SoylentNews

GreatAuntAnesthesia writes:

A British businessman serving a 10-year jail term for making bogus bomb detectors has been ordered to forfeit cash and assets worth nearly £8m:

McCormick would buy novelty "golf ball detectors", which were little more than radio aerials, from the US for less than $20 each (£14), before selling them as bomb detectors for $5,000 each (£3,500), his trial heard.

At the time, Judge Hone told him: "The device was useless, the profit outrageous, and your culpability as a fraudster has to be considered to be of the highest order."

Note that the amount of money he has taken from this scam is thought to be around £50 million.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that law enforcement can legally scan or swipe a seized credit card—in fact, it is not a Fourth Amendment search at all, so it doesn’t require a warrant.

In the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals’ 15-page opinion, swiping a card does not constitute a physical search, as the magnetic stripe simply contains the same information obviously visible on the front of the card. Plus, the defendant, Eric-Arnaud Benjamin Briere De L'Isle, couldn’t have had a reasonable privacy interest in the card, the court concluded, because he would have tried to use it when he tried to buy something, thereby giving up privacy interests to a third party (the issuing bank).

According to court records in United States v. De L’Isle, the case began in June 2014 when Eric-Arnaud Benjamin Briere De L'Isle was driving westbound on I-80 and was pulled over by a Seward County, Nebraska, sheriff’s deputy.

The deputy, Sgt. Michael Vance, pulled over De L’Isle (also known as “Briere”) for following too close to a tractor-trailer. As Sgt. Vance approached the car, he noticed the distinct “odor of burnt marijuana” coming from within the car, and he observed three air fresheners hanging from the rear-view mirror. After questioning De L’Isle, Sgt. Vance suspected that the driver might have drugs, so he deployed his drug-sniffing dog.

While no drugs were located, the law enforcement agent found and seized:

…51 credit, gift, and debit cards in a duffel bag located in the vehicle’s trunk. Ten of the cards were American Express credit cards, all bearing Briere’s name, with different account numbers embossed on the fronts of the cards. A number of the debit and gift cards also had account numbers embossed on them, but none bore Briere’s name. Some of the cards were in wrapping utilized by the issuing company to display the cards in retail stores.

Later, upon further investigation by the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security, “The agents discovered the magnetic strips on the back of the 10 American Express credit cards in Briere’s name contained no account holder identification or account information which exists on legitimate American Express cards when they are issued.”

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

"Microsoft is today closing off a vulnerability that one Chinese researcher claims has "probably the widest impact in the history of Windows." Every version of the Microsoft operating system going back to Windows 95 is affected, leaving anyone still running unsupported operating systems, such as XP, in danger of being surreptitiously surveilled.

According to Yang Yu, founder of Tencent's Xuanwu Lab, the bug can be exploited silently with a "near-perfect success rate", as the problems lie in the design of Windows. The ultimate impact? An attacker can hijack all a target's web use, granting the hacker "Big Brother power", as soon as the victim opens a link or plugs in a USB stick, claimed Yu. He received $50,000 from Microsoft's bug bounty program for uncovering the weakness, which the researcher has dubbed BadTunnel. Microsoft issued a fix today in its Patch Tuesday list of updates.

"Even security software equipped with active defense mechanisms are not able to detect the attack," Yu told FORBES. "Of course it is capable of execute malicious code on the target system if required.""

Complete Story:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/06/14/microsoft-badtunnel-big-brother-windows-vulnerability/ [Requires cancellation of AdBlocker to view]
(Archived) https://archive.is/6My6c [ Viewable by all]

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Researchers at Trend Micro have spotted a new variant of ransomware code that can be used to lock down Android-powered smartphones and televisions.

The FLocker (short for the Frantic Locker) malware has been in circulation since at least April 2015 and has concentrated on locking down smartphone handsets running the latest builds of Android. But the writer keeps on adding new features and has now extended the code to give smart TV owners problems too.

Not everyone is vulnerable, however. After the malware file is downloaded via an infected website or SMS file, it waits for 30 minutes before scanning its surrounding. If it determines the device is in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Armenia or Belarus, then it shuts down.

