Aggregated Security Headlines to Outpost54

Top 10 Bitcoin Merchant Sites

Sat, 25 May 2013 02:26:58 +0000

If you're involved in Bitcoin, you have no doubt been asked the question "So, who accepts bitcoin?" True, it is the quintessential chicken and egg paradox, but that is not unexpected for the world's first decentralized cryptocurrency lacking a political authority. Commodity money and quasi-commodity money must gain legitimacy and acceptance

Fast-Money Crowd Dumped Cray: Good For Us

Fri, 24 May 2013 15:49:14 +0000

Even a quick glimpse at some of the financial data surrounding Cray Inc. (CRAY) might suggest that this stock – heir to the supercomputing empire founded by Seymour Cray – is anything but a ‘buy’. True, it’s trading at a measly 4.3 times trailing 12-month earnings, a puny PE ratio, but by most other standards, it is screaming ‘avoid at all costs’. It reported a loss of 20 cents a share on revenue of $79.5 million in the first quarter of 2013, compared to a profit of 14 cents a share in the first quarter of 2012, and analysts are project a loss of 20 cents a share for the second quarter, compared to last year’s second-quarter profit of 35 cents a share. In the wake of the release of first-quarter earnings, Cray’s stock price has plunged: already made wary by the company’s heavy reliance on government spending (which generates 70% of its revenue), investors opted not to stick around, as seen in a stock chart.

If Cloud Computing Is Here, Then Where Is My Jet Pack?

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:27:34 +0000

When I was a kid, I was enamored with the idea that I was going to get a jet pack. I thought that when I was old enough to go to work, I’d just tie on the ol’ pack and blast myself over the highways and byways, landing deftly on the roof of my office.

The Military’s Most Science-Fictional Projects

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:54:03 +0000

As the most forward-thinking research arm of the Pentagon, it’s the job of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to take creations worthy of a comic book or Bond film and make them a reality. The agency already has a few truly revolutionary inventions under its belt, including the Internet, GPS, and unmanned aerial vehicles. These are a few projects the agency is cooking up for decades to come.

Invasion Of The Machines: iRobot Hunts Bombs, Cleans Floors, Now Wants To Heal You

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:54:03 +0000

The end of iRobot's military boom focused it on figuring out how to make money off civilians.

The Importance Of Hiring 'A-Players' (Part Two)

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:21:06 +0000

The following is part two of a three-part guide on hiring top-level talent. In part one I examined the impact of “A-Players” on an organization. This week, part two will address ways to successfully identify and recruit them.

Why We Should Celebrate Snapchat And Encourage Ephemeral Communication

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:13:56 +0000

You would think that it would be a terrible idea for a company accused of helping teenagers send each other sexually explicit images to feature bikini-clad young girls in their marketing. Most would avoid such direct associations, for good reason - it’s immature, and edgy when it doesn’t need to be. But not the makers of the enormously popular app, Snapchat, which allows people to send images and videos that “self-destruct” after a few seconds. The company claims messages are deleted once they have been opened, but there have been a series of recent scandals showing that this may not be completely accurate. Their product is far from perfect, and there are several ways to compromise the protection they offer. It is never a good idea to send something over the internet that would damage you or your reputation if it became public. While this may be common sense, it has little to do with how we actually act online. The makers of Snapchat are right to reject the “sexting app” label - it’s not clear that this is what it is even being used for, and everyone deserves the option to communicate privately when they want, without automatically being branded as a pervert. Within a few months of launching, the company has made an enormous and lasting impact on the culture of communication on the Internet - and we should all be grateful. They have simplified a security process enough to the point that anybody can use it, while validating the market of the next generation of privacy-preserving ephemeral communication. Most importantly, we may finally get a break from the forced permanence of the Facebook and Google world, where everything you do and share is a data point to be monetized and re-sold to the highest bidder. And Snapchat isn’t even the best product out there - there’s a whole slew of communication tools that are more secure and functional making their way into the public eye. One of those is Wickr, created by DEFCON veteran Nico Sell, a more serious security-focused app that uses “military-grade” encryption to send text, video, voice, and document files that can self-destruct after a given period of time. Hospitals and law enforcement have expressed interest in a similarly functioning Android app, Gryphn. Although it’s not “self-destructing,” keep an eye on the exciting and powerful suite of communication apps developed by encryption legend Phil Zimmermann’s Silent Circle company - they are not for “average” users, but they could provide enterprise and more serious clients a massive improvement in security. What apps like these do is allow us a little bit more freedom to be ourselves, for better or worse. In the copycat world of Silicon Valley startups and funding, expect to see a lot more “Snapchat for _____” type companies. Finally, the lack of app creativity may work in the favor of consumers. We have accepted the notion that what you do on the internet is permanent - a statement that is partially a truthful observation, and partially a threatening promise from the companies and entrepreneurs who are making it a reality - but it doesn’t have to be that way for everything. Perhaps the greatest impact of this rising industry will be when the giants try to co-opt them - like Facebook attempted with Poke. The issue of trust in these companies aside, it would be a winning situation for everyone for ephemeral features to be built into the services we already use. We need more human-behavior-friendly default settings. Privacy is complicated, and nothing is ever completely secure. Nobody is immune from this, as Nicholas Weaver wrote in Wired, "even the head of the CIA can’t email his mistress without being identified by the FBI.” But in the billions of messages already sent through Snapchat are a few people who didn’t have their lives ruined because of something they shouldn’t have shared. The media can continue to ridicule the “sexting app” that so many young people are using, but they are entirely missing the point. The same generation being blamed for the supposed “death of privacy” has become wiser than those who are criticizing them. In a candid admission at the Milken Conference this year, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, when recalling his college days playing in a band, told the audience, “thank god social media didn't exist then, because if it did, I wouldn't be here.” The Internet wasn’t built with security in mind, and we’re still dealing with the consequences of that. The next generations are going to be the ones who pay the true cost of the design decisions we make today.

