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DirecTV Plans Netflix Competitor

Slashdot.org — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 01:39:00 GMT

jfruhlinger writes "DirecTV isn't sitting still in the long-simmering war between traditional TV providers and digital streaming services. A survey the satellite network sent to customers this week indicates that it may be planning a streaming service of its own."

Sony Sued For PlayStation Network Data Breach

Slashdot.org — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:36:00 GMT

suraj.sun writes "Like clockwork, the first lawsuit resulting from the security breach of the personal data of more than 75 million Sony PlayStation Network customers has been filed. The suit was filed today on behalf of Kristopher Johns, 36, of Birmingham, Ala., in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Johns accuses Sony of not taking 'reasonable care to protect, encrypt, and secure the private and sensitive data of its users.' He also believes Sony took too long to notify him and other customers that their personal information had been exposed. Because of that, the complaint alleges, Sony did not allow its customers 'to make an informed decision as to whether to change credit card numbers, close the exposed accounts, check their credit reports, or take other mitigating actions.'"

YouTube Founders Acquire Delicious

Slashdot.org — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:48:00 GMT

An anonymous reader sent in a link to the Delicious blog, which reads, "Today, we're pleased to announce that Delicious has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. As creators of the largest online video platform, they have firsthand experience enabling millions of users to share their experiences with the world. They are committed to running and improving Delicious going forward."

Feds To Remotely Uninstall Bot From Some PCs

Slashdot.org — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 21:56:00 GMT

CWmike writes "Federal authorities will remotely uninstall the Coreflood botnet Trojan from some infected Windows PCs over the next four weeks. Coreflood will be removed from infected computers only when the owners have been identified by the DOJ and they have submitted an authorization form to the FBI. The DOJ's plan to uninstall Coreflood is the latest step in a coordinated campaign to cripple the botnet, which controls more than 2 million compromised computers. The remote wipe move will require consent, and the action does does come with warnings from the court that provided the injunction against the botnet, however. 'While the 'uninstall' command has been tested by the FBI and appears to work, it is nevertheless possible that the execution of the 'uninstall' command may produce unanticipated consequences, including damage to the infected computers,' the authorization form reads. FBI Special Agent Briana Neumiller said, 'The process does not affect any user files on an infected computer, nor does it ... access any data on the infected computer.' The DOJ and FBI did not say how many machines it has identified as candidates for its uninstall strategy, but told the judge that FBI field offices would be notifying affected people, companies and organizations."

Endeavour Crew To Be Interviewed Via YouTube

Slashdot.org — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 21:05:00 GMT

gabbo529 writes "Thanks to YouTube, the space shuttle Endeavour's last crew will be available for questions live, while they are in orbit. NASA announced a partnership with YouTube that will allow people to send in questions, in the form of short video clips, to PBS's Miles O'Brien, who will direct them to the Endeavour crew live from space. The whole process will be streamed live on PBS' Newshour YouTube Channel. From the article: 'The interview is scheduled for Monday May 2 at 2:15 p.m. ET. However, it could be rescheduled if the Endeavour mission is running late. The deadline for submitting a question will be April 30 at midnight ET. YouTube users will vote on which questions they want to see answered.'"

Does China's Cyber Offense Obscure Woeful Defense?

Slashdot.org — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:17:00 GMT

Gunkerty Jeb writes "The official line in Washington D.C. is that there's a new Cold War brewing, with an ascendant China in the place of the old Soviet Union, and cyberspace as the new theater of war. But work done by an independent security researcher suggests that the Chinese government is woefully unprepared to fend off cyber attacks on its own infrastructure."

Novell Completes Sale

Slashdot.org — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:33:00 GMT

symbolset writes "Today Novell completed its sale to Attachmate. The company will be a wholly owned subsidiary and be delisted from the stock exchange. Novell was once a dominant player in network software, and its passing signals the end of an era."

Amazon Responds To "App Store" Lawsuit From Apple

Slashdot.org — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:48:00 GMT

tekgoblin writes "Apple had filed a lawsuit in March against Amazon's use of 'App Store' in their newly launched Amazon AppStore. Apple had informed Amazon that using the term 'App Store' was unlawful because they owned the rights to the term itself. In their response Amazon indicates that the term 'App Store' is too generic for Apple to lay claim to the name itself."