If the user isn't in one of those countries, the code will try and install a command and control system on the smartphone or TV. This requires the user to give the app admin permissions, but if that isn't forthcoming the malware will freeze the screen and then ask again under the guise of an operating system update to fix the "problem."

Once installed, it will flash up a message on an infected phone or TV claiming to be a law enforcement organization and demanding a $200 fine to be paid in iTunes gift cards – which is never the preferred method of payment to a government body – in exchange for the code to unlock the device.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

If CISOs don't do a good job of communicating, 59 percent of board members said that the security executives stand to lose their jobs, according to a new survey released today.

"If they're not up to par in the minds of the board, there will be action taken," said Ryan Stolte, co-founder and CTO at Bay Dynamics.

It marks an inflection point in how the boards look at cybersecurity, he said.

Previously, boards looked at breaches as an act of God or natural disaster, he said, or just fired the CISO even if the breach was not something they could have prevented.

"Now they're treating it as a risk management concern," he said. "It's a mind change."

[...] According to the survey, which was conducted by Osterman Research, cyber risk is now a top priority for board members, right up there with financial risk, regulatory risk, competitive risk, and legal risk.

[...] 54 percent of board members said that the data they were getting was too technical, and 85 percent said that IT and security executives need to improve the way they report to the board.

If the reports aren't useful and actionable, 93 percent said that there would be consequences. These included termination, said 59 percent, or warnings, said 34 percent.

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

NATO is sending troops to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland, possibly in connection with tension between NATO and Russia over events in the Ukraine. The United States, Britain and Germany are each to lead a battalion, whilst the Canadian government is mulling over the prospect of contributing soldiers and leading a fourth battalion. Later, other NATO members would take up leadership. A total of around 4000 soliders is expected to be deployed.

In an interview published last Thursday in Die Welt, the Estonian premier had said that NATO soldiers "must be constantly present" in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The commitments of the United States, Britain and Germany were announced the following Tuesday. Soldiers from France, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic will also be part of the force.

The Russian exclave of Kaliningrad lies along the Baltic coast between Poland and Lithuania.

coverage:

• Reuters
• RT (funded by Russian government)
• CBC (Canadian government outlet)
• Swissinfo (Swiss government outlet)
• Deutsche Welle (German government outlet)
• AFP via Yahoo!7 News

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The offshore outsourcing of IT grew because of the cost of offshore labor. A software engineer in India is paid but a fraction of what a U.S. worker earns. Payscale puts the median salary for a senior software engineer in India at $10,000.

When IT services firms bring in H-1B visa workers, these workers earn substantially more than their overseas counterparts, but often significantly less than American IT employees.

This labor cost advantage has been a powerful lure for U.S. customers, but analysts see labor costs diminishing in importance. Customers want more automation, whether it's infrastructure management or business process outsourcing. IT services firms can no longer complete exclusively on lower cost labor.

"The search for just cheaper people is a thing of the past," said Frances Karamouzis, an analyst at Gartner. What customers now want is to buy more "thinking" and automation for the "doing," she said.

One process that has taken off is called "Robotic Process Automation (RPA)," a term given to a virtual machine that takes over some of the applications and workflows managed by workers. These systems don't directly replace humans, but take structured tasks and automate them, with users saving as much as much as 15%, said Karamouzis.

But Karamouzis sees RPA as a gateway to more sophisticated tools. Once IT services customers realize savings using this tool, their next question often is: What else can we automate?

Automation tools are coming, and quickly. IBM, which is a major employer in India and has shifted much of its work overseas, is focusing a large part of its future on its cognitive engine, Watson.

Gartner believes that by 2020 Microsoft will center its strategy around Cortana, its intelligent personal assistant, instead of Windows.

The overseas firms -- Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro, in particular -- are also focusing on artificial intelligence tools to take over tasks. Infosys, in a recent annual report, said it was able to move nearly 4,000 full-time employees from projects to other tasks as a result of the automation of underlying services.

"Is offshore dead? No, but it's no longer going to be used for competitive advantage," said Karamouzis.  

