AntiSec infiltrated the server of a cyber-security specialist and published login details of 90,000 military email accounts.

Shortly after 8 p.m. Monday night, the notorious “hacktivist” collective simply known as AntiSec published the login details of 90,000 military email addresses as a torrent on The Pirate Bay. As part of their Military Meltdown Monday campaign, the hackers reportedly infiltrated the servers of military contractor firm Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) who supposedly specializes in cybersecurity.

“We infiltrated a server on their network that basically had no security measures in place,” the group writes. “We were able to run our own application, which turned out to be a shell and began plundering some booty. Most shiny is probably a list of roughly 90,000 military emails and password hashes (md5, non-salted of course!). We also added the complete sqldump, compressed ~50 MB, for a good measure.”

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Apple has proven, time and time again, that it is not shy about dragging its competitors before the ITC over patent disputes, but from what I see over here, surely not a very friendly corporate. And, while its fellow smartphone makers have never held back from defending themselves, HTC’s general counsel Grace Lei had some particularly pointed words for Jobs and co. regarding Cupertino’s latest volley of suits. In a statement Lei said that, “HTC is disappointed at Apple’s constant attempts at litigations instead of competing fairly in the market.” This is the second time Apple has attempted to block the import of devices from the Taiwanese manufacturer, and the purveyors of all things “I” are also currently on the offensive against Samsung, GetJar, and Amazon in patent and trademark disputes. At this rate the company is probably spending almost as much on legal fees as it is on the engineers and designers tasked with whipping up its next generation of mobile products.

SOURCE via AFP

Apple is facing yet another patent dispute, as if we’d expect it to end anyway. This time, it’s the W3C. The W3C is complaining about Apple’s refusal to provide full and unrestricted rights to one Apple patent and one application that affect standard that is currently developed. In this case, the W3C is apparently trying to secure the rights for Widget Access Policy Specification that is created by the Web Application working group within the W3C.

To be able to get the rights to Apple’s claimed inventions, the W3C has issued a public call for determination of prior art that detail access control systems that were available before October 2005 and distribution systems before April 2006 as they could relate to the W3C’s standard intentions.

The W3C typically requests full access to a technology in a patent, if it is included in a W3C standard to avoid any patent infringement lawsuits, yet this is apparently Apple’s intent why it is not willing to release the rights to the W3C. The organization said that Apple specifically excluded all claims in this patent from a license given to the W3C, which prompted the W3C’s Patent Advisory Group to suggest the route of a call for prior art to challenge Apple’s patent. Apple has not commented on the dispute.

SOURCE via FOSS Patent

George Hotz once said that giant companies should hire more IT security experts instead of lawyers, and it seemed that Apple is not heeding that advice. Just months after Apple smacked HTC with an ITC complaint, it looks as if the company’s doing the same thing again. As if one ongoing ITC complaint against Samsung wasn’t enough, the US International Trade Commission is reporting that HTC is being accused again. As predicted, the patent infringement complaint is asking for the entity to block the import of “personal electronic devices” by HTC, but until it becomes available for public viewing, it’s hard to know exactly which device(s) ticked the lawyers in Cupertino off. As for the prior tiff? A judge is expected to rule on that August 5th, and those findings are then subject to review by the full commission. HTC’s not commenting yet given that even it hasn’t seen the details, so we’ll be sure to keep you posted as the drama unfolds.

SOURCE via SF Gate

Jeremy Clarkson has drawn the ire of critics once again, this time for comments made in his column. While discussing the eco feature on his LG flat screen TV, the Top Gear presenter said that using the feature “dims the screen so much, every programme looks like it’s being presented by Lenny Henry in a cave.”

The problem? Henry is a black comedian.

The two have a history of butting heads after they cohosted a celebrity telethon, but the racially tinged jab is just the latest in a series of cringe-worthy jokes from the UK personality.

Previously, Clarkson and his compatriots on Top Gear managed to rile the Mexican government over disparaging comments made toward a supercar company based in the country, and last year’s Christmas special garnered the ire of Muslims when Top Gear hosts Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond dressed in the traditional garments of the religion’s women. Those episodes garnered apologies from Top Gear, the BBC and Clarkson himself, but there’s no indication as to whether the latest comments will require similar atonement.

[Source: DNA India | Images: Ed Perchick via C.C. 2.0]

While the Chinese city of Chongqing has been planning this initiative for some time, we’re just now starting to understand the sheer magnitude of what’ll be built over the next two to three years. Cisco and HP — two names that are no doubt familiar to those reading this page — are apparently in cahoots with the nation in a way that overshoots prior expectations by some amount.

According to figures gathered by The Wall Street Journal, a whopping half-million surveillance cameras are being shipped over to keep watch across the city, with the awkwardly-named Peaceful Chongqing project giving the government unprecedented views of its citizens.

