Critical Crypto Bug Leaves Several Linux Distributions, Hundreds of Apps Open to Eavesdropping
March 4th, 2014
Via: Ars Technica:
Hundreds of open source packages, including the Red Hat, Ubuntu, and Debian distributions of Linux, are susceptible to attacks that circumvent the most widely used technology to prevent eavesdropping on the Internet, thanks to an extremely critical vulnerability in a widely used cryptographic code library.
The bug in the GnuTLS library makes it trivial for attackers to bypass secure sockets layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protections available on websites that depend on the open source package. Initial estimates included in Internet discussions such as this one indicate that more than 200 different operating systems or applications rely on GnuTLS to implement crucial SSL and TLS operations, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the actual number is much higher. Web applications, e-mail programs, and other code that use the library are vulnerable to exploits that allow attackers monitoring connections to silently decode encrypted traffic passing between end users and servers.
The bug is the result of commands in a section of the GnuTLS code that verify the authenticity of TLS certificates, which are often known simply as X509 certificates. The coding error, which may have been present in the code since 2005, causes critical verification checks to be terminated, drawing ironic parallels to the extremely critical “goto fail” flaw that for months put users of Apple’s iOS and OS X operating systems at risk of surreptitious eavesdropping attacks. Apple developers have since patched the bug.
“It was discovered that GnuTLS did not correctly handle certain errors that could occur during the verification of an X.509 certificate, causing it to incorrectly report a successful verification,” an advisory issued by Red Hat warned. “An attacker could use this flaw to create a specially crafted certificate that could be accepted by GnuTLS as valid for a site chosen by the attacker.”
Barrett Brown Faces 100 Years in Prison for Posting Hyperlink to Site Containing Hacked Material in Chat Room
March 4th, 2014Update: Charges Related to Publishing URL Dropped
*phew*
Via: IT News:
United States prosecutors today said they have dropped eleven charges against journalist Barrett Brown – including for publishing a hyperlink in an online chat forum – in one of the closest watched digital liberties trials yet.
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Via: Guardian:
Lawyers acting for Barrett Brown, the activist-journalist facing more than 100 years in prison for having posted a hyperlink to hacked material, have called for his case to be dismissed on grounds that it violates his First Amendment rights to free speech and would chill the internet.
Brown, 32, is being held in Texas ahead of two scheduled trials on 28 April and 19 May. He is charged with a total of 17 counts in three separate indictments relating to his work uncovering online surveillance.
The main allegation against him – spanning 12 counts – is that he posted a hyperlink on an internet chat room to a website containing material hacked from the private intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting, Inc, (Stratfor). The hack included email addresses of 860,000 Stratfor subscribers as well as 60,000 credit card details.
In a legal memorandum lodged with a federal court in Dallas, Texas on Tuesday, Brown’s lawyers argued that the charges against him should be dropped ahead of trial because they were too vague and were in breach of his constitutional right to free speech. By hyperlinking to the hacked material, Brown did not “transfer” the stolen information as he arguably would have done had he embedded the link on his web page, but merely created a path to files that had already been published elsewhere that were in the public domain.
“Republishing a hyperlink does not itself move, convey, select, place or otherwise transfer, a file or document from one location to another… The government only alleges that Mr Brown ‘transferred’ a hyperlink containing directions to where the Stratfor file was already placed by another person when the Stratfor files were uploaded to public web servers,” the motion argues.
A Powerful New Way to Edit DNA
March 4th, 2014Via: New York Times:
In the late 1980s, scientists at Osaka University in Japan noticed unusual repeated DNA sequences next to a gene they were studying in a common bacterium. They mentioned them in the final paragraph of a paper: “The biological significance of these sequences is not known.”
Now their significance is known, and it has set off a scientific frenzy.
The sequences, it turns out, are part of a sophisticated immune system that bacteria use to fight viruses. And that system, whose very existence was unknown until about seven years ago, may provide scientists with unprecedented power to rewrite the code of life.
In the past year or so, researchers have discovered that the bacterial system can be harnessed to make precise changes to the DNA of humans, as well as other animals and plants.
This means a genome can be edited, much as a writer might change words or fix spelling errors. It allows “customizing the genome of any cell or any species at will,” said Charles Gersbach, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University.
Goodbye Academia
March 4th, 2014Via: Yes, Another Science Blog:
As a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, I am not even back to earning what I did ten years ago as a junior programmer with no skills or domain-specific knowledge. In a commercial setting, my compensation would have kept pace with my knowledge and skills, but in academia, there seems to be a complete decoupling of the two.
