bagpuss7 - Slashdot User

Submission + - As Feds Demand the Keys, Preparing for the Death of Public-Key Encryption (vortex.com)

Submitted by Lauren Weinstein on Wednesday July 24, 2013 @01:42PM

Lauren Weinstein writes: With further confirmation of the longstanding rumor that the U.S. government (and, we can safely assume, other governments around the world) have been pressuring major Internet firms to provide their "master" SSL keys for government surveillance purposes, we are rapidly approaching a critical technological crossroad.

It is now abundantly clear — as many of us have suspected all along — that governments and surveillance agencies of all stripes — Western, Eastern, democratic, and authoritarian, will pour essentially unlimited funds into efforts to monitor Internet communications.

Submission + - British Porn-Censoring MP Has Website Defaced With Porn

Submitted by twoheadedboy on Wednesday July 24, 2013 @10:40AM

twoheadedboy writes: Claire Perry MP, who has been the main driver of the UK government's plans for default blocking of pornography, has had her website plastered in porn by hackers. But the story only just begins there. Notable blogger Guido Fawkes, otherwise known as Paul Staines, posted on the matter, only to later be accused of sponsoring the hacking himself. During some back and forth over Twitter, it appeared Perry was "confused", as she said Fawkes had posted a link to the defaced page, when he had only shown a screenshot of the site. Given the backlash against the government's plans to censor porn and its technical fallacies, the event could be particularly embarrassing for Perry. She is not commenting on the matter, whilst Staines has threatened to sue unless Perry offers a retraction of her claim he had anything to do with the hack.

Submission + - Report: DoD Has Wasted Billions on IT Security (cio.com)

Submitted by

Curseyoukhan

on Thursday March 07, 2013 @01:29PM

Curseyoukhan writes: ""During exercises and testing, DoD red teams, using only small teams and a short amount of time, are able to significantly disrupt the 'blue team’s' ability to carry out military missions. Typically, the disruption is so great, that the exercise must be essentially reset without the cyber intrusion to allow enough operational capability to proceed. These stark demonstrations contribute to the Task Force’s assertion that the functioning of DoD’s systems is not assured in the presence of even a modestly aggressive cyber-attack."

Pentagon spent +$10 billion on IT security in FY 2011."

Submission + - EU to vote on proposal that could ban on all online pornography (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07, 2013 @01:08PM

An anonymous reader writes: The European Union is voting on a proposal next week that could lead to a blanket ban on porn in member states, and it seems the measure may well be approved.

The proposal, called "Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU," mentions issues such as women carrying a "disproportionate share of the burden" when raising a family, violence against women as "an infringement of human rights," and gender stereotypes that develop early in life.

From the proposal:

17. Calls on the EU and its Member States to take concrete action on its resolution of 16 September 1997 on discrimination against women in advertising, which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media and on the advertising of sex tourism

18. Calls on the EU to conduct research into the links between child pornography and adult pornography and the impacts on girls, women, boys and men, as well as the relationship between pornography and sexual violence

Comment Re:Explains a lot (Score 2) 214

by bagpuss7 on Friday February 08, 2013 @08:32AM (#42830861) Attached to: European Court Finds Copyright Doesn't Automatically Trump Freedom Of Expression

Does American politics have a left side?

How Microsoft Beats GNU/Linux In Schools 476

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday January 12, 2009 @06:42PM from the doing-battle-like-an-insider dept.

twitter writes "Ever wonder why schools still use Windows? Boycott Novell has extracted the details from 2002 Microsoft email presented in the Comes vrs Microsoft case and other leaks. What emerges is Microsoft's desperate battle to 'never lose to Linux.' At stake for Microsoft is more than a billion dollars of annual revenue, vital user conditioning and governmental lock in that excludes competition, and software freedom for the rest of us. Education and Government Incentives [EDGI] and "Microsoft Unlimited Potential" are programs that allows vendors to sell Windows at zero cost. Microsoft's nightmare scenario has already been realized in Indiana and other places. Windows is not really competitive and schools that switch save tens of millions of dollars. Because software is about as expensive as the hardware in these deals, the world could save up to $500 million each year by dumping Microsoft. Now that the cat is out of the bag, it's hard to see what Microsoft can do other than what they did to Peter Quinn."

Class Teaches Nerds Social Skills 639

Posted by samzenpus on Monday January 12, 2009 @12:00PM from the geeks-need-love-too dept.

PeterAitch writes "According to Reuters, Potsdam University in Germany is now teaching social skills as part of their IT courses. This is intended to 'ease entry into the world of work'. The 440 students enrolled in the master's degree course will learn how to write flirtatious text messages and emails, impress people at parties and cope with rejection(s)." The class is taught by a superficial model, who will fall in love with the nerdiest student at the end of the semester after realizing that he is beautiful on the inside.

Flying Car Ready To Take Off 315

Posted by timothy on Monday January 12, 2009 @07:42AM from the fill-up-on-windshield-fluid-please dept.

ChazeFroy writes "The first flying automobile, equally at home in the sky or on the road, is scheduled to take to the air next month. If it survives its first test flight, the Terrafugia Transition, which can transform itself from a two-seater road car to a plane in 15 seconds, is expected to land in showrooms in about 18 months' time. Terrafugia claims it will be able to fly up to 500 miles on a single tank of unleaded petrol at a cruising speed of 115mph. Even at $200,000 per automobile, they have already received 40 orders."

SCO Proposes Sale of Assets To Continue Litigation 290

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday January 11, 2009 @02:18PM from the know-when-to-fold-'em dept.

gzipped_tar sends in this excerpt from the Salt Lake Tribune: "The embattled SCO Group Inc. is proposing to auction off its core products and use proceeds to continue its controversial lawsuits over the alleged violations of its copyrights in Linux open-source software. The Lindon company has filed a new reorganization plan with the federal court in Delaware where it sought bankruptcy protection from creditors after an adverse ruling in the Linux litigation. If approved by a bankruptcy judge, the plan could mean SCO's server software and mobile products lines are owned by other parties while SCO itself remained largely to pursue the lawsuits under the leadership of CEO Darl McBride. 'One goal of this approach is to separate the legal defence of its intellectual property from its core product business,' McBride said in a letter to customers, partners and shareholders. Jeff Hunsaker, president and COO of The SCO Group, said the litigation had been distracting to the company's efforts to market its products. 'We believe there's value in these assets and in order for the business to move forward it's imperative we separate it from our legal claims and we allow our products business to move forward,' he said Friday."

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