Apple meldet erneut weniger Gewinn, ist aber das profitabelste US-Unternehmen. Die Konzernführung redet alle Probleme weiter schön, und keiner nimmt das mehr ernst. (Apple, iPhone) How one rent-a-botnet army of cameras, DVRs caused Internet chaos
Attacks that took down Dyn appear to have been “rented” from multiple botnets.
Enlarge / We're also mad you're connected to the Internet, toaster et al. (credit: Disney)
Welcome to the Internet of Evil Things. The attack that disrupted much of the Internet on October 21 is still being teased apart by investigators, but evidence thus far points to multiple "botnets" of Internet-connected gadgets being responsible for blocking access to the Domain Name Service (DNS) infrastructure at DNS provider Dyn. Most of these botnets—coordinated armies of compromised devices that sent malicious network traffic to their targets—were controlled by Mirai, a self-spreading malware for Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
But other systems not matching the signature of Mirai were also involved in the coordinated attack on Dyn. "We believe that there might be one or more additional botnets involved in these attacks," Dale Drew, CSO of Level 3 Communications, told Ars. "This could mean that they are 'renting' several different botnets to launch an attack against a specific victim, in which multiple other sites have been impacted."
The motive may have been blackmail, since the attacker sought a payout by Dyn to stop. But Drew warned that the huge disruption caused by the attack "could result in large copycat attacks, and [a] higher [number of] victim payouts [so] as to not be impacted in the same way. It could also be a signal that the bad guy is using multiple botnets in order to better avoid detection since they are not orchestrating the attack from a single botnet source."
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Aussie KickassTorrents Blocking Battle Continues, Despite Takedown
Despite KickassTorrents being taken offline during the summer, the battle to have clones and copies blocked by ISPs continued this week in the Australian Federal Court. Music industry groups and service providers argued over the implementation of blockades, with an old classic raising its head once again. Who will pay to protect the labels’ copyrights?
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Back in April, members of the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and Australasian collecting society APRA AMCOS teamed up to file the music industry’s first ‘pirate’ site blocking application Down Under.
Filed at the Federal Court under section 115A of the Copyright Act 1968, member labels Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony Music and J Albert & Son demanded that then leading torrent site KickassTorrents (KAT) should be blocked by the country’s ISPs.
Arguing that KickassTorrents showed a “complete disrespect for music creators and the value of music”, the industry groups asked leading ISPs Telstra, Optus, TPG, and Foxtel to stop their subscribers from accessing the site. However, during the summer that job was effectively carried out for them by the US Department of Justice, which shut down KickassTorrents and had its owner arrested.
But despite the disappearance of the site, the Aussie case has continued. The music industry is now focusing on the many clones, copies, and wannabees that are using the KickassTorrents name to get traffic, despite having nothing to do with the original site.
This week the parties were back in the Federal Court. The ISPs aren’t fighting the blocking demand per se, but as usual there’s a dispute over who will foot the bill for legal proceedings and will shoulder costs of implementing the blockades.
None of the ISPs are objecting to paying for the blocking systems to be put in place. However, they want rightsholders to pay for the initial implementation and ongoing maintenance of a block, which according to ComputerWorld will be put in place for three years.
ISP Optus estimated a cost of AUS$12,500 (US$9,533) to put blocks in place. TPG informed the court that following initial setup, each domain name would cost $50 to block.
Simplifying the rolling injunctions demands made by the movie and TV industry in the blocking case against The Pirate Bay and others, the music industry is seeking straight-forward DNS-based blocking backed up by a system which would block subsequently appearing clones, mirrors, and proxy sites.
The record labels and their allies foresee an application to the court containing details of any site they wish the ISPs to block, with the ISPs given 10 days to object to the blocking demand. The court would then decide whether the parties would need to appear before another hearing in advance of the domain being added to the blocklist.
Of course, KickassTorrents no longer exists so the continuing of a case to have it blocked is somewhat unusual, to say the least.
Illustrating just how far removed the case has shifted from its original aims is an image posted by CNET, which shows the original domains the industry wanted blocked, and how that has completely changed following the demise of KAT.
– Kat.al is an incomplete snapshot of KAT before it went offline.
– Kattor.zyx has nothing to do with KAT, redirects to another site.
