tagged w/ Virus
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Bill Gates is one very confused billionaire philanthropist.
He understands global warming is a big problem — indeed, his 2012 Foundation Letter even frets about the grave threat it poses to food security. But he just doesn’t want to do very much now to stop it from happening (see Pro-geoengineering Bill Gates disses efficiency, “cute” solar, deployment — still doesn’t know how he got rich).
He love technofixes like geoengineering and, as we’ll see, genetically modified food. Rather than investing in cost-effective emissions reduction strategies today or in renewable energy technologies that are rapidly moving down the cost curve, he explains that the reason invests so much in nuclear R&D is “The good news about nuclear is that there has hardly been any innovation.” Seriously!
His Letter includes the ominous chart at the top, and he warns of the dire consequences of climate change:
Meanwhile, the threat of climate change is becoming clearer. Preliminary studies show that the rise in global temperature alone could reduce the productivity of the main crops by over 25 percent. Climate change will also increase the number of droughts and floods that can wipe out an entire season of crops. More and more people are raising familiar alarms about whether the world will be able to support itself in the future, as the population heads toward a projected 9.3 billion by 2050.
Strong stuff.
And yet, as the AP reported this week, the wealthiest of all Americans gets very prickly if you don’t wholeheartedly endorse his techno-fix adaptation-centric approach to dealing with this oncoming disaster:
Bill Gates has a terse response to criticism that the high-tech solutions he advocates for world hunger are too expensive or bad for the environment: Countries can embrace modern seed technology and genetic modification or their citizens will starve….
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has spent about $2 billion in the past five years to fight poverty and hunger in Africa and Asia, and much of that money has gone toward improving agricultural productivity.Gates doesn’t apologize for his endorsement of modern agriculture or sidestep criticism of genetic modification. He told The Associated Press that he finds it ironic that most people who oppose genetic engineering in plant breeding live in rich nations that he believes are responsible for global climate change that will lead to more starvation and malnutrition for the poor.
Resistance to new technology is “again hurting the people who had nothing to do with climate change happening,” Gates said.
The real irony is that most people who diss efficiency and renewables and aggressive greenhouse gas mitigation, like Gates, live in rich nations that are responsible for global climate change that will lead to more starvation and malnutrition for the poor.
Where is the story that says, “countries to embrace existing technology to reduce emissions or their citizens will starve” or resistance to aggressive low carbon technology deployment is “again hurting the people who had nothing to do with climate change happening”?
This is not a blog on genetic modification, so I’ll just quote the AP story:
Bill Freese, a science policy analyst for the Washington-based Center for Food Safety, said everyone wants to see things get better for hungry people, but genetically modified plants are more likely to make their developers rich than feed the poor. The seed is too expensive and has a high failure rate, he said. Better ways to increase yields would be increasing the fertility of soil by adding organic matter or combining plants growing in the same field to combat pests, he said.
The biggest problem with those alternatives, Freese said, is the same one that Gates cited in high-tech research: A lack of money for development.
snip
But the fact is, as Oxfam and others have made clear, global warming is poised to make food vastly more expensive, which will be devastating to the world’s poor know matter how much money Gates dumps into GM crops — see Oxfam Predicts Climate Change will Help Double Food Prices by 2030: “We Are Turning Abundance into Scarcity”:
More at the linkBill Gates is one very confused billionaire philanthropist.
He understands global... more
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We've rounded up our list of the 11 most viral stories of 2011, from the serious news of Arab Spring to the lighter news, like Rebecca Black's rise to Internet notoriety.
But we want to know what you think. Did we miss anything?We've rounded up our list of the 11 most viral stories of 2011, from the serious... more
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On a day when the people of the world come together in the fight against ‘HIV/AIDS’, in an exclusive interview with Salome Phelamei of Zeenews.com, Dr. Jai Babu discusses the chronic and critical condition stimulated by the deadly virus, its care and precautionary measures that need to be taken.
link:http://zeenews.india.com/news/health/exclusive/haart-effective-in-combating-hiv_14728.htmlOn a day when the people of the world come together in the fight against... more
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For 17 years, the Hendra virus smoldered in its host bat population, only rarely crossing to humans. Then it exploded, likely triggered by heavy rains and floods in Australia earlier this year. And that has public health doctors nervous about climate change.
