OT: Science and Technology

[mybloodisorange]

Instead of crowding the community thread again I decided to put everything related to science and tech here. Please only discuss and post things related to as such. Anyone here who doesnt know me yet, im basically a huge science nerd-there were some cool things I posted right before the Old community thread ended so I dont think many people saw.

I'll start with materials. The first is an improvement on an already new material called aerogels. The first short vid is about aeorgels & the second shows the advances already made. Really cool stuff for all you engineers out there.

Standard Aerogel [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsOsWqtrh5M[/youtube]
AirloyX100 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8OhJKR3AA4[/youtube]

[mybloodisorange]

Here is one you dont have to be into science to realize the potential applications. This new hydrophobic coating is amazing; just do not spray coat the bottom of your snowboard with it. Brand new to market and not overly expensive it probably costs about $6 to coat a pair of workboots according to some notes I read. Better yet I want to coat the inside of my toilets so they never need to be cleaned.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfUaKXasdD4[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-WNb0NLSTI[/youtube]

Now before all you motorheads get excited, it can only handle from -30 to 300 degrees F so no coating engine parts.
This is going to be great for people who use lots of tools outdoors in places where it rains alot. Zero rust!

[rsavaj]

I ran across this in my inbox this morning: http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang ... -backyard/

Pretty grand.

[rsavaj]

Higgs!

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang ... the-higgs/

[mybloodisorange]

A Higgs Boson particle enters a church and after being asked to leave he says "but without me, you cannot have mass!"

Sorry I also have a really bad sense of humor. If you like space check out this new private company DSI...it looks like the private space industry is about to boom. All those people who spent the last 10 years playing Eve Online are about to apply for new jobs.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIY_fmvFDhM[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nQp6vjADtE[/youtube]

[YFZblu]

Nice thread, thanks.

admittedly my posts will be infosec focused more often than not. That being said...

For those of you who enjoy poking around with pen testing tools, the creators of Backtrack have officially released the replacement; Kali Linux:

http://www.kali.org/

[mybloodisorange]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0EJmBoLq-g[/youtube]

3D printing is Amazing!

[mybloodisorange]

I guess not alot of science lovers here.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws6HPTom2AY[/youtube]

[mybloodisorange]

New material about to revolutionize technology.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_eTLPKdrHs[/youtube]

[YFZblu]

2013 is projected to bring 60 million new pieces of malware.

Moral of the story - Antivirus is one piece of the pie and a "clean" AV scan does not a clean system make. They simply cannot keep up with that type of volume. In fact if you talk to blackhats out there, they'll tell you antivirus is absolutely worthless.

In my current role I'm doing network security monitoring. For the most part our internet is wide open and even with Anti Virus, host-based intrusion protection, host-based firewall, physical firewalls, a mature proxy, and a very mature Intrusion detection system I still see multiple compromises daily. Often times I'll see command-and-control (the machine is now being controlled by the bad guys) traffic via one alert, only to find out every other layer of security failed. Additionally I'm more than certain there are a bunch of owned hosts in our environment that we don't know about yet.

Definitely a bleak outlook for the average user who might not even have AV installed at home, or believes it will keep them safe. The article is linked below:

http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerability/av-test-maps-dramatic-increase-in-malwar/240155558

[mybloodisorange]

internet security may be an oxymoron the way things are going. Expect corporations and nations to increasingly use cyber attacks against their enemies as time goes on. Alot of people dont know this but cyber attacks are already gaining a foothold in military operations; about a year ago the US had a covert Israeli agent deliver a virus inside Irans computer network and really set back their nuclear program by damaging important systems. It didnt get much attention on the news though because people are more concerned with things like the Jodi Arias trial.

[YFZblu]

internet security may be an oxymoron the way things are going.

The community has taken the "expect you're already breached" approach for a while now. Network security is extremely asymmetric - Attackers can put in very little effort / have a low levels of skill (script kiddies) but cause large amounts of damage. Couple this with the fear of publicly admitting you were breached and the fact that law enforcement will only throw lots of resources at high profile cases (understandable), and the bad guys are able to get away with it. In many cases companies still see security as an afterthought, or a service they outsource just to mark a checkbox for some regulatory compliance.

Expect corporations and nations to increasingly use cyber attacks against their enemies as time goes on.

Good point - Security research firm Mandiant recently put out a report that in one case, an organization had China's "APT1" infiltrating their infrastructure undetected for nearly five years. Five years! More on China's APT1 here: http://intelreport.mandiant.com/Mandiant_APT1_Report.pdf

It's sexy to talk about the APT and targeted espionage, but I think the most interesting piece is not state-sponsored (well, not all of it). Zero day sales, botnet rentals, exploit kits, social engineering, malware of course, etc etc. - Cybercrime is now a more profitable industry than the drug trade, and has been for several years.

For anyone interested in the current trends of cybercrime and what motivates today's miscreants I highly recommend Verizon's Breach Report. It's published annually and 2012 was especially interesting:

http://www.verizonenterprise.com/DBIR/2013/