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Submission + - Aviation security: Bruce Schneier V. Kip Hawley (TSA Boss) (economist.com)

Submitted by
Fluffeh
Fluffeh writes: "A nice summary, brings word that Bruce Schneier has been debating with Kip Hawley, who is the boss of the TSA over at the Economist. Bruce has been providing facts, analysis and some amazing statistics into the debate and it makes for very educating reading — and it has the benefit of being a debate, so the TSA is compelled to respond.

"He wants us to trust that a 400-ml bottle of liquid is dangerous, but transferring it to four 100-ml bottles magically makes it safe. He wants us to trust that the butter knives given to first-class passengers are nevertheless too dangerous to be taken through a security checkpoint. He wants us to trust that there’s a reason to confiscate a cupcake (Las Vegas), a 3-inch plastic toy gun (London Gatwick), a purse with an embroidered gun on it (Norfolk, VA), a T-shirt with a picture of a gun on it (London Heathrow) and a plastic lightsaber that’s really a flashlight with a long cone on top (Dallas/Fort Worth).""
Security

Submission + - Kelihos gang building new botnet, researchers say (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: The cyber-criminal gang that operated the recently disabled Kelihos botnet has already begun building a new botnet with the help of a Facebook worm, according to security researchers from Seculert. Security experts from Kaspersky Lab, CrowdStrike, Dell SecureWorks and the Honeynet Project, announced that they took control of the 110,000 PC-strong Kelihos botnet on Wednesday using a method called sinkholing. That worm has compromised over 70,000 Facebook accounts so far and is currently distributing a new version of the Kelihos Trojan, Seculert security researchers said in a blog post.http://blog.seculert.com/2012/03/kelihosb-is-still-live-and-social.html
Encryption

Submission + - Cops Can Crack An iPhone In Under Two Minutes (forbes.com) 2

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: Micro Systemation, a Stockholm-based company, has released a video showing that its software can easily bypass the iPhone's four-digit passcode in a matter of seconds. It can also crack Android phones, and is designed to dump the devices' data to a PC for easy browsing, including messages, GPS locations, web history, calls, contacts and keystroke logs.

The company's director of marketing says it uses an undisclosed vulnerability in the devices it targets to run a program on the phone that brute-forces its passcode. He says the company's business is "booming" and that it's sold the devices to law enforcement and military customers in 60 countries. He says Micro Systemation's biggest customer is the U.S. military.
Botnet

Submission + - Political Party's Leadership Election Attacked by DDoS (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by lyran74
lyran74 writes: Saturday's electronic leadership vote for Canada's New Democratic Party was plagued by delays caused by a botnet DDoS attack, coming from over 10,000 machines. Details are still scarce, but Scytl, who provided electronic voting services, will have to build more robust systems in the future in anticipation of such attacks. Party and company officials say an audit proved the systems and integrity of the vote were not compromised.
Blackberry

Submission + - Throwing Light on Elcomsoft's Analysis of Smartphone Password Managers (tidbits.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Security firm Elcomsoft analyzed 17 iOS and BlackBerry password-keeping apps and found their actual security levels well below their claimed level of protection. With additional digging, however, Glenn Fleishman at TidBITS found that Elcomsoft's criticisms rely on physical access to the apps' data stores, and, for some of the more common apps, on the user employing a short (6 characters or fewer) or numeric password. In other words, there really isn't much risk here.

Submission + - Netflix has decided to invalidate your right to sue them (netflix.com)

Submitted by ebombme
ebombme writes: Netflix has decided to go the route of AT&T and others by trying to take away the rights of their users to form class action lawsuits against them. A copy of the new terms of use states "These Terms of Use provide that all disputes between you and Netflix will be resolved by BINDING ARBITRATION. YOU AGREE TO GIVE UP YOUR RIGHT TO GO TO COURT to assert or defend your rights under this contract (except for matters that may be taken to small claims court). Your rights will be determined by a NEUTRAL ARBITRATOR and NOT a judge or jury and your claims cannot be brought as a class action. Please review the Arbitration Agreement below for the details regarding your agreement to arbitrate any disputes with Netflix."
Hardware

