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Submission + - Ransomware script kiddie scared out of business (networkworld.com)

tdog17 writes: A criminal coder wrote a kit for ransomware that made it easy for others to encrypt victims' hard drives and then extort money from them in order to get the decryption keys. But when Intel Security wrote about the kit — called Tox — the author got cold feet. Now he or she is trying to sell the whole business.

Submission + - China prefers sticking with dying Windows XP to upgrading (networkworld.com)

tdog17 writes: China says it wants Microsoft to extend support for Windows XP because that will help in its fight to stop proliferation of pirated Microsoft software.
A state copyright official says the release of Windows 8 means a substantial increase in the selling price of a Windows operating system, especially in light of the upcoming end-of-life of Windows XP, which is still used by a large percentage of Chinese. That could drive users to buy pirated copies of a new operating system because they are cheaper, he says.

Submission + - VMware CEO: OpenStack is not for the enterprise (networkworld.com)

coondoggie writes: VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger says he doesn’t expect open source cloud project OpenStack to catch on significantly in the enterprise market, instead he says it’s more of a platform for service providers to build public clouds.
It’s a notion that others in the market have expressed in the past, but also one that OpenStack backers have tried hard to shake.

Submission + - EFF: Trust Twitter -- not Apple or Verizon -- to protect your privacy (networkworld.com)

tdog17 writes: Verizon and MySpace scored a zero out of a possible six stars in a test of how far 18 technology service providers will go to protect user data from government data demands.Twitter and Internet service provider Sonic.net scored a perfect six in the third annual Electronic Frontier Foundation "Who Has Your Back?" report.Apple, AT&T and Yahoo ranked near the bottom, each scoring just one star,

Submission + - No humor zone: 33 things you should never say to a TSA agent (networkworld.com) 1

coondoggie writes: There is no humor in an airport. It's a fact. And while most travelers business or otherwise know that, there are a few out there who haven't gotten the message or perhaps the choose to ignore it. Either way the "People Say the Darndest Things" or "What Not to Say at an Airport" section has become one of the more popular destinations on the TSA Blog site.

Submission + - Should U.S. really limit China-government influenced IT systems? (networkworld.com)

coondoggie writes: New federal restrictions now preclude four U.S. agencies from buying information-technology (IT) systems from manufacturers "owned, directed or subsidized by the People's Republic of China" due to national-security concerns. But is this a smart tactic?
It's clear that some in the U.S. government, including the House Intelligence Committee — which issued a scathing report last fall that called Huawei and ZTE a threat to national security — and the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. are also working in other ways behind the scenes to keep technology made by China-based manufacturers out of U.S. commercial networks as well.

Government

Submission + - Could insurance coverage hobble commercial space flights? (networkworld.com)

coondoggie writes: "Should the government continue to share the monetary risk of a catastrophic spacecraft accident even as the United States depends ever-more on commercial space technology? The question is one currently up for debate as the program that currently insures space launches, the Federal Aviation Administration's "indemnification" risk-sharing authority, which can provide a maximum of $2.7 billion of insurance per launch, expires at the end of the year. According to the Government Accountability Office a catastrophic commercial launch accident could result in injuries or property damage to the uninvolved public, or "third parties." In anticipation of such an event, a launch company must purchase a fixed amount of insurance for each launch, per calculation by FAA; the federal government is potentially liable for claims above that amount up about $2.7 billion."

Submission + - Why Tech Vendors Fund Patent 'Trolls' (computerworld.com)

Lucas123 writes: Major tech vendors are funding patent trolls, companies that derive the bulk of their income, if not all of it, from licensing huge libraries of patents they hold as well as by suing companies that use their patents without permission, according to an investigation by Computerworld. Tech companies — including Apple and Micron — have railed against patent 'nuisance' lawsuits, only to fund or otherwise support some of the patent trolls. Because of patent trolls, more politely called mass patent aggregators, patent litigation has in part increased by more than 230% over the past 20 years. 'Most of the major tech companies are backing a troll in some way, probably financially,' says Thomas Ewing, an attorney who has authored reports on what he calls 'patent privateering'.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft counted as key Linux contributor, for now (networkworld.com)

alphadogg writes: For the first time ever, and probably only temporarily, Microsoft can be counted as a key contributor to Linux. The company, which once portrayed the open-source OS kernel as a form of cancer, has been ranked 17th on a tally of the largest code contributors to Linux. The Linux Foundation's Linux Development Report, released Tuesday, summarizes who has contributed to the Linux kernel, from versions 2.6.36 to 3.2. The 10 largest contributors listed in the report are familiar names: Red Hat, Intel, Novell, IBM, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Nokia, Samsung, Oracle and Google. But the appearance of Microsoft is a new one for the list, compiled annually.
Data Storage

Submission + - After 60 Years, Tape Reinserts Itself (computerworld.com)

Lucas123 writes: While magnetic tape is about as boring as technology gets, it's still the cheapest storage medium and among the fastest in sequential reads and writes. And, with the release of LTO-6 with 8TB cartridges around the corner and the relatively new open linear tape file system (LTFS) being embraced by movie and television markets, tape is taking on a new life. It may even climb out of the dusty archives that cheap disk has relegated it to. "Over the last two years, disk drives have gotten bigger, they've gone from 1TB to 3TB, but they haven't gotten faster. They're more like tape. Meanwhile, tape is going the other direction, it's getting faster," said Mark Lemmons, CTO of Thought Equity Motion, a cloud storage service for the motion picture industry.

Submission + - IBM Shrinks Bit Size to 12 Atoms (computerworld.com)

Lucas123 writes: IBM researchers say they've been able to shrink the number of iron atoms it takes to store a bit of data from about one million to 12, which could pave the way for storage devices with capacities that are orders of magnitude greater than today's devices. Andreas Heinrich, who lead the IBM Research team on the project for five years, said the team used the tip of scanning tunneling microscope and unconventional antiferromagnetism to change the bits from zeros to ones. By combining 96 of the atoms, the researchers were able to create bytes — spelling out the word THINK. That solved a theoretical problem of how few atoms it could take to store a bit; now comes the engineering challenge: how to make a mass storage device perform the same feat as scanning tunneling microscope.
Security

Submission + - Security guru calls Windows 8 picture password "Fi (networkworld.com) 1

alphadogg writes: The Windows 8 feature that logs users in if they touch certain points in a photo in the right order might be fun, but it's not very good security, according to the inventor of RSA's SecurID token. "It's cute," says Kenneth Weiss, who now runs a three-factor authentication business called Universal Secure Registry. "I don't think it's serious security." The major downside of the picture password is that drawing a finger across a photo on a touch screen is easy to video record from a distance — making it relatively easy to compromise, he says.

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