Month: October 2024

Researchers have found new versions of a sophisticated Android financial-fraud Trojan that’s notable for its ability to intercept calls a victim tries to place to customer-support personnel of their banks.

FakeCall first came to public attention in 2022, when researchers from security firm Kaspersky reported that the malicious app wasn’t your average banking Trojan. Besides containing the usual capabilities for stealing account credentials, FakeCall could reroute voice calls to numbers controlled by the attackers.

A strategic evolution

The malware, available on websites masquerading as Google Play, could also simulate incoming calls from bank employees. The intention of the novel feature was to provide reassurances to victims that nothing was amiss and to more effectively trick them into divulging account credentials by having the social-engineering come from a live human.

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Die Branchenorganisation GSMA krönt die USA zur Führungsmacht bei 5G. Doch lange wird das nicht so bleiben. (5G, Huawei)

Since its inception in 2017, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment has built a reputation for targeting online piracy operations regardless of scale and no matter where they operate.

Obtaining pirated content, whether movies, TV shows, or live streams of broadcast TV, has been a global consumer phenomenon for years. Yet despite significant civil lawsuits, arrests, and criminal prosecutions, a well-financed and centralized global enforcement strategy against suppliers and distributors, is a relative newcomer to the table.

Compared to previous efforts and considering the sheer scale of the objective, ACE is effective, certainly more than if each ACE member acted alone. Nevertheless, difficulties presented by a relatively new wave of pirate site operators in regions where attitudes to enforcement differ from those in the West, may be the biggest challenge yet.

ACE and Egyptian Authorities Shut Down Livehd7

In an announcement Tuesday, ACE said that a major sports piracy network, operating in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region but accessible globally, has been shut down. The closure of the Livehd7 network, best known for offering live matches from the Premier League (England), LaLiga (Spain), and Serie A (Italy), was the result of collaboration with Egyptian authorities.

“We applaud the excellent work of Egyptian law enforcement in protecting the intellectual property rights of ACE’s sports media company members,” said Motion Picture Association (MPA) Executive Vice President and Chief Content Protection Officer, Larissa Knapp.

“The piracy of live sports is especially detrimental and poses an existential threat to sports leagues and their distribution partners, as a live sports broadcast loses substantial commercial value once a game ends. ACE remains committed to collaborating closely with the Egyptian Police to bring illegal operators to justice.”

According to ACE, the Livehd7 streaming network launched in late 2020 and made available through “at least” 85 associated domains. In addition to content owned by the top leagues in England, Spain, and Italy, the network also provided free access to matches from Germany’s Bundesliga, France’s Ligue 1 and Portugal’s Primeira Liga, plus UEFA and FIFA competitions.

A Global Problem With Additional Local Significance

ACE says that the network of sites received around 17 million monthly visits, over a quarter billion in the last 12 months alone. While players such as StreamEast currently receive twice as many monthly visits, Livehd7 sites are mostly presented in Arabic so are directly relevant to the MENA market. That’s something of which ACE member beIN, and its Legal Director of Anti-Piracy, Cameron Andrews, are acutely aware.

“Egyptian-operated pirate websites are popular across the Middle East and North Africa and Arabic-speaking markets generally, causing detrimental harm to our industry,” Andrews says.

“According to our research, in the MENA region alone, they cost beIN over a $1 billion USD a year and threaten the viability of our business, which in turn has a direct effect on what broadcasters can pay for sports rights. We are very pleased to see action being taken and ACE continues to set a precedent in the fight against piracy.”

To mitigate the effect regional sites can have on international markets, beIN has filed applications for site-blocking measures, including action in France early 2024. However, as ACE points out in its announcement Tuesday, platforms like Livehd7 expect that kind of response and are well-prepared to counter.

“The ring operators frequently built new domains to circumvent site blocking and other enforcement measures implemented in the countries where users accessed the illicit content,” ACE explained.

ACE Has Been Here Before

Early September 2023, ACE announced the dismantling of three piracy rings in Egypt. Described as ‘commercial-scale’ piracy operations, the trio were reportedly targeted by the police following ACE collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Internal Affairs. During that operation, the operators of Livehd7 and another platform, 3sktv, were reportedly arrested.

Around September 18, 2023, various Livehd7-branded domain names began diverting to the ACE anti-piracy portal, including the following:

livehd7i.com, livehd77.net, livehd77.org, livehd77.tv, livehd720.org, livehd7.top, livehd7.vip, livehd7.tv, livehd7.bio, livehd7.ink, liveshd7.com, livehd7.onl, livehd7.cam, livefhd7.com, livehd7.net

WHOIS records show that almost all of these domains now use the MPA’s nameservers, presumably after they were handed over in connection with the above. Another domain, livehd7.club, began diverting in January 2024 and an outlier, livehd7.today, may have been transferred over two years ago.

