Free Republic

The co-founder of the newly launched Senate Cybersecurity Caucus is pushing federal agencies for possible solutions and responses to the security threat from insecure “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices, such as the network of hacked security cameras and digital video recorders that were reportedly used to help bring about last Friday’s major Internet outages. ... I have been asked by several reporters over the past few days whether I think government has a role to play in fixing the IoT mess. Personally, I do not believe there has ever been a technology challenge that was best served by additional government...

Updated Today, a huge army of hijacked internet-connected devices – from security cameras to home routers – turned on their owners and broke a big chunk of the internet. Compromised machines, following orders from as-yet unknown masterminds, threw huge amounts of junk traffic at servers operated by US-based Dyn, which provides DNS services for websites large and small. We're told gadgets behind tens of millions of IP addresses were press-ganged into shattering the internet – a lot of them running the Mirai malware, the source code to which is now public so anyone can wield it against targets. The result:...

According to researchers at security firm Flashpoint, today’s attack was launched at least in part by a Mirai-based botnet. Allison Nixon, director of research at Flashpoint, said the botnet used in today’s ongoing attack is built on the backs of hacked IoT devices — mainly compromised digital video recorders (DVRs) and IP cameras made by a Chinese hi-tech company called XiongMai Technologies. The components that XiongMai makes are sold downstream to vendors who then use it in their own products. “It’s remarkable that virtually an entire company’s product line has just been turned into a botnet that is now attacking...

A massive and sustained Internet attack that has caused outages and network congestion today for a large number of Web sites was launched with the help of hacked “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices, such as CCTV video cameras and digital video recorders, new data suggests.

For more than two hours on Friday morning, much of the web seemed to grind to a halt—or at least slow to dial-up speed—for many users in the United States. More than a dozen major websites experienced outages and other technical problems, according to user reports and the web-tracking site downdetector.com. They included The New York Times, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, GitHub, Etsy, Tumblr, Spotify, PayPal, Verizon, Comcast, EA, the Playstation network, and others. How was it possible to take down all those sites at once?

"With respect to potential computer intrusion by hostile actors, we did not find direct evidence that Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail domain, in its various configurations since 2009, was successfully hacked." "Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account."

Aerovelo’s human-powered vehicle “Eta” has broken the world record for fastest human-powered vehicle, reaching 89.59 mph/144.18 kph at the World Human Powered Speed Challenge in Battle Mountain, Nevada. This record breaks the previous world record, also held by Aerovelo’s Eta of 86.65mph / 139.45kph, set last September. Analysis of the vehicle performance showed that Eta requires less than 198 watts of pedal power at 90 km/h, which translates to a 9,544 MPGe highway fuel efficiency. According to Aerovelo, this is the highest per-passenger MPGe of any existing transportation technology at this speed. “The efficiency of this vehicle seems impossibly high:...

An element of intrigue has been added to the investigation of the explosion of SpaceX rocket on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral last month. The Washington Post, quoting unnamed sources, says SpaceX is investigating the possibility of sabotage in the mishap, which destroyed the rocket and its payload, an internet-beaming satellite being deployed by Facebook. According to the story, SpaceX sent investigators to a building owned by competitor United Launch Alliance about a mile from the launch pad because it noted something odd on the roof of the building in still images taken from video shot at the time...

Whether it's by the use of tiny car-lifting robots or totally spherical wheels, the idea of a car that can move effortlessly sidewise is an endlessly appealing one. Parallel parking becomes a dream, parking garage management becomes a piece of cake. And out of all the ways to make that dream come true, these "Liddiard Wheels" seem like a pretty compelling one. Designed by one William Liddiard, the wheels are similar to the kind of "omni wheels" you'll find on some robots and heavy machinery. The difference with these is that they are on an actual car, they have one...

Apple’s Phil Schiller thinks it’s sad that people use 5-year-old computers. Well, Phil, there’s an auto repair shop in Poland that’s going to send you spiraling into a long depression.Why? Because one of the computers they’re using on a day-to-day basis is a Commodore 64, and I don’t mean one of the slick nostalgic remakes. I’m talking about a classically beautiful beige C64 and its whirring, clunking 5.25″ floppy disk drive.It’s been there for more than 25 years. See, not everyone finds the idea of using an old computer sad. Some, like the mechanics at this shop in Gdansk, treat...

