Forgot your password?

Close
typodupeerror

+ - Does Your Data Pass the Sniff Test?->

Submitted by FreaKBeaNie
FreaKBeaNie writes "Gartner research director Anton Chuvakin talks about how the sniff and scan approach has worked to help figure out what's leaking and where it lives. “[Organizations] first saw *it* on the wire, got mad – and then got curious: just where exactly is it stored internally? “Oh, in 537 different places!” Next they fought the battle for reducing the internal exposure and then – surprise! – the occurrences of that piece of data being seen on the wire decreased as well...” But does this risk qualify as actual risk, or only implied risk?"
Link to Original Source

+ - Reddit Investigates the Boston Bombing->

Submitted by explosivejared
explosivejared writes "Reddit users have formed a crowdsourced effort to compile photos and trade theories about the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday. There's always a worry that moves like this might turn into mob-led witch hunts, but cooler heads seem to be prevailing. A post warning people of repeating the mistakes made surrounding the accusations of Richard Jewell has been voted to the top of the findbostonbombers reddit. Of particular interest is the subreddit on analysis of the bomb components. Users seem to have established the type of trigger used and may be able to establish a radius that the bomber(s) may have been within during the blast"
Link to Original Source

+ - Is 2013 the year of alternative inputs? 1

Submitted by gotfork
gotfork writes "Now that touch screens have become ubiquitous thanks to smartphones and tablets, will alternative input technologies finally start to change the way we interact with desktop computers? Touch screen monitors are becoming commonplace, and while operating systems are increasingly working to support them, David Pogue thinks it's not enough. Despite issues that remain with touch-enabled displays, I think that pen-enabled writing pads, tablets and displays are now a mature technology, since they work more readily with traditional OS interfaces. There's also interesting new technologies on the horizon — SteLuLu Technologies wants gamers to start using their feet and Leap Motion, previously covered here, wants to bring their 3D gesture input to the desktop (think a Kinect on steroids) . If you're not a fan of the new stuff, you can always hack a Nintendo Power Glove or use something that looks like a Portal gun in reverse. Keyboards and mice won't go away any time soon, but we now have many more options to use in parallel."

+ - "Micro-Gig" sites undermining workers rights?->

Submitted by Mystakaphoros
Mystakaphoros writes "An article in The Atlantic examines the effects sites like TaskRabbit, Fiverr, and Rev.com are having on employment and freelancing. (I would add Amazon's Mechanical Turk to the list as well.) As the article mentions, "Work is being stripped down to the bone. It's as if we're eliminating the 'extraneous' parts of a worker's day--like lunch or bathroom breaks--and paying only for the minutes someone is actually in front of the computer or engaged in a task." How many Slashdotters have used these sites, either to hire or work? What's been your experience?"
Link to Original Source

+ - GNOME or KDE? The Old Question Is New Today->

Submitted by jammag
jammag writes "The question is as old as Hatfield vs. McCoy, but it's taken on new relevance as user loyalties have broken down — and the Linux desktop now has a dazzling array of design philosophies, applications and unique features. Veteran Linux pundit Bruce Byfield awards points for ranking in each category. He tallies them up and recommends what he feels is clearly the best answer. You agree?"
Link to Original Source

+ - BIGGEST DDoS ATTACK IN HISTORY hammers Spamhaus->

Submitted by
iComp
iComp writes "Anti-spam organisation Spamhaus has recovered from possibly the largest DDoS attack in history.

A massive 300Gbps was thrown against Spamhaus' website but the anti-spam organisation was able to recover from the attack and get its core services back up and running. CloudFlare, the content delivery firm hired by Spamhaus last week to guard against an earlier run of DDoS attacks, was also hit, forcing it into taking the highly unusual step of dropping London as a hub in its network — as a Twitter update by CloudFlare on Monday explained.

        Our peering in London has been dropped due to a large attack. Modifying routes to avoid degradation. Affecting location: London, GB

Spamhaus supplies lists of IP addresses for servers and computers on the net linked to the distribution of spam. The blacklists supplied by the not-for-profit organisation are used by ISPs, large corporations and spam filtering vendors to block the worst sources of junk mail before other spam filtering measures are brought into play.

