Tag: digest-golf

Amazon Video now lets you download content to Android SD cards

Android users now have another, more convenient option to make use of their Amazon Prime Video subscriptions. Amazon pushed out an update that lets Android users download movies, videos, and other content from its Prime Video service to the SD cards in their handsets. Previously, Amazon only allowed content to be saved to the internal storage on those smartphones. With this update, not only will users be able to save their internal storage for other content, but they could potentially download content to multiple SD cards, switch those cards in and out of their handsets, and watch all of that content offline. In addition to Amazon Prime videos, users can download any videos they’ve purchased to their SD cards. This feature is something only Android users can take advantage of, since iPhones lack the requisite SD card slot. The feature is rolling out on Android tablets and smartphones starting today in the US, UK, Germany, Austria, and Japan. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

View article:
Amazon Video now lets you download content to Android SD cards

20-year-old Windows bug lets printers install malware—patch now

Enlarge (credit: Vectra Networks) For more than two decades, Microsoft Windows has provided the means for clever attackers to surreptitiously install malware of their choice on computers that connect to booby-trapped printers, or other devices masquerading as printers, on a local area network. Microsoft finally addressed the bug on Tuesday during its monthly patch cycle. The vulnerability resides in the Windows Print Spooler, which manages the process of connecting to available printers and printing documents. A protocol known as Point-and-Print allows people who are connecting to a network-hosted printer for the first time to automatically download the necessary driver immediately before using it. It works by storing a shared driver on the printer or print server and eliminates the hassle of the user having to manually download and install it. Researchers with security firm Vectra Networks discovered that the Windows Print Spooler doesn’t properly authenticate print drivers when installing them from remote locations. The failure makes it possible for attackers to use several different techniques that deliver maliciously modified drivers instead of the legitimate one provided by the printer maker. The exploit effectively turns printers, printer servers, or potentially any network-connected device masquerading as a printer into an internal drive-by exploit kit that infects machines whenever they connect. Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Continue reading here:
20-year-old Windows bug lets printers install malware—patch now

FDIC was hacked by China, and CIO covered it up

Insuring deposits, but not your identity. Thanks, FDIC. (credit: Matthew G. Bisanz ) A report published by the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology today found that hackers purported to be from China had compromised computers at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation repeatedly between 2010 and 2013. Backdoor malware was installed on 12 workstations and 10 servers by attackers—including the workstations of the chairman, chief of staff, and general counsel of FDIC. But the incidents were never reported to the US Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT) or other authorities, and were only brought to light after an Inspector General investigation into another serious data breach at FDIC in October of 2015. The FDIC failed at the time of the “advanced persistent threat” attacks to report the incidents. Then-Inspector General at FDIC, Jon Rymer, lambasted FDIC officials for failing to follow their own policies on breach reporting. Further investigation into those breaches led the committee to conclude that former FDIC CIO Russ Pittman misled auditors about the extent of those breaches, and told employees not to talk about the breaches by a foreign government so as not to ruin FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg’s chances of confirmation. The cascade of bad news began with an FDIC Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigation into the October “Florida incident.” On October 23, 2015, a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Information Security and Privacy Staff (ISPS) discovered evidence in the FDIC’s data loss prevention system of a significant breach of sensitive data—over 1,200 documents, including Social Security numbers from bank data for over 44,000 individuals and 30,715 banks, were copied to a USB drive by a former employee of FDIC’s Risk Management Supervision field office in Gainesville, Florida. The employee had copied the files prior to leaving his position at FDIC. Despite intercepting the employee, the actual data was not recovered from him until March 25, 2016. The former employee provided a sworn statement that he had not disseminated the information, and the matter was dropped. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Read More:
FDIC was hacked by China, and CIO covered it up

