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Submission + - Judge orders professor removed from no-fly list (seattletimes.com) 1

Submitted by Okian Warrior
Okian Warrior writes: In a followup to Slashdot's previous article, a federal judge has ordered Rahinah Ibrahim removed from the U.S. government's no-fly list.

Rahinah Ibrahim eventually won the no-fly list ruling after her daughter, a US citizen, was prevented from returning to the country to testify at the trial.

Here's hoping this is the first of many successful challenges to the no-fly list.

Submission + - Build An Open-Source Electric Car In One Hour, For $4,000 1

Submitted by joe5
joe5 writes: Like what Elon Musk has done building an electric car and want to go all Etsy and build your own? That's apparently now possible now thanks to the OSVehicle Tabby — dubbed the first "Open source vehicle" (memo: it may be cool, but it ain't the first). The OSV guys are taking pre-orders for the Tabby starter kit, with both the two-seater or four-seater configurations going for €500. Then you click to add options (Note: seats is an "option" so that's the level of luxury you are dealing with here) When the transactions complete, OSV sends the parts to your home and you can download the plans and start building. Since the Tabby is open source, OSVehicle will also look to a community of owners and tinkerers for suggestions and recommendations.

Submission + - The DEA Has a Secret Program to Cover Up Its Spy Ops (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: At the Drug Enforcement Agency, one hand washes the other. The idea is to spin dual strings of evidence for a criminal investigation in order to blot out the investigation's origins. It's called parallel construction, and is a tactic long used by the Special Operations Unit of the DEA to "reverse engineer evidence to hide surveillance programs from defense teams, prosecutors, and a public wary of domestic surveillance practices," according to the FOIA sleuths over at MuckRock.

Now, a FOIA request submitted by MuckRock for records on DEA "parallel construction policies" reveals just how widely the tactic of reconstructing evidence is taught and used among the secretive SPU, which counts among its ranks CIA, NSA, and FBI. (Full disclose: MuckRock and Motherboard have partnered on the ongoing Drone Census.) Based on slides released to MuckRock, there are at least four such "workable" methods when it comes to the US public.

Submission + - New Google Glass App Can ID a Person Just by Looking at Them (eonline.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The new app will allow people to ID you and pull up information about you, just by looking at you and scanning your face with their Google Glass. The app is called NameTag.

The "real-time facial recognition" software "can detect a face using the Google Glass camera, send it wirelessly to a server, compare it to millions of records, and in seconds return a match complete with a name, additional photos and social media profiles."

The information listed could include your name, occupation, any social media profiles you have set up and whether or not you have a criminal record ("CRIMINAL HISTORY FOUND" pops up in bright red letters according to the demo).

Submission + - Google 'Mob Sourcing' Patent Uses Video Metadata To Identify Public Gatherings (securityledger.com)

Submitted by chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: File this one in your (bulging) 'creepy big data applications' folder: Google has applied to the US government for a patent on what is described as a method for “inferring events based on mob source video,” according to the Web site Public Intelligence. (http://info.publicintelligence.net/GoogleMobVideoPatent.pdf)

According to the application, Google has developed the ability to mine metadata from videos, photos or audio submitted by Google users (to YouTube, etc.) to infer that “an event of interest has likely occurred.” The technology surveys time- and geolocation stamps on the videos and other data to correlate the activities of individuals who might be part of a gathering, The Security Ledger reports.

The Patent, US2014/0025755 A1, was published on January 23, 2014. The technology, dubbed “mob sourcing” will allow Google to correlate video and images to infer the existence of groups (i.e. a public gathering, performance or accident), then send notifications to interested parties.

“Embodiments of the present invention are thus capable of providing near real-time information to pertinent organizations when users of wireless terminals (aka ‘mobile phones’) upload video clips to the repository upon being recorded,” the application reads.

The mob sourcing capability could be used to analyze and correlate video clips submitted by users either with the user’s permission or without it, Google claims. Consumer applications could allow YouTube users who upload a video to associate it with an ongoing event –say “South by Southwest Festival 2014 – making it easier for others to enjoy a crowd-sourced view of events. As for the non-consumer applications? Well...we know what those are.

Submission + - Judge Says You Can Warn Others About Speed Traps

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Speeding is against the law, and yes, even going 5 mph over the speed limit is breaking the law. But everyone does it, right? You do it, your friends do it, heck, your grandmother does it. But what about when you see a cop? Some cops are ticketing people for notifying fellow motorists about speed traps. In Florida, Ryan Kintner simply flashed his high-beams to warning oncoming cars that there was a cop ahead. He was given a ticket for doing so. He went to court to fight the ticket, and a judge ruled that flashing lights are the equivalent of free speech, thus he had every right to flash his lights to warn oncoming cars. So what have we learned here? Basically, if you are a good Samaritan, flash your lights and warn oncoming traffic of speed traps, because this is America ,and we are allowed freedom of speech.

