US government names North Korea as the source of WannaCry

Donald Trump’s homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that “after careful investigation, the U.S. today publicly attributes the massive “WannaCry” cyberattack to North Korea.” Coming during increasing tensions between the two countries over nuclear threats and Twitter outbursts, Bossert said this attribution is based on evidence and agrees with the findings from the UK and Microsoft.

In the op-ed we did not see traces of the evidence used to link the May attack to the “Lazarus Group” (also blamed for the Sony Pictures hacking incident) and North Korea, but the White House will reportedly follow up Tuesday with a more formal statement. While some, like Microsoft, have blamed the US government for stockpiling vulnerabilities — the WannaCry attack used an exploit based on technology apparently stolen from the NSA — the op-ed says:

Stopping malicious behavior like this starts with accountability. It also requires governments and businesses to cooperate to mitigate cyber risk and increase the cost to hackers. The U.S. must lead this effort, rallying allies and responsible tech companies throughout the free world to increase the security and resilience of the internet.

Bossert also called the attack reckless, while Reuters cites a “senior administration official” who declined to comment on whether or not the US believes it was a deliberate attack or accidental. So what happens now? According to the piece, the Trump administration “will continue to use our maximum pressure strategy to curb Pyongyang’s ability to mount attacks, cyber or otherwise.”

Source: Wall Street Journal

What’s on TV: ‘Bright,’ ‘Christopher Nolan 4K Collection’

As the clock ticks down on 2017, we’re finally checking out Netflix’s $90 million+ movie. Bright stars Will Smith as a cop in a world full of orcs and other mystical creatures, and we’ll see if it’s enough to pull attention away from flicks currently in the box office. For other home movie options (or last minute gift ideas) viewers can grab many of Christopher Nolan’s movies on Ultra HD Blu-ray, either in boxed sets or individually. Movies like The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Inception and of course Dunkirk are available this week in 4K. On HBO, Game of Thrones fans can watch Kit Harington (Jon Snow) in Gunpowder this week, while PC gamers can enjoy v1.0 of PUBG and there’s even a new Kinect game for Xbox One. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• Dunkirk (4K)
• Christopher Nolan Collection (4K)
• The Dark Knight Trilogy (4K)
• Inception (4K)
• Interstellar (4K)
• The Prestige (4K)
• Mother!
• The Lego Ninjago Movie
• Stronger
• Leatherface
• Suspiria
• American Gothic
• The Apartment
• Hammerwatch (PS4)
• Defunct (PS4)
• Brawlout (Switch)
• Shooty Fruity (PS4, PC)
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm – Episode 3 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
• Crawl (Switch)
• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PC)
• Future War: Reborn (Xbox One)
• Tiny Metal (Switch, PC, PS4)
• The Coma: Recut (Switch)
• Tiny Troopers Joint Ops (Switch)
• The Next Penelope (Switch)
• The Deer God (Switch)
• Max: The Curse of Brotherhood (Switch)
• Mom Hid My Game! (Switch)
• Raining Blobs (Xbox One, PS4)
• Boom Ball 3 for Kinect (Xbox One)
• 36 Fragments of Midnight (PS4)
• Accounting+ (PS VR)
• Rollercoaster Legends (PS4)
• Ultrawings (PS VR)
• VirtuGo (PS4)

Monday

• Falcons/Buccaneers, ESPN, 8:15 PM
• Man With a Plan (fall finale), CBS, 8:30 PM
• Superior Donuts (fall finale), CBS, 9 PM
• The Hollywood Walk of Fame Honors 2017, CW, 9 PM
• Tickling Giants – The Arab Spring in Egypt, Starz, 9 PM
• 9jkl (fall finale), CBS, 9:30 PM
• Gunpowder (series premiere), HBO, 10 PM
• The Year in Memoriam 2017, ABC, 10 PM
• Scorpion (fall finale), CBS, 10 PM
• MTV Floribama Shore, MTV, 10 PM
• Ill Behaviour (season finale), Showtime, 10:30 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM

Tuesday

• Marvel’s Runaways, Hulu, 3 AM
• The Indian Detective (S1), Netflix, 3 AM
• Russell Howard: Recalibrate, Netflix 3 AM
• A Home for the Holidays with Josh Groban, CBS, 8 PM
• Finding Your Roots (season finale), PBS, 8 PM
• WWE Smackdown, USA, 8 PM
• The Year: 2017, ABC, 9 PM
• The Voice (season finale), NBC, 9 PM
• Major Crimes, TNT, 9 PM
• Inside the NFL, Showtime, 9 PM
• Fantomworks, Velocity, 9 PM
• Gunpowder, HBO, 10 PM
• The Mane Event, BET, 10 PM
• Who Killed Tupac? (season finale), A&E, 10 PM
• The Challenge, MTV, 10 PM
• Drop the Mic, TBS, 10:30 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM

Wednesday

• La Casa de Papel (S1), Netflix, 3 AM
• 15: A Quinceanera, HBO, 7 PM
• Survivor (season finale), CBS, 8 PM
• The Librarians,TNT, 8 PM
• Vikings, History, 9 PM
• Happy!, Syfy, 10 PM
• Are You the One? (season finale)
• Gunpowder (season finale), HBO, 10 PM
• Happy!, Syfy, 10 PM
• Survivor: Reunion Special, CBS, 10 PM
• Knightfall, History, 10 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM

Thursday

• Peaky Blinders (S4), Netflix, 3 AM
• Black Lake (S1), Shudder, 3 AM
• Great News, NBC, 8 PM
• Young Sheldon (fall finale), CBS, 8:30 PM
• Van Helsing, Syfy, 9 PM
• Mom (fall finale), CBS, 9 PM
• Life in Pieces (fall finale), CBS, 9:30 PM
• Beerland, Viceland, 10 PM
• Top Chef, Bravo, 10 PM
• Damnation, USA, 10 PM
• Ghost Wars, Syfy, 10 PM
• The Menendez Murders, A&E, 10 PM
• SWAT (fall finale), CBS, 10 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM
• Superstition, Syfy, 11 PM
• The Rundown with Robin Thede, BET, 11 PM

Friday

• Bright, Netflix, 3 AM
• The Grand Tour, Amazon Prime, 3 AM
• Fuller House (S3 finale), Netflix, 3 AM
• The Last Post (S1), Amazon Prime, 3 AM
• Dope (S1), Netflix, 3 AM
• The Toys That Made Us (S1), Netflix, 3 AM
• 72 Dangerous Animals: Latin America (S1), Netflix, 3 AM
• Bahamas Bowl: Ohio vs. UAB, ESPN, 12:30 PM
• Blindspot (fall finale), NBC, 8 PM
• Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (fall finale), ABC, 9 PM
• A Football Life: Lynn Swann & John Stallworth, NFL Network, 9 PM
• All Def Comedy, HBO, 10 PM
• Kevin Hart Presents (season finale), Comedy Central, 11 PM
• The ELeague Cup: Rocket League Finals, TBS, 12 AM

Saturday

• Vikings/Packers, NBC, 8:20 PM
• Dollar General Bowl: Appalachian State vs. Toledo, ESPN, 7 PM

Sunday

• No Activity, CBS AA, 3 AM
• Hawaii Bowl: Fresno State vs. Houston, ESPN, 8:30 PM
• The Girlfriend Experience (season finale), Starz, 9 PM

[All times listed are in ET]

China will allow self-driving car tests on public roads

China is opening up its roads to self-driving cars. The Beijing Municipal Transport Commission released a statement today saying that on certain roads and under certain conditions, companies registered in China will be able to test their autonomous vehicles.

