SoylentNews

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Volkswagen will stop making the Beetle car next year, ending nearly seven decades of production in North America, the company has announced.

The company's American unit said it would halt output at its plant in Mexico after making two special edition models of the third-generation bulbous bug in July 2019.

[...] The car sold for about 30 years in the US before it was taken off the market in 1979. Production continued in Mexico and Latin America.

Volkswagen revived it in 1998 as a more modern "New Beetle", attracting mainly female buyers. The company revamped it for the 2012 model year in an effort to make it appeal to men, giving it a flatter roof, less bulbous shape, a bigger trunk and a navigation system. US sales rose fivefold to nearly 29,000 in the first year, but tailed off after that.

[...] Volkswagen has no immediate plans to revive the Beetle again, but the company wouldn't rule it out. "I would say 'never say never'," the CEO of VW of America, Hinrich Woebcken, said in a statement.

I thought they'd stopped making this over a decade ago. Do they still make the New Beetle?

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/sep/13/volkswagen-to-stop-making-its-iconic-beetle-in-2019

Original Submission

Apparition writes:

Newegg has been hacked (archive). If you bought anything on Newegg.com between August 13th and September 18th, get a new credit card:

Newegg is investigating a data breach that may have compromised credit card details and other information about its customers, though the full extent of the damage is not yet known.

"Yesterday, we learned one of our servers had been injected with malware which may have allowed some of your information to be acquired or accessed by a third party," Newegg CEO Danny Lee states in an email being sent out to potentially affected customers." The malware was quite sophisticated and we are conducting extensive research to determine exactly what information may have been acquired or accessed and how many customers may have been impacted."

[...] Researchers from RiskIQ and Volexity say the attackers installed credit card skimming malware onto Newegg's website. They injected the malicious code into Newegg's payment processing page, basically hiding in plain site for more than a month, the researchers say.

The stolen credit card data was then sent to a drop server on a domain the hackers had registered, initially parked at neweggstats.com. They obtained a security certificate for the site from Comodo so that it appeared legitimate.

takyon: A news search for "Newegg" finds numerous examples of PC Gamer directing its readers to the site for deals (and steals?) during the breach period.

Also at Ars Technica and The Verge.

Previously: Encryption Patent That Roiled Newegg is Dead on Appeal
Newegg Is Being Sued for Allegedly Engaging in Massive Fraud

Original Submission

Bytram (from IRC) writes:

'I am admin' bug turns WD's My Cloud boxes into Everyone's Cloud:

Miscreants can potentially gain admin-level control over Western Digital's My Cloud gear via an HTTP request over the network or internet.

Researchers at infosec shop Securify revealed today the vulnerability, designated CVE-2018-17153, which allows an unauthenticated attacker with network access to the device to bypass password checks and login with admin privileges.

This would, in turn, give the scumbag full control over the NAS device, including the ability to view and copy all stored data as well as overwrite and erase contents. If the box is accessible from the public internet, it could be remotely pwned, it appears. Alternatively, malware on a PC on the local network could search for and find a vulnerable My Cloud machine, and compromise it.

According to Securify, the flaw itself lies in the way My Cloud creates admin sessions that are attached to an IP address. When an attacker sends a command to the device's web interface, as an HTTP CGI request, they can also include the cookie username=admin – which unlocks admin access.

[...] The team has posted a proof-of-concept exploit showing how the bug could be targeted with a few lines of code.

Securify said it reported the vulnerability to Western Digital back in April, but did not receive a response. Now, some five months later, they are finally disclosing the bug.

Western Digital did not return a Reg request for comment on the matter.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

New Atlas:

It's quick, it's quiet, and it's covered in 300 square meters (3,229 sq ft) of solar panels. The 78-ft (24-m) electric SolarImpact yacht is a concept designed as the first of its kind – an ocean-going solar-powered yacht. An 800-kWh battery on board gives it 10 hours of cruising capability, which can be extended by topping up the battery when the Sun's shining.

