Experts question if Trump servers shared info with Russian bank

A handful of computer scientists and DNS experts discovered that over the course of four months this year, a Trump Organization server irregularly pinged two servers belonging to the prominent Russian entity Alfa Bank, according to Slate. As former New Republic editor Franklin Foer reports, it is not clear what type of communication passed among the servers, whether emails or spam, but multiple experts agreed that the messages were sent in patterns consistent with human input.

“The parties were communicating in a secretive fashion,” DNS authority Paul Vixie told Slate. “The operative word is ‘secretive.’ This is more akin to what criminal syndicates do if they are putting together a project.”

This isn’t a cut-and-dry situation. Foer sets the scene in the following manner: The first server was registered to the Trump Organization in 2009 to send out mass emails and other marketing materials for Trump-branded products. Cybersecurity experts investigating the hack of the Democratic National Committee earlier this year started tracking the server when one researcher spotted what appeared to be malware traveling from Russia to a domain with Trump in its name. At this point, the server was no longer used for marketing campaigns. In fact, it handled an oddly tiny amount of traffic.

What’s more, the researchers received error messages when they attempted to ping the Trump-Email.com server. They concluded that it was established to accept messages from a small number of IP addresses, and 87 percent of the DNS lookups involved the Alfa Bank servers, Slate reports.

When researchers plotted the log data on a timeline, they found that it spiked during hot moments of the US presidential election. DNS lookups jumped during the Democratic and Republican national conventions, for example.

Nine experts who reviewed the server logs for Slate said that the data would be nearly impossible to fake, since it included thousands of records with nuances too advanced for even skilled programmers to reproduce.

Foer’s report continues as follows: The Trump-Email.com domain stopped functioning on September 23rd, shortly after The New York Times reached out to Alfa Bank about the situation. On September 27th, the Trump Organization established a new host name, trump1.contact-client.com, which communicated with that very same server through a new route. The first attempt to look up the new host name came from Alfa Bank. The only way Alfa Bank could have learned the new host name would be through direct contact with whoever changed it, experts said.

“That party had to have some kind of outbound message through SMS, phone, or some non-internet channel they used to communicate [the new configuration],” Vixie told Slate.

In a statement sent to Slate, Alfa Bank denied that it had ever been in contact with the Trump campaign, via these servers or otherwise. The Trump campaign provided Slate the following response:

“The email server, set up for marketing purposes and operated by a third-party, has not been used since 2010. The current traffic on the server from Alphabank’s [sic] IP address is regular DNS server traffic—not email traffic. To be clear, The Trump Organization is not sending or receiving any communications from this email server. The Trump Organization has no communication or relationship with this entity or any Russian entity.”

The Trump spokesperson did not respond to Slate’s follow-up questions about the new host name or its finding that the server handled only “regular” DNS traffic (which is usually email traffic), rather than email traffic specifically. Foer emphasizes that his report does not equate a smoking gun, but rather “a suggestive body of evidence that doesn’t absolutely preclude alternative explanations.”

In early October, the US intelligence community concluded that top Russian officials directed the hacks of the DNC and other US political organizations, and other evidence points to Russia’s involvement in the cyberattacks on Gen. Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta.

Update: The New York Times’ sources say that “none” of the investigations thus far have turned up any evidence of a link between Trump and the Russian government.

Source: Slate

Report Claims Apple Considering Apple Music Price Drop

Apple is seriously considering a price drop for Apple Music, according to two sources that spoke to Digital Music News. The sources are not within Apple, but have worked close with the service since it launched. The price drop would see Apple Music go from $9.99 to $7.99, while family plans would drop from $14.99 to $12.99.

The new prices would begin rolling out by Christmas, and Digital Music News claims the rollout could start with a “holiday promotional discount.” While regular and family plans would see a price drop, student rates, which are $4.99 a month, would remain the same price.

The new prices would help Apple Music match Amazon’s new Music Unlimited service, which is $7.99 per month for Prime subscribers. However, Amazon’s streaming service also offers a $3.99 per month plan for customers that own an Amazon Echo device.

In May, Digital Music News reported that Apple planned on ending iTunes Music downloads within two years, eliciting a specific “not true” response from Apple. A month later, Digital Music News reported that new sources had come forward claiming that Apple would end music downloads in the future, and that the company would debut a new version of iTunes at WWDC that would make it easy for the company to do so.

Tags: Apple Music, DigitalMusicNews.com
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Samsung launching gorgeous ‘blue coral’ Galaxy S7 edge in the U.S. for the holidays

A mid-cycle color refresh for the phone taking over the Note 7’s sales.

If you lusted after the bright blue-and-pink “blue coral” Note 7 back when it was on sale, you’re in luck: the color is being reintroduced on the Galaxy S7 edge in the U.S. later this year. Blue coral was originally a Note 7-exclusive color, but will now sit alongside black, gold and silver as color options for the GS7 edge a “major wireless providers” in the States.

