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Comment die from fear of bad hospital IT (Score 4, Funny) 67

So if I am admitted to hospital, my life might depend on windows installations so obsolete and ill-maintained, that I would not trust them with even the most menial tasks around my own home or business?

A patient with good IT knowledge risk dying of fear and shock once hooked up to such a system.

Submission + - Why Are HIV Drugs Being Used To Treat the New Coronavirus? (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On Tuesday, the Japanese government announced it will begin clinical trials to test treatments for the deadly new coronavirus that’s engulfed China and spread to over two dozen countries. Rather than new drugs, they’ll be studying existing medications already used to treat HIV and other viral diseases. But why exactly are researchers hopeful that these drugs can be repurposed for the new coronavirus, and how likely are they to work? The new coronavirus, recently named SARS-CoV-2 due to its close genetic ties to the SARS coronavirus, is made out of RNA. Other RNA viruses include the ones that cause Ebola, hepatitis C, and yes, HIV/AIDS.

RNA viruses come in all shapes and sizes, and those that infect humans can do so in different ways. But many of the drugs that go after HIV and the hepatitis C virus broadly target weaknesses found in all sorts of viruses. The approved hepatitis C drug ribavirin, for instance, interferes with something called the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, an enzyme essential for many viruses—including coronaviruses—to produce more of themselves inside a cell. HIV drugs like lopinavir inhibit other enzymes that allow viruses to break down certain proteins, which cripples their ability to infect cells and replicate. Broad antiviral drugs like lopinavir should be able to work against SARS-CoV-2, scientists theorize. And there’s already some circumstantial evidence they do. Some of these drugs have been successfully tested out for SARS and MERS, for instance, two other nasty coronaviruses that have emerged in recent years.

Submission + - Israeli Soldiers Tricked Into Installing Malware By Hamas Agents Posing As Women (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Members of the Hamas Palestinian militant group have posed as young teenage girls to lure Israeli soldiers into installing malware-infected apps on their phones, a spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said today. Some soldiers fell for the scam, but IDF said they detected the infections, tracked down the malware, and then took down Hamas' hacking infrastructure. IDF said Hamas operatives created Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram accounts and then approached IDF soldiers. According to IDF spokesperson Brigadier General Hild Silberman, Hamas agents posed as new Israeli immigrants in order to excuse their lacking knowledge of the Hebrew language.

Gen. Silberman said the apps would give the impression they can't run on soldiers' phones by showing a crash message. The apps would then delete their icons from the soldier's smartphone, tricking the user into thinking the app uninstalled itself. However, the app would keep running in the background. The malicious apps would then exfiltrate photos, SMS messages, contacts, and more. The apps could also install other malware on the device, track the phone's geo-location in real-time, and even take screenshots via the phone's camera.

Submission + - Bug In WordPress Plugin Can Let Hackers Wipe Up To 200,000 Sites (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: WordPress site owners who use commercial themes provided by ThemeGrill are advised to update one of the plugins that come installed with these themes in order to patch a critical bug that can let attackers wipe their sites. The vulnerability resides in ThemeGrill Demo Importer, a plugin that ships with themes sold by ThemeGrill, a web development company that sells commercial WordPress themes. The plugin, which is installed on more than 200,000 sites, allows site owners to import demo content inside their ThemeGrill themes so they'll have examples and a starting point on which they can build their own sites.

However, in a report published yesterday, WordPress security firm WebARX says that older versions of the ThemeGrill Demo Importer are vulnerable to remote attacks from unauthenticated attackers. Remote hackers can send a specially crafted payload to vulnerable sites and trigger a function inside the plugin. The vulnerable function resets the site's content to zero, effectively wiping the content of all WordPress sites where a ThemeGrill theme is active, and the vulnerable plugin is installed. Furthermore, if the site's database contains a user named "admin," then the attacker is granted access to that user with full administrator rights over the site.

Submission + - IBM Research Created a New Battery That May Outperform Lithium-Ion (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: [S]cientists at IBM Research have developed a new battery whose unique ingredients can be extracted from seawater instead of mining. The problems with the design of current battery technologies like lithium-ion are well known, we just tend to turn a blind eye when it means our smartphones can run for a full day without a charge. In addition to lithium, they require heavy metals like cobalt, manganese, and nickel which come from giant mines that present hazards to the environment, and often to those doing the actual mining. These metals are also a finite resource, and as more and more devices and vehicles switch to battery power, their availability is going to decrease at a staggering pace.