"The interesting change was the big floods in January," said a disease ecologist at Pennsylvania State University. "Floods are expected more frequently with climate change – so, if they are linked, climate change may increase disease."
More at the linkFor 17 years, the Hendra virus smoldered in its host bat population, only rarely... more
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La CIA ha affermato che attualmente il secondo rischio più grande per gli Stati Uniti dopo un attacco atomico è costituito dal cyber terrorismo.
L’annuncio, anche se di una certa portata, non è nuovissimo visto che ancor prima il Presidente Obama aveva dichiarato che i sabotaggi ai sistemi informatici governativi e militari sarebbero stati, da lì in avanti, considerati come veri e propri atti di guerra. Internet è nato negli Stati Uniti, dove le aziende hanno grande libertà e possibilità di sfruttarne i vantaggi a livello globale, nonostante il forte controllo delle autorità governative. Ma è proprio il potere che le multinazionali stanno accumulando oltre i confini nazionali a mettere a rischio gli stessi governi fino a renderli più “vulnerabili allo spionaggio”. In più, è il caso di Google, certe aziende arrivano anche a rendere difficili le relazioni diplomatiche, come sta accadendo in questi anni tra USA e Cina.
Ma qual è la storia degli atti ostili contro gli Stati nazionali? Ripercorriamo i più grandi cyber attacchi governativi ad oggi entrati nei libri (ormai dovremmo dire siti web) di storia:
2007 – le banche e i siti del governo Estone (una delle nazioni più informatizzate in Europa) vengono attaccati con strumenti molto simili a quelli che verranno poi utilizzati contro la Georgia, ma con conseguenze più gravi.
2008 – Un virus informatico forza le barriere di uno dei network appartenente alle reti dei militari statunitensi. Secondo alcune fonti, il virus sarebbe stato creato in Russia.
2009 – La prima versione di Stuxnet , il primo worm che spia e riprogramma PC industriali, inizia velocemente a propagarsi nel mondo e finisce col sabotare parte del programma nucleare iraniano. Alcuni esperti hanno trovato indizi che imputano a Israele lo sviluppo del virus, con l’appoggio degli Stati Uniti.
2011 – Ad Agosto alcuni ricercatori, durante un controllo di routine, scoprono che per ben 2 anni un “soggetto statale” avrebbe hackerato i siti governativi degli Stati Uniti. Stessi attacchi vengono effettuati verso Vietnam e Taiwan con gravissime conseguenze. In ottobre, il Ministro della Difesa britannico ha denunciato più di 1000 tentativi di attacchi hacker contro il governo. Per questo motivo, ha chiesto una rapida reazione internazionale per fronteggiare la minaccia. In Italia invece abbiamo assistito ad attacchi più piccoli o annunci da parte di Anonymous contro il governo e l’AgCom per le misure sulle limitazioni della libertà in rete.
I siti governativi, come emerge da questa carrellata, sono fortemente legati alla sicurezza dei cittadini e quindi alle forze militari. Le regole condivise sui conflitti armati derivano dalle convenzioni internazionali, come il Protocollo di Ginevra oppure dai precedenti che le nazioni conoscono e rispettano. Ma di fronte ai cyber attacchi, i militari hanno dichiarato che non esiste nessuna norma consensuale sul modo di procedere.
La questione ruota attorno a cosa viene considerato “Atto di guerra”. Uno studio della NATO ha affermato che non è possibile applicare le stesse pratiche utilizzate nei casi degli attacchi convenzionali, poiché sia i responsabili degli attacchi, sia le conseguenze dell’offesa restano due elementi poco chiari per molto tempo. Che tipo di conseguenze può avere un atto di spionaggio su informazioni top secret? Ad esempio, in Georgia nel 2009 gran parte delle reti di comunicazione strategiche sono state fuori uso per mesi; di questo il governo georgiano ha accusato la Russia (con la quale c’era un conflitto in corso), ma non c’è mai stata una rivendicazione da parte dei russi. Stessa situazione per il virus Stuxnet, per il quale sia Israele che gli Stati Uniti hanno evitato di prendere posizione.
