An anonymous reader writes “Researchers at New York University have devised a new scheme called PolyPassHash for storing password hash data so that passwords cannot be individually cracked by an attacker. Instead of a password hash being stored directly in the database, the information is used to encode a share in a Shamir Secret Store (technical details PDF). This means that a password cannot be validated without recovering a threshold of shares, thus an attacker must crack groups of passwords together. The solution is fast, easy to implement (with C and Python implementations available), requires no changes to clients, and makes a huge difference in practice. To put the security difference into perspective, three random 6 character passwords that are stored using standard salted secure hashes can be cracked by a laptop in an hour. With a PolyPassHash store, it would take every computer on the planet longer to crack these passwords than the universe is estimated to exist. With this new technique, HoneyWords, and hardware solutions all available, does an organization have any excuse if their password database is disclosed and user passwords are cracked?.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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NYU Group Says Its Scheme Makes Cracking Individual Passwords Impossible
An anonymous reader writes: “Mining new Bitcoins is computationally expensive — you can’t expect to do much on your standard home computer. Many miners have built custom rigs to mine more efficiently, but it was only a matter of time until somebody went industrial. Dave Carlson’s goal is to mine 10% of all new Bitcoins from now on. He’s built literally thousands of units. They collectively use 1.4 million BitFury mining chips, which are managed by a bunch of Raspberry Pis. ‘The current rigs each contain 16 boards, with each board containing 16 BitFury chips, for a total of 256 mining chips on each rig. Carlson said about 90, 000 processor boards have been deployed, which would put the number of rigs at about 5, 600. A new board [being designed] will have 756 chips on each rig instead of 256.’ Carlson says his company spent $3-5 million to get everything set up. They current generate 7, 000 — 8, 000 Bitcoins per month, which, at current rates, would be worth over $4 million.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Are you a jealous lover, helicopter parent, or otherwise neurotic human being with crippling trust issues? Then we’ve got the answer to all your problems right here. No, it’s not therapy (although, you know, good idea); it’s a top-of-the-line smartphone that comes pre-loaded with all the spyware an overbearing human could ever hope for. Read more… 
The Mt.Gox saga just gets sadder and sadder. Not only did the company file for bankruptcy, but Mt.Gox CEO Mike Karpele went on Japanese TV a few minutes ago and admitted that everybody’s money is gone. Gone, gone, gone. Read more… 
sciencehabit writes “In 2010, workers widening a remote stretch of highway near the northwestern coast of Chile uncovered a trove of fossils, including the skeletons of at least 30 large baleen whales. The fossils—which may be up to 9 million years old—are the first definitive examples of ancient mass strandings of whales, according to a new study. The work also fingers a possible culprit.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Because anyone can create music with access to a laptop these days, Diode Milliampere decided to up the ante and make it harder for himself by making a song using MS-DOS. Yes, that command line inputting, C-drive accessing MS-DOS from 30 years ago. It turned out pretty well! Read more… 
