Volume 18, Issue 41        Atari Online News, Etc.       October 14, 2016   
                                                                           
                                                                              
                  Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2016
                            All Rights Reserved

                          Atari Online News, Etc.
                           A-ONE Online Magazine
                Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
                      Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
                       Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor


                       Atari Online News, Etc. Staff

                        Dana P. Jacobson  --  Editor
                   Joe Mirando  --  "People Are Talking"
                Michael Burkley  --  "Unabashed Atariophile"
                   Albert Dayes  --  "CC: Classic Chips"
                         Rob Mahlert  --  Web site
                Thomas J. Andrews  --  "Keeper of the Flame"


                           With Contributions by:

                                Fred Horvat



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                                  =~=~=~=



A-ONE #1841                                                 10/14/16

   ~ NSA Installed Malware!   ~ People Are Talking!    ~ Hatari 2.0 Close!
   ~ The New Nintendo Switch  ~ EU: Use Sticky Labels! ~ PlayStation VR!    
   ~ Win 10 Redstone 2, March ~ Yahoo: No Forwarding!  ~ HP's Premium PCs! 
   ~ Facebook Leaking Young!  ~ Battlefield 1, Soon!   ~ Doom Arcade Mode!    

                  -* Bushnell Launches Modal VR!  *-
              -* Cyber Attacks Disrupt The East Coast *-
           -* US, UK Cybersecurity: Destructive Hacks On *-



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->From the Editor's Keyboard              "Saying it like it is!"
  """"""""""""""""""""""""""



First off, let me aplologize for there being no issue last week.
There were a number of reasons including it being a slow week for 
articles, some pressing family issues, and the fact that Windows
decided that an "important" update needed automatic installation
that took about two hours - right in the middle of my working on
the issue!  So, I was kinda stuck!

So, how about those presidential debates?!?!  Yep, let's just keep
attacking one another - that's the American political system at its
finest!  True, Trump isn't your typical Washington politician; that
is partly what I like about him.  Hillary is more than your typical
Washington politician - much worse, in my opinion - one of the
things I don't like about her.  Yes, The Donald could use a
refresher course on tact, but I'll give him some credit for saying
it like it is.  And Hillary has certainly tried very hard to keep
attacking!

Will Hillary be able to shake her e-mail problems?  Will she be
able to keep dodging her failings as Secretary of State?  Will
Donald be able to win over more minorities?  This latest barrage
of attacks by women is certainly planned and politically-motivated
by either Clinton and/or her supporters (great timing, eh?);
will Trump be able to get through that?  So many questions, so
little time!

Until next time...



                                  =~=~=~=



                   Hatari Beta To Test for Windows


Hi,

In order to prepare next release, I uploaded some beta binaries
for windows. As for previous releases, there's a version for
32 bit (windows xp) and more recent 64 bit windows.

http://download.tuxfamily.org/hatari/test_2.0.0/
hatari-2.0.0_windows64.zip
hatari-2.0.0_windows.zip

For people using windows, could you try those binaries ? I tested
the 32 bit version, but as I don't have a 64 bit windows, I would
be interested in feedback too (ie does Hatari starts)



                             Hatari 2.0


By Francois Le Coat 	


Hi,

Do you know that 2.0 version of Hatari is nearly out? A test
release is

        <http://download.tuxfamily.org/hatari/test_2.0.0/> here

Hatari is an ATARI ST and STE emulator running under GNU/Linux,
BSD, BeOS, Mac OS X and many other systems supporting the SDL
libraries, and is based on WinSTon sources.

Source : emu-france.com

I've made a video demonstration, running Eureka 2.12 on the
emulator

        <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtjPa--6IZQ>

Well it's a Macintosh emulating a Falcon030 ... I don't have
Windows neither an ATARI ST(E) computer. With Hatari 2.0 I can
even emulate DSP and FPU of the Falcon030 with my quad-core
iMac. It runs pretty fast :-)

Thanks to the Hatari developers team !

Best regards,

-- 
Franois LE COAT
Author of Eureka 2.12 (2D Graph Describer, 3D Modeller)
http://eureka.atari.org/



                                  =~=~=~=



->In This Week's Gaming Section  - PS VR Will Sell 'Hundreds of Thousands' at Launch!
  """""""""""""""""""""""""""""    Bushnell Launches Modal VR!
                                   Nintendo Unveils Nintendo Switch!
                                   And much more!


        
                                  =~=~=~=



->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News   -  The Latest Gaming News!
  """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""



        PlayStation VR Will Sell 'Hundreds of Thousands'
                of Units at Launch, Exec Says


PlayStation VR, Sony's new virtual-reality headset, launched
this week. According to PlayStation executive Jim Ryan, Sony is
expecting to sell "hundreds of thousands" of units at launch.
Additionally, the executive confirmed in the interview with CNBC
that Sony is ramping up production.

Another PlayStation executive, Andrew House, previously said
that there might be PlayStation VR shortages. Yet another
executive, Shuhei Yoshida, said Sony does not know what demand
will be for PlayStation VR, in part because it's such a new
technology.

Though preorder units sold through quickly, PlayStation VR is
available and in stock at Amazon, GameStop and Best Buy right now.