The yacht's giant solar array, which covers the vast majority of its upward-facing surfaces, can generate up to 320 kWh a day if they're getting lots of sun. They can serve as the vessel's sole power source if conditions allow, and you're prepared to take your time.

Although this 70-ton aluminum-hulled beast boasts 1,000 kW (1,341 hp) of all-electric power and has an impressive maximum speed of 22 knots, if you're running all the regular systems solely on solar, you will be able to cruise indefinitely, but only at a slow 5 knots – which would take you around the world in about six months if there wasn't a whole lot of land in the way.

Sea-steaders, rejoice!

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

World speed record for polymer simulations shattered by over a hundred-fold

"5D Entanglement in Star Polymer Dynamics," by Airidas Korolkovas [was] published in Advanced Theory and Simulations, a new journal focusing on breakthroughs in the science of modelling. A unique computer algorithm was invented to capture the billions of steps needed for entangled polymers. It runs on a Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) and takes advantage of texture mapping, an often-overlooked functionality. Originally, this feature was designed for video games, but here it has been repurposed to calculate the molecular forces inside a little polymer droplet. Using a streamlined physics model, this simulation runs hundreds of times faster than traditional code. It opens new horizons on the time scales that can be addressed in scientific computing. This can further push the frontiers for the latest generation of supercomputers, like the recently opened Summit in Oak Ridge National Lab, USA, which has almost 30,000 GPUs.

The effect of higher dimensional entanglement can be observed in real life, using an instrument called neutron spin-echo. This machine shoots tiny subatomic particles, called neutrons, and listens to the echo of their nuclear spin as they scatter, or bounce off the polymer sample. A prime example is the IN15 beamline at the Institut Laue-Langevin, France, where the entanglement of linear polymers was first discovered. Thanks to constant upgrades and to upcoming new facilities like the European Spallation Source, Sweden, an experimental proof of the simulation prediction for star polymers may soon be within reach. A combination of high performance computing and neutron scattering is a powerful tool of discovery for new materials that improve our quality of life and respect the environment.

5D Entanglement in Star Polymer Dynamics (DOI: 10.1002/adts.201800078) (DX)

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

VeloNews reports: Mueller-Korenek rides 183.9mph, smashing world record

On the Bonneville Salt Flats, tucked in behind a 1,000-horsepower drag race car, Denise Mueller-Korenek hit 183.932 miles per hour, smashing a 23-year-old world record.

"It was a crazy wild ride to 183.9 mph, but so worth the sacrifice and years of focus on becoming the fastest human on a bicycle in the world," said Mueller-Korenek after breaking the record on September 16.

She hit the record speed on her second attempt, breaking Fred Rompelberg's 1995 Paced Bicycle Speed Record, 167mph.

Mueller-Korenek, 45, is familiar to top speeds on Utah's salt flats. She previously set a women's world record of 147.75mph in 2016. This Sunday, the mother of two took the world record outright, paced by an overhauled version of the dragster that paced Rompelberg to his record speed.

Also at NPR.

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

canopic jug writes:

Molly de Blanc writes at that it has been one year since the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) sold out. It was then they, including Tim Berners-Lee himself, decided to incorporate Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) into web standards signalling an end to the open Web. She covers how it happened, what has transpired during the last year in regards to EME, and what steps can be taken.

Digital Restrictions Management exists all over the world in all sorts of technologies. In addition to media files, like music and film, we can find DRM on the Web and enshrined in Web standards. As a Web standard, its use is recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), making it not only easier, but expected for all media files on the Web to be locked down with DRM.

It's been a year since the the W3C voted to bring Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) into Web standards. They claimed to want to "lead the Web to its full potential," but in a secret vote, members of the W3C, with the blessing of Web creator Tim Berners-Lee, agreed to put "the copyright industry in control" of media access. The enshrinement of EME as an official recommendation is not how we envision the "full potential" of the Web at the Free Software Foundation (FSF).

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

The free-to-use nonprofit was founded in 2014 in part by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and is backed by Akamai, Google, Facebook, Mozilla and more. Three years ago Friday, it issued its first certificate.

