Archive 2015 | WIRED

Spécial «vieux #geeks» : Commodore Is Back, Baby, With a … Smartphone?
▻http://www.wired.com/2015/07/commodore-smartphone

Le #blockchain c’est tellement la rebellion de demain en chantant que « IBM, Intel, and Cisco as well as the London Stock Exchange Group and big-name banks JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, and State Street » s’y mettent

►http://www.wired.com/2015/12/big-tech-joins-big-banks-to-create-alternative-to-bitcoins-blockchain

Juniper Backdoor
__________________

Cisco Starts Company-Wide Code Audit to Search for Hidden Backdoors

After Juniper found “unauthorized code” in the source code of their ScreenOS, deployed with NetScreen firewall equipment, Cisco announced a full audit of all their products’ source code.

▻http://news.softpedia.com/news/cisco-starts-reviewing-code-after-juniper-finds-hidden-backdoor-4979

The code reviewers will be looking for undisclosed device access methods (backdoors), hardcoded or undocumented hidden account credentials, undocumented traffic diversions, or any type of covert communications initiated from the device.

Cisco has firmly stated that it has a “no backdoor” policy for its products, and has also reassured clients that, up to this point, no unauthorized code has been found in its devices.

[...]

It appears that the Juniper incident has rocked the communications equipment market, and now, many companies are scrambling left and right to reassure clients that their businesses’ communications channels are safe.

About the Juniper Backdoor (in some of their firewalls):

Security Firm Discovers Backdoor Password for Juniper ScreenOS Devices

▻http://news.softpedia.com/news/security-firm-discovers-backdoor-password-for-juniper-screenos-devic

The issue was present only in some of its equipment, NetScreen devices using ScreenOS 6.2.0r15 through 6.2.0r18 and 6.3.0r12 through 6.3.0r20, to be more precise.

According to Rapid7, attackers can use the password “<<< %s(un=’%s’) = %u” to bypass both SSH and Telnet authentication procedures, with the only condition that they know a valid username.

The password was found in the ScreenOS code, and it looks like a code comment, probably the reason it remained in the code for so many years.

According to security analyst Ralf-Philipp Weinmann [1], these vulnerabilities could find their source in NSA’s deliberately crippled dual elliptic curve algorithm Dual_EC_DBRG, a pseudo-random number generator used to encrypt traffic.

A Wired article also explains how the backdoor works:

▻http://www.wired.com/2015/12/researchers-solve-the-juniper-mystery-and-they-say-its-partially-the-nsas-fau

Apparently, Juniper is still using this weakened algorithm.

#Cisco
#Juniper #NetScreen #ScreenOS
#backdoor
#spy
#NSA

___

[1] ▻http://rpw.sh/blog/2015/12/21/the-backdoored-backdoor

Elon Musk’s Billion-Dollar AI Plan Is About Far More Than Saving the World
▻http://www.wired.com/2015/12/elon-musks-billion-dollar-ai-plan-is-about-far-more-than-saving-the-world

Elon Musk and Sam Altman worry that artificial intelligence will take over the world. So, the two entrepreneurs are creating a billion-dollar not-for-profit company that will maximize the power of AI—and then share it with anyone who wants it.

At least, this is the message that Musk, the founder of electric car company Tesla Motors, and Altman, the president of startup incubator Y Combinator, delivered in announcing their new endeavor, an unprecedented outfit called OpenAI. In an interview with Steven Levy of Backchannel, timed to the company’s launch, Altman said they expect this decades-long project to surpass human intelligence. But they believe that any risks will be mitigated because the technology will be “usable by everyone instead of usable by, say, just Google.”

#Elon_Musk #Google #Intelligence_artificielle #Open_source #OpenAI #Sam_Altman #Tesla_Motors #Y_Combinator

Open Ledger Project : blockchain alternative

IBM, Cisco, Intel and some financial organisations are working on an alternative for the blockchain. The purpose is however not (yet?) to come up with an alternative cryptocurrency for bitcoin, but to build a blockchain-like technology that can bring a new level of automation and transparency to a wide range of services in the business world, including stock exchanges and other financial markets.

It has been a while that IBM has been working on blockchain-inspired software to deal with digital “Smart” contracts [1].
IBM is now going to release the code it has developed together with Digital Asset Holdings (DAH), a company that develops software for designing blockchain-technology (#Hyperledge).

