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Cryptocurrency raider takes $60 million in digital cash

A cryptocurrency is only as reliable as the technology that keeps it running, and Ethereum is learning this the hard way. An attacker has taken an estimated $60 million in Ethereum’s digital money (Ether) by exploiting vulnerabilities in the Decentralized Autonomous Organization, an investment collective. The raider took advantage of a “recursive call” flaw in the DAO’s code-based smart contracts, which administer the funds, to scoop up Ether many times in a single pass. Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin (pictured above) has revealed a planned software fork that would prevent the intruder from using the ill-gotten goods, but there are still plenty of headaches in store for both contract creators and investors. Contract makers will have to take extra care to avoid the flaw and limit the value of their contracts so that a bad actor doesn’t make off with a huge sum of cash. Buterin says that Ethereum itself is safe — miners can carry on, and users should “sit tight and remain calm” while they wait to trade again. Still, it’s easy to imagine everyone being nervous. The kicker? People were convinced that the bug posed no risk to DAO funds just a few days prior. Clearly, that wasn’t true. While the invader didn’t get away scot-free, the breach has caused a lot of chaos. And while one person’s claims that they legitimately took the funds is sketchy, Bloomberg notes that the code defining the smart contracts may have explicitly allowed this attack even if that’s not what the DAO wanted. This may not be so much a hack as exploitation of poorly-defined terms, and there may not be a legal recourse. In short: basing an investment framework around code instead of human-made contracts may have been too optimistic. Via: Coindesk , Bloomberg , The Verge Source: Vitalik Buterin (Reddit) , Etherscan , Ethereum

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Cryptocurrency raider takes $60 million in digital cash

Facebook Live death highlights the risks of livestreaming

Facebook Live is great for capturing events as they happen . However, like any other live internet broadcast, it’s becoming clear that there’s also a dark side . Police have confirmed to the New York Times that Chicago man Antonio Perkins was shot to death on June 15th while he was using Facebook Live to share an otherwise normal evening. The incident isn’t strictly unique (there have sadly been other incidents of livestreamed violence before), but it underscores the lack of filters for livestreaming. Unlike similar scenes on live TV, there’s no one to cut away when horror occurs on-camera. Notably, Facebook isn’t taking the Perkins video down. While it will remove clips that sensationalize violence, it’s leaving this and other footage that it believes will boost awareness of violence and its consequences. There’s a “graphic video” warning before you start watching, but there’s otherwise nothing stopping you. As it stands, it’s doubtful that Facebook is about to have second thoughts about livestreaming. Any live video service has the potential to show something terrible — and when Facebook has over 1.6 billion active users every month, that potential is stronger than usual. If the company wants to offer livestreaming at all, it’ll have to accept that some videos are likely to be tragic. Source: New York Times

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Facebook Live death highlights the risks of livestreaming

Businesses Lose $3.1 Billion to Email Scams, FBI Warns

Business have lost over $3 billion because of compromised e-mail accounts, the FBI reports, citing “a sophisticated scam targeting businesses working with foreign suppliers and/or businesses that regularly perform wire transfer payments.” 22, 143 business have been affected — 14, 302 within the U.S. — with a total dollar loss of $3, 086, 250, 090, representing an increase of 1, 300% since January of 2015. Using social engineering or “computer intrusion techniques, ” the attackers target employees responsible for wire transfers (or issuing checks) using five scenarios, which include bogus invoices or executive requests for a wire transfer of funds, with some attackers even impersonating a corporate law firm. “Victims report that IP addresses frequently trace back to free domain registrars, ” warns the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, which also urges businesses to avoid free web-based e-mail accounts. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Businesses Lose $3.1 Billion to Email Scams, FBI Warns

Check Your Ticketmaster Account, You Probably Have Free Tickets Waiting

Last month, Ticketmaster settled a $400 million class action lawsuit over its exorbitant fees. This month, they’re paying it out—in the form of discount codes and vouchers. Chances are, you have a free show or two sitting in your inbox. Read more…

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Check Your Ticketmaster Account, You Probably Have Free Tickets Waiting

Download Tons of Free Coursera Courses Before They Disappear Forever

Coursera , one of the best sources of MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses), is shutting down their old platform on June 30, and removing hundreds of courses in the process. Here are two ways you can save all the course materials before they’re gone for good. Read more…

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Download Tons of Free Coursera Courses Before They Disappear Forever

