Planet Leo

NOT AGAIN


Rig West Of BP Spill Site:

GRAND ISLE, La. -- An offshore oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, west of the site of the April blast that caused the massive oil spill.

A commercial helicopter company reported the blast around 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats were en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.

The Coast Guard said initial reports indicated all 13 crew members from the rig were in the water. One was injured, but there were no deaths.

The platform owned by Mariner Energy is in about 2,500 feet of water, the Coast Guard said, and was not currently producing.

About 206 million gallons of oil from an undersea well spilled into the Gulf after BP's Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.

Military Computer Attack Confirmed
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On Wednesday August 25, 2010, 5:20 pm EDT
WASHINGTON — A top Pentagon official has confirmed a previously classified incident that he describes as “the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever,” a 2008 episode in which a foreign intelligence agent used a flash drive to infect computers, including those used by the Central Command in overseeing combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Plugging the cigarette-lighter-sized flash drive into an American military laptop at a base in the Middle East amounted to “a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control,” according to William J. Lynn 3d, deputy secretary of defense, writing in the latest issue of the journal Foreign Affairs.

“It was a network administrator’s worst fear: a rogue program operating silently, poised to deliver operational plans into the hands of an unknown adversary,” Mr. Lynn wrote.

The incident was first reported in November 2008 by the Danger Room blog of Wired magazine, and then in greater detail by The Los Angeles Times, which said that the matter was sufficiently grave that President George W. Bush was briefed on it. The newspaper mentioned suspicions of Russian involvement.

But Mr. Lynn’s article was the first official confirmation. He also put a name — Operation Buckshot Yankee — to the Pentagon operation to counter the attack, and said that the episode “marked a turning point in U.S. cyber-defense strategy.” In an early step, the Defense Department banned the use of portable flash drives with its computers, though it later modified the ban.

Mr. Lynn described the extraordinary difficulty of protecting military digital communications over a web of 15,000 networks and 7 million computing devices in dozens of countries against farflung adversaries who, with modest means and a reasonable degree of ingenuity, can inflict outsized damage. Traditional notions of deterrence do not apply.

“A dozen determined computer programmers can, if they find a vulnerability to exploit, threaten the United States’s global logistics network, steal its operational plans, blind its intelligence capabilities or hinder its ability to deliver weapons on target,” he wrote.

Security officials also face the problem of counterfeit hardware that may have remotely operated “kill switches” or “back doors” built in to allow manipulation from afar, as well as the problem of software with rogue code meant to cause sudden malfunctions.

Against the array of threats, Mr. Lynn said, the National Security Agency had pioneered systems — “part sensor, part sentry, part sharpshooter” — that are meant to automatically counter intrusions in real time.

His article appeared intended partly to raise awareness of the threat to United States cybersecurity — “the frequency and sophistication of intrusions into U.S. military networks have increased exponentially,” he wrote — and partly to make the case for a larger Pentagon role in cyberdefense.

Various efforts at cyberdefense by the military have been drawn under a single organization, the U.S. Cyber Command, which began operations in late May at Fort Meade, Maryland, under a four-star general, Keith B. Alexander.

But under proposed legislation, the Department of Homeland Security would take the leading role in the defense of civilian systems.

Though the Cyber Command has greater capabilities, the military operates within the United States only if ordered to do so by the president.

Another concern is whether the Pentagon, or government in general, has the nimbleness for such work. Mr. Lynn acknowledged that “it takes the Pentagon 81 months to make a new computer system operational after it is first funded.” By contrast, he noted, “the iPhone was developed in 24 months.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk...nology-11000854

Spain has become the latest country to launch an investigation into the collection of sensitive wi-fi data by Google.

Google has admitted that its Street View cars had "accidentally" collected data from unsecured wi-fi networks in more than 30 countries.

A Google representative has now been summoned to appear before a judge in Madrid on 4 October.

It is in response to a complaint by a privacy watchdog called Apedanica.

The Google representative has been summoned to explain what data was collected, how it was obtained and the number of people affected.


"We are working with the authorities in Spain to answer any questions they have," said a spokesperson for Google.