For those who wanted to stand out a bit the blue coral Note 7 was certainly enticing, with its amazingly flashy blue body being accented by a light pink metal trim that looked like no other phone on the market. The Galaxy S7 edge stands to be just as stunning in the color, even set next to the gold and silver options.

Though people with a Galaxy S7 edge aren’t going to be swapping out their current phone for the new color, at the very least the blue color option will help it stand out a bit on store shelves for holiday phone buyers. Together with pricing incentives in the final quarter of the year, Samsung is hoping that the Galaxy S7 edge (in all colors) will pick up some of the sales slack created by the Note 7’s recall.

The new color will go on sale starting November 1, with specific availability by region announced when it becomes available in each area.

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Apple’s upcoming iOS 10.2 update will bring new emoji, wallpapers

Apple has rolled out the first beta of an upcoming iOS 10 update to developers, and when that update finally lands for consumers, it’ll bring a few new features, including new emoji and wallpapers.

One week after releasing the iOS 10.1 update and more than a month after launching the iOS 10 operating system, Apple has seeded iOS 10.2 to developers. Apart from new emoji and wallpapers, it brings bug fixes, performance improvements, new camera settings, and more. Registered developers can download the iOS 10.2 beta from the Apple Developer Center or over-the-air with the right configuration profile installed.

While the last update, iOS 10.1, introduced a new Portrait photography mode for the iPhone 7 Plus’ dual-lens camera system, the new features in iOS 10.2 aren’t as major. But they’re still noteworthy nonetheless. Unicode 9 emoji are included in iOS 10.2, which means you’ll get emoji for shrugging, clown face, drooling face, selfie, fox face, owl, shark, gorilla, butterfly, avocado, and pancakes.

• Go here for the full list of new Unicode 9 emoji

9to5Mac

There are also new wallpapers in iOS 10.2. They use the same graphics found in the iPhone 7’s marketing materials. There’s even a new option for saving your last-used camera settings, meaning you can preserve the last Camera Mode, Photo Filter, or Live Photo setting. The Preserve Settings option can be located in the Settings app under Photos & Camera.

Other features include a new widget available for the Videos app (you can access this widget on the widgets panel; it displays movies and TV shows in the Videos app) and an emergency contacts feature that will automatically notify your emergency contacts when you use the Emergency SOS.

Check out Pocket-lint’s iOS 10 tips and tricks round-up to see what else you can already to with Apple’s mobile operating system.

Secure your media library with Shoebox Cloud Backup (83 per cent off)

You’ll never get all those photos back after a system crash–unless you’re protected by Shoebox Cloud Backup.

With this cloud backup service, you can take a load off your hard drive’s back by uploading your entire media library to the cloud. For a limited time, Pocket-lint readers can get a lifetime subscription to Shoebox’s Pro plan for only £8.21 ($10 USD).

With a pro subscription, you’ll get an unlimited amount of secure cloud backup for all your photos and up to 10 hours of backup for your videos. That way, your media files will always be safe even if your computer keels over.

Shoebox Cloud Backup holds your security paramount. Boasting tough-as-nails encryption technology, Shoebox’s servers keep your personal photos and videos out of the hands of prying hackers. What’s more, you can access your files no matter where you are. Whether you’re browsing on your desktop or mobile device, you can manage your storage wherever you’re online.

With Shoebox Cloud Backup, you can free up some hard drive space while making sure your precious media files stick around even when disaster hits. Plus, you’ll enjoy peace of mind knowing your files are kept under lock and key thanks to Shoebox’s top-tier encryption technology.

A year of Shoebox Cloud Backup Pro would normally run you £49.24, but Pocket-lint readers can save big and get it for just £8.21 ($10 USD).

Streamline your projects with Pagico 8 Task Manager (60 per cent off)

Staying on top of your to to-dos can be a challenge. Fortunately, Pagico 8 Task Manager is here to help you stay focused.

This app is a one-stop resource that turns all your projects, tasks, and notes into streamlined flowcharts. For a limited time, Pocket-lint readers can get Pagico 8 Task Manager on sale for only £15.64 ($19 USD).

Using Pagico 8 Task Manager, you can easily browse, sort, and label all your projects within a single interface. You can filter through notes using tags and track how you’re doing by looking at the completion progress bar. Plus, once you’re done with a task, you can easily archive old notes and assignments to cut down on clutter.

This app also lets you create customized templates for your projects. With just a few clicks, you can clone an existing project, and use its layout to speed up future assignments. Combine this with Pagico’s Link Helper, and you can link and assign tasks at rapid speeds.

To help you stay on top of your work, Pagico sends you custom notifications even when you’re not connected to your calendar app. What’s more, Pagico lets you access your essential data anywhere, so you can stay in the know no matter where you’re going.

Pagico 8 Task Manager normally retails for £41.17, but you can save over 60 per cent off and get it on sale for just £15.64 ($19 USD).