In un mondo in cui le multinazionali, i criminali e quindi il campo di battaglia superano i confini nazionali e le giurisdizioni, il passo più importante per i governi è quello di coordinare dei metodi di intervento rapidi e congiunti. In questa direzione il 3 novembre si è svolto il “Cyber Atlantic 2011”, la prima esercitazione sulla cyber sicurezza tra Europa e Stati Uniti: 20 Stati coinvolti nella simulazione hanno ipotizzato due scenari differenti, i tempi e le misure di reazione. In conclusione: i governi occidentali hanno iniziato ad affrontare in modo congiunto le minacce di attacchi informatici.La CIA ha affermato che attualmente il secondo rischio più grande per gli Stati... more
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They were told the vaccine had few side-effects and would protect their daughter from cervical cancer.
But Steve and Pauline Hinks are convinced the controversial HPV jab is behind their daughter Lucy’s mystery illness which is making her sleep up to 23 hours a day.
Tests have so far ruled out a brain tumour and glandular fever and the 13-year-old’s paediatric consultant is investigating potential links with the vaccine Cervarix.
The jab was used in a national vaccination programme which started in September 2008. But it has already been linked to several cases of girls displaying severe side-effects.
Before she received the vaccine, Lucy was perfectly healthy, had an excellent school attendance record and was among the top students in her year.
But just weeks after she received the third dose of Cervarix in May this year she began to feel exhausted. By July she had lost a stone in weight and was sleeping almost round-the-clock.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2061267/Schoolgirl-Lucy-Hinks-left-waking-coma-severe-reaction-cervical-cancer-jab.html#ixzz1dvHVPkraThey were told the vaccine had few side-effects and would protect their daughter from... more
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https://mistercreditblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/cyber-war-la-nuova-minaccia-del-terrorismo-informatico/
Le storie raccontate dalla fantascienza a volte si avverano. È il caso del crimine informatico in costante crescita e sviluppo. A volte, l’obiettivo non è strettamente economico.
Il primo virus che sia mai stato individuato (e che abbia infettato un pc) risale al 1986, ben 25 anni fa e fu creato da due fratelli pachistani. La storia tecnologica corre molto rapidamente e nel 2010 è uscito Cyber War, un testo piuttosto catastrofista molto popolare, scritto da Richard Clarke, esperto di controterrorismo e consulente per numerosi anni del governo USA.
In che modo un attacco informatico di cyber terroristi potrebbe influire su di noi?
Secondo il libro di Clarke, che parla del caso americano, l’attacco potrebbe avvenire ai danni del cervellone del Pentagono collegato agli altri provider di Internet, andando a influire sul funzionamento degli impianti pubblici come quelli chimici che regolano le quantità di cloro nell’acqua potabile e di altre sostanze nocive se usate in forti quantità. Per non parlare poi dei sistemi che regolano le metropolitane (che evitano gli scontri tra i vagoni) e del traffico aereo, sempre controllato da software connessi tramite la rete Internet. E tutto questo potrebbe avvenire nel giro di 15 minuti. Preoccupante il fatto che anche Mike McConnell, l’ex capo della National Security Agency ha detto durante un Congresso: “Se dovessimo entrare oggi in un conflitto cibernetico, perderemmo”. A questi si è aggiunto Leon Panetta, Segretario alla Difesa USA: “Un attacco Cibernetico potrebbe trasformarsi nella prossima Pearl Harbor”.
Ma questi sono scenari plausibili per tutte le società avanzate?
Paradossalmente, i Paesi più vulnerabili sono quelli più avanzati tecnologicamente perché hanno un maggior livello di informatizzazione a livello infrastrutturale. È difficile prevedere ogni tipo di attacco terroristico, ma sapere che la Cina ha già predisposto procedure per scollegare il suo network da tutta la rete globale suscita scenari da “guerra fredda informatica”.
Gli accadimenti più famosi degli ultimi anni della Cyber-War
2004: l’UE crea l’ENISA, Agenzia europea per la sicurezza delle reti e dell’informazione, un organismo di ricerca per coadiuvare le altre strutture e per migliorare la cooperazione, uno dei punti fondamentali per la lotta al crimine informatico.
