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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."
Cellphones

Submission + - Motorola Pledges Cheaper Android Phones (pcmag.com) 1

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha announced that the company will continue it's big bet on the Linux-based system and many of next year's Motorola phones will run the Google Android OS. It was also noted that the Android assault begins with two Android devices in stores for the holiday season in North America and multiple carriers outside the U.S. In addition to that Motorala also plans for several additional Android-base1d devices in the first quarter of 2010.
Windows

Submission + - First The Leak, Now Windows 7 Activation Cracked (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "Pirates have cracked Windows 7's product activation just one week after the operating system made RTM and a week before it's slated to reach users, Microsoft confirmed today. The product key posted on the Web purportedly comes from Lenovo, one of Microsoft's major OEM partners, and allows users to activate downloaded copies of Windows 7 Ultimate, which leaked to the Internet last week, shortly after Microsoft announced it had finished the operating system. How it happened: A Lenovo disk image of Windows 7 is believed to have been leaked to a Chinese Web site, then moved to English-language domains. Pirates proceeded to retrieve the master OEM key and the OEM activation certificate from the .iso file."
Censorship

Submission + - Aussies beware - Mandatory net filter almost here. (arnnet.com.au)

Submitted by Condobolin
Condobolin writes: Another story from this site I was looking at before, but a lot less happy..... In Australia we have a crappy internet minister that is always carping on about BS, but it looks like "Conjob" is about to get his way and force internet filters on every single house in Aus. He used to always say it depended on the trials, and the trials are looking really good for him. Here's the story: http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/312354/isps_give_clean_feed_filter_technical_green-light But more important, here's the site to fight it! http://www.getup.org.au/ If you're Australian, Kiwi, American or even North Korean, don't let hiim put this BS in!!!
Security

Submission + - Drug-Sniffing Clones Unleashed in South Korea

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "BBC reports that six puppies cloned from a Canadian-born sniffer dog in late 2007 have reported for duty to check for drugs at Seoul's Incheon International Airport after completing a 16-month training course. The customs agency says clones help to lower crime-fighting costs as it is difficult to find good sniffer dogs. Only about 30% of naturally-born sniffer dogs make the grade, but South Korean scientists say that could rise to 90% using the cloning method. The puppies, each called "Toppy" for "Tomorrow's Puppy" are part of a litter of seven who were cloned from a "superb" drug-sniffing Canadian Labrador retriever called Chase at a cost of about $239,000. "They are the world's first cloned sniffer dogs deployed at work," says customs spokesman Park Jeong-Heon. "They showed better performances in detecting illegal drugs during the training than other naturally-born sniffer dogs that we have.""
Idle

Submission + - Ireland criminalizes blasphemy (spiked-online.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Another European country clamps down on free speech:

"It does seem bizarre that, in 2009, a modern European nation would seek to shield religious belief from criticism — yet that is what is happening in Ireland right now. In repealing the 1961 Defamation Act, the Irish government sought to expunge the worst excesses of Ireland's draconian laws restricting free speech, but in the process it has ended up making offending religious belief a criminal offence.

"Aside from a 25,000 fine (reduced from the 100,000 originally sought by the government), the new Defamation Act gives the authorities the power to stage raids on publishers: the courts may now issue a warrant authorising the police to enter, using 'reasonable force', premises where they have grounds for believing there are copies of 'blasphemous statements'."

The article notes other Irish attacks on freedom including that: "the state has decided to allow itself the right to access two years worth of every citizens' email correspondence, telephone calls and text messages."

