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Biggest DDoS ever aimed at Cloudflare’s content delivery network

Ruthanne Reid A distributed denial-of-service attack targeting a client of the content delivery network Cloudflare reached new highs in malicious traffic today , striking at the company’s data centers in Europe and the US. According to a Twitter post by Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, the full volume of the attack exceeded 400 gigabits per second—making it the largest DDoS attack ever recorded. The attack used Network Time Protocol (NTP) reflection , the same technique used in recent attacks against gaming sites by a group called DERP Trolling. NTP is used to synchronize the time settings on computers across the Internet. The attack made fraudulent synchronization requests to NTP servers that caused them to send a flood of replies back at the targeted sites. Reflection attacks have been a mainstay of DDoS tools and botnets, but the use of NTP in such attacks is relatively new. Last year’s attack on Spamhaus , which previously set the record for the largest DDoS ever, used a Domain Name Service (DNS) protocol attack—a much more common approach that takes advantage of the Internet’s directory service, forging requests for DNS lookups from the intended target and sending them to scores of open DNS servers. The size of the traffic directed back at the target from these requests far exceeds the size of the requests sent to the DNS servers, which is why the technique is often called a DNS amplification attack. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Spectacular new Martian impact crater spotted from orbit

NASA/JPL/University of Arizona Yesterday, the team that runs the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter released the photo shown above. It’s a new impact crater on Mars, formed sometime early this decade. The crater at the center is about 30 meters in diameter, and the material ejected during its formation extends out as far as 15 kilometers. The impact was originally spotted by the MRO’s Context Camera , a wide-field imaging system that (wait for it) provides the context—an image of the surrounding terrain—for the high-resolution images taken by HiRISE. The time window on the impact, between July 2010 and May 2012, simply represents the time between two different Context Camera photos of the same location. Once the crater was spotted, it took until November of 2013 for another pass of the region, at which point HiRISE was able to image it. Higher-resolution photos, as well as a map of the crater’s location on Mars, are available from the HiRISE website. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Spectacular new Martian impact crater spotted from orbit

Newegg’s answer to Amazon Prime: $50 per year for expedited shipping

Newegg If you’re the type of person who makes electronics purchases on a whim but then agonizes over which shipping to choose, you may be happy to hear about Newegg Premier . Taking a page out of Amazon’s playbook, the venerable electronics retailer launched its “Newegg Premier” program on Tuesday. For $50 per year, subscribers will get “free expedited shipping” of three days or less, early-access to sales, free and no-fee returns, and a “dedicated customer service telephone number” (all similar benefits to Amazon Prime). But unlike its competitor, Newegg Premier won’t give you access to Alpha House (sorry, John Goodman) or any of the company’s other online media. “We always seek ways to improve the customer experience, and implementing a benefit program is the latest example of how we’re making it easier and more rewarding to shop at Newegg.com,” said Soren Mills, chief marketing officer of Newegg North America, in a statement . “Free expedited shipping is in itself a great benefit, but beyond that we’re including many other perks to enhance the shopping experience.” Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Newegg’s answer to Amazon Prime: $50 per year for expedited shipping

Dread Pirate Roberts 2.0: An interview with Silk Road’s new boss

Aurich Lawson Silk Road, the infamous and anonymous online marketplace specializing in illicit goods, sells everything from pot to black tar heroin. If you can smoke it, inject it, or snort it, there’s a good chance Silk Road has it. Well, had it. Late last year, the FBI burst into a local branch of the San Francisco Public Library and arrested one Ross Ulbricht, the alleged kingpin who ran the site. It all happened while Ulbricht’s laptop was open and he was logged into his encrypted accounts. In the days that followed, the feds dropped a host of charges on Ulbricht, including several salacious accusations that Ulbricht attempted to arrange hits on various people he thought had betrayed him or blackmailed him. The feds also arrested several people accused of being major sellers, creating anxiety for those who ever bought or sold on the site. The Silk Road was closed . It didn’t take long to return. Just as the previous Silk Road operator had done, the new owner called himself “Dread Pirate Roberts” (DPR). The name came from a character in The Princess Bride who passes his piratical business down from one individual to the next, each of whom uses the same name to ensure continuity. So in a move that would seem to tempt fate, the new DPR built another version of Silk Road and restarted the drug marketplace. Read 42 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Dread Pirate Roberts 2.0: An interview with Silk Road’s new boss

Intel closes AppUp, its PC app store (Intel had a PC app store?)

We’re apparently not the only ones who forgot AppUp was a thing—the store closes in March. Intel Intel’s AppUp store for Windows apps has been around since January of 2010, though you could be forgiven for forgetting about it. Intel apparently wants to forget, too: the company announced today that the AppUp store will be closing its doors on March 11, 2014, “after which no new content or apps will be available for download.” An extensive FAQ about the closing covers most of the important facts. E-mail support for AppUp apps will be available until June 15, 2014. The AppUp client application and some apps will continue to function after the store closes, but many applications “require communication with the AppUp client and may not work after May 15, 2014.” Apps purchased through AppUp will no longer receive updates once the store closes, nor will Intel be able to send product keys for keyed apps after March 11. If you want to download the AppUp client and install it now, you’ll either need to find it from another download source or contact Intel customer service. Intel is offering refunds for some paid apps here , but that page isn’t yet functional, and it’s not clear what criteria a purchase will need to meet to be eligible for a refund. Refunds will only be available between now and December 19, 2014. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Intel closes AppUp, its PC app store (Intel had a PC app store?)

