ICT news

• Uber Concealed Cyberattack That Exposed 57 Million People's Data

  21-11-2017 23:50 via rss.slashdot.org
  According to Bloomberg, hackers stole the personal data of 57 million customers and drivers from Uber. The massive breach was reportedly concealed by the company for more than a year. From the report: Compromised data from the October 2016 attack included names, email addresses and phone numbers of 50 million Uber riders around the world, the company told Bloomberg on Tuesday. The personal information of about 7 million drivers were accessed as well, including some 600,000 U.S. driver's license
  
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• Russia To Act Against Google if Sputnik, RT Get Lower Search Rankings

  21-11-2017 23:10 via rss.slashdot.org
  Paresh Dave and Jack Stubbs, reporting for Reuters: The Kremlin will take action against Alphabet's Google if articles from Russian news websites Sputnik and Russia Today are placed lower in search results, the Interfax news service cited Russia's chief media regulator as saying on Tuesday. Alexander Zharov, head of media regulator Roskomnadzor, said his agency sent a letter to Google on Tuesday requesting clarification on comments Saturday by Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt about how t
  
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• New Windows Search Interface Borrows Heavily From MacOS

  21-11-2017 22:30 via rss.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Press clover-space on a Mac (aka apple-space or command-space to Apple users) and you get a search box slap bang in the middle of the screen; type things into it and it'll show you all the things it can find that match. On Windows, you can do the same kind of thing -- hit the Windows key and then start typing -- but the results are shown in the bottom left of your screen, in the Start menu or Cortana pane. The latest insider build of Windows
  
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• Why Apple's HomePod Is Three Years Behind Amazon's Echo

  21-11-2017 21:50 via rss.slashdot.org
  Apple unveiled the HomePod, its first smart speaker to take on market-leading Amazon's Echo lineup of speakers, in June this year. Despite being three years late to the party, the HomePod has largely been pitched more as a speaker that sounds great instead of a device that sounds great but more importantly can also help you with daily chores. On top of this, Apple said last week it was delaying the shipment of HomePod from December this year to "early 2018." So why does a company, the market val
  
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• FCC Plans To Dismantle Net Neutrality Rules

  21-11-2017 21:26
  Net neutrality is in jeopardy. Again.
  
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• A Look At Public Events, Adventures In Upcoming 'Destiny 2' Expansion

  21-11-2017 21:25
  You can also earn new weapons by completing Prophecy Tablets provided by Brother Vance.
  
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• Microsoft Offering Free Windows 10 Development Environment VM for a Limited Time

  21-11-2017 21:10 via rss.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft is providing a free virtual machine that comes preloaded with Windows 10 Enterprise, Visual Studio 2017, and various utilities in order to promote the development of Universal Windows Platform apps. Before you get too excited about a free version of Windows 10 Enterprise, this Virtual Machine will expire on January 15th 2018. When downloading the development environment, you can choose either a VMware, VirtualBox, Hyper-V, or Parallels virtual machi
  
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• ProtonMail Launches ‘Zero-Access’ Encrypted Contacts Manager

  21-11-2017 20:50
  ProtonMail announced a new encrypted contacts manager that will keep your contacts' information private. The contact fields will also be digitally signed to ensure that nobody is tampering with the information inside them.
  
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• Rival Wings PvP Mode, Bard Performances Added In 'FFXIV' Patch

  21-11-2017 20:35
  The new PvP match will include two teams of 24 players with the goal of eliminating the opposing enemy Core.
  
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• FCC Announces Plan To Repeal Net Neutrality

  21-11-2017 20:11 via rss.slashdot.org
  FCC on Tuesday said it plans to dismantle landmark regulations that ensure equal access to the internet, clearing the way for companies to charge more and block access to some websites. From a report on the New York Times: The proposal, put forward by the F.C.C. chairman, Ajit Pai, is a sweeping repeal of rules put in place by the Obama administration that prohibited high-speed internet service providers from blocking or slowing down the delivery of websites, or charging extra fees for the best
  
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• Iranian 'Game of Thrones' Hacker Demanded $6 Million Bitcoin Ransom From HBO, Feds Say

  21-11-2017 19:40 via rss.slashdot.org
  Anonymous readers share a report: The Department of Justice on Tuesday charged an Iranian national with allegedly hacking into HBO, dumping a selection stolen files, and attempting to extort the company by ransoming a treasure trove of the company's content. This summer, hackers released a bevy of internal HBO files, included scripts for Game of Thrones and full, unaired episodes of other shows. Behzad Mesri, aka "Skote Vahshat," at one point worked for the Iranian military to break into militar
  
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• Hitler Quote Controversy In the BSD Community

  21-11-2017 19:00 via rss.slashdot.org
  New submitter Seven Spirals writes: Recently, the FreeBSD folks have removed Fortune with a fairly predictable far right 4chan condemnation. Then last weekend saw a lively debate on NetBSD's current-users mailing list about the inclusion of Hitler quotes in the Fortune database with dozens of posts falling on the left and right. The quotes themselves are fairly tame material probably intended as cautionary. However, the controversy and the reaction of BSD users has been real and very diverse. So
  
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• Cooler Master MasterKeys MK750, Hands On

  21-11-2017 18:40
  After making its debut at Computex 2017, Cooler Master’s new flagships keyboard, the MasterKeys MK750, is available with nary a missing feature.
  
