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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 18 Issue 06
Volume 18, Issue 06 Atari Online News, Etc. February 12, 2016
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2016
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fed Horvat
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http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/
=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1806 02/12/16
~ Facebook Anti-ISIS Plan ~ People Are Talking! ~ Firebee News Update!
~ Rules for Staying Safe! ~ Apple Hires Hackers! ~ IoT Used for Spying?
~ White Team Good Hackers ~ eBay Users Vulnerable! ~ Maggie 25th B-day!
~ Obama: Passwords, Plus! ~ Bye, Bye Adobe Flash! ~ Malware Museum Open!
-* Doom Collector's Edition News *-
-* Harvard Debunks "Going Dark" Claim! *-
-* Twitter Suspends Terrorist Content Accounts *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I apologize for last week, but we just didn't have enough material
to warrant putting out an issue. So, here we are this week with
plenty of news that should keep you busy for awhile!
We've finaly experienced winter this past week! A couple of small
storms hit the Northeast, but really didn't amount to a lot of
snow. In fact, I didn't even bother to fireup the snow thrower to
clean it up. It has been, however, brutally cold lately, with the
worst to come this weekend as we reach sub-zero temperatures! I
don't even think that the dogs are going to want to stay out in
that kind of weather either! On the positive side, early forecasts
call for a couple of days next week with temps close to the 50-degree
mark. That kind of weather I can handle just fine!
So, bundle up near the fire or under your blankets and enjoy this
week's issue of A-ONE; we're a cold weather beater!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
FireBee Update News
By Fred Horvat
Itís been a busy couple of weeks that I have not had any hands on
time with the FireBee. I did figure out something with my FireBee
not booting properly. Most of the time when it does not cold boot
the Date and Time are set back to 08-01-2010. I did a post of the
issue on Atari-Forum.com
http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=92&t=29237 There were
other users having the exact same issue as me. A small number of
FireBee owners (myself included) started having this issue after
we upgraded our BaS (BasicSystem) Firmware. The solution is to
reflash the BaS to the original CodeWarrior Version located here:
http://firebee.org/~firebee/pictures/files/BaS-20120613.zip I
have not had time to do this yet but it is next on my list with
the FireBee.
Also I did a little more reading on Atari FreeMiNT and what it
would take to install SpareMiNT to the FireBee. I came across an
old Web Page that explains really well how all the pieces of MiNT
are put together on an Atari Computer. The software and versions
are out dated but I feel it is well written. The Web Page is here:
http://www2.gol.com/users/oskelton/mint.html Another Web page I
came across that went into FreeMiNT and other pieces of the Atari
Operating System that I thought explained things well was at
http://ae.dhs.nu/krapmint/aaargh.txt
Lastly also while researching I came back across something I read
last Summer but forgot about. This is MyAES
http://myaes.lutece.net/ The AES is defined as ìThe AES is
responsible for window and menu control, messaging services, and
object rendering and manipulation.î The AES under FireBee FreeMiNT
is XaAES which to me works really well. But since the pieces of
the operating system are modular I can replace XaAES with MyAES and
see how the Windowing looks and behaves with MyAES. MyAES has very
positive comments and reviews. Something else to try out in the
future, after backing up first of courseÖ
Maggie 25th Anniversary
Fifteen years after the last one, most of which time has been
spent screaming "Noooo, never again!" by me, the Maggie Team are
proud to present an extra special 25th anniversary commemorative
issue of the legendary Maggie disk-mag.
It's available in a HTML fake-menu format with lots of pictures, as
beloved by almost no-one. Better still, there is also a proper old
school Atari ST Maggie diskmag with the traditional menu shell.
Like we used to make in the good old days. A disk image is
supplied, if you want to copy it around, use 80 tracks and 10
sectors for your real or pretend floppy disk. It can live on a
hard disk. It is using quite an old version of the shell, so
probably not Falcon compatible.
As for what's inside, we've tried to cover as much of the last
two years as we could, full reports on the Outline and STNICCC
Parties are in there, the summer highlights of Sommerhack, a
comprehensive history of Maggie from issue one, news and reviews
and much much more, as they say.
Is this a one-off? Probably not, but don't hold your breath. At
least it won't be so long for the next time.
Anyway, enough from me, download, read, enjoy!
http://demozoo.org/productions/152817/
Or the HTML edition from here:
http://files.dhs.nu/files_magazines/maggie25.th/magfront.htm
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Doom Release Date, $120 Collector's Edition Announced!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Doom Release Date, $120 Collector's Edition Announced
Bethesda announced that id Software's long-in-development new Doom
game will launch globally on May 13. It will arrive on that date
for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. A new trailer was also
released.
You won't have to wait that long to play the game, as a beta will
be held before launch. However, there is no word yet on when this
will begin. Asked to provide an update on the beta, a Bethesda
representative told GameSpot that details will be announced at a
later date.
The publisher also has announced a Doom collector's edition, the
centerpiece of which is a 12" statue of one of the game's baddest
demons: the Revenant. The figure was made by TriForce, which used
actual game files from id Software to nail the creature's look.
The beast stands on an LED-lit base and should frighten anyone
who comes by your desk.
NVIDIA slashes the prices on a selection of critically acclaimed
games available on SHIELD worth playing this winter.
Doom's collector's edition, which will sell for $120, also comes
with a copy of the game in a metal case.
Bethesda also today announced preorder bonuses for Doom. Everyone
who preorders the shooter gets the Demon Multiplayer Pack. This
comes with a demon armor set, which itself features three skin
variations, six paint colors, and three id Software patterns to
put on your armor and weapons. It also packs in six "Hack
Modules," consumable items that can be used in game to give you an
edge in the arena.
It's been a long time coming for Doom. Following a failed first
attempt at designing a Call of Duty-inspired Doom reboot, Bethesda
restarted the project with more of a traditional concept at its
core.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Harvard Report Debunks Government's 'Going Dark' Encryption Claim
Federal investigative agencies like the FBI have long argued that
encryption and other new technologies severely hamper their
ability to spy on terrorists and other criminals, putting our
safety at risk. A new report from Harvard debunks that "going
dark" claim, concluding that the rise of network-connected devices
will lead to more, not fewer, opportunities for surveillance.
Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society convened a group
of security and policy experts to explore questions of
surveillance and encryption at a time when major tech companies
like Apple and Google are encrypting their phones and other
products by default. The 37-page report, released Monday,
concludes that the feds' "going dark" argument falls flat on its
face.
"Are we really headed to a future in which our ability to
effectively surveil criminals and bad actors is impossible? We
think not," the report says.
