Month: October 2017

Enlarge / One of the bad pages delivered after researcher Jérôme Segura visited transunioncentroamerica.com (credit: Jérôme Segura)

Equifax isn't the only credit-reporting behemoth with a website redirecting visitors to fake Adobe Flash updates. A security researcher from AV provider Malwarebytes said transunioncentroamerica.com, a TransUnion site serving people in Central America, is also sending visitors to the fraudulent updates and other types of malicious pages.

As Ars reported late Wednesday night, a portion of Equifax's website was redirecting visitors to a page that was delivering fraudulent Adobe Flash updates. When clicked, the files infected visitors' computers with adware that was detected by only three of 65 antivirus providers. On Thursday afternoon, Equifax officials said the mishap was the result of a third-party service Equifax was using to collect website-performance data and that the "vendor's code running on an Equifax website was serving malicious content." Equifax initially shut down the affected portion of its site, but the company has since restored it after removing the malicious content.

Now, Malwarebytes security researcher Jérôme Segura says he was able to repeatedly reproduce a similar chain of fraudulent redirects when he pointed his browser to the transunioncentroamerica.com site. On some occasions, the final link in the chain would push a fake Flash update. In other cases, it delivered an exploit kit that tried to infect computers with unpatched browsers or browser plugins. The attack chain remained active at the time this post was going live.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | jangeltun)

The Federal Communications Commission is considering whether it should collect more accurate data about broadband deployment in the US, but cable and telecom lobby groups are urging the FCC to maintain the status quo.

Currently, the FCC's "Form 477" data collection program requires Internet service providers to identify the census blocks in which they provide residential or business Internet service and the maximum speeds offered in each block. ISPs are also supposed to identify the census blocks that are near enough to their networks that they could provide service within a reasonable timeframe.

This data helps the FCC evaluate the progress of broadband deployment, identify geographical areas that would benefit from government funding, and determine whether regulatory changes or new rules are needed to spur deployment and competition. But while a census block is the smallest geographic unit used by the US Census Bureau, it doesn't provide the best possible data for determining whether an individual house or apartment building has Internet service. The reason is that an ISP could serve one building inside a census block and be counted as serving that entire block, even if it doesn't serve the block's other homes.

Sony has finally brought its Xperia Touch projector to market at $1,699.99. The device can project a fully functional Android interface onto a table, wall, or other flat surface in your home, and it can be used to watch movies or play video games, too.

The Xperia Touch can project a 23-inch multi-touch Android interface that works well, or it can do up to 80 inches on the wall for movie and video game viewing. However, it only has a 1366x768 resolution, 100 lumens of brightness, and a 4,000:1 contrast ratio.

Enlarge / FCC Chairman Ajit Pai listens during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC, on June 20, 2017. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai still hasn't publicly responded to President Trump's call for NBC and other networks to have their FCC licenses challenged, and Democratic lawmakers are stepping up the pressure.

Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) and Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) today called for a Congressional hearing in which Pai and the other FCC commissioners "can publicly disavow President Donald Trump's repeated threats to revoke NBC's broadcaster license due to its reporting."

Trump made the threats on Twitter yesterday. Members of Congress and members of the media (including Ars) have been contacting the FCC since yesterday morning to get a response from Pai, but the chair has remained silent on the matter.

Enlarge / Personnel gather at the US Embassy in Cuba after the US State Department announced it will cut the embassy’s staff by half in the wake of mysterious health problems. (credit: Getty | Sven Creutzmann/Mambo Photo)

On Thursday, the Associated Press released the first audio recording of the sound that some diplomats say they heard during mystery attacks in Havana, Cuba. Those attacks have so far left 22 Americans with a puzzling range of symptoms, from brain injuries to hearing loss.

The sound is high-pitched and grating. You can listen to it here (but beware: it’s unpleasant).

The noise is comprised of 20 or more different frequencies, all around about 7,000 Hz and 8,000 Hz. It reportedly came in abrupt pulses of varying lengths.

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft)

The release last month of the Better Together update for Minecraft brought together Minecraft players on most of the game's many platforms: the Xbox One, Windows 10, mobile, and VR versions of the game now all use the same engine and can all play together without borders. Servers and content will be accessible from any Better Together platform. Microsoft has also announced that this version of the game will be coming to the Nintendo Switch, and it, too, will be able to join in the cross-platform play.

But one major platform is being left behind: PlayStation 4. Minecraft players on the PlayStation 4 will only be able to play with other PlayStation 4 users. Not because of any technical constraint, but because Sony won't allow it.

Speaking to Gamespot, Xbox chief Phil Spencer said Sony regards platform lock-in as a way of driving sales and "that reason [for blocking cross-platform play] is not going away." Spencer doesn't hold out much hope for things changing, either: "I'm never going to call anything a lost cause, but I think some of the fundamental reasons and certain scenarios—they're not really going away."