US Intel report: Russia allegedly obtained ‘compromising’ info on Trump

A classified intelligence report on the Kremlin’s suspected efforts to meddle with the U.S. election reportedly includes a bombshell allegation: that Russian operatives have compromising personal and financial information about President-elect Donald Trump.According to CNN, the allegation was presented to Trump last week in a meeting with U.S. intelligence chiefs to discuss claims of Russia’s role in sponsoring hacks that influenced last year’s election.Trump had questioned Russia's role in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee before the meeting, but afterwards changed his tune and conceded Russia could have played a role.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Q&A: Ericsson CTO on 5G Standards, the WiFi Angle, and Connected Cars

Ewaldsson says 5G will disrupt nearly every industry, from cars to entertainment

Cloudflare’s Transparency Report for Second Half 2016 and an Additional Disclosure for 2013

Cloudflare is publishing today its seventh transparency report, covering the second half of 2016. For the first time, we are able to present information on a previously undisclosed National Security Letter (NSL) Cloudflare received in the 2013 reporting period.

Wikipedia provides the most succinct description of an NSL:

Shortly before the New Year, the FBI sent us the following letter about that NSL.

The letter withdrew the nondisclosure provisions (the “gag order”) contained in NSL-12-358696, which had constrained Cloudflare since the NSL was served in February 2013. At that time, Cloudflare objected to the NSL. The Electronic Frontier Foundation agreed to take our case, and with their assistance, we brought a lawsuit under seal to protect its customers' rights.

Early in the litigation, the FBI rescinded the NSL in July 2013 and withdrew the request for information. So no customer Continue reading

Tesla just poached one of Apple’s top engineers

Earlier today, Chris Lattner revealed that he was leaving Apple in pursuit of a new opportunity. While not a household name, Lattner is a highly regarded engineer who not only spearheaded the development of Swift, but also oversaw Apple's Xcode team."This decision wasn't made lightly," Lattner said earlier today, "and I want you all to know that I’m still completely committed to Swift. I plan to remain an active member of the Swift Core Team, as well as a contributor to the swift-evolution mailing list."A short while ago, we've finally ascertained where Lattner is going to end up. Interestingly enough, he'll be taking his talents to Tesla.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Adobe patches critical flaws in Flash Player, Reader and Acrobat

Adobe Systems released security updates for its Flash Player, Adobe Reader and Acrobat products fixing critical vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to install malware on computers.The Flash Player update fixes 13 vulnerabilities, 12 that can lead to remote code execution and one that allows attackers to bypass a security restriction and disclose information. Adobe is not aware of any exploit for these flaws existing in the wild.Users are advised to upgrade to Flash Player version 24.0.0.194 on Windows, Mac and Linux. The Flash Player plug-in bundled with Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer will be automatically upgraded through those browsers' respective update mechanisms.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Adobe patches critical flaws in Flash Player, Reader and Acrobat

Adobe Systems released security updates for its Flash Player, Adobe Reader and Acrobat products fixing critical vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to install malware on computers.The Flash Player update fixes 13 vulnerabilities, 12 that can lead to remote code execution and one that allows attackers to bypass a security restriction and disclose information. Adobe is not aware of any exploit for these flaws existing in the wild.Users are advised to upgrade to Flash Player version 24.0.0.194 on Windows, Mac and Linux. The Flash Player plug-in bundled with Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer will be automatically upgraded through those browsers' respective update mechanisms.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US Intel: Russia hacked Republican groups during election

Democratic groups and figures weren't the only ones targeted in Russia’s suspected campaign to influence last year's U.S. election. Russian cyberspies also targeted computers from state-level Republican groups and stole information from local voter registration records, FBI director James Comey said."There were successful penetrations of some groups and campaigns, particularly at the state-level on the Republican side," Comey said during a senate committee hearing on Tuesday.He and three U.S. intelligence chiefs spoke at the hearing, following their Friday report accused the Kremlin of ordering a covert campaign that helped boost incoming President Donald Trump's election chances.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US Intel: Russia hacked Republican groups during election

