Tag: news

NASCAR Team Pays Ransomware Fee To Recover Files Worth $2 Million

An anonymous reader writes: “NASCAR team Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing (CSLFR) revealed today it faced a ransomware infection this past April when it almost lost access to crucial files worth nearly $2 million, containing car parts lists and custom high-profile simulations that would have taken 1, 500 man-hours to replicate, ” reports Softpedia. “The infection took place on the computer belonging to CSLFR’s crew chief. Winston’s staff detected the infection when encrypted files from Winston’s computer began syncing to their joint Dropbox account.” It was later discovered that he was infected with the TeslaCrypt ransomware. Because the team had no backups of the crucial data, they eventually paid the ransom (around $500). This happened before TeslaCrypt’s authors decided to shut down their operations and release free decryption keys. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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NASCAR Team Pays Ransomware Fee To Recover Files Worth $2 Million

Federal Court: The Fourth Amendment Does Not Protect Your Home Computer

An anonymous reader writes: The EFF reports that a federal court in Virginia today ruled that a criminal defendant has no “reasonable expectation of privacy” in his personal computer (PDF), located inside his home. The court says the federal government does not need a warrant to hack into an individual’s computer. EFF reports: “The implications for the decision, if upheld, are staggering: law enforcement would be free to remotely search and seize information from your computer, without a warrant, without probable cause, or without any suspicion at all. To say the least, the decision is bad news for privacy. But it’s also incorrect as a matter of law, and we expect there is little chance it would hold up on appeal. (It also was not the central component of the judge’s decision, which also diminishes the likelihood that it will become reliable precedent.) But the decision underscores a broader trend in these cases: courts across the country, faced with unfamiliar technology and unsympathetic defendants, are issuing decisions that threaten everyone’s rights. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Federal Court: The Fourth Amendment Does Not Protect Your Home Computer

Businesses Lose $3.1 Billion to Email Scams, FBI Warns

Business have lost over $3 billion because of compromised e-mail accounts, the FBI reports, citing “a sophisticated scam targeting businesses working with foreign suppliers and/or businesses that regularly perform wire transfer payments.” 22, 143 business have been affected — 14, 302 within the U.S. — with a total dollar loss of $3, 086, 250, 090, representing an increase of 1, 300% since January of 2015. Using social engineering or “computer intrusion techniques, ” the attackers target employees responsible for wire transfers (or issuing checks) using five scenarios, which include bogus invoices or executive requests for a wire transfer of funds, with some attackers even impersonating a corporate law firm. “Victims report that IP addresses frequently trace back to free domain registrars, ” warns the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, which also urges businesses to avoid free web-based e-mail accounts. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Businesses Lose $3.1 Billion to Email Scams, FBI Warns

Watts Bar Unit 2 Is The First New US Nuclear Reactor In Decades

tomhath writes from a report via The Washington Post: The Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Watts Bar Unit 2 is the first nuclear reactor to come online since 1996, when the Watts Bar Unit 1 started operations. The new reactor is designed to add 1, 150 megawatts of electricity generating capacity to southeastern Tennessee. By summer’s end, authorities expect the new reactor at this complex along the Chickamauga Reservoir, a dammed section of the Tennessee River extending northward from Chattanooga, to steadily generate enough electricity to power 650, 000 homes. But while nuclear reactors account for the lion’s share of the carbon-free electricity generated in the United States, the industry faces this new set of circumstances in a state of near-crisis. A combination of very cheap natural gas and deregulated energy markets in some states has led to a growing number of plant closures in recent years. A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance says that renewable energy, including solar, wind and hydroelectric will overtake natural gas as an energy source by 2027. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Watts Bar Unit 2 Is The First New US Nuclear Reactor In Decades

Remains of the Day: Waze Can Now Reroute Around Difficult Intersections in LA

I’m the sort of skittish driver who will take three right turns in order to avoid an annoying left turn at a difficult intersection, so Waze’s new feature is just for me. If you live in LA, the navigation app can now reroute you around those pesky intersections with bad visibility and other problems. Read more…

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Remains of the Day: Waze Can Now Reroute Around Difficult Intersections in LA

Rolls-Royce Unveils First Driverless Car Complete With Silk ‘Throne’

An anonymous reader writes: Rolls-Royce has unveiled its first driverless vehicle dubbed The Vision Next 100. It is an autonomous vehicle aimed at “the most discerning and powerful patrons in the world.” There’s no steering wheel but there is a silk “throne” where passengers can sit and stare out the window. Rolls-Royce said the zero-emission model, codenamed 103EX, showed the company “rejects the notion of anonymous, utilitarian and bland future modes of mobility.” The owner will be “encircled by the most modern handcrafted fine-line Macassar wood panelling” as they gaze at a “generous” high-definition television display. In addition to the “finest one-off deep-pile ivory wool carpet, ” the vehicle features a virtual assistant named Eleanor, inspired after the actor Eleanor Thornton. It will be able to remind users about meetings; it will even bring the car around to the front of the owner’s house at the start of a journey. “As the Rolls-Royce Vision Next 100 gracefully comes to a halt, something magnificent occurs, ” the company said. The glass roof rises to allow the occupant to stand, while a step emerges from below the running board and a red light is projected, “carpet-like” to announce their arrival. Rolls-Royce did not say how the vehicle would be powered or how much it costs, but it did say it’s due to hit the streets in the 2040s. You can watch a 360-degree video of the 103EX the company posted on YouTube. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Rolls-Royce Unveils First Driverless Car Complete With Silk ‘Throne’

