IRS hands fraud prevention contract to Equifax despite massive hack

You’d think that government agencies would be reticent to work with Equifax given that it just exposed the private info of more than 145 million people through a preventable hack, but a massive data breach apparently isn’t enough of a deterrent. The Internal Revenue Service recently awarded Equifax a fraud prevention contract that will have it verifying taxpayer identities. And crucially, it was a no-bid, “sole source” contract — Equifax was deemed the only company capable of fulfilling demand.

In practice, officials didn’t have much of a choice. Credit reporting in the US is dominated by three large companies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion), and Equifax is arguably the powerhouse of the bunch. However, that only underscores the problem here: the IRS had to trust a crucial anti-fraud system to a company that not only had sloppy online security practices, but has been reluctant to take full responsibility for its mistakes.

There’s a real chance that the hack will get Equifax to clean up its act in time to improve its handling of IRS data. We wouldn’t count on it, though, and there’s always the possibility that the IRS will fall afoul of the kind of data breach that prompted this anti-fraud contract in the first place.

Via: Politico

Source: FedBizOpps.gov

Instagram shopping is getting a big boost from Shopify

Shopify is providing its users with another way to sell their goods. Throughout the year, it has been testing an Instagram shopping feature, but it’s now opening the tool up to thousands of additional merchants just in time for the holiday shopping season, TechCrunch reports. The feature lets sellers tag items in an Instagram post that are available for purchase and viewers can then click those tags to buy the items without having to leave Instagram.

Instagram first introduced shopping tags into its platform last November, but they were only available to a handful of brands, such as Kate Spade and Warby Parker. Earlier this year, Instagram opened them up to Shopify and BigCommerce. Since then, Shopify has been testing the feature with a handful of its merchants before widely releasing it and the company says seller response has been enthusiastic. BigCommerce just announced that its Instagram shopping tool is now available to US brands that use its service.

With this expanded rollout, Shopify will continue testing and tweaking the feature before issuing a wide release. Instagram joins Facebook, Messenger, Pinterest and BuzzFeed on Shopify’s lineup of supported sales channels.

Via: TechCrunch (1), (2)

Source: Shopify, BigCommerce

LIFX Unveils HomeKit-Compatible Decorative ‘Beam’ Light Set

Lighting company LIFX, known for its range of smart lighting products, today announced the LIFX Beam, its latest decorative smart light.

Beam is a set of thin, rectangular lights that are meant to be used for accent lighting. There are six white plastic beam lights per kit, along with a power pack and 1 illuminated corner, which can be used to create “L” shaped designs when attached to a wall.

Like other LIFX lights, the Beam supports 16 million colors along with a range of white shades. There are 10 blended light zones per beam, so each one can light up in a multitude of colors.

Colors can be selected using the LIFX app, and there’s also built-in HomeKit support so the Beam can be controlled via Siri and added to Scenes with other HomeKit products. LIFX products connect to a home setup via WiFi and do not require a bridge.

LIFX added HomeKit support to its most recent line of light bulbs in September, and just last week introduced the LIFX Tile, a modular square-shaped accent lighting system.

LIFX Beam can be pre-ordered from the LIFX website for $199.99.

Tag: HomeKit
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Dropbox Introduces New Brand Design With Bright Colors, Revamped Logo and New Typeface

Dropbox today announced a major brand redesign that focuses on bright, contrasting colors, with a new logo design, new illustration style, and a revamped signature font.

According to Dropbox, the new design “juxtaposes color pairs in bold, unexpected ways,” which will be used for marketing and branding purposes. The new colors will be applied to the redesigned Dropbox logo, which features the same standard box, but with a flatter, simpler design. Dropbox says the color of the logo will “change based on the situation” and will no longer be limited to blue.

A new illustration style will be used to “bring the creative process to live” with rough sketches of graphite paired with colorful, abstract shapes, and Dropbox is adopting a new typeface called Sharp Grotesk that offers 259 fonts.

Our new design system is built on the idea that extraordinary things happen when diverse minds come together. We communicate this visually by pairing contrasting colors, type, and imagery to show what’s possible when we bring ideas together in unexpected ways.

Dropbox says the new brand design was inspired by the creative work of its customers and is meant to reflect the company’s passion for building tools to help teams “unleash their creative energy.”

