February 2017 – Page 112 – news.buyenne.com

Denuvo Website Leaks Secret Information, Crackers Swarm

While the folks at Denuvo are leaders in the field of video game protection, the same cannot be said about their website. In an embarrassing blunder, the company has left some directories and files open to the public and right now members of the cracking community are downloading and scrutinizing the contents.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Anti-piracy outfit Denuvo has taken a bit of a battering lately after chinks began appearing in the company’s armor. Last weekend, cracking group CPY defeated the protection on Resident Evil 7 in just five days, a record for the anti-tamper technology.

Just a week on, Denuvo has more problems to deal with. For reasons best known to them, the company has left several private directories on its website open to the public, as shown in the image below.

Most of the content appears relatively mundane but hidden away in the logs directory is an 11MB text file called Ajax.log, which appears to contain customer support emails dating back to 2014. While some are from companies looking to hire Denuvo, a notable email in slightly broken English appears to have been sent by Capcom.

“This is Jun Matsumoto from CAPCOM Japan. I have a interested in the Denuvo Anti-Tamper solution to protect our game software. If you have a white paper about details, please send me. (ex. platform, usage, price, etc…) And, if you have a sales agent in Japan, please tell me the contact point. Thank you for your cooperations,” it reads.

Another was sent by Jan Newger of Google, who wanted to learn more about Denuvo.

“I’m working in the security team at Google, and would like to evaluate the denuvo product to get an understanding on how it would integrate with existing solutions,” it reads.

“I’m specifically interested in further strengthening existing solutions to hinder understanding/tampering with binary programs. Is it possible to obtain some kind of demo version of the product? Also, could you send a quote to me?

But for every business opportunity, there are dozens of emails from angry pirates, each looking to vent their anger.

“Why do you have to make such shit software to fuck over pc gamers with DRM bullshit. Please inform the companies you work with that if your DRM is implemented on games they are selling, they will lose thousands of customers. Thanks,” wrote someone identifying themselves as Angry Customer.

While any leak of confidential data is a serious event, this developing situation appears to be getting worse. Within the last few minutes, more insecure directories have been discovered, some of them containing relatively large files.

Needless to say, the contents of these files will be of great interest to Denuvo’s adversaries. With that in mind, TF headed over to a platform where crackers meet and sure enough, they are extremely excited and all over this breach. Thus far it appears that most of the files have been downloaded, including one that appears to contain access logs for Denuvo’s website and others which carry executables.

It’s too early to say exactly what these files do but crackers will be hoping for any piece of information or clue explaining how Denuvo works and how it can be defeated. Another bad week for Denuvo is quickly getting worse.

Breaking news, updates to follow.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Relaxing coal pollution, methane flaring rules: This week in Congress

A busy start to the 115^th Congress with the use of the Congressional Review Act.

Last week was a busy one for people watching the federal government’s rules on energy and the environment. With the opening of a new administration, the Republican-dominated Congress has been quick to kill regulations from the previous administration and enact new ones of its own. Below we take a glance at some of the most noteworthy actions taken by the executive branch and Congress this week.

1. Rolling back the stream protection rule: Congress wasted no time wielding a previously little-used rule called the Congressional Review Act, which allows the legislative branch to repeal rules and regulations passed in recent months. According to the Federation of American Scientists (via Vox), the 115^th Congress can now overturn rules submitted on or after June 13, 2016 in an expedited reversal process. The stream protection rule, finalized in late December, is among those rules that found itself on the chopping block. The rule required coal companies that had finished mining in an area to restore the the land to conditions that existed before the mining began, with emphasis on streams and waterways. Opponents of the rule claimed that the 1997 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, which only forbids “material damage to the environment to the extent that it is technologically and economically feasible,” is sufficient to protect the environment around coal mining operations and that the newer stream protection rule unduly burdens mining companies. Both the House and the Senate voted to roll back the stream protection rule this week. Now the resolution to undo it officially awaits the signature of President Trump.

