Author: kenmay

Hacking Team offers encryption breaking tools to law enforcement

Mere months after having more than 400 GB of confidential information stolen from its servers , spyware vendor Hacking Team has announced that it has resumed operations with a suite of digital tools to help law enforcement agencies get around pesky device encryption technology. In an email pitch sent to existing and potential new customers earlier this month, Hacking Team CEO David Vincenzetti, touted the company’s “brand new and totally unprecedented cyber investigation solutions.” The company has also been reportedly working on a revamped 10th edition of its proprietary Remote Control System, which constitutes the core of its software suite. There is no word, however, as to when RCS 10 will be made available. It also remains to be seen as to which, if any, law enforcement agencies will take Hacking Team up on its offer, given the company’s recent security debacle. [Image Credit: Moment Editorial/Getty Images] Source: Motherboard

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Hacking Team offers encryption breaking tools to law enforcement

CoinVault and Bitcryptor Ransomware Victims Can Now Recover Their Files For Free

itwbennett writes: Researchers from Kaspersky Lab and the Dutch Public Prosecution Service have obtained the last set of encryption keys from command-and-control servers that were used by CoinVault and Bitcryptor, ‘ writes Lucian Constantin. ‘Those keys have been uploaded to Kaspersky’s ransomware decrypt or service that was originally set up in April with a set of around 750 keys recovered from servers hosted in the Netherlands. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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CoinVault and Bitcryptor Ransomware Victims Can Now Recover Their Files For Free

Cassini gets cozy with Saturn’s moon, flies 30 miles above its surface

Cassini has just finished the second of three planned Enceladus flybys on October 28th, going as close at 30 miles above the surface of the icy moon’s south polar region. The photo above was taken after the flyby, showing both the moon and Saturn’s rings, but rest assured the probe took a lot of close-up photos. It even grabbed some of the gas and dust that erupted from one of Enceladus’ geysers that typically spew water and other materials up to 125 miles into the sky. NASA will analyze those samples within the next few weeks, which should gives us more details about the composition of the moon’s ocean floor, as well as about any underwater hydrothermal activity. Cassini made the first flyby this early October to take a closer look at Enceladus’ north pole region. It’s scheduled to make its last one on December 19th to measure the heat the moon gives of, after which it’ll move on to other things for the last two years of its life. Source: NASA

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Cassini gets cozy with Saturn’s moon, flies 30 miles above its surface

How to use Tor Messenger, the most secure chat program around

(credit: Samuel Huron ) On Thursday, the Tor Project released its first public beta of Tor Messenger , an easy-to-use, unified chat app that has security and cryptography baked in. If you care about digital security, you should ditch whatever chat program you’re using and switch to it right now. The app is specifically designed to protect location and routing information ( by using Tor ) and chat data in transit (by using the open source Off-The-Record, or OTR, protocol ). For anyone who has used a similar app (like Pidgin or Adium), Tor Messenger’s interface will be fairly self-explanatory, but there are two notable quirks. First, by default, it will not allow you to send messages to someone who doesn’t support OTR—but there is an option to disable that feature. (We’ll get to that in a minute.) Second, unlike Pidgin or Adium, Tor Messenger cannot log chats, which is handy if you’re privacy-minded. Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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How to use Tor Messenger, the most secure chat program around

How to Desalinize Water Using Half the Energy of Traditional Methods 

In the next ten years, Earth’s population is expected to increase by one billion , and only 3% of our planet’s water is fit for drinking. Most of that relatively small amount is trapped in frozen glaciers. But Egyptian researchers have developed a way of removing the salt out of sea water for our growing population in a way that’s super energy efficient. Read more…

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How to Desalinize Water Using Half the Energy of Traditional Methods 

Report: iPad Pro, Smart Keyboard, and Apple Pencil go on sale November 11

Enlarge / The iPad Pro and its Smart Keyboard. (credit: Andrew Cunningham) According to a report by the usually reliable 9to5Mac, Apple’s new iPad Pro is slated to go on sale on Wednesday, November 11. The tablet (as well as its Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil accessories) will supposedly be available both on Apple’s online store and in retail stores, so this appears to be the actual launch day and not just a pre-order date. The new iPad looks a lot like an iPad Air 2, but it has a larger 12.9-inch 2732×2048 screen, a new Apple A9X SoC, and 4GB of RAM . Between the better specs, the larger screen, and the accessories, Apple obviously intends the iPad Pro to be a more Mac-like iPad, in much the same way that the Retina MacBook is a more iPad-ish Mac. The iPad Pro starts at $799 for a 32GB Wi-Fi version, or you can pay $949 for a 128GB Wi-Fi version. Adding LTE to the 128GB version raises the cost to $1,079. The Smart Keyboard is an additional $169, and the Apple Pencil is $99. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Report: iPad Pro, Smart Keyboard, and Apple Pencil go on sale November 11

Facebook changes ‘Real Name’ policy rules after public outcry

Facebook announced Friday that it is modifying the terms of its oft-criticised “real name” policy which demands users go by their “authentic name” when on the social network rather than a pseudonym. The trans and Native American communities have repeatedly protested the policy , citing its use by trolls as a weapon of harassment . Today’s announcement comes in response to an open letter penned by advocacy groups including the EFF and ACLU. Via: Buzzfeed Source: Facebook (scribd)

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Facebook changes ‘Real Name’ policy rules after public outcry

T-Mobile’s Next Perk Could Mean Unlimited Netflix

According to reliable leaker @evleaks , the big announcement at T-Mobile’s Un-carrier X event on Nov. 10 could be unlimited video streaming that doesn’t cut into your monthly data. This means Netflix and chill could go mobile. Read more…

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T-Mobile’s Next Perk Could Mean Unlimited Netflix