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(CNN)Kelly Rizzo, the widow of late comedian and actor Bob Saget, is thanking those who have reached out to her to express their support since his sudden death in January."I just wanted to take a second to say to everybody that it has not gone unnoticed. I have been incredibly grateful and appreciative of all of you for the love and support," Rizzo said in a video posted to her Instagram stories on Tuesday. "I have had people who were strangers that now have become friends on Instagram. So many people have shared their stories with me of the loss that you've been through, and you've poured out your heart, and it's just really kind that you've tried to help me by sharing your stories."She went on to say, "This whole grief thing is something that I've learned recently. A lot of people don't really understand, don't really like to talk about it, it's not a very fun topic, but it's something that at one point or another, we all go through. And even though I'm still very new to this world, I feel I've kinda had a crash course in it. Especially doing it very publicly, it adds a whole other level. It takes it to this different place that you understand things in a certain way."The couple married in 2019 after dating for three years. Rizzo concluded her video by saying, "I can assure you that the kindness you all have shown has been a little bright spot and has made this a bit easier ... Seeing how much of an impact he had on all your lives is life-changing and (it's) just immeasurable how much it means to all of us, and especially how much I know it would mean to Bob," she added. "He thought he was pretty well-liked I don't think he had any idea that it was to this extent how much of a difference he truly made, and so that is what I am so grateful for, so thank you all for showing me that."
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What if I say the Tuesday's devastating global malware outbreak was not due to any ransomware infection?
Yes, the Petya ransomware attacks that began infecting computers in several countries, including Russia, Ukraine, France, India and the United States on Tuesday and demands $300 ransom was not designed with the intention of restoring the computers at all.
According to a new analysis, the virus was designed to look like ransomware but was wiper malware that wipes computers outright, destroying all records from the targeted systems.
Comae Technologies Founder Matt Suiche, who closely looked the operation of the malware, said after analyzing the virus, known as Petya, his team found that it was a "Wiper malware," not ransomware.
Security experts even believe the real attack has been disguised to divert world's attention from a state-sponsored attack on Ukraine to a malware outbreak.
"We believe the ransomware was, in fact, a lure to control the media narrative, especially after the WannaCry incident, to attract the attention on some mysterious hacker group rather than a national state attacker," Suiche writes.
Is Petya Ransomware Faulty or Over-Smart?
Petya is a nasty piece of malware that, unlike other traditional ransomware, does not encrypt files on a targeted system one by one.
Instead, Petya reboots victims computers and encrypts the hard drive's master file table (MFT) and renders the master boot record (MBR) inoperable, restricting access to the full system by seizing information about file names, sizes, and location on the physical disk.
Then Petya ransomware takes an encrypted copy of MBR and replaces it with its own malicious code that displays a ransom note, leaving computers unable to boot.
However, this new variant of Petya does not keep a copy of replaced MBR, mistakenly or purposely, leaving infected computers unbootable even if victims get the decryption keys.
Also, after infecting one machine, the Petya ransomware scans the local network and quickly infects all other machines (even fully-patched) on the same network, using EternalBlue SMB exploit, WMIC and PSEXEC tools.
Don't Pay Ransom; You Wouldn't Get Your Files Back
So far, nearly 45 victims have already paid total $10,500 in Bitcoins in hope to get their locked files back, but unfortunately, they would not.
It's because the email address, which was being set-up by the attackers to communicate with victims and send decryption keys, was suspended by the German provider shortly after the outbreak.
Meaning, even if victims do pay the ransom, they will never recover their files. Kaspersky researchers also said same.
"Our analysis indicates there is little hope for victims to recover their data. We have analyzed the high-level code of the encryption routine, and we have figured out that after disk encryption, the threat actor could not decrypt victims' disks," the security firm said.
"To decrypt a victim's disk threat actors need the installation ID. In previous versions of 'similar' ransomware like Petya/Mischa/GoldenEye this installation ID contained the information necessary for key recovery."
If claims made by the researcher is correct that the new variant of Petya is a destructive malware designed to shut down and disrupt services around the world, the malware has successfully done its job.
However, it is still speculation, but the virus primarily and massively targeted multiple entities in Ukraine, including the country's local metro, Kiev's Boryspil airport, electricity supplier, the central bank, and the state telecom.
Other countries infected by the Petya virus included Russia, France, Spain, India, China, the United States, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Turkey and South Korea.
How Did Petya get into the Computers in the First Place?
According to research conducted by Talos Intelligence, little-known Ukrainian firm MeDoc is likely the primary source of the yesterday's global ransomware outbreak.
Researchers said the virus has possibly been spread through a malicious software update to a Ukrainian tax accounting system called MeDoc, though MeDoc has denied the allegations in a lengthy Facebook post.
"At the time of updating the program, the system could not be infected with the virus directly from the update file," translated version of MeDoc post reads. "We can argue that users of the MEDoc system can not infect their PC with viruses at the time of updating the program."
However, several security researchers and even Microsoft agreed with Talo's finding, saying MeDoc was breached and the virus was spread via updates.
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Story highlightsJay Leno's car collection is worth millionsThe first he'd save in a fire is his McLaren F1 (CNN)It would be a getaway driver's worst nightmare: A car that doesn't start with a simple turn of the key. This one needs a bit of patience and -- I daresay -- an awful lot of practice. We all take for granted how easy cars are to drive in the 21st century, but in the years following World War I, you pretty much had to be an engineer just to get moving on the road.I'm sitting in the passenger seat of a 1920 Stutz Bearcat, an icon of the roaring '20s. It's an open-top beast of an automobile and my chauffeur is priming us for departure. He's using a lever to manually pump air into the engine, carefully monitoring a gauge so that when the pressure hits one pound he flicks a switch and we're good to go. Follow @cnnsport
He's not just any old driver by the way, he's Jay Leno. He's one of the most famous comedians and television talk show hosts in the US, but he's arguably more comfortable with an oily rag and a bunch of engine parts scattered across a workshop floor.Life's passionRead MoreSince he began fooling around with a 1934 Ford pickup truck at the age of 14, Leno has enjoyed a lifelong love affair with cars. He's collected and restored hundreds from every era in the industry's history and is a walking encyclopedia on all of them. Showbiz made him wealthy, but it's the cars that truly enrich his life.READ MORE: What makes a car sexy? JUST WATCHEDTouring Jay Leno's car collectionReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHTouring Jay Leno's car collection 05:08Anyway, back to our little jaunt in the Bearcat. I'm mildly concerned to discover that there is a dearth of seat belts to restrain us in the event of any mishap, but Leno is unperturbed.Firstly, he's not legally obliged to have any because the car rolled off the production line decades before the advent of road safety laws in the US, but perhaps more likely because it never bothered anyone at the time the car was made. "Back in the day," he chuckled, gesticulating a high, angled trajectory, "they preferred to be thrown clear."As we pulled out of his vast collector's garage and onto a distinctly 21st-century California road, I fancied that my chances of a successful launch from the passenger's side were infinitely better than his, since he was wedged in behind an enormous steering wheel. It wouldn't have looked out of place on the Titanic. We gathered speed quickly, or at least the feel of speed. With the wind whistling through our hair, 30 miles per hour seemed like 60. It seemed a good time to inquire about the state of the brakes. As Leno tooted and waved to the pedestrians on the sidewalk, he informed me that the best way to drive the car is to pretend it doesn't have any brakes at all: "I prefer to employ accident avoidance technology."#MoreFunWithTwo wheels. 🏍#jaylenosgarage https://t.co/yGnDsBgxLh— Jay Leno's Garage (@LenosGarage) July 19, 2016
Hefty insurance?My curiosity was piqued -- behind us at the garage was a collection worth an absolute fortune.Leno says he doesn't have a favorite -- if he did then he wouldn't have "all these cars" -- but he will concede that his McLaren F1 is the first he'd save in a fire. He bought it for $800,000; it's now worth $12 million. The topic of insurance inevitably came up. "They're not as expensive to insure as you'd think," he explained."Most accidents are caused by distractions. When you see one of these coming down the road, there's no way that you're not paying attention."Observing the respectable distance afforded us at every junction, I concurred. "Secondly, owners of cars like these are very careful," Leno continued. "When I take my wife out to dinner, if we can't park right outside then we're not eating there. Case closed!"One factor certainly resonated: "Most people wouldn't even know how to start these cars, so if you can get it going then you can take it."Each car, a storyInside car king Jay Leno's fabulous collectionMany of his cars have intriguing ownership histories and Leno is often tempted to make an investment based simply on the lives that have been associated with them. He once bought a 1967 Chrysler Imperial from an old Hollywood producer and his eccentric actress wife. He wasn't too bothered about buying it until they opened another garage with "extra bumpers, replacement windshield, everything you'd need in case of an accident. So now I have to buy the car, it's a great story."Then there was the 1951 Hudson Hornet. "I already had one, but this 94-year-old lady called me and said it was the only family car they'd ever owned. They drove it across country from New Jersey to California to start a new life, but since her husband had died it had been sitting in the driveway for 20 years."READ MORE: Mission impossible for Hamilton's F1 title bidLeno bought it for $5,000 and spent two years restoring it. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that she was still alive and so he took her for a spin. "The two kids came along, who by now were 70 and 72, and before long they were mock fighting in the back. She was turning around and pretending to slap the crap out of them, saying 'I told you to settle down!' They were having so much fun, they got to recreate a piece of their childhood." Nobody gets to own just one family car for decades without taking good care of it, but I doubt that any of the previous owners have been anywhere near as careful as Leno. The restored Bearcat, for example, has never even got wet. He doesn't take it out in the rain and so it doesn't ever need washing. "I just wipe it down with a cloth," he explained "and in this dry California climate, it'll never rust.".@JayLeno fulfills his bucket list... while trying to not kick the bucket. #JayLenosGarage pic.twitter.com/HBkoKaiXhK— Jay Leno's Garage (@LenosGarage) July 16, 2016
'Better than the stock market'As we return to the garage with a triumphant toot of the klaxon, it's clear that Leno is in his element. He doesn't consider himself to be a collector, simply a car enthusiast who never sells any of his possessions."What would be the point of selling them?" he asked rhetorically. "I'd then have a big bag of green but what would I do with that?" Overall, the collection is worth tens of millions, but he certainly isn't in it for the money -- many of his projects make a loss. "The way this works," he chuckled, " is that you buy the car for $5,000, spend $60,000 doing it up and then it's worth $12,500. At least it's better than the stock market!"Robot racer: World's first autonomous electric race car can go over 200mphI expected to be wowed by the cars, and I was. I expected to be entertained by one of the most iconic personalities in American television history, and I certainly was. However I wasn't necessarily expecting my Hollywood host to be so humble. Visit cnn.com/motorsport for more news and videosLeno has spent much of his professional life in a world of air kisses and false platitudes. His love of cars is what keeps him grounded."When you work with your hands, you appreciate how easy it is to make money in show business. I'm in a business which is really subjective -- some people think you're funny because you're a comedian, others think you're terrible."They're both right because it's a matter of taste. But when something's broken and you fix it, nobody can say it's not running."
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Pwnium is the annual Hacking competition where Google invites coders from around the world to find security holes in Google Chrome.
Google has announced its 4th Pwnium Hacking Contest hosted at the Canadian Security conference in March, offering more than $2.7 million in potential rewards for hacking Chrome OS-running ARM and Intel Chromebook.
This year the security researchers have a choice in between an ARM-based Chromebook, the HP Chromebook 11 (WiFi) and the Acer C720 Chromebook (2GB WiFi) based on Intel's Haswell microarchitecture.
The attack must be demonstrated against one of these devices running "then-current" stable version of Chrome OS.
"Security is a core tenet of Chromium, which is why we hold regular competitions to learn from security researchers. Contests like Pwnium help us make Chromium even more secure," Jorge Lucángeli Obes, Google Security Engineer said.
Amongst the payouts are $110,000 for the browser or system-level compromise in guest mode or as a logged-in user, delivered via a web page.
Google will also pay USD 150,000 for providing an exploit, able to persistently compromise an HP or Acer Chromebook, i.e. hacking the device to retain control even after a reboot.
Google further revealed that it will be giving out bonuses to all those who come up with an impressive exploit to defeat kASLR, exploiting memory corruption in the 64-bit browser process or exploiting the kernel directly from a renderer process. The full exploit must be given to Google with explanations for all individual bugs used.
"To register, email pwnium4@chromium.org. Registration will close at 5:00 p.m. PST Monday, March 10th, 2014. Only exploits demonstrated on time in this specifically-arranged window will be eligible for a reward."
The earlier editions of Pwnium competitions focussed on Intel-based Chrome OS devices, and Google had paid out $50,000 to a prolific hacker who goes by "Pinkie Pie," for an exploit.
Do you think you are up to the task? Gear up your keyboards & Give it a try!
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It's not the new facts that the FBI has used hacking methods in the past to spy on suspected criminals, including keyloggers and remotely turning on the microphones in mobile phones, in order to spy on suspected criminals.
Computer viruses and spyware are an unavoidable part of life. You can protect against them, but they'll always be out there lurking.
The Wall Street Journal posted the story that FBI agents hacking people's Android devices and personal computers (PCs) using malware, so that they can turn the MIC on and listen in on conversations.
The FBI hires people who have been hacking skill, and they purchase tools that are capable of doing these things, and develop some hacking tools internally or purchases others from the private sector. It's also important to note that the US government is now the world's largest buyer of malware.
The FBI has also developed custom "port reader" software to intercept Internet metadata in real time and U.S. government is quietly pressuring telecommunications providers to install eavesdropping technology deep inside companies' internal networks to facilitate surveillance efforts.
The FBI has a history of technology-based surveillance. It also previously asked Internet companies to provide surveillance backdoors, stands to benefit from CISPA, and is also involved in the ongoing PRISM scandal alongside the NSA.
While most of the FBI's intrusion methods are top secret some of their practices have been discovered. The former FBI official who spoke to the Journal, claimed that the method is restricted to those associated with child pornography, organized crime, or counterterrorism.
"The bureau has controls to ensure only "relevant data" are scooped up, the person said. A screening team goes through all of the data pulled from the hack to determine what is relevant, then hands off that material to the case team and stops working on the case." he said.
Once data are collected, the virus sends the information to an independent screening team tasked with removing all irrelevant data swept up by the spyware. Evidence is then handed over to the primary investigators, who use the material to build criminal cases.
Unlike the NSA PRISM program the FBI Android and PC monitoring solutions are only activated with court order on a case-by-case basis. However, trust in the government is quite low these days, so it's unfortunate that most of us will hear this and wonder if the FBI is spying on the rest of us, too.
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London (CNN)Four years on from the UK's Brexit vote, a majority of British voters would now opt to remain inside the European Union, says new research. According to the European Social Survey (ESS), a pan-European poll carried out every two years, 56.8% of respondents in the UK indicated that they would vote to remain inside the bloc, an increase from 49.9% the last time the survey was published in 2018. The most recent survey shows that of those questioned in the UK, 34.9% said they would vote to leave and 8.3% said they would not vote at all. The findings -- shared exclusively with CNN -- come in the same week that marked the fourth anniversary of the 2016 referendum. The intervening years have seen the UK engage in divisive internal debate about precisely what form Brexit should take, complicated negotiations with Brussels on how the country would leave the bloc, and painful political deadlock that only ended on January 31 this year, when the UK finally left the EU.The survey also reveals that support for the EU has grown broadly across the continent.The latest survey of 26 countries, four of which are not member states, reveals an increase in support for EU membership, suggesting that speculation that other countries would quickly follow the UK to exit the union is possibly unfounded. Read MoreOf the 19 countries that participated in both the latest and previous ESS, all EU member states saw support for EU membership rise. There was little change in Norway and Switzerland, which are not member states. The latest data was gathered while the UK was still negotiating its exit from the EU as a member state."Brexit had an early uptick in support among member states, but for most EU citizens, Brexit hasn't been on their radar for a long time," says Georgina Wright, an EU expert at the Institute for Government. "Over the past few years there has been more of a sense that Europe isn't static. At the last EU election we saw lots of parties who backed EU reform elected to the parliament, which I think suggests citizens are increasingly positive about the EU's ability to change with the times."Outside of the bloc there is a mixed picture. In the Balkans there are majorities in Montenegro and Serbia for joining. However, support remains strong for staying outside in non-member states that have a far closer relationship with the EU than the UK government currently claims to want. Switzerland, for example, is part of the EU's Schengen Area and operates in line with large areas of EU law in order to participate in the EU's Single Market. Just 11.2% of respondents in the country would be in favor of joining. Norway, where 21.5% of respondents were in favor of joining the EU, is a full member of the European Economic Area and the European Free Trade Association. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, by contrast, has stated on numerous occasions that the UK will not fall in line with EU law and seeks only a free-trade agreement with the bloc. Any deal would need to be in place by December 31 of this year, when the UK's current transition period with the EU expires. Although the survey shows a significant swing in British support for EU membership compared to 2016, it paints only part of a murky picture in the context of British politics. Johnson won an 80-seat majority in a landslide election victory back in December on the simple platform of "Get Brexit Done," suggesting that leaving the EU was popular after more than three years of indecision. "A lot of people, regardless of their preference for leave or remain, believe that the referendum was a democratic vote, regardless of what they think of the outcome. So in the words of the PM, they might agree that we needed to get Brexit done," says Will Jennings, Professor in Politics at the University of Southampton. "Asking people hypothetically how they would vote if the referendum were happening now, you might get an interesting answer. But it is a fundamentally different question." Whatever is happening in the UK, the apparent trend of increased support for the union among its own ranks will be welcome news to Eurocrats. Brussels has been careful to prevent Brexit setting a trend for increased Euroskepticism and has myriad internal problems due to disagreements between member states on issues like China and migration. "Our latest data suggests that the UK remains divided on Brexit, however, in the rest of the union, support for remaining in the EU remains very high and is actually rising," says Professor Rory Fitzgerald, Director of the European Social Survey at City, University of London. "Support for remaining ranged from 66% (Czech Republic) to 89% (Spain), suggesting that the anti-EU sentiment seen in the UK is not spreading to other countries." However, he also notes that if the UK is successful in striking a deal with the EU before the end of the year, then Britain's Europe question could be settled once and for all."Only in countries outside the bloc like Norway and Switzerland do we see higher levels of anti-EU sentiment than in the UK. However, this suggests in the longer term, being outside the union might see support for re-joining decline."Whether that happens will largely come down to what kind of deal, if any, Johnson manages to strike with Brussels. "The softest deal that this government wants to strike is far harder than many of the people in this country are comfortable with," says Simon Usherwood, professor of politics at the University of Surrey. "When people start to see the impact that has on the country and the economy, we might soon learn that the European question is far from settled as new battle lines are drawn." Brexit negotiations between the EU and UK have continued through 2020 via videoconference, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Both sides have previously told CNN that the lack of human interaction has made the negotiations more fraught. And while both want to reach an agreement, there is still significant distance between the two sides, and very little time left, unless either London or Brussels makes a major concession.
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State-sponsored actors allegedly working for Russia have targeted the US Treasury, the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and other government agencies to monitor internal email traffic as part of a widespread cyberespionage campaign.
The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, said the latest attacks were the work of APT29 or Cozy Bear, the same hacking group that's believed to have orchestrated a breach of US-based cybersecurity firm FireEye a few days ago leading to the theft of its Red Team penetration testing tools.
The motive and the full scope of what intelligence was compromised remains unclear, but signs are that adversaries tampered with a software update released by Texas-based IT infrastructure provider SolarWinds earlier this year to infiltrate the systems of government agencies as well as FireEye and mount a highly-sophisticated supply chain attack.
"The compromise of SolarWinds' Orion Network Management Products poses unacceptable risks to the security of federal networks," said Brandon Wales, acting director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which has released an emergency directive, urging federal civilian agencies to review their networks for suspicious activity and disconnect or power down SolarWinds Orion products immediately.
SolarWinds' networking and security products are used by more than 300,000 customers worldwide, including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and education institutions.
It also serves several major US telecommunications companies, all five branches of the US Military, and other prominent government organizations such as the Pentagon, State Department, NASA, National Security Agency (NSA), Postal Service, NOAA, Department of Justice, and the Office of the President of the United States.
An Evasive Campaign to Distribute SUNBURST Backdoor
FireEye, which is tracking the ongoing intrusion campaign under the moniker "UNC2452," said the supply chain attack takes advantage of trojanized SolarWinds Orion business software updates in order to distribute a backdoor called SUNBURST.
"This campaign may have begun as early as Spring 2020 and is currently ongoing," FireEye said in a Sunday analysis. "Post compromise activity following this supply chain compromise has included lateral movement and data theft. The campaign is the work of a highly skilled actor and the operation was conducted with significant operational security."
This rogue version of SolarWinds Orion plug-in, besides masquerading its network traffic as the Orion Improvement Program (OIP) protocol, is said to communicate via HTTP to remote servers so as to retrieve and execute malicious commands ("Jobs") that cover the spyware gamut, including those for transferring files, executing files, profiling and rebooting the target system, and disabling system services.
Orion Improvement Program or OIP is chiefly used to collect performance and usage statistics data from SolarWinds users for product improvement purposes.
What's more, the IP addresses used for the campaign were obfuscated by VPN servers located in the same country as the victim to evade detection.
Microsoft also corroborated the findings in a separate analysis, stating the attack (which it calls "Solorigate") leveraged the trust associated with SolarWinds software to insert malicious code as part of a larger campaign.
"A malicious software class was included among many other legitimate classes and then signed with a legitimate certificate," the Windows maker said. The resulting binary included a backdoor and was then discreetly distributed into targeted organizations."
SolarWinds Releases Security Advisory
In a security advisory published by SolarWinds, the company said the attack targets versions 2019.4 through 2020.2.1 of the SolarWinds Orion Platform software that was released between March and June 2020, while recommending users to upgrade to Orion Platform release 2020.2.1 HF 1 immediately.
The firm, which is currently investigating the attack in coordination with FireEye and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, is also expected to release an additional hotfix, 2020.2.1 HF 2, on December 15, which replaces the compromised component and provides several extra security enhancements.
FireEye last week disclosed that it fell victim to a highly sophisticated foreign-government attack that compromised its software tools used to test the defenses of its customers.
Totaling as many as 60 in number, the stolen Red Team tools are a mix of publicly available tools (43%), modified versions of publicly available tools (17%), and those that were developed in-house (40%).
Furthermore, the theft also includes exploit payloads that leverage critical vulnerabilities in Pulse Secure SSL VPN (CVE-2019-11510), Microsoft Active Directory (CVE-2020-1472), Zoho ManageEngine Desktop Central (CVE-2020-10189), and Windows Remote Desktop Services (CVE-2019-0708).
The campaign, ultimately, appears to be a supply chain attack on a global scale, for FireEye said it detected this activity across several entities worldwide, spanning government, consulting, technology, telecom, and extractive firms in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
The indicators of compromise (IoCs) and other relevant attack signatures designed to counter SUNBURST can be accessed here.
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Story highlightsRory McIlroy endured a difficult first day in Abu Dhabi following round of three-over-parWorld No.1 used his Nike clubs for first time since signing bumper pay dealTiger Woods finishes level for the day after carding a 72Justin Rose and Jamie Donaldson lead the way on five-under after first roundRory McIlroy says he is desperate to get back on track in Abu Dhabi after a disappointing first round of the new season.Fresh from signing his new bumper multi-year deal with Nike, McIlroy struggled to adapt to his new clubs and hit two double bogeys on his way to a three-over-par 75.Playing alongside stablemate Tiger Woods, who finished level for the day, McIlroy failed to impress on his return to the course where he came second behind Robert Rock last year.Nike unveils Rory McIlroy: Tiger's heir apparentBut the World No.1 says he will improve when he steps out for his second round Friday.JUST WATCHEDGolfer Rory McIlroy signs with NikeReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHGolfer Rory McIlroy signs with Nike 05:29JUST WATCHED2012: A game changer for McIlroy?ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCH2012: A game changer for McIlroy? 04:44JUST WATCHEDExclusive: Tiger and Rory's 'bromance'ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHExclusive: Tiger and Rory's 'bromance' 09:34"Yeah, a bit of rust for sure," he told reporters, after being asked why he started so poorly."Not playing any competitive golf for eight weeks. I guess when you're going out with new stuff, you're always going to be a little bit anxious about hitting it close like you've done on the range and today that wasn't quite the case. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow."I was really happy with the way the ball is in the wind. I was really happy with the irons and the wedge play."I wasn't very comfortable off the tee, but just because I didn't feel like I was swinging it that well."How player power tipped Ryder Cup captaincyMcIlroy's European Ryder Cup teammate Justin Rose leads the way on five-under-par alongside Irish Open champion Jamie Donaldson.Rose shot a bogey-free round of 67 but is expecting both Woods and McIlroy to threaten as the competition progresses."It's the first round of the year. There are a lot of factors involved, certainly a lot of factors for Rory involved this week," he said.Tiger-Rory 'bromance': Can sports rivals really be friends?"That's not his normal preparation with what he has had to obviously encounter the last couple of weeks, I'm sure."Tiger shot level and that's well within the golf tournament. So for me there's really no surprises there."Defending champion Rock finished on 76, while Ernie Els, playing alongside Rock and Rose, had a 71, the same as Martin Kaymer.
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(CNN)Images of a whale hunt in the Faroe Islands 200 miles north of Scotland have sparked renewed anger from conservationists and animal activists.The pictures show dozens of whales being herded into a bay where they are killed, the sea turning red with their blood. The hunt took place in the bay of Sandavágur on the western island of Vágar on July 30 and involved pilot whales, according to the government of the Faroe Islands. It was one of several legal hunts that take place every summer in the archipelago. It was documented by Alastair Ward, who said he was visiting to celebrate his graduation from the University of Cambridge in the UK.Reacting to the images on Twitter, the Blue Planet Society, a UK-based pressure group, condemned the killings, describing the Faroe Islands as an "archaic country" that needs to "join the 21st century.""These people have no respect, no empathy, and no need," they wrote. "This is entertainment for them."Read MoreIn a statement to CNN on Friday, the Faroese government described whaling as a "natural part of Faroese life" and rejected accusations that the killings were ritualistic or frivolous.People participate in the whaling event on July 30."The meat and blubber of pilot whales have long been -- and continue to be -- a valued part of the national diet in the Faroe Islands," the statement said. "Catches are shared largely without the exchange of money among the participants in a whale drive and the local community. Each whale provides the communities with several hundred kilos of meat and blubber -- meat that otherwise had to be imported from abroad."According to Faroese regulations, the whales must be killed as quickly and with as little suffering as possible, and those doing the killing must have completed a whaling course and obtained a license.Hundreds of whales are killed in "drives" every year in the islands, which belong to Denmark but are an autonomous country and are not bound by the laws of Denmark or the European Union. They are home to around 50,000 people, according to government statistics.Water in the cove where the whaling took place is seen red with blood from the hunted animals.The hunts have taken place around the islands for centuries. They are closely regulated by the Faroese government and international bodies, including the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMC).Pilot whales are not endangered, and current levels of killings in the Faroe Islands do not threaten their sustainability, according to a NAMMC study in 2012. Icelandic whaler defends 'blue whale' kill, says animal was a hybridOf the estimated 1 million long-finned pilot whales worldwide, about 100,000 live near the Faroe Islands, according to NAMMC and the American Cetacean Society.A global ban on commercial whaling has been in effect since the 1980s but has no effect on these hunts, since most of the meat is shared around the community rather than sold. An EU ban on whaling also carries no weight, since the Faroe Islands are not part of the bloc.Although the hunts are legal, European and global organizations have criticized them, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Humane Society International and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.PETA desribes the hunts as "mass execution" and argues that these "highly intelligent creatures... feel pain and fear every bit as we do."The Faroese government denies that the animals suffer extensively, pointing to today's more humane methods of corralling the animals into the bay and killing them.According to the islands' official whaling site, the traditional sharp whaling spear, pointed hook and knife have been replaced with a rounded blowhole hook, "which does no damage to the whales when they are drawn up on the shore," and a spinal lance, which is used to break the whale's spinal cord, ensuring that "the whales lose consciousness and die within seconds."
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(CNN)Geoff Maslen was riding his bike to the gym on a beautiful spring day in Melbourne, Australia when he started to feel something pinging off the back of his helmet.At first, he was confused by the sensation, since it didn't seem to be raining. Then he realized a magpie was trying to ferociously stab the back of his head with its beak. He wasn't surprised. Magpie swoopings are a regular occurrence across Australia during the spring months of September and October. According to Maslen -- author of "An Uncertain Future: Australian Birdlife in Danger" -- he got off easy. "A different magpie was attacking my friend, but realized that the helmet on his head wasn't going to (let him) cause him any damage, so he grabbed a piece of his ear as he swooped past, and he was left with blood pouring down his head," he said. This slow-mo video of a magpie swooping a cyclist three times is both amazing and terrifying at the same time 😱🚴📹: Luke Berkelmans pic.twitter.com/ZiGrENok9a— ABC Brisbane (@abcbrisbane) September 11, 2018
For outsiders, it can seem strange that in a country famous for its dangerous wildlife -- from sharks to spiders and snakes -- that one of the most feared creatures is a handsome black and white bird just over a foot in length. Read MoreIn September, according to Australian media, a toddler in Perth narrowly avoided being blinded by a magpie after it swooped down and attacked his face as he sat in a pram. Also that month, a journalist in Melbourne posted a photo of himself with blood trickling down his face after he was struck "out of nowhere" by an angry bird. Swooped. Last time I set up an interview at a park @9NewsMelb where was my magpie warning @nicketchells10? pic.twitter.com/rkhHmwq4vy— Mark Santomartino (@msanto92) September 5, 2018
This season alone, there have been an estimated 3,000 swoopings, mostly between August and mid-October, resulting in about 400 injuries, according to the community-run Magpie Alert website. Yet despite the injuries and fear they cause every year, the magpie remains one of the country's most beloved birds. In December 2017, it was voted the Guardian Australia's Bird of the Year by a popular vote, edging out the kookaburra and the fairywren."They're extraordinarily attractive birds," Maslen said. "They're very engaging birds, very intelligent and quite often they make friends, especially with those people who provide them with food." Sometimes relationships can go the opposite way however, he added: "There was a fellow in Brisbane who claims to have been attacked by the same magpie for 25 years."A magpie sitting on a hedge in Sydney in 2014.Swooping 'very common behavior'Despite its name, the Australian magpie bears no relation to the European species. The original British colonizers of Australia simply saw another black and white bird and named it accordingly, said Gisela Kaplan, emeritus professor at the University of New England in southeastern Australia.Kaplan has studied bird behavior for decades. She's a staunch defender of magpies, telling CNN the birds can have long friendships with humans -- provided you treat them correctly."(Swooping) is actually a very common behavior among all birds ... The reason we normally don't notice it is that most songbirds are so small that even if they swoop we don't notice it," she said.Magpie swooping season is well underway - and most of the time victims don't get any notice the birds are about to strike. But one clever postman has caught a pair in the act, after being targeted three days in a row. #7News pic.twitter.com/lVboPiuVRR— 7 News Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) October 10, 2018
Most magpie swoopings are done by male birds as a defensive act, when they perceive an unknown or threatening passerby has come too close to their nest.But Kaplan said swooping is more often than not a warning, intended to keep strangers away, rather than a deliberate attack."They may swoop several times to indicate to people 'You are a bit too close to my nest site' and if people don't respond they may get closer to the head or even make contact," she said.More than anything else, she said, a bird wouldn't want to make contact with a human simply to avoid injury to himself: "It's not in the interests of the a magpie to make contact. It could break its neck."'Don't run'Every spring across Australia, signs pop up on lampposts and telephones polls in suburban streets, warning pedestrians they're about to enter a magpie nesting area."Move quickly through the area -- don't run," "Wear a hat or carry an umbrella," "Bike riders -- dismount and walk" read signs put up in the northern Australian state of Queensland.During this time, visitors to Australia might notice people walking around carrying large sticks, or bike riders wearing helmets with a dozen zip ties positioned so they stick up into the air."The common way (for people to avoid swooping) is to grab a big stick and wave it over their heads when they're headed through magpie territory," Maslen, the author, said. "I've noticed several cyclists around here have stalks stuck to their helmets to try to stop the magpies from colliding with them."But Kaplan said increasingly common magpie swoopings aren't a problem which can be solved with weapons or novelty helmets. Widespread land clearing in Australia and increased urbanization has pushed the birds into smaller, more urbanized areas."That's a stress point that has negative repercussions to some extent," Kaplan said. "You can get certain flash points (on) super highways or near highly busy places where the noise and the movement of people has come to such an extent that the magpies are overwhelmed."Both Kaplan and Maslen insisted that when they weren't protecting their nests or being pushed to the limit, Australia's magpies are some of the friendliest, most intelligent birds you could meet.As Kaplan wrote in 2017, "They like to stick together with family and mates, in the good Australian way."
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Manchester (CNN)Manchester United versus Juventus is a mouthwatering fixture on any occasion, but Tuesday's Champions League clash between the European heavyweights offers more than the usual dollop of fascinating subplots.Under the Old Trafford floodlights on Tuesday, Cristiano Ronaldo will return to the stadium where he first made his name, while Paul Pogba will come up against former employers Juventus, a club with whom he won numerous Serie A titles and asserted himself as one of the dominant young midfielders of his generation before making a then world record move to United.Follow @cnnsport
There is, of course, Jose Mourinho too. He is a United manager still under pressure after an uncertain start to the season and a man being linked with a return to Real Madrid, though the Portuguese on Monday denied any interest in returning to the Spanish capital.Real is struggling after three surprise defeats in the league left them stuttering in seventh in La Liga, and reports surfaced Monday that Mourinho, who led Real to the league during his three-season tenure with the club, was favorite to replace Julen Lopetegui. "No. My future is here -- I have a contract and until the final of my contract I only think about Manchester United. I am happy to stay here longer than that," said Mourinho, who is contracted at United until 2020.Read MoreStewards hold back Jose Mourinho as he clashes with the Chelsea backroom staff during Saturday's Premier League match.READ: Mourinho provoked on touchline as Manchester United heldREAD: Juve star urges players to think about life after footballMotivationSo there will be no surprise departure to Spain and neither did Mourinho make an abrupt exit from the press conference, which has been in his repertoire this season, though during Monday's media conference the former Real and Chelsea boss also made it clear he did not want to talk about the narratives of the match which are of interest to most. Ronaldo? He was one of the world's best, Mourinho said, seamlessly mastering the art of stating the obvious.Pogba? Next question, please, was effectively the United boss' response. It has been well documented that Mourinho and Pogba have endured a fractious relationship this season, which perhaps explains his answer to a question about the France World Cup winner."I don't want to speak about individuals or Spanish journalists," Mourinho told reporters."I want to speak about one of the biggest candidates of winning the competition. This is what motivates me, that's what brings me here."If the press conference is going in other directions, I want to go in another direction."JUST WATCHEDPrepping footballers for life after sportReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHPrepping footballers for life after sport 01:47READ: Mamadou Sakho's journey from Paris to the Premier LeagueREAD: Bayern visualize the sound of fans in football's sonic revolution'Special player'United has taken four points from their last two league matches, easing the pressure on a manager whose job was under intense scrutiny after an indifferent start to the season.Mourinho's side is still nine points behind joint Premier League leaders Manchester City and Liverpool, but a late win over Newcastle followed by Saturday's 2-2 against unbeaten Chelsea has stemmed the tide of disapproval.Saturday's draw with Chelsea was a lively affair -- and not just on the pitch.The English Football Association (FA) announced on Monday that Chelsea assistant coach Marco Ianni, who celebrated his sides late equalizer against United in front of the opposing bench -- provoking an angry response from Mourinho -- has been charged with improper conduct.The FA has also "formally reminded" Mourinho of his responsibilities.Paul Pogba moved to Juventus from Manchester United in 2012 before returning to Old Trafford four years later.Visit cnn.com/football for more news and videosVictory over Juventus, runaway leaders in the Italian league and one of the favorites for the Champions League following the summer purchase of Ronaldo, would further ease the pressure on Mourinho."They have a lot to offer and an extra year with the same coach and structure," said Mourinho of Tuesday's opponents."They have won seven titles on the trot and a really special player who makes a real difference. They are more than a contender for the Champions League."Juve tops Group H after two wins from two games, with United two points behind in second.
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Story highlights Ratings agency Fitch downgrades Portugal's debt to junk status Participation in the strike is very high, a union official saysPortugal's government wants to implement unpopular tax hikes and spending cutsPortugal became the third eurozone country to request a bailout in April this yearAll international flights to and from Portugal were canceled Thursday as a general strike over austerity measures caused chaos for the country's transport network.Portugal, which earlier this year became the third of those countries that use the euro to receive a bailout, after Greece and Ireland, is battling to reduce its deficit through a combination of tax hikes and deep cuts to public services.The strike was called last month by two of the country's main unions amid wide public unhappiness over the proposed measures.Rui Oliveira, a spokesman for Portugal's airport authority at Lisbon Airport, told CNN the country's airports were open but no international flights were taking off or landing.Only three domestic flights are scheduled to operate Thursday between Lisbon and the islands of Madeira and the Azores, he said. In total, 481 flights were canceled, 311 of them in the capital, Lisbon.Lisbon's Metro system has closed its doors while only a handful of buses are running in the capital, Portugal's Publico newspaper reports.Those taking part in the action are rallying in Rossio Square, in the heart of Lisbon.Lucia Macau, a spokeswoman for the UGT national labor union, told CNN the strike looked set to be one of the biggest this year."People are very unhappy about all the measures imposed to the country, especially the scale of austerity the budget implies, and cuts ... which are leading to a gradual impoverishment and exploitation of the people -- and that has to be stopped," she said.It was too early to tally up the numbers taking part in the strike, she said, but workers from Portugal's education and health sectors had joined transport employees in the labor stoppage."On the transport system the effects are very big," she said. "It seems this paralysis is affecting the country from north to south."Amavel Alves, coordinator of the transport and communications union FECTRANS, told CNN that participation in the strike was very high.He said 98% of rail workers and 85% of postal workers had walked out, while the Metro in Lisbon and water transport were totally paralyzed.None of the 70 ships that were supposed to dock at Portuguese harbors Thursday had done so, he said, with some remaining out at sea and others going instead to neighboring Spain.Meanwhile, ratings agency Fitch downgraded Portugal's sovereign debt to junk status Thursday, with lower growth expected in light of the "worsened European outlook," it said. "The country's large fiscal imbalances, high indebtedness across all sectors, and adverse macroeconomic outlook mean the sovereign's credit profile is no longer consistent with an investment-grade rating," the agency said.The recession will make the government's deficit-reduction plan more difficult over the next two years, Fitch said, but its commitment to the program is judged to be strong. While Portugal's debt rating was lowered one notch, to BB+ from BBB-, the outlook was negative, meaning the agency believes it could slip still further. Portugal applied to Europe's bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, in April and a €78 billion ($105 billion) bailout was agreed to the following month.Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho promised on taking office in June to tackle Portugal's burgeoning financial crisis, including taking steps to meet the European Union requirements for deficit reduction and revenue hikes in order to receive bailout funds. The austerity budget for 2012 put forward by his center-right government is due to be approved later this month.His predecessor as prime minister, Jose Socrates, stepped down in March after his socialist government was unable to push though austerity measures intended to avoid the need for a bailout.
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Critical flaws in a core networking library powering Valve's online gaming functionality could have allowed malicious actors to remotely crash games and even take control over affected third-party game servers.
"An attacker could remotely crash an opponent's game client to force a win or even perform a 'nuclear rage quit' and crash the Valve game server to end the game completely," Check Point Research's Eyal Itkin noted in an analysis published today. "Potentially even more damaging, attackers could remotely take over third-party developer game servers to execute arbitrary code."
Valve is a popular US-based video game developer and publisher behind the game software distribution platform Steam and several titles such as Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, and Dota.
The four flaws (CVE-2020-6016 through CVE-2020-6019) were uncovered in Valve's Game Networking Sockets (GNS) or Steam Sockets library, an open-sourced networking library that provides a "basic transport layer for games," enabling a mix of UDP and TCP features with support for encryption, greater reliability, and peer-to-peer (P2P) communications.
Steam Sockets is also offered as part of the Steamworks SDK for third-party game developers, with the vulnerabilities found on both Steam servers and on its clients installed on gamers' systems.
The attack hinges on a specific flaw in the packet reassembly mechanism (CVE-2020-6016) and a quirk in C++'s implementation of iterators to send a bunch of malicious packets to a target game server and trigger a heap-based buffer underflow, ultimately causing the server to abort or crash.
Following responsible disclosure to Valve on September 2, 2020, the binary updates containing the fixes were shipped to Valve's game clients and servers on September 17.
But according to Check Point, certain third-party game developers are yet to patch their clients as of December 2.
"Video games have reached an all-time-high during the coronavirus pandemic," Itkin said. "With millions of people currently playing online games, even the slightest security issue can be a serious concern for gaming companies and gamers' privacy. Through the vulnerabilities we found, an attacker could have taken over hundreds of thousands of gamer computers every day, with the victims being completely blind to it."
"Popular online platforms are good harvesting grounds for attackers. Whenever you have millions of users logging into the same place, the power of a strong and reliable exploit raises exponentially."
Check Point said that gamers playing Valve's games through Steam are already protected by the fix, although gamers of third-party games should ensure their game clients received an update in recent months to mitigate the risk associated with the flaw.
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An unnamed 29-year-old man, named by authorities as "Daniel K.," pleaded guilty in a German court on Friday to charges related to the hijacking of more than one Million Deutsche Telekom routers.
According to reports in the German press, the British man, who was using online monikers "Peter Parker" and "Spiderman," linked to domains used to launch cyber attacks powered by the notorious Mirai malware has been pleaded guilty to "attempted computer sabotage."
The suspect was arrested on 22nd February this year at Luton airport in London by Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) at the request of the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany, aka the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA).
The hacker, also known as 'BestBuy,' admitted to the court on Friday that he was behind the cyber attack that knocked more than 1.25 Million customers of German telecommunications provider Deutsche Telekom offline last November.
According to the German authorities, the attack was especially severe and was carried out to compromise the home routers to enrol them in a network of hijacked devices popularly called Botnet, which is being offered for sale on dark web markets for launching DDoS attacks.
Late last year, Deutsche Telekom's routers became infected with a modified version of the Mirai malware – infamous IoT malware which scans for insecure routers, cameras, DVRs, and other IoT devices and enslaves them into a botnet network – causing over a million pounds' worth of damage, the company said at the time.
Mirai is the same botnet that knocked the entire Internet offline last year by launching massive distributed denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against the Dyn DNS provider, crippling some of the world's biggest and most popular websites, including Twitter, Netflix, Amazon, Slack, and Spotify.
Mirai leveraged attack experienced sudden rise after a cyber criminal in October 2016 publicly released the source code of Mirai, which is then used to by many cyber criminals to launch DDoS attacks.
The hacker reportedly told the court that a Liberian internet service provider (ISP) paid him $10,000 to carry out the attack against its competitors., and that Deutsche Telekom was not the main target of his attack.
At the time of his arrest, the suspect faced up to 10 years in prison. He's due to be sentenced on July 28.
The BKA got involved in the investigation as the attack on Deutsche Telekom was deemed to be a threat to the nation's communication infrastructure.
The investigation involved close cooperation between British, German and Cypriot law enforcement agencies, backed by the European Union's law enforcement intelligence agency, Europol, and Eurojust.
