China, battling increased threats from cyber-terrorism and hacking, will adopt from Thursday a controversial law that mandates strict data surveillance and storage for firms working in the country, the official Xinhua news agency said. From a report: The law, passed…
Get Real, Microsoft: If the New Surface Pro Is a Laptop, Bundle It With a Type Cover
An anonymous reader shares an article: If Microsoft sold cars like it’s trying to sell its Surface Pro (2017), it would charge extra for wheels — and would be laughed out of the market. But Microsoft’s using this tactic to…
Seven Science Journals Have A Dog On Their Editorial Board
An anonymous reader writes: A professor of health policy at Australia’s Curtin University got seven different science journals to put his dog on their editorial board. The dog is now associate editor for the Global Journal of Addiction & Rehabilitation…
Leaked 'Standing Rock' Documents Reveal Invasive Counterterrorism Measures
An anonymous reader writes: “A shadowy international mercenary and security firm known as TigerSwan targeted the movement opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline with military-style counterterrorism measures,” reports The Intercept, decrying “the fusion of public and private intelligence operations.” Saying…
Walt Mossberg's Last Column Calls For Privacy and Security Laws
70-year-old Walt Mossberg wrote his last weekly column Thursday, looking back on how “we’ve all had a hell of a ride for the last few decades” and revisiting his famous 1991 pronouncement that “Personal computers are just too hard to…
US Senators Propose Bug Bounties For Hacking Homeland Security
An anonymous reader quotes CNN: U.S. senators want people to hack the Department of Homeland Security. On Thursday, Senators Maggie Hassan, a Democrat and Republican Rob Portman introduced the Hack DHS Act to establish a federal bug bounty program in…
ESR Announces The Open Sourcing Of The World's First Text Adventure
An anonymous reader writes: Open source guru Eric S. Raymond added something special to his GitHub page: an open source version of the world’s first text adventure. “Colossal Cave Adventure” was first written in 1977, and Raymond remembers it as…
Microsoft Quietly Patches Another Critical Malware Protection Engine Flaw
Microsoft quietly patched a critical vulnerability found by Google’s Project Zero team in the Malware Protection Engine.
SSD Drives Vulnerable To Rowhammer-Like Attacks That Corrupt User Data
An anonymous reader writes: NAND flash memory chips, the building blocks of solid-state drives (SSDs), include what could be called “programming vulnerabilities” that can be exploited to alter stored data or shorten the SSD’s lifespan. According to research published earlier…
New Solar Plane Plans Non-Stop Flight Around The World
An anonymous reader quotes Bloomberg: [A] Russian tycoon and his Renova Group plan a record-breaking effort to send a plane around the world nonstop using only the power of the sun. If all goes well, a single pilot will fly…