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Submission + - The NSA has nearly complete backdoor access to Apple's iPhone (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. National Security Agency has the ability to snoop on nearly every communication sent from an Apple iPhone, according to leaked documents shared by security researcher Jacob Appelbaum and German news magazine Der Spiegel.

An NSA program called DROPOUTJEEP allows the agency to intercept SMS messages, access contact lists, locate a phone using cell tower data, and even activate the device’s microphone and camera.

According to leaked documents, the NSA claims a 100 percent success rate when it comes to implanting iOS devices with spyware. The documents suggest that the NSA needs physical access to a device to install the spyware—something the agency has achieved by rerouting shipments of devices purchased online—but a remote version of the exploit is also in the works.

Submission + - First Text Message Sent Using Vodka (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by minty3
minty3 writes: A team of scientists have successfully found a way to communicate between two points using alcohol molecules evaporated into the air.

The first message was 10101100111000101011110110, or “O Canada,” from the country’s national anthem. It was sent over several feet in an open space where it was decoded by a receiver – similar to a police Breathalyzer,

Submission + - Target has major credit card breach (chicagotribune.com) 2

Submitted by JoeyRox
JoeyRox writes: Target experienced a system-wide breach of credit card numbers over the Black Friday holiday shopping season. What's unique about this massive breach is that it didn't involve compromising a centralized data center or website but instead represented a distributed attack at individual Target stores across the country. Investigators believe customer account numbers were lifted via software installed on card readers at checkout.

Comment Re:Wait a second. (Score 1) 84

by turning in circles (#45722463) Attached to: Healthcare IT's Achilles' Heel: Sensors
Yes, but these new home sensors generate jnew/more healthcare data, sent to an app on your smart phone, that you may not want your health insurance provider to know about. For example, you are a diabetic, you let your blood sugar get too high. You are not in compliance. If your health insurance provider knows, will they charge you extra premiums for not keeping your blood sugar in the proper range? Once the data is generated, the insurer will demand a copy of it. Read The Circle by Dave Eggers.

Submission + - Cellphone data spying: It's not just the NSA (usatoday.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The National Security Agency isn't the only government entity secretly collecting data from people's cellphones. Local police are increasingly scooping it up using Stingrays.

Submission + - Even in Indianapolis (indystar.com)

Submitted by turning in circles
turning in circles writes: Those of us in boring midwest towns everybody's heard of, but nobody's visited, such as Indianapolis, take great comfort in the fact that whatever happens on the coasts, we're too small potatoes to matter. Al Qaeda won't bomb us. NSA won't snoop on us. Dull factor 100%. But maybe that's not so. Our state police just bought a device for tracking all the metadata for our cell phones whenever they like. And it was, all things considered, pretty cheap. Small town America, it's time to get scared.

Comment Re:Microsoft enters the lucrative fat shaming mark (Score 2) 299

by turning in circles (#45636335) Attached to: Microsoft's New Smart Bra Could Stop You From Over Eating
Good point about Microsoft not known for providing decent support.

Sports bra heart rate monitors are old hat, you can even get them on Amazon. Comments show that they provide great support even for large chested ladies, and are thin enough your nipples still show through.

I'm not sure I would wear a bra that told me I was overeating. I am thinking that one would stay in the closet, especially when I felt most like overeating.

Submission + - Ancient Canaanite enjoyed sophisticated drinks (huffingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: Scientists have uncovered a 3,700-year-old wine cellar in the ruins of a Canaanite palace in Israel, chemical analysis from the samples from the ceramic jars suggest they held a luxurious beverage that was evidently reserved for banquets.

The good stuff contains a blend of ingredients that may have included honey, mint, cedar, tree resins and cinnamon bark.

The discovery confirms how sophisticated wines were at that time, something suggested only by ancient texts.

The wine cellar was found this summer in palace ruins near the modern town of Nahariya in northern Israel. Researchers found 40 ceramic jars, each big enough to hold about 13 gallons, in a single room. There may be more wine stored elsewhere, but the amount found so far wouldn't be enough to supply the local population, which is why the researchers believe it was reserved for palace use. The unmarked jars are all similar as if made by the same potter, chemical analysis indicates that the jars held red wine and possibly white wine. There was no liquid left, analysis were done on residues removed from the jars.

