Author: kenmay

Kmart’s registers were hacked, credit and debit card numbers at risk

Get ready to call your credit card provider again — another major US retailer has reported that its payment system has been compromised. Kmart’s IT team quietly announced that malware has been found in its stores’ register systems, noting that both debit and credit card numbers have been stolen. The breach seems to have occurred in early September, meaning any purchase made at the chain in the last month and a half is potentially at risk. Security experts say attackers have enough information to possibly duplicate payment cards , but not necessarily steal your identity: personal information, pin numbers, addresses and social security data have not been compromised. Still, it’s a big enough breach that Kmart shoppers will want to call their financial providers. Ugh. Happy Friday news dump, everyone. [Image credit: Shutterstock] Filed under: Misc Comments Source: Kmart , Krebson Security

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Kmart’s registers were hacked, credit and debit card numbers at risk

Archaeologists Make Stunning Discoveries at the Antikythera Shipwreck

The international team of divers and archaeologists who are investigating the site of an ancient Greek ship that sank more than 2, 000 years ago off the remote island of Antikythera have not been disappointed. Not only is the site bigger than they thought, it also contains a treasure trove of artifacts. Read more…

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Archaeologists Make Stunning Discoveries at the Antikythera Shipwreck

Fake documentary shows terrifying war against the Martians in 1913

I’m glad the History Channel is producing mockumentaries like The Great Martian War. The real documentaries are not much different and science-fiction alternative history lines are always more interesting than our savage and grim historical realities. It’s also very well made. Read more…

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Fake documentary shows terrifying war against the Martians in 1913

US edges closer to energy independence

EIA The net energy consumption of the US has held fairly steady for nearly 20 years. Over the past decade, however, there’s been a large increase in production of energy within the US. As a result, the US government’s energy figures for the first half of this year show that the differences between production and consumption have dropped to the lowest level in 29 years. This represents a net drop in energy imports by 17 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. According to the Energy Information Agency, the boost in energy production came from a variety of sources. Natural gas was the largest, accounting for just over half of the annual increase. Coal accounted for another quarter, renewable energy for 12 percent, and petroleum for eight. The EIA also notes that energy use this year was unusually high due to the intense cold that hit most of the nation in the first few months of 2014. The vast majority of the country’s imports come in the form of petroleum products and crude oil. These imports have been decreasing as new sources of oil are tapped and automotive efficiency standards are tightening. Refined petroleum products remain the largest US energy export; smaller quantities of coal and natural gas are also shipped overseas. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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US edges closer to energy independence

Dragon spacecraft quickly firing thrusters to adjust course

Astronaut Reid Wiseman captured this sequence of the Dragon spaceship ” breathing fire as it rendezvoused with [the International Space Station] last week.” The spacecraft was firing its thrusters to adjust its course. The original video was quite shaky, so I stabilized it for your GIFing pleasure. Read more…

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Dragon spacecraft quickly firing thrusters to adjust course

Apple Sapphire Supplier To Close Two Plants, Lay Off Hundreds of Workers

Apple better have a backup plan for the sapphire screens on its upcoming Apple Watch . The situation with its sapphire partner GT Technology does not look good. The company filed for bankruptcy earlier this week, and now announced plans to close two of its sapphire plants in Arizona and Massachusetts. Read more…

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Apple Sapphire Supplier To Close Two Plants, Lay Off Hundreds of Workers

Google has removed 170,000-plus URLs under “right to be forgotten” edict

Google Google says it has removed 170,706 URLs in the wake of a European high court ruling in May requiring search engines to take down “inadequate, irrelevant, or no longer relevant” materials from search results upon request by EU citizens. In all, the search giant said it has already been asked to remove about half a million URLs from its search results, and it has removed about 42 percent of them, according to its latest Transparency Report  published Thursday. “In evaluating a request, we will look at whether the results include outdated or inaccurate information about the person,” the report said. “We’ll also weigh whether or not there’s a public interest in the information remaining in our search results—for example, if it relates to financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions or your public conduct as a government official (elected or unelected). Our removals team has to look at each page individually and base decisions on the limited context provided by the requestor and the information on the webpage. Is it a news story? Does it relate to a criminal charge that resulted in a later conviction or was dismissed?” Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Google has removed 170,000-plus URLs under “right to be forgotten” edict

Blackphone to test new waters with privacy-minded tablet

After turning an ambitious plan into reality, the people behind the privacy-focused Blackphone are ready for a new adventure. During an interview with BBC Newsbea t, Jon Callas, co-founder of Silent Circle , which made the privacy-focused device in conjunction with Geeksphone , let it be known that the company will have a tablet in the near future. “Blackphone as it is, is our first device not our last device, ” Callas said. While he didn’t reveal any more specific details, Callas did mention such tablet is already in the works and set to be coming “soon.” The bigger hardware would likely bring similar features to the $629 Android phone , most of which is done with user privacy in mind first and foremost. One thing is for sure, it’s going to be interesting to see what Blackphone does next. Filed under: Misc , Tablets Comments Source: BBC Newsbeat

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Blackphone to test new waters with privacy-minded tablet

Windows 10’s very different way of updating

We’ve been expecting the next version of Windows to work differently when it comes to updates and upgrades , and with the release of the Windows 10 Technical Preview , Microsoft’s intentions are a little clearer. The current Windows update model is superficially simple, but it has a few complexities. Every so often, the company releases a major update to Windows. In theory, that version of the operating system remains essentially unaltered for its lifetime. It receives critical (security) updates on a monthly basis (Patch Tuesday), and periodic non-security bug fixes (both monthly and as larger Service Packs), but significant functional changes are reserved for the next operating system version. This policy, with rules such as “Service Packs don’t add features,” was publicly propagated. But it was never really true. Service Packs didn’t add new features, except when they did. Windows XP Service Pack 2 was, in modern parlance, “Windows XP R2,” or perhaps “Windows XP point 1.” It was recognizable as Windows XP, but it included a bunch of new, security-oriented features in the core operating system and Internet Explorer 6. It also made some breaking changes to enhance security at the possible expense of application compatibility. Read 20 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows 10’s very different way of updating