2007: l’Estonia, paese noto per l’alto livello di informatizzazione delle sue strutture pubbliche (E-stonia), subisce l’attacco degli uffici di Parlamento, Presidenza, Ministeri, banche, giornali e televisioni.
2009: Obama dichiara che gli attacchi terroristici sulle reti informatiche costituiscono una grave minaccia e che l’America non può farsi cogliere impreparata. Inizia così una serie di politiche per far fronte al rischio.
2010: Stuxnet è stato il primo virus ad entrare in numerosi sistemi informatici industriali, spiarli e riprogrammarli. L’attacco è stato portato contro Iran e Cina e, al momento dell’assedio, Ahmadinejad, presidente dell’Iran, ha dichiarato che dietro quell’attacco c’era un altro governo straniero.
Oggi i governi sono più consapevoli del problema a e si stanno attivando in vario modo. In Europa però persistono ancora difficoltà sul coordinamento tra le nazioni a livello legislativo e normativo: la Commissione Europea ha varato la direttiva 114/2008 per l’attuazione del Programma Europeo di Protezione delle Infrastrutture Critiche (EPCIP) che si occupa di terrorismo, ma anche di altri tipi di crimine e di catastrofi naturali.
Tornando agli appassionati di fantascienza, chi di voi ha letto Neuromante di William Gibson? L’autore della letteratura cyber-punk immaginava un futuro in cui le guerre globali venivano combattute con i virus informatici. E voi? Come immaginate il futuro?https://mistercreditblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/cyber-war-la-nuova-minaccia-del-terro... more
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A report released Wednesday by the Washington- based Food and Water Watch (FWW) on the destructive impacts of GMOs added fuel to a two-decades-long fight by farmers, economists and experts against the FDA's conclusions.
"Genetically Engineered Food: An Overview" details how the genetic engineering of seeds, crops and animals for human consumption is not the foolproof answer long championed by agribusiness and biotechnology industries to feeding the world.
To the contrary, the study found that genetically engineered/modified (GE/M) organisms do not out-perform their natural counterparts, and their proliferation into vast tracts of cropland have caused a slew of environmental and health crises, and actually increased poverty by forcing millions of farmers to "buy" patented seeds at exorbitant prices.
snip
According to the report, over 365 million acres of GE crops were cultivated in 29 countries in 2010 alone, representing 10 percent of global cropland.
"The United States is the world leader in GE crop production, with 165 million acres, or nearly half of global production," Patty Lovera, assistant director of FWW, told IPS.
"From only seven percent of soybean acres and one percent of corn acres in 1996, GE cultivation in the U.S. shot up to 94 percent of soybean and 88 percent of corn acres in 2011," she added.
The bulk of these crops came from seeds owned by Monsanto.
"Eighty-four percent of GM crops in the world today are herbicide- resistant soybeans, corn, cotton or canola, predominantly Monsanto's 'Roundup Ready' varieties that withstand dousing with herbicide," Bill Frees, science policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and author of 'Why GM Crops Will Not Feed the World', told IPS.
"Pesticide and chemical companies like Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, Dow and Bayer have bought up many of the world's largest seed companies, and now call themselves biotech companies - this represents a historic merger of the pesticide and seed industries, which allows them to profit twice by developing expensive GM seeds that increase use of the company's herbicide products," he added.
Seed patents, an off-shoot of the "agro-biotech revolution" that also spawned GE/M, have had two negative consequences since their original issuance by the U.S. Patent Office in the mid-1990s, Frees told IPS: "They enticed pesticide companies to buy up seed firms; and they led to criminalisation of seed-saving."
"Farmers have saved seeds from their harvest to replant the next year for millennia," he added. "Monsanto is changing that. The company has already sued thousands of farmers in the U.S. for saving and replanting its patented seeds and won an estimated 85 to 160 million dollars from farmers, in lawsuits that have ruined farmers' lives, and (partially explains) why we have ever fewer farmers in America."
