Democratic congressman charged in political corruption case

What else is new…

WASHINGTON | By Will Dunham and Emily Stephenson

Democratic U.S. Congressman Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania and four associates were charged on Wednesday in a political corruption case with bribery and misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars of federal, charitable and campaign funds.

Fattah, 58, who has represented Philadelphia in the U.S. House of Representatives for two decades and is one of the senior black lawmakers in Congress, and the others were indicted by a federal grand jury on 29 counts in an alleged racketeering conspiracy, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Fattah said in a statement that “I have never participated in any illegal activity or misappropriation of taxpayer dollars as an elected official.” He said he would not resign from the House but he did step down as the top Democrat on the House subcommittee overseeing Justice Department spending.

“This will not be a distraction from my service to the people that elected me, and I am confident that I will be cleared of these charges,” Fattah added.

The charges included bribery, mail fraud, falsification of records, bank fraud, money laundering, making false statements to a financial institution and other crimes.

Fattah denounced a “misguided” eight-year Justice Department campaign “to link my public service career to some form of wrongdoing.”

The others indicted were: lobbyist Herbert Vederman, 69, of Palm Beach, Florida; Fattah’s congressional district director, Bonnie Bowser, 59, of Philadelphia; Robert Brand, 69, of Philadelphia; and Karen Nicholas, 57, of Williamstown, New Jersey.

Related Coverage

• › Pelosi says charges against Rep. Fattah ‘deeply saddening’

The indictment said that in Fattah’s failed 2007 campaign for mayor of Philadelphia, the congressman and certain associates borrowed $1 million from a wealthy supporter and disguised the funds as a loan to a consulting company.

The Justice Department said after losing the election, Fattah returned $400,000 to the donor and arranged for a non-profit entity he founded to repay the remaining $600,000 using charitable and federal grant funds that passed through two other companies.

To conceal the contribution and repayment scheme, the defendants and others created sham contracts and made false entries in accounting records, tax returns and campaign finance disclosure statements, the department said.

The indictment said Fattah, after his mayoral defeat, sought to erase about $130,000 in campaign debt owed to a political consultant by agreeing to arrange for the consultant to get federal grant funds.

SON’S COLLEGE LOANS

Fattah also was accused of misappropriating funds from mayoral and congressional campaigns to repay $23,000 toward his son’s college loan debt. Chaka Fattah Jr. was charged in 2014 with fraud related to loans associated with a business he ran, and is awaiting trial.

The indictment accused the congressman of contacting government officials to try to get Vederman an ambassadorship or a U.S. Trade Commission appointment. The indictment accused the defendants of trying to conceal an $18,000 bribe from Vederman to Fattah by disguising it as a payment for a car sale that never occurred.

“I can tell you that the conduct that Congressman Fattah engaged in undermines public faith in government, undermines confidence in government,” Zane David Memeger, U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, told a Philadelphia news conference.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called the charges “deeply saddening,” saying Fattah had a record of “distinguished service.”

Thomas Lindenfeld, a political consultant who advised Fattah, pleaded guilty last year to participating in a plan to provide illegal campaign contributions. Gregory Naylor, another aide, also pleaded guilty last year over campaign finance schemes.

A liberal first elected to the House in 1994, Fattah is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and heads the Congressional Urban Caucus, a bipartisan group of members from U.S. metropolitan centers.

(Reporting by Will Dunham and Emily Stephenson; editing by Bill Trott and Grant McCool)

Link….

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/29/us-usa-crime-fattah-idUSKCN0Q322P20150729

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MH17: Russia blocks push to establish criminal tribunal at UN

• The Australian
• July 30, 2015 8:18AM

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has blasted Russia for using its veto power to block a United Nations proposal to establish an international criminal tribunal into the MH17 disaster.

Speaking at the UN Security Council in New York on Thursday (AEST), Ms Bishop said Russia’s use of its veto power was “an affront to the memory of the 298 victims of MH17 and their families and friends”.

Ms Bishop said “the anticipated excuses and obfuscation by the Russian Federation should be treated with the utmost disdain”.

The resolution to establish a criminal tribunal was supported by 11 countries with Russia – as one of five permanent members with veto power – the only nation to vote against the proposal.

Angola, China and Venezuela abstained from the vote.

Moscow’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, had earlier vowed that Russia would veto the move.

The Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17 last year, an hour into its flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 passengers and crew, including 39 Australian citizens and residents, were killed.

