Samsung laboratory in Russia (Russian-placed lab working on technology with the word ”fake” in its name? Hmm…) works on improving the so-called ”realistic neural talking heads” mechanism. This mechanism makes it possible to animate static pictures, and doing it so well that the fakes are difficult to recognise from real video records. The effects of Samsung’s deepfake tech can be seen in these GIFs – Samsung has managed to create very lifelike records. Those of you who are more curious about that process can look into this video, in which Samsung ...

Yep, it is official – viruses and hackers’ attacks are now being used as war deterrents similiar to nuclear missiles. Japanese Ministry of Defense has announced that it is creating its own malware program as a means of ”defense” against any such attacks committed against it by other nations. The program is supposed to be finished by the end of the year. We do not know any details about its inner workings.Japan is not the first country to have its own e-nuclear bomb: Russia, Iran, USA, Germany and a few others have their own programs. Lets hope that, if we cannot ...

Russia’s parliament has just passed a new law, according to which Russian soldiers are forbidden from using smartphones while on duty. To be more specific, the bill forbids them from using a phone with capabilities to take pictures, record videos and access the Internet – so yeah, smartphones. Technically the soldiers could use old cellphones, as long as they would somehow break their 320×180 cameras. The ban also includes laptops and tablets. The bill have been passed with a vote of 400 to 50 voting in favour. The reason for the new bill was, reportedly, the fact that ...

It has barely been four years since Microsoft would tell us to absolutely use Internet Explorer and now… well, now times have changed. For the last four years Microsoft have not supported IE, which means that this particular internet browser is piss easy to break in. It is possible that Microsoft will soon be saying the same thing about Edge, its second browser, since it is currently wrapping up its work on a new, third one; this one, based on the Chromium engine, will be released for open tests sometime in the upcoming ...

Thanks, ScamWatch, for this warning. Over the past few days there has been a rising in a number of false ”emergency” text messages over Australia. These texts contain information that someone is in trouble and needs immediate help. When responded to, the texts continue, quickly turning to verbal isults against the addressee. No attempts at gaining access to the addressees’ phones have been detected, nor has any verbal attempts at scamming them out of their money.*shrugs* Another day in the 2.0 world I ...

Remember how last week it turned out that FaceTime allows you to hear other people even before they pick up their group call? It turns out that the person who found this bug was a mere fourteen years old boy called Grant Thompson. Boy has reportedly figured out that something is wrong when he tried to gather his friends for Fortnite game. Apple has decided that the kid is legible for the Bug Bounty, a special program where Apple gives financial rewards to people who help out by finding glitches in their products. Young Thompson can earn from 50 to 200 thousand ...

This new term means basically hacking electronics with your own body – no, not like that. In 2017, a group of American scientists from the University of Washington have accomplished a rather sci-fi-ish task of coding a computer virus into a human DNA and then using said virus to break into a computer. They have managed to do this by (I will describe it as summarily as possible) creating a synthetic strand of DNA and manipulating it so that, when read by a computer, it would make the machine read it as a command that allows to take control over it. It is a very significant step on the ...

Ever since 2014 Russia tried to make Apple to host its data servers in Russian territory. Now it turns out that the Reds have managed to accomplish this goal; Apple will move some of its servers onto Russian soil. In accordance to Russian law, the government there will have full access to the data kept in these servers: names, addresses, phone and e-mail contacts etc. It is unknown if iCloud data will also be accessible to them. Apple will have to keep every bit of data gathered for six months before removing it.In other words, American corporation and Russian government are now working ...

Some of the web browser add-ons have a nasty habit of collecting data about our Internet usage, even when we turn to Private mode. This, thankfully, will now change, at least in Firefox: Mozilla’s browser will receive the option to turn off any and all add-ons when working in Private mode. Mozilla did not say when will this feature be introduced, but it is said to happen soon. Tweet Vote on HN ...

Bug in FaceTime app’s programming allowed the callers to eavesdrop on the receivers of the call. All they had to do was to add themselves to the talk before the receiver picked it up and voila, they were suddenly receiving all the audio from the receiver even before she/he picked it up. Apple has temporarily closed down FaceTime’s group chats and is currently working on a fix that should be available this week. Tweet Vote on HN ...