Author: kenmay

US Unveils Charges Against KickassTorrents, Names Two More Defendants

A total of three men are said to be operators of file-sharing site KickassTorrents (KAT), according to U.S. prosecutors. Last month, federal authorities arrested the 30-year-old Ukrainian mastermind of KAT, Artem Vaulin, and formally charged him with one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and two counts of criminal copyright infringement. Two other Ukrainians were named in the new indictment (PDF): Levgen (Eugene) Kutsenko and Oleksander (Alex) Radostin. While only Vaulin has been arrested, bench warrants have been issue for the arrest of all three men. Ars Technica reports: “Prosecutors say the three men developed and maintained the site together and used it to ‘generate millions of dollars from the unlawful distribution of copyright-protected media, including movies, television shows, music, video games, computer software, and electronic books.’ They gave out ‘Reputation’ and ‘User Achievement’ awards to users who uploaded the most popular files, including a special award for users who had uploaded more than 1, 000 torrents. The indictment presents a selection of the evidence that the government intends to use to convict the men, and it isn’t just simple downloads of the copyrighted movies. The government combed through Vaulin’s e-mails and traced the bitcoins that were given to him via a ‘donation’ button.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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US Unveils Charges Against KickassTorrents, Names Two More Defendants

Rifftrax app takes the guesswork out of syncing jokes to film

For fans of snarky, alternative film commentary, Rifftrax has long been a haven of amusement. For only a few dollars, one can hear MST3K veterans Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett rag on classic and modern cinema. There was only one problem: syncing these audio tracks to the actual movies could be a minor nightmare . Fortunately, those days seem to be behind us: the group’s new RiffTrax app will do it for you. The company’s announcement sums up the app’s features perfectly: “Think of it like Shazam, ” the post reads, “but for riffs.” Indeed, that’s exactly what it is. The Rifftrax app uses your device’s microphone to listen for a movie and automatically syncs Rifftrax playback to the film. It’s simple and easy… but not perfect. Despite offering easy access to the user’s library of “just the jokes” RiffTrax, the app doesn’t support Bluetooth speakers just yet. Still, the app is free — and better than trying to sync the audio up yourself. The Rifftrax app is available on both Google Play and Apple’s App store . Check out the source link below for additional details. Source: Rifftrax

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Rifftrax app takes the guesswork out of syncing jokes to film

Dropbox Will Make You Change Your Password If You Haven’t Since 2012

If you’ve been using Dropbox for over four years and you haven’t changed your password since then, then two things are true. One, you haven’t been reading Lifehacker very long . More importantly, two: Dropbox is about to make you change it. Read more…

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Dropbox Will Make You Change Your Password If You Haven’t Since 2012

Israeli Cyber Weapon Dealers Figured Out How to Hack Every iPhone

NSO Group, a company that sells hacking services to governments so they can spy on journalists and dissidents, exploited gaping security holes in iPhone software, according to a report byLookout Security and Citizen Lab. But don’t worry: Apple just pushed a fix. Read more…

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Israeli Cyber Weapon Dealers Figured Out How to Hack Every iPhone

Actively exploited iOS flaws that hijack iPhones likely spread for years

Enlarge / iPhone Spyware known as Pegasus intercepts confidential data. (credit: Lookout ) Apple has patched three high-severity iOS vulnerabilities that are being actively exploited to infect iPhones so attackers can steal confidential messages from a large number of apps, including Gmail, Facebook, and WhatsApp, security researchers said Thursday. The spyware has been dubbed Pegasus by researchers from mobile security provider Lookout; they believe it has been circulating in the wild for a significant amount of time. Working with researchers from University of Toronto-based Citizen Lab, they have determined that the spyware targeted a political dissident located in the United Arab Emirates and was launched by an US-owned company specializing in computer-based exploits. Based on the price of the attack kit—about $8 million for 300 licenses—the researchers believe it’s being actively used against other iPhone users throughout the world. “Pegasus is the most sophisticated attack we’ve seen on any endpoint because it takes advantage of how integrated mobile devices are in our lives and the combination of features only available on mobile—always connected (WiFi, 3G/4G), voice communications, camera, email, messaging, GPS, passwords, and contact lists,” Lookout and Citizen Lab researchers wrote in a blog post . “It is modular to allow for customization and uses strong encryption to evade detection.” Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Actively exploited iOS flaws that hijack iPhones likely spread for years

