middleman – Tech Today w/ Ken May

FBI says DNC wouldn’t give it direct access to hacked servers

The FBI has spent months trying to persuade people that Russia was behind the DNC hack , but we’re now learning that it didn’t get much help from the DNC itself. The bureau tells Buzzfeed News that the Democrats’ organization reportedly “rebuffed” multiple requests for physical access to the hacked servers, forcing investigators to depend on the findings of the third-party security firm CrowdStrike (which the DNC contacted after the hack). The FBI would have tackled the breach earlier if the DNC hadn’t “inhibited” the investigation, according to its statement. The claims directly contradict earlier claims from the DNC, which maintained that the FBI had never asked for access. The DNC says it handed over CrowdStrike info “without any limits, ” but that’s not very reassuring when the Committee wouldn’t let FBI agents skip the middleman. It doesn’t look good even if there were innocuous reasons. Does the FBI need direct access to the servers to scrutinize the information? Not necessarily. As The Verge observes after consulting with security firms, this arrangement is still business as usual for interactions with law enforcement: private firms conduct the initial study and clear the security threat, while official investigators focus on the actions they should take as a result. And so long as CrowdStrike can supply the raw server data, the FBI doesn’t need in-person access to double-check conclusions. Moreover, the FBI was already suspicious of Russian involvement well before CrowdStrike got involved, and had access to information that a private company wouldn’t see. This isn’t to let the FBI off the hook. It still has to trust that CrowdStrike is both accurate and divulging everything it can. Also, the bureau’s most recent report on the hack include mistakes (such as listing “malicious” internet addresses that include Tor exit nodes, which doesn’t really say anything). And while multiple intelligence agencies are pointing the finger at Russia , there’s no publicly available smoking gun that will sway you if you’re skeptical. One thing’s for sure: the he-said-she-said between the FBI and DNC will have to be addressed if both sides are going to remove doubt that Russia was to blame. LATEST: FBI says they asked DNC for servers, and DNC refused, “inhibited” the investigation. pic.twitter.com/AfkAPlJsYZ — Ali Watkins (@AliWatkins) January 5, 2017 Source: BuzzFeed News , The Verge , Ali Watkins (Twitter)

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FBI says DNC wouldn’t give it direct access to hacked servers

Amazon Is Secretly Building an ‘Uber For Trucking’ App, Setting Its Sights On a Massive $800 Billion Market

Amazon is building an app that matches truck drivers with shippers, a new service that would deepen its presence in the $800 billion trucking industry, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Business Insider. From the report: The app, scheduled to launch next summer, is designed to make it easier for truck drivers to find shippers that need goods moved, much in the way Uber connects drivers with riders. It would also eliminate the need for a third-party broker, which typically charges a commission of about 15% for doing the middleman work. The app will offer real-time pricing and driving directions, as well as personalized features such as truck-stop recommendations and a suggested “tour” of loads to pick up and drop off. It could also have tracking and payment options to speed up the entire shipping process. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Amazon Is Secretly Building an ‘Uber For Trucking’ App, Setting Its Sights On a Massive $800 Billion Market

Mealworms convert Styrofoam waste into usable soil

Researchers have found a scourge for the 33 million tons of plastic dumped each year in the US: mealworms. A team from Stanford and China’s Beihang University found that the beetle larvae stay perfectly healthy eating just Styrofoam, which is normally considered non-biodegradable. Better still, the worms convert the plastic to CO2 and waste that’s safe to use as soil for crops. The scientists were as surprised by the discovery as you might be. “There’s a possibility of really important research coming out of bizarre places, ” said Stanford professor Craig Criddle. “This is a shock.” Mealworms don’t have some kind of magic digestive system, of course. Earlier research has showed that microorganisms in the stomachs of Indian mealmoths can digest the polyethylene plastic used in garbage bags. The scientists now plan to study such bacteria to see whether they can biodegrade plastics used in automotive components and microbeads that pollute water supplies. The goal is to eventually cut out the middleman (“middleworm”?) and isolate the bioenzymes used by microorganisms to break down the plastics. That could result in new methods of reducing plastic waste that’s already in the environment, and new types of bio-plastics that won’t accumulate on land or at sea. Source: Stanford University