2. The resource-extraction rule: This rule also saw the blunt end of the Congressional Review Act this week. The rule got its start in 2010 as the Cardin-Lugar Amendment, a bipartisan amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act requiring oil, gas, and mining companies to reveal what they paid to foreign governments. But those companies sued over the rule, and a federal judge tossed out the first version of it in 2013. The Obama Administration started the rule-making process again, but the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) only enacted it in June 2016, leaving it vulnerable to the Congressional Review Act today. Extraction companies said the rule put them at a competitive disadvantage, and Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon-Mobile CEO who was sworn in as Secretary of State this week, lobbied hard against the rule in 2010. This leads some to question whether Tillerson’s business connections in foreign countries would jeopardize his ability to work as Secretary of State. However, the resolution to remove this rule was approved by both the House and the Senate this week, so it also awaits Trump’s signature.

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When unemployment rates go up, school shooting rates follow

A comprehensive database of events lets researchers explore potential causes.

Part of why we struggle to understand school shootings is because there isn’t enough data available about these extremely rare events. A recent study published in Nature Human Behavior describes a carefully curated dataset for school shootings between 1990-2013, created from existing data and original data sources.

In their analysis, the authors of this paper found that the rate of school shootings increased from 2007-2013. They also found data that suggested increased shooting rates were correlated with increases in unemployment rates. This finding indicates that high levels of economic distress may lead to increases in school-related gun violence.

Previous research on school shootings has resulted in contradictory claims because there hasn’t been a single, coherent dataset. Instead, multiple datasets with different inclusion criteria have made the resulting findings difficult or impossible to compare since they analyze fundamentally different information. To solve this problem, the authors made a new collection of school shooting data, which resulted in the inclusion of almost 400 events. Their criteria for inclusion in this dataset are:

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Amazon is selling Fire tablets for $40 and up, Kindles starting at $60

Amazon’s cheapest tablet is even cheaper than usual for the next week. The retailer is running a pre-Valentine’s Day sale on select Fire tablets and Kindle eReaders. The sale ends Saturday, February 11th.

Among other things, that means you can pick up an Amazon Fire Tablet with a 7 inch display and 8GB of storage for a starting price of $40, or about $10 off the usual price.

Need more storage?

Continue reading Amazon is selling Fire tablets for $40 and up, Kindles starting at $60 at Liliputing.

Among other things, that means you can pick up an Amazon Fire Tablet with a 7 inch display and 8GB of storage for a starting price of $40, or about $10 off the usual price.

Need more storage?

Continue reading Amazon is selling Fire tablets for $40 and up, Kindles starting at $60 at Liliputing.

IETF-Standard: Erste Quic-Tests kommen noch diesen Sommer

Zwar hat die IETF-Standardisierung des Protokolls Quic erst begonnen, erste übergreifende Tests könnten aber schon diesen Sommer stattfinden. Quic entfernt sich damit von der ursprünglichen Implementierung von Google und bringt Vorteile für HTTP/2. (QUIC, Google)

The state of residential solar power

Choosing solar in a vacuum now makes sense—but location and bureaucracy still loom IRL.

Don't panic, but we will need to generate approximately 15TW of usable energy from renewable (carbon-neutral) sources by 2050 in order to stabilize the atmospheric CO₂ concentration. And purely in terms of available energy, solar power has the greatest potential for meeting this requirement.

Solar is “probably the only long-term supply-side energy solution that is both large enough and acceptable enough to sustain the planet’s long term requirements,” according to Richard Perez, senior research associate at the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at SUNY-Albany. Perez’ analysis includes geothermal, wind, all other significant renewable sources, nuclear fission, and all forms of fossil fuels.

So while wind, hydropower, and geothermal extraction may work well on a local or regional scale in certain areas, today the potential of solar exceeds any other renewable energy source by several orders of magnitude. It’s simply the only contender, besides nuclear power, for a global solution to supply civilization with the massive amount of energy it demands.