Apple, Called A U.S. Tax Dodger, Says It's Paid 'Every Single Dollar' of Taxes Owed

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:27:15 +0000

Video

In brief: Apple CEO Tim Cook, called to testify before a Senate subcommittee that charges it with dodging U.S. taxes, says its paid 'every single dollar' of the taxes it owes and that it supports 'dramatic' changes to the tax system that will likely mean Apple will pay more in

Top 10 To-Do List for the National Defense Authorization Act

Michaela Dodge, Michaela Dodge — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:15:00 +0000

Congress should closely consider policy issues that can improve U.S. security and advance international partnerships.

Applying Intelligence To Big Data For Security

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:49:11 +0000

Much has been said about Big Data and security.

Apple Explains Position On U.S. Taxes As CEO Cook Prepares For Senate Hearing

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:39:33 +0000

Apple released a 17-page position paper on its view of U.S. taxes the day before CEO Tim Cook is set to testify before a Senate committee on the issue. Saying that Apple is "an American success story" and that the Cupertino, California-based company has "likely become the country's largest corporate income

$25 Gun Created With Cheap 3D Printer Fires Nine Shots (Video)

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:57:19 +0000

Video

The Lulz Liberator, a working handgun printed on a $1,725 LulzBot 3D printer with $25 in plastic. Click to enlarge. (Credit: Michael Guslick) When high tech gunsmith group Defense Distributed test-fired the world's first fully 3D-printed firearm earlier this month, some critics dismissed the demonstration as expensive and impractical, arguing it

Taming The Firewall

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:12:35 +0000

Despite the oft repeated claims that changes to computing infrastructure are leading to the demise of the perimeter, in fact what has happened is that firewalls have continued to be deployed everywhere. Many large organizations still back-haul most of their network traffic to headquarters where they can apply firewall policies and URL filtering, but most organizations have evolved to a distributed architecture where enforcement points, UTM devices such as Fortinet, Palo Alto networks, SonicWall, and Watchguard, are deployed at the gateway of every remote office around the world.

The World's First 3D-Printed Gun

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:51:24 +0000

Bitcoin Comes To SWIFT

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:22:46 +0000

Hosted at the palatial and temple-like SWIFT headquarters, this year's TransConstellation Alumni conference featured a mix of panel representatives from both "new" payment approaches and "established" payment players. I was invited to represent the new approach in an Oxford-style debate which I gladly accepted.

Congress Must Stop Obama’s Downward Spiral of Missile Defense

Baker Spring, Baker Spring — Mon, 20 May 2013 04:00:00 +0000

In response to threatening statements by the North Korean regime, President Obama announced significant enhancements to U.S. missile defense.

Apple Loop: The $610,000 Cup of Coffee, Cook's Tax Talk, Bill Gates On 'Growing Up' With Steve Jobs

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:52:04 +0000

Keeping you in the loop on some of the doings around Apple this past week.

Grasping The Problem With Privileged Accounts

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:15:54 +0000

I alluded early this week to the issue of attackers targeting credentials, the keys that open the gates to an organization’s data assets. Many in the security industry tend to focus on authentication strength and user directories but Udi Mokady, CEO of Cyber-Ark, informs me that in many larger organizations there are three to four times as many privileged accounts as there are users. A privileged account is how administrators login in to servers, switches, firewalls, routers, database servers, and the many applications they must manage. Many of these systems are not within a Windows domain and by default allow simple username/password pairs to log in. In the worst case default passwords are never revoked; often username “admin” and a blank password.

Sensor Manufacturers To Draw Continued M&A Interest

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:42:58 +0000

By Richard Tekneci

Why Do ATMs Return Cards So Slowly?

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:28:51 +0000

It's intentional: not slow, but jittery. The jitter is to reduce the probability of simple ATM skimming.