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Security

Submission + - Is open source SNORT dead? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Is Snort, the 12-year-old open-source intrusion detection and prevention system, dead?

The Open Information Security Foundation (OISF), a nonprofit group funded by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) to come up with next-generation open source IDS/IPS, thinks so. But Snort's creator, Martin Roesch, begs to differ, and in fact, calls the OISF's first open source IDS/IPS code, Suricata 1.0 released this week, a cheap knock-off of Snort paid for with taxpayer dollars.

The OISF was founded about a year and a half ago with $1 million in funding from a DHS cybersecurity research program, according to Matt Jonkman, president of OISF. He says OISF was founded to form an open source alternative and replacement to Snort, which he says is now considered dead since the research on what is supposed to be the next-generation version of Snort, Snort 3.0, has stalled.

"Snort is not conducive to IPv6 nor to multi-threading," Jonkman says, adding, "And Snort 3.0 has been scrapped."

According to Jonkman, OISF's first open source release Suricata 1.0 is superior to Snort in a number of ways, including how it can inspect network packets using a multi-threading technology to inspect more than one packet at a time, which he claims improves the chances of detecting attack traffic
Security

Submission + - Next Adobe Reader Will Include Sandboxing (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: The next major version of Adobe's PDF Reader will feature new sandboxing technology aimed at curbing a surge in malicious hacker attacks against the widely deployed software. The security feature, called "Protected Mode," is similar to the Google Chrome sandbox and Microsoft Office 2010 Protected Viewing Mode, according to Adobe's security chief Brad Arkin.

In an interview with Threatpost, Arkin said the sandbox is scheduled for release before the end of this year and is based on Microsoft's Practical Windows Sandboxing technique. The sandbox will be turned on by default and will display all operations in a PDF file in a very restricted manner. The first sandbox implementation will isolate all “write” calls on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2003. Arkin believes this will mitigate the risk of exploits seeking to install malware on the user’s computer or otherwise change the computer’s file system or registry.
Robotics

Submission + - China Builds Enormous Optimus Prime Transformer (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by kkleiner
kkleiner writes: As if you needed convincing that the world loves robots, China’s given us 6 tons of more evidence. That’s the weight of the colossal 38 foot tall (11.5 m) statue of Optimus Prime that was recently constucted outside the Olympic ‘Bird’s Nest‘ Stadium in Beijing. Created as part of the ‘Green Dream Park’, the giant robot is made from recycled materials: the carcasses of old cars.

Submission + - Pirate ISP for Sweden (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by Fireking300
Fireking300 writes: The Pirate Party of Sweden has announced the creation of 'Pirate ISP'. Which will be a broadband provider to offer anonymity and protection to its Swedish residents from 'Big Brother'. They plan to uphold against the Swedish Government which set a law for ISPs to monitor all traffic of it's users.

Submission + - National underwear at work day (cjwake.com)

Submitted by cjwake
cjwake writes: Building off of the concept of builders and extractors posed by prominent entrepreneur & angel investor Chris Dixon, this post discusses the trap of becoming an extractor and two ways to overcome it, one of them being a tongue-in-cheek suggestion to wear your underwear to work as a sign of risk taking.
News

Submission + - Man Hacks Neighbors Wi-Fi to Threaten Biden

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A Minnesota man has been indicted for hacking into his neighbor’s Wi-Fi network and posing as the neighbor to threaten U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and e-mail child pornography, the U.S. Department of Justice said. This article explains where this guy went wrong and how he could have done it differently to avoid being caught and the threat that open wireless networks pose to the internet.

Submission + - Bot masters use facebook for control (threatpost.com)

Submitted by SnugglesTheBear
SnugglesTheBear writes: "Bot herders and the crimeware gangs behind banker Trojans have had a lot of success in the last few years with using bulletproof hosting providers as their main base of operations. But more and more, they're finding that social networks such as Twitter and Facebook are offering even more fertile and convenient grounds for controlling their malicious creations.

New research from RSA shows that the gangs behind some of the targeted banker Trojans that are such a huge problem in some countries, especially Brazil and other South American nations, are moving quietly and quickly to using social networks as the command-and-control mechanisms for their malware. The company's anti-fraud researchers recently stumbled upon one such attack in progress and watched as it unfolded."
Hardware

Submission + - Smart Metal to Make Air Cond. 175% More Efficient (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new “smart” metal developed by researchers at the University of Maryland could increase the efficiency of air-conditioning and refrigeration systems by up to 175%. The “thermally elastic” alloy, which is supported by a $500,000 grant from the US Department of Energy, works like a traditional compressor-based system, but uses far less energy. The University of Maryland team explains, “The approach is expected to increase cooling efficiency 175 percent, reduce U.S. carbon dioxide emissions by 250 million metric tons per year, and replace liquid refrigerants that can cause environmental degradation in their own right.”

Submission + - Americans Wasting Billions Tossing Food Mistakenly (businesswire.com)

Submitted by LoveFood10
LoveFood10 writes: New study by ShelfLifeAdvice.com and Harris Interactive reveals Americans are misinformed about foods’ shelf life and expiration dates, and can avoid waste and save money through proper food storage.
http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20100714005395/en/avoid-waste/food-safety/food-storage
http://shelflifeadvice.com/
IT

Submission + - IT Not the Savior of the Unemployed (hpcwire.com)

Submitted by HPC8gent
HPC8gent writes: As a journalist focused on supercomputing, I'm used to singing the praises of high-tech and the wondrous applications it delivers.But one of the darker sides to IT is its negative impact on employment. That might seem counter-intuitive. New applications should encourage new industries and demand for workers. But it hasn't worked out that way. At least not yet. And here is the evidence...

Submission + - Physicist shows U.S. CEO's grossly overpaid (scienceblog.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A Purdue University researcher has used “econophysics” to show that under ideal circumstances free markets promote fair salaries for workers and do not support CEO compensation practices common today. The research presents a new perspective on 18th century economist Adam Smith’s concept that an “invisible hand” drives a free market economy to a collective good. “This is at the intersection of physics and economics,” said the lead researcher. “We are generalizing concepts from statistical thermodynamics – the branch of physics that describes the behavior of gases, liquids and solids under heat – to analyze how free markets should perform ideally.” Result: While the free market seems to work darn well for setting salaries for 95% of the workforce, the top 5% are wildly overpaid.

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