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Three astronauts will launch to the International Space Station later "tonight". From Wired:

A Soyuz spacecraft will take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:37 local time, or 12:37 am EDT on Wednesday. If you're curious to follow along, you can watch NASA TV's live broadcast of the launch above, starting at 11:45 pm EDT tonight.

It will be a crowded time on the ISS:

Three crew members are ready to head into space Wednesday morning bringing the crew complement on the International Space Station (ISS) to nine, something that hasn't been seen since 2013.

Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov along with Andreas Mogensen from the European Space Agency, and visitors Aidyn Aimbetov from Kazcosmos, the National Space Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan, will blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:37 a.m. EDT. They are scheduled to dock two days later at 3:42 a.m. on Friday with the hatch opening 6:15 a.m.

The new crew will join the One-Year duo of NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko along with Russians Gennady Padalka, Oleg Kononenko and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui along with NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren.

That will take the number of people on board the station to nine. Typically there is a crew of six.

Aimbetov and Mogensen are scheduled to return to Earth on Sept. 12 along with current commander Padalka. Scott Kelly will take over command of the space station on Sept. 5.

Live coverage at NASA TV.

More Exoskeleton Development from Japan

basstard writes:

Bloomberg writes that Mitsui & Co., best known among investors as Japan's top oil and iron-ore trader, and its partners have built a wearable suit—a backpack fitted with belts and leg supports—that enhances a user's ability to lift and move heavy objects. The idea is that when worn by farmers, or at nursing homes or construction sites, strength is enhanced.

The device, known as the Assist Suit AWN-03, was developed at ActiveLink, Panasonic Corp.'s robot-development unit. Weighing in at 6 kilograms (13.2 pounds), the suit allows the wearer to lift as much as 15 kilograms without stressing the lower back, according to Mitsui, which demonstrated the outfit to media at its Tokyo headquarters on Aug. 14.

Such a machine is tailor-made for Japan, where labor shortages and a shrinking and aging population are already causing construction delays, says the trading house. But the Assist Suit is just a first step. In two years, Mitsui and its partners aim to release the next iteration, complete with mechanical arms and legs. Further out, future versions could start to take on Aliens-like proportions. "What we have in mind is the Aliens power loader," says Tomoya Tsutsumi, an official at Mitsui's construction and industrial machinery division.

General contractor Kajima Corp. and Yamato Holdings Co., which offers door-to-door parcel delivery services, are among dozens of companies planning to try the technology, according to Tsutsumi. The target is to sell 1,000 units in the initial year after the Assist Suit's release.

"Young workers tend to want to work in a more comfortable environment so businesses are having trouble finding enough workers when labor conditions are harsh," Tsutsumi said.

Article includes a Youtube video demonstrating some pretty nifty stuff.

[More After the Break]

takyon writes:

Multiple reports suggest that Impact Team has leaked around 9.6 to 10 gigabytes of data from the "cheating/affair website" Ashley Madison onto Tor sites (now available via BitTorrent). According to Ars Technica:

A 10-gigabyte file purportedly containing e-mails, member profiles, credit-card transactions and other sensitive Ashley Madison information became available as a BitTorrent download in the past few hours. Ars downloaded the massive file and it appeared to contain a trove of details taken from a clandestine dating site, but so far there is nothing definitively linking it to Ashley Madison. User data included e-mail addresses, profile descriptions, addresses provided by users, weight, and height. A separate file containing credit card transaction data didn't include full payment card numbers or billing addresses.

Rob Graham, CEO of Errata Security, said the dump also included user passwords that were cryptographically protected using the bcrypt hashing algorithm. That's among the most secure ways to store passwords, because bcrypt is extremely slow, a trait that requires crackers to devote vast amounts of time and computing resources. Still, it's highly likely a large percentage of the hashes will be cracked, given rampant use of weak passwords.

Ashley Madison officials have stopped short of confirming the published information was extracted from the breach.

"We have now learned that the individual or individuals responsible for this attack claim to have released more of the stolen data," they wrote in an e-mail to Ars. "We are actively monitoring and investigating this situation to determine the validity of any information posted online and will continue to devote significant resources to this effort. Furthermore, we will continue to put forth substantial efforts into removing any information unlawfully released to the public, as well as continuing to operate our business."

Previously: Adult 'Extracurricular Activity' Website AshleyMadison.com Hacked

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has increased its estimate of the amount of taxpayers affected by a security flaw to about 334,000:

The IRS says more taxpayers than it originally believed had their data stolen by hackers. The agency now says the total is now more than 300,000.

In May, when it first revealed the breach, the IRS reported some 114,000 taxpayers had their data stolen. But in what the IRS is calling a "deeper analysis" of the breach, it identified an additional 220,000 cases where hackers got access to taxpayer records. The agency says hackers tried, but failed to access the data of some 280,000 more taxpayers.

