Comment Re:This is Actually an Interesting Trend... (Score 2) 56
Maybe the US cyber-warfare division CREATED flame, stuxnet, etc. That would probably make it undesirable to be the one to first 'identify' it.
Comment Re:Does Ayn Rand count? (Score 1) 1365
And then there are those that don't understand that the sine qua non of a healthy society is individual liberty.
Comment Anybody know why the top quark was found first? (Score 1) 123
It's my understanding that this boson was not discovered before LHC because it was too massive to produce in a lesser accelerator; however, the top quark was produced at Fermilab some years ago, and it has a larger mass (Higgs @ 125GeV, top quark @ ~171GeV). Does anyone understand why this is? I know I am missing something here...
Submission + - Canada's Internet Surveillance Bill: not dead after all (www.cbc.ca)
Maow writes: Despite a recent story claiming that Canada's Bill C-30, covering internet surveillance, has died a "lonely" death, the minister responsible claims otherwise.
"Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is denying reports that the Harper government intends to quietly shelve its controversial online surveillance bill, C-30. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, Toews insisted the legislation was moving ahead."
This is the bill that you either support, "or you stand with the child pornographers."
"Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is denying reports that the Harper government intends to quietly shelve its controversial online surveillance bill, C-30. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, Toews insisted the legislation was moving ahead."
This is the bill that you either support, "or you stand with the child pornographers."
Comment Re:This is the flaw with libertarian arguments (Score 1) 694
The market will not necessarily support what is good for society, it will only support what is profitable. This company was even given a head start by the government and still couldn't make it. It's very unfortunate that the destructive libertarian argument that the government should stop spending money and let the private sector work it out seemingly has so much traction.
Is it possible that "green" solutions that are not economically sustainable, and/or that are produced by poorly managed companies may not be "good for society"? Someday a well-managed company will produce economically viable "green" solutions, and the market will definitely support them. The problem with the government spending big money betting on companies like this is that, even if the government is right about which direction we need to go in (which they frequently are not), they still don't know how to pick the right companies to lead in that direction. The market does, and will - if the government lets it.
Submission + - Dutch Radio Geek Tracking Libyan Airstrikes (itworld.com)
jfruhlinger writes: "The days when citizens could only learn about a distant war from the government or the institutional press are long over. An ex-Dutch military geek exemplifies the new way information comes out, tracking attack flights on Libya, and even tweeting messages to the US command responsible for the strikes."
Submission + - RSA Hackers May Have Wanted Server Source Code (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: The most important issues the RSA attack brings to the surface concern exactly what the attackers may have been after and what the successful compromise means for the integrity of the tens of millions of SecurID tokens deployed around the world.
As troublesome as these scenarios are for SecurID users, perhaps the more likely target of the attack on RSA is the source code for the software that's used to administer and run the token deployments at customer site.
"There's a lot of code needed for maintaining databases, adding and deleting users, making backups, synchronizing master and secondary copies of databases, and more. An attacker who could penetrate these administrative systems doesn't have to worry about key generation or cryptanalysis; they could simply steal existing keys or insert new ones of their own," Steve Bellovin said.
As troublesome as these scenarios are for SecurID users, perhaps the more likely target of the attack on RSA is the source code for the software that's used to administer and run the token deployments at customer site.
"There's a lot of code needed for maintaining databases, adding and deleting users, making backups, synchronizing master and secondary copies of databases, and more. An attacker who could penetrate these administrative systems doesn't have to worry about key generation or cryptanalysis; they could simply steal existing keys or insert new ones of their own," Steve Bellovin said.
Submission + - A New Class of Nuclear Reactors (freakonomics.com) 1
prunedude writes: From Freakonomics: The folks over at IV Insights, the blog associated with Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures, point out that it was the complete loss of power that disabled the cooling systems protecting the plant'(TM)s reactors. Which raises the question: Is there nuclear technology that could withstand such a catastrophe? Possibly. TerraPower, an Intellectual Ventures spin-off that also boasts Bill Gates as an investor, is working on a new reactor design called a traveling wave reactor that uses fast reactor technology, rather than the light water technology used at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
The two biggest advantages of the fast reactor design is that it requires no spent fuel pools and uses cooling systems that require no power to function, meaning the loss of power from the tsunami might not have crippled a fast reactor plant so severely.
The two biggest advantages of the fast reactor design is that it requires no spent fuel pools and uses cooling systems that require no power to function, meaning the loss of power from the tsunami might not have crippled a fast reactor plant so severely.
Submission + - Solar-Powered Military Uniforms (ecouterre.com) 2
fangmcgee writes: Scientists across the United Kingdom are working on a solar-powered kit that could lighten the load of soldiers—and, more important, increase their mobility—by up to 50 percent. Developed by the University of Glasgow with Loughborough, Strathclyde, Leeds, Reading, and Brunel Universities, and funded by both the Ministry of Defense and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the new uniform will comprise photovoltaic cells to harness the sun’s energy, as well as thermoelectric devices that turn temperature differentials into electricity (see: Seebeck Effect).
