Music
Security Alerts
- TA13-141A: Washington, DC Radio Station Web Site Compromises
- TA13-134A: Microsoft Updates for Multiple Vulnerabilities
- TA13-107A: Oracle Has Released Multiple Updates for Java SE
- TA13-100A: Microsoft Updates for Multiple Vulnerabilities
- TA13-088A: DNS Amplification Attacks
- TA13-071A: Microsoft Updates for Multiple Vulnerabilities
- TA13-064A: Oracle Java Contains Multiple Vulnerabilities
- TA13-051A: Oracle Java Multiple Vulnerabilities
- TA13-043B: Microsoft Updates for Multiple Vulnerabilities
- TA13-043A: Adobe Updates for Multiple Vulnerabilities
Security Tips
- ST06-001: Understanding Hidden Threats: Rootkits and Botnets
- ST06-005: Dealing with Cyberbullies
- ST06-004: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Online Trading
- ST04-009: Identifying Hoaxes and Urban Legends
- ST06-006: Understanding Hidden Threats: Corrupted Software Files
- ST10-001: Recognizing Fake Antiviruses
- ST04-016: Recognizing and Avoiding Spyware
- ST04-014: Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks
- ST05-019: Preventing and Responding to Identity Theft
- ST05-006: Recovering from Viruses, Worms, and Trojan Horses
House Committee Postpones Action on SOPA
Wowsers!
The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee has postponed further debate on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) until after Congress’ holiday break.
At the urging of some SOPA opponents, Representative Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and committee chairman, said Friday he will consider a hearing or a classified briefing on the bill’s impact on cybersecurity. More than 80 Internet engineers and cybersecurity experts have raised security concerns about the bill, which would require Internet service providers and domain name registrars to block the domain names of foreign websites accused of copyright infringement.
Homemade anti-SOPA PSAs
We Forgot Our Name! is so worried about the Stop Online Piracy Act that he’s created four short PSAs to help explain what’s wrong with the idea to your friends and family: “The Stop Online Piracy Act will be going back to the House for a vote this WEDNESDAY December 21st. The House tried to make people think they would not reconvene to vote on S.O.P.A. until after the New Year but are now trying to sneak back in to vote before everyone realizes how bad S.O.P.A. is. Help spread the word!”
Military given go-ahead to detain US terrorist suspects without trial
Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay.
Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his principles and disregarding the long-established principle that the military is not used in domestic policing. The legislation has also been strongly criticised by libertarians on the right angered at the stripping of individual rights for the duration of “a war that appears to have no end”.
An easier-to-build solar cell
Solar cells are not easy to build, but a new technology from Notre Dame could, someday, change that. It involves a nanoparticle paste made from t-butanol, water, cadmium sulfide and titanium dioxide. Here, you watch the process of constructing a solar cell this way and see why it could be easier and cheaper than current options. The downside: These solar cells won’t be coming to a neighborhood near you anytime soon. They’re in the early stages of research and are still only 1% efficient at converting solar energy to electricity. (Standard solar cells tend to be closer to 25% efficient.)
ICanStalkU twitterbot nags Twitter users about disclosing their location
ICanStalkU is a twitterbot Twitter-analyzing servicethat seeks out Twitter users who transmit their location in the photos they tweet and generates responses like “ICanStalkU was able to stalk @XXXXXXXX at http://maps.google.com/?q=35.5371666667,139.510166667,” with the stated purpose of “Raising awareness about inadvertent information sharing.”
I generally like the idea of helping people understand that their software may be disclosing information about themselves that they’re not aware of, but I find this method a little tiresome. On a few occasions, I’ve deliberately turned on location data when sending out an image (for example, when tweeting an image of a public event or artwork and wanting to conveniently attach a location to the tweet so others can find it) only to get chided (not by bots, but by other Twitter users) who sent words to the effect of, “Some privacy advocate you are! Why are you sending location data with your images?”
FighterJet + GoPro = Awesome
GoPro‘s are becoming my new favorite toy.
You have 30 days to pay me $5,000,000
Cliff Notes: Guy drives an rc car with a camera into one of the great pyramids, wants $5,000,000 to keep a lid on what he found
Why Men and Women Cant be friends
Answering the age old question, Young Independent Filmmakers Jesse Budd and Patrick Romero set out to simply prove a point.
Tom Cruise at the top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai
The actor has been snapped perched precariously on a box at the very top of the 829m (2,723ft) Burj Khalifa in Dubai dressed in a grey T-shirt and jeans.
Daredevil Cruise was so carefree he wasn’t even wearing any shoes.
And if you’re starting to doubt the authenticity of the photo, a video has been released showing Cruise casually sitting on the top with a yellow helicopter flying above him.
