FCC to fine Total Call Mobile record $51M for defrauding Lifeline program

Detailing a litany of blatant, widespread and systematic abuses, the FCC late yesterday announced its intention to fine wireless provider Total Call Mobile some $51 million for allegedly creating tens of thousands of phony Lifeline accounts that defrauded the Universal Service Fund of almost $10 million.The fine would be the largest ever levied against a Lifeline provider, according to the FCC.    The Lifeline program, established in 1996, provides discounted and free landline and mobile phone service to low-income consumers. Derided as “Obama phones,” the program has been controversial and plagued by fraud.“We reserve the strongest sanctions for those who defraud or abuse federal programs,” said Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc.  “Any waste, fraud, or abuse in the Lifeline program diverts scarce funds from the consumers they are meant to serve and undermines the public’s trust in the program and its stewardship.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Adobe fixes 24 vulnerabilities in Flash Player, including an actively exploited one

Adobe Systems released a security update for Flash Player to fix 24 critical vulnerabilities, including one that hackers have been exploiting to infect computers with ransomware over the past week.The company advised users Thursday to upgrade to the newly released Flash Player 21.0.0.213 on Windows and Mac and Flash Player 11.2.202.616 on Linux. The Flash Player Extended Support Release was also updated to version 18.0.0.343.As usual, the Flash Player build bundled with Google Chrome on all platforms, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer for Windows 10 and IE for Windows 8.1 will be upgraded automatically through the update mechanisms of those browsers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Adobe fixes 24 vulnerabilities in Flash Player, including an actively exploited one

Adobe Systems released a security update for Flash Player to fix 24 critical vulnerabilities, including one that hackers have been exploiting to infect computers with ransomware over the past week.The company advised users Thursday to upgrade to the newly released Flash Player 21.0.0.213 on Windows and Mac and Flash Player 11.2.202.616 on Linux. The Flash Player Extended Support Release was also updated to version 18.0.0.343.As usual, the Flash Player build bundled with Google Chrome on all platforms, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer for Windows 10 and IE for Windows 8.1 will be upgraded automatically through the update mechanisms of those browsers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nvidia Not Sunsetting Tesla Kepler And Maxwell GPUs Just Yet

Switch chips have a very long technical and economic lives, considerably longer than that of a Xeon processor used in a server – something on the order of seven or eight years compared to three or four. As it turns out, the various GPUs used in Nvidia’s Tesla accelerators look like they, too, will have very long technical and economic lives.

Even after a new technology is introduced, sometimes the old one can be had at a much cheaper price and therefore continues to be a good price/performer even after it has been presumably obsoleted by an improved product. Its …

Nvidia Not Sunsetting Tesla Kepler And Maxwell GPUs Just Yet was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Korea’s working on a cool combination: 5G and the Winter Olympics

If you want to be one of the first to experience 5G mobile performance, get ready to bundle up.South Korean carrier KT has said it wants to launch the first 5G network at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. On Thursday, KT announced a successful trial of one potential 5G technology in the mountain resort region.The carrier tested a system from NEC that uses super-high frequencies to transmit data at speeds as high as 3.2Gbps (bits per second). Though the companies didn't mention the Olympic Games, and there's no guarantee the technology will be part of the 5G standard, it's no coincidence the trial took place high in the Taebaek Mountains.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to become a Network Engineer?

If you aspire to become a network engineer, this post is going to guide you in making up your mind. Read through. From the outside, the whole information technology profession can seem mysterious. Mentioning IT summons various images ranging from artificially lit cubicle farms to young professionals roller skating through well decorated lounge spaces that …

Open-source vulnerabilities database shuts down

An open-source project dedicated to cataloguing a huge range of computer security flaws has closed its doors as of Tuesday, according to an announcement on the Open-Source Vulnerability Database’s blog.The OSVDB, which was founded in 2002, was meant to be an independent repository for security information, allowing researchers to compare notes without oversight from large corporate software companies.One of its founders was HD Moore, a well-known hacker and security researcher, best known for his development of the Metasploit framework, a software suite widely used for penetration testing. Moore recently left security firm Rapid7 for a forthcoming venture capital firm that will focus on infosec startups.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Open-source vulnerabilities database shuts down

