SoylentNews

Rejected submission by RandomFactor at 2019-03-24 01:38:13 from the I have a dream (viewable online in 2038) dept.
Tens of thousands rally across Europe protesting EU Copyright 'Reform'

RandomFactor [soylentnews.org] writes:

On Saturday demonstrators protested by the tens of thousands in various cities across the EU, including in Germany, Austria, Poland, and Portugal, protesting against a coming EU copyright reform.

Effects that will be seen once it takes effect

o - include proposals to oblige YouTube and other platforms to remove illegal content using automatic filters.
o - make internet companies pay more to news organisations for reproducing or linking to their content.

News organizations, journalists, film-makers and photographers have pushed for the move, arguing that companies such as Facebook and Google are making billions in advertising tied to the content they publish.

Conversely, arguments against include the concern that

the reform will harm freedom of information and small publishers on the internet.

As is well known, there are simple mechanisms to avoid having your news pages crawled by Google, Facebook, and other news aggregators.

The problem isn't that Google isn't making the publisher more money, it is that Google is making itself too much money.

P30 Pro Teardown Proves Huawei's Flash Catch-up

Content from page 2 (pages 3-9 are images):

Periscope camera
Of all the units inside the P30 Pro, however, the biggest news is the periscope. Huawei placed a CMOS image sensor vertically and put a mirror angled at 45 degrees at the back to increase the optical path. This is the first time a 10x zoom – without any loss in quality -- has gone inside an actual smartphone, according to Elisabeth. He noted that at Mobile World Congress in 2018, Oppo showed a prototype 5X zoom, but never launched an actual product.

Asked who put together a module for the periscope camera, Elisabeth said that System Plus believes Sunny Optical Technology in China did it by using IP from Corephotonics in Israel.

Changes in RF partners?
One additional System Plus discovery was that Skyworks no longer seems to be Huawei’s main RF supplier. P30 Pro uses Qorvo’s mid/high-band front-end module (QM77031). Skyworks now supplies only a low-band front-end module (SKY78191). Previously Skyworks provided three separate front-end modules to meet the needs of three different bands.

In the following pages, we will share the teardown done by System Plus, revealing who got design wins for which slots.

Rejected submission by RandomFactor at 2019-03-17 15:42:48 from the glad I don't browse those sites dept.
RandomFactor [soylentnews.org] writes:

In recent months one of the hot new (again) trends in separating people from their money on the internet is something referred to as "Sextortion."

In brief, sextortion is a form of blackmail predicated on exploiting common human behavior people want to keep private.

Sophos provides a video explaining

                Is webcam malware technically feasible?
                Is there anything at all behind these threats?
                Is it a worry if the crooks know my password or other personal information?
                Is it really possible to be tracked via email as the crooks claim?
                Is there still a risk if I don’t watch porn?
                Is it worth reporting these emails to my ISP?
                What to do next?

Typically current sextortion messages attempt to convince the reader that their machine has been taken over in various ways, such as providing a password previously exposed in a data breach, and that they have been filmed by their own webcam while browsing adult sites. Here's a quick approximation

                Hi, you don't know me, I am a (criminal/hacker/supra-genius) that has taken over your computer.
                You can believe me on this because I know your password/phone number/address is DreadPasswordRoberts

                I installed a (trojan/virus/rat/keylogger) on your machine and accessed your web cam
                I filmed you watching (porn/adult/fun) (videos/sites/web pages..). (You have good taste!)

                I have recorded your activities and what you are watching into a video side by side, it is timed perfectly!
                I will immediatley send this to all your friends and associates if you do not pay me:

                (some amount of bitcoin, to a single use wallet, within this timeperiod)

                I know you opened this email because I have a (bug/webbug/tracker/cookie...) in it

                if you pay it I will most assuredly delete the video.
                if you do not or you try to cheat me I will definitely send it to everyone you know.

That's more or less the gist of it.

As with most spam, very little is consistent from email to email, as it's source is essentially a big randomized mail merge of similar terms. It is done this way so that blocking of any specific string or information won't work. (This approach incidentally is part of why even spam by native speakers is often choppy reading and seems to have strange word choices and sentence structure.)

