Back Doors, Security and DRM

• Tell Us How You Want to Modify and Repair the Devices in Your Life

  Have you tried modifying, repairing, or diagnosing a product but bumped into encryption, a password requirement, or some other technological roadblock that got in the way? EFF wants your stories to help us fight for your right to get around those obstacles.

  Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes it illegal to circumvent certain digital access controls (also called “technological protection measures” or “TPMs”). Because software code can be copyrightable, this gives product manufacturers a legal tool to control the way you interact with the increasingly powerful devices in your life. While Section 1201’s stated goal was to prevent copyright infringement, the law has been used against artists, researchers, technicians, and other product owners, even when their reasons for circumventing manufacturers’ digital locks were completely lawful.

 

• Nitro Software user database put up for sale on dark web

         

           

  A group that uses the name Shiny Hunters appears to have put up a database exfiltrated during a data breach of ASX-listed Nitro Software, a firm that offers a service to create, edit and sign PDFs and digital documents, on the dark web for sale.

     

• Nitro breach was probably through cloud, claims cyber sec firm

         

           

  ASX-listed Nitro Software, a firm that had its origins in Melbourne and offers a service to create, edit and sign PDFs and digital documents, appears to have suffered a data breach through cyber criminals gaining access to the company's cloud environment via a compromise of access tokens, the cyber security firm Cyble has told iTWire.

       

• Why Microsoft has blocked hundreds of sites in Internet Explorer

                   

                     

  Once the site is actually redirected, Microsoft will also show a small banner indicating what steps have been taken, with the notice that “some websites no longer work with Internet Explorer.” There’s also a link to a supplementary webpage that offers just a brief explanation, as well as a link to running Internet Explorer within the new Microsoft Edge.

               

• HS: Vastaamo [cracking] could turn into largest criminal case in Finnish history

                   

                     

  “As for the question of perpetrator, I can’t comment on that in any way. Whether the [cracker] and blackmailer are the same person is another thing we can’t give a solid answer at this point in time,” he stated to Helsingin Sanomat.

• NSA refuses to spell out change to policy for planting backdoors

  America's National Security Agency has dug its heels in and is refusing to provide information to Democrat Senator Ron Wyden as to whether it is still planting backdoors in commercial products as it was found to have done with Juniper Networks in 2015.

• Fancy some contact tracing? That'll be $4.12 million a pop

  It's beginning to look like the Federal Government should avoid anything to do with technology following the revelation on Thursday that $70 million of taxpayers' money was spent on the COVIDSafe app – and only 17 cases were detected through its use.

Android Leftovers

• Android TV gets a Data Saver mode when connected to mobile hotspots (APK Download)

• How to Enable Enhanced Safe Browsing on Chrome for Android

• How to Remotely Control an Android Smartphone

• Raspberry Pi 4 Gets Unofficial Android 11 Port

• Upgrading to Android 11 will break your favourite apps

• Raspberry Pi 4: OmniROM brings Android 11 to the popular single-board computer

• Scrolling screenshots could come to Android in the most unlikely places

• PUBG Mobile not blocked in India yet, still playable on Android

• OnePlus 8T vs. OnePlus 8 Pro: Which should you buy?

My journey to becoming an open source mentor

I was just 16 when I made my first meaningful open source contribution. It was the first code contribution I ever made, and I learned a lot from it. I'm 20 now, and I've been strongly attached to free and open source software (FOSS) ever since. I strive to be a friend to my community colleagues and to help others continue growing, learning, and succeeding. I first heard about FOSS through the Google Code-In contest. I was 16, but I was already learning computer science fundamentals, the C++ programming language, and anything else about computers I could get my hands on. I was very excited about the contest—not just because of the free Google swag, but because it gave me the opportunity to work directly on codebases being used all around the world. I jumped into the contest feet-first and started trying to solve as many open source software tasks as I could in the code, design, documentation, and research.