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Submission + - Colon Slash Slash Founded (neocities.org)

Submitted by Slashdot Humor
Slashdot Humor writes: Colon Slash Slash is working to develop a website like Slashdot, but with submissions via email. The owner plans to develop topics, a firehose, and a job board, but for now he only has a simple site.

Submission + - The Flags We Left on The Moon Have All Turned White (spaceindustrynews.com) 2

Submitted by littlesparkvt
littlesparkvt writes: Since the United States landed on the Moon on July 20th 1969, there has been an American flag standing on its surface. While 5 out of the 6 flags still stand (Neil Armstrong reported that Apollo 11s flag was knocked over by engine thrust), the colors of Old Glory have faded due to the Suns harsh radiation.

Submission + - Without Congressional Support, Pour on the Data

Submitted by dsginter
dsginter writes: The US House of Representatives recently voted down a bill that would have forced the NSA to respect the US Constitutional Right to privacy and it appears that few people really care about this matter in lieu of Bread and Circuses. I felt defeated until a realization set in: these spying systems can be overwhelmed by data — just give us software that will wget pressure cookers and backpacks and perhaps a phone app that will randomly dial other participants during idle+charger (mute the ringer, of course). Throw in a desktop app and I'll buy a couple of POTS lines just to assist!

Submission + - Samsung Smart TV: Basically A Linux Box Running Vulnerable Web Apps (securityledger.com) 1

Submitted by chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: Two researchers at the Black Hat Briefings security conference Thursday said that Smart TVs from the electronics giant Samsung are rife with vulnerabilities in the underlying operating system and java-based applications that could be used to steal sensitive information on the device owner, or even spy on the television’s surroundings using an integrated webcam, The Security Ledger reports.

Speaking in Las Vegas, Aaron Grattafiori and Josh Yavor, both security engineers at the firm ISEC Partners described Smart TVs as Linux boxes outfitted with a Webkit-based browser. They demonstrated how vulnerabilities in SmartHub, the Java-based application that is responsible for many of the SmartTV’s interactive features, could be exploited by a local or remote attacker to surreptitiously activate and control an embedded webcam on the SmartTV, launch drive-by download attacks and steal local user credentials and those of connected devices, browser history, cache and cookies as well as credentials for the local wireless network. Samsung has issued patches for many of the affected devices and promises more changes in its next version of the Smart TV.

This isn't the first time Smart TVs have been shown to be vulnerable. In December, researchers at the firm ReVuln also disclosed a vulnerability in the Smart TV's firmware that could be used to launch remote attacks. (https://securityledger.com/2012/12/security-hole-in-samsung-smart-tvs-could-allow-remote-spying/)

Submission + - Cyber Insurance: Solution or Snake Oil?

Submitted by onehitwonder
onehitwonder writes: A recent article in The Wall Street Journal’s CIO Journal argues in favor of the benefits of cyber liability insurance—policies designed to help companies cover costs they incur in the aftermath of data breaches (whether for investigation, remediation, customer notification, regulatory fines or legal settlements). Two Deloitte consultants interviewed for the article argue that cyber insurance can help companies offset the increasingly staggering costs of a data breach. (Several of the biggest data breaches in recent history, including Heartland and TJX, have cost those companies hundreds of millions of dollars. A Mizuho Investors Securities analyst estimated the total cost of the 2011 Sony data breaches at $1.25 billion.)

The question is, will insurance providers really come through when companies begin filing claims on their cyber liability policies, or will they find ways out? A 2011 article from Computerworld notes that even though a growing number of companies have been purchasing cyber insurance, it's hard to find examples where one of those policies has actually covered the costs of a data breach. Moreover, the Computerworld article points out that many cyber insurance policies cover only the cost of re-creating whatever data may have been lost during the breach--not notification costs, legal costs or other related expenses.

Submission + - NSA Provided £100m Funding For GCHQ Operations (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes: The Telegraph reports, "GCHQ has received at least £100million from the US to help fund intelligence gathering, raising questions over American influence on the British agencies. ... It also emerged that the intelligence agency wants the ability to “exploit any phone, anywhere, any time” and that some staff have raised concerns over the “morality and ethics” of their operational work. ... The agency has faced claims it was handed intelligence on individuals from the US gained from the Prism programme that collected telephone and web records. However, it has been cleared of any wrongdoing or attempts to circumvent British law by the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, as well as by Mr Hague. The payments from the US National Security Agency (NSA) are detailed in GCHQ’s annual “investment portfolios”, leaked by Mr Snowden to The Guardian. The NSA paid GCHQ £22.9million in 2009, £39.9million in 2010 and £34.7million in 2011/12. ...Another £15.5million went towards redevelopment projects at GCHQ’s site in Bude, Cornwall, which intercepts communications from the transatlantic cables that carry internet traffic. ... A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “In a 60-year alliance it is entirely unsurprising that there are joint projects in which resources and expertise are pooled, but the benefits flow in both directions.” "

