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Bitcoin

Submission + - MtGox.com Bitcoin trading site compromised (mtgox.com) 3

Submitted by Beardydog
Beardydog writes: Bitcoin trading site MtGox.com has suspended operations for the rest of the day after illicit access to at least one account resulted in a steep drop in the price of Bitcoins on the site. Commenters to the support page for the event are reporting that a list of usernames and associated email addresses and password hashes have been posted online. MtGox are currently planning to roll back all of the day's trading, email notices to all affected users, and require replacement passwords for affected accounts.

Comment Independent of any central entity (Score 1) 344

by poszi (#36476822) Attached to: Trojan Goes After Bitcoins
As much as the Bitcoin stories are getting a little much we are seeing the birth of something completely new; A medium of exchange that is independent of any government.

This is not new. There were and are many currencies independent of any government (Disney, Linden dollar, local currencies) but Bitcoin is the first project of currency fully decentralized, independent of any central authority. This is something really novel.

Comment Destroying Bitcoin is getting more and more costly (Score 0) 490

by poszi (#36175898) Attached to: Mint It Yourself With a Browser-Based Bitcoin Miner
This obviously assumes the attacker is interested in profits that can be extracted from the system. An attacker who is already wealthy, and has a greater interest in undermining the system than extracting profit from it, can trivially overwhelm the network by assembling processing power - especially if the attacker already has a stockpile of processing power.

Usually, the cost of destroying something is much cheaper than creating it. That's why terrorism can work. The cost of attacking is not that large compared to fear, destruction and cost of guarding. 9/11 proved it very well.

In case of Bitcoins, obtaining 50% of the network compute speed required for completely disrupting the Bitcoin network grows with Bitcoin size. When Bitcoin network compute speed crossed the fastest supercomputer Tianhe-1A, it is no longer that easy. Destroying Bitcoin network is roughly as costly as the Bitcoin economy size and if it grows, it will become even more costly. This is not asymmetric as in case of terrorism. It is still possible for national governments but it's no longer a matter switching on a small cluster.

Comment Cost of destroying Bitcoin will grow (Score 2) 490

by poszi (#36175788) Attached to: Mint It Yourself With a Browser-Based Bitcoin Miner
This obviously assumes the attacker is interested in profits that can be extracted from the system. An attacker who is already wealthy, and has a greater interest in undermining the system than extracting profit from it, can trivially overwhelm the network by assembling processing power - especially if the attacker already has a stockpile of processing power.

Usually, the cost of destroying something is much cheaper than creating it. That's why terrorism can work. The cost of attacking is not that large compared to fear, destruction and cost of guarding. 9/11 proved it very well. In case of Bitcoins, obtaining 50% of the network compute speed required for completely disrupting the Bitcoin network grows with Bitcoin size. When Bitcoin network compute speed crossed the fastest supercomputer Tianhe-1A, it is no longer that easy. Destroying Bitcoin economy is roughly as costly as the Bitcoin economy size and if it grows, it will become even more costly.
Sun Microsystems

Submission + - Sun Releasing 8-Core Niagara 2 Processor

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Sun Microsystems is set to announce its eight-core Niagara 2 processor next week. Each core supports eight threads, so the chip handles 64 simultaneous threads, making it the centerpiece of Sun's "Throughput Computing" effort. Along with having more cores than the quads from Intel and AMD, the Niagara 2 have dual, on-chip 10G Ethernet ports with crytopgraphic capability. Sun doesn't get much processor press, because the chips are used only in its own CoolThreads servers, but Niagara 2 will probably be the fastest processor out there when its released, other than perhaps the also little-known 4-GHz IBM Power 6.
United States

Submission + - Forensics Expert says Al-Qaeda Images Altered

Submitted by WerewolfOfVulcan
WerewolfOfVulcan writes: Wired reports that researcher Neal Krawetz revealed some veeeeeery interesting things about the Al-Qaeda images that our government loves to show off.

From the article: "Krawetz was also able to determine that the writing on the banner behind al-Zawahiri's head was added to the image afterward. In the second picture above showing the results of the error level analysis, the light clusters on the image indicate areas of the image that were added or changed. The subtitles and logos in the upper right and lower left corners (IntelCenter is an organization that monitors terrorist activity and As-Sahab is the video production branch of al Qaeda) were all added at the same time, while the banner writing was added at a different time, likely around the same time that al-Zawahiri was added, Krawetz says." Why would Al-Qaeda add an IntelCenter logo to their video? Why would IntelCenter add an Al-Qaeda logo? Methinks we have bigger fish to fry than Gonzo and his fired attorneys... }:-) The article contains links to Krawetz's presentation and the source code he used to analyze the photos.
Privacy

Submission + - Do Not Call Registry gets wake-up call (networkworld.com) 2

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "If you signed up for the federal or your state's Do Not Call Registry a few years ago, you might want to thing about refreshing it. Pennsylvanians this week got a wake up call, so to speak from the state's Attorney General Tom Corbett who kicked off a public awareness campaign designed to remind people what many have forgotten or never knew — that the 2002 law set registrations to expire after five years. That is of course unless you want to start hearing from those telemarketers as you sit down to dinner. Corbett said about 2 million people signed up in the immediate aftermath of the law taking effect and those who do not act by Sept. 15 will have their numbers dropped from the registry on Nov. 1. The Pennsylvania action is a reminder that the National Do Not Call Registry has a five year life span as well. The Federal Trade Commission is set to being a nation campaign in Spring 2008 to remind all US citizens to refresh their federal Do Not Call Registry standing. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/18066"
Television

Submission + - Vacuum tube turns 100

Submitted by
wenko
wenko writes: "The device that heralded the beginning of the 20th century electronics industry first saw the light of day in late 1906, just over a century ago. This was the triode electron tube, or audion, as its inventor called it."

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