FBI Director James Comey, in an October 2014 speech, argued that
the law hasn't kept pace with technologies, like encryption, that
have become "the tool of choice for some very dangerous people."
"We call it 'Going Dark,' and what it means is this: Those charged
with protecting our people aren't always able to access the
evidence we need to prosecute crime and prevent terrorism even
with lawful authority," Comey said. "We have the legal authority
to intercept and access communications and information pursuant
to court order, but we often lack the technical ability to do
so."
But the Berkman Center report says it's unlikely that companies
will ubiquitously adopt end-to-end encryption, because many of
them rely on access to user data for revenue streams and product
functionality. Furthermore, there is no industry standard for
encryption.
The report also says the rise of connected devices and the
Internet of Things offers new opportunities for surveillance.
"The still images, video, and audio captured by these devices
may enable real-time intercept and recording with after-the-fact
access," the report states.
The report concludes that the "going dark" metaphor isn't an
accurate description of the future of the government's ability to
intercept the communications of suspected criminals.
"The increased availability of encryption technologies certainly
impedes government surveillance under certain circumstances, and
in this sense, the government is losing some surveillance
opportunities," the panel said. "However, we concluded that the
combination of technological developments and market forces is
likely to fill some of these gaps and, more broadly, to ensure
that the government will gain new opportunities to gather
critical information."
Twitter Suspends 125,000 Accounts in 'Terrorist Content' Crackdown
Twitter suspended over 125,000 accounts, most of them linked to
the Islamic State group, as part of a stepped-up effort to
eradicate "terrorist content" on the popular messaging platform,
it said Friday.
The accounts frozen since mid-2015 were targeted "for threatening
or promoting terrorist acts," said Twitter, which is under
pressure from governments to act but faces a delicate balancing
act and is keen not to be seen to be effectively censoring free
speech.
"Like most people around the world, we are horrified by the
atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups," Twitter said on its
policy blog.
"We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the
Twitter rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any
violent threat, is not permitted on our service."
The announcement comes after the United States and other
governments urged social networks to take more aggressive steps
to root out activity aimed at recruiting and planning violent
acts.
Twitter said it already has rules to discourage this activity
but that it was driving up enforcement by boosting staff and
using technology to filter violence-promoting content. But it
warned there is no easy technological solution.
"As many experts and other companies have noted, there is no
'magic algorithm' for identifying terrorist content on the
Internet, so global online platforms are forced to make
challenging judgment calls based on very limited information and
guidance," Twitter said.
"In spite of these challenges we will continue to aggressively
enforce our rules in this area and engage with authorities and
other relevant organizations to find viable solutions to eradicate
terrorist content from the Internet and promote powerful
counter-speech narratives."
Pressure has been growing on social networks since attacks in
Paris in November and southern California in December which were
linked to supporters of the Islamic State group, sometimes
referred to as ISIS.
The White House last year called for "dialogue" with Silicon Valley
and others on the subject, saying more should be done "when the use
of social media crosses the line between communication and active
terrorist plotting."
The European Commission has also called for talks with major social
media networks. And France passed emergency measures last year that
could shut down websites or social media accounts which encourage
terrorist actions.
In Congress, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Richard Burr proposed
legislation to require online communications services to report
potential terrorist activity.
Twitter said it has long sought to enforce its rules on promoting
violence, while maintaining an open platform.
"As an open platform for expression, we have always sought to
strike a balance between the enforcement of our own Twitter rules
covering prohibited behaviors, the legitimate needs of law
enforcement, and the ability of users to share their views freely
- including views that some people may disagree with or find
offensive," the blog said.
But in recent months, Twitter added that "we have increased the
size of the teams that review reports, reducing our response time
significantly" and used "spam-fighting tools to surface other
potentially violating accounts for review by our agents."
By ramping up the efforts, Twitter said, "we have already seen
results, including an increase in account suspensions and this
type of activity shifting off of Twitter."
Last March, Facebook updated its "community standards," saying
this would curb the use of the social network giant for promoting
terrorism or hate speech.
The update said Facebook will not allow a presence from groups
advocating "terrorist activity, organized criminal activity or
promoting hate."
The move came after videos of gruesome executions appeared on
Facebook and other social media as part of Islamic State group
propaganda efforts.
Facebook Is Handing Out $1,000 Credits If You Want To Run
Advertisements Against ISIS
Washington, D.C. is pleading with Silicon Valley to figure out some
way to fight ISIS online. So companies like Facebook and Google are
bringing out the biggest guns the modern tech sector has:
megalithic, all-seeing advertising platforms.
Facebook is giving away $1,000 credits to groups that want to run
advertisements showing anti-ISIS propaganda, the Wall Street
Journal reports.
Social media is an essential element of jihadist recruitment in the
West, and Facebook has spent months developing its anti-ISIS
strategy. In one case, it let some jihadis make accounts and then
struck up long-lasting conversations with them. Last fall, Facebook
held competitions with 45 colleges, awarding thousands of ad
dollars to student teams running anti-jihadist messages.
Hearts and likes campaign: Facebook's new anti-ISIS effort comes
after similar declarations from other major internet companies.
Twitter recently broke its silence on the issue of ISIS accounts
to announce that it has banned tens of thousands of ISIS handles,
and Google announced a nearly identical program earlier this
month, giving free ad placement to people who run anti-ISIS
propaganda campaigns ó possibly Facebook's inspiration for
publicizing its own program.
"This year ... we are running two pilot programs," Google
executive Anthony House told a committee of the U.K. Parliament.
"One is to make sure these types of views are more discoverable.
The other is to make sure when people put potentially damaging
search terms into our search engine, they also find these
counter-narratives."
"Right now it's an assumption [based on thinking that] better
ideas ultimately defeat worse ideas."
But even if government entities and NGO's reach as far as
Hollywood to find someone to produce effective, enlightening
messages that encourage people to turn people away from terror,
counterterrorism experts aren't sure that uplifting
anti-propaganda actually works.
"Right now it's an assumption [based on thinking that] better
ideas ultimately defeat worse ideas," William Braniff, executive
director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism
and Responses to Terrorism, told the Journal.
Still, some people are convinced that likes, shares and maybe
even a few pokes can help stop ISIS's influence in the West,
even if those people are mostly Facebook employees.
Hackers Get Employee Records at Justice and Homeland Security Depts.
In the latest cyberattack targeting the federal government, an
intruder gained access to information for thousands of employees
at the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security,
but officials said Monday that there was no indication that
sensitive information had been stolen.
Most of the information appeared to have been culled from
internal government directories, including employeesí email
addresses, phone numbers and job titles.
