maken - Slashdot User

How Sabu Orchestrated the Hack of FBI Contractor ManTech 34

Posted by Unknown Lamer on Wednesday June 18, 2014 @12:04PM from the security-through-marketing dept.

Daniel_Stuckey (2647775) writes Weeks after he started working quietly as an FBI informant, Hector Xavier Monsegur, known by his online alias "Sabu," led a cyber attack against one of the bureau's very own IT contractors. In July 2011, at Monsegur's urging, members of AntiSec, an offshoot of the hacking collective Anonymous, took advantage of compromised log-in credentials belonging to a contractor with a top secret security clearance employed at the time by ManTech International.

According to chat logs recorded by Monsegur at the behest of the FBI and obtained by Motherboard, the informant directed hackers to pilfer as much data as possible from ManTech's servers as investigators stood by. Stolen data was published as the third installment of AntiSec's ... collection of leaks intended to embarrass the same federal agency that presided over the hack and others.

Replicant Hackers Find and Close Samsung Galaxy Back-door 81

Posted by timothy on Thursday March 13, 2014 @08:46AM from the in-their-spare-time dept.

gnujoshua writes "Paul Kocialkowski (PaulK), a developer for the Replicant project, a fully free/libre version of Android, wrote a guest blog post for the Free Software Foundation announcing that whlie hacking on the Samsung Galaxy, they "discovered that the proprietary program running on the applications processor in charge of handling the communication protocol with the modem actually implements a back-door that lets the modem perform remote file I/O operations on the file system." They then replaced the proprietary program with free software.

While it may be a while before we can have a 100% free software microcode/firmware on the the cellular hardware itself, isolating that hardware from the rest of your programming and data is a seemingly important step that we can take right now. At least to the FSF anyhow. What do others think: is a 100% free software mobile device important to you?"

Monsanto Executive Wins World Food Prize 271

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday June 19, 2013 @08:00PM from the best-of-brand dept.

sfcrazy writes "A top Monsanto executive has won the prestigious World Food Prize. Secretary of State John Kerry announced the award where Robert T. Fraley, the executive vice president and CTO of Monsanto, won the prize along with two other scientists from Belgium and the US. The award was given for devising a method to insert genes from another organism into plant cells, which could produce new genetic lines with highly favorable traits."

Android Hackers Honing Skills In Russia 98

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday May 17, 2012 @10:01PM from the practice-makes-perfect dept.

MikeatWired writes "The malware business growing around Google Android — now the leading smartphone operating system — is still in its infancy. Today, many of the apps built to steal money from Android users originate from Russia and China, so criminal gangs there have become cyber-trailblazers. Sophos and Symantec on Wednesday released their latest Android malware discoveries written in Russian. While the language narrows the number of potential victims, the social-engineering tactics used to get Android users to install the malware is universal. The gang tracked by Sophos is using fake antivirus scanners, while Symantec is tracking cybercriminals using mobile websites to offer bogus versions of popular games. Sophos says the criminals are like other entrepreneurs launching startups. They're starting in Russia, but have far greater ambitions. 'I don't think we can say that they're necessarily using it as a testing ground — think of it more as a local business that as it grows may gain multinational ambitions,' Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said in an email interview on Wednesday. The cyber scam tracked by Sophos was reported this week by GFI Lab, which discovered links to the bogus antivirus software on Twitter. Sophos dug deeper and found that the .ru domains pointed to the same Internet protocol address hosted in Ukraine."

SFPD Breathalyzer Mistake Puts Hundreds of DUI Convictions In Doubt 498

Posted by Soulskill on Friday March 09, 2012 @01:23PM from the calibration-is-key dept.

Mr. Shotgun writes "According to CBS, 'Hundreds, or even thousands, of drunk driving convictions could be overturned because the San Francisco Police Department has not tested its breathalyzers, officials said Monday. For at least six years, the police officers in charge of testing the 20 breathalyzers used by the Police Department did not carry out any tests on the equipment. Officers instead filled the test forms with numbers that matched the control sample, said Public Defender Jeff Adachi, throwing countless DUI convictions into doubt.' Apparently this has happened before."

Santorum Calls Democrats 'Anti-Science' 1237

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday February 21, 2012 @07:36PM from the pi-is-exactly-three dept.

ndogg writes with news that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has counterattacked those critical of conservative views on science, saying that they're 'anti-science' themselves. From a CBS report: "In his remarks Monday, Santorum went beyond his usual discussion of the importance of increasing domestic energy production to deliver a blistering attack on environmental activists. He said global warming claims are based on 'phony studies,' and that climate change science is little more than 'political science.' His views are not 'anti-science' as Democrats claim, Santorum said. 'When it comes to the management of the Earth, they are the anti-science ones. We are the ones who stand for science, and technology, and using the resources we have to be able to make sure that we have a quality of life in this country and (that we) maintain a good and stable environment,' he said to applause, and cited local ordinances to reduce coal dust pollution in Pittsburgh during the heyday of coal mining."

Video How Much Stuff Can Timothy Jam Into His New Hoodie's Pockets? (Video) 183

Posted by Roblimo on Thursday February 09, 2012 @05:03PM from the someday-we'll-all-carry-more-than-our-body-weight-in-our-jackets dept.

Timothy Lord is exactly the kind of person for whom the SCOTTEVEST Ultimate Hoodie Microfleece was designed; He's on the go all the time, needs to travel light, and wants to carry lots of stuff on his person to avoid checking luggage when he's flying. Yes, we know; before long half the people waiting to board airliners will be bulked out to double their normal width. Meanwhile, Timothy managed to jam an amazing amount of stuff into his new hoodie. Or jacket, as he prefers to call it.

