The sponsor of a controversial bill before the Nevada legislature has promised to introduce amendments after security experts and civil libertarians warned it would make felons of people studying privacy threats involving RFID, or radio frequency identification.
19:09 Rogue security software spoofs ZDNet ReviewsImpersonation is a form of flattery by itself, however, not when it comes to the very latest round of rogue security software this time impersonating ZDNet, CNET’s and PC Magazine’s reviews section, making it look like legitimate and highly respected technology sites have actually reviewed and recommend the rogue security software.
According to Lawrence Abrams from [...]
Symantec's website has been given the once-over by the same Romanian hacking group that exposed security problems with websites run by Kaspersky Lab, F-Secure and Bitdefender earlier this month.
14:51 Vulnerability in Adobe Reader and AcrobatA critical vulnerability has been identified in Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 and earlier versions. This vulnerability would cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to ta... >>>
As former moderators for an internet relay channel dedicated to hacking, Francine Campbell and Sterlin Ward have seen some of the net's darker quarters. But nothing prepared them for their group's encounter with an internet pedophile who called himself Digerati.
Security watchers are warning of a serious unpatched vulnerability in Adobe's Reader program that's actively being exploited to install malware on the PCs of unsuspecting users.
03:47 Repost: ESM & SEM DiscussionThis is a repost. I hadn’t realized the link to the video was broken in the original post. I blame the WYSIWYG editor.
This is the latest in a series of video discussions with my friends Richard Stiennon, Amrit Williams and Mike Murray. I have a hard time watching myself on video, so I haven’t [...] >>>
03:13 Reporting Twitter spamI’m pretty careful about who follows me in Twitter. I get the email saying who’s following me every time I get a new follower, and without fail I click on the link to see who’s following me. Most of the time I think “Cool, another follower” and move on. If it’s an obvious bot (following [...] >>>
The teeth get their strength from architecture. A series of tooth pores runs through the protein, and on the outer edge the pores are spaced widely for a hard, shape edge that digs into the flesh of hapless prey. Toward the base, the pores are closer together, making a softer material that can absorb the prey's thrashing without breaking.
Here's an analysis of 30,000 passwords from phpbb.com, similar to my analysis of 34,000 MySpace passwords:
The striking different between the two incidents is that the phpbb passwords are simpler. MySpace requires that passwords "must be between 6 and 10 characters, and contain at least 1 number or punctuation character." Most people satisfied this requirement by simply appending "1" to the ends of their passwords. The phpbb site has no such restrictions—the passwords are shorter and rarely contain anything more than a dictionary word.
Seems like we still can't choose good passwords. Conficker.B exploits this, trying about 200 common passwords to help spread itself.
Researchers, working with police, identified 34 crime hot spots. In half of them, authorities set to work—clearing trash from the sidewalks, fixing street lights, and sending loiterers scurrying. Abandoned buildings were secured, businesses forced to meet code, and more arrests made for misdemeanors. Mental health services and homeless aid referrals expanded.
In the remaining hot spots, normal policing and services continued.
Then researchers from Harvard and Suffolk University sat back and watched, meticulously recording criminal incidents in each of the hot spots.
The results, just now circulating in law enforcement circles, are striking: A 20 percent plunge in calls to police from the parts of town that received extra attention. It is seen as strong scientific evidence that the long-debated "broken windows" theory really works—that disorderly conditions breed bad behavior, and that fixing them can help prevent crime.
[...]
Many police departments across the country already use elements of the broken windows theory, or focus on crime hot spots. The Lowell experiment offers guidance on what seems to work best. Cleaning up the physical environment was very effective; misdemeanor arrests less so, and boosting social services had no apparent impact.
