Ransomware hits Pennsylvania’s Democratic state senators

Democrats in Pennsylvania’s state Senate were locked out of their computer network early Friday morning due to a ransomware attack, NBC News reports. According to an unidentified state official who spoke with NBC, the Democratic senators in Harrisburg use their own computer network and “there is no indication that other state agencies of the Republicans have been affected.” As of about 5 p.m. Friday, both law enforcement agencies and Microsoft were working with the state Democrats to free their network. In a statement sent to reporters via text message and obtained by The Hill, state party officials said, “there is currently no indication that the caucus system was targeted or that any data has been compromised.”

Recently, ransomware attacks have struck everywhere from hospitals and universities to San Francisco’s transit system. Last summer, the congressional IT desk warned representatives in Washington DC to be careful of potential ransomware and phishing threats, but the hacks on the DNC were unrelated.

In many cases, the payment demanded is only in the tens of thousands of dollars, and occasionally ransomware can be spammed without a specific target, but the affected computer systems are encrypted and inaccessible until the hackers release a key. If a network’s data is backed up offsite, the target can occasionally circumvent the ransom altogether — albeit with some increased security. A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Democrats declined to say to NBC News whether that was possible in this case, or whether the attackers had revealed any motives.

Via: NBC News

US hopes cyberattacks will stall North Korea’s missile program

The US might not have had much success with cyberattacks against North Korea’s nuclear program, but that apparently hasn’t stopped officials from further efforts… not that they’re having much success. The New York Times has learned that then-President Obama ordered escalated cyberwarfare against North Korea in 2014 a bid to thwart its plans for intercontinental ballistic missiles. However, it’s not clear that this strategy has worked — and there may be problems if it does.

The newspaper understands that Obama pushed both intelligence agencies and the military to “pull out all the stops” on cyberwarfare efforts to wreck missiles either before they launch or in the first seconds afterward. While evidence shows that North Korean missiles started floundering at a very high rate (the mid-range Musudan missile has an 88 percent failure rate) soon after, it’s not certain how much of that was due to American efforts versus the inherent riskiness of the missile designs. The US effort “accented the failures,” according to the Times, but the launch rate has improved lately — and proper intercontinental missile tests might not be far off, if you believe North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

A large part of this comes from the natures of both the country and its missile efforts. North Korea is notoriously isolated from the internet (not to mention computing technology as a whole), and its missile systems are both mobile and shuffled around to confuse enemies. It’s not so simple as slipping malware into the computers at a fixed location, like with the Stuxnet attack against Iran — you need to find out where and when a launch will take place.

President Trump hasn’t signaled if or how his administration might change this approach. Everything is still on the table, according to the Times. However, it might not want to press much harder. If a digital campaign is successful, it might give China, Russia and other nuclear-armed nations tacit permission to attack American nuclear launch systems. A belligerent country might be more tempted to launch a nuke if it knows that the US can’t respond in kind.

Source: New York Times

Apple to Open New Schildergasse Retail Store in Cologne, Germany, on March 25

Apple today announced that its second retail store in the German city of Cologne will open later this month. The address of the brick-and-mortar store is Schildergasse 1-9, which sits on one of the busiest shopping streets in Europe. Doors open on March 25.

The announcement confirms long-held rumors that Apple has been planning a second store in the city. Evidence surfaced in January that it was putting the finishing touches to a store at the sought-after retail location, which was previously occupied by European clothing brand Pohland. Local blog Apfelpage reports that Apple is already in the process of transferring some of its Rhein Center store staff to the new location.

The street of Schildergasse has a Roman history and derives its name from schild, (meaning shield), because artists who lived there in the Middle Ages were known for their paintings of coats of arms. Every hour, some 13,000 people pass through the street, which spans 500 meters from Hohe Straße on the Eastern End to Neumarkt on the Western End.

Tag: Apple retail
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Everything you need to know about the FAA consumer drone regulations

Since August 2016, consumer drone use has been under a detailed set of FAA laws. This is a minor problem for drone fans: They want to play around with the latest drone tech, but they really don’t want to read a long list of regulation sections to find out what’s allowed.

If that sounds like you, stop worrying: We’ll break down the latest drone regulations to make things a whole lot easier. We still suggest you read the UAS (unmanned aircraft system) regulations to get the full picture, but here’s what you need to know if you have big drone plans and want to know what’s legal.

More: The best drones for beginners will have you flying in no time

Note: These regulations apply to all unmanned aircraft under 55 pounds. Since drones are lightweight, this effectively applies to pretty much every drone available to consumers. However, it’s worth noting if you are planning on packing a large drone with camera equipment or packages, etc.

