Author: kenmay

First known Mac ransomware reaches the wild

While ransomware has sadly been a reality on smartphones and Windows PCs for a while, you haven’t really had to worry about it on a Mac… until now, that is. Palo Alto Networks claims to have discovered the first known instance of OS X-oriented ransomware in the wild, “KeRanger.” If you install software infected with the code (in this case, a version of the BitTorrent client Transmission ), it’ll encrypt your files after three days and demand that you pay a digital currency ransom to regain control. In practice, you’re likely already safe from KeRanger. Transmission has released a new version of its app that should be safe, and Apple has revoked a security certificate from another developer that KeRanger used to slip past OS X’s native defenses. Even so, this is a not-so-friendly reminder that malware of all stripes can potentially infect any given platform — you can’t assume that your operating system’s inherent security features (or simply avoiding the most targeted platform) will keep you safe. Source: Reuters

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First known Mac ransomware reaches the wild

Add the Star Trek LCARS Interface to Any Touch Screen Raspberry Pi Project

The Raspberry Pi can power all kinds of great projects, but building an interface to actually interact with those projects is a chore. DIYer Toby Kurien decided to implement the Star Trek LCARS interface into his Pi projects. Read more…

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Add the Star Trek LCARS Interface to Any Touch Screen Raspberry Pi Project

Quantum computer revolves around just 5 atoms

It’s no mean feat to find the factors of a very large number — even a supercomputer can take years to find all the multipliers. However, MIT researchers have found a way to clear this massive hurdle. They’ve built a quantum computer that discovers number factors using just five atoms. Four of the atoms are turned into logic gates using laser pulses that put them into superpositions (where they maintain two different energy states at once), while the fifth atom stores and delivers answers. The result is a computer that not only calculates solutions much more efficiently than existing quantum systems, but scales relatively easily. Need to get the factors for a larger number? Introduce more atoms. It’s a one-trick pony at the moment (it can only get factors for the number 15), and a truly complex computer would require “thousands” of simultaneous laser blasts to work. However, it could have big ramifications for the security world. A sufficiently powerful machine could end the use of any encryption that depends on factoring — a government agency or hacking team could easily crack codes that are otherwise near-impenetrable. On a basic level, this quantum factoring could also help solve math problems involving extremely large numbers (say, universe-scale calculations) that would normally be too daunting. Source: MIT News

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Quantum computer revolves around just 5 atoms

Kremlin Falls For Its Own Fake Satellite Imagery

An anonymous reader writes: The Turkish downing of the Russian SU-24 jet last November saw a predictable series of statements from each side claiming complete innocence and blaming the other entirely. Social media was a key battleground for both sides — the Turkish and Russian governments, along with their supporters — as each tried to establish a dominant narrative explanation for what had just happened. In the midst of the online competition, a little-observed, funhouse mirror of an online hoax was brilliantly perpetrated, one with consequences likely exceeding the expectation of the hoaxster. The Russian Ministry of Defense was duped by a fake image that Russian state media itself had circulated more than a year earlier, as a way to deny Moscow’s involvement in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Kremlin Falls For Its Own Fake Satellite Imagery

No longer virtual: First impressions—and many hours—with HTC’s Vive Pre

The HTC Vive Pre comes with everything seen here. Some assembly required. Your parents help you put it together. From HTC! (credit: Kyle Orland) For about a year now , we’ve been absolutely wowed by short, controlled demos of the virtual reality tech in the SteamVR-powered HTC Vive. But enjoying a slick demo in a curated show floor booth is one thing. Having a Vive in your house to play with at your leisure is another. Ahead of its upcoming consumer launch, Valve has sent us loaner units of its near-final HTC Vive Pre to test in the Ars Orbiting HQ . I’ve spent a large portion of the past few days immersed in Valve’s room-scale vision of virtual reality, whiling away hours blind to the real world around me and trying not to kill myself walking around my office (which has never been cleaner, to make sure there are no tripping hazards about). We’ll have fuller reviews of the hardware and the most interesting VR experiences as we get closer to the Vive’s early April 9 release. For now, here are some scattered impressions of what it’s like having room-scale virtual reality in your very own room. Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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No longer virtual: First impressions—and many hours—with HTC’s Vive Pre

