Super Computer

Nicknamed after the magical "Nekomata" cat of Japanese nightmares, Cycle Computing's monstrous new supercomputer can now be yours to rent for the low price of $1,279 an hour. By fusing together the face-melting power of 3,809 eight-core Amazon AWS Elastic Computer 2s, the company was able to create the world's 30th fastest computer with 30,472 processor cores and 27TB of memory -- primarily used for complex modeling rather than Facebooking. Components of the beast hide out in three of Amazon's EC2 data center lairs located in California, Virginia and Ireland, and communicate using HTTPS and SSH encrypted with AES-256 to keep its secrets safe and secure.

Compared to the company's previous 10,000-core offering
($1,060 / hour), the new version is far more powerful and minimally more expensive, mostly because it uses spot instances (where customers bid on unused EC2 capacity) rather than pricier reserved instances. Good on you Cycle Computing, not everyone has access to a Jeopardy champ.

Twitter phishing scam

Twitter has been warning users not to fall for the latest phishing scam that takes the form of a DM from someone you know warning you to check out a "real bad blog about you".

The link takes the potential victims to a very well executed clone of Twitter's login page, but a glance at the address bar reveals that it's the work of a typosquatter.

This bait is definitely one of the better ones I've seen on Twitter in a while, as it targets both those users who are worried about their online reputation and the insatiably curious ones .

The microblogging service is currently in the process of resetting the passwords for those who fell for the trick.

A good rule of thumb is that if you were logged into Twitter.com and suddenly find yourself logged out after clicking on an offered link, you have probably reached a fake phishing page trying to steal your password.

U.S. drones affected by Keylogger Virus

A keylogger of some sort has infiltrated classified and unclassified computer systems at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, recording the keystrokes of pilots tasked with operating unmanned drone aircraft in Afghanistan and other international conflict zones.

The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military's Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech's computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military's most important weapons system.

Tadd Sholtis, a spokesman for Air Combat Command, which oversees the drones and all other Air Force tactical aircraft said, “We generally do not discuss specific vulnerabilities, threats, or responses to our computer networks, since that helps people looking to exploit or attack our systems to refine their approach. We invest a lot in protecting and monitoring our systems to counter threats and ensure security, which includes a comprehensive response to viruses, worms, and other malware we discover.