Archive for September, 2006
Video: TEKDBZ MOVEMENT!
In my opinion, one of the cleanest promo videos ive seen! Dont know who made the video, but bigups Danny from United on the project. Lookin good TEKDBZ crew!
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Noisia – Block Control Video
This is one of my favorite NOISIA songs at the moment. It would be fat to do a video for them with the BoxedLab guys in my opinion.
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China: 75 million read blogs, 123 million people on the net
I read on the UCLA Asia Institute page that the RECORD NUMBER of 34 Million bloggers was hit this last August in Beijing, China ! I find this quite amazing and astonishing!
Second to the USA, they command the internet with 123 million users(which of 77 million are broadband users) and there are roughly 788,000 websites in the country according to the stats.
For more info or to see the page visit their site:
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=53893
2 commentsMove Into Space, but Where?
Where those settlements should be, however, is another question. Various scientists make their case for Mars, the moon or habitats orbiting the Earth. While the question is not a pressing one for most people, for the futurists mapping the humans path to space, the destination makes all the difference in the world.
For Al Globus, senior research associate for human factors research and technology at NASA Ames Research Center, the most salient issue is one that most people take for granted on Earth: gravity. In low gravity, muscles atrophy and bones loose calcium and become brittle. If people start having children in an off-Earth settlement, those children — being adapted to the moon’s one-sixth gravity or Mars’ three-eighths gravity — may not be able to function on Earth, Globus argues.
“If you are a genius, you can never go to Harvard or Princeton,” Globus says. “If you are a great violinist, you will never be able to play the concert halls of Earth.”
That’s a deal breaker, in Globus’ opinion. The space researcher instead argues that rotating space stations that can produce near-Earth gravity would be the best bet for long-term human inhabitants. These stations could produce more energy because certain orbits could bring them more sunshine than is possible if they were land-based. And the stations would be hours away, rather than three days for the moon or, at best, six months for Mars. The proximity to Earth makes tourism a possibility and makes resupplying the stations a snap.
On Thursday, Robert Bigelow, a Las Vegas real estate and financial businessman that started Bigelow Aerospace in 1999, announced that he would put a space station in high orbit by 2012 to spur demand for a destination in space. The Sundancer station, as Bigelow dubs it, would consist of two habitats connected to provide 510 cubic meters of living space, about as much real estate as a small home.
The businessman also underscores that the mantra of real estate still applies: Location, location, location.
“From a business perspective, (Earth orbit) is a revenue-generating location, and from a science standpoint, it’s a must,” he says.
However, creating a large enough space station to spin for artificial gravity is difficult enough that even the risk-taking businessman is not considering it. His scientists have instead drawn up plans for a module that can be created in space and planted on the moon to become the first part of a base.
The moon has gained adherents as the best initial settlement because the goal is attainable and scientists can use a moon base to study the long-term effects of low-gravity living on humans, said Klaus P. Heiss, executive director of High Frontier, a group of scientists and enthusiasts focused on creating a moon base.
“The goal should be something that we can do in 10 years with the existing budget, but at the same time, it needs to be significant,” Heiss says.
Heiss argues that a long-term moon settlement could develop the lion’s share of the techniques necessary to survive for a long time on another planet, such as Mars, a planet with its own supporters. The Mars Society — whose president, Robert Zubrin, literally wrote the book on the least expensive way to create a Mars base — has been simulating the working conditions on Mars at its research station in the Arctic. Another proponent, the Mars Homestead Project, has created plans for building a base from mainly local resources. Glass, plastics and steel could all be made on Mars and having those resources makes Mars the best location for a long-term settlement, says Bruce Mackenzie, a co-founder of the project.
“Being farther away will help build self-reliance and spur innovation,” Mackenzie says.
The distance, at least six months in travel time and two years between trips, should be seen as a plus, he adds, because it minimizes the impact of changes in policies and budget cuts. And with U.S. space policy far from settled, such a distance could be welcome.
NSA Cases Face Secret Tribunal
A sprawling array of cases challenging the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of American’s domestic and international communications may be moved to an obscure secret court in Washington, if a pending bill to alter the nation’s surveillance law is voted on before the upcoming recess.
Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter’s National Security Surveillance Act would allow the Attorney General to move surveillance cases involving state secrets to the little-known Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, which has only heard one case in its 28-year history.
National security experts and civil liberties advocates assail the idea, saying it would diminish the chance that the government’s controversial snooping would face open judicial scrutiny.
But Specter, who has long criticized the wiretapping that evades the law requiring warrants for such surveillance, argues that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, also known as the FISA Court, is accustomed to dealing with national secrets.
Specter also believes that transferring cases to a central court will lead to a more cohesive decision that can then be appealed directly to the Supreme Court, but he does not believe that already moving cases, such as Detroit one where a judge declared one spying program unconstitutional and the government has appealed, should be transferred, according to an aide speaking on background.
