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Bloodhound preps for land speed record with 200MPH test run

It’s finally happened. Nine years after the Bloodhound project was announced at London’s Science Museum , the supersonic car has completed its first test runs. At a closed-off airstrip near Newquay airport, Cornwall, the monstrous vehicle roared across the tarmac at roughly 200 MPH. That figure is a long way off the team’s ultimate goal of 763 MPH, however, and a new world land speed record. Eventually, the team hopes to crack 1, 000 MPH at the dusty Kalahari desert in South Africa. Before then, however, the team had to prove that the car was more than vapourware and broken promises. Today, the car relied on a Eurojet EJ200 jet engine for thrust. That on its own could take the car to 650 MPH. The final configuration will also have a rocket system provided by Nordic aerospace company Nammo. For the initial record attempt, the Bloodhound will use a single monopropellant rocket which can produce around 40kN of thrust. It will then be swapped out for a hybrid rocket system that, combined with the jet engine, can carry the car to 1, 000 MPH. In total, the vehicle will produce 212kN of thrust, which is eight times the power output of a Formula 1 starting grid. To install the rocket system, however, Bloodhound needs cash. Funding has always been a problem for the team in Bristol, which relies on sponsorship and fan donations to operate. The trial runs in Cornwall, then, serve two purposes; they’re a vital form of testing, giving the team valuable data and insight into the practicalities of running the vehicle. They are, though, also a marketing tool which the team hopes will attract the interest and, ultimately, the cash of a deep-pocketed investor. Without extra funding, the team will have to delay its record attempt in late 2018. Bloodhound is driven by Andy Green, an RAF pilot who set the previous world land speed record with the Thrust SSC in 1997. He’ll be piloting the vehicle both for the initial land speed record (the team hopes to hit about 800 MPH) and the 1, 000 MPH attempt. Bloodhound is a complicated and intimidating car to operate, measuring 13.4 meters and weighing roughly seven and a half tonnes. In Cornwall, however, Green seemed unfazed —excited even — as he clambered into the cockpit. We’re not surprised; he’s waited as long as the public to finally push the accelerator pedal. Here’s hoping it won’t be quite as long before we see Bloodhound run again.

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Bloodhound preps for land speed record with 200MPH test run

Justice Department Demands Five Twitter Users’ Personal Info Over an Emoji

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: Back in May, the Justice Department — apparently lacking anything better to do with its time — sent a subpoena to Twitter, demanding a whole bunch of information on five Twitter users, including a few names that regular Techdirt readers may be familiar with. If you can’t see that, it’s a subpoena asking for information on the following five Twitter users: @dawg8u (“Mike Honcho”), @abtnatural (“Virgil”), @Popehat (Ken White), @associatesmind (Keith Lee) and @PogoWasRight (Dissent Doe). I’m pretty sure we’ve talked about three of those five in previous Techdirt posts. Either way, they’re folks who are quite active in legal/privacy issues on Twitter. And what info does the DOJ want on them? Well, basically everything: [users’ names, addresses, IP addresses associated with their time on Twitter, phone numbers and credit card or bank account numbers.] That’s a fair bit of information. Why the hell would the DOJ want all that? Would you believe it appears to be over a single tweet from someone to each of those five individuals that consists entirely of a smiley face? I wish I was kidding. Here’s the tweet and then I’ll get into the somewhat convoluted back story. The tweet is up as I write this, but here’s a screenshot in case it disappears. The Department of Justice’s subpoena is intended to address allegations that Shafer, who has a history of spotting weak encryption and drawing attention to it, cyberstalked an FBI agent after the agency raided his home. Vanity Fair summarizes the incident: “In 2013, Shafer discovered that FairCom’s data-encryption package had actually exposed a dentist’s office to data theft. An F.T.C. settlement later validated Shafer’s reporting, but in 2016, when another dentist’s office responded to Shafer’s disclosure by claiming he’d violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and broken the law, the F.B.I. raided his home and confiscated many of his electronics. Shafer was particularly annoyed at F.B.I. Special Agent Nathan Hopp, who helped to conduct the raid, and who was later involved in a different case: in March, he compiled a criminal complaint involving the F.B.I.’s arrest of a troll for tweeting a flashing GIF at journalist Kurt Eichenwald, who is epileptic. Shafer began to compile publicly available information about Hopp, sharing his findings on Twitter. The Twitter users named in the subpoena had started a separate discussion about Hopp, with one user calling Hopp the “least busy F.B.I. agent of all time, ” a claim that prompted Shafer’s smiley-faced tweet.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Justice Department Demands Five Twitter Users’ Personal Info Over an Emoji