The hackers got into the accounts by clicking a link on the IRS website called Get Transcripts. The link allowed taxpayers to get copies of their own back tax returns to use, for example, in applying for loans.

The hackers, who the IRS believes may have been part of an organized crime syndicate possibly based in Russia, were sophisticated.

Reuters, CBS, WSJ.

Previously: IRS Coughs up 100,000 Tax Returns to Thieves

Original Submission

cosurgi writes:

I witnessed the events as they unfolded yesterday, I'll try to give as objective summary as possible. Here's what happened:

The bitcoin blocksize is currently limited to 1MB. Two out of five bitcoin developers who have access to repository are worried that this is not enough to compete with VISA (in the number of transactions processed per second). The dispute to increase the blocksize has been ongoing for months. The two developers suggested to use the bitcoin built-in voting process (which has been designed in it ages ago), where the voting goes as follows:

1. the software is updated in such a way that larger block sizes are not used unless 750 out of past 1000 blocks are mined by miners who in the blockheader say "yes to bigger blocksize".

2. If such blocks (which are still below 1MB, but simply have this "yes" vote) are not mined, then the status-quo remains and nothing happens.

Three other developers have blocked any commits, and dedicated themselves to maintain the even stronger status-quo, by simply disallowing such vote to proceed. The two other developers finally decided to publish a new bitcoin client, called bitcoin XT, which has only one small change that would allow such voting to proceed. The linked blogpost presents one side of this argument, honestly I couldn't find a blogpost that would present the opposing viewpoint. If someone here has a link to nice writeup done by the other side of this argument please let us know.

The bitcoin reddit got furious yesterday night (to the point of a civil war with moderators), when the top voted and most discussed thread "why is bitcoin forking?" was deleted by one of the moderators. Interesting to note, that it had 528 upvotes at the moment of deletion and currently it has 687 upvotes, and also googling for 'why is bitcoin forking' links to this deleted thread. Before it was deleted the discussion seemed reasonable, now it's just a Streisand effect about censorship and about how few influential people are trying to prevent the voting from happening.

What it means for regular bitcoin users? Here's how it goes:

1. If the voting rejects the larger blocksize then both bitcoin clients, 'bitcoin' and 'bitcoin XT' will work as normal on the same blockchain. And in fact nothing will happen, people will be able to choose which client to use and eventually the 'bitcoin XT' will lose its momentum, fade out and stop being used.

2. If the voting goes in favor of larger blocksize, then both bitcoin clients will start operating on two different blockchains. The 'bitcoin XT' blockchain will have 75% of hashing power (by the definition of how this vote is implemented), and the 'bitcoin' blockchain wil have the remaining 25% of hashing power. Shops and exchanges will run aghast in circles trying to protect from double spending by quickly upgrading their software to use the stronger 'bitcoin XT' blockchain. The weaker blockchain with only 25% hashing power will be susceptible to attacks. And whatever bitcoins you have right now will co-exist twice in each of those blockchains. You would be able to spend them in one of the blockchains and keep them for yourself in the other blockchain. People who have changed to 'bitcoin XT' client beforehand will be safe from whatever might happen with the weaker chain, since their clients work with both blockchains, until they acquire the voting 75% majority.

The voting process as it happens can be seen live on site that shows number of clients and mined blocks that opted for larger blocksize.

I know that perhaps I am not as objective as I wanted to be. I tried to present the facts only, if I failed, then blame me and correct me in the comments. Happy discussing!

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Reuters reports:

An Indonesian domestic passenger aircraft carrying 54 people lost contact with air traffic control on Sunday in the remote eastern Papua region, the National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) said. "Lost contact with plane," BASARNAS chief Bambang Soelystyo told Reuters by phone.

According to the official BASARNAS Twitter account, the aircraft belonging to Trigana Air Service was carrying 44 adult passengers, five crew and five children and infants.

[...] An AirAsia passenger jet crashed en route from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore last December, killing all 162 people on board. The crash prompted the government to introduce regulations aimed at improving safety.

BBC.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Breaking: Massive Explosions Rock China's Tianjin

At least two major explosions tore through Tianjin in eastern China on Wednesday night. According to Xinhua, the shockwaves from the blasts "were felt kilometers away" and shattered windows.

Chinese media reports indicated that the blasts occurred around 11:30 p.m. local time. People's Daily tweeted that the "quake" from the blast was "felt 10 km away." In a separate tweet, People's Daily cited the China Earthquake Network Center as saying that two explosions had occurred within 30 seconds, one magnitude 2.3 M_L (or Richter magnitude) and [the] other magnitude 2.9 M_L.