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Mealworms convert Styrofoam waste into usable soil

Quentin Tarantino’s ‘The Hateful Eight’ will premiere in 70mm film

It’s no secret that Quentin Tarantino prefers film over digital , and he’s underscoring that point with the planned debut of The Hateful Eight . The director kicked off a San Diego Comic-Con panel with a video revealing that his Western was not only shot on giant 65mm film, but will screen in 70mm film before any other format. This will be a roadshow-style release where 100 theaters will put on a special show that might even recall the golden era of film, with overtures and intermissions. It’ll expand to other formats after two weeks. As for why Tarantino didn’t go with smaller film stock? He argues that 70mm is good not just for dramatic outdoor vistas, but also for indoor scenes. It makes them “more intimate [and] more vital, ” which is important when The Hateful Eight is mostly set in one building in Wyoming. Tarantino adds that he also saw 70mm as a bargaining chip that would keep his movie on film. “I figured if I shoot in 70, they’ll have to release it in 70, ” he says. Not that he’s completely averse to joining the modern era. At the Comic-Con panel, he explained that he saw digital projection as ” HBO in public .” If he eventually has no choice but to shoot in a TV-like digital medium, he might as well cut the middleman and produce for TV. It’s just as well, he adds — this would give him an opportunity to shoot larger stories instead of cutting things down for the movie theater. There’s no indication that Tarantino is about to make a career switch (he notes that any talk of him calling it quits is premature), but you now know where he’d go if celluloid went away . [Image credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP] Filed under: Home Entertainment , HD Comments Source: io9 , MoviemaniacsDE (YouTube)

How to Migrate From an Old NAS to a New One Overnight with rsync

A NAS, or network-attached storage device, is great for storing files you can reach from any computer in the house. But when you upgrade to a new one, you’re stuck copying everything over by hand, swapping drives, and risking data loss. Here’s a much more reliable method. Read more…

Snapchat Search Warrants Emphasize Data Vulnerability

Nerval’s Lobster writes “This year’s revelations about NSA surveillance have upended the idea that our data—any of it—is truly secure from prying eyes. That uncertainty has sparked the rise of several businesses with a simple proposition: you can send whatever you want via their online service (text, images, video), and that data will vaporize within seconds of the recipient opening it up. One of the most popular of those services is Snapchat, which allows users to take “Snaps” (i.e., videos or photos) that self-destruct a few seconds after the recipient opens them; that data also disappears from the company’s servers. But is ‘disappearing’ data truly secure from prying eyes? Earlier this week, Snapchat admitted to a loophole in its schema that leaves Snaps open to viewing by law enforcement — provided the latter shows up at the company’s front door with a warrant. Until a recipient opens a Snap, it’s stored in the company’s datacenter. In theory, law enforcement could request that Snapchat send it an unopened Snap. ‘If we receive a search warrant from law enforcement for the contents of Snaps and those Snaps are still on our servers, ‘ read an Oct. 14 posting on Snapchat’s corporate blog, ‘a federal law called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) obliges us to produce the Snaps to the requesting law enforcement agency.’ Law-enforcement entities have hit Snapchat with ‘about a dozen’ search warrants for unopened Snaps since May 2013. ‘Law enforcement requests sometimes require us to preserve Snaps for a time, like when law enforcement is determining whether to issue a search warrant for Snaps, ‘ the blog continued. That surveillance could also go beyond unopened Snaps: Snapchat ‘Stories, ‘ or a cluster of Snaps, live on the company’s servers for up to 24 hours and can be viewed multiple times, which broadens the window for law enforcement to poke its way in.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Parcel Sensor Knows When Your Delivery Has Been Dropped

First time accepted submitter Hamsterdan writes “If you’re tired of finding that your stuff has been smashed during shipping after opening your package, this device is for you. ‘Called DropTag, the gadget combines a battery, a low-energy Bluetooth transmitter, an accelerometer and a memory chip. Stuck on a parcel as it leaves an e-commerce warehouse, it logs any g-forces above a set risky shock level that it experiences. The idea is that when the courier puts it in your hands, you turn on Bluetooth on a smartphone running a DropTag app and scan it before you sign for it.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Parcel Sensor Knows When Your Delivery Has Been Dropped