Hack Forums
HF News // Edition 249 - Printable Version

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HF News // Edition 249 - Hydra - Jul 20, 2015



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The edition you are currently reading is the 249th edition of the HF News. To read any older editions of the HF News, please go here.



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Another Staff Shuffle
Hack Forums has experienced another shuffle in its forum team this month as Paradoxum and veteran member Judge Dredd are now both Mentors, the circumstances of either's demotion are not yet known. Meanwhile, Sam Winchester has stepped up on probation as Staff. However, the roster is still two spaces short, are more changes to come?

Wiki Back on Track
After a disappointing premiere, D3xus appears to have breathed new life into the Wiki team with a revamped theme and new features which seems to have inspired the members of Hack Forums to start contributing. Writ3rs for the Wiki are recruiting to update, edit, create, and manage articles across the board. >>Source



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User News
  • bοxxy has reached 2,000 positive reputation.
  • Roger Waters has reached 24,000 posts. No award?

Bans*
Vacations
Closures
Repfucks
Awards
* - As of the Monday prior to release.



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Announcement Threads

---Gauth Check - Omniscient
---Changes have been made to the "Gauth" system. The "issuer" field is now enabled.

Entertaining Threads

---What's the last illegal thing you did and got away with? - Ekmete
---Have you ever wondered what sketchy activities the Hack Forums community is up to? Check this thread to find out.

Member Feedback Threads
  • No member feedback threads this week! If you want your feedback thread mentioned here, then head on over to the Rules, Announcements, News, and Feedback section and create one! Post a link to it on this thread and you may see your thread here in the next edition of the Hack Forums News!
Contests & Giveaways

---Upgrading 10 members to L33T / UB3R - Glitch
---The user Glitch is hosting a contest in which the winner will receive an upgrade to their account. Enter now!

---Official Archive Group Contest: GAuth (2FA) Edition (200$) - xadamxk
---The user xadamxk is hosting a contest in the name of the group Archive. Three winners will win cash prizes adding up to $200! Enter now!



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Interview - Cibor (Click to View)



HF News // Edition 249 - Hydra - Jul 21, 2015



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Royalty

A new group with the description of, "Loyal and royal marketers," was added to the official groups list shortly after the OMC auction by Omniscient. Led by Cibor, Royalty opened its doors to the public on July 14th, 2015 here. So far, not much is known as to what this group actually does, but the description on the Custom Forum Groups page exposes some possibilities.

Group Leadership Changes
  • Vinnie was removed from leadership of Null and Instinct.
  • Understalker was removed from leadership of Echo.

Group Userbar Changes
  • Royalty's userbar was added: [Image: royalty.png]

Current Open Group Recruitments
Group Related Buy-ins & Informational Threads
Important Group Related Threads


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Site Statistics
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Ban Statistics
  • Last Week's Bans (Click to View)
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Forum Counts
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Membership Counts
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[img]http://ihydra.net/hfnt/headers/OpinionCentral.png[/img]
What is your opinion on the news Road Map that Omni created?

D3xus
"I'm looking forward to the mobile theme for phone and tablet compatibility. I browse HF on my phone and tablet a lot, and having a responsive theme would make my life as a Mentor and Wiki Publisher a lot easier."

Cameron
"I think it will take awhile to finish, but I'm looking forward to what he can do with what he has planned."

Escrow
"All of the items on his list are all things I agree with but I think he's got priorities a little mixed up. Especially if like he says - he completes them in the order int he thread. For example why is the automated paid sticky system more important than the server move or the MyBB 1.8 update? I feel like the speed improvments from the server move easily outweigh the benefits of automated stickies. I'm also not entirely certain why he's coding that before the MyBB upgrade as it's likely some of the code will need to be changed in order to make it compatiable with 1.8 anyway. I don't have a problem with any of the features and changes being made I'm just not convinced it's happening in the correct order."

iHydra
"I think it's great to see Omni working hard on these vital things. We've been needing a server upgrade and mobile support for a long time. The forum is getting outdated; with these new features on the way, Hack Forums will improve greatly. A large majority of the community visits the forums on their mobile devices so mobile support would be perfect."



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Writers' Userscript
HF Wiki Team(HFWT) and HF News Team(HFNT) are working on a userscript for you. The userscript will include features such as breaking news, wiki page shortcuts, and more. We'll make a public announcement once it has been released.

Podcast
Changes have been made to the roster and the podcast is making a return for edition 250. Make sure to check back next week and listen to it!

Publication Changes
We're trying to find the right time to publish the news and so for the next few editions, we will be publishing the news at different times in the day. The reason for 249's delay was due to this, hopefully it makes a positive impact.

Weekly Reports
With the userscript in the works, Weekly Reports will either change to a different system or be removed completely. That's all for now, just wanted to give you a heads up.

