Duncan Riley
Latest from Duncan Riley
Bitcoin dives again as the Justice Department is reported to be probing Tether
The price of bitcoin continues to fall as a report claimed that the U.S. Department of Justice has launched a criminal probe into Tether, the so-called “stablecoin” from cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex that’s primarily used to buy and sell bitcoin. Fraud allegations regarding Tether are not new. In January it was reported that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission ...
Flogging a dead horse, Snap plans another version of its camera glasses
Despite previous attempts ending in failure, Snap Inc. apparently is once again launching a new version of its Spectacles camera glasses. According to Cheddar, the third incarnation — or fourth or fifth given that Snap released two new models in September after releasing the official second version in April — the new Spectacles will feature two cameras ...
Autodesk acquires construction productivity cloud software startup PlanGrid for $875 million
Design software company Autodesk Inc. today said it plans to acquire San Francisco-based construction productivity cloud software startup PlanGrid for $875 million. Founded in 2011, PlanGrid provides cloud-based project management software that helps contractors, subcontractors and owners in commercial, heavy civil and other industries collaborate in real time. PlanGrid’s software covers numerous phases of construction, ...
Difficult-to-detect hacking campaign targets governments across the globe
A new report from Palo Alto Networks Inc.’s Unit 42 today detailed a new hacking campaign from the Sofacy Group that employs a series of weaponized documents to target government entities around the globe, including the U.S., Europe and the former Eastern Bloc. First detected in late October, the weaponized documents load remote templates containing ...
Bitcoin plunges to 19-month low as crypto chaos spooks investors
Bitcoin has plunged to its lowest price since early May 2017 as the ongoing chaos in the Bitcoin Cash community continues to spook investors. Analysts point the finger for the price drop in several directions, including a recent U.S. Securities and Commission initial coin offering settlement. But most rank the Bitcoin Cash hard fork as the ...
Make-A-Wish website cryptojacked with increasingly popular CoinImp script
Proving that some hackers have no morals whatsoever, the website of the Make-A-Wish Foundation has been “cryptojacked” to install the increasingly popular cryptomining script. Discovered by Simon Kenin, a security researcher at Trustwave SpiderLabs, and publicized today, the hack involved unknown hackers accessing the Make-A-Wish website through a Drupal vulnerability dubbed Drupalgeddon 2. A Drupalgeddon 2 attack ...
Instagram deploys machine learning tools to target fake likes and follows
Facebook Inc.-owned Instagram is deploying machine learning tools to crack down on inauthentic behavior including fake likes, follows and comments. “Recently, we’ve seen accounts use third-party apps to artificially grow their audience,” Instagram said in a statement today. “Every day people come to Instagram to have real experiences, including genuine interactions. It is our responsibility to ensure ...
Thousands of dark web sites offline following hack of leading hosting provider
Leading dark web hosting services provider Daniel’s Hosting has been hacked, taking about 6,500 sites offline. The free hosting service was targeted on Thursday in an apparent attack by hackers so gained root access via phpmyadmin and adminer to take control of the hosting server and then delete all of the sites. Founded by Daniel ...
SEC settles lawsuits with two companies that ran unregistered ICOs as market continues to decline
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday it has settled a lawsuit with two companies that undertook unregistered initial coin offerings in 2017 as the market for ICOs continues to decline. The cases related to unregistered ICOs from CarrierEQ Inc., doing business as Airfox, which raised $15 million for an online advertising token, and ...
Instagram suffers downtime after scrambling to fix password-revealing bug
Instagram went down on Saturday morning after parent company Facebook Inc. was forced to fix a bug that exposed user passwords. The Information reported that Instagram informed affected users earlier in the week that their passwords may have been exposed to a security bug. The bug is said to have been tied to a feature rolled ...