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Submission + - What's holding back encryption?

Submitted by
nine-times
nine-times writes: "After many years in IT, I've been surprised to notice how much of my traffic is still unencrypted. A lot of businesses that I interact with (both business and personal) are still using unencrypted FTP, and very few people use any kind of encryption for email. Most websites are still using unencrypted HTTP. DNSSEC seems to be picking up some steam, but still doesn't seem to be widely used. I would have thought there would be a concerted effort to move toward encryption for the sake of security, but it doesn't seem to be happening.

I wanted to ask the Slashdot community, what do you think the hold up is? Are the existing protocols somehow not good enough? Are the protocols fine, but not supported well enough in software? Is it too complicated to manage the various encryption protocols and keys? Is it ignorance or apathy on the part of the IT community, and that we've failed to demand it from our vendors?

What challenges have you faced in trying to increase your use of encryption, and what do you think we can do about it?"
Google

Submission + - Why China is Making a Mistake with Google

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Daniel Gross has an interesting essay in Slate that explores the question: Can China continue to grow without allowing Google—and the next Googles of the world—free rein in China? For the last 30 years, China has been testing a new model writes Gross: economic development at a breakneck pace while retaining strict limits on personal liberty, a model that has wrenched the nation into the 21st century displacing the United States as the world's largest car market and longtime rival Japan as the second-largest economy. But much of China's extraordinary development has been based on moving peasants into manufacturing while the key to future growth will lie in the services sector. Going forward, it will become more difficult for a services-based economy to prosper with restraints on communication and expression says Gross. China faces a fundamental paradox, adds Damien Ma, an analyst at the Eurasia Group. "It needs to have fairly closed information flow for political stability purposes, but doing so stifles innovation." And that's the problem. "Any type of political system can produce excellent hardware. The Soviet Union, which ruled Russia when Google co-founder Sergey Brin was born there in 1973, managed to produce nuclear weapons and satellites," writes Gross. "But in the 21st century, a country needs great software in order to thrive. It has to have a culture that facilitates the flow of information, not just goods.""
Games

Submission + - Punished by Steam for buying legal software

Submitted by
Luke O'Sullivan
Luke O'Sullivan writes: "Recently I went on holiday to Hong Kong (I live in Singapore) and picked up a copy of Left4Dead 2 for the PC. I got it back to Singapore only to find I couldn't install it because apparently it's region coded. So I contacted Steam with proof of purchase (a photo of the receipt and another of the installation key) to ask if I could exchange it for a key for my region and they refused, without explanation.

The game is cheaper in HK than Singapore, but only a little. And in any case, I didn't buy it because it was cheaper, I bought it because in Singapore it comes in a stupid non-standard A3 cardboard envelope rather than a standard DVD case. This was something else Steam just ignored when I raised it with them. I'm not a game retailer looking to buy hundred of copies in HK and profit on the price difference by re-selling them in Singapore, I'm an individual consumer who wanted to buy the product in a *standard* format which should have been available in his own territory but wasn't, hence the resulting mess. Which piece of market research suggested to these people that PC gamers in Singapore like their games to come in giant cardboard envelopes, for heaven's sakes? The x360 version is just a normal DVD case. Why oh why?

Now, furthermore, last year I ended up buying the original Left4Dead on holiday in Australia, again because I didn't want the same non-standard packaging the Singapore version of the original L4D for PC came in, and it worked fine. So was I really supposed to expect that wouldn't be the case this time? Historically, if you buy consumer PC software such as a video game, there has never been any reason to suspect it won't work so long as you meet the system spec. I bought L4D in Australia in 2008, and it worked fine in Singapore; so what reason did I have to think if I bought L4D2 in HK in 2009 it wouldn't work fine in Singapore as well?

Oh yes, the copy of L4D2 that I bought did say on the box that its for Hong Kong and Macau only, as Steam support pointed out to me. It said so *in tiny print on the back at the bottom*, which wouldn't be visible unless you read every word on the entire box before you bought it. I'm not questioning, ultimately, that as a business Valve/Steam have the right to introduce region coding if they so choose, whether to protect their pricing structure or because of censorship issues or both. Then, the choice lies with the consumer. Fine.

What I do question is how they have gone about doing it. Valve/Steam made the T&Cs about as unnoticeable as it was possible to make them while still actually having them on the box. Moreover, there was no reason for me to expect them to be there in the first place as these kinds of T&Cs have never been part of the PC gaming scene. Given the way piracy has eaten into the profits of PC gaming, anyone prepared to shell out hard cash should be treated with a lot more respect.

I'm not going to rant about how I'll never buy another game from Valve again, as they make some great titles. Nor am I going to rant about how 'Steam sucks', because actually in many ways its a great service. But I do think that in cases like this they could treat their legitimate paying customers an awful lot better, and its sad that the only recourse I have against them is to hope that I can shame them into doing the right thing by getting them some negative publicity on Slashdot."

Submission + - Help! My former employer lies to my new employers! 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As a relatively new graduate, I was hired at a small startup software company that produced e-commerce websites. (There are thousands of these companies) I did not have many options for employment, and this was better than flipping burgers. The owners/employers were your typical geek squad type without formal training. They did not believe in a business plan, client/employee contracts, or contacting lawyers. The coding was on par with CS 101, 2nd week and was a string of legal liabilities. I did not expect this company to last long, but the paychecks were not bouncing. I kept looking for new jobs, but I could not find any. Finally, I was released since they could not find any work for me to do.

Here is my problem, the company has not completely failed. I have listed this company on my resume, and I have been unintentionally slandered by the owners. I am positive the owners are not aware of slander, nor do I want to pursue legal action. However, it has cost me at least one job already. How do I list this company on my resume? How would I explain the gap in my employment? I am relatively young, so everyone checks my employment history. What do I do? I just want a job and my mom not to be my landlord/roommate!

I'm posting this as AC because I bet my former employers are reading this post while avoiding clients.
Education

Submission + - What to show 7/8 graders in database research? 6

Submitted by PeterBVolk
PeterBVolk writes: Every year a magent school in my german home town sends 7 and 8 graders to our university for a week. I am currently employed as a member as academic staff and this year it is my turn to think of something. They have 3 days to "research" something. On the 5th day they have to hold a presentation and explain a poster they prepared on the 4th day. I've talked with other faculties and they typically do something praktical like "measure the tensile strength" of something. What should I let them do as a database research guy? Everything we do needs to much theoretical background. In the past the CS department didn't realy have any offerings at all for that week. So what do you think could be interesting in the field of databases for 7/8 graders that they can manage in 3 days and hold a presentation on?
Security

Submission + - Latest practical attacks on AES-256 (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
xizhi.zhu
xizhi.zhu writes: "As blogged by Schneier, there is another new attack against AES-256. This new attack can break AES-256 of 9 rounds at the time 2^39, AES-256 of 10 rounds at time 2^45, and AES-256 of 11 rounds at time 2^70. Note that the full AES-256 has 14 rounds. However, this attack requires the cryptanalyst to have access to plain-texts encrypted with multiple keys that are related in a specific way. Also, Schneier suggests AES-128 at 16 rounds, AES-192 at 20 rounds, and AES-256 at 28 rounds."

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Thus spake the master programmer: "After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless." -- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"

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