In a press conference on Wednesday, Chinese officials appear to have confirmed what many observers have long suspected: that China is no longer in control of its space station. China’s Tiangong-1 space station has been orbiting the planet for about 5 years now, but recently it was decommissioned and the Chinese astronauts returned to the Read more about China Confirms Its Space Station Is Falling Back to Earth[…]
Threatening file-sharers with high fines or even prison sentences is not the best way to stop piracy. New research published by UK researchers shows that perceived risk has no effect on people’s file-sharing habits. Instead, the entertainment industries should focus on improving the legal options, so these can compete with file-sharing. Source: Stop Piracy? Legal Read more about Stop Piracy? Legal Alternatives Beat Legal Threats, Research Shows[…]
“This update removes the Get Windows 10 app and other software related to the Windows 10 free upgrade offer that expired on July 29, 2016,” Microsoft’s article says, advising that no action other than a restart will be required to do the deed. Source: Microsoft deletes Windows 10 nagware from Windows 7 and 8 phew! Read more about Microsoft deletes Windows 10 nagware from Windows 7 and 8[…]
Linux users are worried that some of Lenovo’s PCs, such as variants of the Yoga 710 and Yoga 900, aren’t allowing them to install their preferred operating system. They note that the systems’ solid-state drives use a RAID mode that Linux doesn’t understand. That’s unpleasant enough, but Lenovo’s initial handling of complaints didn’t help. Its Read more about Some Lenovo PCs can’t run Linux[…]
The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has placed a £2.5 million order for UK-designed and built miniature decoys which will help to protect combat jets from missiles. BriteCloud, which is similar in size and appearance to a beverage can, can be fired from an aircraft’s flare dispenser without the need for modification to the aircraft. Read more about MOD orders UK-designed mini missile decoy for RAF[…]
A thourough and scary analysis of what you can do with just metadata, applied to the hacking team leak. A great case for mistrusting metadata storage by anyone. https://labs.rs/en/metadata/
An open source, physically secure personal computer. Source: ORWL – The First Open Source, Physically Secure Computer | Crowd Supply
MIT researchers and their colleagues are designing an imaging system that can read closed books. In the latest issue of Nature Communications, the researchers describe a prototype of the system, which they tested on a stack of papers, each with one letter printed on it. The system was able to correctly identify the letters on Read more about System can read closed books[…]
Microsoft Azure is wobbling all around the world at the moment, especially Azure DNS. According to a status update on Microsoft’s site, the issues began around lunchtime, although there is no mention of when they are likely to be fixed. Customers using Azure DNS in multiple regions are experiencing difficulties connecting to their goodies at Read more about Azure is on fire, your DNS is terrified[…]
Cited in a DMCA takedown request filed against Google on behalf of Paramount Pictures, and spotted by TorrentFreak (and tipped to us by reader ~nonanonymous) is an innocuous link to a 32-bit alternate install image Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS. The takedown request seeks to remove links to a number of torrent URLS that are alleged to Read more about Ubuntu Torrent Removed from Google for ‘Infringing’ Transformers Movie – OMG! Ubuntu![…]
Nvidia’s GeForce Experience 3.0 is better than ever before, but you need to sign up to use it. Source: Nvidia’s faster, better GeForce Experience 3.0 launches with mandatory registration | PCWorld Sigh. We buy their products already, so they don’t actually need to monetise our private lives 🙁
Researchers have developed a new design for harvesting body heat and converting it into electricity for use in wearable electronics. The experimental prototypes are lightweight, conform to the shape of the body, and can generate far more electricity than previous lightweight heat harvesting technologies Source: Lightweight, wearable tech efficiently converts body heat to electricity — Read more about Lightweight, wearable tech efficiently converts body heat to electricity[…]
By creating config files you can escalate through the mysqld_safe script using malloc_lib Source: Bad news: MySQL can dish out root access to cunning miscreants
Free vector graphics editor. A simple yet powerful web and desktop cross-platform tool for everyone. Source: Vectr – Free Online Vector Graphics Editor You don’t have to use the online version, you can also download the offline client.
ClixSense, a site which pays users to view ads and take surveys, was the victim of a massive data breach compromising around 6.6 million user accounts. Usually when there’s a data breach of this size, the information stolen contains usernames, passwords, and some other personal information, but due to the nature of ClixSense and the Read more about Over 6 million ClixSense users compromised by data breach[…]
Perhaps feeling a little bent out of shape about how much shit their country caught for running a massive, Cold War-style doping program for Olympic athletes, a group of Russian hackers have obtained confidential documents that they claim prove American Olympians are also big fat cheaters. The only problem is that the leaked documents don’t Read more about Russian Hackers Get Into World Anti-Doping Agency Data, Find Nothing Incriminating[…]
The FCC has been formally regulating behavioural advertising since the 1990s. You’d think they’d be all over Google and Facebook, then, right? Actually, no. The FCC is now run by a former Obama fund-raiser, Tom Wheeler, and it can’t do enough for Silicon Valley, whether it’s collectivising songwriters rights or disaggregating TV. What the FCC Read more about Google’s become an obsessive stalker and you can’t get a restraining order[…]
NO, there is no opt out! The Dutch government has passed a law allowing insurance companies to access medical files with a “suspicion of fraud” (whatever that is) and only have to tell the person who’s privacy has been infringed three months later. Medical privacy is one of the last untouchable bastions of privacy, I Read more about NL Gov gets rid of medical confidentiality[…]
Over the past year or two, someone has been probing the defenses of the companies that run critical pieces of the Internet. These probes take the form of precisely calibrated attacks designed to determine exactly how well these companies can defend themselves, and what would be required to take them down. We don’t know who Read more about Someone Is Learning How to Take Down the Internet – Lawfare[…]
When plugged into a device, the USB Killer rapidly charges its capacitors from the USB power lines. When the device is charged, -200VDC is discharged over the data lines of the host device. This charge/discharge cycle is repeated many times per second, until the USB Killer is removed. Simply put: used on unprotected equipment, the Read more about USB Killer – ESD Tester to test and disable USB devices[…]
DeskDock allows you to share your computer’s mouse with your Android devices via a USB cable. The app enables you to control your Android device as if it was an additional monitor for your computer. Simply move your computer’s mouse cursor over the screen boundaries to use it with your Android devices. Source: DeskDock Free Read more about DeskDock – use your android device as a second PC monitor[…]
How hackers broke into millions of US govt personnel files Source: Read the damning dossier on the security stupidity that let China ransack OPM’s systems
By placing the smartphone next to a printer, if you know the type of printer, you can listen to it and hear what it’s printing. Then you can reassemble 94% of the original design. Source: Scientists’ sneaky smartphone software steals 3D printer designs
Rosetta’s dust-analysing COSIMA (COmetary Secondary Ion Mass Analyser) instrument has made the first unambiguous detection of solid organic matter in the dust particles ejected by Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, in the form of complex carbon-bearing molecules. While organics had already been detected in situ on the comet’s surface by instruments on-board Philae and from orbit by Rosetta’s Read more about Rosetta catches dusty organics[…]
145 public authorities acquired data in 2015, and most of these requests came from the UK’s police forces and law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement officers acquired 93.7 per cent of all data requested by public authorities in 2015. Only 5.7 per cent of data was acquired by the intelligence agencies, and a mere 0.6 by Read more about UK Gov is open about how much it spied on its’ citizens[…]