AmiMoJo shares a report from NPR: A federal judge in California has ordered that Twitter reveal the identity of an anonymous user who allegedly fabricated an FBI document to spread a conspiracy theory about the killing of Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staffer who died in 2016. The ruling could lead to the identification of the person behind the Twitter name @whyspertech. Through that account, the user allegedly provided forged FBI materials to Fox News. The documents falsely linked Rich's killing to the WikiLeaks hack of Democratic Party emails in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

While Twitter fought to keep the user's identity secret, U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu in Oakland, Calif., ordered on Tuesday that the tech company must turn over the information to attorneys representing Rich's family in a defamation suit by Oct. 20. It is the latest twist in a years-long saga over a conspiracy theory that rocked Washington, caused a grieving family a great deal of pain and set off multiple legal battles. "In a now-retracted story, Fox News falsely claimed that Rich's computer was connected to the leak of Democratic Party emails provided to WikiLeaks, and that Rich's slaying was related to the purported leak," the report adds. "The theory was even debunked in special counsel Robert Mueller's report."

"The Washington Times later reported in 2018 that Rich's brother, Aaron Rich, helped steal the emails in exchange for money from WikiLeaks and that he knew his brother would be killed and did nothing to stop it. None of those allegations are true. That story has also been retracted."

Brian Krebs writes via KrebsOnSecurity.com: There's an old adage in information security: "Every company gets penetration tested, whether or not they pay someone for the pleasure." Many organizations that do hire professionals to test their network security posture unfortunately tend to focus on fixing vulnerabilities hackers could use to break in. But judging from the proliferation of help-wanted ads for offensive pentesters in the cybercrime underground, today's attackers have exactly zero trouble gaining that initial intrusion: The real challenge seems to be hiring enough people to help everyone profit from the access already gained.

One of the most common ways such access is monetized these days is through ransomware, which holds a victim's data and/or computers hostage unless and until an extortion payment is made. But in most cases, there is a yawning gap of days, weeks or months between the initial intrusion and the deployment of ransomware within a victim organization. That's because it usually takes time and a good deal of effort for intruders to get from a single infected PC to seizing control over enough resources within the victim organization where it makes sense to launch the ransomware.

This includes pivoting from or converting a single compromised Microsoft Windows user account to an administrator account with greater privileges on the target network; the ability to sidestep and/or disable any security software; and gaining the access needed to disrupt or corrupt any data backup systems the victim firm may have. Each day, millions of malware-laced emails are blasted out containing booby-trapped attachments. If the attachment is opened, the malicious document proceeds to quietly download additional malware and hacking tools to the victim machine. From there, the infected system will report home to a malware control server operated by the spammers who sent the missive. At that point, control over the victim machine may be transferred or sold multiple times between different cybercriminals who specialize in exploiting such access. These folks are very often contractors who work with established ransomware groups, and who are paid a set percentage of any eventual ransom payments made by a victim company.

The federal government on Thursday appealed a judge's ruling that prevented the Trump administration from imposing a ban on TikTok, the viral video app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. The New York Times reports: In a filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the Justice Department argued that a preliminary injunction issued last month by Judge Carl Nichols in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia should be lifted. A Justice Department spokeswoman said it had no further comment beyond the appeal. TikTok declined to comment. It was not immediately clear when the court might act on the government's appeal.

The government's decision to appeal the injunction, which delayed TikTok from being banned in U.S. app stores, further escalates the battle between the White House and ByteDance. The move is part of a Cold War between the United States and the Chinese government. The Chinese government has for years prevented its citizens from using international apps like Facebook, Twitter and other communications services. Since President Trump took office, he has repeatedly moved to stop Chinese companies from investing in and acquiring American companies. Citing national security concerns, the administration has also sought to stop American citizens from using Chinese-owned apps and has worked to banish Chinese technology and hardware from American telecommunications networks.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Electrek: Mercedes-Benz teases a new super-efficient electric car concept, the Vision EQXX, with more than 750 miles of range on a single charge. At Daimler's latest company update, the automaker teased a new technical program to develop "the longest-range and highest-efficiency electric car the world has ever seen." Mercedes-Benz's head of research and development, Markus Schafer, commented: "We have set up a group of our engineers to take on an extraordinary task: to build the longest-range and highest-efficiency electric car the world has ever seen. This is a serious project, chasing next-generation technologies. We intend to incorporate the learning into the next generation of series production cars."

