Science And Technology (33)
Science And Technology
Хакнат и “разкрасен” се оказа днес сайтът на ГДБОП за борба с кибер-престъпленията и особено тези, насочени срещу деца.
cybercrime.bg пострада с "поздрави от Русия"
Вместо скромното графично оформление на сайта със съвети за предпазване от виртуални злодеи, днес страницата показва колоритни графики с черепи и дракони на фона на преливка между ярко червено и черно.
“HacK3D by tAn1A. With LoVe from Russia” гласи поздравът на виртуалния “герой”, измайсторил “новата визия” на страницата, коeто навярно трябва да значи “Хакнато от Таня. С любов от Русия”. Има и кратък послеслов, който гласи “война е”.
Допълнение: към 17 ч. днес сайтът беше напълно възстановен. Пресцентърът на МВР засега не публикува информация за случая.
Междувременнно, пред news.bg ръководителят на сектор „Компютърни престъпления" в ГДБОП Явор Колев, който е в Хага, отрича сайтът да е бил хакнат, позовавайки се на информация от своите колеги в София. По думите му, такова нещо не се е случвало и това е само слух.
Екранът, публикуван в тази статия обаче, е свален именно от сайта cybercrime.bg около 16,10 ч. Малко след това при опит за влизане в сайта се появяваше празен екран, а по-късно началната страница придоби нормалния си вид.
DNSSEC е набор от IETF спецификации за подобряване на сигурността на определени видове данни, проектиран така, че да предпазва Интернет сървърите от атаки към системата за домейн имена – тип кибер-атаки, които стават все по-често прилагани от злонамерените организации.
Първият домейн от високо равнище, който започна да поддържа DNSSEC, е областта “.org”. Това стана през юли 2008 г.
Според специалистите, въвеждането на системата за сигурност DNSSEC при домейните от високо равнище е от съществено значение, защото ще подтикне администраторите на останалите интернет области да се решат на тази стъпка също.
Тестовата система за “.eu” ще помогне на EURid да разбере техническите потребности при работа с версия NSEC3 на DNSSEC. Организацията ще може да оцени времето за реакция при този начин на работа в домейна “.eu” и да измери производителността. Не на последно място EURid ще изследва и административните процедури при работата с DNSSEC.
Оригиналната система за домейн имена е проектирана така, че да отговаря на потребностите от разрастване, а не от сигурност, обясняват от организацията. Престъпниците обаче се възползват от слабостите на домейн-системата по най-различни начини. EURid вече е взела мерки за предотвратяване на атаките от типа "man in the middle" (от англ. - “човек по средата” - подслушване). Това обаче не е достатъчно за сигурността на потребителите на “.eu”.
Как се случват атаките?
Системата за домейн-имена позволява на потребителите да пишат в адресното поле на браузера си даден адрес, примерно eurid.eu, и тази заявка да се “преведе” така, че да пристигне на правилния уеб-адрес, който за обикновения човек представлява труден за запомняне набор от числа - 195.234.53.204. Обичайно дадената заявка отива при правилнията поредица от цифри, но понякога браузерът праща посетителя на друго място. От EURid дават следния пример:
- вие искате да посетите даден сайт, например LuckyBaby.eu, затова написвате този адрес в браузера си;
- вашият компютър се обръща към сървър за имена и запитва за IP адреса на LuckyBaby.eu;
- една трета страна в комуникацията забелязва какво търсите и изпраща на компютъра ви фалшив IP адрес, който изглежда като да е адресът на LuckyBaby.eu;
- вашият браузер ви отвежда на сайт, който привидно прилича на LuckyBaby.eu, но всъщност е фалшив сайт, създаден с цел да изкопчи от вас данни за номерата на кредитните ви карти, ПИН кодовете и друга лична информация.
DNSSEC ще може да предотврати този вид атаки, като позволи на компютрите да проверяват IP адресите, които получават, и да уставновяват дали те са коректни и идват от правилните сървъри.
The chance discovery of an antique notebook could have solved the 350-year-old British scientific mystery.
Alexander Popham was born deaf in around 1650 but his mother, determined to communicate with her son, hired two eminent scientists, John Wallis and William Holder, to teach him to speak.
Both claimed success in what became a celebrated scientific controversy.
Exciting discovery
The story was lent additional interest because the boy was the grandson of the notorious Judge Popham, who sentenced both Mary Queen of Scots and Guy Fawkes to death.
