57547101
submission
SmartAboutThings writes:
There’s been a lot of brouhaha surrounding privacy these days, and despite the fact that Pinterest isn’t among the most targeted websites when it comes to government data requests, the company, which is said to have near 80 million users, has decided to make public its first ever transparency report. Given the nature of the service and the fact that it is much smaller than Facebook, it was only natural not to expect too many data requests. According to Pinterest’s report, from July to December 2013, the company has received only 7 warrants, 5 subpoenas, 1 civil subpoena, and 0 other requests about 13 user accounts. Compare that to Microsoft which has received more than 35,000 requests during the second half of last year while Facebook received somewhere around 15,000.
57533341
submission
Niranjan Nallapothula writes:
David Cameroon has announced a new agreement between United Kingdom and Germany to develop 5G Technology, as well as boost momentum for the Internet of Things.
Germany and Britain will collaborate and work for the development for future – super fast mobile network 5G, UK Prime Minister – David Cameroon’s speech at the opening of Europe’s Largest Technology show – CeBIT 2014. Germany primaryly focused on three factors, namely 5G and its benefits in future years (‘Download one full length movie in less than a second’), Internet of things and strengthening of EU Digital market.Link to Original Source
56845745
submission
brunozamborlin writes:
After three years of work, PhD student Bruno Zamborlin launches the Mogees project on Kickstarter.
Mogees consists of a mobile app for iOS/Android and a small sensor that detects and analyses the vibrations that we make when we interact with the objects around us. It uses a special sound technique to alter their acoustic properties so as to make them musical.
Above all, it's about everyone making beautiful music out of ordinary objects. Just plug it in and play the world.
56836147
submission
sandbagger writes:
Dazzle painting was that zebra striping used during the Great War to make surface ships difficult to follow in the foggy North Atlantic. Similar cosmetic pattern breaking may be proving useful in confusing facial recognition. Adding moth-like cosmetic paint daubs to the cheeks appears to break at least some facial recognition software. What's your experience, and, theoretically at least, what are its uses. (If anyone at Fort Meade is reading this, this is just a purely theoretical exercise.)
56835251
submission
cold fjord writes:
The Australian reports, "Iran's infiltration of a US Navy computer network was far more extensive than previously thought ... hackers targeted the ... network used by ... the Navy to host websites, store non-sensitive information and handle voice, video and data communications. The network has 800,000 users ... “It was a real big deal,” said the senior US official. “It was a significant penetration ...” ... the penetration allowed the Iranians to conduct surveillance on the Navy’s and Marine Corps’ unclassified networks ... the cost to repair the Navy network ... was approximately $US10 million. ... The attack and other cyberthreats prompted a broader review of Navy and DoD network security and upgrades ... were needed. The added defences are expected to cost several hundred million dollars ... within three weeks of the intrusion, officials understood the full scope of the attack and put in place a plan to try and push the intruders out. ... the unclassified network was taken down twice for upgrades ... officials were surprised at the skills of the Iranian hackers. Previously, their tactics had been far cruder ... denial of service attacks ..." — Also at Fox News.
56831525
submission
BigVig209 writes:
A new study set to be officially released Wednesday found that networks and Internet-connected devices in places such as hospitals, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies are under siege and in many cases have been infiltrated without their knowledge.
The study was conducted by Norse, a Silicon Valley cybersecurity firm, and SANS, a security research institute. In the report, the groups found from September 2012 to October 2013 that 375 healthcare organizations in the U.S. had been compromised, and in many cases are still compromised because they have not yet detected the attacks.
56558999
submission
phmadore writes:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is on a holy crusade to protect the fourth amendment. No matter how you feel about the activities of the National Security Agency as revealed to us in the last several months, you should call your representatives and tell them! The campaign is called "The Day We Fight Back" and it encourages all dutiful citizens to take a few minutes to either call or e-mail their representatives to voice their opinion on the looming possibility of or already existing Big Brother we read about in 1984 as children. Personally, I chose to call, and the process was very smooth.