Last year, Chinese authorities banned self-driving vehicles from the country’s highways until new regulations could be created and approved. But those have been slow to arrive, which is why Chinese company Baidu and its CEO Robin Li can under fire this summer for conducting an apparently illegal demonstration of its driverless technology.

The new regulations will allow companies to apply for temporary permission to test their autonomous vehicles on a yet-to-be-determined group of approved roads. The cars will have to have traffic accident liability insurance and a human behind the wheel to take over if anything goes wrong.

With this development, China now joins a number of other countries allowing self-driving technology developers to test their products in real-life scenarios.

Via: MIT Technology Review

Source: Beijing Municipal Transport Commission

Researchers create less invasive method for placing brain electrodes

Our neurons are firing all the time, receiving signals from other neurons and sending signals of their own. To get a better understanding of how the brain works, scientists often listen in to those signals to see what kind of messages certain neurons send and how often they send them. Doing that often requires researchers to implant an electrode into the brain, which when it’s close enough to a neuron, can pick up on the electrical signals that propagate through the neuron. However, getting an electrode into the brain isn’t so easy. They either have to be rigid enough to penetrate the brain and remain straight or be inserted through needles that can keep them straight until they’re safely in place. The problem is those rigid structures cause damage as they move through the brain and minimizing that damage is a goal that scientists are constantly working towards.

Researchers in Texas have come up with a new method that allows them to insert tiny, flexible electrodes into the brain, reducing inadvertent damage. Just trying to push the electrodes into brain tissue doesn’t work — they buckle and can’t get into the tissue. These researchers instead placed the electrodes inside small tubes and surrounded them with a viscous fluid. When the fluid was quickly pushed through the device, it pulled the electrode along with it and with enough force for the electrode to penetrate millimeters deep into tissue on its own.

“The electrode is like a cooked noodle that you’re trying to put into a bowl of Jello,” Jacob Robinson, a Rice University researcher on the project said in a statement. “By itself, it doesn’t work. But if you put that noodle under running water, the water pulls the noodle straight.” And the team pointed out that with flexible items, it’s easier to pull them than push them. “That’s why trains are pulled, not pushed,” said Rice University chemist Matteo Pasquali. And because it surrounds the electrode, the fluid’s pull is distributed all along the electrode, preventing it from buckling when it hits the tissue.

The team showed that their device could successfully insert a flexible electrode into a gel, a small, squishy, water-dwelling organism called a Hydra, slices of mouse brain and living rats’ brains. In the Hydra, brain slices and rat brains, the researchers were able to record neuronal activity with the electrode.

This method could be very useful for scientists studying the brain and the researchers say it has the potential to be used in treatment applications that use electrodes to manage certain conditions like epilepsy or allow people to control artificial limbs.

The research was recently published in ACS Nano Letters. You can check out the fluidic microdrive in action in the video below.

Via: Rice University

Source: ACS Nano Letters

A space startup receives $90 million to help it put a billboard on the moon

“We’ve got a startup idea. We want $90 million to invest in projection technology for high tech billboards. On the moon.”

At least, that is how we assume the pitch went from Japanese space startup iSpace Technologies Inc., which just announced the conclusion of its Series A round of venture funding. Its goal? To launch a spacecraft into lunar orbit by 2019, land on the moon the year after that, and then set up the necessary infrastructure for a moon-based advertising business. Heck, you can’t fault the company’s ambition!

iSpace’s $90 million will cover two space flights in 2019 and 2020. Once iSpace’s spacecraft is safely landed on the moon, it will then make one giant leap for digital marketing by setting up its billboard, which can be rented by companies wanting their logo to be seen against the picturesque backdrop of … well, Earth. “Human beings aren’t heading to the stars to become poor,” Takeshi Hakamada, chief executive officer of iSpace, said at a recent press event in Tokyo. “That’s why it’s crucial to create an economy in outer space.”

