Watch a Cat Video, Get Hacked: the Death of Clear-Text

New submitter onproton writes: Citizen Lab released new research today on a targeted exploitation technique used by state actors involving “network injection appliances” installed at ISPs. These devices can target and intercept unencrypted YouTube traffic and replace it with malicious code that gives the operator control over the system or installs a surveillance backdoor. One of the researchers writes, “many otherwise well-informed people think they have to do something wrong, or stupid, or insecure to get hacked—like clicking on the wrong attachments, or browsing malicious websites…many of these commonly held beliefs are not necessarily true.” This technique is largely designed for targeted attacks, so it’s likely most of us will be safe for now — but just one more reminder to use https. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Watch a Cat Video, Get Hacked: the Death of Clear-Text

Cisco To Slash Up To 6,000 Jobs — 8% of Its Workforce — In "Reorganization"

alphadogg (971356) writes “Cisco Systems will cut as many as 6, 000 jobs over the next 12 months, saying it needs to shift resources to growing businesses such as cloud, software and security. The move will be a reorganization rather than a net reduction, the company said. It needs to cut jobs because the product categories where it sees the strongest growth, such as security, require special skills, so it needs to make room for workers in those areas, it said. ‘If we don’t have the courage to change, if we don’t lead the change, we will be left behind, ‘ Chairman and CEO John Chambers said on a conference call.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Cisco To Slash Up To 6,000 Jobs — 8% of Its Workforce — In "Reorganization"

Google Is Backing a New $300 Million High-Speed Internet Trans-Pacific Cable

An anonymous reader writes Google has announced it is backing plans to build and operate a new high-speed internet Trans-Pacific cable system called “FASTER.” In addition to Google, the $300 million project will be jointly managed by China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Global Transit, KDDI, and SingTel, with NEC as the system supplier. FASTER will feature the latest high-quality 6-fiber-pair cable and optical transmission technologies. The initial design capacity is expected to be 60Tb/s (100Gb/s x 100 wavelengths x 6 fiber-pairs), connecting the US with two locations in Japan. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Google Is Backing a New $300 Million High-Speed Internet Trans-Pacific Cable

Chicago Mayor Praises Google For Buying Kids Microsoft Surfaces

theodp (442580) writes “Google earned kudos from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel this week for teaming up with Staples to fund the projects of 367 of the city’s 22, 519 public school teachers on “begfunding” site DonorsChoose.org. “Everything that you asked for…every project that the teachers put on to help their students learn, exceed and excel here in the city of Chicago, you now have fully funded, ” Mayor Emanuel said. “Chicago’s hardworking public school teachers are doing all that they can-and more-to support their students, but they need more help, ” said Rob Biederman, head of Chicago Public Affairs at Google. “We jumped at the chance to join with DonorsChoose.org and Staples to make Chicago’s local classroom wishes come true.” So what kind of dreams did Google make possible? Ironically, a look at Google Chicago’s Giving Page shows that the biggest project funded by Google was to outfit a classroom with 32 Microsoft Surface RT tablets for $12, 531, or about 6.5% of the $190, 091 Google award. Other big ticket projects funded by Google included $5, 931 for a personal home biodiesel kit and $5, 552 for a marimba (in the middle of the spectrum was $748 for “Mindfulness Education”). In addition to similar “flash-funding” projects in Atlanta (paper towels!) and the Bay Area, Google and DonorsChoose have also teamed up this year to reward teachers with $400, 000 for recruiting girls to learn to code (part of Google’s $50 million Made With Code initiative) and an unknown amount for AP STEM teachers who passed Google muster (part of Google’s $5 million AP STEM Access grant).” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Chicago Mayor Praises Google For Buying Kids Microsoft Surfaces

Disney Research 3D-Prints Figurines With the Most Lifelike Hair Ever

3D printing can make an action figure copy of your body and face, but the hair usually ends up looking like a Lego minifig wig. The mad scientists at Disney Research just solved that, with an algorithm so powerful it can trace your hair’s shape and color with ultra-realism. Read more…

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Disney Research 3D-Prints Figurines With the Most Lifelike Hair Ever

Network Hijacker Steals $83,000 In Bitcoin

An anonymous reader writes with news that bogus BGP announcements can be used to hijack work done by cryptocurrency mining pools. Quoting El Reg: Researchers at Dell’s SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit (CTU) have identified an exploit that can be used to steal cryptocurrency from mining pools — and they claim that at least one unknown miscreant has already used the technique to pilfer tens of thousands of dollars in digital cash. The heist was achieved by using bogus Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) broadcasts to hijack networks belonging to multiple large hosting companies, including Amazon, Digital Ocean, and OVH, among others. After sending the fake BGP updates miners unknowingly contributed work to the attackers’ pools. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Network Hijacker Steals $83,000 In Bitcoin

Idiot Leaves Driver’s Seat In Self-Driving Infiniti, On the Highway

cartechboy writes Self-driving cars are coming, that’s nothing new. People are somewhat nervous about this technology, and that’s also not news. But it appears self-driving cars are already hear, and one idiot was dumb enough to climb out of the driver’s seat while his car cruised down the highway. The car in question is a new Infiniti Q50 which has Active Lane Control and adaptive cruise control. Both of which essentially turn the Q50 into an autonomous vehicle while at highway speeds. While impressive, taking yourself out of a position where you can quickly and safely regain control of the car if needed is simply dumb. After watching the video, it’s abundantly clear why people should be nervous about autonomous vehicles. It’s not the cars and tech we need to worry about, it’s idiots like this guy. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Idiot Leaves Driver’s Seat In Self-Driving Infiniti, On the Highway

A Comprehensive Guide to TextExpander

Text expansion apps are a great way to save time when you find yourself typing the same information repeatedly, but they can do much more than that. One our favorites is TextExpander on Mac, and it’s a powerful tool once you learn how to use it. Read more…

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A Comprehensive Guide to TextExpander

Synolocker 0-Day Ransomware Puts NAS Files At Risk

Deathlizard (115856) writes “Have a Synology NAS? Is it accessible to the internet? If it is, You might want to take it offline for a while. Synolocker is a 0-day ransomware that once installed, will encrypt all of the NAS’s files and hold them for ransom just like Cryptolocker does for windows PC’s. The Virus is currently exploiting an unknown vulnerability to spread. Synology is investagating the issue.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Synolocker 0-Day Ransomware Puts NAS Files At Risk

This is why Facebook bought WhatsApp for $16 billion: because its throughput of shared photographs i

This is why Facebook bought WhatsApp for $16 billion : because its throughput of shared photographs is astronomical, and rising at an insane rate. (See also, the purchase of Instagram and the crazy offer for Snapchat .) [ KPCB ] Read more…

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This is why Facebook bought WhatsApp for $16 billion: because its throughput of shared photographs i