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(CNN)At the end of day 12 in Rio, here are today's headlines: (all times local)10:05 - Mo Farah survives stumble to continue his bid for the long distance "double double" in the men's 5000m heats11:50 - Conseslus Kipruto wins gold in the men's 3,000m steeplechase final, extending Kenya's 22-year dominance of the event14:25 - Ryan Lochte robbery saga rumbles on14:55 - Brazil thrashes Honduras in men's football semifinal, sets up final with Germany19:39 - Japanese wrestler, Kaori Icho, becomes first woman to win a gold medal in individual events at four separate Olympics22:15 - Usain Bolt eases into 200m final but Justin Gatlin fails to qualify22:50 - Jamaica's Elaine Thompson wins gold in 200m to add to her 100m title23:00 - Gold for US track and field stars in long jump and 100m hurdles finalsScroll down below for all the action -- and go to cnn.com/olympics for full coverage
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Do you always uncomfortable trusting companies with your data? If so, you're not alone.
While companies do much to protect themselves from external threats, insiders always pose the highest risk to a company's data.
Unfortunately, when we say companies can't eliminate insider threat completely, cybersecurity firms, who are meant to protect others, are not an exception.
Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro has disclosed a security incident this week carried out by an employee who improperly accessed the personal data of thousands of its customers with a "clear criminal intent" and then sold it to a malicious third-party tech support scammers earlier this year.
According to the security company, an estimated number of customers affected by the breach is 68,000, which is less than one percent of the company's 12 million customer base.
Trend Micro first became aware of the incident in early August 2019 when it found that some of its consumer customers were receiving scam calls by criminals impersonating its support employee, which initially led the company to suspect a coordinated attack.
However, a thorough investigation of at least two months into the matter revealed that the incident was not due to an external hack of its systems, rather an insider, who gained access to one of the Trend Micro's customer support databases.
"[It was] the work of a malicious internal source that engaged in a premeditated infiltration scheme to bypass our sophisticated controls," the company said in a blog post published Tuesday.
The stolen database contained Trend Micro consumer customers' names, email addresses, Trend Micro support ticket numbers, and in some instances, phone numbers.
According to the company, the rogue employee did not appear to have stolen any financial or credit card information, and no Trend Micro's business or government customers were affected by the breach.
The investigation also revealed that the rogue employee then sold this information to a "currently unknown" malicious third-party, which resulted in some of its customers receiving scam calls from people impersonating Trend Micro employees.
Though the identity of the rogue employee is still not disclosed, Trend Micro said that it disabled the employee's account and fired the culprit and that it notified law enforcement and is working with them.
As a result, the company is now warning its customers of fake calls, saying that its customer-support staff never calls people "unexpectedly" even if they have purchased its consumer product.
"If a support call is to be made, it will be scheduled in advance," the company said. ". If you receive an unexpected phone call claiming to be from Trend Micro, hang up and report the incident to Trend Micro support using our official contact details."
A separate data breach incident The Hacker News published today also caused due to an insider threat, where two former Twitter employees have been charged with accessing information on thousands of Twitter user accounts on behalf of the Saudi Arabian government.
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Internet-of-things are turning every industry into the computer industry, making customers think that their lives would be much easier with smart devices. However, such devices could potentially be compromised by hackers.
There are, of course, some really good reasons to connect certain devices to the Internet.
But does everything need to be connected? Of course, not—especially when it comes to medical devices.
Medical devices are increasingly found vulnerable to hacking. Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalled 465,000 pacemakers after they were found vulnerable to hackers.
Now, it turns out that a syringe infusion pump used in acute care settings could be remotely accessed and manipulated by hackers to impact the intended operation of the device, ICS-CERT warned in an advisory issued on Thursday.
An independent security researcher has discovered not just one or two, but eight security vulnerabilities in the Medfusion 4000 Wireless Syringe Infusion Pump, which is manufactured by Minnesota-based speciality medical device maker Smiths Medical.
The devices are used across the world for delivering small doses of medication in acute critical care, such as neonatal and pediatric intensive care and the operating room.
Some of these vulnerabilities discovered by Scott Gayou are high in severity that can easily be exploited by a remote attacker to "gain unauthorized access and impact the intended operation of the pump."
According to the ICS-CERT, "Despite the segmented design, it may be possible for an attacker to compromise the communications module and the therapeutic module of the pump."
The most critical vulnerability (CVE-2017-12725) has been given a CVSS score of 9.8 and is related to the use of hard-coded usernames and passwords to automatically establish a wireless connection if the default configuration is not changed.
The high-severity flaws include:
A buffer overflow bug (CVE-2017-12718) that could be exploited for remote code execution on the target device in certain conditions.
Lack of authentication (CVE-2017-12720) if the pump is configured to allow FTP connections.
Presence of hard-coded credentials (CVE-2017-12724) for the pump's FTP server.
Lack of proper host certificate validation (CVE-2017-12721), leaving the pump vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks.
The remaining are medium severity flaws which could be exploited by attackers to crash the communications and operational modules of the device, authenticate to telnet using hard-coded credentials, and obtain passwords from configuration files.
These vulnerabilities impact devices that are running versions 1.1, 1.5 and 1.6 of the firmware, and Smiths Medical has planned to release a new product version 1.6.1 in January 2018 to address these issues.
But in the meantime, healthcare organizations are recommended to apply some defensive measures including assigning static IP addresses to pumps, monitoring network activity for malicious servers, installing the pump on isolated networks, setting strong passwords, and regularly creating backups until patches are released.
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In the previous reports of Cyber Intelligence firm 'IntelCrawler' named Sergey Tarasov, a 17-year-old teenager behind the nickname "ree[4]", as the developer of BlackPOS malware.
BlackPOS also known as "reedum" or 'Kaptoxa' is an effective crimeware kit, used in the massive heist of possibly 110 million consumers' Credit-Debit cards, and personal information from the TARGET.
Later Researchers's investigation revealed that the original coder of BlackPOS Malware was actually a 23-year-old young hacker named Rinat Shabayev and the teen, Sergey Taraspov is the incharge for the technical support department.
In an interview with Russian channel 'LifeNews', Rinat Shabayev admitted that he had developed the BlackPOS crimeware kit. He clarified that the program developed by him was not meant for any kind of data theft, instead the program was written for the security testing.
He developed the malware with the help of another programmer with anonymous identity, whom he had met online. His original plan was just to sell the exploit, not to use it for malicious intent by himself.
His friend took the readymate codes from him and added more features to it. In addition to this information, he also confessed that the exploit can be used for malicious purposes too.
Researchers at IntelCrawler say that the same malware may have also been involved in the Neiman Marcus attack too.
Whatever be the intention of the programmer, but now more than 110 million people are suffering credit card theft because of his software. Even after knowing that the malware has ability to compile a massive financial theft, his justifications are not enough to be innocent.
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Session Race Conditions and Session Puzzling – Now Simplified
A few months ago Shay Chen, Senior Manager at Hacktics Advanced Security Center (HASC) published a paper about Session Puzzling, a new application level attack vector of critical severity and numerous uses, but for some bizarre reasons, most of the responses I got was that the attack was too complicated to comprehend all it once.
Temporal Session Race Conditions (TSRC) is yet another a new application level vulnerability (presented in September 15, 2011, in local OWASP chapter meeting) that extends the capabilities of session puzzling, enables the exploitation of race conditions without latency and provides a new purpose for application denial of service attack.
The attack generally extends the lifespan of temporary session variables (session calculations and assignments with a lifespan of milliseconds) by increasing the latency of the following lines of code through the use of specific layer targeted denial of service attacks.
This time Shay Chen have created several demonstration movies in order to properly explain the exposures (The new TSRC exposure and Session Puzzling), and in addition, published a presentation, a test assisting tool and a new version of the training kit.
The demonstration movies, presentation can be found in the puzzlemall project homepage, and there's a post in his blog that explains the whole subject:
The project home page (presentation, whitepaper, training kit)
The following movies demonstrate a few simple TSRC attacks:
Exploiting Temporal Session Race Conditions via Connection Pool Consumption
Exploiting Temporal Session Race Conditions via RegEx DoS
The following short movies demonstrate a few simple session puzzling sequences
Authentication Bypass via Session Puzzling (Abusing common session variables)
User Impersonation via Session Puzzling (Abusing common session variables)
Session Puzzling via Redirection Prevention (Abusing Premature Session Population)
Bypassing Restrictions in Multiphase Processes via Session Puzzling (Abusing Common Session Flags)
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British Police have arrested a second teenage boy in relation to the major hack on the servers of UK-based telco 'TalkTalk' last week.
On Monday, a 15-year-old boy (first arrest) from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, was arrested in connection with the TalkTalk Data Breach.
On Thursday, The Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit (MPCCU) arrested this second unnamed 16-year-old boy from Feltham in west London on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences.
Latest TalkTalk Data breach put the Bank details and Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of millions of customers at risk, including:
Nearly 21,000 Bank Accounts
Almost 28,000 obscured Credit and Debit card details
Less than 15,000 customer dates of birth
Names, Email Addresses, and Phone Numbers of 1.2 Million Customers
TalkTalk has confessed that "Not all of the data was encrypted"... yeah, its' too bad.
However, "Investigations so far show that the information that may have been accessed is not enough on its own to take money from your bank account," the company claimed.
"Starting today, we are writing to all customers who have been affected by this to let them know what information has been accessed.", TalkTalk said in a statement.
As advised earlier, the affected TalkTalk customers are highly recommended to change their passwords as soon as possible and keep an eye on their bank accounts over the next few months.
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Cybersecurity researchers have opened the lid on the continued resurgence of the insidious Trickbot malware, making it clear that the Russia-based transnational cybercrime group is working behind the scenes to revamp its attack infrastructure in response to recent counter efforts from law enforcement.
"The new capabilities discovered are used to monitor and gather intelligence on victims, using a custom communication protocol to hide data transmissions between [command-and-control] servers and victims — making attacks difficult to spot," Bitdefender said in a technical write-up published Monday, suggesting an increase in sophistication of the group's tactics.
"Trickbot shows no sign of slowing down," the researchers noted.
Botnets are formed when hundreds or thousands of hacked devices are enlisted into a network run by criminal operators, which are often then used to launch denial-of-network attacks to pummel businesses and critical infrastructure with bogus traffic with the aim of knocking them offline. But with control of these devices, malicious actors can also use botnets to spread malware and spam, or to deploy file-encrypting ransomware on the infected computers.
Trickbot is no different. The notorious cybercrime gang behind the operation — dubbed Wizard Spider — has a track record of exploiting the infected machines to steal sensitive information, pivot laterally across a network, and even become a loader for other malware, such as ransomware, while constantly improving their infection chains by adding modules with new functionality to increase its effectiveness.
"TrickBot has evolved to use a complex infrastructure that compromises third-party servers and uses them to host malware," Lumen's Black Lotus Labs disclosed last October. "It also infects consumer appliances such as DSL routers, and its criminal operators constantly rotate their IP addresses and infected hosts to make disruption of their crime as difficult as possible."
The botnet has since survived two takedown attempts by Microsoft and the U.S. Cyber Command, with the operators developing firmware meddling components that could allow the hackers to plant a backdoor in the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), enabling it to evade antivirus detection, software updates, or even a total wipe and reinstallation of the computer's operating system.
Now according to Bitdefender, the threat actor has been found actively developing an updated version of a module called "vncDll" that it employs against select high-profile targets for monitoring and intelligence gathering. The new version has been named "tvncDll."
The new module is designed to communicate with one of the nine command-and-control (C2) servers defined in its configuration file, using it to retrieve a set of attack commands, download more malware payloads, and exfiltrate gathered from the machine back to the server. Additionally, the researchers said they identified a "viewer tool," which the attackers use to interact with the victims through the C2 servers.
That's not all. A separate report published by Cofense this week discovered fresh evidence of the botnet targeting companies in the retail, building materials, manufacturing, insurance, and construction industries with phishing emails containing invoice-themed Word documents to trigger a "fine-tuned workflow for stealing credentials."
While efforts to squash the gang's operations may not have been entirely successful, Microsoft told The Daily Beast that it worked with internet service providers (ISPs) to go door-to-door replacing routers compromised with the Trickbot malware in Brazil and Latin America, and that it effectively pulled the plug on Trickbot infrastructure in Afghanistan.
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Story highlightsDavid De Gea pens four-year deal with Manchester UnitedThe Spain international's previous contract was due to expire next summerDe Gea had been set to join Real Madrid, only for the deal to collapseThe goalkeeper could make his first appearance of the season against Liverpool (CNN)For a moment, David De Gea was all set for Real Madrid -- now he's on course for four more years at Manchester United.Follow @cnnsport
Just last week De Gea looked to be on his way to the Spanish capital, only for his move to collapse dramatically in the closing moments of the transfer window.The goalkeeper's contract was set to expire next summer -- meaning Real could have potentially snapped him up then on a free transfer -- but the Spain international has now committed himself to United until 2019, with the option of extending for a further year.According to reports, his salary has been raised by £160,000 a week to £200,000 a week, having previously been on £40,000 a week.De Gea's agent Jorge Mendes was pictured at United's Carrington training ground Thursday as the final details of the goalkeeper's deal were finalized.Read MoreDavid De Gea has signed a new four-year contract at #mufc with an option to extend for a further year. pic.twitter.com/Z3JuQOaNEi— Manchester United (@ManUtd) September 11, 2015
"I am delighted to be starting this new chapter in my United career," De Gea told the club's official website. "I have always enjoyed playing with these great players in front of our fantastic fans. Manchester United is a special club and Old Trafford is an ideal place for me to continue to develop my career."With De Gea having been linked with a move to Real for the entire summer, United boss Louis van Gaal opted to drop the Spain international from the club's opening games of the season, believing the saga had distracted him.New signing Sergio Romero has instead started for the Red Devils up to now, but De Gea is hopeful of turning things around at United following a tough few months."I'm looking forward to putting a difficult summer behind me and concentrating on working hard to improve and help my teammates to be successful," De Gea added.I feel proud to announce that I'll continue with you and @manutd. Thanks for your unconditional support! pic.twitter.com/I6J7XGHKe2— David De Gea (@D_DeGea) September 11, 2015
Van Gaal, who had said throughout the summer that he wanted to keep hold of the player, is pleased that everyone at the club can now put this chapter behind them."I am absolutely delighted David has signed a new contract," he said. "He is one of the best goalkeepers in world football. I am very pleased that he will be part of the team for many years to come. "David made a very important contribution to our performance last season and he has been the club's Player of the Year for the last two seasons. "He is a popular player who is keen to learn and enhance his game. At such a young age for a goalkeeper, he has many years ahead of him."De Gea, who played for Spain in Tuesday's 1-0 win over Macedonia, could now his make his first United appearance of the season when it welcomes Liverpool to Old Trafford Saturday.The goalkeeper has so far made 175 appearances for United since joining the club from Atletico Madrid in 2011 in a $29.2 million deal.Read: Real blames United in De Gea transfer
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(CNN)Two months ago, Denmark was riding high. The European nation lifted all remaining domestic coronavirus restrictions as the government declared Covid-19 was no longer "an illness which is a critical threat to society."With a successful vaccine rollout in their back pocket, Danes essentially returned to pre-pandemic daily life. They visited nightclubs and restaurants without showing a "Covid passport," used public transport without having to wear a mask and met in large numbers without restrictions.The optimism of mid-September has been short-lived.Denmark, like many countries across Europe, is now considering whether to reinstate restrictions as the continent battles a surge of Covid-19 cases that has pushed the region back into the epicenter of the pandemic.Large swathes of Europe are battling to beat back surges of the Delta variant amid the relaxation of restrictions and stuttering vaccine rollouts in some countries, with the WHO warning half a million Europeans could die of Covid-19 in a potentially devastating winter.Read MoreIn the space of a few months, Europe's Covid-19 fortunes have shifted dramatically. By the end of the summer, many countries had done away with tough restrictions after nations particularly in the west of the bloc charged ahead with vaccination programs and cases plummeted.Now as other parts of the world reopen, Europe could again be facing a winter of renewed clampdowns. 50,000 people attend a concert at Copenhagen's Parken Stadium on September 11. Repeat restrictions On Monday the Danish government proposed reintroducing a digital "corona pass" -- used as proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test -- for entering bars and restaurants, as the country faces a third wave of infections, Reuters reported.The measure will be subject to parliamentary approval. But it comes against the urgent new backdrop of steadily rising cases -- from a low of just over 200 daily infections in mid-September to around 2,300 in recent days.Denmark is not alone. Austria this week banned unvaccinated people from restaurants and hotels amid a surge in cases. And Iceland reintroduced masks and social-distancing rules following a rise. The US is reopening its borders to Europe, the global epicenter of Covid-19 Elsewhere, Germany's incidence rate is breaking records on a daily basis. On Tuesday the country recorded its highest seven-day infection rate since the pandemic began, with 213.7 cases per 100,000 people, according to the country's Robert Koch Institute of infectious diseases (RKI). In some eastern German states, like Saxony and Thuringia, the incident rate has been more than double that, at over 400.And on Tuesday French President Emmanuel Macron was set to address the nation amid a surge in cases -- his first major TV speech since July when he announced mandatory vaccinations for all health workers.The United Kingdom has also been battling a stubborn streak of new infections, months after "Freedom Day" celebrations at the end of July marked the removal of almost all Covid-19 restrictions. Though unlike its European neighbors, the UK has no plans to reinstate restrictions any time soon, including mandatory mask wearing.Vaccine roll on and on Denmark's rise in case comes after a successful vaccine rollout, with 88.3% of its adult population fully vaccinated, according to the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC). On Monday, Health Minister Magnus Heunicke tried to put Denmark's fortunes in the wider context of Europe's ongoing battle with Covid-19. "Several European countries are now in the middle of their fourth wave of corona," Heunicke said during a televised briefing, Reuters reported. "In Denmark we are heading into our third corona wave."Pfizer expected to seek authorization for coronavirus vaccine booster for people age 18 and olderThe European Union as a whole has been a world leader on inoculations, with 75% of adults fully vaccinated, according to the ECDC. But the rollout has been extremely unequal across the bloc; on the eastern side, Romania and Bulgaria have fully vaccinated only 40% and 27% of their adults, respectively.Now countries are increasingly turning their attention to booster shots in an effort to halt the virus' spread over the winter months, and the prospect of unpopular restrictions over the Christmas period.Germany and Austria have offered booster shots for everyone six months after receiving their second shot. France has begun administering booster shots to its over-65s, those with underlying health conditions and carers. The United Kingdom, meanwhile has already administered more than 10 million top-up jabs, Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted this week. With additional reporting from Reuters. CNN's Inke Kappeler contributed to this report.
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Story highlightsScotland's Sam Torrance and Irishman Des Smyth named as first European vice captainsCaptain Paul McGinley says he will wait for team line up before naming remaining vice captainsBoth Torrance and Smyth have won the competition beforeOpening day's play at WGC Championship suspended by dangerous weatherIn the heat of battle, it's best to have your key allies closest to you and European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley has certainly done that by naming two close friends as his vice-captains. His decision was eased by knowing that both Sam Torrance and Des Smyth have previously played major roles in leading Europe to victory. The Irishman now hopes they can do the same when the Europeans seek to defend the trophy at Gleneagles in Scotland in September. Read: How player power promoted McGinley to captaincyMcGinley's compatriot Smyth was one of Ian Woosnam's vice captains in 2006 when Europe recorded their largest home victory -- by 18½ points to 9½ -- at the K Club in Ireland. Torrance, meanwhile, was an unforgettable skipper as he inspired Europe to a 15½-12½ victory at The Belfry in England in 2002. JUST WATCHEDPaul McGinley takes on Ryder Cup courseReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHPaul McGinley takes on Ryder Cup course 06:40JUST WATCHEDTorrance: My top tips for McGinleyReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHTorrance: My top tips for McGinley 01:15JUST WATCHEDMcGinley: Ryder Cup role is an honorReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHMcGinley: Ryder Cup role is an honor 04:04JUST WATCHEDGolf mythbusters: Spinning with the wedgeReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHGolf mythbusters: Spinning with the wedge 02:22JUST WATCHEDASU's life lessons for budding golfersReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHASU's life lessons for budding golfers 04:24JUST WATCHEDIs Matt Fitzpatrick ready for the Masters?ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHIs Matt Fitzpatrick ready for the Masters? 06:15JUST WATCHEDCould there ever be a golf World Tour?ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHCould there ever be a golf World Tour? 06:30Neither the Scot nor McGinley will ever forget the success since it was the Irishman himself who sunk the winning putt on his Ryder Cup debut. "Paul was a special part of my team at The Belfry in 2002 and he knows I will do everything possible to help him and the team at Gleneagles," Torrance, 60, said in a statement. "Everyone knows how much The Ryder Cup has meant to me over my career so I am absolutely delighted to be involved once again." A veteran of 11 Ryder Cups, Torrance has won the competition three times -- twice as a player and once as a captain. Smyth, 61, is a relative newcomer by comparison, having lost both competitions he contested as a player in 1979 and 1981 prior to the stunning turnaround in fortunes when vice captain eight years ago. However, he does have the advantage of having known McGinley, now 47, since the Irishman was a teenager. Read: 2014 Ryder Cup -- a tale of two captains"As well as being good friends, (Smyth and Torrance) are two guys I greatly admire both personally and professionally and I know they will be vital assets to me in Scotland," McGinley said."They were the first two people I had in mind for this role when I was appointed captain and, since then, I have talked to a lot of the experienced European players about having them as part of the team and, to a man, they have been very supportive of the idea."Des took me under his wing when I was a young rookie on Tour and gave me tremendous advice which was not only valuable then but has continued to ring true for me throughout my professional career. "His views and ideas about The Ryder Cup particularly have consistently proved to be spot on and I really enjoyed working with him as a vice captain in 2006 when I was a player." McGinley added that he is spoiled for choice when it comes to his other vice captains but he will only name them once he learns who has qualified automatically for the European team in September. Among the possible candidates are Thomas Bjorn of Denmark and Spanish duo Miguel Angel Jimenez and Jose Maria Olazabal, who captained Europe to victory in 2012. "It's quite clear a lot of potential further vice captains could more than likely qualify for the team," said McGinley."A lot of them would still like to make the team so I just don't want to distract them by talking about Ryder Cup and so they can focus on making the side."Tom Watson, the captain of the American team, has also already unveiled two of his vice captains: Raymond Floyd, 71, and Andy North, 63. WGC's Monstrous StartMeanwhile, the opening action of the WGC Championship was suspended after dangerous weather affected the first day at the Blue Monster course at Doral. American Jason Dufner had been top of the leaderboard, five under par after 10 holes, before the combination of a tornado watch and violent thunderstorms prompted a halt in play. World No. 2 Adam Scott, who can replace Tiger Woods at the top of the rankings with victory, was level par -- with Woods, the defending champion, one over -- after both had gone through six holes.
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(CNN)Tennis player Alison Van Uytvanck will be one of the first to admit that coming out isn't easy, but she says that if more people in the game did so, it would be easier for others."We [would like to] see more people coming forward and saying 'It's OK.' I think people would have more confidence," Van Uytvanck told The Guardian after her doubles match at Wimbledon on Wednesday, which she played with her off-court partner of three years, Greet Minnen. The Belgians are the first openly lesbian couple to team up in doubles at Wimbledon, but they aren't the first to play the game. Legends Billie Jean King was outed in 1981, and Martina Navratilova came out as bisexual the same year. In the men's game, openly LGBTQ players are even more rare. Brian Vahaly, who retired in 2007, came out only after he finished playing. Van Uytvanck and Minnen said that sponsorship loss may be a reason why more men don't come out, as well as the difficulties of playing in countries that may not be friendly toward LGBTQ people. Read More"There must be some gay men [actively playing] out there. For me personally, [if I were] a man, it would be more difficult to come out" because of the stereotypes, Van Uytvanck said. Van Uytvanck and Minnen play again Friday, against No. 9 seeds Hao-Ching Chan and Latisha Chan.
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Unlike Google Play Store, Apple App Store is well known for not allowing any malformed apps to enter its Apple ecosystem because of its tight security checks.
But, not anymore.
Hundreds of malicious apps managed to get hosted on Apple's official App store and subsequently downloaded by several hundred Million iPad and iPhone owners. Out of them, Palo Alto Networks published a list of 39 malicious yet legitimate apps that made ways to the App Store.
First Major Malware Attack on Apple's App Store
Yes, Apple App Store is targeted by a malware attack in which some versions of software used by software developers to build their apps for iOS and OS X were infected with malware, named XcodeGhost.
XcodeGhost secretly sniffs off data from customer's device and uploads it to the attacker's servers without the user's knowledge, according to security firm Palo Alto Networks.
Apps were infected after developers used a malicious version of the Xcode — Apple's developer toolkit used to develop iOS and Mac OS X apps.
Xcode is downloaded directly from Apple for free as well as from other sources such as developer forums. Chinese file-sharing service Baidu Yunpan offers some versions of Xcode that contains extra lines of code.
These malicious variants of Xcode have been dubbed as XcodeGhost by AliBaba researchers.
Affected Applications
A total of 39 apps, including the popular instant messaging app WeChat, Chinese Uber-like cab service Didi Kuaidi, music streaming service NetEase, photo editor Perfect365 and card scanning tool CamCard, were found to be infected by the malicious Xcode.
Not just China, Apple users outside China are also affected by the malware. The mainstay WinZip decompression app, Musical.ly, and the Mercury Browser are also among the affected apps.
The Imapct Of XcodeGhost?
Once installed, the malicious app contains dangerous XcodeGhost code prompt fake alerts to:
Phish user credentials
Hijack URLs
Read and Write data, such as victims' iCloud passwords
Infect other apps using iOS
Researchers believe XcodeGhost is a very harmful and dangerous piece of malware that successfully bypassed Apple's code review as well as made "unprecedented attacks on the iOS ecosystem."
The technique used in the malware attack could be exploited by cyber criminals and espionage groups in order to gain access to victims' iOS devices.
UPDATE
Apple has removed more than 300 malware-infected apps from its App Store after a counterfeit version of its developer tool kit allowed many Chinese apps to leak users' personal data to hackers.
"We've removed the apps from the app store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software," Apple spokesperson Christine Monaghan told Guardian. "We are working with the developers to make sure they're using the proper version of Xcode to rebuild their apps."
Read More:
With Its First Android app, Apple tried to Kill Android Community, But Failed Badly!
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SAHER HoneyNet : A Tunisian Honeynet Project
A honeynet is a network set up with intentional vulnerabilities; its purpose is to invite attack, so that an attacker's activities and methods can be studied and that information used to increase network security. A honeynet contains one or more honey pots, which are computer systems on the Internet expressly set up to attract and "trap" people who attempt to penetrate other people's computer systems. Although the primary purpose of a honeynet is to gather information about attackers' methods and motives, the decoy network can benefit its operator in other ways, for example by diverting attackers from a real network and its resources.
The Tunisian honeynet project "Saher-HoneyNet" is an initiative launched by the Tunisian CERT, in order to mitigate threats related to malicious traffic in order to improve the national cyberspace security by ensuring preventive and response measures to deal with malware infections.
The Honeynet Project, a non-profit research organization dedicated to computer security and information sharing, actively promotes the deployment of honeynets.
The first research activities started in 2004, by deploying few honeyd sensors and testing new detection and prevention techniques to come up with a very powerful detection platform by the year 2008 as more resources are invested in the project. Now, the Tunisian honeynet project is a part of the Tunisian cyber early warning system "SAHER" created to deal with all cyber threats and to coordinate with the international community.
This project involves all the cyberspace stakeholders, including the government, ISPs, Telcos, and critical information infrastructure, providing them coordination with tools for the detection; procedures to share information and technologies to clean-up the cyberspace and track malicious sources.
[Source]
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Stuxnet's Son "Duqu" Removal Tool released by Bitdefender
Rootkit.Duqu is a new e-threat that combines the technology of the military-grade Stuxnet with an advanced keylogger and backdoor application. Due to its rootkit technology, the piece of malware can stay hidden from the user, the operating system's defense mechanism and even from regular antivirus utilities.Just like its predecessor – the Stuxnet rootkit - Rootkit.Duqu.A is digitally signed with a stolen digital certificate that has been revoked in the meantime. This allows it to install itself on both 32- and 64-bit operating systems on Windows platforms ranging from Windows XP to Windows 7. The Duqu rootkit runs on the computer for 36 days and collects any kind of information entered via the keyboard, including passwords, e-mail or IM conversations. After the "surveillance" period ends, the rootkit gracefully removes itself from the system, along with the keylogger component.
Rootkit malware is extremely difficult to detect, as it manages to subvert the operating system before it is fully loaded. Rootkit removal can be challenging even for some antivirus solutions, so manual removal is not recommended. We offer a free and fully automated removal tool that takes care of everything for you.
You only have to download and run it on the system, then reboot the PC if infection is found. Here is a complete rundown of the steps you need to take:
1. Download the Duqu_Removal_Tool.zip (.zip file), then double-click on it chose "Extract all files..." from the File menu, and follow the wizard's instructions. You can use any other decompression utility, like WinZip.
2. Navigate to the folder you have extracted the tool in, find the file called Duqu_Removal_tool.exe and double-click on it. Press the Scan button and let the removal tool scan your PC.
3. If you have Windows Vista with User Access Control enabled, or if you are running as a restricted user in Windows XP, right click the Duqu_Removal_tool.exe program and choose "Run as Administrator". You will be prompted to enter credentials for an admin account.
4. Press the OK button when the removal tool asks for a reboot.
5. If you don't already have permanent antivirus protection or if your current antivirus has failed you, consider using the advanced protection tool provided by BitDefender.
Download Rootkit.Duqu.A Removal Tool
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A serious security vulnerability has been uncovered in Apple's Safari web browser that could trick Safari users into visiting a malicious website with the genuine web address.
A group of researchers, known as Deusen, has demonstrated how the address spoofing vulnerability could be exploited by hackers to fool victim into thinking they are visiting a trusted website when actually the Safari browser is connected to an entirely different address.
This flaw could let an attacker lead Safari users to a malicious site instead of a trusted website they willing to connect to install malicious software and steal their login credentials.
The vulnerability was discovered by the same group who reported a Universal Cross Site Scripting (XSS) flaw in all the latest patched versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer in February this year that put IE users' credentials and other sensitive information at risk.
The group recently published a proof-of-concept exploit code that makes the Safari web browser to display the Daily Mail's website (dailymail.co.uk) although the browser is displaying the contents from deusen.co.uk.
The POC works on fully patched versions of Apple's mobile operating system (iOS) as well as desktop operating system (OS X).
What's even worse?
The vulnerability could be exploited by hackers to launch highly credible phishing attacks or hijack users' accounts on any website.
Instead of Daily Mail website, a hacker could use a bank website and then inject a rogue form asking the user for private financial information.
Based on a quick analysis, the demo page appears to force Safari user to visit the daily mail URL, as you can see in the browser's user interface. The script quickly loads another URL before the page can be loaded.
The script looks like the following:
<script> function f() { location="dailymail.co.uk/home/index.htm…"+Math.random(); } setInterval("f()",10); </script>
At this point, Apple has not confirmed that whether the vulnerability is actively exploited by the cyber criminals in the wild. However, Apple has yet to comment on the issue.
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Intel CPU Vulnerability can provide control of your system to attacker
The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has disclosed a flaw in Intel chips that could allow hackers to gain control of Windows and other operating systems.
The flaw has already been exploited on 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows 7, FreeBSD, NetBSD and there's a chance Apple's OS X may also be vulnerable.
The flaw was disclosed the vulnerability in a security advisory released this week. Attackers could execute malicious code via kernel privileges or launch a local privilege escalation attack.
VMware's virtualization software is not affected, and neither are AMD's processors, as they do not use the SYSRET instruction whose incorrect handling causes the flaw or handle it differently.Many of the affected vendors have already pushed out an update that defuses the flaw.
However, it said that while 32-bit operating systems are safe, "Intel CPUs that use the Intel 64 extension need the security patches released by Microsoft in their MS12-042 security bulletin."
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India-linked highly targeted mobile malware campaign, first unveiled two weeks ago, has been found to be part of a broader campaign targeting multiple platforms, including windows devices and possibly Android as well.
As reported in our previous article, earlier this month researchers at Talos threat intelligence unit discovered a group of Indian hackers abusing mobile device management (MDM) service to hijack and spy on a few targeted iPhone users in India.
Operating since August 2015, the attackers have been found abusing MDM service to remotely install malicious versions of legitimate apps, including Telegram, WhatsApp, and PrayTime, onto targeted iPhones.
These modified apps have been designed to secretly spy on iOS users, and steal their real-time location, SMS, contacts, photos and private messages from third-party chatting applications.
During their ongoing investigation, Talos researchers identified a new MDM infrastructure and several malicious binaries – designed to target victims running Microsoft Windows operating systems – hosted on the same infrastructure used in previous campaigns.
Ios-update-whatsapp[.]com (new)
Wpitcher[.]com
Ios-certificate-update.com
"We know that the MDM and the Windows services were up and running on the same C2 server in May 2018," researchers said in a blog post published today.
"Some of the C2 servers are still up and running at this time. The Apache setup is very specific, and perfectly matched the Apache setup of the malicious IPA apps."
Possible Connections with "Bahamut Hacking Group"
Besides this, researchers also found some potential similarities that link this campaign with an old hacking group, dubbed "Bahamut," an advanced threat actor who was previously targeting Android devices using similar MDM technique as used in the latest iOS malware campaign.
The newly identified MDM infrastructure, which was created in January 2018, and used from January to March of this year, targeted two Indian devices and one located in Qatar with a British phone number.
According to the researchers, Bahamut also targeted similar Qatar-based individuals during their Android malware campaign, as detailed by Bellingcat in a blog post.
"Bahamut shared a domain name with one of the malicious iOS applications mentioned in our previous post," researchers said.
"The new MDM platform we identified has similar victimology with Middle Eastern targets, namely Qatar, using a U.K. mobile number issued from LycaMobile. Bahamut targeted similar Qatar-based individuals during their campaign."
Apart from distributing modified Telegram and WhatsApp apps with malicious functionalities, the newly-identified server also distributes modified versions of Safari browser and IMO video chatting app to steal more personal information on victims.
Attackers Using Malicious Safari Browser to Steal Login Credentials
According to the researchers, the malicious Safari browser has been pre-configured to automatically exfiltrate the username and the password of the users for a variety of other web services, Yahoo, Rediff, Amazon, Google, Reddit, Baidu, ProtonMail, Zoho, Tutanota and more.
"The malware continuously monitors a web page, seeking out the HTML form fields that hold the username and password as the user types them in to steal credentials. The names of the inspected HTML fields are embedded into the app alongside the domain names," the researchers said.
The malicious browser contains three malicious plugins—Add Bookmark, Add To Favourites, and Add to Reading List—that just like the other apps, send stolen data to a remote attacker-controlled server.
At this time, it's unclear who is behind the campaign, who was targeted in the campaign, and what were the motives behind the attack, but the technical elements suggest the attackers are operating from India, and are well-funded.
Researchers said that those infected with this kind of malware need to enroll their devices, which means "they should be on the lookout at all times to avoid accidental enrollment."
The best way to avoid being a victim to such attacks is to always download apps from official app store.
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(CNN)After a season of disappointments and consistently playing catchup to Mercedes, for Ferrari there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.Charles Leclerc drove brilliantly to earn pole position for the third time in his fledgling career, with teammate Sebastian Vettel qualifying in second to secure a front row lockout for the Italian manufacturer in Belgium.The young Monegasque driver was streets ahead of the competition, finishing more than seven-tenths of a second ahead of Vettel and Lewis Hamilton in third.Ferrari is without a Grand Prix win in the 12 races so far this season -- with a totally dominant Mercedes winning 10 of those -- and it has been the Red Bull of Max Verstappen that has provided Mercedes' biggest challenge in recent weeks."It felt good, the first sector wasn't quite what we wanted, but from the second corner onwards we were very strong and it felt amazing," Leclerc told Sky Sports. "We need to work on our race pace a bit, but I think we should be strong tomorrow."Read MoreDespite Ferrari's success, more questions are likely to be asked of Vettel's performance and how the four-time world champion finished so far behind his junior teammate.READ: Formula One returns -- Can anyone catch Lewis Hamilton?READ: Ferrari youngster Charles Leclerc dreams of 'becoming world champion'Charles Leclerc, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton completed the top three in qualifying at Spa.It has now been more than a year since the German won a race, coming this time last season at Spa, though despite admitting his final qualifying laps were a "mess" he still pipped Hamilton to second place by just 0.015 seconds.It was a chaotic qualifying session that saw drivers queuing up to start their flying laps and at one stage, Hamilton had to brake sharply to avoid swerving into the back of teammate Valtteri Bottas."In the end it's good we secured the first row," Vettel told Sky Sports. "I was in the queue which doesn't help but no excuses, we look forward to the race tomorrow and we have good pace in the car -- it was much better today."That Hamilton was even able to compete on Saturday was a miracle in itself, after a big crash in the final practice session left his car heavily damaged and in need of serious repairs.The Brit paid tribute to the team in his garage that managed to get his car race ready so quickly."FP3 (third practice) was a terrible session for me and of course it's painful because you know how many worked to build those parts and who many people put the car together," Hamilton told Sky Sports. "But my guys back in the garage are faultless, always give 100% and I'm so grateful to them for getting me back out here. I was trying to pay them back with a good qualifying session," he said.He added: "Ferrari have done a great job today but I hope we can bring the fight to them tomorrow."It's the second time this season Ferrari has had a front row lockout; in Bahrain, Leclerc was denied certain victory when his car lost power with just a few laps remaining.The 21-year-old will be hoping the third time is the charm as he bids for a first-ever Grand Prix win in Formula One.
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Story highlightsThe US allowed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements"There's one president at a time," Rhodes saidWashington (CNN)Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes denied Friday that President Barack Obama was trying to "get back" at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by abstaining from a controversial UN Security Council vote condemning Israeli settlements."Absolutely not," Rhodes told CNN's Jim Acosta on "The Situation Room." "Bipartisan policy of the US government for decades has been to oppose settlements. The reason we took this step is because for years, we've seen an acceleration in the growth of these settlements. And frankly, if these current trends continue, the two-state solution is going to be impossible. The peace that people say that they want, that we badly want for the people of Israel -- a secure Israel living side-by-side a Palestinian state -- that goal will become impossible."The United States allowed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements, defying pressure from the Israeli government, which had reached out to President-elect Donald Trump for help in pressuring the Obama administration to veto the vote. The Security Council approved the resolution 14-0, with the US abstaining.Asked what the White House would say to Israeli officials who believe the US does not have their back, Rhodes said, "It's just not backed up by the record. We just concluded a $38 billion tenure (memorandum of understanding) for security assistance to Israel." Read MoreRhodes said the resolution also condemns the incitement of violence, "which we've seen too often in Palestinian territory, which is also an impediment of peace. So, we made clear the responsibility is on both sides -- the Palestinians to stop terrorism, to stop the incitement of violence, and the Israeli government to not continue with settlements that will make peace impossible." Reaction immediately followed the vote, with Palestinians cheering but harsh criticism coming from both Republicans and Democrats. Netanyahu's office harshly criticized the Obama administration, accusing it of "colluding" at the UN to force the vote while also publicly saying the Israeli leader looked forward to working with Trump.On Thursday, CNN reported the Israeli government reached out to Trump, to help pressure the Obama administration on the vote. Rhodes said having Trump get involved in the matter before he's sworn in was "unusual." "After January 20, he will be responsible for the conduct of American policy. Until January 20, President Obama is. That's how it works. There's one president at a time," Rhodes said.
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Hackers are focusing on vulnerabilities in the PHP web application development platform threatening 80% websites in the world, including many big website i.e. Facebook and Wikipedia. PHP has several predefined variables that are called SuperGlobals i.e. POST, GET, COOKIES, FILES etc.
Imperva Releases Hacker Intelligence Initiative Report, particularly concerned about two vulnerabilities that can be used to execute code on servers running PHP and fail to stop PHP SuperGlobal parameter variables being modified by external sources.
Dubbed as CVE-2011-2505, describes a vulnerability in the authentication feature in PhpMyAdmin (PMA) that enables attackers to modify the _SESSION SuperGlobal variable.
CVE-2010-3065 describes a problem in the PHP's session serialization mechanism. By injecting malicious value into an internal variable using PHP's Superglobal mechanism, the attacker is able to change the application flow and execute arbitrary commands to take control over the server.
"Because compromised hosts can be used as botnet slaves to attack other servers, exploits against PHP applications can affect the general security and health of the entire web,"
Vulnerability is particularly dangerous due to the common use of PHP and could be used by hackers for a variety of purposes. "The effects of these attacks can be great, as the PHP platform is by far the most popular Web application development platform, powering more than 80% of all Web sites, including Facebook and Wikipedia. Clearly, it is time for the security community to devote more attention to this issue."
They note that PHP applications do not protect against the modification of variables from external sources, such as query parameters or cookies.
The attacker can combine the two separate vulnerabilities to extend the scope of the flaws. "Based on the captured malicious traffic, we were able to trace its origin and find the specific exploit code used to generate it in a hacker forum on the web."
Imperva's research team noted an average of 144 attacks per application that contained attack vectors related to SuperGlobal parameters, for the purpose of remote code execution, remote file inclusion and security filter evasion attacks.