An open-source project dedicated to cataloguing a huge range of computer security flaws has closed its doors as of Tuesday, according to an announcement on the Open-Source Vulnerability Database’s blog.The OSVDB, which was founded in 2002, was meant to be an independent repository for security information, allowing researchers to compare notes without oversight from large corporate software companies.One of its founders was HD Moore, a well-known hacker and security researcher, best known for his development of the Metasploit framework, a software suite widely used for penetration testing. Moore recently left security firm Rapid7 for a forthcoming venture capital firm that will focus on infosec startups.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple’s aging Mac Pro is falling way behind Windows rivals

Apple's Mac Pro is aging fast, especially with screaming fast Windows desktops being announced in recent weeks.Introduced in 2013, the Mac Pro was a top-of-the-line desktop at that time. It looked exquisite in its sleek cylindrical design, and it sported new features like Thunderbolt 2 ports, plus the latest CPUs, GPUs and NVMe storage.More importantly, it was a signal that Apple had not abandoned the professional computing market. The latest Mac Pro was a relief to those clamoring for an upgrade from an older version of the computer, which last received a face-lift in 2010.But the Mac Pro is again falling behind the competition, with powerful new workstations from Lenovo, Dell and HP carrying superior technology. The PC companies are waging an active campaign to tempt Mac Pro users, many of them creative professionals, to move over to Windows PCs with better CPUs, GPUs, and memory. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft’s focus on Windows 10 upgrades is a mistake

Microsoft made a mistake at its recent developers conference when it didn't use the opportunity to push customers to buy new hardware, an analyst said today."On behalf of the Windows 10 team, we're happy to welcome all of these customers to Windows 10, whether they have a new PC, a five-year-old PC, or a Mac [emphasis added]," said Terry Myerson, the executive who leads the company's devices and operating systems group, after touting a new number of active Windows 10 users.Carolina Milanesi, principal analyst at Creative Strategies, picked up on Myerson's "five-year-old PC," and didn't like what she heard.INSIDER Review: Enterprise guide to Windows 10 "While Microsoft stated it is fine with some of those users having five-year-old PCs, a clear response to Phil Schiller's recent comment on the topic during Apple's last launch event, we strongly believe Microsoft should actually be concerned about the issue," Milanesi wrote in an analysis published on Creative Strategies' website.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hyperlinking to unlawfully published copyright images is still legal, says top European judge

Publishing hyperlinks to photos from, say, Playboy magazine is legal -- even if the website linked to doesn't have permission to publish the images, a top European Union judge has said.That's because hyperlinking to a document does not constitute a fresh publication, according to Melchior Wathelet, advocate general of the Court of Justice of the EU, in a legal opinion issued Thursday.But his opinion, on a case brought by the publisher of Playboy magazine, is only advisory, and it still remains for the CJEU to make a final ruling on the matter. The question of whether hyperlinking constitutes publication is important to copyright and libel law. It was last addressed by the CJEU in 2014, when it found that Swedish media aggregation site Retriever did not need a newspaper's permission to link to stories. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Siemens and Airbus to push electric aviation engines

Siemens and Airbus teamed up today to develop electric and hybrid electric/combustion engines for commercial and private aircraft.The companies said they would amass a joint development team of about 200 employees that would jointly develop prototypes for various propulsion systems with power classes ranging from a few 100 kilowatts up to 10 and more megawatts, for short, local trips with aircraft below 100 seats, helicopters or unmanned aircraft up to classic short and medium-range flights.+More on Network World: The most magnificent high-tech flying machines+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Siemens and Airbus to push electric aviation engines

Siemens and Airbus teamed up today to develop electric and hybrid electric/combustion engines for commercial and private aircraft.The companies said they would amass a joint development team of about 200 employees that would jointly develop prototypes for various propulsion systems with power classes ranging from a few 100 kilowatts up to 10 and more megawatts, for short, local trips with aircraft below 100 seats, helicopters or unmanned aircraft up to classic short and medium-range flights.+More on Network World: The most magnificent high-tech flying machines+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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