Democratic groups and figures weren't the only ones targeted in Russia’s suspected campaign to influence last year's U.S. election. Russian cyberspies also targeted computers from state-level Republican groups and stole information from local voter registration records, FBI director James Comey said. "There were successful penetrations of some groups and campaigns, particularly at the state-level on the Republican side," Comey said during a senate committee hearing on Tuesday. He and three U.S. intelligence chiefs spoke at the hearing, following their Friday report accused the Kremlin of ordering a covert campaign that helped boost incoming President Donald Trump's election chances.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel Joule shipments blocked in key countries, pending certification

If you can't find Intel's Joule developer boards in your country, it's because shipments have been held up.Intel's Joule 570x and 550x are powerful computer boards that can be built as a PC, or be used to build robots, drones, or smart devices. But Intel is now seeking government certification so the boards can be cleared for shipment in those countries.Joule shipments have currently been blocked in a number of countries, including Taiwan, Japan, and Israel, all of which have active technology markets where hobbyists design hardware.Users that have ordered Joule boards from retailers abroad can't receive shipments in the blocked countries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft releases one of its smallest monthly security patch bundles

Microsoft has released its first batch of patches for this year, and it's one of the smallest ever for the company, with only three vulnerabilities fixed across its entire product portfolio.The patches are covered in four security bulletins, but one is dedicated to Flash Player, for which Microsoft distributed patches through Windows update.The only security bulletin rated as critical is the one for Microsoft Office and Office Services and Web Apps. It covers a memory corruption vulnerability that can be exploited by tricking users to open specially crafted files and can lead to remote code execution.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft releases one of its smallest monthly security patch bundles

Microsoft has released its first batch of patches for this year, and it's one of the smallest ever for the company, with only three vulnerabilities fixed across its entire product portfolio.The patches are covered in four security bulletins, but one is dedicated to Flash Player, for which Microsoft distributed patches through Windows update.The only security bulletin rated as critical is the one for Microsoft Office and Office Services and Web Apps. It covers a memory corruption vulnerability that can be exploited by tricking users to open specially crafted files and can lead to remote code execution.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Bleaker times for DNS registrars?

Verisign’s spent the best part of 2016 putting out warnings. The .COM operator and domain industry heavyweight highlighted its Q3 earnings report with a stern “Ending Q4 ’16 Domain Name Base expected to decrease by between 1.5M to 2.8M registrations from the end of Q3 ’16”. A forecast which the company said was based on “on historical seasonality and current market trends.” As 2016 drew to a close, the downturn seemed to materialize with specialist blog The Domains running a story on December 29 entitled “.Com Registrations Loses Another 1 Million Domains In Less Than 2 Weeks; Now Under 127 Million”. —CircleID

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Vintage data-transfer tech gets upgrade after 35 years

Tech artifacts like old Mac computers are finding their way to museums, but some never-say-die technologies continue to serve requirements important to computing. Inside wearables, smart devices, robots, and computers like Raspberry Pi are communications buses called I2C (Inter Integrated Circuits), which date back to 1982, and SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface), which was born in 1979. Those buses have driven short-range communication between circuits and microcontrollers for decades. They now serve as key interfaces for sensor-related communication on smart devices, wearables, and computers. But as devices get equipped with more powerful, bandwidth-hungry sensors like 360-degree cameras, these out-of-date buses won't be able to keep up in the long run. So standards-setting organization MIPI Alliance wants to bury I2C and replace it with the faster and modern I3C bus and also merge SPI into the new interface.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Amazon Alexa ‘wins’ CES, but how well does the virtual assistant really perform?