According to Dropbox, the new look will be seen everywhere from its website to its products over the course of the coming weeks, but it’s not clear how much the brand redesign will impact Dropbox’s web interface or apps. The company says the new design will be dialed down to allow people to concentrate on their work, with the changes mostly aimed at marketing.

Our new system lets us pick the right amount of expressiveness for the situation. Color can go from a standard Dropbox blue to “whoa.” Same for type, photography, and illustration. In a marketing campaign, we can dial things up to provoke and inspire creative energy. But in our product, where people need to concentrate on their work, we can dial it down.

The new design marks the first time Dropbox has made major changes to its branding since it was founded 10 years ago in 2007. In an interview with AdWeek, Dropbox said the new branding will be featured extensively in an upcoming ad campaign that features work from several artists.

Tag: Dropbox
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Apple Executives Receive Stock Worth Over $19 Million Each as RSUs Awarded in 2014 Vest

Eight Apple executives this week received 125,494 shares of stock each after restricted stock units or RSUs first awarded in 2014 vested. Apple issues RSUs, which vest after a set amount of time so long as an employee stays with the company, to its executives as bonus compensation.

Luca Maestri, Craig Federighi, Eddy Cue, Angela Ahrendts, Jeff Williams, Bruce Sewell, Phil Schiller, and Dan Riccio all received the stock awards, worth over $19 million at Apple’s current price.

The amount of stock each received was based on Apple’s total shareholder return (TSR) relative to other companies in the S&P 500 from September 28, 2014 through September 30, 2017. Apple’s TSR during that period was 65.53 percent, which gave it a ranking of 92nd out of the 451 companies in the S&P 500.

That placed Apple in the 80th percentile, so 125,494 RSUs vested. Had Apple’s ranking been in the 85th percentile, the executives would have seen a larger reward as 200 percent of the target 68,576 RSUs would have vested.

Over 62,000 shares were withheld by Apple from each distribution to satisfy the tax withholding requirements of vesting RSUs.

Tag: Stock
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Samsung’s HMD Odyssey proves image quality is worth the cost

Earlier today, Microsoft and Samsung announced the latest Windows Mixed Reality headset: the Samsung HMD Odyssey. At $499, it’s certainly one of the pricier options out of all the Windows Mixed Reality headsets so far. And for good reason. Not only does it come with integrated AKG headphones — which is very similar to the Rift’s design — it has absolutely stunning image quality.

The HMD Odyssey is equipped with dual 3.5-inch AMOLED displays, each of which have a 1,440 x 1,600 resolution with a refresh rate of 90 to 60 hertz. The result is a brilliantly sharp and crisp virtual environment — when I took a brief Holotour of Machu Picchu, I genuinely felt like I was there, floating above the mountains on a hot air balloon. Color reproduction is fantastic, and there was none of the screendoor effect that so often plagues VR headsets of lesser quality. The 110-degree field of view also contributes to the feeling of immersion, which is especially apparent when viewing 360-degree videos and photos.

Yet, this thing is pretty big. It measures 202mm x 131.5mm x 111m and it weighs in at a whopping 625 grams. That’s definitely a lot heavier than the Acer’s 380 grams. It also just looks pretty bulky on the whole. That said, when I placed the whole thing on my head, it didn’t feel so bad. It fits nice and snug, and I loved the feeling of the leather padding around my head. I could see myself wearing this for a few hours at a time.

Other specs of the HMD Odyssey include two cameras on the front, each of which give the headset six degrees of freedom. It also has a proximity sensor, an IPD sensor, a built-in microphone, volume adjustment and a couple of dials that help you find the right fit and focus. I also like it that you can wear the headset while wearing your glasses.

During my demo, I had a chance to try out the new Halo Recruit title for a few minutes. As was teased, it’s not quite a game as much as a demo of what Halo could look like in VR. Most of what I did was fire at moving targets in a tutorial phase. I found that targeting is sometimes an issue, as I couldn’t just look at something to aim (like I can with a lot of other VR games) I had to actually really aim at it with my virtual gun. Still, it was just my first experience with it and I can see myself getting better over time.

The Halo Recruit demo will be available on October 17th for free from the Windows Store, along with 20,000-plus other apps made for Windows Mixed Reality. Samsung’s HMD Odyssey is available for pre-order today, with a ship date of November 6th.

