DevCore Boston 2015 l Mastering Bitcoin l Andreas M. Antonopoulos – Video

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DevCore Boston 2015 l Mastering Bitcoin l Andreas M. Antonopoulos
DevCore is a series of workshops set to host around the world for all developers interested in deepening their technical expertise to support the future development of Bitcoin Core. DevCore...

By: Bitcoin Foundation

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DevCore Boston 2015 l Mastering Bitcoin l Andreas M. Antonopoulos - Video

Bitcoin Rush-40 w/ ProTipHQ, BitSwitch, JuanS.Galt, SuperNet, NASDAQ-X-Stream – Video

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Bitcoin Rush-40 w/ ProTipHQ, BitSwitch, JuanS.Galt, SuperNet, NASDAQ-X-Stream
ProTipHQ (Mr.Chris Ellis), BitSwitch (BitcoinKinetics Inc.), TheOpenMinute w/ JuanS.Galt (SuperNet) NASDAQ-X-Stream ProTipHQ - https://indiegogo.com/projects/protip-peer-to-peer-tipping-for-the-.

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Bitcoin Rush-40 w/ ProTipHQ, BitSwitch, JuanS.Galt, SuperNet, NASDAQ-X-Stream - Video

Bitcoin's Blockchain Offers Safe Haven For Malware And Child Abuse, Warns Interpol

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The blockchain, the public ledger of all Bitcoin transactions, has all kinds of good uses outside of providing stability for the worlds most popular cryptocurrency, from decentralised data storage to super-flexible email. But it can also be put to malicious use. According to Interpols Christian Karam, speaking from the Black Hat Asia conference, it could be abused to store malware control mechanisms or provide access to illicit content such as child abuse imagesthat would be extremely difficult to take down. To prove the point, Kaspersky researcher Vitaly Kamluk, who is currently on secondment at Interpol, created a proof of concept software, which had the potential to become malware, that could take in information from a hacker-controlled Bitcoin address (the unique identifier of owners of cryptocurrency) and a transaction hash (an encrypted representation of a transaction) over a command line. The demo app, as Kamluk calls it, connects to the Bitcoin network, requesting certain blockchain data from a Bitcoin address containing the ostensibly legitimate, but potentially malicious, information on the network. The appthen locates the related transaction information from the data, extracting chunks of code stored as recipient Bitcoin wallet identifiers, he told FORBES. These are then pieced together and run.

A malicious hacker could use such techniques to craft payloads that would perform actions on targets PCs, such as stealing data or scooping up passwords with keyloggers. In the proof of concept, the software was primed totake commands from hacker tool Metasploit, but the researchers were keen to point out they did nothing evil with their power. Such attacks would also work with any other blockchain-based cryptocurrency, Kamluk and Karam said.

Researchers uploaded data to the blockchain that could have been put to malicious use

The issue lies in the ability to pollute the blockchain with information that isnt related to transactions. There are a variety of known methods for adding arbitrary data to the blockchain. This bloat has long been seen as a problem with the ledger, though its also there by design. Itswhat allows services like PayStamper to add data to the blockchain, in that companys case information related to customer transactions. Once the information is there, whether for good or bad, its there forever under the current rules of Bitcoin, notes Kamluk.

There have been some prior indications such techniques could be put to criminal use. Last year, a virus signature from the infamous Stoned virus was uploaded to the blockchain, though there was no obvious danger to users.

University of Newcastle researchers earlier this year presented ZombieCoin, a botnet command and control (C&C) mechanism for sending commands to malware running on the Bitcoin network. Their method was similar to Kamluk and Karams. To send messages to their bots, they used the OP RETURN function, which allows Bitcoin users to insert up to 40 bytes of data in transactions. That bandwidth is more than sufficient to embed most botnet commands which are typically instruction sets in the format, their paper read. They also used some subliminal channels in the signatures sent out across the network.

Using these techniques, they were able to have their bots carry out commands, including the collection and encrypted transmission of a screenshot back to their botnet master system. They claimedany regulation or attempt to delete bad blockchain data would have a negative impact on the cryptocurrency, as it isnt designed to be tampered with.

We believe this is a desirable avenue botmasters may explore in the near future Bitcoin is an ideal C&C dissemination mechanism for botnets, the paper read.

Most importantly, C&C communications over the Bitcoin network cannot be shut down simply by confiscating a few servers or poisoning routing tables. Furthermore, disrupting C&C communication would be very hard to do without seriously impacting legitimate Bitcoin users and may break Bitcoin.

Any form of regulation would be a fragrant violation of the libertarian ideology Bitcoin is built upon. It would also entail significant protocol modification on the majority of Bitcoin clients scattered all over the world.

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Bitcoin's Blockchain Offers Safe Haven For Malware And Child Abuse, Warns Interpol

Comets Dominate Barons in Sixth Straight Victory

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March 27, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets UTICA, N.Y. - After setting a franchise record last Sunday for five wins in a row, the Utica Comets did it again on Friday night as they trampled over the Oklahoma City Barons 4-2 to extend their win streak to six at The Utica Memorial Auditorium.