– Kickass.cd is a clone of The Pirate Bay.
– Kickasstorrents.immunicity.date is another ‘snapshot’ site.
– Kickass.pe is completely inactive
– Kickass.Ukbypass.download (see Kickass.cd)
– Kickass.Unblocked.tv (see Kickass.cd)
The case (which now has only tenuous links to KickassTorrents) continues alongside the movie industry’s blocking case against The Pirate Bay. That too is experiencing argument over who will pay for what and has also been affected by takedowns.
The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, Torrentz, TorrentHound and Solarmovie are featured in that action, but only the first two domains are intact after last three permanently closed (1,2) in recent months.
Only time will tell whether the expense and inevitable game of whac-a-mole will be worth it, but all the signs point to this being a complex battle with no definite end.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Next-gen MacBook Pro leaked, features OLED toolbar above the keyboard
Apple’s holding an event later this week, where the company is expected to introduce a new MacBook pro laptop, among other things. And rumors have been making the rounds for months that one new feature for that laptop would be a touchscreen OLED toolbar above the keyboard, allowing you to interact with software-defined “keys” that could change depending on what you’re doing with the laptop.
Now it looks like those rumors were true.
Apple’s holding an event later this week, where the company is expected to introduce a new MacBook pro laptop, among other things. And rumors have been making the rounds for months that one new feature for that laptop would be a touchscreen OLED toolbar above the keyboard, allowing you to interact with software-defined “keys” that could change depending on what you’re doing with the laptop.
Now it looks like those rumors were true.
macOS 10.12.1 spills the beans on the new MacBook Pro
Oops: TouchID, the “magic toolbar,” and thinner footprint all clearly visible.
Apple
Who needs rumor sites and analyst reports when Apple leaks its own hardware ahead of time in its own software? An eagle-eyed MacRumors reader went digging into the macOS 10.12.1 update that was released yesterday and found an official Apple Pay-related image that outs the new MacBook Pro and a whole bunch of its banner features.
The image, seen above, appears to show off the 13-inch MacBook Pro that Apple is expected to reveal at its hardware event on Thursday. The screen bezel is noticeably thinner than in the current design, and there's less metal surrounding the keyboard, which is in keeping with reports that the hardware would have a smaller, slimmer profile than the current model. The row of function keys (including the Escape key and the power button) has also been replaced with a long narrow black strip, which rumors have said is an OLED display panel that can display different information depending on the app you're using. The right-most section of the strip includes an embedded Touch ID fingerprint sensor, which can be used for Apple Pay and presumably to unlock your Mac.
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Xiaomi introduces $29 Mi VR headset with motion tracking
Xiaomi announced two new smartphones today, including one with optional global LTE support and one with nearly no bezels around the screen. But that’s not all the company announced.
Xiaomi’s new Mi VR is a virtual reality headset that uses your phone as a display… much like any number of existing headsets. But this $29 model has a built-in motion sensor and works with a handheld 9-axis motion controller.
Xiaomi says the headset’s motion sensors feature 16ms low-latency, and the Mi VR can work with a number of recent Xiaomi smartphones including the Mi 5, Mi 5s and 5s Plus, and the Mi note 2.
Continue reading Xiaomi introduces $29 Mi VR headset with motion tracking at Liliputing.
Xiaomi announced two new smartphones today, including one with optional global LTE support and one with nearly no bezels around the screen. But that’s not all the company announced.
Xiaomi’s new Mi VR is a virtual reality headset that uses your phone as a display… much like any number of existing headsets. But this $29 model has a built-in motion sensor and works with a handheld 9-axis motion controller.
Xiaomi says the headset’s motion sensors feature 16ms low-latency, and the Mi VR can work with a number of recent Xiaomi smartphones including the Mi 5, Mi 5s and 5s Plus, and the Mi note 2.
Continue reading Xiaomi introduces $29 Mi VR headset with motion tracking at Liliputing.
AT&T to launch DirecTV Now internet-only TV service in November for $35 per month
AT&T and Time Warner announced merger plans recently, and speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.D Live event today, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson announced that one of the reasons for that merger is to allow AT&T to launch a new internet-only TV service with more than 100 channels of “premium” content, including Time Warner-owned channels.
