Companies pull ads from YouTube over comments in child videos

YouTube is once again facing an advertiser fallout. HP, candy giant Mars and other big-name brands are pulling their ads from the streaming site after BuzzFeed and Times stories revealed that their ads were running alongside videos of children that were either clearly exploitative or innocent and loaded with pedophilic comments. In multiple cases (such Mars, Smirnoff’s owner Diageo and German retailer Lidl), the companies have vowed not to come back until there are “appropriate safeguards.”

YouTube has already been taking down exploitative videos and disabling ads for other clips. It’s “working urgently to fix this,” a spokesperson said to Reuters. In a statement to the Financial Times, YouTbe stressed that it was clamping down on videos that might give “cause for concern” even if their content was illegal.

However, the move clearly came too late for many of the advertisers — they want to know their ads won’t display next to horrifying videos or comments. And like the uproar over videos promoting hate speech and extremism, it appears that companies are taking action because YouTube took a long time to respond. It also suggests that YouTube’s dependence on a mix of algorithmic filtering, trusted viewers and reports from authorities isn’t enough to prevent significant numbers of questionable or illegal videos from slipping through the cracks.

Source: Reuters, Financial Times

Uber’s new chief knew about hack months before the public

Uber may have come clean about the grievous hack that exposed data for 57 million users, but it apparently took its time getting to that point. Wall Street Journal sources have learned that new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was informed about the data breach two weeks after he took the reins on September 5th, or more than two months before informing the public. There were reasons for the delay, according to the tipsters, but it still meant leaving people out of the loop.

Khosrowshahi did order a prompt investigation, as he claimed, but Uber and Mandiant (the digital forensics unit of FireEye) wanted to determine exactly how many users were affected and fire the two executives that covered up the attack. Uber told its would-be investor SoftBank about the breach roughly three weeks before the WSJ scoop, but it still didn’t know just how many people were at risk.

Uber has confirmed the broader claims of the report. The company informed SoftBank with incomplete info because of its “duty to disclose to a potential investor,” according to a statement, and revealed the breach in a “very public way” once its investigation wrapped up.

While Khosrowshahi inherited the hack from the previous management under Travis Kalanick and isn’t facing much of a direct threat, the revelation isn’t exactly going to help Uber as investigators from the FTC and individual states look into what happened. They may want to know why Uber’s inquiry took so long, and whether or not Uber could have offered a basic warning to customers as soon as it knew their data was at risk. It’ll need to have satisfactory answers if it wants to avoid the same kind of scrutiny as Equifax and other high-profile hacking targets.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Wikipedia can now be found on the dark web

Wikipedia, for all the issues it has, is still an invaluable resource for many people. While it’s true that you should be careful about citing it in a research paper, the site remains a great resource to get a general overview of a topic and find more in-depth resources. In the United States and nations with similar freedoms, we often take Wikipedia for granted, but there are many parts of the world where accessing the site can be very difficult and illegal.

In order to help at-risk users access the site, cyber security expert Alex Muffett has created a version of the website for the dark web accessible by the Tor browser.

1/ As an experiment, I’ve set up a Wikipedia Onion Site at: https://t.co/NhGD8w3nSU – I’ll keep it running for a few days. pic.twitter.com/KMlF8k3snS

— Alec Muffett (@AlecMuffett) November 23, 2017

Tor is a web browser that allows users to browse the web anonymously. It works by bouncing your information through several routers around the world in order to hide your location. In addition to providing anonymity, Tor allows users to access the dark web. While the dark web is used for illegal activities, the service is also valuable for those who live in countries where freedom of speech and access to information is restricted. Beyond that, many legitimate organizations, such as the New York Times, have a presence on Tor.

It is the latter that Muffet’s dark web Wikipedia is meant for. The site is a read-only version of Wikipedia as, in order to deal with trolls, the organization does not allow the site to be edited by the Tor browser.

Currently, the site is not supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, but Muffett told Motherboard that he would be “delighted” if the non-profit used his solution or created its own.

“I’d like to demonstrate the experience to people, so it’s no longer something abstract,” Muffett told Motherboard. “I’d be delighted if Wikimedia use this, or even roll their own solution; the important thing from my perspective is to demonstrate the concept, and my open-source EOTK tool makes it nearly free to provide such a proof of concept.”

The creation of an Onion-supported Wikipedia has been discussed in the past, but Muffett’s is the first version to go live. He said that he would keep it up for a few days as a proof of concept, but it is pretty clear that he would support a more longterm solution.

