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Encryption

New Attack Tool Exploits SSL Renegotiation Bug 47

Posted by Soulskill from the increment-arms-race dept.
Trailrunner7 writes "A group of researchers has released a tool that they say implements a denial-of-service attack against SSL servers by triggering a huge number of SSL renegotiations, eventually consuming all of the server's resources and making it unavailable. The tool exploits a widely known issue with the way that SSL connections work. The attack tool, released by a group called The Hacker's Choice, is meant to exploit the fact that it takes a lot of server resources to handle SSL handshakes at the beginning of a session, and that if a client or series of clients sends enough session requests to a given server, the server will at some point fail. The condition can be worsened when SSL renegotiation is enabled on a server. SSL renegotiation is used in a number of scenarios, but most commonly when there is a need for a client-side certificate. The authors of the tool say that the attack will work on servers without SSL renegotiation enabled, but with some modifications."
Sci-Fi

Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes 239

Posted by CmdrTaco from the can-i-play-the-piano-any-more dept.
The original Planet of the Apes had a lot going for it: a compelling lead, an interesting story, a convincing world, a couple of good quotable catch phrases, and of course the not-really-all-that-surprising twist ending. Of course, it was a bit cheesy too. Different trailers for 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' had me concerned and excited: was it going to be a Sci-Fi film, or an action film? I am pleased to announce that it is mostly the former and it's totally worth checking out. Read on for my brief review.

Comment Re:Paperwork (Score 3, Insightful) 74

by Flibberdy (#35584366) Attached to: Original <em>GTA</em> Design Docs, Dated March 22nd 1995

Why would this be a "surprise"? It's in the game. Anyone who's played the original GTA doubtless has fond memories of GOURANGA!, which is to say, running over an entire line of schoolchildren out on a field trip. You get a hefty point bonus for it.

I think you'll find that the Gouranga bonus was for driving over a line of Hare Krishnas.. hence the word "Gouranga", which is a popular Hare Krishna chant

Comment Re:Shouldn't? (Score 1) 176

by Flibberdy (#32675862) Attached to: New Xbox 360 S Uses Less Power, Makes Less Noise

"The new console also takes measures to protect itself from overheating, so RRoDs shouldn't be a problem with this revision." Except it still has the same faulty X-clamps. Has even worse overheating issues than the original. And has already had green dots of death. (they removed the RRoD in favor of a green dot.)

Got any links to back that up?
Sony

Submission + - Sony Refuses to Sanction PS3 Other OS Refunds (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Stoobalou
Stoobalou writes: Sony says that it has no intention of reimbursing retailers if they offer fat PS3 users partial refunds.

Last week, the first PS3 user successfully secured a partial refund from Amazon UK as compensation for the removal of the ability to run Linux on the console.

The punter quoted European law in order to persuade the online retailer that the goods he had bought in good faith were no longer fit for purpose because of the enforcement of firmware update 3.21, which meant that users who chose to keep the Other OS functionality would lose the ability to play the latest games or connect to the PlayStation Network.
Patents

Submission + - Facebook patents the news feed (thenextweb.com)

Submitted by daedae
daedae writes: It seems Facebook has been granted a patent for the news feed, as a method of monitoring activities, storing them in a database, and displaying an appropriate set of activities to an appropriate set of users.

Comment Re:non Linux based routers (Score 5, Informative) 193

by Flibberdy (#31228554) Attached to: Chuck Norris Attacks Linux-Based Routers, Modems

'It installs itself on routers and modems by guessing default administrative passwords and taking advantage of the fact that many devices are configured to allow remote access."' Does this botnet attack also work on non Linux based routers and if so the what is the logic behind the subject line ?

No, It requires the router to be running Linux on a MIPS system.
Science

Scientists Postulate Extinct Hominid With 150 IQ 568

Posted by CmdrTaco from the but-could-they-invent-pizza-rolls dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Neuroscientists Gary Lynch and Richard Granger have an interesting article in Discover Magazine about the Boskops, an extinct hominid that had big eyes, child-like faces, and forebrains roughly 50% larger than modern man indicating they may have had an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among Homo sapiens. The combination of a large cranium and immature face would look decidedly unusual to modern eyes, but not entirely unfamiliar. Such faces peer out from the covers of countless science fiction books and are often attached to 'alien abductors' in movies. Naturalist Loren Eiseley wrote: 'Back there in the past, ten thousand years ago. The man of the future, with the big brain, the small teeth. He lived in Africa. His brain was bigger than your brain.' The history of evolutionary studies has been dogged by the almost irresistible idea that evolution leads to greater complexity, to animals that are more advanced than their predecessor, yet the existence of the Boskops argues otherwise — that humans with big brains, and perhaps great intelligence, occupied a substantial piece of southern Africa in the not very distant past, and that they eventually gave way to smaller-brained, possibly less advanced Homo sapiens — that is, ourselves. 'With 30 percent larger brains than ours now, we can readily calculate that a population with a mean brain size of 1,750 cc would be expected to have an average IQ of 149,' write Lynch and Granger. But why did they go extinct? 'Maybe all that thoughtfulness was of no particular survival value in 10,000 BC. Lacking the external hard drive of a literate society, the Boskops were unable to exploit the vast potential locked up in their expanded cortex,' write Lynch and Granger. 'They were born just a few millennia too soon.'"

Comment Re:Pointless (Score 1) 167

by Flibberdy (#29961632) Attached to: Cracking PGP In the Cloud
It looks like they were cracking passwords which were 8 or less characters with simple Alphanumerics. In other words, weak passwords. While the cloud aspect makes it vaguely interesting, is it really news?
Crime

How Much Is Your Online Identity Worth? 199

Posted by timothy from the probably-worth-more-as-meat dept.
itwbennett writes "Answer a few questions about your personal Internet use, and a new tool from Symantec will calculate your net worth on the black market. You'll get three results: how much your online assets are worth, how much your online identity would sell for on the black market, and your risk of becoming a victim of identity theft. The tool is intended to raise consumer awareness about cybercrime, said Marian Merritt, Internet security advocate for Symantec. It's unlikely the average consumer would read an Internet Security Threat Report, she added, but a simply illustrated example might get the same point across. 'It's shocking how little value criminals place on your credit card,' she said."
Linux Business

The Problem With Estimating Linux Desktop Market Share 409

Posted by timothy from the something-about-lying-and-statistics dept.
jammag writes "It's long been one of those exceptionally hard-to-quantify numbers: exactly what percentage of the desktop PC market is held by Linux? Doubters suggest it hovers around a negligible one percent, while partisans suggest it's in excess of 10 percent. Bruce Byfield explores the various sources of estimates, dismissers' and fan boys' alike, and guesstimates it might realistically be 5-6%. Still, he admits, 'the objectivity of numbers is often just a myth.'"

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