Now a yellowing, leather-bound notebook, found in a butler's cupboard in Littlecote House, Berkshire, a former home of the Pophams, appears to some experts to indicate that the methods of Mr Wallis were the key.
He was a renowned mathematician, deciphered enemy codes for Cromwell during the English Civil War and was also an expert linguist.
Philip Beeley, researcher in the faculty of linguistics and philology at the University of Oxford, and a world expert on John Wallis, said he had been fascinated by the book, which shows how Mr Wallis taught his charge.
"William Holder claimed to have been successful, but when you go into the method that he used, it was quite outlandish.He investigated the structure of the ear and worked on the hypothesis that the problem was the ear drum itself that had become relaxed.
"He felt that only when it was tight could it facilitate hearing and he set about an experiment beating a loud drum.
"Holder found that when he beat a loud drum near Alexander, he could hear other sounds, including people calling his name.
"He convinced a lot of people that he was successful."
'Evidence'
When Mr Holder was called away to take up another post, Mr Wallis took over.
"We have not known an awful lot about the approach John Wallis took," said Mr Beeley.
"All we do know is that he wrote a little bit about it and later on it became the topic of a grand dispute within the Royal Society, with claim and counter-claim.
"Up until now we have not been in a position to assess the validity of either claim.
"This find is potentially able to do this for us."
Mr Wallis's approach was to start by looking at how the tongue, palate and lips looked when certain vowel sounds were made.
He drew diagrams and used them to show Alexander how to form sounds.
From there, Mr Wallis used the same method to help him form words.
Mr Beeley said: "He starts out with a modern technique showing him how to produce sounds, and then he moves on from that to basic language constructions, with nouns and conjunctions.
"Having looked at the notebook, I am fairly sure this is a book that would have been on the desk while John Wallis and Alexander Popham were sitting together.
"We have evidence from his descendants that this instruction was successful.
"It helps solve one of the grand disputes of the Royal Society, and is quite unique."
'Strong stuff'
Sentences learnt by Alexander and detailed in the notebook include "I have a knife in my hand" and "I have mony (sic) in my pocket" as well as "I have a hat, on my head" and "I have a band about my neck".
Dr Beeley said he had no doubts that the notebook was genuine.
"I have to admit that before I had the notebook in my hands I had my doubts," he said.
"There have of course been occasions when people have been deceived, but I was very happy to see the notebook.
"And now I have no doubt. I know John Wallis's hand and style and can say without any doubt that I am certain it is genuine."Keith Moore, head of library and archives at the Royal Society, said the notebook was a fantastic find.
"It adds historical detail and any manuscript of this period is interesting," he said.
"This is dated 1662 and right at the beginning of what we would call modern science.
"The Royal Society was founded in 1660 and this is an early example of the practical applications of scientific methods."
But he said it was unlikely to settle the dispute about who taught Alexander to speak, adding that the most important detail was the science itself.
"Holden virtually accused Wallis of stealing his ideas and that smacks of plagiarism in science. It is pretty strong stuff," he said.
"It does not matter whether it solves it - the Popham case was the beginning of a more scientific approach to therapy.
"They were thinking about language and grammar, about the physiology of how people spoke and that is the important thing really.
"It is about applying scientific method and whether you think Wallis was first or Holden was first doesn't really matter."
Dr Beeley hopes that the book is stored in a library like the Bodleian, but the hotel chain, Warner Leisure, which now owns Littlecote, is deciding whether to keep it on display in the house.
A US senator is seeking a law banning computer laptops and other personal electronic devices in airline cockpits to prevent pilots becoming distracted.
The move follows the recent case of a US plane that overshot its destination by 150 miles (240km).
Its two Northwest Airlines pilots told investigators they had been working on crew schedules on their laptops.
US aviation law does not prohibit air crew using laptops and similar devices, except during landing and take-off.
Senator Byron Dorgan, chairman of the US Senate's aviation subcommittee, said he was surprised to learn that current laws do not specifically ban pilots using laptops, DVD or MP3 players and other personal electronic devices, except below 10,000ft (3,048m).
Mr Dorgan told the Associated Press he planned to introduce the proposed ban within days and expected it to be drafted into a larger version of an aviation bill that is to go before the Senate shortly.
"I'm not anticipating any opposition to the measure," he said.
