U.S. House to probe federal network intrusions by foreign hackers

Well after 10 or more years of foreign intelligence services sniffing the net for intel on US and UK government computers, finally, atleast the system is functioning, somewhat and now a subcommittee hearing is set for Thursday.

Heres the rest of the story by Jaikumar Vijayan April 17, 2007  (Computerworld) 

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This may be pointing to something finally, like a zone recon points to a battle!

Story #1 openSUSE Hobbled By Microsoft Patents

Posted by CowboyNeal on Tuesday April 10, @07:38AM

from the or-at-least-disfigured dept.

Novell Microsoft Patents SuSE Linux

kripkenstein writes "openSUSE 10.2 no longer enables ClearType (which would improve the appearance of fonts). The reason given on the openSUSE mailing list for not enabling it is, 'this feature is covered by several Microsoft patents and should not be activated in any default build of the library.' As reported on and discussed, this matter may be connected to the Microsoft-Novell deal. If so, Novell should have received a license for the Microsoft patents, assuming the deal covered all relevant patents. Does the license therefore extend only to SUSE, but not openSUSE?





Perens Counters Claim of GPL Legal Risk

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday April 10, @12:42PM

from the not-so-fast-my-friend dept.



 

Microsoft Delenda Est writes "After ACT, a Microsoft front group, started claiming that the GPLv3 was legally 'risky' and could give rise to anti-trust liability, eWeek has published a rebuttal by Bruce Perens. Aside from the fact that IBM, HP, Red Hat, and a couple dozen corporate lawyers are watching over the creation of the GPLv3, there is already precedent that shows the GPL is unlikely to give rise to any significant liability — Daniel Wallace v. FSF. In that case, pro se litigant Daniel Wallace was all but laughed out of the courtroom for alleging the GPLv2 violates anti-trust law, and the GPLv3 clauses in question are simply clarifications and extensions of clauses in the GPLv2. Presumably, that is why the ACT neglected to cite any precedent substantiating their allegations."



Call me crazy, but in the past I've made note of Microsoft's cozying up to Linux in its Novell deal last year, and have openly asked what gives. What was obvious to me then and now is that with the Redmond giant nothing is as it seems. A deal with Novell makes sense only in two scenarios.



1.Microsoft has finally come to the realization that the business model has finally shifted to the point where their present model has to be scrapped. An idea I find untenable, while MS may have come to this long term conclusion, I don't think they are agile enough to actually embrace the necessary changes in structure that they would need to to revamp the company, so in my opinion! this isn't whats going on.



2.The alternative I find more likely is similar to Al Pacino's character in the god father, who elicits "keep you family & friends close, but keep your enemies closer" this is the nascent logic behind the Linux foray with Novell. In my opinion!





    In all honesty I think they really don't comprehend the competition that is threatening their business model, like no has since the 1980's.

The result is a very public association with one of the major player, in this case Novell and Suse Linux.

     The result is they have new and inside information on the way Linux runs, not the operating system per say, but a more in the community, person to person perspective that you don't get from lab analysis of source code. When you think about some things that have been reported, like Steve Balmer's threats to the open source community for patent infringements, oddly enough only weeks after the Novell deal was signed.

At first it doesn't make sense, until I started seeing a pattern of almost carrot and stick like behavior, earlier this week SCO made remarks that they may be considering action against Linux users,this following   Steve Ballmer's Repeating Threats Against Linux

(On February 21st, 2007 with 470 comments). All while MS has been trying to woo other Linux distributions in to deals like they did with Novell. In fact MS is alleging that they won't try to claim compensatory damages via the courts if the Linux distributions and software vendors agree to play ball.

This sends a very clear signal, that is, pay up or go home.

Microsoft has a huge capital out lay in its latest desktop and server operating systems and they are apparently trying to hedge their bets with this carrot and stick mantra hoping to gain a foot hold in a market they don't really grasp as yet. Personally with the pattern pretty well set I suspect that the blissful Novell / Microsoft union will fold at just about 12 months.

I suspect the legal battles will start early in the new year.

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From the Navy Times: Hackers access DFSA myPay accounts

By Rod Hafemeister - Staff writer

Posted : Saturday Mar 24, 2007 8:04:21 EDT



"SAN ANTONIO — Defense officials announced March 23 that nearly two dozen “myPay” users have had money redirected from their accounts in the past eight months by hackers who apparently accessed the service members’ home computers."



    If true this points to a serious breach of security, while the pay and finance inst a critical war infrastructure, it is secured in a similar manner to government network services such as N.M.C.I. (Navy, Marine Corp Intranet).



