Monthly Archives: August 2016

Trading in stock of medical device paused after hackers team with short seller

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Enlarge / A St, Jude Medical cardiac defibrilator implant like the ones MedSec claimed to have found vulnerabilities in. (credit: St. Jude Medical)

Trading in the stock of medical device manufacturer St. Jude Medical was halted Friday afternoon after a dramatic drop in its value. That drop was triggered by news of alleged vulnerabilities in the company’s cardiac care devices. The vulnerability was disclosed not in a report by the company, but by security researchers partnered with Muddy Waters Capital, an investment firm that had “shorted” St. Jude’s stock on the information in order to profit from a drop in the stock’s value.

The researchers at the security firm MedSec chose to take this route to disclosure, MedSec CEO Justine Bone said, to “ensure that St. Jude Medical responds appropriately and with urgency.” The partnership with a short-seller is a fundamental departure from the established approach of responsible disclosure normally taken by researchers. But it also represents an approach that bypasses the sort of legal maneuverings and threats, suppression of information, and inaction that have been experienced by researchers who have discovered vulnerabilities in other products. Researchers who discovered a vulnerability in Volkswagen electronic engine locks, for example, were forced to withhold a paper for two years through a court injunction filed by the automaker in 2012.

Muddy Waters issued a report on Thursday claiming that it had demonstrated “two types of cyber attacks against STJ implantable cardiac devices: a ‘crash’ that causes cardiac devices to malfunction… and a battery drain attack that could be particularly harmful to device dependent users.” The report claimed that the vulnerabilities had been proven in “multiple demonstrations evidencing how hollow STJ’s device security is.”

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Source: Ars Technica – Trading in stock of medical device paused after hackers team with short seller

Hillary Clinton Used BleachBit To Wipe Emails

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Neowin: The open-source disk cleaning application, BleachBit, got quite a decent ad pitch from the world of politics after it was revealed lawyers of the presidential hopeful, Hillary Clinton, used the software to wipe her email servers. Clinton is currently in hot water, being accused of using private servers for storing sensitive emails. “[South Carolina Representative, Trey Gowdy, spoke to Fox News about Hillary Clinton’s lawyers using BleachBit to wipe the private servers. He said:] ‘She and her lawyers had those emails deleted. And they didn’t just push the delete button; they had them deleted where even God can’t read them. They were using something called BleachBit. You don’t use BleachBit for yoga emails or bridesmaids emails. When you’re using BleachBit, it is something you really do not want the world to see.'” Two of the main features that are listed on the BleachBit website include “Shred files to hide their contents and prevent data recovery,” and “Overwrite free disk space to hide previously deleted files.” These two features would make it pretty difficult for anyone trying to recover the deleted emails.

Slashdot reader ahziem adds: The IT team for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton used the open source cleaning software BleachBit to wipe systems “so even God couldn’t read them,” according to South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy on Fox News. His comments on the “drastic cyber-measure” were in response to the question of whether emails on her private Microsoft Exchange Server were simply about “yoga and wedding plans.” Perhaps Clinton’s team used an open-source application because, unlike proprietary applications, it can be audited, like for backdoors. In response to the Edward Snowden leaks in 2013, privacy expert Bruce Schneier advised in an article in which he stated he also uses BleachBit, “Closed-source software is easier for the NSA to backdoor than open-source software.” Ironically, Schneier was writing to a non-governmental audience. Have any Slashdotters had any experience with BleachBit? Specifically, have you used it for erasing “yoga emails” or “bridesmaids emails?”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Hillary Clinton Used BleachBit To Wipe Emails

FBI-owned Megaupload.org serves up porn and sex ads

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Source: Ars Technica – FBI-owned Megaupload.org serves up porn and sex ads

Apple Zero-Days Mark A New Era Of Mobile Hacking

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But….but…iPhones are invulnerable to these types of attacks. How can this be? All joking aside, three zero-days chained together to form a one-click jailbreak is just craziness.

On August 12, a week after Krstic’s announcement, Apple’s fears about an unknown vulnerability came true. Ahmed Mansoor, an activist based in the United Arab Emirates, showed strange text messages he’d received to the human rights and technology organization Citizen Lab. The text messages contained a suspicious link, and analysis by Citizen Lab and the security firm Lookout determined that the link delivered a highly sophisticated packet of three zero-days that could take total control of Mansoor’s phone and spy on his calls, emails, text messages and contact lists.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – Apple Zero-Days Mark A New Era Of Mobile Hacking

FBI-Controlled Megaupload Domain Now Features Soft Porn

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The U.S. Government is doing a fantastic job of making sure the seized Megaupload domains are safe and secure. Just kidding, the sites are now home to soft porn advertisements. That’s gotta be embarrassing.

As part of its criminal case against Megaupload, the U.S. Government seized several domain names belonging to Kim Dotcom’s file-hosting service. Nearly five years later the authorities still control the domains but they haven’t done a very good job of securing them. Megaupload.org now links to a soft porn portal.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – FBI-Controlled Megaupload Domain Now Features Soft Porn

Facebook Removes Human Curators From Trending Module

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Today, Facebook announced that human curators will no longer write short descriptions that accompany trending topics on the site. Instead, the company will rely on an algorithmic process to “pull excerpts directly from stories.” The company also said it will stop using human curators to sort through the news.

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Source: Gizmodo – Facebook Removes Human Curators From Trending Module

Stretching the limit of silicon nanowires for next-generation electronics

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Enlarge / A forest of false-colored silicon nanowires.

Flexible electronics, which could be used to control flexible robots, depend on the ability to produce electrical circuits that can be repeatedly stretched and bent while remaining operational. Silicon is obviously one of the most important building blocks of modern electronics, but even when it’s shaped into wires, it isn’t very stretchy.