It’s unclear whether the provision would allow the attorney general to transfer the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s lawsuit against AT&T for its alleged complicity in the warrantless surveillance program, but EFF lawyers declined to comment on the legislation, which may indicate they think it could affect their case.
Fifteen other cases filed against telecoms were recently moved to the San Francisco district court, and another 21 may be moved there soon.
Louis Fisher, an expert on national security law who just published a book on the state secrets privilege called In the Name of National Security, says that court is just too secret.
“We always do this in the public, and the courts have to come up with a decision that shows reasoning, facts and understanding, and to give that to a secret court where, I imagine, there will be secret briefs and secret oral arguments and a secret decision, maybe a declassified decision?,” Fisher said. “I can’t see there’s credibility or trust in that kind of process. I frankly would prefer it to be decentralized and have a lot of district judges take a crack at it.”
The review court is also politically stacked, according to Shayana Kadidal, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights. CCR is suing the government directly over warrantless wiretapping of overseas communications, arguing that the program infringes on their ability to defend their Guantanamo Bay detainee clients.
“The transfer provision would move us in front of the three FISA Court of Review judges, who are all Republicans.” Kadidal said.
Another provision of the bill that allows the government to have the FISA Court approve a whole surveillance program, rather than a particularized warrant, will be used by the administration to legalize the program and prevent lawsuits from stopping the program, though they might be able to get damages for prior surveillance, if it’s found to be illegal, Kadidal said.
It remains unclear whether the bill will make it to the Senate floor for a vote, given that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist promised to adjourn the Senate by the end of September and that much of the Senate’s energy may stay focused on a controversial military commission bill and immigration proposals.
Still, Wednesday’s markup of a companion spy bill in two House committees involved much arm-twisting of Republican members with concerns over expanding surveillance power into voting for the bill, according to ACLU legislative counsel Lisa Graves.
“That arm-twisting signals a real determination to have votes on the House side on this legislation next week,” Graves said. “It seems a part of Rove strategy to have that vote before the election and try to make terrorism a divisive partisan issue. Everyone agrees that the government should be monitoring suspected terrorists; the question is does the president get to unilaterally, secretly and indefinitely wiretap or bug your home without any judicial oversight ever.”
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.
2 commentsBoxedLab Update !
With new media and photos from Hospital Records, Logistics Knowledge Magazine Cover Shot, Ed Rush & Optical + Rhymetime Knowledge Shoot these boys are on ABSOLUTE FIRE !
Boris Austin, spearheading the music photography and digital media campaigns im my opinion takes some of the most breathtaking shots….both digital and analog. Mad respect to the whole BoxedLab photo crew!
Check some of his work at: BoxedLab (view in full screen)
Definately a crew to keep your eye on, and if any artists need photoshoots, they are highly recomended, and have quite an impressive collection including:
DNB
L Double, Dj Craze, Teebee, Ed Rush & Optical, Loxy, Roughcut, Infiltrata, Drumsound & Bassline Smith, Logistics, Total Science, Invaderz, Chase & Status, MC IC3, Futurebound, Matrix, J Magik, Probe & Silo, T.K.O, Supadark, DEFine, Kano & more!
Hip – Hop
Dj MK (Roots Manuva), Andy Smith (Portishead)
Other
BSB (British Superbikes)
Extreme Sports Channel
Knowledge Magazine
Flex Records Nights
Hospital Records Nights
Renegade Hardware Nights
Breakin Science Nights
BeatKingz European Tour Nights
BoxedLab Nights
Beware of the BOTS !
Virus creators and malware authors are moving with greater speed than ever before, exploiting gaps in company security networks and even using online communities to spread information about potential vulnerabilities, according to security experts at Trend Micro.
Executives at the company have pointed to two new developments which could threaten systems in the Middle East over the summer.
The first is the rise in the use of ‘bots’ and ‘bot networks,’ clusters of computers taken over without the owners’ knowledge and deployed to attack unsuspecting users in high numbers.
Botnets can be comprised of as few as a couple hundred computers, or be as large as tens – or even hundreds – of thousands of computers, all tied together by a common underlying infection, which enables the botmaster to remotely control them.
‘Botnets are frequently used as vehicles for quickly and efficiently spreading malware, and they are readily available to malware writers,’ said Trend Micro’s Jamz Yaneza, Senior Threat Analyst.
‘They are one of the most efficient ways to compromise computers for targeted attacks,’ adds Yaneza. ‘Botnets grant malware writers a wide array of power to inflict damage, from launching denial of service attacks to targeting financial institutions.’
In the Middle East, the traditionally long summer holidays – in addition to the large numbers of companies that don’t employ full-time IT security staff – means that these networks can go undetected for significant lengths of time, increasing the virulence of the attacks.
