Month: November 2017

Enlarge (credit: Aurich / Getty)

On Tuesday evening, the value of one bitcoin shot above $10,000. It has been a remarkable run for a currency that was only worth about $12 five years ago.

The run has been particularly remarkable because it's still not clear what Bitcoin is useful for. During its early years, the cryptocurrency garnered a lot of optimistic talk about how it would disrupt conventional payment networks like MasterCard or Western Union. But almost nine years after Bitcoin was created, there's little sign of it becoming a mainstream technology. Few people own any bitcoins at all. Even fewer use it as a daily payment technology.

Yet that hasn't prevented the cryptocurrency's value from zooming upward. One factor driving Bitcoin's growth has been the emergence of a broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. Bitcoin serves as the reserve currency for the Bitcoin economy in much the same way that the dollar serves as the main anchor currency for international trade.

Enlarge / Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) head Alexander Bortnikov (far left) meets with other Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin (center) on November 24, 2017. (credit: Mikhail Klimentyev TASS via Getty Images)

A Canadian man has pleaded guilty to hacking charges related to a 2014 spear-phishing operation of Yahoo employees. The hack ultimately compromised 500 million Yahoo accounts.

The operative, Karim Baratov, appeared in a San Francisco federal court on Tuesday afternoon. He also admitted that his role was to "hack webmail accounts of individuals of interest to the FSB," the Russian internal security service. Baratov then sent those passwords to his alleged co-conspirator, Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dokuchaev.

Karatov was indicted in late February 2017 along with three other men who remain in Russia.

Enlarge / US singer and actress Cher poses on October 10, 2013 in Paris. (credit: Getty Images | AFP | Francois Guillot)

Internet users have made it clear to US telecom regulator Ajit Pai that his proposal to scrap net neutrality rules is unpopular with the masses. But with two weeks left before the Federal Communications Commission votes to eliminate net neutrality rules, Pai today blamed actress/singer Cher and other celebrities for boosting opposition to his plan.

In a speech hosted by conservative group R Street and the Lincoln Network, Pai also addressed criticism from MCU actor Mark Ruffalo, actress Alyssa Milano, former Star Trek actor George Takei, and Silicon Valley actor Kumail Nanjiani. Pai also claimed that Twitter and other Web companies pose a greater threat to Internet freedom than Internet service providers like Comcast.

Pai said:

Enlarge (credit: Patrick Wardle)

In one of Apple's biggest security blunders in years, a bug in macOS High Sierra allows untrusted users to gain unfettered administrative control without any password.

The bypass works by putting the word "root" (without the quotes) in the user name field of a login window, moving the cursor into the password field, and then hitting enter button with the password field empty. With that—after a few tries in some cases—the latest version of Apple's operating system logs the user in with root privileges. Ars reporters were able to replicate the behavior multiple times on at three Macs. The flaw isn't present in Yosemite, the previous macOS version.

The password bypass can be exploited in a variety of ways, depending on the way the targeted Mac has been set up. When full-disk encryption is turned off, an untrusted user can turn on a Mac that's fully powered down and log in as root. It was also not possible to exploit the vulnerability when a Mac was turned on and the screen was password protected. Even on Macs that have filevault turned on, the bypass can also be used to make unauthorized changes to the Mac System Preferences or to log in as root after logging out of an existing account but not turning off the machine. The behavior observed in Ars tests and reported on social media was extremely inconsistent, so results are likely to vary widely.

Enlarge / All aboard the most boring VR bus ever. (credit: Gearbox/Dinosaur)

After roughly 22 years, one of the worst video games of all time, Desert Bus, finally has a sequel. In very good news for anybody who hears "notorious game's sequel" and flinches, this new take, dubbed Desert Bus VR, is now completely free to own for PC gamers, whether they own a virtual reality headset or not.

My "quick" test of the bizarre game, which launched on November 27, reveals something totally worth playing, if only to marvel at the fact that this weird, VR-minded sequel actually exists.

The original Desert Bus would have launched in the mid-'90s as a mini-game tucked into Penn & Teller: Smoke & Mirrors, a comedy-minded Sega CD game that never saw an official commercial launch. Years later, the finished game leaked as a download, which meant fans could finally see its many weird mini-games, including this dreadfully boring bus simulator. The latter has since been popularized by the Canadian comedy troupe Loading Ready Run, whose annual "Desert Bus For Hope" campaign raises charitable donations by live-streaming actual Desert Bus gameplay for hours on end.