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Submission + - Computer scientists develop 'mathematical jigsaw puzzles' to encrypt software (ucla.edu)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: The claim here is that the encrypted software can be executed, but not reverse-engineered. To quote from the article:

UCLA computer science professor Amit Sahai and a team of researchers have designed a system to encrypt software so that it only allows someone to use a program as intended while preventing any deciphering of the code behind it.

According to Sahai, previously developed techniques for obfuscation presented only a "speed bump," forcing an attacker to spend some effort, perhaps a few days, trying to reverse-engineer the software. The new system, he said, puts up an "iron wall," making it impossible for an adversary to reverse-engineer the software without solving mathematical problems that take hundreds of years to work out on today's computers — a game-change in the field of cryptography.

Submission + - More Encryption Is Not the Solution (acm.org)

Submitted by CowboyRobot
CowboyRobot writes: Poul-Henning Kamp argues that the "recent exposure of the dragnet-style surveillance of Internet traffic has provoked a number of responses that are variations of the general formula, "More encryption is the solution." This is not the case. In fact, more encryption will probably only make the privacy crisis worse than it already is." His argument takes a few turns, but centers on a scenario that is a bit too easy to imagine, a government coercing software developers into disabling their encryption: "There are a whole host of things one could buy to weaken encryption. I would contact providers of popular cloud and "whatever-as-service" providers and make them an offer they couldn't refuse: on all HTTPS connections out of the country, the symmetric key cannot be random; it must come from a dictionary of 100 million random-looking keys that I provide. The key from the other side? Slip that in there somewhere, and I can find it (encrypted in a Set-Cookie header?). In the long run, nobody is going to notice that the symmetric keys are not random—you would have to scrutinize the key material in many thousands of connections before you would even start to suspect something was wrong."

Submission + - Warrantless Cellphone Tracking Is Upheld (nytimes.com)

Submitted by mendax
mendax writes: The New York Times is reporting, "In a significant victory for law enforcement, a federal appeals court on Tuesday said that government authorities could extract historical location data directly from telecommunications carriers without a search warrant. The closely watched case, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, is the first ruling that squarely addresses the constitutionality of warrantless searches of historical location data stored by cellphone service providers. Ruling 2 to 1, the court said a warrantless search was 'not per se unconstitutional' because location data was 'clearly a business record' and therefore not protected by the Fourth Amendment.'" The article pointed out that this went squarely against a New Jersey Supreme Court opinion rendered earlier this month but noted that the state court's ruling was based upon the text of the state's constitution, not that of the federal constitution.

Submission + - Asus CEO on Windows RT: "We're out." (allthingsd.com)

Submitted by symbolset
symbolset writes: AllThingsD's intrepid reporter Ina Fried has an interview up where Asus chairman and CEO Jonney Shih says they will not make any more Windows RT devices until Microsoft proves demand for the product.

This leaves Dell as the only OEM who has not sworn off Windows RT. Dell is seeking to take itself private, relying on a $2 billion loan from Microsoft.

Submission + - Ad Networks Lay Path to Million-Strong Browser Botnet (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: Every day, millions of computers run unvetted, sketchy code in the form of the JavaScript that ad networks send to publishers. Usually, that code just puts an advertiser's banner ad on a web page. But since ad networks and publishers almost never check the code for malicious properties, it can become an attack vector as well. A recent presentation at the Black Hat conference showed how ad networks could be used as unwitting middlemen to create huge, cheap botnets.

Comment Re:Are you sure it was China? (Score 2) 158

by Taco Cowboy (#44418607) Attached to: Apple Faces New China Worker Abuse Claims

But Apple's image and brand is of a better, more responsible company -- that's part of the justification for the higher price. "Everyone else does it" might be true, but the statement was "we thought you were better"

Apple ARE better.
http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/accountability.html [apple.com]

If Apple is that better they would STOP letting their contractor abusing the workers a long time ago

Back in 2010-2011, another contractor, Wintek, caused deaths and injuries to several of its workers due to n-hexane exposure - including one engineer who dropped dead while working

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/technology/23apple.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Anyone can come up with any kind of policy, and what Apple is doing is merely giving lip service to their "policy"

Especially after the death and injuries that had occurred in Wintek last time, Apple ought to have wised up and ensure that their so-called "policy" be strictly followed

Submission + - Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash (wired.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The numbers tell the story — in votes and dollars. On Wednesday, the House voted 217 to 205 not to rein in the NSA’s phone-spying dragnet. It turns out that those 217 “no” voters received twice as much campaign financing from the defense and intelligence industry as the 205 “yes” voters.