‘It’s definitely the case that the number of bot network attacks within the region is rising, and we’re also convinced that a higher proportion of computers have been drawn into these networks without their owners’ knowledge,’ said Justin Doo, Regional Director, Trend Micro Middle East and North Africa.
In addition, the company has also drawn attention to the potential damage that publicly-accessible online hacker communities can cause.
This phenomenon was underlined by the listing of three ‘proof-of-concept’ exploits on publicly-accessible Web sites in June this year, which would enable hackers to use the popular computer program Microsoft Excel as a vehicle to spread viruses.
‘It’s common for proof-of-concept code to become available shortly after the discovery of a vulnerability,’ said Yaneza. ‘Most malware writers these days don’t want to risk getting caught and going to jail, so they prefer to post the code to hacker sites to display their technical knowledge, but let somebody else use it for malicious purposes.’
Though such exploits may not immediately – or sometimes ever – be deployed in an actual attack, security experts at Trend Micro advise users to remain vigilant, nonetheless, since the code is readily available and can be employed by a malicious author at any time.
In fact, according to researchers at Trend Micro, one of these exploits has already been utilized in a targeted attack and further attacks are possible.
The experts recommend the following ‘tried-and-true’ policies to minimize the risk posed by these exploits:
• Do not open Excel files attached to any emails from those you don’t know;
• Do not open Excel attachments from those you do know, if you weren’t expecting an attachment from that person, or if the content of the email seems out of character for that person;
• In corporate settings, administrators should consider blocking all incoming Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files from external unverified sources by policy. Inter-company documents may be considered relatively safe from this particular threat, assuming no significant internal problem exists;
• Avoid opening externally-hosted Excel documents
• Ensure your antivirus definitions are up-to-date.
• Run a manual scan with your updated Trend Micro product, or with Housecall, Trend Micro’s free online virus scanner.
No commentsSpy-phishing is emerging crimeware technique, warns Trend Micro
Trend Micro, Inc. has issued a warning to internet users to beware of spy-phishing, a technique that capitalises on the increasingly popular trend of blended threats to steal money and personal information.
Besides technological advances, the emergence of spy-phishing as a significant element in the threat landscape also highlights the shift in the intent of malware writers. Previous generations of malware writers developed their programs chiefly to show off their expertise, unlike current writers who are interested in financial gain.
Spy-phishing is done by using Trojan spyware, or software that secretly installs itself on a computer and extracts personal information without the user’s knowledge. According to the Trend Micro Trojan Spyware Index, the incidence of Trojan spyware has increased by over 250 per cent over the past 16 months. Similarly, according to a report published by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an average of more than 188 new samples of Trojan spyware have been utilised in spy-phishing attacks each month in the first four months of 2006 – a 234 per cent increase over the same period in 2005. “Spy-phishing is anything that causes financial or intellectual loss,” explains Jamz Yaneza, senior threat researcher at Trend Micro. “Spy-phishing’s direct antecedents are spyware, phishing, and backdoor Trojans. It is a blended threat that uses phishing techniques to initially present itself to users, and then typically engages a host of other techniques and exploits to surreptitiously download and install spyware applications in the background. These applications often download additional spyware applications to extend their functionality.”
The five per cent of spyware that can be considered to be malicious is intended solely to steal passwords, bank account information, credit card numbers, social security numbers, and then use that information for illegal purposes.
Phishing, in which the identity of a target organisation is stolen in order to steal identities of unsuspecting customers, frequently uses professional-looking, HTML-based e-mails that include company logos, font styles, colors, graphics, and other elements to successfully spoof the supposed sender. Most also contain a link to a Web site, which is an exact replica of the spoofed site, to lure users into parting with their personal information. Backdoor Trojans are malware programmes that perform unexpected or unauthorized actions on the user’s computer and enable unauthorised access by remote systems.
Online money transfer service, E-gold, has been attacked in the past with spy-phishing emails and classical phishing. A trojan EXE was used to steal information that was sent as an attachment in an email. These attacks are similar to phishing in that they spam potential victims, but instead of giving a link to a fake website, they include a trojan in the message. The trojan monitors web traffic in order to steal the usernames/passwords to banking websites.
Spy-phishing offers malicious authors a variety of applications and uses. While individual end-users are an obvious target, enterprises and their work force have more to lose from spy-phishing exploits. “Businesses of all sizes are potentially at risk, as spy-phishing can also just as easily be utilised for corporate espionage,” says Yaneza. “In fact, due to the Trojan components, and the long-term stealth capabilities they employ, the threat to sensitive corporate information is perhaps greater than is the risk to the individual.”
“There is a growing sophistication of techniques used to target vulnerable individuals. Besides regularly updating security software, firms need to realise that enterprise phishing relies on tricking people. They need to instill a healthy dose of scepticism into employees when it comes to trusting emails and web sites. Enterprises need to adopt a strategy of strength and depth,” says Justin Doo, regional director, Trend Micro Middle East and North Africa.
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