August, 13, 1944. The British 8th Army occupies Florence. The Allies finally break out of Normandy. Meanwhile, somewhere in the south of Tuscany, a soldier writes this encrypted message and hides it inside a bullet. In 2015, someone found it and deciphered it. It was the end of a hilariously absurd story. Read more…
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Secret message found inside WW2 bullet is the end to a very funny story
Have a BMW, Mini or Rolls Royce with the ConnectedDrive feature parked in your driveway? Maybe all three? Well, it turns out there was a bug that allowed ne’er-do-wells to manipulate it — entirely wirelessly. According to Reuters , by simulating a fake phone network researchers at German outfit ADAC (essentially Deutschland’s AAA) were able to gain access to systems governed by the platform’s SIM card by spoofing a cell tower. They’ve even put together a video describing the gap in security which you can check out after the break — if you speak German. While the vulnerabilities didn’t include anything related to steering, acceleration or braking, the ConnectedDrive does have access to traffic information, air conditioning and… door locks. For its part, BMW says it hasn’t seen any reports of compromises to vehicle security, and now it’s using HTTPS to encrypt all data transmissions. Perhaps best of all? Owners of the 2.2 million affected vehicles didn’t need to hit the dealership for this patch — it was already delivered over the air. The update pushed automatically once the system connected to BMW’s servers recently, but those who keep a car stored may want to hop in and hit the “Update Services” button. Good thing, because taking all three of your rides in for service (like they did in 2012 to fix a problem with the ODB port that thieves actually used to steal cars , and as of 2014 were still using on unpatched vehicles) would probably be kind of inconvenient. Affected models: BMW 1 Series Convertible, Coupé and Touring (E81, E82, E87, E88, F20, F21) 2er Active Tourer, Coupé and Convertible (F22, F23, F45) 3 with Convertible, Coupe, GT, Touring and M3 (E90, E91, E92, E93, F30, F31, F34, F80) 4p Coupe, Convertible, Gran Coupe and M4 (F32, F33, F36, F82, F83) 5 Series GT and Touring (F07, F10, F11, F18) 6 Series Gran Coupe Convertible (F06, F12, F13) 7 Series (F01, F02, F03, F04) I3 (I01), I8 (I12) X1 (E84), X3 (F25), X4 (F26) X 5 (E70, F15, F85), X6 (E71, E72, F16, F86), Z 4 (E89) Mini Three-door and five-door hatchback (F55, F56) Rolls Royce Phantom Coupe and Drophead Coupe (RR1, RR2, RR3) Ghost (RR4) Wrait (RR5) [Image credit: BMW – AFP/Getty Images, control unit – ADAC / Uwe Rattay] Filed under: Transportation Comments Source: Reuters , BMW , ADAC (German)
Update, 2:57 pm: Looks like it’s down again. Will report back when I hear more about the outage. Read more…
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The Pirate Bay Is Back (Update…And It’s Down)
Windows licensing is more or less straightforward in the consumer sphere. Oh, sure, there are complications surrounding self-built systems, but compared to the world of enterprise licensing, the range of options is limited and the pricing simple. Corporate licensing, however, is a whole other matter. We’ve been saying for some time that the process of updating and upgrading Windows is going to change in Windows 10, and perhaps unsurprisingly, this is going to have implications for Windows licensing. The underlying theme is this: Microsoft does not want the Windows market to be split between a bunch of different versions. For a brief period, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 were all both extant and actively supported Windows versions. This is bad for more or less the entire Windows world. It’s bad for developers of Windows software because they’re forced to choose between the best functionality (found in Windows 8.1) or the widest compatibility (target Windows XP). It’s bad for Microsoft, because it has to support all these versions. It’s bad, in many ways, for end-users, too; using old versions means that they don’t get the latest features, and in the case of Windows XP, they don’t even receive security updates. Read 22 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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What Windows as a Service and a “free upgrade” mean at home and at work
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Maryland has released on GitHub a version of a Python-based internal forensics tool which the army itself has been using for five years. Dshell is a Linux-based framework designed to help investigators identify and examine compromised IT environments. One of the intentions of the open-sourcing of the project is to involve community developers in the creation of new modules for the framework. The official release indicates that the version of Dshell released to Github is not necessarily the same one that the Army uses, or at least that the module package might be pared down from the Army-issued software. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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US Army Releases Code For Internal Forensics Framework
If you ever thought writing your own choose your own adventure or text-based game would be too difficult, the free storytelling tool, Twine, makes it a piece of cake. Read more…
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Twine Lets You Create "Choose Your Own Adventure" Stories with Ease
Dave Knott (2917251) writes George R.R. Martin’s “The WInds Of Winter”, the fifth book of his bestselling fantasy saga “A Song Of Ice And Fire” (known to television fans as “Game Of Thrones”) will not be published in 2015. Jane Johnson at HarperCollins has confirmed that it is not in this year’s schedule. “I have no information on likely delivery, ” she said. “These are increasingly complex books and require immense amounts of concentration to write. Fans really ought to appreciate that the length of these monsters is equivalent to two or three novels by other writers.”Instead, readers will have to comfort themselves with a collection, illustrated by Gary Gianni, of three previously anthologised novellas set in the world of Westeros. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” takes place nearly a century before the bloody events of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Out in October, it is a compilation of the first three official prequel novellas to the series, The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword and The Mystery Knight, never before collected. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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George R. R. Martin’s "The Winds of Winter" Wiill Not Be Published In 2015
According to a US Department of Justice Inspector General report released today, an investigation “was not able to substantiate the allegations that [Sharyl] Attkisson’s computers were subject to remote intrusion by the FBI, other government personnel, or otherwise.” The report was introduced into the Senate record at the confirmation hearing for Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch. Attkisson, who has written a book about her experiences trying to cover the Obama White House which includes the allegation of hacking , has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice, outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, and the Postmaster General for the alleged hacking of her home and work computers. Today, Attkisson testified at Lynch’s confirmation hearing. The report from the DoJ’s Office of the Inspector General casts a different light on Attkisson’s allegations: Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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CBS reporter’s “hack” caused by stuck backspace key, says US govt
Because Middle-Earth can be a confusing, perilous place, Reddit user mbingcrosby created this Google Maps-style guide to the journey from Hobbiton to Mordor. As you can see, it’s expected to take six months (“four months without Orcs”), and be ready, because “this route has trolls.” Read more…
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Plan Your Next Trip To Mordor With This Google Map Of Middle-Earth
Reuters Pretty much everything AOL touches dies. Read the rest
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AOL really is killing off TUAW and Joystiq