Rapid Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Job Losses
March 4th, 2014Via: Financial Times:
The impact of IT and automation on the world of work – and dire warnings about the job destruction they might cause – are as old as the technology itself. But the convergence of a number of tech trends has made the threat more immediate.
As a result, 47 per cent of jobs in the US are now at risk from computerisation, according to a prediction last year from Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne from Oxford university. McKinsey, the management consultancy, has estimated that by 2025, productivity gains in fields of “knowledge work”, ranging from clerical to professional services, could account for 40 per cent of all the current jobs in those areas.
Sleep Problems Plague Device-Dependent Children
March 4th, 2014Via: The Fiscal Times:
Parents reported that nearly 75 percent of children ages 6 to 17 have at least one electronic device in their bedroom, with many using those devices right before bedtime.
“To ensure a better night’s sleep for their children, parents may want to limit their [children’s use of] technology in the bedroom near or during bedtime,” said Orfeu Buxton, PhD, Harvard Medical School and a member of the poll’s task force, in a statement.
“We found that when parents take action to protect their children’s sleep, their children sleep better,” added Kristen L. Knutson, PhD, of the University of Chicago.
Headband Could Help Brain Communicate with Computers
March 4th, 2014Via: Boston Globe:
Computer scientist Robert Jacob and biomedical engineer Sergio Fantini are working on a headband to read brain activity, enabling a computer to determine whether the wearer is bored, fatigued, or sharp.
In a tower full of air traffic controllers wearing headbands, the computer could automatically shift flight assignments, depending on which controllers show higher levels of mental acuity.
The possibilities for the brain scanner are not limited to air travel. The researchers and their students also have used the device to generate movie recommendations for wearers, based on how their brains respond to other films. In another experiment, pianists practiced on an electronic keyboard while wearing the headband. As their brain signals indicated mastery of a melody, a computer added complexity to the songs by playing harmonies.
For now, the headband prototype is a bit clunky; it connects to a desktop computer through two fat cables.
Eventually, Jacob and Fantini envision integrating the brain scanner with a wearable computer, such as Google Glass. They see the technology as part of a future in which humans communicate with computers through thoughts instead of mouse clicks.
RUSSIA DEMANDS SURRENDER OF UKRAINE’S CRIMEA FORCES
March 3rd, 2014Update: Moscow Denies Ultimatum
Via: euronews:
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on Russia’s western partners on Monday to put aside geopolitical calculations and think about the Ukrainian people. “We call for a responsible approach, to put aside geopolitical calculations, and above all to put the interests of the Ukrainian people first,” he said in Geneva on a live feed broadcast to Moscow. He said all sides should stand by a Feb. 21 agreement, which agreed on undertaking constitutional reforms. Moscow has denied this afternoon previous information on an alleged Black Fleet ultimatum to ukrainian forces to “surrender or face military action” up to 4h00AM CET.
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Via: BBC:
The Russian military has given Ukrainian forces in Crimea until 03:00 GMT to surrender or face an assault, Ukrainian defence sources have said.
The head of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Aleksander Vitko set the deadline and threatened an attack “across Crimea”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier said Russia was responding to “ultra-nationalist threats”.
Western powers have condemned Moscow’s decision to send troops as a “violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty”.
Russia is now said to be in de facto control of the Crimea region.
Ukraine has ordered full mobilisation to counter the intervention.
The Derelict Mansions on Britain’s Billionaires’ Row
March 2nd, 2014Via: CNN:
A third of the houses on Britain’s second most expensive street are lying vacant, many abandoned for decades and left to rot.
Behind the padlocked gates and long driveways, up to 20 mansions stand empty on London’s The Bishops Avenue, despite a reported combined value of around £350 million ($582 million).
Dubbed “Billionaires’ Row,” the road’s average house costs over £6 million ($9.98 million), but many have been deserted by their wealthy owners.
Despite their dilapidated condition, the houses remain a safe place for wealthy foreigners to park their money because of London’s rocketing property prices, which rose 11% last year, and because of the road’s reputation as a magnet for the rich and famous.
Research Credit: ottilie
Mayor of London: The State Should Abduct Children of Thought Criminals
March 2nd, 2014Via: BBC:
Muslim children who risk radicalisation by their parents should be taken into care, Boris Johnson has said.
Writing in his weekly Daily Telegraph column, the London mayor said such children were victims of child abuse.
Mr Johnson said they should be removed from their families to stop them being turned into “potential killers or suicide bombers”.
A “fatal squeamishness” had developed over intervening in the behaviour of certain groups in society, he added.
But he said there was a need to be “stronger and clearer in asserting our understanding of British values”.
He warned that some young people were being “taught crazy stuff” similar to the views expressed by the two men who killed Fusilier Lee Rigby on a south-east London street.
