- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Patient Dies After Hospital Hit By Ransomware Attack
by Peter Reutemann 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

'A patient died after a German hospital was hit by ransomware attack, when hackers thought they were targeting a university. German authorities said that what appears to have been a misdirected hacker attack impacted systems at a major hospital in Duesseldorf, and a woman who needed urgent admission died after she had to be taken to another city for treatment. Duesseldorf police established contact and told the attacker that the hospital, and not the university, had been affected, endangering patients. The attacker then withdrew the extortion attempt and provided a digital key to decrypt the data.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/17/144257 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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YouTube's Recommendation System is Criticized as Harmful. Mozilla Wants To Research It
by Peter Reutemann 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

'YouTube's video recommendation system has been repeatedly accused by critics of sending people down rabbit holes of disinformation and extremism. Now Mozilla, the nonprofit that makes the Firefox browser, wants YouTube's users to help it research how the controversial algorithms work. From a report: Mozilla on Thursday announced a project that asks people to download a software tool that gives Mozilla's researchers information on what video recommendations people are receiving on the Google-owned platform. YouTube's algorithms recommend videos in the "What's next" column along the right side of the screen, inside the video player after the content has ended, or on the site's homepage. Each recommendation is tailored to the person watching, taking into account things like their watch history, list of channel subscriptions or location. The recommendations can be benign, like another live performance from the band you're watching. But critics say YouTube's recommendations can also lead viewers to fringe content, like medical misinformation or conspiracy theories. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/17/150228 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Cloudflare and the Wayback Machine, Joining Forces For a More Reliable Web
by Peter Reutemann 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

'Cloudflare and the Internet Archive are now working together to help make the web more reliable. Websites that enable Cloudflare's Always Online service will now have their content automatically archived, and if by chance the original host is not available to Cloudflare, then the Internet Archive will step in to make sure the pages get through to users. From a report: Cloudflare has become core infrastructure for the Web, and we are glad we can be helpful in making a more reliable web for everyone."The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has an impressive infrastructure that can archive the web at scale," said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. "By working together, we can take another step toward making the Internet more resilient by stopping server issues for our customers and in turn from interrupting businesses and users online." For more than 20 years the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has been archiving much of the public Web, and making those archives available to journalists, researchers, activists, academics and the general public, in total to hundreds of thousands of people a day. To date more than 468 billion Web pages are available via the Wayback Machine and we are adding more than 1 billion new archived URLs/day. We archive URLs that are identified via a variety of different methods, such as "crawling" from lists of millions of sites, as submitted by users via the Wayback Machine's "Save Page Now" feature, added to Wikipedia articles, referenced in Tweets, and based on a number of other "signals" and sources, such multiple feeds of "news" stories. An additional source of URLs we will preserve now originates from customers of Cloudflare's Always Online service. As new URLs are added to sites that use that service they are submitted for archiving to the Wayback Machine. In some cases this will be the first time a URL will be seen by our system and result in a "First Archive" event.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/17/1544222 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Mozilla Shuts Down Firefox Send and Firefox Notes Services
by Peter Reutemann 18 Sep '20

18 Sep '20

'Mozilla is shutting down two of its legacy products, Firefox Send and Firefox Notes, the company announced today. From a report: "Both services are being decommissioned and will no longer be a part of our product family," a Mozilla spokesperson told ZDNet this week. Of the two, the most beloved was Firefox Send, a free file-sharing service, and one of the few that supported sharing files in encrypted formats. Launched in March 2019, the service gained a dedicated fanbase but Send was taken offline earlier this summer after ZDNet reported on its constant abuse by malware groups. At the time, Mozilla said that Send's shutdown was temporary and promised to find a way to curb the service's abuse in malware operations. But weeks later, things changed after Mozilla leadership laid off more than 250 employees as part of an effort to re-focus its business on commercial products.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/17/1923240 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Billions of Devices Vulnerable To New 'BLESA' Bluetooth Spoofing Attack
by Peter Reutemann 17 Sep '20

