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Submission + - Chrome Extension Embeds In-Browser Cryptocurrency Miner That Drains Your CPU (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The authors of SafeBrowse, a Chrome extension with more than 140,000 users, have embedded a JavaScript library in the extension's code that mines for the Monero cryptocurrency using users' computers and without getting their consent. The additional code drives CPU usage through the roof, making users computers sluggish and hard to use.

Looking at the SafeBrowse extension's source code, anyone can easily spot that its authors embedded the Coinhive JavaScript Miner, an in-browser implementation of the CryptoNight mining algorithm used by CryptoNote-based currencies, such as Monero, Dashcoin, DarkNetCoin, and others. This is the same technology that The Pirate Bay experimented as an alternative to showing ads on its site.

The extension's author claims he was "hacked" and the code added without his knowledge. Because of the attention the Coinhive JavaScript Miner got over the weekend, many expect it to become a favorite tool for all shady extension developers looking to make a quick buck off their users.

Comment Re:Fiduciary duty (Score 5, Funny) 326

I agree, outsource all the professors and facilities staff too. Even cheaper, no buildings or classes. Best value: $20 gets your name printed on the degree of your choice. I mean, it's cheaper, they'd be doing their fiduciary duty, and the student gets a degree. Learning is, at best, ancillary to the sober work of cutting costs.

Comment Re:Unrealistic for you, maybe (Score 2) 557

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, "

Declaration of Independence makes it pretty clear that life is a human right and that the feds are responsible for the health and happiness of the citizens. But then again, I'm sure there's a reason that it doesn't count as a founding document in some lines of thinking.

Submission + - Google and Facebook cancel satellite plans

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Facebook and Google have both cancelled their plans to build satellite systems to provide global internet access.

It appears Google pulled out earlier this year, while Facebook's decision was revealed today. Google however remains a partner in Skybox, a space imaging company, as well as O3b, which is trying to provide internet using satellites.

Submission + - Is Musk Really Suckling On The Government's Teat? 1

Submitted by Rei
Rei writes: Slashdot recently linked an article in the LA Times complaining about how Elon Musk has built his corporate empires — Solar City, Tesla Motors and SpaceX — on the back of government largess. However, how does it compare in context to its competitors? USC professor Greg Autry breaks it down, noting among other things that SpaceX's competitors have benefited from decades of tremendous government money and a launch monopoly, while the Volt receives — on a percentage basis — 2 1/2 times greater subsidy than a Model S, and was developed on the government's dime.

Submission + - Hackers can track subway riders' movements even underground by (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Patrick O'Neill
Patrick O'Neill writes: Tens of millions of daily subway riders around the world can be tracked through their smartphones by a new attack, according to research from China's Nanjing University. The new attack even works underground and doesn't utilize GPS or cell networks. Instead, the attacker steals data from a phone's accelerometer. Because each subway in the world has a unique movement fingerprint, the phone's motion sensor can give away a person's daily movements with up to 92% accuracy.

Submission + - No, Your SSD Won't Quickly Lose Data While Powered Down (pcworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A few weeks ago, we discussed reports that SSDs would lose data in a surprisingly short amount of time if left powered off. The reports were based on a presentation from Alvin Cox, a Seagate engineer, about enterprise storage practices. PCWorld spoke to him and another engineer for Seagate, and they say the whole thing was blown out of proportion. Alan Cox said, "I wouldn’t worry about (losing data). This all pertains to end of life. As a consumer, an SSD product or even a flash product is never going to get to the point where it’s temperature-dependent on retaining the data." The intent of the original presentation was to set expectations for a worst case scenario — a data center writing huge amounts of data to old SSDs and then storing them long-term at unusual temperatures. It's not a very realistic situation for businesses with responsible IT departments, and almost impossible for personal drives.

Submission + - Large Amount of Star Citizen Art Assets Leaked

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: A huge batch of work-in-progress assets for Star Citizen have leaked to the public. An unknown person, likely connected with Cloud Imperium Games in some way, provided a link to the 48 gigabytes of content. The link has now been taken down, but as we know, it's hard to remove material from Internet after once put there. Being a CryEngine game, it has been suggested that it might be possible to view some of the assets using CryEngine development tools. Leaks are always quite the conundrum with the opportunities they present to curious fans and competitor companies, but can also be very depressing for the developers and publisher of the game.

Submission + - No, NASA did not accidentally invent warp drive

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: As Slashdot has previously reported, NASA Spaceflight has claimed to have vetted the EM Drive in a vacuum, and found there is still an anomalous thrust/acceleration on the order of 50 microNewtons for the device. While some are claiming this means things like warp drive and 70-day-trips-to-Mars are right on the horizon, it's important to view this from a scientist's point of view. Here's what it will take to turn this from a speculative claim into a robust one.

Comment Re:Mandatory doesn't sound all bad to me (Score 1) 1089

by Lupinetine Syed (#49302223) Attached to: Obama: Maybe It's Time For Mandatory Voting In US

I think mandatory voting should come with 2 or 3 simple multiple choice questions that test the voter's grasp of democracy, the state they live in and the USA as a whole. Nothing that could possibly disenfranchise anyone except morons. The vote is weighted by how many questions the person gets right. All right and you get 100%, none right and you get 30%.

Ahhh, the old fashioned literacy test.

Submission + - uTorrent quietly installs cryptocurrency miner, users complain (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by Eloking
Eloking writes: From http://torrentfreak.com/

Many users of the popular BitTorrent client uTorrent are complaining about it silently installing a cryptocurrency miner with a recent update. The Epic Scale tool, which slows down host computers, is reportedly being installed without consent and for some is particularly hard to remove.

Submission + - Demand for Linux Skills Rising This Year (dice.com) 2

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: This year is shaping up as a really good one for Linux, at least on the jobs front. According to a new report (PDF) from The Linux Foundation and Dice, nearly all surveyed hiring managers want to recruit Linux professionals within the next six months, with 44 percent of them indicating they’re more likely to hire a candidate with Linux certification over one who does not. Forty-two percent of hiring managers say that experience in OpenStack and CloudStack will have a major impact on their hiring decisions, while 23 percent report security is a sought-after area of expertise and 19 percent are looking for Linux-skilled people with Software-Defined Networking skills. Ninety-seven percent of hiring managers report they will bring on Linux talent relative to other skills areas in the next six months.

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A method of solution is perfect if we can forsee from the start, and even prove, that following that method we shall attain our aim. -- Leibnitz

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