According to research group Superdata, PlayStation VR sales could
reach 2.6 million units by the end of the year. The headset costs
$400 on its own and also requires a PlayStation 4 and a
PlayStation camera.

A $500 PlayStation VR Launch Bundle comes with the headset, a
camera, and two Move controllers, as well as the five-game
PlayStation VR Worlds collection. All versions of PlayStation VR
include a demo disc containing trials for 18 games, including
Resident Evil 7.

Priced at $400, PlayStation VR is "extremely affordable," Ryan
said, adding that Sony believes "the take-up is going to be
massive."

"We know that the replenishment cycle is a good one, production
is going exactly as we anticipated. We have made decisions to
further increase capacity at the back end of 2016 and into 2017,
so there are going to be a lot of PlayStation VRs around the
world, whether that's enough to satisfy the demands of the
market, we'll see."

GameSpot's Jimmy Thang reviewed PlayStation VR, saying it's not
a must-buy at the moment.

"As a VR fan, I want PSVR to succeed, but it trips up too many
times to wholeheartedly recommend at this point," he wrote.
"Many of the launch titles will make a large percentage of
people sick, and it may lead to the false impression that VR has
to make you nauseated. If you have a PS4 and are dying to get
PSVR, then I'd recommend the $499.99 bundle which includes the
PlayStation Camera, two Move controllers, and PlayStation VR
Worlds.

"If you have a PS4 and are simply curious about VR, I'd hold out
until more titles are released. While there are a handful of fun
titles, there's nothing that I've played at launch so far to
indicate to me that the PSVR is a must-buy right now. For
everyone else, I'd recommend saving up for a better reality."



                 Battlefield 1 Release Date:
         Here's Exactly When You Can Start Playing


If you're not already playing Battlefield 1, you might be soon.
The game's rollout has been somewhat unique, as a portion of the
game is playable now, the full game will unlock tomorrow, still
days ahead of its release date. To help make sense of the
situation, here's an explanation of what's available and when.

The World War I shooter from Battlefield series developer DICE
officially launches on October 21. However, the game's Play First
Trial - which contains a limited selection of the game's
single-player and multiplayer content - launched back on
October 13 for EA/Origin Access subscribers.

EA Access is available on Xbox One and Origin Access is the
subscription service's PC version. No version of EA Access is
available on PlayStation 4. However, people who buy the $80 Early
Enlister Edition of Battlefield 1 can start playing the full game
tomorrow, October 18. Like the full game next week, the Early
Enlister Edition unlocks at midnight. This premium version of
Battlefield 1, which also comes with extra digital content, is
available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

The ongoing Play First Trial version of Battlefield 1 contains
five maps and four modes for multiplayer, along with the
single-player missions Storm of Steel and Through Mud and Blood.
When the Early Enlister Edition comes out tomorrow, the
remaining multiplayer maps and modes will be available for Play
First Trial members. However, that early access period is
limited to 10 hours, so if you've reached the limit by
October 18, you'll need to buy the game to play those new maps
and modes.

EA/Origin Access members save 10 percent on all digital content,
knocking down the base game to $54, the Early Edition Edition to
$72, and the Ultimate edition to $117. The Ultimate Edition is
the only version of the game to include its $50 premium pass,
which comes with four expansion packs. Additionally, premium
pass-owners will have access to DLC maps two weeks before people
who buy it standalone, just like how it works with Star Wars
Battlefront.

Battlefield 1's first DLC map is called Giant's Shadow. It's free
for everyone and comes out in December. The game's first premium
pass expansion, They Shall Not Pass, comes out in March 2017.



          Nintendo Unveils The Nintendo Switch,
            A Hybrid Console/handheld System


Nintendo has officially revealed its next console.

Goodbye NX, hello Switch.

On Thursday, Nintendo lifted the curtain on its next gaming
system, and as promised by countless reports, it looks to
combine the companys in-home and portable console businesses
into one machine.

Due out in March 2017, the newly minted Nintendo Switch mashes
together a tablet, handheld and home console into a single
device. Heres the full reveal trailer:

The small system functions in two distinct ways. At home, it
rests in a dock that connects to your TV like a traditional home
console. Players can also lift the device out of the dock,
revealing a tablet with a built-in screen thats reminiscent of
the Wii Us Gamepad controller. They can then take that tablet
out and about and continue playing their game.

Nintendo Switch allows gamers the freedom to play however they
like, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said in a
press release. It gives game developers new abilities to bring
their creative visions to life by opening up the concept of
gaming without boundaries.

While players will be able to use a conventional gamepad at
home, on the road, they can detach two joysticks  Nintendo
calls them Joy-Con controllers  built into either side of
the tablet. Continuing Nintendos handheld tradition, the Switch
will use cartridges.

Missing from the trailer was any information about the Switchs
internal specs, although hardware manufacturer NVIDA confirmed
in a separate blog post that it will be powered by a custom
version of the companys Tegra processor.

The debut trailer features a number of games including Switch
takes on homegrown franchises like Super Mario and Splatoon, as
well as big third-party console games like NBA 2K and Skyrim.
Thats likely meant as a pre-emptive strike against the
long-held criticism that Nintendo systems lack third-party
support. To that end, the company also released a lengthy list
of third-parties already on board, including heavyweights like
EA, Activision, Bethesda and Take 2 Interactive.

