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Magic: The Gathering player helps cops recover his $8,000 collection

A 23-year-old Magic: The Gathering  player who had $8,000 worth of his cards stolen managed to help snare the perpetrator after working with the police to craft an elaborate sting operation. According to The Washington Post , Kemper Pogue of Woodbridge, Virginia said he was quite upset when he realized that his car had been burglarized and that he’d lost 300 cards. “I went in the house, cracked open a beer, had a few sips, and promptly started screaming expletives as I waited for the police to arrive,” he told the Post . “I’d been collecting these cards since I was a kid, and over the years they’ve only increased in value.” Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Magic: The Gathering player helps cops recover his $8,000 collection

Intercepted WhatsApp messages led to Belgian terror arrests

The FBI has been lobbying hard to get unfettered access to the messages passed by encrypted messaging services. But they apparently didn’t need that level of access to WhatsApp messages sent between members of an alleged Chechen jihadist group operating in Belgium. According to a report by Bloomberg , a pair of men were arrested and warrants were issued for three others for allegedly preparing for a terrorist attack in Belgium. The arrests followed raids in which 16 people were detained, which Belgian law enforcement officials said was the result of “working with U.S. authorities to monitor suspects’ communications on WhatsApp Inc.’s messaging service,” Bloomberg’s Gaspard Sebag reported. The police investigation began after they obtained information about a man who had returned to Belgium after fighting as a jihadi in Syria. Ars reached out to WhatsApp and to Facebook, which completed its acquisition of WhatsApp in October. A spokesperson from Facebook declined to comment on the matter. But WhatsApp began providing end-to-end (E2E) encryption of its messages last November with the incorporation of security researcher Moxie Marlinspike’s WhisperSystems encryption protocol  TextSecure. In theory, if TextSecure were in use by the alleged terrorists, the content of their messages would have been very difficult to read; the TextSecure protocol continuously changes pairs of encryption keys with each new message. But it’s uncertain that the messages were encrypted—particularly since E2E encryption is not supported by the Apple iOS version of WhatsApp, and group messages and images aren’t supported by TextSecure yet. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Intercepted WhatsApp messages led to Belgian terror arrests

Apple Just Turned The iPad Into A Real Computer With QuickType

 It’s just a keyboard, and so it should be limited to keys. But with the new version of iOS 9 for iPad, announced at WWDC, the touch-sensitive QuickType keyboard now has the ability to transform into a trackpad whenever you set down two fingers on the keyboard portion of the screen. Simply move those fingers to the left and the cursor moves with them. This allows you to move the cursor… Read More

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Apple Just Turned The iPad Into A Real Computer With QuickType

US Army website defaced by Syrian Electronic Army

Early today, the official website of the US Army (www.army.mil) was defaced by attackers claiming to be with the Syrian Electronic Army. In addition to a message on the page claiming attribution, the attackers also included a pop-up message to anyone visiting: “Your commanders admit they are training the people they have sent you to die fighting.” One of several messages popped up by the defaced Army.mil sites. At the time of publication, the Army main homepage is down, although other Army websites have not been affected. However, the website of the US Strategic Command —the joint Department of Defense command overseeing space and nuclear forces—is also down, as is the official page for US Cyber Command hosted on its domain. Screenshots of the attack were posted this afternoon on a Syrian Electronic Army Twitter account, one which has in the past posted links to “leaked” files about connections between the US, Turkish, and Saudi Arabian governments and Syrian rebels. This account has also previously shared information about defacements of other websites (including that of the International Business Times and the Telegraph last year) and the hijacking of Twitter accounts belonging to a number of western media outlets. The SEA claims to have created its own distribution of Linux based on Ubuntu for use by its supporters. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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US Army website defaced by Syrian Electronic Army

Newly unveiled iOS 9 focuses on more proactive Siri, better multitasking

SAN FRANCISCO—As expected, Apple used its WWDC keynote today to take the wraps off iOS 9, the newest version of its operating system for iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches. While iOS 7 and iOS 8 ushered in big changes, iOS 9 will instead focus on speed and stability. In other words, iOS 9 will be to iOS 8 as OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was to OS X 10.5 . That said, Apple isn’t promoting iOS 9 using Snow Leopard’s “no new features” label. The new operating system harvests some of iOS 8’s lowest-hanging fruit and continues the work of opening the platform up to developers. It also tweaks the aesthetic introduced back in iOS 7. You fancy, WatchOS-like UI. 3 more images in gallery Among the highlighted updates for iOS 9, Apple VP Craig Federighi started by detailing an improved Siri. The assistant now has an updated UI to match WatchOS, but more importantly Siri has evolved into a more proactive assistant. For examples of this functionality, Federighi mentioned Siri can automatically play music you like from the lockscreen while on a run. iOS 9 Siri can add things to the calendar alongside a “time to leave” reminder that keeps traffic data in mind. And when unknown phone numbers reach out, the newly proactive Siri will scan your e-mail to try to identify who is getting in touch. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Newly unveiled iOS 9 focuses on more proactive Siri, better multitasking