The pushback
Ray Tricomo, a mentor at the Kalpulli Turtle Island Multiversity in Minnesota, told IPS, "People of colour must re-radicalise themselves and go on the offensive including the return to land bases, from Turtle Island to Africa and Asia."
"Ancient knowledge systems are to be painstakingly recovered, even if it takes centuries," he added.
And this is exactly what is happening.
Despite the deep pockets and aggressive efforts of Big Agro, a major pushback from a broad coalition of forces has limited 80 percent of GE/M planting to just three export-oriented countries: the U.S., Brazil and Argentina.
Nearly two dozen other countries, including the European Union and China, have passed mandatory GE/M labeling, and millions around the world are refusing seed patenting and developing seed banks to protect, share and preserve their seeds.
In Florida, the 4,000-strong Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is organising to resist farm wage-slavery and "seed-servitude". The Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil has organised 400,000 peasants to join forces with the nearly half-billion farms around the world that are responsible for producing 70 percent of the world's food.
Navdanya, an organisation in the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh, has united 500,000 farmers in their struggle to fight chemical dependency and save indigenous seeds, including preserving over 3,000 varieties of rice.
"For five years, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (CSD) had indigenous farmers from all over the globe come to speak against destructive farm practices and GMOs," King told IPS.
"During the Indigenous People's Permanent Forum, there were complaints about the harm caused by industrial agriculture and the acts in the name of agribusinesses. Farm workers like the (CIW) are protesting their fate," she added.
"They are picketing companies like Trader Joes and Whole Foods, letting the public know that their tomatoes were picked from workers who are basically slave labour."
"Third World Network is fighting back by exploring the problem of GMOs and publishing findings that scientists working on GMOs are capitalists using humans as guinea pigs in a global lab experiment," she added.
"[Numerous] deaths and disabilities have been traced back to a GM product emulating tryptophan. It took nearly 20 years to find the source of the problem," King told IPS.
"GM technology is antithetical to an agroecological approach to agriculture, our only hope for truly sustainable food production," Frees told IPS.
"Without radical change we will continue to have famines," he added. "Haiti is a good example of what happens when a country's farmers are put out of business by cheap, subsidised imports from a rich producer nation (here the U.S.)."
More at the linkA report released Wednesday by the Washington- based Food and Water Watch (FWW) on the... more
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Why do hackers hack? Why create a worm that sends out an email to everyone in your contact list, or a Trojan that deletes your term papers? Is it mischief, malice, money, or something else entirely?
This is the question that was on my mind when I met with Mikko Hypponen, a legendary computer security heavyweight who has been hunting viruses for 25 years—since Brain.a, the first PC computer virus.
From the plaza, I walked out to a seat by the water facing the San Francisco Bay. Hypponen was there, waiting for me. I sat down next to him. I felt like we needed code phrases.
"What makes this a New Orleans iced coffee," he asked, as he accepted his drink.
"It's the chicory," I replied.
"Did you know the Finns drink more coffee per capita than any other nation?"
"I did know that," I replied. "I know a lot about coffee."
Okay! I guess we had our code phrases after all.
Hypponen is the lead security researcher for F-Secure in Finland. His takedowns and diagnosis include some of the nastiest, biggest computer viruses out there: Sobig.F, Sasser, Storm Worm. PC World called him one of the 50 most important people on the Web. Hypponen was on his way to a black hat conference in Las Vegas.
We met at the Ferry Plaza in San Francisco, sitting by the pier as commuter boats came and went. I wanted to ask him about the long history of personal computer viruses, now in their 25th year, from the simple to Stuxnet, and the shifting motivations that inspire virus writers to act. We had an hour.
The Hobbyists
2011 is the 25th anniversary of the first PC virus. In September, 1986, two brothers from Lahore, Pakistan, Amjad Farooq Alvi and Basit Farooq Alvi, released Brain.a into the wild. Brain.a infected the boot section of computers running PC-DOS. Its authors claimed they were simply trying to target people who were infringing on their own software. But the virus spread wide across the world, and marked the beginning of the malware era in computing.
Late last year, Hypponen was going through his records at F-Secure. He found a box with the 100 first computer viruses, all on floppy disks. "These are probably from five years or more," says Hypponen, "now more than that are written in one hour."
