Good news over here! We’ve got a nice and shiny registration certificate from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Now our Thunder Tables have their (R) sign.

In the city of Bozeman (the US) it is…pardon, was “acceptable” to require user credentials to your personal mailboxes and other social networking accounts, when applying for a job. What for? For “a thorough background check”. (more…)

The world is waiting for the specifications of currently most powerful processor – AMD Phenom II 42 TWKR Black Edition aka Formula 1. They say it has an unlocked clock multiplier for ease of overclocking, though consumes 200W and thus requires good cooling. One of the pictures on the website of Maingear PC founder and CEO (Wallace Santos) has a not-for-sale-note which caused a gossip that the new processor is not meant for retail, but probably for direct selling from AMD to “extreme enthusiasts”.

In this entry I’d like to suggest a kind of a list of various legal decisions on password [ab]use I could find on the web. Your add-ins are welcome, just put in any other acts you know…

ATI Stream Developer Showcase enrolled our Elcomsoft Wireless Security Auditor in its security section, among other “notable applications” that use ATI Stream technology:

Time for shoulder surfing is gone, today we have more sophisticated ways to track what you are typing on your keyboard. A series of appearing keyboard attacks yet again prove its incapability of keeping secretes. Let’s see what we have…

The Register reports VAServ.com has been attacked and now more than 100.000 websites have gone forever because of company’s poor password policy. The attackers are unknown and Rus Foster, (former?) VAServ.com director claims that anonymous messages indicated nonexistent passwords. I wouldn’t like to sound sarcastic but their description at AboutUs.org reads quite funny now, what do you think? 

We wrote about the new iPhone last week, but these we only rumors. And now it is officially announced (on WWDC); the sales will start on June 17th (in the U.S.). Additional information is available at Apple web site: general and about iPhone 3.0 software update. But unfortunately, still no tech specs of its GPU; according to the above article, Maybe there is some truth to the rumors that Apple is using OpenCL. If that’s true, there will be (technical) ability to crack passwords on it, and the speed should not be disappointing.

He started from hacking for fun (cracking phone systems), then he founded DefCon and Black Hat hacker conferences (btw, we had a chance to visit DefCon9 in 2001) and now Jeff Moss is chosen to take care of US cyber security affairs. No doubt, Jeff Moss has the guts to resist cyber terrorism and protect national interests. Good luck, Jeff!

Securing home Wi-Fi remains uncertain when it comes to law. Some urge users are not liable when they use default security settings and it is manufacturer who is guilty when/if wireless network was ‘successfully’ abused. Others put whole responsibility on users. This is practically a question to law and usually its resolution depends on lawyers’ skills to gather and manipulate the details. Your security encompasses not only security against the law when you happen to fall a victim to an intruder, but also protection against that very intruder. In the long run, it’s up to you whether to endeavor to prove your innocence or take measures to build a reliable fence.