Amazon mulling price hike for Amazon Prime shipping and streaming service

Amazon has just reported its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2013 . According to The Verge , Amazon CFO Tom Szkutak mentioned that the company is considering a price increase for its Amazon Prime customers in the US. The decision hasn’t been made, but high shipping costs could prompt a price increase of between $20 and $40 a year for the service. Prime began life as a service that offered free two-day shipping on many items for a flat, $79-a-year fee. As Amazon has branched out into tablets and streaming media, perks like the Instant Video service and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library have been added to sweeten the deal. The potential price increase would be the first since Prime was introduced in the US in 2005. Amazon reported income of $239 million on sales of $25.59 billion for the fourth quarter of 2013, lower than analysts had expected. The company’s guidance for the first quarter of 2014 projects sales between $18.2 and $19.9 billion and expects income to be somewhere between a profit of $200 million and a loss of $200 million. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Amazon mulling price hike for Amazon Prime shipping and streaming service

Mass hack attack on Yahoo Mail accounts prompts password reset

Yahoo said it is resetting passwords for some of its e-mail users after discovering a coordinated effort to compromise accounts. Attackers behind the cracking campaign used usernames and passwords that were probably collected from a compromised database belonging to an unidentified third party, according to Jay Rossiter, Yahoo senior vice president of platforms and personalization products, who wrote an advisory published Thursday . A large percentage of people use the same password to protect multiple Internet accounts, a practice that allows attackers holding credentials taken from one site to compromise accounts on other sites. There’s no evidence the passwords used in the attack came from Yahoo Systems. “Our ongoing investigation shows that malicious computer software used the list of usernames and passwords to access Yahoo Mail accounts,” Rossiter wrote. “The information sought in the attack seems to be names and e-mail addresses from the affected accounts’ most recent sent e-mails.” Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Mass hack attack on Yahoo Mail accounts prompts password reset

AT&T plan to shut off Public Switched Telephone Network moves ahead at FCC

PhotoAtelier On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to take its first major step toward letting AT&T and other carriers replace the country’s traditional phone system with one that works entirely over Internet Protocol networks. AT&T has argued that the technology transition should be accompanied by deregulation that would strip the company of most of its monopoly-era obligations. AT&T likely won’t get everything it wants, though. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wrote in a blog post last November that he intends to “ensure the continuation of the Network Compact” with universal service for all Americans, consumer protections, public safety services, and competition.In other words, AT&T can’t stop maintaining the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) without a plan to preserve current service levels. This is not as simple as just making sure phone calls get through, although solving the rural call completion problem by itself is a challenge. It also means maintaining access to 911 services, fire alarms, fax machines, medical alert systems, anything that relies on the phone network. Not everything is to be decided this week. The FCC vote is on an AT&T petition to launch customer trials of new IP-based networks. While AT&T’s petition is expected to be granted, the FCC’s proposed order is written to ensure continuation of the four values (universal service, consumer protection, public safety, and competition) as Wheeler emphasized, an FCC official told Ars on condition that he not be named. Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

PlayStation Plus not required to play Elder Scrolls Online on PS4

You will need to pay $15/month to see vistas like this in The Elder Scrolls Online . Bethesda Softworks parent company Zenimax Media has confirmed that its upcoming MMO The Elder Scrolls Online won’t require a PlayStation Plus subscription to be played on the PS4. Xbox One players, on the other hand, will have to pay for an Xbox Live Gold subscription in order to play the game. All versions of The Elder Scrolls Online , including PC and Mac editions due for release on April 4, will require a $15 monthly fee, in addition to a purchase of the $60 base game. But Xbox One owners will also be required to purchase the $60-per-year Xbox Live Gold subscription that is generally required for all online games on the system. That subscription is also required to use entertainment apps like Netflix and Hulu Plus on the Xbox One, as well as services like Skype and Internet Explorer. Sony doesn’t require PlayStation Plus to use similar entertainment apps on the PS4. In a change from its policy with its previous consoles, Sony generally requires a $50-per-year PlayStation Plus subscription to play most online games on the PS4, though free-to-play MMOs such as Warframe and DC Universe Online have been specifically exempted from this requirement. Sony has also confirmed that the upcoming PS4 release of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn also won’t require a PlayStation Plus subscription on top of that game’s $13+ monthly fee (that title is not coming to any Microsoft consoles). Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Soylent gets tested, scores a surprisingly wholesome nutritional label

Soylent It’s official: all-in-one meal supplement (or replacement) Soylent has a nutrition label . In a blog post two weeks ago, Soylent founder Rob Rhinehart noted that the company had decided to produce a single 2,000-kilocalorie version for their initial production run; beta versions (including the 0.89 Beta formula we tried) came in male and female variants. The single launch formula means that a single nutritional label can be applied to all the packages of Soylent going out the door. In its shipping form, a three-serving bag of Soylent clocks in at 2,010kcal, with 630kcal from fat—that’s with the combined package of canola and fish oil added into the mix. All together, a full day’s worth of Soylent 1.0 will give you 1,050mg of sodium, 3,465mg of potassium, 252 total grams of carbs (including 24g dietary fiber and 6g of sugars), and 114g of protein. There’s no cholesterol in the dry ingredients; the oil mix adds about 15 percent of your daily recommended cholesterol intake (specific numbers on the oil aren’t included as part of the label). Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Soylent gets tested, scores a surprisingly wholesome nutritional label

Ken May

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