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(CNN)The police chief in Springfield, Missouri, has apologized to the city's sexual assault victims and ordered changes in how the department handles sex crimes cases. The reaction follows a CNN investigation into rape kit destruction that highlighted the agency's practices, which experts called "disturbing." Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams offered the apology in a video posted on social media and invited victims to contact him if they felt their assaults were "not investigated appropriately."He told local journalists that the department will no longer give sex crimes victims a 10-day deadline to respond to investigators or face the closure of their cases. He also pledged that the department would stop giving victims so-called prosecution declination waivers, a practice long discouraged by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. CNN found Springfield officers gave victims these forms soon after they reported being assaulted and before investigations were complete, effectively ending cases.JUST WATCHEDVictim: Destroying my rape kit tells me I don't matterReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHVictim: Destroying my rape kit tells me I don't matter 08:00The CNN investigation "Destroyed," which published Thursday, revealed that 25 law enforcement agencies in 14 states destroyed 400 rape kits tied to cases in which the statutes of limitations were still running or there was no time limit to prosecute. Read MoreThe number is likely higher. CNN surveyed 207 law enforcement agencies; there are an estimated 17,000 in the country. CNN's analysis was based on records provided by the departments that reported destroying kits.Read: How CNN reported its investigationSpringfield stood out among other departments for the volume and variety of investigative mistakes that led to the disposal of evidence and how quickly kits were destroyed. Police in the state's third largest city discarded 108 rape kits since 2010 while a prosecution was still viable under the law. Of those kits, 75% were never tested for DNA. Dozens of untested kits were destroyed in a year or less after victims reported being assaulted. At the time the cases were reported, there was no statute of limitations on prosecuting forcible rape or forcible sodomy in Missouri. The shortest time limit for any other felony was three years.Williams did not respond to CNN's request for comment on his plans to reform some practices. Springfield police chief Paul Williams reacted to CNN's investigation by saying he would make changes in how sexual assault investigations are handled. CNN found that the department had a practice of pressuring victims and rushing cases to a close. The department mailed letters to victims soon after they reported they were assaulted -- sometimes on the same day that detectives were assigned to investigate. Those letters gave them 10 days to engage with an investigator. If they did not respond, police closed their cases and labeled the victims uncooperative. The victims had already given statements to patrol officers and undergone rape exams, actions that experts said strongly demonstrated a desire for the assaults to be investigated.One expert who examined Springfield case files decried the practices as "old fashioned" and "horrendous.""You're not serious about solving rape cases if you destroy rape kits before the statute of limitations," said retired Sergeant Joanne Archambault, who ran the San Diego police department's sex crimes unit for 10 years.The 10-day letter was "appalling," said another expert, Carol Tracy, a Philadelphia attorney who has worked with the Philadelphia Police Department since 2000 to annually review the quality of its sex crimes investigations. Read: "Inside one department's botched investigations"Many readers were outraged by what CNN revealed and by the chief's initial response to "Destroyed." Hours after the story published, he released a statement that acknowledged that "errors" were made in past cases. He told Springfield TV station and CNN affiliate KY3 that his agency was no different than others across the country in how it handled sexual assault investigations and evidence. "That was the norm 10, 15 years ago," he said.CNN's report, however, covered cases reported between 2006 and 2014. And records show the department discarded untested kits as recently as 2015; Williams had told CNN he was unaware of that destruction.In addition, experts said the department failed to follow best practices that date back as far as 2005.JUST WATCHED4-year-old girl 'absolutely robbed' of justiceReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCH4-year-old girl 'absolutely robbed' of justice 02:12Readers posted comments on the department's Facebook page over the weekend. Some called for Williams' firing or punishment of the detectives whose cases CNN featured."This is why rape/sexual assault SURVIVORS don't come forward..." one person wrote.Said another post: "I think everyone involved should be fired."Springfield City Manager Jason Gage told the Springfield News-Leader Friday that he has "the highest confidence in the police department" and how it handles sexual assault investigations.Williams said the department is "committed to submitting all rape kits to a lab to be analyzed and will retain rape kits indefinitely." That is something that police now are required to do by law. In August, Missouri lawmakers enacted a statute requiring police to submit kits to labs within 14 days of receiving the evidence and maintain that evidence for at least 30 years.The chief's promises to do better are not enough for an organization called Me Too Springfield. The 200-member group -- comprised of mental health professionals, survivors of sexual assault and those who work on their behalf -- want the department to outline specific action. The group reacted to CNN's investigation by sending a letter to the department Thursday. In it, members demanded to know how the agency would ensure the public that investigations will be conducted properly, kits will be tested and evidence will be maintained for the length of the statutes of limitations. "We definitely need to see not only that you acknowledge the errors, but how you're going to fix them," Me Too Springfield President Jordan Harris told CNN. In CNN's investigation, Williams blamed inadequate staffing for how sex crimes investigations were handled. In its letter, Me Too Springfield wrote that being understaffed was an "inappropriate excuse for violating best practices and voluntarily destroying evidence."Harris said the group will ask Williams for all sex crimes investigators' current caseloads. "It's his responsibility to make sure that these victims feel safe, and that they're able to come forward if they are brave enough to," she said.Harris was raped years ago, she said. She did not report the assault to police, but she shares that trauma publicly now. CNN typically does not publish the names of rape victims without their consent. "It's important to us that people know that even if your trauma happened a long time ago, if you went through the trauma, lived that over again by getting a rape kit, that your case absolutely deserves justice."On Monday, she sent CNN the department's response to the Me Too Springfield letter. It was emailed by a police spokesperson and repeated that the agency was going to test and keep rape kits and "continuously review all our policies and practices." It also said that the department strives "to maintain appropriate levels of staffing and making that a reality is an on-going goal."Taxes, the letter said, will help pay to add more officers to work sex crimes.Me Too Springfield asked how many untested kits the department still has and was told that Williams ordered a review of all sexual assault kits in 2014 and determined there were "an excess of 300 that had not been tested" at that time. The number, the letter said, has been reduced to 237. The department said it expects to eliminate that backlog within the next two years.Harris said Me Too Springfield emailed the department spokesperson Sunday asking for a one-on-one meeting with Williams. "We're just ready to work with the police department and maybe come up with some new ways to help sexual assault victims," she said. Harris provided a copy of that email to CNN. It says the group wants to "identify areas where we can help improve the system for the thousands of sexual assault survivors in Springfield, and the thousands more that are likely yet to be." As of Monday night, the group had not received a response.
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Story highlightsAmerica's Cup racing returns to NYCLast held off Manhattan in 1920Thomas Lipton most persistent challengerTea baron spent millions over three decades (CNN)The last time the America's Cup was held in New York, Woodrow Wilson was President and large wooden sailing yachts raced each other calmly across the water at a sedate 20 miles per hour. This weekend, for the first time since Irish-Scottish tea baron Thomas Lipton lost the 1920 race to a New York Yacht Club syndicate led by railroad tycoon and art collector Henry Walters, the city will play host to the world's most famous boat race when the Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series sails into town. Instead of elegant yachts, the six teams competing in the Louis Vuitton World Cup series ahead of next year's America's Cup in Bermuda will face off in carbon-fiber catamarans that look like jet airplanes, capable of going up to 40 miles per hour.The boats may have changed beyond recognition but one thing has remained the same in the 165-year history of the America's Cup -- its allure for the world's wealthiest people and power brokers.Merchant and yachtsman Sir Thomas Johnstone Lipton (1848-1931) started the Lipton tea company. "The people who are attracted to the America's Cup are the people who are attracted to competition at any level, at any time," America's Cup historian and sailing author John Rousmaniere said in a phone interview from New York. "And Sir Thomas Lipton was at the top of the heap." Read MoreThe current Cup holder is U.S. billionaire Larry Ellison, co-founder of software giant Oracle. He'll be up against five challengers including Olympic sailing legend Ben Ainslie, who next year hopes to be Britain's first victor since sailing's premier event began in 1851. Lipton, a self-made man who was born into poverty in Glasgow, was the most persistent challenger in the America's Cup, plowing millions of dollars into five campaigns between 1899 and 1930 through the Royal Ulster Yacht Club. But all of his Shamrock boats were defeated, endearing him to the American public as a "folk hero" and "lovable loser" according to the event website.Henry Walters' Resolute syndicate won the last series held in NYC.Lipton wasn't the only illustrious name involved in the America's Cup at the turn of the last century. U.S. financier John Pierpont Morgan co-owned the 1899 and 1901 Cup winner Columbia, while the Vanderbilt family, whose wealth came from railroads and shipping, helped fund three Cup winners between 1895 and 1937.The closest Lipton came to winning was in 1920, when Shamrock IV took the first two races before Resolute won the next three to retain the trophy for the New York Yacht Club. That series was highly anticipated across North America, with New York hotels having to turn people away because they were at full capacity, while special trains brought in spectators from Canada, the New York Times reported on July 15, 1920."Resolute Wins Final Race By 19 Minutes 45 Seconds; America's Cup Stays Here," headlined the Richmond Times-Dispatch on July 28, 1920. Lipton's relentless pursuit of success helped put the event on the map in the U.S., Bob Fisher, a sailing historian and author of numerous books on the sport, said by phone from Lymington on the English south coast. "He was much loved by America and the Americans," Fisher said. "He was persistent, he wanted to win the Cup and spent a lot of money doing so." Thomas Sopwith's Endeavour was the next UK challenger in 1934, but was also beaten.Lipton may have spent as much as $2 million on his two challenges in 1920 and 1930, Rousmaniere estimated. That's roughly $27 million in today's money. Born in 1848, Thomas Johnstone Lipton became interested in the sport when he persuaded his parents to let him sail to New York from Scotland when he was just 14 years old, according to the America's Cup Hall of Fame website. While in the U.S., he learned about the grocery trade and the power of advertising. Lipton returned home to his parents in Scotland five years later. By 1914, he'd expanded the family's grocery shop into 500 stores -- laying the foundation for the nation's first supermarket chain. He also created the Lipton tea brand, which is still in existence today.America's Cup: The money men behind sailing's expensive extravaganzaAlthough Lipton never won the Cup and wasn't much a sailor himself, his highly-publicized attempts boosted his business in the U.S. as it helped promote his tea, Fisher said. The 1920 race was the 13th edition of the America's Cup, and the first since 1903 after the outbreak of World War I prevented the race from taking place in 1914. After New York Harbor became too busy with commercial shipping, the 14th edition moved to Newport, Rhode Island in 1930. It stayed there until 1983 when Alan Bond's Australia II beat Liberty to end the NYYC's 132-year dominance, the longest in sports.During the 1920 races, New York Harbor was so filthy with oil and coal that the yachts had to be hauled out every two days to be cleaned, Rousmaniere said."The only person who wanted to have it in New York was Sir Thomas Lipton," Rousmaniere said. "All the people from his club and the New York Yacht Club wanted to have it in Newport where there was better wind, cleaner water and better sailing. But Lipton had a lot of followers and friends in New York and he made the decision. Most people would say it was the wrong decision because the wind was very poor for his boat." Lipton didn't fare much better in his final attempt a decade later in Newport, where Shamrock IV was beaten by Enterprise -- skippered by Harold "Mike" Vanderbilt. JUST WATCHEDAmerica's Cup: Sailing's unsung heroesReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHAmerica's Cup: Sailing's unsung heroes 03:08Lipton's reward after the final race: a specially designed cup for "the best of all losers."Vanderbilt, who was a schoolboy when Lipton launched the first of his five challenges in 1899, preferred sailing over the family railroad business. A triple America's Cup-winning skipper, he helped develop the yacht racing rules, according to the America's Cup Hall of Fame website. Vanderbilt summed up the feelings of the American public after the final 1930 race. "Uppermost in our minds is a feeling of sympathy for that grand old sportsman, Sir Thomas Lipton, with whom our relations have been so pleasant," he said. Although this was "perhaps his last attempt to lift the America's Cup," Vanderbilt said, "it has been our duty to shut the door in his face. In defeat lies the test of true sportsmanship, and he has proved to be a wonderful sportsman, quite the finest it has ever been our good fortune to race against."Follow @cnnsport
CNN's Sailing Success show goes behind the scenes in America's Cup racingWho will win the 2017 America's Cup? Tell us on our Facebook pageAmerica's Cup racing up close and personal on board @OracleTeamUSA #sailing #LVACWSNY @americascuphttps://t.co/lW3bQyfdnn— CNN Sport (@cnnsport) May 5, 2016
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Washington (CNN)The Biden administration continues to be on alert for potential Russian criminal or state-backed cyberattacks against critical infrastructure targets in the US -- a posture that Washington assumed months ago but that has grown more acute since Russia invaded Ukraine. The US is "very much on guard" for potential Russian cyberattacks in light of the war, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday, adding that the Biden administration had been working to harden the defenses of US organizations and those in Ukraine. Blinken was referring to months of quiet preparation for Russian hacking capabilities -- through classified briefings and closed-door exercises -- that have gone on between the Biden administration and US critical infrastructure firms. US officials continue to say there are "no specific, credible" threats to the US homeland tied to tensions with Russia over Ukraine. But they want US businesses to be mindful that ransomware gangs -- or Russian state-backed hackers -- could get more aggressive as US relations with Russia hit their lowest point since the Cold War."We remain concerned that Russian cybercriminals will target US critical infrastructure with ransomware attacks either in support of the Russian government or to take advantage of the even more permissive operating environment inside Russia," senior FBI cyber official Cynthia Kaiser told state and local government officials during a call on Tuesday, sources on the call told CNN. Read MoreThe phone briefing was just the latest in a regular series of calls that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have held for local government agencies and private firms to remind them to stay vigilant for digital threats. Kaiser cited a declaration of support for the Kremlin that a prominent Russian-speaking ransomware gang made on Friday amid the war in Ukraine. The hackers later amended their statement, claiming they don't support any government, but their threat to retaliate against US infrastructure has resonated with US officials. US officials prep big banks and utilities for potential Russian cyberattacks as Ukraine crisis deepensRegardless of whether Russia-aligned hackers do anything impactful, US officials hope that the extra drilling and risk assessments can make US critical infrastructure firms more secure in the medium term. And it builds on years of work the electric sector and other critical industries have done to become more resilient to physical and hacking threats. "If Russia pursues cyberattacks against our companies, our critical infrastructure, we are prepared to respond," US President Joe Biden said last Thursday in denouncing Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Within hours of Biden's speech, the Transportation Security Administration held an exercise with hundreds of US pipeline companies, testing how they would respond to "a scenario of escalating cyber threats as a result of geopolitical tensions," Jake Rubin, a spokesperson for the American Gas Association, a trade group that helped draw up the exercise, told CNN. Before the Ukraine crisis, the White House had encouraged US electric utilities serving tens of millions of customers to adopt more cyber defensive tools -- the first in a series of "100-day plans" to try to improve cybersecurity in key sectors.That work came about, in part, because US officials weren't seeing enough investment in threat-detection capabilities for industrial control systems, which firms use to deliver key commodities like fuel, Mark Bristow, a CISA official, said on a February 14 webinar. Simply trading data on threats -- rather than having a fuller picture of what hacking groups are trying to do -- "isn't going to help" in scenarios when "adversaries are using their A game," Bristow said. Now, the National Security Agency and US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are drawing on intelligence from those sensors to track hacking threats. The idea is that the NSA can pass along intelligence indicating that, for example, a foreign hacking group is probing for vulnerabilities in electric equipment, said Robert M. Lee, CEO of cybersecurity firm Dragos, whose technology has been adopted by some of the utilities. A reminder of the potential threat came in December, as Russia continued to mass troops along Ukraine's border in the lead up to the invasion. That month, a hacking group that caused a Saudi petrochemical plant to shut down in 2017, had probed the computer networks of US electric utilities that operate liquified natural gas facilities, cybersecurity researchers previously told CNN. The Treasury Department in 2020 sanctioned a Russian government institute for its alleged involvement in the 2017 incident.The probing of US utilities in December did not lead to any compromises, but it underscored what's at stake in the fight to secure American infrastructure -- and the progress operators are making in having better visibility of those threats. "It's a bit of a cat and mouse team because we constantly need to evolve those things to keep up with the latest techniques that the adversaries are using," said Manny Cancel, who heads the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a threat-sharing hub for North American utilities. CNN's Zachary Cohen contributed to this story.
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(CNN)Geovany Valle laid his 10-year-old daughter to rest in a town not far from where she grew up in the central region of El Salvador.Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle died in September in Nebraska after spending months in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, but her death was not announced until last week. The young girl's concrete tomb is on a hill surrounded by trees, with a turquoise cross that bears her name and the date she was laid to rest in silver letters.Her father was placing white and green paper flowers on the tomb the day CNN visited. He remembered the last time he saw his daughter alive: He was talking to her through video chat while she was in a hospital in Nebraska. Geovany ValleDarlyn was encountered by Border Patrol on March 1, 2018, a few miles west of Hidalgo, Texas. She complained of chest pain and three days later, was transferred to HHS custody where she remained for about seven months. Darlyn was treated for a congenital heart defect at various hospitals -- including in San Antonio, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona. Read MoreHHS spokesperson Mark Weber told CNN Darlyn had surgery complications that left her in a comatose state. She was transported to a nursing facility in Phoenix and later to Children's Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, where she died on September 29, due to fever and respiratory distress. Mother of 10-year-old who died in US custody says daughter was born with a heart murmur As Valle was on the phone with his daughter back then, he was desperate for a sign of life. "Give me a signal, I want to know that you can hear me. I want to know that you are seeing me," he said he told Darlyn."She made an effort four times and she tried to speak," he said. "And that was it."'I could have asked her to stay'The young girl was traveling to the US to find her mom, who had migrated from El Salvador to work and provide for her three daughters. A US Customs and Border Protection official identified the 10-year-old El Salvadorian girl that died in the custody of HHS in September 2018 as Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle. Darlyn stayed back with her aunt, but nine years later, Darlyn -- like so many Central American children who are currently flocking to the US southern border -- made the journey to reunite with her mother in the US. The girl traveled with acquaintances by car for four days from El Salvador to the border, her mother said. Her mother, who now lives in Omaha, Nebraska, told CNN Darlyn was just a year old when she left her behind with her aunt, Jesus Valle. The two live in a humble home on a lush hill -- in a town not far from the cemetery where the child was laid to rest. "She was like a daughter to me," Jesus Valle said. "I loved her so much."Surrounded by Darlyn's clothing and toys, her aunt wonders what could have been if Darlyn had stayed in El Salvador."When she left I could have asked her to stay. But her mom was taking her back. And I didn't want to keep her from her right to be with her mom," Jesus Valle said.CNN en Español's Merlin Delcid reported from El Salvador, with CNN's Jamie Ehrlich, Kate Sullivan, Madeline Holcombe and Dianne Gallagher contributing to this report.
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(CNN)California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide order Thursday, telling residents in the most populous state to stay home.It is the most restrictive order by a governor so far during the novel coronavirus pandemic.It applies to most of the state's 40 million residents. There are exceptions for workers in "16 critical infrastructure sections."The order takes effect Thursday night."Those that work in critical sectors should go to work. Grocery stores, pharmacies, banks and more will stay open," Newsom tweeted. "We need to meet this moment and flatten the curve together."Read MoreLaw enforcement will not arrest violators, Newsom said in a news conference today."I don't believe the people of California need to be told through law enforcement that it's appropriate just to home isolate, protect themselves," he told reporters.The governor said the order is open-ended. "This is a dynamic situation," Newsom said.It comes as the number of cases in California and the United States skyrocket.The rising toll has medical officials around the country looking at how to treat the deadly virus, but one of the nation's preeminent infectious disease experts told CNN on Thursday that "there's no magic drug" now.The number of reports of positive tests has gone from a few thousand on Sunday to more than 13,000 as more people are infected and more people with Covid-19 find out through testing they have the disease.In a news briefing Thursday, President Donald Trump said he had pushed the US Food and Drug Administration to eliminate barriers to getting therapeutics to coronavirus patients. Trump said the antimalarial drug chloroquine and its analog hydroxychloroquine would be available by prescription to treat the novel coronavirus. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the two drugs would be made available but there needs to be way to see how safe they are and whether they work to inhibit coronavirus."What the President was saying is that we're going to look at all of these drugs and we're going to try to get them available in the context of some sort of protocol," he said, referring to a trial period, on CNN's "Coronavirus: Fact and Fears" town hall special.The doctor wanted to make sure Americans know there are no proven safe and effective therapies as of today."That doesn't mean that we're not going to do everything we can to make things that have even a hint of efficacy more readily available," Fauci told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. "But there's no magic drug out there right now."Concerns over supplies While an increased flow of testing kits was welcomed, there is concern about whether communities have enough medical supplies -- New York's mayor said they may run out of some items within a few weeks.A former firefighter and a retired magician are among people who've died from coronavirus in the US"Tens of thousands" of tests are being conducted every day, Vice President Mike Pence said in a White House briefing. The administration faced criticism in recent days for being unable to say exactly how many people in the US had been tested. "Testing is available in all 50 states," the vice president said. "It is becoming increasingly available literally every hour of the day." Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said the "dramatic increases in the number of new cases" was "based on our ability to test additional people." The number of cases will continue to rise over the next two or three days, she said, as health officials clear testing backlogs. "The number of test positives are increasing," Birx said. "That is a dramatically important signature that everyone is doing their job." New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told CNN in an interview Thursday morning that 8,000 tests were done in his state overnight. Later in the evening, officials reported New York state had 5,298 coronavirus cases -- an increase of about 2,300 since late Wednesday. "When you do 8,000 tests," the governor said, "the numbers are going to go up exponentially."
More than 2,700 new cases were reported in the US in 24 hours between Wednesday morning and Thursday morning. At least 13,133 people across the country have tested positive for the virus, as of Thursday evening. At least 193 have died. But as the number of cases grows, so does the burden on health officials across the country. Many communities are already grappling with shortages of medical equipment, with some attempting to fill the gaps on their own. Hospital patient warns others to be seriousKevin Harris has been in hospital for about two weeks. He believes coronavirus nearly killed him and it was through God's grace that he is getting better.Shelter in place, self-isolation, quarantine: What the terms mean and how they differ When he sees people out celebrating St. Patrick's Day or partying with other spring breakers it upsets him.The 55-year-old from Warren, Ohio, told CNN's Erin Burnett he hopes those people don't get infected and they take the next few months to avoid interacting with others."These people have to take this serious," he said. "I know you're going to be inconvenienced for a while with social distancing. However, do you want to be socially dead?"Sewing masks togetherIn southwest Georgia, hospitals are left with three days' worth of masks, Scott Steiner, president & CEO of Phoebe Putney Health System, told CNN. "We have gone through five months, now six months' worth of supplies in less than a week," he said. "And we are scrambling."Used face masks and bandanas: How the CDC is warning hospitals to prepare for coronavirus shortagesTo get the supply to last longer, Steiner said a team of staff members are sewing masks together."We have about 3,000 of these made. We believe we can make 200,000 of them," he said. "It will take a few weeks, but this is kind of what we're having to do because we don't know when the next shipment is coming."Similar stories of DIY supplies have been pouring in from across the country. "We literally were down to under half a day's worth of personal protective equipment," Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, the chief clinical officer and executive vice president of Providence St. Joseph Health, a system of more than 50 hospitals that provides services across seven US states, said Wednesday. "We've been virtually desperate, looking under every nook and cranny, trying to find the equipment we need. "A mom and a minister are recovering from coronavirus. One of them barely felt sickThose hospitals typically together go through 250,000 masks a year, she said. In three months this year, a single hospital has gone through the same amount."The increased demand has just far outstripped supply," Compton-Phillips said. So hospitals are resorting to making their own equipment."We're actually going to put out (a) 100 million mask challenge with plans on how to build the masks as well as design so you can make it at home. Because we need to do something. And we know the global supply chain is just tied up right now," she said. State measures to combat shortagesNew York City is two to three weeks away from running out of some medical supplies, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio. He said Thursday that the city needs 3 million N95 masks, 50 million surgical masks and 15,000 ventilators. Additionally, the city needs 25 million surgical gowns, coveralls, gloves and face masks.Officials in King County, Washington, on Wednesday said they are setting up a temporary hospital on a soccer field that will provide the county an additional 200 medical beds. Health officials estimated the county needs about 3,000 more beds.Health officials in Washington state said they would be setting up medical beds in a soccer field.Meanwhile, Maryland health officials were working to increase their number of beds by at least 6,000, and in New York state, Gov. Cuomo said they would need as many as 110,000 beds when the virus peaks in an estimated 45 days.Some of the demand for beds will be alleviated by Carnival Cruises, which the President said would provide ships to be used as temporary hospitals. According to the cruise line, this could provide 1,000 hospital beds and up to seven intensive care units per ship.Beds aren't the only concern. The state has a capacity of 3,000 ventilators, but Cuomo said that's not enough.Hospitals and doctors' offices battling coronavirus are running out of protective gear, so some are making their own"They all talk about flattening the curve," he told CNN's Chris Cuomo earlier this week. "I don't see a curve. I see a wave. And the wave is going to break on the health care system and ... it is going to be a tsunami."Michael Dowling, president and CEO of the Northwell Health, was picked by New York's governor to lead a hospital surge team. He said he wants to purchase as many as 500 ventilators, which can cost $20,000 to $40,000 a machine.But with an abruptly heightened demand for ventilators, manufacturers say it's hard to keep up. "It is more than we can currently provide," said Kathrin Elsner, team leader of MarCom Ventilators at Hamilton Medical Inc. The company has received hundreds of orders and requests within the past few weeks, Elsner said.CNN's Sarah Moon, Jamie Gumbrecht, Michael Nedelman, Mark Morales, and Athena Jones contributed to this report.
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With all the popular social networking websites there on the web, managing them from several different internet browser tabs or windows can get frustrated very quickly.
Besides our own Facebook Page, Twitter account, and Google+ profile, I also manage several others and, YES, I feel the "time management" pain!
To make social media management and monitoring easier for users, some very innovative desktop applications and mobile apps were developed to help organize multiple platforms and information sharing across selected networks.
Using online tools like TweetDeck, Seesmic, Hootsuite, Feedly, Twuffer and Buffer App for scheduling and posting directly from a web page has become an absolute necessity especially where Twitter is concerned.
Additionally these apps gives you the ability to post on one or all of your connected accounts together i.e Multiple Facebook, Twitter or Google+ profiles.
These applications don't require your passwords for social media accounts, i.e. It would be really very uncool in sharing your Facebook password with a third-party site. That's where OAuth comes in.
OAuth is an open standard for authorization, which keeps your passwords safe on third-party sites and instead of giving the keys to your entire house, you've given a special key called 'Access token' that only opens one room which you want them to access.
This Access token behaves similar to a session variable which you can store in a cookie to keep the user logged into your website. The only difference is that many services will send back an Access Token and Secret Access Token. You likely need both of these to pull any data from the server.
But more importantly, if somehow that application server gets hacked, your Twitter or Facebook passwords are still safe. But yes, the hackers would still be able to post on your behalf on Facebook or Twitter and can spread spam via tweets, status updates or Direct Inbox messages.
Rather than hacking into individual accounts which is almost impossible, Hacking an OAuth based application server, having millions of users - is enough to damage the Internet and Social Media.
Just yesterday Buffer, the social content management and scheduling service was hacked by cyber crooks, which resulted in a flood of unauthorized posts to user accounts for both Twitter and Facebook.
The security of such apps should be very high, where access to Social media accounts of millions of users are available in bulk after exploiting the vulnerabilities in application server only. Buffer Hack was basically used to spread SPAM messages linked to weight-loss web site.
The main reason why this particular attack is so effective is because:
The victims were essentially receiving messages including links from sources they trust; accounts that they follow on Twitter or Facebook.
A hacker could trigger huge spam messages on all buffer users with one click.
But in the worst scenarios, a malicious attacker could use the same techniques to spam links to Malware infected websites or other such websites serving exploit kits to compromise visitors' computers.
After recovering for Security Breach, Buffer said on Sunday that they have encrypted all OAuth access tokens in the database for further security.
In June 2012, a hacking group called 'LulzsecReborn' associated with Anonymous Hackers, hacked into TweetGif website, which allows you to use animated GIF image as your twitter picture.
In that hack, attackers were able to access 10,000 Twitter users OAuth access tokens and they choose to leak the information on the Internet, including usernames, TweetGif account passwords, Real names, locations, Bios, Avatars and Secret tokens also on the Internet.
To avoid such issues, pay attention to the permissions that each app is taken from your account. If it does something you don't want it to do, just don't use that app.
There is no good or even half good way to protect keys that untrusted users can access. The minimum amount of effort won't be effective. Even the maximum amount of effort won't be effective against a skilled hacker with just a few hours of spare time.
It is a genuine problem with no effective solution. Not in Java, not in C#, not in Perl, not in C, not in anything. Think of it as if it was a Law of Physics. Your alternatives are:
Always use trusted applications and grant limited required permissions.
Turn your application into a service and run it on a machine that you control access to.
Use some authentication mechanism that doesn't require permanent secret keys to be distributed.
Always, be sure to regularly review your authorized apps so you don't run into trouble if you haven't used one of them in a while, you're probably better off getting rid of it completely.
All you need to do is go to your Twitter settings and revoke access to that app. That way, your tokens become useless and your account is under your control again, without even having to change your password.
Swati Khandelwal - Working with 'The Hacker News'. Social Media Lover and Gadget Girl. Speaker, Cyber Security Expert and Technical Writer. (Google+ Profile)
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(CNN)With dust settling from the decision to postpone the Olympics until next year, organizers now face an unprecedented challenge.On three occasions in the past -- all because of world wars -- the Games have been canceled, but never before have they been shifted in this manner. "If I had an hour to spare with you and you had the space to fill, I don't think I could even begin to get across the enormity of this project," World Athletics president Sebastian Coe, who headed the 2012 Olympics, told CNN's Becky Anderson earlier this week. "There is no project management that is more challenging in the life of any city, or any country, under normal circumstances than the delivery of the Games."On Thursday, a task force named "New Start Tokyo 2020" was set up as the rescheduling of the Olympics got underway in earnest. So what are organizers, athletes and stakeholders up against?Read MoreREAD: Tokyo 2020 -- 48 hours that rocked the OlympicsFinancing the moveThere's no doubt that canceling the Games amid the coronavirus outbreak -- which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) insisted was never on the cards -- would have resulted in catastrophic financial losses.Postponing will also incur "huge additional cost," according to Toshiro Muto, CEO of Tokyo 2020. This includes the hiring of venues, warehouses and staff a year from now and fulfilling the thousands of contracts that had been signed ahead of the event.Tokyo 2020: 48 hours that rocked the OlympicsOrganizers said in December that the cost of hosting the Olympics was some 1.35 trillion yen ($12.35 billion), while sponsors, insurers and broadcasters have also committed billions to the Games. The payoff for these investments will now be put on hold."We all recognize the delay in actual income that may come and the reimbursements that should be made for bookings and otherwise," Kenneth L. Shropshire, director of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania who sat on the organizing committee for the 1984 Olympics, tells CNN Sport. "You think the hotels too that counted on the revenue, that turned away other types of reservations, those sorts of things are going to be devastating."The feeling about these events is that it's what governments do ... it's not a mutual fund, there's not supposed to be return on everything; they will just make bigger than they had intended."JUST WATCHEDMarathon superstar on Olympic postponementReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHMarathon superstar on Olympic postponement 10:27READ: Tokyo 1940 -- The Olympics that never was Increased spending aside, there could also be political consequences to the postponement. With a Japanese general election scheduled to take place in October 2021, the current government, which welcomed the Rugby World Cup to Japan last year, could see a delay to the positive impact of hosting an Olympics. "The Abe administration has made a big policy play based upon sport, which was supposed to yield a return during next year's elections," Simon Chadwick, professor of Eurasian Sport at Emlyon Business School based in Paris, tells CNN Sport."Yet now, the ruling party faces the possibility of not being able to remain in power to witness whatever positive economic impacts might be generated from hosting the mega-event."The country was anticipating a GDP bounce from hosting the Games. This bounce would inevitably have been the consequence of, for example, spending on hotels, food, visits to tourist attractions and so forth. "Clearly, the postponement will delay the bounce, but this is likely to have ramifications for many in Japan."JUST WATCHEDThe Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been postponed to 2021ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHThe Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been postponed to 2021 02:43READ: Athletes comes to terms with 'heartbreaking' Tokyo 2020 postponementHow will athletes qualify?For athletes who have spent enormous physical and emotional energy preparing for the Olympics, being forced to wait another year will come with its frustrations.Waited 8 years for this, what's another 1 in the grand scheme of things? 😅📈💪🏽 As an athlete, it's heartbreaking news about the olympics being postponed until 2021, but it's for all the right reasons and the safety of everyone! Hope everyone keeps safe and stay indoors x pic.twitter.com/z0JlgV2efI— KJT (@JohnsonThompson) March 24, 2020 Contemplating a season short of competitive events is one thing, but for Olympians, there's the further question of how you qualify again for next year's event."Forming the Olympic team and qualifying is something that's constantly reviewed," says Shropshire, who has served on the board of USA volleyball. "Now you have in the equation, for those sports where athletes that have already qualified, is there an exemption of some sort for them, or do they have a lesser qualifying path? "Or is it just, well, that didn't happen we're all qualifying again. And I think there has to be some sort of definitive statement for that. For athletes what I've learned is -- just give us certainty as to how we qualify, and we will participate."JUST WATCHEDInter Milan star Romelu Lukaku talks self-isolation in MilanReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHInter Milan star Romelu Lukaku talks self-isolation in Milan 07:24READ: Japanese PM and IOC chief agree to postpone 2020 OlympicsThe situation becomes particularly hard for older athletes who expected to retire after the Games this year, or for athletes who defied expectations to qualify. As well as the sporting aspect of it, competing at the Olympics can be a financial boon. "Athletes have spent their lives really getting ready for 2020, for the summer of 2020. And now you're saying, 'Come back in a year, we'll see what happens,' Richard Sheehan, professor of finance at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business who specializes in the economics of sport, tells CNN Sport. "It's going to be just a tremendously difficult question to answer and I don't think that there's going to be a one size fits all approach."Calendar clashesThe Olympics join the Euros -- European football's international showpiece event -- by moving to 2021 in what will be a crowded sporting calendar.The swimming world championships in Japan are due to take place at the end of July and the athletics world championships in Oregon, USA, are scheduled for early August -- the same time the Olympics were due to be held this year. Both competitions have agreed they are prepared to find alternative dates. Coe, who refers to moving the Games as a "monstrously complicated matrix," said that rescheduling the world athletics championships to 2022 is a possible alternative.In rugby, the Women's World Cup is scheduled to take place between September and October and the new Olympic dates could provide several players with the difficult decision of choosing between competing for Rugby Sevens gold or the 15s World Cup title.What postponing the Summer Olympics means for NBCThen there's the question of the broadcast schedule. NBC, for example, leans heavily on the Olympics as a revenue driver. It will also miss out on a means of promoting its new streaming service, Peacock, this year. But for companies like NBC, postponement is clearly preferable to cancelation, and when it comes to advertising space, there may be benefits in delaying to 2021."It would be a very, very challenging environment to do anything at all that would be useful for you (this year)," says Sheehan."When you watch television now, the ads there typically have been placed a month or two months before, and they are humorously out of place. "No one's going to be out there buying a used car or looking for legal services now. With the Olympics, if they were held this year, advertisers were going to need to run a very narrow gauntlet of what would be appropriate. Next year, I think you're talking about an entirely different situation."More TV viewers?Sheehan adds that a reluctance to travel as a result of the coronavirus might see fewer people visiting Tokyo, instead choosing to watch the Olympics from home.JUST WATCHEDGary Neville and Ryan Giggs on opening their hotels for free to fight coronavirusReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHGary Neville and Ryan Giggs on opening their hotels for free to fight coronavirus 07:27"The only way that I think world travel will increase, and even then, it's going to be down a tremendous amount, is if you have a vaccine come up relatively soon," he says."The renewal date for the Olympics is probably at the very earliest about the time when a vaccine might be available. But that's going to dramatically reduce the amount of travel to Japan. "The flip side of it is I think you will have more eyeballs on the Olympics ... you're going to have a bigger television audience than you would otherwise expect."Although the Games are moving to 2021, they will retain the tag of Tokyo 2020. It is perhaps a deliberate decision -- a means of shedding positive light on a year that will be remembered for the pandemic and its devastating impact. "Each (Olympics) has had its own particular flavor," says Sheehan."The Japanese have a tremendous possibility here to turn things around and to say, 'Hey, 2020, we have hope' ... That's the way that they can single this out and really make it special."
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FBI will shutdown the Internet on March 8
The Internet could go dark for millions of users as early as March 8 because of a virus that has corrupted computers in more than 100 countries. Last year, authorities in Estonia apprehended six men believed responsible for creating a malicious computer script called the DNSChanger Trojan. Once set loose on the Web, the worm corrupted computers in upwards of 100 countries, including an estimated 500,000 in America alone.
Must Read : FAQ : DNSChanger Trojan, Impact and Solutions
The primary impact of this infection is that it caused web surfers to be sent to fraudulent websites by changing what is called the DNS settings on compromised computers.The Domain Name System (DNS) is the backbone of the Internet's address scheme and DNS servers are special computers around the world that act as Internet traffic cops providing directions to websites that you wish to visit.
Though the FBI has shut down the DNSChanger network and put up surrogate servers, they warned the solution was only temporary - and the court-ordered deadline is March 8. When the FBI pinched this group, if they had shut down the rogue DNS servers, everyone that was infected would have instantly been cut off from the Internet so the FBI chose a different strategy.They decided to get a court order allowing them to replace the rogue DNS servers with legitimate stand-ins so that all the infected computers wouldn't get cut off without warning giving them time to get the word out.
Both Windows and MacOS users are at risk for this infection because it exploits your browser, not your operating system. If you are somewhat technical, you can do a self-check of your computer to make sure you're not infected by comparing your computer's DNS setting to the list of rogue DNS servers:
85.255.112.0 through 85.255.127.255
67.210.0.0 through 67.210.15.255
93.188.160.0 through 93.188.167.255
77.67.83.0 through 77.67.83.255
213.109.64.0 through 213.109.79.255
64.28.176.0 through 64.28.191.25
The FBI has published a pretty decent guide to performing the self-check here. If you are infected by the DNSChanger Trojan, the FBI reminds us that this malware also disables security updates which could have further exposed you to other malware.
Must Read : FAQ : DNSChanger Trojan, Impact and Solutions
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(CNN)Former health advisers to President Joe Biden say the US strategy for the Covid-19 pandemic needs to be updated to face a "new normal" of living with the virus, rather than aiming to eliminate it.In three pieces published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Thursday, six former Biden advisers proposed a new plan and detailed strategies for testing, mitigation, vaccines and treatments. "Without a strategic plan for the 'new normal' with endemic COVID-19, more people in the US will unnecessarily experience morbidity and mortality, health inequities will widen, and trillions will be lost from the US economy," wrote Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a former Obama health adviser now with the University of Pennsylvania; Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota; and Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease expert at Bellevue Hospital Center and at Grossman School of Medicine at New York University. It won't be a pandemic forever. Here's what could be nextAll were appointed to Biden's Transition Covid-19 Advisory Board in 2020.For this new strategy, "humility is essential," they wrote. There remain unknowns about the virus and its future, and "predictions are necessary but educated guesses, not mathematical certainty." Leaders will have to communicate specific goals and benchmarks, and national plans will need to be adapted for local use.Read MoreThey push for modernized data infrastructure to provide real-time information, a bolstered public health work force, more and empowered school nurses, and moves to rebuild trust in public health institutions. Substantial resources will be needed to "build and sustain an effective public health infrastructure," they write.In the article on testing, surveillance and mitigation strategies, Emanuel, David Michaels of the Milken Institute School of Public Health, and Rick Bright, a former Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority official now with the Rockefeller Foundation, called the initial response to the virus "seriously flawed." "Even now, testing results are not reliably linked with sociodemographic data, vaccination status, or clinical outcomes; the availability of reliable rapid tests remains limited; and prices are too high."Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Coming out of Covid-19 isolation doesn't have to be complicatedThe authors called for low-cost and accessible testing with immediate advice when someone receives a positive result; improved air and wastewater surveillance and genomic sequencing; and a voucher program for accessing N95 and KN95 masks.The first step in viral mitigation, they said, is to keep people away from those who are sick. "This requires systematic access to testing and paid sick and family medical leave for all US workers, especially low-wage, temporary, freelance, contractor, and gig economy workers."In a third piece, Dr. Luciana Borio, a former US Food and Drug Administration official now with the Council on Foreign Relations, Bright and Emanuel call for vaccine mandates, variant-specific vaccines and accelerated efforts to develop a universal coronavirus vaccines, as well as rapid development of effective oral antivirals. "Integral to achieving and sustaining this 'new normal' are both faster development and more efficient deployment of vaccines and therapeutics," they write.Get CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.Some estimates suggest that 90% or more of people in the US need some immunity to SARS-CoV-2 to minimize the effects of Covid-19 and return to normalcy, they write. Currently, about 62.3% of the total US population -- about 207 million people -- is fully vaccinated. Mandates will be required, they say, adding that "few countries have ever achieved such levels of coverage of any vaccine without vaccination requirements.""Proposed vaccine requirements for government employees and contractors, health care and long-term care workers, and employees of businesses with 100 or more employees will be necessary to achieve levels of coverage to return to pre-COVID-19 life expectancy and social and economic vitality," they said.Some of the advisers have spoken in the past about the Biden administration's Covid-19 response, including in February, when four advisers and other experts urged mandates around N95 masks in a memo to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
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As warned by Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters They launched another distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack against the website of Regions Financial Corp (regions.com) and SunTrust. The computer attacks burden the bank websites with heavy traffic volume that causes slow service for the sites or makes them completely unavailable.
In a Pastebin post dated Oct. 8, the hacktivist group announced the planned Oct. 9 attack against Capital One, the Oct. 10 attack against SunTrust and an Oct. 11 takedown date for Regions Financial Corp and THEY DID IT.
SunTrust ( suntrust.com ) spokesman Michael McCoy confirmed SunTrust's site had been hit by an uptick in traffic. "We have seen increased online traffic today and experienced intermittent service availability of some online functions," he said.
A couple of days ago, Regions representatives told Fox Business that the organization was aware of the threats. At the time, they claimed they were "taking every measure" to protect the company and customers.
All these attacks on US Banks are in response to a video uploaded to YouTube ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad and offending some Muslims.
That unknown motivation also makes fighting these DDoS attacks challenging, Pascual says, although banks are likely improving their defensive techniques.
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The Group of teenage hackers, which previously hacked into the personal email of the CIA director John Brennan and published a large trove of sensitive data, has now had its hands on even more important and presumably secure target.
Hackers Accessed Law Enforcement Private Portal
The hacking group, Crackas With Attitude (CWA), claims it has gained access to a Law Enforcement Portal through which one can access:
Arrest records
Tools for sharing information about terrorist events and active shooters
The system in question is reportedly known as the Joint Automated Booking System (JABS), which is only available to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and law enforcement.
Hackers Gained Access to FBI's Real-Time Chat System
Moreover, the hacking group also says it has gained access to another tool that is something like a real-time chat system for the FBI to communicate with other law enforcement agents around the US.
Two days ago, CWA published a portion of the data it collected to Pastebin and Cryptobin, apparently releasing names, email addresses, and phone numbers of around 3,500 law enforcement and military personnel.
JABS System Hacked!
However, the group has been able to have its hands on many law enforcement tools that contain more sensitive information, and Wired verified that a screenshot of JABS shared by CWA was legitimate.
The CWA hackers told Wired they found a vulnerability that allowed them to gain access to the law enforcement private portal, giving the group access to dozen law enforcement tools, but the hackers didn't reveal anything about the vulnerability.
This system is noteworthy as it may allow anyone with access to view arrest records – whether the arrests are sealed or aren't available to the public.
It means, among other things, this system can expose secret informants and others who have been detained but are now working with the law enforcement agencies.
Although none of the information from these law enforcement tools has been shared publicly, the hacking group could bother government officials by releasing the sensitive information anytime soon.
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A simple but highly critical vulnerability recently disclosed in the most widely used OpenSSH software allows attackers to try thousands of password login attempts per connection in a short period.
OpenSSH is the most popular software widely used for secure remote access to Linux-based systems. Generally, the software allows 3 to 6 Password login attempts before closing a connection, but a new vulnerability lets attackers perform thousands of authentication requests remotely.
OpenSSH servers with keyboard-interactive authentication enabled, including FreeBSD Linux, can be exploited to carry out the brute force attack on OpenSSH protocol, a security researcher with online alias KingCope explained in a blog post.
Exploit for the Vulnerability RELEASED
Hackers could widely exploit the vulnerability because the keyboard-interactive authentication is by default enabled on most of the systems.
Researcher has also released a proof-of-concept exploit code, which is just a command, as follows:
ssh -lusername -oKbdInteractiveDevices=`perl -e 'print "pam," x 10000'` targethost
This simple command effectively allows up to 10,000 password attempts within two minutes of login grace time.
"The crucial part is that if the attacker requests 10,000 keyboard-interactive devices OpenSSH will gracefully execute the request and will be inside a loop to accept passwords until the specified devices are exceeded," KingCope said.
However, depending on the connection and the victim's Linux machine, two minutes of 'grace period' and thousands of login attempts are enough to achieve successful login by using dictionary attack with a word-list of most commonly used passwords.
The vulnerability is present in the latest version of OpenSSH, which is Version 6.9.
How to Mitigate the Attack?