‘My Tamagotchi Forever’ coming to Android and iOS next year

Tamagotchi was one of the most popular fads of the 1990s. The hallways of elementary and middle schools were full of kids taking care of their virtual pets or, in many cases, lamenting their tragic ends. Like most fads not named Pokémon, Tamagotchi’s popularity failed to survive the turn of the century, but ’90s nostalgia is big business right now, so it’s little surprise that Tamagotchi is making a comeback in the form of My Tamagotchi Forever for iOS and Android.

The upcoming mobile game gives the creatures a long-needed makeover with improved visuals for extra cuteness. The original versions of the Tamagotchi were fairly simplistic and limited in scope, but the upcoming game is expanding things a bit by taking place in Tamatown. The brightly-colored townscape will play home to similar creatures that players can befriend and interact with, in a variety of ways. If you’ve ever played Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, then you probably have a good idea of what this game will be like.

As with the original game, users will be tasked with ensuring their digital pets are fed, clean, and in bed on time. As it is a free-to-play mobile game, we expect to get daily push notifications reminding us to take care of the creatures. In addition to those aspects, the game will also feature mini-games that allow users to earn currency in order to unlock costumes, food, and other items. Of course, since this a free-to-play game, you’ll be able to pay real money to unlock those items. On the bright side, at least this one doesn’t cost $60.

Touch Arcade has reported that My Tamagotchi Forever is already available in Canada, but the rest of the world will have to wait until 2018. In the meantime, interested users can register on the game’s official website for “chance to become the inspiration for a brand new Tamagotchi character, which will be added to the game for everyone to enjoy!”

This is actually the second Tamagotchi game to come to Android through the first one didn’t fare so well in retrospect. Hopefully, the new coat of paint and modern features will make My Tamagotchi Forever a bit more fun.

The new amazing video from OK Go features lots and lots of printers

As well-known for their videos as their music (if not more), the quartet known as OK Go has delivered some visually impressive music videos over the years. From an elaborately choreographed routine captured by a flying drone camera, to a zero-gravity adventure aboard the “Vomit Comet,” to a slow-motion extravaganza of destruction made from just four seconds of video, their videos are technical masterpieces.

The video for their latest single Obsession, from the 2016 album Hungry Ghosts, stars lots and lots of printers. 567 of them, to be exact. The enormous double wall of printers behind the band pumps out reams and reams of paper, creating a kaleidoscope of shapes and colors during the song. Although it features lots of stop-motion, the video was shot continuously, and perhaps the most amazing thing is that not a single printer jammed up.

Renowned digital artist Daito Manabe conceived and designed the project known as “Paper Mapping” using Double A paper. “Because of the huge scale of the printers, we only have one-time shoot,” he said. “It has been a trial and error process to make perfect synchronizing system.”

Karen Singh created the designs printed on each sheet of paper, and well-known choreographer MIKIKO conceived the movements of the band members, which included spinning in the air while suspended in front of the weall of printers.

The video was directed by band member Damian Kulash, Jr. & Yusuke Tanaka and was shot in one take over five days of filming in Japan. From initial concept to release, the video took more than two years to complete.

The video was actually delayed in publishing to YouTube, as the site’s Auto HD function caused some problems. “Just leaving it on ‘Auto HD’ results in some pretty intense distortion during a few sections, because when the colors and patterns get crazy, there’s actually just too much information flying by for YouTube’s normal HD compression. We broke the matrix.” They recommend manually setting the resolution to 1440p or 2160p.

If you’re wondering what happened to all that paper, the band has promised that it was all recycled and the proceeds donated to Greenpeace. No word on the budget for ink cartridges, though.

Fernando Alonso is the first F1 driver with an eSports team

You’ve seen basketball and soccer (aka football) teams dive into eSports, and now it’s the turn for individual Formula One drivers to get in on the action. McLaren Honda driver Fernando Alonso has launched an eSports team in partnership with Logitech, with Alonso serving as a team principal. The FA Racing G2 Logitech G team — yes, it’s a mouthful — will compete in a slew of games across multiple platforms, and has already enlisted F1 eSports league finalist Cem Bolukbasi.

The team creation came shortly after McLaren appointed Rudy van Buren as an official sim driver following a “World’s Fastest Gamer” competition. McLaren is also the first racing team with its own eSports director.

