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Submission + - Popular Security Software Came Under Relentless NSA and GCHQ Attacks (firstlook.org)

schwit1 writes: The National Security Agency and its British counterpart, Government Communications Headquarters, have worked to subvert anti-virus and other security software in order to track users and infiltrate networks, according to documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The spy agencies have reverse engineered software products, sometimes under questionable legal authority, and monitored web and email traffic in order to discreetly thwart anti-virus software and obtain intelligence from companies about security software and users of such software. One security software maker repeatedly singled out in the documents is Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, which has a holding registered in the U.K., claims more than 270,000 corporate clients, and says it protects more than 400 million people with its products.

Submission + - General Mills to drop artificial ingredients in cereal (ap.org)

schwit1 writes: General Mills is dropping artificial colors and flavors from its cereals, the latest company to respond to a growing desire for food made with ingredients people see as natural.

The company said Monday that Trix and Reese's Puffs will be among the first cereals to undergo the changes. As a result, the reformulated Trix cereal later this year will be made with four colors instead of six, said Kate Gallager, cereal developer for General Mills.

Submission + - Taylor Swift denigrates Apple Music as 'shocking, disappointing' (betanews.com)

Mark Wilson writes: There are only a few days until Apple Music launches, but already there is quite a backlash against the music streaming service. It's not just smaller, independent labels that are complaining about Apple's refusal to pay artists any royalties during the initial three month free trial period. Taylor Swift has added her voice to the growing number of complainants, writing an open letter to Apple in which she says she will withhold her new album 1989 from the service.

In the letter, entitled "To Apple, Love Taylor", the singer says that the company's decision not to make royalty payments is "shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company". Swift is an artist who could afford to shoulder the cost of three months of not being paid by Apple, but she has chosen to make a stand and stick up for those who are less fortunate.

Submission + - School lunch program scans student thumbprints for 'tracking purposes' (eagnews.org)

schwit1 writes: A Pennsylvania school district is scanning students' thumbprints, tracking all of their lunch purchases, and turning the data over to the federal government.

The Hazleton Area School District recently announced it would be providing free meals to all students, regardless of need. The move comes after the federal government began incentivizing school districts to provide more meals to more students.

As The Citizens' Voice reports:

While it would seem that providing all children with lunch would cost districts more, the pilot federal initiative turns that assumption on its ear. The initiative encourages school districts to move toward full participation by providing districts with reimbursements that will in fact absorb the cost of providing lunch to students of all income levels, whether they walk to school — or if a chauffeur drives them.

"We will at least break even, if not come out ahead because of federal reimbursement," according to district superintendent Craig Butler. The conclusion comes after the Hazleton district purchased biometric software to track students who receive free or reduced-cost lunches.

Submission + - IMAX Tries To Censor Arstechnica over SteamVR Comparison

Cutting_Crew writes: From the article:

"Last week, Ars published a story about the newest version of SteamVR, a virtual reality system made by Valve Software. The piece includes interviews with game designers praising the new system as well as writer Sam Machkovech's own experience using SteamVR at Valve's office in Bellevue, Washington. On June 16, Ars Technica was contacted by IMAX Corporation. The company said our story required a retraction because it included a brief reference to IMAX—included without IMAX's permission. "Any unauthorized use of our trademark is expressly forbidden"

If you look at the letter from the lawyer you will notice that it mentioned trademark and seems to think that merely using the name "IMAX" is somehow an infringement of that trademark. It sounds like someone is a little too scared of Valve. Apparently, they(IMAX) has never heard of or experienced the Streisand Effect. Here is a quick link to the PDF sent by the 'lawyer'.

Submission + - Mark Zuckerberg's Cynical Ploy to Get Cheap Foreign Labor (nationalreview.com)

schwit1 writes: Immigrant Heritage Month is a project that Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg dreamed up to hold down his labor costs by importing more cheap foreign labor.

The goal is the manipulation of immigration policy — especially the H-1b program for importing cheap software drones — when there's no shortage of tech workers. Over the past year, hundreds of American tech workers have been fired and subjected to the further humiliation of being forced, as a condition of the severance package, to train their foreign replacements. Southern California Edison was the first to hit the news for this conduct; Fossil also replaced its Americans with foreigners.

Submission + - Teen killed after tracing stolen smartphone using mobile-tracking-app (independent.co.uk)

schwit1 writes: A Canadian teenager has been killed after tracking down his stolen mobile using a tracking app.

Jeremy Cook, 18, left his smart phone in a taxi at the weekend. Police officials say that Mr Cook then tracked the phone using an app and found that his phone was at a residential address. He and a relative made their way to the property in an attempt to confront the owners and retrieve the device.

Upon arrival, the pair were confronted by three men in a car. A struggle ensued as Cook attempted to run after the car and attempted to open the car door whilst it sped off. He was shot multiple times.

Comment Result of no consequences for decision makers (Score 4, Informative) 142

An inspector general report last year had advised OPM to shut down many of its computer systems because they were running without sufficient security. The agency ignored that recommendation.

In the audit report published November 12, 2014, OIG found that 11 out of 47 computer systems operated by OPM did not have current security authorizations. Furthermore, the affected systems were “amongst the most critical and sensitive applications owned by the agency.” Two of the unauthorized systems are described in the report as “general support systems” which contained over 65 percent of all OPM computer applications. Two other unauthorized systems were owned by Federal Investigative Services, the organization which handles background investigations in connection with government security clearances. OIG warned bluntly, “any weaknesses in the information systems supporting this program office could potentially have national security implications.”

Because of the volume and sensitivity of the information involved, OIG recommended OPM “consider shutting down systems that do not have a current and valid Authorization.” But OPM declined, saying, “We agree that it is important to maintain up-to-date and valid ATOs for all systems but do not believe that this condition rises to the level of a Material Weakness.”

