Monday, February 10, 2014

Hackers Can Take Over A Car For About $20

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/hackers-can-take-over-a-car-for-about-20-2014-2

CTH

Two security researchers have recently created a device that can effectively hack a car.

Although cars function as a closed network, Javier Vazquez-Vidal and Alberto Garcia Illera have taken it upon themselves to show just how easily a hacker can gain control of a vehicle.

The two are planning on presenting their findings at the Black Hat Asia security conference in Singapore.

Andy Greenberg describes the invention for Forbes:

... Spanish security researchers Javier Vazquez-Vidal and Alberto Garcia Illera plan to present a small gadget they built for less than $20 that can be physically connected to a car’s internal network to inject malicious commands affecting everything from its windows and headlights to its steering and brakes. Their tool, which is about three-quarters the size of an iPhone, attaches via four wires to the Controller Area Network or CAN bus of a vehicle, drawing power from the car’s electrical system and waiting to relay wireless commands sent remotely from an attacker’s computer. They call their creation the CAN Hacking Tool, or CHT.

John Hanson, safety manager of Toyota, dismissed these security concerns and told Forbes, “Our focus, and that of the entire auto industry, is to prevent hacking from a remote wireless device outside of the vehicle."

This report comes not long after hackers managed to use a refrigerator to hack a business. As everyday appliances become more technical and outfitted with computer chips, consumers are exposing themselves ever more to cyber vulnerability.

The capability to hack cars seems to take the dangers of hacking to an entirely new and more immediate level.

Vazquez-Vidal and Garcia Illera, like most other security experts, said they ! are not trying to empower the hacking community through their work. Instead, they hope that by addressing such glaring insecurities, car manufacturers will start to pay attention and reinforce the networks present in all cars.

SEE ALSO: A Flaw In Snapchat Lets Hackers Crash Your Phone Remotely

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Blackmagic now shipping its Production Camera 4K for $1,000 less than expected

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/10/blackmagic-production-camera-4k-now-shipping-1000-less/

So far, all of Blackmagic Design's cinema cameras have suffered through various shipping delays, and the new RAW-capable Production Camera 4K is no exception. But if you plunked four grand down to order one quite awhile ago, there's a double-shot of good news: it's finally shipping out and you'll be getting $1,000 back for your troubles. The 4K super-35 sensor, global-shutter equipped model is now priced (permanently) at $2,995 instead of $3,995, making it the cheapest 4K pro cameras on the market right now. That may change when Panasonic's 4K Lumix GH4 starts shipping for (likely) less money and with footage that, while not RAW, also looks very promising. Considering that there were exactly zero sub-$3,000 4K cinema cameras on the market a week ago, though, it's nice to now have the dilemma of which to pick.

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Via: No Film School

Source: Blackmagic Design

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TimeStats Tracks How Much Time You Spend on Web Sites

Source: http://lifehacker.com/timestats-tracks-how-much-time-you-spend-on-web-sites-1518505498

TimeStats Tracks How Much Time You Spend on Web Sites

Chrome: We keep reading about how much time we spend watching YouTube videos or goofing off on social networks, but if you really want to find out, timeStats is the easiest way to get actual figures in Chrome. And you can impose restrictions on yourself too.

Setup is simple. You can log into Facebook to share your timeStats on your wall, but this is optional so feel free to skip it. A basic pie chart of statistics is delivered through a dropdown dialog box from the extension's toolbar icon, showing your browsing patterns. Detailed stats are available as well, which show you almost anything you might want to know about your internet usage.

But the cool part of timeStats comes in the "Alerts" section, where you can set a limit on certain web sites. So for example, if you spend too much time on Facebook, you can set it so that Facebook can be accessed only for one hour in a day—beyond that hour, timeStats will automatically block it. There's also an option to go back to the site for another hour after rewriting a chunk of hard text, or guilt-tripping yourself with a notification timer that monitors the minutes spent on Facebook in a day.

Currently, timeStats is restricted only to your usage of Google Chrome locally—if you use Chrome across two different machines, it won't sync your stats. And it doesn't track how you are using your computer apart from that. For such detailed insights, you will need to turn to the more powerful RescueTime to analyze your entire personal computing habits.

timeStats | Chrome Web Store via I Love Free Software

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Sigma's dp Quattro cameras boast higher-resolution sensors and an extra-wide design

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/10/sigma-dp-quattro-cameras/

No, you're not looking at a projector -- it's the dp2 Quattro, the first of three cameras in Sigma's new dp Quattro lineup. That unusually wide, almost cinematic body is meant to provide a more balanced feel in the hand than the compact design of its predecessors. However, the real centerpiece is underneath: every camera has a new version of the three-layer, color-rich Foveon X3 sensor that takes higher resolution photos (20 megapixels versus 15.3) while improving both performance and battery life. Sigma has also made a leap to a faster TRUE III image processor. Unusually, there's also an optical viewfinder available for purists, which should work well with the fixed lenses. The dp2 Quattro will come with a 30mm f/2.8 general purpose lens, while the dp1 and dp3 will respectively carry 19mm wide-angle and 50mm telephoto optics. The company hasn't said just when the Quattro cameras will ship, but history suggests that they won't be cheap.

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Source: Sigma

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Sunday, February 09, 2014

Do You Ever Click On In-App Advertisements?

Source: http://gizmodo.com/do-you-ever-click-on-in-app-advertisements-1519033211

Do You Ever Click On In-App Advertisements?

"I'll just ignore the ads," you tell yourself whenever you choose a free app instead of paying for the no-ad version. But nobody can really ignore those ads—they're splattered all across your screen. And somebody's gotta be clicking on them. Is it you? You can tell us.

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