Tag: production

Sneaky adware caught accessing users’ Mac Keychain without permission

Last month, Ars chronicled a Mac app that brazenly exploited a then unpatched OS X vulnerability so the app could install itself without requiring people to enter system passwords. Now, researchers have found the same highly questionable installer is accessing people’s Mac keychain without permission. The adware taking these liberties is distributed by Israel-based Genieo Innovation, a company that’s long been known to push adware and other unwanted apps . According to researchers at Malwarebytes, the Genieo installer automatically accesses a list of Safari extensions  that, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, is stashed inside the Mac Keychain  alongside passwords for iCloud, Gmail, and other important accounts. Genieo acquires this access by very briefly displaying a message asking for permission to open the Safari extensions and then automatically clicking the accompanying OK button before a user has time to respond or possibly even notice what’s taking place. With that, Genieo installs an extension known as Leperdvil. The following three-second video captures the entire thing: Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Sneaky adware caught accessing users’ Mac Keychain without permission

Wikipedia blocks hundreds of linked accounts for suspect editing

The Wikimedia Foundation, the host of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, said late Monday that it has suspended 381 accounts or “socks” that it claims accepted or charged money “to promote external interests on Wikipedia without revealing their affiliation.” The foundation said that it believed that activity from so-called “sockpuppet” accounts “were perpetrated by one coordinated group.” The foundation said that volunteer editors spent weeks investigating what it said was a violation of its terms of use . “The editors issued these blocks as part of their commitment to ensuring Wikipedia is an accurate, reliable, and neutral knowledge resource for everyone,” Wikimedia said in a statement. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Wikipedia blocks hundreds of linked accounts for suspect editing

Six UK teens arrested for being “customers” of Lizard Squad’s DDoS service

On August 28, the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency announced the arrest of six teenagers, ranging in age from 15 to 18, for launching distributed denial of service attacks against multiple websites. The attacks were carried out using an attack tool created by Lizard Squad , the group behind denial of service attacks on gaming networks and the 8Chan imageboard site last winter. Called Lizard Stresser, the tool exploited compromised home routers, using them as a robot army against targeted sites and services. The six arrested “are suspected of maliciously deploying Lizard Stresser, having bought the tool using alternative payment services such as Bitcoin in a bid to remain anonymous,” an NCA spokesperson wrote in an official statement on the case. “Organizations believed to have been targeted by the suspects include a leading national newspaper, a school, gaming companies, and a number of online retailers.” Those sites, according to a source that spoke with Bloomberg Business , included Microsoft’s Xbox Live, Sony’s Playstation network, and Amazon.com. The timing of the attacks wasn’t mentioned by NCA. However, the user database of Lizard Stresser was leaked in January of this year. The NCA has been investigating individuals listed in the database and has identified a substantial number of them living in the UK. “Officers are also visiting approximately 50 addresses linked to individuals registered on the Lizard Stresser website, but who are not currently believed to have carried out attacks,” the NCA spokesperson noted. “A third of the individuals identified are under the age of 20, and the activity forms part of the NCA’s wider work to address younger people at risk of entering into serious forms of cyber crime.” Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Six UK teens arrested for being “customers” of Lizard Squad’s DDoS service

