A US Transport Security Administration analyst has been indicted with tampering with databases used by the TSA to identify possible terrorists who may be trying to fly in the US. Douglas James Duchak, 46, was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday with two counts of damaging protected computers. According to a federal indictment, Duchak tried to compromise computers at the TSA’s Colorado Springs Operations Center (CSOC) on 22 October 2009, seven days after he’d being given two weeks notice that he was being dismissed. He was also charged with tampering with a TSA server that contained data from the US Marshal’s Service Warrant Information Network
iiNet has confirmed it is involved in early negotiations for the potential acquisition of rival ISP Netspace, among others, following the issuing of a trading halt on the Australian Securities Exchange. The Perth-based ISP responded to media speculation it was gearing up to acquire rival Netspace for up to $75 million, but said the figure was way off the mark
Twitter launched a new link-screening service aimed at preventing phishing and other malicious attacks against users of the popular microblogging service. Part of the new service is a new Twitter tool to shorten URLs, so users will see some links in e-mail notifications and direct messages from other users written as twt.tl
Internet service providers linked to the notorious Zeus botnet have been taken down, knocking out a third of the command-and-control servers that run the network of hacked machines. Two ISPs, named Troyak and Group 3, were home to 90 of the 249 known Zeus command-and-control servers. Zeus Tracker, a Web site that tracks the botnet, noticed the steep drop in servers on Wednesday morning
It’s been a long time coming. While Arthur C Clarke’s satellites have taken to space, and James Bond’s futuristic mobile technology has become common place, still the dream of sustained personal flight has eluded us. But the future is here! Finally we can all take flight as Martin Aircraft in New Zealand releases the first commercially-available jet pack
This week, Elliot Associates, a hedge fund, offered to buy Novell. The offer signals a bid to break up the company, and could be extremely bad news for open source… and also for Microsoft
Archaeologists say they may have found proof of the oldest and most southerly human habitation in the world at the site of a major road project in Tasmania. Archaeologists and Aboriginal heritage officers have been removing sediment from eight trenches along the Jordan River levee at the Brighton roadworks site, north of Hobart. Initial findings suggest the sediment is between 28,000 and 40,000 years old, making it the oldest, most southern site of human habitation in the world. It is believed up to 3,000,000 artefacts could be buried there
Secretary Clinton’s recent speech on Internet Freedom has signalled a strong interest from the US State Department in promoting the use of the internet to promote political reforms in closed societies. It makes sense that the State Department would look to support existing projects to circumvent internet censorship. The New York Times reports that a group of senators is urging the Secretary to apply existing funding to support the development and expansion of censorship circumvention programs, including Tor, Psiphon and Freegate
Technology that could see an end to the bane of many commuters — people talking loudly on their mobile phones — has been shown off by researchers. The prototype device could allow people to conduct silent phone conversations. The technology measures the tiny electrical signals produced by muscles used when someone speaks
Some computers bestowed to schools in Canberra’s $2 billion computers-in-classrooms scheme are not connected to the internet. Education Minister Julia Gillard said 780,000 computers — one for every student in Years 9 to 12 — would be handed out by December next year
Engineering researchers have crafted a flat surface that refuses to get wet. Water droplets skitter across it like ball bearings tossed on ice. The inspiration? Not wax. Not glass. Not even Teflon. Instead, University of Florida engineers have achieved what they label in a new paper a nearly perfect hydrophobic interface
by reproducing, on small bits of flat plastic, the shape and patterns of the minute hairs that grow on the bodies of spiders
This is the story of how, in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg hacked into the email accounts of two Harvard Crimson reporters using data obtained from TheFacebook.com’s logs. The details are drawn from a broader investigation of the origins of Facebook, the sourcing of which is described here
A new study from two academics at BYU tracking the sales of printed books following free ebook releases found that generally, a free ebook release is correlated with increased sales. Interestingly, the exception is for a group of ebooks that were released for a week and then withdrawn — part of Tor.com’s launch strategy, and a success in getting large number of people signed up to the site. Very nice to see some crunchy data in the mix — via Boing Boing
There is a recent and rather macabre addition to the marine biologist’s toolkit. Scientists in Canada are using the bodies of dead pigs, diverted from the butcher’s shop, in their undersea laboratory. By ending up in ocean experiments (rather than on the dinner table), the pigs have provided scientists with some intriguing new data. The dead pigs were not my idea,
says Dr Verena Tunnicliffe, professor of marine biology at the University of Victoria in Canada. She explained that she and her colleagues were piggybacking
on forensics research in order to study low-oxygen zones, sometimes known as dead zones
, in the ocean
Cruelty to animals, it is said, is often a precursor to graver crimes. So would there not be some usefulness to a registry of individuals convicted of felony animal abuse? Legislators in California want the Golden State to be the first to establish such a record — just as California was the first in the nation to create a registry of sex offenders
Another week day, another Google acquisition. This time, Google bought DocVerse, a company founded by two former Microsoft employees which built a plug-in for Microsoft Office that lets you collaborate with other people in real-time
In Seattle, IE6
was a trending topic on Twitter thanks to a CNN story on Aten Design Group’s funeral for Internet Explorer 6. The tongue-in-cheek memorial is happening this evening in Denver. Those mourning the antiquated Web browser, but unable to attend, were asked to send flowers. So, guess who sent flowers. Microsoft
A new type of solder can be melted and shaped in three dimensions under the force of a weak magnetic field. Using a magnet to pull the solder up through narrow holes makes it possible to create electrical connections between stacked silicon chips, for example. These three-dimensional chips pack more computing power in a given area, but making connections between them is expensive, a problem that the new solder might address. The solder also contains no lead, and it is stronger than other lead-free solders
Google is developing a system that will enable web publishers of any size to automatically submit new content to Google for indexing within seconds of that content being published
The leader of a UK-based gang who made millions selling counterfeit luxury golf kit and other knock-off goods through auction site eBay has been jailed for four years. Gary Bellchambers and six others ran what is reckoned to be the biggest ever such scam between June 2003 and March 2008. Their fraud was eventually rumbled by a trading standards team at Havering Council, who were put on the trail of the fraudsters by pensioner Christine Manz
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