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Submission + - Hackers Targetting Xbox Live (internetnews.com)

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: Windows isn't the only piece of Microsoft technology that hackers are attacking anymore. During a presentation at the SecTor security conference in Toronto, a Facetime security researcher revealed numerous methods by which Xbox users are being hacked today.

"Though the Xbox doesn't have the number one market share, it is the top target for hackers," Boyd said. "Xbox Live has 17 million plus subscribers and that service requires payment."
Social Networks

Submission + - Facebook is Sticky as Superglue 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times has an interesting article on how Facebook is so sticky it is nearly impossible to get loose. While the Web site offers users the option to deactivate their accounts, Facebook servers keep copies of the information in those accounts indefinitely and many users who have contacted Facebook to request that their accounts be deleted have not succeeded in erasing their records from the network. "It's like the Hotel California," said Nipon Das, a user who tried unsuccessfully to delete his account. "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave." It took Mr. Das two months and several e-mail exchanges with Facebook's customer service representatives to erase most of his information from the site, which finally occurred after he sent an e-mail threatening legal action. But even after that, a reporter was able to find Mr. Das's empty profile on Facebook and successfully sent him an e-mail message through the network. Facebook's quiet archiving of information from deactivated accounts has increased concerns about the network's potential abuse of private data, especially in the wake of its fumbled Beacon advertising feature but spokeswoman Amy Sezak says Facebook is doing you a favor: "Deactivated accounts mean that a user can reactivate at any time, and their information will be available again just as they left it.""
Slashdot.org

Slashdot's Setup, Part 2- Software 151

Posted by CmdrTaco from the its-all-just-ones-and-zeros dept.
Today we have Part 2 in our exciting 2 part series about the infrastructure that powers Slashdot. Last week Uriah told us all about the hardware powering the system. This week, Jamie McCarthy picks up the story and tells us about the software... from pound to memcached to mysql and more. Hit that link and read on.
Slashdot.org

Subterranean Slashdot Email Blues 267

Posted by samzenpus from the so-you-want-to-work-at-slashdot dept.
If you can imagine working in the office of a school for gifted, troubled, and criminally insane children, inside an international airport, you can get a taste of what it is like to do support for Slashdot. I've worked here around 5 years now and have seen some crazy things. From a guy showing up at the office and offering me a car if I let him "reverse engineer Rob Malda's life", to people shaking and on the verge of tears because they got a Slashdot sticker. I was really tempted to take the car by the way but the thought of Rob spending his last few weeks in a hole, while this guy lowered a bucket of lotion and water down to him once a day, made me feel bad. Most of my time is spent answering email. Most days I receive about 50. When it's busy I can get well over a hundred. As everyone knows, people are precisely 500% more rude and angry online than they are in real life. Something about not having to see the tears or dodge the fist of the person you are swearing at brings out the worst in some people. We decided it would be fun to go through some of the more 'interesting' mails we've got through the years as part of our 10 year anniversary. Below you'll find some of my favorite rants, conspiracy theories and tantrums. (CT: Don't forget to put in your charity bid for the EFF- time is almost up.)
Communications

Submission + - Little Old Lady Hammers Comcast

Submitted by
WheezyJoe
WheezyJoe writes: "The Washington Post reports that a little old lady took a hammer to Comcast. Apparently fed up with the lousy service she received from a botched Comcast installation of "triple-play", and a completely humiliating experience at a customer service center, 75-year-old Mona "The Hammer" Shaw took her claw hammer back to the customer service center and bludgeoned the office equipment into tiny plastic pieces. The article includes pictures."
Security

Man Hacks 911 System, Sends SWAT on Bogus Raid 754

Posted by Zonk from the word-dumb-doesn't-cover-it dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Orange County Register reports that a 19 year old from Washington state broke into the Orange County California 911 emergency system. He randomly selected the name and address of a Lake Forest, California couple and electronically transferred false information into the 911 system. The Orange County California Sheriff's Department's Special Weapons and Tactics Team was immediately sent to the home of a couple with two sleeping toddlers. The SWAT team handcuffed the husband and wife before deciding it was a prank. Says the article, 'Other law enforcement agencies have seen similar breaches into their 911 systems as part of a trend picked up by computer hackers in the nation called "SWATting"'"
Data Storage

Submission + - Alienware puts 64GB solid-state drives in desktops (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: "In the face of Seagate's announcement this week of a new hybrid drive, Dell subsidiary Alienware just upped the ante by doubling the capacity of its desktop solid-state disk drives to 64GB. Dell has remained silent on the solid-state disk front since announcing a 32GB solid-state option for its Latitude D420 and D629 ATG notebook computers earlier this year. Now, Alienware seems to be telling users to bypass hybrid drives all together. 'Hybrid we consider to be a Band-Aid approach to solid state," said Marc Diana, Alienware's product marketing manager "Solid state pretty much puts hybrid in an obsolete class right now."'"
Biotech

