Researchers at Ben Gurion University in Israel have demonstrated an attack that allows malware to communitcate between air gapped computers in close proximity by using the machine's onboard thermal sensors. The demonstration required somewhat controlled conditions and only achieved a transmission rate of eight bits per hour. The slow rate of transmission could however over an extended period of time be sufficient to leak valuable information including cryptographic keys. Continue reading
Pogoplug & ODROID-C1 To Do Battle
In what is an obvious response to the crates of pogoplug based Bitcoin nodes that will soon begin to power the network and the hard fork missile crisis, the scam foundation sponsored Bitnodes has announced its intention to follow suit in distributing a plug and play node. While not yet available to purchase, Bitnodes is soliciting contact information for its ODROID-C1 based node which they claim will begin shipping mid 2015. Continue reading
Four New Jersey Schools Infected By Ransomware
NJ.com reports that four schools within the Swedesboro-Woolwich district were forced to suspend PARCC examinations last week after ransomware infected numerous computers at each school. Mistaking the shotgun approach as taken by ransomware authors for that of a targeted attack on the school by hackers, tech support for the district schools opted to work throughout the weekend so as to restore services and avoid paying a $500 ransom made payable in bitcoin. Continue reading
Empire in Decline: US Retreats From Yemen, ISIS Escalates to Doxxing
In a double blow to the United State's interests in the Middle East their Special Forces soldiers have been compelled to abandon Yemen while ISIS has escalated their hostilities to include doxxing a hundred members of the United States Armed Forces. Continue reading
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Decreases For Second Time This Year
With what is the sixth adjustment in the Bitcoin mining difficulty for 2015, the difficulty has decreased to 46,717,549,645. This is a reduction of -1.50% over March 8th's all time high of 47,427,554,951. The hash rate as today's change stands at 334,417,246 GH/s.
Today's change also marks the 2nd time that the difficulty has adjusted downwards during 2015. For the sake of comparison, the mining difficulty only decreased twice last year. Despite this, 2015's hash rate has remained above levels seen throughout 2014.
Boost VC Embraces Child Founded Start Up
As the great Bitcoin recession continues, 17 year old Louison Dumont's Bitproof has caught the eye of VCs, having been accepted into the Boost VC incubator. The service allows users to certify and prove ownership of a document and its proof of existence. The company is attempting to raise VC capital although the service has struggled to find a monetization avenue
Document certification is a valuable service when done correctly, however at a first glance Bitproof.io seems to have a fundamental problem. The deedbot specification proposed on Trilema requires users to submit documents that are GPG signed, which creates a strong link between owner and document. Bitproof uses a username based identity to certify a document which lacks the non-repudiation strength GPG provides.
March 19th OpenSSL Vulnerabilities Overview
The pre-announced OpenSSL updates purport to address 13 vulnerabilities. Two of the vulnerabilities were graded as being of High severity by the OpenSSL project. The first, CVE-2015-0291 allows client connections to engage in a denial of service attack against servers running OpenSSL. The second high severity issue was the older CVE-2015-0204 where RSA connections could be silently degraded to export quality RSA, originally OpenSSL graded this as a low security vulnerability but reclassified this as a high severity vulnerability. Continue reading
Users Of Evo Marketplace & BTC-E Are Like Two Peas In A Pod
With claims that the shut down of the Evolution marketplace may have netted the owners as much as 130,000 BTC, rumours began circulating yesterday that BTC-E ceased withdrawals so as to limit the ability of the thieves to exchange their new found riches for what some people call untainted coins.
The rumour that BTC-E had paused withdrawals as a result of stolen coins entering the exchange came from an Australian by the name of paulgr. Paulgr, who is a moderator for the BTC-E chat room said: Continue reading
UK Regulates Self Out of Bitcoin
Regulators in the United Kingdom have announced they will begin applying anti-money laundering rules on digital currency exchanges. The British treasury offers that the move will magically promote innovation and lessen criminal activity. This move however in reality means something other than what Reuters' press release on behalf of the Treasury supposes. Continue reading
National Bank of Romania Clarifies Its Position On Bitcoin
In a press release dated the 11th of March 2015, the National Bank of Romania clarified its position on Bitcoin stating that it is neither a national nor foreign currency, that no-one is obligated to accept bitcoin as a means of payment and that is not a form of electronic money as defined by the law.
Referencing the risks associated with Bitcoin as claimed by the European Central Bank and European Banking Authority, BNR advises consumers to be mindful of such risks and finished by saying that the BNR will attempt to keep track of Bitcoin's progress.