Study uncovers invisible mobile app ads gumming up the works

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Fundamentally, users of the mobile apps are affected because those invisible ads are burning though gigabytes of their data plan every day. The smartphone is slowed down; the ads eat away at batteries too. Performance issues are almost certainly caused by the extra load resulting from the apps’ secondary functions, said Forensiq in Bloomberg Business.Forensiq carried out a ten-day study exploring instances of unseen ads. “About 1% of mobile devices that Forensiq observed in the U.S. and 2% to 3% in Europe and Asia were seen running ‘infected’ apps, including those operating Google Android and Apple iOS operating systems, as well as Microsoft’s Windows Mobile,” said Jack Marshall, who covers marketing and the media for The Wall Street Journal. He also quoted Forensiq founder and CEO David Sendroff: “Users may see one ad on their screen, but there might be 5 or 10 in the background that were never viewable.”

Source: Study uncovers invisible mobile app ads gumming up the works

Chinese Company Constructs the World’s Tallest 3D Printed Building

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Chinese company WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Co has expanded the capabilities of 3D printing. After constructing ten houses in under twenty-four hours last year, now they are back with both the world’s tallest 3D printed building – a five-story apartment block – and a 1,100 square meter mansion with internal and external decoration to boot.

Source: Chinese Company Constructs the World’s Tallest 3D Printed Building | ArchDaily

Chinese company assembles 3D-printed villa in less than 3 hours

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A pioneering 3D-printed house just popped up in Xian, China – and Chinese company ZhuoDa “built” the two-story villa in less than three hours. Made up of six 3D-printed modules, the house was assembled like LEGO bricks before a live audience who were then invited to explore the interior. The modular fireproof home can withstand a magnitude-9 earthquake and is made from a special construction material the company is keeping secret.

Source: Chinese company ‘builds’ 3D-printed villa in less than 3 hours | Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

Of course the printing itself took a lot longer, but no figures on how long that was!

NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth

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NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another “Earth.”

The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone — the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet — of a G2-type star, like our sun. The confirmation of Kepler-452b brings the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030.

“On the 20th anniversary year of the discovery that proved other suns host planets, the Kepler exoplanet explorer has discovered a planet and star which most closely resemble the Earth and our Sun,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “This exciting result brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0.”

Kepler-452b is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth and is considered a super-Earth-size planet. While its mass and composition are not yet determined, previous research suggests that planets the size of Kepler-452b have a good chance of being rocky.

Source: NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth

Robot surgeons kill 144 patients, hurt 1,391, malfunction 8,061 times / 1.7 million

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A team of university eggheads have counted up the number of medical cockups in America reported to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2000 to 2013, and found there were 144 deaths during robot-assisted surgery, 1,391 injuries, and 8,061 counts of device malfunctions.

If that sounds terrible, consider that 1.7 million robo-operations were carried out between 2007 and 2013. Whether you’re impressed or appalled, the number of errors has the experts mildly concerned, and they want better safety mechanisms.

Taking Blue Screen of Death to another level

Source: Robot surgeons kill 144 patients, hurt 1,391, malfunction 8,061 times • The Register

It’s tricky to compare these robo-op figures to the error rate of pure-human surgeries for various dull reasons; one being that when mistakes are made, they’re often settled out of court and are never admitted. With a machine involved, someone can blame the hardware.

Hackers invade systems holding medical files on 4.5 million California patients

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UCLA Health hospitals say hackers may have accessed personal information and medical records on 4.5 million patients.The California medical group admitted today that miscreants infiltrated its computer systems as long ago as September. It is possible the intruders accessed databases holding patient names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, medical records, health plan numbers, details of medical conditions, lists of medications, and medical test results.

Source: Hackers invade systems holding medical files on 4.5 million Cali patients • The Register

Aren’t centralised databases great? A one stop shop for all your customer records!