Also I like to point out that the pay system in question is a separate network from the war fighting infrastructure.



    Never the less, all Military network Admins and their associated sub-contractors need to pull a full up review of policy's and procedures and personnel training on these networks as intrusions like this have a nasty habit of being socially engineered, or perniciously through email phishing scams.



  





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Live from slashdot: FAA May Ditch Vista For Linux

Posted by kdawson on 6:07 Wednesday 07 March 2007

from the hello-Google dept.



An anonymous reader writes "Another straw in the wind: following last week's news that the US Department of Transportation is putting a halt on upgrades to Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Internet Explorer 7, today comes word that the Federal Aviation Administration may ditch Vista and Office in favor of Google's new online business applications running on Linux-based hardware. (The FAA is part of the DOT.) The FAA's CIO David Bowen told InformationWeek he's taking a close look at the Premier Edition of Google Apps as he mulls replacements for the agency's Windows XP-based desktop computers. Bowen cited several reasons why he finds Google Apps attractive. 'From a security and management standpoint that would have some advantages,' he said."

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Crack! Security expert hacks RFID in UK passport

Successful effort pulled data off document in mailing envelope
Jeremy Kirk

March 06, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- A security expert has cracked one of the U.K.'s new biometric passports, which the British government hopes will cut down on cross-border crime and illegal immigration.

If true this illustrates the dangers of naively putting RFID chips into not only passports but credit and debit cards as well. This could well be a huge economic boomerang that could hurt the very core of trust in government and in our economy. All an identity thief needs to do is scan the passport for the person's photograph and fingerprints and other biometric data on the rfid chips.

The problem is isn't if the the data will be stollen but when it will be. This data is too valuable when it is stored enmasse on a large centralized database. There are criminals who would love to "A" prove that the hack can be done and "B" make a tone of cash off of the reselling of your personal information. Also there are Criminals who will just sit reading news papers at the airport waiting for you to walk by with your passport and its rfid chip inside, while they sit there reading the rfid reader in their pocket is skiming your vital information right out of your passport.

Further since your at an airport, you obviously not on the no fly list, that makes you a prime candidate for an identity theft, by any of a hundred types of criminals from organized crime, terrorists, or just regular criminals swiping identitys for resale on the black market. You as a travel capable passenger are who they'll be looking for. This is the real problem of putting our information in such a convienient location, it makes it convienient for both the goverment and criminals to scrape all the data you have stored on the passport.

We really need to rethink this idea!

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Hardware-based rootkit detection proven unreliable

OR how with the right amount of time and drive, nothing is totally safe

From a story by Ryan Naraine /Tracking the hackers

Apparently Joanna Rutkowska, a security researcher at COSEINC Malware Labs, an elite hacker who specializes in offensive rootkit research s found several ways to manipulate the results given to hardware-based solutions (PCI cards or FireWire bus).



The research, though theoretical, points to the need for multiple solutions (hardware and software) to work in tandem during forensics. It also highlights just how scary the threat from sophisticated rootkits can be. If, Rutkowska has proven this, forensic examiners then can't depend on images collected from RAM, then it's game over.



This is a terrifying prospect, I'll keep on this item as this could render any infected computer unuseable until the system is wiped and recovered. Well as long as the machine isn't a virtually machine rootkit'd you can recover it.

Trully interesting times.

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Balmer Says What!

Ok Steve Balmer thumped his chest last week, demanding that the Open Source community to stop infringing on an alleged plethora of Microsoft patents. The funny thing I find with this is Microsoft doesn't warn people of patent infringments, they just sue!, so my next question is, is this the other side of the Microsoft/ Novell deal from November of last year. The one where Microsoft signed a deal with Novell in a channel partnering agreement where Microsoft will front Novells Suse linux and Novell will get help making Microsoft products to run on "Suse" linux.

All of this breast beating is to start a greenmail campaign to try and monetize a market that three years ago Microsoft was calling a marginal market space that wasn't worth their time. After all that was the logic of why they didn't port Office 2003 to linux in 2004.



As for if Microsoft will make a legal move on Linux, I think it's just posturing, designed to scare the technically marginally knowledgable, people who only know only enough to spell Microsoft. If you want to know the history of Microsoft and the Law look at these links from http://www.aaxnet.com/topics/msinc.html

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MUX.am

Hey Are you a linux user like me or do you prefer to watch or listen to your favorite video cast in a different format, than is offered to you.



Then you need to check out MUX.AM and it really helps those of us in the linux world who need a different format. For instance it will convert any of the following formats to include, quicktime, mpeg4, divix, wmv, flash video, windows avi, and 3GP mobile into any other version on the list.