Motherboard, a technology news site, reported on Sunday that it
had been approached by a hacker who claimed to have obtained
employee information on about 20,000 people at the F.B.I. and
9,000 at the Department of Homeland Security.
The hacker professed support for pro-Palestinian groups and vowed
to make the information public in an apparent attempt to embarrass
federal agencies that play a part in cybersecurity operations. The
hacker released the information on Sunday and Monday.
Officials at the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland
Security said they were examining the breach.
ìThere is no indication at this time that there is any breach of
personally identifiable information,î said Peter Carr, a spokesman
for the Justice Department. Marsha Catron, a Homeland Security
spokeswoman, echoed that statement.
It was unclear when the breach had occurred or whether it was
connected to an intrusion last fall that exposed personal emails
of Jeh Johnson, the Homeland Security secretary, and John O.
Brennan, the C.I.A. director. The hackers who claimed to have
carried out those attacks also expressed pro-Palestinian views.
The new breach does not appear to have resulted from an attack
using an outside computer to penetrate the system. Instead,
officials said, they believe that the intruder impersonated a
government employee and used that information to get into other
parts of the system.
The officials would not elaborate on how that had been done, but
they described it as a social engineering breach, which could
involve pulling personal information from social media and using
it to determine a userís passwords.
Agencies across the federal government have struggled to keep
computer information secure from both outside hackers and their
own employees.
A much bigger intrusion that targeted the Office of Personnel
Management exposed security clearance dossiers and sensitive
information for nearly 22 million Americans. Chinese hackers were
thought to have been behind the attack, which was much more
sweeping than officials publicly acknowledged last year at the
outset.
Vigilante Hackers Aim To Hijack 200,000 Routers To Make Them More Secure
The same "Vigilante-style Hacker," who previously hacked more than
10,000 routers to make them more secure, has once again made
headlines by compromising more than 70,000 home routers and
apparently forcing their owners to make them secure against flaws
and weak passwords.
Just like the infamous hacking group Lizard Squad, the group of
white hat hackers, dubbed the White Team, is building up a sizeable
botnet consisting of hundreds of thousands of home routers, but for
a good purpose.
Lizard Squad, the same group responsible for Sony PlayStation
Network and Microsoft Xbox Live outages, uses their botnets to
launch DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks against target
websites to flood them with traffic and knock them offline.
Challenged by Lizard Squad's maliocus work, the White Team of
vigilante hackers built their own peer-to-peer botnet that infects
routers to close off vulnerabilities, such as:
Weak default passwords
DNS poisoning
Unauthorised access (backdoor)
Disabled firewalls
Their malware, dubbed "Linux.Wifatch" a.k.a "Wifatch" that has
been used by the team since last year continues to be updated and
has been open-sourced on Github.
The malware, first discovered in November 2014 by an independent
malware researcher "Loot Myself" and analysed by Symantec last
year, now includes more programs to remove other malicious
software and backdoors already on the system.
The White Team has access to around 70,000 devices, according to
Symantec, who is continuously watching over the team's botnet.
Lizard Squad sizable botnet contained somewhere between 120,000
and 150,000 bots, a Lizard spokesperson told Forbes, claiming
that their botnet includes not just home routers and PCs, but
smart refrigerators, smart TVs and other smart home devices as
well.
The White Team aims at hacking and protecting between 150,000
and 200,000 devices from Lizard Squad attacks, thereby removing
the rogue gang from people's homes.
However, the team of vigilante hackers face some hurdles,
especially when working with the Wifatch malware, which is often
too big to install on smaller routers.
"The goal is to use (most) of the 60,000 nodes we have to
connect to the hundreds of thousands of boxes that are too small
for our normal disinfector and disinfect them remotely," the
hacker collective told the publication over encrypted email.
Since there are so many vulnerable devices that can be hacked
with little or no effort, these vigilante hackers aren't answer
to this widespread problem. They can only help minimize the
issue.
The White Team is not the only team of vigilante hackers trying
to secure the Internet. Just last week, a hacker replaced a
malware with antivirus software. An anonymous hacker was found
replacing Dridex, the most active banking malware, with the
copies of Avira security software.
Apple Hired the Hackers Who Created the First Mac Firmware Virus
Apple has hired two security researchers who previously worked on
viruses targeting Mac computers.
LegbaCore founder Xeno Kovah revealed on Twitter in November that
he and his partner, Corey Kellenberg, had been hired by Apple to
do ìlow level security.î The move went unnoticed until another
security researcher revealed it during a presentation at a
security conference in December.
LegbaCore was best known for developing a proof-of-concept
virus-worm hybrid called Thunderstrike 2 that targeted Mac
computers. The worm that Kovah developed was able to spread from
MacBook to MacBook, even if the computers were not connected to
the internet.
ì[The attack is] really hard to detect, itís really hard to get
rid of, and itís really hard to protect against something thatís
running inside the firmware,î Kovah told Wired in July.
Kovahís worm virus was the first to attack Macs at the firmware
level, according to Wired, which means it targeted the software
that boots up before the computerís primary operating system,
OS X. Itís a valuable kind of attack because it usually canít be
detected by antivirus and other security software.
After Thunderstrike 2 installed itself on a targetís computer, it
could spread to certain peripherals, such as a Apple-branded
Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter, which would then spread the virus
to other Macs it was plugged into.
But instead of exploiting their findings or selling it to the
highest bidder, Kovah and team notified Apple of the
vulnerabilities, which have since been fully patched. Although
Apple does not pay ìbug bountiesî to researchers for finding
security problems, the high road seems to have worked out for
the founders of LegbaCore.
All 160 Million eBay Users Can Be Hacked:
Fake Sales Listings Make Users Vulnerable To Infection
A security vulnerability on eBay could enable hackers to embed
malicious code and target buyers and sellers on the popular
auction website. The flaw, which remains unpatched, could also
make it possible for hackers to send out phishing links
containing the malicious code, tricking recipients into believing
an infected email was sent by eBay.
Researchers at the Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point
first found the bug last year, quietly disclosing the
vulnerability to eBay Dec. 15. The company responded Jan. 16
although it still has yet to provide a fix nearly two months
after the initial disclosure, the software news site PCI News
reported Thursday.
The vulnerability makes it possible for attackers to subvert
eBay's code validation (which is meant to filter out any
illegitimate data transfers) and inject malicious JavaScript code.
The attack takes place when users are directed to what appears to
be a shopping website that actually contains the malicious
JavaScript code. From there, the code scans a user's computer for
personally identifiable information or unwittingly enlists the
machine in a botnet army (used to launch distributed
denial-of-service attacks).