The German automaker said that the electric vehicle should be able to travel from Beijing to Shanghai, a journey that covers about 750 miles (1,200 km), on a single charge. This incredible range will be achieved through efficiency improvements rather than just a bigger battery pack. Daimler noted that the program will be used to test new technologies to improve efficiency and bring those to production cars: "While Vision EQXX is a technology program, it is expected to result in innovations that will quickly make their way into series production cars." They haven't disclosed when they plan to unveil the Vision EQXX electric prototype.

Microsoft today announced a slew of new features coming to its Chromium Edge browser. From a report: There are PDF improvements, a built-in screenshot tool, support for more themes, and new shopping features in time for the holiday season. But the most notable addition is the one powered by Skype because for better or for worse, 2020 is the year of video calling. When Zoom usage exploded this year, Microsoft tried to save face by making it easier to join Skype calls -- the company dropping account sign-up requirements and expanded the number of supported users. Microsoft is now bringing that functionality to Edge's new tab page with a dedicated Meet Now button (not to be confused with Google Meet). [...] Microsoft claims "Edge is the best browser for shopping this holiday." To make the case, Edge is getting a feature called price comparison that compares the price of a product you're searching for across other retailers. If you add a product to a collection, you can then click "compare price to other retailers" to see a list of prices of that item across other retailers.

There are few things as revealing as a person's search history, and police typically need a warrant on a known suspect to demand that sensitive information. But a recently unsealed court document found that investigators can request such data in reverse order by asking Google to disclose everyone who searched a keyword rather than for information on a known suspect. From a report: In August, police arrested Michael Williams, an associate of singer and accused sex offender R. Kelly, for allegedly setting fire to a witness' car in Florida. Investigators linked Williams to the arson, as well as witness tampering, after sending a search warrant to Google that requested information on "users who had searched the address of the residence close in time to the arson."

The July court filing was unsealed on Tuesday. Detroit News reporter Robert Snell tweeted about the filing after it was unsealed. Court documents showed that Google provided the IP addresses of people who searched for the arson victim's address, which investigators tied to a phone number belonging to Williams. Police then used the phone number records to pinpoint the location of Williams' device near the arson, according to court documents. The original warrant sent to Google is still sealed, but the report provides another example of a growing trend of data requests to the search engine giant in which investigators demand data on a large group of users rather than a specific request on a single suspect. "This 'keyword warrant' evades the Fourth Amendment checks on police surveillance," said Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. "When a court authorizes a data dump of every person who searched for a specific term or address, it's likely unconstitutional."

Waymo, the Google self-driving-project-turned-Alphabet unit, is beginning to open up its driverless ride-hailing service to the public. From a report: The company said that starting today members of its Waymo One service will be able to take family and friends along on their fully driverless rides in the Phoenix area. Existing Waymo One members will have the first access to the driverless rides -- terminology that means no human behind the wheel. However, the company said that in the next several weeks more people will be welcomed directly into the service through its app, which is available on Google Play and the App Store. Waymo said that 100% of its rides will be fully driverless -- which it has deemed its "rider only" mode. That 100% claim requires a bit of unpacking. The public shouldn't expect hundreds of Waymo-branded Chrysler Pacifica minivans -- no human behind the wheel -- to suddenly inundate the entire 600-plus square miles of the greater Phoenix area. Waymo has abut 600 vehicles in its fleet. About 300 to 400 of those are in the Phoenix area. Waymo wouldn't share exact numbers of how many of these vehicles would be dedicated to driverless rides. However, Waymo CEO John Krafcik explained to TechCrunch in a recent interview, that there will be various modes operating in the Phoenix area. Some of these will be "rider only," while other vehicles will still have train safety operators behind the wheel. Some of the fleet will also be used for testing.

Facebook is using its vast legal muscle to silence one of its most prominent critics. The Real Facebook Oversight Board, a group established last month in response to the tech giant's failure to get its actual Oversight Board up and running before the presidential election, was forced offline on Wednesday night after Facebook wrote to the internet service provider demanding the group's website -- realfacebookoversight.org -- be taken offline. From a report: The group is made up of dozens of prominent academics, activists, lawyers, and journalists whose goal is to hold Facebook accountable in the run-up to the election next month. Facebook's own Oversight Board, which was announced 13 months ago, will not meet for the first time until later this month, and won't consider any issues related to the election. In a letter sent to one of the founders of the RFOB, journalist Carole Cadwalladr, the ISP SupportNation said the website was being taken offline after Facebook complained that the site was involved in "phishing."

