rgh02 - Slashdot User

Submission + - SPAM: Meet the Font Detectives Who Ferret Out Fakery

Submitted by rgh02 on Monday September 18, 2017 @10:19AM

rgh02 writes: Earlier this year, the former prime minister of Pakistan and his family came under scrutiny thanks to revelations in the Panama Papers. The smoking gun in the case of a forged document was none other than a font—Calibri, which, as it turned out, wasn’t even available until after the document had allegedly been signed and dated. This is not the first or the last time typography helped crack a case, and often with help from experts appropriately referred to as the “font detectives.” At Backchannel, Glenn Fleishman dives into the adventures of the experts ferreting out fakery with their knowledge of fonts and the high-profile cases they’ve found themselves involved in.
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Submission + - SPAM: How Techies Rescued Food Stamps

Submitted by rgh02 on Monday September 11, 2017 @11:59AM

rgh02 writes: There is an endless variety of apps designed to manage life for the upper middle class, but most low-income Americans don’t benefit from the same time-saving hacks. Thanks to new trends in civic technology, that’s beginning to change. The 43 million Americans depending on food stamps are seeing the introduction of apps like Propel’s Fresh EBT, which allows users to check balances, track deals, and organize budgets accordingly. And Propel is only one of several companies looking to disrupt outdated social programs, Tonya Riley reports at Backchannel. But the Trump administration, with its hiring freezes and budget cuts, poses threats to these advancements. Riley dives deep into the progress that’s been made and how companies are navigating these obstacles.
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Submission + - SPAM: Surviving as an Old in the Tech World 4

Submitted by rgh02 on Tuesday August 08, 2017 @09:59AM

rgh02 writes: These days, there’s a lot of attention in the tech world on diversity and inclusion. But there’s one bias that doesn’t get addressed much: age. Age discrimination can be both difficult to prove and difficult to admit to oneself. But it’s time we start talking about it. At Backchannel, columnist Karen Wickre discusses how to survive tech as an "old" and how companies can give, and get, the most to their older employees.
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Submission + - SPAM: The Star Wars Video That Baffled YouTube's Copyright Cops

Submitted by rgh02 on Thursday August 03, 2017 @10:01AM

rgh02 writes: Earlier this summer, popular YouTube channel Auralnauts received some unfortunate news: Warner/Chappell had filed a monetization claim on their “Star Wars Minus Williams” video through YouTube’s Content ID System. More than anything, the Auralnauts were confused—the video the music company was claiming rights over didn’t have any music in it at all. So Backchannel’s Jeremy Hsu did some investigating and found where YouTube’s copyright cops went wrong and discovered just how flawed the website’s policies and processes are.
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Submission + - Microsoft Is Hustling Us With "White Spaces" (wired.com)

Submitted by rgh02 on Monday July 31, 2017 @10:02AM

rgh02 writes: Microsoft recently announced their plan to deploy unused television airwaves to solve the digital divide in America. And while the media painted this effort as a noble one, at Backchannel, Susan Crawford reveals the truth: “Microsoft's plans aren't really about consumer internet access, don't actually focus on rural areas, and aren't targeted at the US—except for political purposes.” So what is Microsoft really up to? This deep dive into Microsoft’s plan for "white spaces" tells the story newspapers missed and what the internet giant is really after.

Submission + - Hacker Steals $30 Million Worth of Ethereum from Parity Multi-Sig Wallets (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19, 2017 @06:07PM

An anonymous reader writes: An unknown hacker has used a vulnerability in an Ethereum wallet client to steal over 153,000 Ether, worth over $30 million dollars. The hack was possible due to a flaw in the Parity Ethereum client. The vulnerability allowed the hacker to exfiltrate funds from multi-sig wallets created with Parity clients 1.5 and later. Parity 1.5 was released on January 19, 2017.

The attack took place around 19:00-20:00 UTC and was immediately spotted by Parity, a company founded by Gavin Wood, Ethereum's founder. The company issued a security alert on its blog. The Ether stolen from Parity multi-sig accounts was transferred into this Ethereum wallet, currently holding 153,017.021336727 Ether. Because Parity spotted the attack in time, a group named "The White Hat Group" used the same vulnerability to drain the rest of Ether stored in other Parity wallets that have not yet been stolen by the hacker. This money now resides in this Ethereum wallet. According to messages posted on Reddit and in a Gitter chat, The White Hat Group appears to be formed of security researchers and members of the Ethereum Project that have taken it into their own hands to secure funds in vulnerable wallets. Based on a message the group posted online, they plan to return the funds they took. Their wallet currently holds 377,116.819319439311671493 Ether, which is over $76 million.

Submission + - SPAM: Ethereum Co-Founder says Cryptocurrencies are a Ticking Time Bomb

Submitted by randomErr on Wednesday July 19, 2017 @01:29PM

randomErr writes: Ethereum, the rival to bitcoin, has been on a tear. Its founders said the latest trend in the cryptocurrency space may not be as good for the cryptocurrency as some might think. Ethereum is up 1,700% over the last year, and that spike has occurred in tandem with the growth of the hottest new trend in fundraising: initial coin offerings. Approximately $1.2 billion has been raised by the new cryptocurrency-based capital raising method this year, according to Autonomous Next, a financial technology analytics service. It is a trend that has sparked excitement across Wall Street. But the cofounder of the company behind the cryptocurrency, Charles Hoskinson, told Bloomberg that initial coin offerings may not benefit Ethereum.

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