For my Ethical Hackers: VERY
interesting (and instructive) video. Raises some interesting
questions. If the platform (and the coders?) have been around for
“years” have they already made enough money that they now code
simply for their own amusement? If it is a government sponsored
group, what have they been doing for “years” that we don't know
about yet?
"New
research from Kaspersky Labs has revealed that the platform dubbed
'tilded' (~d), which was used to develop Stuxnet and Duqu, has
been around for years. The researchers say that same platform
has been used to create similar Trojans which have yet to be
discovered. Alexander Gostev and Igor Sumenkov have put together
some interesting research, the key point being that the person(s)
behind what the world knows as Stuxnet and Duqu have actually been
using the same development platform for several years."
An anonymous reader adds a link to this
"surprisingly entertaining presentation" (video) by a
Microsoft engineer, in which "he tells the story of how
he and others analysed the exploits used by Stuxnet. Also
surprising are the simplicity of the exploits which were still
present in Win7." See also the report
at Secureist from which the SecurityWeek story draws.
(Related) What idiot would connect
these computers to the Internet?
"Many prisons and jails use
SCADA systems with PLCs to open and close doors. Using original and
publicly available exploits along with evaluating vulnerabilities in
electronic and physical security designs, researchers discovered
significant vulnerabilities in PLCs used in correctional facilities
by being
able to remotely flip the switches to 'open' or 'locked closed' on
cell doors and gates."
The unwritten sub-text is always
“...because they might make the rest of us look like morons!”
Court
OKs Barring High IQs for Cops
… Jordan, a 49-year-old college
graduate, took the exam in 1996 and scored 33 points, the equivalent
of an IQ of 125. But New London police interviewed only candidates
who scored 20 to 27, on the theory that those who scored too high
could get bored with police work and leave soon after undergoing
costly training.
… But the U.S. District Court found
that New London had “shown a rational basis for the policy.” In
a ruling dated Aug. 23, the 2nd Circuit agreed. The
court said the policy might be unwise [It was, after all, developed
by cops with lower IQ's... Bob] but was a rational way to
reduce job turnover.
Perspective. I'm definitely not
keeping up.
December 31, 2011
Mobile
Apps Continue to Gain Users
comScore
Reports November 2011 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share: "For
the three-month average period ending in November, 234
million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. [So after
eliminating those under 12, I figure about 8 people over age 13
didn't use a mobile device... Bob] Device manufacturer
Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.6 percent of U.S. mobile
subscribers (up 0.3 percentage points), followed by LG with 20.5
percent share and Motorola with 13.7 percent share. Apple
strengthened its position at #4 with 11.2 percent share of total
mobile subscribers (up 1.4 percentage points), while RIM rounded out
the top five with 6.5 percent share... In November, 72.6 percent of
U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device,
up 2.1 percentage points. Downloaded applications were used by 44.9
percent of subscribers (up 3.3 percentage points), while browsers
were used by 44.4 percent (up 2.3 percentage points). Accessing of
social networking sites or blogs increased 2.1 percentage points to
33.0 percent of mobile subscribers. Game-playing was done by 29.7
percent of the mobile audience (up 1.2 percentage points), while 21.7
percent listened to music on their phones (up 1.0 percentage
points)."
Would you like to try an e-Textbook for
free? (Readers for desktop and iPad)
Kno
Kno is a killer education software
company on a mission to shake up higher education by making learning
engaging, efficient, and social for students.
Geeky stuff
… While PortableApps.com
does a great job of bundling our most popular software together into
portable, auto-launching applications, I tend to avoid the packages
because I often install my portable applications within Dropbox.
A lot of portable applications, typically designed for USB drives,
don’t mesh well with Dropbox. I’ve found some that do, though.
You may not have heard of a couple of
these browsers, but each and every one brings a unique benefit to
your portable arsenal. Don’t let the fact that you may not have
heard of them stand in the way of finding your new favorite browser.
Also geeky
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