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takyon writes:

Symantec and FireEye have linked the recent WannaCry ransomware attacks to North Korea:

Cybersecurity researchers at Symantec Corp. and FireEye Inc. have uncovered more evidence tying this month's WannaCry global ransomware attacks to North Korea.

The cyberattack that infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide was "highly likely" to have originated with Lazarus, a hacking group linked to the reclusive state, Symantec said. The software used was virtually identical to versions employed in attacks earlier this year attributed to the same agency, the company said in a report late Monday. FireEye on Tuesday agreed WannaCry shared unique code with malware previously linked to North Korea. "The shared code likely means that, at a minimum, WannaCry operators share software development resources with North Korean espionage operators," Ben Read, a FireEye analyst, said in an emailed statement.

[...] The initial attack was stifled when a security researcher disabled a key mechanism used by the worm to spread, but experts said the hackers were likely to mount a second attack because so many users of personal computers with Microsoft operating systems couldn't or didn't download a security patch released in March labeled "critical."

Also at NYT, Reuters, Ars Technica, and The Hill. Symantec blog (appears scriptwalled).

Here's a screenshot of Wana Decrypt0r 2.0. Note the Wikipedia licensing section.

Previously: Security In 2017: Ransomware Will Remain King
"Biggest Ransomware Attack in History" Hits Around 100 Countries, Disrupts UK's NHS
WannaCrypt Ransomware Variant -- Lacking Kill Switch -- Seen in Wild [Updated]
Decryption Utility for WannaCry is Released

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The Elbphilharmonie, a concert hall in Hamburg encased in glass and set upon a giant brick warehouse, is surrounded on three sides by the waters of the city’s bustling harbor. Designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog and de Meuron, the building cost about $850 million, took more than a decade to design and build, and was for a long time cited as a joke — a dark joke — among Germans who fretted that the project had become an albatross: unbuildable, over budget, and wildly out of proportion to what the sensible people of this mercantile city wanted or needed.

But the building, one of several projects around the world that aim self-consciously for “iconic” status and have price tags in the billion-dollar range, opened to international acclaim on Jan. 11. The acoustics, designed by the renowned Japanese acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, are a marvel of clarity, precision and cool objectivity. Visitors enjoy stunning views of the industrial grit of Hamburg, renewing the city’s relation to the source of its wealth and its cultural window on the larger world. Tourists flock to ascend the Elphie’s long escalator, rising through the old warehouse in a tunnel of white glass and plaster to visit the rooftop terrace, which bustles with activity before and long after evening concerts. If you want to attend a concert, good luck, because almost everything is sold out.

[...] Why this building? What about its design, its location and the implicit social messages embedded in its architecture have made it so successful? Carsten Brosda, a senator in Hamburg’s state government and head of its cultural authority, says location is a primary factor in its success. “I was never a fan of iconic buildings because so many of them are rather generic,” he says. But Elbphilharmonie is exceptional, located in the geographical heart of the city, on a site that demanded some exceptional public use. “There were architects saying this is on the verge of being unbuildable, but that is what makes it unique.”

The care taken with the acoustics are another factor. Toyota doesn’t try to replicate the sumptuous warmth of 19th-century concert halls. Rather, he aims for a live- ­performance sound adapted to the digital age, which reinforces pleasures lost to an era of cheap headphones and limited-range MP3 files. There is no golden aura, but there is fantastic clarity and spatial presence. Part of that success, at the Elbphilharmonie, may be attributable to what people here call the “white skin,” an interior surface of 10,000 unique gypsum-fiber panels that help diffuse sound.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Drugs manufactured by living cells, also called biologics, are one of the fastest-growing segments of the pharmaceutical industry. These drugs, often antibodies or other proteins, are being used to treat cancer, arthritis, and many other diseases.

Monitoring the quality of these drugs has proven challenging, however, because protein production by living cells is much more difficult to control than the synthesis of traditional drugs. Typically these drugs consist of small organic molecules produced by a series of chemical reactions.

MIT engineers have devised a new way to analyze biologics as they are being produced, which could lead to faster and more efficient safety tests for such drugs. The system, based on a series of nanoscale filters, could also be deployed to test drugs immediately before administering them, to ensure they haven't degraded before reaching the patient.

"Right now there is no mechanism for checking the validity of the protein postrelease," says Jongyoon Han, an MIT professor of electrical engineering and computer science. "If you have analytics that consume a very small amount of a sample but also provide critical safety information about aggregation and binding, we can think about point-of-care analytics."

Original Submission

mechanicjay writes:

Not much to say, other than Moore was the first Bond I came to know, and as such, is the first face I think of when I think of the Bond Character.

