Give some students a 3D-printer, some solar panels and about a year's worth of time, and what do you get? No, not a solar-powered bong (though good idea) -- solar race cars, that's what! Engineering students from Nanyang Technological University (NTU...
If you've been curious about what the other side of the moon looks like, but have been too lazy to look up NASA's findings on your own, this video has got you covered. Based on data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, it gives us a close look a...
China spent the bulk of 2014 throwing shade at American technology companies, saying that the NSA was using Windows 8, IBM servers and iPhones for espionage. It appears that Tim Cook is bored of the abuse, and is prepared to let the country's securit...
We're starting to wonder if it's nigh-on impossible to keep The Pirate Bay down. Just weeks after Swedish police raided the bootleg file site and knocked it offline, it's back -- TorrentFreak reports that almost everything is up and running once agai...
The hack into Sony Pictures was big news late last year, but that was last year. They figured out who did it, fixed the problem, and moved on, right? Wrong, says one analyst firm: not only did Sony finger the wrong bad guys, but the hack is still going on to this day.
The information comes from internet firm Taia Global, which has released a report (PDF) claiming that not only were Russian hackers at least additionally, if not solely responsible for the intrusion into Sony’s networks, but also that they are still there, siphoning data off as we speak.
Taia has been saying since December that they feel an analysis of the language used in the hack points to Russian, not North Korean, involvement. However, their report does not definitively conclude whether North Korea was or was not involved. Instead, they write, it’s incidental to the larger problem, which is that Russians were also (separately or not) involved and still, to this day, have access to the company’s internal networks.
Sony not only “failed to differentiate or even acknowledge that more than one state or non-state actor was involved,” claims Taia, but worse, the companies Sony hired to fix it have not done so.
Far from being a thing of the past, Taia writes, “Sony Pictures Entertainment remains in a state of breach and is actively losing files to Russian mercenary hackers.”
Regardless of which possibility is correct, the attribution made in the Sony case failed to differentiate or even acknowledge that more than one state or non-state actor was involved. Furthermore, the Data Forensics and Incident Response companies hired by Sony to remediate this breach have, to date, failed to do so. Sony Pictures Entertainment remains in a state of breach and is actively losing files to Russian mercenary hackers.
The company now says that a well-known Russian hacker, who has contacts who are other hackers, has spoken with them and provided several documents obtained from inside Sony after the data breach was identified in November:
The evidence … consists of seven Excel spreadsheets five of which are dated from November 30, 2014 through December 10, 2014, and six email messages, two of which are dated Jan 14 and Jan 23, 2015. It also includes the “Employee Update” message of December 8 which discussed the “system disruption”, advised all employees not to use any thumb drives that had been plugged into Sony’s network prior to November 23rd, and provided a list of unlocked Ricoh printers and their locations.
Taia says that all documents appear authentic, and that one has been confirmed as authentic by the Sony employee who created it. None of the documents have been part of any of the prior data dumps of Sony’s information by Guardians of Peace, the name of the group that claimed credit for the hack.
The hack into Sony Pictures’ systems was identified late in November of 2014, and persons acting at the behest of the North Korean government quickly became the favored suspect. Sony said in December that yes, they thought North Korea did it and federal investigators said a short time later that yes, they thought so too.
The hack led to Sony cancelling their theatrical release of the comedyThe Interview, a move that President Obama called “a mistake.” Sony then pivoted and released the movie through online channels, where it actually did pretty well.
Inside Sony Pictures, the fallout from the data breach still continues. The co-chairman just resigned today, and the company is still being sued by employees whose data was stolen.
SAFFiR, the humanoid firefighting robot that the US Navy and Virginia Tech engineers have been developing for years, is now more than just a blueprint. In fact, the military division has already demonstrated what the biped can do aboard one of its de...
Step aside, graphene, "silicene" is the trendy new nano-material in town that could one day supercharge future tech. Scientists have created the world's first transistor out of the silicon-based material, and it's a mere one atom thick. Unlike its mu...
To say that Richard D. James likes mixing music and technology is the biggest understatement this side of Bruce Willis admitting he's a bit thin on top. The artist better known as Aphex Twin has previously tweaked his music so that, if you ran the tr...
Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is a must read for, well, for everyone. There are several printings of the many volumes in existence, but to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary, DC Entertainment has announced the release of an epic The Sandman Omnibus Silver Edition.
