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Story highlightsIt was the first all-American final at the US Open since 2002This was the seventh time in the Open Era two first-time finalists faced off in a grand slam final (CNN)Sloane Stephens' epic comeback is complete.Stephens, who has jumped more than 900 spots in the world rankings in a month, is now a grand slam champion, winning the US Open 6-3, 6-0 against No. 15 seed and fellow American Madison Keys at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing, New York.This was only the seventh time in the Open Era, and the second time at the US Open, that two first-time finalists have faced off in a grand slam final. This also was the first all-American US Open final since 2002, when Serena Williams defeated Venus Williams. Stephens is the first American woman other than the Williams sisters to win a grand slam title in 15 years.BEST. DAY. EVER. 🇺🇸🏆 pic.twitter.com/R8ARc09Qwb— Sloane Stephens (@SloaneStephens) September 10, 2017
The 24-year-old Stephens, unseeded and ranked 83rd, is the third player to win the US Open ranked outside the top 10 since computer rankings began in November 1975. The others were unranked Kim Clijsters in 2009 and No. 26 Flavia Pennetta in 2015.When it was over, the two Americans shared a long embrace on the court. After Stephens celebrated with her support group, including her mother, Sybil Smith, she returned to the court and sat next to Keys, whom Stephens calls her best friend on the WTA tour.Read More"Honestly I wouldn't have wanted to play anyone else," Stephens said. "For us both to be here is such a special moment. I told her I wish there could be a draw, because I wish we could have both won. I think that if it was the other way around she would do the same for me. I'm going to support her no matter what, and I know she's going to support me no matter what. To stand with her today is incredible. That's what real friendship is."Stephens with Madison Keys after the match.None of this looked possible earlier this summer.Stephens, who had been sidelined for 11 months after a foot injury and underwent surgery in January, made her comeback at Wimbledon and entered this summer's US Open Series ranked 957th. But she's been on a tear in the North American events, reaching the semifinals in Toronto and Cincinnati."I had surgery January 23," Stephens said. "If someone told me then that I'd win the US Open, 'It's impossible,' I would say. 'It's absolutely impossible.' My journey to get here, coming back, just being able to keep it all together and have such a great team behind me -- this journey's been incredible. And I honestly wouldn't change it for the world."With the win, Stephens is projected to rise to No. 17. She also nets a hefty payday: $3.7 million. Her career earnings heading into this tournament were $4,519,709, with $310,546 coming this year."That's a lot of money," a visibly surprised Stephens said, as Keys jokingly tried to take the check.Keys, 22, is projected to move up to No. 12 by reaching the final."Sloane is truly one of my favorite people, and to get to play her was really special," Keys said. "Obviously, I didn't play my best tennis today and was disappointed, but Sloane, being the great friend that she was, was very supportive. If there's someone I have to lose to today, I'm glad it's her."An improbable runStephens, who started playing tennis at age 9, comes from an athletic family. Her mother, Smith, is a former collegiate swimmer at Boston University. Her late father, John Stephens, was an NFL running back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.Stephens made her breakthrough in 2013 when she defeated Serena Williams to reach the Australian Open semifinal. She would go on to lose to eventual champion Victoria Azarenka.Her first singles title was in 2015 in Washington. She added three more titles in 2016.The potential has been there for her to win a grand slam, but what she's done this summer, considering the circumstances with her previous injury, is shocking.Heading into Saturday's final, Stephens had won 14 of her last 16 matches, including defeating No. 9 Venus Williams in the semifinal. She's one of three players who have never held the No. 1 ranking who have beaten both Williams sisters in grand slam events.😊🇺🇸🏆🇺🇸🏆😊Congratulations to @Madison_Keys and @SloaneStephens on a truly fabulous two weeks of tennis in Flushing Meadows.#USOpen pic.twitter.com/JUvfoJJrDa— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 9, 2017
Stephens now has more wins at the year's US Open matches (seven) than she had in her last six grand slam appearances combined (six).Stephens didn't play in the US Open last year because of the foot injury."I should just retire now," Stephens cracked. "I told Maddie I'm never going to be able to top this. I mean, talk about a comeback."Unranked players aside, Stephens is the second-lowest ranked player to reach and win the title match at a grand slam, after No. 111 Chris O'Neil, who won the 1978 Australian Open. She's the lowest ranked player to reach and win the title match at the US Open.Stephens is the fourth unseeded player to reach the final in the US Open and 14th in grand slam finals in the Open Era.Excluding when unranked Clijsters won in 2009, the matchup between No. 16 Keys and No. 83 Stephens, with a combined ranking of 99, is the lowest title match at the US Open since computerized rankings began in November 1975. In addition to Stephens, Keys also was making a comeback from injury.For Keys, this year's US Open was just her 10th tournament of 2017. During the off-season, Keys underwent surgery on her left wrist and missed the first two months of the year. She also, according to the WTA's website, had a second surgery on the wrist ahead of Wimbledon, and she also withdrew from Rogers Cup in Toronto because of a left forearm injury."If you told me two months ago that I'd be holding a (runner-up) trophy for the US Open, I'd be really happy and proud of myself," Keys said.The No. 15 seed has never won the US Open. The last time a 15 seed won a major was Marion Bartoli at Wimbledon in 2013.Youth movementWith this result, four different players won this year's majors -- the first time that's happened since 2014. Serena Williams won the Australian Open, Jelena Ostapenko was the French Open champion, and Garbine Muguruza hoisted the Wimbledon trophy. It's the 12th time that has happened in the Open Era.There are also signs of a changing of the guard in women's tennis. Ostapenko, 20, became the first unseeded player and lowest ranked player to win Roland Garros in the Open Era. Muguruza, 23, became the only player to defeat both Williams sisters in a grand slam final when she defeated Venus Williams to win Wimbledon. When the rankings are released Monday, Muguruza will be in the top spot for the first time.Stephens joins Muguruza, Ostapenko and Petra Kvitova as players born in the 1990s to win a grand slam title.This year's US Open was the third final in the past five grand slam events not involving a player age 30 or older.
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Security researchers have uncovered an active cyber attack campaign that has successfully stolen more than $1 Million from a variety of targeted enterprise organizations using spear phishing emails, malware and social engineering tricks.
The campaign, dubbed "The Dyre Wolf" by researchers from IBM's Security Intelligence division, targets businesses and organizations that use wire transfers to transfer large sums of money, even if the transaction is protected by 2-factor authentication.
A MIXTURE OF MALWARE, SOCIAL ENGINEERING & DDoS
Nowadays, cybercriminals not only rely on banking Trojans to harvest financial credentials, but also using sophisticated social engineering tactics to attack big corporations that frequently conduct wire transfers to move large sums.
"An experienced and resource-backed [cyber criminal] gang operates Dyre," John Kuhn, Senior Threat Researcher at IBM Managed Security Service, wrote in a blog post published Thursday.
"[Dyre] was used in wide-stroke [cyber] attacks for the past year and has now moved into a more [indecent] stage of attacking corporate accounts via the incorporation of skilled social engineering schemes."
In addition to the advanced social engineering tricks, the Dyre criminal gang also employs distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against the targeted bank or businesses in order to distract attention and resources from the theft and to prevent victims from logging into the bank account until it was too late.
HOW THE ATTACK WORKS
The attack starts with a spear phishing email reaches into your organization with an attachment claiming to be a document of financial importance, like an invoice, but is actually an 'Upatre downloader'.
Once opened, Upatre downloads and executes the Dyre Trojan into the victim's system which, according to IBM researchers, went undetected by the majority of antivirus software programs.
Dry Trojan has capability to hijack victim's address book and send out mass emails to all of them via Outlook. The malware then monitors victim's activities and waits for further action.
The process gets interesting when the victim with an infected computer tries to log into one of the hundreds bank sites which the trojan is programmed to monitor, Dyre displays new screen with a message stating that the site is experiencing some issues and that you must call the number provided to make the transaction.
Once you call the number given, you'll assisted by a real person, not an automated one. This is the uniqueness and the extent of social engineering trick used by Dyre attackers that use real persons as the part of their attack.
The attackers then retrieve all the information from the victim, and as soon as the victim hangs up the phone, the wire transfer is made by the crooks on the other end of the phone.
At the time, when the money is being bounced from bank to bank to circumvent detection by the bank and law enforcement, the targeted organization's website will be subjected to a DDoS attack. The idea behind the DDoS attack is to prevent the victim from accessing the bank account.
STEPS TO PROTECT AGAINST THE DYRE WOLF
IBM security researchers recommend the following steps to users in order to protect against the attack:
Organizations should train its employees on security best practices.
Conduct periodic mock phishing exercises where employees receive emails or attachments that simulate a malicious behavior. Then using that findings, discuss the growing security threats with them.
Provide security trainings to its employees in order to help understand threats and measures they can take to protect their organization.
Regular reminders on phishing and spam campaigns should be provided to employees in order to prevent them to open any suspicious attachments or links.
As the banks never ask for banking credentials, employees should be trained to never provide this information to anyone.
The Dyre Wolf campaign has already ripped off organizations for $500,000 (€450,000) and more than $1 Million (€910,000) per attack. However, this much large sums of money are not transferred without alarming the organizations, but cybercriminals have focused only on those banks that transfer large sums of money without triggering alarms.
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Story highlightsRoger Federer hopes to win "about five" tournaments in 2014 and play in "great" finalsThe Swiss ends 2013 at No. 6, his lowest year-end ranking since 2002 Serena Williams is one major short of tying Martina Navratilova and Chris EvertAndy Murray returns to the pro circuit in 2014 after undergoing back surgery in SeptemberRoger Federer took time out from his off-season training regimen to answer questions on Twitter from his legions of fans. Among the things they learned earlier this month was that Federer's favorite fruits were strawberry, apple and mango and that he has visited 55 countries. When asked what he planned to get wife Mirka for Christmas, the funnier side of the 17-time grand slam champion emerged: A "hashtag," he replied. He added that he was "working overtime" to win the Australian Open in January -- which leads us to the first of five burning questions looking ahead to the 2014 tennis season. Can Roger Federer win another grand slam? The numbers, so often in favor of history maker Federer, were less kind to the Swiss in 2013. He failed to reach a grand slam final for the first time since 2002, his grand slam quarterfinal streak ended at 36 and his year-end ranking of No. 6 was his lowest in 11 years. JUST WATCHEDRoger Federer: You can't always winReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRoger Federer: You can't always win 01:31JUST WATCHEDRoger Federer: A crusader for educationReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRoger Federer: A crusader for education 08:26JUST WATCHEDRoger Federer on mental toughnessReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRoger Federer on mental toughness 06:10Federer only won one tournament, on grass in Halle, Germany -- though he was bounced from Wimbledon a few weeks later in the second round after claiming the title at the All England Club a record seven times.Longtime coach Paul Annacone was axed months later. Read: Federer's shock defeatHis back problems returned, with Federer saying it was a mistake to keep playing at the BNP Paribas Open in March when the back flared up. It was indeed a slump -- well, for Federer. But Federer says he is now fit, which helped the 32-year-old finish the season on a high. "My self-confidence has also returned," he told the website of one of his sponsors, Credit Suisse, in late November. "By the end, everyone around me was talking positively again. The mood was much better than in the summer."That boosts my morale for the coming year, and it's a big relief. The fun has definitely returned."Federer said he would like to win "about" five tournaments in 2014 and play in "great finals." The majors are what matter to Federer most, and if he was to claim the Australian Open he would become the second oldest man -- behind Andre Agassi -- to bag a singles grand slam in the last 40 years. Federer probably needs to beat two of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray to collect an 18th major but his recent record against the trio is underwhelming. He has lost four straight to Nadal, three straight to Djokovic and fell to Murray in an absorbing Australian Open semifinal last January.JUST WATCHEDRafael Nadal: Comeback was difficultReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRafael Nadal: Comeback was difficult 02:35JUST WATCHEDSerena Williams' inner circleReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHSerena Williams' inner circle 06:55JUST WATCHEDIs Murray ready for the Australian Open?ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHIs Murray ready for the Australian Open? 02:29No matter what happens to Federer in 2014, though, he'll still be a major talking point. Can anyone stop Rafael Nadal at the French Open?Statistically, Nadal became the best player ever at the French Open when he won an unprecedented eighth title on the red clay at Roland Garros. Only once has he failed to win in Paris in the spring, when Robin Soderling, Nadal's wonky knees and the then split of the Mallorcan's parents made for a combination too powerful to overcome in 2009. Since then he has captured four in succession.But Nadal came within an inch of likely losing at the French Open this year to Djokovic. The Serb led by a break 4-3 in the fifth set of their semifinal when he touched the net before a point ended at deuce. It was an easy put away that Nadal had no chance of reaching. Djokovic lost the point, Nadal broke back and he won 9-7 in the fifth. Read: The 'real' French Open final Only two months prior, Djokovic snapped Nadal's 46-match winning streak, dating back to 2005, at the clay-court Monte Carlo Masters. If anyone is to get the better of Nadal at the French Open next year -- assuming he is healthy -- Djokovic, who has appointed Boris Becker as the head of his coaching team, is the lone serious candidate. Who can derail Serena Williams? Serena Williams compiled a 78-4 record in 2013 for the best winning percentage on the women's tour since 1990 and she took home nearly $12.4 million in prize money -- the most ever for a female tennis player in a season. Williams was stunned by Sabine Lisicki at Wimbledon in one of those four losses but weeks earlier lifted the French Open trophy for the first time since 2002. When she triumphed at the U.S. Open in September, the American climbed to 17 majors to approach Chris Evert -- once her critic -- and Martina Navratilova. JUST WATCHEDAndy Murray inspires Scottish hometownReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHAndy Murray inspires Scottish hometown 04:42JUST WATCHEDIvan Lendl on managing Andy Murray ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHIvan Lendl on managing Andy Murray 00:57JUST WATCHEDMaria Sharapova's taste for businessReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHMaria Sharapova's taste for business 03:26Read: Serena gets better of Vika Unlike her fellow 32-year-old Federer, Williams doesn't have as many roadblocks in front of her so she could keep on collecting grand slam titles in bunches. World No. 2 Victoria Azarenka has yet to win a grand slam outside Australia and Maria Sharapova is returning from another serious shoulder injury. They're Williams' two main rivals. Williams' first order of business is to end Azarenka's two-tournament reign in Melbourne after injuries hampered her Down Under in 2012 and this year. How will Andy Murray recover from his back injury? Murray missed the last two months of the season following back surgery and all eyes are on the Scot to see how he'll rebound in 2014. As the likes of Federer, Agassi and Murray's coach, Ivan Lendl, can attest, back problems are difficult to shake. He is due to return to action at an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi on Boxing Day against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and might also face Djokovic and Nadal."It's exactly the test I need to see where my game is at," Murray was quoted as saying by ESPN UK online. Thankfully for Murray he was able to end Britain's 77-year wait for a men's singles champion at Wimbledon -- before the back forced him off tour -- when he toppled Djokovic in July. Prior to Nadal re-emerging on the circuit in February, Djokovic and Murray contested two straight grand slam finals. Murray wants to make more history, said mom Judy."Andy's goal is to win more grand slams and try to achieve that end-of-year world No. 1 ranking," she was quoted as saying by the Scotsman newspaper this week. Can anyone new win a major? With the men's Big Four around, unearthing a new grand slam champion in 2014 figures to be difficult. Since the spring of 2005, only one man not named Federer, Nadal, Djokovic or Murray has won a grand slam -- Juan Martin del Potro at the 2009 U.S. Open. Recent years, however, tell us it could happen on the women's tour. For four straight seasons a debutante has come through at a major, Marion Bartoli being the most recent at Wimbledon. Bartoli was the first to admit she benefited from a nice draw, with Williams, Sharapova and Azarenka all exiting before the quarterfinals.
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Story highlightsFrance confirms the death of senior Islamist militant Abdelhamid Abou ZeidAbou Zeid was a commander of al Qaeda in the Islamic MaghrebFrench and African forces have been fighting Islamist militants in Mali since JanuaryAbou Zeid was killed in the Ifoghas Mountains, where the hunt for militants continuesFrance confirmed for the first time Saturday that Islamist militant Abdelhamid Abou Zeid was killed amid fighting by French forces in northern Mali late last month.Abou Zeid's death in the Ifoghas Mountains had been widely reported but the French government declined to confirm it pending the results of DNA testing. The death of one of the major figures in al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb "marks an important stage in the struggle against terrorism in the Sahel," said a statement from the office of French President Francois Hollande.Report: Al Qaeda kills French hostage held in MaliAbou Zeid was considered one of the group's most ruthless commanders, having seized at least a dozen foreigners for ransom.The French president's office said there was no new information regarding a second man reported to have been killed in the fighting in northern Mali, jihadist commander, Moktar Belmoktar. DNA testing was also being conducted to confirm his death. Belmoktar is believed to be behind a large scale attack at an Algerian gas plant in January that left dozens of hostages and militants dead. At the beginning of this year, Abou Zeid joined other Islamist forces making a push southward toward the capital, Bamako. But when the Islamist advances prompted a French intervention, he moved to the area around the less accessible city of Kidal, close to the virtually impenetrable Ifoghas Mountains.French minister: 'Tons' of Islamists' heavy weapons found in MaliFrench and allied forces, including Malian and Chadian troops, have made significant inroads in recent weeks combating Islamist extremist fighters in Mali. But fighting continues in the remote northeastern part of the West African nation.Nearly 50 aerial sorties were flown in the past few days, most of them in the Ifoghas Mountains region and along the Niger river between Gao and Timbuktu, the French Defense Ministry said Thursday.French ground forces, supported by troops from Chad, have been hunting armed terrorist groups in amongst the valleys of the massif, the ministry said.French involvement in the conflict began on January 11, the day after militants said they had seized the city of Konna, east of Diabaly in central Mali, and were poised to advance south toward Bamako, the capital.In total, 4,000 French soldiers are deployed in Mali, according to the French Defense Ministry website, alongside 6,300 troops from Chad and the African-led International Support Mission to Mali.Islamist extremists carved out a large haven in northern Mali last year, taking advantage of a chaotic situation after a military coup by the separatist party MNLA. France using DNA to identify Islamists killed in Africa
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Story highlightsLos Angeles Galaxy have reached the 2011 MLS CupGalaxy reached the championship game after a 3-1 win over Real Salt LakeBruce Arena's team will face Houston Dynamo in the November 20 matchLos Angeles Galaxy reached Major League Soccer's (MLS) championship match on Sunday after a 3-1 defeat of Real Salt Lake in the Western Conference final.The Galaxy, two-time MLS Cup winners, reached the deciding game for a record seventh time thanks to goals from captain Landon Donovan, American Mike Magee and Ireland striker Robbie Keane in front of their home fans at the Home Depot Center.Manager Bruce Arena's Galaxy will face Houston Dynamo in the post-season's final match, after Dynamo beat Sporting Kansas City in the Eastern Conference final.The final, which will take place at the Home Depot Center, could be midfielder David Beckham's last match for Los Angeles, with the former England captain's contract expiring at the end of the season.But Beckham, 36, is focused only on the upcoming match with Dynamo, after playing in the MLS Cup 2009 when the Galaxy were beaten by Real Salt Lake in a penalty shoot-out."We're happy to be winning the Western final, but we know that there is one more game to go so we're not getting carried away," the former Real Madrid and Manchester United star told the league's official website."We did that a couple of years ago and we paid for it. We didn't win the MLS Cup final, so hopefully this will be something that we're happy to win [on Sunday], but we know that we've got one more game."Galaxy went ahead on 23 minutes when Donovan, 29, converted a penalty after Andy Williams' push on Omar Gonzalez.JUST WATCHEDBehind the scenes with David BeckhamReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHBehind the scenes with David Beckham 06:35Dynamo responded almost immediately, striker Alvaro Saborio scoring with a close-range header to equalize after 25 minutes.Beckham, capped 115 times by England, helped Galaxy regain the lead on 58 minutes, his pin-point cross headed home by Magee.Former Tottenham and Liverpool forward Keane secured the win for Galaxy with 22 minutes remaining, wriggling free of his marker before firing a low shot beyond Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimandi.Dynamo needed second half goals from defender Andre Hainault and forward Carlos Costly to see off the challenge of Sporting Kansas City in front of a record crowd at Livestrong Sporting Park.The 16th MLS Cup final will complete the 2011 season and will be played on Sunday November 20.
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Recently we reported about that Symantec provide overview and analysis of the year in global threat activity via its Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), with a exclusive details that 400 million new variants of malware were created in 2011, which is an average of 33 million new variants of malware a month, or an average of one million new variants a day.
In order to develop malware that evades detection by the security companies malware writers come up with some clever, yet quite simple techniques. If malware stops itself when it detects that it is running in a virtual environment, it may trick an automated threat analysis system into thinking that it is a clean program.
So malware may not only fool automated threat analysis systems, but also a corporate system administrator who is searching for computers compromised by malware. Malware authors have recently attempted to use other approaches to fool automated threat analysis systems as well.
Latest example of such Trojan is that , where malware attaches its malicious code to routines normally used only to control the inputs from mouse clicks. The malicious code is designed to remain inactive unless the mouse itself is in use, giving a fair chance that the RAT will remain undetected, in the never ending cat and mouse game these two parties play.
Technically, this malware variant uses the SetWindowsHookExA Windows API function to inject itself into the message handling functions that process mouse events. When the code runs, it waits 300,000 milliseconds, or five minutes, before executing the DecryptCode subroutine, as shown in the image above. It then waits 20 minutes and executes the ModifyRegistry subroutine
After executing the Network_main subroutine, it waits another 20 minutes. Automated threat analysis systems only spend a small amount of time on one file so they may not detect the code as malware. Researchers also come across strains of malware that use "sleep mode" to evade dynamic analysis systems.
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Story highlights"Do we really have to educate non-citizens?" one lawmaker asksSuperintendent: "We shouldn't try to fix the budget hole by threatening children" (CNN)Fellow Republicans are distancing themselves from an Oklahoma lawmaker's proposed solution to state budget problems: turning kids who are learning English over to immigration authorities.An idea that state Rep. Mike Ritze floated this week in an interview with a local news station drew swift rebukes from members of his own party. It spurred sharp criticism from immigrant rights advocates. And it inspired a flurry of negative comments on his Facebook page.The state's top school official, who's also a Republican, quickly decried the idea."We shouldn't try to fix the budget hole by threatening children," Oklahoma state schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said on Twitter. "We are better than that."We shouldn't try to fix the budget hole by threatening children. We are better than that. #oklaed https://t.co/oLep4tAXt8— Joy Hofmeister (@joy4ok) May 11, 2017
Rep. Jon Echols, the state House majority leader, told CNN on Friday that targeting students taking English as a Second Language (ESL) classes isn't the right approach.Read More"It's a bad idea," he said.The proposalRitze, a doctor from the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, told KWTV this week that he and a group of Republican lawmakers had come up with a number of ways to fill a hole in their state's budget without raising taxes. One way to save $60 million, he said, would be looking at the tens of thousands of students in the state who don't speak English."Identify them and then turn them over to ICE to see if they truly are citizens," Ritze said. "Do we really have to educate non-citizens?"The short answer: yes.Why it won't happenA 1982 Supreme Court decision makes it clear that public schools must serve all students equally, regardless of immigration status. Plyler v. Doe struck down a Texas statute denying public education funds for children who were in the United States illegally. The court ruled that Texas' statute violated the 14th Amendment, which says no state should deny anyone in its territory "the equal protection of the laws."Decided law, Supreme Court 1982 https://t.co/3SPHo0Alva— Joy Hofmeister (@joy4ok) May 11, 2017
The Department of Homeland Security also has a policy stating that operations at schools and other designated sensitive locations "should generally be avoided."The responseSeveral Republican lawmakers reached by CNN said they're not backing the proposal that Ritze floated."I absolutely DO NOT support this idea," Rep. Chuck Strohm said in an email.Echols, the state House majority leader, cited the Supreme Court ruling and said officials are "required to offer an education to all students." And he noted that students who are learning English could be citizens. "Just because you're an ESL student doesn't mean you're automatically a non-citizen," he said.Oklahoma's branch of the ACLU was quick to condemn Ritze's comments."This proposal might be laughable," executive director Ryan Kiesel said, "if it weren't made at the expense of real human beings, common decency, and the United States Constitution."Ritze's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.A steady stream of negative posts have been appearing on the state lawmaker's Facebook page as word of the proposal spreads.On Friday, critics responded to Ritze's post wishing friends a "beautiful and blessed" Mother's Day."So many mothers out there who have struggled to give their children a better life are going to spend this Sunday wondering if ICE will be coming for their child," one post said.Not the first timeThe cost of education isn't a new flashpoint in the immigration debate. Immigrant and civil rights organizations, like the American Civil Liberties Union, say education is a fundamental right that officials can't take away. Organizations that advocate for stricter immigration enforcement, like the Federation for American Immigration Reform, say programs for students with limited English proficiency are a burden that taxpayers shouldn't be forced to shoulder. US public schools take steps to protect undocumented studentsThis isn't the first time a lawmaker has suggested using schools as a way to crack down on illegal immigration.Alabama legislators passed a controversial law in 2011 that required officials to check the immigration status of children in public schools. Courts blocked that portion of the law. But the measure still fueled widespread fear and caused a spike in absences and withdrawals among Hispanic students.In recent months, with threats of increased immigration enforcement looming, school districts around the country have pledged to protect undocumented students.About 50,000 children enrolled in Oklahoma's schools are designated as "English learners," according to state officials.English learners make up nearly 10% of the student population nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Education. More than 4.8 million students enrolled in grades K-12 in the United States during the 2014-2015 school year were were identified as "English learners."In 2014, about 725,000 students enrolled in grades K-12 in the United States -- 1.3% of all students enrolled -- were unauthorized immigrants, according to Pew Research Center estimates based on government data.CNN's Holly Yan and Ray Sanchez contributed to this report.
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Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new variant of WatchBog, a Linux-based cryptocurrency mining malware botnet, which now also includes a module to scan the Internet for Windows RDP servers vulnerable to the Bluekeep flaw.
BlueKeep is a highly-critical, wormable, remote code execution vulnerability in the Windows Remote Desktop Services that could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to take full control over vulnerable systems just by sending specially crafted requests over RDP protocol.
Though the patches for the BlueKeep vulnerability (CVE–2019-0708) was already released by Microsoft in May this year, more than 800,000 Windows machines accessible over the Internet are still vulnerable to the critical flaw.
Fortunately, even after many individuals in the security community developed working remote code exploits for BlueKeep, there is no public proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit available till the date, potentially preventing opportunistic hackers from wreaking havoc.
However, cybersecurity firm Immunity just yesterday released an updated version of its commercial automated vulnerability assessment and penetration testing (VAPT) tool, CANVAS 7.23, which includes a new module for the BlueKeep RDP exploit.
It appears the attackers behind WatchBog are using their botnet network to prepare "a list of vulnerable systems to target in the future or to sell to third party vendors for profit," warned the researchers from Intezer Lab, who discovered the new WatchBog variant.
"The incorporation of the BlueKeep scanner by a Linux botnet may indicate WatchBog is beginning to explore financial opportunities on a different platform," the researchers said.
The BlueKeep scanner included in WatchBog scans the Internet and then submits the list of newly discovered RDP hosts, as a hexadecimal data string encrypted using RC4, to the attacker-controlled servers.
According to the researcher, the new WatchBog variant has already compromised more than 4,500 Linux machines in the last two months.
Although WatchBog is operating since late last year, attackers are distributing its new variant in an ongoing campaign active since early June this year.
The newly-discovered WatchBog variant includes a new spreading module along with exploits for some recently patched vulnerabilities in Linux applications, allowing attackers to find and compromise more Linux systems rapidly.
The WatchBog Linux botnet malware contains several modules, as structurally briefed below, which leverages recently patched vulnerabilities in Exim, Jira, Solr, Jenkins, ThinkPHP and Nexus applications to compromise Linux machines.
Pwn Module
CVE-2019-11581 (Jira)
CVE-2019-10149 (Exim)
CVE-2019-0192 (Solr)
CVE-2018-1000861 (Jenkins)
CVE-2019-7238 (Nexus Repository Manager 3)
Scanning Module
BlueKeep Scanner
Jira Scanner
Solr Scanner
Brute-forcing Module
CouchDB instances
Redis instances
Spreading Module
Apache ActiveMQ (CVE-2016-3088)
Solr (CVE-2019-0192)
Code Execution over Redis
After scanning and brute-forcing modules discover a Linux machine running the vulnerable application, WatchBog deploys a script on the targeted machine to download Monero miner modules from Pastebin website.
The malicious script then also gains persistence on the infected system via crontab and further downloads a new spreader module, which comes in the form of a dynamically linked Cython-compiled ELF executable.
Researchers have recommended Linux and Windows administrators to keep their software and operating systems up-to-date against known vulnerabilities in order to prevent themselves from being a victim of such attack campaigns.
You can find if WatchBog has infected your Linux machine by checking the existence of the "/tmp/.tmplassstgggzzzqpppppp12233333" file or the "/tmp/.gooobb" file on your system.
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Cybersecurity firms Sophos and ReversingLabs on Monday jointly released the first-ever production-scale malware research dataset to be made available to the general public that aims to build effective defenses and drive industry-wide improvements in security detection and response.
"SoReL-20M" (short for Sophos-ReversingLabs – 20 Million), as it's called, is a dataset containing metadata, labels, and features for 20 million Windows Portable Executable (.PE) files, including 10 million disarmed malware samples, with the goal of devising machine-learning approaches for better malware detection capabilities.
"Open knowledge and understanding about cyber threats also leads to more predictive cybersecurity," Sophos AI group said. "Defenders will be able to anticipate what attackers are doing and be better prepared for their next move."
Accompanying the release are a set of PyTorch and LightGBM-based machine learning models pre-trained on this data as baselines.
Unlike other fields such as natural language and image processing, which have benefitted from vast publicly-available datasets such as MNIST, ImageNet, CIFAR-10, IMDB Reviews, Sentiment140, and WordNet, getting hold of standardized labeled datasets devoted to cybersecurity has proved challenging because of the presence of personally identifiable information, sensitive network infrastructure data, and private intellectual property, not to mention the risk of providing malicious software to unknown third-parties.
Although EMBER (aka Endgame Malware BEnchmark for Research) was released in 2018 as an open-source malware classifier, its smaller sample size (1.1 million samples) and its function as a single-label dataset (benign/malware) meant it "limit[ed] the range of experimentation that can be performed with it."
SoReL-20M aims to get around these problems with 20 million PE samples, which also includes 10 million disarmed malware samples (those can't be executed), as well as extracted features and metadata for an additional 10 million benign samples.
Furthermore, the approach leverages a deep learning-based tagging model trained to generate human-interpretable semantic descriptions specifying important attributes of the samples involved.
The release of SoReL-20M follows similar industry initiatives in recent months, including that of a coalition led by Microsoft, which released the Adversarial ML Threat Matrix in October to help security analysts detect, respond to, and remediate adversarial attacks against machine learning systems.
"The idea of threat intelligence sharing in security isn't new but is more critical than ever given the innovation threat actors have shown over the past several years," ReversingLabs researchers said. "Machine learning and AI have become central to these efforts allowing threat hunters and SOC teams to move beyond signatures and heuristics and become more proactive in detecting new or targeted malware."
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Story highlightsPolice in St. Gallen said the suspect was also injured in the fireAmong the injured is a 6-year-old (CNN)A man on a train in eastern Switzerland stabbed several passengers and poured out some kind of liquid that caught fire Saturday afternoon, leaving six people hurt -- including a 6-year-old boy, police said.In a statement on Facebook, St. Gallen police said the 27-year-old suspect was also injured in the fire.In addition to the child, a 17-year-old man, a 50-year-old man and three women -- ages 17, 34 and 43 -- were taken to various hospitals with injuries ranging from burns to stab wounds, police said.Dozens of passengers were on the train when the attack occurred on the route between Buchs and Sennwald, just before the Salez Station, authorities said.The train was heavily damaged by the fire, and regional authorities have opened an investigation into the incident.Read MoreService has been shut down on that rail line and buses were brought in for passengers, police said. CNN's Melissa Gray contributed to this report.
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been seen as a potential solution for automatically detecting and combating malware, and stop cyber attacks before they affect any organization.
However, the same technology can also be weaponized by threat actors to power a new generation of malware that can evade even the best cyber-security defenses and infects a computer network or launch an attack only when the target's face is detected by the camera.
To demonstrate this scenario, security researchers at IBM Research came up with DeepLocker—a new breed of "highly targeted and evasive" attack tool powered by AI," which conceals its malicious intent until it reached a specific victim.
According to the IBM researcher, DeepLocker flies under the radar without being detected and "unleashes its malicious action as soon as the AI model identifies the target through indicators like facial recognition, geolocation and voice recognition."
Describing it as the "spray and pray" approach of traditional malware, researchers believe that this kind of stealthy AI-powered malware is particularly dangerous because, like nation-state malware, it could infect millions of systems without being detected.
The malware can hide its malicious payload in benign carrier applications, like video conferencing software, to avoid detection by most antivirus and malware scanners until it reaches specific victims, who are identified via indicators such as voice recognition, facial recognition, geolocation and other system-level features.
Also Read: Artificial Intelligence Based System That Can Detect 85% of Cyber Attacks
"What is unique about DeepLocker is that the use of AI makes the "trigger conditions" to unlock the attack almost impossible to reverse engineer," the researchers explain. "The malicious payload will only be unlocked if the intended target is reached."
To demonstrate DeepLocker's capabilities, the researchers designed a proof of concept, camouflaging well-known WannaCry ransomware in a video conferencing app so that it remains undetected by security tools, including antivirus engines and malware sandboxes.
With the built-in triggering condition, DeepLocker did not unlock and execute the ransomware on the system until it recognized the face of the target, which can be matched using publicly available photos of the target.
"Imagine that this video conferencing application is distributed and downloaded by millions of people, which is a plausible scenario nowadays on many public platforms. When launched, the app would surreptitiously feed camera snapshots into the embedded AI model, but otherwise behave normally for all users except the intended target," the researchers added.
"When the victim sits in front of the computer and uses the application, the camera would feed their face to the app, and the malicious payload will be secretly executed, thanks to the victim's face, which was the preprogrammed key to unlock it."
So, all DeepLocker requires is your photo, which can easily be found from any of your social media profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or Instagram, to target you.
Trustwave has recently open-sourced a facial recognition tool called Social Mapper, which can be used to search for targets across numerous social networks at once.
The IBM Research group will unveil more details and a live demonstration of its proof-of-concept implementation of DeepLocker at the Black Hat USA security conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
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Story highlightsRescue helicopter was transporting an injured skier in the central Italian mountainsTwo police officers, three medics and the skier were all killed (CNN)An emergency helicopter crashed in the mountains of central Italy Tuesday, killing at least six people.The crash near the ski resort of Campo Felice in the province of L'Aquila happened during an operation to rescue an injured skier, according to the Prefecture of L'Aquila.Rescuers work in the area where the helicopter crashed.Two members of the Guardia di Finanzia police, three medical personnel and the injured skier were killed. The crash took place around 12:15pm at an altitude of 600 meters and was caused by bad weather, according to the Prefecture.The region has already been hit by earthquakes, heavy snowfalls and a deadly avalanche that killed at least 14 people at the Rigopiano Hotel in Pescara province on Wednesday. Rescuers carry away the body of one of the victims.The hotel is located around 40 miles from the helicopter crash site, on the other side of the Gran Sasso mountain.Read MoreThe National Agency for Air Safety has opened an investigation into the helicopter crash and is sending an investigative team to the area, which was made inaccessible by the adverse weather conditions, according to a statement.CNN's Milena Veselinovic also contributed to this report.
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Story highlights"Binge-watch" is the word of the year according to British-based dictionary CollinsFirst coined in the 1990s, usage has tripled over the past year, says publisherShortlist influenced by communications tech and increased discussion around gender (CNN)A dramatic change in TV viewing habits has seen "binge-watch" named word of the year by UK-based dictionary Collins.Usage of the verb -- defined as "to watch a large number of television programs (especially all the shows from one series) in succession" -- has tripled since the previous year, according to the publisher.Although not a new coinage, the word was a runaway winner due to a sharp rise in its usage, which reflected a change in behavior, Elaine Higgleton, international publisher at Collins Learning, told CNN."It's actually been around since the 1990s, and binge is an old Lincolnshire dialect word that made its way into common English in the 19th century," she said.JUST WATCHEDWhy do we binge-watch TV?ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHWhy do we binge-watch TV? 02:08"From a very slow start, it has really taken off exponentially as a term people are using every day," she said, reflecting the popularity of online streaming services like Netflix that allow viewers to watch hit shows, like "Breaking Bad" or "House of Cards," on demand.Read More'Transgender' clear secondCollins' lexicographers compile the list through monitoring newspapers, magazines, books, websites and other sources around the world to track emerging word trends. Last year's winner was "photobomb" - "to intrude into the background of a photograph without the subject's knowledge."The clear second-place winner this year was "transgender" which, although also not a new word, had doubled in frequency of usage from the previous year."It's probably that transgender figures have had a much higher profile in the media -- you only have to think of people like Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox and programs like 'Orange is the New Black'," said Higgleton.JUST WATCHEDCaitlyn Jenner makes her public debutReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHCaitlyn Jenner makes her public debut 02:43"I think there's been a lot more awareness of gender issues which has led people to use these terms more."READ MORE: America's transgender moment'Dadbod' in; 'mumbod' outOther words shortlisted for word of the year included "dadbod" -- defined as "an untoned and slightly plump male physique, especially one considered attractive" -- and "manspreading," "the act or an instance of a male passenger in a bus or train splaying his legs in a way that denies space to the passenger sitting next to him."Hiddleston said her team had tracked the emergence of similar gendered terms relating to women -- such as "mumbod," or "she-bagging," which described a female passenger taking up an extra seat on public transport by placing her bag on the seat.But these had not made the shortlist, as they were much less popular.Actor Seth Rogen (right, pictured here with James Franco) is often cited as an example of the "dadbod." The rise in terms like "manspreading" was associated with the emergence of mobile communication technology, which allowed commuters to comment in real time, through a tweet or text, on events they encountered on their journey, said Higgleton."That instant communication means we have words for things that in the past we wouldn't have bothered defining," she said.Other finalistsThe shortlisted words will be added to online version of the dictionary, with those that stood the test of time being added to the next print edition in 2018. Higgleton said she expected that some wouldn't make it."I think some of them will drop out of usage," she said. "Binge-watch might go fairly quickly. Who knows what new technology might be around the corner in 18 months time?"JUST WATCHEDStudy: Binge-watching could be sign of depressionReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHStudy: Binge-watching could be sign of depression 01:51Other shortlisted words of the year announced by Collins include:Clean eating: following a diet that contains only natural foods, and is low in sugar, salt, and fat.Contactless: referring to payments, smart cards, etc that utilize RFID (radio-frequency identity) technology and do not require a PIN or signature from the customer.Ghosting: ending a relationship by ignoring all communication from the other person.Shaming: attempting to embarrass a person or group by drawing attention to their perceived offense, especially on social media.Corbynomics: the economic policies advocated by the UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.READ MORE: WTF, clickbait, photobomb added to dictionary
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(CNN)Authorities are investigating after an ICE detainee facing possible deportation apparently killed himself.Efrain De La Rosa, 40, was found unresponsive in a cell at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, on Tuesday night and was later pronounced dead at a hospital, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. The apparent cause of death was self-inflicted strangulation, the agency said Thursday, adding that the case is under investigation.De La Rosa, a Mexican national, was in removal proceedings at the time of his death, ICE said.The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the death at the request of the local sheriff. There is no indication of foul play, GBI Special Agent in Charge Danny Jackson said.Read MoreA preliminary investigation revealed De La Rosa was alone in an isolation cell at the detention center when officials there found him, Jackson said. It was not immediately clear why De La Rosa had been placed in isolation. ICE spokesman Bryan Cox said he could not provide additional comment because an agency review of the death is ongoing. Amanda Gilchrist, a spokeswoman for CoreCivic, which owns and operates the facility, said the company is fully cooperating with investigators but declined to comment further because of the active investigation.De La Rosa is the eighth detainee to die in ICE custody in the 2018 fiscal year, the agency said.De La Rosa's death comes less than six months after the death of another ICE detainee who had been in custody at Stewart. Yulio Castro Garrido, a 33-year-old Cuban national, was diagnosed with pneumonia at Stewart and was hospitalized as his condition worsened. He died in January at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.And in May 2017, Jean Jimenez-Joseph, a 27-year-old Panamanian national, killed himself in solitary confinement at Stewart.Immigrant rights groups swiftly criticized the facility as word of De La Rosa's death spread."The deaths and systematic abuse at Stewart are not only tragic, but infuriating," said Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director at Project South. ICE said it is conducting an agency-wide review of De La Rosa's death and "is firmly committed to the health and welfare of all those in its custody."