Some big questions remain. How long does that battery last?
Whats the online situation? And are those two tiny controllers
made for human- or Donald-sized hands?  Well undoubtedly learn
more in the coming months. In the meantime, watch that trailer
again!



        Sony Launches PlayStation Tournaments Feature
                 on PS4, Starts With NBA 2K17


Partnering with eSports company ESL, Sony has launched a new
tournaments feature on PlayStation 4 today. With PlayStation
Tournaments on PS4, youll be able to find and participate in
competitions organized by ESL, using the PlayStation App or ESL
Play to take advantage of interaction features such as Check-in.

The first Major Tournament in North America will come to NBA
2K17, running from October 27 to November 26, with Major Cup
rounds every Saturday. The top three winners of the tournament
will receive a prize pack that includes a DualShock 4,
PlayStation gear, and more. In the future, Mortal Kombat X,
Project CARS, and more games will receive tournaments.

European PS4 owners can currently register for FIFA 17, NBA
2K17, WRC 5, and Project CARS tournaments, with Tricky Towers
and Tumblestone tournaments to come.

In order to participate in PlayStation Tournaments, youll need
a copy of the game, a PlayStation Plus membership, and a linked
ESL account (youll be prompted to make one if you dont already
have one). Tournaments will only support 1v1 matches to begin
with, but Sony is working to increase the number for the future.

Sony adds:

    Once tournaments are live, you can find them under Events on
your PS4 system menu to view the details. Once you have signed up
for a tournament, your PS4 will automatically prompt you when it
is time to play your matches. There are many types of Tournaments
and matches taking place, so check out the PlayStation
Tournaments feature and compete!

ESLs Marcel Menge says:

    Were incredibly excited to be able to offer this seamlessly
integrated solution for the most passionate eSports fans. ESLs
mission is to bring competitive gaming to fans around the world,
and when doing so, to create an environment that allows them to
fully focus on their gaming skills. In the partnership with Sony
Interactive Entertainment, were going to host hundreds of
weekly tournaments for players from any corner of the world.
Anyone who wants to try their hand at competitive gaming, can
now easily do so across a wide variety of titles.

Will you be participating in tournaments?



        'Doom' Unleashes Hell With A New Arcade Mode


If you've shotgunned and boot-stomped your way through the new
Doom campaign (and if you haven't yet, you should) fear not:
Bethesda has plenty more demon hunting ready to go. The
developer released "Free Update 4" this week, which comes with
a nifty arcade mode. Every gun, suit and "Rune" upgrade is
unlocked from the start, giving you the best possible edge in
the battlefield. The aim is to blitz through the "streamlined"
game in the shortest time possible, avoiding enemy attacks and
racking up multipliers. Points are rewarded for butt-kicking
your opponents, leading to a final score that you can compare
with friends.

If you miss the original Doom experience, you'll want to dive
back into SnapMap. The level editor has been updated with some
classic Doom assets - walls, floor panels, computer banks and
more - which you can stitch together into devious, ramshackle
stages. They won't change the core gameplay, but if you liked
the retro Easter eggs baked into the main campaign, this is a
way to feed those retro cravings once again. And if you're not
particularly creative, that's okay, because you can download
other people's maps, or a selection put together by the Doom
team.



                                  =~=~=~=



->A-ONE Gaming Online       -       Online Users Growl & Purr!
  """""""""""""""""""
 


The Creator of Atari Has Launched A New VR company Called Modal VR


So Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, is
launching a new virtual reality company called Modal VR, along
with Jason Crawford (who invented the Modal tech and serves as
the companys chief executive) and thats super cool.

But (more importantly to me) I played human Pong in virtual
reality at the Machinima studios using Modals gear and that was
goddamn amazing.

Machinima is going to be rolling out some features where their
folks are going to be using Modals equipment and putting the
gear through its paces. Yall should watch for that stuff when
it comes out, because (judging by the experience I had playing
games on the site) its going to be pretty wonderful.

Modal views itself as a hardware and software company providing
really high end, completely immersive, virtual reality
experiences. In an interview, Crawford was pretty reluctant to
talk about the specifics of the companys tech (its
proprietary), but Ive seen it in action, and was suitably
impressed.

Using standing sensors that follow and record movement
throughout a room, and a full-body tracking suit, Modal has
created a completely wireless VR platform that can work with
multiple users in areas up to 900,000 square feet and tracks a
body with under 10 milliseconds of latency.

If youre having visions of VR arcades dancing in your head right
now, youre absolutely right. Thats just the kind of thing that
Modal was built for.

But Crawford and Bushnell have bigger game in mind.

The two envision Modal as a one-stop-shop for virtual reality
needs. They see their company as providing an app store for VR
developers who want to work with the Modal system, and create
applications for the businesses that will buy Modals gear.

Yup, Modals wireless systems arent for everyone. Crawford told
me he doesnt have any plans for this to be a consumer product.
Neither he nor Bushnell have determined a price point for the
system, which is still very much a prototype, but its not going
to be cheap enough for the average gamer.

That doesnt mean that consumers wont be able to get their
hands on the equipment. It just means they wont own it.

The vision goes back to Bushnells early days as a pioneer of
video games in the first place. Essentially, Chuck E. Cheese was
a vehicle for kids who didnt own gaming systems to go somewhere
and play the games. And thats one of the ways Modals business
will probably work too.

