We look at the hard numbers of the biggest sector in the tech industry, have a skeptical discussion around YouTube coming to the aide content creators & debate Google+’s new UI design.

Then we fail to make even the most obvious Kickstarter sound compelling & wrap it all up with a little technical disaster vamping.

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— Episode Links —

• Apple takes 94% of smartphone industry profits: Canaccord Genuity – Business Insider
• YouTube Fair Use Protection programme launched
• Dive into the new Google+ As +Eddie Kessler shared this afternoon (goo.gl/2Qj…
• LG cancels smartwatch after just six days on the market | Ars Technica
• World’s First Solar Powered Airplane Science Kit for Kids! by ToyLabs — Kickstarter
• Computer Show – YouTube

The post Faux Use Protection Program | TTT 223 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Lizard Squad’s DDoS for sale, NSA breaks VPNs, our Kickstarter of the week & more!

It’s the last Tech Talk Today of 2014, see you next week!

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Lizard Squad’s Xbox Live, PSN attacks were a ‘marketing scheme’ for new DDoS service

The service, dubbed Lizard Stresser, launched early Tuesday morning via Twitter (redacted below) and is fully operational, a Lizard Squad member who goes by the alias “dragon” told the Daily Dot via a direct message on Twitter and subsequent conversation through the instant messaging service Jabber. Customers can use the service against any target they wish, including large websites or Internet services, such as PSN or Xbox Live. Dragon, who is listed as co-owner of the service, says the launch of Lizard Stresser will be the group’s last move before they “vanish off back to the caves where we came from.”

Once customers log into Lizard Squad’s new service, they are greeted by a list of the group’s accomplishments:

The cost of attacks range anywhere from $6 to $500, paid for with Bitcoin, the difficult-to-trace cryptocurrency. The most expensive tier offers 30,000 seconds of attack (a little more than 20 days), and costs just $130 per month. For $500, customers can launch unlimited attacks.

With the notoriety achieved from their attacks on Xbox Live and Playstation Network, Lizard Squad plans to utilize their huge social media reach to attract potential customers.

NSA has VPNs in Vulcan death grip—no, really, that’s what they call it

The National Security Agency’s Office of Target Pursuit (OTP) maintains a team of engineers dedicated to cracking the encrypted traffic of virtual private networks (VPNs) and has developed tools that could potentially uncloak the traffic in the majority of VPNs used to secure traffic passing over the Internet today, according to documents published this week by the German news magazine Der Speigel. A slide deck from a presentation by a member of OTP’s VPN Exploitation Team, dated September 13, 2010, details the process the NSA used at that time to attack VPNs—including tools with names drawn from Star Trek and other bits of popular culture.

When an IPSec VPN is identified and “tasked” by NSA analysts, according to the presentation, a “full take” of its traffic is stored in VULCANDEATHGRIP, a VPN data repository. There are similar, separate repositories for PPTP and SSL VPN traffic dubbed FOURSCORE and VULCANMINDMELD, respectively.

The NSA has a specific repository for capturing VPN metadata called TOYGRIPPE. The repository stores information on VPN sessions between systems of interest, including their “fingerprints” for specific machines and which VPN services they’ve connected to, their key exchanges, and other connection data. VPN “fingerprints” can also be extracted from XKEYSCORE, the NSA’s distributed “big data” store of all recently captured Internet traffic, to be used in identifying targets and developing an attack.

Newly published NSA documents show agency could grab all Skype traffic

The nature of the Skype data collection was spelled out in an NSA document dated August 2012 entitled “User’s Guide for PRISM Skype Collection.” The document details how to “task” the capture of voice communications from Skype by NSA’s NUCLEON system, which allows for text searches against captured voice communications. It also discusses how to find text chat and other data sent between clients in NSA’s PINWALE “digital network intelligence” database.

The full capture of voice traffic began in February of 2011 for “Skype in” and “Skype out” calls—calls between a Skype user and a land line or cellphone through a gateway to the public switched telephone network (PSTN), captured through warranted taps into Microsoft’s gateways. But in July of 2011, the NSA added the capability of capturing peer-to-peer Skype communications—meaning that the NSA gained the ability to capture peer-to-peer traffic and decrypt it using keys provided by Microsoft through the PRISM warrant request.

