Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Why is SOCOM Lying About Domestic Drone Activities?
June 28th, 2012Via: Public Intelligence: A spokesman for U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has provided statements to publications in New Hampshire and Oregon indicating that information regarding domestic drone activities provided by Public Intelligence is inaccurate, despite confirmations from the offices of two U.S. Senators. Following our publication last week of a map of current and proposed […]
Google Was Secretly Planting Cookies on Millions of iPhone Browsers
June 28th, 2012Via: Pro Publica: Jonathan Mayer had a hunch. A gifted computer scientist, Mayer suspected that online advertisers might be getting around browser settings that are designed to block tracking devices known as cookies. If his instinct was right, advertisers were following people as they moved from one website to another even though their browsers were […]
Google Tries Something Retro: Made in the U.S.A.
June 27th, 2012I initially thought that this was just a PR stunt, and that the bulk of the components were manufactured in China and then shipped back to the U.S. for assembly. My maximally cynical guess turned out to be wrong. A lot of it is actually made in the U.S. Via: New York Times: Google’s Q […]
Bank Scam ‘Operation High Roller’ Incorporates Attack for Two-Factor Authentication
June 27th, 2012Via: SC Magazine: Many banks utilise a two-factor authentication (2FA) system that combines something you know with something you have. Solutions banks use range from clumsy card reader devices to SMS/text messaging, each with their own merits and pitfalls. These systems aim to prove that you are who you say you are, and not to […]
Infographic: Nukes Ready to Fly
June 27th, 2012Via: National Post: This graphic attempts to look at the number of immediately available nuclear weapons in the world; weapons that could at a very short notice — because that is the point — be used in a war. Taking the latest data available from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists we have constructed a […]
RBS Still Facing Crisis After ‘Software Upgrade’
June 25th, 2012Via: Guardian: Royal Bank of Scotland is facing calls to make payments as soon as possible to customers affected by its long-running computer crisis, as it admitted NatWest branches would again be opened for extended hours on Monday. The bank, whose NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster branches have all been hit by the […]
Wikipedia Is An Editorial Warzone
June 24th, 2012Via: MSNBC: The Internet is a wonderland for sociologists, and one of the richest areas of study is Wikipedia, with its years of open collaboration and communication archived for posterity. But with collaboration comes conflict, and the “edit wars” that embroil hot Wikipedia topics are dissected in detail in a new paper by researchers in […]
Proposed HTTP Status Code for Censored Websites: 451
June 22nd, 2012Via: Guardian: Ray Bradbury’s fiction looks set to enter the structure of the internet, after a software developer has proposed a new HTTP status code inspired by Fahrenheit 451. Tim Bray, a fan of Bradbury’s writing, is recommending to the Internet Engineering Task Force, which governs such choices, that when access to a website is […]
The Case Against Autonomous Killing Machines
June 22nd, 2012Via: io9: In his conversation with io9, Wallach seemed frustrated that some people see this issue as something that’s too futuristic to care about. “We’re at a potential inflection point in the development of autonomous weaponry,” he said. “That inflection point won’t last for a long period of time, and if we wait too long, […]
Android App Steals Contactless Credit Card Data
June 21st, 2012Via: SC Magazine: A German penetration tester has posted to the Google store an Android application capable of siphoning credit card data from contactless bank cards. The app, dubbed paycardreader, will skim card numbers and expiry dates, along with transactions and merchant IDs, and was successfully tested against a German PayPass Mastercard. Developer Thomas Skora, […]
