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Encryption

NSA, GHCQ Implicated In SIM Encryption Hack 155

Posted by samzenpus from the protect-ya-neck dept.
First time accepted submitter BlacKSacrificE writes Australian carriers are bracing for a mass recall after it was revealed that a Dutch SIM card manufacturer Gemalto was penetrated by the GCHQ and the NSA in an alleged theft of encryption keys, allowing unfettered access to voice and text communications. The incident is suspected to have happened in 2010 and 2011 and seems to be a result of social engineering against employees, and was revealed by yet another Snowden document. Telstra, Vodafone and Optus have all stated they are waiting for further information from Gemalto before deciding a course of action. Gemalto said in a press release that they "cannot at this early stage verify the findings of the publication" and are continuing internal investigations, but considering Gemalto provides around 2 billion SIM cards to some 450 carriers across the globe (all of which use the same GSM encryption standard) the impact and fallout for Gemalto, and the affected carriers, could be huge.
Space

Rocket Flown Through Northern Lights To Help Unlock Space Weather Mysteries 33

Posted by timothy from the david-bowie-enjoyed-the-trip dept.
Zothecula writes The northern lights are more than one of nature's most awe inspiring sights, they are an electromagnetic phenomena that can adversely affect power grids and communications and navigation systems. Researchers from the University of Oslo have flown a rocket through the phenomena to take a closer look with the aim of gathering data that will help in predicting space weather.

Submission + - What's a Good Modern Vision Security System for Linux?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There has been a rash of dog thefts in my area, with dogs being stolen out of back yards and even right out of homes. I love my rescue mutts, and would be devastated were they to suffer a similar fate. So, aside from refurbishing the antiquated alarm system in my older home (reusing the sensors with a more modern controller), I would like to install motion-sensing security cameras outside, and herein lies the rub. I live in the woods. Pretty deep in the woods. So, ideally I would like a motion-sensing vision system to be able to discern human forms from wildlife. If I'm going to be getting alerts on my phone for movement near the house, I would really like not to be desensitized by a high false alarm rate. So far my searching has proved fruitless, so here I am asking the Slashdot community: does anyone know of a vision recognition security system that can pick out human forms from a variety of wildlife? Thanks in advance.

Submission + - BBC drops WMA for Mpeg-dash (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by gbjbaanb
gbjbaanb writes: The BBC has converted its legacy WMA (Windows Media Audio) streams to the "industry-wide and open source" Mpeg Dash format. whilst this has left some users of old devices unable to receive the broadcasts, the BBC has claimed the use of WMA was 'prohibitively expensive to operate' when existing licence agreements ran out.

The BBC says that they are working with "radio industry and manufacturers towards using just one standard".

Feed Google News Sci Tech: Japan's old flip-phones rise while smartphones shrink - India Gazette (google.com)

From feed by feedfeeder

India Gazette
Japan's old flip-phones rise while smartphones shrink
India Gazette
TOKYO: Japanese shipments of traditional flip-phones rose in 2014 for the first time in seven years while smartphone shipments fell, highlighting Japanese consumers' tenacious attachment to the familiar and typically less expensive older models. Dubbed...

and more

Submission + - GCC 5 heads toward release and Fedora 22, with F23 introducing new C++11 ABI (redhat.com)

Submitted by rhmattn
rhmattn writes: Fedora 22 will ship with GCC 5, which brings a whole host of enhancements, among which is a new default C++ ABI. Fedora is going to transition to that ABI over two Fedora releases F22 and F23. This article, written by some of the key players in the GCC community, explains how that will work and what it means for developers, including some useful tips for application developers and packagers.

Submission + - Spyware Developed By NSA Resides In HDD Firmware

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Russian computer security firm Kaspersky has uncovered spyware code buried in the firmware of common hard disk drives. The spyware kit has been customized to support all major HDD brands. Most of the infections have occurred in countries that are frequent US spying targets, such as China, Iran, Pakistan and Russia. Kaspersky declined to publicly name the country behind the spying campaign, but said it was closely linked to Stuxnet, the NSA-led cyberweapon that was used to attack Iran's uranium enrichment facility. A former NSA employee told Reuters that Kaspersky's analysis was correct, and that people still in the intelligence agency valued these spying programs as highly as Stuxnet. Another former intelligence operative confirmed that the NSA had developed the prized technique of concealing spyware in hard drives, but said he did not know which spy efforts relied on it. Kaspersky published the technical details of its research on Monday, which should help infected institutions detect the spying programs, some of which trace back as far as 2001.

Comment Universal Zero Tolerance of Side Effects (Score 4, Funny) 369

by EmagGeek (#49068393) Attached to: Two New Male Birth Control Chemicals In Advanced Stages

"anti-cancer researchers at Harvard, discovered that the JQ1 molecule blocked a bromodomain in cancer cells, causing them to forget how to be cancer."

"Researchers are looking for a version of the molecule that works on the testicle protein only, to avoid any weird side effects."

Umm... can I please have the side-effects, if the side effects are, you know, NOT GETTING CANCER?

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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