All of eBay's 160 million users could become victims in the
attack, Israel's Channel 2 News reported.
ìThe eBay attack flow provides cybercriminals with a very easy way
to target users: sending a link to an attractive product to
execute the attack,î Oded Vanunu, security research group manager
at Check Point, said in a blog post. ìThe main threat is spreading
malware and stealing private information. Another threat is that
an attacker could have an alternate login option pop up via Gmail
or Facebook and hijack the user's account.î
This security disclosure comes after more than 100 sales listings
were set up as bait to dupe customers into turning over personal
information in September 2014, the BBC reported. Smartphones,
televisions and other attractive items were listed for sale to
direct customers to the fake page where they were asked to log in
with their eBay credentials and share banking information. The
e-commerce company was heavily criticized after it released a
statement saying it would not suspend use of JavaScript or Flash,
the software that made the attack possible.
ìObviously having JavaScript and Flash and all that wonderful
stuff is great for the seller,î security researcher Brian Honan
told the BBC. ìBut is exposes eBay and its customers to security
risks. Until eBay has the ability to automatically identify
malicious links, it should disable JavaScript until they have
some way of better controlling the risk. The needs of the many
outweigh the needs of the few.î
Anti-piracy Group BREIN Demands Torrents Time Cease and Desist
Not even a week has gone by since Torrents Time appeared on the
scene, and the site has already been served with a cease-and-desist
letter. Anti-piracy group BREIN, based in the Netherlands, has
deemed the streaming tool an ìillegal applicationî and demands the
administrators ìcease and desist the distribution of Torrents Time
immediately.î
Torrents Time provides an embedded torrent client that lets users
download and play the files inside torrents with one click. There
is no need to download and install a separate BitTorrent client,
download and open the torrent, or go in and actually play the
download video file. After you install the plugin, everything
happens in the browser. Torrent sites, including notorious The
Pirate Bay, have very quickly adopted the solution.
Here is the crux of BREINís complaint:
Through your website Torrents Time (https:///torrents-time.com/)
you are distributing the illegal application ëTorrents Timeí that
structurally and systematically facilitates, enables and
participates in the making available of infringing content without
the authorization of the respective copyright and neighbouring
rights holders. ëTorrents Timeí is enabling the illegal
distribution of popular titles of films and of TV-Series that are
published by the rights holders represented by BREIN and which
have not been licensed for distribution through your system.
The group argues that because Torrents Time is hosted on servers
located in the Netherlands, the countryís law applies to Torrents
Time, which BREIN further describes as ìprimarily engaged in the
facilitating, enabling and participating in the making available
of infringing files.î The key word here is ìprimarilyî as of
course Torrents Time, like any BitTorrent client, can be used to
obtain torrents that do not contain pirated content. BREIN adds
that the tool ìcauses extensive damage to rights holders for which
you ñ and all others involved with the management of the site ñ
are liable.î
In addition to the cease and desist, the anti-piracy group also
requests ìthe geographical address of yourself and the entity or
other person(s) who are responsible for the distribution of
Torrents Time.î The reason? So that BREIN can hold Torrents Time
liable ìin case you continue your unlawful activities.î If
Torrents Time does not comply, BREIN will request that the siteís
host take down the site and provide it with the administratorsí
names and addresses. Oh, and BREIN will hold Torrents Time
ìliable for all (further) incurred costs including legal fees.î
Torrents Time isnít playing ball. The administrators have
responded with their own letter, and the tone is very dismissive.
Here is the introduction:
From the outset, please be informed that my clients deny all
the suppositions and assumptions in your letter, including the
fact that Brein represents right holders and that you are
qualified to take action on behalf of an un-named un-identified
entities. That having been said, your allegations as to the legal
nature of my Clientsí are certainly denied as frivolous and
without substantiation. In your letter, you take the liberty of
accusing my Clients of distributing an ìillegal application.î We
deny that allegation, as being un-substantiated, false and illegal
in itself, under the laws of the Netherlands.
Torrents Time is countering with the simple fact that its tool
can be used to watch legally obtained videos. Indeed, the Torrents
Time website in itself does not let users stream pirated content.
The response letter further goes on to point out that no court
has ever ruled that Torrents Time breaches copyrights nor
neighboring rights because the tool was released just a few days
ago and ìwas carefully crafted not to do anything whatsoever so
as to breach copyright or neighboring rights.î The lawyer also
states, ìI am confident that the outcome of a court proceeding
against my Clientsí Torrent Time will end with a ruling against
anyone who challenges the legality of Torrents Time.î
The letter then attempts to go on the offensive:
You are therefore advised to seriously re-think your cease
and desist demand and advise my Clients that you withdraw your
demands. You are also hereby warned not to attempt to take action
against any third party who utilizes Torrents Time or hosts it or
co-operates therewith in any other manner. Failing to comply with
my demands herein will prove itself as enormously costly to your
organization and its members and could lead to criminal
proceedings against yourself, on the grounds of illegal threats
and extortion, the consequences of which Iím sure you are very
well aware of.
In the circumstances, and in order not to incur un-necessary
legal bills, I advised my Clients to send you a draft of my
letter, unsigned, so as to stop the fight before it becomes
unstoppable. Please do not take this gesture as a sign of weakness
but as a good faith action. We are, like yourself, professionals
very well versed with the subject matter at hands, for more than
3 decades. We hope that you are a member of the legitimately
acting legal society and not a mob thug.
Torrents Time is growing quickly, and the administrators are
eager to provide commentary. Indeed, this is how we found out
about the BREIN cease and desist.
ìWe launched last week and in a few days changed forever the way
people use the treasures found through torrents sites, directly
from their browser,î Torrents Time told VentureBeat. ìIt means
that from today on, any user who is able to use Facebook can
enjoy almost any movie or TV show that was created in this world.
Torrents Time is revolutionizing the world of torrents, here and
now. Because itís a revolution, you can expect a bloodshed, like
the fate of all revolutions. We already managed to get a cease
and desist letter from BREIN.î
It would appear Torrents Time is almost proud to receive the
cease-and-desist letter. The administrators were certainly
expecting one, though maybe not in the same week they released the
tool. Their whole demeanor is very confident ó this is a fight
they believe is an inevitable win.
ìBut because itís the peopleís revolution, a network of hundreds
of millions of people who wish to consume Free Content, the people
will prevail and the illegal harassment by the film and TV
producers industry who claim that p2p ruins their business model
will be defeated,î the administrators added. ìWith p2p we make the
world smaller, a peopleís village where all the neighbors can
watch together the staff they like. Freely! Like they watch
YouTube together or share content on Facebook.î
And again they reiterate that this is not about piracy: ìTorrents
Time is not a pirateís tool. Itís cool and itís legal. We are
certain it will improve the world.î
BREIN and other groups naturally disagree and will be doing
everything in their power to stop Torrents Time from taking off.