In remembrance, what was your favourite role that Moore played over the years, Bond or otherwise?

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40018422

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Check Point researchers revealed a new attack vector threatening millions of users of popular media players, including VLC, Kodi (XBMC), Popcorn Time and Stremio. By crafting malicious subtitle files for films and TV programmes, which are then downloaded by viewers, attackers can potentially take complete control of any device running the vulnerable platforms.

"The supply chain for subtitles is complex, with over 25 different subtitle formats in use, all with unique features and capabilities. This fragmented ecosystem, along with limited security, means there are multiple vulnerabilities that could be exploited, making it a hugely attractive target for attackers," said Omri Herscovici, vulnerability research team leader at Check Point.

The subtitles for films or TV shows are created by a wide range of subtitle writers, and uploaded to shared online repositories, such as OpenSubtitles.org, where they are indexed and ranked. Researchers also demonstrated that by manipulating the repositories' ranking algorithm, malicious subtitles can be automatically downloaded by the media player, allowing a hacker to take complete control over the entire subtitle supply chain without user interaction.

Source: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2017/05/23/subtitle-hack/

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Prenda Law attorney John Steele has been disbarred by the Illinois Supreme Court:

After admitting to several criminal acts, including the operation of a piracy honeypot, Prenda Law attorney John Steele has now been disbarred by the Illinois Supreme Court. As a result, the troubled attorney will no longer be allowed to practice law in the state. While the decision doesn't come as a surprise, several victims of the trolling operation will welcome it with a smile.

Over the years, copyright trolls have been accused of involvement in various dubious schemes and actions, but there's one group that has gone above and beyond.

Prenda Law grabbed dozens of headlines, mostly surrounding negative court rulings over identity theft, misrepresentation and even deception. Most controversial was the shocking revelation that Prenda uploaded their own torrents to The Pirate Bay, creating a honeypot for the people they later sued over pirated downloads.

The allegations also raised the interest of the US Department of Justice, which indicted Prenda principals John Steele and Paul Hansmeier late last year. The two stand accused of running a multi-million dollar fraud and extortion operation.

A few weeks ago Steele pleaded guilty, admitting among other things that they did indeed use The Pirate Bay to operate a honeypot for online pirates. Following the guilty plea the Illinois Supreme Court, which started looking into the case long before the indictment, has now decided to disbar the attorney. This means that Steele no longer has the right to practice law.

Also at Ars Technica.

Previously:
Appeals Court Slams Prenda Law
Appeals Court: Shell Game Over, Prenda Law Must Pay Sanctions in Full
Prenda-Linked Copyright Trolling Lawyer Paul Duffy Dead at Age 55
Smut-Seeding Prenda Law Ringleader Told to Sell his House to Pay $2.9M Debt
Prenda's Paul Hansmeier Loses his Law License; Won't be Filing Bogus ADA Lawsuits for Now
Prenda Law "Copyright Trolls" Finally Getting Their Comeuppance
Indicted Prenda Lawyer Also Under FBI Investigation

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Washington, DC—Reps. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) and Scott Perry (R-PA), both founding members of the Fourth Amendment Caucus, introduced legislation today to permanently codify protections on Americans’ privacy. Last month, the NSA announced it is ending its collection of Americans’ Internet communications that merely mention identifying terms for foreign targets, but are not to or from those targets, also known as "about" surveillance. The legislation introduced today would permanently codify this policy change into law. Gabbard and Perry, both veterans of the Iraq War, also co-chair the Post 9/11 Veterans Caucus.

Video of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s speech on the House floor is available here

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

If anyone knows how important Twitter is to Donald Trump, it's the president.

“Without the tweets, I wouldn't be here,” he told the Financial Times last month.

To which Twitter's co-founder says: Sorry about that, world.

Evan Williams, who still sits on the company's board of directors, recently told The New York Times that he wants to repair the damage he thinks Twitter and the broader Internet have wrought on society in the form of trolls, cyberbullies, live-streamed violence, fake news and — yes — Trump.

“I thought once everybody could speak freely and exchange information and ideas, the world is automatically going to be a better place,” Williams told the Times. “I was wrong about that.”

“If it’s true that he wouldn’t be president if it weren’t for Twitter, then yeah, I’m sorry,” he said.

Is Twitter responsible?

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Astronomers have confirmed the orbital period for the outermost known exoplanet orbiting TRAPPIST-1: TRAPPIST-1h:

Scientists using NASA's Kepler space telescope identified a regular pattern in the orbits of the planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system that confirmed suspected details about the orbit of its outermost and least understood planet, TRAPPIST-1h.

