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A brief history of Bitcoin hacks and frauds

Enlarge (credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images ) There’s a lot of excitement about Bitcoin right now, with the value of the cryptocurrency recently soaring above $11,000—more than 10 times its value at the start of the year. This has caused many people to wonder if they should be getting involved in the Bitcoin craze. But it’s important to keep in mind that participating in the Bitcoin economy comes with big risks. Over the years, the Bitcoin world has been plagued by hacks, scams, and abusive practices. Users who don’t take appropriate precautions can lose everything. Here we present a short history of the Bitcoin world’s most significant scams and hacks. It’s worth noting that all of these attacks were against Bitcoin-related services, not the core Bitcoin software. As far as we know, the Bitcoin network itself is highly secure, though of course that’s little comfort if you entrust your bitcoins to a third party who gets hacked. Read 25 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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A brief history of Bitcoin hacks and frauds

Quentin Tarantino said he preferred Trek over Star Wars, now he has a film idea

Enlarge / “Spock, the funny thing about the Beta Quadrant is the little differences . They’ve got the same shit over there they got here, but it’s just a little different.” (credit: CBS via Getty Images) This evening, both Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter dropped reports that would cut through any diehard sports- or politics fan’s timeline. High aesthetic, foul-mouth dialogue auteur Quentin Tarantino reportedly has an idea for a new  Star Trek  movie, and he’s already approached Trek  cinema careholder JJ Abrams. Both entertainment outlets confirm the two now plan on bringing a writers room together for Paramount to flush things out. Tarantino’s resume speaks for itself, from  Jackie Brown  and  Pulp Fiction  through  Django Unchained  and  The Hateful Eight.  He’s one of the most distinct modern filmmakers with an easy to recognize (and parody ) style. The director has worked with other creators’ IPs before ( Jackie Brown  comes from the great Elmore Leonard, for instance), but a  Trek  film would represent the first time he dabbled in an established major movie franchise. (Deadline notes he has dabbled in TV franchises like  CSI  and  ER. ) Of course, an idea and a writers room promise does not guarantee a movie. Tarantino already has a Charles Manson-ish movie in progress for 2019, while Abrams recently agreed to come back to the  Star Wars  franchise with  Episode IX.  And Paramount already expressed a desire for a fourth Chris Pine-led  Trek  installment to follow up the ehhh that was last year’s Star Trek Beyond.  The studio did not respond to requests for comment from either Hollywood publication, so there’s no clarity on whether Tarantino’s interest would impact those plans. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Quentin Tarantino said he preferred Trek over Star Wars, now he has a film idea

DOJ names Iranian as hacker who stole unaired episodes from HBO

Enlarge / Acting US Attorney Joon H. Kim speaks during a press conference at the US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, on September 26, 2017. (credit: Kevin Hagen/Getty Images ) On Tuesday, federal authorities in New York indicted Behzad Mesri, an Iranian citizen, accusing him of hacking HBO earlier this year. Seeing as Iran and the United States lack an extradition treaty, it is unlikely that Mesri will be sent to the United States to face the charges, unless he somehow decides to come to the states of his own volition. According to prosecutors, Mesri stole unaired episodes of Game of Thrones , Curb Your Enthusiasm , and other popular shows. He then allegedly demanded a ransom of $5.5 million, payable in Bitcoin. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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DOJ names Iranian as hacker who stole unaired episodes from HBO

Report: Uber paid hackers $100,000 to keep 2016 data breach quiet

Enlarge (credit: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images ) In a public statement, Uber has announced that it sustained a massive data breach in 2016: 57 million customers’ and drivers’ names, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers were compromised. According to Bloomberg , no trip location info, credit card information, or Social Security numbers was taken. Uber did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Report: Uber paid hackers $100,000 to keep 2016 data breach quiet

Google Fiber now sells $55-per-month gigabit Internet (in one city)

Enlarge / A Google Fiber installation box in Kansas City, Kansas. (credit: Julie Denesha/Bloomberg via Getty Images ) Google Fiber’s gigabit Internet service has consistently been priced at $70 a month since it launched in 2012, but it’s now available for just $55 in the ISP’s latest city. Google Fiber in San Antonio, Texas comes in just one speed tier , offering 1Gbps download and upload speeds at the rate of $55 a month. Google Fiber charges $70 a month for standalone gigabit service in all other cities where it offers wired Internet service. “[I]n San Antonio, we’ve priced our Fiber 1000 (1,000Mbps) service at $55 per month,” Google Fiber said in an announcement yesterday . “There’s no installation fee, no hidden fees, no contracts, and no data caps.” Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Google Fiber now sells $55-per-month gigabit Internet (in one city)

