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Hacker Steals $30 Million Worth of Ethereum From Parity Multi-Sig Wallets

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bleeping Computer: An unknown hacker has used a vulnerability in an Ethereum wallet client to steal over 153, 000 Ether, worth over $30 million dollars. The hack was possible due to a flaw in the Parity Ethereum client. The vulnerability allowed the hacker to exfiltrate funds from multi-sig wallets created with Parity clients 1.5 and later. Parity 1.5 was released on January 19, 2017. The attack took place around 19:00-20:00 UTC and was immediately spotted by Parity, a company founded by Gavin Wood, Ethereum’s founder. The company issued a security alert on its blog. The Ether stolen from Parity multi-sig accounts was transferred into this Ethereum wallet, currently holding 153, 017.021336727 Ether. Because Parity spotted the attack in time, a group named “The White Hat Group” used the same vulnerability to drain the rest of Ether stored in other Parity wallets that have not yet been stolen by the hacker. This money now resides in this Ethereum wallet. According to messages posted on Reddit and in a Gitter chat, The White Hat Group appears to be formed of security researchers and members of the Ethereum Project that have taken it into their own hands to secure funds in vulnerable wallets. Based on a message the group posted online, they plan to return the funds they took. Their wallet currently holds 377, 116.819319439311671493 Ether, which is over $76 million. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tesla will open ‘2 or 3’ more Gigafactories in the US

It’s no secret that Tesla wants to open Gigafactories around the world to keep up with demand for electric cars and storage batteries , but how many of those will open in the US? Now we know: Elon Musk has confirmed that “2 or 3” additional factories will open in the US over the “next few years.” He’s not offering a firm timetable, to no one’s surprise (the first factory isn’t even finished yet), but the news makes it clearer than ever that Tesla expects plenty of demand . Musk was definitely strategic with the announcement. He was speaking in front of the National Governors Association, which is full of politicians looking for economic opportunities — he’s no doubt hoping that governors will jockey for a Gigafactory (and offer incentives) in their state. At the same time, though, it may be a realistic forecast. Musk expects most new cars in the US to be EVs within 10 years, and to virtually dominate the market in 20. If Tesla doesn’t have enough factories in place, it risks losing business as electric transportation hits the mainstream. The talk also saw Musk weigh in on a few other topics. He’s not opposed to self-driving car regulations , but he believes they should expire as technology evolves. Also, he believes that car security is a high priority. He notes that Tesla cars already have “special encryption” that protects vital systems like the powertrain and brakes, and he’s entertaining the idea of a kill switch (of sorts) that no hacker could touch. Don’t count on governors heeding his regulatory advice, but it won’t be surprising if future Teslas are better-equipped to deal with online threats. Via: Electrek Source: NGA (YouTube)

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Tesla will open ‘2 or 3’ more Gigafactories in the US

AlphaBay taken down by law enforcement across 3 countries, WSJ says

Enlarge / A bitcoin token stands in this arranged photograph in London, U.K., on Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017. (credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images ) AlphaBay, one of the largest Tor-hidden drug websites that sprung up in the wake of Silk Road, has been shuttered for good after a series of law enforcement raids and arrests. The site mysteriously went dark earlier this month. Some users on Reddit suspected an “exit scam,” in which AlphaBay’s founders had shuttered the site and absconded with piles of bitcoins. According to the Wall Street Journal , which reported the news on Thursday, police in the United States, Canada, and Thailand collaborated to arrest Alexandre Cazes, who allegedly was the head of the online operation. The Canadian citizen was arrested on July 5 in Thailand, the same day that two raids on residences in Quebec, Canada, were executed. On Wednesday, Cazes was found dead, hanged in his Thai jail cell. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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AlphaBay taken down by law enforcement across 3 countries, WSJ says

Los Angeles Tests Reflective ‘Cool Pavement’ On Streets

mikeebbbd writes: As reported in the Los Angeles Daily News, during the current heatwave various officials swooped down on streets coated with an experimental light-gray sealer that makes the old asphalt into a “cool street” — and it works, with average temperature differences between coated streets and adjacent old asphalt around 10F. At a large parking lot, the temperature reduction was over 20F. If the material holds up and continues to meet other criteria, LA plans to use it on more pavement rehab projects, which could eventually make a difference in the heat island effect. The “CoolSeal” coating is apparently proprietary to a company named GuardTop LLC, costs $25-40K/mile, and lasts 5-7 years. At that price, it’s might not be used a lot, at least at first; typical slurry seals run $15-30K/mile. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Los Angeles Tests Reflective ‘Cool Pavement’ On Streets

90 Cities Install A Covert Technology That Listens For Gunshots

An anonymous reader quotes Business Insider: In more than 90 cities across the US, including New York, microphones placed strategically around high-crime areas pick up the sounds of gunfire and alert police to the shooting’s location via dots on a city map… ShotSpotter also sends alerts to apps on cops’ phones. “We’ve gone to the dot and found the casings 11 feet from where the dot was, according to the GPS coordinates, ” Capt. David Salazar of the Milwaukee Police Dept. told Business Insider. “So it’s incredibly helpful. We’ve saved a lot of people’s lives.” When three microphones pick up a gunshot, ShotSpotter figures out where the sound comes from. Human analysts in the Newark, California, headquarters confirm the noise came from a gun (not a firecracker or some other source). The police can then locate the gunshot on a map and investigate the scene. The whole process happens “much faster” than dialing 911, Salazar said, though he wouldn’t disclose the exact time. The company’s CEO argues their technology deters crime by demonstrating to bad neighborhoods that police will respond quickly to gunshots. (Although last year Forbes discovered that in 30% to 70% of cases, “police found no evidence of a gunshot when they arrived.”) And in a neighborhood where ShotSpotter is installed, one 60-year-old man is already complaining, “I don’t like Big Brother being in all my business.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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90 Cities Install A Covert Technology That Listens For Gunshots