Verizon Says All 3 Billion Yahoo Accounts Were Compromised in 2013 Attack

Yahoo’s massive data breach that occurred in August of 2013 affected all three billion Yahoo accounts that existed at the time, Yahoo parent company Verizon disclosed today in a statement on Oath.com, the website for the brand that now encompasses both AOL and Yahoo.

Previously, Yahoo said the hack affected 1 billion accounts, or a third of all accounts at the time. Verizon now says new intelligence suggests the attack was much larger, compromising all Yahoo accounts in 2013.

Subsequent to Yahoo’s acquisition by Verizon, and during integration, the company recently obtained new intelligence and now believes, following an investigation with the assistance of outside forensic experts, that all Yahoo user accounts were affected by the August 2013 theft.

Information stolen from affected accounts included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates, hashed passwords, and both encrypted and unencrypted security questions and answers. Clear text passwords, bank account information, and credit/debit card information are not believed to have been accessed in the attack.

In a statement, Verizon says the Yahoo team is continuing to take significant steps to enhance security.

“Verizon is committed to the highest standards of accountability and transparency, and we proactively work to ensure the safety and security of our users and networks in an evolving landscape of online threats,” said Chandra McMahon, Chief Information Security Officer, Verizon. “Our investment in Yahoo is allowing that team to continue to take significant steps to enhance their security, as well as benefit from Verizon’s experience and resources.”

Yahoo initially uncovered the attack after law enforcement officials provided the company with Yahoo user data from an unknown source. Yahoo notified users it believed were affected in 2016 at the time the attack was disclosed, but the company will now send email notifications to additional user accounts affected by the hack.

Along with the attack in 2013, Yahoo saw another data breach in 2014 that compromised 500 million accounts, and a third major breach targeting accounts between 2015 and 2016.

The security breaches affected Verizon’s $4.48 billion June acquisition of Yahoo, leading Yahoo to drop its asking price by $350 million.

Yahoo is already under SEC investigation for not disclosing the data breach sooner and affected victims have been given the right to sue the company.

Tag: Yahoo
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Scientists just encoded ‘Smoke on the Water’ onto a strand of DNA

Why it matters to you

Successful demo highlights how the very fabric of life itself may be our best available storage option.

Remember when the original iPod wowed us with its claims of letting you carry around 100 songs in your pocket? Well, U.S. biotech company Twist Bioscience, working in conjunction with Microsoft Research and the University of Washington, has just gone several orders of magnitude smaller — by encoding music tracks onto individual strands of DNA. The songs chosen for the remarkable demonstration include “Tutu” by Miles Davis, and a jazz cover of “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple.

“This is the first time DNA has been used as a long-term archival-quality storage medium,” Angela Bitting, a spokesperson for Twist Bioscience, told Digital Trends. “This is an incredible proof-of-concept project that demonstrates what could happen in a commercial setting, as the price of DNA writing comes down. In addition, it’s a large project — 140MB encoded for just two songs — [which] are very large files compared to encoding done in the past.”

Twist isn’t the only organization doing interesting things with the storage capabilities of DNA. Earlier this year, researchers at Harvard University successfully demonstrated how E. coli bacteria can be modified to store images and movies in its DNA. The idea may sound crazy at first but, as Bitting notes, it could well turn out to be the future of storage. Each cell in the human body contains approximately three billion base pairs of DNA. With 75 trillion cells per person, that’s the equivalent of 150 zettabytes of information within each body.

“There are many real-world applications of the technology,” she noted. “We believe the initial commercial applications would be things like medical records for hospitals, financial records for banks and financial institutions, records for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that need to keep a lot of regulatory and clinical documentation, intelligence and defense information, media and entertainment companies, libraries and museums and many others.”

In addition to the small physical size needed for storage centers, DNA can also last a whole lot longer than storage types such as magnetic tape, which audio masters are frequently kept on. “The next steps for this research are to focus on ways to reduce the cost of DNA synthesis specifically for DNA digital data storage to make this a viable commercial opportunity,” Bitting said.

Australian startup brings ancient Athens back to life in virtual reality

Why it matters to you

This VR experience brings long lost structures back to life.

