U.S. intelligence agencies traced a recent cyber intrusion into U.S. Army database that holds sensitive information about vulnerabilities in U.S. dams.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers National Inventory of Dams contains information about 79,000 dams throughout the country and tracks such information as the number of estimated deaths that could occur if a specific dam failed.

The database also holds sensitive information, including vulnerabilities, of every major dam throughout the country. Michelle Van Cleave, a former consultant to the CIA, told the Beacon that the data breach appeared to be part of a greater effort to collect vulnerability and targeting data for future cyber or military attacks.

The Corps of Engineers National Inventory of Dams was hacked by an unauthorized user believed to be from Chinese government or military cyber warriors, beginning in January and uncovered earlier this month.

“In the wrong hands, the Army Corps of Engineers’ database could be a cyber attack roadmap for a hostile state or terrorist group to disrupt power grids or target dams in this country,” Van Cleave said.

All users had been sent an e-mail notification to this effect, which apparently told them that their account username had been changed to their e-mail address and included the new password in plaintext that the Corps did not ask users to change.

According to the Corps website, the dam inventory was created under a 1972 law and was updated in 1986 to require coordination between the Corps and the Federal Emergency Management Agency

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Netflix users will see nearly 1,800 titles disappear from the video streaming service.  The video streaming service is losing titles from MGM, Universal and Warner Bros. because its licensing agreements with the movie studios have expired.  Classic movie titles like “Dr. No,” “Goldfinger” and “Thieves Like Us” will no longer be available for Netflix instant streaming.

Netflix titles have a tendency to come and go from the service, and are rotated out if they are not watch frequently enough.  Netflix will add more than 500 titles May 1, but we also have titles expiring, this ebb and flow happens all the time.

This isn’t Netflix’s first major loss of content. In 2012, Starz let its licensing agreement with the video streaming service expire and Netflix lost another 800 hours of programming from the History Channel and A&E

Nexflix says losing the titles won’t hurt its business because it doesn’t want to be a clearing house of rentals. Netflix goal is to be an “expert programmer,” not a “broad distributor” of online content.

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The ESEA gaming network has been exploiting its users’ powerful graphics cards to mine Bitcoins without their knowledge. “Mining” is the way Bitcoin is created — it involves dedicating some or all of a CPU or GPUs power to solving hashes, which in turn generates the virtual currency. The mining began on April 13th and affected thousands of gamers, who unwittingly mined over $3,700 worth of the currency. ESEA, which describes itself as “the largest competitive video gaming community in North America,” wasn’t aware that the Bitcoin mining was taking place, and blames the behavior on a rogue employee out for personal gain.

The full story on how and why the Bitcoin-mining software made its way to users’ computers isn’t yet available, but ESEA had been exploring the idea of adding a Bitcoin mining option to its client. The idea was canned on April 12th, but the next day, the rogue employee secretly distributed the code without permission. The code, which was embeded in the ESEA client, used the gamers’ powerful computers to mine the virtual currency without their knowledge.

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Google is doing there second spring cleaning.  Last year we saw these services get retired in the first Google spring cleaning.

• Google Mini enterprise search system
• Google Talk Chatback widget
• Google Video
• iGoogle
• Symbian search app

This time around, Google Reader and seven other services are getting the axe, bringing the firm’s total of features closed since 2011 to 70.  This year on the chopping block is following.

• Apps Script’s GUI builder and five UiApp widgets
• CalDAV API
• Google Building Maker
• Google Cloud Connect
• Google Reader
• Search API for Shopping
• Google Voice App for Blackberry
• Snapseed Desktop for Macintosh and Windows

Google Reader will keep the lights on until July 1st, and diehard users will be able to keep their data and subscriptions by using the outfit’s Takeout tool.  By the sounds of it, CEO Larry Page is still making good on his promise to keep Google focused on fewer things.

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Boris Renski, co-founder of Mirantis, an OpenStack consultancy as well as OpenStack Foundation board member recently told Business Insider that PayPal is in the midst of replacing VMware on about 10,000 computer servers. Those servers will go live this summer, Renski said. “The grand vision for project is, over time, they will replace all of their virtual infrastructure with OpenStack, not just PayPal, but PayPal and eBay, together,” Renski said. That’s about 80,000 servers across their data centers, he said.

