NASDAQ, Purloined
via Michael Riley, writing at Bloomberg Businessweek, comes the sordid tale, with film-noir-like building-blocks, of miscreant Russian nationals targeting the NASDAQ stock exchange, the kicker? They succeeded...
Microsoft, The Complex Password Conundrum
Redmond - apparently - now believes in the efficacy of something-less-than-complex, at least in regards to passwords...
Internet of Untrusted Things...
via the superlative journalism of Dan Goodin at ArsTechnica, comes the sad tale of flawed light bulbs; in which, the internet of things are coupled to, evidently, the interweb-of-less-than-secure-objects-with-little-need-to-be-on-the-internet-in-the-first-place.
It's Alive!
Word, of the resurrection of the Gameover Zeus Botnet has made the news... Yes, notwithstanding the original take-down, the botnet under the bot herders' command and control facility has arisen, as plagues always do.
Des Possibilités Infinies
Fascinating write-up, via El Reg's John Leyden, of what some may say smack's a bit o' the Ned Ludd... In which, Mr. Leyden tells a tale fractionally too close to home; yours and my home, that is. A tale of portent, and societal dis-ease whence the Internet of Things [IoT] truly does arrive, and we become beholden to our inter-connected fridges, light bulbs and what-not. SkyNet? Hardly. An apt description would be MundaneNet™.
Senate Judiciary Committee Investigates Botnet Smackdown Tuesday
Satya should set his alarms to get up early for this. The United States Senate's Committee on the Judiciary is slated to begin an investigation into the recent botnet slam-dunk, in which, Microsoft Corporation (NasdaqGS: MSFT) is accused in the popular press of heavy-handedness. The Committee will commence with it's scrutiny tomorrow afternoon, in the Other Washington (Washington, D.C., that is) at the Dirksen Senate Office Building [specifically in Dirksen 226], at 2:30PM on Tuesday, July 15th, with United States Senator Whitehouse presiding over the meeting. Promises to be a at the very least, interesting...
XKCD, Research Ethics
via the extraordinary insight of Randall Munroe, at XKCD.
Insert Here
Via the inimitable Brian Krebs, of Krebs on Security, comes reports of insert, thin and mini card skimmers, and the perils of automated banking and commerce for consumers worldwide. The astonishing component to this litany of miscreant evil-doers is the apparent inability of hardware manufacturers' to detect, notify and terminate these devices at will [or, at the very least, reject all cards on the machine when nefarious activities are suspected].
Triaged
News, via Jordan Valinsky, writing at Gizmodo, detailing the use by some health care facilities - of big data extracts- and focusing on the credit card data contained therein. Perhaps you may be wondering why and how credit card data may be relevant to determining health payment statistics... Stay tuned and examine the Bloomberg Businessweek article where clarity may be provided in regards the use of spending information and illness in homo sapiens spendthriftus.
"According to Bloomberg Businessweek, it's currently being used by Carolinas HealthCare System, which is using that type of data to survey the health of its two million members." - via Jordan Valinsky at Gizmodo
Ex-Parte Praedictum, IV Decies Centena Milia
This is what we need more of... via the inimitable Brian Krebs, at Krebs On Security, comes the astounding story of Microsoft Corporations' (NasdaqGS: MSFT) Big Stick, as it were; and why, in a highly orchestrated chain of events fraught (in this case, predicated upon an ex-parte restraining order) with technical errors, nearly 4,000,000 web sites have been neutralized.
Facebookery, Psychological Experimentation Without Consent
via Kirk McElhearn, a Senior Contributor focusing on iTunes automation and break-fix over at Macworld] comes a smattering of bad news for Facebook users. Apparently, large numbers of users were subjected to psychological testing [without prior consent]. Ooops...
Watershed Numbers, Tech Extortion Grows
Evidence of extortion racketeering bubbles up through the flotsam of crime targeting tech sector entities , worldwide. Bad tidings, yet hardly surprising.
Vixie: Open Internet is Slowly Poisoning Us
...in which, the erudite Dr. Vixie - CEO of Farsight Security - enlightens us regarding the danger of the so-called Open Internet. Today's Must See video.