Book Review: Amazon SimpleDB Developer Guide

Slashdot.org — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:03:00 GMT

KuanH writes "Amazon SimpleDB Developer Guide is billed as a complete guide to using Amazon's SimpleDB database API. It's most detailed for PHP. It's helpful for Python. But the Java code and explanations aren't up to the standard of the others. It includes a primer on using Amazon S3 with SimpleDB: files stored on S3, file metadata stored in SimpleDB — again, less good for Java. It also covers tuning to reduce usage costs, caching using memcached, and ways to batch-update and make serial or parallel requests to SimpleDB. However, it's missing some information that beginners might need, and it's perhaps not quite advanced enough for the more experienced. Downloadable example code is available only for PHP." Keep reading for the rest of Kuan's review.

China Plans Space Station By 2020

Slashdot.org — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:21:00 GMT

RedEaredSlider writes "China unveiled plans for its own space station, to be completed by 2020, along with a cargo ship to ferry supplies to and from orbit. The fact that the country is proposing one is a sign of the Chinese government's ambitions in space. China is the third nation to launch its own manned rockets into space, sending its first astronaut into orbit in 2003 aboard the Shenzhou 5 rocket. Since then two other manned missions have been launched."

Punish Bad Users With Drupal Misery

Slashdot.org — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:28:00 GMT

If you're sick of banning or deleting troublemakers on your Drupal website, you might want to check out Misery, the module designed to give trolls a taste of their own medicine. Creating a random length delay for a user, redirecting them to a random page, presenting them with a 404 error, and crashing their browser if they're using IE6 are just a few of the things you can make users endure with Misery. I'm still waiting patiently for a Punch In the Nose module, but this is a good start.

FBI Says Wire Fraud Scam Sending Millions To China

Slashdot.org — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:46:00 GMT

Trailrunner7 writes "The FBI is warning businesses about an ongoing spate of attacks that are stealing millions of dollars from companies through unauthorized bank transfers to Chinese companies. The fraudulent wire transfers are not a new tactic, but the FBI says the current round of attacks is notable in that virtually all of the transfers are going to shell companies based in China and have cost U.S. businesses $11 million. The FBI said that many of the cases it has seen involve well-known pieces of malware, such as Zeus, SpyEye and others. The amount of money the attackers try to transfer varies from $50,000 up to nearly $1 million."

77 Million Accounts Stolen From Playstation Network

Slashdot.org — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:59:00 GMT

Runaway1956 was one of many users to continue to update us about the intrusion we've been following this week. "Sony is warning its millions of PlayStation Network users to watch out for identity-theft scams after hackers breached its security and plundered the user names, passwords, addresses, birth dates, and other information used to register accounts. Sony's stunning admission came six days after the PlayStation Network was taken down following what the company described as an 'external intrusion'. The stolen information may also include payment-card data, purchase history, billing addresses, and security answers used to change passwords, Sony said on Tuesday. The company plans to keep the hacked system offline for the time being, and to restore services gradually. The advisory also applies to users of Sony's related Qriocity network."

Apple Updating iOS To Address Privacy Concerns

Slashdot.org — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:15:00 GMT

wiredmikey writes "[Apple] said that over the next few weeks it would release a software update for iOS that would reduce the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone, cease backing up the cache, and delete the cache entirely when Location Services is turned off. Additionally, Apple said that in the next major iOS software release the cache would be encrypted on the iPhone, though a timeline for that was not provided."

Mediacom Using DPI To Hijack Searches, 404 Errors

Slashdot.org — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:36:00 GMT

Verteiron writes "Cable company Mediacom recently began using deep packet inspection to redirect 404 errors, Google and Bing searches to their own, ad-laden "search engine". Despite repeated complaints from customers, Mediacom continues this connection hijacking even after the user has opted out of the process. Months after the problem was first reported, the company seems unwilling or unable to fix it and has even experimented with injecting their own advertising into sites like Google. How does one get a company infamous for its shoddy customer service and comfortable, state-wide cable monopolies to act on an issue like this?"