Support family and friends with Windows 10’s new Quick Assist app

Among the new features that Microsoft rolled out with last month's Anniversary Update to Windows 10 is an app called Quick Assist -- a remote-access tool that is especially designed to work with Windows 10 systems. As you likely know, remote-access applications allow two computers to connect over the internet so that a person at one of them can remotely control the other. In this way, the person controlling the computer remotely can diagnose or fix a problem with it -- for example, by running an anti-malware program or uninstalling a troublesome hardware driver.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

FBI reports more attempts to hack voter registration system

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has found more attempts to hack the voter registration systems of states, ahead of national elections.The agency had reportedly found evidence in August that foreign hackers had breached state election databases in Illinois and Arizona, but it appears that there have been other attempts as well, besides frequent scanning activities, which the FBI describes as preludes for possible hacking attempts."There have been a variety of scanning activities, which is a preamble for potential intrusion activities, as well as some attempted intrusions at voter registration databases beyond those we knew about in July and August," FBI Director James Comey told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FBI reports more attempts to hack voter registration system

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has found more attempts to hack the voter registration systems of states, ahead of national elections.The agency had reportedly found evidence in August that foreign hackers had breached state election databases in Illinois and Arizona, but it appears that there have been other attempts as well, besides frequent scanning activities, which the FBI describes as preludes for possible hacking attempts."There have been a variety of scanning activities, which is a preamble for potential intrusion activities, as well as some attempted intrusions at voter registration databases beyond those we knew about in July and August," FBI Director James Comey told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FBI reports more attempts to hack voter registration system

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has found more attempts to hack the voter registration systems of states, ahead of national elections.The agency had reportedly found evidence in August that foreign hackers had breached state election databases in Illinois and Arizona, but it appears that there have been other attempts as well, besides frequent scanning activities, which the FBI describes as preludes for possible hacking attempts."There have been a variety of scanning activities, which is a preamble for potential intrusion activities, as well as some attempted intrusions at voter registration databases beyond those we knew about in July and August," FBI Director James Comey told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FBI reports more attempts to hack voter registration system

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has found more attempts to hack the voter registration systems of states, ahead of national elections.The agency had reportedly found evidence in August that foreign hackers had breached state election databases in Illinois and Arizona, but it appears that there have been other attempts as well, besides frequent scanning activities, which the FBI describes as preludes for possible hacking attempts."There have been a variety of scanning activities, which is a preamble for potential intrusion activities, as well as some attempted intrusions at voter registration databases beyond those we knew about in July and August," FBI Director James Comey told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A new Microsoft tool shows how Win 10 might affect devices

IT administrators trying to figure out how to move their organizations to Windows 10 have a new tool that might change the game. This week, Microsoft released the Windows Upgrade Analytics Service, designed to make it easier to decide whether you can carry out a massive upgrade.WUAS gives administrators a sense of what drivers and applications are running in their environment, as well as how many devices are running Windows 10. Using Microsoft telemetry data, it decides whether those devices and the software running on them will be compatible with Windows 10 and suggest fixes for compatibility problems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Yahoo hackers weren’t state-sponsored, a security firm says

Common criminals, not state-sponsored hackers, carried out the massive 2014 data breach that exposed information about millions of Yahoo user accounts, a security firm said Wednesday. Yahoo has blamed state actors for the attack, but it was actually elite hackers-for-hire who did it, according to InfoArmor, which claims to have some of the stolen information.    The independent security firm found the alleged data as part of its investigation into "Group E," a team of five professional hackers believed to be from Eastern Europe.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Yahoo hackers weren’t state-sponsored, a security firm says

Common criminals, not state-sponsored hackers, carried out the massive 2014 data breach that exposed information about millions of Yahoo user accounts, a security firm said Wednesday. Yahoo has blamed state actors for the attack, but it was actually elite hackers-for-hire who did it, according to InfoArmor, which claims to have some of the stolen information.    The independent security firm found the alleged data as part of its investigation into "Group E," a team of five professional hackers believed to be from Eastern Europe.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Yahoo hackers weren’t state-sponsored, a security firm says

Common criminals, not state-sponsored hackers, carried out the massive 2014 data breach that exposed information about millions of Yahoo user accounts, a security firm said Wednesday.Yahoo has blamed state actors for the attack, but it was actually elite hackers-for-hire who did it, according to InfoArmor, which claims to have some of the stolen information.   The independent security firm found the alleged data as part of its investigation into "Group E," a team of five professional hackers believed to be from Eastern Europe.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Yahoo hackers weren’t state-sponsored, a security firm says

Common criminals, not state-sponsored hackers, carried out the massive 2014 data breach that exposed information about millions of Yahoo user accounts, a security firm said Wednesday.Yahoo has blamed state actors for the attack, but it was actually elite hackers-for-hire who did it, according to InfoArmor, which claims to have some of the stolen information.   The independent security firm found the alleged data as part of its investigation into "Group E," a team of five professional hackers believed to be from Eastern Europe.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

