Government Lab Reveals It Has Operated Quantum Internet For Over Two Years

Posted on by

The basic idea here is that the act of measuring a quantum object, such as a photon, always changes it. So any attempt to eavesdrop on a quantum message cannot fail to leave telltale signs of snooping that the receiver can detect. That allows anybody to send a “one-time pad” over a quantum network which can then be used for secure communication using conventional classical communication.

via Government Lab Reveals It Has Operated Quantum Internet For Over Two Years | MIT Technology Review.

That may sound limiting but it still allows each node to send a one-time pad to the hub which it then uses to communicate securely over a classical link. The hub can then route this message to another node using another one time pad that it has set up with this second node. So the entire network is secure, provided that the central hub is also secure.

Why Your Startup Should Be Open Source

Posted on by

Rather than staying limited to a small team perhaps even a single developer, fostering an open source community will open the doors to potentially unlimited contributions from other developers, especially ones who happen to use your software; this type of feedback is thus a great indicator of major pain points your users have with your product. Even among your users who aren’t programmers, the GitHub issues system is an incredibly useful tool for tracking bug reports and feature requests.

via Why Your Startup Should Be Open Source – by Peer.fm formerly Napster.fm | citizentekk.

Reasons to believe

Posted on by

It’s time to assume the mantle of Defender of the Faith. I’m going to give you ten arguments for believing P!=NP: arguments that are pretty much obvious to those who have thought seriously about the question, but that (with few exceptions) seem never to be laid out explicitly for those who haven’t. You’re welcome to believe P=NP if you choose. My job is to make you understand the conceptual price you have to pay for that belief.

via Shtetl-Optimized » Blog Archive » Reasons to believe.

After Sandy’s destruction, Verizon switches to all-wireless service in Mantoloking

Posted on by

How does it work? A Verizon technician installs a small box with an antenna in your home. It plugs into an electrical socket and a telephone jack, which powers all the telephone jacks in the house. The device also accepts AA batteries or has a rechargeable battery pack if there is a power outage. Three AA batteries provide 36 hours of standby time.

via After Sandy’s destruction, Verizon switches to all-wireless service in Mantoloking | The Asbury Park Press NJ | app.com.

Dutch police may get right to hack in cyber crime fight

Posted on by

Under a new bill, investigators would be able to hack into computers, install spyware, read emails and destroy files.

They could also break into servers located abroad, if they were being used to block services.

via BBC News – Dutch police may get right to hack in cyber crime fight.

This is no threat to a properly secured system.  AV software is not a panacea for securing a system.

Internet Census 2012

Posted on by

Abstract While playing around with the Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) we discovered an amazing number of open embedded devices on the Internet. Many of them are based on Linux and allow login to standard BusyBox with empty or default credentials. We used these devices to build a distributed port scanner to scan all IPv4 addresses. These scans include service probes for the most common ports, ICMP ping, reverse DNS and SYN scans. We analyzed some of the data to get an estimation of the IP address usage.

All data gathered during our research is released into the public domain for further study.

via Internet Census 2012.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Lawrence Livermore Scientists Set a New Simulation Speed Record on the Sequoia Supercomputer

Posted on by

The records were set using the ROSS (Rensselaer’s Optimistic Simulation System) simulation package developed by Carothers and his students, and using the Time Warp synchronization algorithm originally developed by Jefferson.

“The significance of this demonstration is that direct simulation of ‘planetary scale’ models is now, in principle at least, within reach,” Barnes said. “‘Planetary scale’ in the context of the joint team’s work means simulations large enough to represent all 7 billion people in the world or the entire Internet’s few billion hosts.”

via RPI: News & Events – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Lawrence Livermore Scientists Set a New Simulation Speed Record on the Sequoia Supercomputer.

Maybe they can get SimCity modeled correctly.

Ketchikan students trick teachers to access computers

Posted on by

Students fooled teachers by asking them to enter account information to update their computer’s software, which they regularly do. Teachers were presented with a display that looked “exactly like” it does when prompted for a software update, but instead it was a request for administrative access, according to district technology supervisor Jurgen Johannsen.

via KETCHIKAN, Alaska: Ketchikan students trick teachers to access computers | State News | ADN.com.

Use a Software Bug to Win Video Poker? That’s a Federal Hacking Case

Posted on by

It’s the latest test of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a 1986 law originally intended to punish hackers who remotely crack defense or banking computers over their 300 baud modems. Changes in technology and a string of amendments have pushed the law into a murky zone where prosecutors have charged people for violating website terms-of-service or an employer’s computer use policies.

via Use a Software Bug to Win Video Poker? That’s a Federal Hacking Case | Threat Level | Wired.com.

Under the relevant section of the CFAA, Kane and Nestor aren’t charged with hacking into the Game King from the outside, but rather with exceeding their otherwise legitimate access “to obtain or alter information in the computer that the accesser is not entitled so to obtain or alter.”