Groups keen to be part of the new lunar economy, who invested in iSpace’s dream, include major Japanese businesses including Japan Airlines and TV network Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings, in addition to the Innovation Network Corp. of Japan and the Development Bank of Japan.

iSpace’s ambitions don’t end at a simple billboard, either. It also plans to use lunar exploration vehicles to search for water from 2021, which it will then turn into hydrogen fuel that could be used to support a lunar settlement. To give an idea of some of its plans, iSpace has released a “2040 Vision Movie,” which depicts how it imagines life on the moon will look in a few decades’ time — complete with lunar refueling stations that may be used to support both moon settlers and regular day trips from Earth.

The company started through Google’s Lunar Xprize, which promises to award $20 million to whoever can land and drive a spacecraft on the moon’s surface. Heck, we guess it only makes sense that a company with links to Google would be interested in futuristic high-tech approaches to advertising.

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Apple removes imposter ‘Cuphead’ iOS game from the App Store

An iOS version of the run-and-gun platformer Cuphead found its way onto the App Store on Monday, December 18, but was taken down after it was confirmed to be a scam. According to TouchArcade, the game appeared to look official — with screenshots, support page links, and all — but was confirmed by video game developer Studio MDHR to be an imposter app.

Cuphead is based on a cartoon that literally has a cup for a head. In the game, Cuphead and his brother, Mugman, have to buy their souls back from the Devil after a night at the casino goes wrong.

After years of anticipation and released footage, the game was officially released in September. It’s currently available for Xbox One and Windows 10, but Studio MDHR has yet to release anything for iOS.

While the app looked real, the support link associated with it was registered to someone who isn’t listed as part of the Studio MDHR staff, The Verge reports. Before it was taken down, you were also able to actually play the version of Cuphead using touch controls but it was low-resolution and the touchscreen was glitchy.

Not too long after the game was uploaded to the App Store, Studio MDHR took to Twitter to confirm the app wasn’t real. Apple officially removed only a couple hours later.

There is a Cuphead imposter app on the iOS store — this is a scam. We are working on removing the fraudulent app ASAP!

— Studio MDHR (@StudioMDHR) December 18, 2017

TouchArcade took a deeper look into the sophisticated Cuphead scam and noticed how high-quality it looked at first glance. There was an animated video trailer, it’s listed as 1.9GB, and the developer name looked correct — unless you knew the domain didn’t actually have the word ‘games’ in it.

Eventually, an anonymous developer reached out explaining that it was most likely a porting outfit behind the scam. TouchArcade explained that it could be possible the scam was built from the original source file. Someone could have then either stolen the project, or the porting company might’ve also released it.

Since the game was pulled from the App Store, users will no longer be able to download it. If you were among those who did end up purchasing the game for its $5 price, you can still receive a refund from Apple.

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The U.S. Army is developing battlefield drones that can be 3D printed on-demand

3D printers may be headed to the front lines of the battlefield, as the U.S. Army Research Laboratory just released a new documentary outlining a program that would let Army and Marine units order and print “aviation assets,” i.e. unmanned drones, in as little as a few hours.

The program has been in development with the Army for nearly two years, and now the Marines are on board as well. Known as On-Demand Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, or UAS, the researchers envision an online catalogue, which the soldiers on the ground could access via a computer or tablet device. After evaluating and defining the parameters of the mission, the soldier could then select and print a drone for that specific purpose.

“We have interacted with Marines who have never touched an unmanned system before to Marines who are experts in unmanned aerial flight,” engineer Larry “LJ” R. Holmes Jr. said. “Across the board they all seemed to be very interested in the topic of being able to manufacture a tool that they can use that was mission specific and has a turnaround.”

The drone could be assembled and ready to fly in just a few hours, with a combination of 3D-printed materials and off-the-shelf electronics parts. “The solution is envisioned to be available at the battalion level and below, supporting the company, platoon, squad and individual soldier,” Army researcher Eric Spero said.