Based in Los Angeles, Modals story begins with a very
intentional meeting between Crawford and Bushnell three years
ago on the set of a show Crawford was trying to get greenlit
called App Wars.

A longtime app developer, Crawford was also a huge fan of
Bushnells work (although really who isnt? Hes the freaking
inventor of Atari).

Most normal kids were fans of baseball stars or music stars,
but my brother and I were nerds and our heroes were Nolan
Bushnell and Steve Wozniak, Crawford told me.

So when he had the opportunity to set up a panel of judges for
an app-development game show, he insisted that Bushnell be among
them.

The pilot didnt get picked up, but Crawford sought out Bushnell
and pitched him on his idea for a new virtual reality company.

Three years ago, in the time before the Oculus Rift acquisition,
the VR landscape was still very much in flux, and while Crawford
had an idea, his company didnt yet have the hardware nailed
down. Bushnell agreed to advise, consult, and eventually came on
board as co-founder.

We were going to do a thirty-minute lunch and it was a
two-and-a-half hour lunch, Crawford says of that initial
meeting.

Bushnell joined about a year ago, but Crawford and his team had
been banging away at the technology for much longer. We failed
miserably in a lot of ways for years, doing this, says Crawford.

The company chief executive actually began working on Modals
tech almost as soon as he saw the Oculus Rift Kickstarter
campaign. I said, Wait a second. This is the perfect time to
come back to VR. I think this is going to be huge and I want to
be a part of it.

The company initially started out with Crawfords idea for a
destination. It was going to be a place where you going to be
able to fully immerse yourself, he said.

At the Machinima studios, thats exactly what I saw. The back
room was kind of a skunkworks area for most of the Machinima
staff, who hadnt seen what the company was up to. In a roughly
3,000 square foot room, staff had been playing Pong using Modals
technology against each other.

When I walked in, two players were scampering side-to-side in the
empty space, while a television monitor showed the action in VR.
Both players ran nearly the width of the room to get at the
virtual ball they were volleying back and forth.

We have been working to bring ambitious mixed reality content to
our fans and Modal VR is well beyond the limitations we thought
possible, said Shaun Novak, senior director of production at
Machinima in a statement. The wireless portability, full-body
tracking and massive play area really allows for compelling
experience in and out of the headset. Modal VR has been a great
partner in showing the fun of VR.

The critical component for Modals technology, according to
Crawford, was that it be free-roaming. It had to be wireless so
that users could get a fully immersive experience (and it is
pretty immersive).

The sensors on the body suit can be a bit tetchy and the system
had problems tracking my movements for some of the more
complicated experiences where I was manipulating objects in VR
with my hands (but it worked great for Pong).

What a lot of people are trying to do is theyre trying to make
a system using one technology to power the whole entire thing,
says Crawford. Putting them together in the way we have is
different. Whats most important is how were doing it and weve
created an end-to-end platform.

Developers can use the hardware, or simply develop applications
for Modal and sell them through Modals own version of an app
store. Crawfords seen how tough it is for game developers to
make any money (he was one for a long time before starting
Modal), so Modal is his way of opening developers up to novel
uses for the tech theyre working on.

Instead of making a $3 million app, why dont you think about
solving problems for police, he said.

Ideally, app developers can port their skillsets for gaming to
start solving problems that businesses have, that virtual reality
could help solve, and that could be very lucrative businesses for
the entrepreneurs that develop the tools to solve those problems.

Modal intends to make money from the sale of its hardware as well
as taking a cut from the sales of whatever applications are made
for its platform.

Its going to be very similar to an apple ecosystem, says
Crawford. Nolans vision for this is like the Atari 2600 you
open the box, you plug it in and you start using it.

The company has already developed a suite of games and tools
that show off the capabilities of the system. I mentioned Pong,
but perhaps the one that seems the most impressive is its VR
battle game called Mythic Combat, which is like a fully
realized version of the discus battle game from Tron.



Founder of Atari, Nolan Bushnell, Launches Industrial-Grade
Virtual Reality Platform Built For Business - Modal VR


Modal VR, an industrial-grade virtual reality immersion platform
built for business launched today. Founded by Nolan Bushnell,
founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, and Jason Crawford, inventor
and CEO, Modal VR is poised to significantly impact enterprise
adoption of virtual reality by offering a complete end-to-end
\hardware and software solution based on new immersion technology.

The Modal VR platform combines a radically different hardware
system and suite of complimentary software applications to deliver
an unprecedented VR ecosystem for enterprise. Modal VRs portable
hardware sets up in minutes and provides a completely wireless VR
experience featuring fast and accurate full-body tracking for
multiple users at once in small or large areas up to 900,000
square feet. Modal VR system owners can easily download and
install Modal VR applications, giving way to unlimited
possibilities across a myriad of industries. Examples include:

    Themed Entertainment: Interactive attractions and
    previsualization tools
    Marketing: Experiential activations and social content
    creation
    Arcades: Large-scale VR experiences including next-gen laser
    tag
    Entertainment: eSports leagues and mixed reality content
    Real Estate: Previsualization and sales
    Film & TV: Previsualization of sets, stunts and visual
    effects
    Law Enforcement: Training
    Emergency Response: Training
    Military & Space: Training and operations design
    Education: Virtual field trips and deep immersion learning
    Sports: Real-time game play simulation and analysis
    Museums: Immersive exhibits and virtual walk-throughs
    Municipalities: Urban planning previsualization
    Travel: Virtual destination sampling 

Modal VR was born from an independent software studio, so the
founders understand the business challenges of most software
developers. As a result, the company plans to place Modal VR
Developer Editions directly in the hands of developers,
providing the community with countless new opportunities for
creating amazing experiences and generating revenue in a new way.