An expert in ancient winemaking said the discovery "sheds important new light" on the development of winemaking in ancient Canaan, from which it later spread to Egypt and across the Mediterranean.

Comment Re:Better living...Indefinitely? (Score 1) 127

So the family of the terminally ill patient could in theory not only force feed the patient, they could also zap his brain to give him the "will to persevere"? Sign me up for hospice right now; I'm calling my lawyer to amend my living will and medical directives to keep that particular treat far away from me.

Submission + - The Quietest Place on Earth Will Cause You to Hallucinate in 45 Minutes

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Industry Tap reports that there is a place so quiet you can hear your heart beat, your lungs breathe and your stomach digest. It's the anechoic chamber at Orfield Labs in Minnesota where 3ft of sound-proofing fiberglass wedges and insulated steel and concrete absorbs 99.99% of sound, making it the quietest place in the world. "When it’s quiet, ears will adapt," says the company’s founder and president, Steven Orfield. "The quieter the room, the more things you hear. You'll hear your heart beating, sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly. In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound." The chamber is used by a multitude of manufacturers, to test how loud their products are and the space normally rents for $300 to $400 an hour. "It's used for formal product testing, for research into the sound of different things — heart valves, the sound of the display of a cellphone, the sound of a switch on a car dashboard." But the strangest thing about the chamber is that sensory deprivation makes the room extremely disorienting, and people can rarely stay in the dark space for long. As the minutes tick by in absolute quiet, the human mind begins to lose its grip, causing test subjects to experience visual and aural hallucinations. "We challenge people to sit in the chamber in the dark — one reporter stayed in there for 45 minutes," says Orfield who says even he can't stand the quiet for more than about 30 minutes. Nasa uses a similar chamber to test its astronauts putting them in a water-filled tank inside the room to see "how long it takes before hallucinations take place and whether they could work through it".

Submission + - No, Sh*t, Sherlock: Poop-Snooping DNA Detectives (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: News changes during holidays. It gets thinner and lighter and weirder as the hordes of writers and editors who produce the overwhelming flood of news, updates and infotainments go home to annoy friends and family rather than readers and advertisers. Top points in ridiculousness, however, go to the condo- and apartment-complex managers in Braintree, MA, who were inspired to become amateur zoo-geneticists by resident pet owners who not only refused to clean up after their pets, but challenged the apartment managers to prove it was their pets contributing the increasingly hazardous, unpleasant piles of doggie doo on apartment properties. Rather than put up with a neverending supply of potential EcoBot fuel on marring the landscaping, facilities managers took cheek swabs of all the dogs on the property and sent them to A Knoxville, Tenn. that provided DNA profiles under a program with the dignified name “PooPrints.” Now, for a fee of only $60 per pooch, residential managers can confirm the provider of a pile of PooPrintable material by comparing the DNA in the dog with the DNA in the pile. “Now you don’t really have to worry about dog poop,” said one fan of the practical application of zoological genetic analysis. “The grass is now ours again, we don’t have to worry about it [poop], and that’s a good thing.” Restraint is just as important as innovation, of course, so the building managers made a point of telling the AP reporter who wrote the story that they wouldn’t extend the effort to identifying which pooch peed on which bush and when. “That’s a little more difficult. We are not going to tackle that.” Finally, in this holiday season, something to be thankful for.

Submission + - RMS calls for "truly anonymous payment" alternative to Bitcoin 1

Submitted by BitVulture
BitVulture writes: With everybody but the Dalai Lama talking about Bitcoin, Richard Stallman took a break from his duties as high priest of the free software movement to air his views on the crypto-currency that has become virtually as valuable as gold. In an interveiw with Russian media giant RT, Stallman praised Bitcoin for allowing people to "send money to someone without getting the permission of a payment company". But he also warned against a major weakness of Bitcoin and called for the development of "a system for truly anonymous payment" online. The interview took place on the sidelines of the recent Bitcoin Expo in London. Among the guests to the gathering of Bitcoin fans, and a few critics, were 3D-printed gun developer Cody Wilson and a singer named Rachel, who was scheduled to perform the song "Bitcoin Baby".

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