Wikipedia Blackout: 11 Huge Sites Protest SOPA, PIPA On January 18

January 26, 2012

On January 18, over 7,000 websites -- including Wikipedia and Google -- will protest anti-piracy legislation currently making its way through Congress. Sites in opposition to the measures will either "going dark" or post information to educate visitors about bills H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and S. 968, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), two pieces of legislation meant to curb copyright infringement.

While many may support the bills' intentions, opponents and civil libertarians are worried that their passage would give the government powerful censorship tools that could threaten free speech.

When a site "goes dark," or participates in a "blackout," the site will in some way restrict its usual content. For example, the English-language version of Wikipedia, which will be dark from midnight January 18 until midnight January 19, will feature information about SOPA and PIPA and encourage visitors to contact their representatives, in place of its usual encyclopedia entries. Similarly, visitors to Imagur's photo gallery will find information about the legislation and "a message about how the PIPA/SOPA legislation threatens sites like Imgur" as well as "methods to take action," according to the company's blog.

At a speech in Boston last autumn, Eric Schmidt, Google's former CEO and now executive chairman, called SOPA "draconian," CNN reports. Google announced on Tuesday that it would be posting on its homepage a link to information about the proposed legislation, according to The New York Times.

In November, a bevy of large Internet companies, including Facebook, Google, Zynga, Twitter and LinkedIn, published an open letter in the New York Times that said, in part, the companies were "concerned that these measures pose a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job-creation, as well as to our Nation's cybersecurity." AOL, which owns the Huffington Post, also signed the letter.

There are several ways you can get involved in the SOPA/PIPA protests. SopaStrike.com offers instructions on how to black out your own site. You can also let your voice be heard by clicking one of the links below.

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How Teleportation Will Work

January 21, 2012

Ever since the wheel was invented more than 5,000 years ago, people have been inventing new ways to travel faster from one point to another. The chariot, bicycle, automobile, airplane and rocket have all been invented to decrease the amount of time we spend getting to our desired destinations. Yet each of these forms of transportation share the same flaw: They require us to cross a physical distance, which can take anywhere from minutes to many hours depending on the starting and ending points.

But what if there were a way to get you from your home to the supermarket without having to use your car, or from your backyard to the International Space Station without having to board a spacecraft? There are scientists working right now on such a method of travel, combining properties of telecommunications and transportation to achieve a system called teleportation. In this article, you will learn about experiments that have actually achieved teleportation with photons, and how we might be able to use teleportation to travel anywhere, at anytime.

Teleportation involves dematerializing an object at one point, and sending the details of that object's precise atomic configuration to another location, where it will be reconstructed. What this means is that time and space could be eliminated from travel -- we could be transported to any location instantly, without actually crossing a physical distance.

Many of us were introduced to the idea of teleportation, and other futuristic technologies, by the short-lived Star Trek television series (1966-69) based on tales written by Gene Roddenberry. Viewers watched in amazement as Captain Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and others beamed down to the planets they encountered on their journeys through the universe.

In 1993, the idea of teleportation moved out of the realm of science fiction and into the world of theoretical possibility. It was then that physicist Charles Bennett and a team of researchers at IBM confirmed that quantum teleportation was possible, but only if the original object being teleported was destroyed. This revelation, first announced by Bennett at an annual meeting of the American Physical Society in March 1993, was followed by a report on his findings in the March 29, 1993 issue of Physical Review Letters. Since that time, experiments using photons have proven that quantum teleportation is in fact possible.

Source :

http://science.howstuffworks.com/

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New Microsoft Security Essentials Public Beta Begins

January 19, 2012

Microsoft have begun issuing invitations to testers who expressed an interest in the next generation version of their Security Essentials, free anti-virus product.

In the invitation email the company say…

The Beta program is a fully functional antimalware app with ongoing updates to help protect your PC from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. In addition to ongoing virus and spyware definition updates, we’ll provide software updates to the Beta for download through Microsoft Update on a periodic basis. To have these updates installed automatically, you must be subscribed to Microsoft Update with preferences set to Automatically download and install new updates.

This edition, version 4.0.1111.0 comes in both 64 bit and 32 bit versions and can upgrade a current Security Essentials installation automatically. The company also say that…

At the end of the Beta program, participants who are subscribed to automatic updates through Microsoft Update will be upgraded to the released version of Microsoft Security Essentials.