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Specialized Trojan can stealing credit card details from hotel
The next time you check in to a hotel, a cybercriminal could be checking you out. A remote access computer Trojan (RAT) designed to steal credit card details from hotel point-of-sale (PoS) applications is being sold on the underground forums, according to researchers from security firm Trusteer.
Trusteer, the world's leading provider of secure web access services, detected these schemes and says hotel poaching is a virile trade in underground and tech forums. Attack codes can be purchased in Visa underground forums for $280 and the spyware cannot be detected by anti-virus software. The package even includes a manual loaded with tips on how the poacher can trick the desk clerk into loading the spyware for them.
Malware writers often repackage their malicious installers with new algorithms in order to evade signature-based antivirus detection, said Bogdan Botezatu, a senior e-threat analyst at antivirus vendor BitDefender.
"The fact that the RAT's creator decided to target the hospitality industry is consistent with a recently observed change in the focus of cybercriminals - an expansion from online banking attacks to attacks against PoS systems, Criminals are increasingly expanding the focus of their attacks from online banking targets to enterprises," said Trusteer's CTO Amit Klein.
While this credit card scam seems nearly impossible to detect and prevent, you can keep your finances, and identity, in check by routinely monitoring your bank balances, and reporting any suspicious or unauthorized transactions to your bank immediately.
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London (CNN)A British police officer has been found guilty of the manslaughter of former professional soccer player Dalian Atkinson, but he was cleared of his murder, a spokesperson for Birmingham Crown Court told CNN on Wednesday.Atkinson, a former forward for English Premier League football team Aston Villa, went into cardiac arrest after officers used a Taser on him in Telford, central England, in August 2016.The court heard that Police Constable Benjamin Monk used a Taser on Atkinson for 33 seconds -- more than six times the recommended time -- and kicked him twice while he lay on the ground.Paramedics were unable to save Atkinson and he died around 90 minutes later.Police Constable Benjamin Monk was found guilty of manslaughter. Monk denied any wrongdoing and said he believed there was a danger to life for him and his colleague, the court spokesperson confirmed to CNN.Read MoreMonk was cleared of the charge of murder but found guilty of manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.Monk's conviction is the first time in 35 years that a police officer has been found guilty of murder or manslaughter following a death involving police contact or in custody.He told the court that Atkinson, 48, appeared to be having a mental health crisis, made death threats and smashed a glass door pane at his childhood home in Telford, the PA Media news agency reported.Monk claimed Atkinson was trying to get up when he aimed kicks at his shoulder in self-defense after he had run out of Taser cartridges, according to PA. But prosecutors said the officer lied about the number of kicks he had delivered to Atkinson's head, claiming he could remember only one aimed at his shoulder, PA reported.Monk also claimed to have no recollection of putting his foot on Atkinson's head as authorities arrived at the scene, the outlet reported.UK policeman charged with murder after Tasered ex-footballer diesDuring his 16-year career, Atkinson also played for Ipswich Town and Sheffield Wednesday in England as well as teams in the Spanish, Turkish and South Korean leagues.A notably talented player, Atkinson scored a spectacular goal against Wimbledon in December 1992, which the BBC's "Match of the Day" program voted goal of the 1992-1993 season."Dalian Atkinson is much missed by all his family and friends and the footballing communities of the clubs he played for in his long and successful career as a professional footballer, especially Ipswich Town, Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa," Atkinson's family said in a statement following the verdict."Dalian's footballing talent led him to achieve great things in his life. Our sincere hope is that now that the truth about his death is known, and justice has been done, we can start to remember him not for the manner in which he died, but for the way in which he lived," the statement continued.Sentencing will take place on Monday, PA reported. The court is still deliberating an assault charge against relating to another police officer.CNN's Lianne Kolirin contributed reporting.
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Story highlightsJuventus coach Antonio Conte banned from football for 10 months.Conte's assistant Angelo Alessio also banned by Italian FederationSerie A champions Juventus to launch an appealSix other Italian players acquitted of charges made against themItalian football champions Juventus plan to appeal against the 10-month ban that coach Antonio Conte has received after failing to report match-fixing when he managed Serie B side Siena. Conte and his Juve assistant Angelo Alessio, who was also at Siena, were suspended by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) following a police investigation over allegations of "sporting fraud and fraudulent association" in relation to a league fixture against Novara in April 2011. While earlier charges of direct involvement in match-fixing have been dropped, the FIGC maintain Conte was aware of the corruption taking place during his tenure at Siena. Last season Juventus won the Serie A title for the first time since being stripped of two scudettos and relegated in 2006 after another match-fixing scandal. "The club underlines its full support for Antonio Conte and Angelo Alessio, in the hope that their innocence will emerge during the appeals process," said a Juventus statement. The gambling game: Soccer's battle with bettingJUST WATCHEDArrests in soccer match-fixing probeReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHArrests in soccer match-fixing probe 03:27JUST WATCHEDDel Piero's Juventus love affairReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHDel Piero's Juventus love affair 03:56JUST WATCHEDEaton talks match fixing in JanuaryReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHEaton talks match fixing in January 02:36JUST WATCHEDMuamba: I've played football again ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHMuamba: I've played football again 01:20Conte submitted a plea bargain earlier in August, in which he would have had to pay a €200,000 ($245,000) fine and serve a three-month suspension, but the FICG rejected a more lenient sanction. The former Juventus captain, 43, led his side to back into the Champions League after managing them through an entire season without suffering a defeat, but came under official investigation in June after his first season at the helm of the Serie A giants."He is not being accused of match-fixing himself, and with appeal the sentence may be reduced to five months. It's enormous scandal, and it goes way beyond Conte," John Foot, author of "Calcio: A History of Italian Football," told CNN.In total, 13 clubs and 44 members of Italian League football are alleged to have been involved in the betting scandal investigation including Siena, which accepted a six-point deduction last week as part of a plea bargain.Serie B sides Lecce and Grosseto have been excluded from Italy's second division for the 2012-13 season, and their former presidents Giovanni Semeraro and Piero Camilli face five-year suspensions. Six other players -- Leonardo Bonucci, Simone Pepe, Marco di Vaio, Salvatore Masiello, Daniele Padelli and Giuseppe Vives --have been acquitted of the charges against them. South East Asia bettingIn May, Italian police descended on the national team's Euro 2012 training base to speak to defender Domenico Criscito as part of a wide-ranging investigation into match fixing. The 25-year-old, formerly of Genoa but now at Russian club Zenit St. Petersburg, was questioned by officials probing gambling markets linked to fixing results of matches in the Italian top flight. A total of 19 people were arrested in the ongoing investigation by magistrates in Cremona, 11 of them players in Italy's top division. "The top people are still there and no-one has resigned," said Foot, Professor of Modern Italian History at University College London. Photos: Footballers speak out on addiction Photos: Footballers speak out on addictionLundekvam speaks out – Former Southampton defender Claus Lundekvam has claimed there was widespread spot-fixing in the English Premier League. Lundekvam told a Norwegian television channel he and fellow players would bet on minor details of games, such as when the first throw-in would be taken.Hide Caption 1 of 3 Photos: Footballers speak out on addictionBohinen's concern – Lars Bohinen enjoyed eight years in the Premier League and played alongside Lundekvam at international level for Norway. He told CNN there is far more addiction among top-flight players than people see. He said: "You could sense it from the way they gambled."Hide Caption 2 of 3 Photos: Footballers speak out on addictionAdams' addiction – Former England captain Tony Adams is one footballer who has lived with addiction. After overcoming drug and alcohol problems he founded the Sporting Chance Clinic, dedicated to helping other sportsmen and women do the same. The Professional Footballers' Association and his one-time Arsenal teammate Paul Merson are also patrons.Hide Caption 3 of 3 Photos: Juventus revived under president Agnelli Photos: Juventus revived under president AgnelliControversial celebrations – Juventus fans hold up three stars to signify the 30 championships won by the club, but two in 2005 and 2006 have been struck off the official records after the "Calciopoli" match-fixing scandal.Hide Caption 1 of 6 Photos: Juventus revived under president AgnelliMatch-fixing shame – Former Juventus managing director Luciano Moggi gives testimony at a hearing into the match-fixing scandal. He was banned for life while the club lost two Serie A titles and was relegated to Serie B.Hide Caption 2 of 6 Photos: Juventus revived under president AgnelliUnbeaten run to Serie A title – Juventus players celebrate their Serie A title success after going through the 2011-12 league season unbeaten to relegate arch-rivals AC Milan to second place.Hide Caption 3 of 6 Photos: Juventus revived under president AgnelliConte restores Juve pride – Juventus coach Antonio Conte, a former fans' favorite as a player, has transformed his side's fortunes since taking charge at the start of the 2011-12 season.Hide Caption 4 of 6 Photos: Juventus revived under president AgnelliDel Piero's farewell – Alessandro Del Piero suffered a disappointment in his farewell match for Juventus, losing the Coppa Italia final to Napoli to end a 43-game unbeaten run this season.Hide Caption 5 of 6 Photos: Juventus revived under president AgnelliLike father, like son – Andrea Agnelli is the latest member from the famous family which own FIAT and Juventus to take the helm at "The Old Lady." The son of legendary former president Umberto Agnelli, he took charge in May 2010 and has made sweeping changes at the club.Hide Caption 6 of 6 Photos: Premier League issue Twitter code Photos: Premier League issue Twitter codeRooney Tunes – Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney has 4.6 million followers on Twitter. The Premier League's new code of conduct on the use of social media sites is to underline to players the responsibility they have to such a big audience.Hide Caption 1 of 5 Photos: Premier League issue Twitter codeRio's musings – Rio Ferdinand is a way behind teammate Rooney but still has three million followers who tune in for his views on everything from fashion to music, with a bit of football thrown in too of course.Hide Caption 2 of 5 Photos: Premier League issue Twitter codeNewcomer Cole – Chelsea's Ashley Cole is a recent convert to Twitter but has already caused controversy, taunting fans from former club Arsenal over how many trophies he's won since swapping North London for West.Hide Caption 3 of 5 Photos: Premier League issue Twitter codeKing Kenny Tweets – Even some Premier League managers have taken to Twitter. Former Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish is on board and took to his page to thank the club's fans after he was sacked in May.Hide Caption 4 of 5 Photos: Premier League issue Twitter codeRonaldo rules – Neither Rooney nor Ferdinand can rival the popularity of Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo though. The Portugal star currently has 11.8 million followers, and rising.Hide Caption 5 of 5 Photos: Football's invisible children Photos: Football's invisible childrenFootball's 'disappeared' – An academic study in 2009 estimated as many as 20,000 African boys are living on the streets of Europe after failing to secure contracts with European clubs following their trials.Hide Caption 1 of 11 Photos: Football's invisible childrenTransfer market – In the last six months the total income from 4,973 transfers around the globe was $576 million. Stars like Arsenal striker Robin van Persie dominate the transfer headlines but the bulk of football transfers go under the media's radar.Hide Caption 2 of 11 Photos: Football's invisible childrenSearching for a superstar – Clubs are constantly on the search for the next "Lionel Messi." The Argentine joined Barcelona from Newell's Old Boys in 2000 at the age of 13.Hide Caption 3 of 11 Photos: Football's invisible childrenPaper chase – Every professional player is required to possess a "sport passport" under FIFA regulations. But if a player is registered for the first time in Europe, confusion can arise because a federation there might not necessarily record the player's former clubs in South America or Africa.Hide Caption 4 of 11 Photos: Football's invisible childrenFootball's 'bounty hunter' – Sports agent Paulo Texeira has switched his attention from representing footballers to fighting training compensation claims for South American and African clubs. In his spare time he is a keen surfer.Hide Caption 5 of 11 Photos: Football's invisible childrenThe Ceregatti case – Teixeira claims Italian club AC Milan owes Brazilian club Botafogo FC of Ribeirao Preto compensation involving its training of the player Sergio Ceregatti.Hide Caption 6 of 11 Photos: Football's invisible childrenFIFA involved – Milan and Belgian club Anderlecht have complained to FIFA about what they claim is Teixeira's "defamation and calumny."Hide Caption 7 of 11 Photos: Football's invisible childrenAt all levels – Training compensation is not just a matter for the European mega-clubs. Lowly Welsh team Aberyswyth Town had to wait over two years for a five-figure compensation payout from English side Shrewsbury Town after Tom Bradshaw became a professional. Hide Caption 8 of 11 Photos: Football's invisible childrenThe Olivier Bernard case – In the Olivier Bernard case, the European Court ruled against Newcastle United in 2010 after a claim by the player's former French club Lyon, but cautioned that training-cost compensation is only acceptable if it reflects the accurate amount lost by the breach of contract.Hide Caption 9 of 11 Photos: Football's invisible childrenDi Santo compensation – Argentine laywer Ariel Reck made a successful compensation claim regarding Franco di Santo. After transferring from Chilean club Audax Italiano to Chelsea in 2008, training fees were still owed to two Argentine teams.Hide Caption 10 of 11 Photos: Football's invisible childrenSamuel Eto'o Foundation – In a move to ensure the future rights of African clubs and players alike, Texeira has formed a partnership with the Samuel Eto'o Foundation to ensure care of the players enrolled at the Cameroon star's numerous football academies.Hide Caption 11 of 11"The authorities have come close to uncovering the networks a few times in recent years, but they've really got it now. They have found a network that goes to Singapore and China -- it's an international network." Football's world governing body FIFA is waiting for the FIGC to report on the scandal."FIFA is currently waiting to receive all relevant documents from the Italian FA (FIGC) pertaining to the case and will then evaluate the next steps," it said. "This includes the potential extension of sanctions to have worldwide effect, in accordance with the FIFA Disciplinary Code."Long-running sagaSince February, FIFA has extended 39 domestic sanctions in Turkey, Finland, Korean Republic and Croatia in an attempt to preserve the integrity of the sport. It said that South East Asia is "widely considered as a center of legal and illegal betting."FIFA said it has invested €20 million ($24.5 million) as part of a global initiative to clamp down on corruption within football. The scheme targets illegal and irregular betting and match-fixing, which is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year in Asia alone.How can football tackle match fixing?Friday's announcement of FIGC's punishments are the latest in a long-running saga that has cast a shadow over Italian football. Seventeen people were arrested in a similar swoop last year, the most high-profile of which was Atalanta captain Cristiano Doni. He was subsequently banned from the game for three years.
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Story highlightsArgentina into RWC semifinalsPumas beat Ireland 43-20 in CardiffAustralia edge underdog Scotland in final minutesArgentina will play Australia for place in final (CNN)If the action on Saturday was breathless, then Sunday's remaining quarter final matches of the Rugby World Cup should have carried a health warning, as Argentina blew away Six Nations champion Ireland, while a controversial last-gasp penalty broke Scottish hearts.Expansive and scintillating play backed up by the boot of Nicolas Sanchez, who kicked four conversions and five penalties, gave the Pumas a deserved 43-20 win at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.Follow @cnnsport
It's the second time in its history Argentina has reached this stage. Daniel Hourcade's team will now meet Australia next weekend, after the Wallabies edged past luckless Scotland 35-34 in a pulsating match at Twickenham later Sunday.Reigning World Cup champion New Zealand and South Africa will contest the other semifinal.For a nation better known for its football exploits, it is a remarkable achievement for Argentina, celebrated by its most famous exponent of the round ball game, Diego Maradona, who has promised to fly back for the semifinals after earlier seeing them thrash Tonga in a pool match.Sanchez's 23 points are the biggest individual haul in a #RWC knockout game since Jonny Wilkinson's 24 v #FRA in '03 pic.twitter.com/XSNQXP02RM— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 18, 2015
Read MoreMaradona would have been hard put to have matched the flair and enterprise the Pumas showed to build up a quick 17-0 lead over the stunned Irish.Matias Moroni and Juan Imhoff ran in two tries, both converted by impeccable flyhalf Sanchez, who also landed a penalty.JUST WATCHEDDan Carter: Rugby star's quest for World Cup gloryReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHDan Carter: Rugby star's quest for World Cup glory 02:28Ian Madigan, in for the injured and badly missed Johnny Sexton, kicked the first points for the Irish, but another Sanchez penalty took Argentina 20-3 clear.Either side of half time, the injury-depleted Irish enjoyed their best spell of the quarterfinal, as Luke Fitzgerald and Jordi Murphy went over for tries.READ: 25 million Japanese gripped by?With Madigan making the conversions, the Pumas only led by three points, but in a similar pattern to the start of the match, Joaquin Tuculet and Imhoff crossed in the closing moments and man of the match Sanchez made no mistake with the extra points, plus a late penalty.It left a winning margin of 23 points, but Imhoff admitted it had been a closer encounter than the score suggested."It was a very tough game and worked hard to get this victory," he told UK match broadcaster ITV Sport. "We will enjoy this moment but we will have another very difficult match next weekend."Ireland captain Jamie Heaslip -- standing in for injured and much missed Paul O'Connell -- said his team had paid for the start and finish of the match.JUST WATCHEDCNN Sport explains: What happens in a scrum?ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHCNN Sport explains: What happens in a scrum? 01:57"Argentina play a very expansive game and stretched us and we didn't make it easy for ourselves at times."But fair play when we got back to three points they took their opportunities to kick on and we couldn't take ours," he said.Penalty dramaAustralia was a heavy favorite to beat underdog Scotland, but needed a 79th minute penalty from Bernard Foley to seal victory and underline the dominance of Southern Hemisphere rugby in rugby's four-yearly global showpiece.Host England did not even make it out of the pool stages, while Wales came up short in a hard-fought quarterfinal with South Africa Saturday.Scotland, however, went out of the tournament with heads held high after a never-say-die performance, leading 34-32 with seven minutes remaining after Mark Bennett's try from an interception, converted by Greig Laidlaw in his 19-point tally.#AUS make it an all-southern hemisphere last 4 for the 1st time in #RWC history - and here's how they celebrated! https://t.co/JsjwpM7DGg— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 18, 2015
A controversial decision by referee Craig Joubert to award Australia a penalty for offside presented Foley with the chance to win the match and he duly slotted the kick, under immense pressure, through the posts. It spelled bitter heartbreak for Scotland, who led 16-15 at the half and always stayed in the match when Australia turned up the heat after the interval, running in two more tries to take its tally to five, with Foley finally getting his range with the boot, including the vital late kick.READ: Confused by rugby?Who will win RWC 2015? Have your say on CNN Sport's Facebook page
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Story highlights Yemeni journalist says Said Kouachi briefly roomed with AbdulMutallab in YemenWoman suspect is purportedly shown in newspaper photos in a niqab with a weapon The other three suspects, all men, had been in trouble with the law beforeThose three male suspects are dead after police offensives (CNN)After a terrifying attack on a satirical magazine in Paris this week, the gunmen responsible for killing 12 people were shot down in a standoff with police northeast of the capital Friday.At the same time, security forces stormed a kosher supermarket in Paris to end a hostage situation there.The two scenes were linked by the fact that three of the four suspects were thought to be part of the same jihadist group, said Pascal Disant of the Alliance Police Union.Also, the suspects in the second standoff demanded the freedom of the suspects in the first, Disant said.That didn't work.Read MoreThe suspects in the magazine slayings were killed Friday near Dammartin-en-Goele in an operation by security forces, the mayor of Othis, Bernard Corneille, told CNN.At almost the same time, the hostage standoff in Paris came to an end when police moved in, killing one of the suspects, with another apparently escaping. Four civilians were killed, apparently by at least one suspect, and two police officers were wounded, authorities said.French newspaper Le Monde claims this is a 2010 photo of Hayat Boumeddiene. CNN has not independently confirmed the authenticity of the image.First standoff sceneThe two men killed northeast of Paris were the Kouachi brothers, alleged to have been the gunmen in the deadly terrorist attack on the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.JUST WATCHEDA closer look at the French terror suspectsReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHA closer look at the French terror suspects 02:32Cherif Kouachi, 32, and Said Kouachi, 34, were French citizens known to the country's security services, according to officials. One spent time in jail for ties to terrorism, and was in Syria as recently as this summer, according to a French source. The other went to Yemen for training, officials say.A French source close to the French security services told CNN that investigators are looking at evidence that suggests Cherif Kouachi traveled to Syria and returned to France in August 2014.Investigators don't know how long he was there, according to the source, who had no information about whether Said Kouachi had also traveled to Syria, as USA Today reported.But a U.S. official said the United States had information from the French intelligence agency indicating Said Kouachi had traveled to Yemen as late as 2011 on behalf of the al Qaeda affiliate there. A French official also told CNN Said Kouachi had been in Yemen.Justice Minister Christiane Taubira told CNN that one of the brothers had been in Yemen in 2005, but did not say which one.Both were in the U.S. database of known or suspected international terrorists, known as TIDE, and also had been on the no-fly list for years, a U.S. law enforcement official said.Second standoff sceneMeanwhile, the suspects in the Paris incident were Amedy Coulibaly, 32, and Hayat Boumeddiene, 26. They were believed to have killed a policewoman in Montrouge, a southern suburb of Paris, on Thursday. Le Monde newspapers claims this is a 2010 photo of Hayat Boumeddiene. CNN has not independently confirmed its authenticity.Those two suspects allegedly held several people hostage in a kosher store near Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris, police union spokesman Romain Fabiano told CNN affiliate BFMTV.But that incident ended when a police operation led to the death of Coulibaly, authorities said. Several hostages left the supermarket running, flanked by security service agents.Boumeddiene apparently escaped in the confusion and was the target of massive manhunt Friday, Disant said.Not much was immediately known about Boumeddiene. Only a little more was known about Coulibaly.Hayat Boumeddiene is a suspect in Paris police shooting on Thursday, January 8.Police launched an appeal for information on these two individuals.Coulibaly lived with Boumeddiene, a Western intelligence source told CNN.Much more is known about the Kouachi brothers, who were the subject of an intense manhunt in France that mobilized more than 80,000 law enforcement and military personnel:CHERIF KOUACHIThe younger of the two brothers had ties to extreme Islam for years.JUST WATCHEDWho is Anwar al-Alwaki?ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHWho is Anwar al-Alwaki? 03:07In fact, before he was killed Friday, he told BFMTV that he trained in Yemen with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and that he met with Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born Muslim who was the face of AQAP until he was killed in the fall of 2011 in a U.S. drone strike.In 2008, Kouachi was sentenced to three years in prison for being part of a jihadist recruitment ring in Paris that sent fighters to join the conflict in Iraq.The case began with his arrest in January 2005, at age 22, when he and another man were about to set off for Syria en route to Iraq, where war was raging.He had a long history of jihad and anti-Semitism, according to documents obtained by CNN. Raised in ophanagesIn a 400-page court record from 2007, Kouachi was described as wanting to travel to Iraq "to go and combat the Americans."Kouachi stated in a deposition, "I was ready to go and die in battle," and "I got this idea when I saw the injustices shown by television on what was going on over there. I am speaking about the torture that the Americans have inflicted on the Iraqis."Said Kouachi, left, and Cherif Kouachi are suspects in the Paris attack.Kouachi was raised in orphanages and foster homes from a young age, and became involved in a group in Paris' 19th arrondissement, or district, the court papers said.Prosecutors outlined strong details of Kouachi's interest in jihad, martyrdom and links to anti-Semitism, according to documents CNN obtained in conjunction with French newsmagazine L'Express.Kouachi stated he came to the idea of jihad through Farid Benyettou, a well-known spiritual leader who's been long associated in France with supporting jihad and terrorism, and is associated with a mosque in the 19th arrondissement. Aspiring jihadistThrough Benyettou, Kouachi studied how to wield arms and use Kalashnikovs. Kouachi stated that "the wise leaders in Islam told him and his friends that if they die as martyrs in jihad they would go to heaven" and "that martyrs would be greeted by more than 60 virgins in a big palace in heaven," said documents in a section entitled "Motivations of Influence."The documents also said, "(F)or him any place on earth where there is such an injustice is justification for jihad; what was going on Iraq was in his eyes such an injustice."The mosque, called La Mosquee de Stalingrad, has since been demolished and appears to be a construction site. JUST WATCHEDAn attack in the U.S.? 'It's only a matter of time'ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHAn attack in the U.S.? 'It's only a matter of time' 01:11Smoking potCourt records show Kouachi said he didn't consider himself a good enough Muslim, and said he had only been to the mosque two or three times before he met Benyettou, and he had been smoking cannabis. Kouachi told investigators he committed himself to the idea of jihad during Ramadan in 2004. He told his friends he was going to Syria to fight. The documents say when police interviewed his accomplices, they stated that Kouachi "said he was ready to firebomb and to destroy Jewish shops in Paris."When officials confronted Kouachi with that information, he told them "that's not exactly what I said. ... I don't hide having proposed anti-Semitic ideas, but I would note that I never really would have done that." Kouachi's lawyer, Vincent Ollivier, painted a different picture of his client in the 2005 incident.The attorney said at the time that his client's profile was more "pot smoker from the projects than an Islamist.""He smokes, drinks, doesn't sport a beard and has a girlfriend before marriage," Ollivier told the French newspaper Libération the month after his client's arrest.Police officers leave after storming the building in Dammartin-en-Goele.Didn't want to chicken outA report from the TV network France 3, which apparently first aired in 2005, described Kouachi as a young fan of rap more interested in chasing girls than going to the mosque. But he changed when he became a student of Benyettou, according to the report.Kouachi's cursory training for his planned mission in Iraq involved jogging in Paris' hilly Buttes-Chaumont park and being shown the basics of operating a Kalashnikov by a man he met at the mosque, French newspaper Le Monde reported at the time.Kouachi told the court that he was motivated by U.S. troops' abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. But he said he was relieved when he was arrested."The closer the departure got, the more I wanted to turn back," he told the judge, according to Le Monde. "But if I chickened out, I was in danger of looking like a coward."The court said Kouachi had wanted to attack Jewish targets in France but was told by Benyettou that France, unlike Iraq, wasn't "a land of jihad," Bloomberg News reported at the time.Prosecutors presented no evidence to the court of any plans to carry out attacks in France, according to a New York Times report.Born in Paris to Algerian parentsKouachi and six other people, including Benyettou, were convicted and sentenced to prison in 2008 for their roles in the recruitment ring. Kouachi didn't actually go to prison after the trial because half of his three-year sentence was suspended and he had already spent enough time in pretrial detention, Bloomberg reported. He was released from custody before the trial.A former pizza delivery boy, Kouachi was working as a fishmonger in a supermarket at the time of the trial, according to French media. He told the court that his main interest at the time was rap music, according to Bloomberg.Years later, Kouachi found himself facing a new criminal charge.French police special forces evacuate hostages after launching the assault at a kosher grocery store in Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris.In 2010, Kouachi was charged in connection with a foiled plot to aid the escape of Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, an Algerian Islamist imprisoned for bombing a Paris commuter rail station in 1995. But public prosecutors later dropped the charges, according to Le Monde.Kouachi was born in Paris to Algerian parents who died when he and his brother were young, Libération reported.He was raised in a home in Rennes, a city in the northwestern French region of Brittany, according to the newspaper. He obtained a qualification in sports education before moving back to Paris, it said.French newspaper Le Figaro talked to neighbors near the apartment in the northern Paris suburb of Gennevilliers that Kouachi reportedly shares with his wife.People in the neighborhood described him as polite and reserved, the newspaper reported. The local baker, whose name was given only as Salah, said the younger brother was "always cheerful."Inside the building, a man who lived on the same floor as Kouachi and his wife described her as wearing a full veil through which only her eyes were visible. The wife "doesn't speak to any man, ever," the neighbor, who was only identified by his first name of Eric, told Le Figaro.SAID KOUACHILess is known about the elder Kouachi brother, who doesn't appear to have as high a profile as his younger sibling.A French official told CNN that Said Kouachi received training in Yemen. The official did not give details about when the trip occurred or how long it lasted.A U.S. official says the United States was given information from the French intelligence agency that Said Kouachi traveled to Yemen as late as 2011 on behalf of the al Qaeda affiliate there.JUST WATCHEDBrothers trained with terror groupsReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHBrothers trained with terror groups 02:04His time in Yemen is corroborated by a Yemeni journalist, who says that he saw Said there -- and that Said claimed to have briefly been a roommate of Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the convicted would-be "underwear" bomber who tried but failed to detonate a device aboard a U.S. airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009.Yemeni journalist and researcher Mohammed al-Kibsi told CNN that he saw Said Kouachi twice in the old city of Sanaa, Yemen, in 2011 and 2012. Al-Kibsi said was researching AbdulMutallab's background in mid-January 2011 when he came across Kouachi unintentionally. He said Kouachi was friendly and used to walk around the old city, hence how he met al-Kibsi.Kouachi said that he and AbdulMutallab used to pray together at Yemen's al-Tabari School, and that they shared an apartment for one to two weeks in Yemen. Kouachi was studying Arabic grammar at the Sanaa Arabic Grammar Institute, al-Kibisi said.Al-Kibsi said he saw Kouachi again in 2012, in the old city of Sanaa at another Arabic language center.CNN does not have official confirmation that Said Kouachi knew AbdulMutallab, a Nigerian national who, authorities said at his U.S. trial, told the FBI that he that he had links to Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Last month, AQAP released a video apparently showing AbdulMutallab with the group's leader, Nasir al-Wuhayshi.The U.S. official who said Said Kouachi had traveled to Yemen said the man had received a variety of weapons training from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) -- the al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.French police special forces evacuate local residents in Saint-Mande, near Porte de Vincennes, eastern Paris.It is also possible Said Kouachi was trained in bombmaking, a common jihadist training in Yemen. His ID card after attackHe has never been convicted of a crime and resided in Reims, in northern France, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters. His identification card was found in the vehicle abandoned after Wednesday's attack, Cazeneuve said. "It was their only mistake," Dominique Rizet, BFMTV's police and justice consultant, said earlier. Mohammed Benali, who runs the mosque in Gennevilliers, the suburb where Cherif Kouachi's apartment is, said the two brothers used to come to Friday prayers there "not assiduously but regularly."He told Le Figaro that he knew Said Kouachi better, but that he hadn't seen either of the brothers at the mosque in at least two years.Three suspects dead, one soughtNot enough to be investigatedBenali said the older brother was "a very reserved man," but he recalled one angry outburst in the mosque when the imam encouraged the faithful to vote in the presidential election.Said Kouachi "had an angry reaction, he left the prayer room and voiced his disagreement," Benali said. "For these lunatics, when we practice and teach moderate Islam -- actual Islam -- we're nonbelievers."BFMTV reported that like his brother, Said Kouachi was born in Paris and was known to police.The Libération report suggested that at the time of Cherif Kouachi's arrest in 2005, the brothers were staying in Paris with a Frenchman who had converted to Islam.Said Kouachi was taken into custody and questioned during that investigation but was later released, Le Figaro reported. His name also came to the attention of police during the investigation of the 2010 prison break plot, but there wasn't enough evidence to keep investigating him, Le Monde reported.AMEDY COULIBALYBefore he was killed, Amedy Coulibaly purportedly told CNN affiliate BFMTV that he belonged to ISIS, or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the terror group trying to create a fundamentalist religious state across Sunni area in those two countries.Amedy Coulibaly is a suspect in Paris police shooting on Thursday, January 8.CNN has not independently confirmed the authenticity of the French broadcaster's recording with Coulibaly. Coulibaly, 32, was a close associate of Cherif Kouachi, a Western intelligence source told CNN. Coulibaly went by the alias Doly Gringny, the source said.Coulibaly and Cherif Kouachi were involved in the 2010 attempt to free an Algerian serving time for the 1995 subway bombing.Coulibaly was arrested May 18, 2010, with 240 rounds of ammunition for a Kalishnikov, the source said.He had a photo of himself with Djamel Beghal, a French Algerian once known as al Qaeda's premiere European recruiter, who was convicted of conspiring to attack the U.S. Embassy in Paris. The French newspaper Le Monde claims this is a 2010 photo of Amedy Coulibaly and Djamel Beghal. CNN has not independently confirmed its authenticity.Coulibaly was indicted May 22, 2010, in connection with the prison break plot. Cherif Kouachi was under investigation for the same plot, but there was not enough evidence to indict him, the source said.Cherif Kouachi visited Coulibaly during a pre-trial detention. The prison break plot was known as the BELKACEM Project, the source said.Coulibaly shared a residence with Boumeddiene, and they traveled to Malaysia together, the source said.Hayat BoumeddieneThe French newspaper Le Monde posted photos purporting to show Boumeddiene, 26, wearing a niqab in 2010 and holding a weapon that appears to be a crossbow in a rural setting. A niqab is a head-to-toe black covering, except for the eyes.CNN has not independently confirmed the authenticity of the stills.In one of the photos, a woman Le Monde identifies as Boumeddiene is shown in a niqab is posing near cheek-to-cheek with Coulibaly in what the newspaper called a selfie.The French newspaper Le Monde claims this is a 2010 photo of Amedy Coulibaly and Hayat Boumeddiene. CNN has not independently confirmed its authenticity.Coulibaly holds a pistol in a firing pose in one photo.In another, the woman is kneeling and readies to fire the crossbow-like weapon. In that photo, her black niqab allows her face and hands to be exposed, but her face can only been seen in profile.Another photo shows her pointing the weapon at the camera, but her face is obscured by the niqab, with only her eyes exposed.CNN's Barbara Starr, Nick Paton Walsh, Evan Perez, Lonzo Cook and Deborah Feyerick and journalist Hakim Almasmari contributed to this report.
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(CNN)Marilyn Mosby, the chief prosecutor for the city of Baltimore, pleaded not guilty Friday to two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements on a loan application to purchase two homes, according to her attorney. Federal authorities allege Mosby used a financial hardship withdrawal option from her retirement accounts -- provided under the CARES Act -- claiming that she "experienced adverse financial consequences" due to the pandemic even though she earned a gross salary of $247,955.58 that was "never reduced" in 2020, according to an indictment.Mosby also failed to disclose she owed $45,000 in federal back taxes, according to the indictment. And she allegedly said she would be the primary resident at one of the homes in order to secure a lower rate when she had already entered into an agreement with a rental management firm, the indictment says. She sold one of the homes for a $150,000 profit, the Baltimore Sun reported. Mosby has called the charges a "political ploy" and that she is "unequivocally innocent."Baltimore top prosecutor Marilyn Mosby has been mired in controversy since she took officeDefense attorney A. Scott Bolden called the charges "a political witch hunt" and requested a trial within 60 days, citing Mosby's election in June. The case needs to be tried and decided as soon as possible, he said. Read MoreUS Magistrate Judge James Mazzone deferred the decision to US District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby, who will be presiding over the case, according to Bolden. Each party must file pretrial motions by February 18.Federal prosecutors have not commented on the case and have said the indictment speaks for itself. Since taking the helm at the city prosecutor's office in 2015, just months before Freddie Gray died from spinal injuries he suffered in the back of a police van, Mosby has called for reform while dealing with one firestorm to the next, it seems.This is her second reelection campaign. Freddie Gray threw Mosby into the spotlightBefore becoming state's attorney, Mosby graduated from Tuskegee University and Boston College Law School. During her studies at the latter, the Boston native worked in her hometown Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and in two US attorneys' offices. After graduation, she prosecuted felonies in the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office from 2006 to 2011 before entering the corporate realm as a civil litigator. In the summer of 2013, she decided to run for the Baltimore state's attorney post. She won and took office in January 2015. On April 12, 2015, Gray was arrested, and video showing the 25-year-old screaming as officers dragged him to a police van sparked questions. Outrage ensued when Gray died a week later. The city was consumed with protests, some of which were hijacked by looters and rioters. Enter Mosby, who was hailed as a hero and inspiration when, less than two weeks after Gray was killed, she charged six Baltimore police officers with misconduct along with assault, manslaughter or murder counts in the young man's death. JUST WATCHEDCharges dropped for remaining cops in Freddie Gray caseReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHCharges dropped for remaining cops in Freddie Gray case 01:51While Gray's death served as a rallying point for those decrying police brutality, none of the officers was convicted, despite the city paying Gray's family $6.4 million. Three were tried and acquitted, prompting Mosby to drop charges against the remaining three because of the "dismal likelihood" they'd be convicted. Within weeks, five of the officers sued Mosby, alleging false arrest, defamation and other misdeeds. A federal appeals court ruled Mosby had immunity, and the US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, WBAL reported.CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.
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A German security researcher has publicly disclosed details of a serious vulnerability in one of the most popular FTP server applications, which is currently being used by more than one million servers worldwide.
The vulnerable software in question is ProFTPD, an open source FTP server used by a large number of popular businesses and websites including SourceForge, Samba and Slackware, and comes pre-installed with many Linux and Unix distributions, like Debian.
Discovered by Tobias Mädel, the vulnerability resides in the mod_copy module of the ProFTPD application, a component that allows users to copy files/directories from one place to another on a server without having to transfer the data to the client and back.
