Geek News

Almost one in ten security pros in the US have considered black hat work, and experts believe many dabble in criminal activity for financial gain or employer retaliation. via Dark Reading: https://ift.tt/2AV37Fd If New feed item from http://www.darkreading.com/rss/all.xml , then send

While Qualcomm's recently announced Snapdragon 700 chip seemed like its answer for AI in lower cost phones, the company hasn't forgotten about its mid-tier series. The new Snapdragon 670 also centers on speedier AI performance when it comes to computer vision, as it's around 1.8-times faster than the previous generation Snapdragon 660. Notably, the Hexagon 685 DSP delivering all of that speed first appeared on the high-end Snapdragon 845 last December. It's also part of the technology powering the HDR+ algorithm on Google's Pixel 2 , so there's a good chanc e it'll lead to better looking photos on cheaper phones. The Snapdragon 670's Adreno 615 GPU is 25 percent faster than before, making it even better suited for games (which will also see a benefit from the faster AI performance). And the new Kryo 360 CPU is 15 percent faster than the...

Red Planet Red Moon and Mars Mars is also known as The Red Planet , often seen with a reddish tinge in dark night skies. Mars shines brightly at the upper left of this gorgeous morning twilight view from Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia, but the Moon and planet Earth look redder still. Taken on July 27, the totally eclipsed Moon is setting. It looks reddened because the Earth's umbral shadow isn't completely dark. Instead Earth's shadow is suffused with a faint red light from all the planet's sunsets and sunrises seen from the perspective of an eclipsed Moon. The sunsets and sunrises are reddened because Earth's atmosphere scatters blue light more strongly than red, creating the faint bluish twilight sky. Of course, craggy seaside rocks also take on the reddened colors of this Australian sunrise. August 09, 2018 via NASA https://ift.tt/2Mf7iA0 ...

If Google is planning a search engine for China , how is it planning to obey the country's strict censorship laws from day one? By getting some practice in first, apparently. The Intercept has obtained documents reportedly showing that Google has been using 265.com, a hybrid information and search portal it acquired in 2008, as a "honeypot" that would help it develop a bla cklist for search terms in China. Google has supposedly been collecting info about search queries, which technically redirect to Baidu, to see if they would be censored. According to the report, Google has been using a tool nicknamed BeaconTower to see if the final destinations of these searches would survive the Great Firewall. If they didn't, Google would exclude them from the first page of results in its prototype Chinese search engine. The company wouldn't have to spend...

Verizon has added a new perk to its unlimited plans, and it's thankfully a straightforward one that won't make the carrier's rather complex choices and tiers even more confusing. Starting on August 16th, you'll get six months of free access to Apple Music with an unlimited plan. Even better, it doesn't sound like an add-on simply meant to attract new subscribers, because you can sign up for the freebie whether you apply for a new unlimited line or whether you already have one. This deal seems to be Verizon's answer to some of its rivals' music streaming perks. Sprint has been giving away free Tidal subscriptions for quite a while now, and years before its partnership with Jay-Z's company, it used to bundle plans with Spotify premium . If you choose to take advantage of the free Apple Music offer, you'll be able to access your accou...

NASA's current administrator is rather fond of private spaceflight, and that's reflected in the agency's latest round of technology funding. The organization has forged ten partnerships that will develop "tipping point" tech promising to help both NASA's own missions as well as the "commercial space economy," including interplanetary exploration and satellites. Some of the names on the list are very familiar, and you'll find a couple of clear favorites. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is the best-known name of the bunch, receiving total deals worth $13 million to develop propulsion for lunar landers as well as sensors that could help spacecraft land anywhere on the Moon's surface. United Launch Alliance , meanwhile, has the most deals. It's looking at $13.9 million in awards for three partnerships involving upper-stage ...

Organized crime does, however, sometimes provide money-laundering and other expertise to cybercriminals. via Dark Reading: https://ift.tt/2MtiVA9 If New feed item from http://www.darkreading.com/rss/all.xml , then send

Law enforcement routinely secures orders requiring that tech companies hand over data , but the targets of those requests don't always know if they've been under the microscope -- especially if there were never charges in the first place. MIT's CSAIL may have a way to hold officers more accountable for those decisions. Its researchers are developing a cryptography-based system that could help track these requests while still prot ecting investigations and police. AUDIT (Accountability of Unreleased Data for Improved Transparency) would require that law enforcers submit requests to a public ledger sometime after the fact using a "cryptographic commitment." The approach would ensure that police and courts send all the right documents in a way the public can see, but would keep the agencies' actions confidential. AUDIT would also make it ea...

Team of experts recreates the TRITON/TRISIS attack to better understand the epic hack of an energy plant that ultimately failed. via Dark Reading: https://ift.tt/2OVu6Ub If New feed item from http://www.darkreading.com/rss/all.xml , then send

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) told the Tampa Bay Times today that Russian operatives have "penetrated" Florida election systems. "They have already penetrated certain counties in the state and they now have free rein to move about," Nelson said. The remarks reportedly caused a stir among the state's election officials, who are busy preparing for midterm elections in November. Because despite today's statements and ongoing concerns over election security, state leaders d on't appear to be keeping election officials in the loop. "There has been no current communication with anyone about any breach or problem," Okaloosa Supervisor of Elections Paul Lux told the Tampa Bay Times . Nelson told the publication that the Senate Intelligence Committee was instructing state officials to notify election supervisors that foreign agents had i...

Google engineering director Parisa Tabriz took the Black Hat keynote stage to detail the Chrome transition and share advice with security pros. via Dark Reading: https://ift.tt/2vKtSq2 If New feed item from http://www.darkreading.com/rss/all.xml , then send