Hasta La Gadget!

Well, the Pentagon is finally fed up with hackers picking on its buddies and foreign intelligence taking shots at its computer systems, and has decided that such cyber attacks can constitute an act of war. Of course, the powers that be won’t be bombing you for simply sending them some spyware, but attempts to sabotage US infrastructure (power grids, public transit, and the like) may be met with heavy artillery. It’s unclear how our government will identify the origin of an attack or decide when it’s serious enough to start shooting, but Uncle Sam is looking to its allies to help create a consensus answer for those questions. The retaliatory revelation is a part of the Pentagon’s new cyber strategy that’ll be made public in June — so saboteurs beware, your next internet incursion might get you an ICBM in your backyard.

Pentagon says cyber attacks are acts of war: send us a worm, get a missile in return? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 May 2011 14:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Modder turns candy canisters into gaming console, retro Pong paddles (video)

Modder turns candy canisters into gaming console, retro Pong paddles (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 May 2011 17:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RSA SecureID dongles add a layer of protection to everything from office pilates class schedules to corporate email accounts, with banks, tech companies, and even U.S. defense contractors using hardware security tokens to protect their networks. Following a breach at RSA in March, however, the company urged clients to boost other security methods, such as passwords and PIN codes, theoretically protecting networks from hackers that may have gained the ability to duplicate those critical SecureIDs. Now, Lockheed Martin is claiming that its network has come under attack, prompting RSA to issue 90,000 replacement tokens to Lockheed employees. The DoD contractor isn’t detailing what data hackers may have accessed, but a SecureID bypass should clearly be taken very seriously, especially when that little keychain dongle is helping to protect our national security. If last month’s Sony breach didn’t already convince you to beef up your own computer security, now might be a good time to swap in ‘Pa55werD1’ for the rather pathetic ‘password’ you’ve been using to protect your own company’s trade secrets for the last decade.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: According to Reuters, Lockheed Martin sent out a statement to clarify that it promptly took action to thwart the attack one week ago, and consequently “no customer, program or employee personal data has been compromised.” Phew! [Thanks, JD]

RSA SecureID hackers may have accessed Lockheed Martin trade secrets, cafeteria menus (update: no data compromised) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 May 2011 11:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In today’s episode of “But will it run Zork?” a chap named Ulysses got the vintage game to run on a TDD (telecommunications device for the deaf) — a project he built to show off at the Bay Area Maker Faire last weekend. In a move we truly respect, he hunted down a rotary phone lifted straight out of the era when Zork was conceived (that would be the late ’70s / early ’80s). Then, he modified a modem so that the acoustically coupled TDD could be interfaced — transmitting at a slow 45.5 baud to make it easy for even ponderous readers to keep up, one line at a time on the TDD’s narrow display. Once this was sorted, things weren’t exactly smooth sailing when Ulysses started fitting the compressed Zork story file into the system. At first, he tried using an Arduino Pro and an Arduino Mega, but found that neither had enough memory to accommodate the compressed Zork story file. Ultimately, he took a different tack and settled on an embeddable FitPC. We’d love nothing more than to see this thing in action, but in lieu of a video we highly suggest carving out a few minutes and perusing Ulysses’ photo blog at the source link.

Telecommunications device for the deaf gets hitched to a rotary phone, hacked to run Zork originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 10:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Still feeling burned by Sony’s record-breaking PlayStation Network outage? Fret not, promised reparations have arrived: a short form on the PlayStation website is now distributing activation codes for a free year of Debix AllClear ID Plus identity theft protection. The offer is good for all US PSN and Qriocity account holders who activate before June 28th, netting users up to $1 million in identity theft insurance coverage. Feel better? Hit the source link below to get your redemption code.

Sony makes good, doles out identity protection activation codes for PSN and Qriocity users originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 May 2011 00:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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