Month: April 2017

Enlarge / South Korea is deploying Lockheed Martin's THAAD missile defense system, and that's sparked the ire of the Chinese government, as well as military and "hacktivist" hacking groups, according to FireEye. (credit: US Army)

Chinese government officials have been very vocal in their opposition to the deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea, raising concerns that the anti-ballistic missile system's sensitive radar sensors could be used for espionage. And according to researchers at the information security firm FireEye, Chinese hackers have transformed objection to action by targeting South Korean military, government and defense industry networks with an increasing number of cyberattacks. Those attacks included a denial of service attack against the website of South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which the South Korean government says originated from China.

FireEye's director of cyber-espionage analysis John Hultquist told the Wall Street Journal that FireEye had detected a surge in attacks against South Korean targets from China since February, when South Korea announced it would deploy THAAD in response to North Korean missile tests. The espionage attempts have focused on organizations associated with the THAAD deployment. They have included "spear-phishing" e-mails carrying attachments loaded with malware along with "watering hole" attacks that put exploit code to download malware onto websites frequented by military, government, and defense industry officials.

FireEye claims to have found evidence that the attacks were staged by two groups connected to the Chinese military. One, dubbed Tonto Team by FireEye, operates from the same region of China as previous North Korean hacking operations. The other is known among threat researchers as APT10, or "Stone Panda"—the same group believed to be behind recent espionage efforts against US companies lobbying the Trump administration on global trade. These groups have also been joined in attacks by two "patriotic hacking" groups not directly tied to the Chinese government, Hultquist told the Journal—including one calling itself "Denounce Lotte Group" targeting the South Korean conglomerate Lotte. Lotte made the THAAD deployment possible through a land swap with the South Korean government,

Enlarge / Everyone in this picture better have a valid phone number...

Dota 2 maker Valve is taking serious action to cut down on the prevalence of smurfing—using a secondary account in order to to play against opponents of a lower skill level. Starting next month, Dota 2 players will need to have a unique, valid phone number associated with their account to take part in the game's ranked matchmaking pool.

Ideally, the move would ensure that a single person can only have a single Dota 2 account, so highly skilled players couldn't pretend to be novices in a ranked match. Unranked play will be unaffected by the change.

Valve says that "online services that provide phone numbers are not allowed," so potential workarounds to create a new "valid" number shouldn't work. In North America, data from the FCC-backed NANPA can help determine the source of any such online phone numbers, but it's unclear whether Valve will also be able to confirm international numbers in a similar way.

Ron Amadeo

The past few months have been a humbling time for Samsung. The Galaxy Note 7's explosive debut and double recall eventually led to an unprecedented cancellation of Samsung's flagship device. The recall process and resulting investigation kept the company's name in the mud for months and months. Memes were created across the Internet, property was damaged, and everyone visiting an airport was constantly reminded that Samsung produced a faulty device. To top it all off, the head of Samsung Group and several other Samsung executives were indicted on corruption allegations, with at least one person resigning as a result.

Now Samsung is ready to move on from those dark times with the launch of a new flagship, the Galaxy S8. It has a lot riding on the S8's success, and the company seems ready to rise to the occasion. The S8 is one of Samsung's strongest flagship offerings ever, with an all-new design, slim bezels, and the debut of a speedy new processor. Since this is a Samsung flagship, it will also be backed by dump trucks full of marketing dollars ensuring it will be featured in every commercial break, be on every billboard, and have prime real estate at every electronics store.

Enlarge (credit: Tesla)

Tesla is voluntarily recalling 53,000 Model S and Model X electric vehicles because of problems with the parking brake. As was the case for Tesla's last recall, the company is blaming someone else for the issue. Specifically, the electric parking brakes installed on the EVs "may contain a small gear that could have been manufactured improperly by our third-party supplier."

Unlike the seatbelt recall that affected 90,000 Model S EVs or the Model X recall for faulty rear seats, this issue does not appear to cause a safety risk in the event of a crash. Rather, Tesla says that should the gear break, the car will be stuck with the parking brake on, and therefore unable to move.

Quality control issues have plagued the young carmaker. Both the Wall Street Journal and Consumer Reports lambasted the Model X, and many electric motors in early Model S sedans appeared unable to last more than 60,000 miles.