Kaspersky Admits To Reaping Hacking Tools From NSA Employee PC

Kaspersky has acknowledged that code belonging to the US National Security Agency (NSA) was lifted from a PC for analysis but insists the theft was not intentional. From a report: In October, a report from the Wall Street Journal claimed that in 2015, the Russian firm targeted an employee of the NSA known for working on the intelligence agency’s hacking tools and software. The story suggested that the unnamed employee took classified materials home and operated on their PC, which was running Kaspersky’s antivirus software. Once these secretive files were identified — through an avenue carved by the antivirus — the Russian government was then able to obtain this information. Kaspersky has denied any wrongdoing, but the allegation that the firm was working covertly with the Russian government was enough to ensure Kaspersky products were banned on federal networks. There was a number of theories relating to what actually took place — was Kaspersky deliberately targeting NSA employees on behalf of the Kremlin, did an external threat actor exploit a zero-day vulnerability in Kaspersky’s antivirus, or were the files detected and pulled by accident? According to Kaspersky, the latter is true. On Wednesday, the Moscow-based firm said in a statement that the results of a preliminary investigation have produced a rough timeline of how the incident took place. It was actually a year earlier than the WSJ believed, in 2014, that code belonging to the NSA’s Equation Group was taken. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Kaspersky Admits To Reaping Hacking Tools From NSA Employee PC

China Shuts Down Tens Of Thousands Of Factories In Widespread Pollution Crackdown

Buildings in China are shrouded in smog. From a report: China has implemented an unprecedented pollution crackdown in recent months as the country shuts down tens of thousands of factories. The effort is part of a national effort to address China’s infamous pollution and has affected wide swaths of China’s manufacturing sector. In total, it is estimated that 40 percent of all China’s factories have been shut down at some point in order to be inspected by environmental bureau officials. As a result of these inspections over 80, 000 factories have been hit with fines and criminal offenses as a result of their emissions. Safety officials have been moving from province to province (30 in total so far) shutting down factories as well as electricity and gas as they inspect the factories for meeting emissions requirements. This has resulted in late and missed orders, increased costs, and could ultimately result in higher prices on US shelves. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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China Shuts Down Tens Of Thousands Of Factories In Widespread Pollution Crackdown

Steam introduces digital gift cards ahead of holiday sales

Got friends who wait for Steam’s holiday sales to buy a ton of games they might not get around to playing? Is that friend you? Now you can help your friend soften the blow by sending them digital gift cards that add to their Steam Wallet balance. Or, since that friend is you, have your parents/cousins/distant aunts help fund your habit. You can only send funds to a Steam Friend you’ve had for more than three days, but once you select them, “send money” appears as an option. Easy! They come in the typical denominations of $5, $10, $25, $50 and $100. You can buy them with major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, and JCB), PayPal or Bitcoin. Via: VentureBeat Source: Steam

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Steam introduces digital gift cards ahead of holiday sales

Kaspersky says it briefly possessed classified NSA files

Earlier this month, reports surfaced that classified NSA documents detailing how US agencies defend their cyber networks and how they breach foreign ones were stolen by Russian hackers in 2015. Those reports noted that the files were spotted through Kaspersky security software used by an NSA contractor who had saved the classified documents on a home computer. Well, Kaspersky has now provided some more information about the incident and it has acknowledged that it did in fact have classified NSA materials in its possession, the Associated Press reports. The company’s founder, Eugene Kaspersky, said that in 2014, Kaspersky analysts informed him that their software had plucked some classified files from an NSA contractor’s computer. Kaspersky said it was immediately clear what needed to be done — the materials had to be deleted. And so they were. However, whether the files in question were obtained purposefully or as a result of normal functions of the security software is still up in the air. As Kaspersky tells it, the company was already tracking a team of hackers called the Equation Group, which was later revealed to be part of the NSA. The NSA contractor that exposed the files had run Kaspersky software on his computer after infecting it with a bootleg copy of Microsoft Office and while the software cleaned up the viruses, it was also triggered by the Equation Group materials stored on the contractor’s computer. Those were then sent to Kaspersky headquarters for evaluation and as soon as analysts saw that the files were classified NSA documents, they alerted Eugene Kaspersky and subsequently deleted the files. Releasing this information is part of Kaspersky Lab’s recent push towards transparency as mistrust in the US has mounted over the past few months. Best Buy pulled Kaspersky software from its shelves last month and the US government banned the software in all federal agencies. Earlier this year, the FBI was reportedly discouraging private companies from using Kaspersky products, which have been a focus in government investigations of late and an interest of both the Senate and House of Representatives . Earlier this week, in order to regain some trust, Kaspersky announced that it would allow its source code to be reviewed by third parties and would open three “transparency centers” around the world. Jake Williams, a cybersecurity expert and former NSA analyst, told the AP that because Kaspersky was trying to woo US government clients at the time, it made sense that it would have chosen to delete the files. “It makes sense that they pulled those up and looked at the classification marking and then deleted them, ” he said. “I can see where it’s so toxic you may not want it on your systems.” However, he added the fact that an NSA employee put classified material on an already compromised home computer was “absolutely wild.” Source: Associated Press