Alonso explained the move as a logical extension. Each F1 driver is a “gamer at heart,” he said, and virtual racing opens doors for a younger audience that might not get a chance to race in the real world. There’s also the simple matter of marketing: virtual racing serves as a promotional tool that can get fans excited and might even lead to some taking up motorsport as a career.

The next question is whether or not other teams follow suit. The jury’s still out on whether or not eSports teams ultimately help, but it’s hard to see other F1 drivers and teams sitting by the wayside. If there’s even a hint of success, don’t be surprised if a large chunk of F1 eventually fields eSports outfits.

Via: Reuters

Source: G2 eSports (Twitter)

Over 1.3 million anti-net neutrality FCC comments are likely fakes

It’s no secret that bots flooded the FCC with comments supporting its plans to kill net neutrality. But just how many comments were fraudulent? All too many, according to data scientist Jeff Kao. He recently conducted a study that used natural language processing to conclude that “at least” 1.3 million of the anti-net neutrality comments were fakes originating from a central source. They appear to have come from a giant mail merge that made the messages appear superficially unique, but was really just swapping in synonyms for what was clearly the same core statement. The language sounds familiar, too, mimicking that of a giant telecom or lobbying group than everyday people.

The actual number of fake grassroots (aka astroturfing) comments is likely to be considerably higher, Kao added. Out of 22 million total comments, only 800,000 appear to be genuinely original — and 99 percent of them support net neutrality. There were form letter campaigns on both sides, but anti-neutrality comments were more likely to be duplicates and submitted in large blocks that suggested targeted spamming efforts instead of real submissions from concerned Americans.

The ratio isn’t completely surprising, but it does make the FCC’s refusal to cooperate with fraud investigations that much more disconcerting. There’s now stronger evidence that a pro-telecom entity was trying to manipulate the comments in a deceptive manner, but it seems likely that the FCC will do nothing to address this or prevent it from happening again. The FCC’s spokesperson has even tried to flip the argument, claiming that 7.5 million pro-neutrality comments came from a “fake email generator website.” Even if that’s true, real public input appears to be meaningless at the FCC — for now, the spam bots are winning.

Via: Washington Post

Source: Hackernoon (Medium)

Canadian charged in 2014 Yahoo breach is expected to plead guilty in the U.S

Karim Baratov, a Canadian citizen who the U.S. accused of helping Russian intelligence operatives hack Yahoo accounts in 2014, is expected to plead guilty next week, Reuters reports.

Baratov recently waived his right to fight the request for extradition from Canada and will appear in federal court in San Franciso this coming Tuesday.

The 22-year old Baratov is a Canadian citizen who was born in Kazakhstan. Last March, Canadian law enforcement arrested him at the request of U.S. prosecutors, alleging that he helped with the 2014 Yahoo breach.

In March, the Department of Justice filed charges against Baratov and three other men for their part in the 2014 theft. Two of the men were part of Russia’s Federal Security Service. The information obtained from the reports implies that the Russian agents were the ringleaders of the operation. Alexsey Belan, one of the FBI’s most wanted cybercriminals, was the one who carried out the actual hack of Yahoo’s server.

Baratov was apparently brought on when it was discovered that victims of the hack had non-Yahoo email addresses. Baratov is alleged to have hacked at least 80 non-Yahoo email accounts, with 50 of those hacked accounts reported to be Gmail accounts.

As of right now, the exact targets of the hack have not been revealed, but we do know the FSB agents sought information on Russian officials, a wealthy banker, and the leader of a metals company.

Despite the charges, Baratov is the only culprit to have been arrested in relation to this case. In August, he pleaded not guilty to several charges including “conspiring to commit computer fraud, conspiring to commit access device fraud, conspiring to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.”

It is unclear what charges Baratov will be pleading guilty to on Tuesday, though court records indicate that the hearing will be a “change of plea” hearing overseen by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria.

It is currently unknown why Baratov is changing his plea. It is possible that he worked out a deal with prosecutors, which would make sense, given that he appears to be one of the least important actors in this hack.

AMD is more than the Threadripper. Here are the best AMD CPUs on any budget

It’s safe to say that AMD made a massive resurgence in 2017 with the success of its Ryzen processors. But whether you’re looking at the top of the range, the bottom of the barrel, or anywhere in between, AMD has a solid option. In this guide, we’ll tell you which are the best AMD processors money can buy, whatever your budget.

