[Hydra]

The edition you are currently reading is the 255th edition of the HF News. To read any older editions of the HF News, please go here.

Omnicoin Bounces Back
After heavy concerns over the fate of Omnicoin following Bittrex’s threat of removal, we are pleased to say it remains listed and is now back better than ever. The OMC Dev Team has just implemented their OMC plugin to the forum where you can add an address to your profile for verification and track its history. In addition, the OMC Award has been reintroduced at a special price of $10 OMC - cheaper than any award in HF history. Furthermore, there are plans to integrate it further with a new signature sales system where members can offer their signature and when purchased, it is automatically implemented and removed when expired. >>Source 1 >>Source 2 >>Source 3

Reputation Purge Imminent
A warning to all users was issued by Omniscient on the reputation purge to be expected sometime September. All reputations, both given and received, from Closed accounts will be omitted from member reputation counts. If you wish a scary preview of your reconciled reputation, check out a userscript developed by ĸondaх. >>Source

Gift Cards Reintroduced
The Gift Card Restriction has been removed from the Disallowed Blackhat Activity help document to allow them as a permitted form of payment for onsite transactions between members. >>Source

User News

• Aggron received 1,000 positive reputation.
  
• Dr. Hobo has made 10,000 posts.
  
• D3xus is no longer a Mentor.
  
• Hexicidal has made 10,000 posts.
  
• adampelletgun is no longer a Mentor.
  

Bans*

• No bans were reported this week.
  

Vacations

• Αnime took a vacation.
  
• Pow took a long vacation.
  
• Spyro The Dragon took a long vacation.
  

Closures

• MisterPonzi was closed.
  
• ClarkTheCoder was closed upon request.
  
• Teh Afro was closed.
  
• Raz3d was closed.
  

Repfucks

• DamienVC was repfucked.
  
• Prince of Seoul was repfucked.
  
• Anime was repfucked.
  

Awards

• xitoxic is a Graphics Master.
  
• Cibor is a Businessman.
  
• Arrow is DaBomb.
  
• ӍeshCollider received the Omnicoin award.
  
  

* - As of the Friday prior to release.

Announcement Threads

---Reputation Purge - Omniscient
---In this thread, Omniscient is announcing a reputation purge. All reputation given by closed Hack Forums members will be deleted in the near future.

---Gift Cards - Omniscient
---Omniscient has decided to allow gift cards to be used as a payment option when selling products or services once again.

---Signature Sales - Omniscient
---Omniscient is announcing a new feature that will automate the selling of signature slots.

---OMC Award Special - Omniscient
---Omniscient has added the Omnicoin award to Hack Forums again. The award has a reduced price for a limited time.

Entertaining Threads

--- What's your IQ? Take This quick 20 question test - Scar™
---Have you always wondered what your IQ score is? Take this quick test and find the answer!

Member Feedback Threads

---APG's Feedback | END OF AN ERA | 5 YEARS ON HF - adampelletgun
---The user adampelletgun provides us with his opinion on Hack Forums and announces that he will leave shortly. He will be missed.

---I was asked, "What purpose does HackForums serve for you?" - Grin
---The user Grin created a thread expressing his feelings about Hack Forums.

Informational Threads

---[DETAILED] Complete Anonymity/OPSEC Guide - zer0
---A very useful and in-depth guide about anonimity by zer0. Read this guide if you are interested in online anonimity.

Contests & Giveaways

---10 OMC AWARDS - Tell me why you like HF! - KillαMuvz
---The user KillαMuvz is hosting a contest where 10 winners will receive the OMC award.

[Hydra]

Do you enjoy reading the HF News? Do you think others might enjoy reading the HF News? Do you want to show your support for what we do?
Wear our Support Signature and show us you care! Numerous members don't even know we exist, make a change!

