Month: November 2019

Enlarge (credit: Daniel Foster / Flickr)

Thieves have devised a new way to steal payment-card data from online shoppers—or at least it's new to the researcher who found it. Rather than infecting a merchant's checkout page with malware that skims the information, the thieves trick users into thinking they've been redirected to an authorized third-party payment processor.

So-called payment-service platforms are common in the world of ecommerce, particularly for smaller sites that don't have the resources to harden their servers against sophisticated attacks. That includes the rash of hacks coming from so-called Magecart groups that target the Magento ecommerce Web platform. Rather than assuming the considerable risk of hacks that steal passwords, payment card details, or other sensitive data, sites can offload the payment card charges to experienced PSPs.

Jérôme Segura, head of threat intelligence at security provider Malwarebytes, said he recently found an attack that targets sites that use this type of arrangement. By infecting the merchant site and adding a line or two of code, the attackers redirect users to a fake PSP rather than the legitimate one, at the time of purchase. The ruse works similarly to a phishing attack. Graphics that mimic real services, custom-created domain names, and other sleights of hand trick end users into thinking they've landed on a genuine third-party processor.

Enlarge / Hadir, how old are you? (credit: Activision and Infinity Ward)

It's not that “We need that truck” and “Find a gun" are unusual orders to be given in a video game. Certainly not in a Call of Duty video game. The series has always impelled players forward with extended drills of Sergeant Simon Says (“Man that mortar!” “Plant those charges!” “Take out that sniper!”). So normally, I would hop to it reflexively. I’ve called in airstrikes and breached into rooms of uncounted hostiles just because some grizzled green beret barked at me. It’s not that.

What strikes me when playing the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is that the directives are coming from someone who’s 10 years old, tops. He’s telling his sister (no older) to go kill a couple Russian soldiers and steal their truck.

I’m already familiar with these two as adults in the present, where they’re Hadir and Farah, ultracompetent freedom fighters for the nation of Urzikstan. But this is a flashback to what I’m to understand is their first brush with war, when occupying Russian forces gas their village and kill their father.

Enlarge / A Falcon 9 rocket launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base. (credit: SpaceX)

Welcome to Edition 2.23 of the Rocket Report! Thank you for your patience last week, and we're now back to business as usual. There's a lot of news to catch up on, including the brave new world in which China now will apparently lead the globe in annual launches on a regular basis.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images / Maurizio Cigognetti)

Now is the time of year when most of us are asked by loved ones "What do you want for X holiday?" Just to add to the anxiety of our staffers, we decided to ask them that question as well—what are the things Ars staffers would most like to receive this holiday season?

But the question was phrased with intention. We were curious not what staffers expect to receive this season, but instead what they'd be most giddy to unwrap during the holidays. We knew that doing so would get us a lot of interesting answers, and our staffers didn't disappoint. Responses ran the gamut of tangible and intangible desirables, some of which are truly shoot-for-the-stars gifts and at least one that doesn't cost any money at all. We wanted to share a sampling of the cool things we've had our eyes on as of late, regardless of if they show up on our doorsteps this year or not. Feel free to add what you'd like most this holiday season in the story comments as well.

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