Submission + - Mozilla Releases Firefox 4 (techspot.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla has released Firefox 4. The final build comes less than two weeks after Release Candidate 1. The company originally found no major problems in the RC1 build, and decided to release RC1 as the final version, but then changed its mind. An RC2 build was quietly pushed out on March 18, 2011 with a few fixes, and today the final bits appeared on Mozilla's servers.
Submission + - Google Voice teams up with Sprint (blogspot.com)
bhagwad writes: "Google announced today that it was teaming up with Sprint which will allow users to seamlessly use their Sprint mobile number as their Google Voice number and vice versa. This is quite a big step for Sprint and shows a lot of guts since carriers have always been wary of giving up control. Though GV allowed users to port their phone numbers some time ago, this tie up makes it easy and could finally propel GV into the public's mass consciousness."
Submission + - Experts Weigh in on the RSA SecurID Breach (securityweek.com)
wiredmikey writes: After notifying customers on Thursday that it had been breached after hackers mounted a highly sophisticated cyber attack that put its SecurID product at risk, RSA has yet to expand on the details and potential impact of the attack, leaving customers concerned and with many questions unanswered.
In the meantime, reactions are pouring in from customers and the information security community in general, some saying to prepare for the worst, and some brushing it off as not-so-serious incident.
One expert commented that “If ‘the keys to the kingdom’—the public serial number to secret key mapping database—had NOT been compromised, there would be zero danger to users of RSA’s SecurIDs." At the same time another expert says doesn’t believe the incident is a game changer. “It's serious news that RSA's SecurID solution has been the target of an advanced persistent threat. But It's not a game-changer. Anybody who says it is, is an alarmist.”
So what are others saying and doing in the meantime while they wait for answers from RSA on the SecurID system being attacked?
In the meantime, reactions are pouring in from customers and the information security community in general, some saying to prepare for the worst, and some brushing it off as not-so-serious incident.
One expert commented that “If ‘the keys to the kingdom’—the public serial number to secret key mapping database—had NOT been compromised, there would be zero danger to users of RSA’s SecurIDs." At the same time another expert says doesn’t believe the incident is a game changer. “It's serious news that RSA's SecurID solution has been the target of an advanced persistent threat. But It's not a game-changer. Anybody who says it is, is an alarmist.”
So what are others saying and doing in the meantime while they wait for answers from RSA on the SecurID system being attacked?
Submission + - Fukushima one week on: Situation 'stable', says IA (theregister.co.uk)
Attila Dimedici writes: This article claims that the safest place to be
if your country is hit by a monster earthquake and giant tsunami is the local nuclear power plant. This article mentions that over the last ten years there have been seven nuclear fatalities and 44 wind farm fatalities ( I saw this stated elsewhere as well).
if your country is hit by a monster earthquake and giant tsunami is the local nuclear power plant. This article mentions that over the last ten years there have been seven nuclear fatalities and 44 wind farm fatalities ( I saw this stated elsewhere as well).
Submission + - Microsoft Urges Office Users To Block Flash Player (computerworld.com)
Batblue writes: "Microsoft has urged users of older Office suites to install and run a complicated tool to protect themselves against ongoing attacks exploiting an unpatched bug in Adobe's Flash Player.
"For users of Office prior to 2010, the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) can help," said Andrew Roths and Chengyun Chu, a manager and security engineer, respectively, with the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC). "Turning on EMET for the core Office applications will enable a number of security protections called 'security mitigations'," the pair wrote in a post to the company's Security Research & Defense blog.
EMET is a tool designed for advanced users, primarily enterprise IT pros, that manually enables ASLR (address space layout randomization) and DEP (data execution prevention) for specific applications. ASLR and DEP are two anti-exploit technologies included with Windows. Adobe confirmed that attackers were exploiting an unpatched bug in Flash Player by sending potential victims malicious Microsoft Excel documents."
"For users of Office prior to 2010, the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) can help," said Andrew Roths and Chengyun Chu, a manager and security engineer, respectively, with the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC). "Turning on EMET for the core Office applications will enable a number of security protections called 'security mitigations'," the pair wrote in a post to the company's Security Research & Defense blog.
EMET is a tool designed for advanced users, primarily enterprise IT pros, that manually enables ASLR (address space layout randomization) and DEP (data execution prevention) for specific applications. ASLR and DEP are two anti-exploit technologies included with Windows. Adobe confirmed that attackers were exploiting an unpatched bug in Flash Player by sending potential victims malicious Microsoft Excel documents."
Submission + - CRISP Demonstrates Self-Repairing Chips (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: "Processors are making great strides in performance-per-watt output, but everyone knows that there will be limits. One of the issues with chips getting smaller and more powerful is fragility. The smaller manufacturing geomtries get, the less robust they are, and that has led to a number of research projects looking into the feasibility of creating self-repairing chips. The CRISP (Cutting edge Reconfigurable ICs for Stream Processing) project researches optimal utilization, efficient programming and dependability of reconfigurable many-cores CPUs for streaming applications. Its goal is to develop a single, highly scalable, reconfigurable system concept that can be used for a wide range of streaming applications; from low-cost consumer applications to very demanding specialty applications. The project consortium consists of Recore Systems (project leader), University of Twente, Atmel Automotive, Thales Netherlands, Tampere University of Technology, and NXP Semiconductors."