Virtual reality has the power to transport viewers to places as hostile as the Red Planet and as sophisticated as a fine arts museum.

Now, VR users can tour parts of ancient Athens like it appeared 2,000 years ago thanks to an Australian startup called Lithodomos VR. Think photorealistic and archeologically accurate renditions of famous structures — including the acropolis and agora — delivered straight to your VR headset.

The program began when Lithodomos VR co-founder Simon Young and his team first made a reconstruction of the Odean of Agrippa, a once-towering concert hall with a massive single-spanned ceiling.

“And yet, today, it is a tumbled mess of ruins,” Young told Digital Trends. “Visitors often pass by it without a second glance. Even I, as an archaeologist, found it difficult to match the drawings that reconstructed the building with the ruins. It seemed like the perfect candidate [for our pilot program]: a building that could really use a bit of VR to bring it back into view on site.”

While developing the agora and constructing an interactive acropolis, Young realized that he and his team had sufficient material to piece together a rich VR experience, wandering about these structures. They added features like sound effects and narration.

The team behind the ancient Athens experience, some of whom are archeologists like Young, insist on accuracy. After all, it’s meant to accompany travelers on their visit to the Athens and to transport students from the classroom to the ancient Greek capital.

“It’s been created with primary, secondary, and university classes firmly in mind,” Young said. “There is plenty of audio and visual material within the app, to keep students busy exploring for several classes. It fits perfectly with any class that deals with Greek civilization.

“Of course, anyone who even has a passing interest in history will find the experience enlightening, as there is really nothing like this content on the VR market — you really feel like you have been transported back in time,” he added.

Athens isn’t the only ancient experience in Lithodomos VR’s repertoire. The startup previously released renditions of Jerusalem and Paris’ Arènes de Lutèce, as they were two millennia ago.

Google kicks off the Android Wear beta program with Android 8.0 Oreo

Why it matters to you

If you don’t mind a little instability, the Android 8.0 Oreo beta for the LG Watch Sport is the best way to preview the new Android Wear.

Can’t wait to get your hands on the newest version of Android Wear, Google’s smartwatch operating system? You’re in luck — that is, if you happen to have an LG Watch Sport. On Monday, Octobeer 2, Google announced a beta program for Android Wear that brings a few of the features of Android 8.0 Oreo, the newest version of Android, to wearable devices.

It’s an extension of the Android beta program, Google says. “The Android Beta Program gives you an opportunity to try out prerelease versions of Android and Android Wear, and provide feedback. The feedback you provide on the beta will help us identify and fix issues, and make the platforms even better.”

Singing up isn’t terribly difficult, but you’ll have to enroll manually by heading to the Android beta web page and signing in with your Google account. Assuming you’ve set up your LG Watch Sport and paired it to your smartphone, it will show up beneath the page’s Your eligible devices subheader. Click the Enroll device button next to the picture of your Watch Sport, and you’re golden — in the next few hours, you’ll get an over-the-air update to the latest beta of Android O for Android Wear. Alternatively, you can kick off the update manually by heading to the Watch Sport’s Settings menu and tapping System > About > System Updates. 

Be aware, though, that it is preproduction software. You’re likely to encounter bugs and instability.

So what’s new? One of most visible new features is Notification Channels, which offers fine-grain control over the alerts, messages, and replies that buzz your wrist. In apps that tap into Android 8.0 Oreo’s notifications framework (like Clock, Play Music, and the Play Store), you’ll see toggles for categories like “New follower” and “Likes” that can be switched off at will. During the 2017 I/O Developer conference earlier this year, Google gave the example of an airline app: You might want to block airfare promotions, for instance, while letting upcoming flight reminders go through.

The Android Wear beta’s other big feature is background limits, which is a bit tougher to quantify. Google describes it as “increased restrictions on […] services” like location updates and background tasks, which should translate to better battery life.

The update’s other changes are on the minor side. In the Settings app, there’s a new screen that shows how much of the watch’s internal storage each installed app is using. A new Apps & Notifications screen consolidates app info, notifications, and permissions menus in one menu. And a new vibration adjuster lets you switch between a normal, long, and double pattern.

Google says the Watch Sport beta will be the only one before Android 8.0 Oreo for Android Wear’s final production release.