The Linux Foundation oversees the Open Ledger Project.

Articles:

Wired : Tech and Banking Giants Ditch Bitcoin for Their Own Blockchain

►http://www.wired.com/2015/12/big-tech-joins-big-banks-to-create-alternative-to-bitcoins-blockchain

Fortune: IBM, J.P. Morgan, and Others Build a New Blockchain For Business

▻http://fortune.com/2015/12/17/ibm-blockchain-for-business

#blockchain #bitcoin #ethereum
#Open_Ledger_Project
#shared_single_source_of_truth

_

[1] ▻https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3l71sy/ibm_adapts_bitcoin_technology_for_smart_contracts
Original article appeared in WSJ: (but #paywall)
▻http://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-adapts-bitcoin-technology-for-smart-contracts-1442423444

Over the past year, IBM researchers have been developing their own version of blockchain, which the company said could be used to create secure online contracts. Mr. Krishna isn’t sure who, if anyone, would embrace a project the company so far regards as experimental

“But there’s a dark side to being a Null, and you coders out there are way ahead of me on this. For those of you unwise in the ways of programming, the problem is that “null” is one of those famously “reserved” text strings in many programming languages. Making matters worse is that software programs frequently use “null” specifically to ensure that a data field is not empty, so it’s often rejected as input in a web form.”

▻http://www.wired.com/2015/11/null

#programming #software_quality

Bitcoin : Satoshi Nakamoto = Craig Steven Wright ?

(& Dave Kleiman, mais ce dernier est décédé en 2013)

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/392834CraigStevenWright.png

▻http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2015/12/09/le-fondateur-du-bitcoin-enfin-demasque_4827912_4408996.html

M. Wright, universitaire et entrepreneur australien, est a minima impliqué de très près dans la création de cette monnaie électronique anonyme.

[...]

Wired révèle la transcription d’une réunion avec ses avocats, au cours de laquelle M. Wright aurait lancé : « j’ai fait de mon mieux pour cacher le fait que je gère bitcoin depuis 2009. Mais avec tout ça je pense que la moitié de la planète va finir par le savoir »

[...]

« Malgré ce trésor massif de preuves, nous ne pouvons toujours pas dire avec une certitude absolue que le mystère est levé », souligne Wired. « Tout cela pourrait être un hoax élaboré – peut-être même par Wright lui-même », poursuit le magazine, qui se demande également si Wright pourrait être à l’origine de ces fuites, afin de « se dévoiler petit à petit comme le créateur du bitcoin ».

Mmouais.

Wired :

▻http://www.wired.com/2015/12/bitcoins-creator-satoshi-nakamoto-is-probably-this-unknown-australian-genius

Either Wright invented bitcoin, or he’s a brilliant hoaxer who very badly wants us to believe he did.

Gizmodo :

▻http://gizmodo.com/this-australian-says-he-and-his-dead-friend-invented-bi-1746958692?rev=1449

Vidéo dans laquelle apparait et parle Craig Steven Wright, la personne qui prétend être Satoshi Nakamoto :

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdvQTwjVmrE

#bitcoin

Une série TV Mars la Rouge (Kim Stanley Robinson) dans les tuyaux
▻http://www.journaldugeek.com/2015/12/08/une-serie-tv-mars-la-rouge-kim-stanley-robinson-dans-les-tuyaux
Spike TV orders 10-episode series for Red Mars written by Babylon 5 creator
▻http://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2015/12/spike-tv-orders-10-episode-sereis-for-red-mars-written-by-babylon-5-cre

#science_fiction #séries @fil

Her Code Got Humans on the Moon—And Invented Software Itself

▻http://www.wired.com/2015/10/margaret-hamilton-nasa-apollo

http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/001_3-featured-1200x630.jpg

Margaret Hamilton wasn’t supposed to invent the modern concept of software and land men on the moon.

