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takyon writes:

North Korean state media claims that it can hit anywhere in the world with its new missile. Others say that it is capable of reaching Alaska:

North Korea said on Tuesday it successfully test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time, which flew a trajectory that experts said could allow a weapon to hit the U.S. state of Alaska. The launch came days before leaders from the Group of 20 nations were due to discuss steps to rein in North Korea's weapons program, which it has pursued in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions.

The launch, which North Korea's state media said was ordered and supervised by leader Kim Jong Un, sent the rocket 933 km (580 miles) reaching an altitude of 2,802 km over a flight time of 39 minutes.

North Korea has said it wants to develop a missile mounted with a nuclear warhead capable of striking the U.S. mainland. To do that it would need an ICBM with a range of 8,000 km (4,800 miles) or more, a warhead small enough to be mounted on it and technology to ensure its stable re-entry into the atmosphere. Some analysts said the flight details on Tuesday suggested the new missile had a range of more than 8,000 km, underscoring major advances in its program. Other analysts said they believed its range was not so far.

Also at BBC and NYT.

Original Submission

bradley13 writes:

One of the big Swiss banks, Credit Suiss, has just informed 58 of it's IT specialists that they are now employed by an Indian company. If they don't want to work for HCL Technologies, then they no longer have jobs. This takes effect at the end of this month.

I'm not even sure this is legal - Switzerland normally requires a minimum of 3 months notice. Probably the CS lawyers have found some loophole or other, like "selling" a whole department or something.

The bank has stated that the employees will receive HCL contracts for "at least 12 months". Which probably also means "at most" 12 months, because no Indian company wants expensive Westerners on its books any longer than necessary.

Of course, CS is a really good bank if you're in top management. Top management rakes in the bonuses, no matter how poorly the bank performs.

[ Originally reported by TagesAnzeiger (German), which stated the number of employees impacted as 100. -Ed.]

Original Submission

Fnord666 writes:

The United States has lifted a ban on laptops in cabins on flights from Abu Dhabi to the United States, saying Etihad Airways had put in place required tighter security measures.

Etihad welcomed the decision on Sunday and credited a facility at Abu Dhabi International Airport where passengers clear U.S. immigration before they land in the United States for "superior security advantages" that had allowed it to satisfy U.S. requirements.

Transportation Security Administration officials have checked that the measures had been implemented correctly, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

U.S. officials assessed the airport on Saturday night, Abdul Majeed al-Khoori, acting chief executive of operator Abu Dhabi Airports told Reuters on Monday.

The disruption to passengers from the new measures will be "very minimal" with the processing time for those traveling to the United States unchanged, he said by phone.

Etihad is the only airline that operates direct flights from Abu Dhabi to the United States.

Source: Reuters

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ submitted a story which became:

The World Socialist Web Site reports

On Thursday [July 29], two workers at an electrical plant near Tampa, Florida were killed horrifically when a tank spilled molten slag onto them. Four others were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. The plant is operated by Tampa Electric Company (TECO), the Tampa Bay area's largest electrical utility service. The company was purchased exactly one year ago to the day by Canadian energy company Emera Inc.

Christopher Irvin, 40, and Michael McCory, 60, were both killed, while Gary Marine Jr., 32, Antonio Navarrete, 21, Frank Lee Jones, 55, and Armando J. Perez, 56, all sustained life-threatening injuries. Only one of the men was a TECO employee while the other five were employees of Gaffin Industrial Services who were contracted to work at the plant.

[...] A TECO spokesperson reported that at the time of the incident workers were performing routine maintenance on a slag tank--a container which houses coal waste after it has been burned. Slag is a glass-like substance that forms when hot coal mixes with water; the slag tank catches leftover by-product that drips down from a coal-fired furnace into water.

The crystallized slag is still molten hot when it forms, and it was slag spillover that killed and injured the workers in question. An expert compared the gushing slag to "what comes out of a volcano".

Workers were reportedly trying to unplug a hole in the slag tank when the material spilled out. A spokesperson from TECO stated that slag filled a large part of the floor in the plant, "6 inches deep and 40 feet in diameter".

[...] An OSHA spokesperson stated in response to the incident, "It's the employer's responsibility to provide a safe and healthful workplace." Apparently, OSHA was already investigating a chemical exposure that happened at the same plant on May 24. This incident involved the release of anhydrous ammonia that caused four employees to be hospitalized.

TECO has a long history of similar incidents.

[...] [A statement from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 108] notes that the incident was entirely avoidable. "It's time to listen to the employees", it reads. "It's time to stop using contractors to do 'routine maintenance' when the safety of this maintenance has been questioned by employees. It's time to stop putting profit before safety. It's time to truly put safety first."