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/1FnhESq]

2nd
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3rd
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4th
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Code (Click to View)

1st {Large}

Code

[align=center][url=http://bit.ly [WARNING: potentially infected]/1FnhESq][img]https://i.imgur.com/rIEO5r0.gif[/img][/url][/align]

1st {Small}

Code

[align=center][url=http://bit.ly [WARNING: potentially infected]/1FnhESq][img=500x150]https://i.imgur.com/rIEO5r0.gif[/img][/url][/align]

2nd

Code

[align=center][url=http://bit.ly [WARNING: potentially infected]/1FnhESq][img]https://i.imgur.com/POVfq7u.png[/img][/url][/align]

3rd

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[align=center][url=http://bit.ly [WARNING: potentially infected]/1FnhESq][img]https://i.imgur.com/bTTz7WE.png[/img][/url][/align]

4th

Code

[align=center][url=http://bit.ly [WARNING: potentially infected]/1FnhESq][img]https://i.imgur.com/pdoOihY.png[/img][/url][/align]

Group Leadership Changes

• ๖ۣۜNex is now the owner of Debug, congratulations.
  
• TRH4CK is no longer a leader of Specialists.
  
• W̴̵̶̷̸̸̷̶̵̴̨̧̧̨̛̛̠̲͇αя∂σω is now a leader of Debug.
  
• Dr.Watson is now a leader of Debug.
  

Current Open Group Recruitments

• >> [Official] Debug Recruitment - Programmers & Coder - Open
  
• [OFFICIAL] Axiom - Xbox - Official Recruitment
  
• [OFFICIAL] Axiom - Playstation - Official Recruitment
  
• Crypto | Official Cryptocurrency Group | Creation Team Recruitment
  
• Echo - Official Group Recruitment
  
• Axiom - Official Recruitment Thread Phase 2
  
• Specialists | Official Group | General Recruitment | Opened Again for Limited Time
  
• Writers - Wiki Team Recruitment
  
• Titans | Official Recruitment
  
• [Official Group Royalty] > Looking for Developers & Designers <
  

Group Related Buy-ins & Informational Threads

• Titans | Official Group
  

Important Group Related Threads

• [FOR SALE] AnimeFAN! Offical User Group
  
• L'appel du vide FOR SALE
  

Site Statistics

• Total (Click to View)
  • Posts: 47,664,298 ( +0.21% )
    
  • Threads: 3,308,596 ( +0.29% )
    
  • Members: 2,856,654 ( +0.31% )

• Average (Click to View)
  • Daily Posts: 14,003.54 ( -0.02% )
    
  • Daily Threads: 972.05 ( +0.15% )
    
  • Daily New Members: 839.27 ( +0.15% )
    
  • Posts Per Member: 16.69 ( -0.06% )
    
  • Replies Per Thread: 13.41 ( -0.07 )

Ban Statistics

• Last Week's Bans (Click to View)
  • Staff Bans: 51
    • ... Change from Last Edition: -40
  • Vacation Bans: 20
    • ... Change from Last Edition: +8
  • Combined Bans: 71
    • ... Change from Last Edition: -32

• Total Bans (Click to View)
  • Staff Bans: 808
    • ... Change from Last Edition: +51
  • Vacation Bans: 106
    • ... Change from Last Edition: +20
  • Combined Bans: 914
    • ... Change from Last Edition: +71

Forum Counts

• Tab Counts (Click to View)
  • Notable Sections
    • Lounge Threads: 434,607 ( +0.20% )
      
    • Lounge Posts: 6,157,616 ( +0.22% )
      
    • RANF Threads: 47,225 ( +0.25% )
      
    • RANF Posts: 614,542 ( +0.31% )
  • General
    • Threads: 706,276 ( +0.23% )
      
    • Posts: 10,434,181 ( +0.25% )
  • Hacking
    • Threads: 651,321 ( +0.22% )
      
    • Posts: 5,709,305 ( +0.25% )
  • Computing
    • Threads: 196,310 ( +0.23% )
      
    • Posts: 1,668,654 ( +0.18% )
  • Coding
    • Threads: 156,662 ( +0.16% )
      
    • Posts: 1,353,649 ( +0.14% )
  • Gaming
    • Threads: 411,189 ( +0.27% )
      
    • Posts: 4,233,986 ( +0.26% )
  • Groups
    • Threads: 6,401 ( +0.34% )
      
    • Posts: 280,465 ( +0.24% )
  • Webmaster
    • Threads: 75,197 ( +0.23% )
      
    • Posts: 547,267 ( +0.21% )
  • Graphics
    • Threads: 125,762 ( +0.13% )
      
    • Posts: 946,415 ( +0.11% )
  • Marketplace
    • Threads: 829,281 ( +0.27% )
      