He realized that the first of these, Brain, was approaching its birthday. He had a long history with it, having studied it when it was first unleashed. To mark the anniversary, he travelled to Lahore, Pakistan, in an attempt to track the Alvi brothers down. Amazingly, they still had a business at the same address they had listed in the original Brain.a virus code. So he knocked on the door. They answered.
"They wanted to demonstrate that the PC system was not as secure as Microsoft and IBM said it was," he explains. "They thought it was weak, and [wrote Brain] to demonstrate that."
The Alvi brothers were Unix guys. DOS seemed like a weaker system, and they thought they might be able to exploit it. They wanted to see if they could move code from one system to another, on its own. They wanted to see if it could be transmitted, like a virus.
It worked! Before long the brothers (who had helpfully included their phone number in the code) were getting calls from universities and businesses all over the world, wanting to know what it was.
Others began tinkering with Brain.a, releasing variants. And as time passed, more and more people began writing distinct viruses. These were for the most part, however, more of annoyances than real problems. They might mess up your system but they would not (for most people at least) ruin your life.
And then came email. And that was bad.
"It has changed completely now," says Hypponen. "It changed from hobbyists and old school hackers around 2002 or 2003 when the hobbyists realized they could make money."
The Criminals
By the turn of the century, spam was big business. But in order to send out a lot of spam, you needed a lot of computers. And to keep from getting caught, they shouldn't be your own. Enter botnets.
Viruses allowed spammers to capture and control users' computers remotely. They could use infected machines to ensnare other computers, sending out not just offers for herbal viagra, but phishing attacks and keystroke loggers that give them access to bank and financial data and personal information. By 2005, the point of malware writing had largely changed. Fuck proof of concept. Now it's for money.
There's also another reason that malware writers have surged: Microsoft Windows XP. That ancient system is, unbelievably, still the most widely used operating system on the planet. It's installed on more than 50 percent of all machines connected to the Internet, and it's very insecure.
"XP is the weakest of all systems," says Hypponen, " and it is installed on the most computers. Of course you will target that."
"The source of malware today is 99 percent criminal gangs, and that's a pretty nasty development," says Hypponen. "We didn't used to have to worry in the real world. But now there are organized criminal gangs, making millions from their attacks. When we shut down their operations, they know who we are."
It's not just a hypothetical fear. Ivan Eugene Kaspersky, who owns one of the world's leading anti-virus security labs, had his son Ivan snatched off the streets of Moscow earlier this year. Whether there was a revenge motivation, in addition to the ransom, is still unclear. But the fact remains that anti-virus guys are now effectively standing between the mob and big piles of money. Which is never a very safe place to be.
And if that wasn't bad enough, now there's a new, potentially deadlier, source of viruses: governments.
The Spies
"I have Stuxnet right here with me in my bag! Do you want it?"
He leans over and slaps his computer bag on the side. I decline. I know it's not, say, smallpox, but sitting next to the most sophisticated computer virus ever created is oddly worrisome.
Stuxnet upped the ante. It targeted only a certain programming environment, with a certain PLC, with a certain configuration, in a certain location—which turned out to be a nuclear plant in Iran. When it went active, it recorded the normal plant operations for a few days, and then began playing them back to monitors, like a closed circuit tv camera in a bank heist film, while in actuality it was modifying the speed centrifuges spun at, causing them to break apart, most likely in violent fashion. Stuxnet, for now at least, ended Iran's nuclear ambitions.
But where did it come from?
"It was done by your government!" The Finn doesn't have any proof of this, but like most security researchers, he takes it as accepted wisdom.
"I do believe that when in 2008, George W. Bush signed the [Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative] that the end result of that was Stuxnet."
Unlike most viruses, Stuxnet didn't spread over the Internet. Instead, it spreads from one machine to another on infected USB sticks. Which means that somehow, someone had to get an infected stick into physical contact with Iran's nuclear facility in Bushier.
"We don't know how it was originally planted, says Hypponen. "My guess is that they pick-pocketed workers, or broke into their homes and planted them."