For a more general look without all the manufacturer attachments, check out our guide to the best CPUs or our guide to the best gaming CPUs. Having trouble picking which of the below chips is right for your next build? Here’s our guide on how to pick the right Ryzen chip.

While we tackle the main segments of AMD’s CPU line up and offer a few alternatives too, it should be noted that there are other chips lower down the scale that we don’t address. There are Intel CPUs that are worth considering too, but if you’re dead set on AMD, these are the best.

Entry level: Ryzen 3 1200 ($100)

Although AMD put a lot of pressure on Intel’s top-end chips with its more powerful Ryzen processors, its entry-level CPUs still pack a hell of a punch. The Ryzen 3 1200 takes the fight to the Core i3 CPUs and then some. It packs four cores on the same die and has 8MB of L3 cache. Its core clock speed is 3.45GHz when using AMD’s automated overclocking extended frequency range (XFR) feature, though can be manually overclocked too.

The Ryzen 3 1200 does lack the multithreading support of its higher-end cousins, but four cores at this price point is a steal. Although Intel’s recently introduced Core i3-8100 does offer credible competition, it’s currently restricted to the expensive Z370 motherboards. You can grab a compatible AM4 motherboard for far less.

One important thing to remember when buying this (or any) Ryzen chip however, is that it does not come with a built-in graphics chip. That means you will need an add-in graphics card of some sort to power your display and any games you play.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Mid-range: Ryzen 5 1600 ($190)

As arguably the most competitive price point for processors, the mid-range is where you’re spoilt for choice. Of all of the chips available though, we have to recommend the ultra-affordable, impressively powerful, Ryzen 5 1600.

Bucking the trend of quad-cores dominating the mid-range, the Ryzen 5 series introduced us to our first mid-range hexacore chip when it debuted earlier this year. With full support for multithreading, you get 12 threads along with your six cores and its frequency is no slouch either. It idles at 3.2GHz and boosts up to 3.6GHz when needed. Though it doesn’t have XFR support, it is entirely unlocked so overclocking is easy.

Although it typically retails just north of $210, you can currently find the Ryzen 5 1600 at $190, with an included cooler. As an alternative, its closely priced brother, the 1600X is a viable option, coming with slightly higher clocks and XFR support. However, its comparatively priced bundle does not come with a cooler, so factor that into your purchasing decision.

Although Intel’s new eighth-generation chips are giving Ryzen some stiff competition, AMD’s Ryzen 5 1600 and 1600X processors are two of the best mid-range CPUs available today.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

High-end: Ryzen 7 1800X ($310)

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Although when first introduced the Ryzen 7 1800X did fall behind comparatively priced Intel chips in terms of gaming, it was still a monstrously powerful processor, especially in multithreaded tests. Better yet, its price has come crashing down since then, making it vastly more affordable and attractive as a high-end purchase.

The Ryzen 7 1800X CPU comes packing a full eight cores and (thanks to multithreading support) has a total of 16 threads to play with. That makes it a fantastic processor for multi-tasking or using software that can take advantage of lots of additional threads. Video editing or encoding should see big gains from it, but the 1800X is a great gaming processor too — just not quite as powerful in some titles as the Intel counterparts.

As the highest powered processor in the Ryzen range without edging into Threadripper territory, the 1800X sports an impressive clock speed. Its base sits at 3.6GHz, boosting up to 4.0GHz — and when required, and you can net yourself an extra 100MHz from XFR too. If you want to overclock it yourself, you can go ahead and do so, as like every Ryzen chip, this one is entirely unlocked. It’s not the best overclocker, but you can get yourself a little extra with some effort.

If you want to go for a slightly cheaper option, you can pick up a Ryzen 7 1700 (with cooler) for $270 and when overclocked there isn’t a huge performance difference between the two, especially when it comes to gaming.

Buy one now from:

Amazon, Newegg

Extreme: Ryzen Threadripper 1950X ($800)

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The Threadripper range is the jewel in the Ryzen crown and from top to bottom the trio of chips are all fantastic. The shiniest of those gems though, is easily the 1950X. An absolute powerhouse of a processor, if you need top-tier performance, especially in applications that can really take advantage of additional threads, this is arguably the best processor in the world right now.

Coming in well under the price of the Intel competition and noticeably cheaper than when it debuted, the 1950X packs a full 16 cores and a near-unprecedented 32 threads, making it capable of multitasking even with intensive applications. It stormed through every test we threw at it in our review and dominated not only the Intel competition, but even its own Ryzen contemporaries in almost all settings.