Which is news that will be welcomed by many people who simply don’t want to have to worry about it.

Microsoft have said that among improvements will be a much simplified interface, though on initial inspection it is very difficult to tell the difference between this and the previous version.

The new features are…

*
Enhanced protection through automatic malware remediation: The Beta program will clean highly impacting malware infections automatically, with no required user interaction.
*
Enhanced performance: The Beta includes many performance improvements to make sure your PC performance isn’t
compromised.
*
Simplified UI – Simplified UI makes Microsoft Security Essentials Beta easier to use.
*
New and improved protection engine: The updated engine offers enhanced detection with cleanup capabilities and better performance.

This software, which is based on the company’s Forefront anti-virus engine for enterprise customers, has been receiving some criticism in the last year for dropping down the ranking in anti-virus tests. This beta includes an improved scanning engine and Microsoft will be counting on this to put Security Essentials back in the top two or three for quarterly effectiveness surveys.

Microsoft Security Essentials is being built into Windows for the first time with Windows 8 and as such is bound to become a significant target itself. If people aren’t to install other third-party anti-virus software in Windows 8 they need to be reassured that Security Essentials, currently badged as Windows Defender in Windows 8, is a quality product that will protect them.

This inclusion into Windows 8 will make Security Essentials a target for malware writers who will try and undermine its effectiveness. The overall security features in Windows such as User Account Control will help minimise the surface for attack, but this must be high on Microsoft’s mind at the moment.

The download is 19.91Mb for both the versions (the 64-bit version is 11.04Mb and the 32-bit version is 8.87Mb) and runs on any version of Windows from XP with Service Pack 3 or later. The version you install must match the edition of Windows you are running, 32-bit or 64-bit.

The public beta is available through the Microsoft Connect website at connect.microsoft.com and I should stress it is just a beta, so should not be considered bug free and it might include vulnerabilities that leave your system vulnerable to malware and viruses.

Source :

http://www.ghacks.net/

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January Issue Now Available

January 10, 2012

Welcome to 2012! As you can tell from our fabulous cover, this month's postmortem is Eidos Montreal's well-received action-RPG, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The team speaks about their experiences reviving the much-loved Deus Ex franchise, and how important forward-thinking and planning were to making the title a success.

Also, the 14th annual Front Line Award winners are announced! Our readers have voted these tools as the best in the business for 2011, and we've also ushered one special tool into our Hall of Fame.

Other features this issue include an open source solution for the back-end work needed for social games, by the makers of Creatures 4, and an interview in which editor-in-chief Brandon Sheffield and Gamasutra's features director Christian Nutt interviewed Kenji Kobayashi, the director of DeNa. The three discuss profitsharing and enhancing player ability through careful design and in-app purchases.

Our GDC 2012 Preview Guide is also included, which highlights some of the many talks that will be featured at the March event.

Source :

http://www.gdmag.com/

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Run Away From The CEH Certification

January 09, 2012

Sharp-eyed reader DigitalDolphin forwarded me snippets of an email thread on the CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker) certification from EC-Council or International Council of E-Commerce Consultants.

Chief,

You were dead on about the CEH cert. I think you mentioned it in SecurityMonkey Podcast #1 a while back.

Somebody on a security list recently did some research on these guys.

1) EC-Council or International Council of E-Commerce Consultants is a Nevada incorporated company and has NO office in New York as they claim. Pay them a visit and there is absolutely NOTHING there. Any enquiry called is always met with one response - please email. Try checking their claims before you invest in their products.

2) EC-Council had announced a university earlier this year at Wyoming. They claim the certifications would get credits for their masters program. In my opinion this is a diploma paper mill at best that will have its license revoked sooner or later as per the legislature revoking all unaccredited programs.

3) In checking their members list, it seems that most of them are fictitious or hardly involved. I don't think renaming the only program they sell is going to fool the government for long.

4) Check this link and compare it with this link - Its the same thing. What is the value for existing CEH if they are going to certify some of the candidates as CNDA? Oopsies. Everything is the same. There is no alteration. Its not just money here... If some of us are going to be CEH and some CNDA, wont one destroy the value of the other? They are out to squeeze every last drop of money they can - think about it... To do LPT, you must have attended training. Check their website here and see for yourself.

