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Security

Submission + - New WiFi Setup Flaw Allows Easy Router PIN Guessin (threatpost.com)

Trailrunner7 writes: There is a newly discovered vulnerability in the WiFi Protected Setup standard that reduces the number of attempts it would take an attacker to brute-force the PIN for a wireless router's setup process. The flaw results in too much information about the PIN being returned to an attacker and makes the PIN quite weak, affecting the security of millions of WiFi routers and access points.

Security researcher Stefan Viehbock discovered the vulnerability and reported it to US-CERT.The problem affects a number of vendors' products, including D-Link, Netgear, Linksys and Buffalo.

"I noticed a few really bad design decisions which enable an efficient brute force attack, thus effectively breaking the security of pretty much all WPS-enabled Wi-Fi routers. As all of the of the more recent router models come with WPS enabled by default, this affects millions of devices worldwide," Viehbock said.

Space

Submission + - Twin GRAIL Probes to Map Lunar Magnetic Field

smitty777 writes: The two washing machine sized satellites from the GRAIL program (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) launched in September are set to enter lunar orbit this weekend. As can be seen from this nifty infographic, the probes will monitor the magnetic fields from orbit via the precise distance measurements of microwaves passing between the two satellites. FTA: "The twin spacecrafts are named Grail-A and Grail-B. Grail-A will enter the moon’s orbit on New Year’s Eve, Grail-B will follow on New Year’s Day. "The purpose of the GRAIL mission is to obtain gravity data on the Moon. And with that data, the scientists are able to determine the structure of the lunar interior, from crust to core," said David Lehman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory."

This is similar to the earlier GRACE project, which not only helped map out the magnetic field of the Earth, but also helped drought conditions in the US.
Ubuntu

Submission + - Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A9 Performance Compared vs. I (phoronix.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Phoronix has benchmarked the Texas Instruments PandaBoard ES and compared its performance against Intel Atom N270, Atom Z530, Pentium M, and Core Duo T2400 processors. The OMAP4660 dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 development board generally loses out to Intel's older competition, but does manage to win in ray-tracing and other tests, and is advantageous on a per-Watt basis.
Network

Submission + - IP over Lego model train (extremetech.com)

MrSeb writes: "In one of the finest examples of what overly-entitled, First World westerners get up to during cold, winter months, a Frenchman called Maximilien has raised the useless-applications-of-technology stakes and turned a model railway into one of the world’s slowest computer networks. A Lego train carries a USB key around a model railway, stopping at three Arduino-powered "stations." The USB key is mounted and checked to see if the drive contains a packet for the Linux computer attached to the Arduino. The latency is pretty high (about 5-10 seconds), but just like bulk data transfer by loading a truck full of tapes or hard drives, throughput is probably quite good."
Apple

Submission + - Apple fined by Italy for misleading warranty terms (bbc.co.uk) 1

beaverdownunder writes: An Italian watchdog has fined Apple 900,000 euros ($1.2m, £750,000) for failing to inform Italian shoppers of their legal right to two years' technical support, recognising instead only a one-year standard warranty.

This had led people to pay extra for Apple's own support service, Applecare, which overlapped with the government-mandated guarantee.

Submission + - Brazilian economy overtakes UK's (bbc.co.uk)

GreatBunzinni writes: According to projections, Brazil's economic growth continues the trend of emergent economies overthrowing "old world" countries as the top economic engines of the world. The same predictions point that by 2020 the US will be the only western country included in the top 5 economies. Is this a side effect of globalization or does this sign the stagnation, or even regression, of the west?
Security

Submission + - Chinese developer web forum stores and leaks 6 mil (thehackernews.com)

gzipped_tar writes: The "Chinese Software Developer Network" (CSDN), operated by Bailian Midami Digital Technology Co., Ltd., is one of the largest networks of software developers in China. A text file with 6 million CSDN user credentials including user names, password, emails, all in clear text, got leaked to the Internet.

The CSDN has issued a letter of apology to its users. In the letter, it is explained that passwords created before April 2009 had been stored in plain text, while later passwords were encrypted. Users created between September 2010 and January 2011 may still suffer from email address leaks.

A summary of the most frequent passwords without the corresponding usernames is available at GitHub. Somewhat surprisingly, the cryptic sounding password "dearbook" ranks 4th with 46053 accounts using it.

Power

Submission + - Researchers develop cheap and easy to mass-produce (gizmag.com)

cylonlover writes: A team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana is reporting the creation of a "solar paint" that could mark an important milestone on the road to widespread implementation of renewable energy technology. Although the new material is still a long way off the conversion efficiencies of commercial silicon solar cells, the researchers say it is cheap to make and can be produced in large quantities.
United Kingdom

Submission + - Experts See Mobile Phones as 'Health Time Bomb' (itproportal.com)

hypnosec writes: Heath experts in the UK have warned that mobile phones are a ‘health time bomb' about to go off and have asked the government to issue warning to the public. Health experts have pointed to more than 200 medical studies that link diseases such as brain tumors to the use of mobile phones. In a report released by experts, they have blasted the government for refusing to heed their warning and tell the public about the health risks that they face due to continuous exposure to mobile phones. According to the report, young children were at the maximum risk as their skulls were not thick enough to fend off the radiation.

Comment Son of a gun; I was about to post this X-D (Score 1) 1

I think this has great potential and I want to say I thought of it first, but I didn't. My only hope is that I may be fortunate to find investors and a developed team of experts for my own futuristic startup, the 100% automated farm, complete with plants genetically modified for more rapid growth.

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