Month: November 2018

Enlarge / EnChroma glasses have always had both skeptics and true believers. Who's right? It's complicated. (credit: EnChroma)

The much-touted EnChroma glasses don't help colorblind users see new colors; they merely let the colorblind see the same colors in a different way, according to a new study published in Optics Express by scientists at Spain's University of Granada. The scientists liken the effect to the colored glasses often used by hunters to increase the contrast in their surroundings so they can better pick up on certain visual stimuli.

EnChroma makes glasses that are designed to help with a specific form of color blindness, one in which a hybrid of red- and green-detecting receptors confuse the differences between colors. The receptors act by blocking out the wavelengths that the hybrids are most sensitive to, but they don't do anything for other forms of color blindness.

So the new results don't come as a surprise to University of Washington color-vision expert Jay Neitz, who has long been skeptical about what the glasses actually accomplish. "You can't add colors by taking away some wavelengths [of light], which is all the glasses do," he says.

Enlarge / Georgia voter stickers lie on a table at CT Martin Natatorium and Recreation Center on October 18, 2018, in Atlanta, Georgia. (credit: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

In the run-up to nationwide elections set for Tuesday, the Secretary of State of Georgia has made explosive and seemingly unsubstantiated allegations that the Democratic Party of Georgia is somehow implicated in a "failed cyberattack" of the state's online voter registration system.

However, neither Brian Kemp—who is also running as a Republican candidate for governor—nor anyone from his office has provided any evidence that there was indeed a cyberattack. There is also no evidence that the state's Democrats were involved. Kemp is running against Democrat Stacey Abrams in a tight race.

The allegation was first reported on Sunday by the website WhoWhatWhy, which described a vulnerability that would have allowed an automated script to grab numerous pieces of personal information, including mailing address, partial Social Security number, and more. In June 2018, Ars reported on a similar weakness in digital security in a California election.

PUBG Corp.

Update, November 13: One of gaming's worst-kept secrets has finally been confirmed: PUBG is coming to PS4 consoles. Specifically, on December 7, for $29.99. As of press time, additional digital bundles can also be preordered for $50 and $70, and these include the game's variety of confusing microtransaction currencies.

With an admission that "this probably doesn't come as a surprise" (see original report below), PUBG Corp. made a Tuesday announcement that its one-versus-99 shooting sensation will include a few PlayStation-exclusive cosmetic bonuses for all PS4 preorders: a Nathan Drake (Uncharted) outfit and an Ellie (The Last of Us) backpack.

Enlarge / Stickers await residents who vote at the Parks and Recreation Center building on August 14, 2018, in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. (credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

As recently as Monday, computer servers that powered Kentucky's online voter registration and Wisconsin's reporting of election results ran software that could potentially expose information to hackers or enable access to sensitive files without a password.

The insecure service run by Wisconsin could be reached from Internet addresses based in Russia, which has become notorious for seeking to influence US elections. Kentucky's was accessible from other Eastern European countries.

The service, known as FTP, provides public access to files—sometimes anonymously and without encryption. As a result, security experts say, it could act as a gateway for hackers to acquire key details of a server's operating system and exploit its vulnerabilities. Some corporations and other institutions have dropped FTP in favor of more secure alternatives.

Enlarge (credit: Isaac Bowen / Flickr)

Google is promising to punish sites that offer what the company calls "abusive experiences." Chrome 71, due for release in December, will blacklist sites that are repeat offenders and suppress all advertising on those sites.

The behaviors deemed abusive cover a range of user-hostile things, such as ads that masquerade as system error messages, ads with fake close boxes that actually activate an ad when clicked, phishing, and malware. In general, if an ad is particularly misleading, destructive, or intrusive, it runs the risk of being deemed abusive.

Chrome already takes some actions against certain undesirable website behaviors; it tries to block popups, it limits autoplay of video, and it blocks certain kinds of redirection. These measures have been insufficient to prevent misleading or dangerous ads, hence Google taking further steps to banish them from the Web.

Enlarge / Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's phone calls were apparently intercepted in what Iran claims was one of a number of recent cyber attacks by Israel. (credit: Anadolu Agency / Getty Images)

Last week, Iran’s chief of civil defense claimed that the Iranian government had fought off Israeli attempts to infect computer systems with what he described as a new version of Stuxnet—the malware reportedly developed jointly by the US and Israel that targeted Iran’s uranium-enrichment program. Gholamreza Jalali, chief of the National Passive Defense Organization (NPDO), told Iran's IRNA news service, “Recently, we discovered a new generation of Stuxnet which consisted of several parts... and was trying to enter our systems.”

On November 5, Iran Telecommunications Minister Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi accused Israel of being behind the attack, and he said that the malware was intended to “harm the country’s communication infrastructures.” Jahromi praised “technical teams” for shutting down the attack, saying that the attackers “returned empty-handed.” A report from Iran’s Tasnim news agency quoted Deputy Telecommunications Minister Hamid Fattahi as stating that more details of the cyber attacks would be made public soon.

Jahromi said that Iran would sue Israel over the attack through the International Court of Justice. The Iranian government has also said it would sue the US in the ICJ over the reinstatement of sanctions. Israel has remained silent regarding the accusations.