Geek-Weekly

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Category: News

News

Hackers threaten to release Symantec source code tomorrow

Source: CNET

The hackers, who call themselves “Yama Tough” and employ the “Anonymous” mask in its Twitter avatar, said in a tweet Saturday it would release the 1.7GB source code on Tuesday, along with the message “the rest will follow…”

Several reports surfaced earlier this month that hackers had managed to access the source code for certain Symantec products. Symantec identified the products as Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) 11.0 and Symantec Antivirus 10.2 but said the attack did not affect any current Norton consumer products.

The hackers said they found the code after breaking into servers run by Indian military intelligence. The code was apparently left on there by mistake after Indian authorities inspected the sourced code to ensure it was secure, which is where the hackers found the code.

The group said in a Pastebin post that it had the “source codes of dozens of companies” and contained documentation describing the API procedures for Symantec’s virus definition generation service. The group’s post on the Pastebin site has since been removed, though a Google cached version still exists.

Symantec said in a statement to CNET sister site ZDNet that code posted to Pastebin was related to a 2006 version and is “no longer sold or supported.”

“The current version of Norton Utilities has been completely rebuilt and shares no common code with Norton Utilities 2006. The code that has been posted for the 2006 version poses no security threat to users of the current version of Norton Utilities,” the company said in a statement.

Rob Rachwald, director of security strategy at Imperva, told CNET’s Lance Whitney that the incident was “embarrassing on Symantec’s part” but not likely to “keep the Symantec folks awake too late at night, and certainly not their customers.”

If the source code had been recent and the hackers were able to poke enough holes in it, then exploiting the software could be possible, noted Rachwald. But there’s not much they can learn from old code.

News

SOPA’s DNS blocking—will be removed, for now.

Score one for the Internet. One of SOPA’s most controversial provisions—DNS blocking—will be removed, for now at least, according to one of the act’s staunchest supporters, Representative Lamar Smith.

The domain name blocking provision, as set forth in SOPA, would effectively censor foreign websites found hosting any amount of pirated content by requiring American ISP’s to block access to them. In addition, the provision reportedly could have interfered with the DNSSEC, which helps protect the DNS system from attack.

Rep. Smith stated that the provision would remain tabled until the Congressional Judiciary Committee has had an opportunity to “further examine the issues.” The Senate removed similar language from its competing Protect IP Act yesterday.

Opponents of both bills were unimpressed by the amendments, however. “These bills need to be killed altogether,” Corynne McSherry, Director of IP for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told CNet. “Our view all along has been they are not fixable.”

CNet via Electronista

 

News

Stop SOPA!

What is SOPA? “Stop Online Piracy Act” and it is headed through U.S. Congress with its sister bill PROTECT-IP in the Senate.  SOPA threatens to fundamentally change the way information is presented online by placing massive restrictions on user-generated content like posts to forums, video uploads, podcasts or images.

Basically what this bill will do is…

  • Assign liability to site owners for everything users post, without consideration for whether or not the user posted without permission.  Site owners could face jail time or heavy fines, and DNS blacklisting.
  • It would require web services like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to monitor and aggressively filter everything all users upload.
  • It would deny site owners due process of law, by initiating a DNS blacklisting based solely on a good faith assertion by an individual copyright or intellectual property owner.
  • It would give the U.S. government the power to selectively censor the web using techniques similar to those used in China, Malaysia and Iran.  The Great Firewall of China is an example of this type of embedded, infrastructural internet censorship.

There are many articles circulating the internet this week but one that best sums it up is Tomshardware.com. I recommend that everyone take a look.

Here is an example of what could happen. Let’s say that you upload a video or your child to Facebook while in the background you’re playing music. By posting that video to Facebook they now become liable for the music that you may or may not have permission to use. The end result could be jail-time and or the complete blacklisting of Facebook in the US.

That is just one scenario but there are thousands of blogs out there that will now be subject to this for all intents and purposes taking away our freedoms.

Please take a moment to contact your representative and tell them you oppose the PROTECT IP Act in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House.  Here’s a link that can give you more information and provide you with contact info for your elected official.  Your action on this matters.

https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173

Other Links:
Stop Online Piracy Act
Nintendo, EA, SONY drop support for SOPA

Games / News

PSVITA launched…. in Japan

I know that I have been posting quite a bit when it comes to the PSVITA. And if you know me them you also know I’m pretty excited about this new system from Sony. This past weekend the PSVITA was launched in Japan and as quick as they were sold it was quickly noted that there were problems with the software. Poor touch response and even system freezing were among the complaints that hit sites like twitter. It looks like Sony knew there might have been an issue because what only seemed like hours Sony had released a software patch and apology. As unfortunate as this is it’s not out of the norm. New systems tend to have some bugs in the first few days / weeks of this release.

I’m hopeful that this will be corrected in time for the US launch on February 22nd.

Computer / News

HP Considers Cats a “Biological Hazard”

Source: Gizmodo

When cat owner Chris sent his HP Elitebook in for repairs, he received a nasty surprise—not only weren’t his repairs covered by his warranty, but his cat was to blame. HP claims the computer was furred to death.

The Consumerist reports Chris’ sad story:

The supervisor I spoke to started with “So, you have a long haired-cat?” I in fact have a short haired cat. He then said “Wow, I’m surprised that fan turns at all.” I scoffed, and told him he was crazy, and that all the hair in the computer (the very tiny bit in there) was what I sent it in with.

