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Submission + - Visualizing The Year's Top Cyber Attacks

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: OpenDNS announced findings by its research organization into the most significant cyber attacks of 2013. Red October, Kelihos, Syrian Electronic Army DNS Hijack, Syria Internet shutdown and Cryptolocker topped the list of malicious Internet events over the past twelve months. To capture the massive volume and scale of these incidents, OpenDNS created a 3D video of the DNS activity generated by each of them.

Submission + - OK, now let's build the goddamned Tesla Exhibit! (indiegogo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Show Time Exhibitions is working with the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe to build the definitive exhibit on Nikola Tesla. The exhibit "Tesla — The Man Who Electrified The World" will be a hands on, highly interactive exhibit showcasing Tesla's inventions against the background of his life and contemporaries. The exhibit will tour science and technology centers internationally before arriving at its final home, as a permanent exhibit at the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe. See how you can help make this long-awaited exhibit a reality.

Submission + - Apple Rejecting Bitcoin Apps

Submitted by mrspoonsi
mrspoonsi writes: Techcrunch: Over the past couple of months, there have been a few Bitcoin app rejections by Apple that have made some waves. First, the venture-backed startup Coinbase had its app removed entirely from the App Store. Rob Banagale, writes in a blog post about the rejection for Gliph, a peer-to-peer messaging and payments app. The rejection, Banagale notes, was based largely off of section 22.1 of Apple’s App Store review guidelines. The rule states that “apps must comply with all legal requirements in any location where they are made available to users. It is the developer’s obligation to understand and conform to all local laws.” Bitcoin is not illegal, but it is also not legally recognized by governments as a currency. This gray area is what is leading Apple to reject Bitcoin-transaction apps.

Submission + - Healthcare.gov Official Resigns, Website Still a Disaster (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: A government official who helped oversee the bug-riddled Healthcare.gov Website has resigned his post. Tony Trenkle, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees Healthcare.gov, will reportedly join the private sector after he departs on November 15. A spokesperson for the Medicare agency refused to say whether he had been forced out, telling reporters: “Tony made a decision that he was going to move to the private sector and that is what our COO announced yesterday.” Because of his supervisory role, Trenkle is considered a significant player in the Website’s development; The New York Times indicated that he was one of two federal officials who signed an internal memo suggesting that security protocols for the Website weren’t in place as recently as late September, a few days before Healthcare.gov’s launch.Following Trenkle’s resignation, Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted to the Senate Finance Committee that Healthcare.gov would require hundreds of fixes. “We’re not where we need to be,” she said. “It’s a pretty aggressive schedule to get to the entire punch list by the end of November.” Sebelius added that she was ultimately accountable for what she termed the “excruciatingly awful” rollout. Healthcare.gov has experienced massive problems since its Oct. 1 debut. In addition to repeated crashes and slow performance, the Website’s software often prevents people from setting up accounts. President Obama has expressed intense frustration with the situation, but insists the Affordable Care Act (ACA) backing the Website remains strong. “The essence of the law, the health insurance that’s available to people is working just fine,” he told reporters in October. “The problem has been that the website that’s supposed to make it easy to apply for insurance hasn’t been working.” While the federal government won’t release ‘official” enrollment numbers until the end of November, but it’s clear that the Website’s backers are losing the battle of public perception.

Submission + - Security breach forces Bitcoin bank to halt operations

Submitted by BitVulture
BitVulture writes: The hardcore Bitcoin community is abuzz with news of the closure of Inputs.io, a supposedly secure online Bitcoin wallet, after an attack resulted in the loss of 4100 Bitcoins. A PGP-signed message at the home page of the now mostly non-operational site briefly explains the situation: "Two hacks totalling about 4100 BTC have left Inputs.io unable to pay all user balances. The attacker compromised the hosting account through compromising email accounts (some very old, and without phone numbers attached, so it was easy to reset). The attacker was able to bypass 2FA due to a flaw on the server host side."

There's no word yet whether Inputs.io will eventually resume operations or whether the security breach will force the Bitcoin bank out of business.

Submission + - Senator Pushes for Protection From Drones' Prying Eyes (nationaljournal.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As the Federal Aviation Administration assesses whether commercial skies are ready for commercial, nonmilitary drones in the near future, some lawmakers are attempting to capitalize on the data-surveillance debate by pushing for preemptive privacy regulations on the still-grounded industry." http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/senator-pushes-for-protection-from-drones-prying-eyes-20131105

Submission + - Government Agencies Unable to Share Information in Event of Cyber Attack (defenseone.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "The departments of Homeland Security and Defense, including the National Security Agency, have no way of sharing current alerts about computer breaches with each other or industry, an inspector general memorandum reveals.

The problem is not an inability to document incidents, but, rather, an inability to alert potential victims as the situation unfolds and to provide instructions."
Robotics

Cyborg Cockroach Sparks Ethics Debate 512

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the lightly-sand-the-carapace dept.
sciencehabit writes "A do-it-yourself neuroscience experiment that allows students to create their own 'cyborg' insects is sparking controversy amongst scienitsts and ethicists. RoboRoach #12 is a real cockroach that a company called BackyardBrains ships to school students. The students fit the insect with a tiny backpack, which contains electrodes that feed into its antennae and receive signals by remote control — via the Bluetooth signals emitted by smartphones. A simple swipe of an iPhone can turn the insect left or right. Though some scientists say the small cyborg is a good educational tool, others say it's turning kids into psychopaths." Fitting the backpack requires poking a hole in the roach's thorax and clipping its antennae to insert electrodes.

Comment Re:This is why (Score 2) 231

by TheJediGeek (#38346848) Attached to: Does Mega Media Control 90% of Content?
You were making sense until the BS about piracy "robbing the content creators blind." Unless you ONLY get TV content from the internet and/or an OTA antenna, they've got you paying (in a sense) both ways. Cable and satellite services pay the networks to carry their channels. We pay subscription fees AND have to see the advertising. The networks are getting revenue from ad space and from the cable and satellite providers carrying their channels. They are NOT some poor and destitute artists creating these shows on a shoestring budget out of the goodness of their hearts. They're making cash hand over fist. The programming is crap because there's no reason to make anything but crap. If the unwashed masses will put up with it, they'll continue making crap. Some of us may complain about the system, but for every one of us there's thousands that will happily watch Dancing With the Stars with all the commercials and pay Comcast for the privilege.

Don't try to say that the system is the way it is because they can't afford to change it. The system is the way it is because they're making TONS of money this way and have no financial reason to change it.

Comment Re:Easier Entry (Score 3, Informative) 358

by TheJediGeek (#38137120) Attached to: Ham Radio Licenses Top 700,000, An All-Time High
No-code tech has only been around for about 20 years or so. Before the elimination of the code requirement for all license classes, there were two tech classes. The "no code" tech and tech plus. There was also Novice class which has now gone away. Interestingly, Novice required 5 wpm CW yet would not grant voice privileges on 2M or 70cm.

I think the increase in amateur radio licenses probably has more to do with more people expecting the S to HTF. There seems to be a growing expectation that a global collapse, nuclear holocaust, government collapse, zombie apocalypse are just around the corner. It's probably a combination between that and people wanting to be prepared for more local or regional disasters like blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.

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