Stefan Tanase, principal security researcher at Ixia, told Ars that the DNS servers described in this article were taken down and that the attackers have replaced them with new DNS servers. Ixia analyzed the rogue DNS server and found it targets the following domains: GMail.com, PayPal.com, Netflix.com, Uber.com, caix.gov.br, itau.com.br, bb.com.br, bancobrasil.com.br, sandander.com.br, pagseguro.uol.com.br, sandandernet.com.br, cetelem.com.br, and possibly other sites. People trying to reach one of these domains from an infected router will be connected to a server that serves phishing pages over plain HTTP.
Below is how cetelem.com.br appeared in Firefox on a machine configured to use one of the malicious DNS servers.
(credit: Stefan Tanase)
What follows is this article as it appeared on Thursday, 4/4/2019, 2:59 PM:
Apple has lowered the standard suggested retail price of its HomePod smart speaker from $349 to $299. The price drop follows slow and disappointing sales for the product, according to most analysts.
The speaker has seen temporary discounts at certain retailers before, but this appears to be a permanent adjustment to the base price. It is uncommon for Apple to cut a price like this in the middle of a product's lifespan, but it's not unprecedented.
Reviews (including our own) praised the HomePod's strong sound quality and other aspects of its engineering and design, but they commonly lamented the high price and criticized smart-home and voice-assistant features that lagged behind those in Google's and Amazon's products. Apple may be hoping this price drop will make the HomePod accessible to new potential buyers and drive more sales.
Amazon’s first attempt to launch a smartphone wasn’t exactly a huge success, but the company took an early lead in the voice assistant space with its surprisingly popular Alexa-enabled line of devices including smart speakers, smart display…
Amazon’s first attempt to launch a smartphone wasn’t exactly a huge success, but the company took an early lead in the voice assistant space with its surprisingly popular Alexa-enabled line of devices including smart speakers, smart displays, and third-party devices including headphones and speakers. Now Bloomberg reports Amazon is hoping to launch a new Alexa […]
Elon Musk appeared in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday to listen as his lawyers defended him against claims that he had violated a September deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC told Judge Alison Nathan that Musk violated the deal by publishing a February tweet stating that Tesla would produce "around 500k" vehicles in 2019—without getting the tweet pre-approved by a Tesla attorney.
Musk's lawyers disagreed, arguing that his September deal gave him discretion to decide which tweets needed legal review. The settlement requires Musk to seek legal review for tweets that "contain or may reasonably contain" information that's "material"—i.e., significant for people trading Tesla's stock. But Musk's lawyers argue that the 500k figure is consistent with Tesla's past guidance (the SEC disputes this) and therefore wasn't new information that needed fresh legal approval.
People who came to the courthouse hoping to see Musk smacked down—or vindicated—by Judge Nathan left disappointed. Rather than ruling directly on the SEC's contempt motion, she ordered the parties to go back to the bargaining table and draw up a new, more-specific agreement governing Musk's use of social media.
Microsoft’s Windows Update utility automatically downloads… well, updates to Windows. Up until now that’s generally included security updates, bug fixes, and major feature updates including, most recently, the Windows 10 October 2018 …
Microsoft’s Windows Update utility automatically downloads… well, updates to Windows. Up until now that’s generally included security updates, bug fixes, and major feature updates including, most recently, the Windows 10 October 2018 Update… which hit a bit of a rough patch when it turned out that the update caused some users to lose files, prompting […]
Users are reportedly not enjoying Google’s “pilot program.”
The Sponsored Channel pictured here is blank, but it will be an entire row of the UI. [credit:
AtHeartEngineer
]
Google is trying out a new "Pilot Program" that puts a row of advertisements on the Android TV home screen. XDA Developers was the first to report on the new phenomenon, saying, "We're currently seeing reports that it has shown up in Sony smart TVs, the Mi Box 3 from Xiaomi, NVIDIA Shield TV, and others."
The advertising is a "Sponsored Channel" part of the "Android TV Core Services" app that ships with all Android TV devices. A "Channel" in Android TV parlance means an entire row of thumbnails in the UI will be dedicated to "sponsored" content. Google provided XDA Developers with a statement saying that yes, this is on purpose, but for now it's a "pilot program."
Android TV is committed to optimizing and personalizing the entertainment experience at home. As we explore new opportunities to engage the user community, we're running a pilot program to surface sponsored content on the Android TV home screen.
Sony has tersely worded a support page detailing the "Sponsored channel," too. There's no mention here of it being a pilot program. Sony's page, titled "A sponsored channel has suddenly appeared on my TV Home menu," says, "This change is included in the latest Android TV Launcher app (Home app) update. The purpose is to help you discover new apps and contents for your TV."
There have been a lot of signs recently that Elon Musk's tenure as CEO of Tesla is not going well.
Musk's lawyers are scheduled to appear in a New York courtroom today to convince a judge not to hold Musk in contempt for tweeting out a production forecast without first clearing the tweet with Tesla's lawyers—something the Securities and Exchange Commission says Musk committed to do in a September settlement.
Yesterday, Tesla announced a 31 percent quarter-over-quarter drop in vehicle shipments. The decline was partly driven by difficulties shipping the Model 3 to Europe and China and partly by a dramatic 44 percent fall in shipments of the more expensive Model S and Model X. Tesla's stock dropped about 9 percent when trading opened this morning.