'Hijack concerns'
Changes to the law are being made after the Northwest Airlines jet with more than 140 people on board lost contact for more than an hour before it landed in Minneapolis on 21 October.
The pilots admitted to investigators they had missed repeated calls from air traffic controllers, due to working on a scheduling programme on their personal laptops.
Jets from the National Guard were put on alert to chase the airliner amid fears it could have been hijacked, although they did not take off.
Both pilots have been suspended and have had their licences to fly revoked pending a full inquiry.
"We now understand from this flight, at least, that this can happen and there ought to be a more clear understanding by everyone in the cockpit that there is a national standard that would prohibit [such actions]," Mr Dorgan said.
The new bill intends to make an exception only for those laptops containing navigational tools issued to pilots by some airlines, the senator added.
Getting online can save people money and allow them to earn more, says Martha Lane Fox.
Ms Lane Fox, the UK's Digital Champion, is considering ways to get the four million poorest Britons to sign up to the internet.
Research commissioned by her office showed that technology can provide a "route out" of poverty.
She is also hoping to galvanise broadcasters to put internet storylines in soap operas.
"The jury is still out" on whether broadcasters will adopt such a storyline, she told the BBC.
But it could be a good way of bringing the issue of digital exclusion to a wider audience, she added.
The co-founder of lastminute.com was describing her new role and how she intends to tackle the issue of digital exclusion.
Some 10 million adults in the UK have never been online and Ms Lane Fox is targeting the poorest 4 million, with the aim of getting a large proportion of this group online by 2012.
Route out
She commissioned a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers to make the economic case for getting online.
It found that digitally excluded households could save between £270 and £560 a year, depending on their economic circumstances, by going online.
Being online can help the unemployed increase their lifetime earnings by £12,000, while internet-savvy workers can increase their earnings by £8,000.
The study also found that the government could save at least £900m a year if all digitally excluded adults got online and made just one electronic contact per month.
Ms Lane Fox has put the lobbying of politicians high on her agenda.
"Over half of MPs don't think digital exclusion is an issue and one of my roles is to keep up the pressure on government," she said.
The government recently dropped its Digital Inclusion Minister and the role now forms part of Digital Britain minister Stephen Timms' remit.
Ms Lane Fox is also keen to build a "peer-to-peer network" of people who have received online training and are prepared to pass that training on.
She acknowledges that it is going to be a hard movement to start.
People's taskforce
"We will have to build this up person by person. It is worth having a big ambition and if I can get a thousand people to volunteer and have an impact on another thousand, then that's a start," she told the BBC.
As part of this she intends to set up a "people's taskforce", made up of individuals from the economic group she has targeted, who will give their opinions on future strategies.
Ms Lane Fox has also been in talks with retailers to see if any are prepared to provide a package of services and offer bonuses for those who go online.
Electrical retailer Comet has agreed to offer a service aimed specifically at older people.
She told the BBC she remained "passionate" about her role.
"I get frustrated when I feel I get back only negativity. I don't see this as a controversial issue," she said.
"The projects I have visited prove that technology can provide a route out for people in a spectacular way and I hope to bring continued focus on the issue," she insisted.
The internet regulator has approved plans to allow non-Latin-script web addresses, in a move that is set to transform the online world.
The board of Icann voted at its annual meeting in Seoul to allow domain names in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts.
More than half of the 1.6 billion people who use the internet speak languages with non-Latin scripts.
It is being described as the biggest change to the way the internet works since it was created 40 years ago.
The first Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) could be in use next year.
Plans for IDNs were first approved at a meeting in June 2008, but testing of the system has been going on for two years.
Technical upheaval
The move paves the way for the internet's Domain Name System (DNS) to be changed so it can recognise and translate non-Latin characters.
The DNS acts like a phonebook, turning easily understood domain names into strings of computer-readable numbers, known as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.
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 This change is very much necessary for not only half the world's internet users today but more than half, probably, of the future users as the internet continues to spread  Rod Beckstrom
President of Icann  |
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) said the "fantastically complicated technical feature" allowing IDNs would represent the "biggest change" to the coding that underlies the internet since it was invented four decades ago.
BBC technology correspondent Mark Gregory says in the early days of the internet, language posed no problem, as most web-surfers spoke English and those that did not usually wrote in languages based on the Latin alphabet.
But this is no longer true, adds our correspondent.
Icann said it would accept the first applications for IDNs by 16 November, with the first up and running by "mid-2010".
