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Comment Re:Read TFA (Score 4, Informative) 330

by awehttam (#26711701) Attached to: Students Call Space Station With Home-Built Radio
Sounds more like they built a station, not the radio.

http://www.operationfirstcontact.com/blog/episode16.htm

Today, Mr. Rector, Paul, and I went out to Radioworld and purchased a transceiver. After much research, we decided to go with the ICOM Ic-V8000. For the cost, it has exactly what we need. On Friday, we're going to be integrating it into our setup, and doing all the necessary testing.

The story is pretty hyped up but good on them anyway.
Graphics

Elcomsoft Claims WPA/WPA2 Cracking Breakthrough 349

Posted by timothy from the it-budget-excuse-par-excellence dept.
secmartin writes "Russian security firm Elcomsoft has released software that uses Nvidia GPUs to speed up the cracking of WPA and WPA2 keys by a factor of 100. Since the software allows them to network thousands of PCs, this anouncement effectively signals the death of wireless networking in business networks; any network handling sensitive data should start using VPN encryption on machines connecting over Wi-Fi networks, or stop using these networks altogether."
Security

World Bank Under Cybersiege In "Unprecedented Crisis" 377

Posted by kdawson from the wolf-really dept.
JagsLive sends in a Fox News report on large-scale and possibly ongoing security breaches at the World Bank. "The World Bank Group's computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year, FOX News has learned. It is still not known how much information was stolen. But sources inside the bank confirm that servers in the institution's highly-restricted treasury unit were deeply penetrated with spy software last April. Invaders also had full access to the rest of the bank's network for nearly a month in June and July. In total, at least six major intrusions — two of them using the same group of IP addresses originating from China — have been detected at the World Bank since the summer of 2007, with the most recent breach occurring just last month. In a frantic midnight e-mail to colleagues, the bank's senior technology manager referred to the situation as an 'unprecedented crisis.' In fact, it may be the worst security breach ever at a global financial institution. And it has left bank officials scrambling to try to understand the nature of the year-long cyber-assault, while also trying to keep the news from leaking to the public." Update: 10/11 01:15 GMT by T : Massive spyware infestations might be good cause to reevaluate the TCO of non-Windows systems on the desktop.
Privacy

US Consumers Clueless About Online Tracking 228

Posted by kdawson from the just-pretend-nobody's-watching dept.
Arashtamere writes "A study on consumer perceptions about online privacy, undertaken by the Samuelson Clinic at the University of California and the Annenberg Public Policy Center, found that the average American consumer is largely unaware that every move they make online can be, and often is, tracked by online marketers and advertising networks. Those surveyed showed little knowledge on the extent to which online tracking is happening or how the information obtained can be used. More than half of those surveyed — about 55 percent — falsely assumed that a company's privacy polices prohibited it from sharing their addresses and purchases with affiliated companies. Nearly four out of 10 online shoppers falsely believed that a company's privacy policy prohibits it from using information to analyze an individuals' activities online. And a similar number assumed that an online privacy policy meant that a company they're doing business with wouldn't collect data on their online activities and combine it with other information to create a behavioral profile."
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Steve Jobs subpoenaed over backdating scandal

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reportedly subpoenaed Apple chief executive Steve Jobs in its suit over alleged back-dating of stock options.

Newsagency Bloomberg cited sources "familiar with the matter" as saying that the executive had been called to give a deposition in the commission's suit against Nancy Heinen, Apple's former general council. The report notes that Jobs is not the target of an investigation, and that the subpoena is only related to the case against Heinen.
Businesses

Retailer Refuses Hardware Repair Due To Linux 1018

Posted by kdawson from the bad-hinge-driver dept.
Tikka writes "Today I visited PC World (London, UK) because my 5-month-old laptop has developed a manufacturing fault: the hinge to the display has started to crack the plastic casing. Anyone in the know will know that this is due to the joint inside, and it means that in time the screen will separate from the keyboard. Repair was refused, because I have Gentoo Linux on my laptop, replacing the Windows Vista that was pre-installed. PC World said that installing Linux had voided my warranty and there is nothing they will do for me. I spoke to a manager, who said that he has been told to refuse any repairs if the operating system has been changed. I feel this has really gone against my statutory rights and I will do everything I can to fight it. I will review comments for your advice."
Biotech

