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Submission + - Beloved hacker mag comes out of four-year hiatus

Submitted by Earthquake Retrofit
Earthquake Retrofit writes: More than four years since its previous issue, iconic hacker zine Phrack has published a new issue. Phrack issue number 69 contains articles from researchers Aaron Portnoy and Alisa Esage, as well as articles on OS X rootkits and exploiting Ruby on Rails.

First released in 1985 via BBS, Phrack has been staffed by dozens of editors and contributors in its three-plus decades. The long-running zine has also hosted a number of notable articles, including the famed Hacker Manifesto and Smashing The Stack For Fun And Profit.

Submission + - NASA Launches Searchable Database Of Public Domain Patents (slashgear.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: NASA has released a bunch of patents for its technologies so that anyone can use them. A total of 56 “formerly-patented” technologies developed by the government are now available in the public domain, meaning they can be used for commercial purposes in an unrestricted manner. To make it easier to find these technologies and others like them, NASA has also created a new searchable database that links the public to thousands of the agency’s now-expired patents. According to NASA, the patents it has released may have non-aerospace applications that could help companies with commercial projects underway. Of the 56 formerly-patented technologies, users will find things like methods of propulsion, thrusters, rocket nozzles, advanced manufacturing processes, and more.

Submission + - Microsoft Sees Over 10 Million Cyberattacks per Day on Its Online Infrastructure

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft's user identity management systems, made up by Microsoft Account (formerly Live ID, for home users) and Azure Active Directory (for its cloud/corporate services), see over 13 billion user logins per day, with 1.3 billion for AAD. The company says that over 10 million (per day) of these login attempts are cyber-attacks, which the company is able to detect.

This information comes via Microsoft's most recent Security Intelligence Report, which also reveals details about a new cyber-espionage group named Platinum and that hackers are still using the same vulnerability (CVE-2010-2568) even today, which was used in the Stuxnet attacks.

Submission + - Microsoft To End Nagging Windows 10 Upgrade Notifications Soon (winbeta.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft has officially announced today it will end the annoying "Get Windows 10" notifications in July, when they end the free Windows 10 upgrade offer. In a statement to WinBeta, Microsoft said in a comment: "Details are still being finalized, but on July 29th the Get Windows 10 app that facilitates the easy upgrade to Windows 10 will be disabled and eventually removed from PCs worldwide. Just as it took time to ramp up and roll out the Get Windows 10 app, it will take time to ramp it down." This is great news for users who have decided to not install Windows 10 for whatever reason.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Should I expect to be tracked as a subscriber to a news website? 1

Submitted by robot5x
robot5x writes: I'm a fan of online privacy and, where possible, don't automatically permit cookies and tend to set Ghostery to block all trackers in my browser. This rarely causes a problem — I have lots of subscriptions to various sites which require me to login and have only rarely encountered minor issues.

Recently I had a present of a Slate Plus membership. I really like their content and was keen on supporting it financially. Activating it from the email they sent me required to first register as a user. I clicked on the icon, and nothing happened. Ghostery picked up 7 trackers which I had blocked.

Assuming that one of these was the cause, I activated each in turn and reloaded. None of them made any difference, except a single tracker from JanRain. Accepting this tracker let everything work perfectly. Reading more about JanRain though — and particularly its interaction with Adobe analytics (which it also tries to load) — I discovered that they wanted to "create a holistic view of your business by collecting, analyzing and reporting all customer interactions. To derive the most actionable insights, you must link your customers’ actions with who they are and what their interests are. Janrain bridges the gap by connecting demographic and psychographic data, collected through traditional and social login, with Adobe’s behavioral data, so you understand the whole customer journey".

I do not want them to do any of this, and don't think I should have to. Interactions with Slate's 'support' were excruciating and — while they at least didn't ask me to restart my computer — they actually ended up saying that allowing these trackers is tied to their login process and I have to either accept or get a refund.

My question to Slashdot is — is it acceptable to have to accept being tracked as a paying customer of a news site (or any site, in fact), or am I just being a big baby?

Submission + - After software upgrade, Kobo customers are losing books from their libraries (teleread.com) 2

Submitted by Robotech_Master
Robotech_Master writes: After a recent Kobo software upgrade, a number of Kobo customers have reported losing e-books from their libraries--notably, e-books that had been transferred to Kobo from their Sony Reader libraries when Sony left the consumer e-book business. One customer reported missing 460 e-books, and the only way to get them back in her library would be to search and re-add them one at a time! Customers who downloaded their e-books and illegally broke the DRM don't have this problem, of course.

Submission + - Lenovo Patches Serious Flaw In Pre-Installed Support Tool (csoonline.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Lenovo has fixed a vulnerability in its Lenovo Solution Center support tool, which comes pre-installed on many Lenovo laptops and desktops. The vulnerability could allow attackers to execute code with system privileges and take over computers. Users should automatically be prompted to update LSC when they open the application, but in case they don't, they should download the latest version (3.3.002) manually from Lenovo's website. This is not the first time such a vulnerability was found and fixed in LSC. In fact, Lenovo updated an old advisory for flaws reported in December with information about the new vulnerability, making it somewhat hard to spot.
Media

Roku Finally Gets a 2D Menu System 80

Posted by samzenpus from the new-look dept.
DeviceGuru writes "Many of us have griped for years about Roku's retro one-dimensional user interface. Finally, in conjunction with the release of the new Roku 3 model, the Linux-based media streaming player is getting a two-dimensional facelift, making it quicker and easier to access favorite channels and find new ones. Current Roku users, who will now begin suffering from UI-envy, will be glad to learn that Roku plans to push out a firmware update next month to many earlier models, including the Roku LT, Roku HD (model 2500R), Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD, Roku 2 XS, and Roku Streaming Stick. A short demo of the new 2D Roku menu system is available in this YouTube video."

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