23rd June 2008 Archive

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Time to dismount the hamster security wheel of pain

Quit patching, build a library

Enterprises are spending a huge amount of effort scanning for vulnerabilities that they already know are in their applications. Here's a little secret: there's no point in scanning if you haven't at least tried to put in a basic set of defenses. You already know you're vulnerable. So what kinds of defenses does the average web …

Developer 23 Jun 2008, 05:02
GTA IV website prompts outrage

littlelacysurprisepageant.com

Grand Theft Auto IV is once again at the centre of controversy. But this time people aren’t complaining that the game’s too violent, because they’re more concerned about the discovery of a so-called paedophile website. In the game, an internet café allows the player to access a child pageant website called …

Software 23 Jun 2008, 09:11
Mobile phones to save airlines, by exposing passengers

How much privacy would you give up for cheaper flights?

Airline travel is set to get even more unpleasant, as hapless airline passengers face being hounded through airports by online advertisers as well as security, customs and perfume touting duty free sales staff. The airline industry could save $600m a year by tracking passengers through airports and punting ads to their mobiles …

Mobile 23 Jun 2008, 09:14
Compressed VoIP leaves eavesdropping clues

The Norman Collier effect

Eavesdroppers might be able to gain clues about the content of encrypted conversations even without breaking the cryptography. VoIP services such as Skype encrypt conversations but law enforcement agencies, most notably in Germany, have complained this can hinder law enforcement investigations. The emerging use of variable …

VoIP 23 Jun 2008, 09:17
Dutch boffins clone Oyster card

And DDoS a ticket barrier

Researchers of Radboud University in Nijmegen in the Netherlands managed to crack and clone London's Oyster travel card. They were able to take free rides on the Underground and even perpetrated a DDoS attack on a Tube gate. Researchers Wouter Teepe and Bart Jacobs used a regular laptop to put credit back on their Oyster card …

Security 23 Jun 2008, 09:28
Phoenix spies probable Martian water ice

Sublimation caught on camera

NASA's Phoenix Mars lander has spotted the sublimation of probable water ice in a trench excavated by its robotic arm by comparing two photos taken on the 21st and 25th days of the mission, aka Sols 20 and 24 (15 and 19 June): The images, captured by the lander's Surface Stereo Imager, show the disappearance of lumps in the …

Science 23 Jun 2008, 09:30
Motorola develops Kodak cameraphone

Five-megapixel snapper/talker

Motorola has finally spoken-up over rumours that it’s developing a mobile phone with camera giant Kodak, and has unveiled the Motozine ZN5 handset. Motorola's ZN5 sports a Kodak 5Mp camera Rumours about the phone first emerged back in May, although until now very little was known about it. But, Motorola has since confirmed …

Phones 23 Jun 2008, 09:57
Snoop-happy councils warned off RIPA abuse

'Or they'll take our toys away'

The head of the Local Government Association (LGA) has today warned every council in England to restrict how their investigators use new surveillance powers, or risk losing public support. Sir Simon Milton's letter follows a recent rash of news stories exposing how councils nationwide have been using the Regulation of …

Government 23 Jun 2008, 10:06
Rare Mac Trojan exploits Apple vuln

iPwned

A rare Mac OS X Trojan has been spotted on the internet. The AppleScript-THT Trojan horse exploits a vulnerability within the Apple Remote Desktop Agent to load itself with root privileges onto compromised Mac machines. The malware, which is capable of infecting Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 boxes, surrenders control of compromised …

Security 23 Jun 2008, 10:07
The war on photographers - you're all al Qaeda suspects now

Analysis Police, camera, (illegal) action

When you hear the phrase "helping police with their inquiries", does an image of dedicated selfless citizenry instantly spring to mind? Or do you wonder whether the reality is not slightly more sinister? How about "voluntarily handing over film to the police". Stephen Carroll is a keen amateur photographer, with an interest …

Law 23 Jun 2008, 10:41
So, what can you photograph?

Updated Anything - bar a few exceptions

It may surprise readers to learn that with a few very specific exceptions, there is no law in the UK against taking photographs. That said, there are a range of quite specific exceptions to this rule. There is no law against taking photographs on private property: however, “no photography” may be a condition of entry to many …

Law 23 Jun 2008, 10:41
Pirate Bay bitchslaps Swedish law with SSL

Sticking it to evesdroppers in the ear

The Pirate Bay plans to offer encryption services to people who use the BitTorrent tracker site in a direct attempt to combat a new controversial snoop law passed in Sweden last week. Peter Sunde, who is one of the men behind the notorious tracker site, said in a blog post yesterday: "Many people have asked me what we’re …

Law 23 Jun 2008, 10:56
Daewoo's laptop is child's play – literally

The Lukid, aka Intel Classmate PC

Further details have emerged online of Intel's second-generation Classmate PC sub-laptop, but this time the education-oriented unit's been branded by Daewoo. Daewoo's Lukid is aimed at children. Images courtesy of Aving The chip manufacturer unveiled the second-generation CPC at IDF in Shanghi back in April. Although Intel …

Hardware 23 Jun 2008, 10:57
Logitech Squeezebox Duet multi-room music streamer

Review Slim Devices' winner revamp

Media streamers are all too often the jack of all trades yet the masters of none. Thankfully, no such blight tarnishes the Logitech Squeezebox Duet's shiny black carapace. The first product to come from the Slim Devices team since its purchase by Logitech in 2007, the Duet has been developed to do one thing: stream music …

Hardware 23 Jun 2008, 11:02
LG taps out keypad-based caller

No touchscreen? Are you sure?

