Month: December 2017

Enlarge / WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 19: Tom Bossert, White House homeland security advisor, and Jeanette Manfra, chief of cybersecurity for the Department of Homeland Security, brief reporters on the WannaCry cyberattack earlier this year, at the White House on December 19, 2017 in Washington, DC. The widespread attack, which plagued multiple industries in at least 150 countries and cost billions of dollars, was blamed squarely on North Korea by Bossert. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) (credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

The Trump administration has now officially blamed North Korea for the creation and spread of WannaCry, the cryptographic worm built on exploits stolen from the National Security Agency, that struck computers around the globe in May. White House National Security Advisor Tom Bossert made the assertion public in an op-ed published late Monday in The Wall Street Journal and in a press conference this morning. But there's little the US can actually do to North Korea in response.

"We do not make this allegation lightly," Bossert said. "It is based on evidence. We are not alone with our findings, either. Other governments and private companies agree. The United Kingdom attributes the attack to North Korea, and Microsoft traced the attack to cyber affiliates of the North Korean government."

The attribution is not a surprise. Security industry researchers and analysts for other governments (including the United Kingdom's GCHQ and Canada's Communications Security Establishment) have pointed the finger at North Korea as the most likely source of the attack for months. But Bossert told reporters that the White House wanted to be extremely careful before making a public attribution.

Enlarge / Then-President Barack Obama and Tom Wheeler, his nominee for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, in May 2013. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has been saying for years that the FCC imposed net neutrality rules in 2015 largely because then-President Barack Obama ordered the commission to do so.

Obama publicly called on the FCC to reclassify broadband providers as "Title II" common carriers and impose the rules in November 2014, three months before the FCC vote did just that. But an investigation last year by the FCC's independent Inspector General's (IG) office found "no evidence" of improper use of power by the White House when then-Chairman Tom Wheeler led the net neutrality vote, a newly released document shows.

"We found no evidence of secret deals, promises or threats from anyone outside the Commission, nor any evidence of any other improper use of power to influence the FCC decision-making process," the IG's August 2016 report said of Obama's role in the decision to classify broadband providers as common carriers and impose net neutrality rules.

Enlarge (credit: Thomas Trutschel / Getty Images News)

Originally, one of bitcoin's big selling points was that payments would be fast, convenient, and cheap. "The cost of mediation increases transaction costs, limiting the minimum practical transaction size and cutting off the possibility for small casual transactions," wrote bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto in the white paper announcing the technology.

"With bitcoins, transfers can take place across continents and timezones with no problems, no timelags, and only minuscule transaction fees," wrote economics reporter Felix Salmon in 2013.

Until the beginning of this year, bitcoin fees tended to be well below $1, and often less than $0.10. Bitcoin supporters liked to point out that fees on the bitcoin network were often a lot less than the fees merchants paid to accept credit card payments. But in recent months, bitcoin's popularity has outstripped the network's ability to cope with growing demand.

Enlarge / The app, in all its glory.

In an effort to further diminish Edge's role as "the browser you use to install Chrome," Google has published a Chrome installer application to the Microsoft Store. Install that app, and it'll download and install Chrome for you.

Chrome itself is not a Store app. While Microsoft has developed a system, "Centennial," for packaging existing Windows applications and distributing them through the Store—a convenient capability, as it provides centralized upgrading and clean uninstallation—Google is not using that for Chrome. The Chrome that gets installed is the regular version of Chrome that you'd get if you downloaded it directly from Google.

For most Windows users, the distinction doesn't matter a great deal. While we'd like more apps to be available through the Store—if for no other reason than to get the simplified updating and uninstallation—virtually every Windows user already runs a number of non-Store applications anyway. The exception is Microsoft's locked-down Windows 10 S. Windows 10 S can only install and run Store apps. As such, 10 S can't make use of this Chrome installer; while the installer itself can be, uh, installed, it's not able to install the non-Store version of Chrome.

Enlarge (credit: Facebook)

Today, Facebook announced that it will start using its facial recognition technology to find photos of you across its site, even if you aren't tagged in those photos. The idea is to give you more control over your identity online by informing you when your face appears in a photo, even those you don't know about. According to a Facebook blog post, the new feature is powered by the same AI technology used to suggest friends you may want to tag in your own uploaded images.

The feature, dubbed Photo Review, has one caveat: you'll only be notified of an untagged photo of yourself if you're in the intended "audience" of that photo. "We always respect the privacy setting people select when posting a photo on Facebook (whether that’s friends, public, or a custom audience), so you won’t receive a notification if you’re not in the audience," the blog post says.

You don't necessarily have to be friends with the photo's poster to see the image; you only need to have some friends in common. The photo's audience also needs to be set to "everyone," which means the poster didn't restrict access to friends only or another, select group of people.

Ryan Kazanciyan

Mr. Robot writer Kor Adana’s in-season schedule seems tough. In addition to some pivotal plot-making in the writers’ room, Adana does appearances on the The Verge’s Digital After Show, conducts regular post-episode Q&As with The Hollywood Reporter, and famously leads the charge on the show’s obsession for technical detail. Each bit of screen real-estate that appears in an episode—URLs, code, IP addresses, etc.—has to pass through Adana and the team. But throughout all of that, one constant Mr. Robot quest stays in the back of the mind.

“Whenever an opportunity presents itself to do some form of PR for the show, the first thing we go to is, ‘What can we incorporate from the ARG?’” Adana tells Ars. “Can we hide a puzzle? Can we do a cipher code? Our conversations always seem to start with, 'I have a really weird idea I want to run by you,' but somehow we’re able to pull it off. And it’s been kinda crazy in S3.”

Hyperloop One

On Monday Virgin Hyperloop One announced a new record for its prototype pod—387kph (or 240mph).

That speed is faster than the 300kph (186mph) you’d get on a commercial Train à Grand Vitesse (TGV) in France. But it’s still not close to the fastest speed a commercial TVG has ever logged: 515.3kph (or 320mph). It's also slower than the world record for a magnetically levitated (and occupied) train, which was set in Japan in 2015 with a speed of 603kph (374mph).

Enlarge / Homeopathic remedies in a pharmacy. (credit: Getty | Peter Macdiarmid )

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday released a draft guidance (PDF) that will boost enforcement of manufacturing, marketing, and safety regulations for homeopathic products. The agency plans to specifically target what it considers high-risk products, such as those known to contain dangerous substances or are intended to be used for treating serious or life-threatening conditions.

Homeopaths, meanwhile, told Ars in a relatively subdued statement that they welcome the FDA’s efforts but are “hopeful that this action will not impede access.”

The FDA’s move follows a string of high-profile safety issues with homeopathic products. That includes a years-long investigation by the agency that linked illnesses in 400 infants and the deaths of 10 babies to improperly manufactured homeopathic teething products. In that case, FDA investigators confirmed that the products contained variable and sometimes high levels of toxic belladonna, aka deadly nightshade, which can have harmful and unpredictable effects in infants. With strong-arming, the FDA got the manufacturer, Hyland’s, to recall the products earlier this year.