Source code of DDoS botnet responsible for Krebs on Security attack posted online

By Rob Thubron on October 3, 2016, 9:30 AM




Last week, famed security researcher Brian Krebs was forced to take his website, Krebs on Security, offline after it suffered one of the largest distributed denial-of-service attacks ever recorded. Now, the source code for the botnet used in the assault has been published online.

Krebs on Security was hit with 620 gigabits per second of junk data during the DDoS attack. While this wasn’t enough to bring down the site, Krebs’ hosting provider, Akamai Technologies, was forced to order it off the network. Akamai had been offering Krebs pro bono protection from attacks for years, but the size of this DDoS meant it couldn’t keep doing so without the financial impact affecting other customers.

Krebs on Security reported Saturday that the source code of the malware, known as Mirai, was announced on hacking community Hackforums. It seeks out vulnerable IoT products by scanning for systems protected by factory default or hard-coded usernames and passwords. The software turns these devices into vast networks of bots that can be used to launch DDoS attacks.

Krebs notes that as the source code is publicly available, it “virtually guarantees” the internet will be “flooded with attacks from many new botnets powered by insecure routers, IP cameras, digital video recorders and other easily hackable devices.”


My guess is that (if it's not already happening) there will soon be

The final DLC for 'Call of Duty: Black Ops III' arrives on Xbox One, PC this week

By Shawn Knight on October 3, 2016, 10:30 AM





The fourth and final DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops III is set to arrive later this week for Xbox One and PC gamers.

Dubbed Salvation, the DLC includes four new multiplayer maps and the last chapter in the Zombies storyline. Citadel, set in the ruins of an ancient castle and Micro, a miniature war zone that takes place on an oversized picnic table (yeah, you can’t make this stuff up) are both brand new while Outlaw – a remake of the Standoff map from Black Ops II – and Rupture – made in the image of the Outskits map from Call of Duty: World at War – should feel somewhat familiar to longtime CoD fans.



Salvation, which has been a PlayStation 4 exclusive for the past month, lands on Xbox One and PC on October 6. Those with a season pass should be able to download the DLC automatically later this week; otherwise, expect to pay $14.99 if purchased individually.


The final DLC makes way for the next major release in the CoD series, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, which is set to arrive on November 4. The game was initially met with lots ofcriticism from fans that aren’t thrilled about Activision’s insistence on pushing the franchise further into the future. To make matters worse, the next Battlefield game (Call of Duty’s main rival) is taking gameplay back to the WWI era.



Battlefield 1 is set for release on October 21 followed by Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare a couple of weeks later on November 4.

Which? magazine claims iPhone 7 comes last in battery life tests

By Jose Vilches on October 3, 2016, 11:30 AM


Apple’s iPhone has never been a chart topper when it comes to battery life. Although by designing its own hardware and software the company is able to make its devices run efficiently, they also place a lot of emphasis in keeping them as svelte as possible, often staying away from larger batteries at the expense of longer runtime.

The new iPhone 7 has a higher-capacity battery than the iPhone 6s (1,960mAh vs. 1,810mAh) However, according to UK-based consumer testing organization Which?, the iPhone 7 still has the worst battery-life of all the current flagship smartphones.

The magazine compared Apple's 4.7-inch phone against the Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC 10, and LG 5 in a series of tests designed to simulate for everyday usage.



On the 3G call time test, the iPhone 7 managed 712 minutes, compared with 1,859 minutes for the HTC 10 and 1,759 and 1,492 minutes for the LG G5 and the Samsung Galaxy S7. It also lagged behind the Android phones for 3G internet use, though by a smaller margin, scoring 615 minutes, which was 25 minutes less than its nearest rival, the LG G5, 62 minutes less than the Samsung Galaxy S7 and and 175 minutes less than

Apple reportedly prepping three new iPad Pro models for spring 2017

By Shawn Knight on October 3, 2016, 1:30 PM


Apple is prepping a trio of new iPad Pro models that’ll be ready sometime next spring according to a recent report from Japanese blog Mac Otakara.

The site, which cites “reliable sources,” claims a new 7.9-inch Pro model will succeed the iPad mini 4. It’s rumored to have a Smart Connector like the one found on the current 9.7 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models, a True Tone display, four speakers and a 12-megapixel rear camera. The report doesn’t mention support for the Apple Pencil although my guess is that it will support the stylus.