From Brady Dale writing at Observer.com: A lot of weird stuff has been happening to data inside the internet’s walled gardens. It has been getting shut down by the people who own the sites we all depend on. There’s a protest going on at Facebook over the issue right now. One Turkish journalist is saying that his account has been blocked inside the country, at his government’s request; Palestinian journalists have a similar problem. YouTubers believe that their videos have been getting unfairly de-monetized by mindless robots. A Union Square Ventures and Y Combinator backed startup called Blockstack, just barely...

President Barack Obama’s drive to hand off control of Internet domains to a foreign multi-national operation will give some very unpleasant regimes equal say over the future of online speech and commerce. In fact, they are likely to have much more influence than America, because they will collectively push hard for a more tightly controlled Internet, and they are known for aggressively using political and economic pressure to get what they want.

Entrepreneur Elon Musk unveiled his contrarian vision for sending humans to Mars in roughly the next decade, and ultimately setting up colonies there, relying on bold moves by private enterprise, instead of more-gradual steps previously proposed by Washington. Mr. Musk—who in 14 years transformed his closely held rocket company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., into a global presence—envisions hosts of giant, reusable rockets standing more than 300 feet tall eventually launching fleets of carbon-fiber spacecraft into orbit. The boosters would return to Earth, blast off again into the heavens with “tanker” spaceships capable of refueling the initial vehicles, and then send...

As many of you know, my site was taken offline for the better part of this week. The outage came in the wake of a historically large distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack which hurled so much junk traffic at Krebsonsecurity.com that my DDoS protection provider Akamai chose to unmoor my site from its protective harbor. ... Today, I am happy to report that the site is back up — this time under Project Shield, a free program run by Google to help protect journalists from online censorship. And make no mistake, DDoS attacks — particularly those the size of the assault...

Nike has finally announced when it will begin selling its self-lacing sneakers inspired by the shoes worn by Michael J. Fox in Back to The Future II. According to a tweet from the company's Heidi Burgett, the HyperAdapt 1.0 will be available for "experience & purchase" starting on the 28th of November, but only in select Nike locations in the US. Pricing is still unknown, but expect a "high price tag," according to a Wired feature on the shoe's development. You can check out the full story from Wired for a more detailed look at how the sneakers were made,...

Some iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users have reported their new smartphones have had quite the hissy fit — making a noise that sounds like a snake hissing in the grass.

When my son scored a coveted civil engineering summer internship in Silver Spring, Maryland, the chance for an electric-car road trip from our Boston-area home presented itself. Sure, I could have done the sensible thing and taken my trusty 2006 Toyota Prius, but where would be the adventure in that? Instead, I seized the chance to take my 84-mile 2015 Nissan Leaf, throwing myself at the mercy of the scant CHAdeMO fast-charging infrastructure between Boston and Silver Spring, a 1,000-mile round trip. In the process, I learned a lot about the current challenges of long-distance travel with a battery-electric vehicle—and...

The terms that I would use to Wednesday's iPhone 7 introduction from Apple (AAPL) are "boring," "uninteresting" and "humdrum." Or as The Wall Street Journal put it, the iPhone 7 is Practical, but Not Jaw-Dropping. Indeed, I'm reminded of an old saying: "Risk-taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise it would be called 'sure-thing taking.'" But as Peter Drucker also once famously said: "If you want something new, you have to stop doing old." Frankly, it was little surprise to me when Apple revealed, for example, that it had eliminated the headphone jack with the iPhone 7. The company described that move...

A long time ago, in a valley far, far away (Silicon Valley), I was a young product manager giving a sales briefing on new software products. A salesman raised his hand and asked, "Why do we need more software? I mean, seriously. Don't we have enough already?" He had a point. Even though Facebook, Google, and even Photoshop were still at least a decade in the future, the world was awash in working solutions that were getting the job done. Wasn't enough enough? It's with that question in mind that I have to ask why those of us with iPhone...

VISA and blockchain-technology partner BTL will invite a select group of European banks to participate in a blockchain project that will see inter-bank payments made via transfers over the ledger. Hot on the heels of the likes of R3, Visa will experiment its own blockchain-based payments platform with a select group of banks who will send money over a blockchain. The proof-of-concept project will use Interbit, a cross-border blockchain remittance and settlement platform developed by industry startup BTL. Launched earlier this year, the Interbit platform is seen by Visa as the solution to “reduce cost, settlement time, credit risk, and...