Although, like other Ryzen chips, the Threadripper 1950X does fall behind in the odd single-threaded benchmark or game, you buy a CPU like this for its workhorse capabilities and it fully embodies that mentality. With a clock speed of 3.4GHz at base, 4.0GHz boosted, and up to 4.2GHz with XFR, it’s plenty fast, but with the right cooling, you can take it north of 5.0GHz if you know what you’re doing.

If you don’t want to spend quite as much on your monster CPU, the 1920X and 1900X are also viable alternatives in this space. They can be had for $650 and $450 respectively and support the same 64 PCI  Express lanes and boosted frequencies as the big daddy 1950X. They do come with less cores and threads though and the performance difference, especially in heavily multithreaded applications, is certainly noticeable.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

These five 2016 phones are still great buys worth considering

Technology often moves at terrific pace, but owning the latest and greatest products will cost you a hefty premium. Smartphone innovation is slowing. The best phones from a year or two ago are still great phones. They may lack the latest style trends, but they’re plenty powerful enough for most people. If you want to stretch your budget further, starting with last year’s flagships is a great idea because some of them are now heavily discounted. Here are five of our favorite phones from 2016 that are easy to recommend.

Note: One problem with buying older smartphones is that they will not get software updates as long as the latest releases. Two years is standard for flagships, which means this crop of 2016 phones should keep getting updated for at least another year, but schedules vary by manufacturer.

Google Pixel ($550)

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

The perfect phone for the Android purist, the Pixel from Google offers the most slick, stylish, and elegant experience you can find on the Android platform. It’s fast and smooth in performance, it has a stylish design with a bright AMOLED display, and the camera is nothing short of superb. It also comes with free unlimited cloud storage for your snaps and videos through Google Photos. Add in the fact it already has Android 8.0 Oreo, the latest version of the operating system, and continues to get the latest security patches, and you can forgive the average battery life and lack of water resistance.

Read our full Google Pixel review to learn more.

Verizon Google Store

ZTE Axon 7 ($400)

Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends

A stylish, solid metal slate with powerful front-facing speakers flanking a high-resolution AMOLED screen, the ZTE Axon 7 was one of the biggest bargains of 2016. It matched far more expensive Android smartphones on the spec sheet and managed to come in hundreds of dollars cheaper. The lack of water resistance and ZTE’s user interface are weak points for an otherwise strong all-rounder. It has also been relatively quick to receive Android updates, but there’s no word on whether it will get the latest Android 8.0 Oreo just yet.

Read our full ZTE Axon 7 review to find out more.

Amazon Newegg

Apple iPhone 7 ($550)

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

We can’t blame you if the $1,000 price tag of the iPhone X has given you pause. Why spend that much when you can get a great iPhone for just over half that amount? The iPhone 7 offers lightning fast performance, an excellent camera, decent battery life, and water resistance in a well-designed package. There’s no headphone jack and it lacks the dual camera setup of the 7 Plus, but it’s still a solid smartphone that will serve you well. If you can scrape together an extra $120, the iPhone 7 Plus is also worth a look. Apple continues to update its devices for longer than its competitors, so you can expect to keep getting software updates for several years to come.

Read our full Apple iPhone 7 review for more.

Apple Best Buy

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge ($500)

Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

Shop around and you should be able to find some hefty discounts on perhaps the most desirable smartphone of 2016 in terms of style. Curved glass front and back blends into a metal frame to produce a phone that’s comfortable to hold and packs a sizeable, stunning, 5.5-inch Super AMOLED screen into a relatively svelte body. It’s fast, water resistant, and boasts a camera that performs admirably in low light conditions. Samsung’s bloatware and the fragility of the S7 Edge may put you off, but the user interface has been much improved with post-release software updates and this is a phone that’s hard to put down.

Check out our Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review to learn all about it.

Amazon Samsung

HTC 10 ($370+)

Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

It failed to attract the audience it deserved, but the HTC 10 is a stylish smartphone with plenty of power under the hood. It feels nice in hand and offers almost everything you’d expect from a flagship phone. You’ll find a sharp, 5.2-inch screen in an aluminum body, powerful stereo speakers, and a very capable camera here. The lack of water resistance and average battery life are the only real disappointments. Shop around and you should be able to find some aggressive discounts on this handset, which make it even more enticing.

Read our HTC 10 review for all the details.

HTC