56373457
submission
DW100 writes:
The Colossus computer that helped the Allies crack messages sent by the Nazis during the Second World War has celebrated its 70th birthday. The machine was a pioneering feat of engineering, able to read 5,000 characters a second to help the team at Bletchley Park crack the German's Lorenz code in rapid time. This helped the Allies gather vital information on the Nazi's plans, and is credited with helping end the war effort early, saving millions of lives.
56362531
submission
opslashdot writes:
Le Point (see link), reveals that google inc. will get a 1 billion euros (1,3 billion dollars) tax adjustment by the French Tax Office.
The French Tax Office claims that Google has declared very low revenues in France, using tax optimization techniques that allowed them to pay as low as 5.5 million euros taxes in 2011.
56362405
submission
DTentilhao writes:
`The idea of “obfuscating” a program had been around for decades, but no one had ever developed a rigorous mathematical framework for the concept, let alone created an unassailable obfuscation scheme. Over the years, commercial software companies have engineered various techniques for garbling a computer program so that it will be harder to understand while still performing the same function'
How about scrambling the microcode on the CPU and doing the same to the core OS, that way each system would be render unique and unknown software would be unable to run on such a system. You could then run the apps on a VM running on top of the core OS.
56216603
submission
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes:
Up until now, acoustic waves traveling between two points in space always exhibited a basic symmetry summed up with the phrase, “if you can hear, you can also be heard.” Not anymore as Tia Ghose reports at Live Science that a team at UT Austin has created a “nonreciprocal acoustic circulator," the first step that could lead to the sound equivalent of a one-way mirror.” All waves — whether visible light, sound, radio or otherwise — have a physical property known as time reversal symmetry so a wave sent one way can always be sent back. For radio waves, researchers figured out how to break this rule using magnetic materials that set electrons spinning in one direction. The resulting radio waves detect the difference in the material in one direction versus the other, preventing reverse transmission. To accomplish the feat with sound waves, the team created a cavity loaded with tiny CPU fans that spin the air with a specific velocity. The air is spinning in one direction, so the flow of air "feels" different to the wave in one direction versus the other, preventing backward transmission. As a result, sound waves can go in, but they can't go the other way. The result is one-directional sound. With such a device, people can hear someone talking, but they themselves cannot be heard.The findings will likely lead to many useful applications, says Sebastien Guenneau "I would be surprised if sound industries do not pick up this idea. This could have great applications in sound insulation of motorways, music studios, submarines and airplanes."
56212639
submission
Sockatume writes:
Zynga, the controversial Facebook and mobile games firm, have announced that they are to acquire NaturalMotion for $527m in cash and equity. Zynga hope that their acquisition's successful brands and development software will reverse their own post-Facebook decline, announcing 15% job losses within Zynga in the same statement. UK-based NaturalMotion made its name in animation technology (used in Grand Theft Auto 4 and Bioshock Infinite), and published sports and horse-related iPhone games until it acquired CSR Racing developer Boss Alien in 2012. Despite the acquisition, the company will continue to publish games under its own name.
56143847
submission
holy_calamity writes:
MIT Technology Review reports on a new cryptosystem designed to protect stolen data against attempts to break encryption by brute force guessing of the password or key. Honey Encryption serves up plausible fake data in response to every incorrect guess of the password. If the attacker does eventually guess correctly, the real data should be lost amongst the crowd of spoof data. Ari Juels, who invented the technique and was previously chief scientist at RSA, is working on software to protect password managers using the technique.
55455731
submission
sunbird writes:
Edward Snowden is joining the board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a nonprofit committed to defending public-interest journalism which exposes law-breaking in government. The foundation is presently raising money and awareness for a variety of open-source encryption tools. Please consider donating to my favorite: the LEAP Encryption Access Project.