In any large corporate environment, you can be relatively certain that all email addresses have been leaked and targeted by this form of attack repeatedly. The vast majority of these emails are routinely caught in their millions by email spam filtering solutions daily. Still, the odd one reaches people, and if this didn't fool people and make money, the bad guys wouldn't be doing it.

With all those millions blocked, still there are no videos showing up due to not getting paid, go figure.

Don't be fooled, and as per usual, delete and move on.

Bonus Section - A Current Digital dirty dealing Roundup provided for your bemusement:

                New Zealand Tragedy-scams and malware campaigns (also here)

                HaveIBeenPwned - latest breaches Ixigo breach exposes 17.2 Million

                Gearbest exposed millions of records. Also here.

                Malware spreading spam campaign using Boing 737 Max crashes

                800k Singabore Blood donors exposed in Secur Solutions data leak.

Rejected submission by RandomFactor at 2019-03-13 13:37:55 from the foxy filesend, I think I, love you dept.
Mozilla debuts Free, Easy, Secure, no local software required, DLP Destroying file sending service

RandomFactor [soylentnews.org] writes:

Mozilla's "Firefox Send" a free encrypted file sharing service has been moved from testing to release status as of Tuesday.

Firfox Send is

a way to encrypt local files and store them on Mozilla's servers, provided by AWS, for retrieval with a one-time use URL.

Send supports up to 1GB, or 2.5 GB if you are signed in to a free Firefox Account. (this also increases the number of times a file can be downloaded)

Links can be used (settable) up to 100 times and (settable) up to 7 days.

"Send uses end-to-end encryption to keep your data secure from the moment you share to the moment your file is opened," said Nick Nguyen, Mozilla's VP of Firefox Product, in a blog post.

This is really cool. Blocks incoming on corporate firewalls in 3....2.....1.........

[Darth Vader voice]: Sissterrr... If you won't turn to the dark side, perhaps she will...

This a forum post I read while searching how to unlock the bootloader on a TracFone Samsung J7 SKY PRO (you can't [prove me wrong]). I found it quite humorous. (BTW TF support unlock codes don't count unless you know of a keygen.)

Anonymous December 7, 2018 at 4:38 AM

my mom purchase a tracfone LG L64VL and never use and activate the phone because shes not familiar with the internet.After a year she decided to gave me the phone.Although it still a virgin .(NEVER USED OR ACTIVATED FROM THE TIME SHE BOUGHT THE PHONE),I FOUND OUT THE THE LGL64VL IS LOCKED AND CANNOT USED TO ANY NETWORK.AND WHEN I READ THE TRACFONE UNLOCKING POLICY .THERES NO NO WAY YO UNLOCK THE PHONE AND USED ANOTHET SIM CARD.TO UNLOCK THE PHONE I GET A HAMMER AND SMASHED THE TRACFONE LG L64VL .IF MY MOM KNOWS THAT IS AND CANNOT UNLOCK ...SHE DIDNT BUY THAT _PHONE...IF TRACFONE CANNOT UNLOCK THE PHONE ..I CAN UNLOCK IT...

Rejected submission by RandomFactor at 2019-03-10 14:56:47 from the I still have one foot left dept.
RandomFactor [soylentnews.org] writes:

Well here's a twist.

Anyone that tracks polyticks in the U.S. knows about 'Sanctuary Cities' that won't enforce federal law they don't agree with.

However whenever a new tactic is introduced, there is a downside. Whatever one side does will inevitably be adopted by the other. This leaves no moral high ground to protest and there's now precedent as well. To wit, the other side of the political spectrum is getting in on the sanctuary act [santafenewmexican.com].

The governor of New Mexico has signed a bill outlawing private gun sales without a background check in the state. In response

officials in 25 of New Mexico’s 33 counties have adopted “Second Amendment Sanctuary” declarations as of Wednesday, effectively refusing to enforce the new law.

The governor of course has railed against this in a copy-paste echo of the statements made against sanctuary cities, and with similar effectiveness.

