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N64’s ‘GoldenEye 007’ goes modern with Unreal Engine 4

Ah, yes. GoldenEye 007 . One of the classic Nintendo 64 titles and a memorable first-person shooter is certainly a game that I spent a lot of time with. Now we have a glimpse of what the game could look like if it was made with the tools available to developers today. YouTube user Jude Wilson recreated a portion of the Facility Map using Unreal Engine 4 , offering a bit of nostalgia for those of us who are familiar with the title. Wilson isn’t the first to do this, as Mario and Sonic have already been given the UE4 treatment. It’s an interesting take, but don’t take our word for it, go through the level yourself via the video down below. Via: Cinema Blend Source: Jude Wilson (YouTube)

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N64’s ‘GoldenEye 007’ goes modern with Unreal Engine 4

Et tu, Fortinet? Hard-coded password raises new backdoor eavesdropping fears

(credit: Fortinet) Less than a month after Juniper Network officials disclosed an unauthorized backdoor in the company’s NetScreen line of firewalls , researchers have uncovered highly suspicious code in older software from Juniper competitor Fortinet. The suspicious code contains a challenge-and-response authentication routine for logging into servers with the secure shell (SSH) protocol . Researchers were able to unearth a hard-coded password of “FGTAbc11*xy+Qqz27” (not including the quotation marks) after reviewing this exploit code posted online on Saturday . On Tuesday, a researcher posted this screenshot purporting to show someone using the exploit to gain remote access to a server running Fortinet’s FortiOS software. This exploit code provides unauthorized SSH access to devices running older versions of FortiOS. (credit: Full Disclosure mailing list ) This partially redacted screenshot purports to show the exploit in action. (credit: @dailydavedavids ) Ralf-Philipp Weinmann, a security researcher who helped uncover the innerworkings of the Juniper backdoor , took to Twitter on Tuesday and repeatedly referred to the custom SSH authentication as a “backdoor.”  In one specific post , he confirmed he was able to make it work as reported on older versions of Fortinet’s FortiOS. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Et tu, Fortinet? Hard-coded password raises new backdoor eavesdropping fears

BBC Confirms 50% Bitrate Savings For H.265/HEVC Vs H.264/AVC

An anonymous reader writes: A research team from the BBC has done a series of tests to confirm earlier computations showing a ~50% savings in bit rate for H.265/HEVC compared to video using H.264/AVC at comparable quality. “The subjective tests used a carefully selected set of coded video sequences at four different picture sizes: UHD (3840×2160 and 4096×2048), 1080p (1920×1080), 720p (1280×720) and 480p (832×480), at frame rates of 30Hz, 50Hz, or 60Hz. The video content was chosen to represent diverse spatial and temporal characteristics, and then coded using HEVC and AVC standards at a wide span of bit rates producing a variety of quality levels.” Here is the full published analysis. “The tests confirmed the significant compression efficiency improvements achieved in HEVC, verifying the results previously reported using objective quality metrics (PSNR based methods).” The team did not test against VP9, which is shaping up to be an impressive standard as well. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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BBC Confirms 50% Bitrate Savings For H.265/HEVC Vs H.264/AVC

Questions Linger As Juniper Removes Suspicious Dual_EC Algorithm

msm1267 writes: Juniper Networks has removed the backdoored Dual_EC DRBG algorithm from its ScreenOS operating system, but new developments show Juniper deployed Dual_EC long after it was known to be backdoored. Stephen Checkoway, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that he and a number of crypto experts looked at dozens of versions of Juniper’s NetScreen firewalls and learned that ANSI X9.31 was used exclusively until ScreenOS 6.2 when Juniper added Dual_EC. It also changed the size of the nonce used with ANSI X9.31 from 20 bytes to 32 bytes for Dual_EC, giving an attacker the necessary output to predict the PRNG output. ‘And at the same time, Juniper introduced what was just a bizarre bug that caused the ANSI generator to never be used and instead just use the output of Dual_EC. They made all of these changes in the same version update.’ Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Questions Linger As Juniper Removes Suspicious Dual_EC Algorithm

T-Mobile’s CEO does damage control, apologizes to the EFF

T-Mobile CEO John Legere has published an open letter on the company’s website, and it smells like an attempt at damage control after getting some real backlash. As you might know, he’s been making good use of his colorful vocabulary to defend his company over accusations that it’s throttling YouTube videos these past few weeks. In the process, he lambasted Google and accused the Electronic Frontier Foundation of being a paid mouthpiece. In the surprisingly expletive-free missive, he claims that Binge On is a “VERY ‘pro’ net neutrality capability, ” because you can switch it on or off whenever you want. The T-Mobile uncarrier feature allows you to stream 480p videos without eating up your data, but it can only do so for specific services like Netflix. That doesn’t sit well with net neutrality advocates who believe that it makes certain apps more appealing than others. The FCC cited that as one of its reasons when it summoned the company to talk about its data exemption scheme in December. Legere also apologizes to the EFF for posting a video asking “who the fuck” the organization is and who’s paying it. His response was triggered by the non-profit digital rights group’s question on Twitter, asking if Binge On alters the video stream in any way or limits its bandwidth: Look, by now you know that I am a vocal, animated and sometimes foul mouthed CEO. I don’t filter myself and you know that no one at T-Mobile filters me either (no, they don’t even try). That means I will sometimes incite a bit of a ‘social media riot’, but I’m not going to apologize for that. I will however apologize for offending EFF and its supporters. Just because we don’t completely agree on all aspects of Binge On doesn’t mean I don’t see how they fight for consumers. We both agree that it is important to protect consumers’ rights and to give consumers value. We have that in common, so more power to them. As I mentioned last week, we look forward to sitting down and talking with the EFF and that is a step we will definitely take. While we may never know why the CEO suddenly decided to publish this letter, he said he decided to write it up for the sake of the data exemption feature: Unfortunately, my color commentary from last week is now drowning out the real value of Binge On – so hopefully this letter will help make that clear again. . @EFF pic.twitter.com/pv6V4oOJwS — John Legere (@JohnLegere) January 7, 2016 T-Mobile’s CEO is dying to know who EFF is. Friends, please tweet at @JohnLegere with the hashtag #WeAreEFF to enlighten him. — EFF (@EFF) January 7, 2016 [Image credit: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images] Source: T-Mobile