Russia has denied any involvement in the shooting down of the airliner, but a Dutch-led investigation due to report in October is believed to support claims Russian-backed separatists were responsible.

Ms Bishop, in a speech shortly after the vote, said it was “inconceivable the Security Council would now walk away from holding to account those who brought down a commercial aeroplane”. “The veto only compounds the atrocity,” she said.

“Only one hand was raised in opposition, but a veto should never be allowed to deny justice.” Ms Bishop said “the anticipated excuses and obfuscation by the Russian Federation should be treated with the utmost disdain”. “The exercise of the veto today is an affront to the memory of the 298 victims of MH17 and their families and friends,” Ms Bishop said.

AUSTRALIANS: Interactive memorial wall

IN DEPTH: More reports on the MH17 disaster

Bill Shorten joined Ms Bishop in condemning Russia’s use of its veto.

“Those responsible for downing flight MH17 must be brought to account. Labor supports the government’s efforts to see that justice is done,” the Opposition Leader said.

“Russia’s actions show no respect for families of the 298 innocent people killed – enduring unimaginable grief and waiting too long for answers.”

Moscow’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, insisted Russia was “ready to co-operate in the conduct of a full, independent and objective investigation … to identify those guilty and to punish them”.

Mr Churkin, however, questioned the motives behind the resolution, adding that Russia was a victim of “propaganda in the media”.

“What are the grounds to be assured of the impartiality of such an investigation?” he said in a speech to the Council after the vote.

“The position which we have adopted today has nothing in common with promoting impunity.” The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said that by vetoing the resolution, Russia had attempted to deny justice to the victims and their families.

“Russia has callously disregarded the public outcry in the grieving nations, the appeals of the families affected,” Ms Power said.

“It is tragic that Russia has used the privilege entrusted to it in order to advance international peace and security … to frustrate international peace and security.

“But let us be clear: Today’s veto cannot and will not deny the victims and their families justice.”

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has vowed to push for justice despite Russia’s veto of a UN resolution that would have set up a tribunal to try those responsible for shooting down passenger flight MH17 over the former Soviet state. “The results of the vote on the MH17 tribunal speak for themselves. But Ukraine will not stop there. Our goal is to punish the guilty,” presidential spokesman Svyatoslav Tsegolko quoted the Ukrainian leader as saying minutes after the vote.

The Security Council session began with a moment’s silence in honour of those killed in the July 2014 disaster.

Agencies, Jared Owens

Link….

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/mh17/mh17-russia-blocks-push-to-establish-criminal-tribunal-at-un/story-fno88it0-1227462640273

The Russians are coming: AK-47 assault rifles could soon be American-made

Here is a sales pitch and scaring people at the same time

Published: Jan 24, 2015 9:44 a.m. ET

The U.S. importer of the famed Russian-made AK-47 assault rifle announced this week that it plans to set up a U.S.-based factory later this year to build the guns here. Sanctions imposed last summer by the Obama administration against the gun’s Russian manufacturer had effectively kept new AK-47s from reaching American buyers.

RWC Group, the licensed importer for the Kalashnikov company, revealed at the popular Las Vegas gun exposition known as SHOT Show this week that it would form a new company known as Kalashnikov USA to manufacture the weapon. The company is currently negotiating with three U.S. states to locate a production plant, with the rifles possibly rolling off the lines as early as the second quarter of this year, Jim Kelly, the new production manager of Kalashnikov USA, told the website OutdoorHub.com.

RWC (which stands for Russian Weapon Company), located in Tullytown, Pa., didn’t return phone or email messages seeking comment; voice-mail announcements indicated that most of its staff were at SHOT Show.

Kalashnikov’s Russian manufacturer, State Corporation of Russian Technologies, or Rostec, signed a two-year agreement in January 2014 with RWC Group at that year’s Las Vegas SHOT Show saying they hoped to sell 200,000 Kalashnikov products a year in the U.S. The U.S. market constituted about 90% of its export sales in 2013, according to Pavel Kolegov, Kalashnikov’s deputy chief executive for sales and marketing, in a statement at the time. As of last summer, Russian-manufactured AK-47s were selling in U.S. gun shops for between $800 and $1,050 each.

But last July, the U.S. slapped sanctions on Rostec, along with other Russian defense companies, in response to suspected Russian involvement in the shoot-down of a Malaysian passenger jetliner over Ukraine. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said at the time that U.S. owners and dealers of the weapons could still own them and resell them at gun shows, so long as they or their dealers didn’t make any payments to the Russian parent company.