    • Posts: 7,757,582 (+0.24% )
  • Money
    • Threads: 126,867 ( +0.18% )
      
    • Posts: 1,691,817 ( +0.17% )

Membership Counts

• Groups (Click to View)
  • Null
    • 34 Members ( -13 )
  • Specialists
    • 32 Members ( +1 )
  • Red Lions
    • 13 Members ( ~ )
  • Archive
    • 26 Members ( -1 )
  • Crypto
    • 61 Members ( -1 )
  • L'appel du Vide
    • 129 Members ( -3 )
  • The Brotherhood
    • 56 Members ( -3 )
  • Echo
    • 61 Members ( -6 )
  • AnimeFAN!
    • 76 Members ( +2 )
  • Pirates
    • 236 Members ( -8 )
  • Axiom
    • 48 Members ( -18 )
  • Debug
    • 20 Members ( -17 )
  • Titans
    • 27 Members ( +2 )
  • Royalty
    • 14 Members ( ~ )

New Headers
HF News has a new set of headers. We'd love to hear some feedback regarding them.

Fitness/Health Section
It's been requested many times so I'm actually considering it now. What do you think of a Fitness or Health section? It would most likely consist of one or two articles, a few tips or facts, and possibly more. It'd benefit the general public and wouldn't be only for people who work out constantly.

It's September!
Have a wonderful week and enjoy life. Your life is limited, make every second count!

[Hydra]

Tor Vulnerability Leads to Servers' Demise
In a recent whitepaper published in the last few months, security researchers and forensic analysts have determined a way to, with great accuracy, deanonymize Tor traffic and gain the ability to detect which services are being accessed by simply passively sniffing traffic on a Tor Entrance Node. With an 88% accuracy measurement, the researchers can, with only the entrance node, determine which Tor hidden services you are accessing. With this new attack knowledge, several 3-letter organizations such as the FBI and NSA have been actively monitoring known illegal Tor sites, such as those distributing child pornography, drugs, and other illegal items or information. Large and well-known services like Agora have recently taken down their servers temporarily while this vulnerability can be fixed, but small-time sites have been taken down by the FBI in astounding numbers. Despite the fact that the developers at Tor have somewhat down-played this attack, it remains a serious concern for citizens who desire to maintain their anonymity.

Apple iOS Ins0mnia Vulnerability
The Apple iOS application background restrictions generally terminate applications after 3 minutes of remaining in the background. This is due to an inherent security flaw that would allow applications to 'eavesdrop' on users' activity. The nature of naming conventions has dubbed a new vulnerability "ins0mnia," which is defined as an inability to sleep. True to this definition, the ins0mnia vulnerability allows applications to remain 'awake' for an unlimited amount of time by leveraging a vulnerability in the background restriction itself. In a video demonstration by FireEye Inc. (which can be found here) shows a demo application being launched and continually sending location data to a server. However, the application is then supposedly terminated by swiping up on the application from the background menu. Despite this, it continues to send information to the server and reportedly continues to do so without timeout restrictions. This is a potentially dangerous vulnerability that affects even non-jailbroken iPhones and other i-devices.

Ashley Madison Offers Half a Million Dollars for the Hackers
As we have all no doubt heard by now, the website designed to allow married people to have an affair, http://AshelyMadison.com, was recently hacked and had their entire user database with millions of users, emails, passwords, and other sensitive information leaked. With the repercussions ranging from airlines giving away trips to repair marriages destroyed, to hundreds of religious leaders resigning because their names were found among millions, it is obvious that Ashley Madison would like someone to hang for this attack. For this reason, they have offered a reward of $500,000 USD to anyone who can provide information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the hackers, who gathered the data over years of attacks.

