situation – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Atlus tried to take down a PS3 emulator advertising ‘Persona 5’

Atlus has been infamously protective of Persona 5 even before it came out, and it looks like that hasn’t changed a bit. The game developer has submitted a DMCA takedown notice against the creators of the PS3 emulator RPCS3 and their Patreon crowdfunding page . Emulators typically fall within the legal gray area of copyright law — they don’t infringe on anybody’s intellectual property, but they can run illegal ROMs that do. However, as Kotaku noted, RPCS3’s Patreon included updates about how far they are on getting Persona 5 to run on the emulator. A company that tried putting streaming restrictions on a much-awaited game would definitely not be happy that an emulator maker is getting donations in part due to its property. As of this writing, the RPCS3 Patreon page has removed all references to Persona upon the crowdfunding website’s request. Patreon advised RPCS3 to get rid of the references after refusing to comply with Atlus’ demands to kill the emulator’s page entirely. According to the emulator maker’s report on Reddit , that seems to have resolved the situation. Atlus has confirmed that it issued a DMCA takedown notice in an announcement, where it explained its reasons for doing so. The company said it didn’t want people’s first experience with an Atlus game to come riddled with framerate drops, crashes and other issues. It explained that the company thinks a format it didn’t personally oversee won’t deliver the experience and quality it intended. The gamemaker admits that it’s aware of how a lot of fans would like to see Persona titles for the PC, and while it’s not making any promises, it says it’s listening to people’s wishes. Those who’d like to see PC ports of Atlus’ most beloved games might want to cross their fingers and hope for the best. Here’s Atlus’ statement in full: “You might have heard earlier today that we issued a DMCA takedown notice involving emulation developer group RPCS3 and their Patreon page. Yes, it’s true. We settled upon this action for two reasons: 1. We believe that our fans best experience our titles (like Persona 5) on the actual platforms for which they are developed. We don’t want their first experiences to be framerate drops, or crashes, or other issues that can crop up in emulation that we have not personally overseen. We understand that many Persona fans would love to see a PC version. And while we don’t have anything to announce today, we are listening! For now, the best way to experience Persona 5 is on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3. 2. We appreciate the awareness generated by the emulation community for Persona 5 and know that it is a fantastic example of how much people are loving our game. We want to keep bringing you titles like Persona 5. Unfortunately, when our content is illegally circumvented and potentially made available for free, in a format we do not think delivers the experience and quality we intend, it undermines our ability to do so by diverting potential support from new audiences.” Via: Kotaku Source: Atlus

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Atlus tried to take down a PS3 emulator advertising ‘Persona 5’

Data leak exposed millions of Time Warner Cable customers

Verizon isn’t the only big US telecom whose corporate ally left customer data out in the open . MacKeeper developer Kromtech has discovered that BroadSoft, a frequent partner to service providers, was storing over 4 million Time Warner Cable customer records on Amazon cloud servers without a password. The records, which stemmed from the MyTWC mobile app, date as far back as November 2010 — years before Charter bought TWC . The information included email addresses, user names, financial transactions (though there’s no indication of credit card data) and billing addresses. There was even closed-circuit camera footage from BroadSoft’s Indian offices, as if to rub salt in the wound. You might not need to panic. BroadSoft tells Gizmodo that it locked down its Amazon data (Charter says it was taken down) and hasn’t seen evidence that intruders accessed the information. Both BroadSoft and Charter say they’re investigating and will take extra steps to address the situation if necessary. To be on the safe side, though, Charter is recommending that MyTWC owners change their user names and passwords. The exposure didn’t include extremely sensitive info like credit card data or social security numbers, so the potential damage is relatively limited. However, it’s not so much the specific threat as that the data was left exposed in the first place. It shows that companies are still making rookie mistakes when handling data, and suggests that they need to implement more stringent (and importantly, continuous) oversight of their partners to keep your data secure. Via: Gizmodo Source: Kromtech

Hackers stole a copy of ‘Orange is the New Black’ season five (updated)

