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Submission + - The DOJ Detected the SolarWinds Hack 6 Months Earlier Than First Disclosed (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Department of Justice, Mandiant, and Microsoft stumbled upon the SolarWinds breach six months earlier than previously reported, WIRED has learned, but were unaware of the significance of what they had found. The breach, publicly announced in December 2020, involved Russian hackers compromising the software maker SolarWinds and inserting a backdoor into software served to about 18,000 of its customers. That tainted software went on to infect at least nine US federal agencies, among them the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the Treasury Department, as well as top tech and security firms including Microsoft, Mandiant, Intel, Cisco, and Palo Alto Networks. The hackers had been in these various networks for between four and nine months before the campaign was exposed by Mandiant.

WIRED can now confirm that the operation was actually discovered by the DOJ six months earlier, in late May 2020—but the scale and significance of the breach wasn’t immediately apparent. Suspicions were triggered when the department detected unusual traffic emanating from one of its servers that was running a trial version of the Orion software suite made by SolarWinds, according to sources familiar with the incident. The software, used by system administrators to manage and configure networks, was communicating externally with an unfamiliar system on the internet. The DOJ asked the security firm Mandiant to help determine whether the server had been hacked. It also engaged Microsoft, though it’s not clear why the software maker was also brought onto the investigation.

It’s not known what division of the DOJ experienced the breach, but representatives from the Justice Management Division and the US Trustee Program participated in discussions about the incident. The Trustee Program oversees the administration of bankruptcy cases and private trustees. The Management Division advises DOJ managers on budget and personnel management, ethics, procurement, and security. Investigators suspected the hackers had breached the DOJ server directly, possibly by exploiting a vulnerability in the Orion software. They reached out to SolarWinds to assist with the inquiry, but the company’s engineers were unable to find a vulnerability in their code. In July 2020, with the mystery still unresolved, communication between investigators and SolarWinds stopped. A month later, the DOJ purchased the Orion system, suggesting that the department was satisfied that there was no further threat posed by the Orion suite, the sources say.

Submission + - NASA Power Tweak Extends Voyager 2 Mission

Submitted by canux
canux writes: In an effort to continue to power Voyager 2's five on-board scientific instruments, NASA engineers have devised a software update that disables the probe's electrical supply safety system.

"'Although the spacecraft’s voltage will not be tightly regulated as a result, even after more than 45 years in flight, the electrical systems on both probes remain relatively stable, minimizing the need for a safety net,' according to NASA JPL. 'The engineering team is also able to monitor the voltage and respond if it fluctuates too much. If the new approach works well for Voyager 2, the team may implement it on Voyager 1 as well.'”

The Voyager probes each contain a Multihundred-Watt Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator for their power which use Plutonium-238 to generate heat to produce electricity with a thermocouple. Plutonium-238 has a half-life of a little over 87 years which means that Voyager 2 has seen a greater than 25% reduction in its power output since it was launched.

Submission + - SPAM: Seattle Public Schools Sues Social Media Giants for Youth Mental Health Crisis

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "A new lawsuit filed by Seattle Public Schools against TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Snap, Instagram, and their parent companies," reports GeekWire's Todd Biship, "alleges that the social media giants have 'successfully exploited the vulnerable brains of youth' for their own profit, using psychological tactics that have led to a mental health crisis in schools. The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, seeks 'the maximum statutory and civil penalties permitted by law,' making the case that the companies have violated Washington state’s public nuisance law."

"The district alleges that it has suffered widespread financial and operational harm from social media usage and addiction among students. The lawsuit cites factors including the resources required to provide counseling services to students in crisis, and to investigate and respond to threats made against schools and students over social media. 'This mental health crisis is no accident,' the suit says. 'It is the result of the Defendants’ deliberate choices and affirmative actions to design and market their social media platforms to attract youth.'"

"The lawsuit cites President Joe Biden’s statement in his 2022 State of the Union address that 'we must hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit.' The suit says the school district 'brings this action to do just that.'"