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Two separate groups of Russian hackers have reportedly had their way with the Democratic National Committee's network for months... up until last weekend:

Russian hackers have been accessing the Democratic National Committee's computer network for the past year, and have stolen information including opposition research files on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

According to CrowdStrike, the security firm the DNC called in to deal with the massive data breach, one group of hackers tied to the Russian government has been stealing information from the national party for about a year. "They infiltrated the DNC's network last summer and were monitoring their communications, their email servers, and the like," company co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch told NPR.

A second group, also tied to Russia, accessed the DNC's network in April. "They went straight for the research department of the DNC and exfiltrated opposition materials on Mr. Trump," Alperovitch said.

The Washington Post first reported the DNC break-in.

CrowdStrike doesn't believe the two distinct groups of Russian hackers — which the company has internally nicknamed COZY BEAR and FANCY BEAR — collaborated with each other. "Instead," company co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch wrote in a lengthy blog post, "we observed the two Russian espionage groups compromise the same systems and engage separately in the theft of identical credentials."

Original Submission

Members of the rock band Led Zeppelin have appeared in court to deny borrowing from another song for their 1971 hit Stairway To Heaven.

Guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant are expected to give evidence at the civil case in Los Angeles.

They are accused of lifting the song's opening notes from Taurus, a 1967 track by the band Spirit.

Page, 72, and Plant, 67, are being sued by a trust acting for a founding member of Spirit who died in 1997.

Page and Plant say they wrote the song in a remote cottage in Wales and were not influenced by Wolfe's chord progression.

...

The copyright infringement action is being taken by a trust set up to manage the legacy of the late guitarist Randy Wolfe, also known as Randy California, a founding member of Spirit who played on the same bill as Led Zeppelin later that year.

He died in 1997 while saving his son from drowning.

Lawyers for Wolfe say Page and Plant wrote Stairway To Heaven after hearing their client play Taurus, and that he should be given a writing credit.

Page and Plant say the song was their masterpiece, written in a remote cottage in Wales.

The plaintiff is reportedly seeking royalties and other compensation of around $40m (£28m).

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Stairway To Heaven had earned $562m (£334m) as of 2008.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36534469

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has gotten its own Improvement Act:

The House of Representatives yesterday approved the Freedom of Information Act Improvement Act, which had previously been adopted by the Senate. If signed by President Obama, as expected, it will strengthen several provisions of the FOIA and should enhance disclosure of government records.

The bill "reaffirms the public's right to know and puts in place several reforms to stop agencies from slowly eroding the effectiveness of using FOIA to exercise that right," said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC). "The most important reform is the presumption of openness," according to Rep. Meadows. "Before claiming an exemption [from disclosure under FOIA], agencies must first determine whether they could reasonably foresee an actual harm."

"The bill would also put a 25-year sunset on exemption 5 of FOIA, the deliberative process exemption," added Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). "It would modernize FOIA by requiring the Office of Management and Budget to create a central FOIA Web site for requesters to submit their request, making it more efficient and accessible to the public."

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

The evening after the massacre at Orlando's Pulse nightclub, a California pastor took the opportunity to preach that "God said: When you find a sodomite, put them to death.'" A video of the sermon was uploaded by the church, then deleted "for violating YouTube's policy on hate speech." A copy of the video uploaded by someone else, describing the sermon as "despicable," was allowed to remain.

coverage:

• Sacramento Bee
• CBS (about sermon)
• New York Daily News
• Washington Post

further information:
Facebook page for Verity Baptist Church
(archived copy)

Original Submission

n1 writes:

"Yesterday, you were defending thieves; today, you're defending terrorists." With these words, uttered early this morning, the leader of Poland's ruling conservative party silenced the parliamentary opposition. Not five minutes later, Poland had a new counterterrorism law — the terms of which go beyond what most of the democratic world has thus far seen.

