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Government

Submission + - Pentagon hires hackers

Submitted by
maclizard
maclizard writes: "CNN is reporting that the Pentagon is looking for hackers to help secure National intelligence.

From the Article:
"Some of you are extremely talented, gifted even at what you do," said Arthur Money, Assistant Secretary of Defense and CIO at the Department of Defense (DoD). "If you're thinking about what you want to do with the rest of your life, maybe you should think about this in a different manner. You should think about coming to work for us.""

Comment Re:Theft is still theft (Score 0) 587

by nmrtian (#27575901) Attached to: Obama Taps a 5th Lawyer From the RIAA
Valid point but one that I didn't address. I too hate to see business too strongly involved in government -- their interest is not that of the people. As a Canadian, I was happy to see the end of W but on our political spectrum Obama is still a conservative and his actions just confirm that.

Comment Theft is still theft (Score 0, Troll) 587

by nmrtian (#27574053) Attached to: Obama Taps a 5th Lawyer From the RIAA
The current that runs through almost of the postings and comments on Slashdot is that music, once released, is in the public commons. It isn't. It never has been. Musicians are losing a lot of money because copyright is ignored and most need that money desperately. Grow up people. Pay for your entertainment and stop whining!
United States

Submission + - Cancellation of Future Combat Systems possible (nextgov.com)

Submitted by suitablegirl
suitablegirl writes: As the Pentagon's internal budget negotiations begin to wind down, the future looks bleak for the Army's Future Combat Systems, the service's ambitious $160 billion modernization effort that is widely expected to become a casualty of the FY10 budget. Defense Secretary Gates is weighing everything from dramatically scaling back FCS ground vehicles to canceling the program, according to several sources closely tracking the budget negotiations. He has said he will withhold making any final decisions until the end of the internal budget process. Senior Army officials are fighting to save the program — the most expensive and far-reaching technological endeavor in the service's history — from the kinds of large-scale cuts that would force the service to rewrite its modernization plans. But whatever the outcome of the budget negotiations, FCS appears likely to emerge a drastically different program than the one envisioned by the Army — a system of unmanned aircraft, eight manned ground vehicles, unmanned vehicles and sensors linked by an intricate wireless network.
Security

Submission + - Massive threat to instant messaging unveiled

Submitted by SecurityConcious
SecurityConcious writes: Security researchers reported on the bugtraq security mailing list that they have found a way to exploit instant messaging applications by encoding shellcodes into smileys. "This would make massive attacks against instant messaging applications impossible to catch by anti-virus, IDS or similar signature based technologies. Moreover, it is possible to conduct attacks with plausible deniability." they said. They are urging chat network operators to disable smileys to mitigate the threat. Is this the end of friendly IM ?
Space

Submission + - Unknown Substance on Saturn's Moons Identified (spacefellowship.com)

Submitted by
Matt_dk
Matt_dk writes: "For more than 30 years, scientists have been observing an unknown substance on the dark surfaces of objects far beyond the Earth in the outer solar system. After analyzing images from the Cassini spacecraft, scientists are able to finally verify the unknown substance seen on the deep red surfaces of Saturn's moons Iapetus, Phoebe, and Hyperion. "The surface material of these outer objects was always a mystery," said Dale Cruikshank, a space scientist at NASA Ames Research Center."
Microsoft

Submission + - MS bundles broken random number tool in Vista SP1 (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by DeeQ
DeeQ writes: Microsoft plans to bundle a cryptographically flawed pseudo random number generator in its upcoming service pack for Windows Vista.

The cryptographically weak Dual_EC_DRBG approach, which is based on the mathematics of elliptic curves, was one of four "deterministic random bit generators", approved by the NIST in March.

Flaws in the approach (Dual_EC_DRBG) first emerged in August at the Crypto 2007 conference when cryptographers Dan Shumow and Niels Ferguson demonstrated that two constants in the standard used to define the algorithm's elliptic curve have a relationship with a second, secret set of numbers.

Anyone who had access to the second set of numbers would have a kind of skeleton key able to unlock any instance of Dual_EC_DRBG. Suspicions that this weakness might be used as a backdoor have been fueled by the NSA's support of Dual_EC_DRBG in the standards-setting process.

Random number generators are important because the correct operation of SSL and other protocols relies on their randomness.Crypto guru Bruce Schneier, who previously described the weakness as a backdoor, notes that the Dual_EC_DRBG approach will be implemented in Windows Vista SP1.
Space

Submission + - The Next Solar Cycle May Have Begun (space.com)

Submitted by
Josh Fink
Josh Fink writes: "As many of us know, the sun usually works on an 11 year cycle for extreme solar storms and flares. The last time that this cycle peaked was in 2001 and 2002. However, on December 11th, scientists began to observe a "modest knot of magnetism," and are saying this might be the signal for increased activity from our local star. From the article: 'This patch of magnetism could be a sign of the next solar cycle," said solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center. 'Solar minimum is upon us.'....Though forecasts vary wildly, some scientists predict Solar Cycle 24 will be intense. If so, 'it could have significant impacts on telecommunications, air traffic, power grids and GPS systems,' according to the NASA statement."

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