Tag: feeds

Norwegian Pirate Party provides DNS server to bypass new Pirate Bay blockade

Following a court-ordered block of The Pirate Bay and a number of other file-sharing websites in Norway, the Norwegian Pirate Party (Piratpartiet Norge) has now set up free, uncensored DNS servers that anyone can use to bypass the block. While the DNS servers are based in Norway, anyone can use them: if your ISP is blocking access to certain sites via DNS blackholing/blocking, using the Piratpartiet’s DNS servers should enable access. A few days ago, TorrentFreak reported that the Oslo District Court had sided with several Hollywood studios and domestic Norwegian rights holders in a case that sought to block a number of sites, including The Pirate Bay, Viooz, and ExtraTorrent. The court ordered that the country’s major ISPs, including Telia, TeliaSonera, NextGenTel, and Altibox, must block the sites. The Norwegian Pirate Party, as you can probably imagine, isn’t happy with the court-ordered block. In response, it has set up an unblocked DNS server—dns.piratpartiet.no—and a website that shows you how to change your DNS server settings on Windows, Mac, or Linux. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Norwegian Pirate Party provides DNS server to bypass new Pirate Bay blockade

Serious bug causes “quite a few” HTTPS sites to reveal their private keys

According to a security researcher for Linux distributer Red Hat, network hardware sold by several manufacturers failed to properly implement a widely used cryptographic standard, a data-leaking shortcoming that can allow adversaries to impersonate HTTPS-protected websites using the faulty equipment. A nine-month scan that queried billions of HTTPS sessions from millions of IP addresses was able to obtain leaked data for 272 keys, reports Red Hat security researcher Florian Weimer in a research paper  published this week. Because the scan surveyed only a very small percentage of the overall number of transport layer security protocol  handshakes, many more keys and manufacturers are likely to be affected by the leakage. Vulnerable hardware includes load balancers from Citrix as well as devices from Hillstone Networks, Alteon/Nortel, Viprinet, QNO, ZyXEL, BEJY, and Fortinet. The results of Weimer’s nine-month scan. Florian Weimer Enter Chinese Remainder Theorem The leakage is the result of insecure implementations of the RSA public key cryptosystem , which is one of several that HTTPS-protected websites can use to exchange keys with visitors. A 1996 research paper by researcher Arjen Lenstra warned that an optimization known as the Chinese Remainder Theorem sometimes causes faults to occur during the computation of an RSA signature. The errors cause HTTPS websites that use the perfect forward secrecy protocol to leak data that can be used to recover the site’s private key using what’s known as a side-channel attack . Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Serious bug causes “quite a few” HTTPS sites to reveal their private keys

Ex-Tesla engineer accused of illegally accessing former boss’s e-mail

A former Tesla mechanical engineer is facing two counts of felony computer intrusion, according to a Thursday press release from the FBI . Nima Kalbasi, a 28-year-old Canadian citizen, is accused of illegally accessing his former boss’s e-mail account nearly 300 times during a period of about 30 days in late 2014 and early 2015. The 28-year-old Canadian citizen appeared before a federal judge in San Jose, California late last month. He was arrested days earlier while crossing the border from Canada into Vermont. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Ex-Tesla engineer accused of illegally accessing former boss’s e-mail

Man who helped code highly destructive financial malware pleads guilty

The Latvian man accused of helping create the Gozi virus, which United States prosecutors dubbed ” one of the most financially destructive computer viruses in history ,” has pleaded guilty. As the original indictment stated : “The Gozi Virus has caused, at a minimum, millions of dollars in losses.” According to Reuters , Deniss Calovskis made the admission in federal court in Manhattan on Friday. Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Man who helped code highly destructive financial malware pleads guilty

Tesla’s $35,000 Model 3 will start production in 2017

God bless Elon Musk and his Twitter feed. While other companies rely on secretive press offices or employ PR giants to handle their communications, Musk happily uses the 140-character platform to break news about what’s going on at Tesla and SpaceX. Wednesday, we learned that the Model 3—Tesla’s next electric vehicle after the Model X SUV—will go into production in 2017, but only once the Gigafactory is up and running. Model 3, our smaller and lower cost sedan will start production in about 2 years. Fully operational Gigafactory needed. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 2, 2015 The Gigafactory is a $5 billion plant that Tesla is building near Sparks, Nevada in partnership with Panasonic. The plan is to achieve significant economies of scale at the Gigafactory, which will make the Model 3’s $35,000 price tag possible—something Musk also told us via Twitter yesterday. @elonmusk $35k price, unveil in March, preorders start then. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 2, 2015 When the Model 3 hits the streets in 2017 (assuming no Gigafactory-related delays) it won’t have as easy a time in the marketplace as the Model S, which even now still has no real competition. Chevrolet is launching the Bolt next year, a $30,000 EV which will match Tesla’s 200-mile (321km) range. However, Tesla has cleverly positioned itself as a premium brand with the Model S (and forthcoming Model X). Leveraging that cachet to move Model 3s seems like a no-brainer. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Tesla’s $35,000 Model 3 will start production in 2017