Our team is looking forward to being an active contributor and
collaborator within the VR community. We hope Modal VR will help
expand our understanding of what is possible and help push the
industry forward in different ways, said Jason Crawford,
inventor and founder of Modal VR.

Modal VR is helping enterprises solve problems and collaborate
differently, said Nolan Bushnell, co-founder and chairman,
Modal VR. Modal VRs system and the software that runs on it
makes it very different than whats already on the market today.

"We have been working to bring ambitious mixed reality content to
our fans and Modal VR is well beyond the limitations we thought
possible, said Shaun Novak, senior director of production at
Machinima.The wireless portability, full-body tracking and
massive play area really allows for compelling experience in and
out of the headset. Modal VR has been a great partner in showing
the fun of VR.

For more information, to sign up for the developer program, or
to inquire about business opportunities, please visit
www.modalvr.com.

Based in Los Angeles, California, Modal Systems, Inc. was created
by founders Nolan Bushnell (founder of Atari, Chuck E. Cheese,
and Etak) and Jason Crawford (founder of Tiny Castle Studios).
Modal Systems, Inc. developed Modal VR, a virtual reality
platform built for enterprise, that delivers unprecedented
freedom and unlimited possibilities.



                                  =~=~=~=



                           A-ONE's Headline News
                   The Latest in Computer Technology News
                       Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson



      Cyber Attacks Disrupt PayPal, Twitter, Other Sites


Cyber attacks targeting a little known internet infrastructure
company, Dyn, disrupted access to dozens of websites on Friday,
preventing some users from accessing PayPal, Twitter and
Spotify.

Dyn, whose customers include some of the world's most widely
visited websites, said it did not know who was responsible for
the outages that began in the Eastern United States, and then
spread to other parts of the country and overseas.

The outages were intermittent, making it difficult to identify
all the victims. But technology news site Gizmodo named some
five dozen sites that were affected by the attack. They included
CNN, HBO Now, Mashable, the New York Times, People.com, the Wall
Street Journal and Yelp.

Dyn said attacks were coming from tens of millions of
Internet-connected devices - such as web cams, printers and
thermostats - infected with malicious software that turns them
into "bots" that can be used in massive distributed denial of
service attacks.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security last week issued a
warning about this powerful new approach, noting it was
concerned about the potential for new attacks after code for
malware used in these attacks was published on the internet.

Dyn said late on Friday that it was fighting the third major
wave of attacks, which were being launched from locations
spread across the globe, making them harder to fight.

"The complexity of the attacks is whats making it very
challenging for us," said Dyns chief strategy officer, Kyle
York.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau
of Investigation said they were investigating.

The disruptions come at a time of unprecedented fears about the
cyber threat in the United States, where hackers have breached
political organizations and election agencies.

Dyn said it had resolved one morning attack, which disrupted
operations for about two hours, but disclosed a second a few
hours later that was causing further disruptions.

Dyn said early on Friday that the outage was limited to the
Eastern United States. Amazon later reported that the issue was
affecting users in Western Europe. Twitter and some news sites
could not be accessed by some users in London late on Friday
evening.

PayPal Holdings Inc said that the outage prevented some
customers in "certain regions" from making payments. It
apologised to customers for the inconvenience and said that its
networks had not been hacked.

Amazon.com Inc's web services division, one of the world's
biggest cloud computing companies, also reported a related
outage, which it said was resolved early Friday afternoon.

Dyn is a Manchester, New Hampshire-based provider of services
for managing domain name servers (DNS), which act as
switchboards connecting internet traffic. Requests to access
sites are transmitted through DNS servers that direct them to
computers that host websites.

Dyn said it was still trying to determine how the attack led
to the outage but that its first priority was restoring
service.

Attacking a large DNS provider can create massive disruptions
because such firms are responsible for forwarding large
volumes of internet traffic.



 US, UK Cybersecurity Officials: Destructive Hacks Are Coming


The world should brace itself for more physically destructive
hacks, two senior cybersecurity officials said Wednesday, warning
that a more dangerous era of hacking was already upon us.

Paul Chichester, the director of operations at Britain's new
National Cyber Security Center, told an event hosted by British
defense think tank RUSI that electronic intrusions were on their
way to becoming more "destructive, disruptive and coercive."

"That will be our future," he told a crowd of officers,
academics and industry experts gathered for a two-day symposium
in central London.

Chichester was seconded by Air Force Lt. Gen. James K.
McLaughlin, deputy commander at U.S. Cyber Command, who told
attendees that infrastructure-wrecking attacks were being seen
"right now in the environment."

