Author: kenmay

US government names North Korea as the source of WannaCry

Donald Trump’s homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that “after careful investigation, the U.S. today publicly attributes the massive ” WannaCry ” cyberattack to North Korea.” Coming during increasing tensions between the two countries over nuclear threats and Twitter outbursts, Bossert said this attribution is based on evidence and agrees with the findings from the UK and Microsoft. In the op-ed we did not see traces of the evidence used to link the May attack to the “Lazarus Group” (also blamed for the Sony Pictures hacking incident ) and North Korea, but the White House will reportedly follow up Tuesday with a more formal statement. While some, like Microsoft , have blamed the US government for stockpiling vulnerabilities — the WannaCry attack used an exploit based on technology apparently stolen from the NSA — the op-ed says: Stopping malicious behavior like this starts with accountability. It also requires governments and businesses to cooperate to mitigate cyber risk and increase the cost to hackers. The U.S. must lead this effort, rallying allies and responsible tech companies throughout the free world to increase the security and resilience of the internet. Bossert also called the attack reckless, while Reuters cites a “senior administration official” who declined to comment on whether or not the US believes it was a deliberate attack or accidental. So what happens now? According to the piece, the Trump administration “will continue to use our maximum pressure strategy to curb Pyongyang’s ability to mount attacks, cyber or otherwise.” Source: Wall Street Journal

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US government names North Korea as the source of WannaCry

CDC Director Says No Words Are Actually Banned At the CDC

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PBS: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald on Sunday addressed a report that President Donald Trump’s administration had banned the CDC from using seven words or phrases in next year’s budget documents. The terms are “fetus, ” “transgender, ” “vulnerable, ” “entitlement, ” “diversity, ” “evidence-based” and “science-based, ” according to a story first reported on Friday in The Washington Post. But Fitzgerald said in a series of tweets on Sunday said there are “no banned words, ” while emphasizing the agency’s commitment to data-driven science. “CDC has a long-standing history of making public health and budget decisions that are based on the best available science and data and for the benefit of all people — and we will continue to do so, ” she said. A group of the agency’s policy analysts said senior officials at the CDC informed them about the banned words on Thursday, according to the Post’s report. In some cases, the analysts were reportedly given replacement phrases to use instead. But in follow-up reporting, The New York Times cited “a few” CDC officials who suggested the move was not meant as an outright ban, but rather, a technique to help secure Republican approval of the 2019 budget by eliminating certain words and phrases. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, said the reported decree on banned words was a misrepresentation. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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CDC Director Says No Words Are Actually Banned At the CDC

Microsoft Disables Word DDE Feature To Prevent Further Malware Attacks

An anonymous reader writes: As part of the December 2017 Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has shipped an Office update that disables the DDE feature in Word applications, after several malware campaigns have abused this feature to install malware. DDE stands for Dynamic Data Exchange, and this is an Office feature that allows an Office application to load data from other Office applications. For example, a Word file can update a table by pulling data from an Excel file every time the Word file is opened. DDE is an old feature, which Microsoft has superseded via the newer Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) toolkit, but DDE is still supported by Office applications. The December Patch Tuesday disables DDE only in Word, but not Excel or Outlook. The reason is that several cybercrime and spam groups have jumped on this technique, which is much more effective at running malicious code when compared to macros or OLE objects, as it requires minimal interaction with a UI popup that many users do not associate with malware. For Outlook and Excel, Microsoft has published instructions on how users can disable DDE on their own, if they don’t want this feature enabled. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Disables Word DDE Feature To Prevent Further Malware Attacks

Opera Software Changes Name To Otello Corporation

Opera Software has changed its name to Otello Corporation, it said in a statement on Monday. From a report: Otello owns companies that develop software for advertising, telecoms, games and other online business. The name changes does not affect Opera Software AS or the Opera and Opera Mini internet browsers, all of which Otello sold in 2016, Opera Software AS said in a separate statement. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Opera Software Changes Name To Otello Corporation

Toyota plans to offer more than 10 EV models by the early 2020s

Toyota recently hinted that it was finally ready to embrace pure electric cars , and now we have a better sense of what that commitment entails. The automaker has outlined its goals for low- and zero-emission cars in the next decade, and it expects to field “more than 10” EVs worldwide by the early 2020s, starting with China before spreading to markets like Europe, Japan and the US. And by 2025, every Toyota and Lexus will either be EV-only or have an electrified option like a hybrid or hydrogen fuel cell . Not that the company’s goals are especially ambitious. It hopes to have sold somewhere over 1 million zero-emission cars (either pure EVs or hydrogen models) by 2030, and 5.5 million with some kind of electric powerplant. That sounds like a lot, but it’s fairly modest in practice. Ford has said that it wants at least 10 percent of its sales to be EVs by 2020, while GM hopes to have 20 EVs on the market by 2023. And of course, Tesla may well beat Toyota’s numbers far in advance. There were roughly half a million Model 3 reservations by August , and that’s not including other EV models. Nonetheless, the targets are important. Even though Toyota is hedging its bets by making hydrogen a part of its future, it’s treating EVs as a significant part of its lineup. And when Toyota is clearly one of the world’s largest car brands, that’s bound to make an impact on what people drive. You may at least consider an electrified car where it wasn’t an option before. Source: Toyota

