Tag: user agreement

The 49ers’ plan to build the greatest stadium Wi-Fi network of all time

49ers CTO Kunal Malik (left) and Senior IT director Dan Williams (right) stand in front of Santa Clara Stadium. Jon Brodkin When the San Francisco 49ers’ new stadium opens for the 2014 NFL season, it is quite likely to have the best publicly accessible Wi-Fi network a sports facility in this country has ever known. The 49ers are defending NFC champions, so 68,500 fans will inevitably walk into the stadium for each game. And every single one of them will be able to connect to the wireless network, simultaneously , without any limits on uploads or downloads. Smartphones and tablets will run into the limits of their own hardware long before they hit the limits of the 49ers’ wireless network. A model of Santa Clara Stadium, with a wall painting visible in the background. Jon Brodkin Jon Brodkin Until now, stadium executives have said it’s pretty much impossible to build a network that lets every single fan connect at once. They’ve blamed this on limits in the amount of spectrum available to Wi-Fi, despite their big budgets and the extremely sophisticated networking equipment that largesse allows them to purchase. Even if you build the network perfectly, it would choke if every fan tried to get on at once—at least according to conventional wisdom. Read 69 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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The 49ers’ plan to build the greatest stadium Wi-Fi network of all time

Most PC security problems come from unpatched third-party Windows apps

If you’ve got 99 security problems, odds are Microsoft’s not one—or at least it’s just a minority of them. In its annual review of software vulnerabilities , security software firm Secunia found that 86 percent of vulnerabilities discovered on systems scanned by its software in the 50 most popular Windows software packages in 2012 were attributable to third-party developers and not to Microsoft’s Windows operating system or applications. And for most of these vulnerabilities, a patch was already available at the time they were discovered. Of the top 50 most used Windows packages—including the Windows 7 operating system itself, 18 were found to have end-point security vulnerabilities, a 98 percent increase over five years ago. Of those 18 packages, Google’s Chrome and the Mozilla Firefox browser were the biggest culprits, with 291 and 257 detected vulnerabilities respectively. Apple iTunes came in third, with 243 detected vulnerabilities. The remainder of the top ten offenders were: Adobe Flash Player: 67 Oracle Java JRE SE: 66 Adobe AIR: 56 Microsoft Windows 7: 50 Adobe Reader: 43 Microsoft Internet Explorer: 41 Apple Quicktime: 29 Of the vulnerabilities documented in Secunia’s database, 84 percent had already been patched by vendors when they were discovered on systems. “This means that it is possible to remediate the majority of vulnerabilities,” said Secunia Director of Product Management Morten R. Stengaard. “There is no excuse for not patching.” Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Most PC security problems come from unpatched third-party Windows apps

Brazilian docs fool biometric scanners with bag full of fake fingers

Six silicone fingers, all in a row. BBC The BBC is one of several outlets carrying the bizarre story of a Brazilian doctor arrested for allegedly defrauding her employer, a hospital in the town of Ferraz de Vasconcelos, near São Paulo. At the time of her arrest, she was equipped with a total of sixteen fingers—ten of which God gave her, and six of which were crafted of silicone and given to her by coworkers. At least three of the extra fingers bore the prints of fellow doctors at the hospital. The doctor, Thaune Nunes Ferreira, 29, claims through her attorney that she was forced to use the silicone fingers to clock in to the hospital’s time card system in order to cover for absentee colleagues. “She says she was innocent because it is a condition they imposed on her to keep her job,” the attorney notes. According to the Bangkok Post and several other sources, Brazil’s Globo TV International network obtained and played footage of Ferreira clocking in to the hospital with her own permanently attached digits, then touching the same fingerprint scanner with two of the silicone fakes. The scanner produced paper time card receipts for her and the two employees to whom the silicone fingers’ prints belonged. In this way, notes the Post, “it looked like there were three doctors on duty when there was just one.” Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Brazilian docs fool biometric scanners with bag full of fake fingers

