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Sailor convicted of hacking websites from aboard aircraft carrier

The USS Harry S. Truman apparently had adequate Internet bandwidth for a sailor to hack websites in his spare time. US Navy A 27-year old now-former sailor pleaded guilty in a federal court in Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 20 to charges of conspiracy after leading a band of hackers in the US and Canada from onboard an aircraft carrier . Nicholas Paul Knight, who was the system administrator for the USS Harry S. Truman’s nuclear reactors department, was caught trying to hack into a Navy database while at sea. Knight and a co-defendant—Daniel Kreuger of Salem, Illinois—were part of “Team Digi7al,” a collective of hackers who attacked at least 24 websites in 2012 in search of personal identifying information. Knight himself hacked the Navy’s Smart Web Move website , a system for sailors to manage household moves during transfers between stations; that hack included about 220,000 service members’ Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, and other personal data. Other sites attacked by the group included ones operated by the Department of Homeland Security, the Library of Congress, Stanford University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Toronto Police Service, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Sailor convicted of hacking websites from aboard aircraft carrier

Airbnb gives up customer data to NY attorney general

Airbnb Home renting company Airbnb announced Wednesday that under pressure from the New York attorney general’s office, it will hand over the anonymized personal data of its New York hosts to the state. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman subpoenaed three years’ worth of data in 2013 in an effort to suss out whether Airbnb users are running “illegal hotels” and to determine if Airbnb’s business model and platform comply with the law. Schneiderman stated his suspicions in April that Airbnb hosts in New York operate residences or parts of their homes like hotels—but without the fire, safety, and tax regulations normally applied to hotels. Airbnb hosts could also be in violation of a 2010 law that prohibits New Yorkers from renting entire apartments for less than 29 consecutive days. Schneiderman claimed that Airbnb sells itself to investors as a hotel network, but it attempts to keep that pitch out of the public sphere for fear of incurring legal hotel status. The New York Supreme Court rejected Schneiderman’s subpoena request on May 13, “but the judge’s ruling also made it clear that he would accept a new, narrower subpoena and require Airbnb to turn over personal information about hosts if the Attorney General’s Office made some changes to their demands,” wrote Airbnb in its blog post Wednesday. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Airbnb gives up customer data to NY attorney general

You Can Still Get a Refund From Google Play After the 15 Minute Window

Avid Google Play users will be aware of the long-standing 15 minute rule for refunds. Namely, if you return an app within 15 minutes, you get a refund no questions asked. As Android Police discovered, however, you may still be able to get an unconditional refund after that window. Read more…

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You Can Still Get a Refund From Google Play After the 15 Minute Window

California approves test of self-driving cars on public roads

Terrence Lui On Tuesday, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)  officially approved rules to allow the testing of autonomous vehicles on public roads. The rules will take effect September 16, 2014. The move has been a long time coming , with the DMV promising back in December 2013 that it would post regulations for public use of self-driving cars  and then holding a public hearing in January to address concerns about them. These new rules will set a statewide standard for all manufacturers. (Although Google has been running pilot programs in Mountain View and elsewhere, it’s not the only company pursuing an automated vehicle—Nvidia told Ars last week that Audi has plans to incorporate a “cruise control for stop-and-go traffic” feature in one of its cars come 2015.) Bryant Walker Smith, a fellow at the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (CARS), told Ars that the new rules could change how manufacturers proceed with their testing. “The DMV has a really, really difficult task, and I was impressed with the thoughtfulness of their approach,” he said. “I would say that anyone who is reading these documents will have to read very closely.” Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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California approves test of self-driving cars on public roads

eBay wants all users to change their passwords

eBay has just posted a strange message up on the community homepage and press page of its daughter company, PayPal. The headline is a bit worrying, implying that eBay has possibly had some kind of security or maintenance problem, leading it to request all users to change their passwords. On the other hand, the body of the post is empty except for the words “placeholder text, ” and nothing has yet been published on eBay’s own site. We’ve contacted eBay’s press office to find out what (if anything) is going down, but in the meantime it might be worth changing those passwords, just in case. Update : We haven’t heard anything back, but eBay’s website people seem to be in the process of removing the password message. It’s gone from the community page and is now only visible on the press site, so it’s looking increasingly likely that it was posted in error. Filed under: Internet Comments Source: PayPal

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eBay wants all users to change their passwords

World’s smallest nanomotor can pump drugs into cells at 18,000 RPM

Scientists at the Cockrell School of Engineering in Texas have created a nanomotor less than one micrometer in diameter, smaller even than a cell. Powered by electric fields, it consists of a nanowire , magnet and electrode and can spin at a terrifying-sounding 18, 000 RPM for over 15 hours (see video below). That’s as fast as a jet engine, but don’t worry (much). During testing, it showed the ability to pump fluids at hyper-fast speeds and to move around freely in other liquids. That opens up beneficial applications like highly controlled insulin delivery, or devices that could specifically target malignant cells. Of course, that would mean you’d have to let intelligent nano-devices with mini-saws roam about your body — I guess you’re allowed to be a bit terrified. Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Via: CNET Source: Journal of Nature Communications

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World’s smallest nanomotor can pump drugs into cells at 18,000 RPM

France Spent $20 Billion on Trains That Don’t Fit Its Stations

France’s national railway operator, SNCF, recently ordered 2, 000 new trains at a cost of more than $20 billion. Now, it’s found out that they’re too big for many of the stations they’re supposed to pass through. And this isn’t the kind of order you can return. Read more…

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France Spent $20 Billion on Trains That Don’t Fit Its Stations

Verizon’s next-gen voice service still planned for this year, will come with video calling

Verizon and AT&T, the two largest mobile operators in the US, have spent the last couple years in a race to deploy next-generation voice technology known as Voice over LTE (VoLTE). With its announcement last week, AT&T was the first to deploy the fast-speed VoIP network, but don’t count Verizon out of the race quite just yet: executives explained to us today that it’s still on track for nationwide deployment sometime this year. Considering AT&T launched VoLTE last week, it appears that Verizon may be experiencing a few setbacks. (Of course, Verizon originally promised its network would be ready by 2012, so we’d argue that setbacks are nothing new for VoLTE deployment.) However, execs pointed out that its competitor’s offering is currently limited to just a few markets and devices, whereas Verizon will launch VoLTE nationwide from the very beginning. Nationwide availability will be crucial to the network’s success, as calls using the new tech can’t fall back to CDMA when you leave LTE coverage. Unfortunately, the company won’t say specifically when this year we can expect the new network, but we were told that when it’s ready, several devices will be VoLTE-capable either through purchase or an over-the-air update. Fortunately, Verizon confirmed that its network will be interoperable with any of its VoLTE-capable competitors — since you’ll only be able to enjoy richer call quality when both callers have compatible devices, this means the service won’t be exclusive to in-network conversations. The company also tells us that it will offer FaceTime-like video calling as soon as VoLTE launches, which means that you’ll be able to activate the service directly from your phone’s dialer, and you’ll be able to easily switch back and forth between video and audio-only calls. Additionally, it’ll also launch HD Voice by leveraging AMR-WB, a wide-band speech standard that’s already used by T-Mobile for its high-def voice service . [ Image Credit: Getty ] Filed under: Cellphones , Mobile , Verizon Comments

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Verizon’s next-gen voice service still planned for this year, will come with video calling