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Submission + - Terrorists used false DMCA claims to get personal data of anti-islamic youtuber

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: German newspaper FAZ reports (google translated version) that, after facing false DMCA claims by "FirstCrist, Copyright" and threatened by youtube with takedown, a youtuber running the german version of islam-critic Al Hayat TV had to disclose their identity in order to get the channel back online, in accordance with youtube policy. Later, the channel staff got a mail containing a death threat by "FirstCrist, Copyright", containing: "thank you for your personal data. [...] take care your house gets police protection!". As the staff had already suspected that "FirstCrist, Copyright" were in fact islamists, they had tried to convince youtube youtube to find another way, but in vain.

Submission + - Amazon base new AWS Directory Service on Samba4 (amazon.com)

Submitted by Jeremy Allison - Sam
Jeremy Allison - Sam writes: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/a...

"The New AWS Directory Service
Today we are introducing the AWS Directory Service to address these challenges! This managed service provides two types of directories. You can connect to an existing on-premises directory or you can set up and run a new, Samba-based directory in the Cloud."

Best news for Samba all year !

Submission + - "Calibration" error changes Illinois touchscreen votes (watchdog.org) 4

Submitted by BobandMax
BobandMax writes: In a truly shocking occurrence, a Cook County, Illinois touchscreen voting device changed votes from Republican to Democrat. Voting officials removed the machine and determined that a calibration error was at fault. The voter who brought the problem to their attention, Republican state representative candidate Jim Moynihan, was later "allowed" to vote for Republicans. Some things never change, regardless technology.

Submission + - FTDI is intentionally bricking devices using competitors' chips. (hackaday.com)

Submitted by janoc
janoc writes: It seems that FTDI has started an outright war on cloners of their popular USB bridge chips. At first the clones stopped working with the official drivers and now they are being intentionally bricked, rendering the device useless. The problem? These chips are incredibly popular and used in many consumer products. Are you sure yours doesn't contain a counterfeit one before you plug it in? What are you going to do if your device gets trashed?

The article is on Hackaday: http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22...

Submission + - "Phony Cell Phone Tower" Stories Were PR For A Secure Cell Phone Company (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: Last month, a spooky story was making the rounds on tech news sites: mysterious cell phone towers popping up all over the country claimed by nobody. In fact, the towers are almost certainly run by law enforcement agencies, while unsettling, aren't new; and almost every story includes quotes from Les Goldsmith, the CEO of ESD America, the company that sells the phones that detected the towers — stock Galaxy S IIIs turned into hardened phones with numerous exploits removed and all kinds of security added. Was the whole kerfuffle a masterful act of PR?

Submission + - City of Turin to Switch from Windows to Linux and Save €6M (zdnet.com)

Submitted by jrepin
jrepin writes: The municipality of Turin in Italy hopes to save 6 million Euro over five years by switching from Windows XP to Ubuntu Linux in all of its offices. The move will mean installing the open source operating system on 8,300 PCs, which will generate an immediate saving of roughly €300 per machine (almost €2.5m altogether, made up from the cost of Windows and Office licences) — a sum that will grow over the years as the need for the renewal of proprietary software licences vanishes, and the employees get used to the new machines.

Submission + - Popular shuttered torrent site Demonoid returns

Submitted by AudioEfex
AudioEfex writes: Demonoid has emailed all registered users that it is back online — at it's original site — in a new "cloud based" back-end. There have been various attempts in the past (including one accused of simply being malware,), but so far this appears to be the original site admins and a legitimate resurrection. User registrations are also open at this time, but as a semi-private tracker, it's unknown how long that will continue.

Submission + - Chinese Government Among The Loudest Voice in Choir Telling XP Users to Try Linu (www.ecns.cn)

Submitted by phmadore
phmadore writes: "We want users to pay attention to the potential security risk brought by their Windows XP system as Microsoft ceased providing further patch services. At the same time, the ministry will work on developing China's own computer system and applications based on Linux and we hope that the users will give more support to these domestically made products," Zhang Feng, chief engineer of MIIT, told CCTV. And, well, that pretty much says it all.