The existing 9.7-inch iPad Pro will reportedly be bumped up to 10.1 inches and will pack a quad-microphone array as will the other two models. A refreshed 12.9-inch iPad Pro will also carry a True Tone display and a 12-megapixel rear-facing iSight camera with a True Tone flash.

Unlike the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, the next batch of iPad Pros will continue to offer a 3.5mm headphone jack. It’s a bit odd that Apple is pushing to eliminate the jack on its smartphones but keep it on the tablet. It’s unclear if Apple will replace the physical home button with a stationary one as it has done with the new iPhones.

The report is somewhat in line with renowned Apple analyst Ming Chi-Kuo who says a 10.5-inch iPad Pro, not a 10.1-inch model, is inbound.

No word yet on potential pricing or a solid launch date.

Hulu offering first 12 months of service for $6 per month

By Jose Vilches on October 3, 2016, 2:30 PM


One of the main incentives for cutting the cord is to avoid paying for a lot of bundled channels that you don’t care about. But as fragmented as the streaming market is, subscribing to a bunch of different services to get all the content you want adds up, perhaps too close to your monthly cable bill . While that isn’t bound to change in the short term, Hulu wants to offer some relief by cutting its entry level subscription to $5.99 per month for the first year.

The promotion is limited to new Hulu customers only and applies to its subscription service with limited ads, with pricing going back to $7.99 per month after the first year. The streaming service is not offering any discounts for its $11.99 per month commercial-free offering.

The promotional price undercuts Netflix’s single-stream, SD-only plan, which goes for $7.99 per month, as well as their two-stream $9.99 plan with HD content, and Amazon’s new standalone streaming option (sans Prime shipping) for $8.99 a month.

Hulu offers on-demand TV shows from major networks that become available a day after they are aired. The company is also working on a live TV streaming service that’s going to be launched in 2017 and is rumored to cost $40 per month, with content from Disney, Fox and most recently Time Warner after the latter bought a 10% stake in the company.

Mozilla is testing outside plugins with Firefox to keep costs down

By Shawn Knight on October 3, 2016, 3:30 PM




In an effort to keep costs down, the Mozilla Foundation recently launched a new project that it hopes will reduce the amount of time its developers spend working on non-core components of Firefox. As a non-profit, it’s important for the Mozilla Foundation to keep costs at a minimum.

As Mozilla Senior Director of Engineering Johnny Stenback explains, Project Mortar will allow Mozilla to have a stronger focus on advancing the web and reduce the complexity and long-term maintenance cost of Firefox by replacing non-core pieces of its platform with existing alternatives like those from other browser vendors.

Initially, Project Mortar will investigate how Firefox handles PDF rendering and look for lower cost approaches to providing Flash support as its use continues to decline. Right now, the project is determining the feasibility of using the minimum set of Pepper APIs to support the PDFium library for rendering PDF documents as well as the Pepper Flash plugin.

As The Register highlights, PDFium is Chrome’s open-source native PDF viewer. The Adobe / Google-built Pepper Flash player, for those not familiar, runs inside a sandbox in an effort to limit the amount of damage that malicious code could do when exploiting a vulnerability in the plugin.

Stenback notes that if these experiments are successful, it will allow them to completely remove NPAPI support from Firefox once NPAPI is disabled for general plugin use.

Microsoft becomes the latest major player to exit the smartwatch industry

By Shawn Knight on October 3, 2016, 4:45 PM


Last month it was revealed that three of the largest Android Wear partners – LG, Huawei and Motorola – had no intentions of launching any new smartwatches or fitness trackers this fall. Now, it seems as though Microsoft has hopped off the wearables bandwagon as well.

As of today, Microsoft has scrubbed every mention of its Band line of wearables from its online store and pulled the Band SDK from its developer portal. Best Buy has followed suit as well and according to The Verge, Amazon will no longer carry the wearable once its current supply runs dry.

A Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet that they have sold through their existing Band 2 inventory and have no plans to release another Band device this year. That said, the spokesperson did say that Microsoft will continue to support Band 2 customers through the Microsoft Store and their customer support channels. Microsoft will also continue to invest in the Microsoft Health platform, we’re told.

ZDNet also heard last month that Microsoft had disbanded (no pun intended) the small group that was working to get Windows 10 onto the wearable.

Microsoft entered the wearables industry in late 2014 with Band, its fitness-tracking smartband. A year later (last October), the Redmond-based company launched its second-generation Band 2.

With three major Android players and Microsoft now having pulled out of the market, one can only wonder how long smartwatches will persist without a killer, must-have app.