But the streaming solution is already out there, and even if they
could, wiping the Torrents Time team off the face of the Earth
wouldnít help.
You canít put the genie back in the bottle.
Internet of Things Might Be Used for Spying
If youíre reading this online, then thereís a chance that someone
could be spying on you.
James Clapper, the U.S. Intelligence Chief, admitted that certain
security agencies in the near future could use smart devices for
surveillance, identification and tracking. Although this isnít a
total shocker when you consider how openly we share our
information online, it still makes you feel a little uneasy.
The Internet of Things is the network composed of physical devices
that connect and share data with one another. Itís the unseen line
of communication that lets you send an email from your computer to
your phone. For example in some modern homes like this one, you
can control your high tech garage door from your phone, while at
the same time have your refrigerator send you a reminder that you
need to stock up on eggs.
A study from Harvard University indicates that many home appliances
have wireless sensors that all connect to the Internet of Things.
Even appliances like toasters, bed sheets and toothbrushes could
have a sensor that collects data about you.
Clapper stated that these agencies are using the Internet of Things
for their spying. This means that your devices are not secure, and
your privacy is not guaranteed.
Take a look around your house. Your TV, laptop and cameras could be
sending a live video feed to someone right now.
About a year ago, people were nervous because it was reported that
the new Samsung Smart TV always had its microphone on. The reason
for this was so you could get it to turn on with a simple voice
command, but this feature rightfully freaked out people because it
meant someone could always be listening to what you were saying.
Another unnerving security story came a few years ago when someone
hacked into a baby monitor in the middle of the night and started
screaming at the baby. The hacker got access to the device through
the wireless IP network and could see and hear what was going on
in the house. This is why you should always be careful and
understand the technology you are buying before you purchase it.
Other devices like your Fitbit, Apple Watch and Amazon Echo could
be used to listen to your conversations, look into your house or
monitor your health. This just goes to show how easily the U.S.
government might be able to spy on you by simply using devices that
have become of part of your everyday life.
Some of these devices are a necessity in our culture and will be
hard to stop using, so what can you do to protect yourself? If you
are using your technology safely and have a secure wireless
connection, youíll have a better shot at preventing unwanted
access to your devices ó and your life.
13 Essential Rules for Staying Safe on the Internet
Feb. 9 was Safer Internet Day. For the past 13 years,
cyber-advocates across the world have used the second Tuesday in
February to remind people to be careful out there. The day is now
observed in more than 120 countries. And while most of the
discussion is focused on keeping kids out of harmís way, adults
can also learn a thing or two.
Internet safety is also about securing yourself from
cybercriminals, snoops, creeps, and assorted other denizens of
the Netís dark side. Follow these 13 rules and you should be able
to surf in safety.
Rule #1: Update early and often
If thereís a vulnerability in your operating system, browser, or
other software, be assured the bad guys know about it. But no
matter how quickly software makers plug that hole and push out an
update, it wonít do a damn bit of good if you donít actually
install it. So install updates as soon as theyíre available,
especially those marked ìcritical.î Better yet, set your OS and
apps to automatically update if possible. Yes, itís a hassle to
update Java and Adobe Acrobat every flipping week, and some
updates may occasionally break things. Do it anyway.
Rule #2: Honor thy antivirus software and keep it current
Installing antivirus software isnít the safety net it used to be,
thanks to the increase in ìzero dayî threats that appear before
AV companies can update their software. But theyíll still stop
more than 90 percent of the threats youíre likely to encounter.
So get some. If youíre unwilling to pony up $30 to $60 a year for
BitDefender or Intelís McAfee, you can download perfectly
adequate solutions from AVG or Avast for free.
Rule #3: Donít fall for that scam
You know whatís an even bigger threat than malware authors and
cybercrooks? You. The easiest way for an attacker to get access
to your logins is to fool you into giving them up. This is usually
achieved via a ìphishingî email that looks like itís from your
bank, employer, or the IRS; this email aims to lure you to a bogus
site where you enter your login name and password. Once the
attackers have your info, they can log into your account, then
steal your information and sell it to others.
Some phishing attempts are crude and easy to spot; others would
fool all but an expert. But the defense is easy: Just donít click
on any links inside an email. If you got an email purportedly from
your bank, type your bankís web address into the browser and go
there directly.
Rule #4: Donít touch that file
The other way scammers get you is by sending a bogus attachment,
like an invoice or a contract for something you allegedly ordered.
Opening the document usually infects your computer. If you donít
recognize the sender, just delete the email. If the message
appears to come from a friend or colleague, make triple sure that
person actually sent it to you before you open it.
Rule #5: Become a cyber-savvy parent
Sexting, cyberbullies, and catfishing ó being a parent of an
Internet-age kid isnít easy. The best thing you can do is educate
yourself. The Connect Safely site has a slew of helpful,
nonhysterical guides to keeping kids safe from cyberbullies,
dealing with SnapChat and Instagram, how to handle the mobile
phone conundrum, and a ton more. Common Sense Media is also an
excellent resource for how to be cyberparent, with recommendations
for age-appropriate sites, apps, games, and the like.
Rule #6: Donít be a boob about the Tubes
If your kids are online, itís pretty certain theyíre spending a
lot of time on YouTube and other video sites. Most of that content
is innocent (if mind-numbing); some of it isnít. You need to at
least be aware of what theyíre watching and put some controls on
it. If theyíre still in single digits, you might want to install
Googleís YouTube Kids app on their tablets or phones.
Rule #7: Donít install that new video player
Just like in real life, most of the bad guys on the Internet hang
out in dicey neighborhoods ó like adult sites, BitTorrent search
engines, and pirate Internet TV stations. At some point nearly all
of them will pop up a message saying that your Flash player is out
of date or that you need to install a new video player to watch
whatever it is youíre trying to watch. Donít do that.
This pirate site wants me to update Flash, but itís really trying
to get me to install malware. (Also: Donít use Flash if you can
avoid it.)
Best-case scenario is youíve installed adware ó software that will
splatter advertisements over all your Web pages. Worst case,
somebody just made your computer part of their zombie army.