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Toyota plans to offer more than 10 EV models by the early 2020s

‘Final Fantasy’ celebrates 30 years of not being very final

On December 18, 1987, developer Square released its first Final Fantasy title to the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicon console. While Hironobu Sakaguchi thought it would be his last video game, the title was a financial success, leading to a continuous stream of sequels released on every gaming platform since then, including a surprising recent foray onto iOS with Final Fantasy XV Pocket . The first Final Fantasy was included on the recent NES Classic , too, if you were lucky enough to grab one before Nintendo discontinued making them. Now the publisher is known as Square Enix , and has since released 14 other main Final Fantasy games, with a host of spin-off games and crossover titles, as well. Games in the series tend to have deep (if confusing) plot lines, turn-based RPG mechanics and small groups of heroes bent on battling great evil while they learn more about each other as people in the process. The publisher is celebrating the title’s 30th anniversary with a ton of commemorative items that it’s been selling all year, including T-shirts, discounted Final Fantasy titles, plush dolls and, yes, even themed ballpoint pens. Whether you’re a long-time fan or just learning about the long-running, ironically-named series, you might enjoy browsing the memorabilia and remembering the first time you played a Final Fantasy title (mine was Final Fantasy Adventure on the Game Boy). Source: Square Enix

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‘Final Fantasy’ celebrates 30 years of not being very final

Two Major ISPs Are Suffering Outages, Making the Internet Really Slow Right Now

Freshly Exhumed writes: Two major backbone internet service providers — Level 3 and Cogent — appear to be suffering from massive outages and downgraded service, according to ISP monitoring service Downdetector. Users in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. are apparently being hit the hardest. Comcast is also said to be affected to a lesser degree. “Backbone internet service providers work directly with large internet platforms like Netflix to deliver large amounts of data across networks, and also work behind the scenes of consumer-facing ISPs, ” reports Slate. “Since the internet is an interconnected mess of wires, disruptions with Level 3 and Cogent could impact service for Comcast and Verizon users in turn.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Two Major ISPs Are Suffering Outages, Making the Internet Really Slow Right Now

A new polymer could make phone screen repairs a thing of the past

If you’ve ever had to deal with a cracked smartphone screen, you know what a hassle it can be. Slapping a screen protector on it is only a stopgap until you have to have the screen replaced , which comes with a decent price tag. Now, researchers in Tokyo have discovered a new polymer that may actually heal itself, potentially leading the way to a future of self-healing phone screens. The study was published in Science by a team of researchers led by Professor Takuzo Aida from the University of Tokyo. Titled “Mechanically robust, readily repairable polymers via tailored noncovalent cross-linking, ” the research promises a unique hard glass-like polymer called “polyether-thioureas” that can heal itself with only hand pressure. This makes it different than other materials that need high heat to heal up from a break. “High mechanical robustness and healing ability tend to be mutually exclusive, ” said researchers. “In most cases, heating to high temperatures, on the order of 120 degrees Celsius or more, to reorganize their cross-linked networks is necessary for the fractured portions to repair.” According to The Guardian , the special glass polymer was discovered by mistake by a graduate student, Yu Yanagisawa, who thought the material would become a type of glue. He found that cut edges of the polymer would stick to each other, and formed a strong sheet after being compressed by hand at 21 degrees Celsius. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen self-repairing phone tech, of course, with screen protectors that heal themselves and a Motorola patent for a self-repairing screen. However, new breakthroughs like this may help make broken screens and costly repairs a thing of the past. Via: The Guardian Source: Science

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A new polymer could make phone screen repairs a thing of the past

Power Outage Strands Thousands at US Airport. 600 Flights Cancelled

An anonymous reader quotes CNN: A power outage at the world’s busiest airport left thousands of passengers stranded in dark terminals and in planes sitting on the tarmac, amid a nationwide ground stop. Incoming and outgoing flights at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport were halted indefinitely as crews worked to restore power, leading to hundreds of flight delays and cancellations. Atlanta is the heart of the US air transport system, and what happens there has the potential to ripple through the country. More than 600 flights to and from Atlanta have been canceled, including 350 departures, according to Flightradar24… Flights headed to Atlanta are being held on the ground at their departure airport. Inbound flights to Atlanta are being diverted, US Customs and Border Protection said. Departures from the airport are delayed because electronic equipment is not working in the terminals, the FAA said. The cause of the incident is under investigation. Some people stranded in the dark terminals used their cellphones as flashlights, one passenger told CNN. “There were a few emergency lights on, but it was really dark — felt totally apocalyptic.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Power Outage Strands Thousands at US Airport. 600 Flights Cancelled