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Submission + - Apple Patches Stagefright-Like Bug in iOS

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Apple has fixed a series of high-risk vulnerabilities in iOS, including three that could lead to remote code execution, with the release of iOS 9.3.3.

One of those code-execution vulnerabilities lies in the way that iOS handles TIFF files in various applications. Researchers at Cisco’s TALOS team, who discovered the flaw, said that the vulnerability has a lot of potential for exploitation.

“This vulnerability is especially concerning as it can be triggered in any application that makes use of the Apple Image I/O API when rendering tiled TIFF images. This means that an attacker could deliver a payload that successfully exploits this vulnerability using a wide range of potential attack vectors including iMessages, malicious web pages, MMS messages, or other malicious file attachments opened by any application that makes use of the Apple Image I/O API for rendering these types of files,” Cisco TALOS said in a blog post.

Submission + - Valve takes aim at Counter Strike Gambling

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Game maker Valve is threatening to shut down sites dedicated to gambling with add-ons to its popular Counter Strike game. On Thursday the company sent cease and desist letters to 23 sites, demanding that gambling operations be stopped, and that the sites had 10 days to comply. The row revolves around the software overlays that change the appearance of the characters people play in Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) and the weapons and other virtual items. Last week the company reiterated that its user agreements ban external sites from asking users to connect their Steam accounts in order to trade items for real money. The company added that it would use "all available remedies" against sites that did not stop players using virtual goods to gamble.

Submission + - FBI Deliberately Foils FOI Requests with Bad Tech

Submitted by oxide7
oxide7 writes: The FBI is using antiquated computer systems on purpose, according to a new lawsuit, in an effort to foil requests made under the Freedom of Information Act. The FBI has established "countless means" of foiling FOIA requests, including a process by which searches fail "by design," according to researcher Ryan Shapiro. "When it comes to FOIA, the FBI is simply not operating in good faith," Shapiro said. "Since the passage of the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI has viewed efforts to force bureau compliance with FOIA as a security threat."

Submission + - Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems (newsweek.com)

Submitted by oxide7
oxide7 writes: In June 2011, Julian Assange received an unusual visitor: the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt. They outlined radically opposing perspectives: for Assange, the liberating power of the Internet is based on its freedom and statelessness. For Schmidt, emancipation is at one with U.S. foreign policy objectives and is driven by connecting non-Western countries to Western companies and markets. These differences embodied a tug-of-war over the Internet’s future that has only gathered force subsequently. Assange describes his encounter with Schmidt and how he came to conclude that it was far from an innocent exchange of views.

Submission + - Fake Cell Towers Allow the NSA and Police to Keep Track of You

Submitted by oxide7
oxide7 writes: The Internet is abuzz with reports of mysterious devices sprinkled across America—many of them on military bases—that connect to your phone by mimicking cell phone towers and sucking up your data. There is little public information about these devices, but they are the new favorite toy of government agencies of all stripes; everyone from the National Security Agency to local police forces are using them.

Submission + - Techs next big shot in the arm

Submitted by oxide7
oxide7 writes: This is the big secret about Obamacare: It is pushing the health care industry to spend unprecedented money building out shiny new technology that is going to do amazing stuff. We're witnessing the creation of a vast, new nationwide digital health information platform, for which entrepreneurs can develop entirely new kinds of applications. "The consumer apps are literally a game-changer," says Len Nichols, a health economist at George Mason University. He and others believe we're heading into an epochal health tech boom that will ripple through society.

Submission + - Banker offers $1M to solve Beal Conjecture

Submitted by oxide7
oxide7 writes: A Texas banker with a knack for numbers has offered $1 million for anyone who can solve a complex math equation that has stumped mathematicians since the 1980s. The Beal Conjecture states that the only solutions to the equation A^x + B^y = C^z, when A, B and C are positive integers, and x, y and z are positive integers greater than two, are those in which A, B and C have a common factor. Like most number theories, it's “easy to say but extremely difficult to prove.”

Submission + - First 'Bionic' Dog Receives Four Prosthetics After Losing Paws

Submitted by oxide7
oxide7 writes: A mixed-breed dog who lost his four paws after being stricken with frostbite has been given a second chance at living a normal life with his new prosthetic paws. Naki'o's surgeries went without a glitch. A medical pioneer, he's believed to be the first "bionic" dog, with prosthetics on all fours.
Medicine

Submission + - Social Isolation Shortens Lifespans Of Loners

Submitted by oxide7
oxide7 writes: But in a recent study that collected 6,500 people from the United Kingdom, researchers found that the debilitating emotions from loneliness and infrequent contact with loved ones and friends could shorten a person's lifespan.
"We were thinking that people who were socially isolated but also felt lonely might be at particularly high risk," Andrew Steptoe, lead author and professor of psychology at University College London, told NPR.
Privacy

Submission + - Bloomberg: Survelance Drones Inevitable

Submitted by oxide7
oxide7 writes: Surveillance drones have many benefits, but privacy isn't one of them. Though the public has grown increasingly concerned with the government's domestic usage of drones, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg believes the issue is "scary" but inevitable. "You can do it from further away, you can see more, you can do it continuously, you can do it undetected in ways you couldn't before," Bloomberg said. "And al Qaeda can do it too. It's a scary world. Everyone wants their privacy, but I don't know how you're going to maintain it."
Science

Submission + - Evolution challenged with new dates

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An international team of researchers has found evidence challenging existing views about the timescale of two major events in human evolution: the first migration out of Africa, and the dating of "mitochondrial Eve,' the last common ancestor of all humans along the matrilineal line.
Businesses

Submission + - ZeekRewards, Zeekler Users 'In Shock' as service declared Ponzi Scheme

Submitted by oxide7
oxide7 writes: Users of ZeekRewards.com and Zeekler.com are searching for answers — and their lost money — after the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the sites' owner, Paul Burks, with an alleged $600 million Ponzi scheme.

"I was in shock," said a Zeek member who used the site for five months but asked to not be identified because of the ongoing investigation. "I thought it was going to be a rather simple inquiry and investigation and they would reveal to the attorney general that it was a very profitable business model and that everything was going to be OK."
Security

Submission + - China Has 'Back Door' Access to 80% of World Communications

Submitted by oxide7
oxide7 writes: The Chinese government has access to 80 percent of the world's communications, a former pentagon analyst has claimed.

Using equipment supplied by Chinese electronics giants Huawei Technologies and ZTE corporation, the People's Liberation Army and the government have "back door" access to a vast majority of the world's electronic information, including sensitive military and intelligence data

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