The number of casualties is still unknown; Xinhua's official report (issued at around 3 a.m. local time) noted "at least 50" people injured, while the official Twitter account of People's Daily said a local hospital "has received 300-400 injured." No deaths have been confirmed as of this writing, but two firefighters have been reported missing.

Update: People's Daily is now reporting 13 dead.

There were conflicting reports as to the cause of the blast. Initial speculation suggested the cause was gas or oil-related, possibly connected to the liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal in Tianjin. By around 3 a.m. local time, official Chinese media sources were reporting that the explosion started at a warehouse in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, where "dangerous goods" were being stored.

CCTV had the most specific information, citing the Tianjin Public Security Bureau as saying that the explosion occurred at the Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics Co. Ltd, "which handles the transport of hazardous goods." Xing Zheming of CCTV America said the first explosion involved flammable materials; the second involved oil.

Update: People's Daily reports that a representative from Rui Hai is being questioned in connection with the explosion.

Original Submission

FrogBlast writes:

Google is now a wholly owned subsidiary of a new company called "Alphabet", to be run by Larry Page and Sergei Brin. Sundar Pichai will be CEO of Google, which will remain focused on its core of web-related products. Alphabet will serve as and umbrella for Google's now quite diverse projects, with a separate CEO for each. By way of example, the announcement cites a Life Sciences group, and a group called Calico which is focused on longevity.

All stock in Google will be converted to Alphabet stock, with the same rights and number of shares.

The announcement.

takyon: The Register, The New York Times, Wired, MarketWatch.

Original Submission

mendax writes:

What has been long suspect and almost expected since it was discovered last week has now been confirmed. The flaperon found on a beach on the French island of Réunion is definitely from that missing airliner:

Experts have determined that the aircraft part that washed up on the island of Réunion last week is definitely from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia announced in the early hours of Thursday (Wednesday afternoon Eastern time).

The part, known as a flaperon, was flown from Réunion, near Madagascar, to a laboratory in Toulouse, France, where Malaysian, Australian and French officials gathered on Wednesday to examine it, along with representatives from Boeing.

One mystery solved. Many more to go.

BBC.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Earlier this week we read about the German Public Prosecutor opening up a treason investigation.

Within hours, the investigation was halted. And now the public prosecutor lost his job over it.

Looks like this Slashdot commenter foresaw accurately what would happen, based on a very similar past incident:

Also at the BBC and Deutsche Welle.

Original Submission

janrinok writes with news of a report (by Michael McNally) concerning a critical defect in BIND:

https://www.isc.org/blogs/about-cve-2015-5477-an-error-in-handling-tkey-queries-can-cause-named-to-exit-with-a-require-assertion-failure/

As the security incident manager for this particular vulnerability notification, I'd like to say a little extra, beyond our official vulnerability disclosure about this critical defect in BIND [Wikipedia].

Many of our bugs are limited in scope or affect only users having a particular set of configuration choices. CVE-2015-5477 does not fall into that category. Almost all unpatched BIND servers are potentially vulnerable. We know of no configuration workarounds. Screening the offending packets with firewalls is likely to be difficult or impossible unless those devices understand DNS at a protocol level and may be problematic even then. And the fix for this defect is very localized to one specific area of the BIND code.

The practical effect of this is that this bug is difficult to defend against (except by patching, which is completely effective) and will not be particularly difficult to reverse-engineer. I have already been told by one expert that they have successfully reverse-engineered an attack kit from what has been divulged and from analyzing the code changes, and while I have complete confidence that the individual who told me this is not intending to use his kit in a malicious manner, there are others who will do so who may not be far behind. Please take steps to patch or download a secure version immediately.

This bug is designated "Critical" and it deserves that designation.

The existence of this bug was announced 'in-house' on 28 July but is announced publicly today. Apologies for releasing my own story [submission].

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward wrote in with a link to the launch of Windows 10:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9471/windows-10-launches-worldwide

Windows 10 gains a personal assistant in Cortana. What originally launched on Windows Phone has been brought to the PC, and it can now work across all of your Windows devices. One of the key benefits of Windows 10 over Windows 8 is that features like Cortana are easily discoverable. Cortana now lives in a search box right beside the start button, and it can keep track of your travel plans, set up reminders, and perform searches for you. Microsoft is also adding a new browser to Windows 10, with Microsoft Edge. Although based on Internet Explorer under the hood, huge chunks of code have been taken out to improve security, and the rendering and scripting engines have been optimized to make Edge one of the fastest browsers around. It adds support for new features like being able to markup web pages and share them, and Cortana is built in to provide contextual search results right in the page. It is a big step up from Internet Explorer in standards compliance, and while it’s not quite finished yet, Microsoft has promised to update it often through the Windows Store.

...