The first self-driving taxis are cruising around Singapore

Uber announced that it will start self-driving trials in Pittsburgh later this month, but it was beat to the punch by a much less well-known company. Starting today, nuTonomy will offer rides to Singapore residents in specially equipped Mitsubishi i-MiEV or Renault Zoe electric vehicles. As with Uber, passengers won’t be alone with a robotic driver like Silicon Valley ‘s hapless Jared. A nuTonomy engineer will be along to monitor the vehicle, and a safety driver will “assume control if needed to ensure passenger comfort and safety, ” the company wrote. The rides will be free to start with, and the company will stick to an area called “One-North” for the tests. Municipal officials designated the 2.5-square-mile residential zone specifically for self-driving trials in an effort to reduce congestion in the city, where 5.5 million residents live in a region about three times the size of Boston. Pick-ups and drop-offs will also be limited to certain areas to avoid traffic concerns. nuTonomy, which spun off from MIT in 2013, equipped its EVs with six Lidar sets and two cameras to detect obstacles, lanes and traffic light changes. Just a few dozen passengers have signed up so far, but the company says it will open the trials to thousands of users in the coming months. The aim, it says, is to “collect and evaluate valuable data related to software system performance, vehicle routing efficiency, the vehicle booking process, and the overall passenger experience.” With the city’s cooperation, other companies, including Delphi, plan their own self-driving tests in Singapore. However, nuTonomy appears to be the farthest along, and plans to launch its robotic service there as early as 2018. There are still some bugs to work out, though. An Associated Press reporter noted that the safety driver had to hit the brakes when a parked vehicle moved suddenly into the oncoming lane. Via: Associated Press

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The first self-driving taxis are cruising around Singapore

Drone Footage Shows the Earthquake in Italy Was Far Worse Than Anyone Thought

Yesterday, a massive 6.1 magnitude earthquake rocked central Italy . It was followed by nearly 200 aftershocks, devastating whole towns and burying residents under rubble. Over 4, 000 rescuers have been dispatched and the death toll has jumped to 247, the BBC reports . Read more…

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Drone Footage Shows the Earthquake in Italy Was Far Worse Than Anyone Thought

Microsoft goes after VMware with free(ish) Windows licenses for Hyper-V converts

(credit: Wikipedia ) With the imminent release of Windows Server 2016, due to be launched some time in September with its new per-core licensing , Microsoft is making a concerted effort to win over VMware users and get them to switch to Hyper-V. Accordingly, the company is running a time-limited promotion : switch from VMware to Hyper-V and the company will give you “free” licenses to Windows Server Datacenter. The catch is that you’ll need to buy a Software Assurance subscription too, so it’s not really free. But it should save some of the costs of migrating. To help persuade companies to switch, Microsoft has offered a TCO calculator to show off the big savings (Microsoft hopes) that can be had from making the switch. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Microsoft goes after VMware with free(ish) Windows licenses for Hyper-V converts

MIT Scientists Develop New Wi-Fi That’s 330% Faster

An anonymous reader quotes a report from MSN: Scientists at MIT claim to have created a new wireless technology that can triple Wi-Fi data speeds while also doubling the range of the signal. Dubbed MegaMIMO 2.0, the system will shortly enter commercialization and could ease the strain on our increasingly crowded wireless networks. Multiple-input-multiple-output technology, or MIMO, helps networked devices perform better by combining multiple transmitters and receivers that work simultaneously, allowing then to send and receive more than one data signal at the same time. MIT’s MegaMIMO 2.0 works by allowing several routers to work in harmony, transmitting data over the same piece of spectrum. MIT claimed that during tests, MegaMIMO 2.0 was able to increase data transfer speed of four laptops connected to the same Wi-Fi network by 330 percent. Paper co-author Rahul said the technology could also be applied to mobile phone networks to solve similar congestion issues. “In today’s wireless world, you can’t solve spectrum crunch by throwing more transmitters at the problem, because they will all still be interfering with one another, ” Ezzeldin Hamed, lead author on a paper on the topic, told MIT News. “The answer is to have all those access points work with each other simultaneously to efficiently use the available spectrum.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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MIT Scientists Develop New Wi-Fi That’s 330% Faster