5) And the best for last! What do you get for your $2500US?

- Plaque with your name on it
- LPT License card
- Resource CD-ROMS
- LPT T-shirts
- LPT caps
- LPT Certificate
- LPT Lapel Pin
- Membership ID

6) Why dont we go to archive.org to the wayback machine (as shown in CEH course) and look at EC-Council's site. ECSA / ECSP/ ECAD / LPT / etc have been announced more than a year ago. Why are there no certifications coming out yet?

The funniest part is that nobody else claims LPT is prestigious - nor is there an industry demand or recognition. LPT will grant you the license (to do what???). Please mail them and ask what the license stands for?

Just food for thought! Love the blog and make more podcasts please! And tell Scrap he is a wanker!

DigitalDolphin

Wow. Well, that is certainly food for thought regarding the CEH program. Have any of you checked out the program? I've not been a big fan of the curriculum. Scrap actually went through the course and the only thing he really liked was the CDs that they handed out.

Wow - $2500 for CDs that are assembled from tool found on the net.

No thanks.

~ Chief.

Source :

http://it.toolbox.com/

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Play Settlers of Catan Online [Game Saturday]

January 06, 2012


Nothing beats playing board games with a couple of friends as it is usually lots of fun. Sometimes though you fancy a game but do not have enough friends or space available to play the game locally. That’s where online games come into play.
Settlers of Catan – original Die Siedler von Catan – is one of the most successful board games of all time. Players who are interested in playing Catan online can do so at Play Catan, the official Catan game portal on the Internet.
Registered users can play the core Catan game against the computer or human opponents. Core game in this regard means the original board game without any expansions. Paid account are available that enable access to expansions like Cities & Knights, Seafarers or Catan the card game, as well as tournaments and other games by the Catan designer Wolfgang Teuber.
The Catan board game can be played online on the Play Catan website, or offline in one of the game clients. Catan game clients are available for Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems.
The online client requires Oracle’s Java Runtime Environment. It is suggested to make sure that the latest version of Java is installed on the system to avoid issues with the game.
Free account players can only create and join basic online games. This is done in the channel browser. Only basic games are listed for free players here. You can join games with a click on an open game in the list and the selection of join from the controls at the bottom. Please note that you need to click on Start when you are ready.

Games can be password protected which can be helpful if you want to play a friends only game. The game interface looks nice and clean.

The game begins with the settlement placement phase. Each player places two settlements and two roads on the screen. Players who have played the board game before know what to do as it plays exactly the same. Let me quickly walk you through the rules of the game.
The goal of the basic game is to accumulate 10 victory points before anyone else does. You get victory points for settlements (1), towns (2), the longest road (2), the strongest force (2) and victory point cards that you can draw (1).
Each turn begins with the role of the dice. The number corresponds to numbers on the board. You get resources if you have settlements or towns adjacent to board regions with that number. Players who roll a seven can move the robber and draw a resource card from a player who has a settlement or town adjacent to it.
You get one resource type for each settlement and two for each town (unless the robber is placed on it). You can then use the resources to build or buy. You can build roads and settlements, upgrade settlements to towns or purchase cards. Cards benefit the player drawing them. They can give the player a hidden victory point right away, allow the player to build two roads when the card is played or move the robber around by playing a knight card.
The active player can trade resources with other players. This is one of the key elements of the game, especially during the early stages of the game when players do not get lots of resources due to a lack of settlements and towns.
Players can also trade resources with the bank. Four resources of a single type can be traded against any other resource. Towns at harbor locations reduce the trade ration to 3:1 or 2:1 for a particular resource.
And that’s the game. It is easy to learn and play once you get the hang of it.
Game strategy depends largely on the initial map setup and placement of first settlements. It is obviously beneficial to place the settlements next to three adjacent regions that yield resources. Probability plays a role as well, as certain numbers will statistically be rolled more often than others (lowest are 2 and 12 at both ends, highest resource wise are 6 and 8 which are indicated with a red color on the map).
Placement of settlements and roads can also prevent expansion of another player, as it is essentially possible to block a player this way.
Play Catan is a true to the original board game version of Settlers of Catan. Have you played Settlers before? If so, what’s your opinion?