This commemorative set comes in the form of a special slipcased edition that collects the entire groundbreaking series in two deluxe hardcover volumes and includes a page personally signed by Neil Gaiman. Only 500 of these bad boys were printed, and each one is numbered, which explains the “ask-for-it-as-a-present” price of $499.95.
If you’re Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark or some other millionaire playboy (or playgirl), you can order it for yourself here. They’re limiting purchases to one per person, but this is the Internet, and I promise someone will figure out a way to circumvent that, buy a bunch, and sell them for double on eBay, so act fast!
In keeping with the theme of the post, please also direct your attention to the Times Square Jumbotron, where DC Entertainment has placed an easy-to-see commercial for The Sandman: Overture, drawn by J.H. Williams, III. The commercial (which is also running on TV) features art from the new series written by Gaiman, as well as appearances of fan-favorites Death, Mer-Pumpkinhead and The Sandman himself, Morpheus.
Ever since I began my Tropes vs Women in Video Games project, two and a half years ago, I’ve been harassed on a daily basis by irate gamers angry at my critiques of sexism in video games. It can sometimes be difficult to effectively communicate just how bad this sustained intimidation campaign really is. So I’ve taken the liberty of collecting a week’s worth of hateful messages sent to me on Twitter. The following tweets were directed at my @femfreq account between 1/20/15 and 1/26/15.
Content warning for misogyny, gendered insults, victim blaming, incitement to suicide, sexual violence, rape and death threats.
No word on how many parsecs this Falcon makes the Kessel Run in, probably more than 12. Given how much fun this 18-mph home-made Millennium Falcon drone is to watch, we won't hold it against it. This, of course, is a quadcopter that drops the usual F...
While Ashton Kutcher's Steve Jobs film came and went, the real attention has been on the big-screen adaptation of Walter Isaacson's biography of the Apple co-founder. That project may be hitting a speed bump, however: according to The Hollywood Reporter, David Fincher may not direct the project as previously hoped. The disagreement appears to be a matter of money; Fincher is said to be asking for a $10 million upfront fee, which the studio is balking at due to what it sees as the film's relatively niche appeal. "You're not doing Captain America," an unnamed studio source is quoted as saying. "This is quality — it's not screaming commerciality."
Fincher seems an obvious choice for the film, given his exacting aesthetic sensibilities...
Hackers have accessed millions of customer and employee details from US-based health insurance firm Anthem, including name addresses and social security numbers. The database that was accessed included details for roughly 80 million people, but Anthe...
Good news, die-hard aficionados of movies on film: those reels will stick around for a while yet. Kodak has put the finishing touches on a deal with the six big Hollywood studios (Disney, Fox, NBC, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros.) that will maintain...
Give some students a 3D-printer, some solar panels and about a year's worth of time, and what do you get? No, not a solar-powered bong (though good idea) -- solar race cars, that's what! Engineering students from Nanyang Technological University (NTU...
China spent the bulk of 2014 throwing shade at American technology companies, saying that the NSA was using Windows 8, IBM servers and iPhones for espionage. It appears that Tim Cook is bored of the abuse, and is prepared to let the country's securit...
The striking spiral galaxy
We're starting to wonder if it's nigh-on impossible to keep The Pirate Bay down. Just weeks after Swedish police raided the bootleg file site and knocked it offline, it's back -- TorrentFreak reports that almost everything is up and running once agai...
SAFFiR, the humanoid firefighting robot that the US Navy and Virginia Tech engineers have been developing for years, is now more than just a blueprint. In fact, the military division has already demonstrated what the biped can do aboard one of its de...
Step aside, graphene, "silicene" is the trendy new nano-material in town that could one day supercharge future tech. Scientists have created the world's first transistor out of the silicon-based material, and it's a mere one atom thick. Unlike its mu...
To say that Richard D. James likes mixing music and technology is the biggest understatement this side of Bruce Willis admitting he's a bit thin on top. The artist better known as Aphex Twin has previously tweaked his music so that, if you ran the tr...
No word on how many parsecs this Falcon makes the Kessel Run in, probably more than 12. Given how much fun this 18-mph home-made Millennium Falcon drone is to watch, we won't hold it against it. This, of course, is a quadcopter that drops the usual F...
Hackers have accessed millions of customer and employee details from US-based health insurance firm Anthem, including name addresses and social security numbers. The database that was accessed included details for roughly 80 million people, but Anthe...
Good news, die-hard aficionados of movies on film: those reels will stick around for a while yet. Kodak has put the finishing touches on a deal with the six big Hollywood studios (Disney, Fox, NBC, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros.) that will maintain...
