This is likely related to the S209 trademark Subaru filed in the US.
Source: CNET
Two-factor authentication might be a great way to protect your online accounts, but it isn’t foolproof. A new report by Amnesty International has found that hackers using automated tools to pish both a user’s password and authentication code.
The post Hackers find a way to bypass Gmail two-factor authentication appeared first on Digital Trends.
Source: Digital trends
Last month, we broke the news that Corel was buying Parallels, a pioneer in virtualization, to expand its footprint in the world of business software. Now that deal is official: today Canada-based Corel confirmed that it has acquired the company. Now products like CorelDraw and productivity apps like WordPerfect will sit alongside Parallels Desktop for Mac, Parallels Toolbox for Windows and Mac, Parallels Access, Parallels Mac Management for Microsoft SCCM, and Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) — key products for businesses that run networks of computers that are not all uniformly running one OS, and across multiple locations.
“We’re excited to welcome our new Parallels employees to Corel’s global organization,” said Patrick Nichols, CEO of Corel, in a statement. “From our highly complementary product portfolios to our shared business models and strategies, Corel and Parallels are a great fit. Thanks to the combined power of our technologies and teams, we see tremendous opportunities to drive continued growth and success for our businesses and most importantly, our customers.”
Terms of the deal are not being disclosed but understand from sources close to the company that it was an all-cash deal, and that it was not a big exit.
Shifting practices in the business world — the rise of cloud-based services, increasingly common bring-your-own-device hardware policies, and a wider variety of work environments outside of traditional, single offices — has created a demand for better software management practices, covering not just important things like security but also usability. That presents an opportunity for virtualization companies. Corel said it expects to make “significant investment into the Parallels business” because it believes it has “exceptional opportunities for growth”. In its case that will likely include closer integration between its existing products and those of Parallels.
“Parallels and Corel share a common vision, market leadership, and passion for innovation. We look to forward to continuing to serve our customers and partners with best-in-class software as part of Corel,” said Jack Zubarev, CEO of Parallels, in a statement.
Corel has changed ownership and gone in and out of being listed publicly a number of times since being founded in the 1980s in Ottawa. It’s now owned by Vector Capital, which is essentially the one buying Parallels and setting the investment strategy.
Parallels was originally founded in 1999 with roots in Russia and is currently headquartered in Bellevue, Washington.
It has never made much of a fanfare around its financing or valuation. According to PitchBook, its last funding round was in 2015, an undisclosed amount from Endeavour Vision, KG Investments, Maxfield Capital, Savano Capital Partners and others. It raised $300 million from Ingram Micro the year before that.
As we have written before, it’s not fully clear what the rationale was for the sale, except we had heard that its investors were longstanding and looking to exit, while Corel has slowly been consolidating a number of smaller software businesses, and this fits well with its bigger strategy there. Another recent acquisition was Gravit Designer from Germany, acquired earlier this year.
Source: TechCrunch
Gamers looking to jump into Nivida’s GeForce game streaming service may want to pay attention to a new list of routers officially recommended by the company with an eye toward decreasing latency and improving your overall experience.
The post Nvidia says you can supercharge GeForce Now game streaming with these routers appeared first on Digital Trends.
Source: Digital trends
The Justice Department has unsealed a damning indictment that links an aggressive campaign to hack into U.S. tech and industry giants to spies working for the Chinese government.
The indictment, out Thursday, accuses China’s main intelligence agency — the Ministry of State Security — of hacking into dozens of tech companies and government departments, largely in an effort to steal intellectual property. Prosecutors said that the hackers were part of a Beijing-backed group, dubbed APT10, which various security companies had previously linked to China.
Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong, both nationals and residents of China, were charged with three counts each of computer hacking, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
None of the companies were named, but noted that the hackers targeted and “stole hundreds of gigabytes of sensitive data” in aviation, space and satellite technology, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, oil and gas exploration, as well as communications and computer processor firms, and maritime technology companies.
Only the NASA Goddard Space Center and the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Lab were named in the filing.
The indictment also said that the hackers also stole personally identifiable information — including names, dates of birth, email addresses, salary information, and Social Security numbers — on more than 100,000 U.S. Navy personnel.