Submission + - Congressman Massie Recognized for Social Media Accountability and Transparency (congressfoundation.org)

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: Congressman Massie received one of the first-ever Gold Mouse Awards for Social Media by the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF), a nonpartisan nonprofit working to improve communications between citizens and Congress and enhance operations in Capitol Hill offices. Congressman Massie received the award for exemplary accountability and transparency.

“I believe it is my responsibility to be accessible and accountable to constituents, whether I am in Kentucky or in Washington, D.C.,” said Rep. Massie. “I pledge to continue this transparent dialogue with my constituents while also discovering new and innovative ways to connect with them.”

The CMF Best Practices Report describes Rep. Massie’s Social Media use: “It is clear from his Facebook and Twitter posts that Rep. Massie takes his representational duties seriously. Their tone and content throughout his tenure have demonstrated his sense of accountability to constituents. In addition to expressing his views on both national issues and issues important to him, personally—as many Members do on social media—he also provides occasional rationales for key votes to help explain his actions to his constituents. When working in the district, he posts the towns he’ll be visiting, along with photos and summaries of his meetings to help constituents understand the work he does when the House is in recess. Rep. Massie also engages constituents in his work by inviting them to send questions during his media appearances and even when he is participating in committee hearings. Many posts also ask questions to invite opinions and feedback, and these generate significant comments and discussion in which he often participates. In these and other ways, Rep. Massie uses social media to demonstrate accountability and transparency.”

Rep. Massie is one of only 17 out of 535 Senators and Representatives to receive the first Gold Mouse Award for social media. CMF’s awards for social media emphasize specific practices, which include the following: demonstrating an effort to be transparent and accountable; focusing on constituents and constituent service; and attempting to keep constituents informed and engaged in the work of Congress.

Submission + - Downfall of the Roman Empire Caused by Concrete (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: The real reason behind the downfall of the Roman Empire might not have been lead contaminating in the water, which is the most popular theory, but the use of concrete as a building material.

Dr Penelope Davies, a historian with the University of Texas believes that the rise of concrete as a building material may have weakened ancient Rome's entire political system as Pompey and Julius Caesar began "thinking like kings".

Concrete was used to build many of Rome's finest monuments, such as the Pantheon, the Colosseum and the Tabularium, which have lasted the test of time and are still standing today.

Submission + - China Working on Linux Replacement for Windows XP (ndtv.com)

Submitted by Tontoman
Tontoman writes: Here is one possible solution to Microsoft's End of Life announcement that could provide long-term benefits for the world's largest creditor nation. From the article: "China will focus on the development of a new operating system (OS) based on Linux to cope with the shutdown of Windows XP, an official said Wednesday.
Zhang Feng, chief engineer of China's ministry of industry and information technology, said "the ministry will beef up support for the development of such an OS", Xinhua reported."

Submission + - Nasty IE Zero-Day Used in Attacks Against US Firms (securityweek.com) 1

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Researchers from FireEye have discovered a nasty zero-day exploit that bypasses the ASLR and DEP protections in Microsoft Windows and is being used in targeted attacks.

The campaign is currently targeting US-based firms tied to the defense and financial sectors, a FireEye spokesperson told SecurityWeek, and is specifically targeting IE9 through IE11. FireEye warned that the attackers are “extremely proficient at lateral movement and are difficult to track, as they typically do not reuse command and control infrastructure.”

“The exploit leverages a previously unknown use-after-free vulnerability, and uses a well-known Flash exploitation technique to achieve arbitrary memory access and bypass Windows’ ASLR and DEP protections,” FireEye wrote in a blog post Saturday. Microsoft also issued a security advisory on Saturday.

FireEye warned that the attackers are “extremely proficient at lateral movement and are difficult to track, as they typically do not reuse command and control infrastructure.”

Comment Re:Historical analysis (Score 1) 72

by Tontoman (#46850901) Attached to: Security At Nuclear Facilities: Danger Likely Lurks From Within
Two brief points:
  1. a link to some reports does not support your assertion that "All nuclear plant incidents are publicly reported." It seems likely to me some incidents are classified. But would welcome a link from you to something that backs up what you said. (for example, if there is an official policy that none are classified)
  2. The paper mentioned in TFA referred to nuclear facilities and was not limited to just nuclear power plants

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