It is likely the majority of early non-Latin net addresses to be approved will be in Chinese and Arabic script, followed by Russian.
Some countries, such as China and Thailand, have already introduced workarounds that allow computer users to enter web addresses in their own language.
However, these were not internationally approved and do not work on all computers.
Autonomy
Our correspondent says the point of the Icann vote was to create a universal internet address code that will work in any language and every place so all the world's computers can connect with each other.
"Of the 1.6 billion internet users today worldwide, more than half use languages that have scripts that are not Latin-based," said Icann president and CEO Rod Beckstrom earlier this week.
"So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world's internet users today but more than half, probably, of the future users as the internet continues to spread."
Icann, set up by the US government, was founded in 1998 to oversee the development of the net.
Last month, after years of criticism, the US government eased its control over the non-profit body.
It signed a new agreement that gave Icann autonomy for the first time. The agreement came into effect on 1 October and puts it under the scrutiny of the global "internet community".
President Barack Obama has said it is "imperative" the US and EU redouble efforts to achieve success at next month's climate summit in Copenhagen. Speaking after talks in Washington with EU officials, he said they agreed they should create a framework for progress. The Copenhagen talks are aimed at negotiating a follow-on agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. Meanwhile, former US Vice President Al Gore says he believes President Obama will attend the talks in Copenhagen. He said the president would want to emphasise his administration's commitment to safeguarding the environment. But Mr Obama's allies in Congress are struggling to push through legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and it is unlikely that any bill will be passed before the December talks. 'Potential disaster' Mr Obama said climate change had been discussed "extensively" with EU leaders on Tuesday. "All of us agreed that it was imperative for us to redouble our efforts in the weeks between now and the Copenhagen meetings to ensure that we create a framework for progress in dealing with what is a potential ecologic disaster," he said. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the talks with Mr Obama had made him more confident about progress.
"With the strong leadership of the United States we can indeed make an agreement," he said. The Kyoto Protocol required 37 industrial nations to cut carbon emissions by an average 5% from 1990 levels by 2012, when it expires. However, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said world leaders are unlikely to agree on a comprehensive treaty in Copenhagen. He said it was more likely there would only be agreement on principles. UN officials have also recently declared there is no chance of agreeing all elements of a new legally-binding UN treaty before the end of the year. But Mr Gore, a leading environmental campaigner, said it wouldn't be a disaster if the conference produced only a framework agreement, and not a binding deal. |
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The mission will run for three years in the first instance
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The Smos spacecraft launched on Monday to study the Earth's water cycle has passed a key mission milestone.
The European Space Agency (Esa) satellite has successfully unpacked the three-armed antenna it will use to acquire its data.
Smos will investigate the hydrological cycle by measuring changes in soil moisture and ocean salinity.
It will do this by observing variations in the natural microwave emission coming up off the planet's surface.
The data is expected to have wide uses but should improve weather forecasts and warnings of extreme events, such as floods.
The Esa satellite was launched by a Rockot vehicle from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia, in the early hours of Monday.
It carries a single instrument - an interferometric radiometer called Miras - which at some eight metres across had to be folded to fit inside the Rockot.
Signals from 69 mini-antennas on Miras are combined to image Earth
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On Tuesday, French mission controllers gave the command for a series of pyro-bolts securing the arms of Miras to be released. The whole procedure would have taken three minutes.
Engineers say it will take a week to fully prepare the spacecraft to begin its commissioning phase - a six-month period over which the instrument will be set up properly to obtain scientific data.
Smos information will result in a better understanding of the hydrological cycle - the description of how water is constantly exchanged between the Earth's land and ocean surfaces and the atmosphere.
The satellite is expected to help improve short and medium-term weather forecasts, and also have practical applications in areas such as agriculture and water resource management.
In addition, climate models should benefit from having a more precise picture of the scale and speed of movement of water in the different components of the hydrological cycle.
The satellite is part of Esa's Earth Explorer programme - eight spacecraft that will acquire data on issues of pressing environmental concern.
The Smos programme cost is about 315m euros ($465m; £280m). It is led by Esa but with significant input from French and Spanish interests. The satellite is expected to operate for at least three years.
Scientists have identified the most ancient fossil relative of the predatory dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex.
The new addition to T. rex's clan is known from a 30cm-long skull uncovered during excavations in Gloucestershire in the 1900s.
