Tag: digest

US regulators grant DMCA exemption legalizing vehicle software tinkering

(credit: Jerk Alert Productions ) Every three years, the Librarian of Congress issues new rules on Digital Millennium Copyright Act exemptions. Acting Librarian David Mao, in an order (PDF) released Thursday, authorized the public to tinker with software in vehicles for “good faith security research” and for “lawful modification.” The decision comes in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal, in which the German automaker baked bogus code into its software that enabled the automaker’s diesel vehicles to reduce pollutants below acceptable levels during emissions tests. “I am glad they granted these exemptions,” Sherwin Siy, said vice president for legal affairs for Public Knowledge in Washington, DC. “I am not glad it was necessary for them to do so in the first place.” Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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US regulators grant DMCA exemption legalizing vehicle software tinkering

Joomla bug puts millions of websites at risk of remote takeover hacks

Enlarge / Here’s the control panel hackers can access by exploiting a just-patched Joomla vulnerability. (credit: Spiderlabs) Millions of websites used in e-commerce and other sensitive industries are vulnerable to remote take-over hacks made possible by a critical vulnerability that has affected the Joomla content management system for almost two years. The SQL-injection vulnerability was patched by Joomla on Thursday with the release of version 3.4.5 . The vulnerability, which allows attackers to execute malicious code on servers running Joomla, was first introduced in version 3.2 released in early November 2013. Joomla is used by an estimated 2.8 million websites. “Because the vulnerability is found in a core module that doesn’t require any extensions, all websites that use Joomla versions 3.2 and above are vulnerable,” Asaf Orpani, a researcher inside Trustwave’s Spiderlabs, wrote in a blog post  (the post appears to be offline at the moment, but it was working through most of Friday morning). The vulnerability, and two closely related security flaws, have been cataloged as CVE-2015-7297, CVE-2015-7857, and CVE-2015-7858. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Joomla bug puts millions of websites at risk of remote takeover hacks

Couple sues Pandora and SiriusXM over copyright in pre-1972 songs

(credit: Getty Images) An Illinois couple who owned several recording companies specializing in doo-wop, jazz, and rhythm and blues have filed suit against the major satellite and Internet radio companies over their playing of pre-1972 songs. It’s the third lawsuit that highlights how the patchwork of state copyright laws over older music is putting a drag on Internet radio—sound recordings made before 1972 aren’t protected by federal copyright but are protected by many states. On Monday, Arthur and Barbara Sheridan filed two lawsuits in New Jersey federal court: one against Pandora and Sirius XM  (PDF) and another against iHeartMedia  (PDF), the parent company of online music service iHeartRadio. Their lawsuits seek class action status, looking to represent owners of pre-1972 songs. The companies have derived “significant benefits,” including “millions of dollars in annual revenue,” by playing those songs without permission, the suit alleges. “The Pre-1972 Recordings, when created, were the novel product of mental labor embodied in material form,” the complaint against Sirius and Pandora states. “Plaintiffs and the Misappropriation Class thus have property rights in them as recognized by New Jersey common law.” Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Couple sues Pandora and SiriusXM over copyright in pre-1972 songs

iOS 9.1 release lays groundwork for upcoming Apple TV and iPad Pro

The upcoming iPad Pro will require iOS 9.1 (credit: Andrew Cunningham) Apple has just released iOS 9.1, the first major update to iOS 9 and the third update overall since the OS came out in September. It’s available as an over-the-air download or through iTunes for everything that supports iOS 9: the iPhone 4S or newer, the iPad 2 or newer, all flavors of the iPad Mini, and the fifth- and sixth-generation iPod Touches. The change you’ll notice the most if you do a bunch of texting is that Apple has implemented a bunch of new emoji, mostly from the Unicode 7.0 and 8.0 specs but with a few from earlier specifications mixed in. Tacos, burritos, and extended middle fingers are just a few of the additions you’ll find to the emoji keyboard, which needs a decent search function now more than ever. iOS 9.1 also lays the groundwork for some other iOS devices that are launching soon. One is the new Apple TV, which ships with the iOS-based “tvOS.” The other is the iPad Pro, which brings with it support for the Apple Pencil and its Smart Keyboard cover. The Apple TV ships next week , while the iPad Pro is due sometime in November. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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iOS 9.1 release lays groundwork for upcoming Apple TV and iPad Pro

Marijuana exposure in utero has lifelong consequences

A newborn mouse. (credit: Credit: Wikimedia Commons ) As marijuana is legalized in more states, questions about its safety and the health consequences of cannabis use are becoming mainstream. A new study published in PNAS finds that use of cannabis by pregnant women can have implications for the neural development of her child, and that some of the consequences continue into adulthood, So, like alcohol, another recreational drug that is legal in the US, marijuana is likely best avoided by pregnant women. The most prominent active ingredient in marijuana is a compound known as THC, which interacts with the naturally occurring cannabinoid receptors in the nervous system. Cannabinoid receptors are known to play an important role in the regulation of brain development, and this paper examines the influence of a prenatal THC exposure on the maturation of pathways regulated by these receptors. The study examined prenatal cannabis consumption in mice, with the aim of identifying the mechanisms responsible for cannabis-related changes in brain function. During the study, pregnant mice were exposed to daily injections of THC or injections of a control liquid. Then the offspring were run through a battery of behavioral tests. The animals’ brains were also examined closely using immunoflouresence and confocal microscopy. Embryonic brain tissue from some litters was also collected and checked for irregularities. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Marijuana exposure in utero has lifelong consequences