UK DRIPA privacy invasion blocked by EU courts

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The judges identified two key problems with the law: that it does not provide for independent court or judicial scrutiny to ensure that only data deemed “strictly necessary” is examined; and that there is no definition of what constitutes “serious offences” in relation to which material can be investigated. For legal authority, the judges relied on an earlier decision, known as Digital Rights Ireland, by the European Court of Justice in Luxemburg, which is binding on UK courts.In their challenge, Davis and Watson argued that the law allowed the police and security services to spy on citizens without sufficient privacy safeguards.They said the legislation was incompatible with article eight of the European convention on human rights, the right to respect for private and family life, and articles seven and eight of the EU charter of fundamental rights, respect for private and family life and protection of personal data.The MPs complained that use of communications data was not limited to cases involving serious crime, that individual notices of data retention were kept secret, and that no provision was made for those under obligation of professional confidentiality, in particular lawyers and journalists. Nor, they argued, were there adequate safeguards against communications data leaving the EU.

Source: High court rules data retention and surveillance legislation unlawful | World news | The Guardian

Nice to see that at least EU courts can display sanity from time to time!

Rockets powered by microwave beams

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Except Escape Dynamics didn’t fire its engine by setting alight fuel in a controlled explosion, like a traditional rocket. Instead, their engine fired using power beamed at it from a microwave antenna across the room.

]…] It aims to use a giant set of batteries to draw power from the regular electric grid (or on site solar panels, wind turbines, or other available power generation). Once they’re charged and a spaceship is ready to go, power will be sent to a set of modular, phased array microwave antennae spanning a square kilometer. Those antennae will then fire a microwave beam at a heat exchanger on the spaceship. That heat exchanger will heat up the hydrogen in the fuel tank, which is what powers the rocket on the ship into orbit.

Source: This Company Aims To Launch Rockets With Beams Of Power – Forbes

Solar Paper, the world’s thinnest and lightest solar charger by YOLK — Kickstarter goals funded!

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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1398120161/solar-paper-the-worlds-thinnest-and-lightest-solar?ref=category_popular

Solar Paper measures just 9 x 19 x 1.1 cm when folded, and weighs only 120g (4 oz). Watt-for-watt, it is 85 percent smaller than our closest competitor and 75 percent lighter. Most importantly, Solar Paper is just 1.1 cm deep, at its thickest point, compared to 3.8 cm for our competitor, which also weighs a full pound!

AFC Kredieten loan application data hacked, company responds: Meh, not our customers

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A spokeswoman for AFC Kredieten, when asked if customers whose data had been stolen had been informed, replied: “They are not our customers. They are applicants, we had not necessarily organised a loan for them yet. AFC Credits is the victim here. What that group did is illegal and writing about it would be against the law.”

Source: Loan application data hacked, company responds: Meh, not our customers • The Register

Wow! How to not handle this! They collected the data on their website, so that makes them responsible for the data.

ProxyGambit – anonymise your internet traffic via GSM or Radio links

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ProxyGambit is a simple anonymization device that allows you to access the Internet from anywhere in the world without revealing your true location or IP, fracturing your traffic from the Internet/IP through either a long distance radio link or a reverse tunneled GSM bridge that ultimately drops back onto the Internet and exits through a wireless network you’re no where near.

While a point to point link is supported, the reverse GSM-to-TCP bridge allows you to proxy from thousands of miles away with nothing other than a computer and Internet with no direct link back to your originating machine.

UK/US naval partnership – much more integration and interoperability

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we will seek even more opportunities to exchange personnel.

Already a joint UK-US battlestaff have deployed on operations. I see this type of interchange becoming the norm, particularly in headquarters roles, but we are also exploring the opportunity to mutually support niche or perishable skills.

[Fourthly,] we will pursue mutual investment in the technologies that will allow us to operate together, because innovation has always been the hallmark of battle-winning navies.And absolutely crucial to this relationship, is interoperability.

Not as bolt-on or an afterthought, but right from the word go.

So, through the joint development of a Common Missile Compartment for our Strategic Missile Submarines, a common airframe for the Joint Strike Fighter, common weapon systems and stocks, common data protocols, we are establishing interoperability from the outset.

Source: UK/US naval partnership – Speeches – GOV.UK

This is pretty far reaching partnership and in line with the long standing policy of jointness being explored in eg the combined amphibious forces with the Netherlands and military partnership with the French. Given the huge costs of modern combat platforms this seems to me to be the only sensible way of being able to meet future threats, although I would rather the UK focusses her partnerships on the EU member states instead of the US, whose foreign policy is often much more ambitious (and morally questionable) than that of the UK. The US also has a long and proud history of taking secrets from their allies and returning little to nothing of value in return – eg. F-35 source code.

