Adware turns a tidy profit for those who sneak it into downloads

If you've ever downloaded software, chances are you've experienced an all-too-common surprise: ads or other unwanted programs that tagged along for the ride, only to pop up on your PC uninvited. Turns out there's a highly lucrative global industry making it happen, with "layers of deniability" to protect those involved.That's according to researchers from Google and New York University's Tandon School of Engineering, who will present this week what they say is the first analysis of the link between so-called "pay-per-install" (PPI) practices and the distribution of unwanted software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

90% off Become an Ethical Hacker With This Complete eLearning Bundle – Deal Alert

With cyberattacks putting everyone on edge, companies are looking for ethical hackers--IT pros paid handsomely to hack their network, expose security flaws, and fix them before someone else breaks in. Learn the tools of the ethical hacking trade with the Become an Ethical Hacker Bundle, now only $44.99 for a limited time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AT&T fined after suspected drug traffickers slip charges into phone bills

AT&T will pay a $7.75 million fine for allowing suspected drug traffickers to add millions of dollars in bogus directory assistance charges to its customers' land-line bills.The extra charges of about $9 a month were discovered during an investigation of two Cleveland-area companies for drug-related crimes and money laundering, the Federal Communications Commission said Monday."A phone bill should not be a tool for drug traffickers, money launderers, and other unscrupulous third parties to fleece American consumers," FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said in a statement. The settlement will allow AT&T customers "charged for this sham service" to get their money back, he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Riding the Wave of Linux Greatness

We at Cumulus Networks firmly believe that Linux networking is awesome, as it provides a high function, extensible platform for networking. Linux has always been the platform of choice for decades; every system today starts with Linux as its base and builds around it.

With the advent of the virtual machine and container networking, the constructs that used to be relegated to physical switches are applicable on servers, we thrive on the fact that Cumulus Linux networking IS Linux networking.

So, what does it take to bring that the greatest and latest in Linux to you? It takes two things really:

  • The latest Linux kernel, with all the new features and facilities.
  • The latest system libraries that enable those features for applications and the latest versions of the huge ecosystem of Linux software packages.

Kernel at the Core

The kernel is the center of the Linux operating system. We work closely with the Linux kernel community to add new networking features or extend Linux networking APIs for NOSes. With Cumulus Linux 3.0, we started with Linux kernel version 4.1 and networking patches from even more recent kernels. This provides networking applications with the latest Linux APIs, Continue reading

The Middle Ground for the Nvidia Tesla K80 GPU

Although the launch of Pascal stole headlines this year on the GPU computing front, the company’s Tesla K80 GPU, which was launched at the end of 2014, has been finding a home across a broader base of applications and forthcoming systems.

A quick look across the supercomputers on the Top 500 list shows that most sites are still using the Tesla K40 accelerator (launched in 2013) in their systems, with several still on the K20 (emerged in 2012). The Comet supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (sports 2 K80s across 36 out of 1944 system nodes), an unnamed energy …

The Middle Ground for the Nvidia Tesla K80 GPU was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

snaproute Go BGP Code Dive (7): Moving to Connect

In last week’s post, we looked at how snaproute’s implementation of BGP in Go moves into trying to connect to a new peer—we chased down the connectRetryTimer to see what it does, but we didn’t fully work through what the code does when actually moving to connect. To jump back into the code, this is where we stopped—

func (st *ConnectState) processEvent(event BGPFSMEvent, data interface{}) {
  switch event {
  ....
    case BGPEventConnRetryTimerExp:
      st.fsm.StopConnToPeer()
      st.fsm.StartConnectRetryTimer()
      st.fsm.InitiateConnToPeer()
....

code-diveWhen the connectRetryTimer timer expires, it is not only restarted, but a new connection to the peer is attempted through st.fsm.InitiateConnToPeer(). This, then, is the next stop on the road to figuring out how this implementation of BGP brings up a peer. Before we get there, though, there’s an oddity here that needs to be addressed. If you look through the BGP FSM code, you will only find this call to initiate a connection to a peer in a few places. There is this call, and then one other call, here—

func (st *ConnectState) enter() {
  ....
  st.fsm.AcceptPeerConn()
  st.fsm.InitiateConnToPeer()
}

The rest of the instances of InitiateConnToPeer() are related to the definition of the function. Continue reading

DARPA wants to build very low frequency wireless systems

Wireless transmitters that operate at very or ultra low frequencies (0.3‐30 kHz) typically require some big antenna complexes to handle their communications. Scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) said they are interested looking to eliminate that issue and develop smaller physical structures that could handle new long-distance communication applications. + DARPA wants huge Holy Grail of mobile ad hoc networks DARPA in search of a 100 Gb/sec wireless technology that can penetrate clutter+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

I gamergate Meredith Mciver

One of the basic skills of hackers is "doxxing". It's actually not a skill. All you need to do is a quick search of public records databases through sites like Spokeo, Intelius, and Ancestry.com and you can quickly dox anybody.