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T-Mobile’s CEO does damage control, apologizes to the EFF

This New Incandescent Bulb Uses Nano Mirrors to Match LED Bulb Efficiency

Energy-saving bulbs may have some competition in the shape of an ageing technology. Scientists have developed a new kind of incandescent light bulb that uses modern science to ramp up its efficiency, almost matching that of commercial LED bulbs. Read more…

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This New Incandescent Bulb Uses Nano Mirrors to Match LED Bulb Efficiency

Scientists discover 2,100-year-old stash of “fine plucked” tea

Chunks of ancient tea are on the left, and the tomb where they were excavated near Xi’an is on the right. (credit: Houyuan Lu) Researchers in China have positively identified a block of ancient vegetable matter as tiny tea buds that were lovingly tucked away in Han Yangling Mausoleum, a sumptuous tomb north of Xi’an. The city Xi’an was once known as Chang’an, seat of power for the Han Dynasty, and stood as the easternmost stop on the vast trade routes known today as the Silk Road. Previously, the oldest physical evidence of tea came from roughly 1,000 years ago. Coupled with another ancient block of tea found in western Tibet’s Gurgyam Cemetery, this new discovery reveals that the Han Chinese were already trading with Tibetans in 200 BCE, trekking across the Tibetan Plateau to deliver the luxurious, tasty drink. Though the tea was excavated over a decade ago, it wasn’t until recently that researchers had access to tests that could determine whether the vegetable matter was in fact tea. By untangling the chemical components of the leaves, including their caffeine content, the researchers were able to verify that both blocks of leaves, from China and Tibet, were tea. In fact, they even figured out what kind of tea it probably was. In Nature Scientific Reports , they write: The sample contains a mixture of tea, barley ( Hordeum vulgare , Poaceae) and other plants. Therefore, it is likely that tea buds and/or leaves were consumed in a form similar to traditionally-prepared butter tea, in which tea is mixed with salt, tsampa (roasted barley flour) and/or ginger in the cold mountain areas of central Asia. Of course, methods of brewing and consuming tea varied from culture to culture along the Silk Road . We also know the tea was what people today would call “fine plucked” or “Emperor’s Tea,” because it consisted only of the plant’s buds with a few small leaves. These parts of the plant are considered the most valuable and are used to make especially high-grade tea. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Scientists discover 2,100-year-old stash of “fine plucked” tea

Oculus cofounder building a -43° propane phase-change-cooled PC

Palmer Luckey, the co-founder of Oculus VR and creator of the Oculus Rift, somewhat unsurprisingly, is a fully paid-up member of the PC Master Race . During a recent Reddit AMA , Luckey was asked about the hardware specs of his PC. The first part of his response was to be expected, and probably straight out of the company’s PR playbook: I have lived on the bleeding edge of PC hardware for as long as I could scrape the money together, but for VR, I am sticking to hardware that sticks to our recommended specs: https://www.oculus.com/en-us/oculus-ready-pcs/ That way, I get the same experience as most of my customers. I don’t want to become disconnected from the reality of how our hardware and software performs. On the side, though, Luckey is working on something just a little bit more exciting: Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Oculus cofounder building a -43° propane phase-change-cooled PC

Police claim to have cracked extra-secure BlackBerry phones

BlackBerry smartphones have secure messaging as a matter of course, but for some that isn’t enough: there are custom models that are even more secure thanks to PGP-encrypted mail. However, it seems that these locked down models aren’t quite as safe as you’d think. The Netherlands Forensic Institute has confirmed a recent report that it’s capable of scooping up encrypted data from PGP-equipped BlackBerry devices. It’s not discussing the exact techniques involved, but it’s relying on a tool from CelleBrite to get the job done. One possibility is that investigators are guessing the password based on a memory dump, although that normally requires yanking a memory chip off the phone’s motherboard. If it’s any consolation, police need physical access to crack these BlackBerrys. Their methods also aren’t completely reliable (a small batch couldn’t be cracked), and it’s uncertain that this will work with every single PGP implementation. GhostPGP, for instance, claims that it’s unaffected. All the same, this isn’t very comforting if you bought a customized BlackBerry with the promise of airtight security. And there’s no certainty that only Dutch cops have access — it’s entirely possible that other law enforcement and surveillance agencies know these tricks. [Image credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images] Source: Misdaadnieuws (translated) , Motherboard

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Police claim to have cracked extra-secure BlackBerry phones