Using robots to wage war is certainly nothing new and, as Popular Science pointed out, the military already has thousands of drones and other unmanned vehicles at its disposal. The Raven drone, for example, is easy to use but can cost upwards of $250,000. A similar drone, printed and outfitted with commercially available components, may only run a few hundred dollars.

“A small inventory of inexpensive, off-the-shelf electronics enables a wide range of UAS capability,” Spero said. “When we mention that the on-demand version is flexible, potentially more available, and at a much lower cost — that’s when people get excited.”

In the documentary, engineer John Gerdes admits that the design team’s approach, which embraces the rapid pace of today’s technology, may have seemed unconventional to lifelong military officers. “We’re up against a lot of opposition from the, sort of, status quo,” he said. “In our case, it’s necessary to totally rethink that entire [acquisition] process.”

For soldiers in the near future, acquiring a drone to evaluate or counter the specific threats they’re facing may become as easy as ordering something from Amazon.

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Older Windows 10 devices likely susceptible to Windows Hello face spoofing

Two researchers recently discovered that anyone can bypass Windows Hello-based facial recognition in older versions of Windows 10. At the root of the issue are infrared cameras that don’t support Enhanced Anti-Spoofing, which essentially helps prevent anyone from walking up to your PC and using a printed photo to gain unauthorized access.

According to the researchers, devices upgrading from Windows 10 versions 1511 and 1607 using hardware that doesn’t support Enhanced Anti-Spoofing are vulnerable to their photo-based approach. This method relies on a head-on shot of the device owner in a near-infrared state. They also manually changed the brightness and contrast levels to meet Windows Hello’s requirement, and printed the image using a laser printer.

Typically, Enhanced Anti-Spoofing isn’t toggled on by default. On Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise, you can load up the Local Group Policy Editor and navigate to Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Biometrics > Facial Features, and switch on Enhanced Anti-Spoofing. In Windows 10 Home, you must enable this feature by editing the registry. But regardless of the Windows version, the camera must still provide support on a hardware level.

Their proof-of-concept relies on the Dell Latitude E7470 with a LilBit USB-based camera. When testing with Windows 10 versions 1709, 1703, 1607, and 1511, they were able to break into the laptop with Enhanced Anti-Spoofing turned on.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 supports Enhanced Anti-Spoofing on a hardware level. With the feature enabled, the researchers couldn’t get into Windows 10 versions 1709 and 1703, but they did access the device on Windows 10 version 1607.

“In the spring of 2018 we will publish further results and details of our research project, for example on different variations of the attack,” Syss reports. “For example, our proof-of-concept video ‘Biometrics: Windows Hello Face Authentication Bypass PoC II’ shows two variants of the spoofing attack using different means.”

The takeaway from this discovery is that if your device doesn’t support Enhanced Anti-Spoofing on a hardware level, then it’s susceptible to photo-based access on all versions of Windows 10. If the device does support Enhanced Anti-Spoofing, then you should upgrade the platform to 1703 at the very least (1709 is the latest).

Of course, the second takeaway is that to gain access, you need a compatible, hard-to-acquire photo of the device owner. The proof of concept, as shown in the video above, relies on someone enabling facial recognition on the Surface Pro 4, and then converting what appears to be the same image to a near-IR form on a second PC. Using that second PC, he printed out the image at a 340 x 340 resolution, and successfully unlocked the Surface Pro 4.

Windows 10 device owners may want to remain somewhat wary about facial recognition for now. Even Apple’s Face ID technology on the recent iPhone X isn’t exactly perfect, and can even succumb to children who closely resemble iPhone X owners. That said, fingerprint scanners still appear to be the best option for gaining access to Windows 10 without the need for a password or PIN.

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How to change your username on a Mac

It’s important to know how to change your username on a Mac, especially if multiple people use your computer. You can change your username on your account any time you want, as long as you have the right administrator password. Here’s how to change your username on a Mac without creating any problems!