Enjoy your week, get some humor flowing and stay happy!



HF News // Edition 249 - Hydra - Jul 21, 2015



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Secret Affair Site Ashley Madison Hacked
Online cheating site Ashley Madison was hacked recently by a group which claimed that they have all of the site's user databases, financial records, and other private information. This is one of the bigger recent breaches with Ashley Madison's user-base being approximately 37 million users. The team behind the breach, The Impact Team, is instructing Avid Life Media (the company which runs Ashley Madison) to take down the site permanently or they will release all custom information including customers "sexual fantasies" alongside matching credit card information. Ashley Madison had a feature called 'Full Delete' on it which users are able to pay a fee to make sure the site deletes all information related to the nefarious activities associated with it and the customer's interaction. Unfortunately, it seems Ashley Madison was charging money but not actually deleting their customer's information which is causing this breach to be a huge concern to their users' personal life. >>Source

Possible Data Breach: Costco, CVS, & Walmart
Three major retailers in the US currently have their online photo-processing websites offline due to a possible breach of the third-party company which runs the photo service. This third-party company, PNI Digital Media, runs the online photo-processing for sites like CVSPhoto.com & Walmart Canada's photo service. Although there is still an investigation going on, it's possible that millions of customers' data including credit card details have been leaked. One of PNI's spokesman said, "If an issue is discovered, it is important to note that consumers are not responsible for any fraudulent activity on their credit cards that is reported on a timely basis." The data breach is currently being investigated more thoroughly by PNI's investigative team and will be giving more information on the breach itself in the next days to come. >>Source

Hacking Team's Google App Backdoored
After the huge security breach of Hacking Team, many new issues have been popping up related to the 400GB worth of data that was leaked. The most recent issue being that Google Play's security checks allowed an app developed by the Hacking Team, which contained a backdoor, to be placed within the app store itself for all users to download. The security firm which discovered the app was Trend Micro. The app, which was disguised as a news app, contained a trojan named BeNews that allowed for remote access while running in the background on the device. This is now calling into question Google's app store's security and how easy it is to get a malicious app past it. Hacking Team's app was taken down quickly after Trend Micro discovered the trojan. Google is always improving their security for the app store but it seems they can not keep up with the pace of newer malicious software as it's coming out. They are currently working on a new security method so that situations like this will no longer happen in the future. >>Source



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Office and Java Patch APT 28 Zero Days
An APT group that is currently believed to have Russian ties is going against conventional wisdom, as recently as three weeks ago, it revealed it's sixth zero days in the past four months. Given the value of unpatched and reported vulnerabilities on the black market, this is very strange behavior for a group to reveal its found vulnerabilities. Regardless, APT 28, also known as Tsar Team, Operation Pawn Storm, and Send it, has been very busy targeting government agencies as well as military operations using a series of Flash, Office, and Java-based zero-days at their disposal. In the last week alone, two zero-days were accredited to APT 28. Fortunately, both of these have already been patched by Microsoft and Oracle. Researchers at iSight Partners reported the zero-day in Office to Microsoft. It was patched on Tuesday in MS15-070, a security bulletin that patched 13 other vulnerabilities in its software. Later that night, Oracle patched a Java zero-day in a quarterly Critical Patch Update that was used to attack a US-based defense contractor. “This indicates it’s not a handful of guys; this is an organization managing this stuff,” Brain Bartholomew of iSight said, adding that the group has also been known to use cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin to buy domains in order to hide registration information and remain anonymous. “It’s hard to manage that much infrastructure that they own.” Five of the six zero days were built in-house by APT 28. While the sixth, CVE-2015-5119, was a repurposed Flash zero-day that was uncovered after the Hacking Team breach. “They actually rewrote it, which is interesting. It’s not just a copy of the [Hacking Team] proof of concept with their own shell code added,” Bartholomew said. The Office zero-day was likely still under development since it was buggy and unpredictable. “It’s a heap corruption vulnerability in Office where it’s mishandling an object in memory, which allowed for remote code execution from the weaponized document,” Leathery of iSight said. Despite all the efforts to combat these hackers, the team still has a plethora of tools at its disposal. >>Source

Google Expanding Its Safe Browsing
Tech giant Google is expanding its Safe Browsing mechanism to warn users about a wider variety of unwanted software, in addition to warning regarding phishing pages, malware, and other potential threat. Safe Browsing is the service that Google uses to help prevent Chrome users from being targeted by a malicious attack. Google also provides the API for use in Firefox and Safari. The company announced that it's planning to expand that types of software it blocks. “In the coming weeks, these detection improvements will become more noticeable in Chrome: users will see more warnings about unwanted software than ever before,” Moheeb Abu Rajab and Stephan Somogyi of the Google Safe Browsing team said in a blog post. “Unwanted software is being distributed on websites via a variety of sources, including ad injectors as well as ad networks lacking strict quality guidelines. In many cases, Safe Browsing within your browser is your last line of defense.” Unwanted software, isn't always a piece of malware, but is often app such as adware or programs that spy on users, taking their information without their knowledge or consent. Google made it clear that they are not changing the goal of Google Safe Browsing and are simply trying to further protection, not add new kinds of protection. >>Source

