Estian - Slashdot User

Submission + - $10 router blamed in Bangladesh bank hack (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 22, 2016 @07:58AM

An anonymous reader writes: Reuters reports:

"Bangladesh's central bank was vulnerable to hackers because it did not have a firewall and used second-hand, $10 switches to network computers connected to the SWIFT global payment network, an investigator into one of the world's biggest cyber heists said.

The shortcomings made it easier for hackers to break into the Bangladesh Bank system earlier this year and attempt to siphon off nearly $1 billion using the bank's SWIFT credentials, said Mohammad Shah Alam, head of the Forensic Training Institute of the Bangladesh police's criminal investigation department."

Submission + - Core Windows Utility Can Be Used to Bypass Whitelisting (threatpost.com)

Submitted by msm1267 on Friday April 22, 2016 @07:08AM

msm1267 writes: A core Windows command-line utility, Regsvr32, used to register DLLs to the Windows Registry can be abused to run remote code from the Internet, bypassing whitelisting protections such as Microsoft’s AppLocker.

A researcher who requested anonymity found and privately disclosed the issue to Microsoft on Tuesday. It’s unknown whether Microsoft will patch this issue with a security bulletin, or in a future release.

Regsvr32, also known as Microsoft Register Server, is a Microsoft-signed binary that runs as default on Windows. The researcher’s proof-of-concept allows him to download and run JavaScript or VBScript from a URL provided via the command line. Abusing this situation presumes an attacker would already be present on the box, the researcher said.

“There’s really no patch for this; it’s not an exploit. It’s just using the tool in an unorthodox manner. It’s a bypass, an evasion tactic,” the researcher said.

Submission + - Terrorist attack in Brussels Airport and Metro station: 21 death confirmed (mirror.co.uk)

Submitted by SomeoneFromBelgium on Tuesday March 22, 2016 @07:29AM

SomeoneFromBelgium writes: This morning there was a double bomb explosion in Brussels, Belgium.
In the National Airport entrance hall an estimated 13 people were killed by a big explosion. Around the same time another bomb exploded in Metro station 'Maalbeek' close to the financial district, killing an estimated 10 persons.

Submission + - Wolves Have Different 'Howling Dialects,' Machine Learning Finds (vice.com)

Submitted by derekmead on Monday February 08, 2016 @10:34AM

derekmead writes: Differentiating wolf howls with human ears can prove tricky, so researchers have turned to computer algorithms to suss out if different wolf species howl differently. They think that understanding wolf howls could help improve wolf conservation and management programs.

In a study published in the journal Behavioural Processes, a group of international researchers describe using machine learning for the first time to analyse 2,000 wolf howls gathered from both wild and domesticated wolves and their subspecies from around the world.

Submission + - Carbon Dioxide From the Air Converted Into Methanol (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula on Monday February 08, 2016 @09:40AM

Zothecula writes: The danger posed by rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide has seen many schemes proposed to remove a proportion it from the air. Rather than simply capture this greenhouse gas and bury it in the ground, though, many experiments have managed to transform CO2 into useful things like carbon nanofibers or even fuels, such as diesel. Unfortunately, the over-arching problem with many of these conversions is the particularly high operating temperatures that require almost counterproductive amounts of energy to produce relatively low yields of fuel. Now researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) claim to have devised a way to take CO2 directly from the air and convert it into methanol using much lower temperatures and in a correspondingly simpler way.

Submission + - Startup Uses Sensor Networks to Debug Science Experiments (xconomy.com)

Submitted by gthuang88 on Wednesday February 03, 2016 @10:59AM

gthuang88 writes: Environmental factors like temperature, humidity, or lighting often derail life science experiments. Now Elemental Machines, a startup from the founders of Misfit Wearables, is trying to help scientists debug experiments using distributed sensors and machine-learning software to detect anomalies. The product is in beta testing with academic labs and biotech companies. The goal is to help speed up things like biology research and drug development. Wiring up experiments is part of a broader effort to create “smart labs” that automate some of the scientific process.

Submission + - Open Source Pioneer Michael Tiemann on the Myth of the Average

Submitted by StewBeans on Wednesday February 03, 2016 @10:44AM

StewBeans writes: In a recent article, Michael Tiemann, one of the world's first open source entrepreneurs and VP of Open Source Affairs at Red Hat, highlights an example from the 1950s US Air Force where the "myth of the average resulted in a generation of planes that almost no pilots could reliably fly, and which killed as many as 17 pilots in a single day." He uses this example to argue that IT leaders who think that playing it safe means being as average as possible in order to avoid risks (i.e. "Buy what others are buying. Deploy what others are deploying. Manage what others are managing.") may be making IT procurement and strategy decisions based on flawed data. Instead, Tiemann says that IT leaders should understand elements of differentiation that are most valuable, and then adopt the standards that exploit them. "Don't aim for average: it may not exist. Aim for optimal, and use the power of open source to achieve what uniquely benefits your organization."

Slashdot Top Deals