Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Russia goes after TOR's privacy; announces 4 million Roubles bounty (techienews.co.uk)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: Government of Russia has announced a 4 million Roubles (~£65,000) bounty to anyone who develops a technology to identify users of TOR – an anonymising network capable of encrypting user data and hiding the identity of its users. The bounty has been announced by Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) in the form of a tender titled “Perform research, code ‘TOR’ (Navy)”. The public description of the project has been removed now and it only reads "cipher 'TOR' (Navy)". The ministry has said in the tender that it is looking for experts and researchers to “study the possibility of obtaining technical information about users and users equipment on the Tor anonymous network.”

Submission + - Israel Is Outgunning Hamas On Social Media, Too (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: While IDF planes drop bombs on Gaza and Hamas fires rockets from inside its borders, both groups are also tweeting, sharing, and promoting the war every step of the way.

The Gaza conflict has offered up its own brand of Twitter war between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas, who are squaring off in an online social media battle to match the on-the-ground campaign. And just as in the physical world, in the cyber version playing out in social media, the weaponry the Israelis deploy far outclasses Hamas capabilities.

The IDF has been disseminating a mixture of images, tweets, and YouTube videos designed to both justify their operations and perform the classic strategy of any military PSYOP—defining your enemy in no uncertain terms.

Submission + - NASA looking for out-of-this-world Mars communications services (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: NASA is exploring its communications options with Mars.The space agency this week issued a Request For Information that looks to explore options where it would buy commercial communications services to support users at Mars, including landers and rovers and, potentially, aerobots and orbiters.

Submission + - Cable companies: We're afraid Netflix will demand payment from ISPs (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Dega704
Dega704 writes: While the network neutrality debate has focused primarily on whether ISPs should be able to charge companies like Netflix for faster access to consumers, cable companies are now arguing that it's really Netflix who holds the market power to charge them. This argument popped up in comments submitted to the FCC by Time Warner Cable and industry groups that represent cable companies. (National Journal writer Brendan Sasso pointed this out.) The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), which represents many companies including Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Cox, and Charter wrote to the FCC:

"Even if broadband providers had an incentive to degrade their customers’ online experience in some circumstances, they have no practical ability to act on such an incentive. Today’s Internet ecosystem is dominated by a number of “hyper-giants” with growing power over key aspects of the Internet experience—including Google in search, Netflix and Google (YouTube) in online video, Amazon and eBay in e-commerce, and Facebook in social media. If a broadband provider were to approach one of these hyper-giants and threaten to block or degrade access to its site if it refused to pay a significant fee, such a strategy almost certainly would be self-defeating, in light of the immediately hostile reaction of consumers to such conduct. Indeed, it is more likely that these large edge providers would seek to extract payment from ISPs for delivery of video over last-mile networks."

Submission + - The Truth About Solar Storms

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: On Wednesday, The Washington Post ran a story about a very large solar flare two years ago that missed Earth, but not by too much. From a scientific point of view, what is it that happens when a solar flare interacts with Earth, and what are the potential dangers to both humans and humanities infrastructure? A very good overview, complete with what you can do — as both an individual and a power company — to minimize the risk and the damage when the big one comes. Unlike asteroids, these events happen every few centuries, and in our age of electronics, would now create a legitimate disaster!

Submission + - Republicans Taking Charge of Bitcoin Campaign Donations (wsj.com)

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: There are now more than 30 candidates, party organizations and PACs accepting bitcoin, according to a rough count that’s partly based on data compiled by Make Your Laws, a non-partisan political action committee focused on campaign finance reform.

It’s perhaps no surprise that New Hampshire politicians in particular have warmed to bitcoin since the Federal Election Commission approved a specific request by Make Your Laws in May. With its motto of “live free or die” and a reputation for libertarian values of the kind shared by many bitcoiners, there’s a natural fit.

There, the charge is being led by 32-year-old Republican Andrew Hemingway, the youngest gubernatorial candidate in the country. Thursday he joined a dozen candidates for the state’s Senate to incorporate onto their websites a platform from payment processor Paystand that provides an option to pay in credit card, e-check or bitcoin.

“I’m the first millennial candidate for governor anywhere in the country, so I come at this from a distinct generational perspective,” Mr. Hemingway said. “I’m also a tech entrepreneur. A lot of my friends and a lot of my regular network use bitcoins on a regular basis and have been active in the bitcoin community. So, it was a no-brainer to incorporate it into my campaign.”

Submission + - Nightfall: Can Kalgash Exist? (arxiv.org)

Submitted by jIyajbe
jIyajbe writes: Two researchers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics investigate the imaginary world of Kalgash, a planetary system based on the novel ‘Nightfall’ (Asimov & Silverberg, 1991). From the arXiv paper:

"The system consists of a planet, a moon and an astonishing six suns. The six stars cause the wider universe to be invisible to the inhabitants of the planet. The author explores the consequences of an eclipse and the resulting darkness which the Kalgash people experience for the first time. Our task is to verify if this system is feasible, from the duration of the eclipse, the ‘invisibility’ of the universe to the complex orbital dynamics."

Their conclusion?

"We have explored several aspects of Asimov’s novel. We have found that the suns, especially Dovim are bright enough to blot out the stars. Kalgash 2 can eclipse Dovim for a period of 9 hours. We also tested one possible star configuration and after running some simulations, we found that the system is possible for short periods of time."

Submission + - FBI studied how much drones impact your privacy, & then marked it secret

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: When federal agencies adopt new technology, they're required by law to do Privacy Impact Assessments, which is exactly what the FBI did regarding its secretive drone program. The PIAs are created to help the public and federal government assess what they're risking through the adoption of new technology. That part is a little trickier, since the FBI is refusing to release any of the PIA on its drone project, stating it needs to be kept, er, private to protect national security.

Submission + - Experian breach exposed 200 million Americans' personal data over a year ago

Submitted by BUL2294
BUL2294 writes: CNN Money is reporting that, prior to the Target breach that exposed information on 110 million customers, and prior to Experian gaining Target's "identity theft protection" business from that breach, Experian was involved a serious breach, to which nobody admits the scope of. Their subsidiary, Court Ventures, unwittingly sold access to a database to a Vietnamese fraudster named Hieu Minh Ngo. This database contained information on some 200 million Americans, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, birthdays, work history, driver's license numbers, email addresses, and banking information. "Criminals tapped that database 3.1 million times, investigators said. Surprised you haven't heard this? It's because Experian is staying quiet about it. It's been more than a year since Experian was notified of the leak. Yet the company still won't say how many Americans were affected. CNNMoney asked Experian to detail the scope of the breach. The company refused. "As we've said consistently, it is an unfortunate and isolated issue," Experian spokesman Gerry Tschopp said."

Submission + - U.S. State Department Computer Crash Delays Visa Applications Worldwide (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: The crash of a U.S. State Department computer earlier this week still hasn't been fully recovered from, leading to delays in applications for U.S. visas and passports all over the world. The problems first surfaced after "routine maintenance" on the consular database, which is "one of the largest Oracle-based data warehouses in the world."

Submission + - Outlook grim for orbiting Russian zero-G sex geckos

Submitted by Sockatume
Sockatume writes: Lee Hutchison at Ars Technica reports with sadness that a mission which would study the effects of freefall on lizard reproduction has gone awry. Due to control failures, it not be possible to return the capsule and its menagerie of experimental life forms to Earth. Data collection is still possible, meaning that the creatures' sacrifice will not be in vain.

Slashdot Top Deals

"When the going gets tough, the tough get empirical." -- Jon Carroll

Close