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Wissenschaftlicher Dienst: Bundestagsexperten zweifeln an Vorratsdatenspeicherung

Eines der zu Recht unbeliebtesten Gesetze wird erneut kritisiert: Der Wissenschaftliche Dienst des Bundestages hält das Gesetz zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung in aktueller Form für verfassungswidrig. (Vorratsdatenspeicherung, Datenschutz)

EU-Funkanlagenrichtlinie: Mit dem Router-Lockdown kommt das absolute Chaos

Die EU hat nur noch wenige Monate Zeit, um Ausnahmeregelungen für die EU-Funkanlagenrichtlinie umzusetzen. Gelingt dies nicht rechtzeitig, kommt es wohl nicht nur zum Lockdown von WLAN-Routern. Betroffen wären dann sämtliche Funkgeräte – egal ob Sender oder Empfänger. (Fosdem2017, WLAN)

Die EU hat nur noch wenige Monate Zeit, um Ausnahmeregelungen für die EU-Funkanlagenrichtlinie umzusetzen. Gelingt dies nicht rechtzeitig, kommt es wohl nicht nur zum Lockdown von WLAN-Routern. Betroffen wären dann sämtliche Funkgeräte - egal ob Sender oder Empfänger. (Fosdem2017, WLAN)

FBI: Google soll ausländische Mails an US-Behörden geben

Nachdem Microsoft einen ähnlichen Fall gewonnen hatte, soll Google Daten von Servern aus dem Ausland an US-Behörden weitergeben. Das Unternehmen widerspricht und will Berufung einlegen. Außerdem wisse man gar nicht immer genau, in welchem Land E-Mails eigentlich gespeichert seien. (Gmail, Google)

Former Prime Minister Admits to Being a Movie Pirate

These days it’s pretty unlikely for anyone in authority to admit bending the law, not in public at least. However, when you’re a lawyer, former Croatian prime minister, and former NATO counselor – and you’re being pranked on TV by someone claiming to be a Microsoft big-shot – the situation is apparently more fluid.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Two to three decades ago, being a music, video or software pirate had virtually no social stigma attached at all. Pirate cassettes of all kinds were swapped in public and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who cared.

These days, however, things are somewhat different. While piracy is still widespread, it’s likely that someone will be around to tut, actively complain, or even report the activity, especially if it happens online.

That’s the result of years of hard work by copyright holders, who have elevated the act to “serious business” status within the governments of most developed nations. As a result, most politicians now speak of piracy in negative terms, in public at least.

For former Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, however, talking about piracy in a presumed private situation turned out to be risky business.

It all went south when Milanovic was telephoned by prank-call show “U Zdrav Mozak” (“In Healthy Brain”), which is a shortened version of a local phrase meaning to screw with someone. The show takes delight in messing with famous people and last week it was the turn of Croatia’s former prime minister.

Milanovic is currently in between jobs and is reportedly looking to become a business advisor. As a result, show host Davor Jurkotic called Milanovic pretending to be Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure.

Around three minutes into the conversation the topic turned to movies, with “Russinovich” saying that he watches them when out of work. At this point, Milanovic revealed he likes to do the same.

“As a rule, I watch them through these pirate apps. I shouldn’t say that… but… Moviebox, Cinemabox…,” Milanovic said, referring to the popular pirate tablet and phone applications.

Continuing the conversation, the fake Mark Russinovich said that using those apps is illegal.

“But that is a felony, Mr Milanovic. You shouldn’t be doing that,” he said.

Switching to English, Milanovic – who trained as a lawyer – indicated that he felt otherwise, with an offhand “Well, it’s like…”

Of course, “Russinovich” was happy to keep up the charade.

“In England, if they found out, especially if you were the Prime Minister, they immediately come and knock on the door,” the host warned, rapping his knuckles on the table for effect.

But Milanovic had other ideas about how things might go down.

“Yeah, right! And what if the app isn’t mine, if the iPad isn’t mine?” he said. “You know what I’ll tell you? I think I have maybe two parking violations. I am the man who respects the law of the land.”

After a conversational diversion for a couple of minutes, the discussion returned to piracy. And it turns out that the former prime minister understands his pirate politics.

“But this is something that is still developing, ethically and legally,” he said.

“In Sweden, you have a Pirate Party, in Sweden that is a more organized/regulated country than the USA. And they [Pirate Party] got 12% at the elections. So what is moral these days?”

While it would’ve been good to hear more on the piracy front, the prank eventually came to an end when the fake Russinovich said that Microsoft wanted to invest in speedboats that can travel underwater and also fly.

“This is U Zdrav Mozak, right?” Milanovic guessed, bursting into laughter.

So a good sport it seems, as well as a secret pirate admirer.

Hvala Vlaho!

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.