Submission + - Girl's heart regenerates due to artificial assist (www.cbc.ca) 1

Submitted by
Socguy
Socguy writes: "A 15-year-old girl has become the first Canadian to have an artificial heart removed after her own heart healed itself.
Doctors at the Stollery Children's hospital implanted the Berlin Heart, a portable mechanical device that keeps blood pumping in an ailing heart, so she could survive until a transplant became available.
But over the next few months, Melissa's overall condition improved dramatically, and her heart muscle regained much of its strength. After 146 days on the Berlin Heart, Melissa underwent surgery to have the device removed.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/08/28/ artificial-heart.html"
NASA

Submission + - Apollo Moon photos reveal detail

Submitted by
Klaidas
Klaidas writes: "Highly detailed photographs of the Moon taken by the Apollo missions are being made available to the public for the first in more than 30 years. Photos taken on the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions in the 1970s showed the Moon in great detail but were only ever viewed by a few scientists. Since then they have been locked away in freezers by Nasa to preserve them.
"We're scanning the pictures in a very high bit resolution — 14 bits — which means that for each pixel, you have about 16,000 shades of grey. A typical scan of a negative or film is eight bits. So it's not only that we're scanning this at a very high pixel resolution — showing detail to five millionths of a metre — but it's also a high bit resolution, because we want to preserve as much of the original information as possible.", Mark Robinson, a professor of Geological Sciences and the principal investigator on the project, told BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme."
Privacy

Submission + - Skype-Linux reads /etc/passwd and firefox profile! (skype.com)

Submitted by
mrcgran
mrcgran writes: "Users of Skype for Linux have just found out that it reads the files /etc/passwd, firefox profile, plugins, addons, etc, and many other unnecessary files in /etc. This fact was originally discovered by using AppArmor, but others have confirmed this fact using strace on versions 1.4.0.94 and 1.4.0.99. What is going on? This probably shows how important it is to use AppArmor in any closed-source application in Linux to restrict any undue access to your files."
Security

Submission + - Chinese trojans found in German Chancellor's PC (www2.irna.ir)

Submitted by
Xemu
Xemu writes: "Numerous computers of the German government, including the one of German Chancellors Angela Merkel, are infected by Chinese 'Trojan' programs, the weekly Der Spiegel news magazine said in a report to hit the newsstands on Sunday. According to the German security service, Verfassungschutz, the Chinese hackers are believed to be linked to China's People's Army. The trojans were mailed as attachments, hidden in word- and powerpoint documents."
The Internet

Submission + - US Launches "MySpace for Spies"

Submitted by mrogers
mrogers writes: According to the Financial Times, the US Director of National Intelligence is preparing to launch A-Space, 'an internal communications tool modelled on the popular social networking sites, Facebook and MySpace.' A-Space will go live in December, alongside spook-centric versions of Wikipedia and del.icio.us, in an attempt to encourage cooperation between the United States' sixteen intelligence agencies.

There's no mention of what the A stands for, though — any suggestions?
Censorship

Submission + - AT&T Practices Political Censorship (pearljam.com)

Submitted by
grcumb
grcumb writes: "Pearl Jam reports that their live webcast from Lollapalooza was censored by AT&T. The statement on the band's website outlines their concerns in the context of the ongoing Net Neutrality 'debate':

"AT&T's actions strike at the heart of the public's concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media.

"Aspects of censorship, consolidation, and preferential treatment of the internet are now being debated under the umbrella of "NetNeutrality." Check out The Future of Music or Save the Internet for more information on this issue.


It's refreshing to see that at least some of our media darlings have a clue about what this debate is about,"
Censorship

Submission + - AT&T Censors Pearl Jam anti-Bush Lyrics on Web

Submitted by ChazeFroy
ChazeFroy writes: During Sunday's live webcast of Pearl Jam's Lollapalooza show, AT&T censored anti-Bush lyrics sung by Eddie Vedder. Vedder sang 'George Bush, leave this world alone' and 'George Bush, find yourself another home' to the tune of Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall'. AT&T attributed it to a mistake by the webcast vendor. However, net neutrality advocates are citing this as a prime example of how AT&T and other providers can censor whatever they want, even though they say they would never do that. To quote pearljam.com: 'AT&T's actions strike at the heart of the public's concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media. Most telecommunications companies oppose "net neutrality" and argue that the public can trust them not to censor. What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band.'
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - iD and Valve violating GPL

Submitted by frooge
frooge writes: With the recent release of iD's catalog on Steam, it appears DOSBox is being used to run the old DOS games for greater compatibility. According to a post on the Halflife2.net forums, however, this distribution does not contain a copy of the GPL license that DOSBox is distributed under, which violates the license. According to the DOSBox developers, they were not notified that it was being used for this release.

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