Administrators are advised to take following precautions until OpenSSH releases an official patch to address the issue:
Use a cryptographic key pair that is at least 2,048 Bits in length
Always Use a Strong Password to protect your Private Key
Reducing the grace period to 20 or 30 seconds
Use Fail2Ban or Pam-Shield to limit failed login attempts
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(CNN)The two US athletes who demonstrated during separate National Anthems at a regional sports competition earlier this month have been put on probation for 12 months.US Olympic & Paralympic Committee Chief Executive Officer Sarah Hirshland wrote to hammer thrower Gwen Berry and fencer Race Imboden, saying "while I respect your perspective -- and that of every athlete for whom I'm lucky enough to serve -- I disagree with the moment and manner in which you chose to express your views."All participants signed agreements not to make any political, religious, or racial remark at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.Hirshland's letter warned the two athletes another code violation could result in "more serious sanctions" than for an athlete in good standing.Both athletes can still participate in sanctioned events. Berry will take part in the world track and field championships next month in Doha, Qatar.Read MoreCNN has reached out to Berry and Imboden through their sports federations but neither individual responded immediately.Berry's agent told CNN she is not doing interviews and wants to focus on her training."She wants no distractions as her goal is to medal for the USA in the women's hammer, something which has never been done before," John Nubani wrote in an email to CNN.After her protest of a raised fist, she told track and field website FloTrack: "I know what I did, and I know I broke the rules, and I'll make that sacrifice. I'm honored to make that sacrifice."Berry raised her fist in the air and bowed her head and Imboden knelt on his right knee while they each were on a medal podium.Taking a knee during the national anthem became a form of civil protest after former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick first sat then took a knee during the National Anthem throughout the 2016 football season in protest of police brutality and injustice against people of color. Since then, many athletes, from NFL players, to soccer star Megan Rapinoe to amateur high schoolers have knelt as a form of protest, sparking anger from Trump and others.After he knelt Imboden said: "We must call for change. This week I am honored to represent Team USA at the Pan Am Games, taking home gold and bronze. My pride however has been cut short by the multiple shortcomings of the country I hold so dear to my heart. Racism, gun control, mistreatment of immigrants, and a president who spreads hate are at the top of a long list."I chose to (sacrifice) my moment today at the top of the podium to call attention to issues that I believe need to be addressed. I encourage others to please use your platforms for empowerment and change," he said.We must call for change. This week I am honored to represent Team USA at the Pan Am Games, taking home Gold and Bronze. My pride however has been cut short by the multiple shortcomings of the country I hold so dear to my heart. Racism, Gun Control, mistreatment of immigrants, pic.twitter.com/deCOKaHQI9— Race Imboden (@Race_Imboden) August 10, 2019
Imboden, 26, is ranked as the world's second-best in the foil event, and won a bronze medal in the men's individual foil on Tuesday. He helped the US win gold in the men's foil team event.As Imboden knelt, his teammates Gerek Meinhardt and Nick Itkin stood.Berry took gold in the women's hammer throw, and she raised her fist in the air and bowed her at the end of the National Anthem in protest. It was a protest reminiscent of John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the 1968 Olympics. U.S. hammer thrower Gwen Berry raises her fist at the end of the national anthem at the Pan Am Games on Saturday."Somebody has to stand for all of the injustices that are going on in America and a president who's making it worse," she told USA Today. "It's too important to not say something."The probationary period would include the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, which begin July 24.CNN's Eric Levenson contributed to this report.
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London (CNN)Maltese center-right politician Roberta Metsola has been elected as the new European Parliament President, a week after the body's previous head David Sassoli died suddenly, and she immediately faced questions around her stance on abortion rights.Metsola, who was voted into the post on her 43rd birthday, had served as the Parliament's vice-president since 2020 and was elected comfortably in Tuesday's leadership vote, winning the support of 458 of the group's 705 MEPs. She is the third woman to lead the Parliament, but has drawn early criticism over her opposition to abortion -- a procedure that is legal, if restricted, in every EU country except her own nation of Malta. Reproductive rights have become a central issue on the continent since Poland introduced a near-total ban on terminations last year.Although the role of President is largely ceremonial, Metsola takes charge of the bloc at a critical time. She will seek to contain fractures among the group's MEPs, while it also deals with the Russian military buildup near to the Ukrainian border, a complicated trade relationship with China and emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic.Repealing Roe v. Wade would set the US apart from other leading democracies. Here's how some key nations view abortion"I will stand against anybody who wants to destroy the European project," Metsola said at the first news conference following her victory, as she also batted back repeated questions over her position on abortion. Read MoreWhile she has advocated for LGBT rights as part of the center-right EPP group -- the largest political party in the European Parliament -- her track record of voting against abortion legislation has drawn criticism from progressive members. In 2015, she said in a joint statement that she and two other Maltese MEPs "remain categorically against abortion" and called the procedure a "red line." The lawmakers voted down a non-legislative report on gender equality due to an amendment which said women should have "ready access to abortion."More recently, in June 2021, Metsola was among a minority of lawmakers who voted to strike down another non-legislative report calling for universal access to safe and legal abortion across the EU. On Tuesday she said this move had "specific Maltese" context.Her election on Tuesday drew anger from some on the Parliament's left, with the Federation of Young European Greens writing on Twitter: "This is not progress."European Parliament President David Sassoli dies age 65But Metsola told reporters that she will commit to promoting the "unambiguous" position of the parliament, which has repeatedly voted in the past to support abortion rights. Last year, the body passed a resolution demanding the right to safe abortion -- widely seen as a response to restrictive laws in Poland and Malta.Metsola is the first woman to hold the presidency in two decades, following seven men. The previous leader, Sassoli, died aged 65 last week following a serious complication due to a dysfunction of his immune system."Your hard work & determination are an inspiration to us all. We'll work closely together for the EU's recovery and a green, digital & bright European future," EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted after Metsola's victory."My warmest congratulations to Roberta Metsola as new President of the European Parliament," President of the European Council Charles Michel added."The European Parliament is the beating heart of our European democracy. Looking forward to cooperating with you, dear Roberta," he said.
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We all have something to hide, something to protect. But if you are also relying on self-encrypting drives for that, then you should read this news carefully.
Security researchers have discovered multiple critical vulnerabilities in some of the popular self-encrypting solid state drives (SSD) that could allow an attacker to decrypt disk encryption and recover protected data without knowing the password for the disk.
The researchers—Carlo Meijer and Bernard van Gastel—at Radboud University in the Netherlands reverse engineered the firmware several SSDs that offer hardware full-disk encryption to identify several issues and detailed their findings in a new paper (PDF) published Monday.
"The analysis uncovers a pattern of critical issues across vendors. For multiple models, it is possible to bypass the encryption entirely, allowing for a complete recovery of the data without any knowledge of passwords or keys," the researchers say.
The duo successfully tested their attack against three Crucial models of SSDs—Crucial MX100, MX200, and MX300—and four Samsung SSDs—840 EVO, 850 EVO, T3 Portable, and T5 Portable drives and found at least one critical flaw that breaks the encryption scheme. But researchers warned that many other SSDs may also be at risk.
The vulnerabilities explained below reside due to improper implementations of ATA security and TCG Opal, two specifications for implementing encryption on SSDs that use hardware-based encryption.
Password and Data Encryption Key Are Not Linked
According to the researchers, Crucial MX100, MX200, Samsung 850 EVO, and T3 Portable SSDs have critical security issues in both the ATA security and TCG Opal implementation.
Since there is no cryptographic binding present between the password and data encryption key (DEK), an attacker can unlock drives with any password by modifying the password validation routine in RAM through JTAG debugging interface.
With physical access to the device's debug ports, the researchers were able to reverse engineer the firmware and modify it to decrypt the hardware encrypted data by entering any password.
Secret Master Password
The Crucial MX300 also has a JTAG port, but since it has been disabled by default, the above approach is insufficient.
"Furthermore, we identified several memory corruption vulnerabilities. None of which we could successfully exploit in order to gain control over the execution," the researchers say.
However, researchers discovered that Crucial MX300 SSD also has a master password implementation, the default value of which is set by the manufacturer, which in case of MX300 is an empty string.
If this value remains unchanged by the user, it could allow anyone in possession of the default Master password to unlock the data just with an empty password field—without requiring custom password set by the user.
Wear Leveling Exploit
In Samsung 840 EVO, researchers were able to recover data encryption keys (DEK) by exploiting wear leveling feature, a technique used in solid-state drives (SSDs) to increase the lifetime of erasable flash memory.
In most SSDs, wear-leveling algorithm works by regularly moving static data to different physical locations in the NAND flash memory. But even after the data is moved, it remains available on the old location until it's overwritten.
However, this process has an adverse effect on security, as the pair explains, "suppose that the disk encryption key (DEK) is stored unprotected, after which a password is set by the end user, replacing the unprotected DEK with an encrypted variant."
"Due to wear leveling, the new variant can be stored somewhere else within the storage chip and the old location is marked as unused. If not overwritten later by other operations, the unprotected variant of the DEK can still be retrieved," the researchers add.
Don't Trust BitLocker to Encrypt Your SSD
What's more? Since Windows' built-in BitLocker full-disk encryption software by default uses hardware-based encryption if available, instead of its own software-based encryption algorithms, Windows users relying on BitLocker and using vulnerable drives remain exposed to above-mentioned vulnerabilities.
"BitLocker, the encryption software built into Microsoft Windows, can make this kind of switch to hardware encryption but offers the affected disks no effective protection in these cases. Software encryption built into other operating systems (such as macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux) seems to be unaffected if it does not perform this switch," the researchers say.
However, you can force BitLocker to use software-based encryption only by changing a setting in Windows Group Policy. You can do so by following the below steps:
Open the Local Group Policy Editor by entering "gpedit.msc" in the Run dialog.
Head on to "Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\BitLocker Drive Encryption."
Double-click the "Configure use of hardware-based encryption for fixed data drives" option in the right panel.
Select the "Disabled" option there and click "OK" to save the new setting.
Once suspend the BitLocker protection and re-enable it to make the changes in effect.
Alternatively, rather than relying on BitLocker, you can use the open-source VeraCrypt tool to encrypt your Windows system hard drive or any other drive. VeraCrypt is based on the TrueCrypt software and handles the encryption process by its own without relying on SSD.
Moreover, unlike BitLocker which is available only on Professional, Enterprise and Education editions of Windows 10, VeraCrypt is also available on Windows 10 Home and Windows 7 Home computers.
Security Patches for Samsung and Crucial SSDs
Meijer and Gastel reported the vulnerabilities to Crucial and Samsung before going public with their findings. While Crucial has already released firmware patches for all of its affected drives, Samsung has rolled out security patches for its T3 and T5 Portable SSDs.
However, for its EVO drives, Samsung recommends installing encryption software (freely available online) that is compatible with your system.
"Hardware encryption currently comes with the drawback of having to rely on proprietary, non-public, hard-to-audit crypto schemes designed by their manufacturers. Correctly implementing disk encryption is hard and the consequences of making mistakes are often catastrophic," the researchers say.
"For this reason, implementations should be audited and subject to as much public scrutiny as possible. Manufacturers that take security seriously should publish their crypto schemes and corresponding code so that security claims can be independently verified."
You can head on to the research paper titled "Self-encrypting deception: weaknesses in the encryption of solid state drives (SSDs)" published Monday by the researchers to learn more about the reported vulnerabilities.
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Google on Wednesday updated its May 2021 Android Security Bulletin to disclose that four of the security vulnerabilities that were patched earlier this month by Arm and Qualcomm may have been exploited in the wild as zero-days.
"There are indications that CVE-2021-1905, CVE-2021-1906, CVE-2021-28663 and CVE-2021-28664 may be under limited, targeted exploitation," the search giant said in an updated alert.
The four flaws impact Qualcomm Graphics and Arm Mali GPU Driver modules —
CVE-2021-1905 (CVSS score: 8.4) - A use-after-free flaw in Qualcomm's graphics component due to improper handling of memory mapping of multiple processes simultaneously.
CVE-2021-1906 (CVSS score: 6.2) - A flaw concerning inadequate handling of address deregistration that could lead to new GPU address allocation failure.
CVE-2021-28663 (CVSS score: NA) - A vulnerability in Arm Mali GPU kernel that could permit a non-privileged user to make improper operations on GPU memory, leading to a use-after-free scenario that could be exploited to gain root privilege or disclose information.
CVE-2021-28664 (CVSS score: NA) - An unprivileged user can achieve read/write access to read-only memory, enabling privilege escalation or a denial-of-service (DoS) condition due to memory corruption.
Successful exploitation of the weaknesses could grant an adversary carte blanche access to the targeted device and take over control. It's, however, not clear how the attacks themselves were carried out, the victims that may have been targeted, or the threat actors that may be abusing them.
The development marks one of the rare instances where zero-day bugs in Android have been spotted in real-world cyber offensives.
Earlier this March, Google revealed that a vulnerability affecting Android devices that use Qualcomm chipsets (CVE-2020-11261) was being weaponized by adversaries to launch targeted attacks. The other flaw is CVE-2019-2215, a vulnerability in Binder — Android's inter-process communication mechanism — that's said to have been allegedly exploited by the NSO Group as well as SideWinder threat actor to compromise a victim's device and collect user information.
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(CNN)Six British athletes and two staff members are self-isolating after coming into close contact with an individual who tested positive for Covid-19 on their flight to Japan, the British Olympic Association said Sunday.All eight tested negative at the airport and are now under the supervision of the British delegation's medical team, the association said in a statementThe individual who tested positive was not a member of the delegation. Team Great Britain's chief of mission, Mark England, said that the news was disappointing but "respects" the protocols in place. "We will offer them every support during this period and we are hopeful they will be able resume training again soon," England said. The rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Games is set to begin on Friday, but the rising number of Covid-19 cases tied to the competition has fueled concerns as to whether the Olympics can be safely held during the ongoing pandemic. Read MoreJapan grappled with a second wave of infections in the spring, with numbers peaking in April and May with close to 6,000 newly recorded cases per day. Cases began falling in June, but have risen again in recent weeks. Organizers announced this month that the Tokyo venues will not have spectators due to the city's coronavirus state of emergency -- an unprecedented move, according to an International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokesman.Teams from more than 200 countries are due to arrive in the city in the coming days. As of Friday, more than 15,000 Olympic individuals had entered Japan, according to Thomas Bach, president of the IOC. The Olympic Village, containing 21 residential buildings, will house about 11,000 athletes.The Olympic Village is prepped with Covid testing and health centers, with signs reminding residents to wear face masks and keep at least one meter (about 3.3 feet) away from each other. Athletes will be contact-traced and tested for Covid daily; if they test positive, they will be taken to an isolation facility outside the Olympic Village, and will not be able to compete.More than 50 confirmed Covid-19 cases linked to the Games have been reported. On Sunday, three members from South Africa's Olympic soccer team became the first people to test positive for Covid-19 after arriving at the Tokyo Olympic Village, according to the South African Football Association. The whole team is now under quarantine "until cleared to train," according to the the association said.Several prominent athletes have also dropped out of the Games. Some, like American tennis star Coco Gauff and NBA All-Star Bradley Beal, are unable to participate in the Games for health reasons. Gauff tested positive for the virus while Beal was placed in USA Basketball's health and safety protocols last week.Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios pulled out as well, in part due to the fact that spectators will not be allowed. CNN's Jessie Yeung contributed to this report
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A proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit related to a remote code execution vulnerability affecting Windows Print Spooler and patched by Microsoft earlier this month was briefly published online before being taken down.
Identified as CVE-2021-1675, the security issue could grant remote attackers full control of vulnerable systems. Print Spooler manages the printing process in Windows, including loading the appropriate printer drivers and scheduling the print job for printing, among others.
Print Spooler flaws are concerning, not least because of the wide attack surface, but also owing to the fact that it runs at the highest privilege level and is capable of dynamically loading third-party binaries.
The Windows maker addressed the vulnerability as part of its Patch Tuesday update on June 8, 2021. But almost two weeks later, Microsoft revised the flaw's impact from an elevation of privilege to remote code execution (RCE) as well as upgraded the severity level from Important to Critical.
"Either the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document)," Microsoft said in its advisory.
Things took a turn when Chinese security firm QiAnXin earlier this week disclosed it was able to find the "right approaches" to leverage the flaw, thereby demonstrating a successful exploitation to achieve RCE.
Although the researchers refrained from sharing additional technical specifics, Hong Kong-based cybersecurity company Sangfor published what's an independent deep-dive of the same vulnerability to GitHub, along with a fully working PoC code, where it remained publicly accessible before it was taken offline a few hours later.
Sangfor codenamed the vulnerability "PrintNightmare."
"We deleted the PoC of PrintNightmare. To mitigate this vulnerability, please update Windows to the latest version, or disable the Spooler service," tweeted Sangfor's Principal Security Researcher Zhiniang Peng. The findings are expected to be presented at the Black Hat USA conference next month.
Windows Print Spooler has long been a source of security vulnerabilities, with Microsoft fixing at least three issues — CVE-2020-1048, CVE-2020-1300, and CVE-2020-1337 — in the past year alone. Notably, a flaw in the service was also abused to gain remote access and propagate the Stuxnet worm in 2010 targeting Iranian nuclear installations.
Update — There are now indications that the fix released by Microsoft for the critical remote code execution vulnerability in the Windows Print spooler service in June does not completely remediate the root cause of the bug, according to the CERT Coordination Center, raising the possibility that it's a zero-day flaw in need of a patch.
"While Microsoft has released an update for CVE-2021-1675, it is important to realize that this update does not address the public exploits that also identify as CVE-2021-1675," CERT/CC's Will Dormann said in a vulnerability note published Wednesday.
It's worth noting that the successful exploitation of CVE-2021-1675 could open the door to complete system takeover by remote adversaries. We have reached out to Microsoft for comment, and we will update the story when we hear back.
In light of the latest disclosure, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is recommending that administrators "disable the Windows Print spooler service in Domain Controllers and systems that do not print."
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If you're running any PHP based website on NGINX server and have PHP-FPM feature enabled for better performance, then beware of a newly disclosed vulnerability that could allow unauthorized attackers to hack your website server remotely.
The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2019-11043, affects websites with certain configurations of PHP-FPM that is reportedly not uncommon in the wild and could be exploited easily as a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit for the flaw has already been released publicly.
PHP-FPM is an alternative PHP FastCGI implementation that offers advanced and highly-efficient processing for scripts written in PHP programming language.
The main vulnerability is an "env_path_info" underflow memory corruption issue in the PHP-FPM module, and chaining it together with other issues could allow attackers to remotely execute arbitrary code on vulnerable web servers.
The vulnerability was spotted by Andrew Danau, a security researcher at Wallarm while hunting for bugs in a Capture The Flag competition, which was then weaponized by two of his fellow researchers, Omar Ganiev and Emil Lerner, to develop a fully working remote code execution exploit.
Which PHP-based websites are vulnerable to hackers?
Though the publicly released PoC exploit is designed to specifically target vulnerable servers running PHP 7+ versions, the PHP-FPM underflow bug also affects earlier PHP versions and could be weaponized in a different way.
In brief, a website is vulnerable, if:
NGINX is configured to forward PHP pages requests to PHP-FPM processor,
fastcgi_split_path_info directive is present in the configuration and includes a regular expression beginning with a '^' symbol and ending with a '$' symbol,
PATH_INFO variable is defined with fastcgi_param directive,
There are no checks like try_files $uri =404 or if (-f $uri) to determine whether a file exists or not.
This vulnerable NGINX and PHP-FPM configuration looks like the following example:
Here, the fastcgi_split_path_info directive is used to split the URL of PHP web pages into two parts, the value of one help PHP-FPM engine to learn the script name and the other one contains its path info.
How does PoC RCE exploit for PHP FPM work?
According to the researchers, the sample regular expression, which defines the fastcgi_split_path_info directive, as shown, can be manipulated by using the newline character in a way that the split function eventually sets the path info empty.
Next, since there is an arithmetic pointer in FPM code that incorrectly assumes that env_path_info has a prefix equal to the path to the php script without actually verifying the existence of the file on the server, the issue can be exploited by an attacker to overwrite data in the memory by requesting specially crafted URLs of the targeted websites.
In the background, the PoC exploit [1 (PHuiP-FPizdaM), 2 ] researchers released chains together both these issues to manipulate the memory and add custom php.ini values, as shown in the screenshot, in the PHP-FPM configuration file of a targeted server, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code using a web-shell.
"Using a carefully chosen length of the URL path and query string, an attacker can make path_info point precisely to the first byte of _fcgi_data_seg structure. Putting zero into it moves `char* pos` field backward, and following FCGI_PUTENV overwrites some data (including other fast cgi variables) with the script path," researchers said in a bug report submitted to the PHP project.
"Using this technique, I was able to create a fake PHP_VALUE fcgi variable and then use a chain of carefully chosen config values to get code execution."
PHP 7 updates released to patch FPM flaw
The list of preconditions for successful exploitation, as mentioned above, is not uncommon because the vulnerable configurations are being used by some of the web hosting providers and available on the Internet as part of many PHP FPM tutorials.
One such affected web hosting provider is Nextcloud who released an advisory yesterday warning its users that "the default Nextcloud NGINX configuration is also vulnerable to this attack" and recommending system administrators to take immediate actions.
A Patch for this vulnerability was released just yesterday, almost a month after researchers reported it to the PHP developer team.
Since the PoC exploit is already available and the patch released just yesterday, it's likely possible that hackers might have already started scanning the Internet in search for vulnerable websites.
So, users are strongly advised to update PHP to the latest PHP 7.3.11 and PHP 7.2.24. Just do it, even if you are not using the vulnerable configuration.
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Story highlightsBurkina Faso will play Nigeria in Africa Cup of Nations FinalBurkinabe saw off Ghana 3-2 on penalties following 1-1 drawNigeria thrashed Mali 4-1 in Durban to seal place in finalGhana will play Mali in playoff for third place on SaturdayBurkina Faso's fairytale at the Africa Cup of Nations will have one more enthralling chapter after it overcame the might of four-time champion Ghana to seal a place in the final for the very first time in South Africa Wednesday.In a contest which was marred by a number of mystifying refereeing decisions, Burkina Faso survived the sending off of striker David Pitroipa and the ruling out of a seemingly legitimate strike to prevail on penalties.With the game ending 1-1 after extra-time, it was the Burkinabe which held its nerve to progress 3-2 on penalties and advance to Sunday's showpiece final against Nigeria.'Super Eagles' end Ivory Coast's AFCON hopesThe Super Eagles had earlier booked their place in the final with a convincing 4-1 win over Mali in Durban.Burkina Faso, which had not won a game away from home at the tournament before arriving in South Afirca, had endured a frustrating night with referee Jdidi Slim's display a constant cause of consternation.JUST WATCHEDJuventus midfielder: Stop racismReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHJuventus midfielder: Stop racism 00:51 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' The four ages of Mbemba – The fabrication of players' ages continues to be a problem for football. One international -- Democratic Republic of Congo defender Chancel Mbemba Mangulu -- has "four different birthdays".Hide Caption 1 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' National service – Mbemba was recently with the Congolese squad at the Africa Cup of Nations. He is pictured here, standing behind the team's French coach Claude Leroy, in a training session. Mbemba was not used by Leroy in the tournament.Hide Caption 2 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' Final preparations – The Democratic Republic of Congo went out of the competition at the group stage after drawing all three of their games.Hide Caption 3 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' Kinshasa's sons – Mbemba was born in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, as was another of the city's most famous sons French midfielder Claude Makelele, who played for Nantes, Marseille, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Paris Saint Germain.Hide Caption 4 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' Scarred – Africa's second biggest country, the Democratic Republic of Congo has seen more than its fair share of violence and its citizens are some of the poorest in the world.Hide Caption 5 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' Birthday boy – Mbemba was registered by his first Congolese club - E.S. La Grace -- as having been born on August 8, 1988, according to one of the documents obtained by CNN. The documents -- showing Mbemba's various ages -- were provided by the Brazilian agent Paulo Teixeira, who was called in by E.S. La Grace to obtain money they claimed was owed to them by Anderlecht for training the player in his formative years. In attempting verification of these documents -- from FIFA, the various federations and clubs involved -- only the world governing body and the Belgian Football Assocation responded directly to CNN's request by saying they appeared to be authentic.Hide Caption 6 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' Class of 1988 – In another document obtained by CNN, Mbemba was registered by his second Congolese club -- Mputu -- as also having been born on August 8,1988.Hide Caption 7 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' Paperwork trail – When Mbemba obtained a Belgian citizenship document in July 2011, a month after he arrived in Europe, his date of birth is now dated August 8, 1994.Hide Caption 8 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' FEOCOFA – That meant when Mbemba played for Anderlectht's Under-19 team against Club Brugge in September 2011, the Congolese defender was now six years younger than when he had been playing for his first two Congolese clubs. A professional Belgian referee confirmed to CNN that the Anderlecht team sheet was the type of document used in Belgian football.Hide Caption 9 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' Congolese federation – The Fédération Congolaise de Football-Association -- FECOFA -- regulates football in the Democratic Republic of Congo. FECOFA's president is Constant Omari and is pictured here walking behind president of the Confederation of African Football Issa Hayatou (R) in January 2010.Hide Caption 10 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' Return to Kinshasa – In April 2012, Anderlecht confirmed in a letter to FIFA that Mbemba had been sent back to Kinshasa, but later that year he returned to the Brussels club. The Belgian FA confirmed that this document is geniune.Hide Caption 11 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' Change of heart – In April 2012, Mbemba was sent back to the Congo, but by August 2012 he was back at Anderlecht when he was given a three-year professional contract. Anderlecht's general manager Herman van Holsbeeck is pictured here sitting in the club's stadium watching a first-team training session.Hide Caption 12 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' Bonus row – The Congolese players of Frenchman Leroy, who is pictured here, went on a two-day strike just before the start of the Africa Nations Cup following a row with the country's football federation over bonus payments. Hide Caption 13 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' Fightback – Leroy's side came back from 2-0 down to deny Ghana victory in their first game of Group B at the Africa Cup of Nations.Hide Caption 14 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' Congolese connection – Anderlecht have a number of Congolese players in their squad and the Brussels club's forward Dieumerci Mbokani was recently elected Belgium's player of the year.Hide Caption 15 of 16 Photos: Age fabrication controversy in football: The player with 'four ages' Kinshasa big screen – The Democractic Republic of Congo's progress at the Africa Cup of Nations was avidly followed back in Kinshasa.Hide Caption 16 of 16JUST WATCHEDArrests in soccer match-fixing probeReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHArrests in soccer match-fixing probe 03:27But it will now have to take on Nigeria without star striker Jonathan Pitroipa, who was harshly shown a second yellow card for diving when it looked as if he had been fouled.Pitroipa's 117th minute dismissal leaves the Burkinabe without its two star strikers following the injury to talented forward Alain Traore.Burkina Faso should have been given the chance to take an early lead when John Boye sent Pitroipa hurtling towards the turf inside the Ghana penalty area, but the referee wrongly waved away appeals for a spot kick.Instead, it was Ghana which was controversially awarded a penalty after the Jdidi adjudged that Christian Atsu had been fouled inside the penalty area.Mubarak Wakaso stood up to fire home from 12 yards and net his fourth goal of the competition.What can we expect from the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations?With both teams struggling to play on a terrible surface at the Mbombela Stadium, the game lacked any real sort of quality.But what it lacked in quality it more than made up for in drama and excitement as Burkina Faso continued to fight back against a perceived injustice.Ghana goalkeeper Fatawu Dauda produced a wonderful reaction save to deny Aristide Bance, while Asamoah Gyan hit a post for the Black Stars. Photos: Nigerians end Ivory Coast's AFCON hopes Photos: Nigerians end Ivory Coast's AFCON hopesNigerian joy – Emmanuel Emenike, left, celebrates after putting Nigeria 1-0 ahead against Ivory Coast in the Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal at Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, South Africa.Hide Caption 1 of 4 Photos: Nigerians end Ivory Coast's AFCON hopesSunday's child – Cheick Tiote leveled for the tournament favorite but Sunday Mba's 78th-minute winner earned Nigeria a semifinal clash against Mali.Hide Caption 2 of 4 Photos: Nigerians end Ivory Coast's AFCON hopesDrogba dejected – The Ivory Coast's veteran captain Didier Drogba (left) had been hoping to win the continent's title for the first time.Hide Caption 3 of 4 Photos: Nigerians end Ivory Coast's AFCON hopesWild Stallions – Burkina Faso also went through to the last four, winning 1-0 against fellow first-time quarterfinalists Togo. An extra-time header from Jonathan Pitroipa earned "The Stallions" a clash with Ghana.Hide Caption 4 of 4 Photos: Drogba dropped by Ivory Coast Photos: Drogba dropped by Ivory CoastDrogba dropped by Ivory Coast – Substitute Didier Drogba (left) celebrates with Yaya Toure after the midfielder put the Ivory Coast 2-0 ahead near the end of the Africa Cup of Nations Group D match against Tunisia in Rustenburg.Hide Caption 1 of 6 Photos: Drogba dropped by Ivory CoastDrogba dropped by Ivory Coast – Former Chelsea star Drogba had been dropped from the starting line-up for the first time in his international career, having been taken off during his country's opening match after failing to impress.Hide Caption 2 of 6 Photos: Drogba dropped by Ivory CoastDrogba dropped by Ivory Coast – Manchester City star Toure, the two-time African player of the year, netted his second goal of the tournament in the 88th minute. Hide Caption 3 of 6 Photos: Drogba dropped by Ivory CoastDrogba dropped by Ivory Coast – Another substitute, Didier Ya Konan (No. 13) sealed the Ivorians' second successive win with the third goal at Royal Bafokeng Stadium.Hide Caption 4 of 6 Photos: Drogba dropped by Ivory CoastDrogba dropped by Ivory Coast – Striker Gervinho, who plays for English club Arsenal, scored the opening goal in the 21st minute. He also netted a late winner in the opening match against Togo. Hide Caption 5 of 6 Photos: Drogba dropped by Ivory CoastDrogba dropped by Ivory Coast – Emmanuel Adebayor helped Togo bounce back from that 2-1 defeat as the Sparrowhawks' captain scored in a 2-0 win against Algeria which put the Ivorians into the quarterfinals and eliminated the north Africans with one match still to play.Hide Caption 6 of 6JUST WATCHEDIsraeli football club faces fan backlashReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHIsraeli football club faces fan backlash 02:39But with an hour on the clock, the underdog finally got its reward as Bance was allowed time and space to fire home a deserved equalizer.Burkina Faso make giant stridesWith the game moving into extra-time, Burkina Faso appeared to have scored a dramatic winner when Prejuce Nakoulma beat Dauda to the ball and prodded into the net.But most of those packed inside the stadium were left in disbelief when Jdidi ruled the goal out for a minor clash with Kwadwo Asamoah.Worse was to follow for the Burkinabe when Pitroipa was sent off after receiving a second yellow card for diving , despite replays showing he was quite clearly fouled.In the end, the contest went to penalties and it was Burkina Faso which held its nerve with Bakary Kone, Henri Traore and Bance all scoring to send it through to the final.Burkina captain Charles Kabore told reporters: "The referee is human, all humans make mistakes, but he happened to make too many tonight. But we're not going to dwell on that, we've qualified."'Super Eagles' end Ivory Coast's AFCON hopesIn the day's early kick off, Nigeria reached the final for the first time since 2000 following a comfortable victory over Mali.The Super Eages scored three times in 20 first half minutes to take control of the contest and leave manager Stephen Keshi dreaming of repeating the triumph he pulled off as a player in 1994. Photos: David Beckham through the years Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – David Beckham is a man of many talents. Not only is he one of the most famous names in sports, but he's also one heck of a model. Tommy Hilfiger has now recognized the 38-year-old former soccer player as the No. 1 underwear model of the century. It's just one of several career highs for Beckham, seen here modeling Emporio Armani underwear in a 2009-2010 ad campaign.Hide Caption 1 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham makes his England debut at a World Cup qualifying match against Moldova in 1996.Hide Caption 2 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham celebrates his goal against Colombia in the 1998 World Cup.Hide Caption 3 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – As a player on Manchester United, Beckham cools down during the FA Charity Shield match against Arsenal in 1998.Hide Caption 4 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – At the 1998 World Cup, in a second-round match against Argentina, Beckham was sent off for kicking out at Diego Simeone. England lost the match on penalties and was eliminated, with Beckham becoming a hate figure for some fans.Hide Caption 5 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham poses after a news conference in Awaji-shima Island, Japan, in 2002.Hide Caption 6 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham poses with Beyonce, left, and Jennifer Lopez in Madrid during a presentation of the new Pepsi "Samourai" in 2004.Hide Caption 7 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsA name brand – Beckham acts as England's captain during the 2004 European Championships in Portugal.Hide Caption 8 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham waves after a La Liga match between Real Madrid and Deportivo La Coruna in 2007.Hide Caption 9 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – The midfielder celebrates with his sons in 2007 after Real Madrid won the Spanish League title by beating Mallorca.Hide Caption 10 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham makes an appearance to promote his fragrance "David Beckham Intimately Night" in Sydney in 2007.Hide Caption 11 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham reveals his new No. 32 jersey after his loan move to AC Milan in 2008.Hide Caption 12 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham controls the ball during a 2010 World Cup qualifier.Hide Caption 13 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham, during his time with the Los Angeles Galaxy, walks toward the line judge to have a chat during Game 1 of the MLS Western Conference semifinals in 2009.Hide Caption 14 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham arrives at Sydney International Airport in 2010.Hide Caption 15 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – David and his wife, Victoria, arrive at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey in 2011.Hide Caption 16 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – The Beckhams attend the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in West Hollywood, California, in 2012.Hide Caption 17 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham celebrated his second MLS Cup in December 2012 when he decided to leave with a year left on his contract and seek one final challenge in Europe.Hide Caption 18 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham passes under London's Tower Bridge in a speedboat carrying the Olympic Torch in 2012.Hide Caption 19 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham poses with Paris Saint-Germain President Nasser Al-Khelaifi, left, and PSG sports director Leonardo during a news conference announcing his new gig in January 2013.Hide Caption 20 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham waves after PSG played Brest in his final home match in May. Beckham had signed on with the team just a few months prior to his retirement. Hide Caption 21 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Beckham and his daughter, Harper, make their way through a crowd in New York in February. Harper, Beckham's fourth child, was born in 2011. Hide Caption 22 of 23 Photos: David Beckham through the yearsDavid Beckham through the years – Since retiring from soccer, Beckham has tried his hand at acting. It was announced in March that he will appear in a special edition of the UK classic sitcom, "Only Fools and Horses," to raise money for a good cause. Hide Caption 23 of 23 Photos: Being Balotelli: The life and times of Mario Photos: Being Balotelli: The life and times of MarioHome again – Mario Balotelli was mobbed by fans outside a restaurant as he returned home to Italy to complete his $30 million move from AC Milan to Manchester City.Hide Caption 1 of 7 Photos: Being Balotelli: The life and times of MarioTraining ground fracas – His future at the English Premier League champions had been in doubt since his training ground bust-up with manager Roberto Mancini in early January, when coaching staff had to intervene to separate the pair. Mancini later downplayed the tussle, sparked by Balotelli's hostile tackle on a fellow player, as "nothing unusual."Hide Caption 2 of 7 Photos: Being Balotelli: The life and times of MarioBalotelli's breakthrough – Balotelli made his Inter Milan debut in 2007 after being signed by the club at the age of 15. He scored the first goals of his senior career in a Coppa Italia match against Reggina in December of that year.Hide Caption 3 of 7 Photos: Being Balotelli: The life and times of MarioTesting the Special One – Balotelli joined Manchester City from Italian club Inter Milan. His relationship with Inter coach Jose Mourinho endured numerous ups and downs. Disciplinary issues littered his time at the San Siro and the situation came to a head in March 2010, when Balotelli was left out of Inter's squad for a Champions League tie after an altercation with Mourinho. Hide Caption 4 of 7 Photos: Being Balotelli: The life and times of MarioRed mist – Mancini was Balotelli's first coach at Inter Milan and the pair were reunited in 2010 when the striker joined Manchester City. The start of Balotelli's City career was disrupted by injury, but he finally scored his first Premier League goals in a 2-0 away win at West Bromwich Albion. His joy at netting a brace was short-lived, however, as he was sent off after picking up two yellow cards.Hide Caption 5 of 7 Photos: Being Balotelli: The life and times of Mario'Why always me?' – Balotelli became a hit with City's fans, as much for off-field antics as his goalscoring. His stock with the supporters was never higher than in October 2011, when he scored twice in City's 6-1 thumping of neighbors Manchester United at Old Trafford. After scoring the first goal in City's victory, he revealed a t-shirt stating "Why always me?" -- instantly creating one of the most iconic images of the Premier League era. City went to beat United to the English title on goal difference with a dramatic last-gasp victory over Queens Park Rangers on the final day of the season.Hide Caption 6 of 7 Photos: Being Balotelli: The life and times of MarioSuper Mario – Balotelli reminded everyone of his undoubted talent during the 2012 European Championships. He scored three times as Italy reached the final, including both goals in the Azzurri's 2-1 semi win over Germany. Italy lost 4-0 to Spain in the final of the tournament co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.Hide Caption 7 of 7 Photos: Racism in football Photos: Racism in footballU.S. star Jozy Altidore was subjected to racial abuse during AZ Alkmaar's cup win at Den Bosch in the Netherlands. The match was halted and the crowd were asked to stop the abusive chanting before the action resumed.Hide Caption 1 of 6 Photos: Racism in footballAC Milan's Kevin Prince-Boateng walked off the pitch after being racially abused during his side's friendly game with Pro Patria earlier this month. The midfielder was praised for his actions by FIFA president Sepp Blatter.Hide Caption 2 of 6 Photos: Racism in footballSerbia was ordered to play one under-21 match behind closed doors and was fined $105,000 by European football's governing body UEFA for racial abuse in a match with England. UEFA president has appealed the verdict of his organization in the hope of seeing stiffer punishments administered.Hide Caption 3 of 6 Photos: Racism in footballChelsea and England captain John Terry was charged by UK police after allegedly making racist remarks to Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand in October 2011. Terry was cleared of the charges in a London court in July 2012.Hide Caption 4 of 6 Photos: Racism in footballLiverpool's Luis Suarez was banned and fined by the English Football Association after Manchester United's Patrice Evra claimed the Uruguayan racially insulted him during a match, also in October 2011. Suarez flatly denies Evra's claims.Hide Caption 5 of 6 Photos: Racism in footballBrazilian World Cup winner Roberto Carlos walked off the pitch while playing for Russian team Anzhi Makhachkala against Krylya Sovetov in June the same year, after having a banana thrown towards him in the closing stages of the match.Hide Caption 6 of 6Elderson Echiejile headed Nigeria ahead on 25 minutes before Brown Ideye added a second on the half-hour mark. Momo Sissoko then deflected Emmanuel Emenike's free-kick into the Mali net to leave his side facing an uphill struggle.And Ahmed Musa, who replaced the injured Victor Moses , inflicted further punishment on Mali when he ran through to score eight minutes after the interval.Mali, which famously came back from 4-0 down to draw 4-4 with Angola in the opening game of the 2010 finals, pulled one back through substitute Cheick Diarra in the 75th minute.Nigeria go through But that failed to take the shine off for manager Keshi, who is now hoping to become only the second man in the tournament's history to win the tournament as a player and a coach after Egypt's Mahmoud El Gohary, who won it in 1959 and 1998."We won in 1994 after we had been together for five years," he told reporters."But we have been together for five weeks. We met up for the first time in our training camp in Portugal before the tournament, and it was a young group."We worked hard, the atmosphere was wonderful but you cannot compare this team to that. We did play very well today and I am very happy but we haven't won anything yet."
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Do you use OneLogin password manager? If yes, then immediately change all your account passwords right now.
OneLogin, the cloud-based password management and identity management software company, has admitted that the company has suffered a data breach.
The company announced on Thursday that it had "detected unauthorised access" in its United States data region.
Although the company did not provide many details about the nature of the cyber attack, the statement released by the firm suggest that the data breach is extensive.
What Happened? OneLogin, which aims at offering a service that "secures connections across all users, all devices, and every application," has not yet revealed potential weaknesses in its service that may have exposed its users' data in the first place.
"Today We detected unauthorised access to OneLogin data in our US data region," OneLogin chief information security officer Alvaro Hoyos said in a brief blog post-Wednesday night.
What type of Information? Although it is not clear exactly what data has been stolen in the hack, a detailed post on a support page that is accessible to customers only, apparently says that all customers served by the company's US data centre are affected, whose data has been compromised.
The stolen data also includes "the ability to decrypt encrypted data."
What is OneLogin doing? OneLogin has blocked the unauthorised access to its data centre and is actively working with law enforcement and security firm to investigate the incident and verify the extent of the impact.
"We have since blocked this unauthorised access, reported the matter to law enforcement, and are working with an independent security firm to determine how the unauthorised access happened and verify the extent of the impact of this incident," Hoyos said.
"We are actively working to determine how best to prevent such an incident from occurring in the future."
What Should You Do Now? First of all, change passwords for all your accounts that you have linked with OneLogin.
The company has given customers an extensive list of actions to do to protect themselves and minimise the risk to their data, which includes:
Forcing a password reset for all of its customers.
Generating new security credentials, OAuth tokens, and certificates for apps and websites.
Recycling secrets stored in OneLogin's secure notes.
For any other queries, OneLogin customers can contact the company at security-support@onelogin.com.
You should also particularly be alert of the Phishing emails, which are usually the next step of cyber criminals after a breach. Phishing is designed to trick users into giving up further details like passwords and bank information.
This is the second data breach the company has suffered within a year. In August 2016, a OneLogin suffered a separate data breach in which an unauthorized hacker gained access to one of the company's standalone systems, which it used for "log storage and analytics."
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(CNN)The first fully converted gas-to-electric refueling station for electric vehicles opened today at 7224 Carroll Avenue in Takoma Park, Maryland.Like any new business, as the first of its kind in the US, owner Depeswar Doley is fully aware that it's a gamble that may not pay off.However, it was his daughter that convinced him to take the plunge.Doley, who owns RS Automotives, received a call from a public city official last year who first suggested the idea to him. He had already been upset with how oil and gas companies structure contracts, which is one of the reasons he didn't immediately dismiss the radical idea.These jobs are the future of auto making — and a sticking point in the GM strikeWanting to give it more thought, he went home to speak to his family.Read MoreHis daughter, who was in high school, lectured him about what was happening with the environment, and that was enough to convince him that it was the right decision to make."It's good for the environment," Doley tells CNN. "I'm not doing this just to nickel and dime, thinking about how much money I'm going to make -- no. I know this is a good cause, and this is something new. What I'm doing, maybe it will encourage other businesses owners and encourage the electric car business."Maryland currently has 20,700 registered electric vehicles.A grant of $786,000 provided by the Electric Vehicle Institute and Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) helped make the conversion possible.A game changer is coming for electric car owners "Maryland is proud to be a national leader when it comes to clean and renewable energy, climate change, and the promotion of electric infrastructure and vehicles," said Governor Larry Hogan. "This fully-converted, gas-to-electric charging station is a prime example of our administration's commitment to the environment and transportation."The refueling station has a high-powered 200 kilowatt, four dispenser system. This allows four electric vehicles to charge simultaneously within 20 to 30 minutes.It is also a certified repair facility that can handle any service needs, including disposing of and replacing battery packs."This thing is so new, we don't know what's going to happen," Doley said. "It might flop, or it might work out -- we have no clue at all. We're just crossing our fingers, and in the back of my mind, I know this is something good for the environment."
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McAfee Lab researchers issued a report on the large scale cyber attacks against South Korea that appear to be linked to hackers also specialized in cyber espionage.
