Month: April 2018

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | fizkes)

T-Mobile USA has agreed to pay a $40 million fine after admitting that it failed to complete phone calls in rural areas and used "false ring tones" that created the appearance that the calls were going through and no one was picking up.

"To settle this matter, T-Mobile admits that it violated the Commission's prohibition against the insertion of false ring tones and that it did not correct problems with delivery of calls to certain rural areas," states an order issued by the Federal Communications Commission today.

T-Mobile will pay the $40 million fine into the US Treasury. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn criticized the commission for not getting refunds for customers.

Enlarge / The three parts of Azure Sphere. (credit: Microsoft)

The drive to connect everything to the Internet and build the Internet of Things has created a new security nightmare. Millions of devices with little to no active maintenance are now permanently online, enabling the creation of massive botnets as the devices go unpatched and unloved. Microsoft today announced its solution: Azure Sphere.

Azure Sphere has three components. First is a new class of microcontrollers (MCUs) that supports seven critical hardware features that Microsoft says are a necessary foundation to build secure systems. These include support for unforgeable encryption keys protected by hardware, the ability to update system software, and hardware-enforced compartmentalization between software components. Microsoft has some track record in building such systems, in particularly with the Xbox, which is designed to have tamperproof hardware that's securely updateable.

The MCUs include Microsoft-designed silicon. The custom parts will be available royalty-free to manufacturers. MediaTek will ship the first such device, the MT3620, later this year. Microsoft calls it a "crossover MCU" that has the versatility and processing power of ARM's Cortex A-series designs, with the small size and low overheads more typical of the Cortex M-series. Sphere MCUs incorporate an application processor, a real-time processor, flash storage, and memory, along with Microsoft's security module (named "Pluton") and network connectivity.

Enlarge (credit: US Air Force)

Hackers working on behalf of the Russian government are compromising large numbers of routers, switches, and other network devices belonging to governments, businesses, and critical-infrastructure providers, US and UK officials warned Monday.

The Russian government-sponsored actors are using the compromised devices to perform man-in-the-middle attacks that extract passwords, intellectual property, and other sensitive information and to lay the groundwork for potential intrusions in the future, the officials continued. The warning was included in a technical alert jointly issued by the US Department of Homeland Security and FBI and the UK's National Cyber Security Center.

"Since 2015, the US government received information from multiple sources—including private- and public-sector cybersecurity research organizations and allies—that cyber actors are exploiting large numbers of enterprise-class and SOHO/residential routers and switches worldwide," Monday's technical alert stated. "The US government assesses that cyber actors supported by the Russian government carried out this worldwide campaign. These operations enable espionage and intellectual property that supports the Russian Federation's national security and economic goals."

(credit: Bumble)

As Americans (and their legislators) come to grips with the wealth of personal data they've volunteered to Facebook over the years, they will likely look harder at the services they've connected their credentials to. In at least one case, a business is responding in kind.

Bumble, a Tinder-like dating app that launched in 2014 with a "women send the first message" twist, announced plans on Monday to remove its Facebook credential requirement effective tomorrow, April 17. Should new users want to join Bumble or if existing users want to de-link their Facebook accounts, they will simply have to confirm a phone number.

"The reason behind this improvement is due to the overwhelming request from prospective users who are not too fond of Facebook and, because of this, refused to give online dating a try," a Bumble representative wrote in an email to Ars Technica.

Enlarge / The California State Capitol building in Sacramento. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

Internet service providers celebrated four months ago when the Federal Communications Commission voted to eliminate nationwide net neutrality rules that prohibit blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. But now Internet service providers in California are terrified that they could end up facing even stricter rules being considered by the California legislature.

AT&T and the lobby group that represents Comcast, Charter, Cox, and other cable companies have been making their displeasure known to lawmakers in advance of hearings on a bill that could impose the toughest net neutrality law in the nation. The California bill implements the FCC's basic net neutrality rules from 2015, but it also bans paid zero-rating arrangements in which home or mobile Internet providers charge online services for data cap exemptions.

AT&T and the California Cable & Telecommunications Association (CCTA) have privately distributed documents to lawmakers describing the ways in which the proposed bill is allegedly too strict compared to the FCC rules that are slated to be taken off the books.