New transactions with the Kalashnikov company were prohibited after July 16, 2014. That was expected to hurt U.S. gun dealers, who wouldn’t be able to import any new Kalashnikov models (or models from the related Izhmash and Saiga brands). Only about 100,000 of the guns had been delivered to the U.S. at the time of the ban.

In a July 18 posting on its website, Rostec said that the U.S. market is one of “high demand” for the company and that “the sanctions of the United States government against Kalashnikov Concern go against the interest of American consumers.” On its own website, RWC said that it only had a “limited supply” of the weapons and that “there will be no more Saigas for the foreseeable future.”

Kalashnikov — named for Mikhail Kalashnikov, a World War II Red Army tank veteran who developed the “Avtomat Kalashnikova” rifle in 1947 — is the largest firearms producer in Russia. During Soviet times, the original plant in Izhevsk, two hours’ flight time east from Moscow, churned out 600,000 rifles a year for the military. Now, it’s down to a fraction of that, which made the U.S. deal a critical addition to the firm’s sales.

The AK-47, firing a powerful 7.62 mm round with a “distinctive sound,” was widely used by Soviet bloc countries during the Cold War and by aligned countries such as North Vietnam, Syria and Egypt. It has also been favored by insurgent and terrorist groups such as the Viet Cong, al Qaeda (Osama bin Laden’s own AK-47 now hangs in the CIA’s museum), Che Guevara’s ill-fated Bolivian revolutionaries and the Palestine Liberation Organization. More than 70 million have been produced, according to the Kalashnikov website. Mikhail Kalashnikov died in December 2013, at the age of 94.

Building a production line in the U.S. for the Soviet-era rifles could ease a shortage of the popular guns for American consumers. In July, after the sanctions were announced, Atlantic Firearms of Bishopville, Md., a dealer that exclusively trades in Kalashnikov-related weapons, noted on its website that “due to the recent Import Ban on Russian Based AK firearms we are experiencing heavy order volumes.” At the time a Russian-made AK-47 model listed for between $849 and $1,049 on the Atlantic Firearms site. At press time, none were available, though less-desired Polish, Romanian and other Eastern bloc–made copies of the Kalashnikov still are available for $649 to $839. On its Facebook page, Atlantic Firearms reported at the time that it sold over 400 weapons the day after the ban was announced.

A representative from Atlantic Firearms didn’t respond to email and phone messages; voice-mail prompts indicated their staff was also at the Las Vegas gun show.

Link….

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-russian-guns-are-coming-ak-47s-could-soon-be-american-made-2015-01-22

AP Interview: Australia won’t pay to climate fund

Bravo Australia !!!

By ROD McGUIRK December 5, 2014 12:15 PM

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia will continue to directly pay for climate change adaptation in vulnerable South Pacific island nations through its aid budget rather than donate to a U.N. Green Climate Fund designed for the same purpose, the foreign minister said Friday ahead of traveling to climate talks in Peru.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said governments should judge for themselves whether bilateral action to reduce the impact of climate change on developing countries was a more efficient use of aid money than donating through the U.N.

“The Green Climate Fund is about supporting developing countries build resilience to climate change. Australia is already doing that through our aid program,” Bishop told The Associated Press before leading the Australian delegation to Lima for a U.N climate summit.

“From my experience, bilateral work is able to customize responses when we’re working directly with another partner country,” she said.

Rich countries have pledged about $10 billion to the recently launched Green Climate Fund, which is meant to become a key source of finance to help developing countries deal with rising seas, higher temperatures and extreme weather events.

Australia has been accused of setting a poor example for other countries by failing to contribute to the fund. Bishop’s government has also been criticized for abolishing Australia’s carbon tax that was levied on the country’s worst greenhouse gas polluters until July.

It replaced the tax with a 2.55 billion Australian dollars ($2.14 billion) government fund to pay polluters incentives to operate more cleanly.

Bishop said Australia was on track to achieve its target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 12 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

But she said the Australian delegation would not give the Lima meeting any proposed Australian emission-cutting targets beyond 2020.

“The message that I will be presenting on Australia’s behalf is that the new agreement should establish a common playing field for all countries to take climate action from 2020 and seek commitments from all the major economies to reducing emissions,” she said.

Delegates from more than 190 countries are in Lima trying to lay the groundwork for a global emissions pact they hope will be adopted in Paris next year.