Submission + - Stem cells change man's DNA (mainetoday.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After receiving umbilical cord stem cells to replace bone marrow as treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Greg Graves temporarily had three different sets of DNA. Eventually, one of the two sets of cells transplanted into his bone marrow took root, leaving him different DNA in his blood from the rest of his body: 'If you were to do a DNA test of my blood and one from my skin, they'd be different,' Graves said. 'It's a pretty wild thing.'
The Internet

Submission + - A New Map of the Internet. 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A series of maps have been created that show the geographical structure and distribution of the Internet. This is the first time a global, geo-spatial map of this nature has been produced. The visualizations were put together using data from the Dimes project. One visualization shows the density of Internet connections worldwide while the other displays how international cities are connected. Detailed Maps of Europe and North America are included as well. It's amazing how skewed the distribution is — beyond Australia, New Zealand, and parts of South-East Asia, the southern hemisphere has only a peppering of connectivity.
Security

Submission + - Undocumented Backdoor in PGP Whole Disk Encryption (blogspot.com)

Submitted by A non-mouse Coward
A non-mouse Coward writes: PGP Corporation's widely adopted Whole Disk Encryption product apparently has an encryption bypass feature that allows an encrypted drive to be accessed without the boot-up passphrase challenge dialog, leaving data in a vulnerable state if the drive is stolen when the bypass feature is enabled. The feature is also apparently not in the documentation that ships with the PGP product, nor the publicly available documentation on their website, but only mentioned briefly in the customer knowledge base (PGP customer account required). Jon Callas, CTO and CSO of PGP Corp., responded that this feature was required by unnamed customers and that competing products have similar "dangerous" functionality. There is still no official word from PGP as to why the public documentation withheld recognition of this risky option.
Power

Submission + - Internet Uses 9.4% of U.S. Electricity (prweb.com)

Submitted by
ribuck
ribuck writes: "Equipment powering the internet accounts for 9.4% of electricity demand in the U.S., and 5.3% of global demand, according to research by David Sarokin at online pay-for-answers service Uclue. Worldwide, that's 868 billion kilowatt-hours per year. The total includes the energy used by desktop computers and monitors (which makes up two-thirds of the total), plus other energy sinks including modems, routers, data processing equipment and cooling equipment."
The Courts

Jack Thompson Includes Gay Porn With Court Filing 333

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the master-of-free-publicity dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Jack Thompson has done it again, now by making available gay porn for unlimited viewing on public records. Judge Jordan wrote on an issued order: 'The attached exhibit, which includes several graphic images of oral and genital sex between adult males, was filed electronically in the docket in this case, without prior permission from the court... To the extent that the other attorney's alleged conduct is in any way relevant... there was no need for Mr. Thompson to file these graphic images in the public record. A simple reference to the website and its alleged links would have sufficed...'" I'm usually not a fan of giving Thompson continued free publicity, but some of the things he does are just too outlandish not to share.
Security

Submission + - Cyber Crime A Distant #3 Priority for FBI

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A reading of the Justice Department's 2008 budget justification to Congress for the FBI indicates the agency is dedicating about 5.5 percent of its field agents to combating cyber crime, the FBI's stated Number Three priority, The Washington Post reports. Take away the agents dedicated to catching child predators online — a program that accounts for the vast majority of the department's prosecutorial victories — and about 3.6 percent of the FBI's agents are dedicated to cyber crime, the report notes. From the story: "If the FBI's third most-important priority claims just over 3.5 percent of its active agents, how many agents and FBI resources are dedicated to the remaining Top Ten priorities?
The Internet

Demonoid Torrent Tracker Shut Down by CRIA 222

Posted by CmdrTaco from the well-thats-a-big-surprise-now-isn't-it dept.
An anonymous reader writes "As of Tuesday, 25th September 2007, Demonoid is currently down, with no prior warnings from any moderators of the site. Both the main torrent page and the forum (fora) are no longer accessible. It is still possible to ping and trace the IP address of the site and it locates itself as in Canada. As of 6:45pm EST on 9-25-07, SSH and SMTP services are no longer active. Torrentfreak.com has since reported this is due to legal actions from the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) who ordered Demonoid's ISP to shut down the site."
Security

Submission + - Ebay hacked, users personal information posted 1

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: This morning a hacker posted the personal contact information and credit card data of 1,200 ebay users on the eBay.com Trust & Saftey forums. eBay pulled the Trust & Saftey forums off line, but not before one user made a video of the hacked forums and posted it on youtube.com. eBay response is on the eBay chatter page, and seems to try and down play this "fraudster"'s activity.

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