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+ - Dice Holdings buys Slashdot and other Geeknet websites for $20M-> 3

Submitted by Angostura
Angostura writes "Dice Holdings Inc. said Tuesday that it acquired Geeknet Inc.'s online media business, including its Slashdot and SourceForge websites, for $20 million in cash.
The New York-based careers website company said the acquisition of the technology websites is part of its strategy of providing content and services geared toward technology professionals."
Link to Original Source

+ - Jail for Zynga hack->

Submitted by lec8rje
lec8rje writes "Two years for Brit who stole online chips. Judge says
"The sentence has to reflect the impact on public confidence in security systems and online business when someone breaches security in this way.""
Link to Original Source
Cellphones

+ - Google Pulls 21 Android Apps with Trojan Rootkits->

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes "Thanks to a tip-off by a redditor, and some investigation by Android Police ( http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/03/01/the-mother-of-all-android-malware-has-arrived-stolen-apps-released-to-the-market-that-root-your-phone-steal-your-data-and-open-backdoor/ ), Google has pulled 21 Android Market apps that were infected with a backdoor Trojan rootkit. If you downloaded any of the infected apps, they will be automatically deleted from your phone.

The attack vector was ingenious, and plays on the Android Market's biggest weakness: the almost complete absence of app moderation. The nefarious developer crafted 21 apps that share the name of legitimate apps (such as 'Chess'), and into each of them he inserted some Trojan code. The apps then quietly report your sensitive data back to a remote server, while you play with your free app.

Download Squad: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/02/google-pulls-21-android-malware-apps-with-trojan-rootkit-over-50000-infected/

Android Police: http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/03/01/the-mother-of-all-android-malware-has-arrived-stolen-apps-released-to-the-market-that-root-your-phone-steal-your-data-and-open-backdoor/"
Link to Original Source
Media

BBC Offers iPhone Version of iPlayer, Accessible to Linux Users Too 187

Posted by Zonk
from the so-nice-of-them dept.
smallfries writes "After a long battle with Linux users in the UK, the BBC was forced into releasing a flash version of the iPlayer streaming service to fulfill their obligations to license-fee payers. After claiming that development of Linux and Mac versions of the iPlayer would take two years, Auntie Beeb has rushed to support the iPhone. iPhone users 'can be trusted' because their platform is locked down ... so the beeb opened a non-DRM hole in the iPlayer to support them. This was guarded by the extreme security of User Agent strings! Long story short, Linux and Mac users have made their own non-DRM, non-Microsoft platform from firebug and wget. UK users can now watch (and keep) their favorite BBC shows."
Privacy

WikiLeaks Case Reopened 25

Posted by Soulskill
from the it-is-so-ordered dept.
JediLow brings news that the judge who signed the order to take down WikiLeaks.org is now reconsidering his actions. Judge Jeffrey White ordered a new hearing to be held on Friday morning to answer further questions about the case[PDF]. Meanwhile, WikiLeaks has responded harshly to the recent statement issued by the bank Julius Baer.
Privacy

+ - Surveillance out of control in GB-> 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "The machine is out of control. Personal surveillance in Britain is so extensive that no democratic oversight is remotely plausible. Some 800 organizations, including the police, the revenue, local and central government, demanded (and almost always got) 253,000 intrusions on citizen privacy in the last recorded year, 2006. This is way beyond that of any other country in the free world."
Link to Original Source
Software

Linux Kernel 2.6.24 Released 108

Posted by Soulskill
from the new-toys dept.
LinuxFan writes "Linus Torvalds has released the 2.6.24 Linux Kernel, noting that he and most of the other key Linux developers will be flying to a conference in Australia for the next week. As the whole team will be down under while the kernel is being tested by the masses, Linus added, "Let's hope it's a good one". What's new in the latest release includes an optimized CFQ scheduler, numerous new wireless drivers, tickless kernel support for the x86-64 and PPC architectures, and much more. Time to download and start compiling."
Biotech

Engineered Mosquitoes Could Wipe Out Dengue Fever 343

Posted by Soulskill
from the working-out-the-bugs dept.
Christina Valencia points us to a Wired story about scientists who plan to use genetically modified mosquitoes to reduce the population of Dengue-carrying insects. The altered genes cause newly born mosquitoes to die before they are able to breed if they are not supplied with a crucial antibiotic. This is a more aggressive approach than the anti-Malaria work we discussed last year. From Wired: "Mosquitoes pass dengue fever to up to 100 million people each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Up to 5 million die. If the scientists can replicate their results in real field conditions, their technology could kill half of the next generation of dengue mosquitoes, which scientists say would significantly reduce the spread of the disease. If all goes well the company envisions releasing the insects in Malaysia on a large scale in three years."
Biotech

Some People Just Never Learn 327

Posted by Zonk
from the i-could-use-a-dose-of-anti-a1 dept.
Iddo Genuth writes "German scientists recently showed what many of us suspected but could not prove — some people just don't learn. The German researchers have found a genetic factor that affects our ability to learn from our errors. The scientists demonstrated that men carrying the A1 mutation are less successful at learning to avoid mistakes than men who do not carry this genetic mutation. This finding has the potential to improve our understanding of the causes of addictive and compulsive behaviors."

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