The native is 320x 240 but you can specify larger, I've done 640X480 successfully, just follow the instructions and it will convert the file at the specified URL you supply into the sites input box, then supply your email where the finished link can be sent.



Hit submit and 15 to 35 minutes later you'll receive an email with the link to your converted file awaiting download. This is a great solution, and it solves alot of headaches for the end user in its simplicity of use.

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LINUX DEAL SITS WELL WITH MICROSOFT or Boomerang in a bottle ?

With Novell tied up with Microsoft in an extraordinarily strange bed fellow situation, I have to ask is this really what Microsoft wants? And more importantly is this exactly what the Linux community wants?



What is being reported from several sources (www.sda-india.com techtarget.com) is that Microsoft is actually selling more Linux servers from Novell than was anticipated. This is a double edged sword as Walmart bought 17,000 licenses for its data centers in December. The end run is does Microsoft really want to be front man for its primary server opposition. My gut check is NO! and this alliance will run its course inside of 18 months with a quiet split, especially quiet if Linux starts to take its toll on Microsoft server sales. This should be interesting to watch.

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From LiveScience.com: Stealthy Iris Scanner in the Works

By Bill Christensen

A public iris scanning
device has been proposed in a patent from Samoff Labs in New Jersey. The device is able to
scan the iris of the eye without the knowledge or consent of the person being scanned. The device
uses multiple cameras, and then combines images to create a single
scan

(see diagram)

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Repost From Cnet; Posted to Slashdot! : ISP Tracking Legislation Hits the House

by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday February 07, @04:15PM

from the someone-is-always-watching-in-your-hotel dept.

Privacy The Internet

cnet-declan writes "CNET News.com reports that Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives announced yesterday legislation to force ISPs to keep track of what their users are doing. It's part of the Republicans 'law and order agenda,' with other components devoted to the death penalty, gangs, and terrorists. Attorney General Gonzales would be permitted to force Internet providers to keep logs of Web browsing, instant message exchanges, and e-mail conversations indefinitely. The draft bill is available online, and it also includes mandatory Web labeling for sexually explicit pages. The idea enjoys bipartisan support: a Colorado Democrat has been the most ardent supporter in the entire Congress."

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Hell freezes over again! Steve Jobs wants to remediate the record industry

http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/4548

http://crunchgear.com/2007/02/07/steve-jobs-to-labels-set-your-music-free/

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/12546/

This is one of those ideas whose time has finally come, and its not because Steve Jobs is a real nice guy either, I mean he may well be but this opening salvo from Jobs on DRM screams to me that the behind the scenes fire fights must have been horrendous, think about it, we're referring to our friend at "RIAA" the same wonderful pack who sue people who don't now or never have owned computers in their fight to defend the bottom line. Now here comes Steve, with this patently anti RIAA, anti Record Producer idea, the removal of DRM from the the music Itunes sells. Apparently sometime some one at apple must have informed the powers that be that Itunes sales were on a long term vertical move, with brick and mortar record stores like Tower records being boarded up by the bushel, it looked like the lights went on and apples view of the future finally gelled enough for Steve to make his case, one that many insiders are saying he wanted to say all along.
The case that DRM is bad for business and bad for consumers. While I applaud this opening salvo, I also know full well the reason Jobs wants to ditch DRM is so he can sell to all MP3 music players/listeners on the market, not just IPOD owners, who are hooked into using apples itune by design. If the trend holds and Itunes along with a dozen or more music sites hold to the trend of out selling traditional music venues, while the brick and mortar stores continue to slide into oblivion, soon the the record industry will have no choice, as they will have only one method to move the product, namely the internet and through the portals one of which Jobs owns.
As one of many who've watched this love hate relationship between apple and the record industry for a long time, I'm curious to see when the next phase in this war will start, that will be when jobs follows MP3.com or Cruxy.com models and starts signing up artists themselves.
For a few years now MP3.com has made a true niche market for small unsigned bands to promote themselves and sell their music. If Itunes were to open up a similar scheme, except offering a sales portal to established artists to market themselves, then the gloves will come off. But so will the record labels artists, off of itunes, that is, unless Jobs and his team at apple can offer a better contract for the performers, say like 90 cents out of a hundred, per down load.
Personally I can't wait to see the fur fly, and believe me, it's gonna fly. Personally I hope Jobs makes this play, as it would benefit the artists and the consumers. the trick is to build a marketing machine that will suport this idea and bring it to fruition. But 90 % of that Jobs already owns!

