For months, there’s been a steady trickle of sites getting hacked, followed by their usernames and passwords being passed around publicly on the Web. It’s a real and growing problem that’s just going to get worse. More »
Well, it looks like Microsoft is taking those warnings about WebGL pretty seriously. The company has decided not to support the web-based 3D standard because it wouldn’t be able to pass security muster. Highest on the list of concerns is that WebGL opens up a direct line from the internet to a system’s GPU. To make matters worse, holes and bugs may crop up that are platform or video card specific, turning attempts to plug holes in its defense into a game of whack-a-mole — with many players of varying reliability. Lastly Microsoft, like security firm Context, has found current solutions for protecting against DoS attacks rather unsatisfying. Lack of support in Internet Explorer won’t necessarily kill WebGL and, as it matures, Microsoft may change its tune — but it’s still a pretty big blow for all us of hoping the next edition of Crysis would be browser-based.
Update: As is usually the case Apple and the Windows folks are on opposite sides of this one. In fact, the Cupertino crew plans to bring WebGL to iOS 5 with one very strange restriction — it will only be available to iAd developers. Now, chances are it will eventually be opened up in mobile Safari for everyone, but for the moment it seems browser-based 3D graphics will be limited to advertisements on the iPhone. Still, that’s another big name throwing its support behind the burgeoning standard.
[Thanks, Greg]
Microsoft decides to pass on WebGL over security concerns (Update: iOS 5 supports WebGL, sort of)) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jun 2011 01:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Lulzsec, that merry band of hackers responsible for raids on Bethesda Softworks, the US Senate, Sony, terrorists, and rival hackers, has bagged maybe its biggest fish yet: the CIA. [Updated] More »
Everything can be hacked — that’s an important detail to keep in mind as we start cramming wireless radios into our bodies attached to medical implants. Researchers have been working on ways to protect devices like pacemakers from ne’er-do-wells looking to cause, not just e-harm, but physical injury or even death. A new system developed jointly by MIT and UMass is much more sophisticated that earlier solutions, can be used with existing implants, and is worn outside the body allowing it to be removed in the event of an emergency. The shield, as it’s called, acts as a sort of medical firewall, protecting implants from unauthorized access — doctors send encrypted instructions to it which are decoded and relayed to device, while it blocks any signals not using the secret key. All that’s left to do is figure out what sort of person would mess with someone’s defibrillator.
Researchers shield implants from hackers with wireless charm of protection originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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They hacked Facetime onto the iPhone 3GS, and now they’ve done it again — the iPhoneIslam team’s bringing cellular calling and texting to your jailbroken iPad 3G. We haven’t been able to test it for ourselves quite yet, but the new PhoneIt-iPad app should be available through the team’s Cydia repository right now, and it’ll cost $20 to bring out the full potential of your slate. And with that, it’s only a matter of time before iPad sidetalking becomes a meme.
PhoneIt-iPad available via Cydia now, claims it’ll turn your iPad 3G into a phone (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 04:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This must be the season of the hacking witch as we’ve now seen yet another company’s online security walls breached. Independent UK games developer Codemasters, responsible for titles like Dirt 3 and Overlord, has reported that its website was hacked on the third of June, exposing the names, addresses (both physical and email), birthdays, phone numbers, Xbox gamer tags, biographies, and passwords of its registered users. Payment information wasn’t compromised, but when you consider that almost everything else was, that feels like hollow consolation. For its part, Codemasters says it took the website offline as soon as the breach was detected and a subsequent investigation has revealed the number of affected users to be in the tens of thousands. Those who might have been affected directly are being emailed with penitent apologies, while the rest of us are being pointed to the company’s Facebook page while its web portal is kept offline.
Codemasters website hacked, ‘tens of thousands’ of personal accounts compromised originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 04:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Does anybody actually enjoy the laborious process of trying out clothes? The sheer physical effort, the risk of breaking a sweat… it’s just not for us. We’re much more comfortable with virtual reality fitting rooms, which is where Microsoft’s Kinect motion camera has found yet another raison for its etre. Razorfish, the folks who already impressed us with some neat Kinect hacking, now have a new shopping platform that’s said to actually wrap clothes around your frame and thereby provide a 3D preview of what you and they would look like together. The current iteration only shows some giddy ladies exploring the wide world of handbags, but they do look suitably impressed with the system. There are also sharing options via QR codes and NFC, plus the obligatory social networking tie-ins. Skip after the break to see the KinectShop on video.
Continue reading KinectShop concept is ready to televise your shopping revolution (video)
KinectShop concept is ready to televise your shopping revolution (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 03:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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LulzSec is having a busy few days. Earlier today we reported that the hacker group had managed to gain access to the porn website pron.com. In the process, they grabbed over 25,000 user logins, 55 admin accounts, and a bunch of .mil and .gov logins. Now LulzSec is teasing another hack, and this time it’s […]
The long arm of the law may have finally caught up with some of the hackers behind the recent (and seemingly endless) PSN outage. Authorities in Spain say they have arrested three members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous and seized at least one computer used in the attacks on Sony. Those arrested are believed to have been important in coordinating the group’s activities in the country and to have distributed the Loic DDoS tool to others. Now, of course, the Spanish government will have to be on high alert — if we know one thing about Anonymous, it’s that it is not trigger shy when it comes to exacting revenge.
Three suspected members of Anonymous arrested in Spain originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Well, Lulz Sec may have overstated its level of success by declaring it had stolen 1,000,000 passwords from Sony Pictures — turns out the number is closer to 37,500. Now granted, any breach of user data is unacceptable, but when a hacker collective’s haul is less than four percent of what it claimed, everyone can breathe a little easier. The troublemakers may have made off with email addresses, phone numbers, and passwords, but Sony says no credit card or social security numbers were compromised. The company issued a statement, which you’ll find after the break, and is working with the FBI to track down those responsible. Hopefully this finally closes the door on Sony’s security woes, and we can go back to bringing you stories about Angry Birds ports and Kinect hacks.
Continue reading Sony Pictures breach affects 37,500 users, far less than Lulz Security claimed
Sony Pictures breach affects 37,500 users, far less than Lulz Security claimed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jun 2011 02:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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