AT&T grudgingly accepts $428 million in annual government funding

AT&T has struck a deal with the US government to get nearly $428 million per year to bring 10Mbps Internet service to parts of rural America after protesting that it shouldn’t have to provide speeds that fast. The money comes from the Connect America Fund, which draws from surcharges on Americans’ phone bills to pay for rural Internet service. AT&T accepted the money even though it  argued last year that rural customers don’t need Internet service better than the old standard of 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream. The FCC ignored AT&T’s protests  in December, raising the Connect America Fund download standard to 10Mbps while leaving the 1Mbps requirement unchanged. Eight months later, AT&T is now willing to provide at least 10Mbps/1Mbps service to 1.1 million rural homes and businesses in 18 states in exchange for “$427,706,650 in annual, ongoing support from the Connect America Fund,” yesterday’s FCC announcement said . The FCC said this will bring broadband to 2.2 million customers, apparently assuming an average of two people for each home and business. AT&T will get the money over six years with an option for a seventh, potentially bringing the total to about $3 billion, according to Multichannel News . AT&T and other carriers getting Connect America funding have to deploy Internet service to 40 percent of funded locations by the end of 2017, 60 percent by the end of 2018, 80 percent by the end of 2019, and to 100 percent of locations by the end of 2020, the article said. “This is one of the largest amounts accepted by any company,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said. “The financial support provided by American ratepayers will bring significant benefits to AT&T’s rural communities, and we urge state and local leaders to help communities realize these benefits by facilitating the broadband buildout.” 10Mbps/1Mbps is still lower than the definition of broadband, which the FCC raised to 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up. The 18 states where AT&T will use the money are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. AT&T has had wireline operations in 22 states since it bought BellSouth in 2006. In exchange for getting that merger approved, AT&T promised home Internet service of at least 200kbps (meeting the definition of broadband at the time) to 100 percent of residences by the end of 2007. AT&T claimed it met the requirement but has let its network fall into disrepair in the years since, leaving millions with slow Internet service or none at all. AT&T promised to expand broadband deployment in exchange for the FCC’s recent approval of its purchase of DirecTV, but not in the areas where it will use Connect America funding. The Connect America funding is for “rural service areas where the cost of broadband deployment might otherwise be prohibitive,” the FCC said. AT&T wasn’t the only company to get Connect America Fund money yesterday. CenturyLink accepted $506 million  annually to get 10Mbps Internet to nearly 1.2 million rural homes and businesses in 33 states. Overall, ten carriers accepted $1.5 billion in annual support to serve 3.6 million homes and businesses under the latest Connect America Fund awards, another FCC announcement said . The others include Cincinnati Bell, Consolidated Telecom, Fairpoint, Frontier, Hawaiian Telcom, Micronesian Telecom, and Windstream. The tenth carrier is Verizon, though that case is a bit complicated. Verizon conditionally accepted $48.6 million a year to serve rural areas in Texas and California, subject to regulatory approval of a sale that will transfer Verizon’s systems in those states to Frontier. Verizon, which also objected to the new 10Mbps requirement, did not accept any funding in states where it’s keeping its wireline facilities. There’s still $175 million left to be doled out, due to carriers not accepting the entire amount. “In states where carriers have declined support, the subsidies will be awarded by a competitive bidding process,” the FCC said.

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AT&T grudgingly accepts $428 million in annual government funding

Sham telecoms created to scam AT&T must pay back ill-gotten gains

AT&T has won a $252,000 judgment from the remnants of sham telecoms that were created in order to bill legitimate phone companies for services they didn’t provide. The companies billed AT&T $13 million, but AT&T figured out the scam after paying only a fraction of that. The defendants, All American Telephone Co., e-Pinnacle Communications, Inc., and ChaseCom, operated out of Utah and Nevada and had all shut down by 2010. The Federal Communications Commission granted AT&T’s complaint against the companies in March 2013 and last week ordered the defendants to pay back the $252,496.37 they got from AT&T. The FCC dismissed AT&T’s request for interest and ” consequential damages ,” saying the company can pursue those in court. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Sham telecoms created to scam AT&T must pay back ill-gotten gains

Intel introduces its smallest socketed form factor yet: the 5×5

If you think mini-ITX is too big but don’t like the soldered down processor of the Intel NUC , the chip giant has come up with a new form factor that splits the difference: 5×5. Measuring, er, 5.5 inches by 5.8 inches (compared to the 4.5″×4.4″ of the NUC, and the 6.7″×6.7″ of mini-ITX), the new offering in many ways slides directly in between the form factors that bookend it. Like mini-ITX, it has an LGA socket compatible with Intel’s Core-branded processors. But like the NUC, it uses SODIMM memory, M.2 drives , and an external power supply. It also sacrifices mini-ITX’s PCIe slot. 2.5″ SATA drives are also an option, though they will increase the system height a little. So while the 5×5 leans much closer to the NUC spec list than the mini-ITX one, that processor and socket make a world of difference. The NUC processors top out at 28W for the Broadwell Core i7-5557U. Even that’s something of an outlier; every other current generation NUC uses a 15W or 6W chip. The 5×5, however, will have two thermal targets: 35W and 65W. Though 65W systems will be a little taller to accommodate a larger heatsink, support for any Intel Core processor with a TDP up to 65W makes the system a lot more versatile. For example, the Broadwell Core i7-5775C is a 65W part. This powerhouse chip includes 128MB of eDRAM, and as a result it’s surprisingly credible at gaming. This is a chip that can play Bioshock Infinite at 1920×1080 in high quality at 30 fps, Tomb Raider in low quality at 64 fps, and Dirt Showdown in medium quality at 46 fps. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Intel introduces its smallest socketed form factor yet: the 5×5