DC Comics Prevails In Batmobile Copyright Dispute 115

Posted by timothy on Thursday February 02, 2012 @05:01PM from the mechanical-royalties dept.

think_nix writes "Wired reports of U.S. District Judge Ronald S. W. Lew siding with DC Comics in the federal copyright court case against Gotham Garage owner Mark Towle. DC accused Towle of selling 'unlicensed replica vehicle modification kits based on vehicle design copyrights from plaintiff's Batman property, including various iterations of the fictional automobile, the Batmobile.' Lew noted that 'DC Comics pleads sufficient facts to support its allegations. Although, generally copyright law does not apply to "useful articles" such as autos.'"

Two SOPA Writers Become Entertainment Lobbyists 171

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday December 10, 2011 @07:10PM from the par-for-the-course dept.

schwit1 writes "According to Politico, 'A pair of senior Hill aides at the center of a brewing battle between Hollywood and Silicon Valley are packing their bags for K Street, where they’ll work for two of the entertainment lobby shops trying to influence their former colleagues in Congress on the very same issue. Allison Halataei, former deputy chief of staff and parliamentarian to House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), and Lauren Pastarnack, a Republican who has served as a senior aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee, worked on online piracy bills that would push Internet companies like Google, Yahoo and Facebook to shut down websites that offer illegal copies of blockbuster films and chart-topping songs.' Techdirt adds, 'Pastarnack went to the MPAA where she'll be "director of government relations" and Halataei to the NMPA (music publishers and songwriters) where she'll be "chief liaison to Capitol Hill." The Politico article linked above notes that this kind of "revolving door" is all too common. It may not be directly corrupt, but to the public it sure feels corrupt.'"

Comment Neoludite (Score 1) 990

by maken on Tuesday October 25, 2011 @02:44PM (#37834570) Attached to: The Real Job Threat

We need a tax on production of labor saving devices!!!

Comment Re:What is the goal? (Score 1) 1799

by maken on Monday October 10, 2011 @03:55PM (#37669308) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Do You View the Wall Street Protests?

Let me ask you...
How does somebody 'pay for another's BMW', if they can't afford food?

Blood, sweat, and tears...
Our wages and standard of living have stagnated or been going down for at least the last 30 years,
while the top 1% have been raking in record profits and their incomes are up at least 25% from the products of our labor.

Comment Re:What is the goal? (Score 2) 1799

by maken on Monday October 10, 2011 @03:47PM (#37669154) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Do You View the Wall Street Protests?

First on a google search for "Occupy Demands":

http://coupmedia.org/occupywallstreet/occupy-wall-street-official-demands-2009

Summary:
LIST OF PROPOSED "DEMANDS FOR CONGRESS

#1 - CONGRESS PASS HR 1489 ("RETURN TO PRUDENT BANKING ACT"

#2 - USE CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORITY AND OVERSIGHT TO ENSURE APPROPRIATE FEDERAL AGENCIES FULLY INVESTIGATE AND PROSECUTE THE WALL STREET CRIMINALS

#3 - CONGRESS ENACT LEGISLATION TO PROTECT OUR DEMOCRACY BY REVERSING THE EFFECTS OF THE CITIZENS UNITED SUPREME COURT DECISION

#4 - CONGRESS PASS THE BUFFETT RULE ON FAIR TAXATION SO THE RICH AND CORPORATIONS PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE & CLOSE CORPORATE TAX LOOP HOLES AND ENACT A PROHIBITION ON HIDING FUNDS OFF SHORE

#5 - CONGRESS COMPLETELY REVAMP THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Test Driving GNU Hurd, With Benchmarks Against Linux 335

Posted by Soulskill on Monday July 18, 2011 @03:01PM from the have-you-hurd dept.

An anonymous reader writes "After last week's news that GNU Hurd is coming, Phoronix set out to install Debian GNU Hurd and to provide GNU Hurd vs. Linux benchmarks. Linux was mostly faster than The Hurd while also having much better hardware support, multi-core SMP support, and other modern functionality."

Diver Snaps First Photo of Fish Using Tools 118

Posted by timothy on Sunday July 10, 2011 @11:02AM from the wake-me-when-they-enter-asynchronous-trade dept.

sciencehabit writes with this excerpt from Science: "While exploring Australia's Great Barrier Reef, professional diver Scott Gardner heard an odd cracking sound and swam over to investigate. What he found was a footlong blackspot tuskfish holding a clam in its mouth and whacking it against a rock. Soon the shell gave way, and the fish gobbled up the bivalve, spat out the shell fragments, and swam off. Fortunately, Gardner had a camera handy and snapped what seem to be the first photographs of a wild fish using a tool." (Not everyone agrees that this constitutes tool use, says the article, in part because the "tool" isn't something that the fish can actually manipulate.)

Why Are There So Few Honeycomb Apps? 432

Posted by samzenpus on Monday July 04, 2011 @02:48AM from the endangered-species dept.

Fudge Factor 3000 writes "PC World's Brent Rose investigates the reason behind the dearth of Honeycomb apps even though the OS was released in February with the release of the Xoom. One would have expected an explosion of Android tablet apps like that seen with the iPad but the Honeycomb-optimized apps remain in the low hundreds. The answer, it turns out, is not that simple. The main contributing factors appear to be the low demand for Honeycomb tablets and the difficulty in discovering Honeycomb-optimized apps in the Market. Hopefully, this will be rectified in the near future."

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