Month: October 2016

Some of the biggest sites on the internet were shut down this morning (update: down again)

Happy Friday! If you’ve had trouble this morning accessing your favorite internet outlet, you’re not alone. Dyn, one of the internet’s biggest domain name servers (DNS) got hit with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack this morning, making it quite difficult to reach some of the biggest sites and services on the web. Twitter, Spotify, the New York Times , Reddit, Yelp, Box, Pinterest and Paypal are just a handful of the sites under siege this morning. Most of the outages appear to have centered on the east coast, though a few other regions of the US also saw issues. Dyn says that services have been restored to normal, although you might see some lingering weirdness for a little bit. Here’s hoping Dyn truly has this DDoS under control so we can make it through the rest of the week without the internet collapsing on us again. Update, 12:25PM ET: It looks like this attack has been renewed. Twitter is down entirely, and other affected sites are responding much slower than normal (or not at all) right now. We’ll keep an eye on this and update as things develop. Via: Gizmodo Source: Dyn

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Some of the biggest sites on the internet were shut down this morning (update: down again)

“Most serious” Linux privilege-escalation bug ever is under active exploit (updated)

(credit: michael ) A serious vulnerability that has been present for nine years in virtually all versions of the Linux operating system is under active exploit, according to researchers who are advising users to install a patch as soon as possible. While CVE-2016-5195, as the bug is cataloged, amounts to a mere privilege-escalation vulnerability rather than a more serious code-execution vulnerability, there are several reasons many researchers are taking it extremely seriously. For one thing, it’s not hard to develop exploits that work reliably. For another, the flaw is located in a section of the Linux kernel that’s a part of virtually every distribution of the open-source OS released for almost a decade. What’s more, researchers have discovered attack code that indicates the vulnerability is being actively and maliciously exploited in the wild. “It’s probably the most serious Linux local privilege escalation ever,” Dan Rosenberg, a senior researcher at Azimuth Security, told Ars. “The nature of the vulnerability lends itself to extremely reliable exploitation. This vulnerability has been present for nine years, which is an extremely long period of time.” Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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“Most serious” Linux privilege-escalation bug ever is under active exploit (updated)

Target Passes Walmart As Top US Corporate Installer of Solar Power

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Electrek: Target is the top corporate installer of solar power in the USA with 147MW installed on 300 stores. Walmart is close behind with 140MW, while Ikea has installed solar on 90% of its retail locations. The Solar Energy Institute of America (SEIA) report shows over 1, 000MW of solar installed in almost 2, 000 unique installations by the largest corporate entities in the country. Additionally these groups have more than doubled their installation volume year on year, with 2015 seeing a total of 130MW, while 2016 is projected to be closer to 280MW. Big box retail locations offer some of the best potential spaces for solar power to be installed — on top of square, flat structures and in previously built parking lots. The average size of an installation by a company in this group is about 500kW — 75X the size of an average residential solar installation. The RE100 organization has signed up 81 global corporations (many on the SEIA list) who have pledged 100% renewable energy. “We’re incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made in improving building efficiencies and reducing environmental impact. Our commitment to installing solar panels on 500 stores and distribution centers by 2020 is evidence of that progress” — said John Leisen, vice president of property management at Target. The geographic breakdown of solar installations is based upon three main drivers — good sunlight, expensive electricity and state level renewable mandates, with Southern California having all three. The northeast USA, with its expensive electricity and aggressive clean energy push, has been on par with California (50% of total solar) for commercial installations. A report put together by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) breaks down the various state level laws that support corporations going green — and, without surprise, it becomes clear that the legal support of renewable energy is a definite driver. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Target Passes Walmart As Top US Corporate Installer of Solar Power

First New US Nuclear Reactor In 20 Years Goes Live

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: The Tennessee Valley Authority is celebrating an event 43 years in the making: the completion of the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. In 1973, the TVA, one of the nation’s largest public power providers, began building two reactors that combined promised to generate enough power to light up 1.3 million homes. The first reactor, delayed by design flaws, eventually went live in 1996. Now, after billions of dollars in budget overruns, the second reactor has finally started sending power to homes and businesses. Standing in front of both reactors Wednesday, TVA President Bill Johnson said Watts Bar 2, the first U.S. reactor to enter commercial operation in 20 years, would offer clean, cheap and reliable energy to residents of several southern states for at least another generation. Before Watts Bar 2, the last time an American reactor had fired up was in 1996. It was Watts Bar 1 — and according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, it cost $6.8 billion, far greater than the original price tag at $370 million. In the 2000s, some American power companies, faced with growing environmental regulations, eyed nuclear power again as a top alternative to fossil fuels such as coal and oil. A handful of companies, taking advantage of federal loan guarantees from the Bush administration, revived nuclear reactor proposals in a period now known as the so-called “nuclear renaissance.” Eventually, nuclear regulators started to green light new reactors, including ones in Georgia and South Carolina. In 2007, the TVA resumed construction on Watts Bar 2, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The TVA originally said it would take five years to complete. The TVA, which today serves seven different southern states, relies on nuclear power to light up approximately 4.5 million homes. Watts Bar 2, the company’s seventh operating reactor, reaffirms its commitment to nukes for at least four more decades, Johnson said Wednesday. In the end, TVA required more than five years to build the project. The final cost, far exceeding its initial budget, stood at $4.7 billion. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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First New US Nuclear Reactor In 20 Years Goes Live