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• Apple's New iPhone Built With Illegal Overtime Teen Labor

  21-11-2017 18:30 via rss.slashdot.org
  Apple's main supplier in Asia has been employing high-school students working illegal overtime to assemble the iPhone X in an effort to catch up with demand after facing production delays, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing several teenagers involved. From a report: A group of 3,000 students from the Zhengzhou Urban Rail Transit School were sent to work at the local facility run by Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry, known as Foxconn, as part of a three-month stint that was bil
  
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• 'League Of Legends' Merch Site Exposed Private Data

  21-11-2017 18:05
  Some people could see data about other players, such as their real name, past orders, and partial credit card information.
  
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• To Save Net Neutrality, We Must Build Our Own Internet

  21-11-2017 17:50 via rss.slashdot.org
  In light of reports that FCC plans to announce a full repeal of net neutrality protections later this week, Jason Koebler, editor-in-chief of Motherboard, suggests that it is time we cut our reliance on big telecom monopolies. He writes: Net neutrality as a principle of the federal government will soon be dead, but the protections are wildly popular among the American people and are integral to the internet as we know it. Rather than putting such a core tenet of the internet in the hands of poli
  
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• Skype Vanishes From App Stores in China

  21-11-2017 17:00 via rss.slashdot.org
  Skype, Microsoft's Internet phone call and messaging service, has been unavailable for download from a number of app stores in China, including Apple's, for almost a month (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternative source), The New York Times reported on Tuesday. From the report: "We have been notified by the Ministry of Public Security that a number of voice over internet protocol apps do not comply with local law. Therefore these apps have been removed from the app store in China
  
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• Intel Acknowledges ME Flaws, Announces Fixes

  21-11-2017 16:35
  After researchers found a way to completely takeover a PC by exploiting Intel's Management Engine via a USB attack, Intel started reviewing its ME firmware. The company found multiple vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers.
  
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• Intel: We've Found Severe Bugs in Secretive Management Engine, Affecting Millions

  21-11-2017 16:20 via rss.slashdot.org
  Liam Tung, writing for ZDNet: Thanks to an investigation by third-party researchers into Intel's hidden firmware in certain chips, Intel decided to audit its firmware and on Monday confirmed it had found 11 severe bugs that affect millions of computers and servers. The flaws affect Management Engine (ME), Trusted Execution Engine (TXE), and Server Platform Services (SPS). Intel discovered the bugs after Maxim Goryachy and Mark Ermolov from security firm Positive Technologies found a critical vul
  
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• Flat Earther Plans To Launch Homemade Manned Rocket

  21-11-2017 15:40 via rss.slashdot.org
  walterbyrd shares an Associated Press report: Self-taught rocket scientist "Mad" Mike Hughes is a 61-year-old limo driver who's spent the last few years building a steam-powered rocket out of salvage parts in his garage. His project has cost him $20,000, which includes Rust-Oleum paint to fancy it up and a motor home he bought on Craigslist that he converted into a ramp. His first test of the rocket will also be the launch date -- Saturday, when he straps into his homemade contraption and attemp
  
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• Enermax Steelwing Mini-Tower Case Review

  21-11-2017 15:00
  
  Enermax managed to take a Micro-ATX board and stuff it into a Mini-ITX sized case. Today we’re putting it to the test to find out if less is actually more.
  
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• Google Collects Android Users' Locations Even When Location Services Are Disabled

  21-11-2017 14:55 via rss.slashdot.org
  Google has been collecting Android phones' locations even when location services are turned off, and even when there is no carrier SIM card installed on the device, an investigation has found. Keith Collins, reporting for Quartz: Since the beginning of 2017, Android phones have been collecting the addresses of nearby cellular towers -- even when location services are disabled -- and sending that data back to Google. The result is that Google, the unit of Alphabet behind Android, has access to da
  
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• Trump Administration Tightens Scrutiny of Skilled Worker Visa Applicants

  21-11-2017 14:00 via rss.slashdot.org
  wyattstorch516 writes: The Trump administration is tightening the scrutiny on the H-1B visa program (Warning: paywalled; alternative source). Changes would undo actions by the Obama administration. There are two big regulatory changes looming that would undo actions by the Obama administration. "The first change allowed spouses of H-1B workers the right to work. That regulation is being challenged in court and the Trump administration is expected to eliminate the provision rather than defend it,
  