New Ransomware-as-a-Service Speaks To Victims

itwbennett writes: Cerber, a new file-encrypting ransom ware, has a couple of interesting features. First, according to cyber intelligence outfit SenseCy, it is available for sale ‘as a service’ on a private Russian-language forum, which makes it ‘available to low-level criminals who might not have the coding skills or resources to create their own ransom ware, ‘ writes Lucian Constantin. Second, one of the 3 files it drops on a victim’s desktop is a VBS (Visual Basic Scripting) file containing text-to-speech code that converts text into an audio message. ‘When the above script is executed, your computer will speak a message stating that your computer’s files were encrypted and will repeat itself numerous times, ‘ said Lawrence Abrams, administrator of the technical support forum BleepingComputer.com, in a blog post. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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New Ransomware-as-a-Service Speaks To Victims

$350 million Nintendo land coming to Universal Japan’s park

When Nintendo announced it was granting Universal Studios the rights to some of its properties for theme park rides, it was anyone’s guess where they’d show up first. Now we know that they’ll debut in the gaming juggernaut’s back yard: Japan. Regional news outlet Sankei (Japanese) reports that the attraction is scheduled for completion by 2020, the year Tokyo is slated to host the Olympics. And lest you think this will be a simple statue of Princess Peach and a Mario Kart -themed go-kart track, the publication says this should be on par with the likes of Universal’s Harry Potter -themed zone but focused entirely on everyone’s favorite Italian plumber. Hell, it could even be called “Super Mario World.” Crazier things have happened! Need more evidence for how serious of a deal this is? Universal is putting up ¥40 billion ($351, 509, 200) — given Nintendo’s current financial woes , the company is probably happy someone else is footing the bill. For that amount, maybe we’ll see a full scale version of the entire Mushroom Kingdom in a few years. 4) Busy start of 2016 for Nintendo. See the picture below for details (from Sankei: https://t.co/NRejTXGL6Q ) // end pic.twitter.com/EMHunhgYFa — Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) March 5, 2016 Via: Dr. Serkan Toto (Twitter) Source: Sankei (Japanese)

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$350 million Nintendo land coming to Universal Japan’s park

SpaceX’s Latest Launch Successful, But Ends With a "Hard Landing"

Eloking writes with this news from The Verge: SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket into space this afternoon, but — as expected — failed to land the vehicle on a drone ship at sea afterward. CEO Elon Musk said the rocket ‘landed hard’ on the drone ship. The mission requirements made a successful landing unlikely. This was SpaceX’s fourth attempt to land the Falcon 9 post-launch on an autonomous drone ship floating in the ocean. All of the previous sea landings failed too, though the third attempt came very close. The company had low hopes of a successful landing from the start of this mission, since the rocket had to send a heavy satellite into a high orbit. That requires a lot of fuel for the launch itself, so there wasn’t much fuel left for the rocket’s return to Earth and powered landing. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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SpaceX’s Latest Launch Successful, But Ends With a "Hard Landing"

The next Windows 10 update is all about Cortana

Cortana has learned three languages in the latest Windows 10 update, which is available today for Insider members in the program’s Fast ring. Cortana now supports Spanish (Mexico), Portuguese (Brazil) and French (Canada) languages, each with its own specialized flair. “Cortana is fond of pasteis which is a common food found in many regions across Brazil, ” Microsoft’s blog post reads. “And in Mexico, we added local flavor to reflect the accent and language of the country.” In today’s preview build, users can also set simple reminders with Cortana, including events that don’t have due dates. It’s possible to return to these reminders later to set specific parameters. In future updates, Cortana “will be able to retrieve these upon request, just like a real personal assistant would, ” the Windows team promises. Microsoft is also updating the Lock and logon screens — they’ll now have the same background (the one chosen for the Lock screen). The company is also working to streamline the transition between the Lock and logon screens. The latest update squashes a few bugs, including a glitch where Cortana showed reminders for events that were already completed. Some PCs bluescreened after downloading certain drivers from Windows Update, but this build should take care of that problem. Additionally, all Windows Insiders will now receive Windows 10 firmware updates automatically as they become available. Source: Windows

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The next Windows 10 update is all about Cortana