Delhi becomes “gas chamber” as air pollution reaches ludicrous levels

Enlarge / Indian visitors walk through the courtyard of Jama Masjid amid heavy smog in the old quarters of New Delhi on November 8, 2017. SAJJAD HUSSAIN/ AFP/ Getty Images) With calm winds, seasonal crop burns, and the usual vehicle and industrial emissions, an extremely thick, toxic fog of pollution has settled on Delhi, choking and sickening residents. Pollution measurements and indexes have exceeded charted ranges, blowing past the highest categorized levels dubbed “severe” and hazardous to health. In some areas of the gigantic metropolitan area, measurements of certain pollutants were around 30 times the levels considered safe by the World Health Organization. Local journalists reported that the smog is causing throat irritation, wheezing, nausea, vomiting, and extreme fatigue. Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, took to Twitter to call the city a “ gas chamber .” Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Delhi becomes “gas chamber” as air pollution reaches ludicrous levels

What happened to Las Vegas shooter’s hard drive? It’s a mystery

Enlarge / Vehicles drive past a Las Vegas billboard featuring a Federal Bureau of Investigation tip line number on Interstate 515. On October 1, Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured more than 450 after he opened fire on a large crowd at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival. (credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Local and federal investigators still have not come up with a motive that sparked a Nevada man to commit one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history. More than three weeks after Stephen Paddock opened fire and killed 58 people and wounded hundreds of others attending a country music festival below his Las Vegas hotel room, authorities appear stumped about uncovering a critical piece of information—Paddock’s hard drive—that could potentially lead them to other suspects. Stephen Paddock. (credit: Facebook ) Some madmen leave behind manifestos of sorts, like the one from Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber. His 35,000-word manifesto railing against technology  paved the way for his 1996 arrest after his brother, David, realized it was written by his sibling. Paddock, who killed himself in his Mandalay Bay hotel room after the October 1 shooting rampage, hasn’t left any hint of a motive to explain his murders. The FBI is currently examining computers and cellphones in the FBI’s lab in Quantico tied to the Paddock case. However, a hard drive in a laptop found in the shooter’s hotel room is now missing, according to The Associated Press . Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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What happened to Las Vegas shooter’s hard drive? It’s a mystery

Supreme Court: Hacking conviction stands for man who didn’t hack computer

Enlarge / Front row from left, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, and Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, back row from left, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Samuel Alito Jr., Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch. (credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images ) On Tuesday, the Supreme Court let stand the novel hacking conviction of a man who did not hack a computer to gain unauthorized access. The justices, without comment, turned away the the appeal of David Nosal, who was convicted of three counts under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) hacking statute. Nosal’s conviction was based on a hacking conspiracy of sorts. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Supreme Court: Hacking conviction stands for man who didn’t hack computer

“NSFW” doesn’t begin to describe Bluetooth security in sex toys

Enlarge (credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) Technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) have allowed an increasing number of devices to be controlled by mobile devices. But as Ars has reported in the past, BLE devices also can be a privacy and security risk. And as Alex Lomas of Pentest Partners  found recently, some of these vulnerable devices are of a very personal nature. Lomas discovered that he could relatively easily search for and hijack BLE-enabled sex toys—a pursuit he named “screwdriving” (after the Wi-Fi network finding practice of “wardriving”). Lomas performed a security analysis on a number of BLE-enabled sex toys, including the Lovesense Hush—a BLE-connected butt plug designed to allow control by the owner’s smartphone or remotely from a partner’s phone via the device’s mobile application. Using a Bluetooth “dongle” and antenna, Lomas was able to intercept and capture the BLE transmissions between the devices and their associated applications. As it turns out, reverse-engineering the control messages between apps and a number of devices was not terribly difficult—the communications between the apps and the toys were not encrypted and could easily be recorded with a packet capture tool. They could also be replayed by an attacker, since the devices accepted pairing requests without a PIN code—allowing anyone to take over control of them. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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“NSFW” doesn’t begin to describe Bluetooth security in sex toys

A series of delays and major errors led to massive Equifax breach

Enlarge / A monitor displays Equifax Inc. signage on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York on Friday, September 15, 2017. (credit: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images ) A series of costly delays and crucial errors caused Equifax to remain unprotected for months against one of the most severe Web application vulnerabilities in years, the former CEO for the credit reporting service said in written testimony investigating the massive breach that exposed sensitive data for as many as 143 million US Consumers . Chief among the failures: an Equifax e-mail directing administrators to patch a critical vulnerability in the open source Apache Struts Web application framework went unheeded, despite a two-day deadline to comply. Equifax also waited a week to scan its network for apps that remained vulnerable. Even then, the delayed scan failed to detect that the code-execution flaw still resided in a section of the sprawling Equifax site that allows consumers to dispute information they believe is incorrect. Equifax said last month that the still-unidentified attackers gained an initial hold in the network by exploiting the critical Apache Struts vulnerability . “We at Equifax clearly understood that the collection of American consumer information and data carries with it enormous responsibility to protect that data,” Smith wrote in testimony provided to the US House Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection . “We did not live up to that responsibility.” Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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A series of delays and major errors led to massive Equifax breach