In a not-so-subtle dig at Apple and Google, Microsoft today announced a series of "principles" for its Windows 10 App Store -- including letting users choose their own payment system for in-app purchases -- that it says should serve as a model for other app stores. From a report: The move comes as antitrust regulators in the U.S. and around the world are spotlighting how both Apple and Google manage their mobile platforms and as some developers charge them with running their app stores unfairly. In addition to offering developers the option to use an alternative payment mechanism for in-app purchases, Microsoft pledged that it will, among other things: allow competing app stores; hold its own apps to the same standards as those of other companies; allow app makers to decide what they do and don't want to sell within their app; and allow any developer in its store "as long as it meets objective standards and requirements, including those for security, privacy, quality, content, and digital safety."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: France has introduced a new law to protect young social media stars. The legislation aims to regulate the hours under-16s can work online and what happens to their earnings. It also enshrines the right to be forgotten, meaning that platforms will be obliged to take down content on the child's request. The popularity of child influencers has grown rapidly in recent years, with a number of young names appearing on the list of YouTube's top earners. The change will make France a pioneer in the rights of child social media stars, the MP behind the bill, Bruno Studer, was quoted as saying by Le Monde newspaper.

The new law, which was passed unanimously on Tuesday, does not affect all children who appear on social media, but instead targets those who spend significant amounts of time working online and whose work generates an income. The change offers them the same protections as those given to child models and actors in France, with their earnings placed in a bank account until they turn 16. Companies wishing to employ child influencers must also receive permission from local authorities.

According to Taiwanese publication DigiTimes, Qualcomm is planning to launch new premium smartphones under its own brand name. It's reportedly partnering with ASUS to manufacture and distribute the devices globally. HotHardware reports: It would appear that Qualcomm's intent is to showcase ultra-premium experiences for Snapdragon Android phones in the market. This would in effect be a "super phone" of sorts that is designed by and powered by Qualcomm, but manufactured by ASUS. It would likely be a high-end, Snapdragon 875 flagship smartphone with all the bells and whistles that would compete with the best that other Android OEMs have to offer (we'd expect a stock Android experience as well). The most obvious comparison would be Microsoft's Surface line of premium hardware used to showcase new ideas and form factors.

ASUS is already a known quantity in the Android smartphone market, and produces its own line of gaming smartphones like the lightning-fast ROG Phone 3, which is powered by Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 865+ SoC. However, ASUS would also be producing a device that would be directly competing against its own high-end offerings. It would seemingly make sense for Qualcomm to announce this new partnership and gaming smartphone brand at the upcoming Snapdragon Tech Summit, which will be held virtually December 1st through December 2nd. At that time, Qualcomm is expected to launch its Snapdragon 875 flagship SoC along with a new generation of Snapdragon 700 Series mid-range SoCs.

On Wednesday, Boom Supersonic unveiled the XB-1, a prototype aircraft for the company's planned commercial supersonic airplane. Ars Technica reports: The rollout marks the handoff from the design, development, and build phase to testing, said Blake Scholl, Boom founder and chief executive. After undergoing a series of ground tests, the 21-meter-long aircraft will begin a flight test campaign in the third quarter of 2021 at Mojave Air and Space Port, Scholl said. "We'll be supersonic by the end of next year," he added. This is about a year later than the company's original plans.

Founded in 2014, Boom is planning to build a new generation of supersonic passenger jets and sell them to airlines. Scholl said the company has already pre-sold $6 billion worth of its full-size aircraft, called Overture. These airplanes are expected to seat 65 to 88 passengers and will travel at subsonic speeds over land and supersonic speeds over water -- more than twice as fast as current commercial aircraft. Boom hopes to begin flying Overture for the first time in 2026 and hopes the craft will be available for commercial flights before the end of the decade. To make that happen, the XB-1 demonstrator represents the first step, Scholl said, to test key technologies for Overture, including shape and materials.