The hackers used spearphishing — or highly targeted phishing campaigns — to install malware using malicious Microsoft Word documents and steal data from targeted computers, the indictment reads. Others used keyloggers to steal usernames and passwords to break into employees’ accounts.
“We want China to cease illegal cyber activities and honor its commitment to the international community, but the evidence suggests that China may not intend to live up to its promises.” said U.S. deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, in remarks at the Justice Department in Washington DC.
The latest indictments come as tensions between the U.S. and China increased, following the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in Canada, after being accused of fraud by the U.S. She faces up to 30 years in prison if found guilty.
Prosecutors said that China was conducting its “extensive” hacking campaign over the last three years, With this indictment, the Trump administration has effectively scrubbed an Obama-era bilateral agreement, signed by President Obama and China’s premier Xi Jinping in 2015, under which the two countries agreed not to launch hostile cyberattacks and espionage.
Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer at CrowdStrike, which has tracked APT10 in recent years, called the Justice Department’s move “unprecedented and encouraging” to take action against China.
“Today’s announcement of indictments against Ministry of State Security (MSS), whom we deem now to be the most active Chinese cyber threat actor, is another step in a campaign that has been waged to indicate to China that its blatant theft of IP is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” he said. “While this action alone will not likely solve the issue and companies in US, Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan will continue to be targeted by MSS for industrial espionage, it is an important element in raising the cost and isolating them internationally.”
The UK government also said in a statement that it is “holding responsible elements of the Chinese government for an extensive cyber campaign.”
“The National Cyber Security Centre assesses with the highest level of probability that the group widely known as APT10 is responsible for this sustained cyber campaign focused on large-scale service providers,” said a statement from the U.K.’s Foreign Office. “The group almost certainly continues to target a range of global companies, seeking to gain access to commercial secrets.”
U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called the hacking campaign “one of the most significant and widespread cyber intrusions against the UK and allies uncovered to date.”
Several other allied nations, including Japan and Australia are expected to release statements to support the U.S. indictment.
Prosecutors conceded that prosecutions are unlikely, given that the named hackers are Chinese residents and extraditions are rare. Thursday’s indictment represents the department’s latest in “name and shame” charges, designed to instead restrict the international travels of those named in the filing but also to send a warning to others.
“We hope the day will come when the defendants face justice under the rule of law in a federal courtroom,” said Rosenstein.
China has long rebuffed complaints from other nations accusing it of cyberattacks and espionage, but didn’t immediately comment on Thursday’s indictment.
Source: TechCrunch
Mystery drone operator/s have grounded flights at the UK’s second largest airport, disrupting the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of people hoping to get away over the festive period.
The BBC reports that Gatwick Airport’s runway has been shut since Wednesday night on safety grounds, after drones were spotted being flown repeatedly over the airfield.
It says airlines have been advised to cancel all flights up to at least 16:00 GMT, with the airport saying the runway would not open “until it was safe to do so”.
More than 20 police units are reported to be searching for the drone operator/s.
The UK made amendments to existing legislation this year to make flying a drone within 1km of an airport illegal, after a planned drone bill got delayed.
The safety-focused tweak to the law five months ago also restricted drone flight height to 400ft. A registration scheme for drone owners is also set to be introduced next year.
Under current UK law, a drone operator who is charged with recklessly or negligently acting in a manner likely to endanger an aircraft or a person in an aircraft can face a penalty of up to five years in prison or an unlimited fine, or both.
Although, in the Gatwick incident case, it’s not clear whether simply flying a drone near a runway would constitute an attempt to endanger an aircraft under the law. Even though the incident has clearly caused major disruption to travellers as the safety-conscious airport takes no chances.
Further adding to the misery of disrupted passengers today, the Civil Aviation Authority told the BBC it considered the event to be an “extraordinary circumstance” — meaning airlines aren’t obligated to pay financial compensation.
There’s been a marked rise in UK aircraft incidents involving drones over the past five years, with more than 100 recorded so far this year, according to data from the UK Airprox Board.
Aviation minister Baroness Sugg faced a barrage of questions about the Gatwick disruption in the House of Lords today, including accusations the government has dragged its feet on bringing in technical specifications that might have avoided the disruption.