As a potential solution, scientists at IBM Research’s Battery Lab came up with a new design that replaces the need for cobalt and nickel in the cathode, and also uses a new liquid electrolyte (the material in a battery that helps ions move from one end to the other) with a high flash point. The combination of the new cathode and the electrolyte materials was also found to limit the creation of lithium dendrites which are spiky structures that often develop in lithium-ion batteries that can lead to short circuits. So not only would this new battery have less of an impact on the environment to manufacture, but it would also be considerably safer to use, with a drastically reduced risk of fire or explosions. The researchers believe the new battery would have a larger capacity than existing lithium-ion batteries, could potentially charge to about 80 percent of its full capacity in just five minutes, would be more energy-efficient, and, on top of it all, it would be cheaper to manufacture which in turn means they could help reduce the cost of gadgets and electric vehicles.

Comment Re:Pets (Score 1) 207

by tychoS (#55707907) Attached to: What Mistakes Can Stall An IT Career?

IT Career killers:

1. Getting married
2. Fathering multiple children
3. Buying a house with a garden
4. Developing social relations with non IT people

Lets face it. To keep on top of the IT field you have to work fulltime++ at the dayjob with technology that is current, up-to-date and mainstream and then go home and spend evenings & weekends exploring bleeding edge technology and learning new languages, tools, frameworks etc.

That is easy enough when you are 25, live in a small apartment full of computers and your "girlfriend" is an neural network you coded yourself from an AI book you read.

But is gets harder as the children wants to be driven to sports, their school wants parents to contribute and attend various events, the wife wants the occasional romantic weekend holiday just the two of you, while the children is at the grandparents and the house & garden needs care & attention etc.

Submission + - 3 ISPs Have Spent $572 Million To Kill Net Neutrality Since 2008 (dslreports.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A study by Maplight indicates that for every one comment submitted to the FCC on net neutrality (and there have been roughly 5 million so far), the telecom industry has spent $100 in lobbying to crush the open internet. The group found that Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) have spent $572 million on attempts to influence the FCC and other government agencies since 2008. "The FCC’s decision, slated to be announced later this summer, will be a clear indicator of the power of corporate cash in a Trump administration," notes the report. "Public sentiment is on the side of keeping the Obama administration’s net neutrality policies, which prevented internet companies from blocking, slowing or giving priority to different websites." Congressional lobbying forms indicate that Comcast alone has spent nearly $4 million on lobbying Congress on net neutrality issues from the end of 2014 through the first quarter of 2017.

Submission + - Radio Station Hijacked Eight Times in the Past Month to Play "I'm a Wanker" Song (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An unknown hacker has hijacked the radio frequency of a UK radio station to play an obscene song eight times during the past month. The hacks have been reported to Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, who together with the radio station's staff have tried to track down the culprit at last three times, without success. Ofcom and radio station officials believe the hacker is using a mobile radio transmitter to broadcast a stronger signal on the radio station's normal frequency, overriding its normal program.

In eight different occasions, the hacker has taken over broadcasts and has been heard talking, screaming, or singing, and then playing "The Winker's Song [NSFW]" by British comedian Ivor Biggun, a track about self-pleasure released in the 70s. Station manager Tony Delahunty told BBC Radio he received phone calls from distressed listeners complaining that their kids started humming the song. Fellow radio stations also called Delahunty to inquire about the hack, fearing similar hijacks.

Submission + - The Audi A8: First Production Car to Achieve Level 3 Autonomy (ieee.org) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes:

The 2018 Audi A8, just unveiled in Barcelona, counts as the world’s first production car to offer Level 3 autonomy.

Level 3 means the driver needn’t supervise things at all, so long as the car stays within guidelines. Here that involves driving no faster than 60 kilometers per hour (37 mph), which is why Audi calls the feature AI Traffic Jam Pilot.

Go ahead, Audi’s saying, read your newspaper or just zone out while traffic creeps along.

Submission + - 'World's First Robot Lawyer' Now Available In All 50 States (theverge.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A chatbot that provides free legal counsel using AI is now available in all 50 states starting today. This is following its success in New York, Seattle, and the UK, where it was invented by British entrepreneur Joshua Browder. Browder, who calls his invention “the world’s first robot lawyer,” estimates the bot has helped defeat 375,000 parking tickets in a span of two years. Browder, a junior at Stanford University, tells The Verge via Twitter that his chatbot could potentially experience legal repercussions from the government, but he is more concerned with competing with lawyers.