The next season of Orange is the New Black isn’t supposed to premiere until June 9th , but the first episode has already leaked. That’s because a hacker or group of hackers going by the name ‘TheDarkOverlord stole the content from a third party, and they’re demanding Netflix pay a ransom in order to keep the rest of the season private. Late Friday night, TheDarkOverlord tweeted about content belonging to ABC, FOX, IFC and National Geographic, saying “We’re not playing any games anymore.” According to TorrentFreak , the source of the breach was Larson Studios, an audio production company in Hollywood that does ADR (Automatic Dialog Replacement) work. The hackers claim Larson agreed to pay up but didn’t, and now they’re trying to squeeze Netflix. In a statement, Netflix has said “We are aware of the situation. A production vendor used by several major TV studios had its security compromised and the appropriate law enforcement authorities are involved.” Who is next on the list? FOX, IFC, NAT GEO, and ABC. Oh, what fun we’re all going to have. We’re not playing any games anymore. — thedarkoverlord (@tdohack3r) April 29, 2017 We are releasing the remainder of OITNB Season 5. Press Release: https://t.co/5vqYglmZAN — thedarkoverlord (@tdohack3r) April 29, 2017 Update: “TheDarkOverlord” announced that they have released episodes 2-10 of the 13 episode season in another torrent. They also continued to threaten Netflix and the other studios, saying “You’re going to lose a lot more money in all of this than what our modest offer was. We’re quite ashamed to breathe the same air as you. We figured a pragmatic business such as yourselves would see and understand the benefits of cooperating with a reasonable and merciful entity like ourselves. And to the others: there’s still time to save yourselves. Our offer(s) are still on the table – for now.” Source: TorrentFreak , AP , Pastebin

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Hackers stole a copy of ‘Orange is the New Black’ season five (updated)

Your WD networked drive is vulnerable to remote attacks

If you have one of Western Digital’s My Cloud nstorage drives , you might be particularly vulnerable to internet attacks. Exploitee.rs has discovered a number of unpatched security flaws in most My Cloud models that let remote intruders bypass the login, insert their own commands and upload files without permission. In numerous cases, it’s a matter of poorly implemented scripts. Also, every command exectued through the web interface has full access to the operating system — an attacker would have the keys to the kingdom. The kicker? WD did fix one login bypass flaw through a firmware update, but it introduced another in the process. We’ve asked WD for its take on the situation and will let you know if it has a response. However, the Exploitee.rs team says it’s revealing these pre-patch bugs to the public because of WD’s “reputation within the community.” Supposedly, the company doesn’t pay attention to the seriousness of security flaws — this open disclosure is a way of pressuring WD into action. True or not, you may not want to allow internet access to your My Cloud gear unless it’s absolutely necessary. Source: Exploitee.rs

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Your WD networked drive is vulnerable to remote attacks

Tesco Bank breached: Money stolen from 20,000 accounts

The UK’s Tesco Bank has confirmed that tens of thousands of its customers’ current accounts were compromised over the weekend, leading to fraudulent withdrawals to the tune of several hundreds of pounds, in some instances. Suspicious activity was seen across some 40, 000 accounts, with money taken from around 20, 000 of those, the bank’s chief exec told the BBC . In reaction, Tesco Bank has temporarily frozen all online payment facilities for current accounts, and guaranteed affected customers will receive full refunds as soon as possible. Tesco Bank has said in its latest update that cards can still be used to withdraw cash, as well as make chip and pin transactions. All scheduled direct debits and bill payments are unaffected, too, though customers should’ve been contacted and told all this already. In the immediate aftermath, overwhelmed support phone lines, cancelled cards and the online payments freeze will be a serious inconvenience, not to mention the missing money. But how did this happen in the first place? As yet, we have no real details on the nature of the breach, but of all online services, you expect banking to be unfalteringly secure. Local telco TalkTalk lost 100, 000 customers after last year’s hack exposed personal details — as well as being fined £400, 000 (around $500, 000) just last month. Rebuilding trust after losing customers’ money will be a much taller order, even if only 40, 000 of more than 7 million current accounts were compromised. It could, of course, have been a very sophisticated attack — or lax security, or facilitated by someone on the inside. For now, Tesco Bank will be scrambling to fix the situation, and is working “with the authorities and regulators to address the fraud.” But hopefully it won’t be too long before we understand more about the breach’s origins. Source: Tesco (1) , (2)

Uber charges rider $16,000 for a 7-mile trip

But Uber knocked $15 off Jaime Hessel’s bill because it agreed that the driver had taken an “inefficient route.” Gothamist : Hessel told us by phone that she e-mailed Uber at 12:30 today to ask them for an explanation. Read the rest

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Uber charges rider $16,000 for a 7-mile trip