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Submission + - ACLU's Mobile Privacy Developer Challenge (develop4privacy.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Privacy groups announced a mobile privacy developer challenge today. The competition, Develop for Privacy, challenges mobile app developers to create tools that help ordinary mobile device users understand and protect their privacy. Its sponsored by the ACLU of Northern California, the ACLU of Washington, and the Tor Project, with the assistance of the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner's Office. Submission deadline is May 31, 2011. The winner will be announced in August 2011 at an event in Las Vegas, coinciding with the DEFCON and Black Hat security conferences.

Comment Re:Costs? (Score 2, Interesting) 660

by TheRaven64 (#30810342) Attached to: What's Holding Back Encryption?

My publisher wants me to send things to them using FTP. I refused. Their IT staff refuses to run an SFTP server (or HTTPS WebDAV, or anything else that is marginally secure) for them. They also block outgoing SSH from the corporate network. I run an SFTP server for drafts of my latest book and my editor has to download them from home and take them in to the network.

Sometimes clueless customers are the problem. Sometimes clueless admins are. If it's clueless customers, then a clueful admin can run SFTP and WebDAV as options for the clueful customers and just warn the clueless customers that using FTP is insecure and that you accept no liability for data theft that results from it. If it's clueless admins, there's not much you can do about it.

Fortunately, clueless admins tend to leave other holes in their security, so you can usually use one of those to sneak a secure channel through...

Generational Windows Multicore Performance Tests 228

Posted by CmdrTaco from the spinning-yer-wheels dept.
snydeq writes "Windows XP, Windows Vista, and (soon) Windows 7 all support SMP out of the box, but as InfoWorld's Randall Kennedy notes, 'experience has shown that multiprocessing across discrete CPUs is not the same thing as multiprocessing across integrated cores within the same CPU.' As such, Kennedy set out to stress the multiprocessing capabilities of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 in dual-core and quad-core performance tests. The comprehensive, multiprocess workload tests were undertaken to document scalability, execution efficiency, and raw performance of workloads. 'What I found may surprise you,' Kennedy writes. 'Not only does Microsoft have a firm grasp of multicore tuning, but its scalability story promises to keep getting better with time. In other words, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are poised to reap ever greater performance benefits as Intel and AMD extend the number of cores in future editions of their processors.'"
Government

Obama Edicts Boost FOIA and .gov Websites 400

Posted by CmdrTaco from the breath-of-fresh-air dept.
Ian Lamont writes "The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the National Security Archive are praising President Obama's executive orders to make the federal government more open. Yesterday, Obama issued two memos and one executive order instructing government agencies to err on the side of making information public and not to look for reasons to legally withhold it. The moves are expected to make it easier for people to file Freedom of Information Act requests, and should also boost the amount of information that agencies place on their websites. The general counsel for the National Security Archive (an NGO that publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act) even predicts that agencies will use blogs to share information. Obama's directives reverse a 2001 memo from former US Attorney General John Ashcroft instructing federal agencies to generally withhold information from citizens filing FOIA requests."
Security

US-CERT Says Microsoft's Advice On Downadup Worm Bogus 290

Posted by samzenpus from the protect-yourself-at-all-times dept.
CWmike writes "Microsoft's advice on disabling Windows' 'Autorun' feature is flawed, the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) said today, and it leaves users who rely on its guidelines to protect their PCs against the fast-spreading Downadup worm open to attack. US-CERT said in an alert that Microsoft's instructions on turning off Autorun are 'not fully effective' and 'could be considered a vulnerability.' The flaw in Microsoft's guidelines are important at the moment, because the 'Downadup' worm, which has compromised more computers than any other attack in years, can spread through USB devices, such as flash drives and cameras, by taking advantage of Windows' Autorun and Autoplay features."

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