High-ranking Russian cybercrimes officer arrested for treason

A top Russian cyberintelligence officer who US officials say lead last year’s election hacking was arrested this week. Sergei Mikhailov, a senior member of the Federal Security Service (FSB), is charged with treason. For now, one Russian newspaper reports indicate that the arrest isn’t related to election hacking. According to an article in Kommersant, the arrest stems from Mikhailov’s work on criminal hacking investigations. However, Moscow Times reports the senior officer was arrested on suspicion of leaking information to US intelligence officials.

This news follows reports earlier this week that Kaspersky Labs security researcher Ruslan Stoyanov was also arrested for treason in December. Details are also scarce on that arrest, but the security firm says the incident isn’t related to Stoyanov’s work there. We may never know the exact reasons for the arrests, but the events are certainly notable at a time when tensions are high between the US and Russia over hacks of the Democratic National Committee ahead of the 2016 presidential elections.

The New York Times also notes that the director of the Center for Information Security, Andrei Gerasimov, was fired earlier this month. That news was also reported by Kommersant which explained that the termination followed an investigation into the agency’s work with Kasperky on criminal hacking cases. Gerasimov is also the FSB’s deputy director for counterintelligence. The arrests and firing were strangely public for a country and organization that often prides itself on secrecy.

Source: The New York Times

Trump signs executive order stripping non-citizens of privacy rights

With a stroke of his pen, the president just potentially invalidated a transcontinental data flow agreement between the US and EU which took years to negotiate.

The US-EU Data Shield agreement is an authorization framework which enables companies to transfer the personal data of Europeans to the US while ensuring that the companies operate within compliance of Europe’s more stringent privacy laws. It effectively ensured that a European’s personal data — that is, any personal data originating from the EU, not just that of EU citizens — would be protected to the standards that the EU demands whether the data is sitting on a server in Paris, France or Paris, Texas.

More than 1,500 companies including Apple, Google and Microsoft had agreed to abide by the Data Shield agreement, which requires the US Department of Commerce to ensure that American companies are operating in compliance. It took the place of the earlier Safe Harbor agreement, which the European Court of Justice ruled ineffective and invalid after the Snowden leaks came to light in 2013.

This agreement — as well as the legal ability for US companies to serve European customers — in now in very real danger of unravelling. And it’s all thanks to an Executive Order that Trump signed earlier this week. Specifically, it’s Section 14, which reads:

Privacy Act. Agencies shall, to the extent consistent with applicable law, ensure that their privacy policies exclude persons who are not United States citizens or lawful permanent residents from the protections of the Privacy Act regarding personally identifiable information.

Enforcing privacy policies that specifically “exclude persons who are not United States citizens or lawful permanent residents,” while aimed at enhancing domestic immigration laws, effectively invalidates America’s part of the Data Shield agreement, opens the current administration up to sanctions by the EU and could lead our allies across the Atlantic to suspend the agreement outright.

.@EU_Commission : If adequacy is no longer guaranteed, we will have to suspend the #PrivacyShield #cpdp2017

— Laura Kayali (@LauKaya) January 25, 2017

If that happens, things are going to get really uncomfortable for US companies trying to do digital business in the EU. Without that authorization framework in place, these companies will be forced to operate in a legal grey zone making it far more difficult for them to serve their European clients.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: White House

Flappy Bird Creator Launches New Game ‘Ninja Spinki Challenges!!’ on iOS App Store

Dong Nguyen, creator of the popular iOS game Flappy Bird, today launched an all-new game on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store called Ninja Spinki Challenges!! [Direct Link] (via TouchArcade). The game is a collection of six mini-games that task users with completing a set of trials centered around training to become a ninja.

TouchArcade went hands-on with the game earlier this week, and noted that while it’s a “kinder” entry in comparison to the difficulty of Flappy Bird, it can “quickly become tough as nails.”

I had the chance to try the game a little bit ahead of its release, and while it’s certainly a little more polished than Nguyen’s previous titles, Spinki’s got its creator’s fingerprints all over it. The main character is drawn from the cast of Swing Copters, and the gameplay focuses on performing relatively simple actions in increasingly challenging circumstances. At the same time, this is a kinder, gentler game than Nguyen’s previous releases, at least initially.

After a boom of social media attention surrounding Flappy Bird back in 2014, Nguyen quickly removed the game from the App Store because he believed it became an “addictive product” for all of the players devoted to beating their high scores. The game’s popularity reached such heights that Apple began rejecting apps on the App Store with “Flappy” in the title, because they were attempting to “leverage a popular app” to gain success.

