MSNBC: A company that monitors peer-to-peer file-sharing networks has discovered a potentially serious security breach involving President Barack Obama’s helicopter, NBC affiliate WPXI in Pittsburgh reported Saturday. Employees of Tiversa, a Cranberry Township, Pa.-based security company that specializes in peer-to-peer technology, reportedly found engineering and communications information about Marine One at an IP address in Tehran, Iran.
Bob Boback, CEO of Tiversa, told WPXI-TV: “We found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics 
package for Marine One, which is the president’s helicopter.” The company was able to trace the file back to its original source. “What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda, Md., had a file-sharing program on one of their systems that also contained highly sensitive blueprints for Marine One,” Boback said.
Tiversa also found sensitive financial information about the cost of the helicopter on that same computer, WPXI-TV reported. Someone from the company most likely downloaded a file-sharing program, typically used to exchange music, not realizing the potential problems, Boback said. “When downloading one of these file-sharing programs, you are effectively allowing others around the world to access your hard drive,” Boback said. MORE
Hmmm, I Wonder Who Tipped Off The Iranians…
that the President was getting a brand new helicopter? Hmmm…
[Video via SpinTellyCH1: “Cancel Your Chopper!”: McCain to Obama | FISCAL SUMMIT – Washington DC | FEB 2009
DISCOVER MAGAZINE: Oh John McCain, I’m so glad you’re gone. But I wish you would actually leave! Through Cosmic Variance I found out John McCain has a Twitter feed. That’s pretty amazing for a guy who doesn’t understand computers or even use email, but hey, everyone’s capable of change. Or maybe not all of us. McCain posted a list to Twitter of the “TOP TEN PORKIEST PROJECTS” in the stimulus Omnibus spending bill. Now c’mon, guess what number 2 was. Guess! OK, did you guess that it would be some small amount of money that went to science and public education? Good for you! You win… well, nothing, except the chance to bang your head against a wall. Here is the tweet in question:
#2. $2 million “for the promotion of astronomy” in Hawaii – because nothing says new jobs for average Americans like investing in astronomy
Ah, McCain. Maybe you’ve changed enough to learn some new tech, but it’s nice to know some things don’t change, like that you’re an antiscience know-nothing. But then, he helped set that standard with his ridiculous planetarium ravings. MORE
MEANWHILE BACK IN IRAN: FARGO, N.D. — A U.S. journalist has been arrested in Iran, and her father said Sunday she
told him in a brief phone call she was detained after buying a bottle of wine. Roxana Saberi, 31, has not been heard from since her last call on Feb. 10, her father, Reza, told The Associated Press on Sunday. “We haven’t heard anything,” he said. The family decided to go public, he said, “because we wanted to get some information.” Officials in Iran have not publicly confirmed the arrest. A duty officer at the U.S. State Department said Sunday officials were looking into an AP request for information on the case. Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized Iran for arresting journalists and suppressing freedom of speech. The government has arrested several Iranian-Americans in the past few years, citing alleged attempts to overthrow its Islamic regime. The most high-profile case came in 2007, when Iran arrested four Iranian-Americans, including the academic Haleh Esfandiari. The four were imprisoned or had their passports confiscated for several months until they were released and allowed to return to the U.S. Roxana Saberi is a freelance journalist who has reported for National Public Radio and other media and has lived in Iran for six years. She was Miss North Dakota in 1997 and was among 10 finalists in the Miss America pageant that year. MORE
Iran Demands Apology For ‘300’ And ‘The Wrestler’ From Visiting Hollywoods VIPs
THE TELEGRAPH: Iran has demanded an apology from a team of visiting Hollywood actors and movie industry officials saying films such as “300” and “The Wrestler” were “insulting” to Iranians. The film “300,” portrays the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., in which a force of 300 Spartans held off a massive Persian army at a mountain pass in Greece for three days. It angered many Iranians for the way Persians are depicted as decadent, sexually flamboyant and evil in contrast to the noble Greeks. Iranians also criticised “The Wrestler” starring Mickey Rourke as a rundown professional wrestler who is preparing for a rematch with his old nemesis ‘The Ayatollah’. During a fight scene, “The Ayatollah” tries to choke Rourke with an Iranian flag before Rourke pulls the flagpole away, breaks it and throws it into the cheering crowd. MORE