Neither official went into specifics about what they'd seen or
why they felt the threat was intensifying, although McLaughlin
invoked a cyberattack in Ukraine which knocked out three
separate power distribution companies last year. The Dec. 23
incident, believed to have been pulled off by a team of hackers
using stolen passwords, left 225,000 people without electricity,
according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security bulletin
published two months later.

Cybersecurity experts long worried that hackers can hijack the
vulnerable industrial control systems to wreak havoc in power
plants, traffic systems, factories, dams or reservoirs. Still,
publicly confirmed examples of real-world damage from hacking
have  so far  been few and far between. The Ukrainian incident
provided a rare and dramatic demonstration of the physical
consequences of a well-organized cyberattack.

McLaughlin said there was now no doubt such hacks were possible.

"Three years ago these were just theoretical," he said. "Now we
see them. They're practically here in front of us."



          NSA Installed Malware on 50,000 Networks,
                   New Snowden Papers Show


The NSA has successfully compromised at least 50,000 networks
using malware controlled by a 1,000-strong team of hackers, a
presentation leaked from the Snowden cache has revealed.

Its another of the many statistics to emerge from Snowdens
hard drive that is single-handedly transforming the worlds
understanding not only of US cyber-operations but what a
well-resourced state can achieve if it wants to.

The presentation seen by Dutch news source NRC Handelsblad
mentions that as of 2012 the NSAs Tailored Access Operations
(TAO) department had compromised 50,000 computer networks as
part of a larger Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) operation
active for up to 15 years.

We have to be careful about the nomenclature here; 50,000
networks is in the NSAs eyes equivalent to 50,000 separate
locations so the actual number of PCs, servers and possibly
routers controlled by this network is almost certainly much
greater than 50,000 individual computers.

As NRC Handelsblad notes, an example of the type of hacking
projects the TAO campaigns might resemble would be the infamous
attacks on Belgian national telco Belgacom by Britains NSA ally
GCHQ, first publicised in September by German magazine Spiegel
Online.

In that attack, the malware was installed by luring Belgacom
employees to bogus LinkedIn and Slashdot pages using a system
called Quantum Insert, in effect they were phished using a
tactic straight out of the criminal handbook.

Another way of viewing the TAO malware would be to see it as
part of the 231 cyber-operations written up in August by the
Washington Post from separate Snowden files as having been
carried out in 2011 alone, all part of the well-financed
GENIE program. That report was also the first to discover
that the NSA had been using malware but it is only now that
details such as targeting and design are starting to become
clearer.

The problem is that the accounts of what the NSA has been up to
and for how long are still fragmentary. It is known that 50,000
networks in 30 countries have been compromised, as have 20
access points for international cable trunks, but that barely
scratches the surface.

With news emerging almost every week of a new NSA attack on
fundamental parts of international digital infrastructure 
almost all as far as we can tell highly successful  it is now
safer to assume that the NSA can unlock what it wants more or
less at will.



             Yahoo Wont Let You Forward Your Emails
                  to Another Service  But Why?


Yahoo has really been in the firing line in the past few weeks.

First came the news that the company had confirmed a data breach
of half a billion records.

The age of the breach was as worrying as its size: the data was
stolen back in 2014, but Yahoo only reported it recently.

The late publication of the report was not, apparently, out of
any attempt to cover it up or to delay the news deliberately, but
because the company only figured out something had gone wrong in
August 2016.

That news was followed by claims that Marissa Mayer, Yahoos CEO,
had previously put the kibosh on a policy requiring passwords to
be reset in the event of a breach, apparently because password
resets, no matter how desirable they might be in an emergency,
are annoying to users.

(Mayer, you may remember, famously welcomed Apples iPhone
fingerprint scanner by admitting she didnt lock her phone,
admitting that she cant do this passcode thing, like, 15 times
a day.)

Although adopting a mandatory password reset policy doesnt
prevent breaches, and is always a last resort, it didnt reflect
very well on Yahoos security attitude to hear that it
apparently decided to put ongoing user convenience ahead of
security, even after a catastrophe.

Next came allegations that Yahoo may have searched its email
database for an unknown set of keywords at the official request
of US authorities.

Actually, as we wrote at the time, the official request was
more of a classified demand, which is not at all the same thing.

Nevertheless, Yahoos competitors wasted no time stating not only
that theyd never received such a demand, but also that theyd
have fought it publicly if ever they had received one.

The latest bad news for Yahoo surrounds the fact that its mail
forwarding service has recently been suspended, at least for
anyone who isnt already using it.

Mail forwarding is pretty much what it says: email received by
one server is automatically redirected to another, just as you
might forward your PO Box in one town to a new box in another
town if you moved house.

One popular use for mail forwarding is as a temporary measure to
help you migrate from one email service to another, so that you
dont have to keep logging on to two different websites until
youve told everyone your new email address.

In short, forwarding mail from service X to service Y often means
that X pays, but Y benefits.

Thats led to suggestions that Yahoo has done this deliberately
as a sort of lock-in, in the hope of discouraging users from
leaving the service following the recent negative news stories.

Well give Yahoo the benefit of the doubt and assume that
security is the cause.

Mail forwarding is a risky feature, because a crook who manages
to turn it on unlawfully can effectively take over your account
in a way that isnt as obvious as changing your password.

Also, once a crook has forwarded your email, even if he does
change your password to keep you out, hes able to read it
without logging back into your account.