Time Warner owns TBS, CNN, HBO, and Cinemax, among other properties.
The new service is expected to be called DirecTV Now and it will launch at the end of November.
AT&T and Time Warner announced merger plans recently, and speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.D Live event today, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson announced that one of the reasons for that merger is to allow AT&T to launch a new internet-only TV service with more than 100 channels of “premium” content, including Time Warner-owned channels.
Time Warner owns TBS, CNN, HBO, and Cinemax, among other properties.
The new service is expected to be called DirecTV Now and it will launch at the end of November.
Deals of the Day (10-25-2016)
2016 seems to be the year when PC makers are giving Microsoft a run for the money in the 2-in-1 tablet space. Samsung, Huawei, and Lenovo have all launched Windows tablets with Microsoft Surface-like designs and competitive prices… and right now there are models from each company available at deep discounts.
For example, you can snag a Samsung Galaxy TabPro S for as little as $600, a Huawei Matebook for $499 and up, or a refurbished Lenovo Miix 700 for $459.
Continue reading Deals of the Day (10-25-2016) at Liliputing.
2016 seems to be the year when PC makers are giving Microsoft a run for the money in the 2-in-1 tablet space. Samsung, Huawei, and Lenovo have all launched Windows tablets with Microsoft Surface-like designs and competitive prices… and right now there are models from each company available at deep discounts.
For example, you can snag a Samsung Galaxy TabPro S for as little as $600, a Huawei Matebook for $499 and up, or a refurbished Lenovo Miix 700 for $459.
Continue reading Deals of the Day (10-25-2016) at Liliputing.
Lawyers file fake lawsuits to de-index online negative reviews, suit says
“The scam is not all that complicated,” using court orders to get search results removed.
Enlarge (credit: Urich Baumgartgen via Getty Images)
Two California lawyers are being accused of filing "sham lawsuits" in a wide-ranging conspiracy to get Google and other search engines to de-index negative reviews about their clients. As the case (PDF) brought by a group called Consumer Opinion states:
The other conspirators engaged attorneys Mark W. Lapham ("Lapham") and Owen T. Mascott (“Mascott”) to file sham lawsuits either by the subjects of the negative reviews or by corporations that had no interest in the allegedly defamatory statements, against a defendant who most certainly was not the party that published the allegedly defamatory statements, and the parties immediately stipulated to a judgment of injunctive relief, so the conspirators could provide the order to Google and other search engines, thus achieving the goal of deindexing all pages containing negative reviews.
Consumer Opinion runs pissedconsumer.com, and the group says these lawyers essentially manipulated California's legal system by conducting a "rather brilliant but incredibly unethical" scheme to make negative reviews on the site essentially disappear from search results. The suit asks a federal judge to "discipline them for those misdeeds."
The suit notes a complex web of reputation companies and fake or "stooge" defendants working together. According to the lawsuit, it works like this: the attorneys sue the "stooge" authors of negative reviews—allegedly defamatory reviews that are published on the pissedconsumer.com site. But these lawsuit defendants didn't actually write the review, and the suits immediately settle. The judgements are then used to get Yahoo, Google, and Bing to erase negative reviews from search results. The suit alleges that a Florida attorney, the subject of some 59 negative reviews on pissedconsumer.com, was among the beneficiaries of the alleged scheme.
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The entire continent of Australia sways (a little) with the weather
And we can measure it.
Enlarge (credit: Google)
Our planet does some weird stuff that escapes our notice simply because of scale. The Earth spins faster during an El Niño year—or after some earthquakes—but we’re never going to miss a millisecond here or there. It’s also easy to forget that the plates that make up the Earth’s crust are in constant motion, changing various locations incrementally. In fact, Australia will be updating GPS coordinates again this year to correct the continent’s drift away from its last-mapped whereabouts.
But that’s not all. It turns out that Australia—yes, the entire continent—tilts and slides around in a little dance each year because of seasonal weather patterns around the world.
University of Newcastle researcher Shin-Chan Han uncovered this finding while fiddling around with satellite data. Earth-observing satellites can detect many of the small, weird things the Earth does and may even need to account for them to preserve their precision. The exact center of Earth’s mass, for example, is known to wander a bit.
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