…

Then he gets back on the phone with me and says that the supervisor said that there was SO MUCH cat hair that it’s considered a biological hazard. That’s absolutely ridiculous, and he wouldn’t even give me the number for his supervisor or transfer me to him (why not?).

Now that’s a very creative way of screwing your customer! I’ve owned many a cat in my time, and while some of them do shed like hell, and while that hair does have a propensity to attach itself to computers, I’m not aware of any thermal properties that would destroy a computer—especially given the tame amount HP photographed on Chris’ circuitry. It’s not like he filled his computer up with sawdust. Still, with the volume of PC business HP does, I guess they can get away with booting the occasional customer out of their warranty for no reason, and without recourse. Classy!

GEEK / News

Scientists Discover Huge Martian Water Deposit

Source: Gizmodo

The European Space Agency’ Mars Express spacecraft has discovered “large volumes of water ice” hiding only 65 feet underground the red planet’s surface, in the Phlegra Montes mountain range. It could be used by future human explorers.

ESA claims that the images show lobate debris aprons that have been moved down the mountain slopes over time, just like the debris covering glaciers on Earth. According to the ESA, their finding is backed up by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter radar data, which “shows that lobate debris aprons are indeed strongly associated with the presence of water, perhaps only 20 meters underground.”

The Phlegra Montes is a smooth system of “gently curving” mountain and ridges. Planetary geologists believe that it was formed by tectonic forcers, not volcanic activity. Some of the shaping of those ridges were created by the compression of snow deposited in ancient craters. ESa believes that “over time, the snow compacted to form glaciers which then sculpted the crater floors.”

According to ESA, everything points out at the presence of large underground glaciers in this mountain range. They believe that, if confirmed, this water could be used in future human missions.

This is excellent news for the exploration and colonization of our neighbor, as water would be one of the crucial elements to keep the bases and colonies alive.

Until someone discovers the giant nuclear fusion machine left there by an ancient Martian civilization in order to turn all that ice into a new atmosphere, that is. [ESA]

(more…)

News

The TSA Finds About 5 Guns at Security Checkpoints EVERY DAY

Going through airport security is hell in a hole. We all know that. What is this liquid that’s two ounces too heavy? Is that really a teddy bear?Apparently, some people don’t care and think they can sneak a gun through security checkpoints. Seriously! On a typical day, the TSA confiscates four to five guns from passengers.

How in the hell? What are these people doing with guns at an airport? I don’t even want to whisper the G-word or the B-word (bomb) when I’m near those stiff TSA pricks. You’ve seen what happened to Harold Lee and Kumar Patel! The TSA says that most people claim that they just forget the weapon was in their bag (the entire South just nodded their head) which I guess is no harm no foul. But sometimes, it’s heavy artillery, a passenger at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport had a carry-on bag with two pistols, three magazines, eight knives and a hand saw. That guy was arrested.

The TSA isn’t perfect, they’ve let a gun accidentally board an airplane before, but weeding out four to five weapons a day makes me feel a little better about taking off my shoes.

GEEK / News

Requiem for Dippin’ Dots

Dippin’ Dots isn’t dead. But it’s dying—the company filed for bankruptcy today in federal court. It’s a sad day not just for you and for me and for minor league concession stands. It’s a sad day for the future.

There’s still a more than decent chance that Dippin’ Dots come out of this bankruptcy filing okay; they have more assets than liabilities and sales are up. But the move forces our imaginations to conjure up a world without the chilly little nubbins. One that’s far worse off for it.

Your parents grew up in a world without Dippin’ Dots. And you may have, too, hard as it is to imagine; the company wasn’t founded until 1987, the year that microbiologist Curt Jones applied his use of cryogenic encapsulation to dessert, concocting perfect little spheres of bliss. Twenty-four years ago, Jones called his creation The Ice Cream of the Future. And in every way that matters, it still is.

Dippin’ Dots are delicious, yes, okay. But beyond just taste, they’re one of the most tangible symbols of progress in the last thirty years. Dippin’ Dots are everything you love about ice cream but without the slop, the bovine slobbering, the compulsion to eat faster before you get creamy melted muck all over your hand. They’re fastidious in the way our best visions of the future are fastidious, a pre-apocalyptic snack for a world in which our robot butlers haven’t yet turned on us.

There’s the old joke, or platitude maybe: How long until we acknowledge that if Dippin’ Dots had ever been the future, they’d be on every street corner by now? But that’s silly, especially if we believe in the future as aspirational, as the fulfillment of potential. Dippin’ Dots are a symbol of the future in the same way as anything that’s equal parts practical and exotic. Motorized fans. Dry-erase boards. Jeff Daniels. Touchstones, all, of a mode of living that we should strive for but won’t ever achieve. Glimpses of hover boards in our everyday lives.

Dippin’ Dots aren’t mainstream because the future isn’t mainstream. The future is a place where everything is magical but still works, somehow. Like flying cars, or laser guns. Or little pellets of ice cream that don’t melt.

If Dippin’ Dots goes under? Nothing tangible changes, not really. Instead of bumping into a Dippin’ Dots stand three times a year you’ll do it no times and not notice the difference. But what it says is: this one small corner of the future is no longer aspirational. It’s commoditized. Congealed. We’re not barreling towards a better life. We’re just slowly melting away.