32TB of Windows 10 internal builds, core source code leak online • The Register: "The leaked code is Microsoft's Shared Source Kit: according to people who have seen its contents, it includes the source to the base Windows 10 hardware drivers plus Redmond's PnP code, its USB and Wi-Fi stacks, its storage drivers, and ARM-specific OneCore kernel code."

Bad for Microsoft but possibly great for Linux compatibility in the future.

Labels: security leak

How the CIA infects air-gapped networks | Ars Technica: "Documents published Thursday purport to show how the Central Intelligence Agency has used USB drives to infiltrate computers so sensitive they are severed from the Internet to prevent them from being infected."

Nothing comforting in this article.

Labels: 2001, security exploit

'OK, everyone. Stop typing, this software is DONE,' said no one ever • The Register

Parallels forevah!

Labels: Apple vs. Apple

Leaked recording reveals Apple's plan to stop leakers | Cult of Mac

Tighten up!

Labels: 1984, 2001, security policy

Apple opens summer Apple Camp registrations, sessions start in July: "Apple on Tuesday opened up registrations for this year's free summer Apple Camps, which will teach kids 8 to 12 various creative and technology skills, exclusively using Apple-based hardware and software."

Happy, happy, joy, joy.

Labels: Apple ][ Forever

Web host agrees to pay $1m after it’s hit by Linux-targeting ransomware | Ars Technica: "A Web-hosting service recently agreed to pay $1 million to a ransomware operation that encrypted data stored on 153 Linux servers and 3,400 customer websites, the company said recently."

Can you say diverse NOC ecosystem?

Labels: 2001

AMD Vega 56 and Vega 64 GPUs destined for iMac Pro detailed in Linux driver:

Apple Airport not on latest 'Vault 7' list of gear susceptible to factory firmware hack by CIA: "The latest dump of "leaked" documents from WikiLeaks reportedly from the CIA details the "Cherry Blossom" firmware modification program, which allowed intelligence agencies to change firmware in a networking company's factories —but Apple Airport hardware appears to be unaffected by the effort."

Dango tango wango!

Labels: 1984, security leak

Soldiers bust massive click-farm that used 500k SIM cards, 100s of mobes to big up web tat • The Register:

Your beloved tech darlings revealed for what they are.

Labels: 1984

The secret origin story of the iPhone - The Verge “WHEN I SAW THE RUBBER BAND, INERTIAL SCROLLING, AND A FEW OF THE OTHER THINGS, I THOUGHT, ‘MY GOD, WE CAN BUILD A PHONE OUT OF THIS.’ ”

Obviously, I have no idea if this is accurate but it's a great read.

Labels: 2001, Apple ][ Forever

Developers Are Already Impressed With Apple's Augmented Reality Software - Motherboard: "At this year's annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple released a suite of augmented reality development tools, which it refers to as ARKit. It's only been out for a week, and already, it's being called a game changer. "

Also rich in superlatives and low-calorie. Personally, the amazeballs of Metal has given me reason to forgive Apple for Swift.

Labels: Apple vs. Apple

Executable code allowed in iOS 11 apps for educational purposes, developer reference tools: "Apps designed to teach, develop, or test executable code may, in limited circumstances, download code provided that such code is not used for other purposes."

Consume.

Labels: 1984

Banking trojan executes when targets hover over link in PowerPoint doc | Ars Technica

Whoa!

Labels: security flaw, security is hard

Intel fires warning shots at Microsoft, claims x86 emulation is a patent minefield | Ars Technica: "Windows RT systems could not run any x86 applications. Windows 10 for ARM machines, however, will include a software-based x86 emulator that will provide compatibility with most or all 32-bit x86 applications."

You're in a maze of twisty passages all alike.

Labels: 1984

Internet cameras have hard-coded password that can’t be changed | Ars Technica

Keep shopping for another brand...

Labels: security fail

How a few yellow dots burned the Intercept’s NSA leaker | Ars Technica: "The watermarks, shown in the image above—an enhancement of the scanned document The Intercept published yesterday—were from a Xerox Docucolor printer. Many printers use this or similar schemes, printing faint yellow dots in a grid pattern on printed documents as a form of steganography, encoding metadata about the document into its hard-copy output. "

A cautionary tale.

Labels: 1984

Kaspersky files antitrust suit against Microsoft • The Register: "Kaspersky Lab has filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft over allegations that Redmond is hobbling third-party antivirus software."

And who is going to argue that anti-virus features should not be baked into the operating system?

Labels: 1984

You’ll never guess where Russian spies are hiding their control servers | Ars Technica: "A Russian-speaking hacking group that, for years, has targeted governments around the world is experimenting with a clever new method that uses social media sites to conceal espionage malware once it infects a network of interest."

The hackers are smarter than you are.

Labels: security is hard

Apple announces support for external graphics cards, virtual reality platforms in macOS High Sierra: "Introduced alongside Metal 2, Apple's next-generation graphics API, the forthcoming support fulfills a promise made when Thunderbolt ports were first included in Mac years ago. Specifically, Metal 2 includes new assets that work with external GPUs connected over Thunderbolt 3. "

Hey look: a developer announcement!

Labels: Apple vs. Apple

Goodness gracious, great Chinese 'Fireball' malware infects 250m systems worldwide • The Register

Bigger installed base than a lot of operating systems.

Labels: malvertising

Speaking in Tech: Hacking Microsoft Windows? That's cute • The Register

News for nerds, the stuff that matters.

Labels: 1984

Want to get your game on Steam? $100 is all you need | Ars Technica: "Valve announced today that anyone will be able to publish games on Steam through its previously announced Steam Direct program for "a $100 recoupable publishing fee per game.""

Let me say that I have been watching the evolution with steam with some interest and would much rather write to steam APIs than even, say Microsoft's new C# frameworks for macOS and iOS. Steam has solved the problem of platform API rot for themselves and it will be awesome if they share it with everyone else for $99.

Labels: mac app store

Google prepares publishers for the release of Chrome ad-blocking | Ars Technica: "The Google ad-blocker will block all advertising on sites that have a certain number of "unacceptable ads," according to The Wall Street Journal. That includes ads that have pop-ups, auto-playing video, and "prestitial" count-down ads that delay the display of content."

Possibly falling into the don't bite the hand that feeds you category, I think it's high time that the browser b*tch-slapped the JavaScript "programmers" who should never have been given a programming language to play with to begin with.

Labels: Adobe Flash, amazon vs. google vs. apple

The Man Who Made the Mistake of Trying to Help Wikileaks - Motherboard: "Katz, now 36, tells Motherboard he made a single, failed attempt to crack the password. And WikiLeaks never ended up publishing the video. But Katz lost his job with a US government lab and, after an FBI raid at his work place, his apartment, and the home of his girlfriend's parents, he says the feds subpoenaed him to appear before a grand jury investigating Assange and WikiLeaks."

Land of the free.

Labels: 1984

WikiLeaks says CIA’s “Pandemic” turns servers into infectious Patient Zero | Ars Technica: "Documentation that accompanied Thursday's release said that Pandemic is installed as a minifilter device driver. Jake Williams, a malware expert at Rendition InfoSec, told Ars that this means Pandemic would have to be signed by a valid digital certificate that was either bought or stolen by the operative, or it means the implant would have to be installed using an exploit that circumvented code-signing requirements. "

They have likely circumvented you!

Labels: 1984