Zeus Is Back In A New Flavor
Zeus (one of the world's most popular banking trojans) is back with a new flavor, code name "Sphinx", it is bringing the famous banking trojan back onto the market. At one point in time being the most popular trojans kits one could buy on the darkweb, Zeus made its creators and users millions before security updates and joint raids shut it partially down. Now "Sphinx" which is targeting Vista and 7 computers adds new features including, the ability to use their victims as SOCKS proxies and steal digital certificates. The base package is retailing for $500 usd, the best bet for protection is keeping your system patched and not using IE. >>Source

Macro Based Attacks Are Back
Macro (small scripts that automate a task) based attacks used to be very prevalent in the industry, however they saw a huge decline with Office 2007 disabling them by default. Now if a hacker wants to infect with macros he has to convince his victim to enable them in settings, how ever the rise in popularity of a once IT only tool has caused a revival in these attack. AutoIt(a program that lets you right macros to do almost anything) was once only used by IT professionals, but now with more people becoming tech savvy it is widely used and often whitelisted at companies. One such attack has the target download the AutoIt script which then downloads a payload, activates it and disables security features. To stay safe make sure that macros are disabled or if you must use them that they are from trusted sources only. With these types of attacks climbing to around 8000 a day it is safe to say that macro attacks are back. >>Source

Ins0mnia: Deathless IOS Malware
A dangerous new flaw has been discovered by the FireEye team, as you can guess from the name it never lets an application "sleep". When a user force closes an app they generally think that it is closed, the new exploit lets the malicious application keep running in the background fooling the user into thinking it was closed, as it does not show up in the task launcher. Apple confirmed that the exploit works on both jailbroken and normal devices, as of patch 8.4.1 it is patched. If you have not already done so update to the latest version. >>Source

Call of Duty's Nuketown Map May Return Yet Again in Black Ops 3
Treyarch has been listening to their fans and reading all the tweets about bringing Nuketown back in Black Ops 3 and by the looks of it, it's worked. This is according to a listing for the Digital Deluxe edition of game on the Brazilian PlayStation Network that has since been modified (but was spotted by fan site MP1st). It references a bonus "NUK3TOWN" map that buyers will receive. Nuketown was introduced back in Black Ops I, it was a small-scale map set in a suburban neighborhood designed as a sort of nuclear testing ground. It then returned as Nuketown 2025 for Black Ops II, but rather than being included as a standard map, it was offered as a preorder bonus and incentive for picking up a launch copy or a special edition. Nuketown also made appearances in Black Ops II's Zombies mode and Black Ops: Declassified, and it was popular enough to warrant a gametype bearing its name in Black Ops. >>Source

Destiny PS4/Xbox One Will Soon Require 60 GB, Even If You Don't Buy Taken King
The next Destiny update will be taking up around 18GB alone just for the update, but there's a lot more. All PlayStation 4 and Xbox One owners will soon need at least 60 GB of free space on their hard drives to play Destiny. Developer Bungie has announced that the mandatory update going live on September 8 for all Destiny players--even those who don't buy The Taken King--will increase the game's total file size. While next-gen needs about 60GB, the PS3 and Xbox 360 will need just over 30GB of hard drive space for the future Destiny updates. >>Source

Xbox One Getting Another $150 Controller, This One From Razer
Razer looks to go toe to toe with Microsoft in the form of who makes the better controller. Much like the $150 Elite controller Microsoft unveiled for the Xbox One at this year's E3, Razer today announced a $150 Xbox One controller of its own. Its' Called the Razer Wildcat, Razer describes it as a "pro-gamer-validated, tournament-grade" controller. It adds four buttons to the top and rear of the device, which otherwise sports the usual assortment of two analog sticks, a directional pad, four face buttons, two triggers, and two shoulder buttons. >>Source

Gaming Video Of the Week

Google Makes It Official: Chrome Will Block Auto-playing Flash Ads From Sept 1
Google has a set a date of September 1 for when its Chrome browser will block all Flash content that isn't "central to the webpage." Basically, "essential" Flash content (such as embedded video players) are allowed to automatically run, while non-essential Flash content, much of that being advertisements, will be automatically paused. Users can right-click over the security-challenged plugin and select "Run this" if they want to unfreeze an ad. Otherwise, the Flash files will remain suspended in a grey box, unable to cause any harm nor any annoyance. The Flash-blocking feature was initially rolled out to a beta version of Chrome earlier this year. At the time, Google's Tommi Li claimed that the reason for the blocking was battery life, thanks to auto-playing Flash ads consuming a large amount of CPU time. >>Source