Bishop said that without legally binding commitments in Paris to reduce global emissions beyond 2020, any agreement would amount to nothing more than aspirations.

She said Australia wants to see the details of a U.S.-China emissions deal that was struck last month.

“China has already said that it will continue business as usual until 2030. We want to know whether there’s some sort of binding commitment,” Bishop said.

Chinese delegate Su Wei said China would present a detailed pledge sometime in the first half of next year, and criticized Australia for not contributing to the climate fund.

“It’s not good news that Australia, if it’s true, refuses to provide any money into the GCF,” he said. “I think that’s a legal obligation for all developed country parties to make their contributions.”

New targets for fossil fuel use were announced ahead of the climate conference by the European Union, U.S. and China, the first Asian nation to make such a pledge. This has injected optimism into negotiations that are supposed to climax in Paris with the adoption of a long-awaited climate pact.

But Australia, India, Russia and Japan have yet to commit to new limits. Scientists say much sharper emissions cuts are needed in coming decades to keep global warming within 2 degrees C (3.6 F) of pre-industrial times, the overall goal of the U.N. talks.

___

Associated Press writer Karl Ritter in Lima, Peru, contributed to this report.

Link…

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-interview-australia-wont-pay-climate-fund-074343961.html

Will Copyright Law Stop You From Working On Your Car In The Near Future?

You got to be fucking kidding me…!

Privacy group warns tinkering under hood could violate DMCA

Posted: Nov 25, 2014

  |  By: Pete Bigelow | AOL Autos

Plan on repairing or modifying a car in the garage this weekend? You might want to first consult a copyright lawyer.

In a development that illustrates just how much cars have become mobile computers on wheels, a privacy group is warning mechanics and car enthusiasts that tinkering with the computers that run dozens of vehicle components, without a manufacturer’s approval, may constitute a copyright violation.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit watchdog, says the Digital Millennium Copyright Act may prohibit modifying the code that runs these small computers, known as electronic control units (ECU). The organization is asking the US Copyright Office to exempt hobbyists and home mechanics from the law. In the petition, the EFF asks the office to eliminate the legal risks posed to vehicle owners who are “engaged in a decades-old tradition of mechanical curiosity and self-reliance.”

Once every three years, the Copyright Office holds hearings to consider whether certain activities should be exempt from the DMCA’s Section 1201, which restricts people from circumventing technological measures that control access to “protected works.” No dates have yet been set, but a ruling is expected by mid-2015.

“The general principle at stake is that people who own a device are the ones in control of what it does, rather than be constrained to use it only in the way a manufacturer wants,” says EFF staff attorney Kit Walsh. “The idea of ownership, in a way, is under threat when the law prevents you from altering a product in any way.”

Needed: Access To ECUs

In the past, it may have seemed preposterous to lump a gearhead tinkering with his car under the same digital umbrella that catches people who jailbreak their phones. But today, dozens of ECUs run almost all vehicle functions, including the performance of the engine, steering and brakes. These units are run by computer code that automakers consider proprietary.

Both professional mechanics and everyday hobbyists increasingly need electronic access and expertise in ECUs and the software that runs them.

One activity, for example, that falls into a gray area under the DMCA law would be modifying an ECU in a manner that boosts engine performance or, conversely, fuel economy. Another questionable activity may be using extra memory on an ECU to create or customize a specific feature in a car’s telematics unit.

At present, there’s no known case in which an automaker has pursued litigation against an individual under the banner of a DMCA violation. At worst, it seems a car owner runs the risk of voiding their warranty by altering these codes. But that could change.

Automakers Could Consolidate Market

As automakers enhance this software, technology will soon allow them to sell upgrades and customized features to individual customers on an individual basis. Want that extra 40 horsepower? You can buy it on a memory stick. Desire a specific ring tone for your car? Download it from an OEM’s website.

As this capability becomes readily available, these ECU remapping services could become a lucrative revenue stream for automakers. All the more reason, potentially, for OEMs to consolidate their rights to the ECU codes and lock out competitors.

For the aftermarket, this is worrisome territory. Many businesses already offer these ECU remapping services, which are also known as “chipping” and “tuning,” depending on the particular enhancement offered.

The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) says it partners with automakers to provide access to the code that allows them to create vehicle-personalization products. “Our hope is that we can continue to work with the OEMs so that the aftermarket manufacturers are able to create the best possible products for consumers,” said Mike Spagnola, vice president of relations and product development for SEMA.