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/7171/
Portables

Submission + - Delete data on netbook if stolen? 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I have just moved overseas on a 2yr working holiday Visa and picked up a netbook for the interim, which I love to bits, but as I am travelling around a bit I am somewhat worried about theft. Most of my important stuff is in Gmail and Google Docs however I don't always have net access and find it useful to gear up the offline versions for both. Ideally I would like to securely delete all the offline data from the hard drive if it were stolen, since it is backed up in the cloud anyway there is no loss of data on my part and the netbook is so cheap I don't really care about recovery, a solution that bricks it would be fine and indeed would give me a warm glow knowing a prospective thief would have wasted their time, but it's not good if they can then extract the HD and get at the data some other way. The netbook is an MSI Wind U100 Plus running WinXP. All suggestions for theif foiling ways are welcome be they software, hardware or other.
Earth

Submission + - Brazil Demands Repatriation of British Rubbish

Submitted by
Peace Corps Online
Peace Corps Online writes: "BBC reports that Brazilian authorities are demanding the return of more than 1,400 tons of hazardous British waste found in about 90 shipping containers on three Brazilian docks. The waste, which includes syringes, condoms, and bags of blood has been identified as being of UK origin from the names of British supermarkets and newspapers among the rubbish. Reports in the UK media say the waste was sent from Felixstowe in eastern England to the port of Santos, near Sao Paulo, and two other ports in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. The British government has launched an investigation into how and why the waste was sent to Brazil and the British Embassy in Brazil has said in a statement that it was investigating and would "not hesitate to act" if it was found that a UK company had violated the Basel Convention on the movement of hazardous waste. Meanwhile Brazil is demanding the immediate return of the rubbish to the UK. "We will ask for the repatriation of this garbage," says Roberto Messias, head of the Brazilian environment agency. "Clearly, Brazil is not a big rubbish dump of the world.""
Data Storage

Submission + - "Five-Dimension" Disc May Store 10TB on On (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
QuixoticWonderer
QuixoticWonderer writes: "Computer World has a story about a new disc technology that has the potential to hold up to 10TB on a DVD sized disc.

Researchers from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne said the technology, dubbed multiplexed optical recording, can create a "fifth dimension" of recording, using polarization and gold nanorods to reflect light, boosting data density beyond 1,012 bits per centimeter. The team was able to store 1.6TB of data on a disc with the technology and said that someday the technique could yield up to 10TB on a single DVD-type disc.

You can find more details in the Computer World story here."
Education

Submission + - Revising History To Fit The Bible 2

Submitted by macs4all
macs4all writes: Not content to mold science class to foment its agenda, this article reports that those ka-ray-zee "educators" in Texas are proposing "revamping the K-12 curriculum to emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history. Two of them want to remove or de-emphasize references to several historical figures who have become liberal icons, such as César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall."

Of course, reasoned heads on the Texas Board of "Education" will surely prevail. Those members, hand-picked for their "enlightened" views are exemplified by Board member David Barton, founder of WallBuilders, a group that promotes America's Christian heritage; and Rev. Marshall, who preaches that Watergate, the Vietnam War and Hurricane Katrina were God's judgments on the nation's sexual immorality.

The conservative reviewers say they believe that children must learn that America's founding principles are biblical. For instance, they say the separation of powers set forth in the Constitution stems from a scriptural understanding of man's fall and inherent sinfulness, or "radical depravity," which means he can be governed only by an intricate system of checks and balances.
Software

Submission + - Is Bittorrent pirate technology?

Submitted by
Asbjorn
Asbjorn writes: "A Norwegian newspaper (Dagbladet) has written an article about Norwegian cinemas looking into the BitTorrent technology to distribute digital movies between the cinemas across the country. This is great news and I really enjoy reading articles about technology being used to make the everyday life easier.

My reason for submitting this to Slashdot is that the author of the article has used the headline "Wants to use pirate technology at Norwegian cinemas". The author claims in an e-mail conversation with me that "since the BitTorrent software was developed by pirates for pirates it is a pirate technology". What are your opinions?"
Security

Submission + - IronKey unveils self-destructing USB flash drive (zdnet.com)

Submitted by fysdt
fysdt writes: IronKey, maker of the "world's most secure flash drive," on Monday announced the launch of its S200 device for government and enterprise customers. It's the "first and only USB storage device to achieve FIPS 140-2, Level 3 validation" and delivers advanced Cryptochip featuring AES-256, tamper-resistance and self-destruction circuitry.

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