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British spy agency captured 70,000 e-mails of journalists in 10 minutes

The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British sister agency of the National Security Agency, captured 70,000 e-mails of journalists in 10 minutes during a November 2008 test. According to The Guardian , which on Monday cited some of its Snowden documents as its source (but did not publish them), the e-mails were scooped up as part of the intelligence agency’s direct fiber taps . Journalists from the BBC, Reuters, The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, The Sun , NBC, and The Washington Post were apparently targeted. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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British spy agency captured 70,000 e-mails of journalists in 10 minutes

It’s Official, Someone Bought NYC’s First $100 Million Apartment

Here are some things that cost $100 million: Making the film Gravity . Recent U.S. airstrikes in Iraq . And now, a two-story penthouse occupying the 89th and 90th floors of the new super-luxury high-rise at 157 West 57th Street. Read more…

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It’s Official, Someone Bought NYC’s First $100 Million Apartment

This Ingestible Nanobot Is Powered By Stomach Acid 

There’s tiny revolution afoot in medicine, where micro- and nano-sized robots will someday cruise around inside our bodies, zeroing in on cancerous cells or repairing damaged but otherwise healthy ones . But before those ideas all become reality, those bots need a power source inside our bodies. That power source could be stomach acid. Read more…

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This Ingestible Nanobot Is Powered By Stomach Acid 

Lizard Squad Kept Its Hacker-for-Hire Customers’ Info in Plain Text

Somebody hacked the Lizard Squad’s super stupid DDoS-for-hire service last week, and guess what? The Lizard Squad sucks at cybersecurity. Not only did the hackers leave their so-called LizardStresser service vulnerable, the money-hungry kids left all their customers’ data in plain text and $11, 000 in bitcoin on the table. Read more…

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Lizard Squad Kept Its Hacker-for-Hire Customers’ Info in Plain Text

Bangladesh blocks mobile messaging apps to thwart protests

Countries are occasionally tempted to block mobile messaging apps when protests or riots flare up, and Bangladesh just gave in to that urge. The nation has blocked two popular services, Tango and Viber , on the grounds that anti-government protesters (some of whom have turned violent) are using these chat clients to coordinate their activities. Officials say the bans will last “for the time being, ” which suggests that locals shouldn’t get their hopes up for a reprieve — it might not let up unless the demonstrations come to an end. Whether or not this is effective is another matter. It shouldn’t be hard for these political opponents to find alternatives to Tango or Viber (WhatsApp comes to mind). Also, censorship of social apps has a tendency to galvanize resistance rather than break it down — whether or not the protesters are backing a good cause, they may see messaging blackouts as proof that they’re fighting injustices. [Image credit: AP Photo/A.M. Ahad] Filed under: Cellphones , Internet , Mobile Comments Source: AFP (Phys.org)

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Bangladesh blocks mobile messaging apps to thwart protests

Deep-fried graphene may be the key to long-lasting batteries

The deep frying process isn’t just useful for livening up your food — it might also be the ticket to better batteries in your mobile devices. South Korean researchers have created highly conductive, stable electrode materials by spraying graphene oxide droplets into a very hot blend of acid and organic solvent, much like you’d dip chicken into oil. The resulting “pom-poms” (what you see above) aren’t at all tasty, but their open 3D structure makes them far better for transferring electrical charges than plain graphene. Other scientists have developed 3D graphene before, with similar energy capacitance. However, this deep-fry method is a lot easier to translate to mass production — it’s simple and scales easily to larger batches. This is just one piece of the puzzle (albeit an important one), so it’ll be a while before you see batteries based on this trick. Should everything pan out, though, your future smartphone or electric car may last much longer thanks to some carbon-based cuisine. [Image credit: Chemical Materials ] Filed under: Science Comments Via: Daily Dot Source: Chemical & Engineering News

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Deep-fried graphene may be the key to long-lasting batteries

New York governor wants statewide 100Mbps internet by 2019

With a $1 billion plan, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo hopes to have every New Yorker hooked up to high-speed internet by 2019. The administration is billing it as the largest state investment in universal broadband in the country. Just how fast are we talking, here? In most cases, the program calls for providers to offer at least 100 Mbps, or as Chief Digital Officer Rachel Haot described it at a press conference, “more than 10 times the federal definition of ‘broadband.'” The plan, known as the New New York Broadband Program (yes, that is two “News”) would include $500 million in capital funds (taken from recent bank settlements). The state wants those funds to serve as an incentive for private companies by offering 1:1 financial matching for broadband providers willing to invest their own money — hence the $1 billion total size. The program is part of Cuomo’s 2015 State of Opportunity Agenda and although those matching funds call for providers to offer at 100 Mbps speeds in most cases, it does allow for as low as 25Mbps in extremely remote areas of the state. According to Ookla’s Net Index Explorer, New York ranks third in the US with an average broadband speed of around 39 Mbps. However, stats from the state’s Broadband Program Office show that large swaths of the population lacked broadband access as recently as July 2014. In Greene County, for instance, the office estimates 91 percent of the county’s 50, 000 residents lack access to 100Mbps broadband — and 79 percent can’t even muster 6Mbps. While it’s obviously very early days for the program, Cuomo’s office seems mighty bullish about its potential, even with the not-so-far-off January 1st, 2019 deadline. “At the end of the next four years, ” New York Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul said, “you’ll see that every business in this community, in this state, is connected and will have the fastest-speed broadband of any state in the nation.” [Image credits: Bloomberg via Getty Images, New York State] Filed under: Networking , Internet Comments Source: New York State

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New York governor wants statewide 100Mbps internet by 2019

Pirates defeating watermarks, releasing torrents of Oscar movie screeners

When an incomplete and early version of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine leaked to torrent sites in 2009, Twentieth Century Fox announced that the uploader “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” “We forensically mark our content so we can identify sources that make it available or download it,” the studio said in a statement. Nabbed by a watermark, a New York man subsequently pleaded guilty to making the movie available on Megaupload. Gilberto Sanchez was sentenced to a year in prison in 2011. A triumphant US Attorney Andre Birotte Jr . said  that  “sentence handed down in this case sends a strong message of deterrence to would-be Internet pirates.” Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Pirates defeating watermarks, releasing torrents of Oscar movie screeners

New York City’s first commercial wind turbine proves its worth

Sunset Park in Brooklyn is home to New York City’s first commercial-scale wind turbine , and it’s already flexing its green muscle. In under a month, the 160-foot-tall power source produced enough juice to power two homes for more than 12 months. It’s not being used to supplement regular energy use, though, as it feeds a recycling plant at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal — a facility that already gets 16 percent of its power from solar panels. NYC seems like the last place a massive wind turbine would make a difference, but the height of this installation, coupled with the open landscape on the shore of Sunset Park, makes for an effective combo that’s capable of generating up to 100 kilowatts. Attempts to harvest the wind in New York City are nothing new, but they’re typically used to power much smaller buildings, so their size and output are a fraction of this one at Sims Metal Management. Construction costs tallied $750, 000, and the project is expected to pay for itself in five years. [Photo credit: AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews] Filed under: Science Comments Source: New York Times

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New York City’s first commercial wind turbine proves its worth