During the Republican convention, Trump's wife plagiarized Obama's wife in a speech. A person in the Trump organization named "Meredith Mciver" took the blame for it. Trump haters immediately leapt to the conclusion that this person was fake, pointing out her Twitter and Facebook accounts were created after the controversy started.

So I'm going to go all gamergate on her and see what I can find.

According to New York public records, somebody named "Meredith Mciver" has been working for a company called the "The Trump Organization" as "Staff Writer" for many years. Her parents are Phyllis and James Mciver. Her older sister is Karen Mciver. She has an apartment at  588 W End Avenue in Manhattan (though I won't tell you which apartment -- find out for yourself). Through Ancestry.com, you can track down more information, such as her yearbook photo from 1962.

Now, all these public records could be fake, of course, but that would require Continue reading

Hackers hit Oracle’s Micros payment systems division

Russian cybercriminals have infiltrated systems at Micros, an Oracle division that is one of the world's biggest vendors of point of sale payment systems for shops and restaurants, according to an influential security blogger.The hack has affected 700 computer systems at Micros and is thought to have begun with infiltration on a single machine at the company, said Brian Krebs on his Krebs on Security blog on Monday.The incident is worrying for the potential size of the hack and the systems affected. Oracle acquired Micros in 2014, when it said Micros systems are used in more than 330,000 sites in 180 countries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hackers hit Oracle’s Micros payment systems division

Russian cybercriminals have infiltrated systems at Micros, an Oracle division that is one of the world's biggest vendors of point of sale payment systems for shops and restaurants, according to an influential security blogger.The hack has affected 700 computer systems at Micros and is thought to have begun with infiltration on a single machine at the company, said Brian Krebs on his Krebs on Security blog on Monday.The incident is worrying for the potential size of the hack and the systems affected. Oracle acquired Micros in 2014, when it said Micros systems are used in more than 330,000 sites in 180 countries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

4 signs you’re a victim of ransomware

The word ransomware conjures images of kidnappers and ransom notes. But that doesn't quite capture the reality of PC ransomware. In fact, "it’s not always obvious when ransomware is the problem," says Mike Cobb, director of engineering at data recovery and digital forensics firm DriveSavers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Hacked companies still prioritize innovation over cybersecurity

Eight out of 10 executives surveyed acknowledge that their companies had been compromised by cyber attacks in the past two years, according to a new study by KPMG. Yet less than half of the 403 CIOs, CISOs and CTOs the firm surveyed said that they had invested in information security in the past year.“We’re still seeing companies taking a passive or reactive approach toward cybersecurity, when in fact cyber should be a top-line business issue thought about and practiced company-wide," says Greg Bell, leader of KPMG's U.S. cyber practice. Bell spoke to CIO.com after publishing his “Consumer Loss Barometer" report in July.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why (and how) to start planning your HoloLens apps

Augmented reality isn't new. Boeing has been using it since the 1990s to speed up installing the hundreds of miles of writing inside its planes. But those early systems were both clunky and expensive, and, so far, more portable augmented reality wearables like Google Glass haven't taken off. Microsoft's mixed reality HoloLens looks set to change that.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Researcher scams fake tech support scammer, infects scammer’s PC with Locky ransomware

While the big security news was happening in Las Vegas at conferences, security researcher Ivan Kwiatkowski’s story was too funny to pass up – at least if you loathe scareware scams.After only 30 minutes on a new computer, his parents surfed to an online tech support scam which claimed their PC was infected with Zeus. Ivan Kwiatkowski Fairly atrocious attempt at scareware by tech support scammers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Researcher scams fake tech support scammer, infects scammer’s PC with Locky ransomware

While the big security news was happening in Las Vegas at conferences, security researcher Ivan Kwiatkowski’s story was too funny to pass up – at least if you loathe scareware scams.After only 30 minutes on a new computer, his parents surfed to an online tech support scam which claimed their PC was infected with Zeus. Ivan Kwiatkowski Fairly atrocious attempt at scareware by tech support scammers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A Few Thoughts from Black Hat 2016

Last week’s Black Hat 2016 conference was a whirlwind of activity.  Here’s a few of my takeaways:1.      I kind of like Black Hat better than the RSA Conference.  At Black Hat, you talk about the real challenges facing our industry and discuss intellectual ways to overcome them.  At RSA, everyone throws buzz words at you and tells you how they solve all your problems.  And maybe it’s because RSA is in San Francisco, but you can always count on the Sand Hill Rd. crowd to show up at RSA and let you know how rich they’ve become protecting all of our sensitive data.  Black Hat is whiskey and grit, RSA is Merlot and PR messaging.  In other words, the folks who really know, live, and fight for cybersecurity are in Vegas while those looking to make money on cybersecurity are at RSA.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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