According to Mädel, an incorrect access control issue in the mod_copy module could be exploited by an authenticated user to unauthorizedly copy any file on a specific location of the vulnerable FTP server where the user is otherwise not allowed to write a file.
In rare circumstances, the flaw may also lead to remote code execution or information disclosure attacks.
John Simpson, a security researcher at Trend Micro, told The Hacker News that to successfully achieve remote code execution on a targeted server, an attacker needs to copy a malicious PHP file to a location where it can be executed.
Therefore, it's important to note that not every FTP server running vulnerable ProFTPD can be hijacked remotely, since the attacker requires log-in to the respective targeted server, or the server should have anonymous access enabled.
The vulnerability, assigned as CVE-2019-12815, affects all versions of ProFTPd, including the latest 1.3.6 version which was released in 2017.
Since the mod_copy module comes enabled by default in most operating systems using ProFTPD, the flaw could potentially affect a large number of servers.
According to an advisory, the newly discovered issue is related to a 4-year-old similar vulnerability (CVE-2015-3306) in the mod_copy module that allows remote attackers to read and write to arbitrary files via the site CPFR and site CPTO commands.
Mädel reported the vulnerability to ProFTPd project maintainers in September last year, but the team did not take any action to address the issue for more than 9 months.
So, the researcher contacted the Debian Security Team last month, after which the ProFTPD team finally created a patch and just last week backported it to ProFTPD 1.3.6 without releasing a new version of its FTP server.
As a workaround, server administrators can also disable the mod_copy module in the ProFTPd configuration file in order to protect themselves from being a victim of any attack related to this flaw.
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Cybersecurity researchers today disclosed details of a memory vulnerability in IBM's Db2 family of data management products that could potentially allow a local attacker to access sensitive data and even cause a denial of service attacks.
The flaw (CVE-2020-4414), which impacts IBM Db2 V9.7, V10.1, V10.5, V11.1, and V11.5 editions on all platforms, is caused by improper usage shared memory, thereby granting a bad actor to perform unauthorized actions on the system.
By sending a specially crafted request, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability to obtain sensitive information or cause a denial of service, according to Trustwave SpiderLabs security and research team, which discovered the issue.
"Developers forgot to put explicit memory protections around the shared memory used by the Db2 trace facility," SpiderLabs's Martin Rakhmanov said. "This allows any local users read and write access to that memory area. In turn, this allows accessing critically sensitive data as well as the ability to change how the trace subsystem functions, resulting in a denial of service condition in the database."
IBM released a patch on June 30 to remediate the vulnerability.
CVE-2020-4414 is caused by the unsafe usage of shared memory the Db2 trace utility employs to exchange information with the underlying OS on the system.
The Db2 trace utility is used to record Db2 data and events, including reporting Db2 system information, collecting data required for performance analysis and tuning, and capture data access audit trail for security purposes.
Given that the shared memory stores sensitive information, an attacker with access to the system could create a malicious application to overwrite the memory with rogue data dedicated to tracing data.
"This means that an unprivileged local user can abuse this to cause a denial of service condition simply by writing incorrect data over that memory section," Rakhmanov said.
Even more concerning, a low-privileged process running on the same computer as the Db2 database could alter Db2 trace and capture sensitive data and use the information to carry out other attacks.
If the flaw sounds familiar, that's because it's the same type of memory leakage vulnerability that impacted Cisco's WebEx video conferencing service (CVE-2020-3347) that could local authenticated attackers to get hold of usernames, authentication tokens, and meeting information.
It's recommended that Db2 users update their software to the latest version to mitigate the risk.
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Story highlightsSarah Ayton one of only two females taking part in Extreme Sailing Series event Briton part of The Wave, Muscat team who are current race leadersTwo legs left of eight-stage race left to race with Turkey up next in October (CNN)For two Olympic campaigns, Sarah Ayton was part of a crew labeled "Three Blondes in a Boat."Sailing alongside the likes of Shirley Robertson -- now CNN's Main Sail presenter -- among others, Ayton won gold in 2004 and 2008 in the Yngling class -- and even now, seven years on, the tag created by the British media still resonates.Follow @cnnsport
"When I'm in a room delivering a talk people will say, 'Who are you?' I reply, 'You may remember me as one of the three blondes in a boat,' and they're like, 'Of course you are,'" Ayton says."But it's all good. It was fun, and in sailing we need those sorts of role models and people to talk about."Inspiring the next generation @Sarahayton with her gifts after meeting the youth sailors at Chat with Champions #exss pic.twitter.com/ATPTt0mL0t— Extreme Sailing (@extremesailing) May 6, 2015
Ayton is so much more than simply a blonde in a boat.Read MoreRight now, she's one of only two females in the entire fleet of the Extreme Sailing Series, a multihull racing championship likened to Formula One by her fellow British Olympic champion Ben Ainslie.But she barely thinks about her gender when operating as tactician on The Wave, Muscat, which leads the series after five of the eight regattas.JUST WATCHEDExtreme sailors arrive in SydneyReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHExtreme sailors arrive in Sydney 06:43"It doesn't matter if I'm male or female on board," Ayton says. "We all have our roles in the boat. Everyone is respected and supposed to be the best in that role. "If you're not sailing your best, you won't win."And the boys will give me a hard time. If I'm not on my game and not feeding information, I know about it. There is no messing around. I know what's expected of me."I've learned a lot from sailing with the boys. It's very honest and upfront. There's no place to hide, which I really love. We all want to win, so the pressure's on all the time."That is not to say the boat's skipper Leigh McMillan and the rest of his crew are devoid of chivalry."The guys sometimes carry my bag!" reveals Ayton."But being the only female in the year, I don't really think anything of it. You just crack on and be the best you can be at what you do."My boys are so excited about coming to Cardiff to cheer on @OmanSail at @extremesailing pic.twitter.com/p3eKsNP2jd— Sarah Ayton OBE (@Sarahayton) June 17, 2015
Ayton says many of her female racing colleagues -- fewer in their number than their male counterparts -- are either focusing on Olympic campaigns for Rio de Janeiro next year or competing in the Volvo Ocean Race with the all-women Team SCA.Being a mother of two, the series -- which has visited Singapore, Oman, China, Wales, Germany and Russia and next goes to Turkey then finally Australia -- has brought complications for Ayton that the men might not necessarily experience.JUST WATCHEDSailing billionaire's quest to break recordsReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHSailing billionaire's quest to break records 04:38The fourth round in Cardiff, where The Wave moved a point ahead after coming out on top in the 32 grueling races held over four days, was the first time Ayton's young sons Thomas and Oscar had seen her race."I was a bit nervous as I'm normally very controlled in the series and know my sport rather than being dictated to by two little boys here," she says."Thomas says, 'Mummy's quite a good sailor,'" she adds, smiling with faux offense."But I'm lucky in that my mother and father are just brilliant -- they move into my house and they run the show while I'm away."With all the technology and Skype, we can talk. I'm lucky I can have that. The hard bit is actually being at home being full-time mum and getting to the gym to stay in shape."My new training partner! pic.twitter.com/rI9gJAduxG— Sarah Ayton OBE (@Sarahayton) June 29, 2015
That task has been made easier by turning the garden shed into a makeshift gym so workouts can begin when her boys are settled in bed for the night."It's nice to have time away from home and think about them and their happiness, and can I do a better job?" Ayton reflects."I miss them but I'm grateful to have an opportunity to do this and then go home and be a mum again."Parenthood meant Ayton was unable to pursue an Olympic treble at London 2012, instead playing the role of support act from the shore to her then husband Nick Dempsey, a windsurfer who won silver that year.JUST WATCHEDDrama as extreme sailing race draws to a closeReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHDrama as extreme sailing race draws to a close 11:13JUST WATCHEDSailing on boats of the futureReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHSailing on boats of the future 07:07They have since separated, and the absence of 2012 on Ayton's CV remains a driving factor for another possible Olympic campaign."In hindsight I think that was tough," she says of missing the Games. "I don't regret it at all but think I could have been there."It's an opportunity missed, but I have the two boys and I can go for 2020. I can use those feelings around 2012 -- I'm still fit enough, still strong enough, I've still got it."Ayton says her Olympic golds are among the happiest memories of her career but, aged 35, she believes she still has plenty of time left in the sport.Targets include being a female lead in the growing moth foiling race scene and some sort of involvement in the America's Cup, a series she argues is not really open to women competitors."For the America's Cup you need to be 80 kg and be absolutely stacked, and a female doesn't fit into that category," says Ayton, who recently found herself taking photos of the Ben Ainslie Racing base in Portsmouth as a fan."But watching the America's Cup on TV as a child was like the Olympics -- I was thinking, 'I want to be there.'"So the aim is to maybe get involved in a Cup program somehow, 2020 (Tokyo Olympics) and the whole foiling movement."Ayton is adamant her hunger to compete has not diminished since becoming a mother."Maybe two years ago I would have questioned that -- have I lost something? -- but lack of sleep, being tired etc. has helped me learn a new set of skills," she says."I feel like I've done my apprenticeship at parenthood and feel like the old Sarah is back."Read: Ex-McLaren boss plots America's Cup winWho will win the America's Cup? Tell us on CNN Sport's Facebook page
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Do you own an account on one of the two hugely popular PlayStation and Xbox gaming forums?
Your details may have been exposed, as it has been revealed that the two popular video gaming forums, "XBOX360 ISO" and "PSP ISO," has been hacked, exposing email addresses, account passwords and IP addresses of 2.5 Million gamers globally.
The attackers hacked and breached both "XBOX360 ISO" and "PSP ISO" forums in September 2015, but the details of this massive hack just emerge, reports The Sun.
Mostly gamers who look for free versions of popular games are members of these two gaming forums, which provide download links for gaming ISO files – digital copies of online video games lifted from physical game disks – to the owners of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's Playstation Portable.
Visiting such forum websites and downloading games through the provided links often involve an illegal breach of copyright.
So, if you are one of those gamers using both forum or one of these forums, you are being advised to review your account and change the password for all of your accounts immediately.
Although the hackers behind the attacks are still unknown, it is believed that they dumped the stolen data once they've made enough money by selling the leaked information within private dark web trading sites.
Here's What Gamers Can Do:
Like I always advise, change your passwords for your forum accounts as well as other online accounts immediately, especially if you use the same password for multiple websites.
The reason behind the data breach took so long to emerged is 'Password Reuse.' Your habit of reusing your same email/password combination across multiple services gives hackers opportunity to use the same credentials gathered from one breach to break into your other accounts.
So stop reusing passwords across multiple sites. If it's difficult for you to remember and create complex passwords for different services, you can make use of a good password manager.
We have listed some best password managers that could help you understand the importance of password manager and choose one according to your requirement.
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A Palestinian Web Developer and Hacker, 'Khalil Shreateh' found an interesting vulnerability in Facebook, that allows hacker to bypass the Privacy settings to make a post on anyone's Timeline / Wall.
He was forced to post vulnerability details on Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook Founder) Timeline to prove his point, after the Facebook Security Team failed to recognize his critical vulnerability three times. The flaw even working for those victims, who is not included in the attacker friend list.
According to Facebook's Bug Bounty program, a researcher has to submit the flaw details via email to Facebook Security Team without disclosing the details in Public. In order to get the minimum reward of US$500, the flaw should be valid.
The reported vulnerability is in "composer.php" file on Facebook mechanism. First Khalil made a post on the timeline of a girl, "Sarah Gooden" who studied at the same college as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
But Facebook Security Team was not able to reproduce the bug at first time and they replied,"Sorry, this is not a bug,". At last he explained his disappointing experience with the security team and flaw details on Zuck's wall to prove his report and just after that he received a response from a Facebook engineer requesting all the details about the vulnerability.
After receiving the third bug report, a Facebook security engineer finally admitted the vulnerability but said that Khalil won't be paid for reporting it because his actions violated the website's security terms of service.
Stay tuned to 'The Hacker News' Facebook Page for the Technical detail about the exploit.
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Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new critical vulnerability (CVE-2020-7247) in the OpenSMTPD email server that could allow remote attackers to take complete control over BSD and many Linux based servers.
OpenSMTPD is an open-source implementation of the server-side SMTP protocol that was initially developed as part of the OpenBSD project but now comes pre-installed on many UNIX-based systems.
According to Qualys Research Labs, who discovered this vulnerability, the issue resides in the OpenSMTPD's sender address validation function, called smtp_mailaddr(), which can be exploited to execute arbitrary shell commands with elevated root privileges on a vulnerable server just by sending specially crafted SMTP messages to it.
The flaw affects OpenBSD version 6.6 and works against the default configuration for both, the locally enabled interface as well as remotely if the daemon has been enabled to listen on all interfaces and accepts external mail.
"Exploitation of the vulnerability had some limitations in terms of local part length (max 64 characters is allowed) and characters to be escaped ('$', '|')," the researchers said in an advisory.
"Qualys researchers were able to overcome these limitations using a technique from the Morris Worm (one of the first computer worms distributed via the Internet, and the first to gain significant mainstream media attention) by executing the body of the mail as a shell script in Sendmail."
Additionally, the researchers have also released a proof-of-concept exploit code demonstrating the OpenSMTPD vulnerability.
Qualys responsibly reported the flaw to OpenSMTPD developers, who earlier today released OpenSMTPD version 6.6.2p1 with a patch and also pushed an update for OpenBSD users.
Sysadmins running servers with a vulnerable version of the email software are advised to apply the patch as soon as possible.
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The growing threat of cyber-attacks and network hacking has reached the satellite-space sector, posing a growing challenge to the satellite operators. Because the satellite system are the critical components for the Nation to a modern military, they have become an attractive target of cyber attacks.
A security firm uncovered a number of critical vulnerabilities, including hardcoded credentials, undocumented and insecure protocols, and backdoors in the widely used satellite communications (SATCOM) terminals, which are often used by the military, government and industrial sectors.
By exploiting these vulnerabilities an attacker could intercept, manipulate, block communications, and in some circumstances, could remotely take control of the physical devices used in the mission-critical satellite communication (SATCOM).
Once the attacker gained the access of the physical devices used to communicate with satellites orbiting in space, he can completely disrupt military operations and flight-safety communications of mission-critical satellite communications (SATCOM), researchers have warned in a 25-page white paper titled "A Wake-up Call for SATCOM Security," published Thursday by the Security consultancy IOActive.
Thousands of SATCOM devices found to be vulnerable and even if one of the affected devices compromised, the entire SATCOM infrastructure could be at risk, including Ships, aircraft, military personnel, emergency services, media services, and industrial facilities (oil rigs, gas pipelines, water treatment plants, wind turbines, substations, etc.).
IOActive reported various vulnerabilities in Tactical Radios & Networking Terminals, including:
Harris BGAN Terminals
Hughes BGAN M2M Terminals
Cobham BGAN Terminals
Marine VSAT and FB Terminals
Cobham AVIATOR
Cobham GMDSS Terminals
According to the Guardian, British manufacturers Cobham and Inmarsat, as well as Harris Corporation, Hughes and Iridium in the US made such satellite systems that were easily hackable, and any foreign government or agency can track and target the location of units and soldiers.
According to the researchers, Harris RF-7800B terminals that offers a high-performance satellite solution for voice and data connectivity to military is also vulnerable to cyber attacks and successful exploitation could allow an attacker to install malicious firmware or execute arbitrary code.
Reported vulnerabilities also affect the US military aircraft equipped with the Cobham AVIATO, which is designed to meet the satellite communications needs of aircraft and a malicious attacker could disrupt flight communication.
IOActive is currently working with government CERT Coordination Center to alert each manufacturer to the security holes they discovered. "Until patches are available, vendors should provide official workarounds in addition to recommended configurations in order to minimize the risk these vulnerabilities pose." IOActive advised.
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It seems like the world has declared war against the Cyber Criminals. In a recent update, we reported that FBI is offering $3 Million in Reward for the arrest of GameOver Zeus botnet mastermind, and meanwhile British cyber-police has taken down widely-spread RAMNIT botnet.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) in a joint operation with Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and law enforcement agencies from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom has taken down the Ramnit "botnet", which has infected over 3.2 million computers worldwide, including 33,000 in the UK.
Alike GameOver Zeus, RAMNIT is also a 'botnet' - a network of zombie computers which operate under criminal control for malicious purposes like spreading viruses, sending out spam containing malicious links, and carrying out distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) in order to bring down target websites.
RAMNIT believes to spread malware via trustworthy links sent through phishing emails or social networking sites, and mainly target people running Windows operating systems in order to steal money from victims bank accounts. Moreover, public FTP servers have also been found distributing the malware.
Once installed, the infected computer comes under the control of the botnet operators. The module inadvertently downloads a virus onto the victim's computer which could be used by operators to access personal or banking information, steal passwords and disable anti-virus protection.
RAMNIT SHUT-DOWN IN AN OPERATION
In a statement on Tuesday, Europol revealed that the successful take-down of Ramnit botnet involved the help of Microsoft, Symantec and AnubisNetworks. The groups shut down the botnet's command and control infrastructure and redirected traffic from a total of 300 domain addresses used by Ramnit criminal operators.
"This successful operation shows the importance of international law enforcement working together with private industry in the fight against the global threat of cybercrime," said Wil van Gemart, Europol's deputy director of operations. "We will continue our efforts in taking down botnets and disrupting the core infrastructures used by criminals to conduct a variety of cybercrimes."
NASTY FEATURES OF RAMNIT BOTNET
Symantec says that Ramnit has been around for over four years, first originating as a computer worm. According to the anti-virus firm, Ramnit is a "fully-featured cybercrime tool, featuring six standard modules that provide attackers with multiple ways to compromise a victim." The features are:
SPY MODULE - This is one of the most powerful Ramnit features, as it monitors the victim's web browsing and detects when they visit online banking sites. It can also inject itself into the victim's browser and manipulate the bank's website in such a way that it appears legitimate and easily grab victim's credit card details.
COOKIE GRABBER - This steals session cookies from web browsers and send them back to the Ramnit operators, who can then use the cookies to authenticate themselves on websites and impersonate the victim. This could allow an attacker to hijack online banking sessions.
DRIVE SCANNER - This scans the computer's hard drive and steals files from it. The scanner is configured in such a way that it searches for specific folders which contain sensitive information such as victims' passwords.
ANONYMOUS FTP SERVER - By connecting to this server, the malware lets attackers remotely access the infected computers and browse the file system. The server can be used to upload, download, or delete files and execute commands.
VIRTUAL NETWORK COMPUTING (VNC) MODULE - This feature provides the attackers with another means to gain remote access to the compromised computers.
FTP GRABBER - This feature allows the attackers to gather login credentials for a large number of FTP clients.
WHY BOTNET RE-EMERGE AFTER TAKEDOWNS ?
According to the authorities, Ramnit botnet has been taken down, but is it guaranteed that the botnet will not re-emerged again? We have seen the took down of GameOver Zeus botnet by FBI and Europol as well, but what happened at last? Just after a month, GameOver Zeus botnet again came into operation with more nasty features.
So, What went wrong? Why Botnet take downs are ineffective? One reason could be that the organisations grab and take-down only a small fraction of command-and-control domains that build up the Botnet critical infrastructure, but leaves a majority of fraction active. This takes some months for a botnet operator to recover.
As more and more botnet networks are taken down by Law Enforcement, cyber criminals are increasingly using secondary communication methods, such as peer-to-peer or domain generation algorithms (DGA).
One of the main reasons that the Botnet re-emerged is because the author of the malware didn't get arrested. No matter how many domains are taken down or how many sinkholes researchers create, if the attackers are not arrested, nobody can stop them from building new Botnet from zero.
On this we really appreciate the FBI step to reward $3 Million for the information leading to the direct arrest or conviction of Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev, the alleged author of GameOver Zeus botnet that was used by cybercriminals to steal more than $100 Million from online bank accounts.
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(CNN)Footballers at a leading German football team have offered to give up their salaries to help keep the club afloat during the coronavirus pandemic, says Borussia Monchengladbach's sporting director.The move comes with teams in divisions across Europe facing uncertain futures, with a big economic hit expected from the decision to suspend leagues during the outbreak."The team has offered to forgo salary if it can help the club and its employees," Monchengladbach's Max Eberl said in an interview on the team's website."I am very proud of the boys. It's a clear signal that we stand together for Borussia, in good times and in bad," he added. "They want to give something back to the club and therefore also to all the fans who support us. The coaching staff have followed suit, as have our directors and CEOs."Borussia Monchengladbach celebrate after a game played behind closed doors due to the coronavirus pandemic. The league has since been suspended altogether.Read MoreThe team currently sit fourth in the Bundesliga, but the entire league has been suspended until at least April, in line with official advice across Europe to ban mass gatherings and sporting fixtures.The coronavirus outbreak has left clubs of all sizes financially vulnerable."We expect loss of revenue due to game cancellations, lack of ticket sales, possible lost TV revenue and lack of sponsorship money," said Borussia Monchengladbach's managing director Stephan Schippers.Olympics are 'cursed,' says Japan's deputy prime minister Finishing the current season, and therefore playing matches in the near future without fans in attendance, may be the only way teams can survive, added Schippers."In order to avoid a huge financial hit, the efforts of the league and all clubs are currently aimed at ending the current season in order to secure TV revenue and sponsorship money," he said."We all agree: Bundesliga football without fans is not what we want, but for the next few weeks and months we have to realise that only a continuation of the Bundesliga games -- without spectators -- will allow many clubs to survive economically."The Bundesliga's suspension will last until at least April 2, but other major sporting leagues, including England's Premier League, have extended their suspensions this week until the end of April.The Champions League, Europa League and Euro 2020 have also all been postponed due to the outbreak, which has hit a number of European countries particularly hard.In Germany, more than 7,000 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed
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Next time when someone sends you a photo of a cute cat or a hot chick on WhatsApp or Telegram then be careful before you click on the image to view — it might hack your account within seconds.
A new security vulnerability has recently been patched by two popular end-to-end encrypted messaging services — WhatsApp and Telegram — that could have allowed hackers to completely take over user account just by having a user simply click on a picture.
The hack only affected the browser-based versions of WhatsApp and Telegram, so users relying on the mobile apps are not vulnerable to the attack.
According to Checkpoint security researchers, the vulnerability resided in the way both messaging services process images and multimedia files without verifying that they might have hidden malicious code inside.
For exploiting the flaw, all an attacker needed to do was sending the malicious code hidden within an innocent-looking image. Once the victim clicked on the picture, the attacker could have gained full access to the victim's WhatsApp or Telegram storage data.
This eventually allowed attackers to take full access to the user's account on any browser, view and manipulate chat sessions, access victim's personal and group chats, photos, videos, audios, other shared files and contact lists as well.
Millions of WhatsApp and Telegram accounts could have been hacked using just a PHOTO!
CLICK TO TWEET
To make this attack widespread, the attacker can then send the malware-laden image to everyone on the victim's contact list, which could, eventually, mean that one hijacked account could be led to countless compromises by leapfrogging accounts.
Video Demonstration
The researchers also provided a video demonstration, given below which shows the attack in action.
Here's Why This Vulnerability Went Undetected:
Both WhatsApp and Telegram use end-to-end encryption for its messages to ensure that nobody, except the sender and the receiver, can read the messages in between.
However, this same end-to-end encryption security measure was also the source of this vulnerability.
Since the messages were encrypted on the side of the sender, WhatsApp and Telegram had no idea or a way of knowing, that malicious code was being sent to the receiver, and thus were unable to prevent the content from being running.
"Since messages were encrypted without being validated first, WhatsApp and Telegram were blind to the content, thus making them unable to prevent malicious content from being sent," the researchers writes in a blog post.
WhatsApp fixed the flaw within 24 hours on Thursday, March 8, while Telegram patched the issue on Monday.
Since the fixes have been applied on the server end, users don't have to update any app to protect themselves from the attack; instead, they just need a browser restart.
"It's a big vulnerability in a significant service," said Oded Vanunu, head of product vulnerability research at Check Point. "Thankfully, WhatsApp and Telegram responded quickly and responsibly to deploy the mitigation against exploitation of this issue in all web clients."
WhatsApp did not notice any abuse of the vulnerability, while Telegram claimed the flaw was less severe than WhatsApp, as it required the victim to right click on the image content and then open it in a new window or tab for the malicious code to run and exploit its users.
After fixing this flaw, content on the web versions of both WhatsApp and Telegram will now be validated before the end-to-end encryption comes into play, allowing malicious files to be blocked.
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Britain's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) today hit British Airways with a record fine of £183 million for failing to protect the personal information of around half a million of its customers during last year's security breach.
British Airways, who describes itself as "The World's Favorite Airline," disclosed a breach last year that exposed personal details and credit-card numbers of up to 380,000 customers and lasted for more than two weeks.
At the time, the company confirmed that customers who booked flights on its official website (ba.com) and British Airways mobile app between August 21 and September 5 had had their details stolen by attackers.
The cyberattack was later attributed to the infamous Magecart threat actor, one of the most notorious hacking groups specialized in stealing credit card details from poorly-secured websites, especially online eCommerce platforms.
Magecart hackers have been known for using digital credit card skimmer wherein they secretly insert a few lines of malicious code into the checkout page of a compromised website that captures payment details of customers and then sends it to a remote server.
Besides British Airways, Magecart groups have also been responsible for card breaches on sites belonging to high-profile companies like TicketMaster, Newegg, as well as sites belonging to other small online merchants.
In a statement released today, ICO said its extensive investigation found that a variety of information related to British Airways' customers was compromised by "poor security arrangements" at the company, including their names and addresses, log-ins, payment card data, and travel booking details.
"People's personal data is just that – personal. When an organization fails to protect it from loss, damage or theft, it is more than an inconvenience," Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said.
"That's why the law is clear – when you are entrusted with personal data, you must look after it. Those that don't will face scrutiny from my office to check they have taken appropriate steps to protect fundamental privacy rights."
However, ICO also said that British Airways has cooperated with its investigation and has made improvements to the security arrangements since the last year data breach came to light.
Since the data breach happened after the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took effect on May 2018, the fine of £183.39 million has been imposed on British Airways, which is the equivalent of 1.5% of the company's worldwide turnover for its 2017 financial year but is still less than the possible maximum of 4%.
In response to the ICO announcement, British Airways, owned by IAG, said the company was "surprised and disappointed" by the ICO penalty.
"British Airways responded quickly to a criminal act to steal customers' data," said British Airways chairman and chief executive Alex Cruz.
"We have found no evidence of fraud/fraudulent activity on accounts linked to the theft. We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this event caused."
The company has 28 days to appeal the penalty.
Until now, the most significant penalty by the UK's data protection watchdog was £500,000, which was imposed on Facebook last year for allowing political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica to gather and misuse data of 87 million users improperly.
The same penalty of £500,000 was also imposed on credit reporting agency Equifax last year for its 2017's massive data breach that exposed the personal and financial information of hundreds of millions of its customers.
Since both the incidents in Facebook and Equifax occurred before GDPR took effect, £500,000 was the maximum penalty ICO can impose under the UK's old Data Protection Act.
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A Mac malware campaign targeting Xcode developers has been retooled to add support for Apple's new M1 chips and expand its features to steal confidential information from cryptocurrency apps.
XCSSET came into the spotlight in August 2020 after it was found to spread via modified Xcode IDE projects, which, upon the building, were configured to execute the payload. The malware repackages payload modules to imitate legitimate Mac apps, which are ultimately responsible for infecting local Xcode projects and injecting the main payload to execute when the compromised project builds.
XCSSET modules come with the capabilities to steal credentials, capture screenshots, inject malicious JavaScript into websites, plunder user data from different apps, and even encrypt files for a ransom.
Then in March 2021, Kaspersky researchers uncovered XCSSET samples compiled for the new Apple M1 chips, suggesting that the malware campaign was not only ongoing but also that adversaries are actively adapting their executables and porting them to run on new Apple Silicon Macs natively.
The latest research by Trend Micro shows that XCSSET continues to abuse the development version of the Safari browser to plant JavaScript backdoors onto websites via Universal Cross-site Scripting (UXSS) attacks.
"It hosts Safari update packages in the [command-and-control] server, then downloads and installs packages for the user's OS version," Trend Micro researchers said in an analysis published on Friday. "To adapt to the newly-released Big Sur, new packages for 'Safari 14' were added."
In addition to trojanizing Safari to exfiltrate data, the malware is also known for exploiting the remote debugging mode in other browsers such as Google Chrome, Brave, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Qihoo 360 Browser, and Yandex Browser to carry out UXSS attacks.
What's more, the malware now even attempts to steal account information from multiple websites, including NNCall.net, Envato, and 163.com, and cryptocurrency trading platforms like Huobi and Binance, with abilities to replace the address in a user's cryptocurrency wallet with those under the attacker's control.
XCSSET's mode of distribution via doctored Xcode projects poses a serious threat, as affected developers who unwittingly share their work on GitHub could pass on the malware to their users in the form of the compromised Xcode projects, leading to "a supply-chain-like attack for users who rely on these repositories as dependencies in their own projects."
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The 2014 Yahoo hack disclosed late last year that compromised over 500 million Yahoo user accounts was believed to be carried out by a state-sponsored hacking group.
Now, two Russian intelligence officers and two criminal hackers have been charged by the US government in connection with the 2014 Yahoo hack that compromised about 500 million Yahoo user accounts, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
According to the prosecutors, at least 30 million accounts were accessed as part of a spam campaign to access the email contents of thousands of people, including journalists, government officials, and technology company employees.
The four defendants — Two officers from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and two other hackers — are identified as:
Dmitry Aleksandrovich Dokuchaev, 33 — an officer in the FSB Center for Information Security at the time of the hack, and now Russian national and resident.
Igor Anatolyevich Sushchin, 43 — an FSB officer, a superior to Dokuchaev within the FSB, and Russian national and resident.
Alexsey Alexseyevich Belan, aka "Magg," 29 — a Russian national and resident, who has been on the FBI's Most Wanted Hackers list and indicted twice in 2012 and 2013 by U.S. Federal grand juries for hacking and fraud charges.
Karim Baratov, aka "Kay," "Karim Taloverov" and "Karim Akehmet Tokbergenov," 22 — a Canadian and Kazakh national and a resident of Canada.
In a 38-page indictment [PDF] unsealed Wednesday, the prosecutors said the two Russian spies worked with two other hackers to break into and gained initial access to Yahoo in early 2014.
Belan, who is on the FBI's most-wanted cybercriminals list, used the file transfer protocol (FTP) to download the Yahoo database, containing usernames, recovery e-mail accounts, phone numbers as well as "certain information required to manually create, or "mint," account authentication web browser "cookies" for more than 500 million Yahoo accounts."
The spies then used the stolen information to obtain unauthorized access to the contents of accounts at Yahoo, Google and other webmail providers, including those of Russian and American officials, Russian journalists, employees of financial services and other businesses.
The range of charges are officially listed as:
Conspiring to commit computer fraud and abuse
Conspiring to engage in and the theft of trade secrets
Conspiring to engage in and committing economic espionage
Conspiring to commit wire fraud
Counterfeit access device fraud
Counterfeit access device making equipment
Aggravated identity theft
Transmitting code with the intent to cause damage to computers
Unauthorized access to a computer for obtaining information for commercial advantage and private financial gain
Baratov was arrested on Tuesday by the Toronto Police Department, while Belan and the two FSB officers are in Russia. The United States has requested all the three to be handed over to face charges, but the US has no extradition treaty with Russia.
Meanwhile, Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord said that there was no connection between the Wednesday indictment and the investigation into the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) last year.
The news of the arrest came few weeks after Yahoo and Verizon Communications Inc. agreed to reduce the price of the upcoming acquisition deal by $350 Million in the wake of the two data breaches.
The deal, which was previously finalized at $4.8 Billion, now valued at about $4.48 Billion in cash and is expected to close in the second quarter.
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(CNN)Populist Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini made a veiled reference to the late fascist dictator Benito Mussolini on Sunday. Salvini tweeted "tanti nemici, tanto onore," meaning "so many enemies, so much honor," a variation on Mussolini's famous "molti nemici, molto onore," or "many enemies, much honor." He tweeted the comments on the anniversary of Mussolini's birth. Salvini's tweet came in response to a magazine article about Salvini's critics, including the Catholic Church and leading left-wing intellectuals, and his coinciding rise in popularity.Tanti nemici, tanto onore! 😘 https://t.co/NdFjsSkZLw— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) July 29, 2018
Separately, in an interview with the UK's Sunday Times newspaper, Salvini, from the right-wing League party, said Italy's low birth rate is being used as an excuse to "import immigrants." "A country which does not create children is destined to die," he said. "We have created a ministry of the family to work on fertility, nurseries, on a fiscal system which takes large families into account. At the end of this mandate, the government will be measured on the number of newborns more than on its public debt." Read MoreHe said that Italy's "tradition, our story, our identity," was at stake as the left uses the fertility crisis as an "excuse" to "import migrants". Giuseppe Conte: Trump's most useful friend in EuropeLast week the leading Roman Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana called Salvini the devil in a blistering critique of the interior minister's migration proposals. The magazine ran a front cover with a Latin headline: "Vade retro, Salvini," a play on Jesus' words: "Get behind me, Satan." In the interview with the Sunday Times, Salvini expressed admiration for both US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin, saying Trump was "brave" in his election campaign and has been "consistent" since entering the White House. He said Putin's economic policies have filled the Russian people with "pride." Salvini's comments come as Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives in Washington for a summit with Trump on Monday.As head of the most populist government in Western Europe, Conte is arguably Trump's closest ideological ally in Europe, and as such, a major concern for the European Union.Mahatir Pasha contributed to this report.
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Story highlightsInter Milan beat Udinese 3-1 in Italy's Serie A to stay in hunt for Champions League spotWednesday's matches were rescheduled after death of Livorno's Piermario MorosiniLeaders Juventus and second-placed holders Milan both win to keep the gap at three pointsJuve's 1-0 victory over Cesena condemns the bottom club to Serie B next seasonDutch international Wesley Sneijder scored twice as Inter Milan continued their renaissance in Serie A by beating Udinese 3-1, keeping alive the Italian side's chances of European Champions League qualification.Sneijder's brace turned Wednesday's match after Udinese had taken an early lead through Danilo, then midfielder Ricardo Alvarez scored at the end of the first half to all but seal the win for Inter. The result means that the Nerazzurri have been undefeated -- winning three matches and drawing two -- since youth team coach Andrea Stramaccioni replaced Claudio Ranieri earlier this month.Champions League football was but a distant dream for Inter, but 11 points from a possible 15 has left the 2010 European title winners sixth in the table -- just three points off third-placed Lazio, who surprisingly lost 2-1 to relegation-threatened Novara earlier in the day.The unusually timed round of matches took place Wednesday afternoon, a rescheduling of the games canceled as a mark of respect for Livorno's Piermario Morosini, who collapsed and died during a second division game at Pescara.Unbeaten Juventus remained three points clear of defending champions with four matches to play after both teams won narrowly against lowly opposition.Juve, seeking a first Serie A title since 2003 and 28th overall, condemned bottom club Cesena to division two next season thanks to a late goal from striker Marco Borriello -- his first since joining on loan from Roma in January.Borriello's goal came with 11 minutes to play -- and Kevin Prince-Boateng's winner for Milan came even later at home to fourth-bottom Genoa.Napoli, also chasing a Champions League spot, beat Lecce 2-0 to move up to fourth above Udinese -- who will be Sunday's opponents.Roma lost again, this time 2-1 at home to Fiorentina to be two points behind Inter. In the day's two other games Siena drew 1-1 with Bologna while Parma won 2-1 away at Palermo.
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Moscow (CNN)The arrest of US citizen Paul Whelan in Moscow last week prompted intense speculation in national security circles: It came just 15 days after alleged Russian agent Maria Butina pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in the United States. The timing seemed to raise one possibility -- that Russian President Vladimir Putin or his government agencies might be looking to orchestrate some sort of swap."I do think that Putin wants there to be some sort of quid pro quo so that he has some leverage over how quickly Butina can be released and probably deported back to Russia as soon as possible," national security analyst Steve Hall told CNN. "But this isn't a spy swap, because it's not really intelligence that's going on, these are more geopolitical policy and political issues that Putin is wrestling with and trying to gain leverage over the United States with."US citizen Paul Whelan formally charged in Russia with espionage, lawyer saysThe Kremlin has certainly made freeing Butina a major priority. Russia's Foreign Ministry launched an energetic social media campaign on her behalf, complete with its own hashtag, #freemariabutina. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has used her detention to score political points, accusing the US of treating the Russian citizen to a "medieval inquisition" while in detention. We know less about the conditions Whelan is being kept in in Moscow's Lefortovo jail. But US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman's visit Wednesday to the detained US citizen suggests that the State Department is taking Whelan's case as seriously as Russia's top diplomats are taking Butina's case. Read MoreButina pleaded guilty in federal court last month to attempting to infiltrate Republican political circles and influence US relations with Russia -- in essence, to acting as an unregistered lobbyist for a foreign power. She faces a maximum of five years in prison, but is likely to receive a lesser sentence of zero to six months based on a plea agreement, and may be deported after serving her sentence.Russian agent Maria Butina, pictured in April 2015, pled guilty to conspiracy charges in December.On Thursday, Russia formally charged Whelan with a more severe crime -- espionage -- which can carry a sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison. When the Federal Security Service announced Whelan's arrest on New Year's Eve, the agency accused him of a more severe crime. The FSB's investigative department initiated a criminal case against the American citizen under article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation -- espionage -- a provision that recommends a sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison. Whelan's family rejects any claim that he was working a spy, saying the former Marine reservist was in Russia to attend a wedding of a fellow former US military service member and a Russian woman. Other Russians in custodyWhether or not Whelan is an innocent American caught up in a larger political confrontation between Washington and Moscow, his case potentially puts the spotlight on other high-profile Russians in American custody.Zakharova, for instance, has also publicly pressed for the release of convicted Russian arms trafficker Victor Bout, dubbed the "merchant of death," who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012 by a federal judge. Bout, who has maintained his innocence, was convicted in 2011 on four counts of conspiracy to kill Americans, acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles, and provide material support to a terrorist organization. The Russian government has accused the US of pursuing a political agenda in the Bout case. Zakharova has also advocated for the release of another Russian national, Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was convicted in 2011 in federal court of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States after being arrested in Liberia and transferred to the US. In a 2017 briefing, Zakharova said Yaroshenko was "kidnapped" by American intelligence services in Liberia and sentenced for "absolutely unsubstantiated accusations"; the Kremlin has called for his return to Russia on humanitarian grounds for medical treatment."So far, it looks like Konstantin Yaroshenko, like Viktor Bout, who is also serving a long sentence in an American prison, are held hostage in Washington," Zakharova said. Historically, there are precedents for the US and Russia to exchange detainees and prisoners.Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal discharged from Salisbury hospital after poisoningTake the case of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, the former Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for the UK. Skripal was part of a spy swap conducted between the US and Russia in 2010, exchanged as part of a group for 10 so-called Russian sleeper agents deported by the US.Skripal's spy swap had a grim postscript: Early last year, he and his daughter were poisoned by a nerve agent in an apparent assassination attempt that the British government blamed on agents of Russian military intelligence. That incident sparked a months-long cycle of espionage accusations, a drama that now looks set to repeat in 2019.