17 Sep '20

'"Billions of smartphones, tablets, laptops, and IoT devices are using Bluetooth software stacks that are vulnerable to a new security flaw disclosed over the summer," reports ZDNet. Named BLESA (Bluetooth Low Energy Spoofing Attack), the vulnerability impacts devices running the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol, and affects the reconnection process that occurs when a device moves back into range after losing or dropping its pairing. A successful BLESA attack allows bad actors to connect with a device (by getting around reconnection authentication requirements) and send spoofed data to it. In the case of IoT devices, those malicious packets can convince machines to carry out different or new behavior. For humans, attackers could feed a device deceptive information. BLESA impacts billions of devices that run vulnerable BLE software stacks. Vulnerable are BLE software libraries like BlueZ (Linux-based IoT devices), Fluoride (Android), and the iOS BLE stack. Windows' BLE stack is not impacted.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/09/16/220211 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Microsoft To Open-Source Windows Security-Testing Tool
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Sep '20

16 Sep '20

Ever wondered how Microsoft manages to keep Windows so secure? You won’t have to wonder for much longer, as it is planning to open-source OneFuzz <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/16/microsoft_open_sources_fuzzing_tool/>, a key tool it uses to probe its OS for vulnerabilities. Yes, third-party developers! Soon you, too, will be able to achieve truly Microsoftian levels of code quality!

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Microsoft To Build Data Centre In Auckland
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Sep '20

16 Sep '20

The Overseas Investment Office has approved <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=123654…> Microsoft’s proposal to build a cloud data centre in Auckland: The applicant was Microsoft NZ - 100 per cent owned by a Bermuda entity but ultimately controlled by Microsoft Corporation in the US. Wonder why Bermuda is involved ...

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Microsoft Submits Linux Kernel Patches For a 'Complete Virtualization Stack' With Linux and Hyper-V
by Peter Reutemann 16 Sep '20

16 Sep '20

'Microsoft has submitted a series of patches to the Linux kernel with its aim being "to create a complete virtualization stack with Linux and Microsoft Hypervisor." The Register reports: The patches are designated "RFC" (Request for comments) and are a minimal implementation presented for discussion. The key change is that with the patched kernel, Linux will run as the Hyper-V root partition. In the Hyper-V architecture, the root partition has direct access to hardware and creates child partitions for the VMs it hosts. "Just think of it like Xen's Dom0," said Microsoft principal software engineer Wei Liu. Hyper-V's architecture is more similar to Xen than it is to KVM or to VMware's ESXi, and Liu acknowledged that "we drew inspiration from the Xen code in Linux," specifically for code handing interrupts. Until now, the Hyper-V root partition had to run Windows. Microsoft has also ported Intel's open-source Cloud Hypervisor, a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) written in Rust that normally runs on KVM, the hypervisor that is built into the Linux kernel. Cloud Hypervisor itself is currently in "very early pre-alpha stage." Even when Linux is the root partition, it will still run on top of Microsoft's hypervisor, a thin layer running with ring -1 privileges. It will no longer be necessary to run Windows on that hypervisor, though, enabling Microsoft to call the new arrangement "a complete virtualization stack with Linux."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/09/15/207219 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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New Windows exploit lets you instantly become admin. Have you patched?
by Peter Reutemann 16 Sep '20

16 Sep '20

'Researchers have developed and published a proof-of-concept exploit for a recently patched Windows vulnerability that can allow access to an organization’s crown jewels—the Active Directory domain controllers that act as an all-powerful gatekeeper for all machines connected to a network. CVE-2020-1472, as the vulnerability is tracked, carries a critical severity rating from Microsoft as well as a maximum of 10 under the Common Vulnerability Scoring System. Exploits require that an attacker already have a foothold inside a targeted network, either as an unprivileged insider or through the compromise of a connected device.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/new-windows-exploit-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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European Police Malware Could Harvest GPS, Messages, Passwords, More
by Peter Reutemann 16 Sep '20