Comment Re:The Future Does Not Compute (Score 1) 140

+1 on "The Future Does Not Compute". One of my favorite books on this topic; IMHO it didn't get enough notice when it was new -- would be nice to see it get some now.

And Chris Daw, if you're out there: I still have your copy! I bought my own long ago; I've been trying to track you down ever since to return yours.

Submission + - Feds put heat on Web firms for master encryption keys (cnet.com)

Submitted by fsagx
fsagx writes: The U.S. government has attempted to obtain the master encryption keys that Internet companies use to shield millions of users' private Web communications from eavesdropping. These demands for master encryption keys, which have not been disclosed previously, represent a technological escalation in the clandestine methods that the FBI and the National Security Agency employ when conducting electronic surveillance against Internet users.

Submission + - Court Upholds Ruling on Dish Network's 'Hopper'

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling in favor of Dish Network, allowing the company to continue forward with it ad-skipping "Hopper" technology. From the article: 'Last year, Fox Broadcasting Company, with the support of other broadcast networks, sued Dish for its "Hopper" DVR and its "Auto Hop" feature, which automatically skips over commercials. According to the Fox, the Hopper automatically records eight days' worth of prime time programming on the four major networks that subscribers can play back on request. Beginning a few hours after the broadcast, viewers can choose to watch a program without ads. As we observed when the it started, this litigation was yet another in a long and ignominious series of efforts by content owners to use copyright law to control the features of personal electronic devices, and to capture for themselves the value of new technologies no matter who invents them.'

Submission + - NSA Still Funded to Spy On US Phone Records,Vote Fails 3

Submitted by turp182
turp182 writes: The Amash Amendment (#100) to HR 2397 (DOD appropriations bill) failed to pass the House of Representatives (this link will change tomorrow, it is the current day activity of the House) at 6:54PM EST today, meaning it will not be added to the appropriations bill. The amendment would have specifically defunded the bulk collection of American phone records.

Roll call may not be available until tomorrow.

Subjective: Let freedom be reigned.

Submission + - Take a look at the guy who hacked the Apple developer website (flawedgaming.com)

Submitted by The Chaos
The Chaos writes: A Turkish security researcher based in London has come forward to take responsibility for hacking the Apple developer website that compromised its database last week.

In a Youtube video posted on TechCrunch, Ibrahim Balic claimed that he was the one who hacked the Apple developer website for the greater good. He clarified that he is not a hacker, but a security researcher who performs private consulting for particular firms.

Submission + - NSA Utah Data Center Blueprints Reveal It Holds Less Than Thought (forbes.com) 1

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes: Break out the tin foil hats, and make them double thick. Fortune reports, "The NSA will soon cut the ribbon on a facility in Utah ... the center will be up and running by the “end of the fiscal year,” ....Brewster Kahle is the engineering genius behind the Internet Archive,... Kahle estimates that a space of that size could hold 10,000 racks of servers .... “So we are talking $1 billion in machines.” Kahle estimates each rack would be capable of storing 1.2 petabytes of data. ... all the phone calls made in the U.S. in a year would take up about 272 petabytes, ... If Kahle’s estimations and assumptions are correct, the facility could hold up to 12,000 petabytes, or 12 exabytes – ... but is not of the scale previously reported. Previous estimates would allow the data center to easily hold hypothetical 24-hour video and audio recordings of every person in the United States for a full year. The data center’s capacity as calculated by Kahle would only allow the NSA to create Beyonce-style archives for the 13 million people living in the Los Angeles metro area. Even that reduced number struck Internet infrastructure expert Paul Vixie as high given the space allocated for data in the facility. ... he came up with an estimate of less than 3 exabytes of data capacity for the facility. That would only allow for 24-hour recordings of what every one of Philadelphia’s 1.5 million residents was up to for a year. Still, he says that’s a lot of data pointing to a 2009 article about Google planning multiple data centers for a single exabyte of info. "

Submission + - Mussel Sticky Threads Opens New Era of Bones, Tendons Repair (counselheal.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After uncovering the secret of its strength, scientists are looking into ways of developing therapeutic use of the sticky threads that mussels use to attach themselves to rocks.
Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have announced that they uncovered the secrets behind the stickiness of the fine filaments and expect to use the mussel's technology in areas like bone and tendon repair, and even replace stitches.

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