WikiLeaks reveals President Barack Obama’s personal email address

The stolen emails recently published by WikiLeaks reveal that President Barack Obama’s email address during the presidential transition at the end of the 2008 campaign was bobama@ameritech.net. (more…)

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WikiLeaks reveals President Barack Obama’s personal email address

Feds seized 50TB of data from NSA contractor suspected of theft

The National Security Operations Center at NSA, photographed in 2012—the nerve center of the NSA’s “signals intelligence” monitoring. (credit: National Security Agency ) In a new Thursday court filing , federal prosecutors expanded their accusations against a former National Security Agency contractor. Federal investigators seized at least 50 terabytes of data from Harold Thomas Martin III, at least some of which was “national defense information.” If all of this data was indeed classified, it would be the largest such heist from the NSA, far larger than what former contractor Edward Snowden took. Prosecutors also said that Martin should remain locked up and noted that he will soon be charged with violations of the Espionage Act . That law, which dates back nearly a century, is the same law that was used to charge Chelsea Manning and Snowden, among others. If convicted, violators can face the death penalty. United States Attorney Rod Rosenstein and two other prosecutors laid out new details in the case against Martin, whose arrest only became public earlier this month . Martin had been a contractor with Booz Allen Hamilton and possessed a top-secret clearance. Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Feds seized 50TB of data from NSA contractor suspected of theft

Watch a Japanese Hand Plane Shave Wood Impossibly Thin

Japanese hand planes or kannas are remarkable tools that can shave off layers of wood so ridiculously thin that they look like tissue paper. The wood shaving in the GIF above is only 8 microns thick which almost sounds like an impossible measurement because even human hair has a diameter of about 50 microns. Read more…

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Watch a Japanese Hand Plane Shave Wood Impossibly Thin

India’s Biggest ATM Breach? 3.2 Million Debit Cards Across 19 Banks May Have Been Compromised

A total of 32 lakh (3.2 million) debit cards across 19 banks could have been compromised on account of a purported fraud, the National Payment Corporation of India said in a statement. BloombergQuint adds: “The genesis of the problem was receipt of complaints from few banks that their customer’s cards were used fraudulently mainly in China and USA while customers were in India, ” the NPCI said. “The complaints of fraudulent withdrawal are limited to cards of 19 banks and 641 customers. The total amount involved is Rs 1.3 crore as reported by various affected banks to NPCI.” SISA Security, a Bengaluru-based company is currently undertaking a forensic study to identify the extent of the problem and will submit a final report in November. Initial reports had suggested that ATMs operated by Hitachi Payment Services had been attacked by malware and were the source of the breach. However, the company has said in a statement that an interim report by the audit agency does not suggest any breach or compromise in its systems. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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India’s Biggest ATM Breach? 3.2 Million Debit Cards Across 19 Banks May Have Been Compromised

Projection mapping on a moving surface with a high-speed projector

Projection mapping is one of the most profound visual effects that computers can generate; themepark fans will have seen it in effect on the revamped opening scene to the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland and in the night-time shows that involve painting the whole castle with light (projection mapping is also used to generate the rear-projected faces of the animatronic figures in the new Snow White ride). (more…)

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Projection mapping on a moving surface with a high-speed projector

Magic use in Harry Potter novels charted

Skyler Johnson created an interactive infographic that charts the use of magic in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels . The spells are organized by count or time, with instances color-coded by the book they appear in. Hover over each use and you even get the quote, for context! [via Tor and Metafilter ] Emily Asher-Perrin writes: Perhaps not surprisingly, the spells that we see used most often are commonly used by Harry and his friends as means of non-violent resistance; Expecto Patronum; Expelliarmus; Stupefy. The Killing Curse appears sixth down on the list, which is fascinating–it is technically speaking the “most evil” of all the dark magic spells, and it is the most often used.

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Magic use in Harry Potter novels charted