Arinco - Slashdot User

Submission + - RFID Passports Cloned Without Opening the Package

Submitted by

Jeremy

on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @04:01PM

Jeremy writes: "Using some simple deduction, a security consultant discovered how to clone a passport as it's being mailed to its recipient, without ever opening the package. These are the kinds of things that people need to understand are possible now that our governments are trying to use wireless technology (inherantly insecure) for security."

Submission + - France Bans Filming of Violence By Non-Journalists

Submitted by

BostonBTS

on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @02:01PM

BostonBTS writes: "According to this Macworld Story, the French Constitutional Council has made it illegal to film (or distribute video of) violence unless you are a professional journalist. The law was approved exactly 16 years after Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King were filmed by amateur videographer George Holliday. From the article:

The broad drafting of the law so as to criminalize the activities of citizen journalists unrelated to the perpetrators of violent acts is no accident, but rather a deliberate decision by the authorities, said [Pascal Cohet, a spokesman for French online civil liberties group Odebi]. He is concerned that the law, and others still being debated, will lead to the creation of a parallel judicial system controlling the publication of information on the Internet.
"

Submission + - Secure private key storage for UNIX?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01, 2007 @04:39PM

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft Windows, from 2000 forwards (except ME) offers secure certificate and private storage at the OS level in what is called a protected store. Offline, its encrypted by a combination of the user's password and a session key stored on the filesystem. When the OS is running, the private keys stored are available to the logged in user, optionally encrypted with another password. The keys are stored in protected memory, so no applications can access them without going through the Microsoft CAPI calls. This code also is FIPS 140-1 level 1 (the best one can get for software cryptography modules) compliant.

This functionality (especially certified FIPS 140-1 or FIPS 140-2) would be nice to see in UNIX variants. MacOS's keychain functionality is similar, but stores at the application level, and is not FIPS compliant. An implementation of the protected store functionality will allow applications like Firefox, Thunderbird and gpg to have one common place to obtain private keys and certificates rather than maintaining their own individual keystores. An additional application for this would be the ability to use hardware PKCS #11 tokens.

I am wondering why this functionality does not exist at the OS level in most OSes except Windows. A number of applications on many platforms have this functionality, but its at the app level, with their own keystores, and not a standard at the OS level.

Submission + - Growth of e-waste may lead to national 'e-fee'

Submitted by

jcatcw

on Thursday March 01, 2007 @12:33PM

jcatcw writes: "A bill in Congress would add a recycling charge to the cost of laptop PCs, computer monitors, televisions and some other electronic devices, according to a story at Computerworld. The effort to control what's called e-waste could lead to a national "e-fee" that would be paid just like a sales tax. Nationwide the cost could amount to $300 million per year. Already, California, Washington, Maryland and Maine have approved electronics recycling laws, and another 21 states plus Puerto Rico, are considering them."

Submission + - When a CGI script is the most elegant solution

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01, 2007 @12:30PM

An anonymous reader writes: Writing local Web applications can be quick, easy, and efficient for solving specific Intranet problems. Learn why a Web browser is sometimes a better interface than a GUI application and why experienced Web developers find themselves struggling to learn a GUI toolkit, and descover that a simple CGI script would serve their needs perfectly well, if not better.

Journal Journal: Gmail Outage

Journal by Se7enLC on Thursday March 01, 2007 @12:04PM

Gmail service for a large number of users has been out for 8+ hours. Google has made no announcement regarding the outage and has not issued an estimate repair time.

The Gmail Down Google group has all the details

Submission + - Using Gym Rats' Body Power to Generate Electricity

Submitted by

Carl Bialik from WSJ

on Thursday March 01, 2007 @11:20AM

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes: "A Hong Kong health club is hoping that a car battery, some StairMasters and dozens of gym rats can help ease the world's energy problems. It is just one of a wave of projects that are trying to tap the power of the human body, the Wall Street Journal reports. From the article: 'The human power project at California Fitness was set in motion by Doug Woodring, a 41-year-old extreme-sports fanatic and renewable-energy entrepreneur, who pitched the experiment to the gym's management last May. "I've trained my whole life, and many megawatts have been wasted," says Mr. Woodring, who has worked out at the Hong Kong gym for years. "I wanted to do something with all that sweat." '"

Submission + - Open Access For Research Gaining Steam

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01, 2007 @10:40AM

An anonymous reader writes: The BBC reports that open access to research is gaining steam as more than 20,000 people, including Nobel Prize winners, have signed a petition calling for greater access to publicly-funded research. While publishers are fighting open access, a growing number of funding agencies and universities are making it a mandatory requirement.

Feed Build Your Own Backyard Fuel Cell (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Thursday March 01, 2007 @07:12AM

Set up and run a hydrogen-fueled house in five easy steps. By Bob Parks from Wired magazine.

Submission + - Can you run an open GSM network?

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @11:28PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Here in Vancouver cellphone companies are charging ridiculous amounts for basic cellphone plans. I'm wondering if it's possible to run an open/almost free GSM network on a small college campus. Assuming we could find the hardware and get the rights, is there open source software out there to handle all this?"

Is Network Engineering a Viable Career? 229

Posted by Cliff on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @06:47PM from the testing-the-waters dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "I'm fresh out of high school and interested in getting a job in networking. One option is a degree in networking, the alternative I've considered is just getting certificates (CCNA/P, A+, MCSA). A large factor in my decision is which route is most likely to land a secure and well-paid full time job. I'm located in Melbourne, Australia and I don't have any local contacts in the industry who can advise me, and so was hoping some other Australian (or international) readers could share their knowledge and experience with these issues."

Slashdot Top Deals