3 Ports USB 3.0 Hub with RJ45 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Converter LAN Wired Network Adapter for anything with USB Ports

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3 Ports USB 3.0 Hub with RJ45 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Converter LAN Wired Network Adapter for Laptops, Ultrabooks and Tablet PCs with USB Ports

Source: Amazon.com: [3-Port USB 3.0 + 1-Port RJ45] iClever IC-HR004 3 Ports USB 3.0 Hub with RJ45 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Converter LAN Wired Network Adapter for Laptops, Ultrabooks and Tablet PCs with USB Ports, Compatible with Windows XP/7/8, Mac OS-X, Linux Chromebook Anroid 4.0 and above: Computers & Accessories

Awesome plan!

Windows 10 keeps your Wi-Fi keys on the MS Cloud

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It’s a good idea – you can easily share your WiFi keys with people in your contacts list. However, Microsoft keeps the keys encrypted (how?) on their own servers to do this. This is not a good idea, turning the MS cloud into a treasure trove of WiFi passwords and locations. Also, if you’re giving out your WiFi password but the other party doesn’t have internet, the system doesn’t work – kind of making it a bit useless.

Tell a pal your password … and their FB mates will get it too

Source: UH OH: Windows 10 will share your Wi-Fi key with your friends’ friends • The Register

Lenovo considers re-using their best design

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Redesigning a laptop with the black rubberised outside, using the old style, non-chicklet keyboard, with red dot and forward and back buttons next to the arrow keys – all the best they got rid of after the 520, but then thin and powerful! Hope they also consider a serial port on it, as well as a built in optical drive and seperate buttons from the mousepad. I might forgive their spyware policy – hey, I reinstall linux on it anyway!

ThinkPad Time Machine?

US personel files and intelligence agents copied – multiple disclosures, could be 18million records out

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And let the shouting begin about who’s fault it was.

‘Most devastating cyber attack in US history’

Source: As the US realises it’s been PWNED, when will OPM heads roll? • The Register

“Incidentally, the stolen OPM database was reportedly being offered on Hell, an onion site hosting a e-crim forum. According to Brian Krebs. However, the database being flogged actually originated from a different, undisclosed, data breach of Unicor.gov, also known as Federal Prison Industries.”

Chances are that everyone now knows how to infiltrate the US government as SF-86 government clearance forms were copied as well:

“Likely included in the hackers’ haul: information about workers’ sexual partners, drug and alcohol abuse, debts, gambling compulsions, marital troubles, and any criminal activity.”

Extortion bonanza: OPM hack exposed “intimate details” of cleared personnel

The best analysis I have found of the hack so far is on Ars Technica, Why the “biggest government hack ever” got past the feds

The way the OPM is handling this is extremely poor, with them admititng first to a breach of 4m records, then the FBI publically telling them it’s 18m. There’s even a 32m record breach being reported somewhere.

Fake Mobile Phone Towers Operating In The UK

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Sky News has found evidence that rogue mobile phone towers, which can listen in on people’s calls without their knowledge, are being operated in the UK.IMSI catchers, also known as Stingrays, mimic mobile phone masts and trick phones into logging on.The controversial surveillance technology is used by police agencies worldwide to target the communications of criminals.However, Stingrays also collect the data of all other phones in the area, meaning innocent people’s communications are spied on.

NB this means they can also collect en masse without a warrant…

US Gov wants your 0-day exploits first and free using Wassenaar Arrangement

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BSecurity researchers have voiced their concerns in the two weeks since the proposed rules were made public that the U.S. rules definition of intrusion software is too broad, and legitimate vulnerability research and proof-of-concept development will come under regulation. – See more at: https://threatpost.com/bug-bounties-in-crosshairs-of-proposed-us-wassenaar-rules/113204#sthash.cL00eTWJ.dpuf

Source: Wassenaar, Bug Bounties and Vulnerability Rewards Programs | Threatpost | The first stop for security news

Not only that, but using vague terminology means that the US could basically force almost anything they want to have to be cleared through the government before being able to export it.