How Humans Ended Up With Freakishly Huge Brains
▻http://www.wired.com/2015/11/how-humans-ended-up-with-freakishly-huge-brains/?mbid=nl_112915

Une recherche du comment qui conduit à d’étranges expériences,

The researchers began by scanning a database of human accelerated regions (HARs); these regulatory DNA sequences are common to all vertebrates but have rapidly mutated in humans. They decided to focus on HARE5, which seemed to control genes that orchestrate brain development. The human version of HARE5 differs from its chimp correlate by 16 DNA letters. Silver and Wray introduced the chimpanzee copy of HARE5 into one group of mice and the human edition into a separate group. They then observed how the embryonic mice brains grew.

After nine days of development, mice embryos begin to form a cortex, the outer wrinkly layer of the brain associated with the most sophisticated mental talents. On day 10, the human version of HARE5 was much more active in the budding mice brains than the chimp copy, ultimately producing a brain that was 12 percent larger. Further tests revealed that HARE5 shortened the time required for certain embryonic brain cells to divide and multiply from 12 hours to nine. Mice with the human HARE5 were creating new neurons more rapidly.

ISIS OPSEC manual advice:
▻http://www.wired.com/2015/11/isis-opsec-encryption-manuals-reveal-terrorist-group-security-protocols

There are no surprises among the documents. Most of the recommendations are the same that other civil liberties and journalist groups around the world advise human rights workers, political activists, whistleblowers and reporters to use to secure their communications and obscure their identity or hide their location. The appearance of this and other OPSEC documents in ISIS forums and social media accounts indicate that the jihadis have not only studied these guides closely, but also keep pace with the news to understand the latest privacy and security vulnerabilities uncovered in apps and software that could change their status on the jihadi greatest-hits list.

It contains advice on:
– How to use Twitter securely
– How to take photos bearing in mind Exif, tagging, geolocation etc
– The usage of encrypted phones (Cryptophone, Blackphone, SilentCircle)
– How to transmit info when public networks are (made) unavailable
– VPN software to use (Freedome, Avast SecureLine)
– safe browsing (TorBrowser, also on Android & iPhone, Aviator browser, Opera Mini, TrueCrypt, VeraCrypt)
– Use e-Mail security (HushMail, #ProtonMail, Tutanota
– Instant Messaging (Threema, Telegram, SureSpot, Wickr, CryptoCat, IO SwissCom, PQChat, Sicher, even #iMessage)
– How to use encrytped VoIP (Linphone, IO Swisscom, Silent Circle, RedPhone, Signal, and also #FaceTime)
– safe Cloud storage (MEGA, SpiderOak, SugarSync, Copy.com,

▻http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/ISIS-OPSEC-Guide.pdf
backup: ▻http://docdro.id/COUqJwe

#OPSEC
#cybersecurity

Quand l’intelligence artificielle s’attaque au jeu de Go
▻http://www.internetactu.net/2015/11/12/quand-lintelligence-artificielle-sattaque-au-jeu-de-go

Ces derniers temps, Facebook semble se diversifier au-delà du simple réseau social. On a beaucoup commenté son rachat du système Oculus dédié à la réalité virtuelle, et une récente annonce du groupe affirme pouvoir utiliser cette technologie pour permettre la “téléportation” d’ici 2025 (le terme est mal choisi, il s’agit en fait de “téléprésence” : la capacité d’interagir en un lieu…

#intelligence_artificielle

Arbre : The Most Ancient and Magnificent Trees From Around the World - Totalement récursif, fractal !
▻http://www.wired.com/2015/01/beth-moon-ancient-trees
▻http://olivier.sc.free.fr/logosc/compile/clpart1.html#ancre1749040
#arbre #récursivité #fractal #langage_Logo

Cauchemars et facéties #5
▻https://lundi.am/Cauchemar-et-faceties-5

lundimatin s’autorise une semaine de vacances. Il ne vous reste plus qu’à aller lire ailleurs - en piochant dans ce qui suit, par exemple et les numéros précédents. À lundi matin prochain.

