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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

Comment Re:Historical analysis (Score 1) 72

by Tontoman (#46850421) Attached to: Security At Nuclear Facilities: Danger Likely Lurks From Within
Link? I know that NRC hasn't reported any incidents before 1999 http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/... . The wikipedia page speaks of incidents which are just recently declassified http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N... (footnote 43) and were not disclosed to the public by the DOE (see rocketdyne )
That being said, (and fwiw) Nuclear power as safe, clean energy. However doesn't take away the value of the research paper as to potential threat posed by insiders. Even if it has never happened, it still would be horrible consequences if it did.

Comment Re:hysterical analist (Score 1) 72

by Tontoman (#46850323) Attached to: Security At Nuclear Facilities: Danger Likely Lurks From Within
So you are saying that because the "2012 event" was caused by a mistake rather than a by a malicious action by the insider. So you are saying that there is no legitimate fear because the motive of the insider was probably pure. However, this is contradicted by the paper which said: An internal investigation found “evidence of potential tampering as the cause of the abnormal condition,” as the company reported to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Another way to look at it is this: From what I read about the incident, a fluid was put into the lubrication system of the backup diesel generator which would have caused the generator to quickly overheat and fail, if it were ever to be run (like in an emergency, for example). Do you realize that this is precisely what caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F... The cooling system for the reactors failed because they didn't have power from any diesel generator, and this (in part) caused the meltdown.
It sounds wise for nuclear industry to remain vigilant to the possibility of insider threat.

Comment Re:Historical analysis (Score 1) 72

by Tontoman (#46850227) Attached to: Security At Nuclear Facilities: Danger Likely Lurks From Within
No exactly. The paper suggests that "truth may be hard to decipher in an industry shrouded in security" which makes sense because incidents/responses would probably be highly classified. Especially involving insiders. So the best "leading examples" as you say would probably not be published in a publicly-available source.

Comment Re:It doesn't. (Score 2) 582

by Tontoman (#46761473) Attached to: How Does Heartbleed Alter the 'Open Source Is Safer' Discussion?
It is also trivial to disassemble and decompile closed-source software. Starting with the names of routines from the public entry points, trace arguments through the code, and thus find potentially exploitable defects. It's almost as easily as the rather obscure "style" of the openssl code that had the heartbleed bug. The problem is, there is a chilling effect because of laws and uncertainty surrounding reverse engineering: http://www.chillingeffects.org... . Therefore, perhaps only criminals will do it looking for exploits, Rather then well-funded (fat enforcement target) Google development teams. Therefore closed source is more vulnerable.

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