Rule #8: Use a password manager
Yes, passwords suck. But until we get a better replacement, weíre
stuck with them. So do yourself a favor and use a password manager
like 1Password, Dashlane, or Lastpass. They will both act as a
password vault, storing all your thousands of logins for different
sites, and also auto-generate fiendishly difficult-to-crack
passwords on your behalf. Just donít forget the master password to
your vault or youíre screwed. (Tip: Use a song lyric or some other
easy-to-remember-yet-unique phrase for your password, the longer
the better.) They arenít foolproof, but theyíre better than using
ì123456î for everything.
Rule #9: Protect your logins
One way to find out if your password has been stolen is to see if
someone is logging into your accounts from an unknown machine. With
more and more sites using Facebook and Twitter as ways to prove you
are who you say you are, this becomes especially more important.
Facebook has a Security Checkup page you can use to see if someone
else has been logging into your Facebook account and lets you log
out of any unknown ones with a click. Companies like Apple,
Google, Twitter, and Yahoo have deployed so-called ìtwo-factorî
(or ìtwo-stepî) authentication, which requires you to enter an
additional piece of information when logging in from an unfamiliar
device ó usually a 4- or 6-digit code sent via text to your phone.
If you think someone else might have access to your accounts, itís
a good idea to change your password and then implement two-factor.
Rule #10: Secure all your Wi-Fi passwords
Most people donít realize this, but your home Wi-Fi actually has
two passwords. One is for the network ó thatís the one you type
when you log on from a new device. The other password is for the
router; this allows you to go in and change network settings (like
your Wi-Fi password). Most people remember to change the first set
of logins but not the second, and the router defaults are widely
known (usually ìadminî and ìpasswordî). So anyone within range of
your home network could log into your router, change the settings,
lock you out of it if they wanted to, or simply capture all the
information flowing out of your network. Not good.
Youíll want to change your routerís defaults. Instructions vary
depending on the router, so youíll need to visit the
manufacturerís website and search for ìchange router admin
password.î (To get you started, here are instructions for Netgear,
Linksys, and Belkin.)
Rule #11: Donít get sucked in by fake Wi-Fi hotspots
If youíre logging on from a crowded cafÈ or an airport lounge,
youíll probably see ìfreeî Wi-Fi hotspots galore. Some are legit,
some are definitely bogus. Youíll want to find out if in fact the
cafÈ or lounge offers free Wi-Fi, and what the network name is,
before you log on. Otherwise you could be handing all your
Internet traffic to some rogue access point or that creep behind
you with a laptop. When in doubt, pony up some money for a legit
public hotspot you know is secure.
Rule #12: Use an encrypted connection in public
Even if youíre on a legit public Wi-Fi network, someone else on
the same network could snoop on your data unless you take the
right precautions. First, if you are logging on to your webmail
or another password-protected account, make sure to use the
encrypted version of the website ó the address always starts with
https (not http). Otherwise, anything you type is sent in plain
text and can be captured by someone else on the same network.
A good explanation of how two-step authentication works, courtesy
of Google.
The best option, if you can: Connect to the Internet using a
virtual private network (VPN), especially if youíre dialing into
work. This creates an end-to-end encrypted connection between you
and the Net, making it virtually impossible for anyone to spy on
you.
Rule #13: Technology can help ó but it canít solve everything
If youíve got kids at home, technology can give you a handle on
what theyíre doing on the Net. Circle can monitor every device on
your home network and let you set rules about where and when kids
can access the Net. (Unfortunately, right now it works only on
iPhones; Android support is coming later this year.) The upcoming
Screen app will let you control all your home devices from your
phone. Norton Online Family Premier can cordon off the nastier
parts of the Net and give you a window into their chat
conversations and video consumption. And of course, anti-malware
software can help fight off the nasties for everyone.
Ultimately, though, the burden is on you. Like liberty, the price
of Internet safety is eternal vigilance. And not just on one day
each year.
Obama Says Passwords Arenít Strong Enough, Urges Use of 2FA
President Obama says that weíre right: passwords arenít enough.
We need two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect ourselves
online, he said on Tuesday in an editorial in the Wall Street
Journal.
Granted, he didnít mention Naked Security per se, but he did
announce a slate of federal initiatives to improve the nationís
information security.
That includes a new national awareness campaign to get Americans
to do what security people keep urging them to do: use 2FA
whenever possible.
From his editorial:
[W]eíre doing more to help empower Americans to protect
themselves online. In partnership with industry, weíre launching
a new national awareness campaign to raise awareness of
cyberthreats and encourage more Americans to move beyond passwords
ñ adding an extra layer of security like a fingerprint or codes
sent to your cellphone.
The op-ed coincided with the release of a broad cybersecurity plan
that proposes boosting federal cybersecurity spending by more than
a third, to over $19 billion.
The White House is so intent on improving the countryís security
that itís going to woo Silicon Valley types, the president said ñ
relaxed business attire and all:
[W]eíre stepping up our efforts to build a corps of cyber
professionals across government to push best practices at every
level. Weíll do more ñ including offering scholarships and
forgiving student loans ñ to recruit the best talent from Silicon
Valley and across the private sector. Weíll even let them wear
jeans to the office.
The president also issued an executive order to create a new
Federal Privacy Council: an interagency forum to improve the
privacy practices of government agencies and entities acting on
their behalf.
They sure do seem to need it.
The same day that the presidentís editorial ran, news broke about
a PIN-stealing attack on the e-filing app on IRS.gov, the site of
the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The attack, carried out last month by an automated bot, affected
101,000 taxpayers.
As Naked Securityís Paul Ducklin noted, the attack was ironic in
that it involved a sort-of, not-really form of 2FA.
The e-filing PIN is a type of second authentication factor needed
for 2FA.
You need the PIN, along with other personal data, when submitting
online tax returns.
But thatís not exactly how 2FAís supposed to work, in that you
shouldnít be able to request one of your factors by using the
other factor.
The way 2FA should work is that you need to prove yourself in two
different ways before you can log in or use a service.
For example, in order to withdraw money from an ATM, just
inserting your card (your first factor) isnít enough. You also
need to enter a second factor ñ your PIN.
The IRS actually offers a special, stronger form of 2FA, known as
the IP Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN).
But for whatever reason, the IRS doesnít hand out an IP PIN to
just anybody.
Rather, itís only available to taxpayers whoíve already suffered
some kind of identity breach.
Other things in the presidentís plan:
A proposed $3 billion fund to overhaul dusty old federal
computer systems. As it is, government IT is ìlike an Atari game
in an Xbox world,î President Obama said. ìThe Social Security
Administration uses systems and code from the 1960s. No successful
business could operate this way.î
Creation of a new federal infosec position. The title will be
Chief Information Security Officer.
A new cybersecurity Center of Excellence. It will ìbring
together industry and government experts to research and develop
new cutting-edge cyber technologies,î Obama said.