« ▻http://www.dna.fr/actualite/2015/10/25/hommage-a-remi-fraisse-la-manifestation-autorisee »
« ▻http://www.ouest-france.fr/mort-de-remi-fraisse-200-manifestants-autorises-manifester-sivens-37940 »
« ►http://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2015/10/23/mort-de-remi-fraisse-l-enquete-baclee-de-la-gendarmerie_4795289_1653578.html »
« ▻http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2015/10/23/01016-20151023ARTFIG00293-a-beauvais-les-habitants-soupconnent-leur-police- »
« ▻http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2015/10/23/a-notre-dame-des-landes-les-zadistes-bien-campes-dans-le-bocage_4795581_3244 »
« ▻http://www.ouest-france.fr/manifestation-pont-de-buis-apres-la-mort-de-remi-fraisse-trois-jours-co »
« ►http://www.bastamag.net/Entretien-avec-deux-ex-preparateurs-de-commandes-chez-Chronodrive »
« ▻http://www.wired.com/2015/10/hacker-who-broke-into-cia-director-john-brennan-email-tells-how-he-did-it »
« ▻https://wikileaks.org/cia-emails »
« ►https://theintercept.com/drone-papers »
« ►http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2015/10/17/drone-papers-dix-revelations-sur-le-programme-americain-d-assassinats-cibles »
« ▻http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/18/she-kills-people-from-7-850-miles-away.html »
« ▻https://www.slate.fr/story/108577/quotidien-femme-pilote-drones-us-air-force »
« ▻http://www.rue89lyon.fr/2015/09/24/agriculture-bio-drones »
« ▻http://www.liberation.fr/planete/2015/10/21/en-afrique-du-sud-des-etudiants-en-colere-prennent-d-assaut-le-parlement_ »
« ▻http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2015/10/23/en-afrique-du-sud-le-printemps-etudiant-bouscule-l-anc_4795888_3212.html »
« ▻http://lci.tf1.fr/france/societe/lutte-antiterroriste-les-agents-de-securite-de-la-sncf-et-de-la-8672405.html »
« ►http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2015/10/23/edf-envisage-de-construire-jusqu-a-40-epr-d-ici-a-2050_4795963_3234.html »
« ▻http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/12/safe-at-last-view-from-naraha-the-first-fukushima-community-declared-fi »
« ▻http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tuberculosis-mdr-tb-treatment_56211f2be4b06462a13bc8fd »
« ▻http://www.liberation.fr/direct/element/au-plessis-robinson-le-maire-veut-debaptiser-la-place-de-la-resistance-po »

CISA : Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act

The main provisions of the bill make it easier for private companies to share cyber threat information with the government. Without requiring such information sharing, the bill creates a system for federal agencies to receive threat information from private companies. The bill also provides legal immunity from privacy and antitrust laws to the companies which provide such information.

→ A company can promise to keep your data private, and then break that promise, leaving you with no legal recourse.

▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersecurity_Information_Sharing_Act

Opponents question CISA’s value, believing it will move responsibility from private business to the government, thereby increasing vulnerability of personal private information, as well as dispersing personal private information across seven government agencies, including the NSA and local police.

▻http://www.wired.com/2015/03/cisa-security-bill-gets-f-security-spying

CISA goes far beyond [cybersecurity], and permits law enforcement to use information it receives for investigations and prosecutions of a wide range of crimes involving any level of physical force,” reads the letter from the coalition opposing CISA. “The lack of use limitations creates yet another loophole for law enforcement to conduct backdoor searches on Americans—including searches of digital communications that would otherwise require law enforcement to obtain a warrant based on probable cause. This undermines Fourth Amendment protections and constitutional principles.

[...]

Sophisticated DDOS attacks often impersonate legitimate traffic, raising the risk that innocent traffic—and identifying IP addresses—would be included in data shared with the government. “At the time of sharing it will be very unclear if it’s innocent activity,” says Sanchez. “And there’s no obligation to do due diligence to figure out if it’s innocent or isn’t.”

But a problem is that CISA does not do what it claims (protect us from cyber attacks) but instead makes it easier for the government to spy electronically. Moreover, it is expected that most data alerts from systems shared under CISA will be false alarms.

And also, the CISA does not require the government to further strengthen its own cybersecurity systems. Currently, governmental organisations even fail in installing basic security mechanisms such as two-factor authentication and encryption. There is still too much of an insouciance toward cybersecurity.
(eg. the Office of Personnel Management (#OPM) data breach of 21.5 million social security numbers [1])
And now they want American citizens to hand them over even more sensitive data?
Non mais allô quoi.

