144761916
submission
puddingebola writes:
The FBI reports that 2020 saw a 69% increase in reports of online scams. Ankush Khardori, a lawyer and former federal prosecutor who specialized in financial fraud, writes in Wired for the need to increase enforcement on internet fraud. "Since the start of the pandemic, the scope and frequency of this criminal activity has become noticeably worse. Online fraudsters have stolen government relief checks, sold fake test kits and vaccines, and exploited the altruistic impulses of the American public through fake charities. But the broader failure has wreaked incalculable harm on the American public for years, including those in our most vulnerable and less tech-savvy populations, like senior citizens. The FBI’s most recent report makes it clear that the government needs to dramatically step up and rethink its approach to combating internet-based fraud—including how it tracks this problem, as well as how it can punish and deter these crimes more effectively going forward."
129279838
submission
puddingebola writes:
Observations made with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed for the first time that a star orbiting the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way moves just as predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Its orbit is shaped like a rosette and not like an ellipse as predicted by Newton's theory of gravity. This long-sought-after result was made possible by increasingly precise measurements over nearly 30 years, which have enabled scientists to unlock the mysteries of the behemoth lurking at the heart of our galaxy.
128669982
submission
puddingebola writes:
State governors are calling for the help of the COBOL programmers with their aged databases. Jobless claims in many states are processed on computer systems using the programming language.
119312676
submission
puddingebola writes:
Researchers have discovered a new multi-platform backdoor that infects Windows and Linux systems allowing the attackers to run malicious code and binaries on the compromised machines.
115267310
submission
puddingebola writes:
The US power grid was the target of a first cyberattack in March. The attack caused no disruption to power generation, but short term loss of control for grid operators. "In the March episode, a flaw in the victim utility's firewalls allowed "an unauthenticated attacker" to reboot them over and over again, effectively breaking them. The firewalls served as traffic cops for data flowing between generation sites and the utility's control center, so operators lost contact with those parts of the grid each time the devices winked off and on. The glitches persisted for about 10 hours, according to NERC, and the fact that there were issues at multiple sites "raised suspicion." After an initial investigation, the utility decided to ask its firewall manufacturer to review what happened, according to NERC, which led to the discovery of "an external entity" — a hacker or hackers — interfering with the devices."
111032108
submission
puddingebola writes:
In May, security researcher Filippo Cavallarin made public a vulnerability in macOS's Gatekeeper. The vulnerability can allow an attacker to use a symlink and an NFS server to bypass Gatekeepers authentication and run malicious code.
104123006
submission
puddingebola writes:
MIcrosoft is selling two linux distributions in the Windows store for Windows 10 Subsystem for Linux (WSL).WLinux is a Debian-based distro available for $19.99 from Microsoft Store. The company also announced Ubuntu 18.04, which will be available through the Microsoft Store, as well.
90890513
submission
puddingebola writes:
Facebook has closed Occulus VR Studio. The studio was a maker of original VR films, but now will only assist other studios. This makes it official, as the studio had been shuttered since the departure of Palmer Luckey.
81043367
submission
puddingebola writes:
The hackers responsible for the leaking of DHS employees made good on their threat to reveal the names of 20,000 FBI Employees. From the article, "The hacker provided Motherboard with a copy of the data on Sunday. The list includes names, email addresses (many of which are non-public) and job descriptions, such as task force deputy director, security specialist, special agent, and many more. The list also includes roughly 1,000 FBI employees in an intelligence analysis role."
79086851
submission
puddingebola writes:
National Trading Standards and trading standards services in Scotland have released figures that 15,000 of 17,000 hoverboards have been seized at ports of entry in the UK because of safety concerns. The boards were seized "due to a range of concerns, such as safety issues with the plug, cabling, charger, battery or the cut-off switch within the board, which often fails." Are we pushing hoverboard technology too far too quickly, or are there just a group of criminal sociopaths manufacturing unsafe devices at Christmastime and pumping them into the market. Mashable has a story summary with links to video of a man in Alabama with his hoverboard on fire. http://mashable.com/2015/12/03...
78508719
submission
puddingebola writes:
The FAA is recording a record number of laser strikes on aircraft for 2015. From the article, "The Federal Aviation Administration recorded 5,352 laser strikes through Oct. 16, up from 2,837 for all of 2010. Such strikes can temporarily blind pilots at critical times when they are taking off and landing. People convicted of pointing a laser at a plane can be sentenced to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine."
76446355
submission
puddingebola writes:
From the article, "Locked phones require a passcode. But there's a way to get around that. Just type in an insanely long password. That overloads the computer, which redirects you to the phone's home screen.
It's a time-consuming hack, but it's actually easy to pull off. In a report published Tuesday, computer security researcher John Gordon documented the vulnerability and posted a video of the hack. It only affects smartphones using the latest version of the Android operating system, Lollipop."
74950973
submission
puddingebola writes:
Chris Beard at Mozilla has sent an open letter to Satya Nadella complaining about the default settings in Windows 10. Users who upgrade to 10 will have their default browser automatically changed to the new Edge browser. From the article, "The upgrade process, as he explained it, "appears to be purposely designed to throw away the choices its customers have made about the Internet experience they want, and replace it with the Internet experience Microsoft wants them to have." "
74320009
submission
puddingebola writes:
From the article, "Lenovo is preparing to ship laptops preloaded with Ubuntu in India. The first of these systems will be the Lenovo Thinkpad L450, featuring only one of two CPUs, but the selection may widen over time and expand to other countries...Overall, switching to Ubuntu reduces the system cost considerably. Currently, the standard L450 system with Windows 8.1 Pro utilizing a Core i3, 4 GB of RAM, and a 500 GB HDD costs 59724 INR ($943.02 USD). An Ubuntu version of the system with the same hardware specs, however, will only cost 48000 INR ($757.91 USD). Although most people are accustomed to using Windows nowadays, that is a significantly reduced price."
71591321
submission
puddingebola writes:
Microsoft has announced it will no longer manufacture Kinect for Windows. Only the Xbox One version will be available for purchase. Microsoft said it could not meet demand for the device, a strange claim for a company to make.
