Hasta La Gadget!

Upcoming third-person action game Watch Dogs is set in a near-future environment modeled on Chicago, a city that’s overseen by computers that can be manipulated. And while the game has some instances of fantastical hacking perpetrated by main character Aiden Pearce, Ubisoft’s creative team is also working with security firm Kaspersky Lab to bring an air of realism to the game’s hacking themes.

“They have really hardcore experts there on hacking. We send them some of our designs and we ask them [for] feedback on it, and it’s interesting to see what gets back,” Ubisoft Montreal senior producer Dominic Guay told our sister site, Joystiq. “Sometimes they say, ‘Yeah, that’s possible, but change that word,’ or, ‘That’s not the way it works.'” Check out the full piece right here.

Along with a new Assassin’s Creed game, Ubisoft is bringing Watch Dogs to next-gen consoles this year (as well as current-gen and PC), leading its next-gen push.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD

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Source: Joystiq

On Monday, Anonymous and various extremist Islamic hacking collectives announced their OpUSA mission, which was a planned cyberattack against nine big-name US agencies/institutions that the hackers wanted to take down. The attack was announced in a manifesto of sorts on Pastebin, which you can read here if poor grammar is of no bother to you. Not surprisingly, the attack appears to have fizzled out with little effect.

The OpUSA cyberattack was set to take place on May 7, which has come and gone for most of those in the US, and thus far no reports have surfaced regarding cyberattacks against the intended targets, among which was the Pentagon, NSA, FBI, the White House’s website, Capital One, Bank of America, and many more banks. A YouTube video was also specified as a target.

YouTube hosted a video titled “Innocence of Muslims,” which Islamist hacking collective Izz al-Din Qassam Cyber Fighters would remove from the website, said Anonymous. Several other Islamic hacking collectives were also specified in the cyberattack’s announcement. For all the grand talk, however, little came of it and websites were by-and-large unaffected.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement earlier this week akin to an amused pat on the head, stating that the attack, at the most, would temporarily disrupt websites and nothing else. According to Mashable, the Honolulu Police Department and one hundred or so obscure small businesses had their websites hacked. That took place on May 6, however, and may have been unrelated.

[via Mashable]

Anonymous OpUSA cyberattack plan goes out with a fizzle is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week the folks at famed hack CyanogenMod have pushed their customized Android system over to the T-Mobile variant of the Samsung GALAXY S 4. This comes after some controversy over the idea that the team would cease working with Samsung devices after finding difficulty with Samsung’s Exynos processor software and builds earlier this year. As the AT&T version of the software was shown to be working earlier this month, now so too do we see the T-Mobile variant active.

CyanogenMod 10.1 is the version being pushed to the newest Android devices on the block, this bringing a variant of Google’s Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean along with its software features such as Google Now. The CyanogenMod team of developers works to bring a customized system to devices that are rooted, this meaning they’re hacked and able to be modified by 3rd party systems. Android has been notoriously “hackable” since inception, this part of Google’s open source intentions with the mobile software.

The software included in the CyanogenMod build has been influential to many software builds since it first arrived on the scene several years ago, including Google’s own source build. CyanogenMod developers have also been incepted into hardware and software companies across the board in the past several years, their influence seen on devices of all types. Head CyanogenMod man Steve Kondik recently left a job at Samsung, continuing to pursue 3rd party work and the development of the ROM.

The Samsung GALAXY S 4 is either available at or is headed to each of the major mobile retailers in the United States and is making its spread abroad here in the Spring of 2013. This device joins the Samsung Galaxy Note II and the rest of the Samsung Galaxy Tab tablets family as the brand continues to strengthen with a common “nature” theme in both hardware and software – curved edges have served Samsung well enough that the wave will move forward through the year to the next release as well, without a doubt. Expect the Samsung Galaxy Note III sooner than later!

Samsung GALAXY S 4 ROM CyanogenMod 10.1 spreads to T-Mobile variant is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

As the Samsung GALAXY S 4 sees its first public bootloader unlock today, so too does it see the final confirmation that earlier reports that famed hack CyanogenMod would not be coming to the handset. In a push to inform the masses that the smartphone would indeed be supported by the hacker team, head developer Steve “Cyanogen” Kondik revealed to Google+ the screenshot you see below, saying how lovely it was to be running. It’s not clear at the moment if all versions of the GALAXY S 4 will be supported.

The version of the Samsung GALAXY S 4 you’re seeing here hacked and modded with CyanogenMod is from T-Mobile. The AT&T iteration of the phone was the one seen with an unlocked bootloader earlier today. While one modification is certainly done at a different difficulty level than the other, users can assume that one will be compatible with the other relatively soon.

The original note on the subject of CyanogenMod not working with the GALAXY S 4 seems to have come from a developer who was ill-informed. As it stands, the CyanogenMod team will be bringing the most popular ROM in the world to smartphones using Samsung’s Exynos processor for some time to come, the same being true of those working with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors as well.

The CyanogenMod rom continues to grow in popularity here through 2013 as it reaches version 10.1, this including Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and additional modifications unavailable to the basic build of Google’s mobile operating system. This modification is available to any Android owner whose device is supported and whose willing to unlock their device without fear of being kicked from customer support at their local carrier. Know what you’re getting into before you move forth!

[via Android Community]

GALAXY S 4 runs CyanogenMod 10.1 in final hack rumor debunk is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week an arrest was made in Spain of a man suspected of taking part in a major hacker attack that earlier this year attacked the organization known as Spamhaus. The Spamhaus Project attack was reported as one that would have an epic scale, said by the spam group themselves to have slowed the internet due to support by many high-ranking assistant webpages. It was later contested as a smaller attack than suggested by Spamhaus, but the results remain: arrests are being made.

The arrest made this week was made in response to the DDoS attack made in March and took place in Barcelona based on a warrant that covered what appears to be the entirety or Europe. The capture of the man who is at the moment remaining anonymous is a 35-year-old Dutchman and is expected to be transfered to the Netherlands relatively soon.

The attack in March has since been claimed by several companies that’d been previously flagged by Spamhaus in association with spam or otherwise unfriendly hacking activities. According to a source speaking with PC World, the arrest has been made on the top spokesperson for the group said to be responsible for the attacks, the Stophaus Movement, created to protest Spamhaus’ authority in Europe. At the time, this spokesperson said that his involvement in the project was non-existent, suggesting Stophaus members from China and Russia were to blame.

Have a peek at the timeline below for more information on the attacks from earlier this year ans stay tuned to SlashGear as we follow the fallout through the future. And make sure you’re safe from all the spam and the hacks as well – they’re nothing to mess with.

Hacker attack arrest pins Spamhaus incident on Dutchman is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.