Drones at home and for fun

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Know how serious you are: If you have experience flying model planes, you can follow the same regulations used for them to stay legal — an alternative the FAA actually suggests. If you want to dive deeper into drones as a hobby, then plan on getting a remote pilot certificate under the small-UAS rules instead. No, past UAS training will not count.

Register your craft: It doesn’t matter what you do with it, you should probably register your drone. The FAA has a website to make this easier.

If you’re outside, the rules apply: You can do whatever you want with those tiny drones that fly around inside your house. But if you take a drone outside, all the rules apply, even if it’s just on your own property.

Pilots must be at least 16 years old: No exceptions. We know this seems like the “just say I was the one flying it” rule, but the FAA/law enforcement is serious about drones. Don’t test them on this.

Always keep the drone within eyesight: Always. It’ll last longer this way, too.

Don’t go higher than 400 feet: This is just common sense for the average recreational drone, which won’t be able to handle higher elevations well anyway.

Call an airport if flying within five miles of one: You need to ask airports for permission to fly a drone within a five-mile radius. And yes, sometimes they will say no. It’s often easier to just find a spot that’s not near one.

Stay away from people and emergencies: If you’re wondering where to fly your drone, remember this general guideline: stay away from people and problems. Parks, parking lots, forests, meadows — you can fly in lots of places, but you have to follow the following two rules. Don’t fly over or near people, especially gatherings of people (sport events, family picnics, and so on). Stay at least 25 feet away, as a general rule. And don’t fly near emergencies. For example, it may sound cool to get a look at that wildfire, but you’re probably getting in the way of relief efforts, and those updrafts can blast your drone apart in a heartbeat.

There are “No Drone Zones”: Drones aren’t allowed in some areas at all. As you may expect, they are typically military sites, as well as all of Washington D.C. If you’re near a government location or in a busy area, check for No Drone Zones.

You can use the official app: All right, we know this whole location thing is getting complicated, but fortunately there’s an app, B4UFLY, that adds it all up and shows you where it’s totally okay to fly. We highly suggest you download and use it. It also adds in a bunch of other, smaller restricted areas, like power stations, prisons, highways, and more.

Stay alert: Obviously, this means no drugs or alcohol while operating the drone. But we mean it in another sense, too. Some of the greatest areas for flying a drone are in the countryside and in open areas. But these places can be surprisingly active: Surveyors, crop-dusters, helicopter tours, practice runs by local law enforcement, park rangers, and many others may be flying low-level manned or unmanned aircraft. Watch out, and don’t get stupid.

Local laws may apply: A lot of drone regulation is currently left up to states and cities. Look into local laws as well.

Ryzen proves the PC industry can no longer ignore AMD’s comeback

While there are numerous valid arguments on both sides of the processor wars, even AMD fans have started to agree that Intel has taken a strong lead in the last few generations of consumer PCs. Intel chips have begun to dominate every price point, and AMD needs to fight back if it wants to reclaim a spot in users’ desktops.

That’s just one of a few reasons why AMD’s new Ryzen chips have been riding a massive amount of hype on the path to release. Enthusiasts across the computing spectrum are hoping for red team’s triumphant return, not just because it helps AMD, but because it helps make computers more exciting and relevant.

Shaking up the status quo

AMD has decided to strike where Intel is weakest.

Over the last few years, mainstream processor performance has increased incrementally. It’s enough to warrant buying the newest chip when you build, but it’s hard to justify the cost to upgrade existing systems. At least, that’s been the case with Intel chips. Users who have a second or third-generation Core i7 still see little reason to upgrade.

More: Our full review of the Ryzen 7 1800X

Instead of chasing the same price points already dominated by Intel, AMD focused on the sub-$200 market. That’s a boon for gamers looking to keep total system cost low, and for those who want to open some room in their budget for a more expensive GPU. Even so, we’ve continued to see Intel spreading out into the same category, and leading it with efficient products like the Pentium G4560 and Intel Core i3-3750K. That’s cut the range of competitive AMD processors to the bone.

Once again, AMD has decided to strike where Intel is weakest. To secure more than four cores and eight threads from Intel, you’ll have to shell out for an X99 motherboard and a high-end chip that’s going to cost you $500 or more. Instead, Ryzen provides performance competitive to workstation chips twice the price, allowing mid-range users to harness the extra processing power, if that’s what they’re looking for.

Radeon RX was a blueprint for the future

It’s a similar effort to what we saw with the Radeon RX release strategy. Nvidia’s GTX 1070 and 1080 packed in serious, high-end gaming performance, but at a steep cost. AMD, meanwhile, snuck in well under that initial price point, offering three cards at $200 or less before Nvidia could push out an offering below $350.

