A man in the US who co-founded a service to protect sites from cyber-attackers has pleaded guilty to launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Tucker Preston is co-founder of BackConnect, a cyber-security firm that claimed to be “the new industry standard in DDoS mitigation”. However, he was accused of arranging DDoS attacks targeting an unnamed firm. A court document stated the attacks took place between 2015 and 2016. News of the guilty plea was published online by Brian Krebs, a cyber-security expert and blogger. During a DDoS attack, a website or online service is flooded with high levels of…
Author: mediahitman
Ukraine’s embassy in the UK has demanded an official apology after the Trident — its national coat of arms — was included among a group of “right-wing signs & symbols” in a guide by Britain’s national anti-terrorist authority. The Trident — or Tryzub as it’s known in Ukraine — was featured in an Extremism Guide for UK teachers and medical staff produced by the National Counter Terrorism Policing Network – a collaboration of law enforcement entities tasked with preventing and combating terrorism. A tattoo of the Trident is shown in a section on right-wing “signs & symbols” and is described…
On April 5, 1933, with a desperate nation in the throes of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, “forbidding the Hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States.” The effect of the order, in conjunction with the statute under which it was issued, was to criminalize the possession of monetary gold by any individual, partnership, association or corporation, and at a time when Americans were desperate to regain lost wealth. The order was issued to allow the Federal Reserve to bypass restrictions contained in the Federal Reserve Act of 1913,…
A hacker has dumped a massive list of Telnet credentials and passwords for over 500,000 servers, routers, and so-called smart devices on the Dark Web, exposing the persistent vulnerability of cloud service providers. The list, published on a popular hacking forum, includes IP addresses, usernames and passwords for the Telnet remote service, which is used on numerous Internet of Things (IoT) devices around the world. The hacker in question reportedly trawled the internet for users who were exposing their Telnet ports. They then tried to gain access to these devices using factory default usernames and passwords, as well as custom…
Swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles overwhelming enemies’ defenses with sheer numbers might soon be part of the US combat strategy. Footage of the first flight of one such drone has just been showcased by a Pentagon contractor. A video published on YouTube by an applied science and IT company, Dynetics, shows a drone, which looks roughly like a large air-to-surface missile, being drop-launched from under the wing of a US transport Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft. The drone designated X-61A then releases small wings and ignites its rocket engine, setting off for an autonomous flight. Media reports suggested that the UAV…
Migration pressures from conflict, religious persecution and economic causes already cause headaches in Europe and elsewhere, but now the UN has decided that climate change could be yet another reason not to repatriate a migrant. In the years to come, as climate change continues to bear the blame for everything from bushfires, drought, hurricanes, biblical-style rainfall and even record snowfall, we might just look back at a recent United Nations ruling as the tipping point for the greatest-ever global migration shift. For the UN has put the developed world on notice, and let’s be frank, it is those prosperous nations…
Two police officers have been shot dead in the Diamond Head area of Honolulu, Hawaii, and the suspect remains at large. A huge fire has also broken out in the neighborhood. The officers were responding to a report of assault when they were confronted by a man wielding a firearm, according to local news outlets. The suspect then opened fire and struck both officers. The FBI said it is also responding to the incident. A home the suspect was reportedly inside later caught on fire, with the blaze then quickly spreading to a number of neighboring houses. Firefighters were initially…
At first it seems like a quirky, what-are-the-chances-of-that headline: “China rewards fishers who netted foreign spy devices.” But behind that headline in Chinese state media, there is a different – and more intriguing – story. Firstly, this wasn’t two or three fishermen receiving awards. It was 11 – one woman, the rest men – who found seven devices in total. Secondly, this wasn’t the first time fishermen from Jiangsu had found “spy drones”. In 2018, some 18 were rewarded for finding nine devices. There was also a ceremony a year earlier. And thirdly, the rewards were huge – up to…
The US National Archives has apologised for altering a photo of the 2017 Women’s March, including blurring signs critical of President Donald Trump. The agency, which describes itself as the country’s record keeper, said it “made a mistake”. Changes to the photo, first reported by The Washington Post, included removing the president’s name from a sign that read “God Hates Trump”. The National Archives said it had removed the altered image. In a statement shared on social media, the agency said it had “always been completely committed to preserving our archival holdings, without alteration.” “This photo is not an archival…
