Author: kenmay

Major Netflix outage interrupts your weekend viewing plans

We hope you weren’t dead-set on watching all of Luke Cage this weekend. As we write this, Netflix is recovering from a serious worldwide outage that knocked out its service from around 3PM Eastern to shortly after 5PM. While the streaming video company is no stranger to technical problems lasting for a few hours, the sheer scale and severity is noteworthy — you couldn’t even visit Netflix’s website. We’ve asked Netflix for more details and will let you know if it can explain how and why its service went down. It’s tempting to pin the failure on crushing demand for Luke Cage (which premiered just the day before), but there’s no guarantee that this is the case. Netflix has previously coped with launch day demand for shows like House of Cards and Daredevil , so it’s not as if Reed Hastings and crew are unfamiliar with traffic spikes. Whatever happened, it’s a sore spot in what was supposed to be a banner weekend for Netflix. Hi all – we are aware of streaming issues and we are working quickly to solve them. We will update you when they are resolved. — Netflix CS (@Netflixhelps) October 1, 2016 And we’re back! The streaming issues we reported are now resolved. — Netflix CS (@Netflixhelps) October 1, 2016 Source: Netflix (Twitter 1) , (2)

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Major Netflix outage interrupts your weekend viewing plans

Multiple Linux Distributions Affected By Crippling Bug In Systemd

An anonymous reader writes: System administrator Andrew Ayer has discovered a potentially critical bug in systemd which can bring a vulnerable Linux server to its knees with one command. “After running this command, PID 1 is hung in the pause system call. You can no longer start and stop daemons. inetd-style services no longer accept connections. You cannot cleanly reboot the system.” According to the bug report, Debian, Ubuntu, and CentOS are among the distros susceptible to various levels of resource exhaustion. The bug, which has existed for more than two years, does not require root access to exploit. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Multiple Linux Distributions Affected By Crippling Bug In Systemd

US officially reduces its internet oversight

After lengthy delays and no small amount of political opposition , it’s official: the US has given up a key aspect of internet oversight. As of October 1st , the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (the outfit that manages the domain name system) is no longer under the watch of the US’ National Telecommunications and Information Administration. ICANN is now a private, non-profit organization that will take its input from academics, companies, governments and the public. While the American government didn’t really wield its influence, it no longer has that option. The handover follows an unsuccessful last-minute attempt by four states’ Republican attorneys general to block the transition . A federal judge shot down their temporary injunction request, which centered around the notion that the US was “giving away government property” and required Congressional approval to give up ICANN. The attorneys echoed their party’s worry that reducing US control would open the internet to greater censorship by countries like China and Russia. They were also concerned that the shift could threaten US government domains like .gov and .mil. Proponents of the transition argue that the move is not only harmless, but might avert a far worse outcome. They say that censorship-heavy countries don’t have any more power over the internet than they did before, especially since ICANN will still operate out of Los Angeles. If anything, a privately-managed domain system reduces the pressure to relinquish control to the United Nations, where China and Russia would have some influence. There’s also a fear that continued American oversight would encourage countries to set up their own domain systems and fragment the internet. In practice? Barring surprises, you shouldn’t notice a difference at all. The NTIA did little more than rubber-stamp ICANN’s actions — this is more of a formality than a practical change, at least in the near term. It’s an acknowledgment that the internet has been decentralized for decades, and that no one country has a claim to it. Via: BBC Source: ICANN

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US officially reduces its internet oversight

Federal Prosecutors Actually Prosecute H1-B Fraud

Slashdot reader McGruber reports that federal prosecutors “have filed conspiracy charges against a part-owner of two information technology firms and an employee for fraudulently using the H-1B program”. Both were reportedly recruiting foreign IT workers, according to the AP: Prosecutors said the conspirators falsely represented that the foreign workers had full-time positions and were paid an annual salary [when] the workers were only paid when placed at a third-party client, and the defendants sometimes generated false payroll records… The defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud and obstruct justice and conspiracy to harbor aliens. They’re now facing up to 15 years in prison for an “alien-harboring conspiracy” charge — with a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $250, 000 fine — and a separate visa fraud and obstruction of justice charge with a maximum 5-year penalty and a $250, 000 fine. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Federal Prosecutors Actually Prosecute H1-B Fraud

Print-On-Demand Bone Could Quickly Mend Major Injuries

sciencehabit quotes a report from Science Magazine: If you shatter a bone in the future, a 3D printer and some special ink could be your best medicine. Researchers have created what they call “hyperelastic bone” that can be manufactured on demand and works almost as well as the real thing, at least in monkeys and rats. Though not ready to be implanted in humans, bioengineers are optimistic that the material could be a much-needed leap forward in quickly mending injuries ranging from bones wracked by cancer to broken skulls. Researchers at Northwestern University, Evanston, in Illinois are working on a hyperelastic bone, which is a type of scaffold made up of hydroxyapatite, a naturally occurring mineral that exists in our bones and teeth, and a biocompatible polymer called polycaprolactone, and a solvent. Hydroxyapatite provides strength and offers chemical cues to stem cells to create bone. The polycaprolactone polymer adds flexibility, and the solvent sticks the 3D-printed layers together as it evaporates during printing. The mixture is blended into an ink that is dispensed by the printer, layer by layer, into exact shapes matching the bone that needs to be replaced. The idea is, a patient would come in with a nasty broken bone — say, a shattered jaw — and instead of going through painful autograft surgeries or waiting for a custom scaffold to be manufactured, he or she could be x-rayed and a 3D-printed hyperelastic bone scaffold could be printed that same day. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Print-On-Demand Bone Could Quickly Mend Major Injuries