Submission + - Scientists build graphene from scratch, atom by atom (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "You’ve heard of 'designer babies,' the idea that you can customize a baby by altering its DNA, but now a team of researchers from Stanford University and the Department of Energy have meddled around with the very fabric of reality and created the very first 'designer electrons.' The bulk of the universe is made up from just a few dozen elements, and each of these elements is made up of just a few subatomic particles: electrons, protons, neutrons, quarks, and so on. For the most part, the properties of every material — its flexibility, strength, conductivity — is governed by the bonds between its constituent atoms, which in turn dictate a molecule’s arrangement of electrons. In short, if you can manually move electrons around, you can create different or entirely new materials. That’s exactly what Stanford University has done: Using a scanning tunneling microscope, the team of researchers placed individual carbon monoxide molecules on a clean sheet of copper to create 'molecular graphene' — an entirely new substance that definitely isn’t graphene, but with electrons that act a lot like graphene. It is now possible, then, for scientists to create entirely new materials or tweak existing materials — like silicon or copper, or another important element — to make them stronger or more conductive. Where will this particular avenue lead us?"
Canada

Submission + - Misleading Robocalls Went To Voters ID'd As Non-Tories (huffingtonpost.ca)

Submitted by silentbrad
silentbrad writes: An investigation by CBC News has turned up voters all over Canada who say the reason they got robocalls sending them to fictitious polling stations was that they'd revealed they would not vote Conservative. Although the Conservative Party has denied any involvement in the calls, these new details suggest that the misleading calls relied on data gathered by, and carefully guarded by, the Conservative Party. Known as "CIMS," the database assigns a "smiley" face to supporters, and a "sad" face to non-Conservatives. Liberal and NDP politicians say it would make no sense to call randomly, since many of the voters misled would be Conservatives.

Comment Re:No improvement over the current setup (Score 1) 287

by NorthWarden (#39133805) Attached to: UN Pushes Plan To Assume Internet Governance Role
Sorry, but you're wrong. Verisign currently holds the contract from ICANN to host the .com TLD, and therefore the .com address space is COMPLETELY under US control, as it is run by an American corporation which is totally subject to American law and judgement. Ditto with .net - exactly same deal. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, since it has to be hosted somewhere and there are very few international zones/corporations, but it does mean that the US can, if it so chooses, cause a ruling to be brought against Verisign regarding the .com or .net zone.
Security

Submission + - Defending You Cellphone Against Hackers

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Kate Murphy writes that as cellphones have gotten smarter, they have become less like phones and more like computers, and that with more than a million phones worldwide already hacked, technology experts expect breached, infiltrated or otherwise compromised cellphones to be the scourge of 2012. “It’s actually quite frightening,” says Chuck Bokath. “Most people have no idea how vulnerable they are when they use their cellphones.” The bad news is that cellphones are often loaded with even more personal information than PC's so an undefended or carelessly operated phone can result in a breathtaking invasion of individual privacy as well as the potential for data corruption and outright theft. But there are a few common sense ways to protect yourself: Avoid free unofficial versions of popular apps that often have malware hidden in the code, avoid using Wi-Fi in a Starbucks or airport which leaves you open to hackers, and be wary of apps that want permission to make phone calls, connect to the Internet or reveal your identity and location. One common ruse is a man-in-the middle attack when a target receives a text message that claims to be from his or her cell service provider asking for permission to “reprovision” or otherwise reconfigure the phone’s settings due to a network outage or other problem. Don’t click “O.K.” Call your carrier to see if the message is bogus. For the more paranoid, there are supersecure smartphones like the Sectéra Edge by General Dynamics, commissioned by the Defense Department for use by soldiers and spies which may soon be available to the public in the near future. “It’s like any arms race,” says mobile security consultant Michael Pearce. “No one wins, but you have to go ahead and fight anyway.”"

Comment Re:We've had an increase in gas prices... (Score 1) 891

by NorthWarden (#38619876) Attached to: Why Fuel Efficiency Advances Haven't Translated To Better Gas Mileage
I heartily second the opinion. I live in the Yukon up in Canada (think Alaska, and go west about 150 miles) and have only ever driven FWD cars with all-season tires. The only accidents I have ever been in involved company vehicles (all trucks, SUVs or vans) with the best winter tires we could get and sandbags in the back for added traction. Almost every accident I've seen was caused by people misjudging road conditions or being overconfident in their SUV's or truck's "superior handling". I have personally driven in whiteout conditions which required a top speed of 30 km/h (20 mi/h) as well as on roads so slick that any speed over 60km/h (35 mi/h) practically guaranteed sliding into the opposite lane when going around a corner, and yet I have never in my life been in anything except single-vehicle accidents (okay, one of them involved a caribou...), and except for the caribou all of my "accidents" were just running off the road into the snowbank. Granted, I cannot pull a boat trailer or a snowmobile/ATV trailer with my mid-size sedan, but for what I use it for (mostly commuting) it works just fine.

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