Twitter Invests $70 Million In Music Streaming Service SoundCloud

An anonymous reader writes: Recode reports that Twitter has decided to purchase a piece of the music streaming service SoundCloud. Roughly two years ago, Twitter thought about buying SoundCloud, but ultimately ended up walking away from the music service. Now, Twitter has invested around $70 million “as part of a round that should end up in the $100 million-range.” Recode reports: “The round is expected to value SoundCloud at about $700 million — the same value that investors placed on the company in 2014, when it raised $60 million; since then it has also raised a debt round.” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wouldn’t comment on the specifics, but did confirm Twitter’s stake in the company. “Earlier this year we made an investment in SoundCloud through Twitter Ventures to help support some of our efforts with creators, ” said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. “They’ve been great partners of ours over the years and their community-supported approach mirrors ours in many ways.” Twitter may try and integrate SoundCloud into its service to increase growth and engagement, while SoundCloud may try and use Twitter to promote its newly launched subscription service. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Twitter Invests $70 Million In Music Streaming Service SoundCloud

The Biggest Maker of Raspberry Pis Has Been Acquired For $871 Million

An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Verge: The biggest manufacturer of the Raspberry Pi minicomputer, Premier Farnell, has been acquired by Swiss industrial component supplier Daetwyler Holding AG for roughly $871 million. According to Bloomberg, the deal will reportedly help both companies compete better in the components market. “By combining forces, we significantly increase our competitiveness and extend our product range, ” Daetwyler Chairman Ulrich said in a statement, “facilitating a one-stop shopping experience for our wide range of customers from a multitude of industries.” Premier Farnell is one of the only companies with a license to design and distribute Raspberry Pis. The Wall Street Journal says the Raspberry Pi devices are a big part of the company’s business, as the division in charge of the Pi raked in 16 percent of the company’s total revenue last year. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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The Biggest Maker of Raspberry Pis Has Been Acquired For $871 Million

Microsoft announces a new super-powered Xbox console: Project Scorpio

Microsoft and Oculus announced a close partnership at last year’s E3, but we haven’t seen much out of it just yet. That’s changing today, as Microsoft just announced a new version of the Xbox console — one that’s optimized to work with 4K visuals and high-quality VR out of the box. Project Scorpio will launch at the Holiday season in 2017, but most notable is the fact that all games and all accessories will work across the Xbox One, the Xbox One S and Project Scorpio. Microsoft showed off a video in which a number of developers touted the console’s massive power — it’ll feature “true” 4K resolution, 6 teraflops of GPU power and will run at 60Hz. It’ll of course be VR-ready, and Bethesda noted it’ll run Fallout 4 in VR, as announced last night. While Microsoft didn’t mention Oculus by name, the two companies have a partnership that was announced at last year’s E3 . So it seems highly likely that the Rift will be the headset of choice for Project Scorpio. Phil Spencer alluded to such a development earlier this year , saying that he envisioned a future in which your game library stayed with you and in which consoles were upgraded faster in a more PC-like fashion. Naturally, there’s no word on price yet, and we’re guessing Project Scorpio won’t be the console’s launch name. But Microsoft’s biggest fans clearly have a lot to look forward to in the coming year or so — the big question for those who don’t own an Xbox will be whether to buy a Xbox One S, or wait until next year for Project Scorpio. But at least if you buy the One S, all your games will work if you upgrade to Scorpio. Follow all the news from E3 2016 here !

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Microsoft announces a new super-powered Xbox console: Project Scorpio

‘Skyrim Special Edition’ is the remaster you asked for

The rumors are true : We’re getting a prettier version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Developer Bethesda ported the original game to this round of modern consoles as part of the development process for last year’s wildly popular Fallout 4 , so it was just a matter of time before we actually saw it. And guess what? Mods are coming with it, thanks to Bethesda’s framework that allows players to use fan-made customizations on consoles. This new version of the game looks really well-improved in the visual department too and you can check it out in the trailer embedded below. Does mod support mean that we’ll see the game’s dragons replaced with My Little Ponies ? It certainly sounds like it. Let’s hope that Bethesda has that pesky piracy situation under control soon. Time to get those vocal cords ready for all the shouting (FUS RO DAH) you’ll be doing come October 28th when it launches for new-gen consoles. Follow all the news from E3 2016 here !

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‘Skyrim Special Edition’ is the remaster you asked for