A national testing lab. Companies will be able to test their
systemsí security under simulated attacks.
Training for small businesses. The training, offered by the
Small Business Administration, will be available to over 1.4
million small businesses and their workers, the president said.
Weíre cheered by the presidentís backing of 2FA.
Itís an acknowledgement that passwords are often the weakest link
in authenticating that users are who they say they are.
As the yearly lists of the top bad passwords show, many donít use
passwords that are complex enough.
Others reuse passwords, setting themselves up for account
break-ins when online crooks acquire logins from breaches or
third-party sites, such as happened last month to Fitbit.
Even complex passwords can be susceptible to brute-force attack:
we saw that when researchers recently managed to pry 18,000
Bitcoinersí passwords out of their wallets, running the attack
off a mere $55 worth of Amazon Server.
2FA can help.
Hopefully, so too can blue jeans-clad Silicon Valley types: the
kind of people who can do things like convince the IRS to
proactively hand out strong 2FA ñ like the IP PINs ñ to all who
ask, not just to those whoíve already suffered identity theft
and/or tax fraud.
Malware Museum Lets You Safely Experience The PC Viruses of Yesteryear
Weíre all familiar with malware as an insidious menace that seeks
to steal your personal information and ransom your data, but it
was not always so. In the early days of personal computing,
viruses were less of a malicious threat and more of an annoying
joke. Now you can relive the ìgloryî days of mostly harmless
computer viruses by visiting the Malware Museum hosted at the
Internet Archive.
The collection consists of a few dozen examples of early malware
curated by computer security expert and researcher Mikko Hyppˆnen.
All the examples of antique malware in the museum are from the
80s and 90s, and will run entirely in your browser using a DOSBox
emulator. That keeps you nice and safe, but the original files
have also been cleansed of dangerous code. You can download the
modified files if you want to play around with them on your own
system.
Just a few minutes in the Malware Museum will drive home how
different things used to be. Many of the viruses hosted are hardly
malware ó theyíre more or less neutral. Modern malware is usually
designed with a financial incentive in mind, so limiting detection
is an important aspect of the payload. If the user doesnít know
the virus is there, they wonít know to get rid of it. These
classic viruses were all about making sure the user knew they had
been hacked. It was about the prestige of making something clever
and interesting.
Some of the examples in the Malware Museum do little more than
display a fun graphic on the affected computer. For instance, the
Q Walker virus causes a character from the Commodore 64 game Bop
ën Rumble to stroll across your screen (see below). He just keeps
doing it, though, which I assume would be annoying. Then thereís
the Mars G virus, which notes as it loads that ìcoding a virus can
be creative.î This one generates a moving Martian landscape using
voxel rendering. It doesnít even stop you from using the computer
as you can hit any key to exit.
There are, however, genuinely malicious pieces of software from
this era that will be much more familiar to modern computer users.
Thereís the Casino virus, which existed solely to ruin peopleís
days. When it was loaded onto a system, it would delete the file
allocation table (FAT) on the disk, thus making important files
inaccessible. However, it offered victims a possible recourse by
winning a slot machine game. You have five tries to hit the
jackpot, and winners will have the FAT restored from RAM. Itís a
bit like modern ransomware, except without the actual ransom.
The Malware Museum has attracted more than 100,000 visitors since
it went up last week. That has to be a record for people visiting
a page specifically because it hosts viruses.
Bye Bye, Flash! Google To Ban Flash-based Advertising
Google had also joined the path of Apple, Facebook, and Youtube to
kill the "Adobe Flash Player" by announcing that the company is
banning Flash banner support from its Adwords Advertising
platform.
"To enhance the browsing experience for more people on more
devices, the Google Display Network and DoubleClick Digital
Marketing are now going 100% HTML5" Google says.
It's been two decades since Adobe Flash has ruled the Web Space
Animation Arena, which was the de facto standard for playing the
online videos.
Flash Player had been famous for Zero-day exploits which are a
potential threat to online users.
Even Adobe tried to maintain equilibrium by releasing a countless
number of patches frequently (that got hiked), for instant reported
vulnerabilities, but this had annoyed both customers and companies.
The endless troubleshooting of the Flash Player plugins never
resolved the vulnerabilities.
To put a full stop on this issue... many major tech companies like
Apple, Facebook, Youtube, Google Chrome, Firefox had been
magnetized towards the new substitutor - HTML 5.
Facebook's Security Chief publicly called for Adobe to
announce a 'kill-date for Flash.'
Google Chrome has also begun blocking auto-playing Flash ads by
default.
In January this year, YouTube moved away from Flash for
delivering videos.
Firefox also blocked the Flash plugin entirely.
By ending up Flash, all the above companies found a silver bullet
to the security issues that have plagued Adobe Flash for years, as
well as eliminated a third party dependency.
Steve Jobs was right about the end of Flash as he quoted as saying
in his letter:
ìNew open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5,
will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should
focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less
on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.î
HTML 5 has gained a Word of Mouth Popularity by many developers
and also have many advantages like to play the video smoothly, in
fact, in a better way.
So, Google also officially declared that it would not support Flash
ads in Doubleclick Digital Marketing from July 30, 2016.
Moreover, from January 2, 2017, the company will discontinue the
support for Google Display Network as a part of complete Flash Wipe
Out.
However, as a Result of this awful reputation, Flash Player would
be rebranded as ìAnimate CCî with some additional features like
the direct conversion of Flash Files to HTML5 Canvas files.
Adobe Animate CC ñ mostly looks like an update to the Flash
Professional software ñ supports Adobe Flash (SWF) and AIR formats
'as first-class citizens,' along with other animation and video
formats, including HTML5 canvas, 4K and WebGL output.
Windows 10 Sends Your Data 5500 Times Every Day
Even After Tweaking Privacy Settings
Myth: By disabling all privacy compromising and telemetry features
on Windows 10 will stop Microsoft to track your activities.
Fact: Even after all telemetry features disabled, Windows 10 is
phoning home more than you could ever think of.
Ever since the launch of Microsoft's newest operating system,
Windows 10 is believed to be spying on its users. I wrote a number
of articles to raise concern about Windows 10 privacy issues,
including its controversial data mining features and privacy
invasion features.
The only solution believed to cope up with these issues is to
disable all the telemetry features or use an automated tool to
disable all privacy-infringing features in just one click.
But unfortunately, all these efforts got wasted because Microsoft
still tracks you, even after you tighten your Windows 10 privacy
to an extreme level, claims the recent analysis conducted by a
Voat user CheesusCrust.