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• Google Cloud Platform Cuts the Price of GPUs By Up To 36 Percent

  21-11-2017 11:00 via rss.slashdot.org
  In a blog post, Google's Product Manager, Chris Kleban, announced that the company is cutting the price of using Nvidia's Tesla GPUs through its Compute Engine by up to 36 percent. The older K80 GPUs will now cost $0.45 per hour while the more powerful P100 machines will cost $1.46 per minute (all with per-second billing). TechCrunch reports: The company is also dropping the prices for preemptible local SSDs by almost 40 percent. "Preemptible local SSDs" refers to local SSDs attached to Google's
  
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• Study of Recent Interstellar Asteroid Reveals Bizarre Shape

  21-11-2017 08:00 via rss.slashdot.org
  JoeRobe writes: A few weeks ago an interstellar asteroid, now named "Oumuamua," was discovered passing through our solar system. Being the first interstellar asteroid to ever be observed, a flurry of observations soon followed. This week, an accelerated article in Nature reveals that Oumuamua is more bizarre than originally thought: it is elongated, with a 10:1 aspect ratio, and rapidly rotating. This conclusion is based upon comparisons of its time-dependent light curve to those from 20,000 kno
  
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• Over 400 of the World's Most Popular Websites Record Your Every Keystroke

  21-11-2017 04:30 via rss.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: The idea of websites tracking users isn't new, but research from Princeton University released last week indicates that online tracking is far more invasive than most users understand. In the first installment of a series titled "No Boundaries," three researchers from Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) explain how third-party scripts that run on many of the world's most popular websites track your every keystroke and
  
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• UCLA Researchers Use Solar To Create and Store Hydrogen

  21-11-2017 03:05 via rss.slashdot.org
  UCLA researchers have designed a device that can use solar energy to inexpensively and efficiently create and store energy, which could be used to power electronic devices, and to create hydrogen fuel for eco-friendly cars. Phys.Org reports: The device could make hydrogen cars affordable for many more consumers because it produces hydrogen using nickel, iron and cobalt -- elements that are much more abundant and less expensive than the platinum and other precious metals that are currently used t
  
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• Uber Expands Driverless-Car Push With Deal For 24,000 Volvos

  21-11-2017 02:25 via rss.slashdot.org
  Uber agreed to buy 24,000 sport utility vehicles from Volvo to form a fleet of driverless autos. According to Bloomberg, "The XC90s, priced from $46,900 at U.S. dealers, will be delivered from 2019 to 2021 in the first commercial purchase by a ride-hailing provider." Uber will add its own sensors and software to permit pilot-less driving. From the report: Uber's order steps up efforts to replace human drivers, the biggest cost in its on-demand taxi service. The autonomous fleet is small compared
  
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• iMac Pro Will Have An A10 Fusion Coprocessor For 'Hey, Siri' Support and More Secure Booting, Says Report

  21-11-2017 01:45 via rss.slashdot.org
  According to Apple firmware gurus Steven Troughton-Smith and Guilherme Rambo, the upcoming iMac Pro will feature an A10 Fusion coprocessor to enable two interesting new features. "The first is the ability for the iMac Pro to feature always-on 'Hey, Siri' voice command support, similar to what's currently available on more recent iPhone devices," reports The Verge. "[T]he bigger implication of the A10 Fusion is for a less user-facing function, with Apple likely to use the coprocessor to enable Se
  
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• Asus Outs ‘New Upcoming Processors’ With AMD B350/X370 BIOS Updates

  21-11-2017 01:45
  Is AMD readying a new round of processors for its AM4 platform? It certainly seems so, with Asus releasing a new BIOS update for its entire range of B350 and X370 motherboards that effectively confirms this.
  
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• New Diagnostic Tools Available For DirectX 12 Developers

  21-11-2017 01:30
  In order to better understand the actual causes of game-breaking issues, Microsoft released two new tools for DirectX 12 developers.
  
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• Google Is Working On Fuchsia OS Support For Apple's Swift Programming Language

  21-11-2017 01:05 via rss.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report from Android Police: Google's in-development operating system, named "Fuchsia," first appeared over a year ago. It's quite different from Android and Chrome OS, as it runs on top of the real-time "Magenta" kernel instead of Linux. According to recent code commits, Google is working on Fuchsia OS support for the Swift programming language. If you're not familiar with it, Swift is a programming language developed by Apple, which can be used to create iOS/macOS/t
  
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• Why Hackers Reuse Malware

  21-11-2017 00:20 via rss.slashdot.org
  Orome1 shares a report from Help Net Security: Software developers love to reuse code wherever possible, and hackers are no exception. While we often think of different malware strains as separate entities, the reality is that most new malware recycles large chunks of source code from existing malware with some changes and additions (possibly taken from other publicly released vulnerabilities and tools). This approach makes sense. Why reinvent the wheel when another author already created a work
  
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