The attackers behind these recent attacks against South Korean infrastructure are skilled professionals and they designed a specialized malware to steal military secrets from the South Korea and US military networks.
The cyber espionage campaign dubbed as "Operation Troy", due the numerous references into the source code analyzed to the city. McAfee said that in 2009, malware was implanted into a social media website used by military personnel in South Korea
Ryan Sherstobitoff, a senior threat researcher at McAfee, started the investigation after the malware came into action in an attacks occurred on March 20th, known as the Dark Seoul Incident, in which tens of thousands of hard drives belongs to television networks and banks in South Korea were wiped completely.
Versions of the code may still be trying to glean military secrets from infected computers. Sherstobitoff said the same coded fingerprints were found on an attack June 25, the anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 Korean War - in which websites for South Korea's president and prime minister were attacked.
On June 26th the US Government announced that personal information about thousands of U.S. troops in South Korea had been exposed online.
The attackers infected victims with "spear phishing" attacks, the hackers also compromised about a dozen Korean-language religious, social and shopping websites to steal secret information from infected networks.
In the following image is proposed the timeline of the attacks:"This goes deeper than anyone had understood to date, and it's not just attacks: It's military espionage," Sherstobitoff said.
Despite the malware used to wipe the disks during the recent attacks against Korean infrastructures is different from the one used for the cyber espionage campaign, but many similarities have been found between the source codes of both and this led to believe that they must be created by the same malware developer team.
Researchers highlighted that there are various clues in the malicious code which lead to the North Korea, for example the password used to unlock encrypted files contains the number 38 probably linked to "38th parallel" that separates the North from South Korea.
After previous attack, Two different and previously unknown groups separately took credit: The "Whois Hacking Team" posted pictures of skulls and a warning, while the "NewRomanic Cyber Army Team" said it had leaked private information from banks and media organizations.
Before that attack, hackers had been sending spy malware on domestic networks for months, giving them the ability to gather information about how their internal servers work, what websites the users visit and which computers are responsible for security, the researchers found. This information would have been crucial for planning the coordinated attacks on banks and TV networks.
It is still not clear that the exact amount of information stolen or the exact networks penetrated by attackers, but South Korean officially blamed North Korean state sponsored-hackers.
The Hackers espionage on government networks with military information for at least four years, using code that automatically searched infected computers for dozens of military terms in Korean, including "U.S. Army," ''secret," ''Joint Chiefs of Staff" and "Operation Key Resolve," an annual military exercise held by U.S. Forces Korea and the South Korean military.
"These included names of individuals, base locations, weapons systems and assets," revealed Sherstobitoff.
South Korea's Defense Ministry announced that it's technically impossible to disclose classified reports from military networks because the networks of the Korean Intelligence aren't connected to the Internet and the access to the Internet is made with different computers separated by the internal military infrastructure.
Hacking sensitive South Korean military computers from the Internet "cannot be done," "It's physically separated." said the South Korean government representative.
North Korea has the highest percentage of military personnel in relation to population than any other nation in the world. It has approximately 40 enlisted soldiers per 1000 people with a considerable impact on the economy of the country. A defector has declared that North Korea has increased its cyber warfare unit to staff 3,000 people and it is massive training its young prodigies to become professional hackers.
The government of Pyongyang is massive investing in cyber warfare capabilities, recruiting and forming a high skilled team of hackers. The groups will could be engaged in offensive cyber operation against hostile government and in cyber espionage activities.
In spite of McAfee researchers haven't indicated the origin of the attacks many security experts have no doubts about the nature of the offensive, North Korean state sponsored hackers appear as the main culprits.
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Story highlightsRoger Federer kick starts 2014 campaign with straight sets winBeats Finn Jarko Nieminen 6-4 6-2 in 69 minutes in BrisbaneUsing bigger-headed racket at start of seasonAndy Murray beaten in second round in QatarRoger Federer said he was "pleased" with his switch to a new racket as he began his 2014 ATP Tour campaign with a straight sets victory over fellow 32-year-old Jarkko Nieminen in Brisbane Wednesday.Federer used the larger-headed racket in a doubles match the night before, but this was his first significant test with the new equipment.Finn Nieminen was admittedly ideal opposition, he had lost 13 previous encounters with the Swiss star, and slipped to a 6-4 6-2 defeat in 69 minutes in the second round match.Federer is playing in Australia in the opening week of the season for the first time since 2000 and is proving a big draw in Queensland.He slipped to No.7 in the rankings in 2013 and has hired Stefan Edberg to his coaching team to help restore his fortunes.JUST WATCHEDRoger Federer: You can't always winReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRoger Federer: You can't always win 01:31JUST WATCHEDTennis greats gather for ATP reunionReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHTennis greats gather for ATP reunion 02:50JUST WATCHEDAzarenka on 'amazing' Australian winReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHAzarenka on 'amazing' Australian win 02:24JUST WATCHEDSerena: Venus was a great role modelReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHSerena: Venus was a great role model 01:55There has also been the introduction of a 98-inch racket head, an experiment he briefly tried after going out early at Wimbledon last summer.Read: All change in 2014 for FedererFederer is satisfied with the results and lost only five service points in the second set against Nieminen."I had a much longer time to get ready for this swing than I had last time around, after Wimbledon, before the American summer," he told the ATP Tour official website. "So I'm not thinking about it when I'm going out there, which is a great thing. I'm hitting the ball really well, so I'm very pleased with the racquet."He is competing in the doubles with Nicolas Mahut to ramp up his preparation for the opening grand slam in a fortnight."Now I have doubles tomorrow and the singles the next day, so it's really good for rhythm and good for your game."I expect myself to play a bit better in the next match, even though today was already very good for a first match in so many weeks, to be honest, and against Nieminen who can play very good tennis. Particularly here in Australia."Read: Serena beats Azarenka in U.S. Open finalIn the women's singles in Brisbane, second seed Victoria Azarenka scored an impressive second round success over Australia's Casey Dellacqua.The reigning Australian Open champion served notice she will battle to keep that title with a 6-3 6-1 win over the local hope to reach the quarterfinals where she will play unseeded Swiss Stefanie Voegele.A title match-up is looming against top seed Serena Williams, who is also into the last eight after beating Andrea Petkovic on New Year's Eve.Serena's elder sister Venus has reached the same stage of the WTA event in Auckland, New Zealand.The 33-year-old Williams trailed by a set and looked set for an upset defeat to Yvonne Meusburger before a typical rally.Read: Drug test nearly delays Murray's royal dateShe won 10 out of 13 games to clinch a 4-6 6-3 6-2 victory. Later Wednesday, there was a shock defeat for Wimbledon champion Andy Murray at the Qatar Open to German Florian Mayer.Murray is playing his first competitive matches since back surgery last autumn, but looked well in control when he led by a set and 3-0.Mayer, ranked 40th in the world, refused to give up and proceeded to win 11 of the last 14 games for a 3-6 6-4 6-2 victory.Top seed Rafael Nadal survived a scare against another German, Tobias Kamke, dropping the second set in Doha before prevailing 6-3 6-7 6-3.
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(CNN)From the rubbish dump to the real deal -- Jason Day says the hardship of his early life and the sacrifices of his family propelled him to the U.S. PGA Championship title.The Australian, whose father gave him an old golf club he found in a trash tip when he was just three years old, told CNN that his success was all to do with the love and devotion of his family.Follow @cnnsport
Day, now 27, claimed the first major title of his career with a record score of 20 under par at Whistling Straits on Sunday after carding a 67 in his final round.It marked a life-changing moment for Day, whose latest achievement marks a fairytale chapter in a story which began in adversity.When his father, Alvin, died from stomach cancer, Day was just 12 -- he was a young boy heading off in the wrong direction in a world which appeared to offer him little opportunity.JUST WATCHEDAn Emotional Day!ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHAn Emotional Day! 04:49Read More"I was getting in fights at schools and I was drinking at a young age," Day told CNN's Don Riddell."You know when I lost my dad, there was no-one there to be the disciplinarian and we kind of ran amok."My sister ran away for four years, she was living on the streets. I didn't know where she was and then I was getting in trouble."My dad, he was very rough with us -- he wasn't the greatest dad. When we were together, we were kind of a broken family after my dad passed away because of all what had happened."A tearful Jason Day celebrates with his wife Ellie after winning the 2015 PGA Championship.While Day may not have spoken glowingly of his Irish-Australian father, he knows that had it not been for Alvin salvaging an old club then life may have turned out differently.Life at home was hard -- money was scarce. His mother, Philippines-born Dening, would have to boil water for hot showers in the winter.She would tend the grass by hand -- using a knife to cut each individual blade of grass as there was no money to fix the lawnmower.As a teenager, Day was a tearaway. He began drinking, getting into fights and stayed out late. Playing golf would eventually bring him back on the right path."Things really do happen a reason," said Day, who now has career earnings of over $23 million following his third tournament victory this year."Who knew that a kid from a farm in Beaudesert in Queensland, Australia, would be a PGA Championship winner? I didn't expect that and it's pretty amazing to me." The putt. The family. The tears.
Congratulations, Jason Day. #PGAChamp http://t.co/66PtU8toHZ— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 16, 2015
Day, now the world No. 3 and $1.8 million richer after Sunday's victory, is clearly aware of his privileged position. Married to Ellie, they have one son, Dash, and are expecting their second child.Ellie, who live tweeted her husband's final round, travels with Day as much as she can, sharing in a life which barely looked possible when Day was a young tearaway.Sent to boarding school by his mother, who remortgaged her house and borrowed money from family, Day's life was transformed at the Kooralbyn International School.There he met the man who would guide him through the next phase of his life -- and eventually carry his bag on the pro circuit.Colin Swatton took on the role of coach, mentor and second father -- and the duo have never looked back.Day credits Swatton, the man who has been with him since the age of 12, with helping him progress not just as one of the world's top golfers but also as a human being.They have been inseparable since Day arrived as a tearaway kid who had developed a liking for alcohol and was prone to temper tantrums. "Colin is always open to learning and that's what rubbed off on me the most -- being able to really understand what is right and what is wrong, not only you know in golf but in life as well," Day said."It has been a pretty crazy ride from where I was to where I am now."A little perspective on Jason Day's historic week. #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/nVOmKWDuIn— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 16, 2015
As Day approached the final stretch at Whistling Straits, the emotion of the occasion began to sink in.He began to think of those who had sacrificed so much for him to make this journey -- his mother, his sisters and his father.Day had been here before -- but never cleared the final hurdle.He finished second at the 2011 Masters and was runner-up at the U.S Open in the same year and also 2013.At the 2015 U.S. Open he was derailed by a bout of vertigo as he threatened to break his duck, and then at last month's Open Championship at St. Andrews he registered his ninth top-10 finish at a major, tying for fourth.But this was different -- this was his time. Ding dong the witch is dead. #PGAChampionship #winning pic.twitter.com/uwBFKRvWBn— Jason Day (@JDayGolf) August 17, 2015
"When the first putt went to half a foot, then I really started crying and I felt like a baby," he said of Sunday's final hole."I didn't expect that much emotion would ever come out of me. "You know, I'd see guys in major championships and they'd be sitting there crying. I'm like, 'Oh that guy's crying,' and I can't believe that guy's crying."I didn't expect that much emotion to really just come out because it's been such a long time. "I've come a long way through the heartbreaks and the frustration of not being able to get it done and being able to do it. It felt good. It felt really good." Read: 'Wild Thing' self-destructs at PGACan Day win another major? Have your say on CNN Sport's Facebook page
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(CNN)There's an air of excitement as England's women prepare for this year's Six Nations Championship. That's not only down to the team's determination to avenge last year's second-place finish, but also because of the progress made off the field.Following an announcement last year, the Six Nations will be the first time England's women play as full-time professionals -- a landmark moment for English rugby. Follow @cnnsport
Captain Sarah Hunter, who has over 100 caps and 11 years of international experience, knows just how much significance the decision holds. "There's certainly a real buzz around what this is going to mean for the girls," 33-year-old Hunter told CNN ahead of her country's opening game against Ireland.Read More"Either people like myself, who have had to have full-time jobs throughout their international careers but now know that isn't the case, to the other side, players who are coming out of university and this is their first job, or they're not going to university because this is the career path they want to choose -- to be a full-time rugby player."Sarah Hunter captained England during its run to the World Cup final in 2017.READ: 'I'm lucky that I've only had to deal with broken arms' -- VunipolaGrowing the gameThe Red Roses were full-time for a period during the 2017 World Cup when they lost in the final to New Zealand, but that was only a temporary measure. This time, however, the contracts are here for the long-run, up to and beyond the next World Cup in 2021.England's results on the field, meanwhile, have also been promising, with victories over USA, Canada, and Ireland in November. The world's No. 2 ranked side will now go for Six Nations glory after a narrow heartbreaking defeat by to France cost them the championship last year. Hunter (center right) will face Italy, Wales, France, Ireland, and Scotland in the Six Nations.While other countries operate on a semi-professional basis, no other nation has put up a deal that compares with the one England has offered its 15-aside female rugby players. In total, 28 full-time contracts have been handed out, with the largest salaries thought to be worth £28,000 ($36,500). READ: Why rugby is on Georgia's mind ahead of World CupHunter is aware, however, that England's rivals aren't far behind in how they fund the women's game."France are already investing heavily," Hunter said. "You see the likes of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Italy, even Spain all putting money in through additional camps, additional fixtures, autumn internationals, pre-Six Nations games ... they're certainly investing in their program and that's obviously the first step to going all the way."'First day of school' feelingThere was a general feeling within the game that the introduction of professional contracts was long overdue for the Red Roses, who were crowned world champions in 2014. England's men reportedly receive £23,000 ($30,000) per game, a sum that dwarfs the amount received by their female counterparts. "The men's game generates something like 85% of the money that's distributed across the England Rugby landscape," Damian Hopley, chairman of the Rugby Players' Association (RPA), an organization that helps negotiate players' contracts, told CNN."So in terms of broadcast deals, sponsorship, hospitality, ticket sales, licensing, all those key areas that make up the bulk of the Rugby Football Union's annual revenue and income is generated by the men's team."We hope that there will be an upturn in the fortunes of the women's game and we'll see the game starting to grow."READ: Rugby United New York ready for its debut seasonKaty Daley-McLean runs in a try against USA in 2018. Hopley stresses, however, that the impact of the contracts will be immediate for the players: "It's not just around training and playing," he added, "It's around the recovery, the nutrition, the sleep, all the various aspects that go into being a professional athlete."I was down at the camp recently and you get a real sense of the excitement. As one of the girls described it, it's almost like the first day of school."How the RFU goes about growing the women's game is a matter of debate, but Hopley thinks England's players are doing all they can in that regard."The best way to boost any sport is to have champions," he said. "I certainly feel that the women more than uphold their end of the bargain in terms of keeping their performance levels high."JUST WATCHEDMeet the doctor training elite athletes' eyesReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHMeet the doctor training elite athletes' eyes 02:31Then there's the question of scheduling. This Six Nations, the Red Roses will play home games in Exeter and Doncaster, far smaller venues than Twickenham where they will face Scotland before the men take to the field. Although the women's fixtures struggle to fill the national stadium, crowds have been at an all-time high for England games. Last year's contest against France in Grenoble was watched by 17,434 -- a record for the Women's Six Nations. There's a desire for all the fixtures to eventually be played at the home of English rugby."Hopefully one day we'll be able to sell tickets to go to Twickenham or we'll be able to have 30 or 40,000 people there which actually makes a huge difference," said Hunter.READ: Babalwa Latsha -- from South African township to SpringboksMoving forwardJUST WATCHEDSix Nations: England ready for 2019 tournamentReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHSix Nations: England ready for 2019 tournament 02:01Further down the line, Hunter says she wants to see female rugby players in clubs -- not just international colors -- being handed contracts. "I'd love to see in five years' time that the domestic league is, if not professional, then semiprofessional," she added. "So even if you're not an international player, if you're a club player, you are either being paid full-time to do that or you're at least part-time so you don't have to work as many hours to be able to play rugby."Visit CNN.com/Sport for more news, features and videosRight now, however, the immediate focus for Hunter and the team is on the five upcoming games against their European rivals. The appetite to play has never been greater. "We want to win games, we want to be the world's side, we want to win World Cups, we want to win the Six Nations," she said. "And now we've been given every opportunity to do that."
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The European Space Agency (ESA) is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space. Hacker going by name "SlixMe" find and exploit SQL Injection vulnerability on a sub domain of website.
Hacker upload dump on his website, where he disclose the SQLi vulnerable link and Database tables also. Hacker also mention that other 5 domains are also hosted on same server, that can be exploited if he will be successful to exploit one site completely.
Exploited Domain : https://television.esa.int/
Method mentioned as "PostgreSQL AND error-based - WHERE or HAVING clause". In further discluse the PayLoad of injection also published.
Site is vulnerable at time of publishing this article.
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Google being one of the top web based service provider, has huge number of Internet users availing the free and paid services for their day-to-day personal and/or professional needs. Many of them have configured their mobile phone number for their account password recovery options. Certainly, when comes the mobility, many of these users prefer Google's android based smart phones and tablets to access these services anytime, anywhere.
In case of issues in accessing GMAIL services, user is been provided with the option to reset the account password by simply asking Google to send a verification code on the pre-registered mobile number.
On the other hand, Android (mobile operating system from Google) based devices are bundled with security features to keep the privacy of user data/information intact. The user can opt to set the security level from none to Password (High), this ensures that, to access the mobile device and information within it, the user needs to pass through the required security validation, kind of authentication.
However, the issue described here, does not need you to punch-in any type of security code or pattern to read the arrived SMS content and thus facilitate in compromising the Google account configured to use the said mobile phone.
The issue has been identified/reported by the RnD Lab at Varutra Consulting. Varutra consulting is an information security consulting and training services company based out of Pune, India founded by Mr. Kishor Sonawane.
Lets have a look at the two different issues and how to use them for hacking a Gmail account. The first issue is discussed below,
1. Android phones/tablets SMS functioning: In case of forgotten password, User needs to go to "can't access your account?" link and make a choice from various recovery options to reset the account password. In this case, the user selects to receive a text message with a verification code on her pre-configured mobile number.
Once the verification code is sent on the mobile number, Google prompts user to enter the code.
As Discussed earlier below are the screen lock options on an android phone (from 3-5). If user selects to configure any one from option 3-5, he/she needs to feed-in the same for accessing the device and information;
None
Swipe
Pattern
PIN
Password
Now, consider the phone screen is locked with desired option and mobile phone receives the verification code. In normal circumstances, user needs to pass through the security control to read the verification code and in turn, to reset the Google account password. But, the flaw, we are discussing here, allows SMS content (verification code, in our case) to be displayed on the one line notification panel at the top of the mobile display even if the Mobile phone is in security lock mode, which can be read by anyone.
This means as soon phone received verification code from GMAIL server it is getting displayed in a readable format to anyone who is having access to the phone or at least at such a distance where he/she can see the screen of a locked phone.
How difficult for you to read a one line SMS displaying on your friend/colleagues LOCKED phone?
Attack Scenario: In today's high tech era, it is not difficult to know someone's (friend, colleague, manager, relative etc.) Gmail Id, mobile number; and match if the mobile number is mapped with Google account.
An attacker on knowing the Gmail Id, phone number of a victim user and having access/reachability/visibility to the victim user's mobile device (even in Security Locked Mode) can initiate a request for verification code to be sent on the mobile number and can read the code popping up in the notification pane. The same can be punched-in online on Google recovery page to reset the victim's password and compromise the Google account and access the account recovery option and by entering the phone number can read the verification code and reset victim's account password and compromise the account.
Following screenshots revealing how a locked phone receives and displays the verification code in SMS notification.
Wait, if you could not read the 6 digits verification code in first shot then you can send the request again. Google does not take care to send random code for multiple tries.
E.g. When tested on SAMSUNG android phones a user even after setting the pattern to lock the screen is vulnerable to this attack. So the root cause being the SMS content displayed in the notification pane of locked android mobile and the real concern becomes, is it really necessary to display the SMS contents as notification?
Attacker on reading the verification code can reset the password of the victim account by entering the verification code and the new desired password.
The android 4.1 and above seems to have implemented the controls and thus are no more showcase this issue. But if the phone is without any security lock then it is still vulnerable.
If you are an android user and having a Gmail account, just have a look at the security options on your phone. Drop a line with the details of brand and OS version if you observe any phones are vulnerable to this issue.
The second issue is as discussed in section 2.
2. Security Issue with Google – account verification code
The above discussed scenario and overall severity level could have been minimized with a complex verification code.
As Google is sending 6 digits verification code which is very simple and easy to read and remember. It takes just 2 seconds for malicious user to read the verification code receiving in SMS on a locked phone.
If the verification code is a combination of alphanumeric characters with the length of more than 8 characters (10 is better), it will become difficult to read the code / remember it.
Solution to the problem:
Just displaying a notification of SMS being received and not showing the actual content of SMS on the home screen of a locked android mobile phone can achieve the best remediation of this issue. This behavior should be implemented for unlocked as well as locked phones.
Also, Google can use more complex verification code by combination of alphanumeric and increased length.
Considering the ease of usability if Google cannot change the complexity of verification code then at least they can generate random codes on each single request.
Stay tuned with us on Facebook Page or Twitter.
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(CNN)European football governing body UEFA found itself on the defensive over diversity ahead of the Euro 2020 match between Germany and Hungary on Wednesday.It started with a proposal by the Munich city council to illuminate the Allianz Arena in rainbow colors for the game -- a response to an anti-LGBTQ law passed by the Hungarian parliament last week. UEFA declined the request, citing its "political context." But opposition to that decision snowballed ahead of the game."It's true, the football pitch is not about politics. It's about people, about fairness, about tolerance," German foreign minister Heiko Maas tweeted on Wednesday."That's why UEFA is sending the wrong signal. But fortunately you can still show your colors today -- in the stadium and outside #loveislove."Read MoreGermany secures impressive victory against Portugal at Euro 2020Around 20,000 rainbow-colored flags were distributed at the Allianz Arena ahead of the game, while many spectators attending the match dressed in rainbow-colored clothes. Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer also wore a rainbow armband for the game.Then as the players of Hungary sang the national anthem before kickoff, a pitch invader with a rainbow flag ran onto the pitch.Euro 2020How a nation of just 11 million people became world's top-ranked football teamStunning long range goal lights up Euro 2020Christian Eriksen sends message to Danish teammates from hospital after collapsing Euro 2020: 24 teams playing across 51 matches in 11 host citiesAcross Germany, football clubs also illuminated their home grounds in rainbow colors during the game, which ended in a 2-2 draw. The outside of Munich's city hall, meanwhile, was decorated in rainbow flags. 'German politicians'On Twitter, France forward Antoine Griezmann had posted a photo of the Allianz Arena with its rainbow lights on prior to the game, and German businesses -- such as BMW, Siemens and Sparkasse -- changed their logos to rainbow colors.Hungary twice led in the match as Germany teetered on the brink of exiting Euro 2020, but substitute Leon Goretzka's 84th minute goal secured a point for Joachim Löw's team. Germany will now play England at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday in the last 16 round.The rainbow flag has become a universal symbol of hope for LGBTQ people around the world and is commonly adopted by members of the football community and beyond as a show of solidarity.The response to the decision not to light up the Allianz Arena in rainbow colors prompted UEFA to defend its position, while also incorporating rainbow colors into its social media logos.Dear @EURO2020, don't be offended by the 🌈. Think about those who still get discriminated. They need support. Your support, too!— Thomas Hitzlsperger (@ThomasHitz) June 22, 2021 "Some people have interpreted UEFA's decision to turn down the city of Munich's request to illuminate the Munich stadium in rainbow colors for a Euro 2020 match as 'political,'" UEFA said in a statement on Wednesday. "On the contrary, the request itself was political, linked to the Hungarian football team's presence in the stadium for this evening's match with Germany."For UEFA, the rainbow is not a political symbol, but a sign of our firm commitment to a more diverse and inclusive society. #Equalgame #Euro2020."As for Hungary, its Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that "German politicians" should accept the decision not to illuminate the stadium. "It is not the state's job to decide whether to paint the stadium in Munich, or any other stadium, in rainbow colors," he told German news agency DPA.Orban added: "While homosexual people were persecuted in Hungary under the communist leadership, today the state does not only guarantee their freedoms but also actively protects their rights."A pitch invader with a rainbow flag is seen on the pitch as the players of Hungary sing the national anthem prior to the Euro 2020 Group F match against Germany at thee Allianz Arena.The new legislation in Hungary, which was passed last week, bans the dissemination of content in schools deemed to promote homosexuality and gender change. It has been widely criticized by human rights groups and opposition parties.
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Beijing (CNN)The breakdown in US-China relations is due to some people in the United States treating China as an "imaginary enemy," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng was quoted as saying during a meeting with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Monday, according to a statement provided by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Sherman arrived in the northern city of Tianjin Sunday for meetings with Xie and State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, as part of what her office described as ongoing US efforts to hold candid exchanges with Chinese officials to "advance US interests and values and to responsibly manage the relationship."The Chinese ministry statement, which comes ahead of Sherman's meeting with Wang, accused the US of wanting to reignite a "sense of national purpose" by orchestrating a "whole-of-government and whole-of-society" campaign to demonize and suppress China."The US seems to be demanding cooperation when it wants something from China; decoupling, cutting off supplies, blockading or sanctioning China when it believes it has advantage; and resorting to conflict and confrontation at all costs," said Xie, according to the statement. Xie was also quoted as saying the US was in "no position to lecture China on democracy and human rights," pointing to the US' historic treatment of Native Americans, and US military action.Read MoreThe US side has yet to release a statement on the meeting. The talks come more than three months after the countries' confrontational Alaska meeting in March, during which diplomats from both sides publicly exchanged barbs.JUST WATCHEDUS-China meeting breaks into tense confrontation on cameraReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHUS-China meeting breaks into tense confrontation on camera 04:53During that meeting, the first under US President Joe Biden's administration, Chinese diplomats accused the US delegation of being "condescending" in its tone, while a US official said the representatives from Beijing seemed "intent on grandstanding."In the months since Alaska, the two countries have continued to clash across a range of fronts, with the US government being highly critical of China's policies in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. On Friday, China announced new sanctions against seven US officials -- including former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross -- and entities in response to US sanctions against several Hong Kong government officials, according to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Speaking to CNN, Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a longtime analyst of Chinese politics, described the China-US relationship as being at an "all time low." Talks such as those between Sherman and Wang are therefore aimed at preventing the adversarial relations from worsening into direct conflict, said Lam. "Sherman said she wants to build guardrails and parameters. So that conflicts can be treated through negotiations and not through direct confrontation and conflict," said Lam. "If the negotiations go well, there might be a possibility of a face-to-face meeting between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping at the G20 Summit in Italy in October," said Lam. "However, the Chinese have earlier rejected meetings between the US Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, and the senior official in the Chinese Central Military Commission. The Chinese have also been lukewarm about setting up a hotline. So whether that would be a top level summit between Biden and Xi remains very much in doubt," added Lam. Speaking in advance of his meeting with Sherman on Monday, Wang Yi told Hong Kong broadcaster Phoenix TV that "no country is superior to others," and China will not accept any country that assumes such a position."The US has always put pressure on others with its self-claimed strengths in a condescending manner, thinking that it is superior to others," Wang said Saturday. "But I want to tell the US side that there is never a country that is superior to others, and there shouldn't be one, and China will not accept any country boasting of its superiority."Wang's comments come in response to remarks by a US State Department spokesperson during a news briefing last Wednesday when he said Sherman would be traveling to China "from a position of strength.""If the United States has not learned how to get along with other countries on an equal footing by today, then it is our responsibility, together with the international community, to give the United States a good lesson in this regard," Wang added.
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Story highlightsWilliams sisters will meet in the semifinals of Family Circle Cup in CharlestonAmericans will play each other for the first time since 2009 WTA finalsSam Querrey brings U.S. level at 1-1 with Serbia in Davis Cup quarterfinalDefending champion Czech Republic takes 2-0 lead in KazakhstanA new movie portraying their rise to the top of the tennis world will debut next month, but the Williams sisters are already giving it their best promotion after setting up their first head-to-head clash since 2009.Both won two matches at the WTA Family Circle Cup event in Charleston Friday and will meet in the semifinals, with Serena hoping to defend her title and Venus battling to regain her status after longterm health problems.Serena triumphed 6-4 6-2 against fellow American Mallory Burdette in their third-round match, with the world No. 1 setting up a rematch of last year's final against Czech Lucie Safarova -- which she then won 6-4 6-1.Her older sibling Venus was already through to the last four, having battled to defeat U.S. 12th seed Varvara Lepchenko 6-2 4-6 6-2 before cruising to a 6-4 6-4 win over 18-year-old compatriot Madison Keys.It will be only the third time they have met on clay, and the first time on the latterly green surface of this South Carolina tournament -- which dates back to the beginning of the WTA Tour in 1973 and is the oldest women's professional event.Read: Record sixth Miami win for Williams"It was really motivating to see Venus win today -- I figured if she can win two matches, I have no excuse not to win my two matches," Serena said.JUST WATCHED Radwanska: Playing Serena was toughReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCH Radwanska: Playing Serena was tough 04:36"Venus is the toughest opponent I've ever played. I think she's beaten me the most out of any player. I know her game and she knows my game.JUST WATCHEDTommy Haas: My daughter motivates meReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHTommy Haas: My daughter motivates me 02:26"I know her patterns, she knows mine -- she probably knows mine better than I do. I think it'll be a great match tomorrow."While Serena has bounced back from blood clots on her lungs after a freak foot injury suffered in 2010, Venus has dropped to 24th in the rankings as she struggles to overcome the autoimmune disease Sjogren's syndrome.The 32-year-old trails her sister 13-10 in career meetings, and lost their last one at the 2009 end-of-season WTA Championships."I've seen her so many times -- hopefully all the times I've sat in those stands watching her will give me a little help," said Venus, who won the 40-year-old tournament back in 2004. "I'm looking forward to it. Last year in Charleston I fell short and I didn't hold up my end of the bargain and make the semifinals, so I'm glad I took it a step further this year."They were joined in the last four by Jelena Jankovic, who like the Williams sisters has topped the rankings -- but without winning a grand slam.The Serbian ninth seed cruised past 19-year-old world No. 114 Eugenie Bouchard of Canada 6-2 6-1 for the 500th victory of her career.JUST WATCHEDChris Evert: Grooming future championsReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHChris Evert: Grooming future champions 04:22JUST WATCHEDRafael Nadal returns to the courtReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRafael Nadal returns to the court 06:19Read: Davis Cup latest scoresMeanwhile, Novak Djokovic gave Serbia the perfect start to the Davis Cup quarterfinal against the United States as the world's No. 1 men's player defeated John Isner in Friday's opening rubber in Idaho.The big-serving American had hopes of repeating last year's win over Australian Open champion Djokovic in the ATP event at Indian Wells, but was unable to take advantage of the high-altitude conditions in Boise as he went down 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 7-5.Djokovic also prevailed when they met in the first round of the Davis Cup three years ago, as his country went on to win the title for the first time.The Serbians' hopes of going through to the last four may rest on Viktor Troicki, who was beaten in five sets by American No. 1 Sam Querrey in the second singles rubber after being asked to replace the injured world No. 10 Janko Tipsarevic.Querrey won their 2010 encounter -- a dead rubber as the Serbs had already won through -- and this time came back from 2-1 down to triumph 7-6 (7-1) 3-6 4-6 6-1 6-4 and level the score.The winner of this tie will next face either Canada or Italy, who were also 1-1 in Vancouver.Andreas Seppi gave Italy an early lead as he came from two sets down against Vasek Pospisil to win 5-7 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-3 in three hours and 15 minutes, but Canadian No. 1 Milos Raonic beat Fabio Fognini 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 7-5.Read: Murray claims No. 2 ranking with 'brutal' winDavis Cup titleholder the Czech Republic took a commanding 2-0 lead away to Kazakhstan.With top-ranked Czech Tomas Berdych absent in Astana, world No. 63 Lukas Rosol came from behind to beat Andrey Golubev 4-6 6-4 6-2 7-6 (8-6) and No. 94 Jan Hajek crushed Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3 6-2 6-4.The Czechs can wrap up the best-of-five tie in Saturday's doubles rubber, which would set up a match with either France or Argentina.That quarterfinal was tied 1-1 after the opening day in Buenos Aires, as world No.8 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga battled to overcome 71st-ranked Carlos Berlocq 4-6 6-2 6-3 5-7 6-2 in the opening match.World No. 19 Juan Monaco, Argentina's No. 1 in the absence of Juan Martin del Potro, gave his country a lifeline by beating 13th-ranked Gilles Simon 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 6-4 on the red clay.
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Israel is considered one of the most advanced country in cyber security, but at the same time is a privileged target for hostile governments intent in sabotage and cyber espionage on his technology.
Yesterday, Cybersecurity experts revealed that a major artery in Israel's national road network located in the northern the city of Haifa suffered a cyber attack, that caused massive traffic congestion in the City.
Isreal military officials are aware of cyber threats that could hit the infrastructure of the country and they afraid the possible effect of a cyber attack on a large scale.
Israeli government websites suffer thousands of cyberattacks each day according Ofir Ben Avi, head of the government's website division. The Israel Electric Corp. confirmed that its servers register about 6,000 unique computer attacks every second.
In June, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Iran militia, Hezbollah and Hamas have targeted in numerous occasions Israel's "essential systems," including its water facilities, electric grid, trains and banks.
"Every sphere of civilian economic life, let's not even talk about our security, is a potential or actual cyber attack target," said Netanyahu.
Israel's military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz made a high-profile speech recently outlining that within the greatest threats his country might face in the future there is the computer sabotage as a top concern. A sophisticated cyber attack could be used to shut down a banking system of Israel, the national electric grids or a defense system, this is a nightmare for the Defense.
Cybersecurity experts revealed to The Associated Press that a major artery in Israel's national road network located in the northern the city of Haifa suffered a cyber attack that has caused serious logistical problems and hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.
The tunnel is a strategic thoroughfare in the third largest city of the country, and as a demonstration of its importance in the city is exploring the possibility to use the structure as a public shelter in case of emergency.
It seems that the attackers used a malware to hit the security camera apparatus in the Carmel Tunnel toll road in Sept. 8 and to gain its control.
"The attack caused an immediate 20-minute lockdown of the roadway. The next day, the expert said, it shut down the roadway again during morning rush hour. It remained shut for eight hours, causing massive congestion."
The experts that have investigated on the incident exclude that the hypothesis of a state-sponsored attack because the malicious code used was not sophisticated enough to be the work of a hostile government, it is likely the involvement of a group of hacktivists.
Carmelton company that oversees the toll road, blamed a "communication glitch" for the incident, while Oren David, a manager of security firm RSA's anti-fraud unit, said that although he didn't have information about the tunnel incident similar attacks could represent a serious menace for population.
"Most of these systems are automated, especially as far as security is concerned. They're automated and they're remotely controlled, either over the Internet or otherwise, so they're vulnerable to cyberattack," "among the top-targeted countries." said David.
In reality Iranian hackers and other hostile entities have penetrated successfully Israeli systems, Israel has controlled the attacks to track back the hackers, profile their methods of attack and to conduct a disinformation campaign making available false information.
To improve security of critical infrastructure the Israeli civilian infrastructure, Israel's national electric company has recently launched a training program, jointly with cyber defense company CyberGym, to teach engineers and managers of critical plants to detect ongoing cyber attacks.
The attack scenario revealed portends to an escalation of attacks by hostile entities, whether they are cyber criminals, hacktivits or state-sponsored hackers, it's crucial for the Israeli government to invest in improvement of cyber capabilities for its survival.
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Ransomware has been around for a few years but has become an albatross around everyone's neck—from big businesses and financial institutions to hospitals and individuals worldwide—with cyber criminals making millions of dollars.
In just past few months, we saw a scary strain of ransomware attacks including WannaCry, Petya and LeakerLocker, which made chaos worldwide by shutting down hospitals, vehicle manufacturing, telecommunications, banks and many businesses.
Before WannaCry and Petya, the infamous Mamba full-disk-encrypting ransomware and the Locky ransomware had made chaos across the world last year, and the bad news is—they are back with their new and more damaging variants than ever before.
Diablo6: New Variant of Locky Ransomware
First surfaced in early 2016, Locky has been one of the largest distributed ransomware infections, infecting organisations across the globe.
By tricking victims into clicking on a malicious attachment, Locky ransomware encrypts nearly all file formats on a victim's computer and network and unlocks them until the ransom in Bitcoins is paid to attackers.
The ransomware has made many comebacks with its variants being distributed through Necurs botnet and Dridex botnet.
This time security researchers have discovered a fresh spam malware campaign distributing a new variant of Locky known as Diablo6 and targeting computers around the world, with the United States being the most targeted country, followed by Austria.
An independent security researcher using online alias Racco42 first spotted the new Locky variant that encrypts files on infected computers and appends the .diablo6 file extension.
Like usually, the ransomware variant comes in an email containing a Microsoft Word file as an attachment, which when opened, a VBS Downloader script is executed that then attempts to download the Locky Diablo6 payload from a remote file server.
The ransomware then encrypts the files using RSA-2048 key (AES CBC 256-bit encryption algorithm) on the infected computer before displaying a message that instructs victims to download and install Tor browser; and visit the attacker's site for further instructions and payments.
This Locky Diablo6 variant demands a sum of 0.49 Bitcoin (over $2,079) from victims to get their files back.
Unfortunately, at this time it is impossible to recover the files encrypted by the .Diablo6 extension, so users need to exercise caution while opening email attachments.
Return of Disk-Encrypting Mamba Ransomware
Mamba is another powerful and dangerous kind of ransomware infection that encrypts the entire hard disk on an affected computer instead of just files, leaving the system totally unusable unless a ransom is paid.
Similar tactics have also been employed by other ransomware attacks, including Petya and WannaCry, but the Mamba ransomware has been designed for destruction in corporates and other large organisations, rather than extorting Bitcoins.
Late last year, Mamba infected the San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency (MUNI) system's network over the Thanksgiving weekend, causing major train delays and forcing officials to shut down ticket machines and fare gates at some stations.
Now, security researchers at Kaspersky Lab have spotted a new campaign distributing Mamba infections, targeting corporate networks in countries, majorly in Brazil and Saudi Arabia.
Mamba is utilising a legitimate open source Windows disk encryption utility, called DiskCryptor, to fully lock up hard drives of computers in targeted organisations. So, there is no way to decrypt data as the encryption algorithms used by DiskCryptor are very strong.
Although it's not clear how the ransomware initially finds its way into a corporate network, researchers believe like most ransomware variants, Mamba might be using either an exploit kit on compromised or malicious sites or malicious attachments sent via an email.
The ransom note does not immediately demand money, rather the message displayed on the infected screen only claims that the victim's hard drive has been encrypted and offers two email addresses and a unique ID number to recover the key.
Here's How to Protect Yourself From Ransomware Attacks
Ransomware has become one of the largest threats to both individuals and enterprises with the last few months happening several widespread ransomware outbreaks.
Currently, there is no decryptor available to decrypt data locked by Mamba and Locky as well, so users are strongly advised to follow prevention measures in order to protect themselves.
Beware of Phishing emails: Always be suspicious of uninvited documents sent over an email and never click on links inside those documents unless verifying the source.
Backup Regularly: To always have a tight grip on all your important files and documents, keep a good backup routine in place that makes their copies to an external storage device that is not always connected to your PC.
Keep your Antivirus software and system Up-to-date: Always keep your antivirus software and systems updated to protect against latest threats.
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(CNN)Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium is expected to be announced as the of host Super Bowl LVIII in February 2024, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal and ESPN.According to the reports, an official announcement is expected on Wednesday at the National Football League (NFL) owners meeting in Dallas, Texas.SB LVIII was originally scheduled to be hosted by New Orleans, but was relocated out of the city due to game conflicting with Mardi Gras. New Orleans will instead get the big game in 2025.The NFL declined to comment on the report. CNN has reached out to the Las Vegas Raiders for comment. The Raiders moved to Las Vegas in 2020 after its relocation from Oakland, California. Read MoreAn aerial view of Allegiant Stadium.Costing $1.97 billion and taking 31 months to complete, the Allegiant Stadium has a capacity of 65,000. As well as hosting Raiders games, it also is the home for the UNLV Rebel football team and held the Pac-12 championship game earlier this month. Visit CNN.com/sport for more news, features, and videosLas Vegas is also set to host the 2021 Pro-Bowl on February 6 and 2022 NFL Draft from April 28-30. The Super Bowl this season will be held at SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers in Inglewood, California in February. State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona will host the Super Bowl in 2023.
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McAfee said it has found a vulnerability in Adobe Systems' Reader program that reveals when and where a PDF document is opened. The issue emerges when some users launch a link to another file path, which calls on a JavaScript application programming interface (API), while Reader alerts a user when they are going to call on a resource from another place.
The issue is not a serious problem and does not allow for remote code execution, but McAfee does consider it a security problem and has notified Adobe. It affects every version of Adobe Reader, including the latest version, 11.0.2.
"We have detected some PDF samples in the wild that are exploiting this issue. Our investigation shows that the samples were made and delivered by an 'email tracking service' provider. We don't know whether the issue has been abused for illegal or APT attacks," wrote McAfee's Haifei Li.
McAfee declined to reveal the details of the vulnerability as Adobe is yet to release a patch for it. The vendor said that it has already detected a number of groups and people exploiting it, potentially for malicious purposes.
"Malicious senders could exploit this vulnerability to collect sensitive information such as IP address, Internet service provider or even the victim's computing routine. In addition, our analysis suggests that more information could be collected by calling various PDF JavaScript APIs."
McAfee suggests that Adobe Reader users disable JavaScript until a patch is released.
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Story highlightsGenscher was an early advocate of detente when Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet leaderDeath comes two weeks after that of Guido Westerwelle, another former foreign ministerCurrent Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier: "We have lost a great German" (CNN)Former German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who played a pivotal role in reuniting East and West Germany after the fall of communism, has died at the age of 89, according to his office.He served as the country's foreign minister for a record-setting 18 years, from 1974 to 1992, during which time he was an early advocate of pursuing detente with the Soviet Union when the country began to open up -- and, later, break apart -- under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev.And he was instrumental in Germany's reunification, which took place in 1990 -- the year following the fall of the Berlin Wall -- far sooner than anyone had initially anticipated.First #Westerwelle and now #Genscher ... I hate you, 2016. #RIP— Silke (@Skippy9474) April 1, 2016
He was an inveterate traveler as foreign minister, too. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze once joked that whenever two planes crossed paths over the Atlantic, "Genscher is on both of them."Genscher remained an active and popular figure even after leaving office. And his death triggered an outpouring of emotion on social media.Read More"Rest in Peace Mr #Genscher. And thank you for everything. I wouldn't be, where I am now, w/out you. God bless!" one person tweeted.Rest in Peace Mr #Genscher . And thank you for everything. I wouldn't be, where I am now, w/out you. God bless!— malypaly (@jensmaly) April 1, 2016
Genscher's death comes just two weeks after the death of another former German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, who died on March 18 at the age of 54.The current German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is on a visit to Tajikistan, issued a tribute to his predecessor Friday."Over the course of his long and eventful life, Hans-Dietrich Genscher literally made history -- that of our country, Germany, and of Europe," Steinmeier said. "He is assured of a place in the history books. His lifelong task was to overcome the division of Germany and the rift in Europe."Hans-Dietrich Genscher was Germany's longest serving foreign minister. He was fortunate enough to play a role in German reunification, his life's great political goal, and to guide and support the completion of German unification during his own lifetime."We have lost a great German and a great European today."Follow @Don_Melvin CNN's Vasco Cotovio contributed to this report.