Submission + - Why Craigslist Still Looks the Same After 25+ Years (pcmag.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Craigslist emerged in 1995 to connect strangers through a free, web-based platform that has endured as rivals services like Zillow, Facebook Marketplace, and countless dating apps emerged with advanced features and slick interfaces. These platforms survive on advertising and subscription revenue. Craigslist, of course, has none of that. Over the years, the OG online marketplace has all but refused to modernize; its mobile app only came out in 2019 after nearly 25 years in business. Why does the website still look the same after so many decades? That was the main question I had when I sat down for a video call with craigslist founder Craig Newmark, who joined me from the New York City apartment he shares with his wife, Eileen Whelpley.

Newmark stepped down as CEO of craigslist in 2000 after others told him he wasn’t cut out for management, he says. Jim Buckmaster has been at the helm since, though Newmark remains a partial owner. He now works on philanthropy full time, supporting groups like the Coalition Against Online Violence, which helps combat harassment against female journalists. Still, the 69-year-old entrepreneur is a billionaire (or near-billionaire since he’s given away millions). Our chat yielded much more than expected, from Costco hotdogs to Hello Kitty and his childhood Sunday School lessons. It’s clear that the website is the purest and most enduring expression of Craig Newmark, a humble tech mogul who marches to the beat of his own drum.

Submission + - SPAM: Air Force Shocks Defense Sector As Secret Fighter Jet Takes Flight

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: After delivering the a big surprise about the sixth-generation fighter prototype, Roper gave no other details. He would not disclose any information about a timeline for fielding, what technology would be onboard, or which companies are participating.

"The NGAD(Next Generation Air Dominance) has come so far that the full-scale flight demonstrator has already flown in the physical world. It's broken a lot of records," Air Force acquisition chief William Roper said during the Air Force Association's annual Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

"A lot of the mission systems that we require for next-generation air dominance have been flown on test articles. So they are coming along very well, and digital engineering seems to accelerate everything."
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Big Tech Alliance Standard For Smart Home Tech On Track For 2021 Release (macrumors.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Last year, Apple, Amazon, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance, which includes Ikea, Samsung, and Philips, announced a new working group known as "Project Connected Home over IP" that set about developing an IP-based open-source connectivity standard for smart home products, with a focus on increased compatibility, security, and simplified development for manufacturers. The group has today announced a major update on the project, stating that development is ongoing, and that work is on track for a 2021 release.

The update reveals the first concrete information about how the open-source smart home standard will work. A large number of devices will be supported by the protocol, including "lighting and electrical (e.g., light bulbs, luminaires, controls, plugs, outlets), HVAC controls (e.g., thermostats, AC units), access control (e.g., door locks, garage doors), safety and security (e.g., sensors, detectors, security systems), window coverings/shades, TVs, access points, bridges and others," as well as additional "consumer electronics products." The announcement also reveals that the group has grown significantly, now with 145 active member companies. Between these companies there are hundreds of product, engineering, and marketing experts, working across 30 cross-functional teams to deliver the new standard.

Submission + - Bletchley Park Museum to layoff a third of it's staff (theguardian.com) 1

Submitted by simpz
simpz writes: The Guardian is reporting that Bletchley Park Museum is planning to make a third of it's staff redundant. This, of course, the museum of British wartime codebreakers, including famously Alan Turing.

I personally think Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Twitter etc should all chip in to stop this from happening. Without Alan Turing and others, they wouldn't have a business, and to these companies this is small change.

Submission + - Why New Zealand might never know how virus came back (nzherald.co.nz)

Submitted by Thelasko
Thelasko writes: Having ruled out the possibility of the virus entering the country through frozen goods at Americold, scientists and authorities are now more or less settled on the explanation of a hidden, person-to-person chain of infection.

"I still think the most likely source of the cluster is that it came in via a border worker somewhere — whether at an airport, a port, or a quarantine facility — and it's then gone a few more steps in a chain before it arrived with the worker at Americold," University of Canterbury mathematician and modeller Professor Michael Plank said.

  Dr Jemma Geoghegan, an evolutionary biologist and virologist at the University of Otago and ESR, remained confident the outbreak wasn't linked to New Zealand cases from months ago.

"We did have this lineage in New Zealand way back in April, but both the genomic and epidemiological data we have doesn't link this new cluster to those old cases," she said.