Filmmakers reportedly had to monitor temperatures on the building’s sun-baked surface so he wouldn’t get burned while Cruise also had to be careful of cross winds.
Today, porn sites set to go .XXX
It’s either a new, safer era for adult content on the Web or the first step in creating a digital porn ghetto, depending upon who you ask.
On Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET, more than 100,000 websites are expected to go live with the new .xxx domain.
The suffix was approved as a “top-level domain” address last year by ICANN, the international not-for-profit that coordinates Web addresses. The idea, they say, is to more safely organize content that has become, like it or not, common on the Web.
DB Cooper case “solved”
No big surprise here… and LOL @ “a $20 one-way ticket to Seattle”
The Northwest Airlines notorious skyjacking saga that has baffled authorities for 40 years may have finally been solved.
An Oregon woman who claims her uncle was the elusive criminal known only as DB Cooper says she has been told by the FBI that her evidence is enough for them to close the file on the case.
Burdened by guilt over her knowledge surrounding the case, Marla Cooper came forward earlier this year, claiming she had a 40-year-old family secret protecting her uncle, a man named Lynn Doyle Cooper.
Donald Trump debate: “beneath the office of the Presidency”
Ron Paul’s campaign announced Saturday that Paul won’t participate in the planned NewsMax debate moderated by Donald Trump, and campaign chairman Jesse Benton pulled no punches in explaining the decision…
“The selection of a reality television personality to host a presidential debate that voters nationwide will be watching is beneath the office of the Presidency and flies in the face of that office’s history and dignity. Mr. Trump’s participation as moderator will distract from questions and answers concerning important issues such as the national economy, crushing federal government debt, the role of the federal government, foreign policy, and the like. To be sure, Mr. Trump’s participation will contribute to an unwanted circus-like atmosphere.
“Mr. Trump’s selection is also wildly inappropriate because of his record of toying with the serious decision of whether to compete for our nation’s highest office, a decision he appeared to make frivolously. The short-lived elevation of Mr. Trump’s stature as a candidate put him on the radar of many organizations and we recall that last spring he was invited to keynote the Republican Party of Iowa’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner, yet at the last minute he left RPI holding the bag by canceling. In turn, RPI canceled its biggest fundraising gala of the year and suffered embarrassment and in addition RPI was required to engage in refunding measures. Our candidate will not even consider participating in the late-December debate until Mr. Trump publicly apologizes to Iowa party leaders and rectifies in full the situation.
“Therefore our candidate Ron Paul, the champion of the Constitution, has advised he will not attend.”
Facebook “flaw” lets anyone see your private photos
Features in Facebook give users access to personal, private and hidden photos that would normally be hidden from view. The flaw, spotted by members of a body building forum, no less, allows Facebook users to access photos revealed by the report abuse tool.
This flaw appears to expose private photos of any person on Facebook. We tried this out for ourselves: Sometimes, private photos were exposed; others times they weren’t.
Members of the forum also posted onto an image sharing website some of of Zuckerberg’s private Facebook photos, which are normally inaccessible from public viewing.
The forum explored a number of the flaw’s details. For example, private photos that are hidden or inaccessible to people who are friends, can not only be accessed but can be enlarged to their full scale.
Rollercoaster staircase
This awesome rollercoasteroid staircase is underway in Germany…
The walkable, large outdoor sculpture Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain is currently in construction on the Heinrich Hildebrand Höhe in Duisburg Wanheim (D). It overtops the plateau with the artificially heaped-up mountain by 21m | 23yd so the visitor can rise by more than 45m | 49yd above the level of the landscape and enjoy an impressive view over the Rhine.
Malls stop tracking shoppers’ cell phones
The Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va., launched a survey on Black Friday, tracking shoppers’ movements by monitoring the signals from their cell phones.
The original plan was for those malls to continue the survey through New Year’s Day, but after receiving a phone call from Sen. Charles Schumer’s office over the weekend, they put the survey on hold.
The technology used antennas set up around the shopping centers to anonymously track shoppers as they moved from store to store. Customers were notified of the survey via small signs, and the only way for them to opt out was to turn their phones off.
Latest Topics
US CERT RSS Feed
- Security Updates Available for Adobe Flash Player
- Microsoft Releases June 2013 Security Bulletin
- Apple Releases OS X 10.8.4 and Security Update 2013-002
- Apple Releases Security Update for Safari on OS X
- Google Releases Google Chrome 27.0.1453.110
- Apple Releases Security Updates for Apple QuickTime 7.7.4
- Google Releases Google Chrome 27.0.1453.93
- Adobe Releases Security Updates for Adobe Flash Player
- Security Updates Available for Adobe Reader and Acrobat
- Mozilla Releases Multiple Updates