Recently, theoretical calculations have indicated that it may be possible to stretch silicon nanowire by as much as 23 percent, depending on its structure and the stretch direction. This raises an obvious question: why haven’t we been able to do so?

Recently, an international team of scientists and engineers have directly probed the elastic strain limit of single-crystalline Si nanowires. The team found that stretching the Si nanowires almost to their theoretical limit is possible.

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Source: Ars Technica – Stretching the limit of silicon nanowires for next-generation electronics

Jalopnik I Can’t Stop Reading These Horrible Reviews Of The Ten Lowest Rated Cars On Amazon | io9 Yo

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Jalopnik I Can’t Stop Reading These Horrible Reviews Of The Ten Lowest Rated Cars On Amazon
| io9 Your First Look at Lumière and Cogsworth in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Remake (UPDATE)
| Kotaku Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV: The Kotaku Review
| Lifehacker Your Dog Might Not Want a Hug, Here’s How to Tell
|

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Source: Gizmodo – Jalopnik I Can’t Stop Reading These Horrible Reviews Of The Ten Lowest Rated Cars On Amazon | io9 Yo

Come Listen to One of Steven Universe's Best Songs Since 'Stronger Than You'

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Aside from its thematic strengths and its delightful characters, if there’s one thing Steven Universe is known for, it’s having a killer soundtrack, jam-packed with powerful, toe-tapping songs. Last night’s episode was no exception, with a chill track that rivals some of the show’s very best musical moments.

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Source: io9 – Come Listen to One of Steven Universe’s Best Songs Since ‘Stronger Than You’

SpaceX Dragon Returns Home From ISS

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Florida Today: A SpaceX Dragon capsule that helped prepare the International Space Station for future commercial astronaut flights has returned to Earth after a stay of more than month-long mission. A robotic arm released the unmanned capsule packed with 3,000 pounds of cargo at 6:11 a.m. EDT, then fired thrusters several times to move a safe distance away from the station orbiting about 250 miles up. The departure began a less than six-hour journey that culminated in a Pacific Ocean splashdown at 11:47 a.m. EDT, about 300 miles southwest of Baja, California. The Dragon launched from Cape Canaveral early July 18 on a Falcon 9 rocket and berthed at the station two days later. Among the cargo brought back from space Friday were a dozen mice from a Japanese science experiment — the first brought home alive in a Dragon. Samples from mice euthanized as part of an experiment by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly also were on board. Results were returned from an experiment that studied the behavior of heart cells in microgravity, and from research into the composition of microbes in the human digestive system, NASA said. Findings from both could help keep astronauts healthy during deep space exploration missions. SpaceX plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station next Saturday, Sept. 3.

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Source: Slashdot – SpaceX Dragon Returns Home From ISS

Sprint's New Unlimited Plan Lets You Pay to Only Get Throttled a Little Bit

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Carriers are starting to revive the idea of unlimited data plans, but they all seem to have a catch. For example, T-Mobile’s new plan limits you to SD video. Sprint’s last unlimited plan did the same, but now they’re letting you pay an extra $20/month for the privilege of streaming higher quality video, audio, and games.

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Source: LifeHacker – Sprint’s New Unlimited Plan Lets You Pay to Only Get Throttled a Little Bit

Skateboarding With a Jet Engine Looks Dangerously Fun

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After creating a near-perfect functional replica
of Captain America’s iconic shield, YouTube personality the Hacksmith is trying to build his own flying Iron Man suit. To test a couple of compact jet engines the suit will rely on, he strapped them to his waist, hopped on a longboard, and lived every 10-year-old’s wildest fantasy.

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Source: Gizmodo – Skateboarding With a Jet Engine Looks Dangerously Fun

Twitter Working On A Keyword Tool To Combat Harassment

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Why does Twitter always take such a lame approach to everything? By that I mean, what ever happened to actually acting on reports and complaints? Will this keyword filtering system know the difference between friendly cussing between friends and hateful cussing from trolls? Are your friends tweets blocked if they contain a word you’ve blocked?

Twitter has been weighing the new feature for “about a year,” Bloomberg claims, and would “screen out” any keyword specified by the user, including swear words and racial slurs. Instagram introduced a similar feature for photo and video comments last month, giving people word filters and the ability to turn off comments entirely.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – Twitter Working On A Keyword Tool To Combat Harassment

Sprint Charging 'Unlimited' Users $20 More for Unthrottled Video

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Sprint has a new “unlimited” data plan for users that want to watch videos in full-HD (1080p) screen resolution. Dubbed “Unlimited Freedom Premium” plan, it offers the same features as the “Unlimited Freedom” plan with the bonus of allowing users to stream videos in full-HD. Also, it costs $20 extra. DSLReports points out the obvious:Last week we noted that Sprint unveiled its new Unlimited Freedom plan, which provides unlimited text, voice and data for $60 a month for one line, $40 a month for a second line, and $30 a month for every line thereafter (up to a maxiumum of 10). But the plan also, following on T-Mobile’s heels, throttles all video by default to 480p, a move that has raised the hackles of net neutrality advocates.

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Source: Slashdot – Sprint Charging ‘Unlimited’ Users More for Unthrottled Video

The Director of Child's Play Is Making Another Movie About Creepy Dolls

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Tom Holland, who made Child’s Play and Fright Night, is returning to his favorite genre with a new movie that sounds intriguing despite its title. Rock Paper Dead. is about a serial killer who’s released from an asylum after 20 years and returns to his former home, where the ghosts of his dark past await.

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Source: io9 – The Director of Child’s Play Is Making Another Movie About Creepy Dolls