Comcast planning gigabit cable for entire US territory in 2-3 years

While Comcast has started deploying  2Gbps fiber-to-the-home service to certain parts of its territory, much of its network is going to be stuck on cable for years to come. But customers outside the fiber footprint will still be able to buy gigabit Internet service after Comcast upgrades to DOCSIS 3.1, a faster version of the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification. Comcast said in April  that DOCSIS 3.1 will be available to some of its customers in early 2016 and eventually across its whole US footprint. Last week, Comcast said it wants to complete the whole upgrade within two years. “Our intent is to scale it through our footprint through 2016,” Comcast VP of network architecture Robert Howald said in an interview with FierceCable . “We want to get it across the footprint very quickly… We’re shooting for two years.” It could take up to three years, the story said. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Comcast planning gigabit cable for entire US territory in 2-3 years

People in rough neighborhoods trade HIV meds instead of taking them

The social environment of an area, including factors such as poverty, stress, and living conditions, contributes to the disease burden. A recent study published in AJPH shows that patients from a disordered environment don’t stick to their medication schedule, even for a potentially lethal condition like HIV. As the researchers found, residents of highly disordered neighborhoods will sell or trade their antiviral medication rather than taking it and adhering to their drug plans. Poverty, a condition often associated with specific geographic regions or neighborhoods, is linked to many poor health outcomes. People living in poverty often lack access to nutritious food, good healthcare, strong social support, and other structural advantages that can ensure better health. Neighborhood disorder theory focuses on the role of economic disadvantage as a driver of adverse health outcomes among residents of poor neighborhoods. In previous studies, neighborhood disorder has been linked to increased HIV risk-taking behavior, which helps explain why HIV infections tend to cluster in areas with higher poverty and other forms of risk taking. For this study, researchers interviewed 503 socioeconomically disadvantaged HIV-positive substance users, approximately half of whom were selling or trading their antiviral medication to other HIV positive individuals who didn’t have access to regular antiviral medication. Participants were from neighborhoods in urban Miami that have high and persistent levels of both HIV infections and poverty. Additionally, environmental risk factors were examined for these neighborhoods, such as prevalence of HIV and poverty levels. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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People in rough neighborhoods trade HIV meds instead of taking them

My browser visited Drudgereport and all I got was this lousy malware

Millions of people visiting drudgereport.com, wunderground.com, and other popular websites were exposed to attacks that can surreptitiously hijack their computers, thanks to maliciously manipulated ads that exploit vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash and other browsing software, researchers said. The malvertising campaign worked by inserting malicious code into ads distributed by AdSpirit.de, a network that delivers ads to Drudge, Wunderground, and other third-party websites, according to a post published Thursday by researchers from security firm Malwarebytes. The ads, in turn, exploited security vulnerabilities in widely used browsers and browser plugins that install malware on end-user computers. The criminals behind the campaign previously carried out a similar attack on Yahoo’s ad network , exposing millions more people to the same drive-by attacks. Malvertising is a particularly pernicious form of attack because it can infect people who do nothing more than browse to a mainstream site. Depending on the exploit, it can silently hijack computers even when visitors don’t click on links. Some browser makers have responded by implementing so-called click-to-play mechanisms that don’t render Flash or Java content unless the end user actively permits the plugin to run on a particular site. Some users have resorted to ad blockers, which have the unfortunate side effect of depriving publishers of much-needed advertising revenue. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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My browser visited Drudgereport and all I got was this lousy malware

Samsung unveils 2.5-inch 16TB SSD: The world’s largest hard drive

At the Flash Memory Summit in California, Samsung has unveiled what appears to be the world’s largest hard drive—and somewhat surprisingly, it uses NAND flash chips rather than spinning platters. The rather boringly named PM1633a, which is being targeted at the enterprise market, manages to cram almost  16 terabytes into a 2.5-inch SSD package. By comparison, the largest conventional hard drives made by Seagate and Western Digital currently max out at 8 or 10TB. The secret sauce behind Samsung’s 16TB SSD is the company’s new 256Gbit (32GB) NAND flash die , twice the capacity of 128Gbit NAND dies that were commercialised last year by various chip makers. To reach such astonishing capacities, Samsung has managed to cram 48 layers of 3-bits-per-cell (TLC) 3D V-NAND into a single die. This is up from 24 layers in 2013, and then 36 layers in 2014. A diagram that goes some way to explaining what 3D NAND is. Historically, like most computer chips, NAND flash has been planar—that is, the functional structures on the chip are (for the most part), laid down on a single two-dimensional plane. In a similar way to how logic chips are moving towards 3D transistors ( FinFETs ), Samsung (and more recently Toshiba and Intel) has been forging ahead with 3D NAND . Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Samsung unveils 2.5-inch 16TB SSD: The world’s largest hard drive