The drama surrounding the game began in the first half of 2014, and in August of that year Nguyen released a spiritual successor to Flappy Bird called Swing Copters [Direct Link], which got a sequel [Direct Link] in 2015.

Players interested can download Ninja Spinki Challenges!! from the iOS App Store for free [Direct Link].

Tag: App Store
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Banktivity 6 for Mac Adds Workspace, Tags, Quick Reports, and More

IGG Software today announced the upcoming launch of Banktivity 6, the latest version of the popular personal finance app for Mac. The software, previously known as iBank, has been redesigned for macOS Sierra and updated with several new features, including Workspace, Tags, Quick Reports, Find, and more.

Banktivity 6 introduces Workspace, a new feature that enables customers to view any account, budget, report, or other view side by side. “For example, users can put transactions for an account next to a budget to see how recent spending affects the budget,” the company said.

Tags have also been added, allowing individuals and small business owners to see and analyze their income and spending habits across categories. “Now when a person goes on vacation and spends money on dining out, gas, air fare and hotels they can tag all those transactions as a ‘vacation,’” said IGG.

A new Quick Reports feature lets users select transactions and then quickly bring up a detailed report based on the selection. “For example, if a customer were wondering how much money was donated to a specific charity last year, a Quick Report answers that question with one click,” the company said.

Find is a new document-wide search feature that enables customers to search “almost any part of any transaction” within an entire Banktivity document.

The app’s sidebar has a new feature called Portfolio that provides quick access to the performance of investments. Portfolio’s customizable view shows high-level information such as cost basis, value, gain/loss, security price, and IRR, and clicking on a security brings up a complete analysis of that holding.

Banktivity 6 features over 100 changes and enhancements, including more flexible report grouping, new transaction editor with improved keyboard support, new reconciliation process, a new summary view, improved transaction downloads, more flexible budgeting, easier in-app navigation, redesigned reports, and more.

IGG said Banktivity 6 will be released in the Spring for $64.99. Users upgrading from Banktivity 5 will qualify for upgrade pricing of $29.99. Customers who purchased Banktivity 5 from the IGG Store between January 23 and Banktivity 6’s launch will receive a free registration code to unlock the new version.

The app will sync with Banktivity for iPhone ($9.99) and Banktivity for iPad ($19.99).

Tag: Mac apps
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Swift Knowledge Quickly Becoming One of the Most In-Demand Skills for Freelance Developers

Popular freelancing website Upwork today released its quarterly study ranking the fastest-growing skills employers are looking for, and Apple’s Swift programming language scored the number two spot, meaning it’s one of the most sought after skills for freelance developers.

Swift, along with the other top 10 skills that made the list in the fourth quarter of 2016, experienced more than 200 percent year-over-year growth. Other skills that have become more essential on Upwork alongside Swift include natural language processing, Tableau, Amazon Marketplace Web Services, and Stripe.

Introduced in 2014, Swift is Apple’s programming language, developed in part by Chris Lattner who made headlines recently when he left Apple for Tesla. Designed to be concise yet expressive, Swift replaces Objective-C and is being increasingly adopted by developers.

Swift is meant to be simple to learn, something Apple highlights with Swift Playgrounds, an app that teaches children to code using the Swift language. Apple has been updating and refining Swift since its 2014 debut, and is set to unveil Swift 3.1 in the spring of 2017.

Upwork’s Skills Index measures year-over-year growth rates based on freelancer billings through the Upwork site.

Tag: Swift
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Twitter Officially Launches Enhanced ‘Explore’ Tab on iOS to All Users

Last October, Twitter began testing out an enhanced version of a new “Explore” tab on its iOS app, giving a small group of users access to trending topics, simplified search tools, and “Moments,” the news aggregating feature which previously had its own dedicated tab within the app. Beginning today, the “Explore” tab will be available to all users on the iOS Twitter app, giving them one-stop access to trends, search, Moments, and live video.

According to Twitter, the tests from last year went well, and users told the company “that the new Explore tab helped them easily find news, what’s trending, and what’s popular right now.” In the blog post today, Twitter also pointed out that “nothing is going away,” simply that various parts of the app are moving into the new Explore section.

When users tap on Explore, they’ll see breaking news via a live video header with trending topics underneath, and further news stories under a “Today’s Moments” section.