Some people dislike touchscreen mobiles because they’re rarely able to provide any physical typing feedback. But LG’s proven that it has at least one finger on the button, with the launch of a slider phone sporting a bold arrangement of physical keys. LG's KS360 doesn't have a touchscreen. Image courtesy of MobiFrance The …

Phones 23 Jun 2008, 11:35
Veteran climate scientist says 'lock up the oil men'

Nasa's Hansen goes DC

Veteran climate scientist James Hansen is marking the twentieth anniversary of his seminal speech to the US Congress on global warming by calling for oil company execs to be locked up for denying global warming. Hansen, who heads up Nasa’s Goodard Instritute for Space Studies, is credited with putting climate change squarely …

Science 23 Jun 2008, 12:08
Leeds thieves target Ford Focus chips

Stick 'em your Sky box, get free telly

Police in Leeds have issued a warning to Ford Focus owners that thieves are targeting their vehicles in order to get their mitts on an allegedly magical chip from the car's stereo, the Yorkshire Evening Post reports. Detective Inspector Nick Wallen from North East Leeds Division explained: "There has been an ongoing rumour for …

Law 23 Jun 2008, 12:09
Yahoo!'s Decker! defends! Goo-Hoo!

'It's our choice every day...'

Yahoo! president Susan Decker has criticised the company’s naysayers, many of whom have protested against the fraught firm’s recent web search ad deal with Google. In an interview with Reuters on Friday, she insisted that the new Goo-Hoo! agreement would not nullify Yahoo!’s position in the internet search market where it is …

Financial News 23 Jun 2008, 12:33
Threat remains despite Safari carpet bombing fix

Blended beastliness

Apple finally fixed a "carpet bombing" flaw in the Windows version of its Safari web browser, but security researchers warn that the consumer electronics giant's patch only provides partial relief from bugs involving the interaction of Safari and other browser packages. A flaw that meant Safari automatically downloaded …

The Channel 23 Jun 2008, 12:34
Virgin Media rubbishes P2P throttling rumours

Secret testing denied

Virgin Media has today strongly denied a charge it is running secret tests with a view to introducing new bandwidth throttling hardware to target peer to peer and Usenet downloaders. The claim was made on Friday at Cableforum, a message board often frequented by staff and former staff of Virgin Media, or its forerunners NTL …

Broadband 23 Jun 2008, 13:05
Cap, trade, subsidise - Obama's energy plan goes off piste

Charge for emissions, spend money raised on encouraging them

One of the huge surprises of the way that climate change is being discussed and the way we ought to try to deal with it, is that the orthodox economists have won. We don't have crazed Naderites screaming that carbon must be regulated and legislated out of business, as we did only a couple of decades ago with chlorofluorocabons …

Bootnotes 23 Jun 2008, 13:29
Ex-Logica boss to teach UK.gov how to identify crap IT

Foxes, henhouses, poachers

The government has turned to the former boss of Logica to try and it teach it how to run IT projects and jettison them as quickly as possible when it becomes apparent they have got it wrong again. Martin Read, who was forced out of Logica last year, will carry out a review of the government’s £13bn annual IT spend as part of a …

Government 23 Jun 2008, 13:30
Wii hack promises Remote vibration

Application offers vibration relaxation

Jokes about alternative uses for the vibration functions on some gadgets, including mobile phones, are nothing new. But, a group of Wii boffins claim to have developed an alternative use for the console’s Remote that’s, well, just for the ladies. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com A group of …

Games 23 Jun 2008, 13:37
Android delays hurt self-realisation

There's more to a phone than cool demos

Phones based on Google's Android platform may not be around this year as promised, according to sources tracked down by the Wall Street Journal, which reports technical delays and industry antipathy surrounding the project. Google predicted that Android-based phones would be around during the second half of 2008, but even the …

Mobile 23 Jun 2008, 14:28
Vauxhall launches virtual backseat driver

Camera system warns of roadside signs

Vauxhall has developed an in-car safety system designed to alert drivers to roadside signs, or give them a ticking off when veering out of their lane. Vauxhall's FCS lets you know when it spots a road sign The Front Camera System (FCS) relies on a wide-angle camera positioned between the windscreen and rear-view mirror. The …

Software 23 Jun 2008, 14:45
Nokia looking for love in ~~all the wrong~~ Plazes

My plaze or yours?