Submission + - NBC segment on Russian hacking needs to reveal security test particulars

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: NBC News recently ran a segment about devices in Russia being hacked within minutes and linking that to the US State Department's warning that travelers to the Winter Olympics should "have no expectations of privacy." The hacks in the video took place in Moscow. The report did not specify the devices hacked and did not detail the test environment. Visually it looks like they used a Samsung Galaxy S4 phone (hacked before coffee was finished at a restaurant), a MacBook Air and Lenevo Thinkpad (?pretty grainy to make out?). Afterwards I searched for more info on how the security tests were conducted but came up empty. My assumptions are that the devices were not hardened but connected straight to Wi-Fi. Were any patches downloaded during that time by the OS? Did the hack happen before or after the patches were applied? What actions made the Samsung Galaxy vulnerable to exploit so quickly? The exploits that happen in Russia are a click away from happening in the USA, China or Europe — could already be here. When news outlets cover security hacks, they need to provide more technical information about the actual hack. It can be in a second piece and written for technical people.

Submission + - Is Verizon Already Slowing Netflix Down? (davesblog.com)

Submitted by hondo77
hondo77 writes: From Dave's Blog: "I’ve since tested this almost every day for the last couple of weeks. During the day – the bandwidth is normal to AWS. However, after 4pm or so – things get slow. In my personal opinion, this is Verizon waging war against Netflix. Unfortunately, a lot of infrastructure is hosted on AWS. That means a lot of services are going to be impacted by this."

Submission + - Personal history may thrust new Microsoft CEO into visa debate (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: The personal history of Satya Nadella, Microsoft's new CEO, may draw him into the immigration debate over visas. His background, born in Hyderabad, earning advanced degrees in the U.S., exemplifies the type of STEM expertise that Microsoft's cites for visa liberalization. Microsoft has long argued that U.S. schools do not produce enough computer science grads. Said Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, "We have imported people, in part, because when we started the 1980s, we didn't have the capacity in our higher education institutions to produce the degrees that would be needed to take these new jobs." But Microsoft's assertions of a skills shortage have long been disputed. "Microsoft's lobbyists and executives have played the leading role in misinforming the public and policymakers about how the H-1B and L-1 visa programs are used in practice," says Ron Hira, a public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. What is certain is that Indian community in Silicon Valley is "bursting with pride" over Microsoft's new CEO, reports the LA Times.

Submission + - AT&T Is First Olympic Tech Sponsor To Criticise Russian Anti-Gay Law (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by judgecorp
judgecorp writes: AT&T has become the first tech firm to come out against the anti-gay laws which have sparked international protest centring on the Winter Olympics in Sochi. The firm sponsors the US Olympic team and has issued a statement in support of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual) equality which also strongly criticises Russia's law which bans the "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations", saying it is "harmful to a diverse society". There is now increased pressure on other sponsors for the Olympics, which include McDonalds and Coke, as well as tech firms including Samsung, Panasonic and Atos.

Submission + - Weird Asteroid Itokawa Has a Dual Personality (discovery.com)

Submitted by astroengine
astroengine writes: We care about how asteroids are made, in large part because if one were aiming to smash into us, we’d like to know what we can do about it. The structure of asteroids is also a matter of scientific curiosity, as it tells us a bit about the formation and evolution in our solar system. That is why it is so exciting that the most recent very delicate observations of asteroid 25143 Itokawa reveal some of its secrets. 25143 Itokawa is a relatively small near-Earth asteroid that was visited by the Japanese Habayusa spacecraft in 2005. It has also been monitored by Stephen Lowry of the University of Kent and his colleagues over a twelve year span with the 3.58 meter New Technology Telescope in La Silla, Chile. In that time span, Itokawa has made five near approaches to Earth. And what did they find? The asteroid is composed of two lobes of different densities, suggesting that Itokawa is in fact a merged binary.

Submission + - Should Everybody Learn to Code?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In July, the Association for Computing Machinery announced it was partnering with Code.org, with ACM contributing funding and its Director of Public Policy to Code.org in a push to 'ensure that every K-12 student in the US has the opportunity to study computer science.' Interestingly, joining others questioning the conventional Presidential wisdom that everybody-must-get-code is the Communications of the ACM, which asks in its February issue, Should Everybody Learn to Code? By the way, Code.org is bringing its Hour of Code show to the UK in March. The new National Curriculum for England that is to be taught in all primary and secondary schools beginning in September includes a new emphasis on Computer Science curricula, said to have been sparked by a speech given by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt in 2011.

Submission + - Belgian professor in cryptography hacked - probably by NSA / GCHQ (standaard.be)

Submitted by julf
julf writes: Belgian professor Jean-Jacques Quisquater, internationally renowned expert in data security who has been heavily involved in the electonic payment chips, was the victim of hacking. And, as was the case in the Belgacom hacking affair, there are indications the American secret service NSA and its British counterpart, the GCHQ might be involved.

Submission + - Oracle broadens legal fight against third-party Solaris support providers (computerworld.com.au) 1

Submitted by angry tapir
angry tapir writes: Oracle is continuing its legal battle against third-party software support providers it alleges are performing such services in a manner that violates its intellectual property. Last week, Oracle sued StratisCom, a Georgia company that offers customers support for Oracle's Solaris OS, claiming it had "misappropriated and distributed copyright, proprietary software code, along with the login credentials necessary to download this code from Oracle's password-protected websites."

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