New California Law Allows Test of Autonomous Shuttle With No Driver

If you live in California, you may soon start to see self-driving cars on the road with no operators to be seen. California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law on Thursday a bill that allows a self-driving vehicle with no operator inside to test on a public road. Currently, companies are legally able to test self-driving cars in California as long as the operators are located inside the vehicles when they are being tested. Fortune reports: The bill introduced by Democratic Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla allows testing in Contra Costa County northeast of San Francisco of the first full-autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel, brakes, accelerator or operator. New legislation was necessary because although driverless vehicles can be tested on private land like the office park, the shuttle will cross a public road on its loop through the campus. The new law means that two cube-like Easymile shuttles that travel no faster than 25 mph (40 kph) will be tested for a period of up to six months before being deployed and used by people. In an interview with Reuters in March, Bonilla said the “natural tension” between regulators concerned about safety and lawmakers trying to encourage innovation in their state necessitated a new bill. “They’re risk averse and we’re saying we need to open the door here and take steps (to innovate), ” Bonilla said, calling the driverless shuttle project “a very wise first out-of-the-gate opportunity” to show how the technology could work safely. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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New California Law Allows Test of Autonomous Shuttle With No Driver

More than 400 malicious apps infiltrate Google Play

Enlarge (credit: Curious Expeditions ) Google Play was recently found to be hosting more than 400 apps that turned infected phones into listening posts that could siphon sensitive data out of the protected networks they connected to, security researchers said Thursday. One malicious app infected with the so-called DressCode malware had been downloaded from 100,000 to 500,000 times before it was removed from the Google-hosted marketplace, Trend Micro researchers said in a post . Known as Mod GTA 5 for Minecraft PE, it was disguised as a benign game, but included in the code was a component that established a persistent connection with an attacker controlled server. The server then had the ability to bypass so-called network address translation protections that shield individual devices inside a network. Trend Micro has found 3,000 such apps in all, 400 of which were available through Play. “This malware allows threat actors to infiltrate a user’s network environment,” Thursday’s report stated. “If an infected device connects to an enterprise network, the attacker can either bypass the NAT device to attack the internal server or download sensitive data using the infected device as a springboard.” Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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More than 400 malicious apps infiltrate Google Play

California now requires conviction before civil asset forfeiture

California police departments’ license to steal cash from innocent people has been restricted, thanks to a new bill signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. Let’s hope the federal government follows suit. Nick Sibilla of The Institute for Justice says: Since 1994, California state law has required a criminal conviction before real estate, vehicles, boats and cash under $25,000 could be forfeited to the government. But those requirements are completely missing under federal law. So California police could instead partner with a federal agency, take the property under federal law, and reap up to 80 percent of the proceeds. To fix this, the new law requires a criminal conviction before agencies can receive forfeiture payments from the federal government on forfeited real estate, vehicles, boats and cash valued at under $40,000.

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California now requires conviction before civil asset forfeiture

Leaker fined $1.2 million for uploading screener of The Revenant

Enlarge / Leonardo DiCaprio signs autographs for fans during the Tokyo premiere for “The Revenant” in March. (credit: Yuriko Nakao via Getty Images) The pirate who in December leaked The Revenant and The Peanuts Movie  days ahead of their US releases has been ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution to 20th Century Fox and was also handed eight months of home confinement, federal prosecutors said . The defendant, William Morarity of the Los Angeles suburb of Lancaster, was working for an undisclosed studio lot when he unlawfully accessed watermarked, screener versions of the films and uploaded them to a private BitTorrent site ” Pass the Popcorn ,” according to his guilty plea  (PDF).  The Revenant was downloaded more than 1 million times and The Peanuts Movie more than 220,000 times, according to court documents . (PDF) Deirdre Fike, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said the defendant’s behavior is a killer of creativity and jobs. “Mr. Morarity used his position of trust to gain access to sensitive intellectual property, then shared that content online and incurred large-scale losses to the owner of that property,” Fike said. “The theft of intellectual property—in this case, major motion pictures—discourages creative incentive and affects the average American making ends meet in the entertainment industry.” Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Leaker fined $1.2 million for uploading screener of The Revenant

US builds a $100 million African drone base to fight Boko Haram

The Department of Defense announced on Friday that it is investing $100 million in a drone base located in Agadez, in central Niger. The base will serve as a central surveillance hub in the fight against both Boko Haram and roaming militant groups linked to al Qaeda. “At the request of, and in close coordination with, the Government of Niger, United States Africa Command is establishing a temporary, expeditionary cooperative security location in Agadez, Niger, ” a US Africa Command spokesperson told Reuters via email. “Agadez is an ideal, central location to enable ISR collection (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) to face the security threat across the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin region.” The US already has a military presence in both Agadez and the national capital, Niamey. With the establishment of this new drone base, which is located adjacent to an existing US airfield, those capital forces will likely transition to Agadez, centralizing America’s ISR (Intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) efforts in the region. Any intel gathered by these drones will be shared among America’s regional partners including Nigeria, Chad and Mali. Via: Business Insider Source: Reuters

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US builds a $100 million African drone base to fight Boko Haram