59250205
submission
judgecorp writes:
Pavel Durov, who founded Russia's largest social network Vkontakte in 2007, has been sacked from the service,. and has left the country saying Russia is no place to run an Internet business. He was forced out by the two biggest shareholders, USP and mail.ru, but claims the reason was his refusal to co-operate with the KGB's successor, the FSB and disclose personal data fromVkontakte which claims around 250 million subscribers.
59169175
submission
judgecorp writes:
Although he was cleared of any wrongdoing, GitHub president Tom Preston-Werner has resigned from the company saying that his presence there would be "a distraction for both me and the company". Developer Julie Horvath left GitHub claiming harassment — an independent investigation subsequently cleared Preston-Werner.
58804515
submission
judgecorp writes:
Three weeks after Russia asserted that Crimea is part of its territory, the social networks have a problem: how to categories their users from the region? Facebook and the largest Russian social network Vkontakte still Say Crimeans are located in Ukraine, while other Russian social networks say they are Russians. Meanwhile, on Wikipedia, an edit war has resulted in Crimea being part of Russia, but shaded a different colour to signify the territory is disputed. Search engine Yandex is trying to cover both angles: its maps service gives a different answer, depending on which location you send your query from.
58158085
submission
judgecorp writes:
Wordpress users have been warned of malicious plugins disguised as patches for legitimate add-ons. Many of these exploits have been uploaded to wplist.org,in 2013 and 2014. Unsuspecting users who install them will hand over control of their sites to attackers.
58154871
submission
judgecorp writes:
Fugitive entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has launched a political party in New Zealand although he himself cannot stand for election. Dotcom, founder of Megaupload is a German national, not a New Zealand citizen. He is also on bail pending extradition to the US over claims that his Megaupload site infringed copyright. The Internet Party manifesto promises net neutrality, privacy, and faster broadband. Meanwhile, his new venture Mega is now worth NZ$210 million (£108m) thanks to a reverse takeover. He has also had to assure the New Zealand media that owning a signed copy of Mein Kampf doesn't mean he is a Nazi.
58089613
submission
judgecorp writes:
A newly discovered malware attack uses a smartphone connected to the computer that manages an ATM, and then sends an SMS message to instruct it to dispense cash. The attack was reported by Symantec, and builds on a previous piece of malware called Backdoor.Ploutus. It is being used in actual attacks, and Symantec has demonstrated it with an ATM in its labs, though it is not revealing the brand of the vulnerable machines.
57874283
submission
judgecorp writes:
Liquid cooling can be delivered up close to the processor, running through chips which are built in a 3D layers, according to researchers at EPFL university in Lausanne. The idea, under development for some years, requires fluid running in tiny micro-channels across the chip, some of it will boil, creating efficient "two-phase" cooling. The researchers are working on creating a two-phase where the cooling effect is not ruined by turbulence and hotspots.
57833651
submission
judgecorp writes:
A Windows Remote Access Trojan called GimmeRAT has been given the ability to infect Android machines also, according to WinSpy. It was delivered in a fake payslip to a US financial organisation.
57792705
submission
judgecorp writes:
It's taken a while, but security commentators have started to say that the missing Malaysian flight MH370 could have been taken by hackers. The proposed method is to break into the in-flight entertainment system using its USB port and go from there to the navigation systems. It's very speculative, but last year a researcher said it was possible to take control of a plane using an Android phone app.
57790013
submission
judgecorp writes:
An €2.9 million European Commission funded project aims to make data centres more efficient, and one of its ideas is to use second hand car batteries to power data centres. The GreenDataNet consortium includes Nissan, which predicts a glut of still-usable second hand car batteries in around 15 years, when the cars start to wear out. Gathered into large units, these could store enough power to help with the big problem of the electricity grid — the mismatch between local renewable generation cycles and the peaks of demand for power.
57591599
submission
judgecorp writes:
As the situation in Ukraine has escalated there have been reports of cyber attacks, with Ukrainian news sites and politicians' phones under attack. Observers have assumed that the Russian government is organising these attacks, but Kaspersky CEO Eugene Kaspersky thinks it's more likely the work of patriotic vigilante hacktivists. The attacks have been somewhat obvious, and would "damage trust between nations", says the Russian security expert.
57579759
submission
judgecorp writes:
Volkswagen's CEO Martin Winkerhorn sees cars as a "moving data centre" and wants to push forward on connecting them, as well as making driverless cars, but he raised a big concern — guaranteeing drivers' privacy — in a speech to the German CeBIT tech show. Intelligent cars will be a big project, and need collaboration between auto makers, as well as tech firms, he said.
57336733
submission
judgecorp writes:
The Ukrainian security service has claimed that Russian forces in Crimea are attacking Ukraine's mobile networks and politicians phones in particular. Meanwhile, pro-Russian hackers have defaced Ukrainian news sites, posting a list of forty web destinations where content has been replaced. The pro-Russians have demonstrated Godwin's Rule — their animated GIF equates the rest of Ukraine to Nazis.
57334599
submission
judgecorp writes:
Facebook is reportedly hoping to buy drone specialist Titan Aerospace in order to provide airborne relays for Internet connectivity in developing countries, as part of its internet.org project. The solar-powered drones are classified as "atmospheric satellites" and can fly for five years. The rumoured project sounds quite similar to Google's Project Loon which proposes using balloons for the same job.
57296463
submission
judgecorp writes:
While Russia's political activity is centre stage, its cyber-espionage apparently continues Russian intelligence is strongly suspected of being behind the Urburos malware which is targetting Western governments and commercial organisations. There are Russian-language strings in the code, and it searches its victims' systems for Agent BTZ, malware used in previous attacks believed to have been carried out by Russia.