This means hell leave a slightly less damaging (or at least a
more convoluted) audit trail if anyone ever decides to
investigate.

So, were prepared to assume that Yahoos new mail forwarding
system has been temporarily suspended out of what the marketing
folks like to call an abundance of caution, while the company
conducts a security review on it.

Were assuming this isnt a commercial trick aimed at
discouraging dissatisfied passengers from getting off the train
at the next station.

What do you think?

Has Yahoo done this to improve security or to control commercial
damage?



         Facebook Is Leaking Valuable Younger Users


Facebook has been struggling to bring in younger users for
several years now and it looks like the problem is getting
worse.

According to Piper Jaffray Companies, a recent survey of 10,000
U.S. teenagers showed that 52% used Facebook at least once a
month this fall, compared to 60% who used it monthly in the
spring.

"Factoring out shifts in the population surveyed, core Facebook
usage likely declined by three basis points, which indicates
Facebook is gradually becoming less relevant versus Instagram
and Snapchat," Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote in a
research note to investors.

The same survey, however, showed that teen use of Facebook-owned
Instagram has gone from 70% to 74% in the same time frame - and
rose from 75% to 80% for rival Snapchat.

When asked what their favorite social network was this fall,
35% said Snapchat; 24% said Instagram; and 13% said Twitter and
Facebook (which tied for third place).

While older users - say anywhere from 35 to 65 years old - have
shown to be loyal Facebook users, the site isn't pulling in
enough users 24 and younger to offset losses as older users die
off.

"Well, think about it," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK
Research. "If Facebook just lost 8% of all teens, that's
millions of users.... Over time, they need to keep the funnel of
users coming in on the younger side. I think it creates a huge
issue down the road. It's not likely they can add users that are
of older generations. They probably have all they will get from
anyone 30 and older."

Facebook certainly has been working to draw in younger users.

In April, the company beefed up Facebook Live, which enables
users to stream their live videos - and better take on social
rival YouTube.

And in August, Facebook unveiled its Lifestage stand-alone app.
Designed for iOS devices, the app enables teen users to share
videos with other people in their schools.

Lifestage was born as a rival to Snapchat and basically a video
version of an early stage Facebook.

That wasn't the first time Facebook went after Snapchat's
valuable younger users.

In March, the company bought face-swapping app Masquerade or
MSQRD. The app enables users to dress up their photos and selfies
with an Iron Man helmet or a panda outfit.

Facebook hoped that by being able to add special effects to their
pics, teens and young adults would be pulled onto Facebook - or
at least one of the apps. But so far, at least, those efforts
don't appear to be panning out.

Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategies,
said the issue may not matter as much as some might think.

"I do not see it as a problem [for Facebook] as long as those
younger users are going to Instagram," he said. "Facebook, the
company, needs to do what it has been doing, which is to invest
in the next big teen thing. I believe as those teens get older,
go to college and have a family, they will come back."

According to Moorhead, as people get older, they'll give up
their Instagram and Snapchat accounts and move to Facebook, no
longer bothered that they'd be joining a social network where
they'll friend their parents and grandparents.

Kerravala, however, isn't so sure that will really happen.

"People have either thought, 'Hey, I want to use Facebook' and
are using it - or they think Facebook is stupid and won't ever
use it," he said. "Facebook needs to stop trying to chase what's
already there and build something unique that teens don't
already have."



             The EUs Latest Idea To Secure The
             Internet of Things? Sticky Labels


The EU has floated a new idea to boost the security of Internet
of Things (IoT) products  get manufacturers to stick labels on
them telling buyers how secure they are.

It sounds simple enough. Products such as fridges, washing
machines and ovens are already sold in the EU with mandatory
energy efficiency ratings, so why not something similar for
security?

In comments made at a weekend press conference, EU deputy
commissioner for digital economy and society, Thibault Kleiner,
spelled out some of the organizations worries about the state
of IoT.

Ever greater numbers of products were being sold with an IoT
connectivity as a standard feature, he said.

    Thats really a problem in the Internet of Things. Its not
enough to just look at one component. You need to look at the
network, the cloud. You need a governance framework to get
certification.

The EU is also worried about data privacy as IoT devices gather
information of the sort that could put consumers at risk from
data breaches or snooping.

    Its not about data as something you monetize, its about
dignity, something thats personal to an individual.

Despite there being at least five billion devices in service with
IoT capability  Gartner reckons that this is expanding by 5.5
million new devices every day  security standards are only just
emerging. Meanwhile, default security is often weak.

A warning of the potential for trouble came with the recent
record-breaking DDoS attack on cybersecurity blogger Brian Krebs.
The Mirai botnet that generated this huge wave of traffic came
from an army of poorly-secured network cameras, digital video
recorders (DVRs), routers and printers.

The Commission believes that labels guaranteeing adherence to
basic security standards would encourage manufacturers to work
together more closely in the spirit of common interest.

The EU is in the process of introducing the General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR), a major privacy overhaul that all
large firms will have to comply with, including firms that want
to use and build IoT devices.

However, getting to a situation where products are sold with
labels that promise an agreed level of security seems some way
off.

One hurdle is simply the diversity of products that are
IoT-enabled, including motor cars, TVs, smart watches, home
thermostats, smart meters, lighting systems, and home security.
The IoT is suddenly everything and that will slow down the
creation of common privacy and security standards.