The head of OPM also claimed in recent House hearings that their failure to close these systems down was justified since the hackers were already in the system when the recommendation was made.

In other words, we didn’t do anything to make the system secure, and when hackers broke in it was further justification for not doing anything.

Yeah, let’s put our healthcare under their control also!

Submission + - Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet smaller than Earth

schwit1 writes: Scientists have measured the size and mass of the smallest exoplanet yet, a Mars-sized planet orbiting a star about 200 light years away.

The planet, named Kepler-138 b, is the first exoplanet smaller than the Earth to have both its mass and its size measured. It is one of three planets that orbit the star Kepler-138 and that pass in front of it on every orbit as viewed from Earth — a maneuver that astronomers call a transit. "Each time a planet transits the star, it blocks a small fraction of the star's light, allowing us to measure the size of the planet," said Dr. Daniel Jontof-Hutter, a research associate in astronomy at Penn State who led the study.

"We also measured the gravity of all three planets, using data from NASA's Kepler mission, by precisely observing the times of each transit," Jontof-Hutter said. The astronomers also were able to measure the masses of these planets. "Each planet periodically slows down and accelerates ever so slightly from the gravity of its neighboring planets. This slight change in time between transits allowed us to measure the masses of the planets," Jontof-Hutter explained. After measuring both the mass and size of an exoplanet, astronomers then can calculate its density and its bulk composition.

Submission + - OPM ignored warnings last year its computers were insecure 1

schwit1 writes: An inspector general report last year had advised OPM to shut down many of its computer systems because they were running without sufficient security. The agency ignored that recommendation.

In the audit report published November 12, 2014, OIG found that 11 out of 47 computer systems operated by OPM did not have current security authorizations. Furthermore, the affected systems were "amongst the most critical and sensitive applications owned by the agency." Two of the unauthorized systems are described in the report as "general support systems" which contained over 65 percent of all OPM computer applications. Two other unauthorized systems were owned by Federal Investigative Services, the organization which handles background investigations in connection with government security clearances. OIG warned bluntly, "any weaknesses in the information systems supporting this program office could potentially have national security implications."

Because of the volume and sensitivity of the information involved, OIG recommended OPM "consider shutting down systems that do not have a current and valid Authorization." But OPM declined, saying, "We agree that it is important to maintain up-to-date and valid ATOs for all systems but do not believe that this condition rises to the level of a Material Weakness."

The head of OPM also claimed in House hearings yesterday that their failure to close these systems down was justified since the hackers were already in the system when the recommendation was made.

In other words, we didn't do anything to make the system secure, and when hackers broke in it was further justification for not doing anything.

Yeah, let's put our healthcare under their control also!

Submission + - Russian Military Developing Anti-Drone "Microwave Gun" (cbslocal.com)

schwit1 writes: The state-owned Russian defense firm, United Instrument Manufacturing Corp., reported to state-owned news site Sputnik that they'd developed a microwave-based weapon they plan to show off privately at the Russian Defense Ministry's Army-2015 expo June 16-19.

Sputnik describes UIMC's "microwave gun" as a "super-high-frequency gun capable of deactivating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and the warheads of precision weapons" from a 360-degree, 10-kilometer range.

The microwave-based anti-drone weapon reportedly disables "radio electronics" in drones, including the unmanned vehicle's cameras, turning any UAV into an aimless projectile.

Submission + - UrtheCast releases its first commercial videos of Earth

schwit1 writes: UrtheCast has released high resolution videos of three Earth cities taken from its camera on ISS.

Take a look. The cameras are quite successful in capturing the motion of vehicles on highways and road, which is amazing considering the vibrations that ISS experiences merely from astronaut movements.

The company plans to offer the imagery in several tiers, from a free video feed on its website to an API that will allow customers, including corporations, governments and individuals, to purchase imagery data from its database or make real-time requests for a look at a given spot on the earth. The cameras scan the ground under the ISS, which tracks the earth between about 51 degrees north and south latitude.

Submission + - France sells Arianespace to Airbus Safran

schwit1 writes: In negotiations resulting from increased competition in the launch industry, France and its space agency have agreed to sell their stock in Arianespace to Airbus Safran, builders of the new Ariane 6, giving that private company 74% ownership.

This report makes it clear, however, that Arianespace will essentially become irrelevant after the deal is completed. Airbus Safran will build and own the rocket, and will be in charge.

Submission + - Encryption Would Not Have Protected Secret Federal Data Says DHS

HughPickens.com writes: Sean Gallagher reports at Ars Technica that Dr. Andy Ozment, Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity in the Department of Homeland Security, told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that in the case of the recent discovery of an intrusion that gave attackers access to sensitive data on millions of government employees and government contractors, encryption would "not have helped" because the attackers had gained valid user credentials to the systems that they attacked—likely through social engineering. Ozment added that because of the lack of multifactor authentication on these systems, the attackers would have been able to use those credentials at will to access systems from within and potentially even from outside the network. "If the adversary has the credentials of a user on the network, they can access data even if it's encrypted just as the users on the network have to access data," said Ozment. "That did occur in this case. Encryption in this instance would not have protected this data."

The fact that Social Security numbers of millions of current and former federal employees were not encrypted was one of few new details emerged about the data breach and House Oversight member Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) was the one who pulled the SSN encryption answer from the teeth of the panel where others failed. "This is one of those hearings where I think that I will know less coming out of the hearing than I did when I walked in because of the obfuscation and the dancing around we are all doing here. As a matter of fact, I wish that you were as strenuous and hardworking at keeping information out of the hands of hackers as you are in keeping information out of the hands of Congress and federal employees. It's ironic. You are doing a great job stonewalling us, but hackers, not so much."

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