Interpretation Could Have Broad Impact

Implications go beyond niche aftermarket products. Security researchers studying automotive cyber threats, whose out-in-the-open work has prodded carmakers to better protect their cars, could see efforts to publish detailed findings curtailed.

Hypothetically, the EFF says, the likes of General Motors, Honda and Ford could supply ECU codes only to repair companies they contract with – or steer that business entirely to authorized dealerships. Car owners’ power to choose where they want their car repaired could be diminished.

“That’s exactly what can happen, and we’ve seen the DMCA used to extend monopolies before,” Walsh said. “It gives manufacturers the power to control secondary markets by leveraging the copyright law, if it doesn’t include enough of a safety valve to allow for lawful uses.”

The Copyright Office has granted prior exemption requests during the course of previous reviews of the DMCA, which Congress passed in 1998. If an exemption is granted, it must be reviewed every three years, according to the office, which says that 44 requests for exemption have been filed this year.

The Auto Alliance, a Washington DC trade group that represents the interests of major automakers, did not have an immediate position on the petition, according to a spokesperson.

Relevant Ruling In Toner-Cartridge Case

If there’s any precedent for how the Copyright Office might view the automotive petition, it comes from a ruling in a 2012 lawsuit over printer cartridges heard in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in which judges ruled the circumvention of a computer chip that ensured only authorized toner cartridges worked Lexmark printers did not violate the DMCA.

In writing the majority opinion, of the judges emphasized the broad intent of the ruling. “We should make clear that in the future, companies like Lexmark cannot use the DMCA in conjunction with copyright law to create monopolies of manufactured goods for themselves,” Judge Gilbert S. Merritt wrote.

The ruling is framed in terms of accessibility. It upholds the idea the copyright law protects the original work, but says the law does not protect a security measure, such as a lockout code, designed to protect the original work.

It’s not yet known how precisely another court could apply that ruling to a case involving ECUs inside a car, but the alternative, Walsh said, could imperil anyone who enjoys working under the hood of a car. “Imagine opening the hood,” he said, “and you’re looking at your engine and everything is in black boxes, and you don’t have any of the keys for the locks.”

Link…

http://autos.aol.com/article/will-copyright-law-stop-you-from-working-on-your-car-in-the-near/

Swiss voters reject gold initiative, immigration proposal

ALICE BAGHDJIAN AND CAROLINE COPLEY Nov 30th 2014 11:26AM

BERN, Switzerland (AP) – Voters in Switzerland on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected plans to protect the country’s wealth by investing in gold and to drastically limit immigration or to eliminate a special tax that draws rich foreigners, according to polling firm gfs.bern.

A proposal to require the Swiss central bank to hold a fifth of its reserves in gold was opposed by 78 percent of voters and supported by 22 percent, projections based on tallies provided by selected voting districts indicated. At last count, the measure – which had drawn attention worldwide and required the backing of a majority of voters and cantons (states) – was rejected in 22 of 26 cantons.

The plan would have forced the Swiss National Bank to buy massive amounts of gold within five years and likely causing the global price for the valuable metal to jump.

“After this clear decision by the people, there are no further grounds to pursue another similar initiative,” one of the three parliamentarians behind the proposal, Luzi Stamm, told Swiss broadcaster SRF of its defeat. But he said the campaign had at least raised awareness of the central bank’s shortcomings.

The proposal to limit immigration to 0.2 percent of Switzerland’s population – about 16,000 immigrants a year for a country of 8 million – received the backing of 26 percent of voters, while 74 percent opposed it. Currently, immigration is estimated at around 80,000 a year.

The “Ecopop” initiative would also have forced Switzerland to devote a large chunk of its foreign aid to programs aimed at reducing population growth in poor countries.

As with the gold initiative, government and business leaders warned voters the measure could do more harm than good and further inflame tensions with the European Union. Andreas Thommen, a Green Party member who oversaw the campaign, told SRF it had been “a David and Goliath battle” against the establishment, and Switzerland “missed the opportunity to set the course for a sustainable future.”

Earlier this year, Swiss voters narrowly backed a proposal by the nationalist People’s Party to reintroduce quotas for immigrants. The outcome has proved to be a political headache for the Swiss government as it now needs to renegotiate bilateral treaties with the EU, of which it isn’t a member.

A third national referendum, which would have abolished special tax discounts for rich foreigners living in Switzerland, was also defeated, according to gfs.bern. The pollsters predicted 60 percent voted against the measure, while 40 percent were in favor of it, and only one of the country’s 26 cantons said yes to getting rid of a flat tax rate that helps attract the super wealthy.

