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Comment I broke the museum once (Score 2, Funny) 122

by goltz20707 (#33151524) Attached to: NSA and the National Cryptologic Museum
No, I didn't break *in* -- I broke the museum. I was standing near an exhibit of a tape library robot, busily moving tapes around, and the control panel was right out there where anyone could fiddle with it. I pushed a button -- I don't remember which one -- and the robot arm reset to its rest position and stopped. I moved away from the exhibit before anyone saw me. A week later the museum closed and didn't reopen for almost a year. So that must have been one important tape library. Sorry.
PHP

Submission + - Is PHP Insecure? (developer.com)

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: Over 60 bugs were reported in PHP over the last 30 days, should PHP users and developers be worried? Most of the flaws however are ones that developers themselves can protect against with proper coding practices according to the Andi Gutmans CEO of commercial PHP vendor Zend. He argues that PHP security is a matter of setting expectations. In his view, PHP — like all development languages, is only as secure as the code people that write code with it.

"People should not expect PHP to be able to enforce security boundaries on a developer that has permissions to run custom PHP code," Gutmans said. "It's an inherently flawed scenario — and it's the wrong layer to protect in. People must rely on properly-configured OS-level permissions for securing against untrusted developers."
Security

Submission + - Use of "A" accounts in large environments

Submitted by fatboy77
fatboy77 writes: As part of a team that supports ~1600 servers I have been charged with a task to find a way to grant admin access to the environment to team members that are spread across the world. One item that we are considering is the use of "A" accounts, that is a seperate account that is used by each team member that has elevated access to the environment. Each team member would maintain a standard user account that would be used for email, internet, and general activities, but for activities that require admin access to the servers they would each have an "A" account wich would be the same as there standard account with an A at the end of it and a separate password that is changed on a shorter schedule than there standard account.

I am wondering how other companies are handleing this type of situation.
Science

Submission + - New Radar Device Helps Blind People "See" (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by greenrainbow
greenrainbow writes: Students in Israel at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have developed new technology that allows blind people to “see” objects around them through a simple radar system. The device consists of a computer, two video cameras and a scanning light source that audibly alerts the individual of objects that are close in proximity. The system scans surrounding objects and their distance from two points, much like the human eyes. Unlike current sensor canes, this new light scanning device is a hands free system that can sense objects on the ground, overhead and in the periphery.

Submission + - New Handheld Computer is 100% Open-Source (linux.com)

Submitted by metasonix
metasonix writes: While the rest of the industry has been blubbering about the iPad and imitations thereof, Qi Hardware is actually shipping a product that is completely open-source and copyleft. The Ben NanoNote is a handheld computer that apparently contains no proprietary technology. It uses a 366 MHz MIPS processor, 32MB RAM, 2 GB flash, a 320x240 pixel color display, and a Qwerty keyboard. No network built in, though it is claimed to accept SD-card WiFi or USB-Ethernet adapters. Included is a very simple Linux OS based on the OpenWrt distro installed in Linksys routers, with Busybox GUI. It's apparently intended primarily for hardware and software hackers, not as a general-audience handheld. The price is right, though: $99.
Space

Submission + - Super Earths discovered orbiting 61 Virginis (sciencedaily.com) 1

Submitted by likuidkewl
likuidkewl writes: Two super Earths, 5 and 7.5 times the size of our home, were found to be orbiting 61 Virginis a mere 28 light years away.

"These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away," said Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC.

And yes, it was hard not to type virgins.
Spam

Submission + - The Coming Spam Pandemic (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Many spammers now have large staffs of people working on nothing but building out completely fake personas for non-existent users on social networking sites and blog networks. The spammers use these personas to create accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Blogspot and other sites that have high levels of user interaction. But these are not the easily identifiable spambots and fake profiles that have been cluttering these sites from the beginning. Instead, the personas have all of the attributes that one would expect in a real user, such as clearly defined interests, specific geographic locations, favorite bands and movies. "Their goal is to be right down the middle, not too high or too low on the radar," said Robert Hansen, a security researcher who discussed the new tactics during a webinar Wednesday put on by Black Hat and Dark Reading. Hansen, who has spoken with some of the spammers using these techniques, said that they can create as many as 500,000 to a million new personas in a single day.
Security

Submission + - Hackers Find Home in Amazon EC2 Cloud (infoworld.com)

Submitted by snydeq
snydeq writes: Security researchers have spotted the Zeus botnet running an unauthorized command and control center on Amazon's EC2 cloud computing infrastructure. This marks the first time Amazon Web Services' cloud infrastructure has been used for this type of illegal activity, according to threat researcher Don DeBolt. The hackers got onto Amazon's infrastructure by hacking into a Web site hosted on Amazon's servers and then secretly installing their command and control infrastructure.

Submission + - ACLU loses largest donor

Submitted by conspirator57
conspirator57 writes: For those of you who are big fans of civil liberties, e.g. supporters of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) eff.org, it may come as a downer to know that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) aclu.org has lost it's single largest donor to the financial crisis and burgeoning depression. This person was responsible for about 25% of ACLU's annual budget. Please support them as you are able.

Full story from Glenn Greenwald:
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/12/10/aclu/index.html

Comment Privacy International (Score 1) 1359

by goltz20707 (#28559709) Attached to: Emigrating To a Freer Country?
PI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_International) publishes a list of countries by Privacy Index. The UK is 1.5 ("Endemic surveillance societies", just ahead of Singapore), and the US is 2.0 ("Extensive surveillance societies", between Israel and Thailand). Based on that list, your best bets are Germany (3.9) or Canada (3.6) (both in the category "Consistently upholds human rights standards").
Windows

Microsoft Discontinues Windows 3.x 384

Posted by kdawson from the an-application-has-expectedly-quit dept.
rugatero writes "The BBC reports that, as of last Saturday, Microsoft is no longer issuing licenses for the 18-year-old Windows 3.x. Many here may well be surprised to learn that anyone still has use for the antiquated software, but it seems to have found a home in a number of embedded systems — including cash registers and the in-flight entertainment systems on some long-haul passenger jets (Virgin and Qantas are cited). Considering Linux's credentials as an embedded OS, this news could very well indicate the possibility of more migrations in the pipeline."
Transportation

Tesla Motors Shaken Up, Laying Off 491

Posted by kdawson from the i-want-my-i-want-my dept.
tjstork writes "Tesla Motors, the darling of technorati for its high performance electric car, may be about to go belly up. Venture capital is cut off, layoffs are under way, and construction plans are being stretched out. Elon Musk has ousted the CEO and taken the reins, blaming the global credit crunch."

US Amazon.com Website Down For Over 1 Hour 228

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the there-goes-the-bottom-line dept.
CorporalKlinger writes "CNET News is reporting that Amazon's US website, Amazon.com, has been unreachable since 10:30 AM PDT today. As of posting, visiting www.amazon.com produces an 'Http/1.1 Service Unavailable' message. According to CNET, "Based on last quarter's revenue of $4.13 billion, a full-scale global outage would cost Amazon more than $31,000 per minute on average." Some of Amazon's international websites still appear to be working, and some pages on the US Amazon.com site load if accessed using HTTPS instead of HTTP."

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