ID thieves “dox” Joe Biden, Jay-Z, Michelle Obama, and dozens more

The front page of exposed.su. Identity thieves have posted social security numbers, credit information, and other sensitive data belonging to more than a dozen politicians and celebrities. It’s a list that includes Vice President Joe Biden, FBI Director Robert Mueller, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, rapper Jay Z, and actor and director Mel Gibson. The website, exposed.su, surfaced on Monday with birth dates, telephone numbers, home addresses, and in some cases credit reports for a handful of politicians and celebrities. Throughout the past 24 hours the site has published details on additional individuals. Social security numbers for Mueller, Jay-Z, and Gibson appeared to be valid, the Associated Press reported . Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, whose information was also posted on the site, hasn’t challenged the accuracy, either. Still, other journalists wrote that phone numbers purportedly belonging to former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and actor Ashton Kutcher reportedly went to a movie production company and a New York-based accounting firm respectively. The site included the image of a gaunt young woman with black circles around her eyes and an index finger in front of her lips. It was headed by a quote from the Showtime TV series Dexter , in which the title character says, “If you believe that God makes miracles, you have to wonder if Satan has a few up his sleeve.” The site included an embarrassing or humorous photo related to each individual whose information was disclosed. The act of publicly documenting the private details of people is known as “doxxing,” and it came into vogue a few years ago with the growing visibility of the Anonymous hacking collective. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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ID thieves “dox” Joe Biden, Jay-Z, Michelle Obama, and dozens more

Dating site Zoosk resets some user accounts following password dump (Updated)

A screenshot from Jeremi Gosney showing passwords cracked by the ocl-Hashcat-plus program. Jeremi Gosney Zoosk.com, an online dating service with about 15 million unique visitors each month, is requiring some users to reset their passwords. The move comes after someone published a list cryptographically protected passcodes that may have been used by subscribers to the website. In the past, the San Francisco-based company has said it has more than 50 million users . With this dump, a small but statistically significant percentage of the 29-million-strong password list contained the word “zoosk,” an indication that at least some of the credentials may have originated with the dating site. Jeremi Gosney, a password expert at Stricture Consulting Group , said he cracked more than 90 percent of the passwords and found almost 3,000 had links to Zoosk. The cracked passcodes included phrases such as “logmein2zoosk,” “zoosk password,” “myzooskpass,” “@zoosk,” “zoosk4me,” “ilovezoosk,” “flirtzoosk,” “zooskmail.” Other passwords contained strings such as “flirt,” “lookingforlove,” “lookingforguys,” and “lookingforsex,” another indication that they were used to access accounts at one or more dating websites. Many users choose passwords containing names, phrases, or topics related to the specific website or generic type of service they’re used to access. In December, Ars profiled a 25-GPU cluster system Gosney built that’s capable of trying every possible Windows passcode in the typical enterprise in less than six hours. . Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Dating site Zoosk resets some user accounts following password dump (Updated)

EA not altering return policy for furious SimCity buyers

Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock Electronic Arts has indicated that it will not be altering its usual digital refund policy in the wake of SimCity server issues that have led to access problems and scaled-back features for players that are able to log in, days after the game’s North American release. “In general we do not offer refunds on digital download games,” EA tweeted through its official Origin account yesterday, directing people to the company’s  online policy on returns and cancellations . While downloadable games purchased in North America are not be refunded “as a general policy,” EA does offer a “14-day unconditional guarantee” on any physical product sold through the Origin store. European customers, however, may be able to withdraw their downloadable purchase during a 14-day “Cooling Off period” as outlined on EA’s European return policy page . The recent tweet comes after a message posted to EA’s forums by Community Manager Raven on Tuesday, stating that “[i]f you regrettably feel that we let you down, you can of course request a refund for your order… though we’re currently still in the process of resolving this issue.” That message has now been revised to simply say “please review our refund policy here .” Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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EA not altering return policy for furious SimCity buyers