AMD RX-480

In this context, the budget-friendly RX GPUs start to look like a price break for users hoping to make the jump over to AMD’s side of the fence. The RX 480 still provides solid 1440p performance, and with a huge chunk of Steam users still playing at 1080p, that’s more than enough for the two-to-three years it will take before they need to upgrade again.

That said, there’s always been, and always will be, a market for enthusiasts willing to drop big bucks on high-end parts. There’s a reason consumer systems pack $1,500+ processors like the Intel Core i7-6950X, even though it really isn’t necessary except in incredibly demanding workloads. It’s also the reason Nvidia continues to get away with pricing people out of their highest-end GPUs.

More: AMD vs. Intel – Which is really the best value?

With AMD’s promise to use the AM4 socket until at least 2020, it has won the upgrade path war.

Still, AMD hasn’t competed in the high-end CPU market in quite some time, but it’s important for building hype and drawing eyes to your products. Not a lot of people buy the $600 GPU or the $500 CPU, but you’re likely to make sales because people want the upgrade path, or because they know you make cool products as well as more reasonable offerings. With AMD’s promise to use the AM4 socket until at least 2020, the red team has won the upgrade path war, and made investing in a high-end motherboard a much safer bet, with longer legs than something you could pick up from Intel.

It just might be a winning strategy

Whether this strategy will work or not is hard to say, but it’s a plan that already has competitors shaking. In the wake of Ryzen pre-orders, Intel cut prices aggressively, bringing the Intel Core i7-7700K down to an even $300 at some retailers. Nvidia has also announced the GTX 1080 Ti after the 1000 Series has been on the market just six months, three months less than it took for the GTX 980 Ti to hit the scene.

Granted, these are both companies that aren’t used to having a whole lot of competition to deal with. If you want a consumer CPU, you have two choices. If you want a consumer GPU, you have two choices. AMD’s is the only alternative to Intel or Nvidia in each field, so everyone benefits if it’s doing well. Competition drives markets and benefits consumers, forcing companies to release efficient products at prices that will help them sell.

As we’ve already seen, competitive pricing isn’t quite enough to bring users over to AMD’s side, but maybe more serious performance and optimization improvements can help return the red team to its former glory, and will be enough to give the other chip makers a much-needed kick in the pants.

A step-by-step guide on how to delete and recover photos on your Android smartphone

Some photos just don’t turn out the way we want. In many instances, it’s best to save space and get rid of them, so we’re going to show you how to delete photos on an Android device. Sometimes. however, we delete the wrong photos or decide we want to keep a snap after all, so we’re also going to show you how to recover deleted photos. Although Android smartphones may look different given many of them utilize a custom interface, the process for deleting and recovering photos is actually quite similar. Google even has its own set of standalone apps, so if you use Google Photos, the process will be the same regardless of your phone.

More: How to delete and recover photos from your iPhone

Deleting photos in stock Android

If you have stock Android, then you will be dealing directly with Google Photos. You can also choose to use Google Photos regardless of your smartphone’s brand, so let’s take a look at this app first.

Deleting photos while viewing them

Tap the photo that you want to view.
When viewing the photo, tools will appear on top of the photo at the bottom of your screen for a few second. If you don’t see them, then tap the photo once and they’ll appear again.
Tap the trash icon in the lower-right corner. This will move the item to the trash.
You can also tap the More menu () in the upper-right corner, and select Delete device copy. This will permanently delete the photo if you haven’t backed up the picture. Select Delete to confirm your decision.

Deleting photos in the Photos view

Make sure you are in Photos view by selecting Photos at the bottom.
Tap the More menu () in the upper-right corner, and tap Select in the drop-down menu. Alternatively, you can tap and hold the picture you want to delete.
You can delete multiple photos at once by tapping on them. Selected photos feature a white check mark on a blue background in the upper-left corner.
Tap the trash can in the upper-right corner.

Delete photos in Albums view

Select Albums in the lower-right corner, and then select the album you want to delve into.
Tap the More menu () in the upper-right corner, choose Select, and select the pictures you want to delete. Alternatively, you can select the date of the pictures, which will select all the pictures taken on a given day.
Tap the More menu () again, and select Delete device copy.
A warning will come up indicating that if the pictures aren’t backed up, they will be deleted permanently. Select Delete to confirm your decision.

Deleting photos on a Samsung phone

Samsung has its own Gallery app. It basically works the same way as any other Android smartphone, but TouchWiz does have its own look, so we will take you through the screens and show you how it looks on a Samsung smartphone.

Deleting photos while viewing them

You should have tools on your screen while viewing a picture, but if not, just tap the picture once.
Tap the trash can in the lower-right corner.