An informational video about CISA

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz24ZI6lOVU

Follow the bill & its status, or read the full text:

▻https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/754

#CISA
#privacy
#cybersecurity

[1]
Hacking of Government Computers Exposed 21.5 Million People

▻http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/us/office-of-personnel-management-hackers-got-data-of-millions.html?_r=0

OPM says 5.6 million fingerprints stolen in cyberattack, five times as many as previously thought

▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/09/23/opm-now-says-more-than-five-million-fingerprints-compromised-in-brea

Radical Visions of Chicago’s Future Skyline | WIRED

▻http://www.wired.com/2015/10/radical-visions-of-chicagos-future-skyline

http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/08_PORT_CAB_The-Big-Shift_Oblique-Looking-West-Small.jpeg

Many of the designs on display at the first-ever Chicago Architecture Biennial could be implemented anywhere. But the event’s creative team was thinking of the Windy City, specifically, when it organized BOLD: Alternative Scenarios For Chicago, a collection of radical, Chicago-centric proposals from more than a dozen local offices.

#chicago #architecture #futur_urbain #urban_matter

Spy Agency Maps Show How the Arctic Is Heating Up | WIRED
▻http://www.wired.com/2015/10/arctic-maps/#slide-1

http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/bathymetry-934x630.jpg

The Arctic is heating up, both literally and geopolitically. Climate models point to melting sea ice in the coming decades, opening up new shipping routes, potentially vast new oil and gas reserves, and plenty of opportunity for international conflict. All that has prompted a flurry of activity at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the mapmaking organization for the US military and intelligence community.

Naturally, most of the maps made by the NGA aren’t for the likes of you—unless, of course, you’re a spy or a military officer with high-level security clearance. But not all of them. The agency recently released a slew of unclassified maps and geospatial data for the Arctic region, including some of the most detailed terrain maps of Alaska available to the general public.

The maps, which you can browse on the NGA’s website, include things like shipping lanes, ports and airfields, and the potential for oil and gas discovery across the region. There are maps of national boundaries—including some that are well agreed upon, some that have been submitted as claims to the United Nations, and some that are disputed.

http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Bering-Strait-1024x768.jpg http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/energy-resources-1024x768.jpg

NGA Arctic GEOINT Services
▻http://nga.maps.arcgis.com/apps/PublicGallery/index.html?appid=dc06e1570de14885bb6c7adbaa5bfec5

#arctique #cartographie @reka

Spy Agency Maps Show How the Arctic Is Heating Up | WIRED

▻http://www.wired.com/2015/10/arctic-maps#slide-1

http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Bering-Strait-1024x768.jpg

The Arctic is heating up, both literally and geopolitically. Climate models point to melting sea ice in the coming decades, opening up new shipping routes, potentially vast new oil and gas reserves, and plenty of opportunity for international conflict. All that has prompted a flurry of activity at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the mapmaking organization for the US military and intelligence community.

#arctique #climat #cartographie

Dell. EMC. HP. Cisco. These Tech Giants Are the Walking Dead
▻http://www.wired.com/2015/10/meet-walking-dead-hp-cisco-dell-emc-ibm-oracle

HP. Cisco. Dell. EMC. IBM. Oracle. Think of them as the walking dead.

Oh, sure, they’ll shuffle along for some time. They’ll sell some stuff. They’ll make some money. They’ll command some headlines. They may even do some new things. But as tech giants, they’re dead.

8 Stunning Maps That Changed Cartography | WIRED

▻http://www.wired.com/2015/10/8-stunning-maps-changed-cartography

Encore une référence biblio sur la carto (il y en a de plus en plus...)

http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/MAP-flat-cover1.jpg

You probably think you know what a map is. And chances are, you’re not totally wrong. Yes, maps are visual representations of how to get from A to B, but if you ask John Hessler, they’re more complex than that. “Trying to define what a map is is pretty difficult,” says Hessler. And he would know.

As a specialist in modern cartography and GIS at the Library of Congress, Hessler spends a lot of his time around maps. The Library of Congress has more than 6,000,000 in its collection, charting everything from Claudius Ptolemy’s earliest visions of the world to glowing representations of Facebook’s networking effects. In his new book Map: Exploring the World, Hessler outlines the history of maps and explains how they’ve simultaneously evolved and remained the same over thousands of years.

#cartographie #bibliographie