Европа с най-висока киберпрестъпност

Европа заема първо място за най-много регистрирани киберпрестъпления. Още през първите няколко месеца на 2010 година Старият континент скоростно изпревари Азия, Южна и Северна Америка. Тази обезпокоителна информация пристигна от експерти, работещи дълги години в областта на сигурността в мрежата. Същевременно специалистите споделиха и теориите си защо Европа се превърна в най-рискования и благоприятния за дейността на хакерите континент.

На първо място, Китай намали драстично хакерските заплахи в страната. Многобройните мерки, които правителството предприе, макар и не толкова демократични, повлияха положително на онлайн сигурността. През последните месеци управляващите в Китай започнаха да убеждават местните интернет доставчици да намалят нелегалната си дейност. Политиката на Китай обяснява и защо спамът от страната започва все повече да намалява. Всичко това, разбира се, подтиква хакерите да се оттеглят от Азия и да изберат друг регион, в който да вършат непозволените си действия. Очевидно, киберпрестъпниците са предпочели Европа.

Подобен напредък в борбата срещу киберпрестъпността се наблюдава и в страните от Южна Америка. Управляващите в Бразилия, например, наскоро се похвалиха, че в страната значително е намалял рискът в онлайн сигурността. Същевременно заразените компютри както на масовата аудитория, така и тези в големите корпорации и институции, са намалели като бройка.

Експертите изразиха мнение, че хакерите намират за изключително удобен за техните дейности региона на Източна Европа. В тази част от континента киберпрестъпността се е увеличила учудващо бързо за последните няколко години. Фирмите, специализиращи в онлайн сигурността, насочиха към потребителите си предупреждения да осигуряват защита не само за операционната система на своите компютри, но и за индивидуални приложения, както и периферни устройства, които биха могли да станат цел на атака. Специалистите твърдят, че до края на годината ще станем свидетели на много хакерски атаки върху приложения не само на персонални компютри и лаптопи, но и на смартфони и други подобни устройства.

Google Is Road Testing Cars That Drive Themselves

This is not a Google Street View truck. It’s actually a self-driving car. The car is part of a new research initiative that Google’s been road resting:

Artificially intelligent cars that drive themselves.


Self-driving cars are admittedly a lofty, almost far-fetched prospect. Even the most optimistic people behind the Google team say it’s at least eight years away from reaching consumers. But the promise it holds! With self driving cars on the road, researchers say road capacity can double since robots will drive at closer distances from one another. Plus, robot cars can theoretically react faster than humans and with the right sensors, can see the road from a 360-degree perspective. Not to mention they never get drunk, sleepy or text while driving either.

Google’s been working on these self driving cars in secret but are actually testing them right now, right out in the open. The NY Times saw one of these cars in action:

A Prius equipped with a variety of sensors and following a route programmed into the GPS navigation system nimbly accelerated in the entrance lane and merged into fast-moving traffic on Highway 101, the freeway through Silicon Valley.

It drove at the speed limit, which it knew because the limit for every road is included in its database, and left the freeway several exits later. The device atop the car produced a detailed map of the environment.

The car then drove in city traffic through Mountain View, stopping for lights and stop signs, as well as making announcements like “approaching a crosswalk” (to warn the human at the wheel) or “turn ahead” in a pleasant female voice.

Ideally, there’s a driver sitting at the steering wheel, ready to take over whenever anything goes awry. Once you hit a red button, move the steering wheel or tap the brake, the car is back under your control. Here’s how the self driving rig works:

Today Is the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything

Today is October 10, 2010. 10/10/10. In binary, that’s 42. And 42 is The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. Or at least, that’s what Douglas Adams says.

Many people wonder what Adams exactly meant by 42, the answer given by the supercomputer Deep Thought in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Why did Adams pick that number? Is there a connection to something the world doesn’t know about? Is the CIA and the MI6 involved in all this? Real aliens, perhaps?
On November 3, 1993, he gave an answer on alt.fan.douglas-adams:

The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought ’42 will do’. I typed it out. End of story.

Later, talking to BBC Radio 4 Iain Johnstone, he explained that the number was chosen by none other than John Cleese as the punch line for one of his skits. The famed Python thought it was a funny number, and Adams borrowed it for his book, turning it into a recurring integer through all his work.

But that comment wasn’t the end of the mystery. Stephen Fry—a friend of Adams—also jumped into the debate, claiming that the latter explained to him why it was 42. Fry will not reveal the secret, but he says it is “fascinating, extraordinary and, when you think hard about it, completely obvious.”

Today Is the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything

Whatever it is, it sure has had a deep impact in geeklore. One example: The Allen Telescope Array—the radio telescopes system erected by Microsoft’s Paul Allen for the SETI program—has 42 dishes in honor of Adams. And in Lost, 42 is the last number in the sequence that has to be entered on The Swan’s computer, which is also the sequence picked by Hurley for his winning lottery ticket, and Kwon’s number in the cave. In a Lostpedia interview, one of the show’s producers confirmed that this was indeed a homage to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.