Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
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.

Submission + - Hacker Cracks Skype's Proprietary Voip Protocol (techworld.com)

Submitted by SnugglesTheBear
SnugglesTheBear writes: "A hacker claims to have cracked the Skype’s proprietary encryption protocols that protect the VoIP company’s intellectual property.

The Luxembourg IP telephony company has zealously guarded its protocol but a hacker going by the name of ‘Sean O’Neil’ claims that he’s broken through the protection. On his blog, he praised Skype’s protection and explained the difficulty involved in breaking it. “'For over 10 years, Skype enjoyed selling the world security by obscurity. We must admit, really good obscurity. I mean, really really good obscurity. So good that almost no one has been able to reverse engineer it out of the numerous Skype binaries. Those who could, didn’t dare to publish their code, as it most certainly looked scarier than Frankenstein.'"

Though most sites were taken down almost immediately, there is still a cache of the original post.
Security

Submission + - What u talkin' bout, security?

Submitted by notquitegary_coleman
notquitegary_coleman writes: With a parent company big enough to buy and rename the Sears Tower, and savvy enough to secure their own data using RSA keys...would you expect:

+ A project run by their recently-acquired IT subsidiary, for 80+ independent contractors in Western PA, run on laptops which have cd drives and usb ports accessible, while no anti-virus, anti-spyware, or biometrics/encryption are enabled? (The machines are lojack'd for theft, and the contractors are having a check witheld until they return each machine, so it's clear that the priority is the return of the machines, NOT the security.) These machines have been used on other projects, and have been known to be the transmission route for viruses, as stated during training classes.

+ Project management distributed power-on, operating system, and web portal passwords to all 80 contractors... with all 3 levels of login for every contractor having the SAME 9char password, not set to expire or encouraged/enabled to be changed, and including the name of the company who hired the contractors!

+ Sysadmins for the subsidiary attended training classes with the contractors, because they hadn't been able to test the system at all prior to project start.

+ No testing of the wireless guest access at 20+ client sites, or the backup wireless via a variety of 3G networks, was done prior to project start.

+ The data involved in the project should be protected under HIPAA, PCI and other compliance standards and practices. For 50,000+ clients. Doesn't sound like it is being protected at all.

+ The IT group responsible for the above doesn't return phone calls trying to alert them to the problems inherent in their scheme.

I wouldn't want to be the IT VP in charge of this baby.

Slashdot Top Deals

"When the going gets tough, the tough get empirical." -- Jon Carroll

Close