Official results are expected to be published later Sunday.

Link…

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/11/30/swiss-voters-reject-gold-initiative-immigration-proposal/21000607/

Israeli cyber-security researchers remotely hack a car

Zubie, An Aftermarket Device, Left Vehicle Vulnerable

By  Pete Bigelow RSS feed Google+

Posted Nov 8th 2014 8:50AM

Former members of an Israeli intelligence unit dedicated to thwarting cyber crimes announced Friday they had remotely hacked into a vehicle that contained an aftermarket device with a big security hole.

Once they exploited the vulnerability in the device, called a Zubie, they controlled vehicle functions, like unlocking doors and manipulating instrument-cluster readings. The researchers, now founders of Argus Cyber Security, say they could have also controlled the vehicle’s engine, brakes and steering components.

The remote breakthrough is a big one in an auto industry that has only recently started to take the threat of cyber attacks more seriously.

Industry officials have downplayed the possibility of someone with nefarious intent launching a remote attack. Previously, cyber-security researchers have hacked cars and controlled essential functions either via a physical connection to the vehicle or remotely from a short distance. In this case, the Argus team says the security flaw would have allowed them to remotely commandeer the car from “anywhere in the world.”

The flaw existed, ironically, in the Zubie, an aftermarket device that intends to make cars safer.

Drivers can plug a Zubie into the OBD-II port beneath their steering wheels on vehicles that date back as far as 1996 and receive data on their driving habits, car performance and trip information. Devices like the Zubie are gaining popularity with drivers and car insurance companies, because they offer information on driving habits and promote good behavior behind the wheel. Some insurers offer motorists discounts for good driving based on this data.

The device transmits the information via a Cloud-based connection that in this case, it turns out, was not secured.

Argus researchers, who previously belonged to Israel’s Intelligence Unit 8200, say they accessed the Zubie’s code via a laptop and then learned communications between the device and its Cloud-based server took place via a non-secured HTTP protocol. By mimicking the server, they sent a malicious file in an over-the-air update to the OBD-II port, which in turn gave them access to the Controller Area Network, a bus bar that connects the dozens of microcomputers that run vehicle functions.

Once they reached the CAN, they could do anything they wanted.

“The case we brought here is just one out of potentially many, and there will always be new vulnerabilities out there,” wrote Yaron Galula, chief technology officer of Argus. “This is especially true today, as car connectivity is on the rise, there is a real need to bridge the gap between its tremendous inherent benefits and its potential hazards.”

Beyond the immediate and obvious threat of a hacker remotely commandeering a car, the Argus researchers say they also could breach the privacy of motorists. They were able to track the vehicle’s location and driving behaviors. Had they wanted, they could have transmitted that data to a third party.

Argus notified executives at Zubie’s Charleston, S.C. headquarters of the holes in their security last month, and the companies collaborated on a fix for the problems before making the announcement Friday. In a written statement, Tim Kelly, Zubie’s CEO, says he has no evidence that any current customers’ vehicles had been compromised other than the one afflicted by Argus.

“Since learning about the reports from Argus, we took swift action and made the appropriate changes to our development process in order to further strengthen our overall security practices,” he said.

As other researchers have agreed, Argus noted that the more advanced a vehicle, the more of its systems are controlled by electronic control units that are, thus, easier to hack. In 2010, researchers from the University of Washington and Cal-San Diego became the first to breach these computers.

They found it was possible to hack a car either via physical or wireless access by targeting certain components that sought external signals. In their experiments, they conducted the remote hacks on roads adjacent to the targeted vehicles.

Limited range meant limited potential for harm. Now that Argus has demonstrated a malicious code can be injected from anywhere, the cyber threat for automobiles may take on added urgency.

The Zubie research also illustrates another complication for automakers. Even as they work to fortify their cars, an aftermarket product over which they have no control ultimately provided the gateway that allowed for the hack of critical components.

“Up till now awareness to cyber security issues in the automotive industry has been limited and definitely did not receive the same attention cyber security has received in other industry sectors,” Galula wrote. “… This is why we believe the industry should adopt a proactive approach towards cyber security.”

 

Link…

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/11/08/car-remotedly-hacked-israel-cyber-security/

Ebola Mutation: Lack Of Virus Samples In US Hampers Efforts To Track Its Changes

Elections are over and back to regular programing.  This time Super Ebo is afoot and with a vengance!