It's a sticky wicket indeed. Preemption? Local control? Purview? Borders? 2nd Amendment?

If you root for Sanctuary cities? Then must you not root for sanctuary counties? If the sanctuary cities need to go, don't the sanctuary counties need to go?

Is it even possible to have a consistent position on this without significant cognitive dissonance?

Lets hear it!

There may be a cure...

We have to do like A Clockwork Orange. Only now we make everybody watch C-SPAN. Make them look at what they reelect, 24/7 until they get the hint, or they puke, and make them watch more until they puke and puke and puke, and make them watch more, just to be sure.

Rejected submission by RandomFactor at 2019-03-09 16:32:07 from the or Khan's blood will work too dept.
RandomFactor [soylentnews.org] writes:

Kids (not) getting vaccines is all the rage, but lets not neglect the adults in the room.

Just because you are older doesn't mean you are done. There are vaccines you should consider as well.

Summarizing into consumable list form (your welcome)

Flu Vaccine - Annual
    - Influenza kills. The elderly are particularly susceptible.

Tetanus and Diptheria - Booster every 10 years
    - An old country doctor (yes, seriously) once told me as a kid that ~

the only tetanus shot I ever worried about was the one I didn't give.

If you get a deep wound and can't tell a doctor exactly when you got your last booster, they'll probably give you one for Good Bull.

Hepatitis A - various risk groups (e.g. gay men)

Hepatitis B - various risk groups (e.g. gay men)

Pnumococcal conjugate - over 65
    - helps ward off pneumonia

Serogroup B meningococcal - young adults/college students
    - protects against meningitis which is more common on college campuses

human papillomavirus (HPV)- Women below 27, Men below 22
    - protects against some cervical and other cancers (after those ages you likely are already infected...bummer.)

Shingles - adult in 50s/60s
    - Particularly if you ever had Chicken pox, that virus can flare back up in later life and and cause a very painful and debilitating illness called Shingles.

Yellow Fever - traveling to certain areas of the world

Typhoid Fever - traveling to certain areas of the world

Anthrax - Working with certain animals or near a military lab

Of course, you should talk to your doctor if you’re worried about not having gotten all the vaccines and boosters you might need. But really, for most of us, the flu shot is most crucial. It’s dirt cheap, won’t give you the flu, and might even save a life, including yours.

I mean, who DOESN'T love needles?

Rejected submission by RandomFactor at 2019-03-07 15:30:53 from the another day another speculative execution attack dept.
RandomFactor [soylentnews.org] writes:

'Spoiler' is the nickname given to a new attack Intel Processors are vulnerable to.

    - AMD processors are not subject to this attack
    - Spoiler can be exploited via javascript on a malicious website
    - There is no fix yet, and one may not be fully possible without architecture changes

Spectre and Meltdown were industry wide problems, so did not provide any particular advantage for AMD or Intel. Not so in this case. If the eventual patch for this turns out to be similarly performance sapping like the other two, this may allow AMD to steal a march on Intel in the market.

researchers are of the opinion that Spoiler cannot be fully fixed with a software patch. They believe changes to Intel's chip architecture will be required.

researchers say Spoiler, “is not something you can patch easily with microcode without losing tremendous performance”.

Advantage AMD

[Intel] is already years behind schedule in moving from 14 nm production lines to 10 nm. In contrast, AMD will soon be making its processors on a 7 nm production line.

If Intel now also needs to redesign their processors to address Spoiler I cannot see how this can be accomplished in less than 5 years. That's enough time for AMD to take significant market share.

Intel has provided an official statement regarding the new vulnerability:

Intel received notice of this research, and we expect that software can be protected against such issues by employing side channel safe software development practices. This includes avoiding control flows that are dependent on the data of interest. We likewise expect that DRAM modules mitigated against Rowhammer style attacks remain protected. Protecting our customers and their data continues to be a critical priority for us and we appreciate the efforts of the security community for their ongoing research.

I'm sure we'll hear more as this develops.

In the meantime - who out there employs 'side channel safe software development practices'?