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Submission + - Kidnapped by an Uber Driver in DC

Submitted by westlake
westlake writes: The Tweet says it all:

Was just kidnapped by an @uber driver in DC, held against my will, and involved in a high speed chase across state lines with police

#Crazy

— Ryan W Simonetti

According to Simonetti, his Uber driver panicked and made a run for it when being tailed by a taxi inspector .

''It was like an episode of ‘Cops,'' Simonetti said. ''We’ve all seen the ‘Cops’ episode. This only ends two ways. Either the car crashes or the guy jumps out and runs. And he had plenty of opportunities to slow down and jump out and run, and he wasn’t doing that.''

“It was insane,” Simonetti said. ''I physically tried to force his leg to hit the brake. I ripped off his pant leg. I said, ‘Here's two options. You take this exit, or I’m going to knock the side of your head in. If we crash, we crash, but you’re gonna kill us anyway.''

The driver in question has been ''deactivated'' by Uber.

Man visiting D.C. says Uber driver took him on wild ride

Submission + - Media Viewer: yet another Wikipedia scandal in the making 3

Submitted by metasonix
metasonix writes: As reported on Wikipediocracy today, the Wikimedia Foundation's software developers created a new "Media Viewer" feature to show high-resolution Wikipedia images in a pop-up window. It worked, but had many problems. Result: "One month after implementation, volunteer administrator Pete Forsyth unceremoniously switched the new feature off, only to find his change reverted by none other than the Wikimedia Foundation’s Deputy Director and VP of Engineering and Product Development, Erik Möller, who threatened to remove Forsyth’s administrative privileges. Möller in turn has now been hauled in front of Wikipedia’s arbitration committee, accused of overstepping his authority." This is roughly similar to a group of volunteer police cadets attempting to remove their chief of police, for changing department policy. The story is bizarre, and it perfectly underscores the dysfunctional and twisted internal culture of Wikipedia.

Submission + - Peer Review Ring Broken - 60 Articles Retracted

Submitted by blackbeak
blackbeak writes: The Washington Post reports that the Journal of Vibration and Control's review system was hijacked by a ring of reviewers. 60 articles have been retracted as a result. If a relatively nonpolitical field like JVC covers is subject to this kind of nonsense, what might be lurking behind peer reviews in the pharmaceutical or petroleum fields? Maybe non peers should be partnered with peers to do the reviewing.

Submission + - DARPA social media research stirs a murky, controversial pot (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: DARPA’s two-year old program to better understand and perhaps ultimately influence social media has begun to bear fruit but some of that harvest is raising a stink. DARPA said when rolling out its Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program was to develop a social networks science that will develop automated and semiautomated operator support tools and techniques for the systematic and methodical use of social media at data scale and in a timely fashion. But in building that science the agency says it has funded myriad social media/Twitter research (including a study that looked at Lady Gaga’s Twitter following—a model of social media popularity, DARPA stated) as well as a look into Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit and Kickstarter.

Submission + - Why it is so hard to stop cyber crime 1

Submitted by Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: In a world where everyone with a billion dollars acts as if the laws do not apply to them, there is very little possibility of cyber security. We live in a world where corporations have set up their own private spying operations, and the police regard spying as a second career. We live in a world where nations protest America's surveillance operation, even as they run their own. We live in a world where Bloomberg feels free to run an intelligence operation on Goldman Sachs. We live in a world where News Corps feels free to run saboteur operations against it competitors.

Submission + - FTP, SFTP, FTPS? What's the difference, and how the !@#$ do I secure them? (blogspot.ca)

Submitted by MichaelBall
MichaelBall writes: File Transfer (FTP) may be the single most insecure piece of infrastructure that any corporation has. It's roots date back to the early 70's before encryption and transport security were of great concern.

Many common malware attacks rely on unsecured FTP services within a company to stage and exfiltrate sensitive corporate data to unknown third parties.

        There is little excuse for a company to be running vanilla FTP either inside their data center or especially over the Internet. Secure file transfer protocols and standards have been around and fully supported SINCE THE TURN OF THE CENTURY!!!

Submission + - OpenStack Was Denied Non-Profit Status (infoworld.com)

Submitted by WebMink
WebMink writes: Seems no-one noticed back in May, but it's not just Yorba that has fallen foul of the changing outlook of the IRS concerning open source foundations. The huge OpenStack Foundation has also been denied non-profit status by the IRS. They had applied for 501(c)(6) (trade association) status like Eclipse and Linux Foundation before them, so this is all the more surprising. Has the IRS decided the expected philanthropy of open source is being gamed by corporate abusers?

Submission + - Coddled, surveilled, and monetized

Submitted by Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: Time Magazine shows just how creepy smart homes really are

a modern surveillance state isn’t so much being forced on us, as it is sold to us device by device, with the idea that it is for our benefit. ... ... Nest sucks up data on how warm your home is. As Mocana CEO James Isaacs explained to me in early May, a detailed footprint of your comings and goings can be inferred from this information. Nest just bought Dropcam, a company that markets itself as a security tool allowing you to put cameras in your home and view them remotely, but brings with it a raft of disquieting implications about surveillance. Automatic wants you to monitor how far you drive and do things for you like talk to your your house when you’re on your way home from work and turn on lights when you pull into your garage. Tied into the new SmartThings platform, a Jawbone UP band becomes a tool for remotely monitoring someone else’s activity. The SmartThings hubs and sensors themselves put any switch or door in play. Companies like AT&T want to build a digital home that monitors your security and energy use. ... ... Withings Smart Body Analyzer monitors your weight and pulse. Teddy the Guardian is a soft toy for children that spies on their vital signs. Parrot Flower Power looks at the moisture in your home under the guise of helping you grow plants. The Beam Brush checks up on your teeth-brushing technique. The ToTo Washlet is a smart toilet. The Droplet Sprinkler helps you save water. The Ravenwindow looks at how much light is coming into your home. The Water Pebble goes in the shower and glows red if you’re taking longer than usual.

Enough to make the Stasi blush. What I cannot understand is how politicians fail to understand what a future Kenneth Starr is going to do with data like this.

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