Android 6.0 re-implements mandatory device encryption for new devices

(credit: Google) Shortly after the announcement of iOS 8 in 2014, Google made headlines by saying that it would make full-device encryption mandatory for new Android devices running version 5.0. It then made more headlines several months later when we discovered that the company backed down , “strongly recommending” that Android device makers enable encryption but stopping short of actually requiring it. Now Google has published an updated version of the Android Compatibility Definition Document ( PDF ) for Android 6.0, and it looks like mandatory encryption is back with a couple of exceptions. New devices that come with Marshmallow and have AES crypto performance above 50MiB-per-second need to support encryption of the private user data partition (/data) and the public data partition (/sdcard). The relevant portion of the document, emphasis ours: Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Android 6.0 re-implements mandatory device encryption for new devices

Toyota 2050 plans to cut CO2 from its new cars by 90 percent

Earlier today, Toyota unveiled a bold new plan for the company’s sustainability efforts. By the year 2050, it plans to have cut CO 2 emissions from its new cars by 90 percent (compared to 2010). Toyota also wants to completely eliminate CO 2 pollution from new car manufacturing, as well as over the entire lifecycle of a car including its recycling. These are bold goals. The company says it will build off the success of its Prius hybrids to cut vehicle emissions. Advanced hybrid powertrains will be a big research focus, and the company even gave a shout-out to silicon carbide supercapacitors. In addition, big things are planned for hydrogen. The Japanese government has been incentivizing its car industry to work with fuel cells, and road cars are starting to appear. The Toyota Mirai is already in production and coming to America, even if the fueling stations it will depend upon are few and far between. Completely eradicating CO 2 from the production and recycling of new cars is an equally big challenge. The company wants all its production factories to have zero emissions, in part through renewable energy and fuel cells. And it has goals to promote recycling and conservation around the world. More specifics are included in Toyota’s new environmental action plan —its sixth so far—which runs from 2016-2020. That means it will be a few years before we can judge if Toyota’s commitment to the environment is succeeding. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Toyota 2050 plans to cut CO2 from its new cars by 90 percent

University of Cambridge study finds 87% of Android devices are insecure

The study’s estimate of the proportion of known “insecure,” “maybe secure” and “secure” devices over time. (credit: androidvulnerabilities.org ) It’s easy to see that the Android ecosystem currently has a rather lax policy toward security, but a recent study from the University of Cambridge put some hard numbers to Android’s security failings. The conclusion finds that “on average 87.7% of Android devices are exposed to at least one of 11 known critical vulnerabilities.” Data for the study was collected through the group’s ” Device Analyzer ” app, which has been available for free on the Play Store since May 2011. After the participants opted into the survey, the University says it collected daily Android version and build number information from over 20,400 devices. The study then compared this version information against 13 critical vulnerabilities (including the Stagefright vulnerabilities ) dating back to 2010. Each individual device was then labeled “secure” or “insecure” based on whether or not its OS version was patched against these vulnerabilities, or placed in a special “maybe secure” category if it could have gotten a specialized, backported fix. As for why so many Android devices are insecure, the study found that most of the blame sits with OEMs. The group states that “the bottleneck for the delivery of updates in the Android ecosystem rests with the manufacturers, who fail to provide updates to fix critical vulnerabilities.” Along with the study, the University of Cambridge is launching ” AndroidVulnerabilities.org ,” a site that houses this data and grades OEMs based on their security record. The group came up with a 1-10 security rating for OEMs that it calls the “FUM” score. This algorithm takes into account the number of days a proportion of running devices has no known vulnerabilities ( F ree), the proportion of devices that run the latest version of Android ( U pdate), and the mean number of vulnerabilities not fixed on any device the company sells ( M ean). The study found that Google’s Nexus devices were the most secure out there, with a FUM score of 5.2 out of 10. Surprisingly, LG was next with 4.0, followed by Motorola, Samsung, Sony, and HTC, respectively. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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University of Cambridge study finds 87% of Android devices are insecure

Sprint continues decline, plans job cuts and cost cuts of $2.5 billion

(credit: Sprint) Sprint’s place among the big four US wireless carriers continues to be a precarious one, with news reports saying the company now aims to reduce its number of employees and cut between $2 billion and $2.5 billion in costs over the next six months. A memo from Sprint management to staff said there will be a hiring freeze and “job reductions,” according to   The Wall Street Journal . Sprint announced days ago that it will skip a major auction of low-band spectrum, a decision that could push the company further behind its rivals. Sprint has licenses to more spectrum than any other carrier, but AT&T and Verizon control a large majority of low-band spectrum, which is ideal for providing coverage over long distances and indoors. T-Mobile says it intends to buy enough low-band spectrum to cover the entire nation; Sprint says it can improve coverage with its existing spectrum by increasing the number of cell towers. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Sprint continues decline, plans job cuts and cost cuts of $2.5 billion

Utility-scale solar costs down by half in last five years alone

Earlier this week, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs released a report on the state of utility-scale solar installations in the US. Just about everything in the report is remarkable for anyone who’s followed the solar market closely. Over the past five years, prices have dropped by half, while the capacity factors are approaching that of wind. As a result, the most recent installations are offering power at prices that are competitive with natural gas—not the cost of the plant and fuel, but the fuel alone. In 2014, utility-scale solar projects added about 4GW of capacity to the US grid. Slightly more than 6GW of solar capacity was added in total, with the remainder split between commercial and residential installs. Due to the rapid drop in prices, the majority of this capacity is in the form of photovoltaic panels. One of the issues with utility-scale solar has been that some of the earlier plants were built outside the Southwest. This has meant less overall generation and a lower capacity factor, meaning that the panels are only producing power at a fraction of their maximal rate. Both of these raise the cost of the electricity generated. But installations in the Southwest have boomed to over 90 percent of the total installed hardware. This has capacity factors up and costs down. More recently, large projects have been getting more popular in the Southeast, which may change this dynamic in the future. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Utility-scale solar costs down by half in last five years alone