhere — and so DAPRA is working on "radically" new technologies to deliver a more advanced position- and navigation-tracking system.
71288637
submission
itwbennett writes:
British engineering company BladeRoom Group says it contacted Facebook in 2011 about using its technique, which involves constructing data centers in a modular fashion from pre-fabricated parts. What happened next isn’t clear, since much of the public version of BRG’s lawsuit is redacted. But it claims Facebook ended up stealing its ideas and using them to build part of a data center in Lulea, Sweden, that opened last year. 'Facebook’s misdeeds might never have come to light had it decided that simply stealing BRG’s intellectual property was enough,' the company said in its lawsuit, filed Monday at the federal district court in San Jose, California. 'Instead, Facebook went further when it decided to encourage and induce others to use BRG’s intellectual property though an initiative created by Facebook called the ‘Open Compute Project’.'
71288355
submission
jfruh writes:
PayPal may not be a bank, but it's still legally required to follow regulations on transferring money — but the company has admitted to a number of violations, including allowing transfers to an individual specifically sanctioned by the U.S. State Department for helping proliferate nuclear weapons.
71288287
submission
jfruh writes:
Japanese phone giant NTT DoCoMo is getting into the mobility game. It's an investor in Whill, a company that produces "smart" wheelchairs, and now DoCoMo is adding technologies such as wireless communication and GPS to the chairs, which will also have real-time, location-monitoring and sharing functions based on DoCoMo’s bicycle-sharing platform.
71281633
submission
itwbennett writes:
For years, RadioShack made a habit of collecting customers’ contact information at checkout. Now, the bankrupt retailer is putting that data on the auction block. A list of RadioShack assets for sale includes more than 65 million customer names and physical addresses, and 13 million email addresses. Bloomberg reports that the asset sale may include phone numbers and information on shopping habits as well. New York's Attorney General says his office will take 'appropriate action' if the data is handed over.