Before you begin, please take the time to back up any important information that you may need from this user account. If something goes wrong, you could accidentally lock the account or create other problems that may leave you without access, so prepare accordingly.

Step 1: Log into a different administrator account

You cannot rename an account that you are currently using. So, your first step is logging out and then logging into your administrator account (the one that provides the authorization to change things like usernames, etc.). You can log out at any time by selecting the Apple logo in the upper left corner of your Mac, and choosing Log Out [name you want to change].

If the account that you are using has administrator privileges, then you’ll need to find a workaround. The easiest way is to log out and then create an alternative administrator account for these steps. You can delete this temporary account when you are finished with the other steps.

Step 2: Rename the home folder

For a complete name change, you will need to start with your home folder. Your home folders are located in the Users folder. You should be able to find the Users folder by going to the Finder menu, selecting Go, choosing Go to Folder, and then typing in Users.

Here, look for the folder that has the “short name” of the username you want to change. For example, if the full name is “John Mac” then the short name may just be “John” (or it may be identical to the full name). Jot this name down, because you’ll need it later, and then change the short name folder to the name that you want. Don’t bother shortening it. You’ll have to put in the administrator password again at this point.

Step 3: Log into Users & Groups to find your user profile

Head over to System Preferences, which you can find in the menu bar. Here, select Users & Groups and click the padlock button so that you can start making changes — you will probably have to enter the administrator password yet again at this stage.

Look for the username that you want to change, and right click on it (or control click, double-tap, whatever opens the shortcut menu on your computer). From the shortcut menu, choose Advanced Options. This should take you to a new window.

Step 4: Rename the proper fields and restart

In Advanced Options, look for two fields called Account name and Home directory. In the Account name field, you will want to change the name to the exact same name that you gave the home folder in step 3. Make sure the names match exactly and that there are no spaces, otherwise this won’t work.

In the Home directory field, do the exact same thing. Input the precise new username that you want for your Mac.

Now select the Ok button in Advanced options. Log out of this administrator account, and log into the account whose name you have changed (the new name should now be visible). Check to make sure that all your files and apps are visible, and that everything appears to be working properly. Perform a few basic actions and open some documents. If everything looks good, then your new username is ready to be used!

Note: This method works with the latest MacOS updates, including High Sierra, El Capitan, and Yosemite. Some of the icons or names may be a little different, but the basic steps are the same. If you don’t have one of the latest updates, then your operating system is already a few years out of date, and we suggest you update it before you try changing usernames.

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A new polymer could make phone screen repairs a thing of the past

If you’ve ever had to deal with a cracked smartphone screen, you know what a hassle it can be. Slapping a screen protector on it is only a stopgap until you have to have the screen replaced, which comes with a decent price tag. Now, researchers in Tokyo have discovered a new polymer that may actually heal itself, potentially leading the way to a future of self-healing phone screens.

The study was published in Science by a team of researchers led by Professor Takuzo Aida from the University of Tokyo. Titled “Mechanically robust, readily repairable polymers via tailored noncovalent cross-linking,” the research promises a unique hard glass-like polymer called “polyether-thioureas” that can heal itself with only hand pressure. This makes it different than other materials that need high heat to heal up from a break.

“High mechanical robustness and healing ability tend to be mutually exclusive,” said researchers. “In most cases, heating to high temperatures, on the order of 120 degrees Celsius or more, to reorganize their cross-linked networks is necessary for the fractured portions to repair.”

According to The Guardian, the special glass polymer was discovered by mistake by a graduate student, Yu Yanagisawa, who thought the material would become a type of glue. He found that cut edges of the polymer would stick to each other, and formed a strong sheet after being compressed by hand at 21 degrees Celsius. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen self-repairing phone tech, of course, with screen protectors that heal themselves and a Motorola patent for a self-repairing screen. However, new breakthroughs like this may help make broken screens and costly repairs a thing of the past.

Via: The Guardian

Source: Science