16 Sep '20

'The malware that French law enforcement deployed en masse onto Encrochat devices, a large encrypted phone network using Android phones, had the capability to harvest "all data stored within the device," and was expected to include chat messages, geolocation data, usernames, passwords, and more, according to a document obtained by Motherboard. From the report: The document adds more specifics around the law enforcement hack and subsequent takedown of Encrochat earlier this year. Organized crime groups across Europe and the rest of the world heavily used the network before its seizure, in many cases to facilitate large scale drug trafficking. The operation is one of, if not the, largest law enforcement mass hacking operation to date, with investigators obtaining more than a hundred million encrypted messages. "The NCA has been collaborating with the Gendarmerie on Encrochat for over 18 months, as the servers are hosted in France. The ultimate objective of this collaboration has been to identify and exploit any vulnerability in the service to obtain content," the document reads, referring to both the UK's National Crime Agency and one of the national police forces of France. As well as the geolocation, chat messages, and passwords, the law enforcement malware also told infected Encrochat devices to provide a list of WiFi access points near the device, the document reads.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/09/15/1517203 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Nvidia To Buy ARM
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Sep '20

15 Sep '20

So, SoftBank has found a buyer for ARM, and it’s graphics-card maker Nvidia <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/14/nvida_arm_acquisition/>. The price is US$40 billion, including US$12 billion in cash. NVidia promises to maintain the open licensing model, and promises to “turbocharge” it with its own R&D resources. SoftBank makes a modest profit on the deal.

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Australian Cyber Security Centre Recommends Not Paying Ransomware
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 13 Sep '20

13 Sep '20

From <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/12/follow_security_basics_and_you/>: Paying a ransom does not guarantee decryption of data. Open source reporting indicates several instances where an entity paid the ransom but the keys to decrypt the data were not provided. The ACSC has also seen cases where the ransom was paid, the decryption keys were provided, but the adversary came back a few months later and deployed ransomware again. The likelihood that an Australian [organisation] will be retargeted increases with every successful ransom payment. ...

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DPL: Debian Project Has Plenty Of Money But Not Enough Developers
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Sep '20

11 Sep '20

A report <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/10/debian_project_address/> by the current Debian Project Leader, Jonathan Carter, on the current state of the Mother Of All Linux Distros. They are not short of funds, but they have too few project contributors trying to do too much: The culture of the community is not to spend money unnecessarily. “Debianites don’t like spending money,” he said. “They feel guilty.” It’s probably also the largest Linux distro: In 2009, there were 22,000 binary packages for the i386 architecture in Lenny, the current release at the time. Today there are over 61,000 amd64 binary packages in Bullseye, the forthcoming release. After Bullseye, “100,000 packages is a serious reality on the horizon,” he said. I like this quote: “Debian is a bottomless pit of problems. It’s inherent in the work we do. We’re affected by nearly every problem that exists in the realm of computer science.” How about that for the ultimate geek brag? 🐧

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Some Of Our Open-Access Journals Are Missing
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Sep '20

11 Sep '20

“Open-Access” scientific journals make research papers available online for free. They have become popular as awareness has spread of the practices of traditional publishers like Elsevier, which charge research groups to publish their papers in journals, and then charge hefty subscription fees to those same groups, and all the rest of their customers, for copies of those journals. And then claiming copyright on those papers, on top of it. (And what about the parties the providing the most expensive part of the publication service, namely the fellow researchers doing the peer review? Nope, they don’t get any payment for this at all.) However, this does make the financial model of these Open-Access journals a bit precarious. And perhaps it’s not too surprising that several of them have disappeared since their founding. Operations like the Internet Archive do have the resources to grab copies of their content before they do, but it helps to be aware that these sorts of sites are particularly vulnerable to vanishing. <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/10/open_access_journal/>

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System76’s Lemur Pro: A powerful, ultralight OEM Linux laptop
by Peter Reutemann 11 Sep '20

11 Sep '20

'System76's Lemur Pro is a 14.1-inch, lightweight powerhouse of an OEM Linux laptop, with an attractive black-finished magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis. If you're looking for a laptop that gets the occasional jealous look at coffee shops (or technical conferences), the Lemur Pro will not disappoint. As configured at $1,563, the Lemur Pro is not a cheap laptop—but it doesn't look, feel, or perform like one, either. The Intel Comet Lake CPU wouldn't be our first choice if we designed a laptop from scratch, but as an entire system, it's hard to find much fault with the Lemur Pro—particularly when limiting the field to OEM Linux laptops alone.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/system76s-lemur-pro-a-powerful-ultr… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Android 11 Go Could Make Cheap Phones Up To 20% Faster
by Peter Reutemann 11 Sep '20