It’s the soil, not an early form of anti-rust technology as previously thought.
Enlarge/ View of Pit 1 of the Terracotta Army showing the hundreds of warriors once armed with bronze weapons. (credit: Xia Juxian)
Ever since archaeologists excavated the first figures of the famous Terracotta Army of Xi'an in the 1970s, they have marveled at the pristine condition of bronze weapons accompanying the figures. Scholars suggested that this was evidence of one of the earliest known anti-rust technologies, and over time, this hypothesis took on the veneer of fact, at least in popular accounts. But according to a new study in Nature: Scientific Reports, it's the unique chemical composition of the surrounding soil that is responsible for the exceptional preservation.
The Terracotta Army is composed of thousands of life-sized ceramic figures dating back to the late third century BCE, housed in three large pits inside the mausoleum of the first emperor of China, Qin Shihuang (259-210 BCE). Essentially a form of funerary art, these warrior figures were meant to accompany the emperor to the afterlife. They once held fully functional bronze weapons: spears, lances, swords, crossbows, and so forth. Over the decades, archaeologists have excavated tens of thousands of valuable weapon artifacts from the site, many of which were in nearly pristine condition, even though handles, scabbards, and similar organic pieces had long since rotted away.
Early tests showed traces of chromium on the bronze weapon surfaces, a metal element found in stainless steel that is resistant to tarnishing. Those traces suggested that the Qin artisans who made the weapons might have employed an early forerunner to the chromate conversion coatings invented in the 20th century, which are still used for preservation today.
Several Canadian media companies including Bell, Rogers, and Videotron have scored a victory against Infinity TV, a local seller of ‘fully loaded’ set top boxes. The Federal Court in Canada has issued a consent judgment, in which the box vendor agreed to pay a CAD$5 million settlement.
The increasing popularity of specialized “pirate boxes” has become one of the main anti-piracy priorities in recent years.
These devices often ship with the popular Kodi media player installed. While Kodi itself is a neutral platform, the devices can turn into a powerful pirate tool when they’re “fully-loaded” with third-party add-ons
During the spring of 2016, a group of prominent Canadian rightsholders decided to take action to stop the sale of these devices. Bell Canada, Rogers Communications, Videotron and others, took several retailers of such “fully-loaded” set-top boxes to court.
It didn’t take long before the Federal Court in Canada issued an interlocutory injunction against several companies, prohibiting them from selling “fully-loaded” boxes with pirate addons. A subsequent attempt by several vendors to have this ban lifted failed.
In its initial order, the court allowed the rightsholders to add similar vendors to the lawsuit, an opportunity they gladly seized. The list of defendants has since grown to more than 125, including ITVbox.net, MTLFreeTV, WaveTVBox, SOLO IPTV, and Infinity TV.
A few days ago, the Ontario-based company Infinity TV agreed to settle the case with the rightsholders. The company admits its wrongdoing in a consent judgment signed by Federal Court Judge Denis Gascon.
Infinity TV operated from infinitytv.ca, which no longer lists any products. It previously sold a pre-loaded streaming box called the “ITV Unit” through which it offered access to “over 300,000+ MOVIES – 20,000+ TV SHOWS – LIVE SPORTS” for a one-time price.
Infinity TV
According to the consent judgment, the vendor “induced and authorized users of Pre-loaded Set-top boxes to infringe the Plaintiffs’ right to reproduce the Plaintiffs Programs,” which is in violation of the Copyright Act.
The order also states that Infinity TV sold and distributed equipment that was used to receive “encrypted subscription programming” after it was decoded, which is contrary to Canada’s Radiocommunication Act.
What stands out the most in the mutually agreed judgment is a ‘settlement’ fee of CAD$5 million, which Infinity TV must now pay to the copyright holders to cover various damages and costs.
CAD$5 million…
This is the first consent judgment in the case according to the Wire Report, which picked up the story late last week. There may have been other monetary settlements in the past, but these are not public.
In addition to the CAD$5 million Infinity TV now owes, the consent order also includes a permanent injunction. This prohibits the company from selling any infringing fully-loaded set-top boxes, infringing IPTV subscriptions, including its “ITV Unit.”
Just a few months ago, Infinity TV’s website promised that something would be “coming soon,” but this message has since disappeared.
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Copies of the consent judgment (pdf) and the amended Statement of Claim (pdf) were obtained by TorrentFreak with help from attorney James Plotkin and stagiaire Fabienne Lajoie.
Referring to a drug as "mind altering" generally refers to its influence on immediate perceptions. But a lot of drugs that have been used for these effects have turned out to be mind altering in a more general sense: they can elicit longer-term changes in how the brain operates. Ketamine, for example, appears to provide rapid and sustained relief from depression.
A study released this week suggests we can shift MDMA, also known as ecstasy, into this category of mind alteration. Researchers have shown that the drug holds a developmental window open, allowing mice to learn social interactions much later in life than they otherwise would.
Social rewards
In humans and other animals, there are points in development when the brain is better able to learn specific things. Young children, for example, are able to pick up languages far more readily than older ones. The window where learning is easy is called a critical period, and these periods can been seen in a number of contexts. We know much less, however, about what opens and closes these developmental windows.
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