Wikimedia Executives Receive Six-figure Golden Handshakes

Andreas Kolbe writes: The Wikimedia Foundation’s (WMF) recently released Form 990 shows that the organisation has developed a practice of handing outgoing managers six-figure severance payments, The Register reports. The foundation, which relies entirely on unpaid volunteers to generate the content of its websites, has taken around $300 million dollars over the past five years through fundraising banners placed on Wikipedia. The WMF says it is “committed to communicating with our volunteers, donors, and stakeholders in an open, accountable, and timely manner”, but has long been criticised for providing little transparency on the salaries of its executives, limiting itself to the legally required Form 990 disclosures that only become public two years after the event. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Wikimedia Executives Receive Six-figure Golden Handshakes

Intel adopts e-SIM to support Microsoft’s connected PC vision

PCs are making a comeback, if the news out of Computex 2017 is any indication, and Microsoft wants to make sure they’re all constantly connected . To support that vision, Intel is making its current and future modems compatible with e-SIMs, so future laptops can connect to LTE networks without physical SIM-card trays. That’s because the technology you’d typically find in a SIM card will be embedded into its modems, so you can connect your machine just by entering a phone number and avoid having to fiddle with a tiny tray. The chip maker says it is working on validating “e-SIM-enabled always-connected platforms with multiple carriers using the Intel XMMTM 7260 modem and our upcoming Intel XMM 7360 modem.” At its keynote, Microsoft announced a slew of carriers that will support the e-SIM devices, including T-Mobile, AT&T, Vodafone and other international service providers. The always connected PC project is another part of the two brands’ Project Evo collaboration to deliver Windows devices across multiple product categories. So this could mean e-SIM-enabled speakers or VR headsets in future, too. Click here to catch up on the latest news from Computex 2017!

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Intel adopts e-SIM to support Microsoft’s connected PC vision

Bitcoin Surges 10% To All-Time High Above $2,700, Has Now Doubled in May

An anonymous reader writes: In another intraday jump of more than $200, bitcoin surged to a record Thursday on strong Asian demand overnight. Bitcoin jumped more than 10 percent to an all-time high of $2, 752.07, more than twice its April 30 price of $1, 347.96 according to CoinDesk. The digital currency last traded near $2, 726. At Thursday’s record, Bitcoin has now gained more than 45 percent since last Thursday and more than 180 percent for the year so far. “There is no question that we are in the middle of a price frenzy, ” said Brian Kelly of BKCM, in a note to clients Thursday. “There will be a correction and it could be severe, but it’s unclear if that correction will start from current prices of $2700 or from some place much higher.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Bitcoin Surges 10% To All-Time High Above $2,700, Has Now Doubled in May

New SMB Worm Uses Seven NSA Hacking Tools. WannaCry Used Just Two

An anonymous reader writes: Researchers have detected a new worm that is spreading via SMB, but unlike the worm component of the WannaCry ransomware, this one is using seven NSA tools instead of two. Named EternalRocks, the worm seems to be in a phase where it is infecting victims and building its botnet, but not delivering any malware payload. EternalRocks is far more complex than WannaCry’s SMB worm. For starters, it uses a delayed installation process that waits 24 hours before completing the install, as a way to evade sandbox environments. Further, the worm also uses the exact same filenames as WannaCry in an attempt to fool researchers of its true origin, a reason why the worm has evaded researchers almost all week, despite the attention WannaCry payloads have received. Last but not least, the worm does not have a killswitch domain, which means the worm can’t be stopped unless its author desires so. Because of the way it was designed, it is trivial for the worm’s owner to deliver any type of malware to any of the infected computers. Unfortunately, because of the way he used the DOUBLEPULSAR implant, one of the seven NSA hacking tools, other attackers can hijack its botnet and deliver their own malware as well. IOCs are available in a GitHub repo. Ars Technica quotes security researchers who say “there are at least three different groups that have been leveraging the NSA exploit to infect enterprise networks since late April… These attacks demonstrate that many endpoints may still be compromised despite having installed the latest security patch.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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New SMB Worm Uses Seven NSA Hacking Tools. WannaCry Used Just Two

1.9 Million Bell Customer Email Addresses Stolen By ‘Anonymous Hacker’

Bell, Canada’s largest telecommunications company, said a hacker had accessed customer information containing about 1.9 million active email addresses and about 1, 700 names and active phone numbers. The breach was not connected to the recent global WannaCry malware attacks, the company added. From a report: The information appears to have been posted online, but the company could not confirm the leaked data was one and the same. “There is no indication that any financial, password or other sensitive personal information was accessed, ” the company wrote in a statement. Bell said the incident was unrelated to the massive spike in ransomware infections that affected an estimated 200, 000 computers in more than 150 countries late last week. It is not clear when the breach occurred, how the data was accessed, or how long the attacker had access to Bell’s systems. Read more of this story at Slashdot.