Stuxnet has heralded a new era. Today's sophisticated malware attacks might now just target one machine in the entire world. An employee at a certain company could get a virus targeted just to that specific person. Governments, corporations, and extremist groups are already engaged in this. As Hypponen points out, Stuxnet had been in the wild for more than a year before anyone discovered it.
http://gizmodo.com/5827405/why-hackers-write-computer-virusesWhy do hackers hack? Why create a worm that sends out an email to everyone in your... more
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A 10-minute video reportage about Mikko Hypponen's trip to Lahore, Pakistan, to find the authors of the first PC virus "Brain". This is the first time Amjad Farooq Alvi and Basit Farooq Alvi have given a video interview about the virus, which spread around the world via floppy disks in 1986.A 10-minute video reportage about Mikko Hypponen's trip to Lahore, Pakistan, to... more
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Beware, malware. The Windows AutoRun updates for Vista and XP SP3 that Microsoft released in February have so far proven successful in thwarting your file corrupting ways. Although Windows 7 was updated to disable AutoPlay within AutoRun for USB drives -- freezing the ability for a virus to exploit it -- the aforementioned versions had remained vulnerable up until right after January. Fast-forward to the period between February and May of this year, and the updates have reduced the number of incidents by 1.3 million compared to the three months prior for the supported Vista and XP builds. Amazingly, when stacked against May of last year, there was also a 68 percent decline in the amount of incidents reported across all builds of Windows using Microsoft's Malicious Software Remove Tool. There's another fancy graph after the break to help illustrate, and you'll find two more along with a full breakdown by hitting the source link down under.Beware, malware. The Windows AutoRun updates for Vista and XP SP3 that Microsoft... more
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PLENARY SESSION OF THE CONGRESS APPROVED MORATORIUM OF TEN YEARS FOR THE
ENTRANCE OF TRANSGENIC
via GENET-news
SOURCE: Andian, Peru
AUTHOR: Machine translation of the Spanish text
URL: http://www.andina.com.pe/Espanol/Noticia.aspx?id=RT87MrHPjyo=
DATE: 07.06.2011
SUMMARY: "The Plenary Session of the Congress, approved the opinion of the law
project that declares a moratorium of ten years that prevents the import of
Genetically Modified Organisms on the national territory for cultivation,
breeding or of any transgenic production."
Lima, jun. 07 (ANDINA). The Plenary Session of the Congress, approved the
opinion of the law project that declares a moratorium of ten years that prevents
the import of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) on the national territory for
cultivation, breeding or of any transgenic production. It was sustained by the
president of the Agrarian Commission, Aníbal Huerta (PAP), who declared that in
the face of the danger that can arise from the use of the biotechnology a
moratorium must be approved to take care of our biodiversity. It received the
endorsement of congressmen Elizabeth Leon (BPCD), Franklin Sanchez (PAP),
Mauritius Mulder (PAP), Oswaldo Luizar (BPCD), Jorge of Castillo (PAP), Oswaldo
de la Cruz (GPF), Luis Wilson (PAP), Yonhy Lescano (AP), Aldo Estrada (UPP),
Hilda Guevara (PAP), Gloria Branches (BPDC) and Maria Sumire (GPN). From
different viewpoints, they agreed in the defense of the national biodiversity
due to our greater climatic diversity, but they differed with regard
to the moratorium.
Congressman Alejandro Rebaza (PAP), made some precisions to
the opinion and, like the colleagues Sanchez and Estrada, proposed a technical
commission of prevention and investigation that issues a report in two years.
The legislators Raul Castro (UN) and Juan Carlos Eguren (UN) expressed
themselves against the moratorium, because they considered that already we
consumed transgenic products and that the doors to biotechnology could not be
closed because the transgenic production, that is necessary for covering the
food needs, has 70% more sale than the organic production. The parliamentarian
José Saldaña (AN) remembered that the biologists have asked to file the project
in debate because already exists a law on the matter, whereas legislator Yaneth
Cajahuanca (GPN) suggested to leave the project for the next session. On the
other hand, congressmen Luis Giampietri (PAP) and Édgard Núñez (PAP) said that
it is not possible to close the doors to science and that it is possible to decided on a prudential moratorium of five years.