“At PayPal, we are committed to collaborating with the open source community to drive further innovation. That’s why we are thrilled to be working with Mirantis to leverage OpenStack to help transform our global infrastructure into an agile and open cloud platform,” said Saran Mandair, Senior Director of Platform Engineering and Operations. “Our OpenStack project uses the Fuel library by Mirantis, which has dramatically accelerated our OpenStack deployment with robust, production-grade architecture while giving us the flexibility to tailor OpenStack to our needs.”

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On Easter Sunday, Google is honoring the birthday of the late labor organizer Cesar Chavez by placing a Chavez portrait within the middle “o” of the Google logo that appears on the homepage of the popular search engine.

While Google frequently decorates its logo to celebrate various holidays and special events, it is unclear why the company chose specifically to honor Chavez’s birthday, instead of Easter Sunday.

Chavez co-founded the organization now known as the United Farm Workers union (UFW). He became an iconic figure in the labor movement, with his stature only increasing since his death in 1993.

President Barack Obama released a statement in 2011 proclaiming March 31 “Cesar Chavez Day,” declaring, “I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate service, community, and educational programs to honor Cesar Chavez’s enduring legacy.”

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They won’t make a sound no matter how many of them you try to toss in a bucket, and you can’t pitch them in a fountain and wish for good luck. But make no mistake, bitcoins are getting big.

The online alternative currency, previously little more than a curiosity in financial markets since its 2009 inception, has zoomed in trading value since the Cyprus banking crisis erupted two weeks ago.

With fears spreading that even insured deposits might not be safe in similar nations hit by banking crises, those looking for a haven to store their wealth have fled to the complicated world of digital cash.

“Incremental demand for bitcoin is coming from the geographic areas most affected by the Cypriot financial crisis—individuals in countries like Greece or Spain, worried that they will be next to feel the threat of deposit taxes,” Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx, said in a report on the startling trend.

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I talked about this on the podcast so I figured I would post it on our video section.  The Netflix Original Series HEMLOCK GROVE.  Netflix announced that Hemlock Grove will premiere April 19, 2013

“In the shadows of a rusted Pennsylvania steel town, the mangled body of a teenage girl is discovered. As they hunt for a monster among them, rumors mount and many of the eccentric residents become suspects, from the newly arrived gypsy family to the wealthy Godfrey clan. In the twisted world of Hemlock Grove, everyone hides a dark secret. From director Eli Roth (“Hostel”) comes a chilling supernatural series based on Brian McGreevy’s novel.”

Cast

• Famke Janssen as Olivia Godfrey
• Bill Skarsgård as Roman Godfrey
• Landon Liboiron as Peter Rumancek
• Penelope Mitchell as Letha Godfrey

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Continuing its investment in original content, Amazon today announced it is greenlighting “Zombieland,” a new comedy series based on the Columbia Pictures movie of the same name, which will be made available for free to Amazon Instant Video and LOVEFiLM UK subscribers. This is the seventh original comedy series added to Amazon Studios’ lineup, which also includes six children’s pilots, previously announced.

Like competitors Netflix and Hulu, Amazon has been swiftly moving to fund and sign deals to bring both original and licensed content to its Amazon Instant Video service. In addition to deals for popular shows like Downtown Abbey, its original production arm, Amazon Studios, has already begun production of six other comedy shows, including Alpha House, Browsers, Dark Minions, Onion News Empire, Supanatural and Those Who Can’t. Though these shows are not household names at this time, Amazon has managed to sign some big-name actors for leads – for example, John Goodman, known for Roseanne, The Big Lebowski and most recently, Argo, will be starring in Alpha House.

Not all of Amazon Studios’ pilots are guaranteed to make it to “air,” so to speak, however. The company will determine which of the thirteen originals make it into full-season productions, based on customer feedback. It’s a similar process to how TV pilots are traditionally launched, except that this time around, its Amazon customers who are helping to make the final call.

With Zombieland, Amazon Studios is taking a slightly different angle on original content. Instead of having to build up buzz around new, unknown shows, it’s hoping to capitalize on name recognition the film has already earned.

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A new trojan specifically for Macs has been discovered that installs an adware plugin. The malware attempts to monetize its attack by injecting ads into Chrome, Firefox, and Safari (the most popular browsers on Apple’s desktop platform) in the hopes that users will generate money for its creators by viewing (and maybe even clicking) them.

The threat, detected as “Trojan.Yontoo.1” by Russian security firm Doctor Web, is part of a wider scheme of adware for OS X that has “been increasing in number since the beginning of 2013,” according to the company. The security firm chose to underline Yontoo because it can download and install an adware browser plugin, making it slightly more modular as attackers could potential swap out the threat for an updated one or a different one entirely.

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