The other shoe drops!

The Geek.com story reads:
"Novell may lose access to new Linux versions The Free Software Foundation not happy over partnership with Microsoft."
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2007Feb/gee20070205002259.htm

The whole concept that FSF foundation could stop Novell from selling future distro's of Linux is while ludicrous, still troubling. Being the cynic I am , I can't help but wonder why did the Redmond mafia sell out and cut a deal with Novell. True it's a sweet deal for Novell 1/2 a billion isn't anything to sneeze at. But that doesn't explain what Microsoft was up to. I think this weekend we got the wake up call on what they were after. The Real idea is to cause a schism, a split, a parting of the ways.
Oh wait, like there isn't one already between the FSF(Free Software Foundation)and the Linux camp. The design is gifted, the Linux camp and the FSF are social organizations facing a techno Goliath in Microsoft. Yes this means the Linux and Free Software foundations FSF communities are being played off on each other. The tools of this is their own ego's and their own self denial. It also dawns on me that this plays into Microsoft's hand, personally I think the schism will work for Microsoft for a short time, as there are many like me, who understand that Microsoft only enters these deals like it did with Sun some years back, until it's apparent it won't help them anymore. Then Bill Gates or Steve Balmer will announce it was swell while it lasted but c'ya. I also think this will back fire in the long term. In short if you just ignore it, Microsoft will go away, but if the lawyers start in serving paper work then like a cagey fisherman Microsoft will know it's got a fish on the hook.

Also, I'll remind everyone Linux isn't under the FSF umbrella, so it won't be Richard Stallman or Eben Moglen who decides who can or can't sell Linux in a corporate environment. It'll be Linus Torvalds who wrote the original kernel and he's still holding the line, (last I heard) that Linux won't move to GPL-V#3 in fact he intends to stay with the GPL-V#2, this is where the schism was initiated and I believe that Microsoft's idea is to exploit this as far as it will go, tying up critical Linux cash assets from the major Linux players in legal activity they other wise wouldn't have to endure. Operations like Red hat, Novell & possibly Ubuntu will all eventually, become legally entwined one way or another, splitting the playing field with legal crossed swords and legal briefs all accusing each other of being the Linux sell outs that they all will become. This in the end is a divide and conquer strategy. And if this is Redmonds agenda then it is pretty easy to set the players on each other, after all, all they had to do is cut a deal.

Personally I'm waiting to see what happens next, If the Free software Foundation and the Linux Camp do not play their respective hand's close to their chests they may well be completely marginalized in what could be an end game for Linux and the free software foundation, if in fact Microsoft actually has this as an agenda. I truly hope that doesn't happen. I also hope this isn't a Microsoft machination but you have to be open to the possibility, after all its only, prudent.

So I guess the moral to the story is, for both camps, swallow your pride and stand together, or you most certainly will stand alone.

Linux Community Takes On Vista With Free Driver Development Service

By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek

Jan 30, 2007 05:00 PM
Under the plan, a manufacturer of, say, video cards could submit specs to the Linux kernel community and its members will create a driver for the device that the manufacturer can ship with the product or users can download.

In the continuing saga of hell at 20 below!

Microsoft, Novell win Wal-Mart as Linux customer

"Under the agreement,(the Microsoft-Novell aggrement from late last year) Wal-Mart will begin using Novell's SUSE Linux, the open-source computer operating system, and Novell will provide support for the software, receiving pre-paid support certificates from Microsoft."
For the full story, see the link above from Mark Boslet at marketwatch.com !

Hillarys running, I never would ah guess'd

So the inevitable has happened, despite her denials Hilary Rodham-Clinton has announced an election exploratory committee, this despite he previous denials of wanting or coveting the job. This comes roughly one week after Barrack Obama announced his own exploratory committee. The one thing I note this political season is the Democrats must smell blood, as they are out of the gate far ahead of the Republicans, at least in the conventional media outlets.

It's my opinion that the Republicans will have their hands full if Obama is the democratic candidate, he brings a liberal cache with him and he's gifted with a certain amount of charisma. Here's Senator Obama's voting record
If on the other hand the Democrats do select Clinton, I foresee a republican victory, I don't think the electorate at large will want to chance the name Clinton in the oval office again. I suspect the electorate will go to the Republicans if, they select John McCain as the next party candidate for president. Time will only tell of course, I'll keep an eye on all three of these candidates, as much as they live in interesting times, they are interesting people. So I guess its time to sit back and watch the fire works.