"Our ultimate objective is to delete the data consistent with our legal obligations and in consultation with the appropriate authorities."

Investigations are ongoing in France, Germany and Australia.

In the US, Google faces a class action lawsuit over the data harvesting, as well as a large scale investigation backed by 38 states.

In the UK, the Information Commissioner (ICO) recently cleared the company after it found that it had not collected "significant" personal details.

However, the firm is still under investigation by the Metropolitan police.

All of the probes were prompted by Google's admission that its Street View cars "accidentally" collected data from unsecured wi-fi networks over a period of four years.

The error has been blamed on a chunk of unsanctioned rogue code used in the cars.

It came to light following a request by data protection authorities in Hamburg, Germany, for more information about the operation of the service.

 _48533776_googlestreetviewcamera.jpg   11.26K   38 downloads

Google gathered wi-fi data in more than 30 nations

THIS how you tweak smartbro to be able to get a stable and faster connection

1. Assign the TCP/IP Manually.

To be able to see what your IP, Subnet, and the default gateway, again go to Control Panel and then look for the Local Area Connection and then right click on it and choose Status and then click Support Tab, and then click Details, and there you will see the complete information of your IP address, Subnet Mask, Gateway, and DNS servers. Now you will have to copy and save those information on a paper or maybe a notepad and save it somewhere in your computer, because you will be needing those information later.

 Status.jpg   32K   60 downloads

 details.jpg   45.13K   65 downloads

[attachment=9457:COPY IP.jpg]
COPY THE IPv4 address, SUBNET MASK, AND DEFAULT GATEWAY.


For Windows XP:

GO TO RUN, then TYPE CMD, TYPE IPCONFIG.And copy the same details.
 WINDOWS XP.jpg   32.13K   79 downloads


2. How To Change Your DNS Servers?


Step 1. Go to Control Panel > Network Connections > Local Area Connection > General Tab > Properties > TCP/IP.


Step 2. Use the information that you saved earlier on each of the respective information. IP address, Subnet Mask, Gateway, and DNS (208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220).




 PROPERTIES.jpg   26.33K   73 downloads

 IP PROPERTIES.jpg   54.36K   86 downloads

 TYPE IP.jpg   58K   84 downloads

Here: type the IP, SUBNET MASK, AND DEFAULT GATEWAY THAT YOU COPIED.
FOR DNS: You can choose on the SELECTIONS BELOW.

Here are the DNS address that i have tried...
1. Google
•8.8.8.8 -PREFERRED DNS•8.8.4.4 - ALTERNATE DNS
2. ScrubIt
Public dns server address:

•67.138.54.100 - PREFERRED DNS
•207.225.209.66 - ALTERNATE DNS
3. dnsadvantage
Dnsadvantage free dns server list:

•156.154.70.1* - PREFERRED DNS
•156.154.71.1 - ALTERNATE DNS
4. OpenDNS
OpenDNS free dns server list:

•208.67.222.222 - PREFERRED DNS
•208.67.220.220* - ALTERNATE DNS
5.   vnsc-pri.sys.gtei.net
Public Name server IP address:

•4.2.2.1
•4.2.2.2
•4.2.2.3
•4.2.2.4
•4.2.2.5
•4.2.2.6

After you TYPED the DNS, Click on ADVANCED on the bottom right. and refer on the steps below.
 ADVANCED IP SETTINGS.jpg   59.13K   97 downloads
- just tick like whats in the pic.
 ADVANCED DNS.jpg   71.18K   102 downloads
- just tick like whats in the pic.
 ADVANCED WINS.jpg   67.75K   97 downloads
- just tick like whats in the pic.
After all the steps followed., click OK then disbled/ enable LAN.

Step 3. After placing in the right information, double check and then click OK on both Pop Up windows that opened.


Step 4. Go back to Control Panel > Network Connections. Now Right-Click on Local Area Connection and then click Repair. This is to refresh the connection and DNS servers that your connection will use.
Step 5. Now you can check the difference of the speed through www.testmy.net and compare what difference it made since using the default DNS servers of your Internet Provider.





I HOPE THESE WILL HELP YOU GUYZ.