The EU is doing its best to speed up development, investing 192
million in IoT research as part of its Horizon 2020 programme.

Unfortunately, IoT devices need better security now, not years
from now when the EU has agreed what the labels should look
like  and mean.

What consumers and businesses will think about having another
label to peel off shiny new IoT products when pulling them out of
the box remains an unknown.

Will they have faith in them? Or will they end up feeling
disappointed should securing IoT devices from real-world threats
turn out to be more complex than the label suggests?



          HP's New PCs Raise The Spectre of Competition


Putting a premium on premium, HP has overhauled its flagship Envy
and Spectre devices just in time for the US holiday season.

The HP Spectre x360 was already an aesthetically pleasing
convertible PC - i.e., it can be used as a tablet or a notebook
- but now it's even thinner and lighter for stylish on-the-go
productivity.

The old model weighed 1.45kg. The new one is 11% lighter and the
13.3-inch display is now more or less border free. Yet, thanks to
new Intel processors and a new battery pack, it should deliver
15 hours' use between charges. HP claims that you will be able to
recharge it again to 90% within 90 minutes.

The final premium touch is four integrated Bang & Olufsen-tuned
speakers.

After ages in the doldrums, PC sales are beginning to pick up,
particularly in the US, a region where HP is the most popular
computer brand (29.9% market share), according to the latest IDC
data.

"Industry efforts to update products to leverage new processors
and operating systems, to deliver a better computing experience
encompassing more mobile, secure, and faster systems, and to
accelerate PC replacements have been critical," said Loren
Loverde, IDC vice president, Worldwide PC Trackers & Forecasting.

And much of the updating HP is doing with its premium range is
around boosting performance and speed.

For those that don't need a convertible, the new HP Envy laptop
now offers 14 hours' battery life and the same fast charging tech
found in the Spectre. Its 13.3-inch display for $200 less
($849.99 verses $1,049.99) can also be specified as full HD, Quad
HD or full UHD and like the Spectre, the screen runs
edge-to-edge.

As for performance, there are latest gen core 5 and Core 7 Intel
processors available, space for 16GB of RAM and for a 1TB solid
state hard drive. It gets two rather than four speakers but they
are also of the Bang & Olufsen-tuned variety.

The final PC to get a makeover is the HP Envy AIO 27. It will
cost from $1,299.99 but wil boast a thinner 27-inch QHD display
designed to reflect how consumers really use computers at home.
It has a low blue light mode so that after an evening's binge
watching, owners' eyes shouldn't be so sore that they can't
sleep. And for the same reason the PC's base includes a
four-speaker Bang & Olufsen-tuned soundbar.

"We are strengthening our leadership in premium with our
redesigned PC portfolio to deliver big power in thin and light
designs to be even more portable and revolutionize our all-in-one
to bring amazing sound into the home," said Kevin Frost, VP and
general manager, consumer personal systems, HP Inc.



Microsoft's Ship Target for Windows 10 'Redstone 2' is March, 2017


For a while now, a number of us Microsoft watchers have been
referring to the next feature update to Windows 10 as a "Spring
2017" deliverable.

It seems it'll be on the early side of Spring if Microsoft hits
its own internal ship target for Windows 10 "Redstone 2."

Earlier this week, Microsoft officials posted some documentation
that made reference to a version of Windows 10 as "1703," which
was unearthed by "The Walking Cat" and Tero Alhonen on Twitter.

Using Microsoft's current naming convention for Windows 10
releases, that implies the coming Redstone 2 build will be a
March 2017 deliverable.

I asked some of my contacts and they confirmed that March 2017
is, indeed, the current ship target for Windows 10 Redstone 2.
(I asked Microsoft officials for comment, and unsurprisingly,
they had nothing to say on the matter.)

Remember that ship/RTM (release to mainstream) targets don't
necessarily equal general availability. The Windows 10
Anniversary Update, a k a 1607, did hit RTM in July, as that
build number indicates, but technically wasn't generally
available until August 2.

So far, the Insider test builds of Redstone 2 haven't revealed
any of what hopefully will be some of the more major features
coming in the next Windows 10 release. The test builds so far
have been mostly vehicles for rather minor feature tweaks.

Microsoft is expected to discuss more regarding features and
plans for Redstone 2 at its October 26 Windows 10/hardware event
in New York City. We've heard there could be talk of the
addition of the Windows Holographic shell to Windows 10
Redstone 2 there.

For those wondering whether a 1703 ship target implies anything
about dates for Microsoft's Build 2017 event, I don't believe
so. Microsoft doesn't need to use its annual developer show to
launch a new release, as developers already are working with
early versions of new Windows 10 releases on a regular basis.

In other Windows news from this week, Microsoft started rolling
out the Anniversary Update/1607 release of Windows 10 to its
Surface Hub devices yesterday, October 13. I didn't realize
until yesterday's blog post that Microsoft calls the version of
Windows 10 inside the Surface Hub "Windows 10 Team Edition."

The Anniversary Update for Surface Hub includes simultaneous
pen/touch support; inking support; Flash support for Edge;
preloaded PowerBI, OneDrive and Photos apps and more.



                                =~=~=~=




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