Perhaps the biggest difference between XB-1 and the full-scale aircraft, besides the size, is that XB-1 will use a smaller, off-the-shelf J85-15 turbojet engine. The company announced a partnership with Rolls Royce earlier this year to work on development of the Overture aircraft engine and expects to select a final design by the end of this year. The challenges in building this engine include designing the inlet to convert supersonic air flow to subsonic air flow before entering the engine and challenges with some of the internal components. However, Scholl said, "It's not much of a technology leap at all."

Sony's recently-released PS5 teardown video gives us a closer look at the PS5, and confirms that the speed of the console's Wi-Fi antenna and USB ports are faster than those available in the Xbox Series X. GamesRadar+ reports: As spotted by VG247, the teardown confirms a few new hardware details about PS5. For starters, we know the console's Wi-Fi antenna supports the new Wi-Fi 6 standard, which allows for a new maximum speed of 9.6 Gbps -- more than twice the 3.5 Gbps ceiling for Wi-Fi 5. This doesn't mean your PS5 will be able to use all of that to send your download speeds through the roof. The practical benefit is that Wi-Fi 6 routers can better distribute all that speed to a bunch of devices at once, and to maintain their performance over time. So if you have a Wi-Fi 6 router and a home full of connected devices, there's a good chance you will notice the improvement. For reference, the Xbox Series X Wi-Fi antenna supports Wi-Fi 5.

As for the USB ports, we already knew that PS5 has a USB-C port and a USB-A port on the front. The teardown video confirms the type-C port will support 10Gbps transfer speeds, and it confirms that the two USB-A ports on the back will as well. The type-A port on the front isn't as quick, so if you plan to plug in an external PS5 SSD make sure you use one of the ports on the back. Xbox Series X doesn't include any type-C ports, and all of its type-A ports run at the standard 5gbps speed. If you know that fast connection speeds will make a big difference to your play experience, you may want to lean toward PS5 -- but as always, the biggest deciding factor should be what games you want to play and how well each console plays them. The Verge also notes the PS5 includes removable sides, dust catchers, and storage expansion.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: On Wednesday, Facebook said it would take more preventive measures to keep political candidates from using it to manipulate the election's outcome and its aftermath. The company now plans to prohibit all political and issue-based advertising after the polls close on Nov. 3 for an undetermined length of time. And it said it would place notifications at the top of the News Feed notifying people that no winner had been decided until a victor was declared by news outlets. "This is shaping up to be a very unique election," Guy Rosen, vice president for integrity at Facebook, said in a call with reporters on Wednesday.

Facebook is doing more to safeguard its platform after introducing measures to reduce election misinformation and interference on its site just last month. At the time, Facebook said it planned to ban new political ads for a contained period -- the week before Election Day -- and would act swiftly against posts that tried to dissuade people from voting. Mr. Zuckerberg also said Facebook would not make any other changes until there was an official election result. But the additional moves underscore the sense of emergency about the election, as the level of contentiousness has risen between Mr. Trump and his opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr. On Tuesday, to help blunt further political turmoil, Facebook also said it would remove any group, page or Instagram account that openly identified with QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy movement. "We believe that we have done more than any other company over the past four years to help secure the integrity of elections," Mr. Rosen said.

Google on Wednesday unveiled a pair of online products designed to better protect the security and privacy of Google users' information. From a report: The company said it will soon introduce a redesigned critical alert to warn Google Account users when a serious security threat is detected, such as a suspected hack. Unlike alerts that arrive in your email or on your phone, the new alert will automatically be displayed in the Google app you're using. To provide an additional layer of reassurance, Google says the new alert is spoof-proof, so you don't have to worry about whether the alert is legitimate. Google is also rolling out a new feature for Google Assistant called Guest mode that will allow you to use the voice-activated AI without your interactions being saved to your Google account. A simple voice command turns the feature on and off.