The built in Xbox app will support Game DVR, allowing you to record game sessions, edit them, and share them, all within the Xbox app. One of the coolest features coming is game streaming from an Xbox One to any Windows 10 PC, allowing you to use any PC or tablet as the display for the Xbox, as long as it is on the LAN.

Other links:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/microsoft/windows/11767674/Windows-10-launch-Microsoft-releases-new-operating-system.html
http://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2015/07/windows-10-released-heres-how-to-download-it/

Update (JR) - Stories about the bugs are now coming in: here and here.

Original Submission

iwoloschin and an Anonymous Coward write:

FS tells me that Ars Technica reports that Dice is selling the Slashdot and Sourceforge sites. The company in their second quarter earnings announcements stated they have "not successfully leveraged the Slashdot user base to further Dice's digital recruitment business", and are planning to divest this business.

The report goes on to note that in spite of what the report calls "an incredibly loyal and passionate following of tech professionals," Slashdot and SourceForge aren't core to DHI's business and that DHI has partnered with KeyBanc Capital Markets to advise DHI on the sale. There is no buyer lined up yet.

The report also says that Slashdot Media (the aggregate of Slashdot and SourceForge) made $1.7 million in revenue for the second quarter and that it's estimated Slashdot Media will pull somewhere between $15 million and $16 million in revenue for fiscal 2015.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Josh Greenberg, 28-year-old cofounder of the shuttered music streaming service Grooveshark, has been found dead at his home in Gainesville, Florida. The Gainesville Sun reports:

Lori Greenberg, his mother, said Monday he had no health problems and she was told by police who investigated Sunday night that there was no evidence of foul play, injuries or drugs. She said her son was more relieved than depressed about the settlement that shut down Grooveshark on April 30 since it ended the lawsuit that had been hanging over his head. Several record companies had sued the online music streaming service over copyright violations. "He was excited about potential new things that he was going to start," she said.

[...] Greenberg and Sam Tarantino founded Grooveshark as 19-year-old freshmen at the University of Florida in March 2006. At its peak, the company had up to 40 million users a month and 145 employees, occupying most of the second floor of the Union Street Station in downtown Gainesville and a small office in New York City. Greenberg helped train other entrepreneurs and computer programmers to get their start in the tech industry through Grooveshark University classes, the Summer with the Sharks internship program and as a partner in the Founders Pad business incubator. He started MaidSuite with Student Maid founder Kristen Hadeed to provide an online scheduling application for cleaning companies and other service providers and recently helped start the Gainesville Dev Academy to offer computer programming training. He was a founding member of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce's Gainesville Technology Council.

Previous reporting on Grooveshark:

April 27: Grooveshark Faces $736 Million in Copyright Damages
May 1: Grooveshark Shuts Down & Apologizes to the RIAA
May 10: Music Industry Kills Grooveshark, "Clone" Emerges
May 17: New Grooveshark Site Taken Down, Another One Pops Up

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has shut down a "major computer hacking forum" called Darkode. The Darkode site now displays a banner with a message from the FBI, Department of Justice, and many foreign police agencies.

U.S. authorities working with law enforcement partners abroad have shut down the Darkode online forum used by cybercriminals around the world and charged 12 people linked to the site, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.

U.S. Attorney David Hickton announced the charges in Pittsburgh and called Darkode "a cyber hornet's nest of criminal hackers."

"Of the roughly 800 criminal Internet forums worldwide, Darkode represented one of the gravest threats to the integrity of data on computers in the United States," he said.

The Justice Department said the FBI and U.S. attorney's office in Pittsburgh led the investigation, known as Operation Shrouded Horizon. It included authorities from Europol and 20 countries in Europe and Latin America and included Israel, Nigeria and Australia.

12 individuals have been charged:

• Johan Anders Gudmunds, aka Mafi aka Crim aka Synthet!c, 27, of Sollebrunn, Sweden.
• Morgan C. Culbertson, aka Android, 20, of Pittsburgh.
• Eric L. Crocker, aka Phastman, 39, of Binghamton, New York.
• Naveed Ahmed, aka Nav aka semaph0re, 27, of Tampa, Florida.
• Phillip R. Fleitz, aka Strife, 31, of Indianapolis.
• Dewayne Watts, aka m3t4lh34d aka metal, 28, of Hernando, Florida.
• Murtaza Saifuddin, aka rzor, 29, of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.
• Daniel Placek, aka Nocen aka Loki aka Juggernaut aka M1rr0r, 27, of Glendale, Wisconsin.
• Matjaz Skorjanc, aka iserdo aka serdo, 28, of Maribor, Slovenia.
• Florencio Carro Ruiz, aka NeTK aka Netkairo, 36, of Vizcaya, Spain.
• Mentor Leniqi, aka Iceman, 34, of Gurisnica, Slovenia.
• Rory Stephen Guidry, aka k@exploit.im, of Opelousas, Louisiana.