Delete photos in Time view

Instead of Photos view, Samsung has Time view. You can see the photos individually here. Just tap More in the upper right-hand corner.
You are now in selection mode where you can select the pictures you want to delete, then select Delete in the upper right next to More.

Deleting photos in Albums view

To see the albums, tap Time in the upper-left corner, and change it to Albums.
Here, you will see More in the upper-right corner. If you want to delete an entire album, go to More and select Edit. Afterward, select the album you want to delete and press Delete in the upper-right corner.
If you want to go inside an album, select individual pictures, and then delete them, you can do so by tapping More in the upper-right corner. Then, tap Edit, select the pictures you want to delete, and press Delete in the upper-right corner.

Recovering photos

Recovering photos from the Google Photos trash

If you deleted your pictures by tapping the trash icon, and the photos were moved to the trash, then they will be in the trash for 60 days before being permanently deleted.

Select the Hamburger menu  () in the upper-left corner.
Select Trash from the menu.
Select the photos you want to recover by tapping the More menu in the upper-right corner. Alternatively, you can tap and hold the pictures you want to recover.
Once you have selected all the pictures you want to recover, tap the Undo button in the upper-right corner.

Recovering photos using third-party software

You can always try to use third-party software to rescue deleted photos. Below is one of the best options to get you started.

Wondershare Dr.Fone ($70+)

Phone Rescue will allow you to recover a number of media files, including photos. Not only will the software allow you to recover media, but it also offers a suite of recovery and repair tools for Android. These include tools that allow you to extract data from damaged devices, or recover data lost during an update.

Download now from:

Wondershare

Backing up your photos

We recommend using Google Photos to automatically back up your photos, and ensure that you can recover them in the future. Google Photos gives you unlimited free storage for photos up to 16 megapixels in size and video recorded at up to 1080p. You also get 15GB of free storage for photos and videos of higher quality.

Tap the Hamburger menu () in the upper-left corner.
Go to Settings.
Tap Back up & sync, and make sure the feature is toggled on.

So you’ve lost your Cardboard QR code? Here’s what to do

If you’ve lost your QR code, don’t panic. You can find it again online.

Google Cardboard was the first phone based VR that hit the market, and for some users it’s still a great way to get introduced to VR. However if it’s been a few months since the last time you’ve pulled out your Cardboard viewer, then you may run into a problem. That problem being that you’ve lost your Cardboard QR code, and can’t properly set up your Cardboard Viewer. Don’t panic though, all is not lost. Instead we’ve got the details on how to deal with this problem.

Read more at VRHeads

Google Assistant for every phone was the best move Google will make in 2017

And shows that Play Services is almost an operating system on its own.

Yep. Google Assistant is going to be available for any phone with Android 6 or later. And it won’t require a system update, which is one of the smartest moves Google has ever made.

Why? Because Samsung was never going to build it into the Galaxy S8 or any other phone it sells. Now the decision was taken out of Samsung’s hands and left up to you to opt in if you want Google Assistant.

300 million Galaxy phones shipped in 2016 and most will be running Marshmallow or better.

Of course, it should be our decision because we’re the ones paying way too much for phones. It’s nice to sit back and think Google worked to allow Assistant to work through Play Services for everyone because it loves us and want us to have control over what’s on our phones, but that’s probably not why it did it. The 300 million phones Samsung shipped in 2016 (how staggering is that?) is why it did it. Without Samsung phones supporting it, Assistant would have quickly faded away.

I’m not saying that having Assistant on all those Galaxy phones means it will be a success. Just that it could never be without them. Assistant depends on user data even more than Google Now did and in a lot of different ways.

Assistant can do all those Google Now things like telling you about the weather or an upcoming flight. It’s tied very tightly to your Google Account. You’ll understand this when you read the agreement and accept the terms the first time you use it. (Please read it. Read them all.) But it also gets smarter with more user data of a less personal nature.

Little things that seem unimportant — how many of us are interested in a particular movie or what time of day we tend to buy gas — are a gold mine of data for a truly smart computer. For Google, too, because the companies producing movies and selling gas are interested in working with the advertiser who knows these things. Assistant may seem like an altruistic offering from Google to mankind, but it’s a money-making opportunity first.

When the Pixel launched with Assistant, smart people in the industry said it would have to come to every phone soon. Because it needs data to survive, keeping it for Google’s own phones or even Android TV means it would never grow. Getting it to work without a system update on those 300 million Galaxy phones means it can grow faster and better. This is a really big deal.

Samsung has its own assistant to work on and can’t be taking time to work on Google’s.