 

By Philip Ross  November 05 2014 9:00 AM

Samples of Ebola are in short supply for U.S. scientists who require a fresh, steady stock of the virus to track its changes and to plan ahead for new drugs and vaccines. Much like the flu virus, Ebola mutates, however slightly, as it spreads, and keeping up with those changes is key to stopping new infections and heading off future outbreaks, according to Reuters.

“No one really knows right now what has the virus mutated to or if it has mutated,” Charles Chiu, a microbiologist and infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco, told Reuters. “We’re not going to be able to determine in advance whether or not it has changed to a form where it might evade diagnostic assays or might render current vaccines or drugs ineffective” without new samples of the virus, he said.

Moving Ebola samples safely from one place to another is complicated, and transport companies have been wary of working with Ebola because of growing concerns about a U.S. spread of the virus. Doctors in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where infections have topped 13,500 people, have been slow to hand over samples of Ebola, scientists told Reuters, which means U.S. disease specialists studying the virus at eight major research institutions are not getting the latest specimens.

As Ebola continues to spread across West Africa, it has more chances to change and adapt. Scientists identified 341 mutations of the virus as of late August, according to a study published that month in Science. One fear is that the virus could become more transmissible by becoming less pathogenic. A virus that sickens and kills its victims more slowly would leave more time for patients to infect others, National Geographic reported. The biggest nightmare, scientists have said, would be if the virus went airborne, something experts believe is highly unlikely, but not impossible.

Since the Ebola outbreak in West Africa began in March, health officials have struggled to keep pace with the ever-changing situation on the ground. The Ebola virus is “moving at the speed of sound,” James Dorbor Jallah, the national coordinator of Liberia’s Ebola Task Force, said in August. However, international aid is moving at the “speed of a snail.” Health officials in Sierra Leone announced Tuesday that the virus had broken out in a new area of the country, raising concerns about a new chain of infections. 

Link…

http://www.ibtimes.com/ebola-mutation-lack-virus-samples-us-hampers-efforts-track-its-changes-1719267

D.C. voters overwhelmingly support legalizing marijuana, joining Colo., Wash.

The Gov needs to mellow out yo…..!  Now they can drink Sam Adams in the mornings to wash the Weed and Hooker Spit taste of their mouths.

By Aaron C. Davis November 4 at 11:06 PM

The District followed Colorado and Washington state into a closely watched experiment to legalize marijuana Tuesday, as voters overwhelmingly backed an initiative 7 to 3 allowing cannabis to be consumed and grown in the nation’s capital. The move to allow the drug almost certainly will take effect unless the next Congress blocks it.

Under a voter-proposed measure, known as Initiative 71, residents and visitors age 21 and older will be allowed to legally possess as much as two ounces of marijuana and to grow up to three marijuana plants at home. Leading candidates for mayor and the D.C. Council have vowed to quickly sign the measure into law. A majority of the council also pledged that if approved by voters, they would submit follow-up legislation to Congress next year establishing a system to sell and tax the drug in the District.

The twin measures will become law, as District bills do, unless Congress vetoes them and the president agrees that the local measures should be halted. That complex layer of federal oversight could thrust Congress — which on Tuesday flipped to Republican control — and President Obama into the middle of a rapidly evolving national debate.

In joining two states to bring marijuana into the mainstream — making it nearly akin to alcohol and tobacco — the District’s vote is the latest sign of growing public acceptance of the drug. Advocates have been trying to give marijuana legal status since the 1960s, losing periodic battles with parent groups and to the war on drugs. But the arguments against weed have lost steam, and public opinion has shifted; about 6 percent of Americans use the drug, including one-third of the nation’s high school seniors.

Unlike the arguments about health concerns elsewhere, the legalization debate in the District became fused with weighty issues of civil rights after a series of studies during the past year showed wide disparities in drug arrests: Eighty-eight percent of people convicted of marijuana possession in the city in recent years were black, even as surveys have shown that whites and blacks are equally likely to use the drug.

“The population in the District is certainly different from that in Colorado and Washington state. Here, this has been cast as a racial-justice issue,” said Malik Burnett, a doctor who delayed practicing to organize support for the measure. “This is huge. We’re talking about ending the prohibition of marijuana as a manifestation of the war on drugs, in the birthplace of the war on drugs: Washington, D.C.”