The bill establishes a battery of eyebrow-raising security regulations that limit freedom of assembly in vaguely defined crisis situations and allow for the arbitrary detention and surveillance of foreign citizens. In the digital realm, it gives the country's powerful intelligence service, the Internal Security Agency (ABW), the mandate to block websites deemed a threat to national security. When a (vaguely defined) state of emergency is declared, the new regulations also enable the police to disable all telecommunications (an equally vague term that could refer to anything from phone lines to internet access) in a given area. The law also grants intelligence operatives unencumbered access to key data on Polish citizens — all this in a country that hasn't seen a major act of terrorism since 1939.

[...] A common thread runs through both the Polish bill and some recent legislation in other countries: ambiguity. In a newly published report on freedom of expression in the digital age, David Kaye, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, decries vague laws on digital issues as gateways to abuse. Poland's new bill is a case in point. It extends the definition of "terrorist acts" to any real or planned criminal activity, punishable by more than three years in prison, that is devised with the intention of spreading fear, disrupting the activity of the Polish government, or compelling it to act on a given issue.

Source: Foreign Policy

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

A Swedish college has been ordered to refund tuition fees to an American business student for giving her a poor economics education. The Vastmanland court ruled Tuesday the Malardalen University's two-year program "Analytical Finance" that Connie Askenback attended from 2011 to 2013 "had no practical value."

The court noted Sweden's Higher Education Authority in 2013 had expressed criticism of the program, and ordered the college to pay her back her tuition fees of 170,182 kronor ($20,544) plus interest.

http://phys.org/news/2016-06-student-tuition-refund-sweden-useless.html

[Also Covered By]:

WRAL.COM

Toronto Star Newspapers

abcnews

I am sure Soylentils would know about many such useless courses offered by other colleges / universities.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney who negotiated a $100 million settlement for Uber drivers, is under attack from just about everybody except Uber's lawyers:

The lawyer representing Uber drivers in the historic settlement — which could total as much as $100 million — is under attack. Critics and even the judge in the case say attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan may not be fighting hard enough, and that she may be accepting too little for the drivers. Liss-Riordan disagrees, and to prove her pure intentions, she is reducing her fees.

[...] Back in the courtroom, nine different attorneys, representing different drivers, stood before the judge and argued he should reject the settlement that Liss-Riordan cooked up with Uber back in April. At the same time, Uber's lawyer — who'd been fighting with Liss-Riordan tooth and nail before — seemed to be the only person in the courtroom defending the deal and Liss-Riordan's track record as a champion of the worker.

Meanwhile, as driver Hajyousif recalls, Judge Edward Chen scolded Liss-Riordan, charging that she handed Uber a 99.99 percent discount. The judge also suggested Liss-Riordan was leaving money on the table.

Previously: Engine Warning Light Appears on Uber's $100m Driver Settlement

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Can entropy be reversed? mused Isaac Asimov in his short-short story The Last Question . Less cosmically, folks logged on the Internet probably wonder the same about online trolls. While the term "troll" could refer to any number of abuses, real or imagined, on online or old media forums, the New York Times recently ran a pair of stories (warning: possible paywall) about trolls in the sense of foaming vitriol and/or harrassment perpetrated by mostly anonymous commentators. Quentin Hardy thinks some of it can be traced to the world of gaming, which offered participants a safe space to engage in arguably anti-social behavior such as "griefing", the practice of ganging up on a hapless victim for no obvious competitive reason. Hardy quotes entrepreneur Anil Dash, a critic of GamerGate:

Had this behavior been confined to the games themselves, it would have attracted little outside attention. Unfortunately, says Hardy, it didn't.

Mike Isaac reports on Imzy, a site started by ex-Redditor Dan McComas last September; it's another attempt to improve on Reddit, in part by blocking or discouraging trolls, racists and haters. Unlike several other failed Reddit competitors mentioned in the piece, Imzy's approach is to build membership gradually, having some communities that require invitations to participate, and enforcing rules banning indecent posts or abusive behavior. Imzy encourages "tipping" (paying other users for uploading useful content, or moderating); the site plans to make money by taking a cut of the tips. It sounds promising, but Ning co-founder Gina Bianchini gave Isaac a dose of reality:

Original Submission