County sheriff warrantlessly used stingray 500+ times, claims to have no records

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department (SCSD), the largest law enforcement agency in California’s capital region, has operated a stingray at least 500 times without a warrant in the last decade. But if you asked SCSD directly, even recently they wouldn’t give you a definite figure. As part of an ongoing investigation into stingray use nationwide, Ars filed a public records request with the SCSD  this year. And at the end of April, the SCSD responded. The department claimed that “no responsive documents exist,” essentially saying that there are no  records  detailing how many times its stingray has been used. That seemed a bit odd because in 2013,  local Sacramento television station News 10  obtained a Homeland Security grant application written by the SCSD. The proposal aimed to upgrade  the department’s stingray capabilities, and as part of its justification, the SCSD claimed to know how successful its device has been: Read 23 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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County sheriff warrantlessly used stingray 500+ times, claims to have no records

Florida science teacher suspended for signal-jamming students’ cell phones

A Florida high school teacher was suspended without pay for five days Tuesday for deploying a signal jammer in his science class to block students from using their mobile phones. Science teacher Dean Liptak. Superintendent Kurt Browning said in a Pasco County School Board reprimand letter  (PDF) to instructor Dean Liptak that he exercised “poor judgement” and “posed a serious risk to critical safety communications as well as the possibility of preventing others from making 9-1-1 calls.” Liptak was accused of jamming mobile devices from his Fivay High School classroom between March 31 and April 2. Verizon discovered the blockage on the cell tower located on campus. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Florida science teacher suspended for signal-jamming students’ cell phones

Comcast issuing $5 credits after Internet outage caused by DNS failure

Comcast customers on the West Coast will be able to get $5 credits due to a multihour Internet outage that happened Monday night. Though Internet service providers might offer refunds to customers who call and complain, they aren’t generally in the habit of proactively issuing refunds after outages. But Comcast, the country’s largest cable and broadband company, has been trying to improve its reputation for awful customer service . “We are directly reaching out to those who reported problems last night to offer our apologies and a credit for lost service,” Comcast Senior VP Mark Muehl wrote in a blog post yesterday. The credit will be $5,  USA Today  reported . Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Comcast issuing $5 credits after Internet outage caused by DNS failure

Could remnants of the earliest life be preserved in volcanic glass?

You might consider volcanic activity an efficient way of destroying living tissues, but volcanic glasses are often used to study early life. Certain microbial corrosion textures in volcanic glass and in Cenozoic seafloor basalts have been interpreted as evidence of a deep biosphere, dating back to the earliest periods of life on Earth. Similarly, textures found in volcanic glass from the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa and the Pilbara Craton in Australia also suggest the presence of a deep oceanic biosphere on Earth as early as 3.35 billion years ago. But a group of researchers had challenged the idea that these traces resulted from biological activity. Now, in a strong response, another group has defended the interpretation. We seem to have a genuine scientific controversy on our hands. Is this life? Volcanic glass from Cenozoic seafloor volcanics sometimes contain what are called “biotextures.” These typically take on two major forms, either microscopic spherical cavities or tubules that extend into the volcanic glass. Biogenicity, substances produced by life processes, is the most widely accepted explanation for these features. These textures can provide us with valuable information about the types of microorganisms that existed long ago, and shed light on biological processes and how those processes may have evolved over time. Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Could remnants of the earliest life be preserved in volcanic glass?

Bethesda counting down to an apparent Fallout announcement

We’re usually a bit reluctant to write about news that amounts to an announcement that an actual news announcement is coming soon. But when the announcement in question regards the much-loved  Fallout series, we’ll make a rare exception. So here we are, announcing that Bethesda has set up a countdown clock at fallout.bethesda.com letting us all watch the seconds tick by until… well, we’re not sure exactly. The only hints that we’re even expecting a Fallout announcement at all are that URL and the background “Indian head” test pattern familiar to anyone who has seen a recent Fallout loading screen. We’ll all find out what it means together when the countdown runs out at 10am EDT Wednesday morning, I guess. Bethesda recently announced that it would be hosting its first-ever pre-E3 press conference on June 14 , so it makes some sense that it would have big news to share for one of its biggest franchises. An teaser announcement of a new Fallout tomorrow could help soften the ground for a fuller reveal at that press conference. That would be similar to the extremely short Doom 4 teaser that came out last month, ahead of a promised longer trailer at the press conference. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Bethesda counting down to an apparent Fallout announcement