Microsoft has by its own admission bundled adware with a security update for Windows. The update to the Internet Explorer component of Microsoft Windows pulls in another update containing the adware. The adware creates a banner in Internet Explorer badgering users to upgrade their version of Windows to Windows 10. In order to avoid angering their institutional customers who actually pay for software licenses, this new Microsoft adware checks to see if the machine it is installed on is part of a Microsoft domain before badgering the end user. This move suggests that Microsoft itself is surrendering its own overt actions in the Windows ecosystem to match the the rest of the spammers that dominate the space.
US May Accuse Iran Of Office Computer Infection
There are murmurings that the United States may loudly accuse Iran of being involved in the infection of several office computers with malware. Substantial noise is being attached to the otherwise mundane infection of these office computers because of their physical proximity to systems affecting the operations of a dam in New York State (archived). The incident in question happened in 2013, three years after Microsoft released their first patch against the Stuxnet vulnerability.
Mainstream Media Hyping US Legacy In Iraq: Iraqi Made Chemical Weapons
Numerous stories are saturating mainstream media today heralding the capture of and Iraqi chemist aligned with ISIS/ISIL (archived). A substantial strain of hopium embedded in this coverage is optimism that this might lead to a reduction or perhaps even the end of chemical weapons deployments by ISIS/ISIL. Back in 2003 United States president George W. Bush made the state of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons manufacturing in Iraq a cornerstone of his case for invading Iraq and deposing their government. Thirteen years later Iraq is no longer a country which has gone more than a decade without fielding chemical weapons in anger. There isn't any serious discussion of biological or nuclear weapons being produced any of the new regimes in Iraq yet, but one out of three isn't bad.
"Bitcoin Group" Fiat Mining IPO Withdrawn
After previously reporting satisfaction their IPO came 70% under their goal, the "Bitcoin Group" fiat mining venture has withdrawn their IPO under regulatory pressure according to numerous sources.
FBI Agents Investigated For Misconduct In Lavoy Finicum's Murder While Insisting Slaying Was Justified
The United States Department of "Justice" whose loyal FBI soldiers murdered Lavoy Finicum is continuing to insist the murder of this American hero was justified, even though it has been compelled to open a criminal investigation into several of the FBI Agents who unleashed the fatal hail of bullets on Finicum (archived). The alleged criminal behavior happened as the triggers were being pulled to fire bullets at Finicum, concerns the triggermen firing bullets at Finicum, and involves a conspiracy of the triggermen's FBI comrades in covering up facts about the events of Lavoy Finicum's martyrdom. Naturally the Preets at the Department of "Justice" continue insist the shooting was justified as their own enforcers go feral.
Elon Musk Venture Remotely Diddles Attentive Owner's Vehicle
Elon Musk's Tesla Motors remotely downgraded the firmware on a vehicle owned by attentive owner Jason Hughes. As an attentive vehicle owner Hughes had earlier investigated a firmware update and found information suggesting a new Tesla Model S variant with a larger battery and shared the results of his investigation with the world. In what appears to be a retaliatory move Musk's firm downgraded his vehicle firmware remotely, a move that was subsequently noticed by the attentive Hughes.
New Cross Platform Malware Depends on JVM
Reports are emerging of new cross platform malware that has the potential to affect Windows, OSX, Linux, and Android machines using a single executable (archived). The catch is only machines with a Java runtime are vulnerable to the attacks. The simplest mitigation measure is simply not having a Java execution environment on your computing machine. Java has long been a dubious proposition, for the increased attack surface it presents as well as a portion of the programmers it attracts.
Google Tries Juicing Ad Sales WIth Appeal To Vanity
Advertising giant Google is testing a new ad format to embed in search engine results sold for "self promotion" purposes (archived). Advertising revenue is the fuel that enables Google's adventures in launching small cars at the broad side of city buses at two miles per hour.
Ransomware Comes To OSX Bittorrent Client
Ransomware has come to Apple's OSX through a doctored binary for the Transmission bittorrent client (archived). This is reminiscent of a similar failure by Linux Mint to secure their software distribution pipeline, with the only substantial added step in this case being the ~100 United States dollar expense to register a key with Apple to bypass their "Gatekeeper" check for signed code. Once again pseudo security theater fails to provide actual security.
Leaked Voicemails Show Donald Trump-Clinton Cozy With Liberal Media
A number of leaked voicemails show New York con artist and politician Donald Trump-Clinton's warm, cozy relationship with members of the leftist media. Despite the character Trump-Clinton plays on television presenting an adversarial relationship with the mainstream media, the leaked messages show affection for Trump demonstrated by NBC personalities as diverse as Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Tamron Hall (archived). Continue reading