Original Submission

Fnord666 writes:

Ada Lovelace (1815–1852) is celebrated as "the first programmer" for her remarkable 1843 paper which explained Charles Babbage's designs for a mechanical computer. New research reinforces the view that she was a gifted, perceptive and knowledgeable mathematician.

Christopher Hollings and Ursula Martin of Oxford Mathematics, and Adrian Rice, of Randolph-Macon College in Virginia, are the first historians of mathematics to investigate the extensive archives of the Lovelace-Byron family, held in Oxford's Bodleian Library. In two recent papers in the Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics and in Historia Mathematica they study Lovelace's childhood education, where her passion for mathematics was complemented by an interest in machinery and wide scientific reading; and her remarkable two-year "correspondence course" on calculus with the eminent mathematician Augustus De Morgan, who introduced her to cutting edge research on the nature of algebra.

[...] The papers, and the correspondence with De Morgan, can be read in full on the website of the Clay Mathematics Institute, who supported the work, as did the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

[There apparently had been many claims that she lacked the background to have been able to produce the works attributed to her. These papers serve to show that she did, indeed, have the necessary background, curiosity, dedication, and gift for insights to have done so. -Ed.]

Source: University of Oxford Mathematical Institute

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

No, Amazon and Apple stock did not crash Monday. And if you held Mattel stock, you're not suddenly rich.

But incorrect stock data on the popular Google Finance, Yahoo Finance and Bloomberg sites appeared to be freaking out some investors Monday evening, after test data was apparently misinterpreted by third-party providers to those sites.

As of 11 p.m. Eastern, Google Finance said Amazon.com Inc. shares were down more than 87%, to $123.47. Previously, Yahoo Finance said Amazon was down 74%, to $248.49. In reality, Amazon finished the day down 1.5%, at $953.66, and was up 0.1% in after-hours trading, according to FactSet.

Apple Inc. shares were similarly skewed, with both Google and Yahoo Finance saying they were down 14%, also to $123.47. Actually, Apple ended the day down just 0.4%, at $143.50, according to FactSet, and was up slightly in after-hours trading.

$123.47 — or amounts close to that — appeared to be the common denominator for the test data, wildly skewing some stocks down to that level while others skyrocketed up to it. For example, the test data sent eBay Inc. soaring 253%, Mattel Inc. skyrocketing 473% and Microsoft Corp. up 79%.

Taking stock of those who take stock of stocks.

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/finance-sites-erroneously-show-amazon-apple-other-stocks-crashing-2017-07-03

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Kaspersky Lab is willing to go to extreme lengths to reassure the U.S. government about the security of its products:

Eugene Kaspersky is willing to turn over computer code to United States authorities to prove that his company's security products have not been compromised by the Russian government, The Associated Press reported early Sunday.

"If the United States needs, we can disclose the source code," said the creator of beleaguered Moscow-based computer security company Kaspersky Lab in an interview with the AP.

"Anything I can do to prove that we don't behave maliciously I will do it."

Also at Neowin.

In Worrisome Move, Kaspersky Agrees to Turn Over Source Code to US Government

Fnord666 writes:

Over the last couple of weeks, there's been a disturbing trend of governments demanding that private tech companies share their source code if they want to do business. Now, the US government is giving the same ultimatum and it's getting what it wants.

On Sunday, the CEO of security firm Kaspersky Labs, Eugene Kaspersky, told the Associated Press that he's willing to show the US government his company's source code. "Anything I can do to prove that we don't behave maliciously I will do it," Kaspersky said while insisting that he's open to testifying before Congress as well.

The company's willingness to share its source code comes after a proposal was put forth in the Senate that "prohibits the [Defense Department] from using software platforms developed by Kaspersky Lab." It goes on to say, "The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that any network connection between ... the Department of Defense and a department or agency of the United States Government that is using or hosting on its networks a software platform [associated with Kaspersky Lab] is immediately severed."

Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat tells ABC News, that there is "a consensus in Congress and among administration officials that Kaspersky Lab cannot be trusted to protect critical infrastructure." The fears follow years of suspicion from the FBI that Kaspersky Labs is too close to the Russian government. The company is based in Russia but has worked with both Moscow and the FBI in the past, often serving as a go-between to help the two governments cooperate. "As a private company, Kaspersky Lab has no ties to any government, and the company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage efforts," an official statement from Kaspersky Labs reads.

Source: Gizmodo

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takyon writes:

The Juno spacecraft will make a close approach to Jupiter's Great Red Spot on July 10th:

Just days after celebrating its first anniversary in Jupiter orbit, NASA's Juno spacecraft will fly directly over Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the gas giant's iconic, 10,000-mile-wide (16,000-kilometer-wide) storm. This will be humanity's first up-close and personal view of the gigantic feature -- a storm monitored since 1830 and possibly existing for more than 350 years.