Posing as ransomware, Windows malware just deletes victim’s files

Scammers, via Cisco Talos Ranscam’s “ransom note”: Pay us and then we’ll make everything better. 2 more images in gallery There has been a lot of ingenuity poured into creating crypto-ransomware, the money-making malware that has become the scourge of hospitals, businesses, and home users over the past year. But none of that ingenuity applies to Ranscam, a new ransom malware reported by Cisco’s Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group. Ranscam is a purely amateur attempt to cash in on the cryptoransomware trend that demands payment for “encrypted” files that were actually just plain deleted by a batch command. “Once it executes, it, it pops up a ransom message looking like any other ransomware,” Earl Carter, security research engineer at Cisco Talos, told Ars. “But then what happens is it forces a reboot, and it just deletes all the files. It doesn’t try to encrypt anything—it just deletes them all.” Talos discovered the file on the systems of a small number of customers. In every case, the malware presented exactly the same message, including the same Bitcoin wallet address. The victim is instructed: Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Taken from:
Posing as ransomware, Windows malware just deletes victim’s files

Windows 10 Anniversary Update nears RTM with bugfixes galore

With its August 2 release date growing closer, the Windows 10 Anniversary Update is nearing completion. A steady stream of new builds for Windows Insiders on the fast track has been released over the past few weeks. The latest build, 14383, came out today and includes a wide range of fixes. As with many of its predecessors, this build has been made available simultaneously for Windows 10 on the desktop and Windows 10 Mobile; Microsoft is intending to ship the Anniversary Update simultaneously for PC, phone, and Xbox One when that release date arrives. Windows Central is reporting that according to its sources, the build one newer than today’s release, 14384, is the first candidate for what would formerly be known as Release To Manufacturing (RTM). With Windows now being delivered “as a service,” the old RTM terminology isn’t favored by Redmond any more—not least because many people will download the update rather than have it preinstalled by a PC manufacturer—but the concept that RTM represents endures. The “RTM” build will be the one released on August 2 to people in the stable channel, and then after several months of regular Patch Tuesday updates, it will be released as the Current Branch for Business. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

More:
Windows 10 Anniversary Update nears RTM with bugfixes galore

Blizzard job posting outs plans for new Diablo game

Is it time to change that “III” into a “IV”? (credit: Blizzard) Just because Blizzard finally got a wholly new franchise out the door this year doesn’t mean the game maker isn’t keen on milking its older franchises for everything they’re worth. But one of those series, Diablo , has seen a bit of a content freeze since its 2014 expansion launched. While the company loves refreshing a game launch with expansion packs, Diablo III has been sitting idly. Now we might know why. A brand-new “unannounced” entry in the Diablo world was, er, announced on Friday by way of an official job posting for—get this—the next entry’s  director . It’s the game-news equivalent of New Line Cinema saying a new Lord of the Rings film is coming but, whoops, Peter Jackson’s not involved, and they could really use a new person to get this thing up and running. The post seeks someone to “lead the Diablo series into the future.” While such a public push for a series director might read like an attempt to bring more diversity into the hiring pool, we’d frankly be shocked to see anybody other than the industry’s old-guard vets fulfilling application requirements such as five years of game-directing experience and shipping “multiple AAA products as a game director or creative director.” The job posting mentions nothing about virtual reality or other experimental hardware. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Link:
Blizzard job posting outs plans for new Diablo game

Porn studio that sued thousands for piracy now fighting its own lawyer

(credit: Getty Images) For years now, a porn studio called Malibu Media has filed more copyright lawsuits than any other company. Each month, Malibu, which produces adult content under the brand name X-Art, sues hundreds of “John Doe” Internet users, accusing particular IP addresses of illegally downloading their movies using BitTorrent networks. Malibu’s owners, Brigham Field and Collette Pelissier Field, have said the flood of lawsuits is necessary to deter piracy. Now, though, they’re targeting the very lawyer who headed up their giant copyright enforcement campaign, Florida-based Keith Lipscomb. Earlier today, Malibu filed suit against Lipscomb and his firm, Lipscomb, Eisenberg & Baker, in federal court. The lawsuit claims Lipscomb didn’t provide them the proper paperwork for their cases and related finances, and that he was negligent in his representation. The  complaint (PDF) discloses that Lipscomb sued Malibu in Florida state court on June 10 and alleges that confidential information was revealed in the lawsuit. Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Originally posted here:
Porn studio that sued thousands for piracy now fighting its own lawyer