We don’t think there is a Hatfield-McCoy thing going on between Google and Samsung. Neither would be where they are today without the other, and both know it. But there has to be some healthy competition, where Samsung’s first order of business is to do what’s best for its own bottom line and Google doing the same. If Google Assistant required Samsung to take the time to integrate it into its operating system it wouldn’t happen. If anything Samsung would work to integrate its own assistant instead. It might be doing that, too. Google had to do the work itself on this one.

Corporate profits and strategy aside, having Assistant on all those Samsung phones as well as others is what is best for us. We get to choose what we want to use and for everyone using it, a bigger data pool makes it get better and better. That’s what really matters here, and even if it’s just a side effect from Google’s plans to continue the domination of mobile and expand it into other areas we still benefit.

Smart garbage can turns trash into a game

Waste is a big concern for cities — after all, no one likes looking at trash on the street. But it ends up there anyway, for various reasons: bins overflow, sometimes they’re hard to find and worst of all, some people just don’t care what they do with their trash. Sencity seeks to fight this apathy by turning litter disposal into a game with its new TetraBIN, a connected trash bin that rewards you for tossing out your garbage.

Sencity is part of a cohort of startups based out of Urban-X, a Brooklyn-based accelerator focused on improving the livability of cities like New York. This means companies focused on issues near and dear to city dwellers, like transportation and utilities. Street furniture is a big part of the urban landscape, and while a lot of municipalities have tried to make bike racks and benches more attractive, very little of it is what you’d call entertaining. Sure, there are bus stops with connected displays and public WiFi access points, but you still have to make your own fun while you’re out and about.

The TetraBIN is a large three-sided container wrapped in a screen displaying a sidescrolling green field. Bats fly through the air, while dogs eagerly wait on the ground crying “feed me!” The inside is lined with motion sensors that detect when something is tossed into the bin, and these are translated into chicken drumsticks on the screen. Successfully feeding the dog results in a win screen with a code that can be redeemed on the TetraBIN website. The idea is that pedestrians will earn various rewards by playing; they might even be able to receive physical items in the mail. Over time Sencity hopes that throwing out trash becomes an automatic habit, especially among children: the game may encourage kids to pick up other people’s trash as well, which Sencity staffers wouldn’t mind one bit.

In New York and other cities, street furniture like bus shelters and newsstands are built and operated by Cemusa, which makes its profits by putting advertisements on everything. TetraBIN would be a natural fit for interactive ads, but Sencity would rather partner with cities and local business improvement districts to get its containers on the street. The bins use 4G to connect and can transmit information to each other if in close proximity, so getting them set up requires minimal effort. And yes, when people tire of the games they can display other things like bus and train schedules, traffic updates and the weather. But where’s the fun in that?

Backstage with the big winners of the IGF and GDC awards

Every year, the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice award shows bring a bit of glitz and glamour to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. And 2017 was no different. The two back-to-back spectacles honor the most innovative and important titles of the past year, covering everything from mobile gaming and student projects to mainstream, AAA extravaganzas.

We went backstage with the winners directly after they received their awards, capturing their thoughts on the industry — and their massive smiles.

See the full list of winners and honorees below, and check out our video for a first-hand look at GDC’s biggest night.

Independent Games Festival Awards winners

• Excellence in Narrative ($3,000): Ladykiller in a Bind (Love Conquers All Games)
• Excellence in Audio ($3,000): GoNNER (Art in Heart)
• Excellence in Design ($3,000): Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)
• Excellence in Visual Art ($3,000): Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
• Nuovo Award ($5,000): Oiκοςpiel, Book I (David Kanaga)
• Best Student Game ($3,000): Un Pas Fragile (Géraud de Courrèges, Alisée Preud’homme, Gregory Parisi, Gaspard Morel)
• Audience Award ($3,000): Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
• Alt.Ctrl.GDC Award: Fear Sphere (New Arcade)
• Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($30,000): Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)

Game Developers Choice Awards winners

• Best AR/VR Game: Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives (Owlchemy Labs)
• Best Visual Art: Inside (Playdead)
• Best Technology: Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog)
• Best Narrative: Firewatch (Campo Santo)
• Innovation Award: No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
• Best Mobile/Handheld Game: Pokemon Go (Niantic)
• Best Design: Overwatch (Blizzard)
• Best Debut: Campo Santo (Firewatch)
• Best Audio: Inside (Playdead)
• Audience Award: Battlefield 1 (DICE)
• Game of the Year: Overwatch (Blizzard)
• Ambassador Award: Former White House adviser Mark DeLoura
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner and Epic Games co-founder Tim Sweeney

Click here to catch up on the latest news from GDC 2017!