Over the past year, we’ve been exploring different ways to make it simpler for people to find and use trends, Moments, and search. During our research process, people told us that the new Explore tab helped them easily find news, what’s trending, and what’s popular right now.

Nothing is going away – we’re just making it easier to find what you want. Explore will begin rolling out today on Twitter for iOS, and in the coming weeks on Twitter for Android. Make sure you have the latest version of your app to check it out. And of course, we will continue to listen to your feedback to make Explore even better, based on your thoughts and some ideas we have up our sleeve!

The overhaul to Moments — which launched in 2015 — comes after Twitter faced its slowest revenue growth in years. In an attempt to keep old users happy and welcome newcomers, Twitter has recently removed media attachments from the 140 character limit, and is trying to address harassment on the service with new mute filter and reporting features.

Last December, the company began a new test to see if a rebranding of “retweet” to “sharing” would increase traction on the social network for new users confused by the Twitter-specific lingo of the word “retweet.” One of the most user-requested features — Tweet editing — is still not available on Twitter, but CEO Jack Dorsey admitted recently that it’s “definitely needed.”

Twitter is available on the iOS App Store for free. [Direct Link] The company noted that the update will be rolling out throughout the day, and “in the coming weeks” it will arrive on Android.

Tag: Twitter
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Apple Releases First iOS 10.3 Public Beta With Find My AirPods Feature

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 10.3 update to public beta testers for testing purposes, more than a month after releasing iOS 10.2 and two days after providing the iOS 10.3 beta to developers.

Beta testers who have signed up for Apple’s beta testing program will receive the iOS 10.3 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on their iOS device.

Those who want to be a part of Apple’s beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and macOS Sierra betas. Betas are not stable and include many bugs, so they should be installed on a secondary device.

A major 10.x update, iOS 10.3 introduces a new “Find My AirPods” option to help users locate a lost AirPod. Located in the “Find My Friends” app, the Find My AirPods feature marks the last known location where AirPods were connected to an iOS device via Bluetooth and it allows the AirPods to play a sound to make finding them nearby easier.

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Along with a Find My AirPods feature, the update also includes a shift to Apple File System (APFS). First introduced in 2016, APFS is optimized for Flash/SSD storage and includes strong encryption and other important features.

Apple recommends all users make an iCloud backup before installing iOS 10.3, as the update will cause the iPhone’s file system to switch over to Apple File System.

iOS 10.3 also introduces a tweaked app animation, a new Apple ID profile in the Settings app, a better breakdown on how iCloud storage is being used, SiriKit improvements, new iCloud analytics options, and more. For a full list of what’s new in iOS 10.3 beta 1, make sure to check out our dedicated post.

Related Roundup: iOS 10
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Lyft joins Uber in allowing commuters to use pretax dollars to pay for rides

Why it matters to you

Lyft’s new tax exemption will save you money on your commute, and it’s about time — Uber made a similar move last summer.

Your morning commute may not get any less stressful, but here’s hoping it gets cheaper. On Wednesday, Lyft announced a series of new partnerships that allow you to use pretax dollars in order to get you to your office on mornings when you’re just not feeling the subway, or otherwise need to catch a ride. This, the ridesharing company says, can help you save up to 40 percent on your Lyft Lines.

Thanks to a series of new partnerships with WageWorks, Zenefits, Benefit Resource, Commuter Benefit Solutions, and Navia, Lyft is offering this perk to employees across a number of different companies with different benefits providers. That said, the tax exemption only applies (for now) if you live in New York City, Boston, Seattle, or Miami.

More: Lyft will soon be in 40 more U.S. cities — is yours one of them?

If you are lucky enough to be a denizen of one of these cities, however, getting set up is straightforward. Simply head over to the Payment tab in the Lyft app, add your commuter benefits prepaid card as a payment method, and select Line mode when you’re requesting a ride to or from work. From there, all you need to do is set your commuter card as the payment method, and you’ll be spending pretax dollars.

Lyft actually isn’t the only transportation giant to be offering such benefits. Last summer, Uber made a similar announcement, launching a pilot program in New York City. Just a few months later in December, it expanded its offerings, and now allows commuters in Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Denver, Atlanta, Miami, the state of New Jersey, and Washington, D.C., to pay with pretax dollars as well.

So don’t sweat it if you’re running late, friends. Just hop in a Lyft (or an Uber, for what it’s worth), and carpool your way to work for cheap.