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Story highlightsTiger Woods wins the World Golf Championship title by two shots in FloridaWorld No. 2 out in front all Sunday to finish two clear of Steve StrickerRory McIlroy fires final round 65 to shoot up leaderboard to eighthFirst major of the year, the Masters at Augusta, arrives next monthTiger Woods tuned up perfectly for the forthcoming Masters with a two-shot victory at the WGC Championship in Florida as he edged closer to overhauling the world No. 1 Rory McIlroy.The 14-time major champion started the final round at the Blue Monster course at Doral with a four-shot lead and never looked like relinquishing it, despite the best efforts of Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker.The world No. 2 dropped a shot on the final hole to finish on 19-under-par, two clear of Stricker, who had given Woods a few putting tips before the tournament started and might now wish he hadn't.It was Woods' seventh triumph in the Cadillac Championship, his 17th World Golf Championship and his 76th PGA Tour title.Read: McIlroy sorry for Florida walkoff 'mistake'"I played well this week," Woods said at the trophy presentation. "Thank you to Steve for the putting lesson. It was one of those weeks where I felt pretty good about how I was playing. I made some putts and pretty much got rolling."JUST WATCHEDExclusive: Tiger and Rory's 'bromance'ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHExclusive: Tiger and Rory's 'bromance' 09:34JUST WATCHEDRory McIlroy admits walk-off errorReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRory McIlroy admits walk-off error 02:13JUST WATCHEDInside McIlroy's mega deal with NikeReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHInside McIlroy's mega deal with Nike 04:44The 2010 U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell started the final round in second but endured a testing afternoon, dropping back to 14-under as he finished in third alongside Phil Mickelson, Spaniard Sergio Garcia and Australian Adam Scott.Woods carded three birdies in his first ten holes but dropped two shots on the closing holes, including on the final hole.Yet he looks to have regained some of his best form with the first major tournament of the year -- The Masters at Augusta -- just round the corner.McIlroy, who caused controversy by walking off the course during last week's Honda Classic was back to his best form, firing a seven-under-par round of 65 as he charged up the leaderboard to finish in a tie for eighth place."I was pretty down about my game coming into this week," McIlroy told the PGA Tour's official website. "A day like today felt like a long way away if I'm honest.""A few days like I've played, it does my confidence a world of good. I probably wear my heart on my sleeve a bit with my golf. If I have a bad round, it's sort of like the end of the world, but if I play a good one, I'm happy again."I always think when I'm playing bad that it's further away than it is," McIlroy added. "That's just where I have to stay patient and let whatever happens, happen, and know that if I put in the hard work, that the results will bear fruit; whether that's sooner or later, it doesn't really matter."
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Story highlightsTributes paid to the 96 before the game at Anfield Liverpool's Jonjo Shelvey sent off after 39 minutesSteven Gerrard fired Liverpool ahead early in second halfGoals from Rafael and van Persie won it for UnitedManchester United came from behind to deny Liverpool on an emotional day as Anfield paid tribute to the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster.Robin van Persie's 81st minute penalty gave Sir Alex Ferguson's men all three points against a Liverpool side which played for most of the game with ten men.Jonjo Shelvey was shown a straight red card in the 39th minute following a two-footed tackle on Jonny Evans.And although Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard gave the hosts a 46th minute lead, goals from Rafael and van Persie won it for United.Football's most poisonous rivalry? Liverpool and Manchester United's tempestuous pastOn a day where the rivalry between England's two most successful clubs was put aside, fans and players of both teams paid their respects to the 96 supporters who died at Hillsborough in 1989.JUST WATCHEDReport: Police blamed for stadium tragedyReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHReport: Police blamed for stadium tragedy 02:51JUST WATCHEDHillsborough stadium tragedy explainedReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHHillsborough stadium tragedy explained 02:00 Photos: Liverpool vs. Manchester United: A rivalry in pictures Photos: Liverpool vs. Manchester United: A rivalry in picturesA deep rivalry – It has been suggested the rivalry between the cities of Manchester and Liverpool can be traced back to the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal. Tired of paying their dues to import through the Mersey estuary, Manchester merchants built their own waterway, leaving Liverpudlian dock workers disgruntled and out of pocket.Hide Caption 1 of 10 Photos: Liverpool vs. Manchester United: A rivalry in picturesUnited's darkest hour – Both United and Liverpool are have had to endure their fair share of tragedies. United lost an entire generation of young, promising stars in 1958, when a plane carrying the team back from a European Cup match in Belgrade crashed on a snowy runway in Munich -- killing eight players.Hide Caption 2 of 10 Photos: Liverpool vs. Manchester United: A rivalry in picturesLiverpool's loss – The shadow of the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium disaster has loomed large over Liverpool for over two decades. A total of 96 Liverpool fans lost their lives in a fatal crush before and during an FA Cup semifinal against Nottingham Forest. An independent report recently released absolved Liverpool fans of any blame for the tragedy, instead pointing the finger of blame at the authorities.Hide Caption 3 of 10 Photos: Liverpool vs. Manchester United: A rivalry in picturesUnited in grief – At times, the two sets have fans have used the two tragedies as a way of trying to provoke each other. On the pitch, this picture shows Manchester United captain Gary Neville wearing a black armband in honor of the Hillsborough victims during a match in 2004.Hide Caption 4 of 10 Photos: Liverpool vs. Manchester United: A rivalry in picturesLast-gasp triumph – United and Liverpool have both enjoyed success in the European Cup, now known as the Champions League. In the 1999 final, United stunned the footballing world by scoring twice in injury time to beat Bayern Munich 2-1 and complete an historic league, FA Cup and Champions League treble.Hide Caption 5 of 10 Photos: Liverpool vs. Manchester United: A rivalry in picturesMiracle of Istanbul – Liverpool pulled off a shock of their own in 2005. At half-time against Italian giants AC Milan in Istanbul, Rafael Benitez's Liverpool found themselves 3-0 down. During an incredible second half, Liverpool scored three times before sealing a fifth European triumph when goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek saved Andriy Shevchenko's penalty in a shootout.Hide Caption 6 of 10 Photos: Liverpool vs. Manchester United: A rivalry in picturesOasis – The rivalry between Manchester and Liverpool also spills over into areas of popular culture. Indie band Oasis are arguably Manchester's most famous musical export. Brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher are, however, Manchester City fans.Hide Caption 7 of 10 Photos: Liverpool vs. Manchester United: A rivalry in picturesThe Beatles – To this day, the music of the Beatles helps to put the city of Livepool on the map. "The Fab Four" of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison were global megastars between 1960 and 1970.Hide Caption 8 of 10 Photos: Liverpool vs. Manchester United: A rivalry in picturesRecord breakers – By winning the Premier League title at the end of the 2010-11 season, Manchester United became English champions for a record 19th time -- overhauling Liverpool's total of 18.Hide Caption 9 of 10 Photos: Liverpool vs. Manchester United: A rivalry in picturesRacism row – The rivalry between the two clubs reached new heights last season. Liverpool's Luis Suarez was handed an eight-match ban by the Football Association for racially abusive Manchester United's Patrice Evra. In the return fixture, Suarez refused Evra's hand in the pre-match handshake.Hide Caption 10 of 10Shirts, flowers and cards adorned the Shankly Gates by the permanent memorial to the victims who perished 23 years ago.Both sets of players wore the number 96 as they emerged from the tunnel with Manchester United legend Sir Bobby Charlton presenting former Liverpool striker Ian Rush a bouquet of flowers.Reds captain Steven Gerrard and his United counterpart Ryan Giggs then released 96 balloons into the Anfield sky.Fans held up mosaics around the ground as Liverpool's traditional anthem of 'You'll Never Walk Alone' was played.English FA offer apology on HillsboroughLuis Suarez and Patrice Evra put aside their personal differences and shook hands in the lead up to kick off.Liverpool striker Suarez was banned for eight matches by the Football Associaton after racially abusing the Frenchman during a league game at Anfield.But while the pre-match atmosphere was full of respect, the intense rivalry between the two sides was never far away. Photos: Sport's battle against depression Photos: Sport's battle against depressionHide Caption 1 of 9 Photos: Sport's battle against depressionRobert Enke – In 2009, Robert Enke was first-choice goalkeeper for the German national football team, enjoying a successful club spell with Hannover. But in November of that year, he took his own life by stepping in front of train. The 32-year-old had been battling depression for the majority of his career and the story of his struggle is told movingly in Ronald Reng's acclaimed biography "A life too short: The tragedy of Robert Enke".Hide Caption 2 of 9 Photos: Sport's battle against depressionKelly Holmes – Kelly Holmes is a British sporting hero after winning her gold medals over 800 and 1500 meters at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. But the track star has had to fight depression throughout her life, including a period of self-harming in the year before her Olympic triumph.Hide Caption 3 of 9 Photos: Sport's battle against depressionStan Collymore – Stan Collymore is former England footballer turned broadcaster who now campaigns for depression charities. He tweeted last year: "I'm tweeting because the stigma around this illness suggests that us sufferers all of a sudden become useless, maudlin, and unable to function. Well, I haven't seen daylight for 4 days now ... but I've done a week of Talksport/Channel 5 prep work, a national newspaper column, all in the eye of one of the most challenging, soul destroying bouts of this cruel illness one could have."Hide Caption 4 of 9 Photos: Sport's battle against depressionSebastian Diesler – Sebastian Diesler was hailed as the future of German football after bursting onto the international scene at the start of the last decade. His performances earned him a move to Bayern Munich in 2002, but by 2007 he had retired -- aged 27. Diesler endured an injury-ravaged career, while struggling to come to terms with the pressure of professional football.Hide Caption 5 of 9 Photos: Sport's battle against depressionRicky Hatton – Boxer Ricky Hatton revealed he contemplated suicide following his brutal defeat to Manny Pacquiao in 2009. Hatton, who has suffered from drink and drug problems, retired from the sport in the aftermath of the loss, but this month announced he intends to make a return to the ring in November.Hide Caption 6 of 9 Photos: Sport's battle against depressionMarcus Trescothick – Marcus Trescothick was a key member of the England Test cricket team which beat Australia to win the Ashes in 2005. Ahead of the return series in 2007, England announced Trescothick would be leaving the squad citing a reccurence of a stress-related illness as the reason. Hide Caption 7 of 9 Photos: Sport's battle against depressionJerry West – Jerry West is an NBA icon who revealed he has been battling depression since childhood, stemming from his abusive father. West said his relationship with his father left him feeling worthless and tormented.Hide Caption 8 of 9 Photos: Sport's battle against depressionJohn Kirwan – Former New Zealand rugby international John Kirwan spoke in detail about his battle with depression in the book "All Blacks Don't Cry". He is actively involved with mental health campaigns in his homeland.Hide Caption 9 of 9JUST WATCHEDLjungberg: 'I was called gay'ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHLjungberg: 'I was called gay' 04:50JUST WATCHEDChampions League chat ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHChampions League chat 04:30Once the game had started, both sets of fans began to goad each other, with a small section of United fans singing, 'Where's you famous Munich song?'Panel: Police at fault in response to deadly UK stadium football crushThat was a small blot on an emotional and entertaining afternoon as both teams produced the kind of cut and thrust football that makes these derby games so thrilling.Liverpool, without a league victory under new manager Brendan Rodgers this season, came out firing on all cylinders as it looked to take the game to United.Both Gerrard and Suarez had opportunities as the home side dominated possession.But the game was turned on its head six minutes before the break when referee Mark Halsey showed Shelvey a straight red card.Down to ten men, the hosts re-grouped at half-time and grabbed the lead within a minute of the restart.Glen Johnson tricked his way into the United penalty area and picked out the unmarked Gerrard, who volleyed home from close-range.It was a poignant moment for Gerrard, whose 10-year-old cousin Jon-Paul Gilhooley was among 96 victims.That goal sparked an outpouring of emotion from the Kop as the Liverpool players celebrated in front of their supporters.But their joy was cut short as United hit back almost immediately with Rafael curling home a spectacular equaliser from inside the penalty area.The visitors continued to make the most of their numerical advantage and were awarded a penalty when Antonio Valencia went down under minimal contact from Johnson.Van Persie, who missed his last spot kick during the recent win at Southampton, made no mistake this time as he beat Pepe Reina.Martin Kelly wasted a late chance to equalize for Liverpool as United held out for victory.
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Usain Bolt fans across the world have been celebrating his sprinting success by striking the famous 'Bolt pose' in a number of creative locations. Have you been striking the pose too? If so, send your photos to iReport.
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Story highlightsNili Lotan is a fashion designer known for combining photojournalism and textilesLotan moved from Israel in 1980, but still draws upon her upbringing in her designsShe has placed images of the fall of the Berlin Wall and Woodstock on her dressesFashion is about making a statement.Designer Nili Lotan has been culling imagery from socio-political issues like the fall of the Berlin Wall and the West Bank's "separation barrier" to create high fashion for nearly a decade."The fabric becomes a canvas, and you're basically saying something," Lotan told CNN in her lower Manhattan showroom. "The idea is not to express my own opinion, but rather to provoke a thought or an opinion of whoever is wearing it or whoever is watching it."Next month, the Israeli-born designer will display a retrospective of her "Fashion Meets Photojournalism" series at her New York store. She'll recut her signature silk cami dresses from past collections for the project, as well as debut a new dress featuring politically-charged photography by Allan Tannenbaum. Proceeds will be donated to help both sides of the recent Israel-Hamas hostilities that killed more than 2,000 people and severely damaged Gaza's infrastructure. JUST WATCHEDDid 'outsider mentality' fuel Kors?ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHDid 'outsider mentality' fuel Kors? 07:04JUST WATCHEDFlower power from Woodstock to CoachellaReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHFlower power from Woodstock to Coachella 02:02Lotan, who moved to New York from Israel in 1980, said like most creatives, she draws on what she knows -- her upbringing and subsequent life experiences -- to find inspiration.As a child of parents who met in a World War II refugee camp in Austria, her interest in global affairs started at a young age."We are very much tuned into the news, into current events, into social justice," she said. "From the day I remember sound, I remember every day my dad listened to the radio news."Interactive: War & FashionHer love of clothes and art, though, came solely from her mother, who had studied textile design before the war and never really got to use it on a larger scale after she emigrated to Israel."One of the mediums she expressed her creativity was clothes, and back in those days, it sounds strange, but we really didn't have too many stores to go and buy clothes," Lotan said, so her mother made them for the family.A resident of Israel, Lotan served the mandatory two years of military service for women, as social services chair of the air force. After her service, she enrolled in Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, with her mother's urging, after an academic degree opened up specifically for textile and fashion design.That sewed up her fate.Before starting her eponymous line in 2003, Lotan worked for apparel companies like Ralph Lauren, Adrienne Vittadini, Liz Claiborne and Nautica.After a trip to Israel during the 2006 Lebanon War with her husband, musician David Broza, Lotan decided to combine her interests in fashion and current affairs. "When we came back, I had an urge and a need to scream and say something about the situation," Lotan said. "I was certainly not-pro gun or promoting the use of guns, but just protesting against the war."While the rest of her collections tend to focus on a classic, modern and minimal aesthetic, Lotan debuted a gun-print, silk charmeuse dress, blouse and scarf. Retailer pulls shirts reminiscent of HolocaustThe mechanics of her textile printing are a sartorial choice, first and foremost, Lotan said. "When I place it on the fabric, I don't just post it," Lotan said. "There is a play between the fabric and the picture." Seven years after the debut of Lotan's first politically inspired piece, supermodel Karolina Kurkova garnered headlines for wearing one of her gun print dresses in 2013. Critics called Kurkova insensitive as she was photographed in the dress amid Congress' failure to pass an assault weapons ban and as the nation was still mourning the Newtown shootings and Boston Marathon bombings. Lotan said she now focuses on acts of protest -- cultural change imagery from Woodstock, the Paris protests of 1968 and anti-Vietnam street art of "Peace gotta come now" -- so that her prints are not misconstrued and taken out of context.Still, the designer doesn't plan to stop blurring the lines between style and social issues anytime soon.
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Do you know, A Computer viruses could go Airborne over WiFi networks? Security researchers at the University of Liverpool in Britain have demonstrated a WiFi virus that can spread between computer networks just like the 'common cold' spreads between Humans.
They have created a proof-of-concept which can infect the entire wireless network instead of a single computer at a time, that replaces the firmware of the vulnerable Access Point (AP) with a virus-loaded version, and then propagates itself to the next victim on the WiFi network.
The WiFi based virus named as 'Chameleon', that can self-propagate over WiFi networks from access point to access point, but doesn't affect the working of the Wireless Access Point.
This Virus is able to identify WiFi access points that are not protected by encryption and passwords, according to the research paper. It can badly hit less-protected open access WiFi networks available in coffee shops or airports.
It propagates in the following sequence:
It Establish a list of susceptible APs within the range
Bypass any encryption Security on the targeted AP
Bypass the administrative interface on the targeted AP
Identify and Store AP System Settings
Replace the AP firmware on with the virus-loaded firmware.
Import the victim original AP System Settings on newly loaded firmware
Let's Propagate! Back to Step one to next Target.
The experimental simulated demonstration was performed in two cities i.e. Belfast, NI and London, England.
Laboratory setup
A random access point was made infected with the virus which act as a seed, the results were published in the paper.
The Chameleon attack is a serious threat for WiFi network security. The research shows that this kind of attack is undetectable to any Antivirus and Wireless Intrusion Detection System (IDS).
"Hence, this attack is considered advanced and difficult to detect, as IDS rogue AP detection methods typically rely on a change in credentials, location or traffic levels."
The Density of Access points in a certain geographical area increases the security issues for wireless networks, because it spreads very quickly at high speed in an area having denser Access Point availability.
"WiFi connections are increasingly a target for computer hackers because of well-documented security vulnerabilities, which make it difficult to detect and defend against a virus," says Marshall, Co-author of the research paper.
However, the virus itself doesn't exist in the wild and created for the demo purpose in the research lab only, though it is very likely that a malicious version could be created and released into the wild by cyber criminals and malware writers.
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2012 Most Vulnerable Cities At Risk Of Cyber Crime
Norton's study showed the city was one of the ten worst for hacking. Each city was ranked by the prevalence of PCs and smartphones in addition to social media use with risk factors like unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots and malware attempts. Manchester was found to be the riskiest city and Vancouver is the third most vulnerable city in Canada for cyber-crime.
The Top 10 Riskiest Online Cities in the U.S. are:
#1 – Washington, D.C.
#2 – Seattle
#3 – San Francisco
#4 – Atlanta
#5 – Boston
#6 – Denver
#7 – Minneapolis
#8 – Sacramento, Calif.
#9 – Raleigh, N.C.
#10 – Austin, Texas
The Top 10 Riskiest Online Cities in Canada are:
#1 - Burlington, ON
#2 - Port Coquitlam, BC
#3 - Vancouver, BC
#4 - Langley, BC
#5 - Calgary, AB
# 6 - Fredericton, NB
#7 - Toronto, ON
#8 - New Westminster, BC
#9 - Edmonton, AB
#10 - Victoria, BC
Cyber crime expert Simon Ellson said there are a numer of steps people can take to stay safe when they are using accessing the web via a smart phone or laptop.Mr Ellson said: "Never ask your web browser to store your username and password for a website. If you are going to create a password, which you should for any device that you are using, make it unique and change it regularly.Ultimately, make sure you have got some protection on the device you are using. It is a bit like the lock on your front door, if you don't put some kind of preotection on your device, it is like not locking your front door."
Top 3 Safety Tips from Norton
1. Proceed with caution when using Wi-Fi hotspots
2. Use complex and unique passwords for each site
3. Stay educated
According to Symantec, people who are more connected online are more vulnerable to cyber-criminals. Cyber crime rates cost Canadians $5.5 billion in 2010, according to a study released by Symantec. At least 7.3 million Canadians were victims of cybercrime last year, and there are about 20,000 new victims each day.
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The informational systems that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) run are loaded with several critical vulnerabilities that could leave it vulnerable to cyber attacks.
According to the findings of an audit recently conducted by the Department of Commerce's Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the Joint Polar Satellite System's (JPSS) ground system is vulnerable to a large number of high-risk vulnerabilities.
The JPSS ground system is used to collect data from several polar-orbiting weather satellites, and distribute the information to users worldwide. This system also provides command, control and data processing for current and future weather satellites.
But, the vulnerabilities identified in the system could impair technology controlling the United States' next generation of polar-orbiting environmental satellites.
"Our analysis of the JPSS program's assessments of system vulnerabilities found that, since FY 2012, the number of high-risk vulnerabilities in the system had increased by two-thirds7 despite recent efforts the program has taken to remediate these vulnerabilities," according to a memorandum from Allen Crawley, assistant inspector general for systems acquisition and IT security, to Kathryn Sullivan, under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.
The system is considered to be a "High Impact" IT system for which the loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability could be expected to have a severe or catastrophic effect on organizational operations, organizational assets or individuals.
The audit, which analyzed NOAA's IT security program, showed an unbelievable picture. In the recent audit, the report showed that the number of High-Risk vulnerabilities rose from 14,486 in the first quarter of the fiscal year (FY) 2012 to 23,868 in the second quarter of FY 2014.
"If exploited, these [high-risk] vulnerabilities may make it possible for attackers to significantly disrupt the JPSS mission of providing critical data used in weather forecasting and climate monitoring," Crawley wrote in the memorandum.
Some of the vulnerabilities found are difficult to patch, but many of the identified high-risk vulnerabilities can be fixed easily by just making only minor modification to the current system. As more than 9,100 instances of software versions include the following issues:
Out of date software or lacking security patches
Insecurely configured software
Unnecessary user privileges
Moreover, adjustments can be made to more than 3,600 instances of password and auditing settings that are incorrectly configured and do not meet JPSS policy standards, as well as to unnecessary software applications that need to be removed or disabled.
The system even included the "Heartbleed" vulnerability, which has since been remediated. Heartbleed is one of the biggest Internet vulnerabilities in recent history that left large number of cryptographic keys and private data such as usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers, from the most important sites and services on the Internet open for hackers.
"In response to our draft memorandum, NOAA concurred with our recommendations," Crawley wrote. "NOAA indicated that it had already implemented [a] recommendation [to use system update processes for quickly applying critical patches], explaining that it remediated the Heartbleed vulnerability during the third quarter of FY 2014."
The issue is critical because numerous of vulnerabilities within the JPSS software are publicly available from years and , furthermore, tools are also available on the internet that can be used to exploit many of the vulnerabilities.
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Story highlightsYou might not know her name, but you've probably seen a photo of Kim PhucShe is well-known as the terrified young girl in an iconic photo from the Vietnam WarNow she lives near Toronto as a wife, mother and United Nations ambassador for peaceShe preaches a message of forgiveness rooted in Christian faith Photos: Vietnam napalm attack Photos: Vietnam napalm attackIn this June 8, 1972, photo taken by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut, a South Vietnamese plane drops a napalm bomb over Trang Bang village, which had been occupied by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. Ut was only 21, but he was already a seasoned war photographer when he arrived at the village as it was being bombed. It was there that he took these photos -- one of which has come to define the Vietnam War. The photos are in chronological order.Hide Caption 1 of 12 Photos: Vietnam napalm attackSmoke from a napalm bomb rises over a Trang Bang church.Hide Caption 2 of 12 Photos: Vietnam napalm attackAs bombs drop in Trang Bang, soldiers and members of the international media watch the scene in the foreground.Hide Caption 3 of 12 Photos: Vietnam napalm attackThe aerial attack was intended for enemy forces on the outskirts of the village, but it accidentally hit South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. Here, a man and woman carry injured children down the road following the bombing.Hide Caption 4 of 12 Photos: Vietnam napalm attackWomen carry severely burned children down the road after the attack.Hide Caption 5 of 12 Photos: Vietnam napalm attackAn anguished woman carries her napalm-burned child.Hide Caption 6 of 12 Photos: Vietnam napalm attackMore injured people walk down the road.Hide Caption 7 of 12 Photos: Vietnam napalm attackUt also photographed terrified children running from the site of the attack. Nine-year-old Kim Phuc, center, ripped off her burning clothes while fleeing. The powerful photograph, which won Ut a Pulitzer Prize, communicated the horrors of the war and contributed to the growing anti-war sentiment in the United States. Seven months later, the Paris Peace Accords were signed.Hide Caption 8 of 12 Photos: Vietnam napalm attackAfter taking the children's photograph, Ut took them to a hospital.Hide Caption 9 of 12 Photos: Vietnam napalm attackA South Vietnamese soldier crouches beside his friend who suffered severe napalm burns.Hide Caption 10 of 12 Photos: Vietnam napalm attackInjured civilians and soldiers flee from the site of the attack.Hide Caption 11 of 12 Photos: Vietnam napalm attackTelevision crews and South Vietnamese troops surround Phuc. Hide Caption 12 of 12Ajax, Ontario, Canada (CNN)Even without the benefit of context, the image of a naked 9-year-old girl running for her life is as searing and indelible today as it was 43 years ago. That image jolted people around the world. Some say it hastened the end of the Vietnam War."I always remember that horrible day that we ran from life to death," says Kim Phuc, the girl in that iconic photo. Now 52, she lives just outside Toronto, a wife, mother and survivor inextricably linked to a photograph that dominated front pages in 1972, seven months before the signing of Paris Peace Accords led to the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from South Vietnam.In the beginning, says Phuc, she hated the photo. It embarrassed her. And she struggled with the publicity that surrounded it. For her. it was personal: It captured a moment of torment -- her face frozen in an agonizing wail moments after a napalm attack burned and disfigured her for life.In fact, no one would blame Phuc if she had tried to get as far away from the image as possible. But that is not what she did.Read MoreAfter a long struggle, Phuc came to realize that if her pain and terror had not been captured on film that day, the bombing -- like so many other wartime horrors -- might have been lost to history.She began to think about what the photograph could give, rather than what it could take away.Eventually, the photo became much more than a depiction of a moment in time to Phuc -- it became what she calls "a path to peace.""I realized that if I couldn't escape that picture, I wanted to go back to work with that picture for peace. And that is my choice."'I can work with that picture for peace'JUST WATCHEDRunning and screaming: the photo that changed a warReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHRunning and screaming: the photo that changed a war 02:50It's hard to square the anguish and terror of the girl in the picture with the warm, relaxed, engaging presence that is Kim Phuc today. Besides being a loving wife and mother, she is a mentor, and a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations. Every year she travels the world to recount her story of survival, to raise awareness about the brutality of war. In addition to her work with the U.N., Phuc started the Kim Foundation International, a charity that helps children suffering from war, just as she did so many years ago. Its mission is to help the most underprivileged children suffering from war -- building hospitals, schools and homes for children who have been orphaned. Phuc says she plans to live out her life in service of that mission. "That's why I'm really thankful that I had that picture taken and I can work with that picture for peace." Phuc and her husband claimed asylum in Canada more than 20 years ago and have raised two boys there. Phuc says she is very happy in her "second home" and gratified that her parents have been able to join her in Canada. Now, says Phuc, that terrified little girl in the picture is "not running anymore. She's flying."It was not always so. 'I saw a girl, naked ... running'In 1972 Phuc lived in the village of Trang Bang, north of Saigon. She and family were sheltering in a temple when they heard planes overhead. Afraid they would be bombed, they ran outside to find safety, just as bombs detonated all around the temple. The bombs delivered napalm, a flammable liquid that clings to human skin, causing horrific burns when ignited. Phuc remembers intense heat and excruciating pain. She pulled burning clothes from her body. She ran.Moments later, a young Associated Press photojournalist took the photograph of his life. Nick Ut was only 21 years old and already a seasoned war photographer when he arrived at that South Vietnamese village. Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam War Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam War1960s photojournalists showed the world some of the most dramatic moments of the Vietnam War through their camera lenses. LIFE magazine's Larry Burrows photographed wounded Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jeremiah Purdie, center, reaching toward a stricken soldier after a firefight south of the Demilitarized Zone in Vietnam in 1966. Commonly known as Reaching Out, Burrows shows us tenderness and terror all in one frame. According to LIFE, the magazine did not publish the picture until five years later to commemorate Burrows, who was killed with AP photographer Henri Huet and three other photographers in Laos.Hide Caption 1 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarAssociated Press photographer Nick Ut photographed terrified children running from the site of a Vietnam napalm attack in 1972. A South Vietnamese plane accidentally dropped napalm on its own troops and civilians. Nine-year-old Kim Phuc, center, ripped off her burning clothes while she ran. The image communicated the horrors of the war and contributed to growing U.S. anti-war sentiment. After taking the photograph, Ut took the children to a Saigon hospital.Hide Caption 2 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarEddie Adams photographed South Vietnamese police chief Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan killing Viet Cong suspect Nguyen Van Lem in Saigon in 1968. Adams later regretted the impact of the Pulitzer Prize-winning image, apologizing to Gen. Nguyen and his family. "I'm not saying what he did was right," Adams wrote in Time magazine, "but you have to put yourself in his position."Hide Caption 3 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarA helicopter raises the body of an American paratrooper killed in action in the jungle near the Cambodian border in 1966. Henri Huet, a French war photographer covering the war for the Associated Press, captured some of the most influential images of the war. Huet died along with LIFE photographer Larry Burrows and three other photographers when their helicopter was shot down over Laos in 1971. Hide Caption 4 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarLegendary Welsh war photographer Philip Jones Griffiths captured the battle for Saigon in 1968. U.S. policy in Vietnam was based on the premise that peasants driven into the towns and cities by the carpet-bombing of the countryside would be safe. Furthermore, removed from their traditional value system, they could be prepared for imposition of consumerism. This "restructuring" of society suffered a setback when, in 1968, death rained down on the urban enclaves. In 1971 Griffiths published "Vietnam Inc." and it became one of the most sought after photography books. Hide Caption 5 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarNewly freed U.S. prisoner of war Air Force Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm is greeted by his family at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, in 1973. This Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph, named Burst of Joy, was taken by Associated Press photographer Sal Veder. "You could feel the energy and the raw emotion in the air," Veder told Smithsonian Magazine in 2005. Hide Caption 6 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarThis 1965 photo by Horst Faas shows U.S. helicopters protecting South Vietnamese troops northwest of Saigon. As the Associated Press chief photographer for Southeast Asia from 1962-1974, Faas earned two Pulitzer Prizes. Hide Caption 7 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarOliver Noonan, a former photographer with the Boston Globe, captured this image of American soldiers listening to a radio broadcast in Vietnam in 1966. Noonan took leave from Boston to work in Vietnam for the Associated Press. He died when his helicopter was shot down near Da Nang in August 1969. Hide Caption 8 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarIn June 1963, photographer Malcolm Browne showed the world a shocking display of protest. A Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc burned himself to death on a street in Saigon to protest alleged persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government. The image won Browne the World Press Photo of the Year. Hide Caption 9 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarTim Page photographed a U.S. helicopter taking off from a clearing near Du Co SF camp in Vietnam in 1965. Wounded soldiers crouch in the dust of the departing helicopter. The military convoy was on its way to relieve the camp when it was ambushed.Hide Caption 10 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarFrenchman Marc Riboud captured one of the most well-known anti-war images in 1967. Jan Rose Kasmir confronts National Guard troops outside the Pentagon during a protest march. The photo helped turn public opinion against the war. "She was just talking, trying to catch the eye of the soldiers, maybe try to have a dialogue with them," recalled Riboud in the April 2004 Smithsonian magazine, "I had the feeling the soldiers were more afraid of her than she was of the bayonets."Hide Caption 11 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarIn this 1965 Henri Huet photograph, Chaplain John McNamara administers last rites to photographer Dickey Chapelle in South Vietnam. Chapelle was covering a U.S. Marine unit near Chu Lai for the National Observer when a mine seriously wounded her and four Marines. Chappelle died en route to a hospital, the first American woman correspondent ever killed in action.Hide Caption 12 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarMary Ann Vecchio screams as she kneels over Jeffrey Miller's body during the deadly anti-war demonstration at Kent State University in 1970. Student photographer John Filo captured the Pulitzer Prize-winning image after Ohio National Guardsmen fired into a crowd of protesters, killing four students and wounding nine others. An editor manipulated a version of the image to remove the fence post above Vecchio's head, sparking controversy.Hide Caption 13 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarFor his dramatic photographs of the Vietnam War, United Press International staff photographer David Hume Kennerly won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. This 1971 photo from Kennerly's award-winning portfolio shows an American GI, his weapon drawn, cautiously moving over a devastated hill near Firebase Gladiator. Hide Caption 14 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarHubert Van Es, a Dutch photojournalist working at the offices of United Press International, took this photo on April 29, 1975, of a CIA employee helping evacuees onto an Air America helicopter. It became one of the best known images of the U.S. evacuation of Saigon. Van Es never received royalties for the UPI-owned photo. The rights are owned by Bill Gates through his company, Corbis. Hide Caption 15 of 16 Photos: Iconic photos of the Vietnam WarAssociated Press photographer Art Greenspon captured this photo of soldiers aiding wounded comrades. The first sergeant of A Company, 101st Airborne Division, guided a medevac helicopter through the jungle to retrieve casualties near Hue in April 1968. Hide Caption 16 of 16"I looked through the black smoke and I saw a girl, naked ... running," Ut told CNN this year. Instinct took over. He started taking pictures as Phuc and the other children ran straight for him.As Phuc approached, Ut saw parts of her skin falling off. She had torn off her clothes to stop the burning. The napalm already had seared her neck, most of her back, and her left arm. "I said: 'Oh my God I don't believe she's burned so badly,'" Ut recalled. "I put my camera down on the highway and tried to help her." He poured water on her wounds and covered her with a coat. He picked up Kim and the other children and put them in his van to get them to a hospital. "Inside my van she said, 'I'm dying, I'm dying.' I kept watching her every minute. I said, 'We will be there soon.'" Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Pop culture and politics collided on December 21, 1970, when the King of Rock 'n' Roll, Elvis Presley, visited President Richard Nixon in the White House Oval Office. The '70s may have been many things, but boring sure wasn't one of them. Check out 70 of the most unforgettable moments of the decade. For more, watch the CNN Original Series "The Seventies." Hide Caption 1 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Apollo 13 returns safely to Earth – The Apollo 13 spacecraft was intended to be the third landing on the moon, but the NASA crew aborted its mission after an oxygen tank exploded on board. The astronauts landed in the South Pacific on April 17, 1970. Here, lunar module pilot Fred W. Haise Jr. is about to be hoisted up to a recovery helicopter from the USS Iwo Jima.Hide Caption 2 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Kent State massacre – Four students died and nine others were wounded on May 4, 1970, when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University in Ohio. In this Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, taken by Kent State photojournalism student John Filo, Mary Ann Vecchio can be seen screaming as she kneels by the body of slain student Jeffrey Miller.Hide Caption 3 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s The Beatles call it quits – The "Fab Four," pictured here in 1970, released their final album, "Let It Be," on May 8, 1970. The album came one month after Paul McCartney announced the group's breakup.Hide Caption 4 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s 'Flying Bobby' – In one moment, Bobby Orr became a hockey legend. On May 10, 1970, Orr scored an overtime goal in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, giving the Boston Bruins their first championship since 1941. In 1971, Orr signed the first million-dollar contract in NHL history -- $200,000 a year for five years -- and in 1979 he became the youngest NHL Hall of Famer when he was inducted at the age of 31.Hide Caption 5 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Gay rights movement gains popularity – Gay rights activists Foster Gunnison and Craig Rodwell lead a gay rights march in New York on June 28, 1970, then known as Gay Liberation Day. The march was held on the first anniversary of the police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village. The raid led to demonstrations and protests by the gay community. The Stonewall riots helped bring together the gay community in New York, and by 1971 gay rights groups had formed in almost all of the major cities in America.Hide Caption 6 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s 'Hey! Ho! Let's go!' – The '70s ushered in a new musical movement that put a premium on speed, simplicity and raw power. Bands like the Ramones, pictured, and the Sex Pistols put to waste the trippy, hippie music of the '60s, replacing it with short, fast songs filled with attitude and angst. It could only be called one thing: punk.Hide Caption 7 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Indira Gandhi re-elected – Indira Gandhi, the only woman to ever hold the office of Prime Minister of India, won a second term in a landslide victory in March 1971. She would be re-elected to a fourth term in 1980, but she was assassinated by two of her bodyguards in 1984.Hide Caption 8 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Disney World opens – A crowd in Orlando waits for Walt Disney World's Main Street to open in October 1971. The park cost an estimated $400 million to build and now attracts around 25 million visitors annually. When Disney World opened in 1971, the price for admission was $3.50. A single-day ticket now is $105 for anyone over 10 years old.Hide Caption 9 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s 'Bloody Sunday' – On January 30, 1972, British soldiers opened fire against protesters in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, who were marching against British rule. Thirteen people were killed on the scene, and more than a dozen were injured. After the shooting, recruitment and support for the Irish Republican Army skyrocketed. Three decades of violence known as The Troubles followed, and almost 3,000 people died.Hide Caption 10 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Nixon in China – Richard Nixon became the first U.S. President to visit China. His trip in February 1972 was an important step in building a relationship between the two countries.Hide Caption 11 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s 'Napalm Girl' – Associated Press photographer Nick Ut photographed terrified children running from the site of a napalm attack during the Vietnam War in June 1972. A South Vietnamese plane accidentally dropped napalm on its own troops and civilians. Nine-year-old Kim Phuc, center, ripped off her burning clothes while fleeing. The image communicated the horrors of the war and contributed to the growing anti-war sentiment in the United States. After taking the photograph, Ut took the children to a hospital.Hide Caption 12 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s 'Hanoi Jane' – In July 1972, in the midst of the Vietnam War, actress Jane Fonda visited the North Vietnamese city of Hanoi and criticized the U.S. role in the war, leading many to call her "anti-American." Earlier this year, Fonda called the trip an "incredible experience" but expressed some regret. "It hurts me, and it will to my grave, that I made a huge, huge mistake that made a lot of people think I was against the soldiers," Fonda said during an appearance in Frederick, Maryland.Hide Caption 13 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Porn goes mainstream – In any other year it might sound strange, but in 1972 one of the most popular films of the year was a porno. "Deep Throat" was one of the first pornographic films to receive mainstream attention, and it made $3 million in its first six months of release. It also took on an additional layer of cultural significance when the secret informant in the Watergate scandal went by the pseudonym "Deep Throat."Hide Caption 14 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Cold War chess championship – American Bobby Fischer, right, and Russian Boris Spassky play their last game of chess together in Reykjavik, Iceland, on August 31, 1972. Fischer defeated Spassky to become the World Chess Champion, ending a Soviet win streak that dated to 1948.Hide Caption 15 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Terror at the Olympics – On September 5, 1972, the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, were in the throes of a hostage crisis. Two Israeli athletes had been killed and nine taken hostage by members of Black September, a Palestinian terrorist movement demanding the release of political prisoners by the Israeli government. Hours later, all nine hostages, five terrorists and one police officer were dead.Hide Caption 16 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s The perfect season – The Miami Dolphins, coached by Don Shula, win Super Bowl VII in January 1973 and become the only NFL team in history to win a championship with an undefeated record.Hide Caption 17 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s 'I'll make him an offer he can't refuse' – "The Godfather," directed by Francis Ford Coppola, took home several Academy Awards in March 1973, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film was based on the best-selling novel by Mario Puzo and starred, from left, James Caan, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and John Cazale. Brando won the Oscar for Best Actor.Hide Caption 18 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s The Triple Crown – Secretariat races toward the finish line, blowing away the field in record time to win the Belmont Stakes in June 1973. With the victory, Secretariat became the first horse to win the Triple Crown since Citation in 1948. The Triple Crown was won two other times in the '70s, by Seattle Slew in 1977 and Affirmed in 1978. In 2015, American Pharoah became the first horse to take the Triple Crown in 37 years.Hide Caption 19 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Chicago's record-setting giant – In 1973, the Sears Tower opened in Chicago, overtaking the World Trade Center as the tallest building in the world. The tower, now known as the Willis Tower, is the second-tallest building in the United States today.Hide Caption 20 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Bruce Lee dies – Martial-arts actor Bruce Lee, seen here training in a scene from the film "Enter the Dragon," dies in July 1973 just days before the movie's release. He was 32. The film would cement Lee's legend and bring martial arts to the forefront of pop culture.Hide Caption 21 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Scandal in the Nixon administration – U.S. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew addresses the media on August 8, 1973, saying he would not resign while being investigated on charges of tax fraud, bribery and conspiracy. However, Agnew resigned in October 1973 after pleading no contest to a single count of income-tax evasion. He was the second vice president to resign in U.S. history.Hide Caption 22 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s The 'Twin Towers' – From the time of their completion in 1973 until their destruction in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, The World Trade Center's twin towers stood as an iconic part of the New York City skyline.Hide Caption 23 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s 'Battle of the Sexes' – In a nationally televised tennis match on September 20, 1973, Bobby Riggs, a former No. 1 tennis player, took on Billie Jean King, one of the top female tennis players at the time. Earlier in the year, Riggs put out a challenge to all female tennis players, saying no woman could beat him. King beat Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 and claimed a $100,000 prize.Hide Caption 24 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s 'The Exorcist' hits theaters – "The Exorcist," based off the best-selling novel by William Peter Blatty about a demonically possessed 12-year-old girl, was released in December 1973. It went on to become one of the most popular films of all time. It was the first horror film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, and Blatty won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.Hide Caption 25 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s The pocket calculator – By 1973, Clive Sinclair had introduced a series of pocket calculators that changed the industry, making calculators small and light enough to fit in your pocket. They were not only much smaller and thinner than their competitors, but also much cheaper, making their advanced technology available to the masses.Hide Caption 26 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Energy crisis – Cars in Brooklyn, New York, line up for gas in January 1974. In October 1973, an oil embargo imposed by members of OPEC led to skyrocketing gas prices and widespread fuel shortages.Hide Caption 27 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Hammerin' Hank – Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth's career home run record, hitting home run No. 715 at Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium in April 1974. Aaron finished his career with 755 home runs, a record that stood until Barry Bonds broke it in 2007.Hide Caption 28 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Baryshnikov defects – Russian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, left, tapes a TV special in Canada, where he defected in June 1974. Soon after, Baryshnikov moved to the United States and started working with the New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre. In 1979, he earned an Academy Award nomination for his supporting role in the film "The Turning Point."Hide Caption 29 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Nixon resigns – U.S. President Richard Nixon gestures in the doorway of a helicopter on August 9, 1974, after leaving the White House following his resignation over the Watergate scandal. Nixon's resignation marked the end to one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history, which began in 1972 after a break-in at the Democratic National Committee's headquarters at the Watergate complex. Five men were arrested for the burglary, and the FBI and Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were able to trace them back to Nixon and the White House.Hide Caption 30 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Power of the press – Reporters Bob Woodward, right, and Carl Bernstein sit in the newsroom of the Washington Post newspaper in May 1973. Woodward and Bernstein's reporting on the Watergate scandal led to President Nixon's resignation and won them a Pulitzer Prize. In 1976, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman would portray the pair in the film adaptation of their book "All the President's Men."Hide Caption 31 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Cover girl – Beverly Johnson made history in August 1974 when she became the first African-American model to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine in the United States.Hide Caption 32 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Muhammad Ali watches heavyweight champion George Foreman fall to the canvas during their title bout in Kinshasa, Zaire, in October 1974. Ali's upset victory over the undefeated Foreman won him back the titles he was stripped of in 1967 for refusing induction into the U.S. Army.Hide Caption 33 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Cambodian genocide – From 1975-1979, Pol Pot -- seen here at far left -- led the Khmer Rouge communist movement in Cambodia. During his reign, at least 1.7 million people -- nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population -- died from execution, disease, starvation and overwork, according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia.Hide Caption 34 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s The fall of Saigon – In April 1975, the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese effectively marked the end of the Vietnam War. Here, U.S. Marines guard civilians during evacuations at Tan Son Nhut airbase. The country became the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on July 2, 1976.Hide Caption 35 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Birth of the blockbuster – In the summer of 1975, Steven Spielberg had people flocking to the theaters instead of the beaches. The success of "Jaws" -- his first hit movie -- set up summer as the season for Hollywood's biggest and highest-grossing movies.Hide Caption 36 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Arthur Ashe wins Wimbledon – American tennis player Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win Wimbledon when he defeated Jimmy Connors in July 1975. Ashe retired from tennis in 1980 and became a spokesperson for HIV and AIDS after announcing he had contracted HIV from a blood transfusion. Ashe died on February 6, 1993, from AIDS-related pneumonia.Hide Caption 37 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Commander of the Soviet crew of Soyuz, Alexei Leonov, left, and commander of the American crew of Apollo, Thomas Stafford shake hands July 17, 1975 in space, somewhere over Western Germany, after the Apollo-Soyuz docking maneuvers.Hide Caption 38 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s 'Not ready for Prime Time' – Saturday night television changed forever on October 11, 1975, when the sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live" made its debut. Comedian George Carlin was the first host, joining a cast of young and upcoming comics known as "The Not Ready for Prime Time Players." "SNL" is now in its 40th year as one of the longest running shows in television history.Hide Caption 39 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Dazzling Elton – English singer Elton John, one of the biggest artists of the '70s, performed two sold-out shows at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium in October 1975, performing for more than three hours each night. John, known for his flamboyant outfits and oversized sunglasses, was decked out for the occasion in a sequined Dodgers baseball uniform.Hide Caption 40 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s The Concorde takes off – It broke the sound barrier and cut flight times in half. On January 21, 1976, the first commercial Concorde flight took place from London to Paris, cruising at speeds of 1,350 mph. The Concordes' flights would be short lived, however, as fewer than 20 ever saw commercial use. The last commercial Concorde flight took place on October 24, 2003.Hide Caption 41 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Happy 200th birthday, America! – Fireworks at the Statue of Liberty light up the New York Harbor on July 4, 1976, as the country celebrates the bicentennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Patriotic events took place around the country that year.Hide Caption 42 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s 'Angels' flying high – On September 22, 1976, a blonde bombshell dropped into America's homes with the debut of the television show "Charlie's Angels." Farrah Fawcett and co-stars Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith became an instant hit with audiences. To this day the show remains a lasting image of the 70s despite getting mixed reviews from critics.Hide Caption 43 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Barbara becomes the news – In October 1976, Barbara Walters, seen at left with actress Barbra Streisand, became the first woman to co-anchor a major network evening newscast. ABC made history before she even went on air, signing Walters to a $1 million annual contract to make her the highest-paid journalist at that time. She only co-anchored the show for a year and a half, but she would go on to host ABC shows such as "20/20," "The View" and "Barbara Walters Specials" until her retirement in 2014.Hide Caption 44 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Disco ruled the charts in the late '70s but found some unlikely superstars in the form of the Village People. Their name was inspired by New York's Greenwich Village, which had a large gay population at the time, and the group became known for their onstage costumes and suggestive lyrics. In 1978, their songs "Macho Man" and "Y.M.C.A." became massive hits and brought them mainstream success.Hide Caption 45 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s From peanut farmer to President – Jimmy Carter embraces his wife, Rosalynn, in November 1976 after he was elected as the 39th President of the United States. Carter, a Democrat and former governor of Georgia, defeated incumbent Gerald Ford. During his time in office, Carter created the Department of Energy and Department of Education. Since leaving the office in 1980, he has remained active in fighting for human rights and ending disease around the world with his nonprofit organization, the Carter Center.Hide Caption 46 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s 'Roots' premieres – Cicely Tyson, left, and Maya Angelou star in the television miniseries "Roots." The series premiered in January 1977, airing for eight consecutive nights and attracting a record number of viewers. Based off Alex Haley's novel, "Roots" told the story of an African boy sold into slavery in America and the following generations of his family. The show was viewed by more than half of the U.S. population in 1977, and it received 37 Emmy nominations.Hide Caption 47 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s 'In a galaxy far, far away' – May 25, 1977, was a historic day for sci-fi fans and moviegoers everywhere. George Lucas' "Star Wars" opened in theaters, introducing the world to characters such as Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, R2D2 and, of course, Darth Vader. The "Star Wars" franchise is still one of most lucrative and popular film series around today.Hide Caption 48 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Son of Sam – Serial Killer David Berkowitz, known as the Son of Sam, was arrested on August 10, 1977, after a series of shootings and murders that police believe began in the summer of 1976. Berkowitz was convicted of killing six people and wounding seven during his crime spree, which garnered large amounts of press coverage. He was known for targeting young women and sending cryptic, antagonizing letters to the New York police.Hide Caption 49 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Apple plants the seed for the digital revolution – In 1977, Apple Computers introduced the Apple II, which became one the first successful home computers. Co-founders Steve Jobs, pictured here, and Steve Wozniak formed the Apple Computer Company in 1976. Along with Bill Gates' Microsoft, which was founded in 1975, Apple helped ignite the digital age we live in today.Hide Caption 50 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s New York City goes dark – In the middle of the summer of 1977, New York City experienced a power outage that caused much of the city to go dark. The blackout lasted two days, from July 13-14. As the city was in the midst of a financial crisis and the terror of the Son of Sam loomed over residents, many took to the streets and began looting. Police reported that looting in some areas of the city continued well into the daylight hours, and thousands of people were arrested.Hide Caption 51 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s The King is dead – Elvis Presley, the King of Rock 'n' Roll, died August 16, 1977, at the age of 42. He was still touring and recording throughout the 1970s, but his unexpected death sealed his legacy as one of the greatest cultural icons of the 20th century.Hide Caption 52 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Game on – The Atari 2600 was released in September 1977, bringing the world of video games into households everywhere. Packaged with two joystick controllers and one cartridge game, the Atari 2600 sold 250,000 units in 1977. By 1979, 1 million units were sold. What some believed at the time to be a fad has now turned into a billion-dollar-a-year industry.Hide Caption 53 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Mr. October – Reggie Jackson of the New York Yankees hits his third home run of the game on October 18, 1977, leading the Yankees to a World Series win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Jackson had a .357 batting average over the 27 World Series games throughout his career, earning him the nickname "Mr. October." Jackson and the Yankees would repeat as World Series champions the following year.Hide Caption 54 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Disco fever – Disco music sweeps the nation with the 1977 film "Saturday Night Fever" starring John Travolta. Catapulted by a soundtrack containing five No. 1 singles -- including "Staying Alive" and "Night Fever" -- the film became a huge commercial success. The soundtrack stayed on top of the album charts for six months, and Travolta earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Hide Caption 55 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s A test tube produces life – Louise Brown became the world's first test-tube baby on July 25, 1978. Dr. Robert Edwards, left, and Patrick Steptoe, right, pioneered the process of in vitro fertilization, which injects a single sperm into a mature egg and then transfers the egg into the uterus of the woman. In 2010, Edwards won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the development of in vitro fertilization, which has helped families conceive more than 5 million babies around the world.Hide Caption 56 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Peace in the Middle East – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, left, joins hands with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, right, on September 18, 1978, after the Camp David Accords were signed in Maryland. After 12 days of secret meetings, the two sides agreed upon a step toward peace. U.S. President Jimmy Carter, center, personally led the lengthy negotiations and discussions between the two parties.Hide Caption 57 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s The world welcomes a new Pope – His name was Karol Jozef Wojtyla, but the world knew him as Pope John Paul II. Born in Poland, John Paul II was the first non-Italian Pope in more than in 400 years when he became Pope in 1978. He made his first public appearance on October 16, 1978, at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, and before his death in 2005 he was beloved for his commitment to human rights around the world.Hide Caption 58 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Hide Caption 59 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s The Jonestown massacre – Bodies lie around the compound of the People's Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978. More than 900 members of the cult, led by the Rev. Jim Jones, died from cyanide poisoning; it was the largest mass-suicide in modern history.Hide Caption 60 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Assassination of Harvey Milk – In 1977, Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, making him the first openly gay person to be elected to a public office. Milk started his political ambitions in San Francisco in the early '70s, but he did not hold an office until he was appointed to the Board of Permit Appeals in 1976 by Mayor George Moscone. Milk's career was tragically cut short on November 27, 1978, when he and Moscone were assassinated.Hide Caption 61 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Music goes mobile – The sound barrier is broken once again in the '70s, but this time at walking speed. Sony introduces the Walkman, the first commercially successful "personal stereo." Its wearable design and lightweight headphones gave listeners the freedom to listen to music privately while out in public. The product was an instant hit. The Walkman was a mark of coolness among consumers, setting a standard for future generations of personal devices like the Apple iPod.Hide Caption 62 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Magic vs. Bird – The 1979 national championship game between Michigan State and Indiana State still ranks as the most-watched college basketball game of all time, thanks to two up-and-coming superstars: Michigan State's Earvin "Magic" Johnson, bottom, and Indiana State's Larry Bird. Johnson's Spartans won the NCAA title, but the two players' rivalry was only just beginning. During their pro careers in the NBA, Bird's Boston Celtics and Johnson's Los Angeles Lakers would meet in the NBA Finals three times in the '80s.Hide Caption 63 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Three Mile Island – On March 28, 1979, the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history took place in Pennsylvania when large amounts of reactor coolant and radioactive gases from the Three Mile Island power plant were released into the environment. Within days of the accident, 140,000 people evacuated their homes within a 20-mile radius of the plant. The accident brought widespread attention to reactor safety and large protests from anti-nuclear groups. Cleanup from the accident began in August 1979 and was not completed until December 1993.Hide Caption 64 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s The Iron Lady – Margaret Thatcher celebrates her first election victory, becoming Britain's first female Prime Minister on May 4, 1979. As leader of the Conservative Party, Thatcher served three terms as Prime Minister, holding the office until 1990. That made her the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century.Hide Caption 65 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Deadliest day in U.S. aviation – Only moments after takeoff, an engine separated from American Airlines Flight 191, causing the plane to crash in a field near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on May 26, 1979. All 271 people on board the plane -- and two people on the ground -- were killed, making it the worst aviation accident ever on U.S. soil. Hide Caption 66 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s SALT II – The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, otherwise known as SALT, were a series of meetings and treaties designed at limiting and keeping track of the missiles and nuclear weapons carried by the United States and the Soviet Union. The first treaty was signed in 1972, and the second one was signed in 1979. Six months after the second signing, however, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and the United States never ratified the SALT II agreement.Hide Caption 67 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s An 'American Hustle' – Scandals shaped a large part of the '70s political atmosphere, and the decade ended on a big one. During a two-year investigation, the FBI set up a sting operation dubbed "Abscam," videotaping politicians accepting bribes from a phony Arabian company in return for favors. The sting resulted in the conviction of six U.S. representatives, one senator, a mayor from New Jersey and members of the Philadelphia City Council. The operation was the inspiration for David O. Russell's 2013 film "American Hustle."Hide Caption 68 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s From Boy Scout to murderer – Ted Bundy, one of the most notorious serial killers of all-time, stands trial in June 1979 for two of his many murders. Bundy received three death sentences for murders he committed in Florida, and he was executed on January 24, 1989. Bundy confessed to 30 murders before his death, but officials believe that number could be higher. Hide Caption 69 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s Iran hostage crisis – In November 1979, 66 Americans were taken hostage after supporters of Iran's Islamic Revolution took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran. All female and African-American hostages were freed, but President Carter could not secure the other 52 hostages' freedom. They were finally released after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President 444 days later. Many feel the Iran hostage crisis cost Carter a second term.Hide Caption 70 of 71 Photos: 70 historic moments from the 1970s A living saint – Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, or "Mother Teresa," won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for dedicating her life to helping the poor. Her foundation in Kolkata, India, "The Missionaries of Charity," took care of orphans, the sick and elderly. In 2003, she was beatified.Hide Caption 71 of 71'I learned to forgive'Phuc spent more than a year in hospitals. Her family feared she would never survive. She underwent countless painful skin grafts and other surgeries and eventually recovered from her physical wounds. Yet she could not find peace. She wanted to disappear. She even wished for death. She thought if she died she wouldn't have to suffer mentally, physically and emotionally.She began to seek answers, studying different religious texts. At 19, she became a Christian, and she credits her faith for helping her embrace life again. "When I became Christian, I have a wonderful connection -- the relationship between me, and Jesus, and God." Phuc says she prayed for help: She wanted to move on. She wanted to have kids."And from that point," she says, "I learned to forgive." Now Phuc radiates an unmistakeable poise and peace when she tells her story. She says she sees that famous picture as just one of many blessings."I really want to thank God that he spared my life when I was a little girl," she says. "Whatever happened to me, I have another opportunity to be alive, to be healthful, to be a blessing, to help honor other people."
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Security researchers have confirmed that the alleged CIA hacking tools recently exposed by WikiLeaks have been used against at least 40 governments and private organizations across 16 countries.
Since March, as part of its "Vault 7" series, Wikileaks has published over 8,761 documents and other confidential information that the whistleblower group claims came from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Now, researchers at cybersecurity company Symantec reportedly managed to link those CIA hacking tools to numerous real cyber attacks in recent years that have been carried out against the government and private sectors across the world.
Those 40 cyber attacks were conducted by Longhorn — a North American hacking group that has been active since at least 2011 and has used backdoor trojans and zero-day attacks to target government, financial, energy, telecommunications, education, aerospace, and natural resources sectors.
Although the group's targets were all in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa, researchers said the group once infected a computer in the United States, but an uninstaller was launched within an hour, which indicates the "victim was infected unintentionally."
What's interesting is that Symantec linked some of CIA hacking tools and malware variants disclosed by Wikileaks in the Vault 7 files to Longhorn cyber espionage operations.
Fluxwire (Created by CIA) ≅ Corentry (Created by Longhorn)
Fluxwire, a cyber espionage malware allegedly created by the CIA and mentioned in the Vault 7 documents, contains a changelog of dates for when new features were added, which according to Symantec, closely resemble with the development cycle of "Corentry," a malware created by Longhorn hacking group.
"Early versions of Corentry seen by Symantec contained a reference to the file path for the Fluxwire program database (PDB) file," Symantec explains. "The Vault 7 document lists removal of the full path for the PDB as one of the changes implemented in Version 3.5.0."
"Up until 2014, versions of Corentry were compiled using GCC [GNU Compiler Collection]. According to the Vault 7 document, Fluxwire switched to an MSVC compiler for version 3.3.0 on February 25, 2015. This was reflected in samples of Corentry, where a version compiled on February 25, 2015, had used MSVC as a compiler."
Similar Malware Modules
Another Vault 7 document details 'Fire and Forget' specification of the payload and a malware module loader called Archangel, which Symantec claims, match almost perfectly with a Longhorn backdoor called Plexor.
"The specification of the payload and the interface used to load it was closely matched in another Longhorn tool called Backdoor.Plexor," says Symantec.
Use of Similar Cryptographic Protocol Practices
Another leaked CIA document outlined cryptographic protocols that should be used within malware tools, such as using AES encryption with a 32-bit key, inner cryptography within SSL to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, and key exchanges once per connection.
One leaked CIA document also recommends using of in-memory string de-obfuscation and Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) for communicating with the command and control (C&C) servers.
According to Symantec, these cryptographic protocol and communication practices were also used by Longhorn group in all of its hacking tools.
More About LongHorn Hacking Group
Longhorn has been described as a well-resourced hacking group that works on a standard Monday to Friday working week — likely a behavior of a state-sponsored group — and operates in an American time zone.
Longhorn's advanced malware tools are specially designed for cyber espionage with detailed system fingerprinting, discovery, and exfiltration capabilities. The group uses extremely stealthy capabilities in its malware to avoid detection.
Symantec analysis of the group's activities also shows that Longhorn is from an English speaking North American country with code words used by it referring, the band The Police with code words REDLIGHT and ROXANNE, and colloquial terms like "scoobysnack."
Overall, the functionality described in the CIA documents and its links to the group activities leave "little doubt that Longhorn's activities and the Vault 7 documents are the work of the same group."
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Till now we have seen a series of different malware targeting Windows operating system and not Mac, thanks to Apple in way it safeguard its devices' security. But with time, cyber criminals and malware authors have found ways to exploit Mac as well.
GROUP BEHIND THE MAC VERSION OF BACKDOOR
Researchers have unmasked a group of cyber criminals that has recently started using a new variant of XSLCmd backdoor program to target Mac OS X systems. This Mac version of backdoor shares a significant portion of its code with the Windows version of the same backdoor that has been around since at least 2009.
According to FireEye researchers, the group, dubbed as GREF, is already infamous for its past cyber espionage attacks against the US Defense Industrial Base (DIB), companies from the electronics and engineering sectors worldwide, foundations and other NGO's as well.
"We track this threat group as "GREF" due to their propensity to use a variety of Google references in their activities – some of which will be outlined later in this report. Our tracking of GREF dates back to at least the 2009 timeframe, but we believe they were active prior to this time as well." researcher said.
WINDOWS MALWARE NOW TARGETING MAC OS X
The malicious program used by the group has ability to open a reverse shell, list and transfer files and install additional malware on the computer it infects. The Mac version of backdoor can also log keystrokes as well as capture screenshots. The group has been using the same XSLCmd backdoor to target Windows users for years.
"The backdoor code was ported to OS X from a Windows backdoor that has been used extensively in targeted attacks over the past several years, having been updated many times in the process," security researchers from FireEye said Thursday in a blog post.
HOW BACKDOOR HIDE ITSELF
Once installed on a Macintosh computer, the malware copies itself to /Library/Logs/clipboardd and $HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/clipboardd. The malware also creates a com.apple.service.clipboardd.plist file to ensure its execution after the system reboots.
The code contained in the malware checks for the OS X version of the devices, but account for version 10.8 (Mountain Lion) and versions older than that. This indicates that the malware lack in support for OS X version 10.9, the current version of Mac.
Indeed, this specific sample of malware "..uses an API from the private Admin framework that is no longer exported in 10.9, causing it to crash."
GROWING MARKET OF MAC MALWARE
In a follow-up blog titled, Apple OS X: Security Through Obscurity is becoming an Absurdity, FireEye researchers mention Forrester in claiming that the usage of Apple devices is growing rapidly with 52 percent of newly issued computers in the enterprise being Macs.
Since 41 percent of enterprise including VIPs, executives and manager level employees are Apple users, they automatically becomes the prime and rich targets of the cyber criminals. So, cyber criminals are trying every effort to turn malicious and complex Windows malwares to target Mac users.
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Story highlightsRabbits come in many shapes, sizes and colors -- and so do their breedersKatya Rezvaya took portraits of them at a convention last year in Oregon (CNN)Last year, Katya Rezvaya went to a rabbit-breeders convention in Portland, Oregon. But unlike most there, she went with cameras in hand, not rabbits. In fact, she doesn't even have a rabbit. She has always liked them, though, and after watching a documentary called "Rabbit Fever," she was amazed at how grand in scale the rabbit breeding community is.The documentary showcases a national convention held by the American Rabbit Breeders Association, whose annual event brings together more than 20,000 rabbits as they compete for prizes. Rezvaya wanted to learn about the kinds of people she saw in "Rabbit Fever," and she thought she'd go to one of the conventions and make portraits of the people there."My impression was, 'Oh my God, so many rabbits,' " Rezvaya recalled. "I don't know what I was expecting when I was going there, because this idea was totally unpredictable."Read MorePhotographer Katya RezvayaThe convention was held in a big expo center, where Rezvaya set up a studio. She started by simply approaching people she was interested in photographing. But as the five-day event progressed, people heard about the woman making portraits, and they started to approach her."What was interesting for me is that, for this convention, I really felt that there were people from all over America," Rezvaya said. She was also amused by some of the names people gave their rabbits -- names like Snickers, Captain Adorable and Pat Benatar.One rabbit breed, Dwarf Hotots, look like they're wearing black eyeliner because of the ring of black fur around their eyes. So Peyton Brackenbury, 12, named hers by eyeliner brands such as Maybelline and Unique.There are many different rabbit breeds that vary in size, shape and color. Marcus Rhoden's fluffy Felicia, in photo No. 10, is an English Angora.Social mediaFollow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography."There was a section in the building with this breed," Rezvaya said. "There were a lot of people ... they were always busy with their rabbits because they always had to brush them or something."There were some really large rabbits, too. Daniel and Susan Hathaway's furry friends Defiance and Enterprise -- in the fourth photo above -- each weigh about 16 pounds. They're Flemish Giants, one of the largest rabbit breeds."Susan is a really, really small woman and the rabbit is about 7 kilograms (15.4 pounds). It's huge," Rezvaya said. "She had to bring the rabbit on a cart to my place because it was like a 10-minute walk from one side of the building to another." Although she has never had a rabbit, Rezvaya says if she were to get one, she would probably get a Dwarf Hotot like little Ozwald in photo No. 11. "They are really cute," she said.Rezvaya calls her photo series "Oh My Rabbits" and feels portraits were the best and most enjoyable way for her to find out more about the rabbit-breeding community. Her photographs capture just how diverse the community is. "I can't even say something particular about who rabbit breeders are," she said.Katya Rezvaya is a photographer based in St. Petersburg, Russia. You can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
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After a week delay, Adobe has finally pushed out critical security updates for its frequently-attacked Reader and Acrobat PDF software packages to patch serious vulnerabilities that could lead to computers being compromised.
The new versions of Adobe Reader and Acrobat released Tuesday for both Windows and Macintosh computers address eight vulnerabilities, five of which could allow for remote code execution.
The remaining three vulnerabilities involve a sandbox bypass vulnerability that can be exploited to escalate an attacker's privileges on Windows, a denial-of-service (DoS) vulnerability related to memory corruption, and a cross-site scripting (XSS) flaw that only affects the programs on the Mac platform. According to Adobe's advisory, applying the patches will involve a system restart.
The affected versions are:
Adobe Reader XI (11.0.08) and earlier 11.x versions for Windows
Adobe Reader XI (11.0.07) and earlier 11.x versions for Macintosh
Adobe Reader X (10.1.11) and earlier 10.x versions for Windows
Adobe Reader X (10.1.10) and earlier 10.x versions for Macintosh
Adobe Acrobat XI (11.0.08) and earlier 11.x versions for Windows
Adobe Acrobat XI (11.0.07) and earlier 11.x versions for Macintosh
Adobe Acrobat X (10.1.11) and earlier 10.x versions for Windows
Adobe Acrobat X (10.1.10) and earlier 10.x versions for Macintosh
The Reader and Acrobat updates were originally scheduled to be released a week ago, but were delayed due to issues identified during testing.
Additionally, the company rolled out a critical update for Adobe Flash (Windows and Macintosh), Flash browser plugins and Adobe AIR Desktop. A number of flaws in Adobe Flash Player are of highest severity which could led to remote code execution.
The new versions can be downloaded by using the following links:
Reader on Windows
Reader on Mac
Acrobat Standard and Pro on Windows
Acrobat Standard and Pro on Mac
All the updates are important to patch because several critical vulnerability could potentially allow an attacker to take over the affected system.
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Hacker known as "Pinkie Pie" produced the first Chrome vulnerability at the Hack In the Box conference on Wednesday, just ahead of the deadline for the competition this afternoon.
The exploit, if later confirmed by Google's US headquarters, will have earned the teenage hacker known as Pinkie Pie the top US$60,000 cash reward.
In March, Pinkie Pie and Sergey Glazunov both won $60,000 for their exploits at the first Pwnium competition. Google established the Pwnium competition as an alternative to the Pwn2own contest in order to add the requirement that participants provide details of their exploit.
Google will give away up to a total of US$2 million during the event.
$60,000 - "Full Chrome exploit": Chrome / Win7 local OS user account persistence using only bugs in Chrome itself.
$40,000 - "Partial Chrome exploit": Chrome / Win7 local OS user account persistence using at least one bug in Chrome itself, plus other bugs. For example, a WebKit bug combined with a Windows sandbox bug.
$20,000 - "Consolation reward, Flash / Windows / other": Chrome / Win7 local OS user account persistence that does not use bugs in Chrome. For example, bugs in one or more of Flash, Windows or a driver. These exploits are not specific to Chrome and will be a threat to users of any web browser.
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Two Factor Authentication is becoming a standard in the enterprise security space in an attempt to dually secure end users against malicious attacks.
Following Dropbox, Google and virtually everyone else, LinkedIn added two-factor authentication to its login process today.
LinkedIn will provide temporary codes for two-factor authentication through SMS messages. The extra step is designed to lessen the chances of computer hackers breaking into user accounts.
To turn on two-step verification on LinkedIn, hit the icon in the top-right corner of the site, click on "Privacy & Settings," and then on "Manage security settings" at the bottom.
The site has provided instructions to its 225 million users on how to turn on the optional service.
On other side, today @The_Pr0ph3t, whitehat Hacker from Spain reported a Cross Site Scripting Vulnerability in LinkedIn Developer site (developer.linkedin.com).
Flaw still exists on website at the time of writing, and hacker also reported the flaw to LinkedIn developer team for patch.
Proof of Concept:
https://developer.linkedin.com/search/node/%22%3E%3Csvg/onload%3Dalert%281%29%3B%3E%22%3E%3Csvg/onload%3Dalert%281%29%3B%3E
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Story highlightsThere is "an indication of explosives" in a bag found in the departure hall, airport spokesman saysThe airport is evacuating about 600 passengers from grounded planes (CNN)Swedish police are working to determine if there are explosives in a bag found at Landvetter Airport in Gothenburg, Sweden, authorities said Monday evening. Airport spokesman Anders Porelius said the situation is "ongoing," and that there is an "indication of explosives" in a bag found at Sweden's second-largest airport. Police said a "suspected dangerous object" was discovered in the departure hall of the airport. The airport is evacuating around 600 passengers to the south side of the airport from six grounded planes on the runway, Porelius said.CNN's Sarah Chiplin reported from London. CNN's Darran Simon and Samantha Beech contributed to this report from Atlanta.
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Security researchers have discovered almost a dozen zero-day vulnerabilities in VxWorks, one of the most widely used real-time operating systems (RTOS) for embedded devices that powers over 2 billion devices across aerospace, defense, industrial, medical, automotive, consumer electronics, networking, and other critical industries.
According to a new report Armis researchers shared with The Hacker News prior to its release, the vulnerabilities are collectively dubbed as URGENT/11 as they are 11 in total, 6 of which are critical in severity leading to 'devastating' cyberattacks.
Armis Labs is the same IoT security company that previously discovered the BlueBorne vulnerabilities in Bluetooth protocol that impacted more than 5.3 Billion devices—from Android, iOS, Windows and Linux to the Internet of things (IoT).
These vulnerabilities could allow remote attackers to bypass traditional security solutions and take full control over affected devices or "cause disruption on a scale similar to what resulted from the EternalBlue vulnerability," without requiring any user interaction, researchers told The Hacker News.
It's likely possible that many of you might have never heard of this operating system, but Wind River VxWorks is being used to run many everyday internet-of-things such as your webcam, network switches, routers, firewalls, VOIP phones, printers, and video-conferencing products, as well as traffic lights.
Besides this, VxWorks is also being used by mission-critical systems including SCADA, trains, elevators and industrial controllers, patient monitors, MRI machines, satellite modems, in-flight WiFi systems, and even the mars rovers.
URGENT/11 — Vulnerabilities in VxWorks RTOS
The reported URGENT/11 vulnerabilities reside in the IPnet TCP/IP networking stack of the RTOS that was included in VxWorks since its version 6.5, apparently leaving all versions of VxWorks released in the last 13 years vulnerable to device takeover attacks.
All 6 critical vulnerabilities let attackers trigger remote code execution (RCE) attacks, and remaining flaws could lead to denial-of-service, information leaks, or logical flaws.
Critical Remote Code Execution Flaws:
Stack overflow in the parsing of IPv4 options (CVE-2019-12256)
Four memory corruption vulnerabilities stemming from erroneous handling of TCP's Urgent Pointer field (CVE-2019-12255, CVE-2019-12260, CVE-2019-12261, CVE-2019-12263)
Heap overflow in DHCP Offer/ACK parsing in ipdhcpc (CVE-2019-12257)
DoS, Information Leak, and Logical Flaws:
TCP connection DoS via malformed TCP options (CVE-2019-12258)
Handling of unsolicited Reverse ARP replies (Logical Flaw) (CVE-2019-12262)
Logical flaw in IPv4 assignment by the ipdhcpc DHCP client (CVE-2019-12264)
DoS via NULL dereference in IGMP parsing (CVE-2019-12259)
IGMP Information leak via IGMPv3 specific membership report (CVE-2019-12265)
All these flaws can be exploited by an unauthenticated, remote attacker just by sending a specially crafted TCP packet to an affected device without requiring any user interaction or prior information regarding the targeted device.
However, each version of VxWorks since 6.5 is not vulnerable to all 11 flaws, but at least one critical RCE flaw affects each version of the real-time operating system.
"VxWorks includes some optional mitigations that could make some of the URGENT/11 vulnerabilities harder to exploit, but these mitigations are rarely used by device manufacturers," the researchers say.
Armis researchers believe URGENT/11 flaws might affect devices using other real-time operating systems as well, as IPnet was used in other operating systems prior to its acquisition by VxWorks in 2006.
How Can Remote Attackers Exploit VxWorks Flaws?
The exploitation of VxWorks IPnet vulnerabilities also depends upon the location of an attacker and the targeted vulnerable device; after all, the attacker's network packets should reach the vulnerable system.
According to the researchers, the threat surface of URGENT/11 flaws can be divided into 3 attack scenarios, as explained below:
Scenario 1: Attacking the Network's Defenses
Since VxWorks also powers networking and security devices such as switches, routers, and firewalls that are usually reachable over the public Internet, a remote attacker can launch a direct attack against such devices, taking complete control over them, and subsequently, over the networks behind them.
For example, there are over 775,000 SonicWall firewalls connected to the Internet at the time of writing that runs VxWorks RTOS, according to Shodan search engine.
Scenario 2: Attacking from Outside the Network Bypassing Security
Besides targeting Internet-connected devices, an attacker can also attempt to target IoT devices that are not directly connected to the Internet but communicates with its cloud-based application protected behind a firewall or NAT solution.
According to the researchers, a potential attacker can use DNS changing malware or man-in-the-middle attacks to intercept a targeted device' TCP connection to the cloud and launch a remote code execution attack on it.
Scenario 3: Attacking from within the Network
In this scenario, an attacker who already has positioned himself within the network as a result of a prior attack can launch attacks against affected VxWorks powered devices simultaneously even when they have no direct connection to the Internet.
"The vulnerabilities in these unmanaged and IoT devices can be leveraged to manipulate data, disrupt physical world equipment, and put people's lives at risk," said Yevgeny Dibrov, CEO and co-founder of Armis.
"A compromised industrial controller could shut down a factory, and a pwned patient monitor could have a life-threatening effect."
"To the best of both companies knowledge, there is no indication the URGENT/11 vulnerabilities have been exploited."
However, researchers also confirmed that these vulnerabilities do not impact other variants of VxWorks designed for certification, such as VxWorks 653 and VxWorks Cert Edition.
Armis reported these vulnerabilities to Wind River Systems responsibly, and the company has already notified several device manufacturers and released patches to address the vulnerabilities last month.
Meanwhile, affected product vendors are also in the process of releasing patches for their customers, which researchers believe will take time and be difficult, as is usually the case when it comes to IoT and critical infrastructure updates. SonicWall and Xerox have already released patches for its firewall devices and printers, respectively.
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Jerusalem (CNN)Israel's army chief has appeared to hint at possible Israeli involvement in an incident at the Natanz nuclear site in Iran, which was described as "terrorist action" by the head of Iran's atomic energy agency. Iranian officials on Sunday confirmed an "incident" at Natanz, an underground facility where uranium enrichment takes place. "Fortunately, the incident did not cause any human injuries or leaks," said Behrouz Kamalvand, a spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI). "The causes of the accident are under investigation and further information will be announced later." AEOI condemned the incident, calling it a "terrorist action," according to the Iranian telegram channel of the Revolution Guard Corps, or IRGC, a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces. "The blackout in Natanz on the anniversary of National Nuclear Day is suspicious and may be due to sabotage while Iran is trying to convince the Western countries to lift the sanctions," said Malek Shariati Niaser, a member of Iran's parliament, the semi-official news website Entekhab.ir reported.Just hours after Iranian officials reported the incident, Israel's army chief Aviv Kochavi said the country's "operations throughout the Middle East are not hidden from the eyes of the enemies."Read More"They are watching us, seeing the capabilities and carefully considering their steps," he said, speaking Sunday at a remembrance event in Jerusalem to mark fallen soldiers.Reports in several Israeli media outlets Sunday quoted intelligence officials saying Israel's national intelligence agency, Mossad, was responsible for the incident. While few details of the unnamed officials are offered, some outlets described them as "Western intelligence sources," though it is not immediately clear whether "Western" includes the possibility the sources are from Israel or not. The window of opportunity is closing fast on an Iran nuclear dealIsrael's Prime Minister's office offered no comment on the reports, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Iran Sunday at a toast to mark the anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. "The struggle against Iran and its proxies and the Iranian armament efforts is a huge mission," he said, appearing alongside Israel Defense Forces chief Kochavi and his senior commanders, as well as Defense Minister Benny Gantz. "The situation that exists today will not necessarily be the situation that will exist tomorrow." Netanyahu is due to meet Monday with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who is on a visit to the country. It is the highest-level visit to Israel by a member of the Biden administration and comes days after talks in Vienna aimed at restarting negotiations on a possible new nuclear deal between Iran and a US-led group of world powers. US officials were also in Vienna and met with representatives from global powers who are still party to the deal. They did not meet with Iranian officials directly. Former US President Donald Trump began imposing new sanctions on Iran as he withdrew the United States from the deal. Iranian officials have maintained the US must lift all Trump-era sanctions and return to the nuclear deal before it again complies with the agreement.Israel's leader repeated his strong opposition this week to the prospect of a restored Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)-type deal, saying Israel "would not be bound by any agreement that paves the way for Iran to develop nuclear weapons."Iran condemns 'terrorist action'Leaders in Iran condemned the incident.Akbar Salehi, chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said: "Iran reserves the right to respond against the perpetrators, and those who committed the terrorist action," IRGC reported."Today's attack demonstrates that the enemies of Iran's progress and advancement in nuclear science, as well as nuclear negotiations, are in desperation committing terrorist actions against the nuclear technology at Natanz [nuclear facility]."In Iranian news agency reports, other Iranian officials suggested the facility may have come under attack, speculating the plant may have been targeted as the country discusses a revival of the Iran nuclear deal with its Western signatories. A spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency told CNN by email on Sunday the agency was aware of the media reports."We have no comment at this stage," he said.During the 15th anniversary of Iran's National Nuclear Technology Day Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced new uranium enrichment centrifuges at the plant, stating that while Iran's nuclear activities are for "peaceful and civil purposes," the country's nuclear capability was also stronger than at any time before. "Today, a chain of 164 IR-6 centrifuges was launched," Rouhani said Saturday, according to state-run Press TV. "It can provide us with products 10 times more than the former chain."The Natanz nuclear plant lost a building when a fire broke out last July. The Iranian government said at the time that it was an attack on its nuclear program. It was also the target of the Stuxnet cyberattack in 2010, which security experts believe was carried out by Israel and the US. CNN's Andrew Carey and Amir Tal reported from Jerusalem, Ramin Mostaghim reported from Tehran, Sarah Dean reported from London.
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(CNN)Mark Cavendish raced to his 34th stage win at the Tour de France on Friday to equal the record held by the legendary Belgium cyclist Eddy Merckx.The victory was Cavendish's fourth stage win at this year's race. The Brit still has two opportunities to break the record before the race reaches Paris on July 18."The boys were incredible, I can't believe it. I was so on the limit in the end," said Cavendish after the Tour's stage 13, adding no rider could be compared to Merckx."My dream as a kid was to win one stage on the Tour de France and I worked so hard for it. If any one of my wins can inspire kids to ride the Tour de France that's what means the most to me."The win looked in jeopardy with 36 kilometers to go when Cavendish suffered a flat tire, but he was able to rejoin the peloton and position himself for the victory.Read MoreThe 36-year-old, whose first Tour stage win came back in 2008, was a late add to the Deceuninck--Quick-Step team after its main sprinter suffered an injury before the start of the Tour.Cavendish had hinted about retirement last year after crashing out of the Tour in 2017 and finishing outside the time limit in his last participation in 2018.There are still eight stages left in the Tour, six of which include mountains where Cavendish is not expected to finish with the frontrunners. His first opportunity to break the record will come on next Friday's flat stage after the race passes the Pyrenees.Merckx acquired the nickname of 'The Cannibal' as testament to an unrelenting appetite for victories.
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(CNN)More than 1,000 miles from the river bank where the bodies of her son and granddaughter washed ashore, Rosa Ramírez wept.At her home in San Martín, El Salvador, Ramírez clutched what she said were some of Angie Valeria's favorite toys -- a baby doll and a stuffed purple monkey, holding a heart.The devastating photo of 23-month-old Angie Valeria and her father Oscar Alberto Martínez floating in the Rio Grande is a grim reminder of harsh realities at the southern US border. It's shaken viewers around the world.The image shows a heartbreaking end to a harrowing journey. JUST WATCHEDShocking video is reminder of US-Mexico border crisisReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHShocking video is reminder of US-Mexico border crisis 00:10Ramírez told reporters from CNN affiliate Canal 33 how that journey began.Read MoreMonths before the river's rushing currents claimed their lives, and months before a photographer's shutter captured the searing image of their death, Ramirez said she tried to convince her son and his family not to make the dangerous trek north. "As a mother, you don't want your children to be so far away," she said. "But...the idea of leaving had gotten into their heads."Oscar had been working as a cook in a pizzeria while the family lived with her in San Martín, a municipality in central El Salvador just east of the country's capital. They wanted to have their own home, Ramírez said."That," she said, "was what motivated them."Ramírez told CNN en Español that the death of her son and granddaughter has forever changed her. She's turning to God and religion for strength."Nothing can fill this emptiness," she said. "But at least this gives me strength to cope."José Martínez said he'd spoken on the phone with his son just days earlier, on Friday. "He had already been in Mexico for a few days, and everything had been going wonderfully," Martínez said.Oscar Alberto Martinez, his daughter, Angie Valeria, and his wife, Tania Avalos.But in reality, conditions in Matamoros, Mexico, the border city where the family had been waiting to present themselves at a US port of entry and seek asylum, were more difficult, according to La Jornada, the Mexican newspaper that first reported the story of the father and daughter's deaths.At the end of May, more than 2,000 migrants were waiting "in conditions of hunger and overcrowding" there to seek asylum at ports where, according to La Jornada, US agents granted an average of three appointments per week.Tania Vanessa Ávalos, Oscar's wife and Angie Valeria's mother, told the newspaper her family had grown increasingly desperate as temperatures reached over 110 degrees. They had been in a migrant camp in Matamoros since Sunday, the newspaper said, citing Ávalos.José Martínez said he had spoken on the phone with his son just days earlier.That's when Oscar made a fateful decision. Instead of waiting any longer, they would cross the river into the US."Óscar Alberto took Valeria in his arms and entered the water; he swam to other side and reached mainland, where he left his daughter. Immediately after, he returned and went for Tania," La Jornada said. "However, in an instant he realized that the girl, after seeing that he was getting away, threw herself into the water. Óscar Alberto returned and managed to get a hold of the little girl, but a strong current dragged and sank them."Speaking to reporters in El Salvador as they tried to piece together the devastating news, Rosa Ramírez and José Martinez recounted what they'd heard about the tragedy.Ramírez said her son died while trying to save his daughter's life.A previous version of this story indicated the family had been at a migrant camp in Matamoros for two months. In fact, they were in Mexico for two months but arrived at Matamoros Sunday.CNN's Laura Diaz Zuniga, Rafael Romo, Ana Melgar and Merlin Delcid contributed to this report.