“The legal industry is more than a 200 billion dollar industry, but I am excited to make the law free,” says Browder. “Some of the biggest law firms can’t be happy!” Browder believes that his chatbot could also save government officials time and money. “Everybody can win,” he says, “I think governments waste a huge amount of money employing people to read parking ticket appeals. DoNotPay sends it to them in a clear and easy to read format.”

Submission + - EternalBlue Vulnerability Scanner Statistics Reveal Exposed Hosts Worldwide (helpnetsecurity.com)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: After the recent massive WannaCry ransomware campaign, Elad Erez, Director of Innovation at Imperva, was shocked at the number of systems that still sported the Microsoft Windows SMB Server vulnerabilities that made the attack possible. So, he decided to do something about it: he created Eternal Blues, an easy-to-use vulnerability scanner that he made available for download for free. The statistics collected by the tool, as well as the total number of downloads, show that after the NotPetya attack, people’s awareness of the threat did increase. Eternal Blues was used for over 23,000 scans. Over 8 million IP addresses were scanned, and a total of 60,000 vulnerable hosts were identified (out of ~537,000 that were responsive). Of the ~537,000 responsive hosts, some 258,000 still had SMBv1 enabled.

Submission + - Google Spared $1.3 Billion Tax Bill With Victory in French Court (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by Zorro
Zorro writes: Google won its fight against a 1.12 billion-euro ($1.3 billion) French tax bill after a court rejected claims the search-engine giant abused loopholes to avoid paying its fair share.

Google didn’t illegally dodge French taxes by routing sales in the country out of Ireland, the Paris administrative court decided Wednesday. Judges ruled that Google’s European headquarters in Ireland can’t be taxed as if it also has a permanent base in France, as requested by the nation’s administration.

Submission + - Fake online stores reveal gamblers' shadow banking system

Submitted by randomErr
randomErr writes: A network of dummy online stores offering household goods has been used as a front for internet gambling payments. The seven sites in Europe to sell items including fabric, DVD cases, and maps are fake outlets. The faux store fronts are a multinational system to disguise payments for the $40 billion global online gambling industry. Online gambling is illegal in many countries and some U.S. states. The dummy sites underline a strategy which regulators, card issuers and banks have yet to tackle head-on.

Submission + - China, Canada vow not to conduct cyberattacks on private sector (reuters.com)

Submitted by tychoS
tychoS writes: China and Canada have signed an agreement vowing not to conduct state-sponsored cyberattacks against each other aimed at stealing trade secrets or other confidential business information.
China and Canada have signed an agreement vowing not to conduct state-sponsored cyberattacks against each other aimed at stealing trade secrets or other confidential business information.

The agreement was reached during talks between Canada's national security and intelligence adviser, Daniel Jean, and senior communist party official Wang Yongqing, a statement dated June 22 on the Canadian government's website showed.

"This is something that three or four years ago (Beijing) would not even have entertained in the conversation," an unnamed Canadian government official told the Globe and Mail, which first reported the agreement.

The new agreement only covers economic cyber-espionage, which includes hacking corporate secrets and proprietary technology, but does not deal with state-sponsored cyber spying for intelligence gathering.

Submission + - HyperThreading Flaw In Intel 6th And 7th Gen Processors Requires BIOS Update Fix (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: A new flaw has been discovered that impacts Intel 6th and 7th Generation Skylake and Kaby Lake-based processors that support HyperThreading. The issue affects all OS types and is detailed by Intel errata documentation and points out that under complex micro-architectural conditions, short loops of less than 64 instructions that use AH, BH, CH or DH registers, as well as their corresponding wider register (e.g. RAX, EAX or AX for AH), may cause unpredictable system behavior, including crashes and potential data loss. The OCaml toolchain community first began investigating processors with these malfunctions back in January and found reports stemming back to at least the first half of 2016. The OCaml team was able pinpoint the issue to Skylake's HyperThreading implementation and notified Intel. While Intel reportedly did not respond directly, it has issued some microcode fixes since then. That's not the end of the story, however, as the microcode fixes need to be implemented into BIOS/UEFI updates as well and it is not clear at this time if all major vendors have included these changes in their latest revisions.

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