So the obvious question is this: if the operator(s) were arrested last August/September and subsequently handed over their domains, how did the Livehd7 network continue to operate while receiving 17 million visits per month?

Pirate Sites With Powerful Brands Don’t Die

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but one is straightforward; pirate sites don’t stay shut down for long in Egypt; at minimum, popular brands aren’t allowed to go to waste.

One of the most famous, EgyBest, was first shut down in 2019 but found itself being called out as a ‘notorious market’ in 2023 after amassing 130 million visits per month. MyCima was famously shut down in February 2023 but was back in business a couple of weeks later. Ultimately around 70 domains were redirected to ACE but it’s trivial to buy more.

Information About Subsequent Action Rarely Appear

The other big question relates to those running the sites and what happens to them after they’re arrested. No follow-up reports indicate suspects being charged with any crimes, going to trial, or receiving any kind of sentence. Also of potential importance is what they were actually arrested for.

It’s not uncommon for site operators in various countries to find themselves in hot water (or their sites blocked), not for piracy, but for involvement in gambling ads or anything else prohibited under local law. After the government receives a helpful tip from a rightsholder and takes action, the ends probably justify the means for those sending the tips. It may not prevent another site being launched, minus the offending features, however..

Whether Livehd7 will fade away is too early to say but ACE says that “all sites will be redirecting to the ACE ‘Watch Legally’ page.”

While there are no immediate signs of that happening in respect of domains operational right now, there could be a flood everything goes to plan.

The table below shows domains already under the MPA’s control at the top (registered at MarkMonitor), prominent others that are not, plus many that are operational or in various states of limbo. A basic Google search reveals a couple of dozen working sites as the top results but whether they’re operated by the same people is hard to say.

No accident, of course.

Domain	Registrar	Created	Expires	Nameserver
livehd7.net	MarkMonitor	2022-01-14	2026-01-14	ns3.films.org ; ns4.films.org
livehd720.com	MarkMonitor	2022-10-14	2027-10-14	ns3.films.org ; ns4.films.org
livehd7xc.com	MarkMonitor	2023-03-16	2027-03-16	ns3.films.org ; ns4.films.org
livehd720.org	PIR	2021-05-30	2026-05-30	ns4.films.org ; ns3.films.org
livehd77.net	MarkMonitor	2022-09-11	2026-09-11	ns3.films.org ; ns4.films.org
livehd72.com	MarkMonitor	2023-03-23	2027-03-23	ns3.films.org ; ns4.films.org
livehd7.top	MarkMonitor	2020-12-29	2025-12-29	ns3.films.org ; ns4.films.org
livehd7.ink	MarkMonitor	2023-03-26	2026-03-26	ns3.films.org ; ns4.films.org
livefhd7.com	MarkMonitor	2022-03-19	2026-03-19	ns3.films.org ; ns4.films.org
livehd7.onl	MarkMonitor	2021-09-14	2026-09-14	ns3.films.org ; ns4.films.org
livehd7.today	MarkMonitor	2020-11-07	2025-11-07	ns3.films.org ; ns4.films.org
liveshd7.com	MarkMonitor	2021-11-28	2025-11-28	ns3.films.org ; ns4.films.org
livehd77.org	MarkMonitor	2022-11-12	2025-11-12	ns4.films.org ; ns3.films.org
livehd7.io	LIVE SITE	LIVE SITE	LIVE SITE	LIVE SITE
livehd7.club	NameCheap	2022-11-07	2025-11-07	isabel.ns.cloudflare.com
livehd7.co	NameCheap	2021-09-08	2025-09-08	imani.ns.cloudflare.com
livehd7s.com	NameCheap	2022-06-19	2025-06-19	mary.ns.cloudflare.com
Domains currently or previously registered, various states, future status to be determined
livehd7.day	livehd7.cc	livehd7.id	livehd7.live	livehd7matches.com
livehd7.tv	livehd7.me	livehd77.tv	livehd7s.live	livehd77.live
livehd7.online	livehd7.site	livehd7.vip	livehd7.pro	livehd77.id
livehd7.bio	livehd7i.live	livehd7tv.live	livehd77.pro	livehd756.xyz
livehd7-new.com	livehd7-sport.com	livehd7.biz	livehd7.blog	livehd7.city
livehd7.football	livehd7.icu	livehd7.info	livehd7.org	livehd7.world
livehd7.xyz	livehd70.com	livehd71.xyz	livehd720.info	livehd75.xyz
livehd77.com	livehd7goal.com	livehd7j.live	livehd7kora.com	livehd7mobile.com
livehd7new.com	livehd7shoot.com	livehd7sport.com	livehd7top.com	livehd7watch-on.com

