Thursday, September 25, 2014

hey I have an idea, let's stick our dicks in a beehive. No that's not painful enough let's antagonize 4chan - What I am reading 9/25/2014

Wired - Kevin Mitnick, Once the World’s Most Wanted Hacker, Is Now Selling Zero-Day Exploits -

Late last week, Mitnick revealed a new branch of his security consultancy business he calls Mitnick’s Absolute Zero Day Exploit Exchange. Since its quiet inception six months ago, he says the service has offered to sell corporate and government clients high-end “zero-day” exploits, hacking tools that take advantage of secret bugs in software for which no patch yet exists. Mitnick says he’s offering exploits developed both by his own in-house researchers and by outside hackers, guaranteed to be exclusive and priced at no less than $100,000 each, including his own fee.
And what will his clients do with those exploits? “When we have a client that wants a zero-day vulnerability for whatever reason, we don’t ask, and in fact they wouldn’t tell us,” Mitnick tells WIRED in an interview.
So no vetting just dumping 'em for top dollar.  That just spells reformed.

The Verge - Emma Watson nude photo threats were apparently a plot to kill 4chan -
when the clock struck 12, no naked pictures were released. Instead visitors to emmayouarenext.com were pointed to a marketing company's homepage, its black background bearing a crossed-out version of 4chan's four-leaf clover logo, and the hashtag #shutdown4chan written in large white letters. The site was a hoax, designed to draw as many eyes as possible not to actual pictures of Watson but to an apparent campaign set up to attack 4chan.
I have a feeling someone may regret this soon.

Endgadget - 'Bash' command flaw leaves Linux, OS X and more open to attack -
Researchers have discovered a longstanding flaw in a common Unix command shell (bash) for Linux and Macs that lets attackers run any code they want as soon as the shell starts running. They can effectively get control of any networked device that runs bash, even if there are limits on the commands remote users can try. That's a big problem when a large chunk of the internet relies on the shell for everyday tasks
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Valleywag - Silicon Valley Now Selling Trade School Diplomas Called "Nanodegrees" -

I debated not including this one because it's just a screed with not real substance, but I figured someone might find it interesting.

NY TImes - ‘Parks and Recreation’ Comes to Life in San Francisco -

The parks department just wanted to replace four grass soccer fields with artificial turf.
That should have been easy, right? Not in San Francisco, where any project can be endlessly debated, protested, voted on and litigated.
Think about this article the next time you see some complaint about how techies are driving up housing prices in San Francisco, or the next time you read some snide comment from Cory Doctrow about a middle American Red State.  It will help put things into perspective.


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