Curious to know the extent of Windows 10 spying, CheesusCrust set
up his Linux laptop with a Windows 10 Enterprise virtual machine
as well as a DD-WRT router that was being utilized to monitor
traffic.
CheesusCrust also disabled every single tracking and telemetry
features in the operating system. He then left the machine running
Windows 10 overnight in an effort to monitor the connections the
OS is attempting to make.
The results are not so surprising:
Eight hours later, he found that the idle Windows 10 box had tried
over 5,500 connections to 93 different IP addresses, out of which
almost 4,000 were made to 51 different IP addresses belonging to
Microsoft.
After leaving the machine for 30 hours, Windows 10 expanded that
connection to 113 non-private IP addresses, potentially allowing
hackers to intercept this data.
Taking his test to a step further, CheesusCrust again installed
Windows 10 Enterprise virtual machine on his laptop, disabled all
tracking features and enabled a third-party tool known as
DisableWinTracking.
After this, the number was reduced to 2758 connections to 30
different IP addresses in the period of 30 hours.
The interesting fact here is: This analysis was conducted on
Windows 10 Enterprise Edition that comes with the most granular
level of user control, far more than the standard Windows 10 Home
Edition used by a sizable audience.
However, based on these logs, it would be inaccurate to say that
Windows 10 is sending your personal data to Microsoft's servers.
But, thousands of connection attempts in the period of 8 hours
just to check for updates or adjust the time, sounds more
complicated than thought.
A September 2015 blog from Terry Myerson, head of the Windows
team, explained that while Windows 10 does send some of your data
to the company, everything is encrypted and doesn't include any
of your personal details.
Here's what Microsoft says about the Windows 10 Spying concerns:
"We collect a limited amount of information to help us provide
a secure and reliable experience. This includes data like an
anonymous device ID, device type, and application crash data which
Microsoft and our developer partners use to continuously improve
application reliability. This doesn't include any of your content
or files, and we take several steps to avoid collecting any
information that directly identifies you, such as your name, email
address or account ID."
While this research doesn't provide what details Windows 10 is
sending to the company even after disabling the telemetry
features, you have to keep this in mind that Nothing comes for
FREE. "Free" is just a relative term. May be you are paying the
greatest cost to owning Windows 10.
Wired to Ad Blocker Users:
Pay Up for Ad-free Site Or You Get Nothing
Wired readers who use ad blockers, youíve been warned.
Soon you wonít be able to get any online content from the popular
tech publication unless you stop blocking their ads, or pay for
the privilege of seeing no ads.
For a while, if you visited Wired.com with an ad blocker enabled,
you were presented with a message politely asking you to
ìsupportî the publication by disabling your ad blocker or
ìwhitelistingî the site.
That message (ironically, featured in a display ad), has now been
replaced with an ad announcing that Wired will soon be launching
an ad-free version of the site, for which you have to pay a
subscription.
In a note titled ìHow Wired is going to handle ad blocking,î
Wiredís editors plead their case that ad blockers are undercutting
the revenues that pay for the publication:
We know that you come to our site primarily to read our
content, but itís important to be clear that advertising is how we
keep WIRED going: paying the writers, editors, designers,
engineers, and all the other staff that work so hard to create the
stories you read and watch here.
Unlike some ad blocker critics in the advertising and publishing
industries, Wired acknowledges the legitimate reasons why so many
millions of people (and 20% of Wired.com visitors) use ad blockers:
blocking ads generally means a faster and less annoying web
browsing experience, and cuts down on substantial security and
privacy risks.
No, youíre not causing the demise of the publishing industry if you
use an ad blocker, but this stuff isnít free, the editors seem to
be saying.
If you want to continue to read content from Wired, you have only
two options: disable your ad blocker when you visit the site, or
pay for the ad-free version of the website.
If you donít disable your ad blocker, or pay for the ad free site,
youíre out of luck ñ you wonít get to see any Wired content.
By disabling your ad blocker on the site, Wired says youíll only
see ìpolite,î standard display advertising.
The subscription-based, ad-free version of the site will have no
display advertising and no ìad tracking,î Wired says.
In a sense, this is what counts as a compromise in the ad-blocker
wars.
Instead of using anti-ad-blocking technology to ignore the wishes
of users who want to block ads and serve them ads anyway, Wired is
giving its readers a choice ñ albeit one that ad blocker users
probably wonít like.
Wired says it will ìcontinue to experimentî with ways to publish
stories, while also maintaining a ìhealthy business that supports
the storytelling.î
What that might look like is unclear, but some publishers are
getting around ad blockers by blurring the lines between editorial
content and advertising with so-called native ads.
Readers at Naked Security have some very strong opinions about ad
blockers, and weíd like to know if you agree or disagree with
Wiredís approach.
Would you turn off your ad blocker to use the site with ads? Or
pay for a version of the site without ads?
Or would you rather walk away?
Microsoft Edge's InPrivate Mode Finally Keeps Your Activity Private
Browsing the Web in 'Private Mode' is not as private as you think.
Microsoft has patched the Private Browsing Leakage bug in its
newest Edge browser with the latest update.
When we talk about Browsers, only one thing which does not strike
our mind is Internet Explorer or IE.
Even there were some trolls on Internet Explorer (IE) waving over
the social medias such as "The best web browser to download other
browsers."
In fact, it was justified as everyone downloads a new browser with
IE in their newly installed Operating System.
Due to the continual taunts, Microsoft had scrapped the entire IE
and made a new browser called "Edge Browser" (Codenamed "Spartan").
Edge was shipped as the default browser (along with IE) with
Windows 10 devices and grabbed the attention of many eye pupils as
it included all the features that other mainstream browsers have.
In January this year, it was reported that 'InPrivate' mode of the
Edge browser is leaking users' web browsing data.
The InPrivate mode is nothing but Incognito or private support for
Windows 10. It has been found storing your browsing history,
cookies and cache in a WebCache file on the system, which could be
found easily.
Precisely here:
\Users\user_name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WebCache\WebCacheV01.dat
This issue made users feel a repulsive force again and they instantly
switched back to other browsers like Firefox or Chrome as the
protocols of private browsing mode was correctly followed.
The reported vulnerability was fixed which was included in the update
KB 3135174.
The patch update listed as "Fixed issue with Microsoft Edge browser
caching visited URLs while using InPrivate browsing."
In another statement made by Microsoft, the company officially
claimed that its Edge Browser is much more secure than any other
browsers and does not need the support of any armour like EMET
anymore.
Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) is a Windows tool
that shields against the execution of software vulnerabilities in
Windows Environment.
As of now, Windows had buried a security hole, but let's see
what's more coming from the same family.
=~=~=~=
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