Submission + - Dozens of CIA operatives on the ground during Benghazi attack (cnn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: At least 35 CIA operatives were on the ground prior to and during the attack in Benghazi. There is speculation that along with the State Department, the CIA was involved in transferring Surface to Air Missiles and other weapons to Syrian rebels by way of Turkey.

Submission + - Mozilla donates $25,000 to JS-Git fundraiser (bountysource.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla donated $25,000 to the JS-Git fundraiser on Bountysource. Together with a $5,000 pledge from Adobe the two organizations hit 100% of the fundraiser's $30,000 goal.

JS-Git aims to be a Git SCM implemented as a set of JavaScript modules for use in any JS runtime, which should be very useful for allowing development in browser-only environments like Chromebooks or FirefoxOS.

Submission + - There's a tricorder in my future!

Submitted by jess_wundring
jess_wundring writes: Remember the StarTrek tricorder, that did on the spot analysis of atmosphere and strange organisms planet-side, diagnosed diseases in sick bay, and checked for poisoned food when dining at a foe's table? Hey, it's REALITY now. At U of IL, they've put together an app (and a $200 cradle) that turns your smartphone into a high-end spectrophotometer.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2013-05-28/phones-could-become-diagnostic-tools.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh7MUjIYuyw

Submission + - Android leads customer satisfaction as Android competition widens.

Submitted by rtfa-troll
rtfa-troll writes: Android was once seen as a cheaper option in smartphones, but no more. Samsung's Galaxy Android phones have taken the top two places in this year's ACSI smartphone customer satisfaction survey and it's worth looking at these together with the manufacturer's first half results which Tommi Ahonen has been covering on his blog. Samsung is the satisfaction leader, displacing Apple who took the top slots last year, though Apple won't be too upset after taking the remaining three slots in the top five especially given that the other three of the top four from last year are not listed at all, however this does back up Tommi's claim that we may have "passed 'Peak iPhone'" unless mass market iPhone rumours turn out to be true and this rescues Apple. Three more Android phones, two of them from Motorola follow Apple. LG and HTC didn't make the top ten at all, which may explain why both companies after dabbling with other systems returned to 100% Android commitment, something Tommi claims is reflected in LG's recent recovery which puts them in strong 3rd place in the smartphone market and makes it clear that it's not only Samsung that can profit from Android. At the end of the top ten, Blackberry's old models made a good showing, the only other OS in the list and a vast improvement on last year.

ACSI covers the actual long term customer experience, so the phones and systems listed are all ones that have been available for some time. Systems such as BB10 and FirefoxOS which only arrived this year won't have been out at the time won't have a chance to be listed until next year.

We discussed recently LG's decision to return to full Android commitment

Submission + - Camping Helps Set Circadian Clocks Straight (counselheal.com)

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes: Corrected

Counsel & Heal reports, ""Many people are stuck in the vicious cycle of late nights and late mornings. However, a new study reveals that a week of camping in the great outdoors may help people set their clocks straight. A new study, published in the journal Current Biology, reveals that if given a chance, our body's internal biological clocks will tightly synchronize to a natural, midsummer light-dark cycle. The study found that a week of exposure to true dawn and dusk with no artificial lights had a significant effect on people who might otherwise describe themselves as night owls. Researchers found that under those conditions, night owls quickly become early birds. "By increasing our exposure to sunlight and reducing our exposure to electrical lighting at night, we can turn our internal clock and sleep times back and likely make it easier to awaken and be alert in the morning," Kenneth Wright of the University of Colorado Boulder said in a news release.""

Submission + - Monopoles and Magnetricity (ieee.org)

Submitted by szotz
szotz writes: Although there was once a hint from a cosmic ray experiment (on Valentine's Day, no less), no one's found any solid evidence of monopoles (unpaired north and south magnets) flying around the cosmos. But physicists did find monopole-like quasiparticles in some exotic crystals in 2009. One of the discoverers has an article this month in IEEE Spectrum that looks at how the particles were found and what's happened since. They might seem like a wacky curiosity, but the author says we shouldn't write them off — they might one day make useful new "magnetronic" devices.

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