Alphabet's Google got a mixed reception at the U.S. Supreme Court as it sought to overturn a ruling that could force the company to pay billions of dollars for improperly using Oracle's copyrighted code in the Android operating system. From a report: Holding a low-tech telephone session in one of the biggest software fights in American history, the justices on Wednesday questioned Google's contention that it had no way to replicate the code without forcing millions of software developers to learn a new programming language. Justice Neil Gorsuch told Google's lawyer that Apple and other companies have "come up with phones that work just fine without engaging in this kind of copying." But Gorsuch also raised the possibility of returning the case to a federal appeals court for another look at Google's contention that it engaged in legitimate "fair use" of Oracle's Java programming language. Oracle says it's entitled to at least $8.8 billion in damages. A jury found that Google's code copying was a legitimate fair use, but a federal appeals court reversed that finding.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Slack is useful to connect with your teammates and avoid sending them emails for things that can be discussed quickly through a chat. However, to talk to a person from a client or partner organization whom you interact with regularly, you'd need to email them and maybe even schedule a meeting or call them to check a trivial detail. Now, Slack is solving that problem by introducing a new feature called Connect DMs that'll let you chat with someone from outside your organization through just a few clicks. This sounds like an email but in a chat format. In June, the company introduced Slack Connect, a way for multiple companies to have a joint slack channel. It said that over 56,000 organizations have been using this feature after the launch, and Slack Connect DM is the next step of that. The implementation is easy: you generate a link for starting Slack Connect DM and send it to your contact. Once they accept the invitation, you can chat with them directly in Slack. Plus, you will have control to revoke access at any time.

Korean chip manufacturer SK Hynix has unveiled the world's first 64GB DDR5 RAM modules, marking a big step away from DDR4 DIMMs that have dominated PC memory since 2013. From a report: The DDR5-4800 chips support speeds between 4,800 and 5,600 Mbps with faster potential data rates than DDR4, while using less power. The technology also allows for modules of up to 256GB in size. The JEDEC standard for DDR5 RAM was officially published in July this year, but SK Hynix unveiled its first chips in 2018. Apart from the memory gains, DDR5 will have two 32-bit channels instead of a single 64-bit channel, making it easier to increase peak bandwidth. The modules themselves will also regulate voltage instead of the motherboard, allowing the DDR5 RAM manufacturer to control the all-important clock speeds. All told, it could make for some very interesting enthusiast RAM options. SK Hynix has already tested modules at 6,400 Mbps and has 8,400 Mbps speeds on the roadmap.

AmiMoJo shares a report from NBC News: Facebook said Tuesday that it is banning all QAnon accounts from its platforms, a significant escalation over its previous actions and one of the broadest rules the social media giant has put in place in its history. Facebook said the change is an update on the policy it created in August that initially only removed accounts related to the QAnon conspiracy theory that discussed violence, which resulted in the termination of 1,500 pages, groups and profiles.

A company spokesperson said the enforcement, which started Tuesday, will "bring to parity what we've been doing on other pieces of policy with regard to militarized social movements," such as militia and terror groups that repeatedly call for violence. "Starting today, we will remove Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts for representing QAnon. We're starting to enforce this updated policy today and are removing content accordingly, but this work will take time and will continue in the coming days and weeks," Facebook wrote in a press release. "Our Dangerous Organizations Operations team will continue to enforce this policy and proactively detect content for removal instead of relying on user reports."

Amazon's Eero mesh networking company is introducing Eero for Service Providers. "This is an all-new hardware and software offering designed to help internet service providers (ISPs) meet customers' increasing demands for exceptional home Wi-Fi," writes Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols via ZDNet. "This is not just a bundling of a selection of Eero Wi-Fi mesh routers with your existing internet service. It also includes remote network management for your ISP and security and privacy management tools for you." From the report: The bundle starts, of course, with the routers. Besides offering Eero's existing whole-home mesh Wi-Fi systems to customers, ISPs will also get access to the all-new Eero 6 series. These come with Wi-Fi 6. This new Wi-Fi technology supports faster speeds and more simultaneously connected devices. Eero claims that this is its fastest Wi-Fi network yet. There are two models: Eero Pro 6 and Eero 6. These new devices also come with a built-in Zigbee smart home hub. This IEEE 802.15.4 personal-area network standard Internet of Things (IoT) hub lets you manage compatible IoT devices on your networks. This way you don't need a separate Zigbee hub.

For ISPs, Eero Insight builds on Eero's existing Remote Network Management software. This combines monitoring user history to predict and address customer problems before they change from annoyances to real problems. It also includes network monitoring tools such as a network topology viewer, historical speed tests and bandwidth usage, RF diagnostics, alerts, audit logs, outage detection, fleet analysis, and network health. For users, all this should mean a more reliable internet connection and that's always good news.