11 Sep '20

'Following the official release of Android 11 earlier this week, Google also has some updates in store for the stripped-down version of Android designed for phones with lower specs. From a report: For Android 11 (Go Edition), the most important upgrade is just generally speedier performance, with Google claiming that apps will launch 20% faster in Android 11 Go compared to Android 10 Go. Meanwhile, when it comes to messaging, Android 11 Go is also getting a dedicated section for conversations in the notification tray, so you can see all your ongoing texts in one place, regardless of the specific app. On top of that, Android 11 Go is also getting Google's gesture-based navigation just like vanilla Android 11. Instead of a row of buttons along the bottom of the screen, you can swipe up to go home, swipe in from either side to go back, or swipe up and hold to see your recently used apps. Also, with digital privacy becoming increasingly important, Google is giving Android 11 Go more granular security settings including the ability to grant apps access to hardware like cameras, microphones, or GPS on a one-time basis. And when it comes to apps you haven't used in a long time, Android 11 Go will automatically reset app permissions to prevent old settings that you've probably forgotten about from comprising your security. But perhaps the biggest change for Android 11 Go is that previously, Go Editions of Android were limited to phones with 1GB of RAM. However, with smartphone memory becoming cheaper and more accessible, Android 11 Go has been updated to support phones with up to 2GB of RAM. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/10/1650235 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ransomware Accounted For 41% of All Cyber Insurance Claims in H1 2020
by Peter Reutemann 11 Sep '20

11 Sep '20

'Ransomware incidents accounted for 41% of cyber insurance claims filed in the first half of 2020, according to a report published today by Coalition, one of the largest providers of cyber insurance services in North America. From a report: The high number of claims comes to confirm previous reports from multiple cyber-security firms that ransomware is one of today's most prevalent and destructive threats. "Ransomware doesn't discriminate by industry. We've seen an increase in ransom attacks across almost every industry we serve," Coalition added. "In the first half of 2020 alone, we observed a 260% increase in the frequency of ransomware attacks amongst our policyholders, with the average ransom demand increasing 47%," the company added. Among the most aggressive gangs, the cyber insurer listed Maze and DoppelPaymer, which have recently begun exfiltrating data from hacked networks, and threatening to release data on specialized leak sites, as part of double extortion schemes. Based on cyber insurance claims filed by customers who faced a ransomware attack in the first half of 2020, Coalition said the Maze ransomware gang was the most greedy, with the group requesting ransom demands six times larger than the overall average.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/09/10/1829253 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Vivaldi Browser Adds a Pause Button For the Internet
by Peter Reutemann 10 Sep '20

10 Sep '20

'It can be hard to tear yourself away from the never-ending stream of content provided by the internet, so Vivaldi decided to make taking a break easier by introducing a pause button. PCMag reports: Version 3.3 of the Vivaldi browser introduces a new feature called "Break Mode." Rather than having to close your browser, Break Mode allows you to effectively pause your access to the internet with a button press. Once installed, Vivaldi 3.3 displays a pause button on the status bar. When pressed, Break Mode is engaged, which "mutes and stops HTML5 audio and videos, hides all tabs, panels, and other content leaving the screen clean." It's also possible to trigger Break Mode with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + "." and to activate it via the browser's Quick Commands. The Vivaldi team sees it as a way of allowing you to "interact with the physical world" while at the same time not having to remember which tabs you had open or what you were viewing when you're ready to return. Pressing the pause button again resumes access just as you left it. Break Mode also acts as a very simple and quick way to hide what you were doing on the internet, which could come in very handy seeing as we're spending so much more time at home together. Other new features include more options for customizing themes as well as adding a new "Private" theme, highlighting base domains to help identify malicious web pages, easier cropping of URLs in the address bar making it easier to visit different parts of a website, and enhancements to the built-in tracker and ad blocker allowing whole pages to be easily blocked.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/09/1933207 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Windows 10 Themes Can Be Abused To Steal Windows Passwords
by Peter Reutemann 09 Sep '20

