Author: George

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FBI Backtracks in Apple iPhone Unlocking Case Using Alternative Technique

The FBI has come to a sudden and surprising all-stop in its legal war with Apple.Rather than compel the Cupertino giant to help it unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino killers, the Feds say they may be able to break into the handset without the company’s assistance after all.In a filing [PDF] submitted late Monday in a central California federal court, the Feds asked for a crunch hearing due to take place on Tuesday be vacated and proceedings be suspended at least until next month. The court has granted the request.The FBI will use that time to test an alternate method for unlocking the iPhone that will not involve, as it had originally sought, Apple building a specially crafted version of the iOS firmware.

Read on, source: FBI backs down against Apple: Feds may be able to crack killer’s iPhone without iGiant’s help • The Register

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Face to face with Ford’s self-driving Fusion Hybrid research vehicles

DETROIT, MI—The future, or a slice of it, can be found in one of the many labs inside Ford’s buy. Research and Innovation Center. The center is a three-story brick affair on Ford’s vast campus, but it wouldn’t look out of place at a well-funded research university. Well-appointed labs branch out from gray-painted corridors lined with plastic bumpers, the kind you see in hospitals to prevent dents in the walls from people carting around heavy equipment. Young engineers from across the globe congregate to eat lunch in the airy atrium before heading back to carry on their research on metallurgy, new catalysts, or a myriad of other site fields in which the Blue Oval has an interest.

Read on, source: Face to face with Ford’s self-driving Fusion Hybrid research vehicles | Ars Technica

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0-day attack on Firefox users stole password and key data: Patch now!

A website in Russia has been caught exploiting a serious zero-day vulnerability in Mozilla’s Firefox browser, prompting the open-source developer to deliver an emergency update that fixes the flaw.The bug in a built-in PDF reader allowed attackers to steal sensitive files stored on the hard drives of computers that used the vulnerable Firefox version. The attack was used against both Windows and Linux users, Mozilla researcher Daniel Veditz wrote in a blog post published Thursday. The exploit code targeting Linux users uploaded cryptographically protected system passwords, bash command histories, secure shell (SSH) configurations and keys. The attacker downloaded several other files, including histories for MySQL and PgSQL and configurations for remina, Filezilla, and Psi+, text files that contained the strings “pass” and “access” in the names. Any shell scripts were also grabbed.

Read on, source: 0-day attack on Firefox users stole password and key data: Patch now! | Ars Technica

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Long-line fishing with an electric kontiki

Beach long-line fishing has become extremely popular in recent years with the proliferation of electric torpedo fishing systems. With the ability to tow a beach long-line with 25 baited hooks kilometres out to sea, electric kontikis are an effective way to put high quality seafood on the table while enjoying a social family outing at the beach. John Eichelsheim takes a closer look…In 1947 Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, seeking to prove that Polynesia was settled by voyagers from South America, crossed the Pacific Ocean on a hand-built balsa raft named Kon-Tiki. By the early 1950s various raft-like contraptions used by Kiwi beach fishers to tow beach long-lines out to sea began to be called ‘kontikis’.

Read on, source: Long-line fishing with an electric kontiki – The Fishing Website