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Comment sewing chaos and dissent (Score 1) 1

by efraker (#55385519) Attached to: Russian troll factory paid US activists to fund protests during election

My favorite quote from the article: 'The task wasn’t to support Trump,' one of the factory’s employees told RBC. 'We raised social issues and other problems that already existed in the US, and tried to shine as bright a light as possible on them.' The employee said that because Clinton was part of the current regime, she was also a target.

Russia wasn't advocating for any ideology or comity. They just want to divide and conquer.

Submission + - Russian troll factory paid US activists to fund protests during election (theguardian.com) 1

Submitted by bestweasel
bestweasel writes: The Guardian reports on another story about Russian meddling but interestingly this one comes from a Russian news source, RBC. Russian trolls posing as Americans made payments to genuine activists in the US to help fund protest movements on socially divisive issues.
On Tuesday, the newspaper RBC published a major investigation into the work of a so-called Russian âoetroll factoryâ since 2015, including during the period of the US election campaign, disclosures that are likely to put further spotlight on alleged Russian meddling in the election.
RBC said it had identified 118 accounts or groups inÂFacebook, Instagram and Twitter that were linked to the troll factory, all of which had been blocked in August and September this year as part of the US investigation into Russian electoral meddling. RBC story (in Russian).
Moscow Times: Kremlin Troll Factory's Methods and Figures Revealed

Submission + - Tribal "Sovereign Immunity" Patent Protection Could Be Outlawed

Submitted by AnalogDiehard
AnalogDiehard writes: The recent — and questionable — practice of technological and pharmaceutical companies selling their patents to US native indian tribes (where they enjoy "sovereign immunity" from the inter partes review (IPR) process of the PTO) then the tribes licensing them back to the companies is drawing scrutiny from a federal court and has inspired a new US bill outlawing the practice. The IPR process is a "fast track" (read: much less expensive) process through the PTO to review the validity of challenged patents — it is loved by defendants and hated by patent holders. Not only has US Circuit Judge William Bryson invalidated Allergan's pharmaceutical patents due to "obviousness", he is questioning the legitimacy of the sovereign immunity tactic. The judge was well aware that the tactic could endanger the IPR process which was a central component of the America Invents Act of 2011 and writes that sovereign immunity "should not be treated as a monetizable commodity that can be purchased by private entities as part of a scheme to evade their legal responsibility." US Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) — no stranger to abuses of the patent system — has introduced a bill that would outlaw the practice she describes as "one of the most brazen and absurd loopholes I've ever seen and it should be illegal." Sovereign immunity is not absolute and has been limited by Congress and the courts in the past. The bill would apply only to the IPR proceedings and not to patent disputes in federal courts.

Submission + - Google Pixel 2 The Fastest Android Phones In Some Tests Due To Oreo OS Gains (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Google officially launched it's Pixel 2 phones today, taking the wraps off 3rd party reviews. Designed by Google but manufactured by HTC (Pixel 2) and LG (Pixel 2 XL), the two new handsets also boast Google's latest Android 8.0 operating system, aka Oreo, an exclusive to Google Pixel and certain Nexus devices currently. And in some ways, this is also a big advantage. Though they are based on the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor as many other Android devices, Google's new Pixel 2s manage to outpace similarly configured smartphones, in certain benchmarks, by significant margins (Basemark, PCMark and 3DMark). They also boot dramatically faster than any other Android handset on the market, in as little as 10 seconds. Camera performance is also excellent, with both the 5-inch Pixel 2 and 6-inch Pixel 2 XL sporting identical electronics, save for their displays and chassis sizes. Other notable features built into Oreo are Google Now Playing, an always listening Shazam-like service (if you enable it) that displays song titles on the lock screen, if it picks up on music playing in the room you're in. Processing is done right on the Pixel 2 and it doesn't need network connectivity. Other Pixel 2 Oreo-based tricks are Google Lens, a machine vision system that Google notes "can recognize places like landmarks and buildings, artwork that you'd find in a museum, media covers such as books, movies, music albums, and video games..." Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are available now on Verizon or unlocked and off carrier contract, starting at $649 and $849 respectively for 64GB storage versions, with a $100 up-charge for 128GB variants.

Submission + - Mobile Phone Companies Appear To Be Selling Your Location To Almost Anyone (techcrunch.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: You may remember that last year, Verizon (which owns Oath, which owns TechCrunch) was punished by the FCC for injecting information into its subscribers’ traffic that allowed them to be tracked without their consent. That practice appears to be alive and well despite being disallowed in a ruling last March: companies appear to be able to request your number, location, and other details from your mobile provider quite easily. The possibility was discovered by Philip Neustrom, co-founder of Shotwell Labs, who documented it in a blog post earlier this week. He found a pair of websites which, if visited from a mobile data connection, report back in no time with numerous details: full name, billing zip code, current location (as inferred from cell tower data), and more. (Others found the same thing with slightly different results depending on carrier, but the demo sites were taken down before I could try it myself.)

Submission + - Every Patch For 'KRACK' Wi-Fi Vulnerability Available Right Now (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As reported previously by ZDNet, the bug, dubbed "KRACK" — which stands for Key Reinstallation Attack — is at heart a fundamental flaw in the way Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) operates. According to security researcher and academic Mathy Vanhoef, who discovered the flaw, threat actors can leverage the vulnerability to decrypt traffic, hijack connections, perform man-in-the-middle attacks, and eavesdrop on communication sent from a WPA2-enabled device. In total, ten CVE numbers have been preserved to describe the vulnerability and its impact, and according to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the main affected vendors are Aruba, Cisco, Espressif Systems, Fortinet, the FreeBSD Project, HostAP, Intel, Juniper Networks, Microchip Technology, Red Hat, Samsung, various units of Toshiba and Ubiquiti Networks. ZDNet has a list of all the patches currently available.

Submission + - Ophelia Became a Major Hurricane Where No Storm Had Before (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The system formerly known as Hurricane Ophelia is moving into Ireland on Monday, bringing "status red" weather throughout the day to the island. The Irish National Meteorological Service, Met Eireann, has warned that, "Violent and destructive gusts of 120 to 150km/h are forecast countrywide, and in excess of these values in some very exposed and hilly areas. There is a danger to life and property." Ophelia transitioned from a hurricane to an extra-tropical system on Sunday, but that only marginally diminished its threat to Ireland and the United Kingdom on Monday, before it likely dissipates near Norway on Tuesday. The primary threat from the system was high winds, with heavy rains. Forecasters marveled at the intensification of Ophelia on Saturday, as it reached Category 3 status on the Saffir-Simpson scale and became a major hurricane. For a storm in the Atlantic basin, this is the farthest east that a major hurricane has been recorded during the satellite era of observations. Additionally, it was the farthest north, at 35.9 degrees north, that an Atlantic major hurricane has existed this late in the year since 1939.

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