09 Sep '20

'Specially crafted Windows 10 themes and theme packs can be used in 'Pass-the-Hash' attacks to steal Windows account credentials from unsuspecting users. Windows allows users to create custom themes that contain customized colors, sounds, mouse cursors, and the wallpaper that the operating system will use. Windows users can then switch between different themes as desired to change the appearance of the operating system. A theme's settings are saved under the %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes folder as a file with a .theme extension, such as 'Custom Dark.theme.' Windows themes can then be shared with other users by right-clicking on an active theme and selecting 'Save theme for sharing,' which will package the theme into a '.deskthemepack' file. These desktop theme packs can then be shared via email or as downloads on websites, and installed by double-clicking them. This weekend security researcher Jimmy Bayne (@bohops) revealed that specially crafted Windows themes could be used to perform Pass-the-Hash attacks. Pass-the-Hash attacks are used to steal Windows login names and password hashes by tricking a user into accessing a remote SMB share that requires authentication. When trying to access the remote resource, Windows will automatically try to login to the remote system by sending the Windows user's login name and an NTLM hash of their password. In a Pass-the-Hash attack, the sent credentials are harvested by the attackers, who then attempt to dehash the password to access the visitors' login name and password.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/08/2017228 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Amiga Fast File System Makes Minor Comeback In New Linux Kernel
by Peter Reutemann 09 Sep '20

09 Sep '20

'The Amiga Fast File System (AFFS) is making a minor comeback in the new version of the Linux kernel. The Register reports: As noted by chief penguin Linus Torvalds in his weekly state-of-the-kernel report, a change to AFFS popped up among what he described as a collection of "the usual suspects" in new submissions to the kernel over the last week. The Amiga was ahead of its time, but is now largely a curiosity. However Suse developer David Sterba has noticed that "The basic permission bits (protection bits in AmigaOS) have been broken in Linux' AFFS - it would only set bits, but never delete them. Also, contrary to the documentation, the Archived bit was not handled." "Let's fix this for good, and set the bits such that Linux and classic AmigaOS can coexist in the most peaceful manner," he added. Torvalds appears to have agreed inasmuch as Sterba's code has made it into rc4 of version 5.9 of the Linux kernel. Torvalds said that while rc4 is a big release -- he rated it as "larger than usual" -- it's still "well within the normal range, and not something I'll lose any sleep over."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/09/08/203224 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Google Begins Rolling Out Android 11
by Peter Reutemann 09 Sep '20

09 Sep '20

'Google today launched Android 11, the latest version of its mobile OS, and pushed the source code to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). From a report: Unlike previous major versions, Android 11 is not only arriving as an over-the-air update to Pixel phones first, but also on OnePlus, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Realme phones "with more partners launching and upgrading devices over the coming months." That's a major departure for Android, updates for which take months to arrive thanks to carriers and device makers dragging their feet. It doesn't help that Android is the dominant mobile operating system available on thousands of different device configurations, powering over 2.5 billion monthly active devices. [...] Android 11 brings a long list of new features. Google originally split them into three themes: People, Controls, and Privacy. But there is also support for 5G, new screen types, and call screening. There's even a frame rate API for helping apps and games adopt variable refresh rates, which will be a big focus over the next few years as phones and TVs adopt the feature from computer monitors. Google also expanded the Neural Networks API for running computationally intensive machine learning operations.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/09/08/1710224 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Western Digital is trying to redefine the word “RPM”
by Peter Reutemann 08 Sep '20