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Story highlightsAC Milan friendly game abandoned following racist chantingKevin Prince-Boateng leads players off the field during game against Pro PatriaSection of crowd abused Milan's black players before game called off midway through first halfMilan boss hits out at 'uncivilized gestures'This season matches across Europe have been punctuated by repeated outbursts of racism and on Thursday AC Milan midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng took matters into his own hands after leading his side off the field of play after being subjected to racist abuse.Ahead of the resumption of the Serie A season at the weekend, the German, who plays for Ghana's national team, was targeted by fans of fourth division side Pro Patria in a friendly during the match along with a number of other black Milan players.Milan's website reported M'Baye Niang, Urby Emanuelson and Sulley Muntari were the targets of racist abuse.The game was suspended midway through the first half when Boateng, who was visibly upset by the chanting, picked up the ball and kicked it into the crowd.After the incident, Boateng tweeted: "Shame that these things still happen... #StopRacismforever."The 25-year-old ripped off his shirt in disgust before being joined by his teammates and opposition players in walking off the field.Fan group calls on team not to sign black players Photos: Soccer racism in Eastern Europe Photos: Soccer racism in Eastern EuropeSerbia scuffles – England midfielder Danny Rose claims he was subjected to monkey chants before, during and after the second-leg of their Under-21 Euro 2013 playoff match against Serbia on Tuesday, and had stones thrown at him by the crowd in Krusevac. Fans also ran on to the pitch and scuffles broke out after a 1-0 win secured England qualification for Euro 2013.Hide Caption 1 of 8 Photos: Soccer racism in Eastern EuropeMacedonia punished – The Macedonia FA were fined $26,000 after fans racially abused England trio Ashley Cole, Sol Campbell and Emile Heskey during a qualifying game for Euro 2004.Hide Caption 2 of 8 Photos: Soccer racism in Eastern EuropeTrouble in Bulgaria – In September 2011, Bulgaria were fined $55,000 after a small number of fans directed monkey chants at England's Ashley Young, Cole and Theo Walcott during a Euro 2012 qualifier in Sofia.Hide Caption 3 of 8 Photos: Soccer racism in Eastern EuropeRussian FA hit with fine – Russia was hit with a $38,000 punishment after supporters made monkey noises towards Czech Republic defender Theodor Gebre Selassie during Euro 2012 Hide Caption 4 of 8 Photos: Soccer racism in Eastern EuropeCroatia in the dock – The Croatian FA were ordered to pay a $16,000 fine after their fans were found guilty of "displaying a racist banner and showing racist conduct during the Euro 2008 quarter-final tie against Turkey.Hide Caption 5 of 8 Photos: Soccer racism in Eastern EuropeCrackdown on Russia – Russia were again in the news for the wrong reasons at Euro 2012 and were fined $39,00 for "the setting off and throwing of fireworks by Russia spectators, displaying of illicit banners and the invasion of the pitch by a supporter," during the Euro 2012 tie against Poland. Russia was also fined $155,000 after clashes between supporters and police during and after their game against the Czech Republic.Hide Caption 6 of 8 Photos: Soccer racism in Eastern EuropeBendtner loses gamble – Denmark's Nicklas Bendtner was given a one-match ban and a $126,000 fine after he lifted his shirt to reveal a betting company's logo on his underwear while celebrating a goal against Portugal in a Euro 2012 group game. Hide Caption 7 of 8 Photos: Soccer racism in Eastern EuropePorto punished – Porto were hit by a $27,000 fine after their fans were found guilty of subjecting Manchester City forward Mario Balotelli to monkey chants during a Europa League game in February 2012. It took UEFA six weeks to finally hand out a punishment. But questions were raised after UEFA also fined City $40,000 after the club were found guilty of coming back out on to the field of play late after the halftime interval.Hide Caption 8 of 8JUST WATCHEDPFA chairman: Serbia should be banned ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHPFA chairman: Serbia should be banned 01:15 Photos: Football's battle with racism Photos: Football's battle with racismPericard calls for unity – Vincent Pericard was born in Cameroon, before moving to France at an early age. He started his career at French club St Etienne, before joining Italy's Juventus. He left the Serie A club in 2002 to come to England, where he played for a number of clubs, most notably Portsmouth and Stoke City, before retiring at the age of 29. He has called for a united front in the fight against racism. Hide Caption 1 of 12 Photos: Football's battle with racismRoberts boycott – Each season anti-discrimination organisation Kick it Out holds a week of action to promote awareness about its anti-racism work. But Reading's Grenadian striker Jason Roberts, who has played in England for the last 15 years, has said he will not wear the Kick It Out T-shirt in protest at what he perceives to be the campaign group's lack of action in combating racism in football.Hide Caption 2 of 12 Photos: Football's battle with racismUgly scenes in Serbia – Earlier this week, Danny Rose, a midfielder on loan at English Premier League side Sunderland from Tottenham Hotspur, claims he was subjected to monkey chants before, during and after England's Under-21 match in Serbia, while also alleging he had stones thrown at him by the crowd during the game.Hide Caption 3 of 12 Photos: Football's battle with racismLazio fined – Lazio was hit with a $52,000 fine by UEFA following racist chanting by its supporters during the Europa League fixture with Tottenham last month. But leading figures within the games say it is time for clubs and countries to be banned from playing matches if they are found guilty of racist abuse.Hide Caption 4 of 12 Photos: Football's battle with racismTerry accepts punishment – On Thursday, Chelsea captain John Terry opted not to appeal the English Football Association's verdict that he racially abused Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand.Hide Caption 5 of 12 Photos: Football's battle with racismWhere it all began – It is now nearly a year since Chelsea lost to QPR 1-0 in an English Premier League game at Loftus Road. During the game it was alleged QPR defender Ferdinand swore at Terry and made reference to the Chelsea captain's reported affair with the ex-partner of former team-mate Wayne Bridge. Terry is then said to have described Ferdinand as a "f***ing black c***".Hide Caption 6 of 12 Photos: Football's battle with racismBeyond reasonable doubt – In July, Terry was cleared in a London court, where the criminal burden of proof is "beyond all reasonable doubt".Hide Caption 7 of 12 Photos: Football's battle with racismHandshake snub – But the English Football Association then investigated the case, and using the test of "on the balance of probabilities", came to the conclusion that Terry's defence against claims he racially abused Ferdinand was "improbable, implausible, contrived". In September, Ferdinand declined Terry's offer of a handshake when QPR met Chelsea at Loftus Road as the feud between the two players rumbled on.Hide Caption 8 of 12 Photos: Football's battle with racism'Twatgate' – After an independent commission's report on the Terry case, the Chelsea captain's teammate Ashley Cole tweeted: "Hahahahaa, well done #fa I lied did I, #BUNCHOFT***S". The Chelsea and England left-back quickly issued a "unreserved apology" for his tweet through his solicitor, but he was fined $145,000 by the FA.Hide Caption 9 of 12 Photos: Football's battle with racismSuarez punished – In 2011 the FA had to deal with another racism case, this time handing Liverpool striker Luis Suarez an eight-match ban and a $63,000 fine after finding the Uruguayan guilty of racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra.Hide Caption 10 of 12 Photos: Football's battle with racismThe end of the affair – Suarez and Evra failed to shake hands before the start of an English Premier League game at Old Trafford last season after the Uruguayan had served his ban. However, when United beat Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield in September, the pair did shake hands.Hide Caption 11 of 12 Photos: Football's battle with racismGovernance – The last year has proved uncomfortable for the FA and questions have been raised over the differing punishments handed out to Terry and Suarez.Hide Caption 12 of 12"We are disappointed and saddened by what has happened," Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri told reporters."Milan play for the right to respect all players. We need to stop these uncivilized gestures."We are sorry for all the other fans who came here for a beautiful day of sport. "We promise to return, and we are sorry for the club and players of Pro Patria, but we could not make any other decision. "I hope it can be an important signal."Italian Football Association president Giancarlo Abete also hit out at the unsavoury scenes and announced an investigation into the incident.Abete said in a statement on the Italian FA website, www.figc.it: "No sanction or measure can erase the disdain for an unspeakable and intolerable episode."We must react with force and without silence to isolate the few criminals that transformed a friendly match into an uproar that offends all of Italian football."Eto'o: We can't wait until a black player gets killedBoateng is not the first footballer to take a stand over racist abuse.Former Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o threatened to leave the field back in February 2006 after being subjected to racist abuse and pelted with bottles during a game against Real Zaragoza.The Cameroon forward, who now plays for Anzhi Makhachkala, tried to walk off only to be persuaded to remain by then manager Frank Rijkaard.And in 2011, Brazilian defender Roberto Carlos walked off the field after a banana was thrown at him during a Russian league game.Carlos, who was 38 at the time, was playing for Anzhi in the city of Samara in the Caucasus region. The Brazilian is now Anzhi's team director.After picking up the banana, Carlos walked off the field visibly upset before sitting on the bench.Ahead of the European Championship finals in Poland and Ukraine, UEFA president Michel Platini had urged players to allow the referee to deal with the problem of racist abuse, and stressed that officials could stop games if necessary.Platini: Referees will deal with racists "It is a referee's job to stop the match and he is to do so if there are any problems of this kind," said PlatiniHowever UEFA has come under criticism for the punishments it has handed out rearding racist abuse.UEFA appeals Serbia sanctionsIn December UEFA appealed the decision of its own disciplinary committee after the Serbian Football Association was fined $105,000 for improper conduct by Europe's governing bogy following allegations of racist abuse during the under-21 game with England.That fine was far less than that handed out to Denmark's Nicklas Bendtner, who was forced to pay $125,800 for exposing boxer shorts with the logo of an online betting company during the European Championship Finals.Last year, Manchester City officials were infuriated after the club was fined $40,000 by UEFA for taking to the pitch late for a Europa League game -- $13,000 more than Porto's sanction for fans' racist abuse during a game against the English team.Milan's squad captain Massimo Ambrosini gave his backing to Boateng's actions, insisting a "message had to be sent against uncivilized people."New 'dark age' for English football, or a new dawn?"I am sorry for all those who were at the stadium but a strong message had to be sent," said Ambrosini. "AC Milan will make an effort to go back to Busto Arsizio especially for the children and for those who have nothing to do with racism but a message had to be sent against such uncivilized people."AC Milan director Umberto Gandini added on Twitter: "Very proud of the Milan players who decided to walk off the pitch today for racist abuse from few idiots! No racism, no stupidity!"Milan returns to league action on Sunday against Siena.PatoMeanwhile, World Club Cup winners Corinthians has announced it has agreed a $19.6 million deal with Milan for Brazil striker Alexandre Pato.The 23-year-old, who joined Milan in 2007 from Internacional, scored 63 goals for the Italian giant during his five-year stint with the club.But his career has been hampered by injuries in recent years, with the forward managing just 11 appearances last season and seven so far this campaign."In the coming days, Pato, who will wear the number seven shirt, will undergo a medical and then sign a four-year contract," said a club statement.Milan confirmed the deal on its official website: "AC Milan can announce that Alexandre Pato has been sold outright to Sporting Club Corinthians Paulista."In an open letter on the club's website, Pato said: "I wish to salute and especially thank everyone. From the president to the many people I worked with in these unforgettable years at Milan. "I am going to Brazil, to Corinthians, so I'll have the opportunity to play consistently. It will not, however, be easy to forget Milan. "I will always be tied to this jersey, the club colours and all the Rossoneri fans. Above all at this moment my thoughts and my biggest thanks go to them."
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(CNN)Australia is sweltering under record-breaking temperatures as an extreme heat wave continues to sweep across the country, causing wildlife to die and fruit to cook from the inside out. The past four days are in Australia's top ten warmest days on record, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said in a tweet on Wednesday, with all of the country's eight states and territories affected.South Australia's Port Augusta hit a scorching 48.5 degrees Celsius (119 F) on Tuesday, the highest since records began in 1962, according to CNN affiliate Nine News. The town of Tarcoola in South Australia reached a sweltering 49 C (120 F).Elsewhere, temperatures stayed well above 40 C (104 F) and the hot weather is expected to last until Friday. One town in northwestern Australia, Marble Bar, suffering through 22 consecutive days of temperatures above 40 C, at one point almost reaching 50 C (122 F).Australia suffers extreme heat wave up to 14 C above averageAs the mercury continues to rise, concerns are with the vulnerable, including the young, elderly and those with asthma or respiratory diseases.Read MoreHigh ozone levelsOn Wednesday, New South Wales Health authorities warned that the high temperatures are expected to contribute to "high ozone" air pollution across Sydney. Dr. Richard Broome, director of environmental health at New South Wales Health, said that people with asthma and other respiratory problems were particularly vulnerable as ozone "can irritate the lungs.""Ozone levels are higher outdoors than indoors, and generally highest in the afternoon and early evening, so limiting time outdoors during the heat of the day and in the evening helps people to not only keep cool but to limit their exposure to ozone pollution," he said.The past 4 days are in Australia's top 10 warmest days on record—and the trend looks like continuing today. The nights have been warm too, which is what defines #heatwave conditions https://t.co/u6dbfmKPk6 Stay cool, check on loved ones & follow advice from health authorities pic.twitter.com/8Qisw9m4LM— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) January 16, 2019
A health warning was in place across New South Wales from Tuesday, warning people to stay indoors during the hottest part of the day, minimize physical activity and keep hydrated."Signs of heat-related illness include dizziness, tiredness, irritability, thirst, fainting, muscle pains or cramps, headache, changes in skin color, rapid pulse, shallow breathing, vomiting and confusion," the statement said. It's the second heatwave in less than a month to hit Australia. Just over two weeks ago, a brutal post-Christmas heatwave led to extreme or severe fire warnings across at least three states and intensified severe droughts across the country.Fish, bat deaths and fruit cooking from the insideThe high temperatures are taking an increasing toll on the country's flora and fauna. In the Murray-Darling River Basin across the southeast, more than a million dead fish have been washed up on the banks.Niall Blair, Primary Industries Minister in New South Wales state, said more deaths of marine life are expected in coming days as temperatures continue to rise, according to local media.But environmental activists have blamed the mass deaths on poor management of the river system by state and federal governments, alleging mass consumption of water by farmers was leaving too little for fish to survive."A lack of water in the Darling River and the Menindee Lakes means that authorities were unable to flush the system before millions of fish suffocated through a lack of oxygen in water," independent New South Wales lawmaker Jeremy Buckingham said in a statement."This mass fish kill should be a wake up call for Australia."Dozens of fish lying dead on the Darling River in New South Wales near Menindee after an extreme heat wave in January.Colonies of bats were also succumbing to the heat and dropping from trees in Adelaide, according to CNN affiliate Nine News, prompting warnings to avoid contact with the animals as they can carry deadly diseases.Heat can be disastrous for bat species. Following a heat wave in north Queensland in November, an estimated 23,000 spectacled flying foxes died -- almost one third of the species in Australia. In South Australia, the extreme heat is causing stone fruit, including peaches and nectarines, to cook from the inside out, leading to heavy losses for farmers and spurring a race against time to harvest the fruit before it spoils, according to ABC. "The stone burns them, which means they burn on the inside, they become squashy and you can't use them," Dried Tree Fruits Australia chairman Kris Werner told ABC.It comes as the Australian Open kicked off in Melbourne at the Rod Laver Arena, in temperatures which topped 30 C (86 F).It is the second year in a row of extreme temperatures at the Grand Slam event, with some competitors collapsing or complaining of heatstroke in the 2018 event.Climate change is already here, and heat waves are having the biggest effect, report saysClimate change taking its tollJanuary is typically the hottest month of the Australian summer and temperatures across the board have been higher in the country in recent years. A report released by the Bureau of Meteorology on Thursday revealed 2018 was the country's third hottest year on record, with rainfall 11% below average.Australia's winter last year saw the worst drought in living memory hit part of the country in August, destroying farmers' livelihoods as farmland turned dry and barren.Even as Australia has suffered the effects of ongoing climate change, the government drags its feet on crafting a comprehensive environmental policy.Despite a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warning of "global catastrophe" should world temperatures rise above 1.5 C by the middle of the next decade, Prime Minister Scott Morrison's administration has refused to phase out the use of coal-fired power.CNN's James Griffiths contributed reporting.
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Story highlights Prime Minister David Cameron said more troops are being deployedThe government issues 24 severe flood warnings for Sunday More than 8,000 people have lost electricity, and some power substations are flooded (CNN)Swaths of northern England have disappeared under mammoth flooding, prompting evacuations and dozens of urgent warnings. A month's worth of rain fell in just one day over some areas, CNN affiliate ITN reported. The swollen, raging currents of the River Irwell were so intense that they destroyed and washed away parts of a historic pub in Summerseat. https://t.co/Q5jbKMvPG8 my wedding reception venue in 1983 destroyed by the river Irwell 2015— Duncan Vessey (@CastorAles) December 27, 2015
Britain issued 24 severe flood warnings Sunday, each one meaning there is a "danger to life." While hundreds of residents evacuated, some stayed behind and tried to clear floodwater from their homes with buckets -- but to no avail. Read MoreBritish Prime Minister David Cameron chaired an emergency Cabinet meeting Sunday and said more troops will be deployed to assist with the flooding. "I've just chaired a COBRA meeting on the unprecedented flooding. Huge thanks to the emergency services and military for doing so much," Cameron tweeted. "Also my sympathy for those affected at this time of year. More troops are being deployed as part of a plan to do whatever is needed."1/2 I've just chaired a COBRA meeting on the unprecedented flooding. Huge thanks to the emergency services and military for doing so much.— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) December 27, 2015
2/2 Also my sympathy for those affected at this time of year. More troops are being deployed as part of a plan to do whatever is needed.— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) December 27, 2015
More than 8,000 people had lost electricity, the power company Electricity North West said late Saturday night. Even some substations were flooded. "Flood defenses at a number of electricity substation were breached earlier today and engineers are working round the clock to restore power," the company said. The company said it is sending vans to Radcliffe, Padiham and Rochdale on Sunday to provide hot food to customers without power.
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(CNN)Pierre Gasly secured victory at the Italian Grand Prix to claim his first ever race win in Formula One, taking advantage of one of the most chaotic races in recent memory.An uncharacteristic error from Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes during a safety car deployment opened the door for the young French driver, who was demoted from Red Bull to its feeder team last season due to poor performances.The win for the Alpha Tauri car ended a run of 146 consecutive Formula One races that had been won by either Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari, a record stretching back to the 2013 Australian Grand Prix.Gasly had only ever finished on the podium once before -- coming second in Brazil last year -- and had never previously led a lap of a grand prix. But he drove like a seasoned professional from the restart after the race had been red flagged and temporarily suspended.It meant there was an Italian team victory at the Italian Grand Prix -- just not the famous one in red that everybody would expect.Read MoreAn unlikely podium was completed with McLaren's Carlos Sainz in second and Racing Point driver Lance Stroll in third.Pierre Gasly celebrates his first ever race win in Formula One."Honestly, it's unbelievable, I'm not sure I'm realizing what's happening right now," Gasly told Sky Sports after the race. "It was such a crazy race and we capitalized on the red flag. "I have been through so much in the space of 18 months, my first podium last year and now the win in Monza ... I am struggling for words. This team have given me so much, they gave me my first opportunity in F1, my first podium and now my first win," he said. "It is just amazing day," he added. "I have said since I came into Formula 1 that we need another French winner after the last in 1996, but I never expected it to come like that."READ: Ferrari records worst home qualifying performance since 1984Gasly's dream, Ferrari's nightmareHamilton looked to be in cruise control from the start after building a commanding lead at the front of the pack in the opening few laps.His Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas had hugely contrasting fortunes at the start of the race, as a sluggish start cost him dearly and he fell from second to sixth inside the opening lap. The Finn complained about a puncture over the team radio but, in truth, his driving left a lot to be desired.McLaren, meanwhile, continued its impressive weekend and had both of its drivers, Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris, sitting in second and third in the opening stages after blistering starts off the line.However, Ferrari's miserable weekend -- and season -- showed no signs of letting up as Sebastian Vettel was forced to retire his car inside the opening 10 laps with brake failure.The AlphaTauri team mobs Gasley after his win.The race took a dramatic twist after 20 laps as mechanical failure forced Haas driver Kevin Magnussen to pull onto the side of the track, leading the safety car to be deployed. Race leader Hamilton and Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi both pitted for a tire change, unaware that the pit lane entry had been closed due to the safety car being out on the track and were both given 10-second penalties.Ferrari's perpetual nightmare that is the 2020 season was compounded as Charles Leclerc lost control of his car almost as soon as the safety car had ended, skidding off the track and smashing into the wall. It was a shuddering collision and there was relief throughout the paddock when the 22-year-old emerged unscathed.Such was the extent of the damage, the tire barrier had to be repaired, forcing the race to be red flagged and temporarily suspended for the first time since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2017.When the race finally began again, Hamilton had to serve his penalty after the first lap and dropped all the way to the back of the grid, opening the door for championship chasers Bottas and Max Verstappen.France hadn't fielded a race winner since 1996.That left Alpha Tauri driver Pierre Gasly -- who had never previously led a lap of a grand prix and had only once before finished on the podium -- out in front and eying up his first ever race win.In fact, only one driver in the top six had ever won a grand prix before -- the 40-year-old Kimi Räikkönen.Soon after the restart, there was a crushing blow for Verstappen as his Red Bull suffered brake failure and his chances of closing the 47-point gap with Hamilton at the top of the championship went up in smoke.Despite plenty of pressure from Sainz in second, Gasly put in a consummate drive to hold off the Spaniard and spark wild scenes in the Alpha Tauri garage.
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Computerized Prison doors hacked with vulnerabilities used by Stuxnet worm
Security holes in the computer systems of federal prisons in the United States can effectively allow hackers to trigger a jailbreak by remote control. The discovery of the Stuxnet worm has alerted governments around the world about the possibility of industrial control systems being targeted by hackers.
A team of researchers with John Strauchs, Tiffany Rad and Teague Newman presented their findings at a recent security conference. They said the project wasn't really all that difficult -- it just took a little time, some equipment bought online and a basement workspace. The idea for the research came about from work that Strauchs had done previously.
"I designed a maximum security prison security system. That is, I did the engineering quite a few years ago and literally on Christmas Eve, the warden of that prison after it was occupied, called me and told me all the doors had popped open, including on death row, which of course sent chills down my spine. So we fixed that problem very quickly. It was a minor technical thing that had to do with the equipment used, but the gist of it was it made me think if that could be done accidentally, what was the extent of what you could do if you did it deliberately?"
The security systems in most American prisons are run by special computer equipment called industrial control systems, or ICS. They are also used to control power plants, water treatment facilities and other critical national infrastructure. ICS has increasingly been targeted by hackers because an attack on one such system successfully sabotaged Iran's nuclear program in 2009.A malicious cyber-intruder could "destroy the doors," by overloading the electrical system that controls them, locking them permanently open, said Mr. Strauchs, now a consultant who has designed security systems for dozens of state and federal prisons.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has confirmed the validity of their results and the researchers have already demonstrated the attack to federal and state Bureaus of Prisons and a number of federal agencies.
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(CNN)Greg Dailey wakes up at 4 a.m. every day to start his newspaper route in East Windsor, New Jersey. He's had this second job for 25 years, but when statewide stay-at-home orders forced him to close his frame shop in late March, it became his main source of income. For the last six months, Dailey, 51, has kept himself busy delivering far more than newspapers. He's become a lifeline for 140 senior citizens who are afraid to venture out because of Covid-19.To date, Dailey and his family have made more than 1,000 trips to the grocery store for seniors and delivered everything to their homes -- for free. This goodwill effort started when one of his elderly customers asked him to throw the paper closer to her door. A couple days later, while Dailey was in line at the grocery store, the 88-year-old woman popped into his mind.Read More"If she can't walk 20 feet to get her newspaper, how is she getting groceries?'" he said. "So, I called her and asked if she needed anything."She gratefully accepted his offer and asked for a few items. Minutes later, she called back and asked whether he'd mind picking up some things for her neighbor across the street. After he dropped off their groceries, he had an epiphany."I deliver (newspapers) to 450 customers who live in senior developments," Dailey said. "These are two people who live within a hundred feet of each other who can't get out to get groceries. What about the rest of them?" Two days later, all of Dailey's customers found a note from him tucked in with their newspaper, offering his help."I understand during these trying times it is difficult for some to get out of their house to get everyday necessities," the note read. "I would like to offer my services free of charge to anyone who needs groceries, household products, etc." Responses flooded in and word soon spread beyond the customers on his route. Since then, Dailey's wife, two sons and his mother-in-law have all pitched in by answering the phone and helping with shopping trips.His 24-year-old daughter, Erin, became his partner in the effort. They developed a system to keep track of the orders, which average between five to 10 a day. People are asked to fill out a spreadsheet with their contact information, any discount codes they have at various stores, as well as a detailed shopping list."For the most part, I try to keep it over e-mail," Dailey said, admitting that isn't always possible for his older customers. "Some people don't have the ability to use technology like e-mail or texting. I have customers where I literally go to their house and pick up the notes off their door."After he gets home from his paper route around 7 a.m., Dailey and Erin organize the day's orders. By 9 a.m., they're usually at one of their two local supermarkets, where they split up the lists and get to work. Dailey often relies on a few helpful employees to locate any mystery items."The other day, I had a list that I was completely overwhelmed with. It had tons of fruits and vegetables and I had no idea what half of these vegetables were," he said.Once his car is loaded, they head out to make a round of deliveries. Dailey calls each house when he's on the way, letting them know the total cost of their items. He drops the groceries in an agreed-upon place -- be it the customer's garage, the trunk of their car or on their doorstep -- and picks up a check that reimburses him for the cost of the groceries. For the last six months, Greg Dailey has been a lifeline for 140 senior citizens who live on his route.After a quick lunch at home, they do a second round of shopping and deliveries, usually finishing between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Dailey goes to bed early so he can start over again the next morning. During the first three months of this effort, they only took off Easter Sunday. But Dailey says the people he's helping -- he doesn't like to call them 'customers' -- make it well worth it. "Some of them, honestly, want to talk. They're lonely ... while others just stand behind their door and give me the prayer hands," he said. "It just melts your heart. The interaction just eliminates me being tired. It lifts you up and gives you energy because they're so grateful."Joan Coppinger is one of his regulars. She suffers from emphysema, a respiratory disease that puts her at high risk for the virus, so she hasn't left her home since March. Since her only daughter lives out of state, she says Dailey's help has been a godsend."Without him, I don't know how I'd get groceries," she said. "The Instacarts and the people you call are all backed up for weeks.""He has a good heart and a great soul. He's going straight to heaven."Dailey reopened his frame shop in early June, when restrictions were lifted, but he realized that as long as Covid-19 remained a threat, there would still be need for his work. "I thought it would slow down, but I am still getting new people," he said. "A lot are really scared to go out. I've told them, 'As long as you need me, I'm going to be here.'"Since Dailey's business has reopened, his wife has taken on an even greater role and the family has been joined by 12 volunteers, mostly college students. Dailey is still very involved in making deliveries and is thinking about starting a nonprofit to enable people to support his work.He knows the seniors he is helping will remain a part of his life going forward."Everything's been from a distance, but I've become very fond of a number of them," Dailey said. "There's a bond that's been created.""I honestly can't wait to give these people a hug."
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Story highlightsVolvo Ocean Race described as the 'Everest of Sailing'Seven teams battle on the high seas for nine monthsFollow us at @CNNSport and like us on Facebook (CNN)They're some of the toughest athletes on the planet, saying goodbye to loved ones for almost a year, as they traverse the globe's oceans. Hardened Volvo Ocean Race sailors must sleep in four-hour shifts, and survive on little more than freeze dried food and chocolate bars, if they hope to win the event.The prestigious competition kicked off from Alicante, Spain, in October last year, and will finish nine months later in Gothenberg, Sweden.Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing skipper Ian Walker, spoke about the journey so far. This is the 45-year-old Briton's third Volvo Ocean Race.Ian Walker, Volvo Ocean Race skipper.Why does the Volvo Ocean Race have such a fearsome reputation? Read More"As the leading offshore race -- and the one that is most vulnerable to nature and synonymous with danger -- it could be described as the 'Everest of sailing.'"What sort of preparation is involved? "We trained for six months, covering 16,000 sea miles. As a team, we usually do three weeks on the boat, one week off. When not offshore, we train six-days-a-week in the gym."Describe a typical day on board -- how much sleep do you get?"Everybody has four hours on deck, followed by four hours off when you eat and sleep. On the off-watch, you still have to get on deck and help for any sail changes, so it is quite disturbed."And what do you eat?"Mainly freeze dried food with some savory and sweet treats like beef jerky, dried fruits, one chocolate bar per day, and nuts."Sailors Luke "Parko" Parkinson and Alex Higby raid the spare food bags during leg 4, between China and New Zealand. What are you actually doing?"I'm the skipper, so overall in charge of safety and performance. I'm involved with all strategic decisions with my navigator, Simon Fisher, and I run one of the watches when on deck. Onshore, I'm also busy with media duties and management of our 15 shore team members."How do you keep emotionally strong during nine months at sea? "It can be an emotional roller coaster and it can be tough not to take things personally if they don't go well. At sea, emotions can range from frustration, boredom, elation, being scared, loneliness... it is important to try to keep a level head at all times -- especially if you are the skipper!"What is your relationship with the ocean? "I have great respect for the ocean. It will always win in the end so you must respect it. I am also saddened by all the man-made debris we see in the ocean as we sail round the world."Sailor Seb Marsset looks across the ocean. Over the equator and into the Southern Hemisphere, the weather turns tropical, with rainclouds driving much of the day's movement south towards Vanuatu.What type of person undertakes the Volvo Ocean Race? "A professional sailor with a fierce determination to win. Someone who is prepared to put the needs of the team above his own, and who is prepared to commit over 12 months of his life to being away from normal life."Photo Gallery: On board the 'Everest of Sailing'Insight: Can all-women team conquer sailing's 'toughest' race?Watch: Who are the people who sail across the globe?
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Yesterday, the most popular RSS reader Feedly was down as a result of a large scale distributed-denial-of service (DDoS) attack carried by the cybercriminals to extort money.
On Wednesday, the Feedly was temporarily unavailable for its users. Feedly posted details of the attack at 5:00 AM ET on its blog saying that they were under a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack and cyber-criminals were demanding money in return for returning the service to its normal operations.
"Criminals are attacking feedly with a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS). The attacker is trying to extort us money to make it stop," Edwin Khodabakchian, founder and CEO of Feedly said in a statement on Wednesday. He also expressed regret, "We want to apologize for the inconvenience. Please know that you data is safe and you will be able to re-access your feedly as soon as the attack is neutralized."
Feedly is a very popular RSS feed service which is available for desktop, iOS and Android devices with around 15 million users and 24,000 paying customers. It is also integrated into hundreds of other third party apps, which offers its users to browse the content of their favorite blogs, magazines, websites and more at one place via RSS feed subscriptions.
Feedly gained its popularity after Google announced the closure of its Google reader service last year. A huge number of RSS Google reader users switched to Feedly. Its popularity and reputation attracts RSS die-hards and cyber-criminals as well.
A San Francisco-based firm confirmed that some bad actors had launched a DDoS attack on its popular site, and were demanding a ransom money to restore the service. But the company refused to pay the amount to criminals which is really a matter of appreciation.
"We refused to give in and are working with our network providers to mitigate the attack as best as we can, " said Edwin Khodabakchian. He added, "We are working in parallel with other victims of the same group and with law enforcement."
WHAT IS DDoS ATTACK?
For those who are not familiar, a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack is one in which multiple compromised systems attacks a single target system or service to make it unavailable to its intended users. The flood of incoming requests essentially forces the target system or service to shut down, thereby denying service to the system to its legitimate users.
According to the company, the hackers have compromised Feedly's network resources, but they haven't gained access to any of its servers, ensuring its users that their data is safe.
FEEDLY TIME-OUT
At the time of writing, the website was still unavailable with visitors greeted by error messages including '408 Request Timeout' and 'Error 502 Timeout'. But latter, the website informed its users that there is no issue with their browser or the website's CloudFlare content delivery network, whereas the host domain was unreachable at the time.
After few hours of the attack confirmation, Feedly said it had made some changes to its infrastructure on bringing the website online again. "However, these things take some time to put into place and it may still be a few more hours before service is restored," the company said. "Thank you so much for your patience and for sticking with us."
The popular online notes and web clippings service Evernote suffered a similar attack. It is not yet known whether the two are linked, but Feedly and Evernote work closely together.
RECORD-BREAKING DDoS ATTACKS
DDoS attackers have discovered more powerful ways to attack a web service by exploiting Internet protocols such as DNS, NTP and even SNMP which allow cybercriminals to carry out record breaking DDoS attacks with the use of a little skill and relatively small amount of resources.
Feedly has set up an example for all of us that its really not right to pay the ransom to the bad actors and if you fulfill their demands, you are doing nothing but encouraging them more to carry out more such attacks against you.
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(CNN)Special counsel John Durham, who has been investigating the origins of the FBI's Trump-Russia probe, ignited a firestorm in right-wing circles last weekend with a cryptic court filing. The new filing fleshed out the case against Michael Sussmann, a lawyer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign who was charged with lying to a top FBI official during a meeting about then-candidate Donald Trump's connections to Russia. In the filing, Durham suggested Sussmann's allies "exploited" government databases to snoop on the Trump White House. Right-wing media said it was exposing a scandal. What it really revealed is how bad information spreads in MAGA world This triggered a tsunami of coverage from pro-Trump outlets, and outrage from Republican lawmakers and Trump himself -- all of it rife with distortions, false claims and misinformation. In a rebuttal filing Monday, Sussmann's lawyers said Durham was wrong about critical facts. His lawyers say the data was properly obtained and predated Trump's presidency. They also accused Durham of deliberately ginning up a false narrative for right-wing media. Cyber researchers involved have said they are apolitical actors who were concerned about the national security implications of the data they uncovered. They also say Durham is cherry-picking their emails to make it look like they fabricated an unfounded narrative about Trump and Russia. Read MoreHere's a full breakdown of the latest twists and turns, in a saga that started over five years ago. What new material did Durham reveal? Durham previously accused Sussmann of working with cybersecurity researchers and data scientists to undermine Trump in 2016. They allegedly did this by digging up dirt about his ties to Russia, and peddling it to the media and US government agencies, in hopes of triggering an investigation. (Sussmann, who was charged with lying to a top FBI official, has pleaded not guilty and the case is slated to go to trial later this year.) Durham alleged these researchers examined "domain name system" data, often called DNS lookups. It's like looking for a number in the phone book. A log is created when a computer gets ready to connect with a server, but the lookup itself doesn't prove that any communication occurred. Durham claims the cyber researchers had access to this trove of DNS data through a federal government contract. U.S. Attorney John Durham, center, outside federal court in New Haven, Connecticut in February 2021Sussmann's allies believed they found some potentially alarming links from Trump to Russia, and have said it was within the purview of their government contract to look for security threats. One dataset possibly linked the Trump Organization to Alfa Bank, the largest private bank in Moscow. Separate DNS lookups suggested that obscure Russian-made smartphones may have been used at Trump Tower and the White House. Durham's recent filings gave the impression that this data was from during Trump's presidency, but that assertion is now hotly contested. What did Sussmann do with the data? Durham previously revealed that Sussmann met with a top FBI official in September 2016 and passed along the information about the potential Trump-Alfa connections. Sussmann also met with CIA officials in February 2017, and Durham's latest filing gave new insights into what was discussed. During that meeting with CIA officials, Sussmann "further claimed that these (DNS) lookups demonstrated that Trump and/or his associates were using supposedly rare, Russian-made wireless phones in the vicinity of the White House and other location," Durham said in the filing. Michael Sussmann in September 2021 in Washington, DC.But Sussmann's lawyers claim that isn't what he told the CIA -- and that Durham knows it. They also highlighted the fact that the meeting occurred after Trump took office, and therefore couldn't have been an attempt to undermine his campaign. "The Special Counsel is well aware that the data provided to (the CIA) pertained only to the period of time before Mr. Trump took office, when Barack Obama was President," they wrote in their court filing, accusing Durham of intentionally crafting a misleading narrative. What have Trump and his allies said? Trump and his allies essentially have taken Durham's assertions at face value -- and then some. They claimed, falsely, that the filings prove Trump was the victim of a massive deep state conspiracy to spy on his campaign and White House. Incredibly, Trump suggested that people involved deserve to be executed for their alleged actions. In lie-filled press releases, Trump falsely said Durham revealed "indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on." Former Pentagon official Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist, falsely claimed that Durham had proven that Clinton's campaign "directly funded and ordered its lawyers at Perkins Coie to orchestrate ... a criminal enterprise to fabricate a connection between President Trump and Russia." Covering the Durham filings, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo said the Clinton campaign paid to spy on Trump, "before and during his time as president," even though Durham has never accused anyone of surveilling Trump's calls. She was one of many Fox hosts and guests to exaggerate or distort Durham's new filings. In Sussmann's view, the right-wing feeding frenzy was no accident. His lawyers said in a rebuttal that "the Special Counsel seems to be succeeding in his effort to instigate unfair and prejudicial media coverage," citing articles from conservative outlets like the New York Post and Breitbart. Was the Trump-Russia data accurate? With regards to the alleged contacts between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, both companies denied that there was a backchannel or that they colluded on the 2016 election. The FBI investigated the underlying data and ruled out any improper cyber links, according to the Justice Department inspector general. A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report said in 2018 that it accepted the FBI's conclusions, but the report also pointed out that the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank gave contradictory explanations for the "unusual activity." Regarding the Russian phones, Durham said his team "identified no support" for the claim that Trump associates used the devices near the White House. But Sussmann and the researchers called this a red herring. They said they found odd data at Trump Tower -- and separately at the Obama-era White House, while looking for security threats after a Russian hack in 2015. What comes next in this saga?Legal experts have questioned the strength of Durham's case against Sussmann. For instance, there is only one witness to the lie he allegedly told the FBI, and that witness has given differing accounts of the situation. Before his trial, Sussmann will try to convince a judge to throw out the case because there isn't enough evidence. His first arguments on this front are due on Friday. The five-year statute of limitations appears to have passed for Durham to charge Sussmann with crimes related to his CIA meeting. Sussmann maintains that he had no reason to doubt the information that he passed along to the CIA. Beyond that, the Durham inquiry is ongoing, but it's unclear if he if has the goods to indict anyone else or allege a broader anti-Trump conspiracy. Ironically, many of the key players have seen a role reversal in this saga. There was rampant speculation in left-wing circles that special counsel Robert Mueller would bring down Trump's presidency, and send him and his family to prison. Now, Trump and his allies are breathlessly hyping up the Durham probe, and have welcomed each development as proof that bombshell indictments against top Democratic figures are right around the corner. CNN's Katelyn Polantz and Evan Perez contributed to this report.
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(CNN)Ryan Sessegnon, a promising 20-year-old English footballer, says he is "not surprised anymore" and disgusted after he shared a screenshot of racist messages he received on the social media platform Instagram calling him the n-word and "slave."The England Under-21 winger, who joined Bundesliga club Hoffenheim on loan from Tottenham Hotspur last month, posted the screenshot on his Instagram story.He wrote at the top of the screenshot: "Honestly unbelievable. The craziest thing is I'm not even surprised anymore. Disgusting."In a statement, his parent club Tottenham Hotspur tweeted: "Everyone at the club is with you @RyanSessegnon. We are proud of the rich ethnic diversity that exists across our communities, fans, staff and players.""We are driven by inclusion and equality for all and nobody should have to endure such repulsive abuse," it added.Read MoreHoffenheim tweeted the club stood for "tolerance, integration and respect."In its statement, posted above the screenshot of blurred out racist terms directed at Sessegnon, the club wrote: "Today, our player @RyanSessegnon was the target of horrific online racist abuse.Ryan Sessegnon is playing for Hoffenheim on loan from Tottenham."#TSG stands for tolerance, integration and respect. We reject all forms of racism, discrimination and exclusion and say #NoToRacism!"Social media companies such as Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, have been criticized for the ways minority users are targeted with abuse on their platforms."We want everyone to feel safe on Instagram, and we don't tolerate racism or discrimination of any kind," said Facebook in a statement sent to CNN."We've invested heavily in people and technology to help find and remove this content more quickly, and recently introduced a new safety feature that allows public figures to prevent people they don't know from sending them messages on Instagram."According to anti-racism organization Kick It Out, reports of discrimination on social media are up 229% on last year.In October, Facebook and Kick It Out launched 'Take A Stand,' a new joint initiative intended to educate fans on how to call out racism, both online and offline.The new initiative includes an "anti-discrimination toolkit," which fans can access through an automated WhatsApp service and receive information on how to tackle and report discrimination.JUST WATCHEDBlack footballers too 'scared' to look at social media due to racist abuse, says ZahaReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHBlack footballers too 'scared' to look at social media due to racist abuse, says Zaha 03:33Facebook says its systems detect 95% of hate speech before anyone reports it, though the social media company added that it "knows they have more work to do."In July, Facebook and Instagram announced they would each be setting up a team to fight racism on their platforms and assess whether there is racial bias in their algorithms after it was suggested that posts with the Black Lives Matter hashtag were being hidden, though they are yet to release their findings.Premier League star Wilfried Zaha, who was also the subject of online abuse, told CNN earlier this year that he questioned the effectiveness of Instagram's privacy settings, given the ease with which anonymous accounts can send him racist messages.
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(CNN)Dora Melara heads into remote parts of Honduras, looking for clues in cases she never imagined would take this long to solve.Sometimes, the people she's seeking are nowhere to be found."There are places where you practically have to climb mountains to get there. And when you arrive, they say, 'He doesn't live here anymore,'" says Melara, an attorney working with the nonprofit Justice In Motion.For years, Melara has been searching for parents who were separated from their children by US authorities as part of the Trump administration's widely condemned effort to deter migrant families from coming to the United States. That so-called "zero tolerance" policy ended in 2018 and had largely faded from the headlines after sparking nationwide protests that year. But a revelation in court documents this week is shining fresh public attention on the policy and its aftermath. Lawyers say they haven't been able to reach the parents of 545 children from separated families -- and that hundreds of those parents were likely deported without their children. Read MoreFamily separation and the Trump administration's immigration legacyIt's a staggering statistic. But the situation is all too familiar for Melara and other advocates involved in an international effort to find families and help them reunite that continues, despite pandemic restrictions making it tougher to travel. The search includes toll-free hotlines and teams working in the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador. "This is something that is still affecting many families," Melara says. "Until each one of the parents has been found, for me, this is not over."Even when she reaches a remote village, only to learn that a parent isn't there, Melara says she doesn't think of the case as a lost cause."We think of it," she says, "as 'now we've taken the first step to find them.'"What parents say when she finds themMelara often has little information to go on when she begins a search. Generally, she'll start with the name of a child, the name of a parent, and the parent's last known location -- information that advocates say often turns out to be inaccurate or out of date. When Melara reaches a town, she'll talk with community leaders, hoping they can point her in the right direction. JUST WATCHEDBoy traumatized after separation: I can't forgetReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHBoy traumatized after separation: I can't forget 03:09When she does find a family, they can be distrustful at first. But Melara says the simple act of speaking with them face-to-face and listening to their stories brings solace and relief. And for parents that may have been struggling for months to reach their children and unsure of where to turn, Melara says it's been rewarding to watch them reconnect in video calls."Some have told me. ... 'We thought that what we went through didn't matter to anybody.' Then, when we come, in a way, these people that thought they had lost everything have a ray of hope," she says.The White House has downplayed reports of the parents who haven't been found, arguing that the administration has done everything it can to reunite families, even though the government fought in court against efforts to identify and reach out to families it separated before June 2018. "The sad truth is that many of them have declined to accept their children back," Deputy Press Secretary Brian Morgenstern told reporters Wednesday. Melara said some parents she finds are happy their children remain in the United States, safe and thriving. But others are desperate to reunite with them. Migrant families seeking asylum encounter Border Patrol agents at the US-Mexico border in June 2018."We've found different situations. ... We've seen tears of joy and tears of sadness. There are parents who are in touch with their children. And there are parents who have no idea where they are," Melara says.Melara says she's also found parents that have already reunited with their children. But still, she says, the scars of separation are evident."We have seen cases of fathers who, when they were separated from their children, they talk about how the children cried and said, 'Dad, don't abandon me.' And cases of mothers who have lived through psychological trauma and are still going to therapy to recover. Children say they are still having nightmares, waking up screaming their parents' names."The pandemic has complicated the searchNan Schivone, Justice In Motion's legal director, estimates nearly two dozen lawyers and advocates like Melara working as part of her organization's "defender network" have been involved in the search for parents across the region. She never expected it would take this long."The problem here is that when the Trump administration decided to separate families back in July of 2017, there was no plan to keep track of the families or ever reunite them," she says. "So here we are now, more than three years later, dealing with the fallout."Schivone says the 545 children whose parents they're looking for are likely in a variety of circumstances."They could be in the US with a sponsor. They could be in the US in foster care. They could have aged out of the foster or sponsor system and be somewhere, not in touch with their family. It's the gamut of options and possibilities," she says. "The work right now is to try to account for all the people that were separated and make sure (the parents) are in touch with their kids and that they have the chance to reunify." A US Border Patrol vehicle drives along the Mexico border fence on June 24, 2018, in Sunland Park, New Mexico. By the end of 2018, a court-appointed steering committee made up of pro bono lawyers and advocacy groups successfully tracked down most of the parents of the more than 2,800 children from separated families who were in government custody on June 26, 2018. That was the day US District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the government to stop most family separations and reunify all families that had been separated. The committee renewed its efforts when a new group of more than 1,000 children were added to the case last year after revelations that the government had been separating families as far back as July 1, 2017, months before its controversial "zero tolerance" immigration policy was announced. Search teams had been making headway, but their efforts stalled when the pandemic hit."Everything sort of ground to a halt and was on pause," Schivone says. Since August, she says, in-person search efforts have resumed on a limited, case-by-case basis. And more than 40 parents have been found."They're doing searches in masks, with face shields, trying to just make the best of this terrible situation," she says.Melara told KQED in September that pandemic travel restrictions in Honduras, which limit the days when people can go out based on the last number of their government-issued ID, have made the search more difficult."We are limited by the time we have to do our searches, we can't stay late, we cannot stay in a hotel. Because the next day, your ID is not valid to be out anymore," she told KQED. "It has been very limiting."But despite the difficulties, Melara told CNN she has no doubt it's important to continue searching for parents. And no matter how many dead ends she hits along the way, Melara says she's determined to keep looking. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez and Jason Hoffman contributed to this report.
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