The head of the Iranian investigation team denied earlier reports that the black boxes from the downed Ukrainian airliner would be sent to Kiev. Tehran tried to extract the data on its own, he said. “We are trying to read the black boxes here in Iran. Otherwise, our options are Ukraine and France, but no decision has been taken so far to send them to another country,” Hassan Rezaeifar, who leads the investigation into the incident along with the nation’s Civil Aviation Organization, told local news agency IRNA on Sunday. He added that Iran so far has “no plans” to…
Health officials in Wuhan, China have revealed that 136 new cases of a mysterious new strain of the coronavirus have been diagnosed over just two days, bringing the total in the city to 198. In a statement detailing the latest escalation in figures for the major viral outbreak, Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said a third person has died from the illness, while two more are in critical condition. A further 33 cases among the newly diagnosed patients are classified as “severe.” All of the patients are being kept in isolation. “The first symptoms were mostly fever, cough or chest tightness,…
Prince Harry and Meghan will no longer use their HRH titles and will not receive public funds for royal duties, Buckingham Palace has announced. The couple will also no longer formally represent the Queen. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex intend to repay £2.4m of taxpayer money for the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage, which will remain their UK family home, the statement added. The new arrangement comes into effect in spring this year, the palace said. The statement comes after the Queen held talks with the couple on Monday about their future, following their announcement that they wanted to “step…
Each year, more than 6,500 cases of bladder cancer, roughly five percent of all cases in Europe, are found to be attributable to exposure to trihalomethanes (THMs) in drinking water – and it’s all perfectly legal. For a study of countries’ water quality, the EU28 became the EU26, as adequate data for Bulgaria and Romania could not be obtained. Nevertheless, the project covered 75% of the total EU population, and a reading of its findings is ominous. THMs are a class of molecule that appear as a by-product of the disinfectants used to clean drinking water. When chlorine, the main chemical…
The European Commission has revealed it is considering a ban on the use of facial recognition in public areas for up to five years. Regulators want time to work out how to prevent the technology being abused. The technology allows faces captured on CCTV to be checked in real time against watch lists, often compiled by police. Exceptions to the ban could be made for security projects as well as research and development. The Commission set out its plans in an 18-page document, suggesting that new rules will be introduced to bolster existing regulation surrounding privacy and data rights. It…
Xenobots — tiny, biological robots swarms designed by a computer — are upon us. What does the birth of these strange not-quite-alive creatures mean for robotics — and for us? Mankind has been imagining advanced robot technology for a long time — pop culture is full of Terminators, Cylons, and Droids. But in fact, these humanoid designs show a distinct lack of imagination. Why have we always assumed that robots would be designed to have the same basic form as us: slightly ungainly primates trotting about on two feet, perhaps even toting a gun? The latest models make that particular…
Was it the asteroid or colossal volcanic eruption that initiated the demise of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. This has been a bit of a “to and fro” argument of late, but now a group of scientists has weighed in with what they claim is the definitive answer. “It was the asteroid ‘wot dun it’!” Prof Paul Wilson told the BBC. His team’s analysis of ocean sediments shows that huge volcanoes that erupted in India did not change the climate enough to drive the extinction. Volcanoes can spew enormous volumes of gases into the atmosphere that can both cool…
Puerto Rico’s top emergencies manager has been sacked after video emerged of a warehouse full of supplies dating back to the devastating Hurricane Maria that hit the island in 2017. Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced said she wanted answers within 48 hours over the undistributed aid. Sacked director Carlos Acevedo said no-one had been denied “any of the items” found in the warehouse. Since 2017, Puerto Rico has been hit by a series of hurricanes and earthquakes. The island is still recovering from Hurricane Maria, a category-five storm that devastated parts of the Caribbean in September 2017. In Puerto Rico alone,…
Facebook has issued a cease and desist notice to an Israeli firm that claims to be able to subconsciously alter people’s behavior. The Spinner charges a fee to “subconsciously influence” targets by exposing them to online posts “disguised as editorial content”. But Facebook has objected to the start-up using its services to achieve this. And the tech giant has barred the firm and its chief from using Facebook or Instagram for any reason. In response, the Spinner’s co-founder and chief operating officer Elliot Shefler told the BBC that it would continue to sell targeted online campaigns and refused to rule…