Free Republic

The width and color of tree rings provides an extraordinary glimpse into a tree's history. (Dmitr1ch/Shutterstock) How extreme weather leaves a lasting mark on trees and shrubs POZNAŃ, Poland — In the Arctic’s harsh borderlands, where trees wage a constant battle for survival, an international research team has discovered that extreme cold leaves lasting fingerprints in wood. These “blue rings,” visible only under a microscope, reveal centuries-old stories of climate disasters that once brought summer temperatures plunging to near-freezing. The study, published in Frontiers in Plant Science, examined pine trees and juniper shrubs in the Arctic. The research team ventured...

Daniel Begay, who is Navajo, had always been told growing up that traditional American Indian foods were good for him. But because most American Indians are lactose intolerant, "they aren't getting that same source of calcium from dairy products," Begay says. Turns out that it's a traditional cooking method that is key to his bone health. The Navajo burn juniper branches, collect the ash and stir it into traditional dishes. The most popular: blue corn mush. Begay, a graduate student at Northern Arizona University, analyzed the amount of calcium in 27 samples of juniper from all over the reservation. But...

Congress plans to question about two dozen federal agencies on whether they were using backdoored Juniper network security appliances. In December, Juniper Networks said it had discovered unauthorized code added to ScreenOS, the operating system that runs on its NetScreen network firewalls. The rogue code, which remained undetected for two years or more, could have allowed remote attackers to gain administrative access to vulnerable devices or to decrypt VPN connections. The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wants to determine the impact that this issue had on government organizations and how those organizations responded to the incident. The...

Firewall vendor FortiNet has denied that the FortiGate OS operating system that runs its devices comes with a backdoor, despite a researcher purportedly posting proof of concept code on a security mailing list. Over the weekend, a Python script was posted anonymously, which appeared to allow remote access to Fortinet devices over the Secure Shell protocol. The post disclosed a passord hard-coded into the FortiGate OS. The password is said to work on FortiOS version 4.x to 5.0.7, and a screenshot was posted on Twitter, allegedly showing that the script for the backdoor is working, providing remote access to Fortinet...

Dual_EC weaknesses and Juniper error exploited, researchers say. Security researchers suspect the United States' National Security Agency may have had a hand in the planting of unauthorised backdoors in Juniper's enterprise firewalls. The network equipment vendor last week issued an urgent security alert for its NetScreen enterprise firewalls, after discovering "unauthorised code" in the device operating system that allows them to be fully compromised. Juniper had discovered the code during an internal review. The backdoors - which had been in existence since 2012 - meant attackers could gain administrative access and decrypt VPN connections unnoticed. Researchers have now said the...

Urges customers to patch Netscreen devices immediately. Network equipment vendor Juniper has issued an urgent security alert for its Netscreen range of enterprise firewalls, after discovering "unauthorised code" in the device operating system that allows them to be fully compromised. According to Juniper chief information officer Bob Worrall, the code was discovered during an internal review of the ScreenOS operating system for the Netscreen firewalls. One vulnerability could be triggered to permit an attacker to log in via Secure Shell or telnet connections, and gain administrative privileges on Netscreen firewalls.

Juniper, a major manufacturer of networking equipment, said on Thursday it found spying code planted in certain models of its firewalls, an alarming discovery that echoes of state-sponsored tampering.

A comparison of the tenures is a battle of bad vs. worse. It’s well known by now that GOP presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina has never held political office and is running on her business record. As many commentators have pointed out, that’s a dicey proposition since her highest-profile job as CEO of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005 was sort of a disaster.But in an interview with Fortune contributor and Yale School of Management professor Jeffery Sonnenfeld, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump—who has made a habit of criticizing Fiorina—took aim at a different stage of her career.When asked about what he thought...