“NightShift” caches Netflix shows on your home network to boost speed

Are you having problems streaming Netflix? A startup called Aterlo Networks claims it has a solution: download Netflix shows and cache them locally so you can view them later without problems. Aterlo’s “ NightShift ” service could theoretically help anyone with slow home Internet connections access high-definition Netflix video. But Aterlo is primarily targeting it at satellite Internet customers who have to abide by strict data caps during the day and evening hours when most people watch streaming video. “Most satellite subscriptions in the US have a 10GB to 25GB monthly usage restriction, which effectively makes it impossible to use Netflix or other streaming video,” Aterlo CTO Scot Loach told Ars in a phone interview. Read 20 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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“NightShift” caches Netflix shows on your home network to boost speed

Sneaky adware caught accessing users’ Mac Keychain without permission

Last month, Ars chronicled a Mac app that brazenly exploited a then unpatched OS X vulnerability so the app could install itself without requiring people to enter system passwords. Now, researchers have found the same highly questionable installer is accessing people’s Mac keychain without permission. The adware taking these liberties is distributed by Israel-based Genieo Innovation, a company that’s long been known to push adware and other unwanted apps . According to researchers at Malwarebytes, the Genieo installer automatically accesses a list of Safari extensions  that, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, is stashed inside the Mac Keychain  alongside passwords for iCloud, Gmail, and other important accounts. Genieo acquires this access by very briefly displaying a message asking for permission to open the Safari extensions and then automatically clicking the accompanying OK button before a user has time to respond or possibly even notice what’s taking place. With that, Genieo installs an extension known as Leperdvil. The following three-second video captures the entire thing: Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Sneaky adware caught accessing users’ Mac Keychain without permission

Microsoft, Google, Amazon, others, aim for royalty-free video codecs

Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, Cisco, Intel, Netflix, and Amazon today launched a new consortium, the Alliance for Open Media. The group plans to develop next-generation media formats—including audio and still images, but with video as the top priority—and deliver them as royalty-free open source, suitable for both commercial and noncommercial content. The issue of patent licenses and royalties continues to plague the video industry. While H.264/AVC video had relatively cheap licensing, it looks as if its successor, H.265/HEVC, is going to be considerably more expensive . Organizations that derive significant income from patent royalties and IP licensing weren’t happy with the low-cost model used for H.264, and so are pushing back. This is a great threat to open source and non-commercial streaming, which has no obvious way to pay the royalties. The HEVC royalty structure would even threaten the viability of commercial streamers such as Netflix. The Alliance for Open Media would put an end to this problem. The group’s first aim is to produce a video codec that’s a meaningful improvement on HEVC. Many of the members already have their own work on next-generation codecs; Cisco has Thor , Mozilla has been working on Daala , and Google on VP9 and VP10. Daala and Thor are both also under consideration by the IETF’s netvc working group, which is similarly trying to assemble a royalty-free video codec. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Microsoft, Google, Amazon, others, aim for royalty-free video codecs

Tesla strikes deal to buy lithium hydroxide mined in northern Mexico

On Friday, Tesla struck a deal with mining companies Bacanora Minerals Ltd and Rare Earth Minerals Plc. to purchase lithium compounds from a proposed mining site in northern Mexico. The mine is not functional yet—the deal requires the mining companies to raise funding to construct a mine as well as processing facilities over the next two years. But as the supply contract published by Bacanora  (PDF) states, the companies project that once the mine is up and running, it will be able to supply 35,000 tons of lithium compounds (namely, lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate) per year at first, eventually expanding to 50,000 tons per year. Tesla has agreed to purchase a minimum amount of lithium hydroxide from Bacanora Minerals and Rare Earth Minerals for five years after the mine becomes operational, with the potential to extend the agreement. In exchange, the mining companies will sell their mined materials to Tesla at below market rate, the Wall Street Journal reports . Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Tesla strikes deal to buy lithium hydroxide mined in northern Mexico

City of Chicago sues red light camera maker Redflex for more than $300 million

Red light cameras in Arizona. Robert Couse-Baker The city of Chicago has joined a lawsuit against Redflex, an Australian company that sold the city red light cameras starting in 2003. Redflex announced the legal action in a statement to stockholders  (PDF) today, sending the company’s already-suffering stock down to $0.17 per share. The suit alleges  (PDF) that Redflex bribed a former Department of Transportation manager, John Bills, with $2 million in kickbacks to secure contracts with the city. The debacle has already resulted in corruption convictions, and the company’s CEO, Karen Finley, pleaded guilty to bribery earlier this year. Beyond these issues, Redflex cameras have been implicated in faulty ticketing accusations , with the company’s cameras allegedly issuing some 13,000 undeserved tickets to motorists in 2014. Redflex cameras have reportedly raised more than $500 million in traffic fines since 2003, according to the Chicago Tribune . Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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City of Chicago sues red light camera maker Redflex for more than $300 million