Rookie Hunter Shinkaruk (1-1-2) lit the lamp for his third game in a row after scoring the Comets' third unanswered goal in the second period. After missing 31 games from an injury, Wacey Hamilton (1-0-1) made his presence known after netting the Comets' fourth goal of the game. Both Cory Conacher (1-0-1) and Cal O'Reilly (1-0-1) found goals as well that led to the downfall of the Barons.

Even after dominating the entire first 20 minutes of the game and an 18-3 shot advantage, the Comets only found the net once after a spinning pass from the top of the circle. O'Reilly took notice of the chance and forced his way to the other side of the crease as he popped in Shinkaruk's pass for the early 1-0 lead. With O'Reilly's 50th point of the season, the Comets captain ran his point streak to nine games.

As the second period began, the Comets continued to cash in on their shot opportunities. At 3:54 Conacher sped into the zone and released a snap shot over Laurent Brossoit's blocker side to put the Comets up two goals to none. Bobby Sanguinetti and Peter Andersson both assisted Conacher on his seventh goal of the season.

Just one minute later, Shinkaruk found himself on the right side of the puck as he received a dish from Alex Biega just inside the right circle. Shinkaruk knocked home the one-timer for his 11th goal of the season, which put the Comets up 3-0.

At 11:03 the Comets found their fourth unanswered goal of the game after Hamilton retrieved the puck after a forced turnover cause by Mike Zalewski. Hamilton walked into the slot and slipped it passed Brossoit's right leg pad for the 4-0 lead.

The Barons finally answered back with less than two minutes left in the second period on the second half of a Comets double minor. After a set up from Ryan Hamilton, Jason Williams found a lane to shoot and snuck one past Joacim Eriksson's blocker side to make it 4-1.

The third period only saw the Barons score once more but it wasn't enough to catch up to the Comets commanding three-goal lead. At 12:55, Oklahoma's Mitch Moroz tipped in a shot from Jordan Oesterle to make it a final score of 4-2.

After Friday night's win over the Barons, the Comets have extended their point total to 87 which gets them within eight points of clinching the first place within the North Division.

The Comets will be return to The AUD tomorrow night to take on the Rockford IceHog's for their second and final meeting of the season.

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Comets Dominate Barons in Sixth Straight Victory

Psoriasis patients buoyed by new treatments

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Andrew Gosses daily battle with psoriasis came to a breaking point when he awoke one morning eight years ago.

Keith Gosse/The Telegram

Andrew Gosses life changed dramatically with the development of new treatments for psoriasis, a disease he has suffered since age 17.

He awoke with his pyjamas and socks stuck to him due to the bleeding and oozing from the lesions that covered much of his body.

It had been another restless night of uncontrollable itching and pain, and the strength hed always mustered to clean himself up, apply ointments and prepare for the day ahead failed him.

At 34 years old, I woke up one morning and my wife knew there was something extra wrong. She has always known me with psoriasis. She was always there, very supportive, and I was slumped over on the bed, Gosse said.

She asked what was wrong. I turned around in tears and I said, Im sick of being alive. I was done.

Ive never really contemplated suicide, but there are so many people in this country who have committed suicide because of psoriasis.

According to the Living Well With Psoriasis website, psoriasis is a skin disorder in which skin cells multiply up to 10 times faster than normal. As cells reach the skins surface and die, their sheer volume causes raised, red patches called plaques to develop. These plaques are often covered with silvery-white scales.

Psoriasis affects about one million people in Canada. It is a chronic, autoimmune condition, which means the bodys immune system isnt responding as it should to healthy body tissue.

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Psoriasis patients buoyed by new treatments

High prevalence of psoriasis in province: expert

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Newfoundland and Labrador likely has one of the highest prevalence of psoriasis in the world, says Dr. Wayne Gulliver, professor of medicine and dermatology at Memorial University.

Among the 11 dermatologists who practice here, weve seen about 10,000 patients, which is about two per cent of the population, Gulliver said.

Around the world they say the prevalence is two per cent, and Newfoundland and Labrador is probably four to five per cent because we probably havent seen every patient yet. Weve only seen half of them. And we see a lot of quite severe psoriasis and we see lots of patients with the associated illnesses linked to psoriasis like arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Gulliver noted there have been a number of genes discovered linked to psoriasis, and a theory is that one of those genes produces a protein that is important in fighting tuberculosis (TB).

Our theory is that back in the 1920s we had a lot of TBhere, so the question is, did having psoriasis give you a survival advantage to fight tuberculosis? Gulliver said. We know that patients with psoriasis certainly are resistant to certain types of infection. One of my colleagues from Spain just wrote a paper he does quote this particular theory in that.

Gulliver notes that while they havent reached the point where 100 per cent of patients are having 100 per cent clear skin, the new treatments available are helping reach that goal.

Earlier this month, Health Canada approved a new biologic (injectable) treatment for psoriasis called Cosentyx which is making waves.

Theres a whole bunch of new drugs in the pipeline. Theres actually two other drugs in this class that are under study, Gulliver said. For the psoriasis patient, its not if we are going to get them better, its when we are going to get them better, and the majority of patients should be able to have excellent control of their condition. Did we think wed see it? We all hoped for it and the reality is certainly coming through for us.

gwhiffen@thetelegram.com

Organizations: Health Canada

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High prevalence of psoriasis in province: expert