"We know that there are a substantial number of people around the world who get really sick with this disease, and in my view it's very unlikely it could have gone undetected for several months."

Genomic sequencing of the latest samples revealed the lineage — called B.1.1.1 — as one with strong connections to coronavirus in Australia, the UK and other countries.

Submission + - SPAM: Fossil leaves prove elevated CO2 triggered greening 23M years ago

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The links between rising carbon dioxide levels, global warming and greening trends have been confirmed by fossilized leaves from a 23 million-year-old forest.

The leaves were found preserved in the sediment layers that once formed the bottom of a New Zealand lake.

"The amazing thing is that these leaves are basically mummified, so we have their original chemical compositions, and can see all their fine features under a microscope," lead author Tammo Reichgelt, an adjunct scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said in a news release.

Paleontologists previously unearthed a diversity of plants, algae, spiders, beetle, flies and fungi from the ancient lake bed, found inside an ancient crater called Foulden Maar.

Their analysis showed atmospheric CO2 levels rose as high as 450 parts per million during the Miocene.

The analysis also showed trees in the Foulden Maar forest were able to absorb larger amounts of CO2 without requiring the same levels of water absorption, allowing them to grow in marginal areas — places previously too dry to host large plants.

Today, CO2 levels in the atmosphere measure 415 ppm. By 2040, they will likely reach 450 ppm. Researchers suggest the latest study will help climate scientists improve the accuracy of their models.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Greenland Lost 586 Billions Tons of Ice In 2019 (apnews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Greenland lost a record amount of ice during an extra warm 2019, with the melt massive enough to cover California in more than four feet (1.25 meters) of water, a new study said. After two years when summer ice melt had been minimal, last summer shattered all records with 586 billion tons (532 billion metric tons) of ice melting, according to satellite measurements reported in a study Thursday. That’s more than 140 trillion gallons (532 trillion liters) of water. That’s far more than the yearly average loss of 259 billion tons (235 billion metric tons) since 2003 and easily surpasses the old record of 511 billion tons (464 billion metric tons) in 2012, said a study in Communications Earth & Environment. The study showed that in the 20th century, there were many years when Greenland gained ice.

“Not only is the Greenland ice sheet melting, but it’s melting at a faster and faster pace,” said study lead author Ingo Sasgen, a geoscientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany. Last year’s Greenland melt added 0.06 inches (1.5 millimeters) to global sea level rise. That sounds like a tiny amount but “in our world it’s huge, that’s astounding,” said study co-author Alex Gardner, a NASA ice scientist. Add in more water from melting in other ice sheets and glaciers, along with an ocean that expands as it warms — and that translates into slowly rising sea levels, coastal flooding and other problems, he said.

Submission + - Deep learning helps future Mars Rovers go farther, faster, and do more science (utexas.edu) 1

Submitted by aarondubrow
aarondubrow writes: NASA JPL are developing autonomous capabilities that could allow future Mars rovers to go farther, faster and do more science. Training machine learning models on the Maverick2 supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, their team developed and optimized models for Drive-By Science and Energy-Optimal Autonomous Navigation. The team presented results of their work at the IEEE Aerospace Conference in March 2020. The project was a finalist for the NASA Software Award.

Submission + - With the most deaths in 150 years, Swedes are to trace their own contacts. (theguardian.com)

Submitted by AleRunner
AleRunner writes: In the first half of 2020 Sweden has recorded it's highest death total in 150 years. the Guardian writes "In total, 51,405 Swedes died in the six-month period, a higher number than in any year since 1869, when 55,431 people died," in what may be a reaction to this failure, which makes Sweden the worst coronavirus country in Scandinavia, Sweden has announced a change to their new contact tracing policy — thelocal.se explains: "If you test positive for the coronavirus you may now be given instructions to call people with whom you have been in contact and may have infected, instead of healthcare staff doing the job for you, or it not being done at all.". In early June Sweden switched from it's failed "herd immunity" strategy to a contact tracing strategy and has since seen a strong fall in new infections though with a recent slight increase. Whether the new contact tracing strategy will be critical for the return of the Swedish economy with Sweden currently facing travel restrictions from Scandinavian neighbours such as Finland whilst other Scandinavian and Baltic countries are already open for trade and tourism. Swedes will be hoping that the adjustment of their new Coronavirus strategy will be a signpost for other countries rather than the warning of their old strategy.

