TrapWire: Abraxas Also Provided ‘Internet Anonymity Services’
August 14th, 2012If you wanted a concentrated haul of the most interesting information what would you do?
You would establish a honeypot: a service (free or paid) that purported to provide an anonymous web browsing/email capability. Who knows what people might get up to if they thought nobody was looking? That, of course, is the idea with honeypots.
—The Ugly Truth About Online Anonymity
Step right up and get your ‘anonymous’ Internet access…
Via: Abraxas Press Release:
Abraxas Corporation acquires Anonymizer, Inc.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Herndon, Va., Richard Helms, CEO and Founder of Abraxas Corporation announced today the acquisition of San Diego-based Anonymizer, Inc.
In making the announcement, Mr. Helms noted that, “We are very pleased and excited about bringing the very talented Anonymizer team on board. Their products and services in trusted anonymity are second to none and perfectly complement our existing risk mitigation technology offerings. Anonymizer has developed a complete portfolio of capabilities focused in protecting online identities and privacy. They were the first to bring such a service to market, and, after 12 years of perfecting it, have become the undisputed market and technology leader. Since its inception, Anonymizer has protected millions of global Internet users.
More: TrapWire Investigation Links Transit Systems and Anonymizer in Global Surveillance Network
Related: TrapWire
Israeli Soldier, Who Killed Two Women Fleeing Fighting Under White Flag, Sentenced to 45 Days in Jail
August 14th, 2012Via: Los Angeles Times:
An Israeli soldier who was indicted two years ago in the fatal shooting of two Gaza Strip women during the 22-day military offensive Operation Cast Lead has agreed to a plea bargain in which he will serve 45 days in jail for illegal use of a weapon, Israeli Army Radio reported Sunday.
The soldier, who was not identified, could have faced up to 20 years in prison on the manslaughter charge.
His case was one of a handful of criminal prosecutions — and one of the most serious — to arise from Israel’s conduct during the 2008-2009 offensive against Hamas-controlled Gaza, an operation aimed at stopping militants from firing rockets into southern Israel.
The incident was among those mentioned in the United Nations’ Goldstone Report, which accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians during the conflict.
Majda Abu Hajaj, 35, and her mother, Raya Salama Abu Hajaj, 64, were killed as they fled fighting with a group of civilians carrying a white flag, witnesses at the time reported.
Kaspersky Asks for Help with Decrypting Gauss Payload
August 14th, 2012Via: Kaspersky Lab – SecureList:
There are many remaining mysteries in the Gauss and Flame stories. For instance, how do people get infected with the malware? Or, what is the purpose of the uniquely named “Palida Narrow” font that Gauss installs?
Perhaps the most interesting mystery is Gauss’ encrypted warhead. Gauss contains a module named “Godel” that features an encrypted payload. The malware tries to decrypt this payload using several strings from the system and, upon success, executes it. Despite our best efforts, we were unable to break the encryption. So today we are presenting all the available information about the payload in the hope that someone can find a solution and unlock its secrets. We are asking anyone interested in cryptology and mathematics to join us in solving the mystery and extracting the hidden payload.
JPMorgan Spends $500 Million per Data Center
August 14th, 2012Via: Data Center Knowledge:
JPMorgan Chase spends $500 million to build a data center, according to CEO Jamie Dimon. That figure places the firm’s facilities among the most expensive in the industry, on a par with investments by Google and Microsoft in their largest data centers.
Facedeals
August 14th, 2012“We can ‘soft control’ users with gaming or social network incentives to drive them where we want them.”
—Using Mobile Phone User Location Data for ‘Crowd (Soft) Control’
Via: Los Angeles Times:
A new app is being tested in Nashville, Tenn., that can check in people on Facebook and send them offers using facial-recognition cameras.
Called Facedeals, the new service uses cameras installed at businesses’ front doors to read people’s faces as they enter. If the people who come in are users of the app, they will be checked in, and based on their “like” history, they would receive a customized offer.
To use the app, people first have to sign up. The app will then work with users to verify pictures of them to get a better reading of their face.