Note: Some domains not controlled by the MPA attempt to redirect to a specific domain universally flagged as suspicious. Rest assured, visitors don’t have a virus or any malware – YET, so any software on offer is not needed. The same applies to a page that looks somewhat like Facebook. Should that appear, filling in personal details is not recommended, for any reason, ever.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Robert Downey Jr. has declared that he will sue any future Hollywood executives who try to re-create his likeness using AI digital replicas, as reported by Variety. His comments came during an appearance on the "On With Kara Swisher" podcast, where he discussed AI's growing role in entertainment.

"I intend to sue all future executives just on spec," Downey told Swisher when discussing the possibility of studios using AI or deepfakes to re-create his performances after his death. When Swisher pointed out he would be deceased at the time, Downey responded that his law firm "will still be very active."

The Oscar winner expressed confidence that Marvel Studios would not use AI to re-create his Tony Stark character, citing his trust in decision-makers there. "I am not worried about them hijacking my character's soul because there's like three or four guys and gals who make all the decisions there anyway and they would never do that to me," he said.

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Streaming in the US has become a broken and fiendishly complex tangle of ephemeral choices—and that's before you factor in sports. You can see why it might seem somehow easier to stream shows from other countries, where the networks, some of them with public dollars behind them, offer broader access if you seem to be located there.

So it is that privacy-focused Swiss firm Proton has released a Proton VPN app for Apple TV. The firm notes that it "offers over 6,200 servers across 100 countries" and its own guides to accessing various regional content providers, such as Britain's BBC and France.tv, or sports and live event channels, "no matter where you are."

That this—virtual geolocation—is mentioned ahead of "privacy and security benefits" is notable, but only if you haven't looked. I typed "VPN" into an Apple TV's App Store search interface today and learned that Proton was now one among dozens and dozens of VPN offerings for Apple TV. "Dozens" is as far as I can go, because I eventually got tired of clicking to keep scrolling down.

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AT&T improperly obtained money from a government-run broadband discount program by submitting duplicate requests and by claiming subsidies for thousands of subscribers who weren't using AT&T's service. AT&T obtained funding based on false certifications it made under penalty of perjury.

AT&T on Friday agreed to pay $2.3 million in a consent decree with the Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau. That includes a civil penalty of $1,921,068 and a repayment of $378,922 to the US Treasury.

The settlement fully resolves the FCC investigation into AT&T's apparent violations, the consent decree said. "AT&T admits for the purpose of this Consent Decree and for Commission civil enforcement purposes" that the findings described by the FCC "contain a true and accurate description of the facts underlying the Investigation," the document said.

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Nasa und Esa wollen eine Basis auf dem Mond errichten. Die Krater müssen noch identifiziert werden. Dafür wurde ein Computerspiel entwickelt. (Spiele, Steam)

In May 2023, Reddit announced that its API would no longer be free, signaling the demise of most third-party Reddit apps and the start of a new Reddit era. Reddit was always interested in making money, but the social media platform’s drive to reach profitability intensified with its API rule changes, which was followed by it going public and other big moves. With Reddit reporting this week that it has finally turned its first profit, we can expect further evolution from Reddit, whether old-time Redditors like it or not.

In its fiscal Q4 2024 results announced on Tuesday [PDF], Reddit said that in the quarter ending on September 30, it made a profit of $29.9 million. This is significant growth from fiscal Q3 2024, when Reddit lost $7.4 million. Revenue, meanwhile, was up 68 percent year over year, going from $207.5 million to $384.4 million. Reddit is expecting $385 to $400 million in revenue for fiscal Q4.

More Redditors

During the Reddit app-ocalypse, many Reddit users and moderators said they would quit the platform because they were disgusted with how Reddit treated third-party developers and moderators, particularly during user protests against the API rule changes.

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Wollen Netzbetreiber KI anbieten und nutzen, müssen sie die Technik verbessern. In der Türkei ist 5G aber noch nicht angekommen. (Huawei, KI)

Dropbox hat einen Personalabbau angekündigt, der einem Fünftel der gesamten Belegschaft entspricht. (Dropbox, Cloud Computing)