AP investigation details how Russia hacked the DNC’s emails

Today, an extensive Associated Press investigation revealed just how Russian actors hacked into the Hillary Clinton campaign. A single successful phishing email out thirty attempts sent in March 2016 gave the hacking group access to plenty of the Democratic candidate’s secrets, which had severe consequences for her campaign and the party as a whole. As the AP reveals, this wasn’t just a few messages that happened to deceive a lone gullible employee: The hacking campaign attempted to compromise Clinton’s inner circle and over 130 party employees and supporting staff.

The first batch of emails sent on March 10th, 2016 were made to look like they came from Google and encouraged recipients to boost their security by changing passwords, but redirected to a site the hackers controlled. They proceeded to break into accounts some staffers hadn’t used in almost a decade, indicating a serious brute force crawling of the internet. Those revealed contact lists for private emails of Clinton campaign staffers. By the second email barrage on March 11th, the hackers had found addresses for and sent phishing emails to high-value targets like Clinton aide Robert Russo and campaign chairman John Podesta.

Those personal emails seemed to be key. The hackers ran into resistance when they tried to attack the Clinton campaign’s designated hillaryclinton.com email accounts, which were protected by two-factor authentication. But through persistence, they worked up the chain. On March 19th, according to documents previously published on Wikileaks, the hackers sent Podesta an email with a malicious link that was clicked on shortly thereafter, giving them access to at least 50,000 of his messages.

The phishing attempts continued through March, but the FBI started getting suspicious by the end of the month. Cybersecurity agency Secureworks, which had been tracking the suspected Russia-supported hacker collective Fancy Bear, caught on to who they were targeting and alerted authorities. By early April, Fancy Bear had moved on from campaign and DNC Democrats to target others. They particularly focused on vote security officials, including the DNC’s former director of voter protection, whose personal account the group tried to break into many times since 2015.

By later April, the DNC had realized there had been a serious compromise of their security. The Trump campaign had gotten some information that it happened, as a Russian government-connected professor told former Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos on April 26th that the Kremlin had gotten dirt on Clinton. Then-chief executive of the DNC Amy Dacey was informed of the breach at the end of April, and on June 10th, a super-secret all-hands meeting told staffers about the breach.

Days later, after a cybersecurity firm cleaned the DNC staff’s computers and devices, Julian Assange announced on British television that Wikileaks would publish Clinton’s emails soon. The DNC publicly accused Fancy Bear as a Russian-backed group that broke into their systems. Days after that, the hacker Guccifer 2.0 first contacted news site The Smoking Gun. By the AP’s count, Guccifer, Wikileaks and DCLeaks published over 150,000 emails taken from more than a dozen Democrats, all of whom had been phished at their personal or professional email accounts by Fancy Bear. And then, in October, Podesta’s emails were released — as the AP notes, on the same day that the audio tape was released wherein Trump brags about sexually harassing women.

Source: The Associated Press

‘Pokémon Go’ developer buys social animation startup Evertoon

Game developer Niantic has become a well-known name since it released Pokémon Go to massive popularity last summer. Unfortunately, the game has recently seen a rather sharp decline in its active user community in the past year and a half. Perhaps that explains the company’s recent acquisition of a relatively unknown startup, Evertoon, which makes an app for creating animations with customized avatars. “Today I am excited to announce that we have acquired the Evertoon team,” wrote Niantic boss John Hanke, “who bring with them a wealth of talent and experience in mobile products, tools for creativity, and community building.”

It’s that last bit that the Evertoon team focused on in a farewell message posted on its website. The company says that it will be adding a “social platform” to Niantic’s games, including Pokémon Go, Ingress and “future titles.” The current Evertoon app will go offline and remove access to community features as of November 30th. Still, if you grab the latest version of the iOS app now, you can still make videos on your phone in offline mode. Evertoon just released 60 new animations and 13 clothing items as a thank you/goodbye present.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Niantic, Evertoon

Afghanistan government wants to temporarily ban WhatsApp

According to reports from the New York Times, Afghanistan is currently in the midst of a temporary WhatsApp ban. Yesterday, government letters to private telecommunications companies asking them to suspend the messaging service began making the rounds on social media. And while some customers of the government-owned communications company Salaam Telecom reported that WhatsApp and Telegram had both stopped working for them, private companies are reportedly still considering whether to comply with the government’s request.

