Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Introducing new avenues of attack before the old ones are secure?

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/09/28/1646257

Banking Via Twitter?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday September 28, @03:16PM from the what-not-to-do dept.

In the latest example of how just because you can do something doesn't mean you should, one credit union has decided to offer a new feature, dubbed "tweetMyMoney," that allows members to interact with their accounts via Twitter. Can't wait for the next version, "tweetSomeoneElsesMoney."

"tweetMyMoney, available exclusively to Vantage members! With tweetMyMoney, you can monitor your account balance, deposits, withdrawals, holds and cleared checks with simple commands. And, you can even transfer funds within your account. It's all available on Twitter, 24/7!"



What is Apples definition of malware? My definition is “unauthorized/unwanted software” If I charge for testing/evaluating software on my system, can I bill Apple? If I'm running a system as part of my dissertation research and Apple screws thing up, can I sue? What is the threshold that must be crossed to make a Class Action likely?

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/09/28/2330229/Apple-Pushes-Unwanted-Software-To-PCs-Again?from=rss

Apple Pushes Unwanted Software To PCs, Again

Posted by kdawson on Monday September 28, @08:10PM from the just-updates-please dept.

itwbennett writes

"Blogger Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols wags his finger at Apple for indiscriminately pushing the iPhone Configuration Utility 2.1 update out to Windows users, since it is a tool for business system administrators to set up and administer corporate iPhones — the blogger himself (and practically every other iPhone user) not being of the corporate iPhone user persuasion. But more than just unnecessary, the update actually puts him and millions of other iPhone owners/Windows PC users at increased risk by installing 'not just a configuration program, but the Apache Web server as well,' says Vaughan-Nichols. 'A Web server like the one Apple [is] adding to your PC... [is] a gateway just asking to be hammered on by an attacker. Managed properly Apache is as safe a Web server as you'll ever find, but ordinary PC users shouldn't try to manage it, and even an expert can't do anything with it if they don't know it's there.'"

Reader CWMike notes that Apple pulled the iPhone Configuration Utility from the update list after a few hours.


(Related) A survey of the Blogs and a new term of art...

http://blogs.computerworld.com/14808/apple_shovelware_problems_again_iphone_configuration_utility

September 28, 2009 - 5:45 A.M.

Apple shovelware problems again (iPhone Configuration Utility 2.1)



A cautionary tale as my schools start into e-textbooks

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/09/29/0133221

In Trial, Kindles Disappointing University Users

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 29, @12:11AM from the write-on dept.

Phurge writes

"When Princeton announced its Kindle e-reader pilot program last May, administrators seemed cautiously optimistic that the e-readers would both be sustainable and serve as a valuable academic tool. But less than two weeks after 50 students received the free Kindle DX e-readers, many of them said they were dissatisfied and uncomfortable with the devices. 'I hate to sound like a Luddite, but this technology is a poor excuse of an academic tool,' said Aaron Horvath, a student in Civil Society and Public Policy. 'It's clunky, slow and a real pain to operate.' 'Much of my learning comes from a physical interaction with the text: bookmarks, highlights, page-tearing, sticky notes and other marks representing the importance of certain passages — not to mention margin notes, where most of my paper ideas come from and interaction with the material occurs,' he explained. 'All these things have been lost, and if not lost they're too slow to keep up with my thinking, and the "features" have been rendered useless.'"



Worth a few minutes to browse?

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/022426.html

September 28, 2009

Deloitte: Cloud computing - A collection of working paper

Deloitte: Cloud computing - A collection of working papers, released September 17, 2009 and published on July 31, 2009.

  • "Cloud Computing frequently is taken to be a term that simply renames common technologies and techniques that we have come to know in IT. It may be interpreted to mean data center hosting and then subsequently dismissed without catching the improvements to hosting called utility computing that permit near realtime, policy-based control of computing resources. Or it may be interpreted to mean only data center hosting rather than understood to be the significant shift in Internet application architecture that it is... Cloud computing represents a different way to architect and remotely manage computing resources. One has only to establish an account with Microsoft or Amazon or Google to begin building and deploying application systems into a cloud. These systems can be, but certainly are not restricted to being, simplistic. They can be web applications that require only http services. They might require a relational database. They might require web service infrastructure and message queues. There might be need to interoperate with CRM or e-commerce application services, necessitating construction of a custom technology stack to deploy into the cloud if these services are not already provided there."



Tools & Techniques What works

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/09/av-comparatives-picks-seven-anti-malware-winners.ars

AV-Comparatives picks seven on-demand antimalware winners

AV-Comparatives' August 2009 report has been released and there are seven winners.

By Emil Protalinski Last updated September 28, 2009 11:59 AM CT

AV-Comparatives is known for the thorough tests it does on security software. Following its May 2009 retrospective/proactive report, the company has released its August 2009 on-demand comparative. Sixteen products, last updated on August 10, were set on the same highest detection settings (except for Sophos and F-Secure) and put to the test.



Tools & Techniques I wonder if they would allow me to search for vulnerabilities? (Would they know if I was?)

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/09/28/190259/Company-Offers-Customizable-Web-Spidering?from=rss

Company Offers Customizable Web Spidering

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday September 28, @05:41PM from the my-legs-are-longer-than-yours dept.

TechReviewAl writes

"A company called 80legs has come up with an interesting new web business model: customized, on-demand web spidering. The company sells access to its spidering system, charging $2 for every million pages crawled, plus a fee of three cents per hour of processing used. The idea is to offer Web startups a way to build their own web indexes without requiring huge server farms. 'Many startups struggle to find the funding needed to build large data centers, but that's not the approach 80legs took to construct its Web crawling infrastructure. The company instead runs its software on a distributed network of personal computers, much like the ones used for projects such as SETI@home. The distributed computing network is put together by Plura Processing, which rents it to 80legs. Plura gets computer users to supply unused processing power in exchange for access to games, donations to charities, and other rewards.'"



Something else for my students to be watching when they should be listening to my lectures...

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/watch-free-tv-channels-on-the-go-with-kiteplayer/

Watch Free TV Channels On The Go With KitePlayer

Sep. 29th, 2009 By Karl L. Gechlik

Have you ever wanted to watch free TV on your laptop on the go? You say, sure there is Hulu (which we have covered extensively here) and other sites that let me do that.

But how about one site that aggregates all the others and lets you watch them via one program interface that you could run on say your media center station showing on your TV or your laptop on the bus?

… Kiteplayer software is free to download and you can always get the latest version by clicking here.



Interesting. I suspect the first one is congress asking “What are my colleges doing that I should be doing to look smart?”

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/022430.html

September 28, 2009

Recent CRS Reports: Congress and Twitter, Wildfire Fuels, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Older Workers, Climate Change

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