reprints – Page 57 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Ban on most robocalls and text message spam gets stronger this month

New Federal Communications Commission restrictions on telemarketing calls and text messages go into effect Wednesday, October 16. Adopted by the commission last year, the amendment to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) “will require businesses to obtain ‘prior express written consent’ before placing telemarketing calls to mobile phones using an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) or an artificial or prerecorded voice, ” a Bloomberg Law summary explains. “The same regulations will now also require businesses to obtain ‘prior express written consent’ before placing telemarketing calls to residential lines using an artificial or prerecorded voice. As a result, effective Oct. 16, oral consent is not enough.” This new restriction applies to text messages as well. The FCC’s order notes that “text messaging is a form of communication used primarily between telephones and is therefore consistent with the definition of a ‘call.'” Thus, the commission said it “concluded that text messages would be subject to the TCPA.” Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Ban on most robocalls and text message spam gets stronger this month

Ubuntu’s controversial Mir window system won’t ship with 13.10 desktop

Ubuntu 13.04. Ubuntu 13.10 (“Saucy Salamander”) is scheduled for a final release on Oct. 17, but the OS won’t include what was perhaps the biggest and most controversial change planned for the desktop environment. Canonical announced in March that it would replace the X window system with Mir, a new display server that will eventually work across phones, tablets, and desktops. It has proven controversial, with Intel rejecting Ubuntu patches because Canonical’s development of Mir meant it stopped supporting Wayland as a replacement for X. Mir will ship by default on Ubuntu Touch for phones (but not tablets) this month, allowing a crucial part of Ubuntu’s mobile plans to go forward. However, it won’t be the default system on the desktop, because XMir—an X11 compatibility layer for Mir—isn’t yet able to properly support multi-monitor setups. This is a step back from Canonical’s original plan to “Deliver Mir + XMir + Unity 7 on the [13.10] desktop for those cards that supported it, and fall back to X for those that don’t.” Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Ubuntu’s controversial Mir window system won’t ship with 13.10 desktop

How the FBI found Miss Teen USA’s webcam spy

RATer’s moniker was “cutefuzzypuppy.” Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock The sextortionist who snapped nude pictures of Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf through her laptop’s webcam has been found and arrested, the FBI revealed yesterday. 19-year old Jared James Abrahams, a California computer science student who went by the online handle “cutefuzzypuppy, ” had as many as 150 “slave” computers under his control during the height of his webcam spying in 2012. Watching all of those webcams to see when a young woman changes her clothes takes a serious time commitment, and Abrahams made one; he “was always at his computer, ” according the FBI complaint against him. Abrahams yesterday turned himself in after the complaint was unsealed, and a federal judge released him on a $50, 000 bond. Anatomy of a RATer How did Abrahams get his start learning the intricacies of remote administration tools (RATs), the malware used to spy on his victims? Not surprisingly, he was a regular user of hackforums.net, which features a large RAT forum that I profiled earlier this year . As cutefuzzypuppy, Abrahams asked for plenty of help distributing software like DarkComet to victims, since he “suck[ed] at social engineering” and needed to find better ways to spread his spyware. Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Apple releases iOS 7.0.1 update to fix fingerprint scanner

The new iPhone 5S is out and normal folks are getting their fingerprints all over it—exactly what Apple intended with the inclusion of the fingerprint scanner. However, early reviews have included the occasional note that the fingerprint scanner’s ability to enable iTunes purchases didn’t quite work correctly—the iPhone 5S would prompt for a password instead of simply accepting the fingerprint. To address this, Apple has issued an update to iOS 7 for the iPhone 5S (and also for the 5C, though it’s unclear what else the update addresses). Several other outlets are reporting that the update is only 17.5MB, but when I checked via iTunes on my fresh-from-the-box iPhone 5S, I got a download that was 1.39GB in size. We’ll have our full iPhone 5s review up as soon as possible, along with video showing off how the new devices (and their new cameras) work. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

Fingerprints as passwords: New iPhone Touch ID gets mixed security verdict (Updated)

Chad Miller Of all the new features of Apple’s new iPhone 5S , few have drawn more attention than the built-in fingerprint scanner known as Touch ID. Apple billed it as an “innovative way to simply and securely unlock your phone with just the touch of a finger.” More breathless accounts were calling it a potential ” death knell for passwords ” or using similarly overblown phrases . Until the new phones are in the hands of skilled hackers and security consultants, we won’t know for sure if Touch ID represents a step forward from the security and privacy offered by today’s iPhones. I spent several hours parsing the limited number of details provided by Apple and speaking to software and security engineers. I found evidence both supporting and undermining the case that the fingerprint readers are an improvement. The thoughts that follow aren’t intended to be a final verdict—the proof won’t be delivered until we see how the feature works in the real world. The pros I’ll start with the encouraging evidence. Apple said Touch ID is powered by a laser-cut sapphire crystal and a capacitive touch sensor that is able to take a high-resolution image based on the sub-epidermal layers of a user’s skin. While not definitive, this detail suggests Apple engineers may have designed a system that is not susceptible to casual attacks. If the scans probe deeply enough, for instance, Touch ID probably wouldn’t be tricked by the type of clones that are generated from smudges pulled off a door knob or computer monitor. In 2008, hackers demonstrated just how easy it was to create such clones when they published more than 4, 000 pieces of plastic film containing the fingerprint of a German politician who supported the mandatory collection of citizens’ unique physical characteristics. By slipping the foil over their own fingers, critics were able to mimic then-Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble’s fingerprint when touching certain types of biometric readers. Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Fingerprints as passwords: New iPhone Touch ID gets mixed security verdict (Updated)