Finally, the president of the Commission of Andean Towns, Washington Zeballos (BPCD), informed on the modifications to the opinion and that the term of the moratorium would have to be of ten years. The proposal was approved by 56 votes to favor, zero against and two abstentions and exonerated from second voting by 50 votes to favor, four against and three abstentions. The approved norm establishes a
moratorium of ten years, determines as competent authority of the subject to the
Ministry of the Environemnt and creates a Technical Commission of Evaluation and
Prevention of Risks of Use of GMOs, that in two years will have to issue a
report on the subject.PLENARY SESSION OF THE CONGRESS APPROVED MORATORIUM OF TEN YEARS FOR THE
ENTRANCE OF... more
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As the chances of cyber attack increases, programmers have been finding foolproof protection for computers against virus , but it still find ways to attack and jeorpardise the system.
link :http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/software/digital-ants-army-may-soon-protect-computers-against-virus/articleshow/8635148.cmsAs the chances of cyber attack increases, programmers have been finding foolproof... more
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With the biggest news in a decade dominating the Internet, it didn't take long for rogue viruses, Trojans and other malware to mess with computers given the chance.
Web searches and links to a variety of stories — real and fake — about the death of Osama bin Laden are sprouting with all kinds of malicious software as cybercriminals look for a big payday tied to the appetite for news about the Al-Qaida leader's demise.
(more at link)With the biggest news in a decade dominating the Internet, it didn't take long... more
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Researchers at MIT have found a way to make significant improvements to the power-conversion efficiency of solar cells by enlisting the services of tiny viruses to perform detailed assembly work at the microscopic level.
LINK : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110425153609.htmResearchers at MIT have found a way to make significant improvements to the... more
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An Iranian hacker has claimed responsibility for an attack on a computer security firm that exposed millions of internet users to potential surveillance.
The hacker said his attack was mounted in revenge for the Stuxnet virus attack on his country's nuclear programme.
The boast follows a major security breach at Comodo Group, a “certification authority” which acts as an independent third party to ensure communications between users and websites are properly encrypted. The integrity of such encryption is a fundamental part of web security, foiling attackers who could otherwise easily monitor emails or steal online banking details.
Messages posted online on Saturday claimed that a lone 21-year-old hacker was able to hack into Comodo “very, very fast”. “Comodohacker”, as he named himself, said he used his “experience of 1,000 hackers” to defend Iran’s leadership and nuclear scientists against international and domestic opponents.
In one lengthy message, in flawed English, he boasted: “I know you are really shocked about my knowledge, my skill, my speed, my expertise and entire attack. That's okay, all of it was so easy for me.”
Comodohacker railed especially against Stuxnet, a highly sophisticated virus that last year disrupted centrifuge control systems at Iran’s uranium enrichment site at Natanz. Forensic investigations of the attack have strongly indicated it was a joint operation by US and Israeli secret intelligence services.
“When USA and Israel creates Stuxnet, nobody talks about it, nobody blamed, nothing happened at all, so when I sign certificates nothing should happen, I say that, when I sign certificates nothing should happen,” Comodohacker said.
“If you was doing a dirty business in internet inside Iran, I suggest you to quit your job, listen to sound of most of people of Iran, otherwise you'll be in a big trouble, also you can leave digital world and return to using abacus.”
Comodohacker’s messages implicitly denied any government involvement, but threatened dissidents.
“Anyone inside Iran with problems, from fake green movement to all MKO [an armed dissident group] members and two faced terrorists, should afraid of me personally,” he claimed.
“As I live, you don't have privacy in internet, you don't have security in digital world, just wait and see.”
more at link...
What a badass mofo!An Iranian hacker has claimed responsibility for an attack on a computer security firm... more
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Controlling the spread of HIV, the viral precursor to AIDS, is daunting but essential to getting the as-yet incurable epidemic under control. UC San Diego biochemist Leor Weinberger came up with a novel approach to the problem: he and his colleagues at San Diego and UCLA have engineered a particle that piggybacks on the virus as it moves between individuals and then competes with it once they're both inside a cell.
LINK : http://news.discovery.com/tech/fight-aids-virus-with-a-virus-110324.htmlControlling the spread of HIV, the viral precursor to AIDS, is daunting but essential... more
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