Once that process is done, you can just go about your day and you’ll be checked in any time you go to participating businesses, according to Redpepper, the company behind the service.
“Personalized deals can now be delivered to your Smartphone from all participating locations—all you have to do is show your face,” the company said online.
‘Study Predicts Imminent Irreversible Planetary Collapse’
August 14th, 2012Via: Simon Fraser University:
The authors recommend governments undertake five actions immediately if we are to have any hope of delaying or minimizing a planetary-state-shift. Arne Mooers, an SFU biodiversity professor and a co-author of this study, summarizes them as follows.
“Society globally has to collectively decide that we need to drastically lower our population very quickly. More of us need to move to optimal areas at higher density and let parts of the planet recover. Folks like us have to be forced to be materially poorer, at least in the short term. We also need to invest a lot more in creating technologies to produce and distribute food without eating up more land and wild species. It’s a very tall order.”
Full Text: Approaching a State Shift in Earth’s Biosphere
Related:
Baxter International “Unintentionally” Sent Flu Samples to Companies that Contained H5N1 Avian Flu
Scientist Makes H5N1 Highly Contagious
Research Credit: TR
China’s Swimming Pool Insanity Will Melt Your Mind
August 14th, 2012Via: Kotaku:
It’s summer! Time to head to the pool and the beach—with a bajillion other people. Here is a sample of what are apparently swimming spots in China.
Related:
Gallery: Hong Kong Skyscrapers
‘If you pull the power on a drive that is whole-disk encrypted you have lost any chance of recovering that data’
August 14th, 2012Keep in mind, we don’t know what happens when a drive is sent to NSA, as when laptops are stolen from people by the U.S. Government at airports. We only hear about encryption frustrating criminal investigations. I don’t know of a single case involving national security and full disk encryption. If you do, let me know.
With regard to the alleged privacy one supposedly enjoys with the iPhone: What privacy exists if the device is constantly phoning home to the carrier and Apple and both of them can be subpoenaed? Hmm.
All of that said, I think full disk encryption is a good thing. I use it, and I’d recommend that you use it too.
Via: MIT Technology Review:
“I can tell you from the Department of Justice perspective, if that drive is encrypted, you’re done,” Ovie Carroll, director of the cyber-crime lab at the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section in the Department of Justice, said during his keynote address at the DFRWS computer forensics conference in Washington, D.C., last Monday. “When conducting criminal investigations, if you pull the power on a drive that is whole-disk encrypted you have lost any chance of recovering that data.”
Blind Mice Given Sight After Device Cracks Retinal Code
August 13th, 2012Via: Bloomberg:
Blind mice had their vision restored with a device that helped diseased retinas send signals to the brain, according to a study that may lead to new prosthetic technology for millions of sight-impaired people.
Current devices are limited in the aid they provide to people with degenerative diseases of the retina, the part of the eye that converts light into electrical impulses to the brain. In research described today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists cracked the code the retina uses to communicate with the brain.
The technology moves prosthetics beyond bright light and high-contrast recognition and may be adopted for human use within a year or two, said Sheila Nirenberg, a neuroscientist at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and the study’s lead author.
Fukushima Fallout ‘Caused Physiological and Genetic Damage’ to Butterflies
August 13th, 2012Via: Nature:
The collapse of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant caused a massive release of radioactive materials to the environment. A prompt and reliable system for evaluating the biological impacts of this accident on animals has not been available. Here we show that the accident caused physiological and genetic damage to the pale grass blue Zizeeria maha, a common lycaenid butterfly in Japan. We collected the first-voltine adults in the Fukushima area in May 2011, some of which showed relatively mild abnormalities. The F1 offspring from the first-voltine females showed more severe abnormalities, which were inherited by the F2 generation. Adult butterflies collected in September 2011 showed more severe abnormalities than those collected in May. Similar abnormalities were experimentally reproduced in individuals from a non-contaminated area by external and internal low-dose exposures. We conclude that artificial radionuclides from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant caused physiological and genetic damage to this species.
