First time accepted submitter Saethan writes “Healthcare.gov, the site to be used by people in 36 states to get insurance as part of the Affordable Care Act, has apparently cost the U.S. Government $634 million. Not only is this more than Facebook spent during its first 6 years in operation, it is also over $500 million above what the original estimate was: $93.7 million. Why, in a country with some of the best web development companies in the world, has this website, which is poor quality at best, cost so much?” That $634 million figure comes from this U.S. government budget-tracking system. Given that this system is national rather than for a single city, maybe everyone should just be grateful the contract didn’t go to TechnoDyne. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Author: kenmay
Google Maps Adds Multiple Destinations, Events, and Reservations
Getting to one destination and then having to input your next destination manually? Who has the time? Years of your life have been wasted with this arduous task. But now, finally (or, rather, once again) you can add multiple destinations all at once in Google Maps. Read more…
Follow this link:
Google Maps Adds Multiple Destinations, Events, and Reservations
T-Mobile Announces Free, Unlimited Roaming in 100 Countries
Starting October 31st, T-Mobile users will be gain unlimited texts and data in over 100 countries, at no additional cost. That’s right—if you’re on a supported Simple Choice plan, you no longer have to worry about exorbitant roaming charges when you travel. Read more…
Link:
T-Mobile Announces Free, Unlimited Roaming in 100 Countries
Microsoft pays $100,000 bounty for discovery of Windows 8.1 exploit
Microsoft said it would pay up to a $100, 000 bounty to researchers who found exploits in Windows 8.1 , and it’s putting its money where its mouth is. The company just paid the full hundred grand to Context Information Security’s James Forshaw for discovering a defense circumvention technique. While Microsoft wants a fix before it details the attack, it says that Forshaw deserved the full amount for being thorough — he’s describing a whole class of security threat, not just one flaw. Us end users may never fully appreciate the finding, but it’s good to know that the new OS will be that much safer. Filed under: Software , Microsoft Comments Via: The Seattle Times , The Verge Source: BlueHat Blog
Continue Reading:
Microsoft pays $100,000 bounty for discovery of Windows 8.1 exploit
China Accidentally Built a Housing Complex in the Middle of a Highway
There’s no denying that China doesn’t have the best record when it comes to urban planning and development, particularly in regards to real estate —and their most recent blunder is a doozy. Thanks to some poor planning and (presumably poor) communication, China accidentally built a brand new set of modern apartments right in the middle of an eight-lane highway. Your very own permanent, honking sound soother. Read more…
View post:
China Accidentally Built a Housing Complex in the Middle of a Highway
Dangerous VBulletin Exploit In the Wild
An anonymous reader writes “vBulletin is a popular proprietary CMS that was recently reported to be vulnerable to an unspecified attack vector. Although vBulletin has not disclosed the root cause of the vulnerability or its impact, we determined the attacker’s methods. The identified vulnerability allows an attacker to abuse the vBulletin configuration mechanism in order to create a secondary administrative account. Once the attacker creates the account, they will have full control over the exploited vBulletin application, and subsequently the supported site.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Continue reading here:
Dangerous VBulletin Exploit In the Wild
How DirecTV Overhauled Its 800-Person IT Group With a Game
mattydread23 writes “Most gamification efforts fail. But when DirecTV wanted to encourage its IT staff to be more open about sharing failures, it created a massive internal game called F12. Less than a year later, it’s got 97% participation and nearly everybody in the IT group actually likes competing. So what did DirecTV do right? The most important thing was to devote a full-time staffer to the game, and to keep updating it constantly.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read the original post:
How DirecTV Overhauled Its 800-Person IT Group With a Game
How The NSA Deploys Malware
We’ve long suspected that the NSA, the world’s premiere spy agency, was pretty good at breaking into computers. But now, thanks to an article by security expert Bruce Schneier—who is working with the Guardian to go through the Snowden documents—we have a much more detailed view of how the NSA uses exploits in order to infect the computers of targeted users. The template for attacking people with malware used by the NSA is in widespread use by criminals and fraudsters, as well as foreign intelligence agencies, so it’s important to understand and defend against this threat to avoid being a victim to the plethora of attackers out there. Read more…
See the article here:
How The NSA Deploys Malware
NC School District Recalls Its Amplify Tablets After 10% Break In Under a Month
Nate the greatest writes “Guilford County Schools’ headline grabbing tablet program is back in the news again. The program came to an abrupt end last Friday when the school district announced that they were recalling all of the Amplify tablets. GCS had leased over 15 thousand of the tablets (at a cost of $200 a year) for its middle school students, but decided to recall the tablets just one month into the school year after some 1500 students reported a broken screen. Around two thousand complained of improperly fitting cases, and there were also 175 reports of malfunctioning power supplies. There’s currently no explanation for the cases or power supplies, but GCS has stated that the tablets broke because they lacked a layer of Gorilla Glass. This was listed in the contract, but the school district did not confirm the condition of the tablets before accepting them. This program was the poster child for News Corp.’s entry into the educational market. It was the single largest program to use the Amplify tablet, and its failure represents a serious setback. The Amplify tablet now has a record for poor construction quality and a breakage rate that is 12 times higher than what Squaretrade reported in early 2012 for the iPad 2.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
See the original article here:
NC School District Recalls Its Amplify Tablets After 10% Break In Under a Month
New High Tech $100 Bills Start To Circulate Today
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes “New $100 bills made their debut today in the U.S. They include high tech features designed to make it easier for the public to authenticate but more difficult for counterfeiters to replicate. Those measures include a blue, 3-D security ribbon, as well as color-shifting ink that changes from copper to green when the note is tilted (PDF). That ink can be found on a large ‘100’ on the back of the bill, on one of the ‘100’s’ on the front, and on a new image of an ink well that’s also on the front. ‘The $100 is the highest value denomination that we issue, and it circulates broadly around the world, ‘ says Michael Lambert, assistant director for cash at the Federal Reserve Board. ‘Therefore, we took the necessary time to develop advanced security features that are easy for the public to use in everyday transactions, but difficult for counterfeiters to replicate.’ The bill was originally due to reach banks in 2011, but three years ago the Federal Reserve announced that a problem with the currency’s new security measures was causing the bills to crease during printing, which left blank spaces on the bills. This led the Feds to shred more than 30 million of the bills in 2012. The image of Benjamin Franklin will be the same as on the current bill, but like all the other newly designed currencies, it will no longer be surrounded by an dark oval. Except for the $1 and $2 bill, all U.S. paper currency has been redesigned in the last 10 years to combat counterfeiting.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read More:
New High Tech $100 Bills Start To Circulate Today