Monthly Archives: September 2011

ACTA to be signed by a few countries

Posted on by
Reply

On Saturday, October 1, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan will hold the signing ceremony for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) at Iikura Guest House, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Agreement was inspired in significant part by Japan’s proposal at the G8 Gleneagles Summit in 2005 to create a new international framework against counterfeit and pirated products, in the context of the heightened awareness of the need for a higher degree of intellectual property protection. Its negotiation has been led by a strong initiative of Japan, the United States and other key partners.
The negotiation has been carried out among Australia, Canada, the European Union and its Member States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States, and reached a general agreement at the negotiation meeting held in Japan in October 2010, followed by the completion of technical and translation work in April 2011.
The signing ceremony will be attended by the representatives of all the participants in the ACTA negotiations, and those that have completed relevant domestic processes will sign the agreement. The agreement is open for signature until May 1, 2013.
On the preceding day, Friday, September 30, an international symposium entitled, “Global Intellectual Property Strategy and the Reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake: Eliminating Counterfeit and Pirated Products through ACTA”, will be held in Sendai as a side event of the signing ceremony.

MOFA: Holding of the Signing Ceremony for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

Thankfully quite a lot of countries seemed to have dropped out of this draconian piece of shit treaty

Scientists Disarm AIDS Virus’ Attack on Immune System

Posted on by
Reply

Scientists say they have found a way to disarm the AIDS virus in research that could lead to a vaccine. Researchers have discovered that if they eliminate a cholesterol membrane surrounding the virus, HIV cannot disrupt communication among disease-fighting cells and the immune system returns to normal.

Scientists have discovered that HIV needs cholesterol, which it picks up from the first immune cells it infects, to keep the virus’ outer membrane fluid. That allows it to communicate with – and disrupt – the body’s immune system.

Scientists Disarm AIDS Virus’ Attack on Immune System | Health | English.

SSL hacked and decrypted using BEAST

Posted on by
Reply

“BEAST is different than most published attacks against HTTPS,” Duong wrote in an email. “While other attacks focus on the authenticity property of SSL, BEAST attacks the confidentiality of the protocol. As far as we know, BEAST implements the first attack that actually decrypts HTTPS requests.”

via Hackers break SSL encryption used by millions of sites • The Register.

U.S. Can’t Track Tons of Weapons-Grade Uranium, Plutonium

Posted on by
Reply

the U.S. can’t track or fully account for 5,900 pounds of “weapons usable” nuclear material that it once shipped overseas. Instead, U.S. officials have to rely on foreign governments’ assurances that the potentially cataclysmic stuff is safe. And when those officials occasionally visit the sites holding the nuclear material, nearly half the places “did not meet International Atomic Energy Agency security guidelines,” according to the GAO, Congress’ investigative arm

via U.S. Can’t Track Tons of Weapons-Grade Uranium, Plutonium | Danger Room | Wired.com.

IR invisibility cloak for tanks

Posted on by
Reply

Developed by BAE Systems, the Adaptiv technology allows vehicles to mimic the temperature of their surroundings.

It can also make a tank look like other objects, such as a cow or car, when seen through heat-sensitive ‘scopes.

Researchers are looking at ways to make it work with other wavelengths of light to confer true invisibility.

via BBC News – Tanks test infra-red invisibility cloak.