Moody Finnish mobe giant Nokia has acquired Plazes, a location-based social networking service, as part of its continuing effort to work out what kind of business it wants to be in. Plazes is a social-networking-for-the-terminally-lazy service for anyone who wants to share where they are as well as what they're doing. We …

Mobile 23 Jun 2008, 15:10
Wi-LAN expands Wi-Fi litigation net

Rest of world now cited too

Serial litigant Wi-LAN is suing RIM, Motorola and UTStarCom for breaches of the company's various wireless networking patents, and is asking for triple damages for wilful infringement. Wi-LAN doesn't spend all its time suing companies for making Wi-Fi kit, even if it sometimes appears that way. The company also researches and …

Broadband 23 Jun 2008, 15:44
HP throws Tru64 code to Linux fanciers

GPL love-in

Hewlett-Packard plans to make its Tru64 Unix Advanced File System available to the open source community. The tech giant said today that Linux can adopt AdvFS source code under version two of the open source General Public License (GPL). The file system was first developed in 1991 for business customers using Digital …

Servers 23 Jun 2008, 15:56
Researcher: NebuAd forges Google data packets

Pimps data to third-party ad networks

The man who caught Comcast blocking BitTorrents has now turned his attention to NebuAd, the Phorm-like behavioral ad targeting service that's tracking net surfers from inside multiple American ISPs. In a new report (PDF) released under the aegis of consumer watchdogs Free Press and Public Knowledge, Robb Topolski accuses …

Broadband 23 Jun 2008, 18:00
Yes! It's the Knight Rider satnav!

'Turn left at the next junction, Michael'

The days when Michael Knight tore across the US in KITT are long gone, but Mio is keeping the memory alive with a Knight Rider inspired satnav. Mio's Knight Rider satnav uses the car's original 'voice'. Images courtesy of Auto Blog According to a report by car news website Autoblog.com, Mio has designed a Knight Industries …

Science 23 Jun 2008, 19:02
HP duplicates deduplication

Redundancy cruncher for the big boys

Adds different enterprise deduplication product alongside SME D2D ones Like EMC, HP is offering different deduplication products to different backup markets, with a post-processing Virtual Library System (VLS), based on Sepaton's DeltaStor technology, and inline processing D2D systems for small and medium enterprises. …

Storage 23 Jun 2008, 20:09
Sun's Niagara 3 will have 16-cores and 16 threads per core

Exclusive 256 thread per socket rocket

Sun Microsystems looks poised to lead the "mainstream" multi-core race for at least a couple more years. By late 2009, the server maker should deliver a third major revision of its Niagara processor which will have 16 cores and an astonishing 16 threads per core, The Register has learned. Today, Sun sells an eight-core " …

Servers 23 Jun 2008, 20:10
Salesforce chief brags of cloud for grown-ups

Capitalists, geezers and Google welcome

Salesforce.com's CEO has tried to nudge potential partners and customers away from the hosted computing services of Amazon, Google and Facebook by saying that Force.com is for serious business developers who want to make some coin. Marc Benioff made his cloudy pitch at a Salesforce.com evangelism event in Silicon Valley, where …

Developer 23 Jun 2008, 21:52
Web browsers face crisis of security confidence

Good enough for Donald Rumsfeld. But not for you

User beware. Today's web browsers offer more security protections than ever, but according to security experts, they do little to protect people surfing the net from some the web's oldest and most crippling threats. Like nuclear stockpiles during the Cold War, new safety features amassed in Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera …

Security 23 Jun 2008, 21:56
Data Domain sends de-duped files into unalterable state

Mommy, Wow! Feds are happy now

Data Domain is teaching its de-duplication boxes a new storage retention trick to satisfy those picky government regulatory-types when they come sniffing the machinery. It's adding a Storage Lock option to all its de-duplication systems. The software lets administrators keep de-duplicated files in an unalterable state for …

Storage 23 Jun 2008, 22:17
FCC preps puritanical broadband

(Semi-)Advanced Wireless Services

It's official. FCC boss Kevin Martin wants a free US-wide wireless broadband network. And he wants it equipped with "family-friendly" content filters. On Friday, as expected, the US Federal Communications Commission formally unveiled (PDF) a free wireless plan for a portion of the American airwaves known as the Advanced …

Broadband 23 Jun 2008, 22:47
Ruby flaws send security researchers into shock

Patch to stay on the Rails

Developers have patched five vulnerabilities in the open-source programming language Ruby that could provide a trivial way for attackers to exploit a variety of web applications. The vulnerabilities affect versions 1.8 and 1.9 and could lead to remote execution of malicious code or denial of service, this advisory warns. The …

Security 23 Jun 2008, 23:41
Microsoft fights gaming Trojan menace

Resident Evil

Microsoft is claiming big successes in its efforts to to rescue gamers from malware. The latest (June) edition of Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) included a device to remove password stealers from infected machines. MSRT is a basic anti-malware tool designed to zap prevalent forms of malware. Signature …

Security 23 Jun 2008, 23:55