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+ - Either everyone is cyber-secure or no one is

Submitted by Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace (882157) writes "Bruce Schneier on The Democratization of Cyberattack

When I was working with the Guardian on the Snowden documents, the one top-secret program the NSA desperately did not want us to expose was QUANTUM. This is the NSA's program for what is called packet injection--basically, a technology that allows the agency to hack into computers.

Turns out, though, that the NSA was not alone in its use of this technology. The Chinese government uses packet injection to attack computers. The cyberweapons manufacturer Hacking Team sells packet injection technology to any government willing to pay for it. Criminals use it. And there are hacker tools that give the capability to individuals as well.

All of these existed before I wrote about QUANTUM. By using its knowledge to attack others rather than to build up the internet's defenses, the NSA has worked to ensure that anyone can use packet injection to hack into computers.

"

+ - Has the Supreme Court made patent reform legislation unnecessary?->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "As Congress gears up again to seriously consider patent litigation abuse—starting with the introduction of H.R. 9 (the "Innovation Act") last month—opponents of reform are arguing that recent Supreme Court cases have addressed concerns. Give the decisions time to work their way through the system, they assert.

A recent hearing on the subject before a US House Judiciary Committee (HJC) Subcommittee shined some light on the matter. And, as HJC Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a long-time leader in Internet and intellectual property issues, put it succinctly in his opening remarks:

"We've heard this before, and though I believe that the Court has taken several positive steps in the right direction, their decisions can't take the place of a clear, updated and modernized statute. In fact, many of the provisions in the Innovation Act do not necessarily lend themselves to being solved by case law, but by actual law—Congressional legislation.""
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:File extensions? (Score 1) 493

by tepples (#49177411) Attached to: Why We Should Stop Hiding File-Name Extensions

Windows do: they'll both pop up a thing saying 'You are trying to run a program downloaded from the Internet, do you really want to?', which isn't normally something that happens when people try to open a file

I beg to differ. Occasionally on Windows 8.1, I've opened a text file and still seen an alert to the effect "You are opening a text file downloaded from the Internet; are you sure?".

Comment: The sound sucks because your gear sucks. (Score 1) 86

by Lumpy (#49176955) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Wireless Microphone For Stand-up Meetings?

Get management to pony up for real AV gear. The problem is your gear is garbage and not designed for the use. There is no magical CHEAP thing you can buy.

Now get a biamp or BSS DSP and 4 boundary mics hanging from the ceiling on some 18" diameter glass plates... I can make a meeting room cover all voices in there perfectly for video and teleconference.

Comment: Re:Yes, I agree (Score 1) 493

by tepples (#49176345) Attached to: Why We Should Stop Hiding File-Name Extensions

Take away their local admin privileges already, and address the real issue (that users privilege should never exceed their knowledge.)

In principle, I agree with your "real issue". But in practice, a lot of PCs are in homes of less-than-competent people. If a machine's owner lacks knowledge, then who should have local admin privileges?

Comment: Composed vs. purchased (Score 1) 493

by tepples (#49175983) Attached to: Why We Should Stop Hiding File-Name Extensions

It's not clear if the music folder is for own composed music or purchased music.

I assume that Microsoft assumed that "own composed music" is such a small edge case that music industry professionals would be able to handle it with their own in-house best practices. Evidence is that Microsoft includes the "Xbox Music" (formerly Zune) app in Windows but doesn't include even the simplest sequencer. Or has Microsoft added one to Windows 10?

Comment: Where's this execute checkbox in Windows? (Score 1) 493

by tepples (#49175827) Attached to: Why We Should Stop Hiding File-Name Extensions

Let me guess why people don't change the executable permissions in Windows more often. One is that it's not as clearly visible as the "Allow this file to run as a program" checkbox in Nautilus or Thunar or other X11/Linux file managers. The other is that permissions other than "write" don't stick on most removable media, which is formatted FAT32 or exFAT.

Comment: Re:Bad idea (Score 1) 567

by Lumpy (#49174505) Attached to: Snowden Reportedly In Talks To Return To US To Face Trial

Absolutely, He is a fool if he even thinks about it because the DOJ can promise the world and not abide by it. In fact I guarantee they will make his life a living hell and an example to all those bad bad americans that would dare let out secrets that help terrorists.

Only a fool would come back here after blowing the whistle like that.

+ - Snowden Reportedly in Talks to Return to YS to Face Trial 1

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com (3830033) writes "The Globe and Mail reports that Edward Snowden's Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena says the fugitive former US spy agency contractor who leaked details of the government’s mass surveillance programs was working with American and German lawyers to return home. “I won’t keep it secret that he wants to return back home. And we are doing everything possible now to solve this issue. There is a group of U.S. lawyers, there is also a group of German lawyers and I’m dealing with it on the Russian side.” Kucherena added that Snowden is ready to return to the States, but on the condition that he is given a guarantee of a legal and impartial trial. The lawyer said Snowden had so far only received a guarantee from the US Attorney General that he will not face the death penalty. Kucherena says that Snowden is able to travel outside Russia since he has a three-year Russian residency permit, but "I suspect that as soon as he leaves Russia, he will be taken to the US embassy.""
Communications

Deutsche Telecom Calls For Google and Facebook To Be Regulated Like Telcos 100

Posted by timothy
from the oh-definitely-trust-the-government dept.
An anonymous reader writes Tim Hoettges, the CEO of the world's third-largest telecoms company, has called for Google and Facebook to be regulated in the same way that telcos are, declaring that "There is a convergence between over-the-top web companies and classic telcos" and "We need one level regulatory environment for us all." The Deutsche Telekom chief was speaking at Monday's Mobile World Congress, and further argued for a loosening of the current regulations which telcos operate under, in order to provide the infrastructure development that governments and policy bodies are asking of them. Hoettges' imprecation comes in the light of news about the latest Google Dance — an annual change in ranking criteria which boosts some businesses and ruins others. The case for and against regulating Google-level internet entities comes down to one question: who do you trust to 'not be evil'?

One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.

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