California poised to implement first electronic license plates

Advocates say that electronic license plates can be used to display messages, like EXPIRED. Compliance Innovations This week, the California State Senate approved a bill that would create the nation’s first electronic license plate. Having already passed the state’s assembly, the bill now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown (D) for his signature. The idea is that rather than have a static piece of printed metal adorned with stickers to display proper registration, the plate would be a screen that could wirelessly (likely over a mobile data network) receive updates from a central server to display that same information. In an example shown by a South Carolina vendor, messages such as “STOLEN, ” “EXPIRED, ” or something similar could also be displayed on a license plate. The bill’s language says that for now, the program would be limited to a “pilot program” set to be completed no later than January 1, 2017. Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Sudden spike of Tor users likely caused by one “massive” botnet

Tor Project Researchers have found a new theory to explain the sudden spike in computers using the Tor anonymity network: a massive botnet that was recently updated to use Tor to communicate with its mothership. Mevade.A, a network of infected computers dating back to at least 2009, has mainly used standard Web-based protocols to send and receive data to command and control (C&C) servers, according to researchers at security firm Fox-IT. Around the same time that Tor Project leaders began observing an unexplained doubling in Tor clients , Mevade overhauled its communication mechanism to use anonymized Tor addresses ending in .onion. In the week that has passed since Tor reported the uptick, the number of users has continued to mushroom. “The botnet appears to be massive in size as well as very widespread, ” a Fox-IT researcher wrote in a blog post published Thursday . “Even prior to the switch to Tor, it consisted of tens of thousands of confirmed infections within a limited amount of networks. When these numbers are extrapolated on a per country and global scale, these are definitely in the same ballpark as the Tor users increase.” Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Sudden spike of Tor users likely caused by one “massive” botnet

Lenovo’s new Yoga 2 Pro has the same flexible hinge, 3200×1800 display

The new Yoga 2 Pro is a high-res follow-up to one of the better convertible laptop designs on the market. Lenovo The original IdeaPad Yoga was one of our favorite early convertible laptops, not least because the “convertible” part didn’t ruin the “laptop” part. Its many contortions were also genuinely useful, even if the weight and exposed keyboard made it a bit too awkward to use as a dedicated tablet. We got a belated 11-inch version of the original Yoga a bit earlier this year, but today at IFA, Lenovo has formally announced a pair of true sequels that look to improve the design without radically altering its formula. From the folding hinge to the bright “clementine orange” color, the Yoga 2 Pro is very much a successor to the first Yoga. It loses some weight and some thickness, dropping to 0.61 inches thick and 3.06 pounds from the 0.68 inches and 3.4 pounds of the original. It also includes Intel’s new Haswell processors (and its new integrated GPUs—there’s no dedicated graphics option available), but the biggest upgrade is the 13.3-inch 3200×1800 touchscreen. At 276 PPI, this is a substantial upgrade over the 1600×900 display of the original, though the (included) Windows 8.1 Pro can have some issues with high-PPI displays . Like the older Yoga, the new one is indistinguishable from a regular laptop most of the time. Lenovo The other specs are a mixed bag—you’ve got 8GB of DDR3L, standard 128, 256, and 512GB SSDs, a backlit keyboard, and Bluetooth 4.0 (all good), but there’s only one USB 3.0 port (the other is USB 2.0) and a frustratingly low-end 2.4GHz-only 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter. We understand laptops that don’t ship with 802.11ac yet, since that’s still a new standard and many people won’t have upgraded to a compatible router just yet. But to ship a high-end laptop without dual-band 802.11n seems like a seriously missed opportunity. The laptop also promises around six hours of battery life, which would have been on the low end of average for an Ivy Bridge Ultrabook but is a bit disappointing for a Haswell model. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Lenovo’s new Yoga 2 Pro has the same flexible hinge, 3200×1800 display

Meet the new hotness: All-in-one 3D printers and scanners

Meet Radiant Fabrication’s Lionhead Bunny. Radiant Fabrication We’ve told you about inexpensive 3D printers. We’ve reported on the first two 3D scanners. And recently, Ars editor Lee Hutchinson took two 3D printers for a spin to reveal what he called a “ maddening journey into another dimension .” But get ready to set aside those old-timey devices—enter the all-in-one 3D printers and scanners . This week, two companies have each announced their own all-in-one 3D printer and scanner. On Tuesday, Radiant Fabrication trumpeted the Lionhead Bunny, a $1, 649 device that the company will make available starting next month (though it appears to be dependent on the success of its forthcoming Kickstarter campaign). In a statement released with its announcement, Radiant Fabrication wrote: Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Meet the new hotness: All-in-one 3D printers and scanners

Windows 8 more widely used than OS X, IE still on the rise

Net Market Share In July, Windows 8 passed Windows Vista in market share. In August, it passed every single version of Apple’s OS X, combined. Internet Explorer 10 grew sharply, too, with almost one in five Internet users now on the latest version of Microsoft’s browser. Net Market Share Windows 8 made substantial gains in August, picking up 2.01 points of share. This is 37 percent growth on July’s figure. Windows XP also fell substantially, losing 3.53 points. With luck, this might mean that Windows XP is finally on the way out. It has less than a year until it stops receiving free security patches from Microsoft; once this happens, it will essentially be in a state of permanent zero day exploits. Even this level of decline isn’t enough to see the operating system eradicated in time for its end of life. That’s good news for spammers, who’ll have plenty of zombie machines to recruit into botnets, but bad news for everyone else. Net Market Share Net Market Share Among desktop browsers, Internet Explorer was up 0.99 points, Firefox was up 0.59 points, and Safari was up 0.17 points. Chrome, however, was down significantly, losing 1.76 points. This means that yet again Chrome has closed in on Firefox, almost passing it, only to fall back. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows 8 more widely used than OS X, IE still on the rise