A virus outbreak is wreaking havoc with Integral Energy’s computer network, forcing it to rebuild all 1000 of its desktop computers before the “particularly sinister” bug spreads to the machines controlling the power grid. A spokesman for Integral Energy, a major energy supplier, confirmed that the company had called in external information security experts to “rebuild all desktop computers to contain and remove the virus”.

The malware had not affected power supplies to customers or business data and was “contained within Integral Energy’s information technology network”, the spokesman said. But Chris Gatford, a security consultant at Hacklabs who has conducted penetration testing on critical infrastructure, said there was often “ineffective segregation” or “more typically none at all” between the IT network and the network that monitors and controls the infrastructure.

Found by Mark.

Here is the latest conversation I had with money manager Andrew Horowitz…. new insights for anyone who invests in anything. This week the highlight is a discussion about the Fed, minerals, tech and the Dollar. Interesting!

Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.

Penske Automotive Group Inc. said it has terminated its discussions with General Motors Co. to acquire the Saturn brand. GM responded by saying it will wind down the brand and its dealership network.

Penske said it had concerns directly related to the future supply of vehicles beyond the supply period it had negotiated with GM.

“This is very disappointing news and comes after months of hard work by hundreds of dedicated employees and Saturn retailers who tried to make the new Saturn a reality,” GM Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson said in a statement on GM’s Web site. Henderson said the schedule for the wind down “will be communicated shortly.”

Abstract

Since Time immemorial, man has sought to explain the powers of Kal- El, a.k.a. Superman. Siegel et al. Supposed that His mighty strength stems from His origin on another planet whose density and as a result, gravity, was much higher than our own. Natural selection on the planet of krypton would therefore endow Kal El with more efficient muscles and higher bone density; explaining, to first order, Superman’s extraordinary powers. Though concise, this theory has proved inaccurate. It is now clear that Superman is actually flying rather than just jumping really high; and His freeze-breath, x-ray vision, and heat vision also have no account in Seigel’s theory.

In this paper we propose a new unified theory for the source of Superman’s powers; that is to say, all of Superman’s extraordinary powers are manifestation of one supernatural ability, rather than a host. It is our opinion that all of Superman’s recognized powers can be unifed if His power is the ability to manipulate, from atomic to kilometer length scales, the inertia of His own and any matter with which He is in contact.

ZDNet.com

Malware hunters at Symantec have discovered a direct link between a malicious file embedded in pirated copies of Apple’s iWork 09 software and what appears to be the first Mac OS X botnet launching denial-of-service attacks.

Writing in the current issue of Virus Bulletin (subscription required), researchers Mario Ballano Barcena and Alfredo Pesoli found two malware variants — OSX.Iservice and OSX.Iservice.B — using different techniques to obtain the user’s password and take control of the infected Mac machine.

The variants have been found inside bogus copies of iWork ’09 and Adobe Photoshop CS4 which were shared on the popular p2p torrent network. The author of the malware downloaded the original/trial versions of each program and introduced a copy of the malicious binary into the packages. Users who then downloaded and installed the applications from the torrent download would have been infected. It is estimated that thousands of people have downloaded the infected torrent files.

They describe this as the “first real attempt to create a Mac botnet” and notes that the zombie Macs are already being used for nefarious purposes.

It was just a matter of time.

A jailed hacker shut down a prison’s entire computer system – after bosses gave him the job of programming it.

Douglas Havard, 27, serving six years for stealing up to £6.5million using forged credit cards over the internet, was approached after governors wanted to create an internal TV station but needed a special computer program written.

He was left unguarded and hacked into the system’s hard drive at Ranby Prison, near Retford, Notts. Then he set up a series of passwords so no one else could get into the system.

The blunder emerged a week after the Sunday Mirror revealed how an inmate at the same jail managed to get a key cut that opened every door.

Barack Obama’s amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.

An Australian inventor, who was set to reap the lion’s share of a mammoth $US388 million $445 million damages award from Microsoft, is now set to get nothing after the US judge hearing the case decided to ignore the jury’s decision and hand victory to Microsoft.

Found by Mark.

Chinese artist Chen Wenling critiques the global financial crisis in What You See Might Not Be Real, on display at a Beijing gallery. The bull is said to represent Wall Street, while the man pinned to the wall represents jailed financier Bernard Madoff.

And in case you’re wondering what the gov is doing to find out how he wasn’t stopped sooner and to prevent future Madoffs, you can read this.