AT&T Will Receive Nearly $428 Million From The Government to Expand Rural Broadband
AT&T will be expanding availability of its broadband Internet service to millions of rural American homes with the $427.7 million the telephone giant will get in annual, ongoing support from the federal government's Connect America Fund. AT&T will get the money over six years with an option for a seventh, potentially bringing the total to about $3 billion, according to Ars Technica. The fund, which draws from surcharges on Americans' phone bills, will enable AT&T to deliver broadband at speeds of at least 10 Mbps for downloads and 1 Mbps uploads in rural areas where the cost of broadband deployment might otherwise be prohibitive. The FCC predicts this will bring broadband to at least 2.2 million customers, apparently assuming an average of two people for each home and business. >>Source

Tesla Model S P85D Breaks Consumer Reports’ Ratings System
Apparently Tesla's new car is so good, it literally broke the Consumer Reports scale. Tesla Motors Inc.’s all-wheel-drive version of the battery-powered Model S, the P85D, earned a 103 out of a possible 100 in an evaluation by Consumer Reports magazine. Editors were forced to adjust the scoring system, leaving the electric car with a mere 100 out of 100. According to a statement made by Consumer Reports magazine, the all-wheel-drive Tesla Model S P85D sedan performed better in their tests than any other previous car ever had. >>Source

Preserving Ancient Artifacts with a $27 Camera
For the past year, ISIL has been destroying ancient buildings and artifacts that date back at least 3,000 years ago. The two most recent attacks was on the ancient Assyrian city, Nimrud(Located now in Northern Iraq), where ISIL used sledge hammers and bulldozers to destroy ancient artifacts such as the Assyrian Winged Bull, and now on the Temple of Baalshamin which is located in Syria. The temple was nearly 2,000 years old and ISIL destroyed everything. Harvard and Oxford universities teamed up about five years ago on a project with the goal to record ancient artifacts and buildings using 3D cameras that, in bulk production, would cost only $27 each. With the increase of destruction in the Middle East region, they have started production early and are on the path of distributing 5,000 cameras by this December. These cameras will allow archaeologists to replicate ancient artifacts and preserve the history of many tribes, ethnic groups, and progression of this world. >>Source

Social Media Causing and Resolving Depression
Although adolescent depression is decreasing, social media provides a gateway to an increase of bullying which is now known as 'cyberbullying'. In a recent study, about 28% have said they were cyberbullied while 15% confessed they bullied another party online. They found a correlation between depression and cyberbullying after comparing multiple studies with each other. But, not only is social media causing depression and anxiety, it also provides a way for depressed or anxious teens to see and understand they are not the only one being affected. They can now relate with others and this helps them as time passes by. >>Source

[Hydra]

Every week - assuming we get enough submissions - the HF News will feature the best submitted battlestation.
Send iHydra a message by clicking here and including an imgur link of your battlestation!

ThatMumboJumbo's Battlestation

(Click to View)

Click Above to Send In Your Art Gallery Submission

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[Roger Waters]

I vouch for this week's news edition, glws.

[Envy]

There seems to be a lack of great edition replies here, everyone must hate it.

[Vobe]

Only read a small bit of this edition but so far so good.

Keep it up!

[Jordana Brewster]

Nice edition :D Loving the new banners

[Hydra]

There seems to be a lack of great edition replies here, everyone must hate it.

Don't let the timestamps of the thread fool you :P

We work on the final thread in our subforum and then move it here when it's done. Usually the first post is the proper timestamp, or around then at the very least.

[๖ۣۜFazzer]

Nice edition, got some good information. Thank you team.

[Ahri]

COD news but no news on bf4 night operation maps?

[CRT]

Good job guys, as always. ✌

[Wires]

Guess I'll take this as my intro to HFNT. Was a great experience being amongst those who write the HF News, and I had to cover two sections.

Until Saturday 😏 🤫

[Armada]

Every week I see some awesome battle station.
I gotta stop wasting money on contests and save up for a damn proper work station like these I see every week. 😑

[Hydra]

COD news but no news on bf4 night operation maps?

We cannot cover everything and ultimately, it's the journalist's choice of selection. On top of that, Black Op 3(and other upcoming games) will take the spotlight over any other game that has been released already. It just makes more sense.

---

Every week I see some awesome battle station.
I gotta stop wasting money on contests and save up for a damn proper work station like these I see every week. 😑

I hate doing Battlestations because I go through a bunch of them and have to decide which looks best but they're all good and pweetttyyy 😭