Since then, the numbers have exploded. To date, more than 380 million certificates have been issued on 129 million unique domains. That also makes it the largest certificate issuer in the world, by far.

Now, 75 percent of all Firefox traffic is HTTPS, according to public Firefox data — in part thanks to Let's Encrypt. That's a massive increase from when it was founded, where only 38 percent of website page loads were served over an HTTPS encrypted connection.

"Change at that speed and scale is incredible," a spokesperson told TechCrunch. "Let's Encrypt isn't solely responsible for this change, but we certainly catalyzed it."

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/14/three-years-later-lets-encrypt-now-secures-75-of-the-web/

Previously: "Let's Encrypt" Has Issued 1 Million Certificates
Let's Encrypt Issues 100 Millionth Certificate
Let's Encrypt is Now Officially Trusted by All Major Root Programs

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

The International Day Against DRM is twelve years old today. International Day Against DRM fights to raise awareness of the problem of digital restrictions management technology (DRM) and offers methods how to fight it. Specifically, one idea is to try to avoid any and all DRM for the day to be cognizant of where and how it is creeping into daily life. The other is to nudge others to eschew or at least become aware of DRM. The author Cory Doctorow has posted an editorial over at the Electronic Frontier Foundation about how and why to resist DRM.

The Free Software Foundation's Defective by Design campaign today celebrates its 12th annual International Day Against Digital Rights Management. DRM is the controversial practice of restricting what consumers can do with legitimately acquired digital media. Given its pervasive nature, is it possible for you to completely avoid DRM for the day?

[...] Content with DRM is restricted by default yet by its very nature only affects legitimate purchases. Those who pirate their software, for example, are unaffected since piracy groups remove the DRM from content before release. Bizarrely, however, some pirates have even protected their work with DRM, signalling that no one is immune. There are great alternatives, however.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Microsoft released a security advisory about a denial-of-service vulnerability that could render multiple versions of Windows completely unresponsive and has no mitigation factors, the company says.

The vulnerability affects all versions of Windows 7 through 10 (including 8.1 RT), Server 2008, 2012, 2016, and Core Installations that don't have the latest set of security updates released as part of the September 2018 Patch Tuesday updates.

Tagged with the identification number CVE-2018-5391, the bug received the moniker FragmentSmack because it responds to IP fragmentation, a process that adjusts the packet size to fit the maximum transmission unit (MTU) at the receiving end.

IP fragmentation attacks are a known form of denial of service, where the victim computer receives multiple IP packets of a smaller size that are expected to be reassembled into their original form at the destination.

FragmentSmack is a TCP fragmentation type of attack, also known as a Teardrop attack, that prevents reassembling the packets on the recipient end. The vulnerability is as old as Windows 3.1 and 95, where it crashed the OS, but it was seen in the more recent Windows 7, too.

Why write all new bugs when you can just reboot old ones?

Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/windows-systems-vulnerable-to-fragmentsmack-90s-like-dos-bug/

Original Submission

takyon writes:

An exoplanet with a minimum mass of 8.47±0.47 Earth masses has been discovered around 40 Eridani A:

"Star Trek's" planet Vulcan, ancestral home of Spock and his species, just became a little more real, thanks to a team of exoplanet scientists. Because "Star Trek" creators eventually associated planet Vulcan with a real star, called 40 Eridani A, scientists have wondered for years whether a factual equivalent of the beloved science fiction planet exists, with or without pointy-eared inhabitants. And now, a team of scientists has said that the star really does host at least one planet.

"This star can be seen with the naked eye, unlike the host stars of most of the known planets discovered to date," Bo Ma, lead author of the new research and an astronomer at the University of Florida, said in a statement. "Now, anyone can see 40 Eridani A on a clear night and be proud to point out Spock's home." That star, located about 16 light-years away from Earth, is also known as HD 26965. It's a bit orange, because it's a little smaller and cooler than our sun. But it also has some clear similarities to Earth's star: It's about the same age and sports a fairly similar sunspot pattern.