While it appears to be just a 20-day test, who called for it and why is up for debate as different and somewhat contradictory information has been circulating. The letters themselves were sent by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology but a source told the New York Times that the ban was actually being pushed by Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security. However, an official with the agency said that wasn’t the case.

As for why the temporary ban has been put in place, one of the leaders of the country’s Telecom Regulatory Authority told the BBC it was due to “security concerns.” But shortly after that statement was made, the Ministry of Communications said it was done in order “to introduce a new kind of technology” following complaints of WhatsApp’s service quality.

Whatever the reason, the move has some worried about the state of freedom of expression in the country. Abdul Mujeeb Khalvatgar, executive director of the free speech activist group Nai, told the New York Times, “It is wrong and illegal. According to the Constitution, freedom of expression is inviolable in Afghanistan. WhatsApp and Telegram are tools of free speech — if the government bans them, it means that tomorrow they could stand against media in Afghanistan too.”

Afghanistan isn’t the first to go after WhatsApp and similar encrypted messaging services. Officials in both China and Brazil have sought to shut down the service in their countries while Russia has made similar threats regarding Telegram in the past.

Source: New York Times

Logitech and HTC Vive bring keyboards into VR

The HTC Vive team and Logitech introduced a new hardware and software package today that aims to help developers enter text while building apps and games. The $150 BRIDGE kit includes a Logitech G keyboard and a Vive tracker that tracks typing and replicates it in VR. While Logitech is only releasing 50 of these kits to start, it’s promising to see crossover tech that brings real-life gadgets into virtual reality. And it works across the entire Steam VR system.

The tracker doesn’t just match what keys you type — it measures your hand movements too, making it a lot easier to situate yourself. This brings the keyboard into your digital workspace, which is great for everything from internet browsing to knowing which macro and function keys you’re pressing. Best of all, the BRIDGE SDK enables users to customize their keyboards in VR, meaning you can remap all the functions based on context.

If any US-based developers out there are interested, they can apply for the first 50 slots in the beta program here until November 16th. “If there is sufficient interest we may build additional kits for purchase after the initial batch is distributed,” Logitech’s Director Of Innovations & Strategy Vincent Tucker stressed in its online post announcing the program.

Source: HTC Vive blog

Blizzard is making a ‘StarCraft II’ campaign free to play

Blizzard is taking StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty’s campaign free to play. As Polygon reports, come November 14th, you’ll have access to the entire narrative and if you already own that, you’ll get the Protoss-themed Heart of the Swarm campaign for free. The other narratives will run you $15 each. Unlike StarCraft II: Starter Edition that included free multiplayer, the adversarial mode that comes in tow here will feature ranked play — not just casual, unranked matches.

It’s a smart move, and free access to ranked multiplayer could be a boon for the StarCraft eSports scene. After all, Dota 2 and League of Legends are both free-to-play (as is Blizzard’s own Heroes of the Storm), and those are doing pretty well for themselves. Valve saw a sizable uptick in players — and money — after making the aging Team Fortress 2 free-to-play, as well.

Source: Polygon

‘WoW’ add-on ‘Battle for Azeroth’ brings the series back to basics

Harkening back to the original Alliance vs Horde conflict that started it all, World of Warcraft‘s upcoming seventh expansion, “Battle for Azeroth,” is set to bring new zones, races, armor and a massive 20-player cooperative battlefront to the venerable MMO title. While Blizzard has not given a date to experience all the new stuff, including a higher level cap and new dungeons and raids, you can opt in to the beta test on your profile page.

Both sides of the conflict get three new areas to explore. The Alliance will see the stony mountains of Tiragarde Sound, the high plains and red forests of Drustvar and the inland canals of Stormsong Valley. Horde players will get to traipse through the ancient empire of Zandalar, with the oldest city Zuldazar, the swamps of Nazmir and the deadly deserts of Vol’dun to visit. The expansion also brings several uncharted islands to check out.