XP Security Support Comes to an End
Surprisingly enough, some people still use Windows XP, as we recently learned in an unclassified U.S. Navy document that showed the Navy has extended a support contract with Microsoft giving the Navy two more years before they stop receiving security patches for XP. For those who do not work for the Navy, security support officially ended on July 14th. Microsoft ended support for non-Microsoft Security Essentials on April 8th, 2014. Microsoft offered an additional year of signatures and use of the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool for Microsoft Security Essentials members. Both provisions expired yesterday as Microsoft reinforced that customers should move on to the newest version of Windows. The news was buried under a series of patches from Microsoft, Adobe, and Oracle. All of the zero-day vulnerabilities uncovered in the Hacking Team breach. Microsoft also released a pair of security advisories that warrant attention. Microsoft said that it had patched a race condition flaw that would allow an attack to gain elevated privileges on a compromised system. “The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to a target system and places a specially crafted dynamic link library (.dll) file in a local directory. An authenticated attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could elevate privileges on a target system,” the advisory said. “An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full administrative rights.” The advisories rounded-up a busy day for the Windows team, who, in total, 60 CVEs to look at and patch on Patch Tuesday. >>Source



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Pokken Tournament Released
Pokken Tournament, an arcade game made by Namco Bandai, is a game that mixes fighting styles and mechanics found in the Tekken series with characters and themes from the Pokemon franchise. The creators of this game built it with the intent to not intimidate players who aren’t extreme fighting game aficionados. The game’s release date is July 16, 2015, in the form of arcade systems found all around Japan. Some of the confirmed playable Pokemon in the game are Machamp, Lucario, Gardevoir, Suicune, Blaziken, and Pikachu. Other Pokemon confirmed to be in the game but not as playable fighters are Emolga, Fennekin, Lapras, and Snivy. International and non-arcade releases of the game have yet to be announced. >>Source

Nintendo CEO Dies
President of Nintendo Satoru Iwata passed away this past week due to bile duct growth. He grew up in Japan and started working for Nintendo as a part of their HAL Laboratory, earning a degree in computer science in the process. He helped the studio create many games following his graduation, including the critically acclaimed Earthbound on the SNES. His work continued with both the the Wii and DS systems of gaming devices. It was in 2014 that Iwata was unable to attend E3 for the first time in a decade due to health issues. He missed E3 2015 as well, although he cited busyness with work as the reason. Nintendo’s Notification of Death for Iwata can be found here. >>Source

EVO 2015 Begins
July 17 through 19 in Las Vegas Nevada is where and when EVO 2015 being held. EVO, the largest fighting game tournament in the world, takes place every year and hosts competition in a multitude of games, including but not limited to Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Mortal Kombat X. EVO is an open tournament that has been taking place since 1996, with the event officially being named EVO in 2002. The tournament takes place in a double elimination format and has seen increased attendance every year since its inception. >>Source



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Windows 10 Updates Will Be Mandatory For Home Users
It's official: Windows 10 isn't going to allow its home users to skip updates, which is great if you like to keep your system constantly updated. For those of you who like to download and install things at your own pace? Too bad. A final version of the OS, distributed to testers this week, contains a clause in the end user license agreement (EULA) that reveals Windows 10 users will receive "automatic updates without any additional notice." The changes have left some Windows users concerned.

By default, when you're not using your computer, Windows 10 will automatically download those updates, install them, and restart your computer. You can also schedule that restart for a convenient time. Other than that, there's no option to turn down an update, where previous versions of Windows let you pick and choose. >>Source

Google Hires Tech Team From Homejoy, Readies Leap Into Home Services Market
Google is preparing to steamroll into yet another market: Home services. To do so, the search giant is scooping up the technical team behind Homejoy, an on-demand cleaning service startup based in San Francisco. For the uninformed, Homejoy was a service that matched users with professional cleaners. Though it hasn't been confirmed, it appears that Google seeks to do very much the same thing -- not just with cleaners, but plumbers, electricians, handymen and all manner of home-service providers.