Adam Eidinger, who is a longtime advocate for legalization in the District and who spent $20,000 of his own money to help put the measure on the ballot, said he was thrilled and confident that any pushback from Congress could eventually be overcome.

“This sends a message to the nation that people are finally ready for change,” he said. “If your job is over at 5 o’clock and you want to have cannabis instead of a glass of scotch, so be it.”

Realtor Tom Bryant, 50, who cast a ballot at the Georgetown public library, said he voted yes because he thinks it is “ridiculous for people to go to jail” for a small amount of pot. Katie Holloran, a 37-year-old teacher, said she, too, voted in favor of legalization: “I guess I’ve really never understood why it’s different from something like alcohol.”

Not everyone agreed. Alizonia Leach, who voted Tuesday at Watkins Elementary School, said she had no doubts: “Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no,” she said. “Marijuana is not good for anybody.”

This summer, the District joined 17 states that have decriminalized marijuana. Members of the D.C. Council and Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) said they were moved by studies that showed the District’s marijuana-arrest rate was higher than any of the 50 states and ranked seventh nationally among a study of 1,000 counties analyzed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Such studies also helped fuel a complete reversal in public opinion during the past four years among the District’s black residents, who now account for half the city’s population.

According to Washington Post polls this year, roughly 56 percent of likely African American voters said they planned to back legalization. Four years ago, 37 percent were in favor and 55 percent opposed, with many saying they feared greater access could lead to addiction among black youths.

The D.C. Council measure in March that decriminalized marijuana took a first step toward legalization. It stripped away jail time for possession and made it a $25 fine — cheaper than most city parking tickets — and the lowest fine outside of Colorado, Washington state or Alaska. Penalties for public consumption also were lowered to that of carrying an open container of alcohol, punishable by up to 60 days in jail.

But on the District’s iconic federal land, including the Mall, the monuments and streets surrounding the White House, possession remains a federal offense punishable by up to a year in jail.

The District also is home to federal agencies charged with enforcing U.S. drug laws, which still designate marijuana in a class of the most dangerous drugs, worse than cocaine and viewed equal only to the likes of heroin in terms of how addictive they are.

Full legalization of marijuana would set up a conflict with federal law enforcement agencies and Congress. Even advocates of legalization say they can barely imagine a day when the District would resemble Denver, with a proliferation of shops selling marijuana by the bag, in joints or in foods such as cookies or brownies.

Advocates testified at a hearing last week that, given the necessary congressional review and time needed for the D.C. Council to decide how sales would work, the earliest marijuana could be legally purchased in the District would be in early 2016.

Less clear is how Congress will react. After D.C. voters passed a measure allowing medical marijuana dispensaries in 1998, Republicans used amendments to federal budget bills for 11 years to keep the District from enacting the law.

Aaron Davis covers D.C. government and politics for The Post and wants to hear your story about how D.C. works — or how it doesn’t.

Link…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-voters-titling-heavily-toward-legalizing-marijuana-likely-joining-colo-wash/2014/11/04/116e83f8-60fe-11e4-9f3a-7e28799e0549_story.html

Chinese moon probe successfully returns to earth

Will like to see photos from above of the landing site.  I wonder if is that its mission in the first place?

Sunday 02 November 2014

An unmanned Chinese probe successfully returned to earth yesterday after circumnavigating the moon, bolstering the country’s status as a space power.

The probe, officially known as Chang’e 5-T1, broke through the earth’s atmosphere at 6.13am local time on Saturday and landed in Inner Mongolia.

It is the first time in almost 40 years that a spacecraft has returned to earth after travelling around the earth’s only natural satellite.

Dubbed “Xiaofei” or “Little Flyer”, the probe travelled at speeds of up to 25,000mph and was more than 250,000 miles from the earth at its furthest point.

A Soviet-era method, where the craft bounces off the earth’s atmosphere, was used to slow the probe down on its descent to earth and avoid it burning up.

China plans to send another craft to the moon in 2017 to collect soil samples. If successful, China would become only the third country, after the United States and Russia, to accomplish such an achievement.

The rising eastern superpower has already embarked on other space exploration missions, including sending two probes to the moon that did not return, and there are plans for crewed space missions in the future.

One of the country’s rovers, the Jade Rabbit, which reached the moon on 14 December 2013, is still on the satellite’s surface but has failed to complete its mission, after equipment malfunctioned in January this year.

Beijing sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third nation to independently realise manned space travel.

Additional Reporting by AP

Link…

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/chinese-moon-probe-successfully-returns-to-earth-9833753.html