technology

Half Of Tor Sites Compromised, Including Tormail

"The founder of Freedom Hosting has been arrested in Ireland and is awaiting extradition to USA. In a crackdown that FBI claims to be about hunting down pedophiles, half of the onion sites in the TOR network has been compromised, including the e-mail counterpart of TOR deep web, TORmail. This is undoubtedly a big blow to the TOR community, Crypto Anarchists, and more generally, to Internet anonymity. All of this happening during DEFCON. If you happen to use and account name and or password combinations that you have re used in the TOR deep web, change them NOW." Continue reading →

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Casascius Physical Bitcoins Cracked at Defcon

"The methodology consisted of using a hypodermic needle to carefully inject tiny quantities of what the researchers will only refer to as a 'non-polar solvent' between the holographic security sticker and the brass coin itself. After the solvent weakened or entirely dissolved the adhesive they were able to peel back the holographic foil and access the private key beneath. The sticker was then trivially replaced, though Stits felt that using a secondary adhesive might be necessary since little of the original adhesive was left. The re-assembled coin bore only a tiny mark at the edge of the foil where the needle was first inserted." Continue reading →

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Government Proposes in Effect to Put Itself in Charge of Apple Pricing

"This was actually an attempt by publishers to regain control over their e-book pricing from retailers, and ended when publishers signed consent decrees with the government. This should be the end of the story but instead the government now wants to appoint a monitor who will review all Apple pricing for the next ten years. No economy can thrive without an honest and unmanipulated price system, as the Soviet Union demonstrated so vividly by collapsing. Yet we are at a moment in which our government wants to control more and more prices throughout the economy, now even wanting to control a leading technology company’s prices for a decade." Continue reading →

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Did Goldman Sachs Overstep in Criminally Charging Its Ex-Programmer?

"A month after ace programmer Sergey Aleynikov left Goldman Sachs, he was arrested. Exactly what he’d done neither the F.B.I., which interrogated him, nor the jury, which convicted him a year later, seemed to understand. But Goldman had accused him of stealing computer code, and the 41-year-old father of three was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. Investigating Aleynikov’s case, Michael Lewis holds a second trial." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin suitcase eats your pocket change, spits out digital currency

"A hacker called Garbage was milling around outside of the Rio convention center showing off the invention to fellow Bitcoin enthusiasts. 'Most people know about Bitcoin, but they don't have it,' he said, hailing from Kalamazoo, Michigan with his group TwoSixNine, which built the device for around $250 using a Raspberry Pi microcomputer and a portable 4G modem. It takes in your spare change through a metal coin slot, checks the current exchange rate on Bitcoin trading post Mt. Gox, and prints out a QR code on receipt paper, which contains the cryptographic hash you can use to redeem your digital gold nugget." Continue reading →

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The Future of Weed: HIGH COUNTRY

"In HIGH COUNTRY, Motherboard heads to Denver--ground zero for cannabis legalization, and home to a booming tech sector in what could be called the SIlicon Valley of weed--to inhale the newest high-tech highs. We visit the key players scaling up this new green tech, wrap our heads around all the money to be made, crack open the confusing science of America's No. 1 cash crop, and smoke dabs." Continue reading →

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The First Commercial 3D Printed Metal Gun Part

"Neal Brace, founder of Sintercore LLC and a former US Marine infantryman, has developed the world’s first commercially available 3D printed firearm accessory. What sets Sintercore’s component apart from previous 3D printed firearm designs is that it was manufactured using direct metal laser sintering technology, rather than a plastic 3D printer. To ensure that their product is safe, Sintercore has designed their muzzle brake to be printed in Inconel, a nickel-chromium super alloy that’s traditionally reserved for use in extreme environments like gas turbine blades, supercharger rotors, and F1 and NASCAR exhaust systems." Continue reading →

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Gun company displays largest-caliber rifle ever created with bullets that cost $40 a piece

"If you want to squeeze off a few rounds from a .905-caliber rifle, you'll need two things: muscles and cash. An Ohio-based gun company has developed the world's first .905-caliber rifle that - at .905 - is the highest-caliber rifle in the world. The rifle is the creation of SSK Industries and is essentially a shoulder-mounted cannon, with rounds that look like mini mortar shells. The rifle fires rounds about 2,100 feet per second with roughly 254,000 foot-pounds of muzzle energy. The gun also has 2,777 foot-pounds of recoil energy, which essentially makes it as powerful - and has about as much 'kick' - as firing 10 .30-6 rifles at the same time." Continue reading →

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When ‘Smart Homes’ Get Hacked: I Haunted A Complete Stranger’s House Via The Internet

"Due to Insteon not requiring user names and passwords by default in a now-discontinued product, I was able to click on the links, giving me the ability to turn these people’s homes into haunted houses, energy-consumption nightmares, or even robbery targets. Opening a garage door could make a house ripe for actual physical intrusion. Thomas Hatley’s home was one of eight that I was able to access. Sensitive information was revealed – not just what appliances and devices people had, but their time zone (along with the closest major city to their home), IP addresses and even the name of a child." Continue reading →

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