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Story highlights Vatican awash in scandal amid preparations for Pope Benedict XVI's retirementOn Sunday, a British newspaper reported four men accused O'Brien of abuseItalian publications report allegations of priest blackmail by male prostitutesBenedict retires Thursday, the first pope to resign in nearly 600 yearsScandal is threatening to eclipse the poignancy and pageantry of Benedict XVI's historic final days as pope.Vatican officials were already trying Monday to swat down unsavory claims by Italian publications of a brewing episode involving gay priests, male prostitutes and blackmail when news broke that Benedict had moved up the resignation of a Scottish archbishop linked over the weekend by a British newspaper to inappropriate relationships with priests. Benedict announced two weeks ago that he will step down as pope Thursday, becoming the first pontiff to leave the job alive in 598 years.Interactive: Where does the pope live?At 85, he said he was too old, frail and tired to continue on as spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion followers worldwide.It was a stunningly unexpected announcement that left church scholars poring over Catholic law to answer such basic questions as when the pope's successor would be chosen and even what he would be called in retirement.JUST WATCHEDNew scandal cast dark cloud over VaticanReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHNew scandal cast dark cloud over Vatican 04:15JUST WATCHEDCatholic cardinal quits amid sex scandalReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHCatholic cardinal quits amid sex scandal 02:13JUST WATCHEDCNN Explains: Papal successionReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHCNN Explains: Papal succession 02:42JUST WATCHEDVatican denies latest scandal claimsReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHVatican denies latest scandal claims 02:53JUST WATCHEDThe final days of Benedict XVI's papacyReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHThe final days of Benedict XVI's papacy 02:35But the scandals -- along with lingering questions about how the church has handled claims of abuse by Catholic priests around the world -- have dimmed the spotlight on Benedict's final days as pope."Clearly, prior to these scandals erupting, the cardinals had a long checklist of things they were looking for in terms of the new pope," CNN senior Vatican analyst John Allen said Monday, including finding someone to help spread the message of the church and inspire faith amid flagging practice of the Catholic faith in many parts of the world."But in the wake of everything that's happened in the last 72 hours or so, quite clearly a new item is on that list, which is they also want to make sure they pick somebody who's got clean hands," Allen said.Vatican reveals Pope Benedict's new titleArchbishop's resignationThe Vatican confirmed Monday that Benedict had accelerated the resignation of Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the archbishop of Scotland.O'Brien told the pope in November that he would resign effective with his 75th birthday, on March 17. But Benedict decided to make the resignation effective immediately in light of the pope's imminent resignation, the Scottish Catholic Media Office said.The announcement comes a day after a Sunday report by the British newspaper The Observer that three priests and one former priest leveled allegations against O'Brien that date back 30 years.The Observer did not recount details of the claims or identify any of O'Brien's accusers, but said one of the priests alleged "that the cardinal developed an inappropriate relationship with him."O'Brien did not attend Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh on Sunday, but the Scottish Catholic Media Office told CNN that the cardinal "contests these claims and is taking legal advice."His accusers took their complaints to the Vatican representative in Britain and demanded O'Brien's resignation, The Observer reported. At the Vatican, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a spokesman for the church, told reporters that Benedict has been informed of the allegations.As late as last week, O'Brien appeared to be making plans to take part in the conclave, when the College of Cardinals gathers in Rome to pick a successor to Benedict.But in a statement in which he thanked God for the good he was able to do and apologized to "all whom I have offended," O'Brien said Monday that he would not be part of that gathering."I do not wish media attention in Rome to be focused on me -- but rather on Pope Benedict XVI and on his successor," O'Brien said.JUST WATCHEDWho will be the next pope?ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHWho will be the next pope? 04:39JUST WATCHEDNew scandal cast dark cloud over VaticanReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHNew scandal cast dark cloud over Vatican 04:15JUST WATCHEDVatican scandal before pope resignsReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHVatican scandal before pope resigns 05:00Opinion: 'Gay lobby' behind pope's resignation? Not likelyCardinal controversyWhile O'Brien will no longer be involved in electing the new pope, another controversial cardinal's plan to attend is further taking focus from Benedict's final days in office.Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles is facing fresh attention for his role in the cover-up of sexual abuse by priests.Documents recently released as part of the 2007 settlement in a previous abuse case detail what Terry McKiernan, founder of the watchdog group BishopAccountability.org says is "stark" evidence of efforts by Mahoney and others to sidestep authorities investigating sexual abuse.He recently gave a deposition in a 2010 civil lawsuit filed in the United States by a Mexican citizen suing the Los Angeles archdiocese. The man alleges Mahony and a Mexican cardinal conspired to allow a priest accused of abuse to flee to Mexico, putting an untold number of children at risk. Mahony has denied the allegations.Two groups seeking to stop Mahony's participation in the election said Saturday they have collected nearly 10,000 signatures on a petition against his involvement."His participation in the conclave would only bring clouds of shame at a time that should bring springs of hope," said Chris Pumpelly, the communications director for one of the groups, Catholics United. Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests also worked on the campaign.Church law requires that Mahony attend, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles said.Father Albert Cutie, an Espiscopal priest who studies the Vatican, said it would be impossible to exclude every cardinal with a hand in the church's vast sex-abuse problem."Unfortunately, if you were going to tell me no one can go to the conclave who has part in any type of cover up, you would probably exclude every cardinal in the church, because unfortunately that's the way the church is operated," he said.Blackmail allegationsCatholic population in numbersCatholic population in percentages As if the controversies over O'Brien and Mahony were not enough, two Italian publications reported over the weekend that Benedict had decided to resign not because of age, but because of a brewing scandal over the blackmail of gay priests by male prostitutes in Rome.Benedict received a 300-page report in December detailing the possible blackmail, la Repubblica newspaper and the Panorama news weekly reported, citing an unidentified senior Vatican official and dozens of unnamed sources.The Vatican emphatically denied the allegations this weekend, with Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone criticizing a rash of "often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories" as the cardinals prepare for their conclave.Cardinal Velasio de Paulis, one of the men who will help elect Benedict's successor, called the claims "guesswork and imagination.""There is no proof and these allegations only serve to create a climate of division that helps no one," he said.While no one outside the Vatican has seen the document that purportedly details the claims and Vatican officials have not confirmed it exists, Allen said such a claim is not improbable."To me that passes the smell test," he said. Retirement preparationsAmid the scandal, the Vatican still has a transfer of power to manage.On Monday, Lombardi said it remains unclear when the gathering of church leaders who will elect the next pope will begin.While Benedict issued an order Monday to allow the election to begin sooner than the 15 days after the seat becomes vacant mandated by church rules, the date for the election will be set by the cardinals when they first gather, Monsignor Pier Luigi Celata said Monday at a Vatican press briefing.It still must happen within 20 days of his resignation, the pope said.After his retirement, Benedict is expected to head to the pope's summer residence in Rome before eventually settling in a monastery in Vatican City. Church officials have said he will seek no influence over the election of his successor, or over management of the church.Among other issues, Vatican officials are still trying to work out what Benedict will be called in retirement. One suggestion is "pontifex maximus," Celata said. The term can be translated as "supreme bishop."Vatican officials hope to have an answer next week, Lombardi said.
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(CNN)A judge in Lafayette, Louisiana, is taking a leave of absence and facing calls for her resignation after a video with racist language recorded at her home surfaced.A lawyer for City Court Judge Michelle M. Odinet told the Acadiana Advocate she feels "humiliated, embarrassed, and sorry for what she has done and the harm she has caused to the community," and is taking unpaid leave."What happens in the long term is something she is going to think about in the weeks to come," said the statement by Dane Ciolino, who confirmed the details to CNN.The video, appearing to show surveillance footage of an outdoor altercation with a burglary suspect being played on a television while people, who are not visible, view and comment on the footage using racist language, was shared with local media in Lafayette and is now being shared widely across social media. The Lafayette Police Department said that at approximately 2 a.m. Saturday, two vehicles were burglarized in the driveway of a home, which records show is owned by Odinet and her husband.Read MoreThe suspect attempted to flee on foot but was caught by the victim, who police said was returning home when they saw the suspect getting out of one of the vehicles at the home. The victim held the suspect down until officers arrived, according to the statement from police.In the video circulating online, a male voice can be heard saying, "And Mom's yelling n***er, n***er." Then after what appears to be some jovial banter, a female voice is heard saying, "We have a n ***er, It's a n***er, like a roach," while laughing.The group continues talking back and forth, at one point laughing at someone in the surveillance video tripping and someone else losing their wallet.Then a male voice is heard saying, "That's my phone where it fell out.""The dude had a phone on him," a female voice chimes in. "You should have taken his phone and stolen from him, that f**king a**hole.""Go and get the gun," says another voice. "It's important, very important," says a male voice as the video continues.Several calls for her resignationIt is unknown who recorded the video from inside the home or how it became public.Odinet had earlier sent a statement to CNN affiliate KATC, saying she had been "given a sedative" and had no "recollection of the video and the disturbing language used during it.""My children and I were the victim of an armed burglary at our home. The police were called, and the assailant was arrested. The incident shook me to my core and my mental state was fragile. I was a wreck and am still unable to sleep. I was given a sedative at the time of the video. I have zero recollection of the video and the disturbing language used during it."The judge added: "Anyone who knows me and my husband, knows this is contrary to the way we live our lives. I am deeply sorry and ask for your forgiveness and understanding as my family and I deal with the emotional aftermath of this armed burglary."The condemnation was swift. Gov. John Bel Edwards called for her to resign."It would be my hope that this period of reflection that she's going through will lead her to that same conclusion," he said. The head of the local branch of the NAACP said Odinet should step down. "We call now for her immediate and uncompromising resignation, failing same, we demand swift and immediate act by the Judiciary Committee of the Louisiana Supreme Court, removing her from office," said Lafayette NAACP Chapter President Michael Toussaint. The call was echoed by the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus, which said the judge had shown "immense racial bias and insensitivity." Odinet was temporarily disqualified Thursday after her lawyer filed a motion on her behalf, which was agreed to by the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana. The state Supreme Court ordered her disqualification and appointed retired Opelousas City Court Judge Vanessa Harris to fill her seat for now.Ciolino added Odinet has "heard the calls from the Governor and the community and resignation is certainly at the top of her list of considerations." The Mayor-President of Lafayette's Consolidated Government, Josh Guillory, said he was disgusted by the reports about Odinet. "This type of language is hurtful, divisive, and unacceptable," he said in a statement. "The fairness and objectivity of our courts are the foundation of our legal system. It is my hope that the judge will do what is best to help the community heal and move forward."City Marshal Reggie Thomas told KATC the language in the video was hurtful to his core. "I am certain that most people of color share my pain when the n-word is used to describe us. With that being said, I'm sure that people of color will find it impossible to trust that they will be treated fairly and equally when they have to stand for judgment before Judge Odinet."Thomas, who noted he was the first African American elected to a citywide position in Lafayette, said Odinet should be held accountable. "It is up to Judge Odinet to remember the oath she took," he said.CNN's Steve Almasy and Jeremy Grisham contributed to this report.
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Washington (CNN)After more than two decades of development and testing, Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet has made its combat debut. The Israel Defense Forces announced Tuesday on Twitter that its version of the aircraft -- dubbed the F-35 "Adir" -- is already flying in operational missions. "The Adir planes are already operational and flying in operational missions. We are the first in the world to use the F-35 in operational activity"— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) May 22, 2018
"The Adir planes are already operational and flying in operational missions. We are the first in the world to use the F-35 in operational activity," the IDF tweet said. Israel greets first F-35 fighter jets from USIsraeli Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin said the stealth fifth-generation aircraft was used to strike two different targets in the Middle East, The Jerusalem Post reported. The F-35 fighter jet is touted as the future of military aviation; a lethal and versatile aircraft that combines stealth capabilities, supersonic speed, extreme agility and state-of-the-art sensor fusion technology, according to Lockheed Martin, the plane's primary contractor. Read MoreHowever, the aircraft, which is the most expensive weapons system in history, has also drawn sharp criticism in recent years after facing a long list of setbacks -- including problems with the software, engines and weapon systems. And critics have continued to express skepticism about the F-35's combat capability despite reassurances by US military leaders who say the kinks are being worked out. The US Air Force became the first military service to declare its version of the F-35 ready for combat in August 2016.The Marine Corps accomplished a significant milestone last year by deploying its variant to Japan -- the aircraft's first permanent overseas deployment. But Israel's announcement on Tuesday marks the first time that the F-35 has been used in an actual combat situation -- a significant moment given the program's checkered past. Over the past five decades, Israel has sought to maintain its superiority in the skies over the Middle East -- perceiving many threats in its neighborhood, including the Syrian conflict and missile attacks from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group based in Lebanon.In recent years, Russia has also introduced its S-300 and more advanced S-400 surface-to-air missiles systems in Syria -- a challenge to Israel's regional air superiority.Israel acquired the F-35 in response. The fighter can fly virtually undetected but stealth technology does not guarantee a jet can fly unseen.US shows off new F-35 fighter jets ahead of US-South Korea drills Nicknamed the "Mighty One" by the Israeli press, the F-35 is part of a $38 billion Memorandum of Understanding between Israel and the US covering a 10-year period beginning in 2019.The Israeli Air Force has ordered 50 F-35s from the US -- each with a price tag of more than $100 million. It received its first aircraft in 2016 and declared its fleet operationally capable in December of 2017. CNN's Ian Lee contributed to this report.
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It seems that 2013 is the "Data Leakage Year"! Many customers' information and confidential data have been published on the internet coming from government institutions, famous vendors, and companies too.
Ebrahim Hegazy(@Zigoo0) an Egyptian information security advisor who found a high severity vulnerability in "Avira license daemon" days ago, is on the news again, but this time for finding and reporting Blind SQL Injection vulnerability in one of Yahoo! E-marketing applications.
SQL Injection vulnerabilities are ranked as Critical vulnerabilities, because if used by Hackers it will cause a database breach which will lead to confidential information leakage.
A time based blind SQL Injection web vulnerability is detected in the official Yahoo! TW YSM Marketing Application Service.
The vulnerability allows remote attackers to inject own SQL commands to breach the database of that vulnerable application and get access to the user data.
The SQL Injection vulnerability is located in the index.php file of the soeasy module when processing to request manipulated scId parameters. By manipulation of the seed parameter the attackers can inject own SQL commands to compromise the web server application DBMS.
The vulnerability can be exploited by remote attackers without privileged application user account and without requiring user interaction. Successful exploitation of the SQL injection vulnerability results in application and application service DBMS compromise.
Vulnerable Service(s): [+] Yahoo! Inc - TW YSM Marketing
Vulnerable Module(s): [+] soeasy
Vulnerable Module(s): [+] index.php
Vulnerable Parameter(s):[+] scId
But the Ebrahim is a white hat, so he reported the vulnerability to the Yahoo! The security team with recommendations on how to patch the vulnerability.
According to Ebrahim, the time line of the vulnerability was:
2013-02-24: Researcher Notification & Coordination
2013-02-25: Vendor Notification
2013-03-01: Vendor Response/Feedback
2013-04-01: Vendor Fix/Patch by check
Proof of Concept
The time-based sql injection web vulnerability can be exploited by remote attackers without privileged application user account and without required user interaction. For demonstration or reproduce ...
Vulnerable Service Domain: tw.ysm.emarketing.yahoo.com
Vulnerable Module: soeasy
Vulnerable File: index.php
Vulnerable Parameters: ?p=2&scId=
POC:
https://tw.ysm.emarketing.yahoo.com/soeasy/index.php?p=2&scId=113; select SLEEP(5)--
Payload:
1; union select SLEEP(5)--
Request:
https://tw.ysm.emarketing.yahoo.com/soeasy/index.php?p=2&scId=113;%20select%20SLEEP(5)--
GET /soeasy/index.php?p=2&scId=113;%20select%20SLEEP(5)-- HTTP/1.1
Host: tw.ysm.emarketing.yahoo.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux i686; rv:19.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/19.0
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Cookie: is_c=1; device=pc; showNews=Y; B=9tgpb118xilu04&b=3&s=mu; AO=o=1&s=1&dnt=1; tw_ysm_soeasy=d%3D351d9185185129780476f856.
17880929%26s%3DxLxK2mb96diFbErWUyv_jGQ--; __utma=266114698.145757337399.1361672202.1361672202.1361672202.1; __utmb=2663114698.
1.10.1361672202; __utmc=2636114698; __utmz=266114698.13616732202.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none)
DNT: 1
Connection: keep-alive
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2013 02:16:48 GMT
P3P: policyref="https://info.yahoo.com/w3c/p3p.xml", CP="CAO DSP COR CUR ADM DEV TAI PSA PSD IVAi IVDi CONi TELo OTPi OUR DELi
SAMi OTRi UNRi PUBi IND PHY ONL UNI PUR FIN COM NAV INT DEM CNT STA POL HEA PRE LOC GOV"
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0, private
Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Pragma: no-cache
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Encoding: gzip
Solution: The vulnerability can be patched by a restriction and secure parse of the scId parameter request.
More details about the vulnerability could be found here. As most of the readers know that Yahoo! doesn't have a bug bounty program or Hall of fame too, so as a reward from Yahoo! for the researchers who finds a vulnerability in Yahoo! Applications, they do award researchers by sending them a T-shirts with Yahoo! logo and some other tokens.
The researcher told us that he received a package sent to him by Yahoo! containing 2 T-shirts and a big cup ...
Lean reward, what do you think? Dear Yahoo the next time you may be the victim of black hat.
Credits
Ebrahim Hegazy is an information security advisor @Starware Group, acknowledged by Google, Microsoft and Ebay for finding and reporting multiple vulnerabilities in their applications.
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London (CNN Business)Nike (NKE) and other major sponsors have come out in support of tennis star Naomi Osaka following her decision to withdraw from the French Open.The sports apparel giant — who signed a sponsorship deal with Osaka in 2019 — applauded the athlete in a statement on Monday for opening up about her struggle with depression. "Our thoughts are with Naomi. We support her and recognize her courage in sharing her own mental health experience," Nike said.Osaka's decision to pull out of the competition came after the tournament, also called Roland Garros, fined her $15,000 for not speaking to the media following her first round match on Sunday. Citing mental health reasons, the four-time major champion announced on Twitter last Wednesday that she would not participate in any news conferences at the tournament. Announcing her subsequent decision to withdraw, she revealed that she has "suffered long bouts of depression" since winning her first Grand Slam title in 2018.Read MoreNaomi Osaka: Serena Williams wants to give world No. 2 a hug; others label her a 'princess'Roland Garros said in a statement that Osaka had failed to honor her contractual media obligations and was fined under the tournament's Code of Conduct. The statement added that Roland Garros had "tried unsuccessfully to speak with her to check on her well-being" and that she was reminded that "rules should apply equally to all players."Other sponsors issued statements in support of Osaka, who was born in Japan and grew up in the United States."Naomi Osaka's decision reminds us all how important it is to prioritize personal health and well-being," Mastercard (MA) said in a statement. "We support her and admire her courage to address important issues, both on and off the court." Osaka became the first number one tennis player to join Mastercard's roster of global ambassadors in 2019.The Naomi Osaka fiasco is a sign that we're nowhere near finished with work on mental healthSwiss luxury watchmaker TAG Heuer said that it supports its brand ambassadors "in triumph but also during challenging periods." "Naomi is going through difficult times and we truly hope to see her back soon. She is a great champion and we are convinced that she will come out of this period stronger, be it professionally or personally," the company said in a statement.Nissin Foods, a Japanese company known for its instant noodles, also released a message of solidarity."We pray for Ms Naomi Osaka's earliest recovery, and wish her continue success," a company spokesperson said in a statement.Nissan, the Japanese automaker, also threw its weight behind Osaka. "We support the right of our ambassadors to express themselves and stand by her decision," the company said in a statement.All Nippon Airways, a Tokyo-based airline, said that it, too, would continue to support Osaka "as a sponsor."Workday, the enterprise software firm, lauded Osaka for speaking out about her struggles."Anyone who has been impacted by mental health knows asking for help is hard," Christine Cefalo, chief marketing officer, said in a statement. "We applaud Naomi Osaka for prioritizing self care and stand by her — and can't wait to see her on the courts again soon." Sweetgreen, a US restaurant chain of which Osaka is a brand ambassador and investor, said: "Our partnership with Naomi is rooted in wellness in all its forms. We support her in furthering the conversation around mental health and are proud to have her as part of the sweetgreen team."Japanese television broadcaster WOWOW, though, said it was "not in the position to comment [on] Ms. Osaka's withdrawal by her personal issue." The Japanese television broadcaster pointed out that "unlike Nissin, ANA and other Japanese companies which endorse Ms. Osaka, our company is a broadcaster which delivers her plays on tennis tour to Japanese viewers." It said it has shown grand slam tournaments, including Roland Garros, for more than two decades. "We sincerely hope that she could overcome it and come back on court as soon as she can, and every Japanese [person expects] it," the broadcaster said.French Open sponsors Rolex, Engie and Infosys (INFY) declined to comment. French label Louis Vuitton, which named Osaka as its new brand ambassador earlier this year, also declined to comment.— Chris Liakos, Chie Kobayashi, Michelle Toh and Nikita Koirala contributed reporting.
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Eastern European country Bulgaria has suffered the biggest data breach in its history that compromised personal and financial information of 5 million adult citizens out of its total population of 7 million people.
According to multiple sources in local Bulgarian media, an unknown hacker earlier this week emailed them download links to 11GB of stolen data which included taxpayer's personal identifiable numbers, addresses, and financial data.
In a brief statement released Monday, the National Revenue Agency (NRA) of Bulgaria said the stolen data originates from the country's tax reporting service.
The NRA also indicated that the Ministry of the Interior and the State Agency for National Security (SANS) have started taking an assessment of the potential vulnerability in NRA's systems that attackers might have exploited to breach into its databases.
It appears that until now, the hacker, who claimed to be a Russian man, has only released 57 out of a total of 110 compromised databases, which is about 21GB in total.
In a follow-up announcement, the NRA said almost 20 days ago, the attacker unauthorizedly accessed about 3 percent of the information contained in their databases.
"Currently, e-services for citizens and businesses are functioning normally, with the exception of the VAT refund service paid abroad, as well as by the revenue office. Unregulated access to sensitive information is limited," the NRA said.
As consequences of the incident, Bulgaria's NRA tax agency is now facing a fine of up to 20 million euros ($22.43 million) or 4% of the agency's annual turnover over the data breach, said Prof. Veselin Tselkov, a member of the Commission for Personal Data Protection.
Suspected "White Hat" Hacker Arrested
Bulgarian police have also arrested a 20-year-old "white-hat hacker" as the main suspect for the NRA data breach after authorities raided his home and office in the capital Sofia and seized his computers containing encrypted data, according to a local media.
The arrested suspect, Christian Boykov, is a cybersecurity expert who has been training officers of the GCDPC for fighting organized cybercrime.
Boykov was in the news two years ago, when he found a vulnerability in the website of the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) and contacted "Lords of the Air," a popular TV show to tell the story only after the ministry ignored his initial disclosure.
After that incident, Boikov was hired as an ethical hacker by the global cybersecurity company "TAD Group," and at the moment of arrest, he was an employee of the company, where his job responsibility was to pentest the systems in the state agencies and private companies for potential vulnerabilities.
Since the investigation is still ongoing, at this moment, it's not clear if he is behind the NRA data breach. However, the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office accused Boykov of unauthorized access to a computer system that is part of the critical infrastructure of the state.
His lawyers say there is no evidence against the boy, but if proven guilty, Boikov—who has no past criminal record—could face up to 8 years in prison.
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Aomi Urban Sports Park, Tokyo (CNN)Aged 18, Alberto Ginés has just made two pieces of history at the Tokyo Olympics: he's the first person to be crowned a gold medalist in sports climbing, as well as Spain's youngest ever gold medal winner. The next foothold in his climbing career? "I'll go for another gold," he told reporters.Ginés secured victory in the men's combined final with 28 points as climbing's first medal-winning showdown at the Olympics came to a dramatic conclusion at the Aomi Urban Sports Park on Thursday.The podium positions shifted constantly throughout the lead event -- the last of three disciplines that were on display in Tokyo. The USA's Nathaniel Coleman ended the night in second place with 30 points, while Austria's Jakob Schubert, the only climber to top the lead wall, won a dramatic bronze with the final climb of the competition to finish on 35 points. Climbers were given points based on their standings over three events -- speed, bouldering and lead -- which were multiplied together to give a final score, the lower the better.Read MoreNathaniel Coleman, Alberto Ginés and Jakob Schubert pose with their medals. Ginés said having his "head in the right place," had been key to his success."During the past year, my head hasn't worked so well for me, since the beginning [of] the season, and I have been working with a specialist, and I think now I can control it (my nerves) a little bit more," he told reporters.Picturesque scene The sun setting behind the climbing wall, which was lit up against the night sky, made for a picturesque backdrop to the Olympics' first ever climbing final.Two stadium announcers, one speaking English and another Japanese, cheered and cajoled climbers as they took to the wall.Outside the venue, members of the public -- unable to attend Olympic events in Tokyo amid the pandemic -- lined the adjacent pedestrian street to try and catch a glimpse of the action. JUST WATCHEDJanja Garnbret: The making of a climbing superstarReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHJanja Garnbret: The making of a climbing superstar 03:37When the competition drew to a close after four-and-a-half hours, the three podium places had ultimately gone to the climbers who topped the standings in each discipline. Ginés' speed victory at the start of the night laid the foundations for his gold medal as he beat Japan's Tomoa Narasaki, who slipped at the bottom of the wall in their head-to-head race, with a time of 6.42 seconds. Coleman claimed a single point after being the only competitor to solve the second boulder, while Schubert grabbed bronze with a superb lead performance which drew the biggest cheers of the night. 'Pinnacle of excitement'Further down the overall standings, the Czech Republic's Adam Ondra finished in sixth despite being one of the favorites ahead of the final. Even with a strong performance in the lead, where he placed second, Ondra's six bouldering points proved costly when it came to his final tally."That's competition. Sometimes it works for you, sometimes it doesn't work for you," said Ginés. "Adam was one of the favorites, and today, it just wasn't a good day for him."The sun sets in Tokyo behind the Aomi Urban Sports Park.The women's combined final takes place on Friday as climbing's Olympic debut comes to a close. Among the climbers competing in the men's event, there were hopes that Thursday's final had been well-received."It was, in many ways, a fortunate final in the fact that the audience got to see how much the routesetting can affect competition," Coleman told reporters."The lead route was set perfectly. When a man (Schubert) tops it at the very last, that's the pinnacle of excitement in lead climbing competition."Ginés was similarly confident that the sport had delivered as a spectacle."I think our sport is very visual, so people really like it. I don't know how many viewers we might have had, but ... I'm very happy that it was on TV and people get to view our sport."
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Security researchers have revealed the existence of an advanced persistent threat that has been making the rounds since April 2011. Backdoor.Hikit is a dangerous backdoor Trojan that will damage infected system and files. Usually, Backdoor. Hikit will open backdoor to allow remote attackers to connect to the infected system and carry out harmful activities, such as stealing information or destroying files and programs.
It is really stubborn those antiviruses often fail to delete it for good, for it runs secretly and automatically when Windows boots without your knowledge or consent and can disguise it as fake system files or processes. Besides, many other threats, such as adware, redirecting virus, Trojan variants from family, such as Trojan Horse Generic 27.PN, BackDoor.Hupigon5.CJMY, Trojan.Zeroaccess.C, Trojan:win64/Sirefef.E and so on, which is really a threat to system and data security.
According to experts from security firm Symantec, it all starts with the unknown dropper which installs a DLL backdoor onto the compromised device. This backdoor then installs the driver component that allows the attacker to communicate with the infected computer.
Unlike many other pieces of malware, Hikit doesn't attempt to contact its command and control server once it infects a device. Instead, the kernel is designed to wait for the attacker to initiate communications, significantly reducing the threat's operational capabilities.
Backdoor.Hikit is compromised of four components:
Unknown dropper that compromises a system and installs a malicious dynamic-link library (DLL) file
DLL that implements back door functionality and installs a kernel driver
Kernel driver that monitors network traffic for connections from an attacker
Client tool that attackers use to connect to the back door
It is greatly possible that your online saved accounts and passwords, personal and financial information will be exposed and transfer to remote hackers, which will lead to identified thief. To secure your computer and keep it away from any threats, you must get rid of Backdoor.Hikit without any hesitation.
Symantec is continuing to investigate this threat and will provide more information when available.
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DNS cache poisoning attack on Google, Gmail, YouTube, Yahoo, Apple
Hacker with nickname AlpHaNiX deface Google, Gmail, Youtube, Yahoo, Apple etc domains of Democratic Republic of Congo. Hacker use strategy so-called DNS cache poisoning.
DNS cache poisoning is a security or data integrity compromise in the Domain Name System (DNS). The compromise occurs when data is introduced into a DNS name server's cache database that did not originate from authoritative DNS sources. It may be a deliberate attempt of a maliciously crafted attack on a name server.
Hacked websites are :
https://apple.cd/
https://yahoo.cd/
https://gmail.cd/
https://google.cd/
https://youtube.cd/
https://linux.cd/
https://samsung.cd/
https://hotmail.cd/
https://microsoft.cd/
[Source]
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(CNN)For someone who'd just lost on the biggest stage in the NBA, Stephen Curry seemed to be in good spirits.The Golden State Warriors' Curry was seen FaceTiming late Thursday with rapper and Toronto Raptors superfan Drake before leaving Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. "Congrats, bro," Curry could be heard saying to Drake. "Tough one. I hate seeing it."Enjoy it, man -- it's big time for you. You, the whole city, the whole, everybody. Y'all deserve it, man. Congrats.""Y'all deserve it man. Congrats."Steph talked to Drake on the phone before leaving the arena. (via @CloseUp360) pic.twitter.com/txSCVMoeGI— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 14, 2019
Toronto defeated Golden State 114-110 in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals.Read MoreDrake celebrates the Raptors' NBA championship with new musicThe loss ended the Warriors' quest to cement their dynasty with a three-peat after winning the last two NBA championships. It was also the Warriors last game at Oracle Arena before moving next season to the new Chase Center in San Francisco.While the game was close to the very end, the Warriors simply did not have enough firepower to overcome the Raptors.Klay Thompson tore his ACL late in the third quarter and couldn't return to the game, though he still managed to end up as the game's leading scorer with 30 points. He'd missed Game 3 with a left hamstring injury.The Warriors were also missing Kevin Durant. After a long absence, Durant played his first game in weeks in Game 5 of the series only to rupture his Achilles in the second quarter.The Toronto Raptors win Canada's first NBA championshipDurant is expected to opt out of his contract and become a free agent. Whether he re-signs with the Warriors or signs with a new team has been the focus of heavy speculation all season.While FaceTiming with Curry, Drake could be heard mentioning Durant."Yeah, I'm going to keep on it," Curry told Drake, apparently a reference to Curry's efforts to lobby Durant to re-sign with the Warriors.Despite his allegiance to the Raptors, Drake is close with both Curry and Durant, and he even has a tattoo with both of their jersey numbers on his arm.
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Story highlightsElectric GT unveils details of new motorsport championshipElectric Production Car Series will visit several top European circuitsOrganizers vow to contribute to sustainable travel (CNN)For the past four years, Formula E has dared to be different, forsaking petrol engines and taking motorsport to the people on street circuits. Now there's a new electric racing series in town. Follow @cnnsport
Details of the EGT Championship were unveiled Tuesday, with the inaugural season set to commence in the southern Spanish city of Jerez on November 3, 2018.Ten teams of two cars will traverse several top European circuits in a specially modified Tesla S, from Britain's iconic Silvertone to the legendary Nürburgrin in Germany.And organizers aren't afraid to buck the trend. Photos: California-based company, Electric GT has turned this 1978 Ferrari 308 GTS into an electric car. Hide Caption 1 of 11 Photos: A similar Ferrari 308 model became famous in the 1980s in the TV detective series, "Magnum P.I." starring Tom Selleck. Cue the theme music! Hide Caption 2 of 11 Photos: The car met a fiery end on a California highway according to it's restorer Eric Hutchison who says the car, if not regularly serviced, was prone to the fuel hose bursting. Hutchison picked up the wreck in a San Diego scrap yard for $10,000. Hide Caption 3 of 11 Photos: Hutchison and his friend and electric car restorer Michael Bream set about replacing the burned-out remains V8 engine and its four Weber carburetors with a electric motor.Hide Caption 4 of 11 Photos: The new triple electric motor sits in the position where the V8 originally sat. Hide Caption 5 of 11 Photos: The motors are powered by three batteries -- one at the front of the car and two at the back where the gas tanks used to sit.Hide Caption 6 of 11 Photos: The current battery capacity is 30 kilowatts but Hutchison says that capacity can be doubled. Hide Caption 7 of 11 Photos: The car currently has a range of 70-100 miles, Hutchison says. Hide Caption 8 of 11 Photos: Hutchison used a Porsche G50 5 speed gearbox in a "flipped mid-engine orientation." Manual gearboxes in EVs improve efficiency and performance, according to Electric GT.Hide Caption 9 of 11 Photos: Hutchison's 18-month restoration was followed by Ferrari enthusiasts in the online forum FerrariChat.com. "Several guys from the forum came to see the project and some even flew across the country. The support was awesome," Hutchison says.Hide Caption 10 of 11 Photos: Hutchison will be racing at the Re-Fuel Electric Car Races at the Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey on May 22. "I love that I can drive a high performance Ferrari by charging it on my solar panels at home," Hutchison said. READ THE FULL STORY HERE Hide Caption 11 of 11Read MoreEach race weekend comprises a simultaneous electric karting series as well as an eSports competition.A "drift off" will even take place at suitable circuits, where the top two finishers and two fan-voted drivers will undertake a series of drifting challenges in a bid to win three further Championship points. Mark Gemmell, CEO of Electric GT Holdings, called it a "very exciting day" for everyone involved in the series. "Without a doubt, we have secured some of the most exciting European tracks for our first season of the Electric Production Car Series and this gives us a great platform to further expand the championship," said Gemmell. "We have received a great deal of interest from circuits around the world excited by the possibilities that electric racing brings. We've got lots more news to come very soon. I am stoked about the future, and we are all looking forward to bringing elbows-out electric racing action to fans around the world." READ: The world's first electric Ferrari is even faster than the originalREAD: Can motorsport still be exciting without human drivers?'Something spectacular'Each race weekend comprises a electric karting and eSports.Six of the electric GT drivers involved so far for season one are women -- among them racing driver, broadcaster and journalist, Rebecca Jackson.Electric Production Car Series -- Provisional CalendarPre-Race -- Circuit Pau Arnos, France (26-27 Oct 2018)Race 1 & 2 -- Circuito de Jerez, Spain (3-4 Nov 2018)Race 3 -- Circuit Paul Ricard, France (Feb/Mar 2019) TBARace 4 & 5 -- TBA (May 2019)Race 6 -- Nürburgring, Germany (29 Jun 2019)Race 7 -- Circuit Park Assen, Netherlands (20-21 Jul, 2019)Race 8 -- Silverstone, UK (Sept 2019) TBARace 9 -- TBA (Sept 2019)Race 10 -- Algarve Portimao Circuit, Portugal (12-13 Oct, 2019)Dates and locations subject to change by the FIA and other authorities"I truly believe that Electric GT will offer fans a thrilling racing championship but I am also excited by how convincingly it will deliver its core messages of sustainability," said Jackson. "I've driven the Electric GT car and I am impressed by its performance. I'm no stranger to all-electric road cars and this fully race-prepared machine is something spectacular to experience."While the teams and full championship calendar are yet to be finalized, we do know that the first season will feature identical Tesla Model S P100D machines, running on Pirelli tires with Alcon brakes.Rounds will consist of a 20-minute practice session, a one-hour qualifying heat , a day race and a dusk race. READ: Is the Formula E Gen 2 the race car of the future?Visit CNN.com/motorsport for more news and featuresThe FIA-sanctioned championship is zero-emission and, like Formula E, hopes to contribute to the future of sustainable technology.
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Last week, the most popular mobile messaging application WhatsApp finally arrived on the web — dubbed WhatsApp Web, but unfortunately it needs some improvements in its web version.
An independent 17-year-old security researcher Indrajeet Bhuyan reported two security holes in the WhatsApp web client that in some way exposes its users' privacy. Bhuyan called the first hole, WhatsApp photo privacy bug and the other WhatsApp Web Photo Sync Bug.
Bhuyan is the same security researcher who reported us the vulnerability in the widely popular mobile messaging app which allowed anyone to remotely crash WhatsApp by sending a specially crafted message of just 2kb in size, resulting in the loss of conversations.
Whatsapp Photo Privacy Bug
According to him, the new version of WhatsApp Web allows us to view a user's profile image even if we are not on the contact list of that user. Even if the user has set the profile image privacy setting to "Contacts Only," the profile picture can be viewed by out of contacts people as well.
Basically, if we set the profile image privacy to Contacts Only, only the people in our contact list are able to view our profile picture, and nobody else. But, this is not in the case of WhatsApp Web. You can watch how this works in the video demonstration below:
WhatsApp Web Photo Sync Bug
The second security hole points out the WhatsApp Web Photo Syncing functionality. Bhuyan noticed that whenever a user deletes a photo that was sent via the mobile version of WhatsApp application, the photo appears blurred and can't be viewed.
However, the same photo, which has already been deleted by the user from mobile WhatsApp version, can be accessible by Whatsapp Web as the photo does not get deleted from its web client, revealing the fact that mobile and web clients of the service are not synced properly. You can also watch the video demonstration on this as well:
This is no surprise, as WhatsApp Web introduced just a couple of days before and these small security and implementation flaws could be expected at this time, as well as some other bugs could also be revealed in the near future.
However, the company will surely fix the issues and will definitely make its users' messaging experience secure. As partnered with Open Whisper Systems, WhatsApp recently made end-to-end encryption a default feature on Android platform, stepping a way forward for the online privacy of its users around the world.
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Security researchers have been warning about an ongoing malware campaign hijacking Internet routers to distribute Android banking malware that steals users' sensitive information, login credentials and the secret code for two-factor authentication.
In order to trick victims into installing the Android malware, dubbed Roaming Mantis, hackers have been hijacking DNS settings on vulnerable and poorly secured routers.
DNS hijacking attack allows hackers to intercept traffic, inject rogue ads on web-pages and redirect users to phishing pages designed to trick them into sharing their sensitive information like login credentials, bank account details, and more.