Spammers, of course, hate this practice so it's no big surprise that Spamhaus gets threatened, sued, and DDoSed regularly. Those affected by what they regard as incorrect listings also object about Spamhaus' alleged vigilante tactics.

The latest run of attacks began on 18 March with a 10Gbps packet flood that saturated Spamhaus' connection to the rest of the Internet and knocked its site offline. Spamhaus's blocklists are distributed via DNS and widely mirrored in order to ensure that it is resilient to attacks. The website, however, was unreachable and the blacklists weren't getting updated."
Link to Original Source
Government

+ - State Department's 'Keystone XL Report' actually written by pipeline contractor->

Submitted by UPZ
UPZ writes "The group Environmental Resources Management (ERM) was paid an undisclosed amount under contract to TransCanada to write the statement, which is now an official government document. The statement estimates, and then dismisses, the pipeline’s massive carbon footprint and other environmental impacts, because, it asserts, the mining and burning of the tar sands is unstoppable."
Link to Original Source
China

+ - Bruce Schneier: A Cyber Cold War" Could Destabilize the Internet->

Submitted by moon_unit2
moon_unit2 writes "In an op-ed piece over at Technology Review, Bruce Schneier says that the cyber espionage between the US, China, and other nations, has been rampant for the past decade. But he also worries that the media frenzy over recent attacks is fostering a new kind of Internet-nationalism and spurring a cyber arms race that has plenty of negative side-effects for the Internet and it's users. From the piece: "We don’t know the capabilities of the other side, and we fear that they are more capable than we are. So we spend more, just in case. The other side, of course, does the same. That spending will result in more cyber weapons for attack and more cyber-surveillance for defense. It will result in move government control over the protocols of the Internet, and less free-market innovation over the same. At its worst, we might be about to enter an information-age Cold War: one with more than two “superpowers.” Aside from this being a bad future for the Internet, this is inherently destabilizing.""
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:Mis-use of science (Score 1) 163

by beatle42 (#41098615) Attached to: Recent Warming of Antarctica "Unusual But Not Unprecedented"
So you actually think that you must know everything about a subject before you can say anything about it? I don't think there's a single subject in existence about which anyone could say anything then. Everything is us taking what we know and making educated statements about what else is likely true. If new information shows that to have been wrong we change our ideas, otherwise it strengthens things. You'll never be enough of an authority on anything to have all the answers about it, particularly with something as complex as global climate. I don't know everything about geometry, but I plan to help my daughter with her homework about it.

There's a huge gap between speaking when you know nothing and waiting until you know every minute detail. In that gap most of human knowledge rests and is built.

Comment: Re:mixed ownership (Score 1) 125

by beatle42 (#40167281) Attached to: Programmer Admits Stealing US Gov't Accounting Software Source Code
What about when the government buys a license for some COTS product? Should the government be barred from using proprietary software all together because the source will often be unavailable to us? It's certainly some different if the government is paying for development, though as I pointed out that's rarely clean cut either.

Comment: Re:mixed ownership (Score 1) 125

by beatle42 (#40167193) Attached to: Programmer Admits Stealing US Gov't Accounting Software Source Code
My point was that the government only pays, often, for part of the software. It would often be useless without some proprietary other part, so your goal wouldn't work without either depriving rights holders by virtue of them working with the government, or without you obtaining some commercial software as well.

Comment: mixed ownership (Score 2) 125

by beatle42 (#40166791) Attached to: Programmer Admits Stealing US Gov't Accounting Software Source Code
The ownership of the code can often get a little muddied, as the company who is paid to develop it may use their own funds at times too--or extend an existing product the company has for the government's needs--meaning some of it is proprietary and privately funded. This is why most such software is available for use within the government, but the private company maintains rights to continue to develop and sell it commercially as well.

Machines that have broken down will work perfectly when the repairman arrives.

Close