An anonymous reader writes “Do you think an airgap can protect your computer? Maybe not. According to this story at Ars Technica, security consultant Dragos Ruiu is battling malware that communicates with infected computers using computer microphones and speakers.” That sounds nuts, but it is a time-tested method of data transfer, after all. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Ars: Cross-Platform Malware Communicates With Sound
First time accepted submitter Papa Fett writes “DARPA announced the Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC)–the first-ever tournament for fully automatic network defense systems. International teams will compete to build systems that reason about software flaws, formulate patches and deploy them on a network in real time. Teams would be scored against each other based on how capably their systems can protect hosts, scan the network for vulnerabilities, and maintain the correct function of software. The winning team would receive a cash prize of $2 million , with second place earning $1 million and third place taking home $750, 000.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
alphadogg writes “As it embarks on what’s likely to be a long journey to its next big increase in speed, Ethernet is in some ways a victim of its own success. Years ago, birthing a new generation of Ethernet was relatively straightforward: Enterprises wanted faster LANs, vendors figured out ways to achieve that throughput and hashed out a standard, and IT shops bought the speed boost with their next computers and switches. Now it’s more complicated, with carriers, Web 2.0 giants, cloud providers, and enterprises all looking for different speeds and interfaces, some more urgently than others. … That’s what the IEEE 802.3 400Gbps Study Group faces as it tries to write the next chapter in Ethernet’s history. … ‘You have a lot of different people coming in to the study group, ‘ said John D’Ambrosia, the group’s chair, in an interview at the Ethernet Alliance’s Technology Exploration Forum in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday. That can make it harder to reach consensus, with 75 percent approval required to ratify a standard, he said.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Ethernet’s 400-Gigabit Challenge Is a Good Problem To Have
Adobe has revealed that their network was compromised and the attackers may have accessed information pertaining to 2.9 million customers, including encrypted credit card numbers and other account details. Read more here . Read more…
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Adobe has revealed that their network was compromised and the attackers may have accessed informatio
Depending on where you get your DVR, it may or may not have the ability to skip commercials. The best ones have a button that lets you jump forward, but if your DVR was issued by a cable or satellite company, they may have hidden or removed it. Here are some semi-secret ways to do it anyway. Read more…
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How to Enable a Hidden Commercial-Skipping Button on Any DVR
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes “Los Angeles Unified School District started issuing iPads to its students this school year, as part of a $30 million deal with Apple. Now Sam Sanders reports at NPR that less than a week after getting their iPads, high school students have found a way to bypass software blocks on the devices that limit what websites the students can use. The students are getting around software that lets school district officials know where the iPads are, what the students are doing with them at all times and lets the district block certain sites, such as social media favorites like Facebook. ‘They were bound to fail, ‘ says Renee Hobbs, who’s been a skeptic of the iPad program from the start. ‘There is a huge history in American education of being attracted to the new, shiny, hugely promising bauble and then watching the idea fizzle because teachers weren’t properly trained to use it and it just ended up in the closet.’ The rollout of the iPads might have to be delayed as officials reassess access policies. Right now, the program is still in Phase 1, with fewer than 15, 000 iPads distributed. ‘I’m guessing this is just a sample of what will likely occur on other campuses once this hits Twitter, YouTube or other social media sites explaining to our students how to breach or compromise the security of these devices, ‘ says Steven Zipperman. ‘I want to prevent a “runaway train” scenario when we may have the ability to put a hold on the roll-out.’ The incident has prompted questions about overall preparations for the $1-billion tablet initiative.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
We’ve seen real laser guns before, pulling off tricks like starting small fires, or popping black balloons . That’s cool, sure, but it’s got nothing—and I mean nothing —on this crazy handheld laser rifle that eats metal for breakfast. Read more…
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Holy Crap, This Real-Life Laser Rifle Cuts Through Metal Like Nothing
Live support has always been a dream for major retailers. While chat solutions already exist, today Amazon announced a new support service available on Kindle HD products called Mayday. It is a single-click, hardware-support solution that lets users work with a remote tech support representative to solve problems with their tablets. The service allows you to see the remote tech support person in a small window on your screen and also displays your screen on the support person’s computer where they can watch what you’re doing online, annotate the screen, and even tap through the interface. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said it’s like “actually very similar to having someone standing next to you” and offering tech support. The service is unique to Amazon, and the company built a full infrastructure to support it at their HQ in Seattle and on board the hardware. By compressing the video signals, they are able to send more data to the devices from tech support and allow tech support to see the data remotely. Amazon’s goal is a 15-second response time, and they will ramp up staffing around major holidays when Kindles are flying fast and furious under the Easter tree. While some may be concerned about privacy, rest assured the support person will not be able to see out of your camera, and you can mute your audio at any time. Bezos equated the experience to going into a store for tech support. “If you went to some physical store location to ask for help for your device, they’re going to see everything, ” said Bezos. More important, however, is how many people the service will help. “Are we in charge of our devices or our devices in charge of us? Getting good tech support isn’t easy, but it’s important, ” he said. The service will be available on the new Kindle Fire HDX tablets. You can read more about the service at Amazon’s Mayday page .
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Amazon Introduces Mayday, A Unique And Amazingly Useful Live Tech Support System For Kindle
Over the last 24 hours, you’ve probably noticed that your Gmail has been acting a little funky. It wasn’t just you. In a blog post , the Gmail team explains the issue, saying that a rare, double-SNAFU was to blame for a widespread issue that caused significant delays in the delivery of some email. Read more…
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Your Gmail Was Down Because of a "Dual Network Failure"
Chrome: When you let someone use your computer, you’d probably prefer they stick to the web browser. With kiosk mode, you can (sort of) enforce that. Read more…
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Chrome’s Kiosk Mode Limits Access to Your Computer