It’s all part of what seems like a “back to basics” push, which includes last year’s cinematic flop, Warcraft. In addition to the just-announced expansion, Blizzard has decided to give in to players who’ve hated all the expansions to date and would rather play the original game, sans pandas and Lich Kings. Announced at BlizzCon today and reported by Kotaku, World of Warcraft Classic will give WoW players a truly vanilla, official, non-expanded version of the title to play in. Ultimately, Classic could possibly make up for Blizzard’s shutdown of unofficial vanilla servers in the past and help it maintain an already dwindling subscriber base.

Via: Polygon, Kotaku

Source: Blizzard

Alexa will help you order gadgets and gear from Best Buy

In an odd turn for retail cooperation, Best Buy is now available on Alexa, Amazon’s voice-powered digital assistant. Starting today, you can learn about and order Best Buy’s Deal of the Day sales just by saying, “Alexa, talk to Best Buy.” Sure, it seems odd to have a competing service on Amazon’s own devices, but as the blog post from Best Buy points out, the big box store has been selling Amazon Alexa devices in a special section in about 700 of its stores earlier this year.

Best Buy is only the latest retailer to jump on the voice-shopping trend, too. Walmart and Target both offer home shopping via Google Assistant. This isn’t the first time Amazon has allowed a competitor into its garden, either. Spotify and Pandora live easily next to Amazon’s own music service on its connected smart speakers, as do competing on-demand video services.

Once you add the Best Buy skill to your Alexa-powered device and say “talk to Best Buy,” Amazon’s voice assistant will offer to link your Best Buy account to your Alexa app, and will also request that you enable your location. You can ask about the Deal of the Day, too, and Alexa will list the current deals and ask if you want to purchase them.

Via: CNET

Source: Best Buy

Some New iPhone X Owners Facing Activation Issues

The iPhone X is now widely available across the United States, but some new iPhone X owners aren’t able to start using their new phones due to carrier activation issues and congestion.

On the MacRumors forums, a number of AT&T users are complaining about activation problems, and there are also reports of activation issues on Twitter and reddit. Some AT&T customers are seeing long wait times for the activation process before it eventually fails with an error message.

Image via MacRumors reader William
The issue appears to be due to heavy congestion with so many new devices being released into the wild at once. Several of our readers have been able to get the activation process to work after multiple attempts, while others have gotten it to work after a restart or via iTunes. From MacRumors reader anthonymoody:

I called Apple. As another person posted, they had me shut down (hold the large button right side, then swipe to shut down) and restart (hold large button right side). It still didn’t work. Told me to call AT&T, which I did. They confirmed their servers are slammed but gave me the automated activation phone number. I called it, system said it was activated (!) But still no joy on the phone itself.

I swapped SIMs with my prior phone…still no joy.

Connected to iTunes and after having to restart the process several times owed to errors (guessing servers getting slammed) I was FINALLY able to get it going – in fact it update to 11.1 and restored from an iOS 11.1 back up in one shot.

While most of the reports seem to be coming from AT&T users, there are also scattered reports from Verizon customers who are seeing activation problems.

Unfortunately, there appears to be no fix at this time beyond waiting or attempting the activation process over and over again. The problem should start to clear up later today as the servers become less crowded, but Apple and/or affected carriers may also be able to implement some kind of fix.

We’ll update this post should we hear reports of the congestion clearing up.

Update: Verizon says that customers who purchased a Verizon iPhone X are not experiencing activation issues, but we have heard some reports from Verizon users who are indeed having problems. Verizon activation issues do not seem to be as prevalent as AT&T activation issues, though.

Related Roundup: iPhone XBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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Apple Says Minor Screen Burn-In and Shifts in Color When Looking at iPhone X Off-Angle Are Normal

Apple this morning shared a new support document explaining how OLED displays work and that it is normal to see some screen burn-in over time and shifts in color when looking at the iPhone display from an off-angle.

According to Apple, when you look at an OLED display from a side angle, you may see shifts in color and hue, something that’s a “characteristic of OLED” and “normal behavior.”

Apple says that with extended long-term use, OLED displays can show “slight visual changes,” which is also considered normal. The iPhone X has been engineered to be the “best in industry” at reducing burn-in effects, but Apple’s support document suggests burn-in is still a problem that some users could potentially see over time.

This is also expected behavior and can include “image persistence” or “burn-in,” where the display shows a faint remnant of an image even after a new image appears on the screen. This can occur in more extreme cases such as when the same high contrast image is continuously displayed for prolonged periods of time. We’ve engineered the Super Retina display to be the best in the industry in reducing the effects of OLED “burn-in.”