Source :

http://www.ghacks.net/

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How to Pick a Lock

January 05, 2012

Locked out of your house in the middle of the night? Have you lost the key to the padlock on the shed? Before you pay a locksmith to let you in or to open something up, consider picking the lock yourself. Most locks around the home or office are simple pin-and-tumbler locks and can be relatively easy to open using a pick and tension wrench, both of which can be improvised from common household items. While the process is simple and can be mastered with practice, picking such a lock requires a great deal of patience. To pick locks, a person has to insert a thin metal pin or needle, moving the pin around until hearing a click or a gear shift. This article will show you how to pick a lock.

Steps

• Understand how your lock works. The pin-and-tumbler lock consists of a cylinder that can rotate within its housing (see illustrations below). When locked, the cylinder is kept in place by several pairs of pins. The top pin of each pair protrudes into both the cylinder and the housing, thus preventing the cylinder from turning. When the correct key is inserted, it pushes the pairs of pins up so that the top pins no longer enter the cylinder. When this happens, the cylinder can be turned and the lock will open.     

                                                                                                                          
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Note the five pairs of pins.
• Note the five pairs of pins. The blue pins enter both the cylinder and the (green) housing around it, thus preventing the cylinder from turning. The springs provide resistance to keep the pins in place.

• When the key is inserted, the grooves and ridges on the key push the pins up to the correct heights so that all the blue pins are completely out of the cylinder, thus allowing the cylinder to turn and the lock to open.      

• Get a pick and tension wrench. Each pick is specialized for a different problem. A tension wrench, or torque wrench, is the device which you apply pressure with to turn the lock cylinder. Professional-grade picks and tension wrenches can be purchased in sets (see picture), but many lock picking hobbyists make good quality sets of their own. See the Things You'll Need section below for information on how to make your own picks and tension wrenches. 

• Place the tension wrench into the lower portion of the keyhole.

• Determine which way the cylinder must be turned to unlock the lock. If you commonly use the lock, you probably already know which way you turn the key to open the lock. If you don’t know, use the tension wrench to apply torque to the cylinder, first clockwise and then counterclockwise. The cylinder will only turn a fraction of an inch before it stops. Try to feel the firmness of the stop. If you turn the cylinder the wrong way, the stop should feel very firm and stiff. If you turn it the right way, there should be a bit more give. Some locks, especially among padlocks, will open regardless of which way the cylinder is turned.

• Apply light torque to the tension wrench in the correct direction, and hold. The required torque will vary from lock to lock and from pin to pin, so this may require some trial and error. Start gently, though.

• Insert the pick into the upper part of the keyhole and feel the pins. With the pick in the keyhole, you should be able to press up and feel the individual pins with the tip of the pick. You should be able to push them up and feel them spring back down when you release the pressure. Try to push each one all the way up. Identify which one is the hardest to push up. If they are all very easy to push up, turn your tension wrench more to increase the torque. If one won’t go up at all, ease the torque until you can push it up. Alternately, you may wish to “rake” the pins before this step (see Tips below).

• Push the stubborn pin up until it “sets.” Press the stubborn pin with just enough pressure to overcome the downward pressure of the spring. Remember, the pin is actually a pair of pins. Your pick is pushing against the lower pin, which in turn pushes against the upper pin. Your goal is to push the upper pin completely out of the cylinder. Then, when you stop pushing, the lower pin will fall back down into the cylinder, but the torque on the cylinder will result in a misalignment of the hole in the cylinder with the hole in the housing, and the upper pin should then rest on the cylinder without falling back down. You should hear a faint click as the upper pin falls back down on top of the cylinder. You should also be able to push the lower pin up a little with no resistance from the spring when this occurs you most likely have the upper pin “set.”

• Continue applying torque and repeat the last two steps for each of the remaining pins. It is imperative that you maintain torque on the cylinder to prevent the set pins from dropping back down. You may need to make slight increases or decreases in torque for each pin.

• Use the tension wrench to turn the cylinder and unlock the lock. Once all the pins are set, you should be able to turn the cylinder. Hopefully you have already ascertained the correct direction to turn it. If you have chosen the wrong direction, you will need to start over and reset all the pins.
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