[...] Astronomers from the University of Washington have used data from the Kepler spacecraft to confirm that TRAPPIST-1h orbits its star every 19 days. At six million miles from its cool dwarf star, TRAPPIST-1h is located beyond the outer edge of the habitable zone, and is likely too cold for life as we know it. The amount of energy (per unit area) planet h receives from its star is comparable to what the dwarf planet Ceres, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, gets from our sun.

[...] The team calculated six possible resonant periods for planet h that would not disrupt the stability of the system, but only one was not ruled out by additional data. The other five possibilities could have been observed in the Spitzer and ground-based data collected by the TRAPPIST team.

[...] TRAPPIST-1's seven-planet chain of resonances established a record among known planetary systems, the previous holders being the systems Kepler-80 and Kepler-223, each with four resonant planets.

Previously: Three New Earth-Like Planets Discovered Around an Ultra Cool Red Dwarf
Seven Earth-Sized Exoplanets, Including Three Potentially Habitable, Identified Around TRAPPIST-1
Powerful Solar Flares Found at TRAPPIST-1 Could Dim Chances for Life

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

America divided – this concept increasingly graces political discourse in the U.S., pitting left against right, conservative thought against the liberal agenda. But for decades, Americans have been rearranging along another divide, one just as stark if not far more significant – a chasm once bridged by a flourishing middle class.

Peter Temin, Professor Emeritus of Economics at MIT, believes the ongoing death of “middle America” has sparked the emergence of two countries within one, the hallmark of developing nations. In his new book, The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy, Temin paints a bleak picture where one country has a bounty of resources and power, and the other toils day after day with minimal access to the long-coveted American dream.

In his view, the United States is shifting toward an economic and political makeup more similar to developing nations than the wealthy, economically stable nation it has long been. Temin applied W. Arthur Lewis’s economic model – designed to understand the workings of developing countries – to the United States in an effort to document how inequality has grown in America.

The 2017 World Economic Forum had the answer: "The people who have not benefited from globalization need to try harder to emulate those who have succeeded," and, "'People have to take more ownership of upgrading themselves on a continuous basis.'"

Original Submission

takyon writes:

NASA's Juno spacecraft has completed its fifth science flyby (sixth total) of Jupiter:

NASA's Juno mission accomplished a close flyby of Jupiter on May 19, successfully completing its fifth science orbit. All of Juno's science instruments and the spacecraft's JunoCam were operating during the flyby, collecting data that is now being returned to Earth. Juno's next close flyby of Jupiter will occur on July 11, 2017, taking it over Jupiter's Great Red Spot.

NASA will hold a teleconference at 6:00 PM UTC (2 PM EDT, 11 AM PDT) on May 25th to discuss several papers published in Science and Geophysical Research Letters.

NASA's New Frontiers program has included the Juno, New Horizons, and OSIRIS-Rex missions so far. NASA is currently evaluating 12 proposals for the next New Frontiers mission, encompassing six themes: Comet Surface Sample Return, Lunar South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return, Ocean Worlds (Titan and/or Enceladus), Saturn Probe, Trojan Tour and Rendezvous, and Venus In Situ Explorer. One or more will be selected for a Phase A study in November.

Also at Space.com and Spaceflight Now.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

The Pentagon has generated almost $6 billion over the past seven years by charging the armed forces excessive prices for fuel and has used the money — called the “bishop’s fund” by some critics — to bolster mismanaged or underfunded military programs, documents show.

Since 2015, the Defense Department has tapped surpluses from its fuel accounts for $80 million to train Syrian rebels, $450 million to shore up a prescription-drug program riddled with fraud and $1.4 billion to cover unanticipated expenses from the war in Afghanistan, according to military accounting records.

The Pentagon has amassed the extra cash by billing the armed forces for fuel at rates often much higher — sometimes $1 per gallon or more — than what commercial airlines paid for jet fuel on the open market.

[...] The Defense Department is the largest single consumer of fuel in the world. Each year, it buys about 100 million barrels, or 4.2 billion gallons, of refined petroleum for its aircraft, warships, tanks and other machines.

[...] In a statement, the Pentagon acknowledged that it accumulated $5.6 billion in “enterprise gains” from fuel purchases between 2010 and 2016, but said the surplus was the result of falling oil prices in an inherently volatile market.

As a veteran myself, this utterly fails to surprise.

Source: The Washington Post

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

With the public charging infrastructure for electric cars expanding apace and Tesla Superchargers popping up like mushrooms, the concept of driving a few hundred miles in an EV is no longer as absurd a suggestion as it was just a couple of years ago. But ten thousand miles across Europe and central Asia? Come on now.