Instagram will start automatically translating image captions soon

(credit: Instagram) On the heels of announcing that it has reached 500 million active monthly users, Instagram says it will soon add a translation feature to its app. Through a post on the image-sharing app, the company announced that within a month, users will be able to translate image captions, comments, and profile bios using a new translate button. The Facebook-owned social media app will structure its translations similarly to its parent company. When you come across a post you want to translate into a language that isn’t your default language, you can hit the “See Translation” button to convert it into the language you’ve chosen in your profile’s language settings. Both Facebook and Twitter have translation features already, so this addition brings Instagram up to par with its competition in that respect. Considering that  80 percent of Instagram’s user base lives outside the United States, this feature will likely be welcomed by many. There’s no word on how many languages Instagram will support with the first rollout of this feature. The company does explain on its Help website that if a translation isn’t showing up, it might be because the app doesn’t currently support that language or couldn’t detect the initial language being used. It also warns users that translations may not be available for older posts. The full translation feature should be ready for most users by July. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

See more here:
Instagram will start automatically translating image captions soon

15 years later, new Ecco the Dolphin game leaks onto Dreamcast

The Dreamcast Ecco sequel you never expected is now available as a prototype download. (credit: Hidden Palace ) You probably thought that Sega’s official abandonment of the Dreamcast back in 2001 meant we wouldn’t see any new, Sega-produced Ecco the Dolphin games for that system. If so, you thought wrong. That’s because a newly unearthed prototype of the Dreamcast’s cancelled Ecco II: Sentinels of the Universe has hit the Internet, more than 15 years after it was made. The prototype build, uploaded by the game preservationists at Hidden Palace , is dated February 19, 2001, less than a month after Sega announced it would stop supporting the Dreamcast and step away from the hardware business for good. It comes to the Internet via a large lot of Ecco Dreamcast assets acquired by Hidden Palace , and the site promises “more exciting (and long overdue) [ Ecco ] stuff in the weeks to follow.” In addition to the ripped GD-ROM version, which is fully playable on PC Dreamcast emulators, Hidden Palace also released a self-boot CDI image that can be burned to disc and played on actual Dreamcast hardware (and hopefully on a real CRT television, for that authentic 2001 console gaming experience). We can thank the Dreamcast’s extremely broken copy protection technology for that little wrinkle and for the widespread piracy that  helped doom and/or popularize the system back in its day. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

View post:
15 years later, new Ecco the Dolphin game leaks onto Dreamcast

Microsoft will use Steam to sell Windows games, not just its own store

Quantum Break : not available on Steam. While some of Microsoft’s older game titles, such as Age of Empires II HD (a 2013 update of a 1999 game) are found on Valve’s Steam platform, its latest high-profile titles, such as Forza 6 Apex and Quantum Break, are exclusive to the Windows Store. But this is going to change, with Microsoft planning to release more titles on the popular store. Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox team at Microsoft, was talking on Giant Bomb’s E3 stream , via GameSpot . When it comes to PC gaming, the Windows Store is very much an also-ran, with Steam the dominant force. As Spencer noted, “I don’t think Valve’s hurt by not having [Microsoft’s] first-party games in their store right now. They’re doing incredibly well.” Accordingly, Spencer said that Microsoft “will ship games on Steam again.” Meanwhile, Microsoft’s own experience had been more inconsistent. While some games have done well in the Windows Store, with Spencer naming both Forza 6 Apex and Killer Instinct as successful titles, he said that ” Quantum Break wasn’t our best PC release” and that Gears of War Ultimate Edition was merely “OK.” Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Read this article:
Microsoft will use Steam to sell Windows games, not just its own store