Month: July 2018

Enlarge (credit: Henry Burrows / Flickr)

A prolific hacking group has struck again, this time stealing close to $1 million from Russia’s PIR Bank. The July 3 heist came about five weeks after the sophisticated hackers first gained access to the bank’s network by compromising a router used by a regional branch.

The theft—which according to kommersant.ru is conservatively estimated at about $910,000—is the latest achievement of a group researchers at security firm Group-IB call the MoneyTaker group. In a report published last November that first detailed the group, researchers said its members had conducted 20 successful attacks on financial institutions and legal firms in the US, UK, and Russia. In a follow-up report, Group-IB said MoneyTaker netted about $14 million in the hacks, 16 of which were carried out on US targets, five on Russian banks, and one on a banking-software company in the UK.

While MoneyTaker is skilled at concealing its activities, Group-IB was able to connect the heists by tracing a common set of tactics, techniques, and procedures. After initially gaining access to a target’s network, members often spend months doing reconnaissance in an effort to elevate system privileges to those of a domain administrator. Members also try to remain active inside hacked networks long after the heists are carried out. The attackers also use a variety of freely available tools popular among hackers and security professionals alike, including the Metasploit exploit framework, Microsoft’s PowerShell management framework, and various Visual Basic scripts.

Enlarge / Trends in the satellite-measured seasonal temperature cycle of the troposphere (red means larger temperature swing, blue means smaller temperature swing). (credit: Santer et al./Science)

One reason climate scientists have been able to confidently determine that humans are responsible for modern warming is that they have more than just weather records to work with. There are many places where a human cause can be identified if you know how to dust for fingerprints. For example, while the lower atmosphere warms, the stratosphere is actually cooling. That’s what you expect when greenhouse gases—rather than the Sun—are behind the warming.

A new study led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Ben Santer looked for fingerprints in a new place: the seasonal cycle of temperatures. The ideal tool for analyzing this is the global temperature record produced by satellites, which began their watch in 1979. That means they don’t go back nearly as far as weather-station records, but the dataset is now long enough to be useful for studies like this.

Hot and cold

While everyone uses the same satellites, several different groups actually maintain separate satellite temperature datasets. This is because the measurements are far from straightforward, and a ton of work goes into all the necessary processing to spit out temperature maps. As a result, the different datasets don’t always line up perfectly with each other—or with those analyzed with previous versions of their processing algorithm. So in this study, the researchers used the most recent two versions of three different datasets.

Enlarge / The keyboard on the 2016 Touch Bar MacBook Pro. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

While Apple's redesigned keyboards in the new MacBook Pro models are made to be quieter, they also appear to be designed to prevent another problem. According to a document sent to Apple Authorized Service Providers and obtained by MacRumors, the new keys have a "membrane" underneath that helps "prevent debris" from getting into the butterfly mechanism.

"The keyboard has a membrane under the keycaps to prevent debris from entering the butterfly mechanism," state the Canadian and European versions of the document. "The procedure for the space bar replacement has also changed from the previous model. Repair documentation and service videos will be available when keycap parts begin shipping."

The US version of the document doesn't mention the membrane specifically. However, it does link to another document entitled Butterfly Mechanism Keycap Replacement MacBook Pro (2018), which references the membrane under the keycaps as a method of stopping debris from entering the keyboard.

Project Loon, the Internet-delivering balloon system that grew out of Alphabet's Project X division, has announced its first commercial deal. According to multiple reports, the recent Project X graduates will partner with Telkom Kenya to increase connectivity in the country.

“Connectivity is critical. If you are not online, you are left out,” Joe Mucheru, Kenya's information, communication, and technology minister, told Reuters. "Loon is another technology that is being introduced that the licensed operators hopefully can be able to use.”

Public details of the deal appear scarce for now—no firm timeframe for deployment or financial details were available as of press time. The BBC notes that with this new partnership, Telkom Kenya will provide the Internet signal, and Loon will spread it over remote areas of Kenya.

Enlarge / A sign for the Sinclair Broadcast buildings seen on October 12, 2004 in Hunt Valley, Maryland. (credit: Getty Images | William Thomas Cain)

The Federal Communications Commission has voted unanimously against approving Sinclair Broadcast Group's acquisition of Tribune Media Company, likely dooming the merger.

Technically, the commission adopted a Hearing Designation Order that refers the merger to an administrative law judge. Mergers usually don't survive that legal process. Besides referring the merger to a judge, the FCC's other options included denying the merger outright, approving the merger, or approving it with conditions. The unanimous vote to refer the merger to a judge was finalized on Wednesday evening.

Sinclair's problems stem from its plan to divest some stations in order to stay under station ownership limits. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai proposed the designation order on Monday, saying that Sinclair's proposal to divest certain stations "would allow Sinclair to control those stations in practice, even if not in name, in violation of the law."

Enlarge / Don't expect this to be the setting for a survival-style battle on an ever-shrinking map anytime soon.

The stratospheric success of games like Fortnite and Playerunknown's Battlegrounds in the past year has led to a wave of copycat battle royale survival games and modes. Even franchises like Call of Duty aren't immune, with Black Ops 4 adding a new battle royale mode called Blackout while ignoring the usual single-player campaign.

It seems the Halo series will not be following the trend, though. In a Halo 5-focused "social stream" hosted on Microsoft's Mixer platform last night, 343 Industries writer Jeff Easterling said the studio is not working on a battle royale mode for the upcoming Halo Infinite .

A viewer plainly asked, "Will there be battle royale in Halo Infinite?" Easterling responded definitively, "I’ll tell you right now, the only BR we’re interested in is Battle Rifle, the original BR. So calm yourself."