Hijacking routers' DNS for a malicious purpose is not new. Previously we reported about widespread DNSChanger and Switcher—both the malware worked by changing the DNS settings of the wireless routers to redirect traffic to malicious websites controlled by attackers.
Discovered by security researchers at Kaspersky Lab, the new malware campaign has primarily been targeting users in Asian countries, including South Korea, China Bangladesh, and Japan, since February this year.
Once modified, the rogue DNS settings configured by hackers redirect victims to fake versions of legitimate websites they try to visit and displays a pop-up warning message, which says—"To better experience the browsing, update to the latest chrome version."
It then downloads the Roaming Mantis malware app masquerading as Chrome browser app for Android, which takes permission to collect device' account information, manage SMS/MMS and making calls, record audio, control external storage, check packages, work with file systems, draw overlay windows and so on.
"The redirection led to the installation of Trojanized applications named facebook.apk and chrome.apk that contained Android Trojan-Banker."
If installed, the malicious app overlays all other windows immediately to show a fake warning message (in broken English), which reads, "Account No.exists risks, use after certification."
Roaming Mantis then starts a local web server on the device and launches the web browser to open a fake version of Google website, asking users to fill up their names and date of births.
To convince users into believing that they are handing over this information to Google itself, the fake page displays users' Gmail email ID configured on their infected Android device, as shown in the screenshots.
"After the user enters their name and date of birth, the browser is redirected to a blank page at https://127.0.0.1:${random_port}/submit," researchers said. "Just like the distribution page, the malware supports four locales: Korean, Traditional Chinese, Japanese and English."
Since Roaming Mantis malware app has already gained permission to read and write SMS on the device, it allows attackers to steal the secret verification code for the two-factor authentication for victims' accounts.
While analysing the malware code, Researchers found reference to popular South Korean mobile banking and gaming applications, as well as a function that tries to detect if the infected device is rooted.
"For attackers, this may indicate that a device is owned by an advanced Android user (a signal to stop messing with the device) or, alternatively, a chance to leverage root access to gain access to the whole system," the researchers said.
What's interesting about this malware is that it uses one of the leading Chinese social media websites (my.tv.sohu.com) as its command-and-control server and sends commands to infected devices just via updating the attacker-controlled user profiles.
According to Kaspersky's Telemetry data, the Roaming Mantis malware was detected more than 6,000 times, though the reports came from just 150 unique users.
You are advised to ensure your router is running the latest version of the firmware and protected with a strong password.
You should also disable router's remote administration feature and hardcode a trusted DNS server into the operating system network settings.
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(CNN)The 2021 season has been a pivotal one for Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield, both on and off the field.A No. 1 overall pick in 2018, he has helped transform the franchise from bottom-dwelling strugglers to playoff qualifiers through a combination of his toughness and leadership. However, he and the team have struggled maintaining consistency on the field, casting doubts about whether the team will opt to offer him a new long-term contract. However, away from the field Mayfield has also been displaying his leadership qualities. He has long spoken out in defense of Julius Jones, who had been convicted of the 1999 murder of Paul Howell during a carjacking. Jones has been on death row for nearly 20 years, but the 40-year-old, his family, attorneys and supporters say he is innocent.Read MoreLast season, Mayfield displayed Jones' name on the back of his helmet in solidarity for the inmate.Mayfield wears cleats calling for justice for Julius Jones before a game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium on October 4, 2020.On Wednesday, the 26-year-old Mayfield -- among other members of the sporting world -- used his platform to call for the Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt to spare Jones."That's not something that's easy to talk about," an emotional Mayfield -- who played football at the University of Oklahoma -- told reporters. "I've been trying to get the facts stated and the truth to be told for a while, but it is tough to think about. Tried and tried. It is a shame that it has gotten this far. We are 24 hours away. So, it's tough. You know, hopefully, God can intervene, and handle it correctly and do the things he needs to do."A day later, Stitt granted clemency to Jones, commuting Jones' death sentence to life in prison without parole just hours before he was scheduled to be executed.Mayfield reacted to the news on Twitter: "God is GREAT!!! Thank you to everybody that prayed and continued to pray!"The quarterback's support for Jones has won plaudits. "Whatever you think of Baker Mayfield, he has been advocating for Julius Jones for quite awhile," tweeted former NFL star Stephen White. "And definitely longer than I knew his story and I doubt I'm alone."Mayfield throws the ball during the game against the New England Patriots. For the long run or a short-term fix? If Mayfield is beloved in Cleveland, the NFL quarterback's future appears uncertain at the Browns.His charisma and dedication combined with his play on the field has endeared him to a dedicated fan base. Now in his fourth year with the team, he has thrown for 13,105 yards and 84 touchdowns since being drafted, helping to transform the historically snake-bitten Ohio team and helping to earn them their first post season playoff berth since 2002. The Browns exercised Mayfield's fifth-year contract option for the 2022 season -- worth $18.9 million guaranteed -- though he has struggled with injuries and accuracy on the field this season. He has been playing through a torn labrum, something that NFL insider Ian Rapoport reported he will need surgery on at the end of the season. As a result, there are questions as to whether the team will choose to stick with Mayfield and offer him a long-term contract, like the Buffalo Bills did with Mayfield's fellow 2018 Draft quarterback Josh Allen -- he signed a six-year contract extension worth up to $258 million with $150 million guaranteed in August. Cleveland and Mayfield's agent didn't immediately respond to CNN's request for comment on the status of any potential future contract for the quarterback.Mayfield turns to hand the ball off during the game against the New England Patriots.Fox Sports analyst Jay Glazer thinks that the Browns will consider all their options at the end of the year, including Mayfield's position as starting quarterback. "It's kind of a sticky situation right cause sometimes they look at him and they're like: 'OK we can win with this guy, he can be our guy,' but there will be a lot of veteran [quarterbacks] who will perhaps be up for grabs in the offseason," Glazer said on the "Pat McAfee Show" on Wednesday.Visit CNN.com/sport for more news, features, and videos"When [The Browns] are looking at it and they see who's available, what guys they can get in a trade, what guys they can get in the draft and they think Baker is the better option long-term then they got to go long-term with him."
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The United States Justice Department has charged three Chinese nationals for allegedly hacking Moody's Analytics economist, German electronics manufacturer Siemens, and GPS maker Trimble, and stealing gigabytes of sensitive data and trade secrets.
According to an indictment unsealed Monday in federal court in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the three men worked for a Chinese cybersecurity company, Guangzhou Bo Yu Information Technology Company Limited (Boyusec), previously linked to China's Ministry of State Security.
Earlier this year, security researchers also linked Boyusec to one of the active Chinese government-sponsored espionage groups, called Advanced Persistent Threat 3 (or APT3), which is also known as Gothic Panda, UPS Team, Buckeye, and TG-0110.
In 2013, APT3 allegedly stole the blueprints for ASIO's new Canberra building using a piece of malware that was uploaded to an ASIO employee's laptop.
According to the indictment, the three Chinese nationals—identified as Wu Yingzhuo, Dong Hao, and Xia Lei—launched "coordinated and unauthorized" cyber attacks between 2011 and 2017, and successfully steal information from a number of organizations by compromising their accounts.
The trio of hackers has alleged to have attacked Moody's Analytics, Siemens, and Trimble by sending spear-phishing emails with malicious attachments or links to malware.
The men also used customized tools collectively known as the 'ups' or 'exeproxy' malware to gain unauthorized, persistent access to the targeted companies' networks, allowing them to search for and steal confidential business information and user credentials.
"The primary goal of the co-conspirators' unauthorized access to victim computers was to search for, identify, copy, package, and steal data from those computers, including confidential business and commercial information, work product, and sensitive victim employee information, such as usernames and passwords that could be used to extend unauthorized access within the victim systems," the DOJ said.
The most affected one of the three companies was IT giant Siemens. According to the indictment, the defendants:
Stole approximately 407 gigabytes of data from Siemens' energy, technology and transportation businesses in 2014.
Hacked into Trimble's network and stole at least 275 megabytes of data, including trade secrets related to global navigation satellite systems technology the company spent millions of dollars developing, in 2015 and 2016.
Accessed an internal email server at Moody's in 2011 and forwarded the account of an unidentified "prominent employee" to their own accounts, and eventually accessing the confidential messages sent to that account until 2014.
According to the DoJ, both Wu and Dong were co-founders and shareholders of Boyusec, while Lei was an employee. All the three defendants were residents of Guangzhou.
The Chinese men have been charged with a total of eight counts, including one charge of committing computer fraud and abuse, two charges of committing trade secret theft, three counts of wire fraud and four to eight counts of aggravated identity theft.
If found guilty in the court of law, the hackers face a maximum sentence of 42 years in prison.
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(CNN)This dinosaur could sprint at speeds as swift as the world's fastest human.Theropods were carnivorous dinosaurs that ran on two legs. Their feet had three toes with sharp claws, similar to some dinosaurs like velociraptors that are depicted in movies. Using fossilized footprints left in dirt in La Rioja, Spain, researchers were able to identify the running speeds of two different dinosaurs, according to research published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports. An extinct reptile with a massive wingspan leapt 8 feet in the air to take offThe theropod that made the larger pair of tracks, which were called La Torre 6A-14, was running between 14.5 and 23.1 miles per hour (23.3 and 37.2 kilometers per hour). This is one of the fastest theropod running speeds calculated, according to the study.The owner of the smaller tracks, which were called La Torre 6B-1, outran the other theropod at speeds between 19.7 and 27.7 miles per hour (31.7 and 44.6 kilometers per hour). Usain Bolt, the world's fastest human, ran up to 27.3 miles per hour (43.9 kilometers per hour) during a 100-meter race in 2011, making the theropod only slightly faster than him. Read MoreTracks captured in lake mudResearchers had five footprints to analyze from La Torre 6A-14 and seven from La Torre 6B-1. Fast-running dinosaur prints are difficult to find, said study coauthor Pablo Navarro-Lorbés, a doctoral candidate at the University of La Rioja, Spain. The theropods likely lived during the Lower Cretaceous period, Navarro-Lorbés said, which was 145 million to 100.5 million years ago. During that time, there was a lake system in the area that experienced water level changes, he added. Scientists used measurements of the footprints and the lengths between them to determine how fast the animal was going. "During low water level timespans dinosaurs could walk and run over these lake deposits, printing their steps in the mud," Navarro-Lorbés explained via email. The scientists used a formula to determine how fast the theropods were running. The researchers used the relation between the hop height of the animal, which was found by measuring the footprint length, and the stride length, which was the distance between two successive footprints made by the same foot, he said.Mystery theropod speciesIt's unknown what species these theropods were, Navarro-Lorbés said. The research team hypothesized that they came from either the spinosaurid or carcharodontosaurid families. A ferocious marine reptile with gnarly teeth for crushing prey was discovered in ColombiaBased on the features of the footprints, it's likely the two footprint tracks were made by theropods of the same species, although one was likely smaller in size than the other, he said.Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. A typical theropod stretched about 6.6 feet (2 meters) tall and 13.1 to 16.4 feet (4 to 5 meters) long, according to Navarro-Lorbés. They hunted other dinosaurs and animals for food, he added.The findings help the scientific community understand more about dinosaurs' habits and how fast certain animals could run during this time, Navarro-Lorbés said, which paint a more detailed image of how these creatures lived.
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Westminster, London (CNN)Boris Johnson always had a mountain to climb if he wanted to get Brexit done before the end of this month. He's taken a few short steps up the foothills, but is short on supplies with a considerable climb left. On Tuesday night, the UK Prime Minister could take heart from the fact that he achieved something that eluded his predecessor Theresa May, when, for the first time in this tortuous process, Parliament finally declared itself in favor of something related to Brexit. It was not quite the "meaningful vote" on the substance of his deal that Johnson craved -- that fell by the wayside on Saturday -- but it was a positive result nonetheless. Technically, Members of Parliament (MPs) agreed to advance Johnson's Withdrawal Agreement Bill through the House of Commons. The Prime Minister won by a pretty comfortable margin of 30 -- no small thing for a government with a majority of minus 40. But the celebrations were short lived. Just a few minutes later, lawmakers defied Johnson in a second vote when they rejected his plans for an accelerated legislative timetable, throwing a big pile of rocks into his road.Read MoreUK Parliament rejects Brexit bill timetable in blow for Boris JohnsonJohnson, having put the legislation on pause, now has just over a week to review his options. He must decide on how to proceed down a treacherous path, with enemies on all sides, if he's to deliver on his promise to get Brexit done by October 31. One possibility would be to take on Parliament's objections to the timetable. Many MPs were horrified at the government's plan to ram through in just three days the most important piece of legislation in British peacetime history. The government could explore ways in which they could be placated.Immediately after the second vote, opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn said that if Johnson wanted to work on a cross-party basis and develop to a new timetable for the process, he's all ears. That could be a route to a compromise, should Downing Street be minded to take it. JUST WATCHEDHere's what you need to know about BrexitReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHHere's what you need to know about Brexit 03:38In theory, if Johnson is willing to work with opposition parties, he could still get the legislation passed by October 31. But that looks like very wishful thinking -- the timetable is still very tight, and there remains some considerable opposition in parliament to his deal. Just because lawmakers voted for it at this early stage, doesn't mean they would approve it at the final hurdle. Then there's the question of the EU response. If European leaders aren't convinced that Johnson can get a deal through all of its parliamentary stages by October 31, they must make a decision: Grant the UK a Brexit extension so it can get its house in order, or let the deadline expire and allow the UK fall out with no formal deal. Donald Tusk, President of the EU Council, said on Tuesday evening that he would recommend member states approve the extension that Johnson was forced by law to request at the weekend. Tusk even suggested the decision could be taken by letter, without the need for a formal summit, making the process a lot quicker. There were signs that not all member states would acquiesce. French diplomatic sources are already sounding alarm bells. "At the end of the week we will see if a purely technical extension of a few days is necessary, so that the British Parliament can finish this parliamentary procedure," once French diplomat said. "But outside these circumstances, an extension intended to buy time or to discuss the agreement again is excluded."If that extension is granted, then Johnson has two options. He can try to push ahead with passing his deal through parliament on a slightly elongated timetable, knowing that he has the safety net of extra time from the EU. Or he could decide that blowing through the October 31 deadline -- which he once suggested would be worse than being dead in a ditch -- is not a price worth paying. In that scenario, he would give up on the legislation completely and seek a general election instead. Boris Johnson's Brexit bill passes Parliament but lawmakers reject timetableBoth options carry risk. If he takes the route of parliamentary compromise, that might cement in the eyes of the public Johnson as a man doing everything possible to deliver on his promise. If he pulls it off and somehow gets the deal through by the end of the month, then he can start doing cartwheels around Westminster and prepare for an election that most pundits agree he'd win. If he fails, he risks looking like a failure, as the deadline expires and the UK drifts into the third Brexit extension.If he opts for to go for an election straight away, it would be an immediate and stark admission that Brexit isn't going to happen by October, breaking that solemn promise to the people. But he could still legitimately blame it on his opponents. And of course, whatever the polls say now, there's no guarantee that he would win it.The patience of the British public would be sorely tested, and there's no predicting how they would react.It's going to be a very tense few days in Brexit Britain. Only a fool would try and accurately predict what will actually happen. Just like a bag of Halloween treats, that October 31 deadline could be gone in a flash.
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More than a hundred banks and financial institutions across the world have been infected with a dangerous sophisticated, memory-based malware that's almost undetectable, researchers warned.
Newly published report by the Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab indicates that hackers are targeting banks, telecommunication companies, and government organizations in 40 countries, including the US, South America, Europe and Africa, with Fileless malware that resides solely in the memory of the compromised computers.
Fileless malware was first discovered by the same security firm in 2014, has never been mainstream until now.
Fileless malware is a piece of nasty software that does not copy any files or folder to the hard drive in order to get executed. Instead, payloads are directly injected into the memory of running processes, and the malware executes in the system's RAM.
Since the malware runs in the memory, the memory acquisition becomes useless once the system gets rebooted, making it difficult for digital forensic experts to find the traces of the malware.
The attack was initially discovered by a bank's security team after they found a copy of Meterpreter — an in-memory component of Metasploit — inside the physical memory of a Microsoft domain controller.
After conducting a forensic analysis, Kaspersky researchers found that the attackers leveraged Windows PowerShell to load the Meterpreter code directly into memory rather than writing it to the disk.
The cyber crooks also used Microsoft's NETSH networking tool to set up a proxy tunnel for communicating with the command and control (C&C) server and remotely controlling the infected host.
They also stashed the PowerShell commands into the Windows registry in an effort to reduce nearly all traces of the attacks left in logs or hard drive after a reboot of the device, making detection and forensic analysis difficult.
The ultimate goal of the attackers was apparently aimed at compromising computers that control ATMs so that they could steal money.
Kaspersky Lab researchers plan to reveal more details in April about the attack, which is occurring on an industrial scale worldwide.
The attack has already hit more than 140 enterprise networks in business sectors, with most victims located in the US, France, Ecuador, Kenya, the UK, and Russia. And since the threat is so hard to spot, the actual number is likely much higher.
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This story was excerpted from the November 17 edition of CNN's Meanwhile in America, the daily email about US politics for global readers. Click here to read past editions and subscribe. (CNN)The Olympics are about a lot more than sports. Each Games is a five-ring circus of politics, money, big business, nationalism and great power diplomatic signaling that puts the prestige of leaders who fought to host them on the line. So reports that the US may mount a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics in February suggest geopolitical jousting that dwarfs the bobsled, ice dancing and alpine skiing competitions. The Beijing Summer Games in 2008 heralded China's emergence as a developing force. Next year's Winter Games will be a platform from which to announce its arrival as a global power. But US President Joe Biden is under pressure from human rights campaigners and members of Congress to skip the Games and pull the entire official US diplomatic delegation, because of Beijing's repression of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that the US was also discussing what to do with its allies, hinting at an even broader front. Such a diplomatic boycott would deprive President Xi Jinping of some of the glory of hosting the world's top leaders at a glittering gathering as he piles up domestic power. A diplomatic boycott would also have the advantage of making a point without harming athletes. A generation of competitors on both sides of the globe remember the full US sporting boycott of the Moscow Summer Games in 1980 and the tit-for-tat no-show by the eastern bloc at Los Angeles in 1984 as tragedies. Read MoreIn 2008, then-President George W. Bush agonized before accepting then-President Hu Jintao's invitation to attend the opening ceremony of the Summer Games amid calls for a boycott over Chinese repression in Tibet and its support for Sudan amid atrocities in Darfur. At that point, the US was still trying to balance criticism of China with hopes of positively influencing its behavior. This time, relations are at their lowest ebb since the US and China established diplomatic relations in 1978. Attending the Games did not come up between Biden and Xi during their marathon conversation on Monday, according to US officials -- but it would be a real surprise if Biden ends up making the trip across the Pacific.
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A newly discovered unpatched attacking method that exploits a built-in feature of Microsoft Office is currently being used in various widespread malware attack campaigns.
Last week we reported how hackers could leveraging an old Microsoft Office feature called Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE), to perform malicious code execution on the targeted device without requiring Macros enabled or memory corruption.
DDE protocol is one of the several methods that Microsoft uses to allow two running applications to share the same data.
The protocol is being used by thousands of apps, including MS Excel, MS Word, Quattro Pro, and Visual Basic for one-time data transfers and for continuous exchanges for sending updates to one another.
The DDE exploitation technique displays no "security" warnings to victims, except asking them if they want to execute the application specified in the command—although this popup alert could also be eliminated "with proper syntax modification."
Soon after the details of DDE attack technique went public, Cisco's Talos threat research group published a report about an attack campaign actively exploiting this attack technique in the wild to target several organisations with a fileless remote access trojan (RAT) called DNSMessenger.
Necurs Botnet Using DDE Attack to Spread Locky Ransomware
Now, hackers have been found using the Necurs Botnet—malware that currently controls over 6 million infected computers worldwide and sends millions of emails—to distribute Locky ransomware and TrickBot banking trojan using Word documents that leverage the newly discovered DDE attack technique, reported SANS ISC.
Locky ransomware hackers previously relied on macros-based booby-trapped MS Office documents, but now they have updated the Nercus Botnet to deliver malware via the DDE exploit and gain an ability to take screenshots of the desktops of victims.
"What's interesting about this new wave is that the downloader now contains new functionality to gather telemetry from victims," Symantec said in a blog post.
"It can take screen grabs and send them back to a remote server. There's also an error-reporting capability that will send back details of any errors that the downloader encounters when it tries to carry out its activities."
Hancitor Malware Using DDE Attack
Another separate malware spam campaign discovered by security researchers has also been found distributing Hancitor malware (also known as Chanitor and Tordal) using Microsoft Office DDE exploit.
Hancitor is a downloader that installs malicious payloads like Banking Trojans, data theft malware and Ransomware on infected machines and is usually delivered as a macro-enabled MS Office document in phishing emails.
How to Protect Yourself From Word DDE Attacks?
Since DDE is a Microsoft's legitimate feature, most antivirus solutions do not flag any warning or block MS Office documents with DDE fields, neither the tech company has any plans of issuing a patch that would remove its functionality.
So, you can protect yourself and your organisation from such attacks by disabling the "update automatic links at open" option in the MS Office programs.
To do so, Open Word → Select File → Options → Advanced and scroll down to General and then uncheck "Update Automatic links at Open."
However, the best way to protect yourself from such attacks is always to be suspicious of any uninvited document sent via an email and never click on links inside those documents unless adequately verifying the source.
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Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a critical vulnerability in widely used SQLite database software that exposes billions of deployments to hackers.
Dubbed as 'Magellan' by Tencent's Blade security team, the newly discovered SQLite flaw could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary or malicious code on affected devices, leak program memory or crash applications.
SQLite is a lightweight, widely used disk-based relational database management system that requires minimal support from operating systems or external libraries, and hence compatible with almost every device, platform, and programming language.
SQLite is the most widely deployed database engine in the world today, which is being used by millions of applications with literally billions of deployments, including IoT devices, macOS and Windows apps, including major web browsers, such as Adobe software, Skype and more.
Since Chromium-based web browsers—including Google Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, and Brave—also support SQLite through the deprecated Web SQL database API, a remote attacker can easily target users of affected browsers just by convincing them into visiting a specially crafted web-page.
"After testing Chromium was also affected by this vulnerability, Google has confirmed and fixed this vulnerability," the researchers said in a blog post.
SQLite has released updated version 3.26.0 of its software to address the issue after receiving responsible disclosure from the researchers.
Google has also released Chromium version 71.0.3578.80 to patch the issue and pushed the patched version to the latest version of Google Chrome and Brave web-browsers.
Tencent researchers said they successfully build a proof-of-concept exploit using the Magellan vulnerability and successfully tested their exploit against Google Home.
Since most applications can't be patched anytime sooner, researchers have decided not to disclose technical details and proof-of-concept exploit code to the public.
"We will not disclose any details of the vulnerability at this time, and we are pushing other vendors to fix this vulnerability as soon as possible," the researchers said.
Since SQLite is used by everybody including Adobe, Apple, Dropbox, Firefox, Android, Chrome, Microsoft and a bunch of other software, the Magellan vulnerability is a noteworthy issue, even if it's not yet been exploited in the wild.
Users and administrators are highly recommended to update their systems and affected software versions to the latest release as soon as they become available.
Stay tuned for more information.
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High-tech Sniper Rifles can be remotely hacked to shoot the wrong target – Something really scary and unpredictable.
Yes, Hackers can remotely gain access to the $13,000 TrackingPoint sniper rifles that run Linux and Android operating system and have Wi-Fi connections. So then they can either disable the gun or choose a wrong target.
A married pair of security researchers have proved that anything connected to the Internet can ultimately be hacked, whether computer systems, cars or… GUNS.
According to the duo, the Tracking Point's self-aiming rifle sights, better known as the ShotView targeting system, is vulnerable to WiFi-based attacks that could allow your enemy to redirect bullets to new targets of their choice.
Hacking $13,000 Self-aiming Rifles to Shoot wrong target
Runa Sandvik and her husband Michael Auger are planning to present their findings on exploiting two of the $13,000 self-aiming rifles at the Black Hat hacking conference.
In the hack, the duo demonstrates how it is possible to:
Brick the rifle, making its computer-based targeting permanently unusable
Gain root access to the targeting system to make permanent changes to the firearm
Sandvik and Auger successfully broke into the Wi-Fi-connected rifle and disabled it and, even worse, changed the weapon's target.
Slight Limitations
However, there are two minor holdbacks:
A networked attack on the rifle can not make the weapon fire because the rifle pin is controlled by a mechanical system that actually requires a finger on the trigger.
There are only around 1,000 vulnerable rifles in customers' hands.
Thankfully TrackingPoint rifles are not designed to fire automatically.
You can also watch the video demonstration in which the researchers were able to dial in changes to the scope's targeting system so accurately that they could cause a Tracking Point TP750 sniper rifle's bullet to hit straight to their own bullseye instead of the original target.
"You can make it lie constantly to the user so they'll always miss their shot," Sandvik told Wired while demonstrating the attack.
Texas-based TrackingPoint is known for developing high-tech self-aiming rifles to improve shooters' productivity, helping even users with no experience avoid overshoots.
Founder John McHale said the company is collaborating with Sandvik and Auger to develop a software update to patch the vulnerability.
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(CNN)Ten people were injured when a roller coaster car derailed at a theme park in Scotland on Sunday afternoon. Witnesses described chaotic scenes as staff and visitors to M&D's amusement park in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, rushed to help those injured.Some of the coaster's wheels lie on the ground after the crash.In a post on Facebook, Lanarkshire Police said two adults and eight children were being treated at local hospitals. "The details of their injuries will be provided in due course," police said.The incident occurred on the "Tsunami" roller coaster when five gondolas detached from their rails, collided with the ride's main structure and struck the ground, police said. Nine passengers were on the ride, police said.Read MoreThe Tsunami can travel at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour, according to the park's website. Children under 10 are not permitted to ride, the park says. Emergency services are responding to an ongoing incident at M&Ds theme park in Motherwell and further updates will be given in due course.— Police Scotland (@policescotland) June 26, 2016
James Millerick from Glasgow, who said he had ridden the Tsunami just a few minutes before the derailment, described hearing a crash and screams as he waited in line for another ride with his partner. Millerick said he was shaken after witnessing a number of people trapped in the derailed car after the crash. Absolutely horrified by a roller coaster crash at M and D's.All are safe now ! First aiders did very well until emergency services arrived.— James Millerick (@James_Millerick) June 26, 2016
In shock at what I've just witnessed in M&Ds. Hope everyone is safe💕 pic.twitter.com/lWdOqJrEyB— DMI (@_demicampbell) June 26, 2016
In a statement, M&D's said the park would be closed until further notice due to a "serious incident." "Our thoughts are with the families of those injured," said Chief Inspector David Bruce of the Lanarkshire Police. A investigation is now underway, he said.
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(CNN)A striking and unprecedented image of a solar eruption has been captured by NASA and the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft.It's the largest solar prominence ever observed in a single image together with the full disc of the sun, ESA said in a statement released Friday. A year after landing on Mars, Perseverance rover sets sights on intriguing new targetThe solar eruption took place on February 15 and extended millions of miles into space. The image was taken by the Full Sun Imager of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager onboard the Solar Orbiter. The Full Sun Imager is designed to capture the full solar disc even during close passages of the sun. "Right now, there is still a lot of 'viewing margin' around the disc, enabling stunning detail to be captured by FSI out to about 3.5 million kilometres, equivalent to five times the radius of the Sun," ESA said. "At closest approach on 26 March, which will see the spacecraft pass within about 0.3 times the Sun-Earth distance, the Sun will fill a much larger portion of the telescope's field of view." Read MoreESA described solar prominences as "large structures of tangled magnetic field lines that keep dense concentrations of solar plasma suspended above the Sun's surface, sometimes taking the form of arching loops." Webb telescope's first test images include an unexpected 'selfie'Solar prominences are often associated with coronal mass ejections, a hugely energetic explosion of light, solar material and energy from the Sun. If these ejections are directed toward Earth, they can disrupt technology reliant on satellites. The ejections also cause the northern lights. However, in this instance, the coronal mass ejection was traveling away from us. The ESA said the imagery would allow space experts to understand for the first time how events like these connect to the solar disc.The sun is getting more active. It started a new 11-year cycle in 2019, and that period's solar maximum -- when activity peaks -- is predicted to happen about halfway through 2025.It's important to understand the solar cycle because space weather caused by the sun -- eruptions like solar flares and coronal mass ejection events -- can impact the power grid, satellites, GPS, airlines, rockets and astronauts in space. Other space telescopes, such as the ESA/NASA SOHO satellite, frequently capture solar activity but are unable to produce detailed images of the sun's corona or outer most layer, which is regarded as very difficult to study. Next week, the Solar Orbiter and NASA's Parker Solar Probe will conduct joint observations as Parker makes its next close pass by the sun. Last year, the Parker spacecraft became the first to "touch the sun." It successfully flew through the sun's corona, or upper atmosphere, to sample particles and our star's magnetic fields.
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Story highlightsSleep scientists help F1 drivers with jet lagF1 teams have five races in six weeksProfessor Steven Lockley also advises NASA (CNN)Formula One drivers are famed for their jet-set lifestyles, but all that traveling around can catch up with them if they're not careful.The F1 paddock cover around 100,000 miles over the course of the season and how a driver prepares for all that time on the road can play a crucial role in the outcome of races on the track.Follow @cnnsport
This weekend's Singapore Grand Prix signals the start of a particularly grueling period for the teams with five grands prix in six weeks -- three in Asia followed by two races in North America with the US Grand Prix taking place on October 22 before the F1 circus travels to Mexico a week later. In a bid to help their drivers crash out in bed rather than in a race teams turn to sleep scientists like Steven Lockley who ensure their stars are at their mental peak of their powers when the lights go out. F1 drivers are looking for every edge, every advantage, and sleep is one of the tools they can useSteven Lockley, Harvard Medical School"If you are healthy you can't really get too much sleep and the more you get the better you perform -- it's been pretty well proven," Lockley, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told CNN's The Circuit. Read More"F1 drivers are looking for every edge, every advantage and sleep is one of the tools they can use to make sure they are at optimal performance."READ: Top tips to improve your slumberCircadian clockIn Singapore, keeping jet lag at bay isn't too problematic -- the evening race allows drivers to stick to European time. "They end up going to bed at 3-4 a.m. Singapore time and get up about noon there," Lockley says. But for the races that follow in Malaysia and Japan, longer, more complex plans are required."We start shifting them to the new time zone before they leave, so they get a head start and then managing their light/dark cycles which is a key synchronizer of circadian clock," Lockley added."So when to see light but also when to avoid light -- wearing sunglasses becomes an important component."Sunglasses: "Sometimes it's the plan, sometimes it's for style," says sleep expert Steven Lockley."We also use melatonin which is good at helping you shift your clock and we manage caffeine use so it's being used optimally to help alertness, but minimizing the negative impacts on sleep."READ: Bottas signs 2018 Mercedes dealLockley provides his expertise to F1 through Hintsa Performance, a consultancy that work with several drivers on the grid, tending to all aspects of their health, from mental and physical well being to nutrition and recovery. Their team of coaches apply the philosophy of its late founder, and former McLaren team doctor, Aki Hintsa, who was a highly respected and much-loved figure in the F1 paddock. I just had that little bit extra capacity and brain power and energy left for the crucial momentsNico Rosberg, 2016 F1 world championLewis Hamilton, who worked with Hintsa at McLaren, has spoken glowingly about the Finn's positive influence. Reigning world champion Nico Rosberg also credits Lockley's guidance with helping him clinch the 2016 title. "I always struggled so much in all the years with sleeping when I got to different time zones ... it took so much energy from me," Rosberg explained earlier this year. But by following Lockley's advice of making small adjustments ahead of races, the German's fortunes were transformed. "I just had that little bit extra capacity and brain power, you know, and energy left for the crucial moments. Anything extra you can bring to the table is going to help you in that moment and that's part of why I won the world championship."Speedsters and spacemenLockley has spent almost 25 years studying sleep and along with F1's elite counts astronauts among his clients. "Through our work, NASA are putting new multi LED lights on the International Space Station so they can change the intensity and the color of the light to help with alertness when we want them to be performing well or to calm the brain before sleep."Steven Lockley is helping astronauts work and rest better on the International Space Station.Other more down-to-earth professions are also beginning to benefit from his expertise -- notably police, firefighters, doctors and nurses whose body clocks are routinely under siege from night shifts and long working hours.There is no one walking around that does well after five or six hours of sleepSteven Lockley, Harvard Medical SchoolScientists already know a lot about these "all-nighters," as Lockley calls them, but the effects of chronic sleep loss are only just starting to be better understood. "We didn't realize until recently that this chronic sleep loss builds up pretty quickly and that's a problem for most of us -- that, and the impacts on long-term health, increasing the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer, is key," Lockley said."You can build up quite quickly what's termed as a chronic sleep debt. Even within a couple of weeks if you're only sleeping six hours a night you can be as bad as someone who has been awake for 24 hours straight.READ/WATCH: Vettel - 'Hunger to win greater than ever'"We know that even eight hours a night isn't enough to maintain performance day-to-day ... there is no one walking around that does well after five or six hours of sleep, even though they might claim to. When you measure them objectively you find that they are still performing poorly."Fast asleepWith Lockley's sleep plans to hand, few drivers will have any problem getting their eight hours in this weekend. Some spend even longer in bed -- Force India's rising star Esteban Ocon says he sleeps for 12 hours! "What I have noticed, even before I was involved, is that sleep is being prioritized -- the drivers sleep a long time," Lockley said. "They know that they need to sleep well ... the drivers are wanting to sleep eight, nine, 10 hours a night because they know it makes such a big difference. They are, if you like, good advocates for sleep. They realize its importance and prioritize it in their planning." Planning is the key word here, whether you're an F1 driver, an astronaut or even a holidaymaker heading off on a long-haul flight. "The direction of travel -- and how well you adapt -- depends on your internal clock. Three quarters of us have a clock longer than 24 hours which means we find it easier traveling west, whereas a quarter of people actually find it easier to travel east," says Lockley, whose jet lag advice will shortly be available on an app called Timeshifter. Visit CNN.com/motorsport for more news and features"Knowing whether you are a morning type of an evening type is a good start. Think about your direction of travel and plan your trip accordingly. Start to shift before you go. If you're going west, go to bed a bit later for a couple of days before. If you're going east go to bed earlier." Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen gets some shut-eye at Spa-Francorchamps.But what about Lockley? Does he ever suffer from jet lag?"The jet-lag guy can't have jet lag so I plan and follow the program when I travel. My wife and I traveled to Australia for the first time about 10 years ago and that was the first time she really believed I knew what I was talking about!" he says."That was the proof of the pudding." The 2017 Singapore Grand Prix takes place on Sunday September 17
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(CNN)The last time Tottenham Hotspur won a major trophy, George W. Bush was still president, Apple had only released the first iPhone and "Low" by Flo Rida was top of the Billboard charts.Being a Spurs fan has rarely been easy over the years, but this is by some distance the longest trophy drought the club has endured since the Second World War. For a club of Tottenham's size and considerable financial power, 13 years is far too long a wait for silverware.Despite the vast improvement to the playing squad and upturn in results brought to the club by Mauricio Pochettino, the Argentine manager was never able to get Tottenham over the hump.With Pochettino sacked after months of poor performances following the heartbreaking Champions League final defeat to Liverpool in June 2019, Jose Mourinho was hired with the sole aim of guiding Tottenham to a first trophy since the League Cup in 2008.The Portuguese coach is now one match away from achieving that objective after goals from Moussa Sissoko and Son Heung-Min gave Spurs a 2-0 win over Championship side Brentford in Tuesday's League Cup semifinal.Read MoreMany clubs, managers and supporters have turned their noses up at the League Cup in its many guises over the years -- currently called the Carabao Cup due to sponsorship -- but it's a competition Mourinho has always taken seriously.READ: Jose Mourinho is the star of the show in new behind the scenes documentary at TottenhamJose Mourinho celebrates with Tottenham's two goalscorers at the final whistle.No manager has won this trophy on more occasions and Mourinho would surpass the record of four League Cup wins he currently holds with Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough with a victory against either Manchester City or Manchester United."I came to England in 2004 and I remember in that period I had to learn the meaning of the cups here and took it seriously," Mourinho told reporters after the game. "I think if there is any secret, it is to take it seriously. It's to respect what English football is, what English clubs are, what English lower divisions are and try not to be surprised in any one of the games with teams with smaller quality and when you have a big game like we had with Chelsea [in round four], go seriously and with ambitions. Apart from that, there is no other secret.""What I sense in the team is desire. I'm not saying winning mentality, I'm not saying that we are this or that, I just say that we are honest people. The guys since the first game against Chelsea, the second game against Stoke, the guys took it seriously and that's what I hope to do again on Sunday in Crosby against Marine [in the FA Cup]."With the League Cup final usually taking place in February, Mourinho has previously mentioned the boost an early cup victory can have for the remainder of the season -- though this year, authorities have moved the final back to April in the hope that fans might be able to attend following the current second wave of Covid-19 cases in England.Tottenham has the chance to win a first major trophy since 2008.However, the high of reaching a major final will no doubt still be felt within the squad and Mourinho was keen to emphasize this is a desirable trophy to win."If you see the winners, you realize that the big clubs want to win it," he said. "Who was the last winner apart from the normal top six? Swansea [in 2013]? I don't know because I'm not very good with stats, but I remember Man City winning a lot of times, I remember Chelsea winning a lot of times, I remember United winning a few times.""I remember Liverpool in finals, I don't know if they won it recently, Arsenal. So the big clubs, they care about it, no doubt and the final says a lot: Tottenham against Manchester United or Tottenham against Manchester City."While victory against either of those clubs in April's final would undoubtedly mean Tottenham has finally turned the corner, it would by no means be the extent of Mourinho's ambitions in north London.
