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Ars editor learns feds have his old IP addresses, full credit card numbers

Jonathan Ryan In May 2014, I reported on my efforts to learn what the feds know about me whenever I enter and exit the country. In particular, I wanted my Passenger Name Records (PNR), data created by airlines, hotels, and cruise ships whenever travel is booked. But instead of providing what I had requested, the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) turned over only basic information about my travel going back to 1994. So I appealed—and without explanation , the government recently turned over the actual PNRs I had requested the first time. The 76 new pages of data, covering 2005 through 2013, show that CBP retains massive amounts of data on us when we travel internationally. My own PNRs include not just every mailing address, e-mail, and phone number I’ve ever used; some of them also contain: Read 24 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Ars editor learns feds have his old IP addresses, full credit card numbers

Quasiparticles carry entanglement to near infinite speeds

crocus08 In a recent experiment, scientists were able to observe quasiparticles propagating across a string of ions, creating waves of quantum entanglement in their wake. Experiments like this one, which study systems with multiple quantum bodies, are crucial to learning about the behavior of quasiparticles and their interactions with more traditional particles. It’s tempting to think that quasiparticles are not particles at all. Quasiparticles are “objects” that emerge within a complex system, such as a solid object. The collective behavior of the particles in the solid can create the impression of a new particle. The impression—or quasiparticle—moves through the solid as if it were a real particle moving through empty space, and it behaves according to the same rules. Nevertheless, within their system, quasiparticles can have real effects on their environment. Most recently, scientists were able to track the propagation of quasiparticles called magnons through a collection of atoms. Now, scientists have been able to watch as that propagation changed the behavior of these atoms. And in the process, the quasiparticles reached speeds where a conventional model, which we use to understand time, breaks down. Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Quasiparticles carry entanglement to near infinite speeds

Why Google took years to address a battery-draining “bug” in Chrome

Aurich Lawson A recent Forbes report says that Chrome on Windows uses up more battery than competing browsers, thanks to a high system timer setting. Unlike Linux or Mac OS X, Windows uses a timer to schedule tasks. At idle, the timer on Windows is set to about 15 ms, so if it has no work to do, it will go to sleep and only wake up every 15 ms to check if it needs to do something. Applications can change this timer, and other browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer don’t mess with it until they need to do something processor intensive, like playing a video. After the video is done, the timer is set to return to 15 ms so that the computer can idle again. Chrome, though, boosts the timer to 1 ms and keeps it there forever. The difference means that on Firefox at idle, the CPU only wakes 64 times a second. On Chrome, it wakes up 1,000 times a second. In its Windows documentation, Microsoft notes that setting the system timer to a high value can increase power consumption by “as much as 25 percent.” This means that on a laptop, you’ll get a shorter runtime with Chrome than you will on a competing browser. And the issue has been around for a long time. Forbes links to a bug report documenting the problem that was first filed in 2010. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Why Google took years to address a battery-draining “bug” in Chrome

Id shows off double-jumping, skull-crushing new Doom at QuakeCon

If you weren’t at QuakeCon, this content-free teaser is all you get to see of the new Doom for the time being. The bad news is that only people who were actually at Dallas’ QuakeCon last night were able to see the world-premiere gameplay footage from the next Doom game, which somehow hasn’t been leaked online yet. The good news is that plenty of people that were there are reporting on the unveiling, which seemed to include a number of extremely un- Doom -like additions. One of the bigger changes brought by the new Doom (which is notably not being called Doom 4 anymore ) is a jet-pack powered double-jump, à la Crysis 3 , Titanfall , Destiny and, now, presumably, every first-person shooter to come out in the next year or two. Players can also climb up the sides of “large crates and gaps” according to PC Gamer’s report , adding even more ability to go vertical. But it’s the Mortal Kombat -style melee finishing moves that seem to have gotten the crowd the most riled up. PC Gamer describes how, once an enemy is low on health, the player can get close and activate moves that see “lower jaws pulled off, skulls stomped on, and hearts torn out with the level of detail usually reserved for those slow-mo bullet cams in the Sniper Elite series.” Rock Paper Shotgun noted that “enemies break apart like moldy bread… literally tearing them in half sometimes.” The outlet also reported scenes with “crushing heads, chunks flying everywhere.” Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Fossils of strange Cambrian predator preserved with brains preserved

The new species, showing the eyes (upper and lower center) and a single clawed appendage (top left). Peiyun Cong The animals of the Cambrian are noted for being a collection of oddballs that are sometimes difficult to match up with anything currently living on Earth. But even among these oddities, Anomalocarids stand out (as their name implies). The creatures propelled themselves with a series of oar-like paddles arranged on their flanks, spotted prey with enormous compound eyes , and shoveled them into a disk-like mouth with large arms that resided at the very front of their bodies—although some of them ended up as filter feeders . We’ve identified a large number of anomalocarid species, many of which appear to have been the apex predators of their ecosystems. Yet for all our knowledge of them, there’s a key issue we haven’t clarified: how do they relate to any species that might exist today? New fossils from a Cambrian era deposit in China have revealed three samples of a new species that are so exquisitely preserved that their discoverers can trace the animals’ nerves. And the structure of the brain reveals affinities for two completely different types of organisms. The new species, Lyrarapax unguispinus , is a relatively small anomalocarid at only about eight centimeters long. Like others of this group, it’s got a set of distinctive features, such as a neck, large compound eyes, and large frontal appendages, in this case shaped a bit like claws. Just past the neck, it’s got two large segments that look a bit like the fins on the sides of animals like dolphins. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Fossils of strange Cambrian predator preserved with brains preserved