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Kaspersky says it briefly possessed classified NSA files

New CRISPR tool alters RNA for wider gene editing applications

The CRISPR gene editing technique can be used for all sorts of amazing things by targeting your DNA. Scientists are using it in experimental therapies for ALS and Huntington’s disease , ways to let those with celiac disease process gluten proteins and possibly assist in more successful birth rates . Now, according to a paper published in Science , researchers have found a way to target and edit RNA, a different genetic molecule that has implications in many degenerative disorders like ALS. Apparently, edits with this new tool (CRISPR-Cas13) can be safer as they don’t result in permanent changes to your genetic makeup like other DNA-based CRISPR techniques can. This system, called REPAIR, works more efficiently in human cells, as well. RNA is implicated in various diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), myotonic dystrophy and Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS), so fixing it could show positive results in treating these types of disorders. “REPAIR presents a promising RNA editing platform with broad applicability for research, therapeutics, and biotechnology, ” wrote the researchers. Via: The Verge Source: Science

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New CRISPR tool alters RNA for wider gene editing applications

Slack screen sharing will let your coworkers control your computer

Virtual-office app Slack is adding one of its most requested features : screen sharing. And more than just simply letting a coworker look at what’s on your display, you can grant control so that they can add a few lines of code, or values to a cell in a spread sheet. Everyone will have their own cursor for typing and clicking around, which almost makes it sound like Slack is turning your screen into a Google Doc. All thanks to the magic of the internet. Not into relinquishing full control of your machine? Your call participants can still interact, but they’ll be limited to drawing on things. Still, that’s pretty cool. Facebook recently added screen sharing to its Workplace desktop app, so Slack is just a touch late to this party. However, Workplace is still in a limited beta and doesn’t quite have the user base that Slack does. There’s also that whole deal where Slack is basically becoming the last work chat app you’ll need. What with it adding integrations and features that used to require myriad logins to various disparate services like Join.Me for sharing a screen with multiple remote people, and all. That’s to say nothing of how consistently easy it is to use the new collaboration tools. If you’re just using the app to chat with friends on a private channel, the new functionality won’t be available to you; a post on Medium says that you’ll need to be a paid subscriber to access it. Source: Slack HQ (Medium)

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Slack screen sharing will let your coworkers control your computer

The history of the web in 20 seconds

Webflow’s history of the web is a Bayeaux Tapestry of obsolete virtues and current vices, a superimposition of new and old bad things. It’s a clever and very 2017 way to market a web design app that lets normal people keep making worthwhile mistakes on the web — a gateway to free expression — as it becomes increasingly technical and forbidding. I’m startled by how comfortingly, reliably minimal the very early stuff was. Even the lurid GIF explosion in late 1990s! Simple technology made even a terrible mess accessible.

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The history of the web in 20 seconds

Worker who snuck NSA malware home had his PC backdoored, Kaspersky says

Enlarge (credit: Kaspersky Lab) An NSA worker who reportedly snuck classified materials out of the agency stored them on a home computer that was later infected by a malicious backdoor that allowed third-parties to remotely access the machine, officials with Moscow-based antivirus provider Kaspersky Lab said. The NSA worker—described in some published reports as a contractor and in others as an employee—installed the backdoor after Kaspersky AV had first detected never-before-seen NSA malware samples on his computer. The backdoor was part of a pirated software package that the worker downloaded and installed. To run the pirated software, he first had to disable the AV program on his computer. After being infected, the worker re-enabled the AV program and scanned his computer multiple times, resulting in Kaspersky developing detections for new and unknown variants of the NSA malware. The NSA worker’s computer ran a home version of Kaspersky AV that had enabled a voluntary service known as Kaspersky Security Network . When turned on, KSN automatically uploads new and previously unknown malware to company Kaspersky Lab servers. The setting eventually caused the previously undetected NSA malware to be uploaded to Kaspersky Lab servers, where it was then reviewed by a company analyst. Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Worker who snuck NSA malware home had his PC backdoored, Kaspersky says