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(CNN)His side recovered from a two-goal deficit to win its Champions League tie, but new Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho saved his most effusive praise for a ball boy.The Portuguese boss, making his home debut after replacing Mauricio Pochettino last week, saw Spurs fall 2-0 behind early on before mounting a stunning comeback to beat Greek side Olympiakos 4-2 in north London.Goal - KANEAssist - BALL BOYQuick thinking helped to get Spurs level against Olympiacos 🧠👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/FKq9rNdQfS— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) November 26, 2019 England midfielder Dele Alli's goal in the dying stages of the first-half gave Tottenham hope, but the game-changing moment came on the 50th minute.After the ball left the field of play, the quick-thinking ball boy quickly passed it back to Spurs defender Serge Aurier, whose throw-in found Lucas Moura. The Brazilian duly crossed for Harry Kane to tap in the equalizer. In the celebrations, Mourinho ran over to thank the ball boy, and following the win, the Portuguese manager praised his "brilliant" work. Read More"I love intelligent ball boys like I was. I was a brilliant ball boy as a kid," Mourinho told BT Sport. "And this kid today was brilliant. He reads the game, understands the game and made an important assist."He's not there just to look to the stands, lights or scarves. He's living the game and playing it very well.READ: Robert Lewandowski makes Champions League history as Bayern Munich hammers Red StarJose Mourinho makes sure the ball boy gets the respect he deserves for the assist 👏👏👏Class. pic.twitter.com/4zWt0Jxwco— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) November 26, 2019 Mourinho told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I tried to invite him into the dressing room after the game to celebrate with the team, but he'd slipped away."Spurs went ahead through Aurier before Kane added the gloss with a late headed goal. Mourinho also offered an apology to Spurs midfielder Eric Dier after substituting him on 29 minutes. With his side trailing, Mourinho replaced Dier with the more attacking Christian Eriksen. "The most difficult moment of the game for me was not when Olympiakos scored their first or second goal. It was when I made the change in the first half," he said."I hurt the player but hurt myself. He's a very intelligent boy who has a good understanding of what a team is. It wasn't about his performance, it was about what the team needed."I felt one midfield player was enough. We needed a second creative player who could play with Alli in an open triangle and not a closed triangle with Dier and Harry Winks. I apologized to him, although he knows I did it for the team. Christian gave us what we needed."Jose Mourinho pats Eric Dier as he is substituted off. Kane's double took him to 20 Champions League goals in 24 games. In doing so, he broke the record for the fewest games to score 20 Champions League goals. Visit CNN.com/sport for more news, features, and videosThe previous record was held by Italy legend Alessandro del Piero, who scored 20 goals in 26 games for Juventus.
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Story highlightsSandra Guzman: Grief over death of telenovela star Lorena Rojas can help Americans understand something about Latino cultureHugely popular, novelas are integral to modern Latino tradition, a shared escape and a way to stay connected with one another, she saysSandra Guzman is an award-winning journalist, blogger, media consultant and author of "The New Latina's Bible: The Modern Latina's Guide to Love, Spirituality, Family & La Vida." Find her at www.sandraguzman.com. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author. (CNN)The death of beloved Mexican soap opera star Lorena Rojas this week in Miami drew a deluge of heartfelt condolences -- from Los Angeles to San Juan, from Dallas to Buenos Aires. That hordes of Latinas and Latin Americans are mourning the 44-year-old actress, who starred in more than a dozen telenovelas, is no surprise to anyone who understands the deep hold that these soap operas have on the imagination of Latino culture. Sandra GuzmanIn fact, for Americans to fully grasp the culture of the more than 51 million Latinos who live in the U.S., as well as their Spanish-speaking brethren south of the border and in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean islands, they would do well to understand the importance of the telenovela. Telenovelas are such an integral part of Latino tradition, in the U.S. and in the Spanish-speaking world, that soap stars like Rojas become part a household's extended family. Fans follow the stars' lives on and off the screen and live vicariously through both their fictional characters and real lives. They are something like the Kardashians of Latino culture.What's more, social media has given fans access to their beloved celebrities 24-7, which may explain the outpouring of grief when news broke that Rojas succumbed to breast cancer that had spread to her liver. It was, after all, like losing a family member. Read MoreSince her debut in the Mexican soap "Alcanzar una Estrella," where she played opposite her biological sister, Mayra, Rojas had been a beloved member of Mexican households. Among the soaps she went on to star in were the sequel, "Alcanzar una Estrella II," "Cancion de Amor," "Rosario," "Pecados Ajenos," and her latest, filmed in Miami, where she lived, the Venezuelan series "Demente Criminal." Rojas, however, was best known for her role as Isabel in the deliciously sexy soap "El Cuerpo del Deseo." The story revolved around a young woman who falls in love with a 67-year old man, played by the legendary Mexican-Dominican actor Andres Garcia. In the show, he dies and comes back to life as a young stud, Mario Cimarro.JUST WATCHEDHollywood goes telenovelaReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHHollywood goes telenovela 02:48In the nightly ritual of telenovela watching for millions of Latinas, such fantasy plots are exactly the point.After a hard day's work, they are the balm or the dirty martini -- the inexpensive reward and gift -- that Hispanic women offer themselves. One reason why? For immigrants, many of them laboring in a new land -- cleaning, cooking for others, slaughtering cows in meat houses, running their own businesses, for instance -- the novelas represent a shared escape, a way to stay connected with loved ones back home and to each other, here in America. They run on fast-paced cycles and feature a roller coaster of emotions and plot twists that fans savor until it all ends a few months later. One veteran actress described it to a reporter this way: "... Cry. In this one you don't cry. Now you are laughing. Now you are happy. Getting engaged. They're killing you. You are sick." The popularity of novelas helped Univision edge out NBC in several sweeps months, making the Spanish-language network the No. 4 network among adults 18-49. JUST WATCHEDHigh drama is big business in ColombiaReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHHigh drama is big business in Colombia 03:29Audience share is a testament of the growth of the Latino population in the U.S., but it could also indicate a dearth of shows targeting this demographic in English-language networks. Indeed, while the American soap opera genre has continued to decline in viewership, Latino soaps have surged, partly because they have kept up with the times. While 30 years ago most story lines featured sappy Cinderella-like plots -- poor girl meets rich guy, falls in love and, after a series of tragedies, ends up with her prince -- they have evolved. Plots, twists and characters wink to issues of the day, and in many ways the shows serve as surrogate teachers, where taboos are explored and often debunked. Characters are getting divorces, remarrying, having premarital sex, cheating, having abortions, killing and getting killed. They are not just the good girls anymore -- they are naughty, and they're winning, too. But perhaps the most delightful difference between American soaps and Spanish novelas is not just how over the top, fashionable and gorgeous the stars are; it is also that when they end after several months, evil is taken out, good always wins, and there is, for the most part, a happy ending. A refreshing way to live in a country where people want to deport you and your family!In some ways, Rojas was a standard bearer for the telenovela. She may not have had a happy ending the way many of her on-screen characters did, but she lived her life like many of the women she played on the small screen: valiantly fighting cancer, divorcing, falling in love again and adopting a baby girl. She had more than a quarter-million Twitter followers and celebrated her 44th birthday with them in her final days. In her last tweet on February 10, she thanked her fans: "Gracias a todos por celebrar mi cumple conmigo." Read CNNOpinion's new Flipboard magazine.Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.
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(CNN)France completed a famous comeback against Belgium on Thursday, overcoming a two-goal deficit to win 3-2 and reach the final of the UEFA Nations League.Goals from Yannick Carrasco and Romelu Lukaku appeared to have put the hosts in total control after the first half but the current world champions fought back, with Kylian Mbappe at the heart of it. The French superstar provided the assist for Karim Benzema's goal which halved the deficit, before dispatching a wonderful penalty to equalize after 69 minutes.Mbappe had not scored in his last six internationals and had missed the decisive spotkick against Switzerland, which saw France knocked out of Euro 2020 earlier this year. With the scores tied, France started pushing for a winner but it was Belgium's Lukaku who thought he'd won it with three minutes remaining.Read MoreThe Chelsea striker steered Carrasco's cross past Hugo Lloris but his celebrations were cut short by VAR, which found Lukaku to be offside. After the late reprieve, France pushed again and there was still time for Paul Pogba to smash the crossbar with a wonderful freekick before Theo Hernandez struck the decisive blow. The full-back ran onto a low cross and arrowed a low drive past Thibaut Courtois in the 90th minute to seal the win. READ: Newcastle United's takeover by Saudi Arabian-backed consortium agreedTheo Hernandez scores the winner against Belgium in Turin, Italy.'This generation wants to bring silverware'The Nations League was set up to make international matches more exciting and the French celebrations at the final whistle suggests it's working. France will now face the impressive looking Spain in the final of the competition. "We were unlucky in the first half. We sat back a little too much," said France coach Didier Deschamps after the game. "They had a good period for 20 minutes but after that we were not in danger and had a lot of chances. "The result shows the character of the team. We were here to play the final and here we are." The result marked yet more disappointment for Belgium's supposed 'Golden Generation,' which once again missed out on a chance of winning a trophy. Despite being rated as the world's best team by FIFA, Roberto Martinez's side has struggled under the weight of expectation and is running out of time with this current crop of players. "It is the responsibility we feel to our fans and the way this generation wants to bring silverware in such a desperate manner," Martinez said after the match. "In the second half, we were a little too emotional -- maybe we were thinking a little too much about the final, about qualifying. We didn't do what we had to do. We let France come back".
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(CNN)Queen Elizabeth II has canceled a pre-Christmas family lunch as a precaution because of a surge in Covid-19 cases in the United Kingdom, a source at Buckingham Palace told CNN on Thursday.According to the source, the decision is a precautionary one as it is felt the lunch would put too many people's Christmas arrangements at risk if it went ahead.While there is "regret" that the lunch has been canceled, the source added, there is a belief it is "the right thing to do" for all concerned.The 95-year-old monarch usually hosts the annual event for her extended family in the lead up to Christmas at Buckingham Palace.Last year's gathering was also canceled because of the pandemic.Read MorePlans were believed to have been in place for the Christmas lunch at Windsor Castle next Tuesday, according to PA Media. UK scrambles for booster shots and tests amid fears of Omicron 'tidal wave'In previous years, the Queen has invited her wider family to join her at her London residence before departing to Sandringham in Norfolk, where she hosts immediate family over the festive period.The monarch's main residence these days is Windsor Castle, just outside of London.This year is the Queen's first Christmas since the death of her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, in April.The decision to cancel this year comes after strong warnings by England's chief medical officer about the spread of the Omicron variant, calling on people to be careful so that Christmas could be preserved.Professor Chris Whitty said people should "prioritise what matters to them" when considering attending parties and other events during the Christmas period.The Omicron coronavirus variant is spreading at a rate not seen with previous variants, according to World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.And officials in Britain say the country is facing a "tidal wave" of infections from Omicron. The strain has become dominant in London, outcompeting the previous Delta variant.On Monday, the UK reported its first death from the variant, and on Wednesday it reported 78,610 new cases of the coronavirus -- the highest number of daily cases since the pandemic began.The previous record of daily new infections was 68,053 on January 8.CNN has launched Royal News, a new weekly dispatch bringing you the inside track on the royal family, what they are up to in public and what's happening behind palace walls. Sign up here.
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Worlds first windows 8 Bootkit to be released at MalCon
It is amazing how fast security measures are bypassed by hackers. it seems Windows 8 is now Malconed! Peter Kleissner has created the world's first Windows 8 Bootkit which is planned to be released in India at the International Malware Conference MalCon.
An independent programmer and security analyst, peter was working for an anti-virus company from 2008 to 2009 and was speaker at the Black Hat and Hacking at Random technical security conferences. While his main operating fields are Windows security and analysis of new malware, his recent Important projects include the development of the Stoned Bootkit, a research project to subvert the Windows security model.
A bootkit is built upon the following broad parts:
Infector
Bootkit
Drivers
Plugins (the payload)
And as put by peter, those parts are easy to split up in a criminal organization: Teams A-D are writing on the different parts. If you are doing it right, Team D (the payload writers) need no internal knowledge of the bootkit! Peter's research website: https://www.stoned-vienna.com/
As per the MalCon website, peter's travel is still not confirmed citing VISA issues, however, there are chances that the presentation may be done over the video or a speaker may step in on behalf of peter and release it at MalCon.
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(CNN)The Cincinnati Reds Twitter account might have summarized the events of Tuesday night best: "There's a lotta stuff going on rn."There sure was, as that "stuff" included Reds outfielder Yasiel Puig being involved in a benches-clearing brawl mere minutes after news broke he was being traded.There's a lotta stuff going on rn— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 31, 2019 The Reds were hosting the Pittsburgh Pirates at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. The National League Central division teams already didn't like each other. Their rivalry goes back years, including a benches-clearing incident back on April 7 in Pittsburgh.Tempers would flare again, but first, a little after 10 p.m. ET on Tuesday, news of a blockbuster deal began to circulate. ESPN's Jeff Passan reported that Puig was getting traded to the Cleveland Indians for Cleveland right-hander Trevor Bauer as part of a three-team deal including the San Diego Padres.What we know about monster Indians-Reds-Padres three-way trade, per sources:Cincinnati gets: RHP Trevor BauerCleveland gets: OF Franmil Reyes, LHP Logan Allen, OF Yasiel Puig, 3B Victor Nova (per @AJCassavell)San Diego gets: OF Taylor TrammellLHP Scott Moss also involved.— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 31, 2019 It turns out Puig's final moments as a member of the Reds were quite eventful.Read MoreWith two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, a pitch from Pirates reliever Keone Kela sailed just over the head of Derek Dietrich. While it didn't hit him, it appeared to get the blood boiling. Reds first baseman Joey Votto shouted toward the Pittsburgh dugout between innings, and crew chief Larry Vanover warned both teams.In the ninth inning, Reds reliever Jared Hughes was ejected after hitting Starling Marte with a pitch, one he says "just slipped." Later that inning, amid the trade talk, Reds' pitcher Amir Garrett gave up a three-run homer. Afterward, he started chirping with the Pirates' bench.Things then got crazy.While Garrett was on the mound talking with coach Jeff Pickler, he sprinted toward the Pirates' dugout. Garrett threw a punch, taking on the entire Pittsburgh team himself. Chaos erupted, and the game was delayed as players spilled out of the dugouts.Amir Garrett went at the Pirates all alone, Yasiel Puig still came to his defense after being traded to Cleveland 🤭Madness in Cincinnati(via @FOXSportsOH)pic.twitter.com/vqhNq9S2Ww— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 31, 2019 Reds manager David Bell -- who had been ejected earlier in the game for arguing balls and strikes -- came back out and charged Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle.When it appeared things were starting to calm down, Puig -- with the report of the trade coming just minutes earlier -- kept it going."It's the best fight I've probably been in as a member of a team," Dietrich said, according to MLB.com. "I mean, I've seen trades happen. As far as it happened as the fight was going on, and I'm thinking like, 'Dude, what are the Indians thinking right now? What's going on? This is probably crazy that this is happening. He's getting traded.'"Overall, eight, including Bell, Garrett and Puig, were ejected Tuesday. The Pirates went on to win the game 11-4.Puig found out about the trade after his ejection, he said."I'm going to miss all my teammates here," Puig told reporters after the game.With trade reports swirling across the baseball world, Yasiel Puig reflects on what may have been his final night with the #Reds.#BornToBaseball pic.twitter.com/QJqeJqHiwh— FOX Sports Ohio (@FOXSportsOH) July 31, 2019 Garrett will accept any punishment MLB hands down, he said."I apologize for my actions, but in the heat of things, sometimes they get the best of you," Garrett said."At the end of the day, it's about protecting your teammates, protecting yourself."Frustrated that "nobody's protecting us," Amir Garrett describes how his emotions got the best of him.#BornToBaseball | #Reds pic.twitter.com/q2eIMJ7NXN— FOX Sports Ohio (@FOXSportsOH) July 31, 2019 After it was all over, the Reds posted a tweet saying to take a few deep breaths and to go get some ice cream.Tonight's game has ended... let's all just take a few deep breaths, look at this #BaseballSky and go get some ice cream or something. pic.twitter.com/AlTXHN2k1g— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 31, 2019 The teams have a short turnaround. They play each other again Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. ET.
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(CNN)Lawmakers are used to being interrupted when they're speaking on the floor of the parliament. But not by their own neck tie. Irish politician Aengus Ó Snodaigh was talking about the very important issue of workers exposed to asbestos when his festive neck tie started singing. Ó Snodaigh never missed a beat, continuing his speech as the tie played 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' and 'We Wish you a Merry Christmas.' Bewildered parliamentarians looked around to see where the music was coming from. The red tie, with Santa Claus shimmying down toward a house, has a new owner, but no word from Ó Snodaigh on why he gave it away.Read MoreDelighted with my new Christmas tie given to me by @aosnodaigh after making its Dail debut today. pic.twitter.com/lfgPMNbFRM— Jim Daly (@jimdalytd) December 15, 2016
"Delighted with my new Christmas tie given to me by @aosnodaigh after making its Dail debut today," posted fellow congressman,Jim Daly.
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The massive Equifax data breach that exposed highly sensitive data of as many as 143 million people was caused by exploiting a flaw in Apache Struts framework, which Apache patched over two months earlier of the security incident, Equifax has confirmed.
Credit rating agency Equifax is yet another example of the companies that became victims of massive cyber attacks due to not patching a critical vulnerability on time, for which patches were already issued by the respected companies.
Rated critical with a maximum 10.0 score, the Apache Struts2 vulnerability (CVE-2017-5638) exploited in the Equifax breach was disclosed and fixed by Apache on March 6 with the release of Apache Struts version 2.3.32 or 2.5.10.1.
This flaw is separate from CVE-2017-9805, another Apache Struts2 vulnerability that was patched earlier this month, which was a programming bug that manifests due to the way Struts REST plugin handles XML payloads while deserializing them, and was fixed in Struts version 2.5.13.
Right after the disclosure of the vulnerability, hackers started actively exploiting the flaw in the wild to install rogue applications on affected web servers after its proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code was uploaded to a Chinese site.
Despite patches were made available and proofs that the flaw was already under mass attack by hackers, Equifax failed to patched its Web applications against the flaw, which resulted in the breach of personal data of nearly half of the US population.
"Equifax has been intensely investigating the scope of the intrusion with the assistance of a leading, independent cyber security firm to determine what information was accessed and who have been impacted," the company officials wrote in an update on the website with a new "A Progress Update for Consumers."
"We know that criminals exploited a US website application vulnerability. The vulnerability was Apache Struts CVE-2017-5638. We continue to work with law enforcement as part of our criminal investigation, and have shared indicators of compromise with law enforcement."
CVE-2017-5638 was a then-zero-day vulnerability discovered in the popular Apache Struts web application framework by Cisco's Threat intelligence firm Talos, which observed a number of active attacks exploiting the flaw.
The issue was a remote code execution bug in the Jakarta Multipart parser of Apache Struts2 that could allow an attacker to execute malicious commands on the server when uploading files based on the parser.
At the time, Apache warned it was possible to perform a remote code execution attack with "a malicious Content-Type value," and if this value is not valid "an exception is thrown which is then used to display an error message to a user."
Also Read: Steps You Should Follow to Protect Yourself From Equifax Breach
For those unaware, Apache Struts is a free, open-source MVC framework for developing web applications in the Java programming language that run both front-end and back-end Web servers. The framework is used by 65n per cent of the Fortune 100 companies, including Lockheed Martin, Vodafone, Virgin Atlantic, and the IRS.
Since the hackers are actively exploiting the vulnerabilities in the Apache Struts web framework, Cisco has also initiated an investigation into its products against four newly discovered security vulnerabilities in Apache Struts2.
Other companies that also incorporate a version of Apache Struts 2 should also check their infrastructures against these vulnerabilities.
Equifax is currently offering free credit-monitoring and identity theft protection services for people who are affected by the massive data leak and has also enabled a security freeze for access to people's information.
While the company was initially criticised for generating a PIN that was simply a time and date stamp and easy-to-guess, the PIN generation method was later changed to randomly generate numbers.
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Really a bad weekend for Internet users. Three previously unknown critical zero-day vulnerabilities were revealed in Adobe's Flash Player over the weekend, thanks to Hacking team data Breach in which 400GB of internal data were leaked over the Internet.
Now, a new zero-day vulnerability has been reported in Oracle's Java that is reportedly being exploited in the wild by hackers to target government armed forces.
Cybercriminals are actively exploiting the Java-based zero-day flaw in an attempt to target U.S. defense agencies and members of NATO, Trend Micro security researchers warned in a blog post published Sunday.
According to researchers, the vulnerability affects only the latest version of Java, version 1.8.0.45. Though the older Java versions, Java 1.6 and 1.7 are not at all affected by this zero-day exploit.
So far, there isn't many details disclosed about the Java zero-day bug, considering a patch is yet to be released by Oracle. Although hackers are exploiting the zero-day flaw through drive-by-downloads attack.
Java Zero-Day Exploit in the Wild
Cyber criminals are using email messages to spread the malicious links hosting the Java zero-day exploit. Once clicked, the exploit code delivers a basic Trojan dropper, TROJ_DROPPR.CXC, that drops a payload called TSPY_FAKEMS.C into the "/login user" folder.
From login user folder, the malware executes an arbitrary code on the default Java settings thus compromising the security of the system.
Researchers have also unearthed an attack that leverages a three-year-old Windows vulnerability identified as CVE-2012-015, which Microsoft addressed in Bulletin MS12-027 three years ago.
Operation Pawn Storm APT Group Behind Java 0_day Exploit
The advanced persistent threat (APT) group Operation Pawn Storm are thought to be responsible for the Java zero-day exploit attacking the member of NATO and the US defense organization, but the security firm did not disclose the names where the attack was sighted.
Pawn Storm, a group of hackers specialized in cyber-espionage operation, has been active since 2007 and has also been known by different names, including APT28, Sednit, Fancy Bear, and Tsar Team.
Are You Vulnerable to New Java Zero-Day Exploit?
Oracle developers are working with Trend Micro to develop a fix to patch the issue. Until the patch is rolled out, users are advised to disable Java temporarily in their browser.
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(CNN)It's one of racing's holy grails, but the Melbourne Cup remains a mystical prize for British trainers. Plenty have tried, but it's as if there is a curse on the British in Australia's famous "race that stops a nation." Hoping to break that spell this year is Magic Circle, trained by Ian Williams.Follow @cnnsport
Another strong European contingent will descend on Melbourne for Tuesday's showpiece, but instead of the power houses of Godolphin or John Gosden, it is the less-heralded Williams who will be spearheading the British attack."It's a national event and is very exciting to be involved in," Williams told CNN Sport."To have a runner in such a race is a great privilege and to have a horse good enough to compete in such a race is an even bigger privilege.Read More"This year's event is probably one of the most competitive races the Melbourne Cup will ever have seen."And, of course, to win a race like this would be a huge accolade."Magic Circle, ridden by Fran Berry, won at Sandown Park in May.READ: Melbourne Cup memories: The legs that stopped a nationREAD: Wonder mare Winx romps to 29th straight win Williams trains not out of the Flat racing heartlands of Newmarket or Berkshire's Lambourn Valley, but in Alvechurch in the West Midlands.Not quite as racing-glamorous perhaps, but perfectly placed as he became the first trainer to win at every racecourse -- Flat or jump racing -- in the UK. Magic Circle just heard the Winx result. Credit where it's due what a world class performance. I wish I was still an entire. Do you think she would fancy me @MCYeeehaaa ?? pic.twitter.com/TB9o4BP7Cg— Ian Williams Racing (@ianwilliamsraci) October 27, 2018
Now Williams is attempting to make more history with Magic Circle, a six-year-old gelding he bought last October for owner Dr. Marwan Koukash, a former refugee from the Middle East who has built up a multimillion dollar business in England's northwest. Koukash has quite the celebration planned if his horse does win on Tuesday."I fit into my G-string now," Koukash told racing.com. "When we win nobody at Flemington is going to stop me providing the best or most colorful celebrations we've ever had or likely to have."I'm going to take off my clothes off, keep my tie and thong and shoes socks on. I know they're going to employ security, but I know how to evade them and I'm going to deliver."Magic Circle was already a six-time winner when he joined Williams' 100-strong string at Dominion Stables, and he has rewarded them further with stellar victories in the Chester Cup and a Group Three race at Sandown this season. A Group race win qualifies the horse for the Melbourne Cup, and from that moment on the famous race and its $2.8 million first prize became the focus for Williams. "I fit into my G-String now." Meet Magic Circle's owner @drmarwank. What a character! He's got something big planned for Tuesday... pic.twitter.com/1CQw8vrY00— Racing.com (@Racing) November 3, 2018
Magic Circle, who will be ridden by last year's winning jockey Corey Brown, is second favorite behind esteemed Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien's Yucatan for the two-mile (3,200 meter) marathon.Another Briton Charlie Appleby will pose a strong threat with Cross Counter for Godolphin.READ: 'Rock 'n'roll' Frankel scoring at studREAD: Equine stars challenging Federer and MessiCorey Brown rode Rekindling to victory in the Melbourne Cup at Flemington in 2017.Rekindling's trainer Joseph O'Brien (left) and jockey Corey Brown with the Melbourne Cup.'Carnival atmosphere'Williams is excited to be heading back for a second time after saddling a horse called Munsef to 12th in the race in 2009."It was one of the most amazing experiences to see a city the size of Melbourne literally grind to a halt for a horse race," he says. "The whole atmosphere and build up the week before the race was incredible. There's an electric atmosphere." On the day before the Melbourne Cup, tens of thousands line Swanston Street for a parade featuring cars carrying the jockeys, owners, trainers and connections of each of the 24 horses. "It has all the pomp and glory of a carnival and a carnival atmosphere," adds Williams. "It's one of the most exciting racing experiences you can be involved with."For European horses it's a serious undertaking, with two weeks in quarantine in Newmarket, followed by a 30-hour flight followed by a further two weeks quarantine at Werribee, a racecourse facility south west of Melbourne.Williams' traveling head lad Fabrice Smeulders is on hand to look after Magic Circle and keep his exercise ticking over.Melbourne's Spring Festival, which includes the Melbourne Cup, takes place at Flemington Racecourse.'Special horse'The journey in itself isn't the barrier to victory. After all, Joseph O'Brien, son of famed trainer Aidan, led an Irish one-two-three with Rekindling ahead of his father's Johannes Vermeer and Willie Mullins' Max Dynamite last year. Countryman Dermot Weld was the trailblazer, becoming the first non-Australian trainer to win the Cup in 1993 with Vintage Crop. He followed it up with Media Puzzle in 2002, while trainers from Germany, France and Japan have since clinched the Cup. European horses are regularly in the first three, but a victory still eludes O'Brien Sr. -- and the British.JUST WATCHEDThe Laytown RacesReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHThe Laytown Races 22:17"It's probably all about the horses," says Williams. "It takes a special horse to travel halfway around the world and run at its best and the English trainers haven't been as lucky as they could have been. Let's hope the luck is stacked up for one of them this year."For all his success traveling around the UK, Williams has to fight to get noticed among the bigger yards backed by major breeding operations such as Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's Godolphin or O'Brien's Coolmore Stud-backed Ballydoyle yard. "The big wins are always tough and it always boils down to the horses you're able to train," says Williams. "We maybe don't have the quality in general compared with the Maktoum horses or large owners, breeders or trainers but we're lucky with what we've got."The challenge is to keep training winners to keep the business flowing and to keep interest in your abilities and what you achieve as a trainer to encourage people to send you the better horses to do the job with." Whoever you are, the big prizes still mean a lot.Visit CNN.com/horseracing for more news, features and videos"The Melbourne Cup looks good on anyone's CV," says Williams.
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Story highlightsSebastian Vettel refuses to be distracted by thoughts of a fourth world titleThe Red Bull driver can wrap up the F1 championship at Sunday's Japanese GPVettel admits being booed by spectators throughout 2013 has been unpleasant The German lauds Suzuka Circuit as "one of the best tracks in the world"In typically collected fashion, Formula One's triple world champion Sebastian Vettel is taking each race as it comes.The unflappable Red Bull driver could become only the third driver to win four consecutive championships at this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix -- following in the footsteps of legendary drivers Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio.But like any great champion, the German is concentrating on the next grand prix.Read: Will F1 rule change end Vettel's dominance?"I'm not really focusing on the title, I'm trying to focus on the race," the 26-year-old, who is bidding for a fifth consecutive grand prix win at the Suzuka Circuit, told CNN in Yokohama. JUST WATCHEDWhat's behind Vettel's winning streak?ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHWhat's behind Vettel's winning streak? 02:59JUST WATCHEDNiki Lauda on F1's most dangerous yearsReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHNiki Lauda on F1's most dangerous years 02:27"We have a fantastic car, we are in great shape. We have to enjoy that and try our best."In order for Vettel to be crowned champion this weekend he must take the checkered flag and hope Ferrari's Fernando Alonso -- his nearest rival -- finishes no higher than ninth.Vettel recently suggested the superiority he enjoys over two-time world champion Alonso could be the reason why he has been booed on the podium at a number of races during the 2013 season.Read: Vettel lauds Red Bull's hard workHis popularity among fans was also dented earlier this year, when he ignored team orders to pass teammate Mark Webber and win March's Malaysian Grand Prix. Photos: Rush movie premiere Photos: Rush movie premiere 'Rush' the movie – A promotional image for the new Formula One film "Rush." Australian actor Chris Hemsworth plays the hedonistic James Hunt (left) while Daniel Bruhl plays his on-track nemesis Niki Lauda. Hide Caption 1 of 9 Photos: Rush movie premiere Bitter rivals, best of friends – Lauda (left) and Hunt seen here during their heyday in the 1970s. Their battle during the 1976 season is one of motorsport's most compelling dramas and has now been dramatized in "Rush" -- which was released this September. Hide Caption 2 of 9 Photos: Rush movie premiere The playboy – McLaren driver Hunt poses before the 1976 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. The Briton, who died of a heart attack in 1993 aged 45, was one of F1's great characters. He earned the nickname "Hunt the Shunt" for his habit of crashing into fellow competitors. Hide Caption 3 of 9 Photos: Rush movie premiere The perfectionist – By contrast, Austrian Lauda had a meticulous nature on and off the racetrack. The clash of personalities made for a compelling rivalry on and off the track during the 1976 season. Hide Caption 4 of 9 Photos: Rush movie premiere Lauda's crash at the Nurburgring at the beginning of August was the defining moment of the 1976 season. He suffered horrific burns and nearly lost his life but somehow found the courage to return to the track at Monza just 43 days later. The Ferrari driver conquered his fears and finished fourth to the amazement of everyone and the delight of the Tifosi. Hide Caption 5 of 9 Photos: Rush movie premiere 'Rush' world premiere, London: Niki Lauda – Lauda attends the world premiere of "Rush" at London's Leicester Square. "I was happy to stay alive," he says of the crash at the Nurburgring. "Normally you get killed in this kind of accident. Then it was clear that the challenge now is to see can you ever comeback ... So I fought my way back five weeks later in Monza. I only had Hunt as a target and make sure he will not win the championship."Hide Caption 6 of 9 Photos: Rush movie premiere Ron Howard – Lauda's return to the racetrack at Monza took "courage in its rawest form," says "Rush" director Ron Howard. "Both (Hunt and Lauda) were so truthful and so competitive. They just did things their way. And they would have scars of some of those decisions but they also got to own their own triumphs. You have to admire that. To me, that's the nobility of the story." Hide Caption 7 of 9 Photos: Rush movie premiere Jenson Button – Current McLaren driver Jenson Button also attended the London premiere. Lauda's comeback was "amazing," the 2009 world champion said. "It's obvious how tough he found it ... You are going to be (scared) after a massive, scary incident. Things have changed in terms of safety over the last 40 years but there are still dangers involved. We understand that as drivers. As soon as you step into the cockpit you know that."Hide Caption 8 of 9 Photos: Rush movie premiere Tom Hunt – Hunt's son Tom attended the premiere. He said it was "surreal" watching the film for the first time. "There were so many different emotions. For me, it's easy in one way because I know it's not Dad up there and it's a Hollywood film. Ron and his team have done a fantastic job." Hide Caption 9 of 9 Photos: Vettel's Singapore success Photos: Vettel's Singapore successVettel's Singapore success – Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel lifts the trophy under lights following his victory at the Singapore Grand Prix, F1's only night race.Hide Caption 1 of 5 Photos: Vettel's Singapore successVettel's Singapore success – The Red Bull driver won at the Marina Bay street circuit for the third year in a row, triumphing by more than half a minute despite his progress being slowed by the safety car halfway through the race.Hide Caption 2 of 5 Photos: Vettel's Singapore successVettel's Singapore success – Vettel started from pole position and briefly surrendered the lead to Mercedes' Nico Rosberg at the beginning of the race, but was untroubled after that. Hide Caption 3 of 5 Photos: Vettel's Singapore successVettel's Singapore success – Rosberg finished fourth after Vettel's teammate Mark Webber had to retire at the end due to technical problems. The Australian was given a ride back to the pits by Ferrari's second-placed Fernando Alonso. Hide Caption 4 of 5 Photos: Vettel's Singapore successVettel's Singapore success – Like Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen battled his way up from down the grid to take third place for Lotus, despite being troubled by back problems in Saturday's qualifying. Hide Caption 5 of 5While he admits that the booing is disappointing, Vettel attributes it to sporting rivalry rather than a particular dislike for him or his all-conquering Red Bull team."It's not nice for sure," he said. "But it's sport, there is no deep meaning behind it. People don't think. Somebody starts, some people join, others don't. It's not a big deal."Vettel will get a lift this weekend when he takes to the track at Suzuka, one of his favorite circuits on the F1 calendar."It's one of the best tracks in the world," he explained, "with all the fast corners, I always enjoy it a lot."
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On Wednesday, February 28, 2018, GitHub's code hosting website hit with the largest-ever distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that peaked at record 1.35 Tbps.
Interestingly, attackers did not use any botnet network, instead weaponized misconfigured Memcached servers to amplify the DDoS attack.
Earlier this week we published a report detailing how attackers could abuse Memcached, popular open-source and easily deployable distributed caching system, to launch over 51,000 times powerful DDoS attack than its original strength.
Dubbed Memcrashed, the amplification DDoS attack works by sending a forged request to the targeted Memcrashed server on port 11211 using a spoofed IP address that matches the victim's IP.
A few bytes of the request sent to the vulnerable server trigger tens of thousands of times bigger response against the targeted IP address.
"This attack was the largest attack seen to date by Akamai, more than twice the size of the September 2016 attacks that announced the Mirai botnet and possibly the largest DDoS attack publicly disclosed," said Akamai, a cloud computing company that helped Github to survive the attack.
In a post on its engineering blog, Github said, "The attack originated from over a thousand different autonomous systems (ASNs) across tens of thousands of unique endpoints. It was an amplification attack using the memcached-based approach described above that peaked at 1.35Tbps via 126.9 million packets per second."
Expect More Record-Breaking DDoS Attacks
Though amplification attacks are not new, this attack vector evolves thousands of misconfigured Memcached servers, many of which are still exposed on the Internet and could be exploited to launch potentially more massive attacks soon against other targets.
To prevent Memcached servers from being abused as reflectors, administrators should consider firewalling, blocking or rate-limiting UDP on source port 11211 or completely disable UDP support if not in use.
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Matrix—the organization behind an open source project that offers a protocol for secure and decentralized real-time communication—has suffered a massive cyber attack after unknown attackers gained access to the servers hosting its official website and data.
Hackers defaced Matrix's website, and also stole unencrypted private messages, password hashes, access tokens, as well as GPG keys the project maintainers used for signing packages.
The cyber attack eventually forced the organization to shut down its entire production infrastructure for several hours and log all users out of Matrix.org.
So, if you have an account with Matrix.org service and do not have backups of your encryption keys or were not using server-side encryption key backup, unfortunately, you will not be able to read your entire encrypted conversation history.
Matrix is an open source end-to-end encrypted messaging protocol that allows anyone to self-host a messaging service on their own servers, powering many instant messengers, VoIP, WebRTC, bots and IoT communication.
Vulnerable Jenkins Allowed Attackers to Access Server
According to a press release published today by Matrix Project, unknown attackers exploited a sandbox bypass vulnerability in its production infrastructure on 4th April that was running on an outdated, vulnerable version of Jenkins automation server.
The Jenkins flaw allowed attackers to steal internal SSH keys, which they used to access Matrix's production infrastructure, eventually granting them access to unencrypted content, including personal messages, password hashes, and access tokens.
Screenshot Credit: David on Twitter
After being informed of the vulnerability by JaikeySarraf on 9th April, Matrix.org identified the full scope of the attack and removed the vulnerable Jenkins server as well as revoked the attacker's access from its servers on 10th April.
The next day, Matrix.org also took its home server down and started rebuilding its production infrastructure from scratch, which has now been back online.
Today at around 5 am UTC, the attackers behind the cyber attack also managed to repoint DNS for matrix.org to a defacement website hosted on GitHub using a Cloudflare API key, which was compromised in the attack and theoretically replaced during the rebuild.
Since the latest defacement confirms that the stolen encrypted password hashes were exfiltrated from the production database, Matrix.org forced to log out all users and strongly advised them to change their passwords immediately.
"This was a difficult choice to make. We weighed the risk of some users losing access to encrypted messages against that of all users' accounts being vulnerable to hijack via the compromised access tokens," the company says.
"We hope you can see why we made the decision to prioritize account integrity over access to encrypted messages, but we're sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused."
The company also confirms that the GPG keys used for signing packages were also compromised, but fortunately, the attackers did not use it to release malicious versions of the software signed with the stolen keys.
Matrix project assures that both keys have now been revoked.
The maintainers of the project also say they will shortly start emailing all affected users to inform them about the incident and advise them to change their passwords.