Bitcoin pool GHash.io commits to 40% hashrate limit after its 51% breach

Antana GHash.io announced that “it is not aiming to overcome 39.99 [percent] of the overall Bitcoin hashrate,” in a new statement published Wednesday . This marks a clear departure from the large Bitcoin pool’s recent flirtations with 51 percent . If that threshold is crossed for sustained periods of time, it concentrates power in ways that Bitcoin’s decentralized design normally does not allow. “If GHash.io approaches the respective border, it will be actively asking miners to take their hardware away from GHash.io and mine on other pools,” the statement continues. “GHash.io will encourage other mining pools to write similar voluntary statements from their sides.” Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Bitcoin pool GHash.io commits to 40% hashrate limit after its 51% breach

GHCQ’s “Chinese menu” of tools spreads disinformation across Internet

Just a few of the “weaponized” capabilities from GCHQ’s catalog of information warfare tools. What appears to be an internal Wiki page detailing the cyber-weaponry used by the British spy agency GCHQ was published today by Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept . The page, taken from the documents obtained by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, lists dozens of tools used by GCHQ to target individuals and their computing devices, spread disinformation posing as others, and “shape” opinion and information available online. The page had been maintained by GCHQ’s Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) Covert Internet Technical Development team, but it fell out of use by the time Snowden copied it. Greenwald and NBC previously reported on JTRIG’s “dirty tricks” tactics for psychological operations and information warfare, and the new documents provide a hint at how those tactics were executed. GCHQ’s capabilities included tools for manipulating social media, spoofing communications from individuals and groups, and warping the perception of content online through manipulation of polls and web pages’ traffic and search rankings. Originally intended to inform other organizations within GCHQ (and possibly NSA) of new capabilities being developed by the group, the JTRIG CITD team noted on the page, “We don’t update this page anymore, it became somewhat of a Chinese menu for effects operations.” The page lists 33 “effects capability” tools, as well as a host of other capabilities for collecting information, tracking individuals, attacking computers, and extracting information from seized devices. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Human memory-saving devices get $37.5m research boost from DARPA

Flickr user: Dierk Schaefer Two teams creating devices that stimulate the brain to restore memory function have been granted $37.5 million by DARPA to develop the technology. Both will initially work with people with epilepsy who have been given implants to locate where their seizures originate. The researchers will reuse the data gathered during this process to monitor other brain activity, such as the patterns that occur when the brain stores and retrieves memories. One team will then attempt to map these patterns by recording the brain activity of epilepsy sufferers with mild memory problems while they play a computer game about remembering things. The pattern differences between the best and worst scores among these patents will be used to develop an algorithm for a personalized stimulation pattern to keep the brain performing at an optimal level. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Human memory-saving devices get $37.5m research boost from DARPA

Crypto weakness in smart LED lightbulbs exposes Wi-Fi passwords

Context In the latest cautionary tale involving the so-called Internet of things, white-hat hackers have devised an attack against network-connected lightbulbs that exposes Wi-Fi passwords to anyone in proximity to one of the LED devices. The attack works against LIFX smart lightbulbs , which can be turned on and off and adjusted using iOS- and Android-based devices. Ars Senior Reviews Editor Lee Hutchinson gave a good overview here of the Philips Hue lights, which are programmable, controllable LED-powered bulbs that compete with LIFX. The bulbs are part of a growing trend in which manufacturers add computing and networking capabilities to appliances so people can manipulate them remotely using smartphones, computers, and other network-connected devices. A 2012 Kickstarter campaign raised more than $1.3 million for LIFX, more than 13 times the original goal of $100,000. According to a blog post published over the weekend , LIFX has updated the firmware used to control the bulbs after researchers discovered a weakness that allowed hackers within about 30 meters to obtain the passwords used to secure the connected Wi-Fi network. The credentials are passed from one networked bulb to another over a mesh network powered by 6LoWPAN , a wireless specification built on top of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard . While the bulbs used the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to encrypt the passwords, the underlying pre-shared key never changed, making it easy for the attacker to decipher the payload. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Crypto weakness in smart LED lightbulbs exposes Wi-Fi passwords

Goldman Sachs demands Google unsend one of its e-mails

Goldman Sachs has demanded a court order to get Google to unsend an e-mail that the bank sent in error, according to Reuters’ report Wednesday. The e-mail contained “highly confidential” information addressed to the wrong account, a mistake on Goldman Sachs’ part that Google hasn’t yet been tempted to rectify. Goldman Sachs did not specify to Reuters how many clients were affected in the situation, which occurred on June 23. Reportedly, the mistake happened while a Goldman Sachs contractor was testing internal changes made to Goldman Sachs’ system to meet new requirements from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The contractor prepared a report with sensitive client information, including details on brokerage accounts, and e-mailed it to a gmail.com address, rather than the gs.com one she intended. Reuters says that it tried to “retrieve the report” and contact the owner of the Gmail account without success. Google told Goldman Sachs on June 26 that it couldn’t reach through Gmail and delete the e-mail without a court order. Goldman Sahcs filed with the New York Supreme Court, requesting “emergency relief” to both avoid a privacy violation and “avoid the risk of unnecessary reputational damage to Goldman Sachs.” Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Ken May

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