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Government

DoD Networks Completely Compromised, Experts Say 164

Posted by timothy from the but-are-they-iso-9000-compliant-is-the-question dept.
AZA43 writes "A group of U.S. federal cybersecurity experts recently said the Defense Department's network is totally compromised by foreign spies. The experts suggest the agency simply accept that its networks are compromised and will probably remain that way, then come up with a way to protect data on infected machines and networks."
Canada

Submission + - Touchscreen Drone Catching Bad Guys in a Cinch (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Predator Drones are nifty, but all that hassle of private contractors and CIA control room is kind of a hassle! The Aeryon Scout Quadrotor makes aerial surveillance a breeze—snap it together, let it fly, and start peeking.

The drone, packing a camera that can ID a human from almost two miles away (using a standard digital cam or thermal vision), can be hand-assembled. Once in the sky, it gyro-orients itself to track whatever it is you're tracking, can hit speeds of over 30 MPH, and is all controllable with a touch remote. Tap a target, and watch the drone zoom over. It's not going to rain down and hellfire missiles, but hey, it only weighs a kilogram.
Privacy

Submission + - Data Protection Software Too Complicated To Use (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "With a series of major data breaches over the past few months, you'd think more and more companies would be investing in data protection software, which can help keep data secure even on systems that have been compromised. Unfortunately, even organizations that have paid good money for this software often don't use it, because, as one of the vendors admits, it's often too complicated to use."
Cloud

Submission + - VMware causes 2nd outage while recovering from 1st (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
jbrodkin
jbrodkin writes: "VMware's new Cloud Foundry service was online for just two weeks when it suffered its first outage, caused by a power failure. Things got really interesting the next day, when a VMware employee accidentally caused a second, more serious outage while a VMware team was writing up a plan of action to recover from future power loss incidents. An inadvertent press of a key on a keyboard led to "a full outage of the network infrastructure [that] took out all load balancers, routers, and firewalls ... and resulted in a complete external loss of connectivity to Cloud Foundry." Clearly, human error is still a major factor in cloud networks."

Comment Re:WEP (Score 1) 458

by Sandnor (#35977452) Attached to: For Security, My Wi-Fi Access Point Relies On:
I'm stuck using wep for one of my TiVos. I've meet my neighbors and I''m not particularly worried one of them will suddenly be able to pull of a wep key hack. Besides that's what firewall logs are for. "Why yes office I know exactly who downloaded the animal porn. Talk to my next door neighbor Bob, that's his MAC address. Oh and look it even says BobsBigFatPornLaptop as the name."

Submission + - Research Credibility On Violent Video Games (eurekalert.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Two researchers who have a history of publishing studies that claim violent video games lead to violence have now published a new study claiming that they've come up with an *objective* way to measure why violent video games lead to violence. They've taken the names of people who signed an amicus brief on the upcoming Supreme Court case on an anti-violent video game law in California, and decided that if you added up the number of publications by each side the ones who supported "video games lead to violence" had more publications, and thus that was "proof" that they had more credibility. Yes, quantity is more important that quality. The fact that the researchers who published this "study" also wrote the amicus brief that supported the same claim seems to call their objectivity into question as well.
Science

Submission + - What Does IQ Really Measure? (sciencemag.org) 2

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Kids who score higher on IQ tests will, on average, go on to do better in conventional measures of success in life: academic achievement, economic success, even greater health, and longevity. Is that because they are more intelligent? Not necessarily. New research concludes that IQ scores are partly a measure of how motivated a child is to do well on the test. And harnessing that motivation might be as important to later success as so-called native intelligence.
Idle

Submission + - Google Mows (with) Goats (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
Kelson
Kelson writes: "Google's Mountain View headquarters has fields that need to be kept clear of fire hazards. This year instead of mowing them, they took a low-carbon approach: they hired a herd of goats to eat the grass for a week. "It costs us about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers.""
The Courts

Submission + - Record Company Collusion a Defense to RIAA Case?

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Is collusion by the record companies a defense to an RIAA case? We're about to find out, because the RIAA has made a motion to strike the affirmative defense of Marie Lindor, who alleged that "the plaintiffs, who are competitors, are a cartel acting collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and of public policy, by tying their copyrights to each other, collusively litigating and settling all cases together, and by entering into an unlawful agreement among themselves to prosecute and to dispose of all cases in accordance with a uniform agreement, and through common lawyers, thus overreaching the bounds and scope of whatever copyrights they might have" in UMG v. Lindor. The motion will be decided by the same judge who agreed with legal scholars in sustaining another affirmative defense of Ms. Lindor, in which she alleges (pdf) that the RIAA's $750-per-song-file statutory damages theory is "unconstitutionally excessive and disproportionate to any actual damages that may have been sustained, in violation of the Due Process Clause"."

Feed US Air Force Aims High With Bluespam (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
It seems that more and more brands and companies are trying to market themselves via Bluespamming -- sending out unsolicited messages and requests for connections to nearby mobile phones via Bluetooth. Marketers that use the practice, of course, don't call it Bluespam, and see it as a wonderful mechanism to use, even though the vast majority of people that receive the messages aren't interested in them. Now, it's the US Air Force that's turning to Bluespamming, as it plans to use the method to harass mobile phone users at a NASCAR race this weekend. A rep says Bluespamming will help prove the Air Force's high-tech chops to impressionable kids, while somebody from its ad agency says that it will help attract "tech savvy" recruits. Would they say the same things about email spam? Probably not. It's hard to see how annoying just about anybody with a Bluetooth phone in a particular area is a good way to market yourself, and never mind the horrific user experience of delivering content via mobile marketing. Needless to say, it's great to see the US government getting into the spamming business.
Space

Submission + - Astronaut to Run the Boston Marathon From Space

Submitted by
BostonBehindTheScenes
BostonBehindTheScenes writes: "American astronaut Sunita Williams will run 26.2 miles on a treadmill on Patriot's Day (April 16th for those of you outside of Massachusetts) while runners on the ground will compete in the 111th Boston Marathon, according this New Scientist article:

She says she is doing it to motivate children to be fit. "I encourage kids to start making physical fitness part of their daily lives," Williams said. "I think a big goal like a marathon will help get this message out there."
And yes, she is an actual registered participant who qualified by finishing among the top 100 women in the Houston Marathon in 2006. NASA's press release touts this as yet another space first:

She will run the famed race in April as an official entrant from 210 miles above Earth aboard the International Space Station. This will be the first time an astronaut in space will be an official participant in a marathon.
"

Feed Solid Hydrogen Seen as Safer (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed
Researchers at the University of New Brunswick develop a method for converting hydrogen gas into a solid that can easily be converted back into a fuel on demand -- and it's safer to store. In Autopia.


The Courts

Vonage Loses VoIP Case With Verizon 150

Posted by CowboyNeal from the time-to-pony-up dept.
cdrudge writes "A federal jury on Thursday said Vonage Holdings Corp. violated 3 of 5 patents of Verizon Communications Inc. and ordered the upstart Internet-phone company to pay $58m in damages as well as 5.5% in royalty fees per month per customer. Verizon said it would seek an injunction to block Vonage from using its patented technology. The jury did reject Verizon's claim of $200m in damages and that Vonage deliberately violated Verizon's patents. As you might expect, Vonage said it would appeal the decision and seek a stay if an injunction is granted. Judge Claude Hilton set a hearing for March 23 on whether to grant an injunction."

Feed AT&T Whistle-Blower Outs Media (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed
The man who provided key documents for an anti-spying suit against the telecom giant breaks his silence, claiming the Los Angeles Times killed his story at the feds' request. In 27B Stroke 6.


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