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(CNN)A Texas state law that bans abortion after as early as six weeks into the pregnancy could provide the playbook for red states to pass extreme abortion restrictions -- without having to wait for the Supreme Court to revisit Roe v. Wade.The measure -- signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in May -- prohibits abortion providers from conducting abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected. It would effectively outlaw at least 85% of the abortions sought in the state, according to opponents of the law, since that point is around six weeks into the pregnancy, before some women know they're pregnant.The law took effect early Wednesday morning after the Supreme Court and a federal appeals court did not rule on attempts to block it.It was passed amid a slew of restrictions that were approved by GOP legislatures across the country this year, after the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett jerked the Supreme Court further to the right and made it more likely that the court will scale back or reverse entirely Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that enshrined a constitutional right to an abortion before the fetus is viable. But among those restrictions, the Texas bill stands out for the novel approach it takes in curtailing the procedure. Read More228 GOP lawmakers call on Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. WadeRather than imposing a criminal or regulatory punishment for those who conduct abortions after the point in the pregnancy, the state law created a so-called "private right of action" to enforce the restriction. Essentially, the legislature deputized private citizens to bring civil litigation -- with the threat of $10,000 or more in damages -- against providers or even anyone who helped a woman access an abortion after six weeks."The way the bill is structured incentivizes vigilante lawsuits that will harass abortion providers and those who support providing abortions in Texas," Adriana Piñon, an attorney at the Texas chapter of ACLU, told CNN. The approach was aimed at insulating the law from the sort of federal legal challenges that would prevent it from going into effect. One such lawsuit -- brought by several clinics represented by the ACLU and other groups -- is now mired in a complicated procedural dispute that has prompted the clinics to ask for a Supreme Court intervention, which didn't come as of 1:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.The upshot is that while the legal fight plays out, providers in Texas may have to decide whether they want to risk costly litigation brought by private plaintiffs who seek damages under the state law. Anti-abortion activists are already preparing to bring lawsuits if clinics violate the six-week ban. "This whole mechanism only works if there is a credible threat of lawsuits being brought against an industry if they decide to ignore the law," said John Seago, the legislative director for Texas Right to Life, which advocated prominently for the abortion ban. "So, we have been working to make sure that all those pieces are in place, that if we do have reports, that we do see evidence that they're violating the law, then we can actually enforce the law ourselves." (After Seago spoke to CNN, a state court on Tuesday issued temporary orders blocking Seago and his organization from bringing a private enforcement action against two attorneys and an organization that assists women in accessing the procedure.)Seago told CNN that the push for the law was motivated in part by a letter rolled out in October by a coalition of state and local prosecutors from across the country who vowed to not enforce anti-abortion laws, even if Roe was overturned. Though previous proposals from the anti-abortion movement included civil liabilities, the Texas ban is unique in that it is structured entirely around that threat. How it expands who can sue under the measure -- "any person," besides a government official, according to the text -- is novel in the context of abortion as well, he said. "One of the great benefits, and one of the things that's most exciting for the pro-life movement, is that they have a role in enforcing this law," Seago said. Impact on clinicsAbortion rights advocates say that the effect of the law will fall disproportionately on lower income people who won't be able to travel out of state to receive the procedure.The average distance an abortion patient will have to travel once the law goes into effect will grow from 12 miles to 248 miles, according to a study by the reproductive rights research organization The Guttmacher Institute. The clinics will need to hire lawyers to defend themselves, and if those civil lawsuits are successful, state courts can shut the clinics down. The measure also includes a provision that will prevent clinics, even if they prevail in court, from recouping their attorney fees from their legal opponents."The kinds of people that are going to bring these lawsuits are the people my staff see every day," said Amy Hagstrom Miller, the president of Whole Woman's Health, which operates four clinics in Texas and is suing in federal court to block the law. "They scream at them on the way to work, they know their names, they know what car they drive, and so this isn't abstract to our clinic staff and physicians." Trump's appointees are turning the Supreme Court to the right with different tacticsTexas Right to Life is planning to launch a tip line for people to report evidence that the ban has been violated and Seago, the legislative director, also said that he is anticipating that "sidewalk counselors," in his words, and the counselors at pregnancy centers could be involved in the lawsuits as well.Additionally, the law exposes to the civil damages anyone who "knowingly ... aids or abets" in the performance of abortion after the heartbeat is defected, even as it excludes from liability the woman who received the abortion. The language is vague but has prompted fears that family members who drive patients to receive abortion or donors to abortion funds that help pay for the procedure will be vulnerable to civil litigation. Will the law withstand legal challenges?Seago touted how the structure of the law -- and how it empowers citizens to bring civil litigation -- will make it more resilient to the type of "back and forth" in federal courts that have blocked abortion restrictions in the past. Typically, when a state passes an abortion restriction, abortion rights advocates bring lawsuits against the government officials -- such as attorneys general or regulatory boards -- in charge of enforcing a criminal or administration punishment and ask courts for orders blocking those officials from enforcing those laws before restrictions go into effect. By leaving the enforcement of the ban in the hands of private civil litigants, the Texas measure's champions hoped to deprive their legal foes the opportunity to get a federal court to block the measure before it goes into effect. At the same time, however, letting Texas move forward with this end-run around Roe nonetheless opens up the possibility for blue cities and states to adopt the strategy for their policy preferences, like enacting gun control restrictions enforced that enforced by private plaintiffs. Regardless, if Texas is allowed to permanently implement the law, it appears likely that other red states would follow in using the approach to restrict abortion. "We have already heard from states that are working on drafting some legislation that takes this approach to the enforcement mechanism," Seago added.This story was updated after the law took effect Wednesday morning.
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(CNN)All amateur golfers have been there: Hit a bad shot or miss a putt and you want to slam your club to the ground in frustration. Well, Si Woo Kim, the South Korean who was placed in the top 10 on the second day of the Masters, showed it's not just amateur golfers who have to deal with those emotions and deal with the consequences. Kim was having an excellent round on Friday, firmly in contention at the Augusta National with four birdies in the opening 14 holes.However, on the par-4 14th hole, the 25-year-old just missed his second putt by the smallest of margins, with his three-putt meaning he had to settle for a bogey.READ: Moe Norman: The 'Rain Man of golf' who amazed even the greats of the sportRead More Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentHideki Matsuyama celebrates with the green jacket after winning the Masters golf tournament on Sunday, April 11. He finished one shot ahead of Will Zalatoris.Hide Caption 1 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentMatsuyama celebrates with his caddie, Shota Hayafuji, on the 18th green Sunday.Hide Caption 2 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentMatsuyama lines up a putt on the 18th green Sunday.Hide Caption 3 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentXander Schauffele bites his club on the 16th hole Sunday. He hit the ball in the water there, effectively ending his hopes of winning the tournament.Hide Caption 4 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentKevin Na plays a shot from a bunker on Sunday.Hide Caption 5 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentMatsuyama plays a shot from a bunker.Hide Caption 6 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentSchauffele hits a tee shot on Sunday.Hide Caption 7 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentAn attendant adjusts scores from behind a leaderboard on Saturday.Hide Caption 8 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentMatsuyama finished with a 7-under 65 on Saturday to take a four-shot lead into Sunday's final round.Hide Caption 9 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentSpectators walk to cover on Saturday after play was temporarily suspended because of inclement weather.Hide Caption 10 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentMatt Jones reacts on the 13th hole as a warning horn was sounded to suspend play on Saturday.Hide Caption 11 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentJustin Thomas hits a tee shot on Saturday.Hide Caption 12 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentJustin Rose eyes a par putt on the first hole Friday. Rose held a one-shot lead heading into the weekend.Hide Caption 13 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentPeople spread out from one another as they watch Tommy Fleetwood putt on the 16th green on Friday.Hide Caption 14 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentBryson DeChambeau, last year's US Open champion, plays a shot on the 13th hole Friday.Hide Caption 15 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentFormer US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, watches the action along with fellow Augusta National member Heidi Ueberroth on Friday.Hide Caption 16 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentFormer Masters champion Jordan Spieth walks past the azaleas on the sixth fairway Friday.Hide Caption 17 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentLee Elder acknowledges applause as he joins Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus as honorary starters on Thursday. In 1975, Elder became the first African American to play in the Masters.Hide Caption 18 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentDustin Johnson, last year's Masters champion, plays a shot on the second hole on Thursday.Hide Caption 19 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentRose hits out of a bunker on the second hole on Thursday. He shot a 7-under 65 to take a four-shot lead after the first round.Hide Caption 20 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentThis was the first time in two years that the Masters had allowed spectators on the course.Hide Caption 21 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentSpieth hits a tee shot on Thursday.Hide Caption 22 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentFour-time major winner Brooks Koepka had knee surgery less than a month ago, but he was on the course for the first round.Hide Caption 23 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentRory McIlroy hits out of the rough on the sixth hole Thursday.Hide Caption 24 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentTwo-time Masters champ Bubba Watson hits out of a bunker on the first hole Thursday.Hide Caption 25 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentFans watch some of the first-round play.Hide Caption 26 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentMax Homa walks down the 18th fairway on Thursday.Hide Caption 27 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentJoaquin Niemann looks for his ball on the 10th hole Thursday.Hide Caption 28 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentDuring a practice round on Wednesday, Ian Poulter takes a Hogan Bridge selfie with his playing partners and their caddies.Hide Caption 29 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentMcIlroy and Thomas walk across the Sarazen Bridge during a practice round on Tuesday.Hide Caption 30 of 31 Photos: The 2021 Masters golf tournamentAzaleas frame the 16th green on Monday.Hide Caption 31 of 31While one solitary dropped shot left him just three shots shy of Justin Rose in the lead, the emotions were too much for Kim. As he waited for his playing partner, he slammed his putter head-first in the ground in anger, breaking it in the process. The world No. 49 also threw his golf ball in the water. As a result, on the biggest stage in golf and still in the hunt for the coveted Green Jacket, Kim was forced to putt the rest of the round using his 3-wood with no spare putter in his bag.READ: Tommy Fleetwood hits memorable hole-in-one at MastersSurprisingly, he did extremely well with the makeshift putter, not looking out of place on the greens -- besides the unusual stance. Correction: This article has been updated with a correct photo of South Korean golfer Si Woo Kim, who was incorrectly identified in a previously published photo.
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Moscow (CNN)Cuba's new President Miguel Díaz-Canel will begin an official trip to Russia on Thursday, a visit that will have historic resonance.It's the first time a Cuban president will be visiting Moscow since leadership there passed to a generation not old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. And it comes as Cuba casts about for support amid tighter sanctions and travel restrictions imposed last year by the Trump administration.Ties between Moscow and Havana have traditionally been strong. The Soviet Union was Cuba's main patron during the Cold War, and the Soviets once maintained an important electronic listening post at a base near Havana. And the Russians have long been an important trade partner: Cubans may excel at keeping their 1950s American cars going, but they also love their Soviet-era cars.JUST WATCHEDCuba: Return of the LadasReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHCuba: Return of the Ladas 02:07Díaz-Canel was only an infant when Fidel Castro made his famous visit to Red Square in 1963. And while the island may no longer be an arena for a military confrontation between superpowers, military cooperation between Russia and Cuba is likely to be front and center during the Cuban president's visit.Fidel Castro, pictured left, and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev during a four-week official visit to Moscow in May 1963.Speculation in particular has focused on potential new arms deliveries to Havana: The Russian business daily Kommersant recently reported about a possible $50 million loan to Cuba to buy Russian military hardware. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the subject of possible military cooperation "will be prominently featured on the agenda" when Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Díaz-Canel, but declined to comment specifically on that report.Read MoreThe Russians will be throwing other lifelines to Cuba. Ahead of Díaz-Canel's visit, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov told reporters on a visit to Cuba that Russia had signed "serious contracts" worth a total of around $260 million for the modernization of Cuban infrastructure, state news agency RIA-Novosti reported Wednesday.Opinion: Cuba's new leader just a rebranding of repressionPerhaps equally important, the visit gives Russia a platform to express solidarity with a country that is also in a confrontation with the US. Russia has been under US and European sanctions after the annexation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014. In addition to facing tighter US sanctions, Cuba has disputed claims that US diplomats in Havana have come under deliberate sonic attack.The Russians are already rolling out the red carpet. In a show of support for Cuba, Russia's Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, adopted a statement Wednesday on the need to end the US economic and trade blockade of Cuba, the Russian state news agency TASS reported.
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The infamous Aurora Trojan horse is just one of many attacks launched by the same group of malware authors over the past three years, according to researchers at Symantec. Security researchers with Symantec have issued a report outlining the techniques used by the so-called "Edgewood" hacking platform and the group behind it. The group seemingly has an unlimited supply of zero-day vulnerabilities.
The company said that the group is well-funded and armed with more than a half-dozen unpublished security vulnerabilities. "They are definitely shifting their methodology, and there are open questions about why that is," said Eric Chien, senior technical director for Symantec's security response group. "They may be finding that older techniques are no longer working."
"The number of zero-day exploits used indicates access to a high level of technical capability."The researchers said that the group appears to favour "watering hole" attacks techniques in which the attacker profiles a targeted group and places attack code into sites which the targets are likely to visit.
Here are just some of the most recent exploits that they have used:
• Adobe Flash Player Object Type Confusion Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2012-0779)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer Same ID Property Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2012-1875)
• Microsoft XML Core Services Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2012-1889)
• Adobe Flash Player Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2012-1535)
Operation Aurora was a cyber attack which began in mid-2009 and continued through December 2009. The attack was first publicly disclosed by Google on January 12, 2010. In the blog post, Google said the attack originated in China.
The attacks were both sophisticated and well resourced and consistent with an advanced persistent threat attack.The attack has been aimed at dozens of other organizations, of which Adobe Systems, Juniper Networks and Rackspace have publicly confirmed that they were targeted.
The security firm has published details in a 14-page research report titled "The Elderwood Project". The first thing that stands out in the report is that the vast majority of detections are in the US. In the last year, Symantec detected 677 files used by the Elderwood gang in the US. Rounding out the top five is Canada with 86 files, China with 53, Hong Kong with 31, and Australia also with 31.
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Has anyone ever heard about a "Vigilante-style Hacker," who hacks every possible system to make them more Secure?
No. It's not funny, neither a movie story:
Reportedly, someone is hacking thousands unprotected Wi-Fi routers everywhere and apparently forcing owners to make them more Secure.
Security firm Symantec has discovered a new malware, dubbed "Linux.Wifatch" a.k.a "Ifwatch," infected more than 10,000 vulnerable 'Internet of Things' devices, and spreading quickly.
However, Linux.Wifatch not only removes malicious backdoor but also encourages users to update their weak passwords.
How Does Linux.Wifatch Work?
Once a device is infected, the Linux.Wifatch malware connects to a peer-to-peer network that is being used to distribute threat updates.
Linux.Wifatch's code does not deploy any payload for malicious activities, such as to carry out DDoS attacks, rather it detects and remediates the known families of malicious codes present on the compromised devices.
After Installation, whenever 'Linux.Wifatch' detects any malicious activity or malware on the vulnerable device; it asks the device owners to:
Change their default password,
Close potentially vulnerable Telnet port immediately
However, the malware does not appear to be used for malicious purposes yet, but researchers have found that the malware contains a number of backdoors that can be used by its developer to carry out malicious tasks remotely.
Linux.Wifatch, written in the Perl programming language, was first discovered in November last year by an independent malware researcher, who calls himself "Loot Myself."
The researcher shared complete details of the malware in a two-part series on his blog with the same name - "Loot Myself: Malware Analysis and Botnet tracking."
In 2014, the researcher sensed unwanted activities in his home router and for which he could not find the location as well.
This curiosity made him explore more, and while digging deeper he decoded the roots of the malware- THE SOURCE CODE, written in Perl.
After going through the source code, the researcher points out that the code is not obfuscated; it just uses compression and minification of the source code.
Further, the researcher mentions about an unusual activity:
"To any NSA and FBI agents reading this: please consider whether defending the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example." he says in the blog post.
How to Secure Your Wireless Router?
Though the risk associated with Linux.Wifatch is low, the security researchers at Symantec are keeping an eye on its activities.
They say with such a "Malware-for-Good," it apparently creates a 'Benefit of the Doubt' as the author's intentions are unknown.
The case hasn't closed yet, as Symantec says, "It pays to be suspicious."
Essential Security Measures
Symantec had previously issued measures to get rid of this Malware. Here below you can read a few important recommendation in short:
Use a Firewall to block all incoming connections
Enforce a password policy
Make sure to offer the lowest level of privileges to programs
Disable AutoPlay
Turn off file sharing if not needed
How to Remove 'Linux.Wifatch' Malware?
If you have also detected such activity on your home routers, you can get rid of the risk associated with it by:
Resetting your device; as it will remove the Linux.Wifatch malware
Keeping your device's software and firmware up to date
Changing any default passwords that may be in use
Resetting your passwords routinely
More Ways to Protect your Network
Further, you can protect your Wireless network by following few measures, that assure your security, like:
Turning on your wireless router's encryption setting
Turn the Firewall On
Change Default Passwords
Change the default "SSID" (service set identifier) of your devic
Turn Network Name Broadcasting Off
Use the MAC Address Filter
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Zero Day Reflected Cross Site Scripting vulnerability in wordpress 3.3
Two Indian Security Experts : Aditya Modha & Samir Shah from from Net-Square Solutions reveals Zero Day Reflected Cross Site Scripting vulnerability in latest version of wordpress 3.3 !
Vulnerability exploit the comment feature of Wordpress Blog. Following two Steps mentioned in Exploit.
Step 1: Post a comment to the target website.
Step 2: Replace the value of author tag, email tag, comment tag with the exact value of what has been post in the last comment. Change the value of comment_post_ID to the value of post (which can be known by opening that post and checking the value of p parameter in the url). For example the if the url is https://192.168.1.102/wordpress/?p=6 then the value of comment_post_ID is 6.
Get Complete Exploit Here
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(CNN)The Ottawa Senators' season has been halted for at least a week due to a Covid-19 outbreak within the team. The National Hockey League postponed the Senators' next three games due to "evidence of continued spread" of the novel coronavirus, the league said Monday. Ahead of their 4-0 loss to the Calgary Flames on Sunday, the team's leading scorer, Drake Batherson, was pulled from the lineup and placed on the NHL's Covid-19 protocol list. The team went into the game with 10 players unavailable due to the protocol.Minnesota Vikings vaccinated player was rushed to ER with Covid-19 symptoms, coach saysThe league says the team's facilities have been closed and will remain so until further notice. Read MoreGames against the New Jersey Devils, Nashville Predators and New York Rangers will be rescheduled. The league did not disclose a timeline for when the Senators could restart their season. The team is due to play next Monday at Colorado.This is the first stoppage of play for an NHL team this season.
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London (CNN)Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, the wife of Prince William, gave birth to the couple's third child on Monday, a son who becomes the fifth in line to the British throne.The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth, at 11 a.m. local time at St. Mary's Hospital in Paddington, west London, Kensington Palace said.Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge depart the Lindo Wing with their newborn son.The newest arrival to the royal family weighs 8lbs 7oz (3.8 kilograms), and both mother and baby are "doing well," according to the Palace. "The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and members of both families have been informed and are delighted with the news," Kensington Palace said in a statement on Twitter.The family left the hospital shortly before 6 p.m local time.Catherine and William emerged onto the steps of the Lindo Wing to introduce the baby to the world's media shortly before 6 p.m. local time.Read MoreThe duchess, who was wearing a striking, raspberry-red dress, cradled her baby as the couple waved to well-wishers. Wrapped in a white blanket and wearing a white hat, the baby appeared to be sleeping.Britain's Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge with their newborn baby son.William, dressed in a navy suit and pale blue shirt, drove his family home, with Catherine sitting in the back with the baby.Prince William had left the hospital for a short time Monday afternoon, before returning with his other children George, 4, and Charlotte, 2. As the three royals entered the hospital, Charlotte waved over her shoulder at the reporters gathered on the other side of the street.Prince George and Princess Charlotte arrived at the hospital with their father Monday afternoon.In a statement, Kensington Palace said: "Their Royal Highnesses would like to thank all staff at the hospital for the care and treatment they have received," read the statement.The statement continued: "They would also like to thank everyone for their warm wishes."Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge will be leaving St. Mary's Hospital this evening. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their son will travel home to Kensington Palace.— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) April 23, 2018
A golden easel bearing a framed notice announcing the birth was placed on display in front of Buckingham Palace on Monday afternoon. The bulletin will be on display for approximately 24 hours.The practice of posting a bulletin on the occasion of a royal birth goes back to at least 1837, when Buckingham Palace became the British monarch's official residence.A notice on an easel outside Buckingham Palace announces the birth of the new prince.The royal baby is fifth in line to the British throne, after grandfather Prince Charles, father Prince William and two siblings.The newest addition to the royal family is a younger brother to Prince George, 4, and Princess Charlotte, 2, and the Queen Elizabeth II's sixth great-grandchild. Prince George was born at the Lindo Wing in 2013, and Princess Charlotte in 2015. Their father William was also born at the same facility.The duchess' pregnancy was announced in September. At the time, she was said to be suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, which involves nausea and vomiting more severe than the typical morning sickness many women suffer during early pregnancy. The duchess was affected by the same condition during her two previous pregnancies.As her symptoms eased she returned to public engagements, making appearances alongside William, Harry and his fiancee, Meghan Markle. Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThis autumn 2020 image provided by Kensington Palace shows the 2020 Christmas card of Britain's Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, with their children, Prince George, left, Prince Louis, center, and Princess Charlotte.Hide Caption 1 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyWilliam and Kate visit 282 East Ham Squadron, Air Training Corps, in East London on April 21. During the visit, the squadron paid tribute to the late Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who served as Air Commodore-in-Chief of the Air Training Corps for 63 years.Hide Caption 2 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyWilliam and Kate attend the funeral service of William's grandfather, Prince Philip, inside St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, on April 17.Hide Caption 3 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyWill and Kate are pictured during a visit to Westminster Abbey, where a Covid-19 vaccination center has been set up, on March 23, in London.Hide Caption 4 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyWill and Kate arrive with their three children to attend a pantomime performance of the National Lotterys Pantoland, at the London Palladium Theatre, on December 11, 2020, to thank key workers and their families for their efforts throughout the pandemic.Hide Caption 5 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyWill watches as Kate pours a tray of bagel dough into a container during a visit to Beigel Bake Brick Lane Bakery in London, on September 15, 2020.Hide Caption 6 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe royal family meets with naturalist David Attenborough at Kensington Palace in London, in September 2020, after a private screening of Attenborough's latest environmental documentary, "A Life On Our Planet," which focuses on the harm that has been done to the natural world in recent decades.Hide Caption 7 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyPrince Harry, Duke of Sussex, top left, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, second from right, follow Prince William and Catherine as they depart Westminster Abbey with Prince Charles, bottom center, after attending the annual Commonwealth Service in London on March 9, 2020.Hide Caption 8 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyWilliam and Kate visit a settlement of the Kalash people in Chitral, Pakistan, on October 16, 2019.Hide Caption 9 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyWilliam and Kate escort Princess Charlotte, accompanied by her brother, Prince George, as Charlotte arrives for her first day of school at Thomas's Battersea in London, on September 5, 2019.Hide Caption 10 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe family is photographed during Trooping the Colour, the Queen's annual birthday parade, on June 8, 2019, in London.Hide Caption 11 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyKate shows Queen Elizabeth and Will around the "Back to Nature Garden" that Kate helped designed during their visit to the Chelsea Flower Show in London, on May 20, 2019.Hide Caption 12 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyPrince William, Duke of Cambridge, kisses Prince Louis as they pose next to Princess Charlotte and Prince George in Norfolk in a handout photo taken by Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, in 2019.Hide Caption 13 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyFrom left: Prince William, Catherine, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, arrive to attend a Christmas Day church service at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate on December 25, 2018, in King's Lynn, England.Hide Caption 14 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyKate holds Prince Louis on their arrival for his christening service at the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, London, on July 9, 2018.Hide Caption 15 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyBritain's Prince William and his wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, hold their newborn baby son outside a London hospital on April 23, 2018. The boy, whose name was announced several days later as Louis Arthur Charles, is their third child.Hide Caption 16 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyPrince William holds the hands of his other two children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, as they visit the hospital to meet their new brother.Hide Caption 17 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyWill and Kate attend the Royal Foundation Forum in London with Will's brother, Prince Harry, and Harry's fiancee, American actress Meghan Markle, on February 28, 2018.Hide Caption 18 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe couple attends the BAFTA Awards in London on Sunday, February 18, 2018.Hide Caption 19 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyDuring a visit to Norway, Catherine is escorted to dinner by King Harald V of Norway on February 1, 2018. William is escorted by Norway's Queen Sonja.Hide Caption 20 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe image, used for the Duke and Duchess' 2017 Christmas card, shows the couple with their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.Hide Caption 21 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyPaddington Bear dances with Catherine while Prince William looks on during a charity event in London in October 2017.Hide Caption 22 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe royal family arrives at the airport in Berlin for a three-day visit in Germany in July 2017.Hide Caption 23 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThis photo of Charlotte was taken in April 2017 by her mother. Charlotte is fourth in line to the British throne behind her grandfather, Prince Charles; her father, Prince William; and her big brother, Prince George.Hide Caption 24 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyCharlotte is held by her mother as her family ends an eight-day tour of Canada in October 2016. At left is her brother and her father.Hide Caption 25 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge released new photos of Prince George to mark his third birthday in July 2016. Here he plays with the family's pet dog, Lupo.Hide Caption 26 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyMembers of the royal family gather on a balcony in June 2016, during celebrations marking the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. From left are Princess Anne; Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall; Prince Charles; Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge; Princess Charlotte; Prince George; Prince William; Prince Harry; Queen Elizabeth II; and Prince Philip.Hide Caption 27 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyKensington Palace released four photos of Princess Charlotte ahead of her first birthday in May 2016.Hide Caption 28 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyUS President Barack Obama talks with Prince William as Catherine plays with Prince George in April 2016. The President and his wife were visiting Kensington Palace.Hide Caption 29 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyPrince George gets a boost from some foam blocks for a special family photo in April 2016. The portrait, featuring the four generations of the House of Windsor, was commissioned by the Royal Mail and would be featured on a series of stamps to commemorate the Queen's 90th birthday. Hide Caption 30 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyWilliam and Catherine pose with their children during a trip to the French Alps in March 2016.Hide Caption 31 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe family poses for a Christmas photo in December 2015.Hide Caption 32 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyPrincess Charlotte plays with a stuffed dog in this photo taken by her mother in November 2015.Hide Caption 33 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyWilliam and Catherine pose with their children at Charlotte's christening in July 2015.Hide Caption 34 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyPrincess Charlotte is seen with her big brother for the first time in a photo released by Kensington Palace in June 2015.Hide Caption 35 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyWilliam and Catherine present their newborn daughter as they leave a London hospital in May 2015.Hide Caption 36 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe royal family celebrates Prince George's first birthday with a trip to the Natural History Museum in July 2014.Hide Caption 37 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe royal family waves to a crowd before boarding a plane in Wellington, New Zealand, in April 2014. They went on a three-week tour of Australia and New Zealand.Hide Caption 38 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe royal couple attends the Tusk Conservation Awards at the Royal Society in London in September 2013.Hide Caption 39 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyWilliam and Catherine start an ultra marathon in Holyhead, Wales, in August 2013. It was Catherine's first public appearance since the birth of Prince George. Hide Caption 40 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe couple are pictured with their newborn boy, Prince George, in 2013. The new parents released two family photographs taken by Michael Middleton, Catherine's father.Hide Caption 41 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe Duke and Duchess and their newborn son depart St. Mary's Hospital in London in July 2013.Hide Caption 42 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyIn April 2013, Harry, Catherine and William make magic on the set used to depict Diagon Alley in the "Harry Potter" films.Hide Caption 43 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe couple attends a St. Patrick's Day parade as they visit Aldershot, England, in March 2013.Hide Caption 44 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyIn September 2012, the couple drank coconut milk from a tree that Queen Elizabeth II planted decades ago in the South Pacific nation of Tuvalu. Hide Caption 45 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyCatherine and William celebrate during cycling events at the Olympic Games in London in August 2012.Hide Caption 46 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe Queen, William and Catherine stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the finale of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June 2012.Hide Caption 47 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyAs part of their charity work, the couple attended a "healthy living cookery session" in London in December 2011.Hide Caption 48 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe newly married royal couple watches a rodeo demonstration at a government reception in Calgary, Alberta, in July 2011.Hide Caption 49 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyCatherine shovels soil during a tree-planting ceremony in Ottawa in July 2011.Hide Caption 50 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyYou can feel the love as the happy couple attends a Snowbirds air show during Canada Day celebrations in July 2011.Hide Caption 51 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyUS President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama meet with the royal couple at Buckingham Palace in May 2011.Hide Caption 52 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe newlyweds walk hand in hand from Buckingham Palace the day after their wedding in April 2011.Hide Caption 53 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyAfter their wedding on April 29, 2011, the couple drove from Buckingham Palace to Clarence House in a vintage Aston Martin.Hide Caption 54 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyWilliam and Catherine kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after their wedding ceremony in London. Hide Caption 55 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe pair returned to their alma mater in St. Andrews, Scotland, in February 2011. They launched a fundraising campaign for a new scholarship. Hide Caption 56 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe couple poses for photographers to mark their engagement in November 2010. Catherine received the engagement ring that belonged to William's late mother, Diana.Hide Caption 57 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe couple cheers on the English rugby team during the Six Nations Championship match in London in February 2007.Hide Caption 58 of 59 Photos: Will and Kate's royal familyThe couple takes a photo after graduating from the University of St. Andrews in June 2005. They met at school and even shared a house with others while students.Hide Caption 59 of 59The birth comes just weeks before the wedding of Harry and Markle at St. George's Chapel in Windsor on May 19.William and Kate will mark their own seventh wedding anniversary on April 29.The news of a royal birth is traditionally announced on a gilded easel placed outside Buckingham Palace. Large crowds gathered outside in July 2013 to see the announcement of the arrival of William and Kate's first child.Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum on February 28 in London.The couple announced his name, George Alexander Louis, and that of their daughter, Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, a couple of days after each was born.Among bookmakers' favored names for the couple's third child are Arthur, Albert and Frederick.Princess Charlotte visits her newborn brother.The new baby was not the only royal child to make history Monday.The birth of the new prince was also a significant moment for Charlotte, the first princess who will not be overtaken in the line of succession by her younger brother.Before the 2013 Succession to the Crown Act, the newborn prince would have jumped above his older sister in the line for the throne.But the act means that a female's claim to the royal throne can no longer be diminished by a younger brother.CNN's Laura Smith-Spark and Carol Jordan contributed to this report
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Story highlightsPolice say a swan was found killed and burned over the weekendAll mute swans in England and Wales belong to Queen Elizabeth II"It's an act of vandalism which shouldn't happen," says swan charity workerThe remains of a swan have been found barbecued near Queen Elizabeth II's castle in Windsor, police said.By law, all unmarked mute swans in England and Wales belong to the queen.The swan had been killed and burned over the weekend, Thames Valley Police said. Its remains were found Sunday by a local council officer, who contacted police.The incident is being investigated as a theft, a police statement said. Anyone with information is urged to get in touch.Wendy Hermon, of the charity Swan Lifeline, told CNN of her disgust and puzzlement at the crime."It's an act of vandalism which shouldn't happen," she said. "The most sickening thing about all this is the swans will go to people because they think they are going to feed them. ... I always say they are semidomestic because they trust us, so it's going into a trap." The majestic white birds are a fairly common sight on the River Thames, which flows past Windsor and on to London.According to the official website of the British monarchy, all mute swans have belonged to the Crown since the 12th century, when they were regarded as a delicacy and eaten at banquets."Today, the Crown retains the right to ownership of all unmarked mute swans in open water, but the queen only exercises her ownership on certain stretches of the Thames and its surrounding tributaries," it says.Each year, a census is carried out of the swans on stretches of the Thames in the counties of Middlesex, Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire, it says. This practice is known as swan upping.
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IT security firm Trustwave has been sued by a Las Vegas-based casino operator for conducting an allegedly "woefully inadequate" investigation following a network breach of the casino operator's system.
Affinity Gaming, an operator of 5 casinos in Nevada and 6 elsewhere in the United States, has questioned Trustwave's investigation for failing to shut down breach that directly resulted in the theft of credit card data, allowing credit card thieves to maintain their foothold during the investigation period.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Nevada, is one of the first cases of its kind where a client challenges a cyber security firm over the quality of its investigation following a hacking attack.
Casino Sued an IT Security Firm
Affinity Gaming said it hired Trustwave in late 2013 to analyze and clean up computer network intrusions that allowed attackers to obtain its customers' credit card data.
It was reported that the details on more than 300,000 credit cards used by customers in Affinity's restaurants and hotels were accessed by cyber crooks who compromised its systems.
A report submitted by Trustwave in mid-January 2014 noted that the security firm had:
Identified the source of the data breach
Contained the malware responsible for the incident
However, more than a year later after the casino operator was hit by a second payment card breach, Affinity allegedly learned from Trustwave's competing cybersecurity firm, Mandiant, that the malware had never been fully removed.
The Lawsuit Filed by the Casino Operator
Here's what Affinity claimed in its lawsuit filed at the end of December in the US district court of Nevada:
Hiring a firm with the proper data breach response expertise, such as Trustwave held itself out to be, was of paramount importance for Affinity Gaming...Affinity isn't an IT security firm and lacks the level of expertise.
With respect to the apparent data breach, Affinity Gaming was wholly dependent on and subordinate in terms of its understanding, knowledge, and capabilities, to Trustwave, relying on [it] to diagnose, investigate, and prescribe appropriate measures to address.
Mandiant's forthright and thorough investigation concluded that Trustwave's representations were untrue, and Trustwave's prior work was woefully inadequate. In reality, Trustwave lied when it claimed that its so-called investigation would diagnose and help remedy the data breach when it represented that the data breach was "contained," and when it claimed that the recommendations it was offering would address the data breach. Trustwave...failed to identify the means by which the attacker had breached Affinity Gaming's data security. Thus, Trustwave could not in good faith have made the foregoing representations to Affinity Gaming.
However, Trustwave denies any wrongdoing. A Trustwave spokesperson told the Financial Times (FT) on Friday, "We dispute and disagree with the allegations in the lawsuit and we will defend ourselves vigorously in court."
Affinity Gaming is seeking a minimum of $100,000 in damages from Trustwave.
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XSS Vulnerability on AOL Energy website
A non-persistent Cross Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability discovered on AOL Energy website. The similar Vulnerability is claimed by few other guys on some forums too. No clue that who found it first, But THN got update from Vansh & Vaibhuv from India.
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A number of D-Link routers reportedly have an issue that makes them susceptible to unauthorized backdoor access.
The researcher Craig, specialized on the embedded device hacking - demonstrated the presence of a backdoor within some DLink routers that allows an attacker to access the administration web interface of network devices without any authentication and view/change its settings.
He found the backdoor inside the firmware v1.13 for the DIR-100 revA. Craig found and extracted the SquashFS file system loading firmware's web server file system (/bin/webs) into IDA.
Giving a look at the string listing, the Craig's attention was captured by a modified version of thttpd, the thttpd-alphanetworks/2.23, implemented to provide the rights to the administrative interface for the router.
The library is written by Alphanetworks, a spin-off company of D-Link, analyzing it Craig found many custom functions characterized by a name starting with suffix "alpha" including the alpha_auth_check.
The function is invoked to parse http request in the phase of authentication.
"We can see that alpha_auth_check is passed one argument (whatever is stored in register $s2); if alpha_auth_check returns -1 (0xFFFFFFFF), the code jumps to the end of alpha_httpd_parse_request, otherwise it continues processing the request."
Analyzing the parameters passed to the function the researcher was able to reconstruct the authentication flow, the function parses the requested URL and check if it contains the strings "graphic/" or "public/". "graphic/" or "public/" are sub-directories under the device's web directory, if the requested URL contains one of them the request is passed without authentication.
Another intriguing detail has been found by Craig that by changing the user-agent in a web browser to "xmlset_roodkcableoj28840ybtide," a user could bypass the security on the device and get online or control the higher functions of the router.
Craig decided to search the code "xmlset_roodkcableoj28840ybtide" on Google and discovered traces of it only in one Russian forum post from a few years ago. Going deep in its analysis Craig was able to piece together the body of the alpha_auth_check:
int alpha_auth_check(struct http_request_t *request)
{
if(strstr(request->url, "graphic/") ||
strstr(request->url, "public/") ||
strcmp(request->user_agent, "xmlset_roodkcableoj28840ybtide") == 0)
{
return AUTH_OK;
}
else
{
// These arguments are probably user/pass or session info
if(check_login(request->0xC, request->0xE0) != 0)
{
return AUTH_OK;
}
}
return AUTH_FAIL;
}
Try to read the string xmlset_roodkcableoj28840ybtide backwards .... It appears as "Edit by 04882 Joel backdoor", very cool.
The worrying part about this vulnerability is how it can be exploited. Anyone connected to the router, whether it's through Ethernet or Wi-Fi, can simply set their browser's user agent string to a specific codeword and then attempt to access the web configuration panel.
Craig extended the results of its discovery to many other D-Link devices affected by the same backdoor, the author searched for the code present in the HTML pages on the entire Internet with the Shodan. He searched for the word "thttpd-alphanetworks/2.23", the modified version of thttpd, retrieving following search results:
After a series of test Craig concluded that the following D-Link devices are likely affected:
• DIR-100
• DI-524
• DI-524UP
• DI-604S
• DI-604UP
• DI-604+
• TM-G5240
The researcher discovered also that Planex routers, based on the same firmware, are affected by the flaw.
• BRL-04UR
• BRL-04CW
D-Link has confirmed that the flaw exists, but has refused to provide comment on how it was inserted into its products. 'D-Link will be releasing firmware updates to address the security vulnerabilities in affected D-Link routers by the end of October,' a company spokesperson explained.
Very intriguing ... What do you think about?
Update (1:43 PM Wednesday, October 16, 2013 GMT): Nmap script is now available for automated scan and identifying the vulnerable D-Link routers, models including - DIR-100, DIR-120, DI-624S, DI-524UP, DI-604S, DI-604UP, DI-604+, TM-G5240.
Download Script (http-dlink-backdoor.nse)
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(CNN)There had been an air of inevitability for several weeks but Sunday Chelsea completed the task and duly clinched the English Premier League title with a 1-0 home win over Crystal Palace.Manchester City beat Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 later in the afternoon, but the three points took the west London side into an unassailable advantage over the defending champion and third-placed Arsenal.Follow @cnnsport
Fittingly, it was PFA Player of the Year Eden Hazard who scored the only goal of the match just before halftime after winning a penalty.It was not without controversy, as there appeared to be very little contact when the Belgian international went sprawling in the area under a challenge from James McArthur.Hazard scores winnerRead MoreHazard got up to take the spot kick, his weak effort was saved by Julian Speroni, but he scored with a header on the rebound.It was Hazard's only miss from ten penalties he has taken in the EPL this season, but his 14th goal of the campaign was the crucial statistic and enough to take Jose Mourinho's men over the winning line.Read: Chelsea battles to goalless draw at ArsenalIn common with recent Chelsea displays, including the goalless draw at Arsenal last weekend, the emphasis was on the result rather than open and attacking football and there was little second half goalmouth action.#alltheway to the title. Thank you all for your support. pic.twitter.com/9X6tvfbw1r— CHAMPIONS! (@ChelseaFC) May 3, 2015
For Mourinho, it was his third EPL title with Chelsea and first since his return to the club at the start of the 2013-14 campaign.Earlier this season, Chelsea took the English League Cup, beating Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 in the final at Wembley.It was revenge for a 5-3 beating at White Hart Lane on New Year's Day, a rare hiccup in a triumphant league season.The goals of Diego Costa, many of them assisted by fellow pre-season signing Cesc Fabregas, took Chelsea into an early lead in the title race with the other challengers unable to keep pace.But it has been Hazard who has proved the ultimate star, winning the acclaim of his fellow EPL players for his sparkling performances.Terry condolences to Ferdinand"We deserve to be champions, and everyone at Chelsea is happy today," he said."The manager (Mourinho) gives me a lot of feelings and I can play my best football on the pitch which is the most important thing," he added You know the words... #alltheway
https://t.co/fde05VSCHp— CHAMPIONS! (@ChelseaFC) May 3, 2015
Captain John Terry, the lynchpin of the Chelsea defense, particularly in the title run-in, broke off from the celebrations to send his condolences to former England defensive partner Rio Ferdinand.On behalf of myself and everyone at Chelsea, we send our condolences to Rio Ferdinand and his family.John TerryFerdinand's wife, Rebecca Ellison, died of breast cancer at the age of 34 Friday."On behalf of myself and everyone at Chelsea, we send our condolences to Rio Ferdinand and his family." Terry was banned for four games by the English FA in 2012 for racially abusing Ferdinand's brother Anton in a match against Queens Park Rangers.Read: QPR star Ferdinand mourns his wifeManchester City's title hopes had receded in recent weeks, but weathered a spell of early Tottenham pressure at White Hart Lane to claim a victory which improves its chances of claiming second spot.EPL top scorer Sergio Aguero broke the deadlock in the first half for his 22nd league goal of the season and City maintained its lead after a series of fine saves from Joe Hart.Napoli thrashes MilanIn Serie A, AC Milan's poor season continued with a 3-0 defeat at fourth-placed Napoli, losing defender Mattia De Sciglio to a red card after 50 seconds.He fouled Marek Hamsik to concede a first minute penalty but goalkeeper Diego Lopez saved Gonzalo Higuain's spot kick.It took three second half goals in six minutes from Hamsik, Higuain and Manolo Gabbiadini to win the game for Rafa Benitez's team to stay in the hunt for a Champions League slot.Milan is 10th and way outside the Europa League places.Off the pitch, Thai tycoon Bee Taechaubon has issued a statement claiming he has reached a deal to take over the club from Silvio Berlosconi, but this has not been confirmed by Milan.Earlier, Roma leapfrogged Lazio into second place after a 2-0 win over in-form Genoa.