With Apple referring to burn-in as normal behavior, it’s not clear how this issue will be treated should it occur in terms of the one-year iPhone X warranty or extended AppleCare+ coverage. Typically, issues that Apple considers normal are not covered.

Apple’s wording suggests screen burn-in is going to be a rare occurrence, but Apple does suggest users avoid displaying static images at maximum brightness for long periods of time. If there’s an app that keeps the display on when the iPhone X is not in active use, the brightness level should be temporarily reduced using Control Center.

Making sure the iPhone X’s display is set to go to sleep after a short period of time will also help prevent any burn-in issues, as it generally happens when the same image is on the display for a long time. Apple recommends setting Auto Lock to “a shorter time.”

Related Roundup: iPhone XBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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Early Adopters Unbox iPhone X and Share Overwhelmingly Positive First Impressions

As customers around the world begin to receive an iPhone X, several early adopters have turned to the MacRumors discussion forums to unbox and share their first impressions of Apple’s all-new flagship smartphone.

We’ve already seen iPhone X reviews from the media, but opinions shared by regular customers can provide additional insight. We’ve rounded up some early opinions about the iPhone X below, with very minor editing for clarity.

iPhone X photo via MacRumors forum member pudcraft
MacRumors forum member pudcraft shared an overwhelmingly positive review of the iPhone X. He said the device has a “very comfortable” overall size and an “absolutely beautiful” display. He added that Face ID is “really fast,” but takes some time to get used to after upgrading from an older iPhone model.

It’s fast. Like, really fast. I felt this took more getting “used” to than the removal of the home button. I am not used to lifting my phone and just swiping up because it is already unlocked. When I lift the device, I’m sort of expecting something, but without notifications displayed. I don’t notice the unlock icon appear right away. Once you get used to it, it’s as simple as lift and swipe up.

MacRumors forum member eoblaed said he tested Face ID while wearing a pair of polarized Maui Jim sunglasses, in conditions such as bright sunlight and partial shade while moving, and said “it worked every time.”

“Same here!” replied kingneptune117. “I have a pair of Maui Jim Freight Trains. Face ID has no problems working with these sunglasses.”

MacRumors user tatsumi upgraded from an iPhone 7 Plus and feels the iPhone X has “more comfortable one-handed usage,” without compromising on camera quality or battery life. He said the TrueDepth camera system’s sensor housing, often called the “notch,” is something he “won’t notice” going forward.

He added that the iPhone X’s narrower screen width, equivalent to the iPhone 8, is something that he will need to get used to. MacRumors forum member Prissy likewise wrote that the iPhone X screen feels narrow.

A handful of threads have surfaced that claim the iPhone X’s display is warmer with a yellower hue than previous iPhone models, even with True Tone and Night Shift turned off, and it may be more noticeable at certain viewing angles.

Apple shared a support document today that says if you look at an OLED display from an off-angle, you might notice slight shifts in color and hue. Apple said this is a characteristic of OLED display technology and is normal behavior.

In addition, there are some reports of possible isolated manufacturing defects, including a green line on one iPhone X’s display and a piece of hair stuck behind the rear-facing camera lens of another. These types of issues generally pop up during any new iPhone launch, and affected customers should contact Apple.

iPhone X photo via MacRumors forum member nia820
MacRumors reader nia820 said he is “impressed” with the iPhone X, ranging from its glass finish and cameras to its OLED display and Face ID.

I’ve only had it for three hours but I’m already impressed by it. So glad I waited for the iPhone X instead of buying the iPhone 8. […] Let me tell you the camera doesn’t do it justice. The color is much prettier in person. The glass really gives it a nice finish. The OLED display is absolutely gorgeous. Wish apple went OLED sooner. The colors have a nice balance. I’ve learned the swipe gestures already. Very easy to use. Face ID exceeded my expectations. I was wary of it, but it is snappy and quick to unlock my phone.

More first impression threads on the MacRumors discussion forums:

• “My iPhone X impressions so far” by Kart
• “Very impressed by the fast charging on the iPhone X” by The Game 161
• “Finally got mine!” by SIVIOKY

Related Roundup: iPhone XBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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