That's exactly what Chris Ramsey of Plug In Adventures plans to do, entering an all-electric Nissan Leaf in the 2017 Mongol Rally charity run. It's the first time an electric vehicle has entered the event.

The Mongol Rally for those new to the name is an adventure-based (i.e. you win just by finishing) drive from Goodwood Circuit near Chichester to Ulan-Ude in Siberia. That's nearly 7,000 miles as the crow flies, or as Google Maps plots a direct course. The rally organisers reckon that most cars will follow a 10,000-mile scenic route that takes in large parts of Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

[...] Of course as much as the inherent simplicity and drivability of an EV lends itself to an event like this, keeping the battery charged surely poses a problem, right? Wrong according to Ramsey. He expects to cover around 90 miles a day, charging overnight from either domestic or dedicated outlets he has already plotted along his route. Thirty minute top-ups from 22kW fast chargers located along the less remote parts of the route will let him head off-piste and smell the daisies.

The ability to better ford rivers and streams and being less prone to mechanical breakdown were cited as advantages for the electric vehicle (EV).

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Onuki, a 31-year-old salesman, is headed to the train station to catch the 12:24 a.m. train, the last one of the night, back to his home in Yokohama. The train will quickly fill up with other professional working men.

At about 1:30 a.m., after having made a pit stop at a convenience store to grab a sandwich, Onuki arrives home. When he opens the bedroom door, he accidentally wakes his wife, Yoshiko, who just recently fell asleep after working an 11-hour day. She chides him for making too much noise and he apologizes.

Then, with his food still digesting and his alarm set for 7 a.m., he creeps into bed, ready to do it all again tomorrow.

Over the past two decades, stories like the Onukis' have become commonplace in Japan. Young couples are fighting to make relationships work amid a traditional work culture that expects men to be breadwinners and women to be homemakers. It's a losing battle. Many newlyweds are forced to watch their free time disappear, surrendering everything from the occasional date night to starting a family.

The daily constraints have made for a worrisome trend. Japan has entered a vicious cycle of low fertility and low spending that has led to trillions in lost GDP and a population decline of 1 million people, all within just the past five years. If left unabated, experts forecast severe economic downturn and a breakdown in the fabric of social life.

"Adult diapers have outsold baby diapers in Japan for the last six years."

Original Submission

kaszz writes:

The Guardian reports:

At least 19 people were killed and more than 50 injured after an explosion in the foyer area of a crowded Manchester concert hall, which left hundreds of people fleeing in terror. [...] Police said they were dealing with a possible terror incident and counter-terrorism officials were assessing what caused the explosion. Investigators from the police and the domestic security service MI5 were part of the investigation.

Greater Manchester Police statement:

I can confirm the details of events tonight that we currently know. At around 10.33pm last night we received reports of an explosion at the Manchester Arena in the city centre. It was at the conclusion of an Ariana Grande concert.

Currently we have 19 people confirmed to have died and around 50 people injured.

The injured are being treated at six hospitals across Greater Manchester. My thoughts are with all those who have been affected and we are doing all we can to support them.

[...] We are currently treating this as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise. We are working closely with the national counter-terrorism policing network and UK intelligence partners.

Unnamed sources, who have not been directly quoted are widely reported as suspecting this incident was a suicide bombing.

Multiple senior U.S. law enforcement officials briefed by British authorities told NBC News that forensic evidence at the scene — including a body found at the blast site — indicated a suicide attack. British and U.S. law enforcement officials said they believed they had tentatively identified the bomber.

U.S. officials said initial reports indicated that some of the casualties might have been caused by a stampede of concert-goers.

Sky News reports:

Officers carried out a controlled explosion at nearby Cathedral Gardens shortly after 1.30am, but have since confirmed the item they found was abandoned clothing and not suspicious.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/switzerland-votes-phase-nuclear-energy-121710224.html

Swiss voters have backed government plans to replace the power from ageing nuclear reactors with renewable energy.

A total of 58.2 per cent of voters supported the phaseout of nuclear energy in a binding referendum on Sunday. Under the Swiss system of direct democracy, voters have the final say on major policy issues.

The plan will provide billions of pounds in subsidies for renewable energy, ban the construction of nuclear plants and decommission the country’s five existing ones, which produce about a third of the country’s electricity.

[...] The move echoes efforts across Europe to reduce dependence on nuclear energy and has been in the making following Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011. Germany has announced it will close all nuclear plants by 2022 and Austria banned it decades ago.

Original Submission