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Story highlightsInbee Park wins LPGA Tour event in Singapore on SundaySouth Korean denies No. 1 Lydia Ko her third successive victoryKo finishes second, with former No. 1 Stacey Lewis thirdPark has now played 92 holes without dropping a shotFollow us on @CNNSport and like us on Facebook. (CNN)To beat the world's best golfers you often have to be flawless -- and that's what Inbee Park managed at the HSBC Women's Champions tournament, playing 72 holes without dropping a shot.The South Korean triumphed by two strokes from teen prodigy Lydia Ko, who took Park's world No. 1 ranking last month -- at 17 the youngest player of either gender to reach the summit. Ko, born in Korea but raised in New Zealand, had to settle for second place at Sentosa in Singapore on Sunday -- International Women's Day -- after winning her previous two events."She played great all week," Ko said of her 26-year-old rival, who will stay second when the new rankings are released next week. "No bogeys around here and on a course where you can hit a good shot and you can get bad luck. That's pretty phenomenal."Park, who finished 15 under par, won not only $210,000 for winning the LPGA event but also $7,500 from a bet with her dad -- with the stakes at $500 for a birdie and $1,000 for a bogey.Read MoreJUST WATCHEDAsian players shake up women's golfReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHAsian players shake up women's golf 07:04JUST WATCHEDFuture stars of women's golfReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHFuture stars of women's golf 07:14"This week was just incredible," said Park, who has held the No. 1 ranking for a total of 73 weeks in two periods and now has career prize money of nearly $10.3 million."I don't think I can even believe myself that I didn't make any bogeys for 72 holes."Park led the tournament from start to finish, and closed with two-under-par 70 -- a score matched by Ko -- as she claimed her 13th LPGA Tour title.She has now played 92 holes without dropping a shot, going back to the third round of last week's Honda LPGA Thailand, where she tied for seventh. "It's good to have a family here and they are big energy," said Park, who got married last October. "This week just went so quick. I didn't have to think about golf when I'm not on the course, so I think that was a big help."Former world No. 1 Stacey Lewis finished third, two shots behind Ko, as the American finished with a par 72."It was fun being in the final group. That's where you want to be. But even par usually doesn't cut it," said Lewis, who won the tournament in 2013.Read: Angry McIlroy throws club in lakeRead: The dark arts of golf's glamor girl
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Story highlightsBiometric technology is revolutionizing how we liveTechnology start-up Simprints uses biometrics to give people in developing countries access to healthcare (CNN)Around the globe an estimated 1.1 billion people are unable to prove their identity. They have no official ID -- no passport, no birth certificate, no bank card -- and as a result they're unable to access basic services, such as healthcare.Most of these "invisible citizens" live in Africa and Asia, and a third are children, according to the World Bank. But UK-based startup Simprints is trying to help them. Simprints makes portable fingerprint readers for charities around the world. It's working with charities in Kenya to provide digital healthcare records for people in poorer communities, who don't have any official documents.READ: Dad designs and 3D prints a prosthetic arm for his sonFor each person who has their fingerprint scanned, an algorithm creates a unique ID, which can be linked to their health records. Health workers can access the information and update health records using an app on a cell phone or tablet.Read More"The biometric technology is enabling a lot of charities and organizations to leapfrog a computer-based system and go straight from a paper-based system to a mobile system," Simprints co-founder Alexandra Grigore told CNN. Scanners providing a new hopeNicholas Mwaura is head of technology at the Kenyan community health charity COHESU. He is working with a team of doctors and volunteers, using Simprints' technology to scan prints and create one of the country's first biometric identification databases."Biometrics as a technology has completely changed our way of thinking," Mwaura told CNN. He says Simprints is giving citizens without identities hope and access to a better synced healthcare system."Without it they'd probably stay at home and accept their fate."READ: Darkest building on Earth unveiled at Winter OlympicsOnce someone is successfully enrolled they can easily visit a doctor -- who can then access their entire medical history digitally.Although it's revolutionizing healthcare in developing countries, fingerprint scanning isn't the newest or most technologically advanced biometric tool.Today, technology firms are racing to find a new, universal identifier that will replace the need for passwords and change our digital lives. Soon your face, iris, or even your heartbeat could be used to make payments, unlock your front door or to access your emails.Watch CNN's mini-documentary, above, for more on incredible innovations in biometrics.
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(CNN)Barcelona has held on to its crown as the highest paid team in global sport, with Cristiano Ronaldo's Juventus leaping up to join them in the top three. According to the annual 'Global Sports Salaries Survey' (GSSS) carried out by Sportingintelligence, the average basic first-team pay at Barcelona is $12.2 million per year for the current season. Follow @cnnsport
While this signifies a slight drop from last year, it keeps the Catalan club ahead of its Spanish rival Real Madrid, which boasts a $11.1 million average wage bill. Arguably the most significant development is that Juventus has jumped from ninth to third in the list.Thanks to the signing of Ronaldo and other high-profile players, the Italian giant moved from No. 32 in 2017/18 to 10th last year before making the jump to the podium. Read MoreThe rest of the top 10 is made up of NBA teams, with the Portland Trail Blazers and 2018/19 runners-up Golden State Warriors completing the top five. "It is not entirely a coincidence that Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus, the world's top three wage payers (by average salary) are also among the top five most popular teams in any sport, anywhere, measured by their popularity across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter combined," the GSSS report said.Ronaldo celebrates with defender Leonardo Bonucci and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.READ: UK government to hold talks with Tottenham Hotspur officials over racism allegationsA key factor in Barcelona retaining top spot was Messi's contract in 2018 which pays him more than $65 million a season, including guaranteed image rights fees and included a €700 million ($775 million) release clause.The biggest risers are the Buffalo Bills of the NFL -- 60 places from No. 152 to No. 92 -- while the biggest drop off is MLB team the Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays fell 123 places to No. 172.The NBA remains the top paying league as a whole in world sport, continued GSSS, with average basic salaries of almost £6.7 million ($8.7 million) per player this season. The Premier League remains the highest paying football league in the world, at nearly £3.2 million ($4.2 million) per player this season.The NFL has the highest average attendance -- 67,100 -- while MLB, where teams play 162 games, has the highest total attendance of 68,494,752 tickets sold. Visit CNN.com/sport for more news, features, and videosThe Premier League is on course to break the English top division attendance record that was set in the 1948/49 season, something the report's editor Nick Harris calls "remarkable.""In an age of football saturation, weariness at cynical owners, asset-squeezing, rampant agents' greed and widely perceived sky-high ticket prices, record all-time crowds would be remarkable," he said.
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If you think that having a USB Token Smartcard is extremely secure for Digital signatures or other activities, you may be wrong! The research done by Paul Rascagneres can remotely give access to victims smartcard!
What makes the attack unique is it uses a keylogger to get the PIN or password and exports the complete USB device in raw to a command and control server (C&C) and uses a device driver to let the attacker use the victims smartcard remotely!
The attack also impacts the eID (Belgium identity card) and millions of USB Tokens for Digital Signatures in India by Directors, Secretaries and CA firms for filing returns and signing corporate documents!
To be showcased at MalCon next month - we asked Paul a few questions:
Does the malware infect the PC or the smartcard?
- The malware infects the PC not the hardware.
So the attacker can use the smartcard of the victim remotely?
- Exactly, the attacker can remotely use a smartcard connected to an infected computer.
What makes this attack unique?
- the attack is unique because I never see a sample that export USB device in raw to a C&C (some malware use smartcard API but never export the device).
What all kind of smart cards can be targeted using this approach? Can you list the most popular ones across the world?
- the malware works on every USB smartcard
Are any smart card devices used by companies like RSA affected?
- if RSA uses smartcard connected on USB, the malware may works
You can meet Paul Rascagneres in person when he will be visiting India to demonstrate the research live at the International Malware Conference, MalCon on 24th November, New Delhi!
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Apple Crash Reports Help Hackers to create a jailbreak exploit
iPhone "jailbreaking" has been a hot topic since Apple released its smartphone more than two years ago. According to the Latest report posted by BBC that Thousands of iPhone owners have joined forces with a team of hackers to help them find new ways to jailbreak Apple's phone software & Jailbreakers use Apple crash reports to unlock iPhones.
You may be wondering and hearing alot on "What Is Jailbreaking an Iphone? How do you do that?" Jailbreaking is basically modifying the iPhone's firmware so that you can get access to the internals of its operating system and install a whole slew of third-party applications on your iPhone that are not otherwise available through official channels.Jailbreaking your iPhone in and of itself doesn't normally make much difference in your operation of it, but it does allow you to install other third-party applications that are not blessed by Apple.
A collective of hackers known as the iPhone Dev-Team publishes easy-to-use, cross-platform tools that allow you to install third-party apps on your iPhone that Apple won't admit into its App Store. The latest version of the iPhone's operating system is proving to be extremely hard to jailbreak fully, according to Joshua Hill, a member of the Chronic Dev hacker team."Apple is really making it tough for us. The iPhone is now better protected than most nuclear missile facilities," he says.
Jailbreaking your iOS device also enables you to change your phone's behavior and even add some nifty extra features. One such feature that Apple prohibited was FaceTime or any demanding data tasks over 3G.
How Hackers Develop a Jailbreak application ? Well, Hackers like Mr Hill hunt for programming errors, or bugs, in Apple's software. Bugs may result in a program crashing or shutting down, and they are like gold dust to hackers because sometimes they can be exploited to create a jailbreak. Hackers may have to crash a particular program thousands of times as they work out how to exploit a bug successfully, but this alerts Apple that the bug exists and that hackers may be investigating it.
Phone manufacturers don't want you to do it because of the small number of cases in which it can make the phone unstable or open it up to security breaches. It then makes them look bad because it's their phone that's crashing or introducing malware to your network.
But Users Hate hate it even more because it can cost them money. They even go so far as to cripple features that the phone makers build in, so they can charge you an extra fee for the same service. One example is Wi-Fi hotspot capability, for which carriers charge up to $30 per month when you can do the same thing on a rooted phone with no extra fees using a free or low, one-time-cost app. Some carriers also don't want you running apps like Skype to make phone calls instead of using expensive cellular voice minutes.
Chronic Dev is ready to turn this little information battle into an all-out, no-holds-barred information WAR. A program called CDevreporter that iPhone users can download to their PC or Mac. The program intercepts crash reports from their phones destined for Apple and sends them to the Chronic Dev team. "In the first couple of days after we released CDevreporter we received about twelve million crash reports," he says. "I can open up a crash report and pretty much tell if it will be useful or not for developing a jailbreak, but we have so many that I am working on an automated system to help me analyse them."
Is Jailbreaking Legal ? In July,2010 The United States government announced that jailbreaking and unlocking iPhones, rooting of Android phones and ripping DVDs (for educational purposes) is completely legal as long as they are not violating copyright law. It is also apparently not illegal to jailbreak devices in the UK, although it does invalidate product warranties, according to Simon Halberstam, technology law expert and partner at Kingsley Napley.
Apple tries to prevent jailbreaking for security reasons once a phone has been jailbroken users could unwittingly install malware that might not get past Apple's approval process. Mr Hill rejects this argument: "I am trying to make sure that my phone is safe and your phone is safe. Apple cares about money, not your safety."
As yet the Chronic Dev team has not announced that it has found any bugs that it can exploit, but a member of the team called pod2g claims to have found a way to create an untethered jailbreak anyway. Even if Apple fixes the bug that makes this jailbreak possible, Mr Hill is confident that the hackers will find more ways.
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Rome (CNN)Struggling to contain one of the most serious crises of his papacy, Pope Francis met Thursday in Rome with leaders of the American Catholic Church, the epicenter of a rapidly escalating clergy sex abuse scandal. "We shared with Pope Francis our situation in the United States -- how the Body of Christ is lacerated by the evil of sexual abuse. He listened very deeply from the heart. It was a lengthy, fruitful, and good exchange," said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Pope meets a US delegation, led by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, second from right."As we departed the audience, we prayed the Angelus together for God's mercy and strength as we work to heal the wounds. We look forward to actively continuing our discernment together identifying the most effective next steps."Also attending the meeting were Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors; Archbishop Jose Gomez, vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; and Monsignor Brian Bransfield, the conference's general secretary. Neither DiNardo nor the US Conference of Catholic Bishops announced any new steps or policies after Thursday's meeting. The Vatican referred reporters to DiNardo's statement.Read MoreDiNardo, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, requested the meeting with Pope Francis as the Catholic Church in the United States faces clergy sex abuse scandals on several fronts. In the latest development, the Pope accepted the resignation of a West Virginia bishop and ordered a church-run investigation into allegations that the bishop sexually harassed adults, church officials said. DiNardo accused of covering up abuseOn the night before his meeting with the Pope, DiNardo was accused of covering up abuse in his archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.According to an arrest warrant filed this week by police in Conroe, Texas, an unnamed woman says she was sexually abused by a Catholic priest, the Rev. Manuel LaRosa-Lopez, in 2000. The woman's father reported the abuse to the church before the family left the country, and LaRosa-Lopez was moved from the parish, according to the arrest warrant.When the woman moved back to Conroe in 2010, she read in a church newspaper that LaRosa-Lopez had been promoted and moved to a church in Richmond, 70 miles away. The woman says she was interviewed by DiNardo and a Catholic nun and was advised that LaRosa-Lopez "had been sent to a mental institution" and was then "placed in a administrative position from which he had no contact with children or teenagers," according to the warrant.Catholic bishop in West Virginia resigns amid sexual harassment investigationIn the affidavit, Conroe police Detective Joe McGrew said he "verified through church media that LaRosa is priest of St. John the Fisher Church in Richmond, Texas."The abuse survivor decided to file a report late last month "because of the perceived duplicity of Cardinal DiNardo (regarding his statements regarding recent priest sex scandals) and the church's failure to adequately protect children from LaRosa," according to McGrew. DiNardo became archbishop of Galveston-Houston in 2006. Under the "zero tolerance" policy adopted by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002, priests credibly accused of abusing minors are supposed to be removed from ministry.LaRosa-Lopez was arrested Tuesday by Conroe police, who charged him with four counts of indecency with a child, after another accuser came forward in August.In a statement, the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston said that it was told of the original abuse allegation in 2001 and immediately referred the information to Child Protective Services "for further investigation.""Father LaRosa-Lopez denied touching the girl inappropriately, and the girl's family decided not to pursue the matter, relocating out of the country that same year," the archdiocese said.After an internal review, LaRosa-Lopez was permitted to return to parish ministry in 2004, according to the archdiocese, and "no allegations of inappropriate conduct involving minors were presented against Father LaRosa-Lopez until 2018," the archdiocese said.The archdiocese did not immediately respond to a request for information about the alleged 2010 meeting, during which one of the abuse survivors said she told DiNardo about her accusations against LaRosa-Lopez.Papal meeting follows report, allegationsDiNardo had asked for Thursday's papal meeting in a public letter in August following allegations that a former top American cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, had sexually abused seminarians and an altar boy. McCarrick has denied the accusations about the altar boy and has not responded to the allegations about the seminarians. Those allegations, as well as an explosive letter from a formal papal diplomat, have raised serious questions among senior church leaders about why McCarrick was allowed to rise through the church's ranks as well as who knew about the sordid accusations against him.The 'coup' against Pope Francis Those reports come on top of a 900-page investigative report released last month by a grand jury in Pennsylvania that found more than 300 priests had sexually abused more than 1,000 children in six dioceses in the state since 1947, often while church leaders covered up the crimes. In DiNardo's August letter, he said the bishops' executive committee had three goals: opening an investigation "into the questions surrounding" McCarrick; opening "new and confidential channels" for reporting complaints about bishops' misconduct; and advocating for more effective ways to resolve future complaints. "We have already begun to develop a concrete plan for accomplishing these goals, relying upon consultation with experts, laity, and clergy, as well as the Vatican," DiNardo wrote on August 16. "In addition, I will travel to Rome to present these goals and criteria to the Holy See, and to urge further concrete steps based on them."Some of the steps DiNardo is seeking -- such as an "apostolic visitation," an investigation into McCarrick led by the Vatican -- require Vatican approval. DiNardo has said lay people should be involved in the investigation as well. The US bishops next meet as a body in November in Baltimore, where they are expected to debate and vote on DiNardo's plans. Pope calls unprecedented meeting of top officials over sexual abuseThe Pope is also facing criticism from the Vatican's former ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who says the pontiff was made aware of alleged sexual abuse by McCarrick as early as 2013 and failed to act.An open letter published on Catholic Women's Forum, which calls on the Pope to respond to allegations by Vigano surrounding the sexual abuse scandal, has gained more than 44,000 signatures in just under two weeks.On Wednesday, the Pope summoned top Catholic officials worldwide to meet at the Vatican in February to discuss the escalating sexual abuse scandal. The Pope will meet the presidents of the Catholic bishops conferences from around the world in the Vatican from February 21-24, the Vatican said. A CNN Poll conducted by SSRS before the Pope called the February meeting concluded that the pontiff's favorability ratings have nose-dived dramatically.Embattled D.C. cardinal to ask Pope Francis to accept his resignation And Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the embattled archbishop of Washington, will travel to the Vatican "in the very near future" to ask Francis to accept his resignation, a spokesman said Wednesday.Wuerl is facing increasing scrutiny both over what he may have known about abuse allegations against his predecessor, McCarrick, and how he handled abusive priests while he headed the Diocese of Pittsburgh.Wuerl has "categorically denied" that any information about accusations against McCarrick was ever brought to him. He has also defended his overall record handling clerical abuse in Pittsburgh, even while acknowledging "errors in judgment."CNN's Delia Gallagher reported from Rome, and Daniel Burke wrote and reported from Washington. CNN's Hada Messia contributed to this report.
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Story highlightsCourt hears former reporter describe hacking Daniel Craig's phoneReporter says message was from actress Sienna MillerMessage played to editor Andy Coulson, who later became PM media chief, court hearsEvidence is revealed in phone hacking trial of former News of the World editorsThe British Prime Minister's former media chief listened to a hacked voice mail message left by actress Sienna Miller for actor Daniel Craig, when he was editor of the now defunct News of the World tabloid, a former reporter told a London court.Andy Coulson, editor of the Rupert Murdoch mass-selling tabloid paper until 2007 and then Prime Minister David Cameron's head of communications until 2011, heard the voice mail left for the James Bond actor, Dan Evans, a former News of the World journalist told London's Old Bailey Court on Tuesday.The revelation came at the trial of former News of the World editors Coulson and Rebekah Brooks and the paper's former managing editor, Stuart Kuttner. All are accused of conspiring between October 2000 and August 2006 "to intercept communications in the course of their transmission, without lawful authority." They deny the charges.JUST WATCHEDDetails of royal messages revealed ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHDetails of royal messages revealed 02:48JUST WATCHEDPhone hacking trial has UK media buzzingReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHPhone hacking trial has UK media buzzing 05:57Voice mail messageDressed in a blue suit and red tie, Evans took the stand as a prosecution witness after pleading guilty to hacking phones.He described how he hacked Craig's voice mail and heard a female voice saying: "Hi, it's me, I can't speak, I'm at the Groucho (club) with Jude. I love you."Evans told the court he looked up the number and found that it was Miller's. He then said he played it for Coulson and several other senior figures at the paper."Later in the day, Andy came over, he wanted to hear the tape," Evans said."Andy told me to make a copy of the tape, put it in a jiffy bag; take it down the the front gate and say it's been dropped anonymously," Evans said.He added that another senior figure at the paper, upon hearing the message, told Evans: "You're a company man now."Phone hacking furorWhen asked by the prosecution if he had ever had any other direct communication with Coulson concerning phone hacking, Evans said: "Not that I can think of, no."He then listed Coulson among figures at the newspaper who he said definitely knew he was hacking into phones.Evans also admitted to recreational drug use, and to being arrested. He said he was now clean.On Monday, Miller's former partner, actor Jude Law, attended the trial.The court also then heard that Evans had already admitted to conspiring to hack phones at the Sunday Mirror paper between February 2003 and January 2005, and the same offense at the News of the World up to 2010, according to Britain's Press Association news agency.He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office, it said.Coulson became Cameron's top communications adviser after leaving News of the World in an earlier round of the hacking scandal. He has denied knowledge of phone hacking. The hacking allegations prompted Cameron to set up an independent inquiry, led by Lord Justice Leveson, to make recommendations on journalistic ethics and examine the relationship of the media with the public, police and politicians.READ: Report: Kate Middleton's phone hacked, court toldREAD: 'Hundreds of attempts' made to hack UK princes' aides phonesEditors' Note: This article has been edited to remove plagiarized content after CNN discovered multiple instances of plagiarism by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, a former CNN news editor.
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(CNN)The Senate parliamentarian on Thursday rejected Democrats' third attempt to include immigration in President Joe Biden's economic bill, delivering a major blow to Democrats who have repeatedly sought to include immigration provisions in the Build Back Better bill. It's the latest hit to the Biden administration's immigration agenda and likely marks the end of the road for providing protections to millions of undocumented immigrants through the budget process known as reconciliation, which would not require GOP votes.Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough advises the chamber on how its rules, protocols and precedents should be applied as Democrats and the White House figure out what they can include in the massive spending bill.In her ruling, MacDonough wrote the third argument for immigration provisions in the economic bill "is not much different in its effect than the previous proposals we have considered.""These are substantial policy changes with lasting effects just like those we previously considered and outweigh the budgetary impact," she added.Read MoreDemocratic aides had pushed for the third attempt, dubbed "Plan C," before MacDonough and her staff weeks ago after she struck down two other attempts to include more extensive immigration provisions in the bill.A White House spokesperson called the decision "disappointing" Thursday evening, saying it "relegates millions to an uncertain and frightening future.""The President, this Administration, and our partners on the Hill vehemently disagree with this decision and will keep fighting to give relief and protection to the many Dreamers, (Temporary Protected Status) holders, farm workers, and essential workers who are living in fear," the spokesperson said in a statement.The group of senators who worked on the arguments to the parliamentarian said in a statement Thursday they "strongly disagree with the Senate parliamentarian's interpretation of our immigration proposal, and we will pursue every means to achieve a path to citizenship in the Build Back Better Act."The senators who issued the joint statement, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Sens. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico and Alex Padilla of California, added: "The American people understand that fixing our broken immigration system is a moral and economic imperative, and we stand with the millions of immigrant families across the country who deserve better and for whom we will not stop fighting."The provisions Democrats had argued for were the same ones included in the House-passed version of the economic bill, which would provide temporary protection from deportation and work permits to undocumented immigrants who entered the US prior to January 2011 and meet a certain set of criteria. About 6.5 million people would qualify, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.The proposed immigration provisions fell short of what Democrats had hoped for -- a pathway to citizenship -- but would still have provided some reprieve to millions of immigrants.Durbin told reporters immediately after news of the decision came out that he was "disappointed" the Senate parliamentarian's ruling. "We're considering what options remain," the Illinois Democrat said, but added he doesn't think there's a "Plan D" for Democrats right now. Democrats had seized on reconciliation to pass the immigration provisions because it would have allowed them to do so without Republican votes. Despite multiple attempts to pass immigration overhauls in recent years, efforts have fallen short.Democratic lawmakers and immigrant advocates have been bracing for the ruling, waiting to see whether the parliamentarian would reject it as a whole or certain aspects of it, leaving room for additional modifications.Reconciliation, however, has a strict set of rules, and provisions have to undergo a review of whether they have an impact on the budget and not just an "incidental" one.Kerri Talbot, deputy executive director at the Immigration Hub, previously told reporters that another "Byrd bath" is expected in the event that adjustments have to be made to the Democrats' immigration plan, stressing that it's a process.Three House Democrats -- Reps. Adriano Espaillat of New York, Chuy García of Illinois and Lou Correa of California, who have previously said they would not support the economic bill unless immigration is in it -- said in a statement Thursday evening, "We've said it before, and we will say it again: at this point, the Senate can -- and must -- reinstate a pathway to citizenship in the Build Back Better Act, even if that means disregarding the Senate Parliamentarian and bringing that vote to the Senate floor."This story has been updated with additional information Thursday.
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Another security vulnerability has been reported in Facebook that could have allowed attackers to obtain certain personal information about users and their friends, potentially putting the privacy of users of the world's most popular social network at risk.
Discovered by cybersecurity researchers from Imperva, the vulnerability resides in the way Facebook search feature displays results for entered queries.
According to Imperva researcher Ron Masas, the page that displays search results includes iFrame elements associated with each outcome, where the endpoint URLs of those iFrames did not have any protection mechanisms in place to protect against cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks.
It should be noted that the newly reported vulnerability has already been patched, and unlike previously disclosed flaw in Facebook that exposed personal information of 30 million users, it did not allow attackers to extract information from mass accounts at once.
How Does the Facebook Search Vulnerability Work?
To exploit this vulnerability, all an attacker needs to do is simply tricking users into visiting a malicious site on their web browser where they have already logged into their Facebook accounts.
The malicious site contains a javascript code that will get executed in the background as soon as the victim clicks anywhere on that page.
"For this attack to work we need to trick a Facebook user to open our malicious site and click anywhere on the site, (this can be any site we can run JavaScript on) allowing us to open a popup or a new tab to the Facebook search page, forcing the user to execute any search query we want," Masas explained in a blog post published today.
As demonstrated by Masas in the video shown below, the JavaScript code opens a new tab or window with a Facebook URL that runs certain predefined search queries and measures the result to extract targeted information.
Searching something on Facebook seems less lucrative, especially when the exploit code returns the result in just yes or no.
"The attack actually leaks the number of search results for any search query on the currently logged Facebook account. The most basic usage is to make boolean queries like 'photos of me from Iceland'," Masas told The Hacker News.
But if used correctly, Facebook's search feature could be exploited to extract sensitive information related to your Facebook account, such as checking:
If you have a friend with a specific name or a keyword in his/her name
If you like a particular page or are a member of a specific group
If you have a friend who likes a particular page
If you have taken photos in a certain location or country
If you have ever posted a photo taken at certain places/countries
If you have ever posted an update on your timeline containing a specific text/keyword
If you have Islamic friends
And so on… any custom query you can come up with.
"This process can be repeated without the need for new popups or tabs to be open since the attacker can control the location property of the Facebook window," Masas added. "This is especially dangerous for mobile users, since the open tab can easily get lost in the background, allowing the attacker to extract the results for multiple queries, while the user is watching a video or reading an article on the attacker's site."
In short, the vulnerability exposed interests and activities of targeted users and their friends even if their privacy settings are set in a way that this information can only be visible to them or their friends.
Imperva responsibly reported the bug to Facebook through the company's vulnerability disclosure program in May 2018, and the social network giant resolved the issue days later by adding CSRF protections.
Almost three months ago, Masas also reported an impressive web browser vulnerability that exposed everything other web platforms, like Facebook and Google, knows about you. He also released a proof of concept exploit of the bug.
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Three young hackers who were sentenced late last year for creating and spreading the notorious Mirai botnet are now helping the FBI to investigate other "complex" cybercrime cases in return to avoid their lengthy prison terms.
Paras Jha, 21 from New Jersey, Josiah White, 20 from Washington, and Dalton Norman, 21 from Louisiana, plead guilty in December 2017 to multiple charges for their role in creating and hijacking hundreds of thousands IoT devices to make them part of a notorious botnet network dubbed Mirai.
Mirai malware scanned for insecure routers, cameras, DVRs, and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices which were using their default passwords and then made them part of a botnet network.
The trio developed the Mirai botnet to attack rival Minecraft video gaming hosts, but after realizing that their invention was powerful enough to launch record-breaking DDoS attacks against targets like OVH hosting website, they released the source code of Mirai.
The release of source code eventually led to more cyber attacks conducted by various criminals against websites and Internet infrastructure, one of which was the popular DNS provider Dyn which made much of the Internet unusable on the East Coast in October 2016.
The Mirai botnet attacks were then investigated by the FBI in 2017, and the cybercriminals were sentenced by the Chief U.S. District Judge in Alaska in December 2017.
Hackers Assisting FBI As Part Of Their Sentencing
However, after U.S. prosecutors announced Tuesday that the men had provided "extensive" and "exceptional" assistance to a dozen or more different law enforcement, a federal judge in Alaska sentenced each of the three men to just five years of probation—no prison sentence.
The trio has also been ordered to pay $127,000 in restitution, serve 2,500 hours of community service, and has voluntarily handed over significant amounts of cryptocurrency seized during the investigation into their activities.
According to court documents filed last week, Jha, White, and Norman have been working with the FBI for more than a year and will continue to cooperate with the agency.
In one instance, prosecutors called out the trio's assistance in the 2017 takedown of the Kelihos botnet—a global network of more than 100,000 infected computers used to deliver spam, steal login passwords, and infect other computers with ransomware and various malware.
In March, the three hackers also helped law enforcement stop the Memcached-based DDoS attack, a tool that helped criminals launch over 51,000 times powerful DDoS attack than its original strength against their targets.
"Cybercrime is a worldwide epidemic that reaches many Alaskans. The perpetrators count on being technologically one step ahead of law enforcement officials," said U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder.
"The plea agreement with the young offenders, in this case, was a unique opportunity for law enforcement officers, and will give FBI investigators the knowledge and tools they need to stay ahead of cybercriminals around the world."
Schroder concluded that cybercriminals often develop their technical skills at a young age, and this case demonstrates the government's commitment to "hold criminals accountable while encouraging offenders to choose a different path to apply their skills."
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Story highlightsThe Irish government will look into conditions inside Ireland's mother-and-baby homesA historian claims Tuam registry office revealed death records of 796 children at one homeCatherine Corless says she asked for burial records but was told none existedBut Corless now believes she knows where the children may be buriedAs a little girl, Catherine Corless was always curious about the St. Mary's Mother and Baby Home in her hometown of Tuam, in County Galway, Ireland. She wondered what happened inside the stone walls of the home for unwed mothers and babies run by the Catholic sisters of Bon Secours.Decades later, as a local historian, she asked the Tuam registry office for the death records of children at the home from 1925 until its closure in 1961. She was horrified at what came back. "Hundreds of names. I just couldn't believe it," Corless said in an interview with CNN. "796 names in all. And I wanted to know who these children were."That simple act of historical research sparked a nationwide outcry -- and now a government investigation -- into the conditions inside Ireland's mother-and-baby homes that existed as recently as the 1980s. Corless' research raised several disturbing questions, including: How did the children die and what were the conditions inside the home? And, most important, for Corless, where were the children buried? JUST WATCHEDRemains of nearly 800 children missingReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRemains of nearly 800 children missing 01:06JUST WATCHEDMass grave of kids at unwed mothers homeReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHMass grave of kids at unwed mothers home 01:04Corless says she asked Bon Secours for burial records but was told that none existed. She says her efforts to find burial records at local government archives also turned up empty. She then cross-referenced the death records with local cemetery records but only found two of the children buried nearby. "I cannot understand why there isn't a burial record for 796 little precious children," she said.But Corless now believes she knows where the children may be buried: on the site of the former Tuam home, now part of a housing estate.All that is left of the home is a crumbling stone wall. But in an easily overlooked corner, there is a small walled garden dedicated to "those who are buried here."It's been known as The Children's Graveyard ever since 1975, when two boys playing in the neighborhood broke open a concrete slab and made a grisly discovery. One of them, Francis Hopkins, was 12-years old."We found a load of skeletons that were clearly that of children." Francis told CNN, "We were so frightened, we ran out and our parents told us not to go down there. The priest came to say a blessing and a few days later it was covered up again. And as far as we knew we called it a graveyard since then." Corless believes this small plot may be where at least some of the children are buried. It was once a disused sewage tank at the edge of the property to the Tuam home."If the children were not buried there and there are no burial records," says Corless, "then we need to find out: where are they?"During her research, Corless also found a 1947 state inspection report on the home. She showed it to CNN. There are several descriptions of "emaciated" children in the report. One child is described as so thin that "flesh hanged loosely from limbs."The vast majority of the deaths are under the age of one but children as old as nine are also recorded. Causes of death included measles, meningitis and whooping cough. During the worst years, particularly 1946 and 1947, several children were dying every month, sometimes even two in one day. CNN contacted representatives of the sisters of Bon Secours and asked them about the conditions inside the home and the children who died. In a statement they told CNN: "The Sisters of Bon Secours today said they were shocked and deeply saddened by recent reports about St. Mary's Mother and Baby Home, which operated in Tuam, County Galway from 1925 to 1961. In 1961 the Home was closed. All records were returned to the local authority, and would now be within the Health Service Executive, Co. Galway.The Bon Secours Sisters are committed to engaging with Catherine Corless, the Graveyard Committee and the local residents as constructively as they can on the graves initiative connected with the site.The Sisters welcome the recent Government announcement to initiate an investigation, in an effort to establish the full truth of what happened." The Tuam case is the latest in a string of issues linked to Ireland's former mother-and-baby homes, funded by the state but run by various religious orders. The government has now promised to investigate the many allegations, including forced separations, illegal adoptions, and claims that children were subjected to vaccine trials without parental consent. Specifically citing the work of Corless, the Irish government is also considering whether to excavate the possible burial site at Tuam."If this is not handled properly then Ireland's soul will be, like babies of so many of these mothers, in an unmarked grave," said Ireland's Prime Minister, Enda Kenny.Corless says she will continue to dig for more records of the home in Tuam but she doesn't necessarily want the site to be excavated. More important, she says, is erecting a memorial for the children-- if they are indeed buried there."The least they might have is a name over them," she told CNN. "Those illegitimate children need to be respected as much as any other child born. It might bring some justice and maybe healing to those mothers and families."READ: Reports of possible mass grave 'sickening,' Ireland's top Catholic clergyman says
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Story highlights Kerry presses Russia on SnowdenHis lawyer says Snowden hasn't received papers to leave Moscow's airportSnowden's U.S. passport has been revoked; he's been at the airport since June 23He's charged with espionage in the United States after admitting he leaked dataEdward Snowden isn't yet allowed to step outside the Moscow airport where he's been holed up for weeks, despite reports to the contrary, his Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said Wednesday.Russian media had reported Wednesday that the U.S. intelligence leaker was issued a document that would allow him to wait elsewhere in Russia while his request for temporary asylum was considered.But Kucherena, after meeting with Snowden in Sheremetyevo International Airport's transit area Wednesday, told reporters that Snowden hadn't received the certificate and that he would remain in the transit area for now.That certificate still could come at "any time," Kucherena told CNN.Interactive: Snowden's optionsThe news is the latest development in Snowden's search for a place to settle after the United States charged him with espionage. The former National Security Agency contractor, who admitted last month to revealing sweeping U.S. electronic surveillance programs to the news media, left Hong Kong for Moscow on June 23. Since then, he's been unable to leave the airport's transit area because the United States revoked his passport. JUST WATCHEDPresident Carter comments on SnowdenReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHPresident Carter comments on Snowden 01:08JUST WATCHEDLawyer: Snowden can't leave airport yetReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHLawyer: Snowden can't leave airport yet 01:25JUST WATCHEDHas media focused too much on Snowden?ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHHas media focused too much on Snowden? 04:21JUST WATCHED"Concrete proof" of Snowden damagesReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCH"Concrete proof" of Snowden damages 03:51White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday the U.S. government is seeking "clarity" about Snowden's status. And a spokeswoman for Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington would find it "disappointing" if Snowden were allowed to leave the airport.Kerry spoke with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, on Wednesday morning, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. "He reiterated our belief, which we stated publicly and privately, that Mr. Snowden needs to be returned to the U.S., where he will face a fair trial," Psaki said. CNN exclusive: George W. Bush on SnowdenSnowden applied for temporary asylum in Russia on July 16. If granted, he would be able to live in Russia, and even travel abroad, for at least a year, Kucherena said last week.A ruling on the application could take months. But Kucherena has said that the Russian government could issue him a certificate that would allow him to leave the airport and wait somewhere else in the country while the application is considered.On Wednesday, Kucherena said that he is in daily contact with Russian authorities about securing Snowden permission to leave the airport, state-run media outlet RIA Novosti reported.If Snowden is granted temporary asylum in Russia, it's unclear whether he'd try to move elsewhere. He's previously indicated that he eventually wanted refuge in Latin America. But Kucherena suggested last week that Snowden might take his time in Russia."As far as I know, he's planning to stay in Russia to learn Russian culture, Russian language and (to) live here," Kucherena told CNN last week. Washington has no extradition agreement with Russia, and FBI agents who work at the U.S. Embassy there have no authority to make arrests.Russian President Vladimir Putin said this month that Snowden would need to "stop his work aimed at harming our American partners" if he wanted to stay in the country. In a subsequent meeting with human rights activists and lawyers at the airport on July 12, Snowden reportedly said he wanted temporary asylum in Russia while awaiting safe transit to Latin America, and added that he would not harm the United States in the future.Official: Snowden didn't access 'crown jewels' of NSA intelThe presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia have said their countries would give Snowden asylum, and Nicaragua's president said he would offer it "if circumstances permit." But he would need the legal ability to travel there -- something that temporary asylum in Russia could give him.The U.S. government has asked Russia to expel Snowden. Absent that, it will watch carefully the route he takes if he tries to reach one of the Latin American countries willing to take him in.The United States could grab Snowden if any plane carrying him were to refuel in a country that respects U.S. arrest warrants. But he probably will be careful to avoid that scenario.Nevertheless, the United States has sent provisional arrest warrants to a number of countries where Snowden could either transit or seek asylum, a U.S. official said last week.
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