08 Sep '20

'Last week, the fine Redditors of /r/DataHoarder got upset with Western Digital again—this time, for misrepresenting the rotational speed of their WD Red Network Attached Storage hard drives. (Although the linked post brings things to a head, members of the German-language forum hardwareluxx.de began investigating the issue more than year ago.) We found this controversy reminiscent of earlier complaints that Western Digital was not properly disclosing use of Shingled Magnetic Recording technology in their NAS drives. But the new complaint is that Western Digital calls 7200RPM drives "5400 RPM Class"—and the drives' own firmware report 5400 RPM via the SMART interface. Recently, redditor /u/Amaroko set out to prove or disprove earlier netizens' findings. For each of several drive models, Amoroko placed a sample of that drive on an empty cardboard box, with a Blue Yeti mic held directly above it, then powered the drive on. Spectral analysis of the recorded audio using Adobe Audition showed a baseline frequency of 120Hz for two models of WD 8TB "5400 RPM class" drive. 120 cycles/sec multiplied to 60 secs/min comes to 7,200 cycles/min. So in other words, these "5400 RPM class" drives really were spinning at 7,200rpm.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/western-digital-is-trying-to-redefi… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Arm's New Linux-Capable Cortex-R82 Processor Will Enable Drives That Both Store and Process Data
by Peter Reutemann 07 Sep '20

07 Sep '20

'"Arm has announced its first 64 bit, Linux-capable Cortex-R processor, designed for computational storage solutions," reports Electronics Weekly. SiliconAngle calls it "a chip designed to enable a new generation of storage devices that will not only hold data but also help process it." Such devices are part of an emerging hardware category known as computational storage. The technology promises to provide a speed boost for latency-sensitive workloads such as machine learning and real-time analytics applications. Normally, the task of storing data and processing it is relegated to separate components inside a system. The disk or flash drive holds onto the information while a separate processor does the processing. Data has to travel from the storage drive to the processor and back every time an operation is carried out, which creates delays that can slow down performance. The emerging computational storage devices Arm targets attempt to do away with these delays to speed up applications. Instead of sending information to a separate chip for processing, the storage drive processes it locally using its built-in controller. A controller is a tiny computing module inside flash and disk drives that normally performs only low-level tasks such as writing and reading data. Arm's new Cortex-R82 is designed to serve as the controller for computational storage devices. It's available as a chip design that hardware makers can license and customize based on their needs. "The extra computing power allows the chip to run a full Linux distribution as well as applications, all directly inside a storage drive."' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/20/09/06/0110227 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Is There A Google-Free Future For Firefox?
by Peter Reutemann 07 Sep '20

07 Sep '20

'Forbes reports: Firefox is exploring subscriptions and other "value exchange" services to ease its financial dependence on rival Google, according to the browser's lead developer. Firefox maker, Mozilla, is in the uneasy position of being financially dependent on its search deal with Google, which accounts for the majority of the organization's revenue. Although Mozilla only last month renewed the search deal, ensuring Google remains the default search engine for Firefox in the U.S. and other territories, the company is keen to explore other ways of raising revenue, including charging users for services. Mozilla's partnership with Google is an uncomfortable alliance, not only because the companies distribute rival browsers, but because their values are markedly different. While Google generates the vast bulk of its revenue from online advertising, Firefox's developers expend much of their effort creating tools that thwart advertisers, including the automatic blocking of third-party tracking tools and social-media trackers. "At Mozilla, we tend to believe things are at their best when users have this transparent value exchange," said Dave Camp, senior vice president of Firefox at Mozilla. "The advertising model has become a default way to fund things on the internet and to fund products, and we're pretty interested — not just for financial reasons, but actually for health of the internet reasons — to explore how can we do better for users than advertising." Mozilla recently began charging users $4.99 per month for its VPN product and Camp says the company is exploring other subscription products. "We don't have any immediate plans in the Firefox team to do add-on services or anything like that at the moment, but we're going to look at other ways to get some value exchange going on," said Camp.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/09/06/0122206 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Do Developers Trust Each Other Too Much?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Sep '20

06 Sep '20

From <https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/04/disclosure_developer_targeting/>: ... much of it is down to exploiting the trust developers put into shared code and software stacks. By selecting a developer and studying their projects, an attacker would be able to map out the software stack being used. From there, the attacker would pick out a weak spot in that stack – say, a dependency or GitHub project – and slip poisoned code in. This could be as simple as slipping attack code into StackOverflow. ... "Most developers consider themselves to be moderately intelligent but not stupid," mused Jones. "I have found most developers are highly intelligent, but also highly stupid."

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