KICKSTATER OF THE WEEK: Next Keyboard – The Perfect Keyboard for iPhone by Next Keyboard — Kickstarter

A keyboard that puts more power at your fingertips with super fast editing, predictive typing, instant emojis, and beautiful themes!

The post NSA Skype Trek | Tech Talk Today 111 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

The Sony Pictures hack takes a new uglier twist. We get some details on the type of data leaked & speculate if it was possibly an inside job. Also, researchers claim Iran has completely owned critical systems in 15 different nations.

Plus we celebrate episode 100 & feature a fun Kickstarter of the week!

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Sony Pictures hack gets uglier; North Korea won’t deny responsibility [Update] | Ars Technica

More evidence has emerged that makes the Sony Pictures hack look similar to a suspected attack on South Korean companies over a year ago. And a spokesperson for the North Korean government, rather than denying his country’s involvement, is playing coy as the damage to Sony appears to be growing daily.

When contacted by the BBC, a spokesperson for North Korea’s mission to the United Nations said, “The hostile forces are relating everything to [North Korea]. I kindly advise you to just wait and see.”

The attackers also posted archive files online containing least 25 gigabytes of data from Sony’s network.

In an email to Ars that included a link to an archive of some of the stolen Sony Pictures data, an individual claiming to be “the boss” of the attackers known as GOP claimed that “tens of TB” of files had been exfiltrated, and would be shared as soon as possible.] Some of those files included Excel spreadsheets and screen grabs from mainframe terminal sessions including employee payroll and medical data.

An archive of files seen by Ars —approximately a gigabyte of sales data , the most recent of which dates to April of this year, and stretches back over 5 years. The files, which have metadata indicating they were produced using a Sony Pictures Entertainment corporate license of Microsoft Office, include corporate PowerPoint templates, image files of contracts for television deals (including local affiliate contracts for “Dr. Oz” and “Seinfeld” reruns) sent by fax machine, and a file from a salesman’s computer called “Passwords.doc.”

The document, last edited by a woman whose LinkedIn account indicates she was a Sony Pictures ad sales assistant in 2011, includes her bosses’ American Express card number and online account information, Lotus Notes usernames and passwords (one of them is “password,” the other is “s0ny123”), Sony network login and password, and their fax numbers. One of those bosses is the current Vice President of Syndication Sales for Sony Pictures Television.

In a phone conversation with Ars, the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of analytics firm Security Scorecard, said that evidence suggested to him that there was at least some insider involvement in the attack. “From a psychological perspective, this attack is invoking emotions that may apply to employees of Sony as well. It may likely have been someone internal leaking the information because they knew how to get to it, rather than it being an outside attacker.”

Critical networks in US, 15 other nations, completely owned, possibly by Iran | Ars Technica

For more than two years, pro-Iranian hackers have penetrated some of the world’s most sensitive computer networks, including those operated by a US-based airline, auto maker, natural gas producer, defense contractor, and military installation, security researchers said.

In many cases, “Operation Cleaver,” as the sustained hacking campaign is being dubbed, has attained the highest levels of system access of targets located in 16 countries total, according to a report published Tuesday by security firm Cylance. Compromised systems in the ongoing attacks include Active Directory domain controllers that store employee login credentials, servers running Microsoft Windows and Linux, routers, switches, and virtual private networks. With more than 50 victims that include airports, hospitals, telecommunications providers, chemical companies, and governments, the Iranian-backed hackers are reported to have extraordinary control over much of the world’s critical infrastructure.

Tuesday’s 86-page report relies on circumstantial evidence to arrive at the conclusion that the 20 or more hackers participating in Operation Cleaver are backed by Iran’s government.

Many of the custom-configured hacking tools they use issue warnings when their external IP addresses trace back to the Middle Eastern country. The infrastructure supporting the vast campaign is too sprawling to be the work of a lone individual or small group; it could only have been sponsored by a nation state.

In all, 50 targets in 16 countries are known to have been compromised. The tally includes 10 victims in the US, four in Israel, and five in Pakistan.