[...] The data collection of the Great Red Spot is part of Juno's sixth science flyby over Jupiter's mysterious cloud tops. Perijove (the point at which an orbit comes closest to Jupiter's center) will be on Monday, July 10, at 6:55 p.m. PDT (9:55 p.m. EDT). At the time of perijove, Juno will be about 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) above the planet's cloud tops. Eleven minutes and 33 seconds later, Juno will have covered another 24,713 miles (39,771 kilometers) and will be directly above the coiling crimson cloud tops of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The spacecraft will pass about 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) above the Giant Red Spot clouds. All eight of the spacecraft's instruments as well as its imager, JunoCam, will be on during the flyby.

The Great Red Spot was recently studied by the Gemini North telescope and the Subaru Telescope.

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The World Socialist Web Site reports

In 1969, Hersh broke the story of the My Lai massacre in which US troops slaughtered over 100 Vietnamese men, women and children--a story the US media at first refused to touch. He was also among the first to expose the torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2004. And he exposed the Obama administration's lies about the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, as well as the fabricated claims of a Syrian chemical weapons attack in 2013 that brought the US to the brink of another war.

[...] A full week has passed since the publication by a major German newspaper of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh's thoroughgoing debunking of the false claim of a Syrian government chemical weapons attack on April 4. The supposed atrocity by the regime of Bashar al-Assad was used to justify the April 6 US cruise missile strike on the al-Shayat air base. At least nine civilians, including four children, died when 59 Tomahawk missiles rained down on the base in western Syria.

Since the German daily Die Welt published Hersh's article, titled "Trump's Red Line", on June 25, its contents have been subjected to a total blackout by the major newspapers and broadcast and cable news networks in the United States.

Hersh's account makes clear that, not only was there no objective evidence to back up Washington's charges of a chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, the fact that there was no such attack was known to the US military and intelligence apparatus even before the cruise missile strike was ordered.

"The available intelligence made clear that the Syrians had targeted a jihadist meeting site on April 4 using a Russian-supplied guided bomb equipped with conventional explosives", Hersh wrote. "Details of the attack, including information on its so-called high-value targets, had been provided by the Russians days in advance to American and allied military officials in Doha, whose mission is to coordinate all US, allied, Syrian and Russian Air Force operations in the region."

Basing himself on sources within the US intelligence apparatus who spoke on condition of anonymity, as well as access to "transcripts of real-time communications, immediately following the Syrian attack on April 4", Hersh establishes that a Syrian government plane dropped a conventional 500-pound bomb, not a chemical weapon, on the site of the meeting, which included "representatives of Ahrar al-Sham and the al-Qaida-affiliated group formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra".

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Astronomers at the European Space Agency (ESA) combined an "artificial brain" with observations from the advanced Gaia space satellite to discover six stars darting across our galaxy following as-yet-poorly-understood encounters with Milky Way's supermassive black hole.

"These hypervelocity stars are extremely important to study the overall structure of our Milky Way," said Elena Maria Rossi, from Leiden University in the Netherlands, who announced the discovery at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science in Prague last week.

"These are stars that have traveled great distances through the Galaxy but can be traced back to its core – an area so dense and obscured by interstellar gas and dust that it is normally very difficult to observe – so they yield crucial information about the gravitational field of the Milky Way from the center to its outskirts."

[...] "We chose to use an artificial neural network, which is software designed to mimic how our brain works," said Tommaso Marchetti, a PhD student at Leiden University and the lead author of the paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society that details the discovery.

"After proper 'training,' it can learn how to recognize certain objects or patterns in a huge dataset," said Marchetti. "In our case, we taught it to spot hypervelocity stars in a stellar catalogue like the one compiled with Gaia."

Source: https://www.rt.com/news/395087-gaia-hypervelocity-stars-milky/

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

A handy how-to for building a homemade homebrew setup with Linux, Python, and the Raspberry Pi.

I started brewing my own beer more than 10 years ago. Like most homebrewers, I started in my kitchen making extract-based brews. This required the least equipment and still resulted in really tasty beer. Eventually I stepped up to all-grain brewing using a big cooler for my mash tun. For several years I was brewing 5 gallons at a time, but brewing 10 gallons takes the same amount of time and effort (and only requires slightly larger equipment), so a few years ago I stepped it up. After moving up to 10 gallons, I stumbled across StrangeBrew Elsinore and realized what I really needed to do was convert my whole system to be all-electric, and run it with a Raspberry Pi.

Source: https://opensource.com/article/17/7/brewing-beer-python-and-raspberry-pi

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Since the early days of the SSL/TLS protocols, the security community has been struggling with various attacks that have made many press headlines.

