Category Archives: Technical

General Technical information

Realtime GPU Audio

Posted on by at 11:16 pm

While these techniques are widely used and understood, they work primarily with a model of the abstract sound produced by an instrument or object, not a model of the instrument or object itself. A more recent approach is physical modeling- based audio synthesis, where the audio waveforms are generated using detailed numerical simulation of physical objects or instruments.

via Realtime GPU Audio – ACM Queue.

There are various approaches to physical modeling sound synthesis. One such approach, studied extensively by Stefan Bilbao,1 uses the finite difference approximation to simulate the vibrations of plates and membranes. The finite difference simulation produces realistic and dynamic sounds (examples can be found at http://unixlab.sfsu.edu/~whsu/FDGPU). Realtime finite difference-based simulations of large models are typically too computationally-intensive to run on CPUs. In our work, we have implemented finite difference simulations in realtime on GPUs.

Cloud Providers Work To Disperse Points Of Failure

Posted on by at 3:22 pm

In the end, cloud providers — many of which aim for 99.9 percent uptime, or “three nines” — are likely to offer individual companies a more reliable service than those companies attain for themselves, the CSA’s Howie says.

via Cloud Providers Work To Disperse Points Of Failure – Dark Reading.

Note that telecom typically operates under 5 nines uptime.  The point of this article may be that end users need to implement their own backup plans to get higher than three 9s reliability.

Internet bad neighborhoods

Posted on by at 6:53 pm

The idea behind the Internet Bad Neighborhood concept is that the probability of a host in behaving badly increases if its neighboring hosts (i.e., hosts within the same subnetwork) also behave badly. This idea, in turn, can be exploited to improve current Internet security solutions, since it provides an indirect approach to predict new sources of attacks (neighboring hosts of malicious ones).

via Internet bad neighborhoods – UTpublications.

This is a good start in developing some kind of IP blacklist.

Meet the men who spy on women through their webcams

Posted on by at 3:53 pm

And if even this handholding isn’t enough, more successful ratters sometimes rent out slaves they have already infected. In other cases, they simply hand them off to others in a “Free Girl Slave Giveaway.”

Calling most of these guys “hackers” does a real disservice to hackers everywhere; only minimal technical skill is now required to deploy a RAT and acquire slaves. 

via Meet the men who spy on women through their webcams | Ars Technica.

First Bitcoin Hedge Fund Launches From Malta

Posted on by at 12:18 pm

The private key itself is AES-256 encrypted. After exporting Bitcoin private keys from wallet.dat file, data is stored in a TrueCrypt container on three separate flash drives. Using Shamir’s Secret Sharing algorithm, the container password is then split into three parts utilizing a 2-of-3 secret sharing model. Incorporating physical security with electronic security, each flash drive from various manufacturers is duplicated several times and, together with a CD-ROM, those items are vaulted in a bank safety deposit box in three different legal jurisdictions. To leverage geographic distribution as well, each bank stores only part of a key, so if a single deposit box is compromised, no funds are lost.

via First Bitcoin Hedge Fund Launches From Malta – Forbes.

Sharpening Endpoint Security

Posted on by at 12:31 pm

Endpoints are as hard to define as they are to protect. The term traditionally referred to desktops and laptops, but endpoints now encompass smartphones, tablets, point-of-sale machines, bar code scanners, multifunction printers and practically any other device that connects to the company network. Without a well-conceived strategy, keeping track of and securing these devices is difficult and frustrating.

via Sharpening Endpoint Security – Dark Reading.

Some IT shops buy cleverly marketed products that promise off-the-shelf endpoint security using anti-malware and sandboxing. In most cases, attackers can easily bypass those defenses