hack

Hacker changes news releases on sheriff's Web site

Someone hacked into the Web site for the San Bernardino County sheriff's office in California and changed the wording on several news releases, forcing the agency to shut down the site last week, according to the Daily Bulletin.

One news release warning motorists about a DUI checkpoint in the nearby town of Highland was changed to read that officials wanted to "stick our big government schnoz into your private business, check your papers, and be sure you are toeing the line."

Also modified was a news release earlier this month with information about the law that takes … Read more

Three useful Firefox 3 'awesome bar' hacks

The Firefox 3 honeymoon is over.

It is indeed awesome, but it could use a little tweaking to keep your surfing a high-speed affair, right? You're in luck, because there are some easy tweaks.

The other day, we pointed you toward how to get rid of the updated address bar's new features completely, but why not just tweak what you see, instead? Here are some tips to bail you out.

1. Control how many listings you're getting. The default number of sites that show up on the Smart Location Bar, or "awesome bar," of the … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 744: A date with Firefox

Firefox 3 comes out June 17, and that's all we have to say, except we hope it fixes Molly's Flash problems so she doesn't have to get a Mac--or Opera. In other news of the day, you can now find out once and for all whether your car mechanic is giving you a good deal. Hint: No.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 744

Buzz Out Loud San Francisco Meetup! TONIGHT! http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/780695

Firefox 3 to release 17 June http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/06/11/coming-tuesday-june-17th-firefox-3/ http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200824/1225/Mozilla-Corp-confirms-Firefox-3-launch-for-July-17 … Read more

Comcast home page hacked

Comcast's Web portal has been hacked, leaving some subscribers unable to access their e-mail.

A company spokeswoman confirmed that the Comcast Web page had been hacked late on Wednesday. Subscribers who tried to access the site to check e-mail or access the company's official forums were greeted with this text instead:

The hackers apparently changed Comcast's registrar account at Network Solutions, which altered the DNS servers that were used to direct Comcast.net requests. In other words, the hackers essentially redirected traffic destined for the URL Comcast.net. Instead, the traffic went to IP addresses in Germany … Read more

Where 320 people can't be wrong

EPISODE 94

Libe Goad joins the guys of the 404 to talk about how the Wii gets hacked, GTA IV gets a lot of cash, get in shape with Wii Fit, Boom some Blox and some silly-ass stop signs. We also make fun of her husband, but shh...don't tell him.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Geek parent tip: Use Gmail as a baby book

Someday my son will hate me for this, but I just implemented a new way to record his daily achievements: A dedicated Gmail account. I got the idea for this tip from John Girard, CEO of Clickability, who sends tagged emails to his Outlook account. Anything with his special code in the subject means it's news about one of his kids, and he has filters to archive those notes into an offline file.

But it's so easy to set a new Gmail account, I thought, why not just do it this way? Plus, I can give account access … Read more

CNN.com survives random outages

Although CNN escaped a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack planned for Saturday, the site has experienced either random outages or inflated response times over the last 72 hours, according to one Internet research company.

Netcraft reported Tuesday that during a three-hour period on Sunday morning, the CNN.com site was unavailable from its listening post in Pennsylvania. And on Monday, the site experienced inflated response times. CNN.com did suffer a minor DDoS last Thursday, but recovered by limiting access from certain geographic areas, mainly Asia.

Also on Tuesday, The Dark Visitor, a site that tracks Chinese hackers, said a downloadable … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 707: Space is cancelled

The Russians have canceled their space tourism program, because space is too serious to monetize. Also, Skype offers unlimited long-distance on...phones. VoIP is so dead. You heard it here first. In other news, Microsoft bonanza: Windows predictions, welcoming ethical hackers, and burning down your house. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 707

Skype offers unlimited long-distance plan http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN2141013920080421

Google tops Microsoft, Apple in brand power http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9924273-7.html

Britannica makes content free with widgets, publisher registration http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9923867-7.html

Hackers cancel attack on CNN http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144850/hackers_cancel_attack_on_cnn.html… Read more

Catch quakes with your laptop

In a project that's grabbing headlines this week, researchers at the University of California, Riverside and Stanford University are recruiting laptops to help them monitor seismic activity. The Quake-Catcher Network is a distributed network of laptops running software that takes advantage of a built-in accelerometer to monitor and report seismic activity. (The accelerometer's primary purpose is to detect a fall or shock to the chassis in time to stop the hard drive from spinning, though it's been a key element in several fun hacks, including the Smackbook [video] and SeisMac.)

Based on the same software as the … Read more