Olli is a 3D Printed, IBM Watson-Powered, Self-Driving Minibus

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Phys.Org: Arizona-based startup Local Motors unveiled Olli — a 3D-printed minibus capable of carrying 12 people. It’s powered by IBM’s supercomputer platform Watson and is designed as an on-demand transportation solution that passengers can summon with a mobile app. The company claims it can be “printed” to specification in “micro factories” in a matter of hours. They say it is ready to go as soon as regulations allow it to hit the streets. While Local Motors has developed the system to control the driving, IBM’s Watson system is used to provide the user interface so passengers can have “conversations” with Olli. “Watson is bringing an understanding to the vehicle, ” said IBM’s Bret Greenstein. “If you have someplace you need to be you can say that in your own words. A vehicle that understands human language, where you can walk in and say, ‘I’d like to get to work, ‘ that lets you as a passenger relax and enjoy your journey, ” he said. The vehicle relies on more than 30 sensors and streams of data from IBM’s cloud. Olli will be demonstrated in National Harbor, Maryland, over the next few months with additional trials expected in Las Vegas and Miami. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Olli is a 3D Printed, IBM Watson-Powered, Self-Driving Minibus

Windows 10 preview makes it easier to do a fresh install

Windows 10 Insiders are greedy but brave souls who want the latest software toys and are willing to take some risks to get them. The latest preview build (14367) gives them a “get out of jail free” card, however, with a new tool called “Refresh Windows.” According to Microsoft, the tool will “install a clean copy of the most recent version of Windows, and remove apps that came pre-installed or that you installed on your PC.” The caveats are that it’s only available to Windows 10 Insider Preview users (of course) and that it will replace the latest version with an older, but more stable Insider Preview build. The tool gives novice users a slightly easier way to do a clean install than the “Media Creation Tool, ” but unlike that app, doesn’t let you download your own ISO. Given the fact that most Insiders will prefer the Media Creation Tool, Refresh Windows seems more at mainstream users in an upcoming Windows 10 release. Should you wish to use it, you’d better back up any content, apps and other personal data, despite the fact that you have the option to keep your personal files. The preview build also includes new languages for handwriting recognition and a keyboard shortcut to access the Feedback Hub. You get numerous fixes and improvements for PCs, like better notifications from your phone to your PC with Cortana and reduced battery drain when using Edge. Windows Mobile customers also get a slew of fixes. Source: Microsoft

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Windows 10 preview makes it easier to do a fresh install

VLC 3.0 nightlies arrive with (sort of working) Chromecast support

Grab the latest build of VLC and you’ll see a “Render Output” option in the “Tools” menu. 6 more images in gallery Streaming online content to a Chromecast is fast and easy, but what if you have local files on your desktop that you want to get on the big screen? There are a few niche apps out there that will serve, but one of the biggest media players, VLC, is working on built-in support for Google’s Chromecast. Recently the nightly build servers started pumping out early, unstable builds of VLC with Chromecast support, so I gave it a try. You won’t find the familiar “cast” button that you see in many apps in this VLC build. Instead, the “Tools” menu has a new option called “Render Output”—this screen is for playing media on something other than the computer screen in front of you. It will detect and display Chromecasts on your local network, and the detection process seems to work great. You just pick the device you want to use and hit “OK.” If you’re playing media you’ll need to stop it, and then once you hit play the casting process should start. I got an “unknown certificate” error at first, but, after accepting it, the usual Chromecast stuff started to happen. My TV turned on and switched to the right input. A Chromecast logo appeared, the loading bar popped up—and then it failed. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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VLC 3.0 nightlies arrive with (sort of working) Chromecast support

Watts Bar Unit 2 Is The First New US Nuclear Reactor In Decades

tomhath writes from a report via The Washington Post: The Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Watts Bar Unit 2 is the first nuclear reactor to come online since 1996, when the Watts Bar Unit 1 started operations. The new reactor is designed to add 1, 150 megawatts of electricity generating capacity to southeastern Tennessee. By summer’s end, authorities expect the new reactor at this complex along the Chickamauga Reservoir, a dammed section of the Tennessee River extending northward from Chattanooga, to steadily generate enough electricity to power 650, 000 homes. But while nuclear reactors account for the lion’s share of the carbon-free electricity generated in the United States, the industry faces this new set of circumstances in a state of near-crisis. A combination of very cheap natural gas and deregulated energy markets in some states has led to a growing number of plant closures in recent years. A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance says that renewable energy, including solar, wind and hydroelectric will overtake natural gas as an energy source by 2027. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Watts Bar Unit 2 Is The First New US Nuclear Reactor In Decades