Our friend Casey Neistat made a wonderful documentary for the New York Times , he went and compared the actual calories of food to what’s listed on the nutrition facts. And guess what? More times than not, food had more calories than what was advertised. More »
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Are There More Calories in Food Than What’s Listed in the Nutrition Facts? (Yes)
Spanish authorities announced Wednesday that they had arrested 10 people who were allegedly involved in a massive “ransomware” ring. The European Cybercrime Centre estimated that the criminal operation “affected tens of thousands of computers worldwide, bringing in profits in excess of €1 million euros ($1.34 million) per year.” The Spanish Ministry of the Interior described (Google Translate) the lead suspect as a “a 27-year-old citizen of Russian origin who was arrested in December in the United Arab Emirates,” and now awaits extradition to Spain. The newly arrested 10 were linked to the financial cell of the ransomware operation, and include six Russians, two Ukrainians, and two Georgians. The Ministry added that the operation remains “open,” suggesting that more arrests could be forthcoming. (Spanish authorities posted a video (RAR) of the new arrests and raid.) Madrid dubbed the ransomware used by the ring a “police virus” because it throws up a notice that appears to come from law enforcement. The malware requires the user to pay €100 ($134) as a “fine” from a false accusation of accessing child pornography or file-sharing websites. When the victims submit their payment details, European authorities added , the “criminals then go on to steal data and information from the victim’s computer.” Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Spanish police bust alleged “ransomware” ring that took in $1.34M annually
Security researchers warn that many emergency alert system devices used by radio and TV stations are susceptible to cyberattacks, which could cause widespread panic. [Read more]
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Hackers can easily breach Emergency Alert Systems
Inbox zero is a holy grail that seems unattainable for most, but a wonderful webapp called Mailstrom makes that dream a reality in hardly any time. Through clever sorting methods, it’ll show you your mailboxes in a different light and make it easy to clear out the crap in no time. More »
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Mailstrom Helps You Clear Out Thousands of Messages from Your Inbox in About an Hour
FireEye A previously undocumented flaw in the latest version of Adobe Systems’ ubiquitous Reader application is being exploited in online hacks that allow attackers to surreptitiously install malware on end-user computers, a security firm said. The attacks, according to researchers from security firm FireEye, work against Reader 11.0.1 and earlier versions and are actively being exploited in the wild. If true, the attacks are notable because they pierce security defenses Adobe engineers designed to make malware attacks harder to carry out. Adobe officials said they’re investigating the report . “Upon successful exploitation, it will drop two DLLs,” FireEye researchers Yichong Lin, Thoufique Haq, and James Bennett wrote of the online attacks they witnessed. “The first DLL shows a fake error message and opens a decoy PDF document, which is usually common in targeted attacks. The second DLL in turn drops the callback component, which talks to a remote domain.” DLL is the researchers’ shorthand for a file that works with the Microsoft Windows dynamic link library. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Zero-day attack exploits latest version of Adobe Reader
coondoggie writes “The asteroid NASA says is about the half the size of a football field that will blow past Earth on Feb 15 could be worth up to $195 billion in metals and propellant. That’s what the scientists at Deep Space Industries, a company that wants to mine these flashing hunks of space materials, thinks the asteroid known as 2012 DA14 is worth — if they could catch it.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Earth-buzzing Asteroid Would Be Worth $195B If We Could Catch It
When you connect a bunch of young college kids together on the Internet, any meeting eventually devolves into a crying mess of memes, Internet hall of fame pictures and a whole lot of trolling. So when students in Stanford’s computer science program realized that e-mailing one address would contact EVERY student, well, you bet it got real fun real fast. People were dropping tubgirl, rickrolls, meatspin and because it’s Stanford and it’s computer science, offering jobs at startups. More »
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When Every Student Realizes They Can Reply All and Spam Every Other Student It’s Fun for Everyone
Oh, Iran. Your Qaher 313 stealth fighter jet sure looks intimidating but it will never get off the ground. So why do you insist on tricking everybody into thinking that the beast can fly? Iran’s latest transgression is especially hilarious: they’ve photoshopped the Qaher 313 onto a stock image of Mount Damavand to make it look like it’s flying. More »
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Iran Photoshopped Its New Stealth Fighter Jet to Look Like It Was Flying When It Totally Wasn’t
While the President is currently giving his State of the Union address (viewable on YouTube here ), earlier today he signed an executive order intended to improve the network security of “critical infrastructure.” As noted by The Hill , the order charges the National Institute of Standards and Technology with the task of creating a framework of best practices for operators in industries like transportation, water and health to follow, due in the next 240 days. The Department of Homeland Security is also heading up a voluntary program works with various agencies and industry groups to make sure the policies are actually adopted, and find ways to create incentives for that to happen. The order has arrived after cybersecurity legislation failed to pass through Congress, and has been rumored heavily throughout the last few weeks. The president called for Congress to pass legislation to prevent cyberattacks during his speech, and this order is reportedly meant as a step in that direction. The Wall Street Journal indicates many businesses want liability protection against attacks in exchange for following the guidelines, which would require approval form Congress in order to happen. It includes language accounting for privacy concerns as well, with agencies required to look over the potential impact of their work, and release public assessments. The DHS is to report in a year how its work impacts civil liberties and provide recommendations on mitigating such risks. There’s a lot to read through, so you can check out the document itself embedded after the break, or wait for those various agency reports for more updates. Filed under: Internet , Software Comments Source: The Hill , Reuters , Wall Street Journal
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President Obama signs executive order focused on improving national cybersecurity