Porn trolling mastermind is the world’s most evasive witness

Stefan Schlautmann On Wednesday we wrote about the elaborate chart defense attorney Morgan Pietz created to help Judge Otis Wright keep track of the many organizations associated with porn copyright trolling firm Prenda law, all of which seem to be run by the same half-dozen people. Pietz has now released a transcript of a remarkable deposition he took of Paul Hansmeier, who along with John Steele is widely regarded as the brains behind Prenda’s litigation campaign. Officially, a Prenda-linked shell company called “AF Holdings” is suing Pietz’s client for infringing copyright by downloading a pornographic film from BitTorrent. But in recent weeks, the focus of the litigation has shifted to alleged misconduct by Prenda, including whether the firm stole the identity of Minnesota resident Alan Cooper to use as an officer of AF Holdings. Judge Wright has scheduled a Monday hearing to get to the bottom of the allegations. Last month, we covered a filing by Prenda attorney Brett Gibbs, who insisted that all the important decisions had been made by “senior members of the law firms” connected to Prenda. Gibbs later identified these individuals as Hansmeier and Steele. Read 18 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Porn trolling mastermind is the world’s most evasive witness

Bitcoin reaches an all-time trading high of over $33

After rising steadily over the last several months, Bitcoin has reached an all-time high according to data on Bitcoin Charts . As of this writing, Mt. Gox , the most popular Bitcoin trading site (which announced on Wednesday that  its operations  would move to Silicon Valley), recorded a high price of $33.22 per Bitcoin. There’s no single explanation as to why Bitcoin has continued to rise, accelerating particularly over the last month. That said, it’s been clear that interest in the digital currency has been rapidly rising, as any regular reader of Ars knows. It’s likely that online gambling has played a part. As we’ve reported earlier this year, one Bitcoin-based site took in $500,000 in profit in just six months in 2012—and Bitcoin gambling is set to get even bigger . For now, gambling with the cryptocurrency, like using Bitcoins in general, remains in a legal grey area  (which may be part of the appeal as well). Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Bitcoin reaches an all-time trading high of over $33

Human hearing beats sound’s uncertainty limit, makes MP3s sound worse

New Jersey Modern audio compression algorithms rely on observations about auditory perceptions. For instance, we know that a low-frequency tone can render a higher tone inaudible. This perception is used to save space by removing the tones we expect will be inaudible. But our expectations are complicated by the physics of waves and our models of how human audio perception works. This problem has been highlighted in a recent Physical Review Letter , in which researchers demonstrated the vast majority of humans can perceive certain aspects of sound far more accurately than allowed by a simple reading of the laws of physics. Given that many encoding algorithms start their compression with operations based on that simple physical understanding, the researchers believe it may be time to revisit audio compression. Time and frequency: Two sides of the same coin You’ll notice I didn’t say, “human hearing violates the laws of physics,” even though it was very tempting. The truth is that nothing violates the laws of physics, though many things violate the simplified models we use to approximate them. Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Human hearing beats sound’s uncertainty limit, makes MP3s sound worse

The Pirate Bay leaves Sweden for friendlier waters

The Swedish Pirate Party has stopped hosting the notorious website The Pirate Bay, according to TorrentFreak. While no one knows where the site is actually run from, Web-hosting services have been provided through the Swedish Pirate Party for a few years now. Now, the site’s hosting will be taken care of by the Pirate Parties in Norway and Sweden. TPB is being forced to move because the Swedish Pirate Party is under pressure from Rights Alliance, a Swedish anti-piracy group representing large music and movie interests. Rights Alliance threatened legal action against the Pirate Party if the group didn’t stop hosting the site by tomorrow. Spain in particular could turn out to be a safe haven for the piracy-driven website, since judges in that country have found simply linking to other infringing sites is not a basis for copyright liability. The sports-streaming site Rojadirecta, for example, was exonerated after legal action against it was initiated in Spain. (That didn’t stop it from having its domain name grabbed by a US agency, before being given back last summer.) Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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The Pirate Bay leaves Sweden for friendlier waters