doubleplusundead

I dunno.  I saw. I LOL’d. I posted.

itnews – Chinese hackers steal ASIO (Australian State Intelligence Office) blueprints and documents

the compromised blueprints included details on the building’s security systems, communications networks and server room locations.

also stolen in other attacks – unclassified emails and reports, a couple of classified reports, one highly classified and apparently a number of other items. 

more China –

The Verge – Chinese hackers reportedly accessed designs for advanced US weapons systems

Not a lot to be said here except that the report blames lax IT security (Bradley Manning anyone) at DoD and associated defense contractors for a large portion of the problem. Pages 67 thru 80 of the report make specific recommendations for dealing with this issue.  Another issue that they blame for increasing vulnerability is the reliance on foreign made components.

List of the weapons systems compromised

On the other hand –

Wired – This Pentagon Project Makes Cyberwar as Easy as Angry Birds

With Plan X, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking to change all that. It wants munitions made of 1s and 0s to be as simple to launch as ones made of metal and explosives. It wants cyberattack stratagems to be as predictable as any war plan can be. It  wants to move past the artisanal era of hacking, and turn cyberwarfare into an industrial effort. Across the U.S. government, there are all kinds of projects to develop America’s network offense. None are quite like this.

“Plan X is a program that is specifically working towards building the technology infrastructure that would allow cyber offense to move from the world we’re in today — where it’s a fine, handcrafted capability that requires exquisite authorities to do anything… to a future where cyber is a capability like other weapons,” Darpa director Arati Prabhakar told reporters last month. “A military operator can design and deploy a cyber effect, know what it’s going to accomplish… and take an appropriate level of action.

Reading this article, with all it’s World of Warcraft mentions and other gamer references, you can almost think it’s an Onion parody, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t.

The Washington Post – US lags Europe on paid vacation time

This story comes out every year and once again I say so what.

Season 4 of “Arrested Development” started on Netflix.  Another big who cares.  I thought the show was unfunny and boring the first time not going to bother with it this time around.

Finally – Return of the Internet Portal?

I think there is a possibility as more and more content accrues some sort of gatekeeping / organization tool will be needed.  I used Google Reader for that but others probably want more of a one stop shop.

There are lots of good posts at HQ and elsewhere, I don’t really have anything particularly poignant for today, but we do recognize the spirit of the day and those who gave all.

"It’s important to remember that burning your neighbour’s car is not an example of freedom of speech, it’s hooliganism,"

Uttered by the Swedish Prime Minister as he tries to “restore calm” while immigrants riot in the Stockholm suburb of Husby.  Husby is 80% immigrant mostly Turkish, Somali and other Muslim countries.  I have to say that I, for one, am surprised that a combination of a social welfare paradise and the “Religion of Peace”  hasn’t created a utopia that all mankind would want to emulate.  Who could have predicted such an outcome?  Oh that’s right – FRANCE!  (and Germany / Britain etc. etc.)

Once upon a time, back in June 2007, I suggested an experiment to test the theory of the gold standard:

On the major planks in Ron Paul’s Presidential campaign is the abolishment of the Federal Reserve and a return to the gold (or hard currency) standard.

…

after reading this article on Chinese gold farmers in World of Warcraft it occurred to me that we don’t have to guess what would happen. We could model the effect on a World of Warcraft server

At the time I was interested in testing Ron Paul’s assertions that returning to the gold standard would cure all of America’s economic ills, but as part of my thought experiment I threw out the a couple other suggestions:

It would also be interesting to see some variations on this theme in which an ulimited amount of gold can be purchased from Blizzard but items are strictly limited. Huge inflation I would bet. Or items and gold can be purchased from Blizzard. My bet there is the local trade economy would tank (Globalization analouge).

Well it turns out that Blizzard went ahead and tested the theory about unlimited gold and limited goods even if it was by accident:

in the last few months, various outposts in that world (Diablo III) — Silver City and New Tristram, to name two — have borne more in common with real world places like Harare, Zimbabwe in 2007 or Berlin in 1923 than with Dante’s Inferno. A culmination of a series of unanticipated circumstances — and, finally, a most unfortunate programming bug — has over the last few weeks produced a new and unforeseen dimension of hellishness within Diablo 3: hyperinflation.

Basically Blizzard created a virtual economy in which infinite amounts of gold could be accumulated very quickly and it drove the prices of goods through the roof.  Precisely what just about anyone would have expected but since I wrote about this back in 2007 I am claiming prescience and genius.

It should be noted that as soon a Blizzard cracked down on the gold supply prices began to drop.  The author of the Zero Hedge article thinks this proves the need for a gold standard.  I think in my own uneducated way that it proves Friedman’s theories about control of the monetary supply more than it makes the case for a specie based currency, but as I said in the title I am a drooling mouth breathing moron so what do I know?

Salon – We’re living in an Ayn Rand economy

It’s Salon and AlterNet so the article is not the high praise that many of you would probably expect from the title.

Marie-Clare via Hacker News– When Geeks Attack

A report on sexual harassment in the tech industry.  I can’t say that I have ever seen behavior like that described in the article when I have attended conferences, but then again when I (very occasionally) do go to a conference I am not one of the guys who gets invited to after hours events so my perceptions can be very skewed.

(The initial blog post referenced in the article – A Hell of A Time)

NY Times – Chinese Hackers at it again

Three months after hackers working for a cyberunit of China’s People’s Liberation Army went silent amid evidence that they had stolen data from scores of American companies and government agencies, they appear to have resumed their attacks  using different techniques, according to computer industry security experts and American official

The Register – Securo-boffins uncover new GLOBAL cyber-espionage operation

Spear-phishing attacks with possible links back to China (There’s that word again).  Utilizes a vulnerability that had a patch issued last year.  Update your F’in computers people.

Slashdot – Uptick in Whooping Cough Linked to Subpar Vaccines

‘Nuff Said

You fucking retards seriously arrested Daniele Perazzi?  ZOMG SWARTHY FURRINER W/ HIGH CAPACITY OVER/UNDER SHOTGUN HE MUST BE A TURRIST EVERYBODY PANIC!!!1!11

If you want to see what kind of turrist wepinz this monster deals in, do a GIS for Perazzi.  Wear a bib.  So pretty.  So shiny.