Month: June 2020

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty)

Four days after leak publisher DDoSecrets circulated private documents from more than 200 law enforcement agencies across the United States, Twitter has permanently suspended its account and falsely claimed that the site may infect users with malware.

“Your account, DDoSecrets, has been suspended for violating the Twitter rules,” this email, which Twitter sent to the account holders, said. The message cited rules against “distribution of hacked material” and went on to say:

We don’t permit the use of our services to directly distribute content obtained through hacking that contains private information, may put people in physical harm or danger, or contains trade secrets.

Note that if you attempt to evade a permanent suspension by creating new accounts, we will suspend your new accounts. If you wish to appeal this suspension, please contact our support team.

BlueLeaks asks: Why us and not WikiLeaks?

DDoSecrets describes itself as a “transparency collective, aimed at enabling the free transmission of data in the public interest.” On Friday, it published BlueLeaks, a 269-gigabyte trove of documents that KrebsOnSecurity reported was obtained through the hack of a Web development company that hosted documents on behalf of police departments. Some of the documents exposed police candidly discussing responses to demonstrations protesting the murder by a Minneapolis police officer of George Floyd, a Black man who was murdered while handcuffed.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty)

Four days after leak publisher DDoSecrets circulated private documents from more than 200 law enforcement agencies across the United States, Twitter has permanently suspended its account and falsely claimed that the site may infect users with malware.

“Your account, DDoSecrets, has been suspended for violating the Twitter rules,” this email, which Twitter sent to the account holders, said. The message cited rules against “distribution of hacked material” and went on to say:

We don’t permit the use of our services to directly distribute content obtained through hacking that contains private information, may put people in physical harm or danger, or contains trade secrets.

Note that if you attempt to evade a permanent suspension by creating new accounts, we will suspend your new accounts. If you wish to appeal this suspension, please contact our support team.

BlueLeaks asks: Why us and not WikiLeaks?

DDoSecrets describes itself as a “transparency collective, aimed at enabling the free transmission of data in the public interest.” On Friday, it published BlueLeaks, a 269-gigabyte trove of documents that KrebsOnSecurity reported was obtained through the hack of a Web development company that hosted documents on behalf of police departments. Some of the documents exposed police candidly discussing responses to demonstrations protesting the murder by a Minneapolis police officer of George Floyd, a Black man who was murdered while handcuffed.

• 

  The Spin 713. [credit: Acer ]

Acer's newest Chromebook is the Chromebook Spin 713, the company's replacement for the Spin 13 laptop from 2018. This is a premium, aluminum 2-in-1 that sports a 10th-gen Intel processor and starts at $629.99.

The specs include a 13.5-inch, 2256x1504 IPS LCD touchscreen with a 3:2 aspect ratio, a 10th-gen Intel processor, up to 16GB of RAM, up to 256GB of SSD (NVMe or eMMC) storage, and "10 hours" of battery life. At the baseline $629.99 price, you'll get an Intel i5-10210U processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB eMMC SSD.

The touchscreen and trackpad both get Gorilla Glass covers, and the hinge flips a full 360 degrees. On the sides, you get two USB-C ports, a full-size HDMI port, a headphone jack, a USB 3 Type-A port, and a MicroSD card reader. Both USB-C ports support charging, 5Gbps transfers, and DisplayPort of USB-C. There's a backlit keyboard, bottom stereo speakers, dual-band Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5. The laptop is 16.8mm thick and weighs 1.37 kg (3.02 lbs).

Enlarge / Artist's interpretation of today's wishful thinking. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty / Henry Söderlund)

Everyone in search of a pandemic-based silver lining can head to author and producer George R.R. Martin's blog, where the creator of the Song of Ice & Fire book series offers new hope for its next installment. Progress continues on The Winds of Winter, Martin insisted on Tuesday, and he's dared to offer a hopeful estimate (though, obviously, not a release date).

"The enforced isolation has helped me write," Martin wrote on his amusingly named "Not A Blog." He confirms a flurry of progress in the past week, adding up to five chapters for Winds of Winter, and he points to "long hours every day" and "steady progress" in putting the book together.

Martin then mentions the cancellation of a New Zealand fan convention this year, which he admitted was, in some ways, a perfect development.