firehose

Ryan Joy

Computer scientists have uncovered direct evidence that a small but significant percentage of encrypted Web connections are established using forged digital certificates that aren't authorized by the legitimate site owner.

The analysis is important because it's the first to estimate the amount of real-world tampering inflicted on the HTTPS system that millions of sites use to prove their identity and encrypt data traveling to and from end users. Of 3.45 million real-world connections made to Facebook servers using the transport layer security (TLS) or secure sockets layer protocols, 6,845, or about 0.2 percent of them, were established using forged certificates. The vast majority of unauthorized credentials were presented to computers running antivirus programs from companies including Bitdefender, Eset, and others. Commercial firewall and network security appliances were the second most common source of forged certificates.

At least one issuer of certificates—IopFailZeroAccessCreate—was generated by a known malware sample that was presented 112 times by users in 45 different countries. The discovery helps to explain bug reports such as this one made to developers of the Chromium browser describing the mysterious inclusion of a TLS certificate on a large number of end users' computers.

The Sims 4 will get Russia's equivalent of the M-for-mature rating and the reason appears to be the life simulation allows same-sex relationships, which runs afoul of the country's notorious law against "gay propaganda."

Officially, The Sims 4 is being classified 18+, which carries the notation "prohibited for children." The Sims' Russian Twitter account said the rating "has been assigned in accordance with the law number 436-FZ."

An amendment to that law last year raised international protest, particularly at this year's Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. The amendment proscribes "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships." The overall law was originally passed in 2010, and is titled "On Protecting Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development."

The Sims 3 launched in 2009 and, predating this law and the amendment, thus wasn't rated 18+. The Sims in Russia apparently still expected a rating of 12+ this time, judging by the background image on its Twitter page. In the United States, all but a handful of Sims editions have been rated T for Teen, with the others being rated E for Everyone or E 10+

Polygon has reached out to an EA representative to ask if the company will alter the game's release in Russia, challenge the 18+ classification, or accept it. This post will be updated with any reply received.

shmeards:

gods-nips:

I AM SO FUCKING DONE WITH THIS WEBSITE LIKE I CANNOT.

I’VE BEEN LAUGHING FOR LIKE 5 MINUTES STRAIGHT.

Always reblog

I’m so impressed with all four of them

mingdoyle:

P R I N C E

inurashii:

tastefullyoffensive:

Highway sign in Medford (Medfahd), Massachusetts. [x]

No, it’s ‘Medfid.’