Also at Science Magazine.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Mozilla's Firefox Reality web browser is now available

Mozilla's vision of a VR-first web browser is ready for consumers to download and judge.

Firefox Reality is a browser built entirely for virtual reality. While you may have read about desktop Firefox or Chrome adding WebVR support, Firefox Reality is a web browser that you actually use entirely inside a VR headset. You can visit URLs, search things and otherwise browse the 2D and 3D internet within the new browser all without moving a mouse, just your VR hand controller.

Firefox Reality is available on the Oculus, Viveport and Daydream platforms and is optimized to run on the latest standalone mobile headsets like the Oculus Go and Lenovo Mirage Solo.

Also at Engadget, Road to VR, VRFocus, and VentureBeat.

Related: Hubs by Mozilla: A New Way to Get Together Online

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Weird 'Nuclear Pasta' Could Be The Strongest Material in The Universe

A really weird form of matter found in ultradense objects such as neutron stars is looking like a good candidate for the strongest material in the Universe. According to new calculations, it clocks in at a massive 10 billion times stronger than steel.

"This is a crazy-big figure," physicist Charles Horowitz of Indiana University Bloomington told Science News, "but the material is also very, very dense, so that helps make it stronger."

[...] This incredibly high density does something strange to the nuclei of the atoms in the star. As you move closer and closer in towards the centre, the density increases, squishing and squeezing together the nuclei until they deform and fuse together.

The resulting nuclear structures are thought to resemble pasta - hence the name - forming just inside the star's crust. Some structures are flattened into sheets like lasagna, some are bucatini tubes, some are spaghetti-like strands and others are gnocchi-esque clumps. Their density is immense, over 100 trillion times that of water.

Nuclear pasta:

In astrophysics and nuclear physics, nuclear pasta is a type of degenerate matter found within the crusts of neutron stars. Between the surface of a neutron star and the quark–gluon plasma at the core, at matter densities of 10¹⁴ g/cm³, nuclear attraction and Coulomb repulsion forces are of similar magnitude. The competition between the forces allows for the formation of a variety of complex structures assembled from neutrons and protons. Astrophysicists call these types of structures nuclear pasta because the geometry of the structures resembles various types of pasta.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Tesla Is Facing U.S. Criminal Probe Over Elon Musk Statements

Tesla Inc. is under investigation by the Justice Department over public statements made by the company and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, according to two people familiar with the matter. The criminal probe is running alongside a previously reported civil inquiry by securities regulators.

Federal prosecutors opened a fraud investigation after Musk tweeted last month that he was contemplating taking Tesla private and had "funding secured" for the deal, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss a confidential criminal probe. The tweet initially sent the company's shares higher.

[...] The criminal inquiry is in its early stages, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Justice Department probes, like the civil inquiries undertaken by the SEC, can take months. They sometimes end with prosecutors deciding against bringing any charges.

Also at MarketWatch.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

In this day and age ownership of digital media is often an illusion. When you buy a book or movie there are severe restrictions on what you can do with these files. In some cases, purchased content can simply disappear overnight. These limitations keep copyright holders in control, but they breed pirates at the same time.

[...] Millions of people have now replaced their physical media collections for digital ones, often stored in the cloud. While that can be rather convenient, it comes with restrictions that are unheard of offline.

[...R]esearchers examined how the absence of the right to resell and lend affects people's choice to buy. They found that, among those who are familiar with BitTorrent, roughly a third would prefer The Pirate Bay over Apple or Amazon if they are faced with these limitations.

These rights restrictions apparently breed pirates.

"Based on our survey data, consumers are more likely to opt out of lawful markets for copyrighted works and download illegally if there is no lawful way to obtain the rights to lend, resell, and use those copies on their device of choice," the researchers concluded.

The paper in question is two years old by now, but still very relevant today. While we don't expect that anything will change soon, people should at least be aware that you don't always own what you buy.

Source: https://torrentfreak.com/you-dont-really-own-that-movie-you-bought-but-pirates-180915/

Original Submission