“These drones are being operated illegally… It seems that the drones are being used intentionally to disrupt the airport, but, as I said, this is an ongoing investigation,” she told peers, adding: “We changed the law earlier this year, bringing in an exclusion zone around airports. We are working with manufactures and retailers to ensure that the new rules are communicated to those who purchase drones.
“From November next year, people will need to register their drone and take an online safety test. We have also recently consulted on extending police powers and will make an announcement on next steps shortly.”
The minister was also pressed on what the government had done to explore counterdrone technology which could be used to disable drones, with one peer noting they’d raised the very issue two years ago.
“My Lords, technology is rapidly advancing in this area,” responded Sugg. “That is absolutely something that we are looking at. As I said, part of the consultation we did earlier this year was on counterdrone technology and we will be announcing our next steps on that very soon.”
Another peer wondered whether techniques he said had been developed by the UK military and spy agency, GCHQ — to rapidly identify the frequency a drone is operating on, and either jam it or take control and land it — will be “given more broadly to various airports”?
“All relevant parts of the Government, including the Ministry of Defence, are working on this issue today to try to resolve it as quickly as possible,” the minister replied. “We are working on the new technology that is available to ensure that such an incident does not happen again. It is not acceptable that passengers have faced such disruption ahead of Christmas and we are doing all we can to resolve it as quickly as possible.”
Source: TechCrunch
A fourth Thor film may never happen (contracts and Infinity Stones depending), but the leads of the wonderfully bent Ragnarok are back to save a different beloved franchise. The first trailer for Men in Black International reunites Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson as Agents H & M (the discount department store jokes write themselves), two MIB agents tasked, naturally, with saving the world from alien scourges.
The London-based spinoff of the series also stars Liam Neeson, Silicon Valley star Kumail Nanjiani and Emma Thompson — one of the few through lines with previous entries in the series.
The first trailer for the finds Hemsworth and Thompson traveling the world under the command of Neeson and (Emma) Thompson, variously in and out of those familiar black suits. Agent M’s role appears to be similar to that of Will Smith’s in the first — a hot shot new recruit attempting to learn the ropes of the secretive organization. Hemsworth, meanwhile, knows a good hammer joke when he reads it.
Sure we’re right in the throes of the holiday movie season, but you’re going to have to wait for this one. Men in Black International is scheduled for a June 14 release.
Source: TechCrunch
Thankfully, even if the transmission fails, the brakes still work.
Source: CNET
What! That’s the lowest price ever, and by a lot. Get it while supplies last — you better have more than a few of these, Macy’s. Plus: Buy one MasterClass subscription, get a gift subscription free.
Source: CNET
Apple will allow iOS users to gift in-app purchases, not just paid apps, according to a change to the company’s App Store Review Guidelines spotted this week. This means developers may soon have the tools to allow users to purchase virtual goods or even subscriptions through their app, which can then be gifted to others.
The changes to the company’s App Store guidelines were first discovered on Wednesday by MacRumors, which confirmed both the prior and current wording as follows:
Before: “Apps should not directly or indirectly enable gifting of in-app purchase content, features, or consumable items to others.”
After: “Apps may enable gifting of items that are eligible for in-app purchase to others. Such gifts may only be refunded to the original purchaser and may not be exchanged.”
It’s unclear at this time how the change will be implemented, from the developer’s side. It’s likely Apple will soon share more information with its developer community to inform them of how to get started.
The move makes a lot of sense, given the App Store’s larger shift away from paid apps towards in-app purchases and more recently, subscriptions, as a way for developers to monetize their businesses.
Gamers would often like to receive in-app currency or other virtual goods as gifts. Meanwhile, subscriptions have become so popular they’re expected to contribute heavily to both iOS and Android app stores’ growth next year. Combined, the app stores are forecast to pass $122 billion in consumer spending in 2019, according to App Annie.
However, some subset of apps have been abusing subscriptions, by making it difficult for consumers to even use their “free” app without committing to a subscription, or tricking users into free trials that convert in just days, among other things. Apple will need to get a good handle on the bad actors before rolling out in-app gifting of subscriptions more broadly.
Source: TechCrunch