The well-preserved fossil is now held in London's Natural History Museum.
A British-German team has now uncovered evidence linking it to what may be the most famous dinosaur family of all.
The dinosaur, named Proceratosaurus, lived about 165m years ago, during the middle Jurassic Period.
The two-legged, meat-eater would have measured about 3m long and weighed up to 50 or 60kg.
The palaeontologists used computed tomography (CT) techniques to generate a 3D image of the delicate skull to investigate its internal structure in meticulous detail.
Dr Angela Milner, associate keeper of palaeontology at the Natural History Museum, told BBC News: "This is a unique specimen. It is the only one of its kind known in the world."
She added: "It was quite a surprise when our analysis showed we had the oldest known relative of T. rex.
"Fossils collected a century ago can now be studied again with the benefit of much greater knowledge of dinosaurs from around the world."
Originally described in 1910 as a new species of Megalosaurus, the fossil was presented to the museum in 1942.
The skull was unearthed during excavations for a reservoir close to Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire.
Dr Milner said that despite obvious differences between the skulls of Proceratosaurus and T.rex - such as their divergent sizes - the two shared many similarities.
"If you look at the animal (Proceratosaurus) in detail, it has the same kinds of windows in the side of the skull for increasing the jaw muscles," she told BBC News.
"It has the same kinds of teeth - particularly at the front of the jaws. They're small teeth and almost banana-shaped, which are just the kind of teeth T. rex has."
"Inside the skull, which we were able to look at using CT scanning, there are lots of internal air spaces. Tyrannosaurus had those as well."
Although it has attracted much interest because of its exquisite preservation, it has not been closely studied until now, thus, its link to the tyrannosaurs remained undiscovered.
"This is still one of the best-preserved dinosaur skulls found in Europe," said co-author Dr Oliver Rauhut from the Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology in Munich.
"It is really surprising that it has received so little attention since its original description."
Yahoo and Microsoft have unveiled a tie-up that they hope will enable the two firms to better compete with Google in the internet search marketplace.
Microsoft's search engine will now power the Yahoo website, while Yahoo will in turn become the advertising sales team for Microsoft's online offering.
Here we take a closer look at the three US corporate giants.
Here we take a closer look at the three US corporate giants.
Yahoo is the world's second most popular internet search engine, yet it trails far behind market leader Google.
Yahoo rejected a takeover bid from Microsoft last year
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According to recent industry figures, Google has more than 64% of the search market in the US, while Yahoo has 20%.
Yahoo revealed last week that its revenues for the quarter to 30 June fell 13% to $1.57bn (£953m), blaming the challenging economic environment.
Profit for the quarter edged up to $141m from $131m.
Last year Yahoo rejected a $47.5bn or $33 per share takeover bid from Microsoft, an offer that was eventually withdrawn in May 2008.
Yahoo's shares are now worth around $17.
Founded in 1995, Yahoo is based in Sunnyvale, California.
It currently employs 14,300 staff.
Google was set up in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who had met at Stanford University, and is now the world's most used search engine.
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Google remains by far the leader of the search engine market
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Its shares were listed on Wall Street at a price of $85 in August 2004 and now trade at about $440 a share.
Earlier this month it reported a net income of $1.48bn for the three months to 30 June, compared with $1.25bn a year before.
Revenue rose 3% for the period at $5.52bn, and just over half - 53% - came from outside the US.
It has more than 17,000 employees in 20 countries and its headquarters, the Googleplex, are in Mountain View, California.
Microsoft dominates the world of personal computer operating systems, with a market share of about 90%.
Microsoft has made Bill Gates a very wealthy man
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Despite this strength, it has remained relatively weak in the search engine market, with just an 8% stake in the US.
To help increase this, Microsoft revamped and renamed its search engine in May, which is now called Bing.
Earlier this week, the firm announced that its profits for the April to June quarter were down by almost a third from a year earlier, due to weaker global computer sales.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft enjoys annual revenues of $51bn and has a workforce of 79,000.
Headquartered in Washington State, co-founder Bill Gates is one of the world's richest men, with an estimated personal fortune of $56bn.
The company's dominant market position has led to numerous criticisms that it stifles competition.
Last year, the EU fined Microsoft 899m euros ($1.4bn; £680.9m) for abusing its market position after the US firm lost its appeal.
In February of this year, the European Commission launched two new anti-competition investigations into the company.
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