The Iphones here Yaay well sort of

Wednesday, January 17, 2007
The Iphones here Yaay well sort of
The alternative tag line is Iphone, Lisa's sister
After all the hyperbola and spins have been spun this week I waited until now to give my opinion on the Iphone, I'll give the same opinion that I gave to friends when I saw it last weekend on the net. YAWN! Whats worse is, this phone shouldn't be a yawn, I have to admit I've deferred my new phone upgrade awaiting this phantom to appear like some unseen force from apple, rumbling unseen yet heard long and wide before its actual arrival. When the final product was revealed last week, I was impressed with the look and form factor, this was typical Apple, VERY cool.
However when it was revealed that no I couldn't put my personal warez of choice on to the phone, things like skype, or ring tones, or anything other than the apple canonized as ,good, hence factory installed software, I was seriously disappointed, in fact I did utter , "dam that's a waste of a year I won't get back." Referencing the year I waited on this disappointment.
The Arm lock they have with Cingular doesn't set well with me either, to be honest, I use Sprint, and I'm not a Sprint fan boy by any means, but in my local area, they just have better coverage,I know this two ways , One I do hardware and software testing on Palms, yup that's right I work for the enemy, well sort of. And having tested all the big networks Cingular would be my choice if, they gave me the phone and my first year of service for free. However that's not going to happen with the Iphone, at $499.00. I'll have to float the boat on this one and it's not going to happen. Two I was a cingular customer in the past, and suffered long and hard from dropped calls. My Sprint service is far better, more expensive, but in fact worth it. Add to that, I have no choice of carrier and my response is, whoa trigger, we ain't going that way! So right out of the gate Apple had two strikes on the Iphone with me. But the deal breaker is the price, its just too high for my blood, further I can get a new Treo 680, unlocked, for $100.00 less than the MSRP on the Iphone. With the limited software, service plans and a high price, I feel totally uncompelled to switch to an Iphone. Lets face it I haven't seen this big of a muck up in strategic vision since, well,, the Zune!

Sadly I predict by September the Iphone will be the Lisa of its time. Gone and only mildy remembered.

Quick some one check the temperature in hell!

http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/08/2130234

In a story reported on slashdot it seems that hell hath froze, yet again with the rumor mill reporting that IE7 just mite get ported to linux. I still remember the good old days where scuttlebutt like this was openly laughed off as ludicris and perdantic dreaming of the Linux geeks. Apparently maybe, not? Check the link out for the rest of the story.

Market analyst predicts enterprise Linux surge

This is a reported story from www.desktoplinux.com by researchers Bruce Guptill and Bill McNee.
According to their story,"Nearly half the world's large businesses will use Linux on desktops or in servers by the end of 2011, Saugatuck Technology predicts. "The data are especially impressive when looking at the expected growth in the number of companies moving beyond 'proof of concept' by the end of the decade," the analyst firm said."

This isn't news to anyone who has been watching the impending ship date of Vista come forward like a creeping giant. With the need to upgrade to new more powerful computers just to run the new OS and with still lingering memories of the entire history of XP and the early web assaults this is not completely unexpected news. Also for those of you who read yesterdays blog, this is also a hint, at the reason Microsoft did the deal with Novel, the logic being if you can't beat'em, then join'em. The long play here is Microsoft's positioning themselves just in case of a market shift they can't ,even with all their money, stop from happening.

Return from the Dead!?!

After a 6 month forced hiatus I'm back, And! The world has shifted,& apparently hell froze over as Microsoft and Novel have crawled into bed with one another in an orgy of apocalyptic partnering, the craziest I've seen since, well Microsoft and Sun pretended to partner up some years back. While many in the Linux community will decry this as absurd, and that its just the latest attempt by Microsoft to wrangle a legal hold on the Linux movement as a whole. I feel this will, in the long run, like the SCO law suit just go away, quietly, especially after all the huffing and puffing MS has made over how the open source community has "stolen" ideas from them. I'm predicting, that Microsoft's claims, will be, in a court room in the near future, after having been vetted & examined will be acknowledged as some one Else's prior art, whether or not they were paid for or not, that's when it will get sticky for the Redmond lawyers, as this will turn their largest threat into the sword they swung and cut their own throats with. When the legal perception is MS has allot of unpaid royalties hanging over their heads, then you can bet every un-hired lawyer on the west coast will be shopping their services to the people who are owed back royalties to by our Buddy's in Redmond. In the end I call it this way, if MS tries to bully the Linux community with legal actions, then this will be where the community gets to turn the tables on MS and quite probably put a legal stranglehold on the Redmond giant. On the other hand if MS plays it very cool, and they have before. Then this will all go away, quietly.