• Cylance_Operation_Cleaver_Report.pdf

Roku still tops as sales of streaming-media players rise – CNET

During the first three quarters of 2014, 10 percent of US households with a broadband connection bought at least one streaming-media player, market researcher Parks Associates said Tuesday.

Roku’s lineup of set-top boxes and streaming sticks was still the most popular so far this year despite a strong dip, securing 29 percent of sales in the first nine months. Google’s Chromecast stick leaped onto the scene, snagging the No. 2 spot with 20 percent share and stealing Apple TV’s previous slot. The Apple TV box fell to third place with 17 percent share. Amazon’s Fire TV box and stick, also new on the scene, came in fourth place with 10 percent share.

Roku, which has been the dominant force since 2012, saw its market share slip from 46 percent last year to 29 percent in the first nine months of 2014. Apple TV also slipped from 26 percent last year to 17 percent so far this year. They both lost share as Google’s Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV have come on strong.

KICKSTATER OF THE WEEK: HANSNAP “Use Your Smartphone Better!” by Justis Earle — Kickstarter

Handsfree video and photography with your smartphone. Use all your phone features better in every situation ~ Capture your Imagination!

• New Invention acts like a GoPro for your smartphone now LIVE on Kickstarter!!

The post Mobile Strap On | Tech Talk Today 100 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

A new cybersecurity bill is working its way through the system looks a lot like previous attempts and raises the same privacy concerns, we’ll cover the details.

Plus Samsung gets into VR and the Potato Salad Kickstarter that’s already earned $70k USD.

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Senate Panel Passes Cybersecurity Bill Despite NSA Fears

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, advanced in a 12-3 vote, would make it easier for businesses and the government to share information with each other about cyberattacks. Business groups argue that legal barriers are preventing them from getting the information they need to stop hackers.

But the privacy groups are still worried that the legislation could encourage a company such as Google to turn over vast batches of emails or other private data to the government. The information would go first to the Homeland Security Department, but could then be shared with the NSA or other intelligence agencies.

“Instead of reining in NSA surveillance, the bill would facilitate a vast flow of private communications data to the NSA,” the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and dozens of other privacy groups wrote in a letter to senators last month.

Exclusive: Samsung’s virtual reality headset will be called Gear VR, launch at IFA 2014 | SamMobile

A month ago, Engadget exclusively reported on Samsung’s upcoming VR device, which is being developed in collaboration with Facebook’s Oculus VR. Today, we can confirm that Samsung is indeed working on a virtual reality device, and it’s called the “Gear VR”. Samsung will be announcing the device, alongside the Galaxy Note 4, at IFA 2014.

Instead of making a completely standalone virtual reality headset, Samsung has developed a modular design, which allows the user to dock in a Galaxy device into the Gear VR using USB 3.0. Virtual reality effect is achieved through head tracking, and instead of equipping the headset with sensors, Gear VR makes use of the smartphone’s accelerometer, gyroscope and processing power to track head motion.

You might say that this is exactly like Google’s Cardboard VR headset, which was handed out to I/O 14 attendees, and you would be right! The main concept behind Gear VR is the same. However, the Gear VR is much more comfortable to wear, thanks to the elastic head band and soft padded cushions on each side of the device, and Samsung’s implementation is also much better than that of Google’s Cardboard.

The hardware of the device is being developed by Samsung alone, but the software is being developed in cooperation with Oculus VR

Potato Salad by Zack Danger Brown — Kickstarter

• Potato salad on Kickstarter: The project has raised more than $40,000.

Last week, Zack Brown posted a Kickstarter page titled simply “Potato Salad.”

“I’m making potato salad,” Brown wrote. Then, in case anybody was confused or skeptical or more inclined to support the preparation of a German-style potato salad than a mayo-heavy American version, he clarified: “Basically I’m just making potato salad. I haven’t decided what kind yet.”

His goal: $10.

Manjaro Linux Developers Experience A Mass Exodus

• Follow up: Manjaro Linux Developers Experience A Mass Exodus

Feedback:

• Waze claiming anonymize user data is probably arguably laughable.

The post Return of CISPA | Tech Talk Today 23 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.