According to multiple reports, Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant dominated last week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, despite the fact the company had little official presence. Spreading its wings far beyond Amazon’s own Echo, Dot and Tap devices, Alexa popped up on wide variety of new devices demo’d at the show—from refrigerators to air purifiers, baby monitors, headphones and even cars. But Alexa’s rapid spread begs the question: What is using the voice-controlled system really like? What can it actually do, and how well does it do it in real-world kitchens and bedrooms—not to mention cars? Alexa moves in!  Like a lot of other people, I acquired an Alexa-powered device from Amazon—the Amazon Echo Dot—over the holiday season. I know, I’m a bit late to the party, but frankly, I was not convinced any existing voice assistant system was really ready for prime time. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Baidu Picks Mellanox Switches to Support Machine Learning

Mellanox scores a win in its battle with Broadcom.

Old networks can hobble IoT, even in tech paradise

IoT isn’t all brand-new, cutting-edge technology. In fact, some of it’s already suffering through painful upgrade cycles.A case in point is the system that tells transit passengers in the tech hub of San Francisco when the next train or bus will arrive. The NextMuni system, based on the third-party platform NextBus, recently began sending out wildly inaccurate forecasts on many lines.Why? Because most trains and buses had been communicating with NextMuni over AT&T’s 2G network, which was decommissioned on Jan. 1. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) said Friday that about 70 percent of its vehicles haven’t yet been upgraded with newer 3G technology. It was awkward timing, as that same day, the agency was playing up its innovation credentials as it announced a federal grant to fund six transit pilot projects.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

66% Off Nero 2017 Platinum HD Multimedia Suite Software, PC Disk or Download – Deal Alert

Create, edit, burn, convert, organize, stream, rip and play back videos, photos, and music like a professional, with the familiar maximum quality. Create audio CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs. Import and play back your videos in HEVC (H.265) and edit your films with full HD video-editing previews. In addition, the new, direct export of individual sections from long videos saves time and effort. For that special touch, add striking 4K templates and effects, as well as perfect transitions to your videos. Play videos with embedded subtitles and drag and drop extra ones to the playback functions. Use the new Gracenote integration to add and play back original album art for single songs and whole albums. And with the improved Nero MediaHome WiFi Sync App, you can easily transfer photos and videos wirelessly from your iOS and Android smartphone to your PC and vice versa. The PC version typically lists for $129.99, but its price has been discounted a significant 68% to just $44.72 on Amazon, making this a very good deal on the popular software package. See the discounted Nero Platinum 2017 on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

21% off House of Marley Stir It Up Turntable with bonus Bob Marley Legend Album – Deal Alert

A classically designed turntable and category first for House of Marley, the Stir It Up Turntable is simple in form and rich in materials with natural bamboo details and a built-in pre-amp to sync with your favorite speakers and USB jack in back to record on PC.  This deal includes a BOB Marley legend album.  With a typical list price of $249.99, this 21% off deal is now $199.  See the discounted Stir It Up Turntable on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

On the ‘net: Is Proprietary Dead?

A new age of openness is coming upon us. At least that’s what we’re being told. For instance — “The reign of closed solution suites is over, shifting to the rise of open, heterogeneous software ecosystems.” Maybe it’s my 30 years in the information technology business (how many people remember Thomas-Conrad ARCnet hardware?), but I’m not convinced. It’s worth taking a moment to consider the case. —CircleID

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Oops, this Redditor accidentally deleted his company’s DNS in Microsoft Azure’s cloud

One Redditor has made a mistake that you can be assured he will not make again: He deleted an entire zone of his company’s Domain Name System in the Microsoft Azure cloud.“I meant to delete a single record, but it’s the same button in the same place as deleting a zone. As soon as I hit the button I knew what I had done, then all our websites start failing,” the Redditor confesses.That’s an oops. He goes on to describe how his unidentified company’s VOIP phones went offline and the backup domain controller began having issues resolving DNS.Meanwhile, in the 'when it rains it pours' line of thinking, an unrelated error occurred AT THE SAME TIME on the company’s Hyper-V server network interface cards (NICs).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here