As engadget reported today, Homejoy will cease operations at the end of the month in the wake of multiple employee reclassification lawsuits. Around 20 members of Homejoy’s product and engineering team will be joining Google to build out the company’s technology for matching local professionals — lawn mowers, painters, plumbers, cleaners and the like — with online users, according to sources. >>Source

Apple and Samsung Are in Talks to Effectively Eliminate the SIM Card
The SIM card as we know it may be about to disappear if Apple and Samsung have anything to do with it. Time reports that the tech giants are in “advanced talks” to start using electronic SIM cards in their smartphones, allowing users more mobility in switching between carriers. The report refers to the new standard as an embedded SIM — or an e-SIM — which would remain inside the phone and give consumers the ability to switch carriers without getting a new card, rather than locking them into a specific carrier, as they do now. That means no more swapping SIMs to switch phones or carriers; it would all be done through an interface on the device.

The GSM Association, an industry group that represents mobile operators, tells Time that "the majority of operators" are on board with the shift over to e-SIM. That reportedly includes AT&T, T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefonica, and Orange, as well as other international carriers. >>Source



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South Korea Hacking Scandal
A man has committed suicide while the reports of the hacking scandal in South Korea gathers pace. The man was found dead in his car after taking his own life on a mountain road. He left a suicide note claiming to have deleted important information about the hacking. It has emerged that mobile phones were tracked and monitored before the presidential election in 2012 with spyware bough from Italy. Government and NIS officials have denied claims the spyware was used to monitor South Korea in general and was used to fight 'cyber-criminals'. The BBC's Stephen Evans, in South Korea, says that the note left by the dead man implies that phones were monitored only to keep tabs on people connected to North Korea and not to besmirch opponents of the right-of-centre president. The spy agency already has a sketchy past before democracy was introduced in the 1980s as it was involved in abduction and killings. >>Source

Mitsubishi Offers POW Apology
Japan's Mitsubishi corporation made a landmark apology after it apologized for using United States prisoners of war (POW) during World War Two. Hikaru Kimura, a senior executive, expressed remorse at a ceremony in Los Angeles that prisoners were forced to work in a mine operated by the firm. This is believed to be the first apology of its kind by a Japanese company. One of the last surviving US prisoner forced to work for Japan has accepted the apology. James Murphy, 94, said this was "a glorious day... for 70 years we wanted this. We hope that we can go ahead now and have a better understanding , a better friendship and closer ties with our ally, Japan." The Japanese government officially apologised to American former POWs five years ago. >>Source

Google To Offer Free Internet
Feel good news this week is provided by Google who are offering free internet to low-income housing residents. Currently acceptable members are in the cities where Google Fibre is available. At this point, Google Fiber is available in the Kansas City area; Austin, Texas; and Provo, Utah but Google plans to soon expand it to Atlanta; Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C; Nashville, Tenn.; Salt Lake City; Phoenix, Portland, Ore., San Antonio; and San Jose, Calif. Those who are accepted have to pay $0s and will get a free installation. This comes as an initiative, ConnectHome, which is a new program formed by the White House and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that aims to bring Internet connectivity to more school-aged children and families that live in assisted housing. >>Source

 

HF News // Edition 249 - Hydra - Jul 21, 2015



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* - Happeh - Jul 21, 2015

Always fun working on these. Great job as always team.

(Jul 21, 2015 02:36 AM)iHydra Wrote:  Weekly Reports
With the userscript in the works, Weekly Reports will either change to a different system or be removed completely. That's all for now, just wanted to give you a heads up.

Want to highlight this as it's v. important and I feel some will look over the information.

* - Thornzzz - Jul 21, 2015

I wasn't in this edition like I asked. Come on Hydra.

* - Hydra - Jul 21, 2015

(Jul 21, 2015 11:48 AM)Thornzzz Wrote:  I wasn't in this edition like I asked. Come on Hydra.

You'll be in the next edition (which is actually better..).

* - Justin Timberlake - Jul 21, 2015

Busy week for HF it seems. Another solid edition.

* - Astute - Jul 21, 2015

Great edition as always boys.
I'm eager for the Podcast next edition.

* - Jаson - Jul 21, 2015

Loved reading this.

RIP Undie
RIP Vinnie

* - Obimoto - Jul 21, 2015

Great edition, but why does Paradoxum's link bring me to Viral Dragon???

* - Hydra - Jul 21, 2015

(Jul 21, 2015 11:53 AM)Obimoto Wrote:  Great edition, but why does Paradoxum's link bring me to Viral Dragon???

Thanks for catching that, fixed it.

* - Dean Winchester‎ - Jul 21, 2015

Some part of the news are more up-to-date than other 😧

Nice edition as always, anyways! 😝

* - Night - Jul 21, 2015

Nice edition, I like that a lot of the post I made in the weekly update made it in the news. Thanks 630 and Cody 🤗

* - Obimoto - Jul 21, 2015

(Jul 21, 2015 12:04 PM)iHydra Wrote:  Thanks for catching that, fixed it.

No problem, y'all have been doin a great job with tha news, keep it up...