[...] The Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol as it stands today has evolved from the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol from Netscape Communications and the Private Communication Technology (PCT) protocol from Microsoft that were developed in the 1990s, mainly to secure credit card transactions over the Internet.

It soon became clear that a unified standard was required, and an IETF TLS WG was tasked. As a result, TLS 1.0 was specified in 1999, TLS 1.1 in 2006, TLS 1.2 in 2008, and TLS 1.3 will hopefully be released soon. Each protocol version tried to improve its predecessor and mitigated some specific attacks.

As is usually the case in security, there is a "cops and robbers" game going between the designers and developers of the TLS protocol and the people who try to break it (be it from the hacker community or from academia). Unfortunately, this game is open-ended, meaning that it will never end and has no winner.

Not precisely news but it's good to stop, reflect, and look forward now and then.

Source: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2017/07/03/tls-security/

Original Submission

martyb writes:

[Update 3: The launch attempt had a hold at T-10 seconds. Because they were at the end of the launch window for this launch attempt, that effectively translated to being a scrub of today's launch attempt. Depending on what the analysis reveals, as well as weather and range considerations, the next launch attempt may be as early as tomorrow: July 4th. --martyb]

[Update 2: Launch now delayed because of weather according to this tweet:

Pushing T-0 to 8:35 p.m. EDT, 00:35 UTC for weather. Vehicle and payload remain in good health in advance of the @INTELSAT 35e launch.

--martyb]

[Update 1: according to this tweet:

New T-0 of 8:07 pm EDT, 00:07 UTC for weather. Vehicle and payload look good--all systems go for launch of @INTELSAT 35e.

For those who would like to follow along, a hosted live stream on YouTube is available. I have been unable to locate a non-youtube live stream; please reply in the comments if you find one. Please also comment if you find a technical webcast of this launch. --martyb]

In an update to a story announcing SpaceX's Sunday 19:36 EDT scheduled launch, Ars Technica now reports:

7:45pm ET Sunday update: The weather cooperated just fine on Sunday evening, near sunset in Florida, but the rocket did not. With just 10 seconds to go before liftoff, the on-board computers detected some issue within the rocket's guidance, navigation, and control system. At that point the flight computers stopped the countdown just before the engines were ignited. This forced a 24-hour scrub.

If it can diagnose and fix the problem, SpaceX will make a second attempt to launch the Intelsat 35e satellite on Monday, with the launch window opening at, or around, 7:37pm ET.

There is no indication that the 58-minute launch window has changed. For those not in the Eastern United States, the new launch window starts at 23:37 UTC on Monday, July 3.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

A bug in Linux's systemd init system causes root permissions to be given to services associated with invalid usernames, and while this could pose a security risk, exploitation is not an easy task.

A developer who uses the online moniker "mapleray" last week discovered a problem related to systemd unit files, the configuration files used to describe resources and their behavior. Mapleray noticed that a systemd unit file containing an invalid username – one that starts with a digit (e.g. "0day") – will initiate the targeted process with root privileges instead of regular user privileges.

Systemd is designed not to allow usernames that start with a numeric character, but Red Hat, CentOS and other Linux distributions do allow such usernames.

"It's systemd's parsing of the User= parameter that determines the naming doesn't follow a set of conventions, and decides to fall back to its default value, root," explained developer Mattias Geniar.

While this sounds like it could be leveraged to obtain root privileges on any Linux installation using systemd, exploiting the bug in an attack is not an easy task. Geniar pointed out that the attacker needs root privileges in the first place to edit the systemd unit file and use it.

[...] Systemd developers have classified this issue as "not-a-bug" and they apparently don't plan on fixing it. Linux users are divided on the matter – some believe this is a vulnerability that could pose a serious security risk, while others agree that a fix is not necessary.

See, this is why we can't have nice init systems.

Source: http://www.securityweek.com/linux-systemd-gives-root-privileges-invalid-usernames

Original Submission

takyon writes:

http://www.pcgamer.com/oculus-rift-creator-palmer-luckey-kicks-in-2000-to-crossvr-patreon/

Here's an unexpected twist: Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Oculus VR and the creator of the Oculus Rift, recently pledged $2000 per month to the Patreon for the CrossVR project that's developing Revive—the software that enables the use of Oculus-exclusive software of the HTC Vive headset.

[...] Luckey's support of the project could be seen as an amusing finger in the face of the company he founded but left (under under[sic] less-than-ideal circumstances) earlier this year, but as UploadVR reported in February, Oculus head of content Jason Rubin said at the 2017 DICE Summit that Oculus was not doing anything to stop Revive-type hacks from working, and was actually taking steps to enable them to run more effectively.

Original Submission