Critics are wondering why Cisco and HP aren’t being held responsible for whatever China ends up doing with this equipment, but the loophole here is a fairly obvious one; while it’s definitely not kosher for US firms to ship fingerprinting equipment to China, shipping everyday technology like cameras isn’t taboo, yet.

As you’d expect, both Cisco and HP seem confident that it’s not their responsibility to pay attention to what happens to the devices they ship, business is still business.

SOURCE via Wall Street Journal

A group infiltrated the Fox News political Twitter feed and added faux reports of Barack Obama’s assassination on the 4th of July.

Both Fox News and the Secret Service said on Tuesday that they’re launching a detailed investigation into a hack of the @foxnewspolitics verified Twitter account that took place early Monday morning. The political feed reportedly began posting false claims that President Barack Obama was dead on the 4th of July.

According to Yahoo News, a group calling itself “Scriptkiddies” allegedly gained access the Fox News account and posted messages of President Barack Obama’s supposed 4th of July assassination in Iowa. “@BarackObama has just passed,” one of the first tweets read. “The President is dead. A sad 4th of July indeed. President Barack Obama is dead.”

Following tweets claimed that Obama was shot twice at a Ross’ restaurant in Iowa while campaigning. “We wish @joebiden the best of luck as our new President of the United States,” a final tweet said. “In such a time of madness, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

The tweets have thus been removed from the feed, but not before 30,000 plus followers began to re-tweet the president’s demise. AllTwitter adds that Fox News hadn’t updated the political feed since June 30, so it’s possible the group gained access to the account sometime between than and July 4th.

“We will be requesting a detailed investigation from Twitter about how this occurred, and measures to prevent future unauthorized access into FoxNews.com accounts,” said Jeff Misenti, vice president and general manager of Fox News Digital.

George Ogilvie, spokesman for the Secret Service, said that it is “investigating the matter and will be conducting appropriate follow-up.”

In addition to the Fox News Twitter hack, a separate attack by AntiSec affiliates was performed on an Apple server over the weekend. The New York Times claims that the group only stole a small number of internal passwords and usernames – those not related to the public or Apple customers – from an Apple server used for online surveys.

SOURCE via Yahoo!News

It’s been a very long ongoing debate regarding cellphone-cancer, and perhaps a freshly released scientific review might just do the trick. In the paper, published Friday, a panel of experts from Britain, Sweden and the US conducted a thorough survey of previous studies, before concluding that existing literature is “increasingly against” the theory that cellphone use causes brain tumors in adults. The researchers also questioned the biological mechanisms underpinning this hypothesis, while acknowledging some lingering uncertainties, since data on childhood tumors and longer-term research are still lacking.

The results come just a few weeks after the World Health Organization released its own literature review, in which it claimed that cell phones should be considered “potentially carcinogenic.” But Anthony Swerdlow, a professor at Britain’s Institute of Cancer Research and leader of the most recent investigation, said his group’s work doesn’t necessarily contradict the WHO, since the latter was simply seeking to evaluate cancer risks according to its own “pre-set classification system” — under which things like pickled vegetables and coffee are also considered “potentially carcinogenic.” Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that the debate will die down anytime soon, though Swerdlow expects more definitive conclusions within the next few years — assuming, of course, that all of our brains haven’t turned to oatmeal by then.

SOURCE via Reuters

Despite having moved into the number five slot on IDC’s list of the top handset makers worldwide — beating out RIM and just behind Apple — HTC has actually seen its share prices drop 19-percent since June 7th. The stock did rebound slightly following news that the company’s sales for June were a staggering 87.8-percent higher than the same time last year. Surprisingly, that’s actually a drop from May’s figures which were 116-percent higher than the same month in 2010. Even though the company continues to break its own sales and profit records, some analysts don’t think the company is out of the woods just yet — a rather confusing outlook to us but, then again, we’re not financial analysts.

SOURCE via Reuters

For most Americans, Edgar Mitchell is a hero. He piloted the lunar module “Antares” from Apollo 14 in 1971. He braved the cold void of space and became the sixth man to walk upon the surface of the moon. He faced a possible disintegration by plunging back through the Earth’s atmosphere carrying samples from the orbiting satellite. Who cares if he kept one of NASA’s cameras as a souvenir? He deserved it, and most of us would have done the same thing.

Evidently NASA cares. The space agency discovered that the British auction house Bonhams planned to sell the camera at an upcoming Space History Sale. According to Reuters, the item was labelled “Movie Camera from the Lunar Surface” and billed as one of two cameras from the lunar trip. The lot description also identified the camera as the property of pilot Edgar Mitchell and sported a pre-sale estimate of $60,000 to $80,000.

And… NASA wasn’t happy. So, to the court they went.

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