Flatbed Scanners Used As Relay Point For Controlling Malware Slashdotby EditorDavid on security at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at April 1, 2017, 11:06 pm)

An anonymous reader writes: "Scientists from two Israeli universities have come up with a way to use flatbed scanners as relay points when sending commands to malware installed on an air-gapped computer," reports BleepingComputer. "Further research also revealed the scanner could also be used to relay stolen data to a nearby attacker. The technique they came up with revolves around the idea that a beam of light could be interpreted as a binary 1 and the lack of visual stimulant can be considered a binary 0." The attacks can be carried out with lasers mounted on drones, on fixed stands, or by hacking smart light bulbs present near the targeted computer. Attack distances can go up to 900 meters (0.56 miles). During their tests, researchers sent various commands to the PC, such as "d x.pdf" (delete file x.pdf) and "en q" (encrypt folder q). Relaying such commands took between 50 to 100 milliseconds. This research was done by the same team that created methods to steal data from PCs using a hard drive's LED, fan heat, sounds emanated by a computer's GPU fan, electromagnetic signals given out by the GPU, and electromagnetic signals given out by an USB bus. Here's a PDF of the report, which is titled "Oops!...I think I scanned a malware."

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Flatbed Scanners Used As Relay Point For Controlling Malware Slashdotby EditorDavid on security at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at April 1, 2017, 11:06 pm)

An anonymous reader writes: "Scientists from two Israeli universities have come up with a way to use flatbed scanners as relay points when sending commands to malware installed on an air-gapped computer," reports BleepingComputer. "Further research also revealed the scanner could also be used to relay stolen data to a nearby attacker. The technique they came up with revolves around the idea that a beam of light could be interpreted as a binary 1 and the lack of visual stimulant can be considered a binary 0." The attacks can be carried out with lasers mounted on drones, on fixed stands, or by hacking smart light bulbs present near the targeted computer. Attack distances can go up to 900 meters (0.56 miles). During their tests, researchers sent various commands to the PC, such as "d x.pdf" (delete file x.pdf) and "en q" (encrypt folder q). Relaying such commands took between 50 to 100 milliseconds. This research was done by the same team that created methods to steal data from PCs using a hard drive's LED, fan heat, sounds emanated by a computer's GPU fan, electromagnetic signals given out by the GPU, and electromagnetic signals given out by an USB bus. Here's a PDF of the report, which is titled "Oops!...I think I scanned a malware."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

UK: Teenage asylum seeker brutally attacked in London AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at April 1, 2017, 11:00 pm)

Seventeen-year-old refugee suffered 'repeated blows to the head' in an attack police are treating as a hate crime.
Google Maps Adds 'Ms. Pac-Man' Feature Slashdotby EditorDavid on classicgames at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at April 1, 2017, 10:04 pm)

An anonymous reader quotes a blog post by Google Maps: Starting now until April 4, you can chomp fruit, avoid ghosts, and collect PAC-Dots along city streets in Google Maps worldwide -- all as Ms. PAC-Maps. Just tap on the Ms. PAC-Maps icon on iOS and Android, or click the Ms. PAC-Maps button at the bottom left on desktop, to enter the maze and start chompin'. Sign in to save your top score on the leaderboard and share with friends. A playable Google doodle commemorated Pac-Man's 30th anniversary in 2010 -- and was estimated to have cost the IT sector (and other workplaces) 4.8 million hours in lost productivity.

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IO-Framed-0.014 search.cpan.orgby Felipe Gasper at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at April 1, 2017, 10:03 pm)

Convenience wrapper for frame-based I/O
IO-Framed-0.014 search.cpan.orgby Felipe Gasper at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at April 1, 2017, 10:03 pm)

Convenience wrapper for frame-based I/O
Parse-RecDescent-1.967014 search.cpan.orgby Jeremy T. Braun at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at April 1, 2017, 10:03 pm)

Generate Recursive-Descent Parsers
Parse-RecDescent-1.967014 search.cpan.orgby Jeremy T. Braun at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at April 1, 2017, 10:03 pm)

Generate Recursive-Descent Parsers
The challenges of reporting on Romania's corruption AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at April 1, 2017, 10:00 pm)

Are Romania's media outlets caught in a conflict of interest when reporting the country's top news story?
The challenges of reporting on Romania's corruption AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at April 1, 2017, 10:00 pm)

Are Romania's media outlets caught in a conflict of interest when reporting the country's top news story?
Will NATO members cave in to US demands? AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at April 1, 2017, 10:00 pm)

The US secretary of state issues a warning to NATO allies to increase their defence spending.
Will NATO members cave in to US demands? AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at April 1, 2017, 10:00 pm)

The US secretary of state issues a warning to NATO allies to increase their defence spending.
Ask SN: Seen Any Good April Fool's Pranks Today? Slashdotby EditorDavid on humor at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at April 1, 2017, 9:04 pm)

An anonymous reader writes: It's that special time of year where sites around the net celebrate April Fool's Day with parodies of their own product offerings. Google Home announces a new companion service for smart yards called Google Gnome. Stack Overflow announces Dance Dance Authentication. The Russian foreign ministry changed their voicemail to include new menu options like "Press 2 to use the services of Russian hackers," and "press 3 to request election interference." And in what's either a really good prank or a horrific piece of bad timing, Phrack.org announces that they've been seized by the FBI. Has anybody else noticed anything funny today? The internet has a long history of April Fool's Day pranks, and it looks like 2017 is no exception. So use the comments to share what you're seeing around the web today. Seen any good April Fool's Day pranks today?

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Meningitis cases soar in Nigeria AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at April 1, 2017, 8:30 pm)

An outbreak of meningitis has killed 324 people in Nigeria since mid-December, according to the health ministry.
Someone on Medium Just Said C++ Was Better Than C Slashdotby EditorDavid on programming at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at April 1, 2017, 8:06 pm)

Developer David Timothy Strauss is publishing a call to code "straightforward, easy-to-reason-about approaches" -- in an essay titled "Choosing 'Some C++' Over C". (Alternate title: "C++ for Lovers of C." The problem with just picking C++ is that most criticism of it is legitimate. Whether it's the '90s-era obsession with object orientation and exceptions or the template errors that take up an entire terminal window, there have been -- and remain -- rough edges to C++. But, these rough edges are avoidable, unlike the problems in C that get worse with modern event and library programming. The opinionated essay calls for "adopting a subset of C++ to smooth out C's rough edges," arguing that C++ offer a better, type-safe approach for event-driven design (as well as destructors to avoid memory allocation leaks). Are there any readers who'd like to weigh in on the advantages of C versus C++?

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