Not so long ago, in June, we discussed how Sweden's old strategy had made Sweden a Piriah state and in May we had discussed how Sweden's old strategy caused many deaths whilst failing to deliver immunity

Submission + - NASA Is Tracking a Vast, Growing Anomaly in Earth's Magnetic Field (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: NASA is actively monitoring a strange anomaly in Earth's magnetic field: a giant region of lower magnetic intensity in the skies above the planet, stretching out between South America and southwest Africa.

This vast, developing phenomenon, called the South Atlantic Anomaly, has intrigued and concerned scientists for years, and perhaps none more so than NASA researchers. The space agency's satellites and spacecraft are particularly vulnerable to the weakened magnetic field strength within the anomaly, and the resulting exposure to charged particles from the Sun.

The primary source is considered to be a swirling ocean of molten iron inside Earth's outer core, thousands of kilometres below the ground.

A huge reservoir of dense rock called the African Large Low Shear Velocity Province, located about 2,900 kilometres (1,800 miles) below the African continent, disturbs the field's generation, resulting in the dramatic weakening effect – which is aided by the tilt of the planet's magnetic axis.

It's not just moving, however. Even more remarkably, the phenomenon seems to be in the process of splitting in two ...

Submission + - Great Barrier Reef Losing Its Ability To Recover From Bleaching (cnn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Successive ocean heat waves are not only damaging Australia's Great Barrier Reef, they are compromising its ability to recover, raising the risk of "widespread ecological collapse," a new study has found. The 2,300-kilometer-long (1,500 mile) reef has endured multiple large-scale "bleaching" events caused by above-average water temperatures in the last two decades, including back-to-back occurrences in 2016 and 2017. The new study, released Wednesday in the journal Nature, examined the number of adult corals which survived these two events and how many new corals they created to replenish the reef in 2018.

The answer was as bleak as it was stark: "Dead corals don't make babies," the study's lead author, Terry Hughes, said in a press release. Scientists working on the study found the loss in adult corals caused a "crash in coral replenishment" on the reef, as heat stresses brought about by warming ocean temperatures impacted the ability of coral to heal. "The number of new corals settling on the Great Barrier Reef declined by 89% following the unprecedented loss of adult corals from global warming in 2016 and 2017," said Hughes. Scientists working on the report say they would expect coral recruitment to recover over the next 5 to 10 years, as more corals reach sexual maturity, but only in the absence of another bleaching event. However, with sea temperatures continuing to rise this seems a near-impossiblity.

Submission + - House Democrats Refuse To Weaken Net Neutrality Bill, Defeat GOP Amendments (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday rejected Republican attempts to weaken a bill that would restore net neutrality rules. The House Commerce Committee yesterday approved the "Save the Internet Act" in a 30-22 party-line vote, potentially setting up a vote of the full House next week. The bill is short and simple—it would fully reinstate the rules implemented by the Federal Communications Commission under then-Chairman Tom Wheeler in 2015, reversing the repeal led by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in 2017.

Commerce Committee Republicans repeatedly introduced amendments that would weaken the bill but were consistently rebuffed by the committee's Democratic majority. "The Democrats beat back more than a dozen attempts from Republicans to gut the bill with amendments throughout the bill's markup that lasted 9.5 hours," The Hill reported yesterday. Republican amendments would have weakened the bill by doing the following: Exempt all 5G wireless services from net neutrality rules; Exempt all multi-gigabit broadband services from net neutrality rules; Exempt from net neutrality rules any ISP that builds broadband service in any part of the U.S. that doesn't yet have download speeds of at least 25Mbps and upload speeds of at least 3Mbps; Exempt from net neutrality rules any ISP that gets universal service funding from the FCC's Rural Health Care Program; Exempt ISPs that serve 250,000 or fewer subscribers from certain transparency rules that require public disclosure of network management practices; and Prevent the FCC from limiting the types of zero-rating (i.e., data cap exemptions) that ISPs can deploy.

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