BrandPost: Meeting enterprise network demands with hybrid WANs

Frost & Sullivan recently declared that the “enterprise wide area networking (WAN) space is going through a major transformation”. As any enterprise IT and networking executive well knows, voice video and data are continuing to drive WAN demand, but there are even more challenging applications coming to the fore. As Frost & Sullivan notes, “the growing penetration of cloud computing, big data applications, and mobility applications are dictating new requirements on the enterprise.” So what’s needed to relieve pressure on the corporate network? According to the report, a hybrid VPN approach that leverages the best of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) VPNs and public internet-based IPSec VPNs is the direction enterprises are moving in or at least evaluating.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

BrandPost: High Security for Workers and Guests

Networking is difficult to manage, cost consuming and subject to huge security concerns. More and more administrators would just as soon pass off some of the core responsibilities for keep their networks operating properly and safely.The typical enterprise today is either managing or outsourcing a bewildering array of WAN hardware that includes switches, routers, load balancers, VPNs, accelerators and firewalls – essentially a separate device for each core network function.Recently, an IDG Research Services survey revealed that 75 percent of respondents would value the ability to offload installing, configuring, and running network hardware. That aligns with an overall trend to rely more on managed service providers for key business processes, which, according to research published by consulting and research firm Everest Group, now represents a global market of $1.5 billion .To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Some technical notes on the PlayPen case

In March of 2015, the FBI took control of a Tor onion childporn website ("PlayPen"), then used an 0day exploit to upload malware to visitors's computers, to identify them. There is some controversy over the warrant they used, and government mass hacking in general. However, much of the discussion misses some technical details, which I thought I'd discuss here.

IP address

In a post on the case, Orin Kerr claims:
retrieving IP addresses is clearly a search
He is wrong, at least, in the general case. Uploading malware to gather other things (hostname, username, MAC address) is clearly a search. But discovering the IP address is a different thing.

Today's homes contain many devices behind a single router. The home has only one public IP address, that of the router. All the other devices have local IP addresses. The router then does network address translation (NAT) in order to convert outgoing traffic to all use the public IP address.

The FBI sought the public IP address of the NAT/router, not the local IP address of the perp's computer. The malware ("NIT") didn't search the computer for the IP address. Instead the NIT generated network traffic, destined to the FBI's computers. Continue reading

Windows Server 2016: End Of One Era, Start Of Another

What constitutes an operating system changes with the work a system performs and the architecture that defines how that work is done. All operating systems tend to expand out from their initial core functionality, embedding more and more functions. And then, every once in a while, there is a break, a shift in technology that marks a fundamental change in how computing gets done.

It is fair to say that Windows Server 2016, which made it formal debut at Microsoft’s Ignite conference today and which starts shipping on October 1, is at the fulcrum of a profound change where an

Windows Server 2016: End Of One Era, Start Of Another was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Apple to call its next smartphone the iPhone 8, report claims

With the iPhone 7 now available in stores, it was only a matter of time before we began looking ahead towards Apple’s 2017 iPhone model. While Apple traditionally follows a tick-tock strategy for iPhone updates wherein they release a standalone numerical model and then follow it up with an ‘s’ model, there are rumblings that Apple’s iPhone next year will be called the iPhone 8.Rumors of Apple’s plan to call its 2017 iPhone the iPhone 8 as opposed to the iPhone 7s first emerged earlier this year. Now, a few months later, we now have even more evidence that Apple’s next-gen iPhone will be the iPhone 8.According to a report from Business Insider, an Apple employee at Apple’s offices in Herzilya, Israel relayed that they are already referring to the upcoming iPhone internally as the iPhone 8.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Up To $65 In Digital Content When You Purchase Fire TV Stick With Alexa Control – Deal Alert

The next generation of the bestselling Fire TV Stick. The most powerful with the fastest Wi-Fi and most accurate voice search of any streaming media stick–now with the Alexa Voice Remote. Enjoy over 7,000 apps, games, and Alexa skills including Netflix, Hulu, HBO NOW, YouTube, Amazon Video, NBC, WatchESPN, Disney, and more. Launch and control content with the included Alexa Voice Remote. Simply say, “Play Game of Thrones” or “Launch Netflix” and Alexa will respond instantly. Plus, play music, find movie show times, order a pizza, and more—just ask. Activate your All-New Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote by October 31st and receive 1 month of Sling TV, 2 Months of Hulu, and a $10 Amazon Video Credit. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

26% off American Red Cross Blackout Buddy, The Emergency Nightlight – Deal Alert

Just leave the slim and trim Blackout Buddy in your wall socket and you’ll never be in the dark. It automatically turns on when the power goes out so that you can easily locate it. Then, fold away the prongs and you've got yourself a flashlight. A very bright idea from the American Red Cross. Flip a switch and the Blackout Buddy also doubles as an LED nightlight, so you can keep your kids' rooms, hallways, or kitchen always illuminated. The Blackout Buddy keeps itself charged and provides up to 4 hours of light when needed. It averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 1,300 people on Amazon (read reviews). Its typical list price of $17.50 has been reduced 26% to just $13.01.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here