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Old 21-10-20, 07:06 AM   #1
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Default Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - October 24th, ’20

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October 24th, 2020




RIAA Blitz Takes Down 18 GitHub Projects Used for Downloading YouTube Videos

Main target of the takedown was the youtube-dl project, a Python library that had amassed more than 72k stars on GitHub and was used in many YouTube video ripping tools and services.
Catalin Cimpanu

Microsoft-owned GitHub has removed today 18 projects from its code-hosting portal following a legal request filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

All the code repositories removed today are related to the youtube-dl project.

Youtube-dl is a Python library that allows developers to download the source audio and video files behind YouTube videos.

In a letter sent to GitHub, RIAA argued that the "clear purpose of this source code [the youtube-dl library]" was to "circumvent the technological protection measures used by authorized streaming services such as YouTube" and to allow users to "reproduce and distribute music videos and sound recordings [...] without authorization."

RIAA noted that the project's source code "expressly suggests its use to copy and/or distribute the following copyrighted works."

RIAA, a trade organization that claims to represent around 85% of all the US recording industry, requested that GitHub removed the youtube-dl project from its site, along with forks (copies managed by other users).

Youtube-dl and 17 copies were listed in the RIAA letter, all of which are inaccessible at the time of writing:

github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl
github.com/benkeung/youtube-dl
github.com/cyberjacob/youtube-dl
github.com/elaopinska/youtube-dl
github.com/huangciyin/youtube-dl
github.com/jckelley/youtube-dl
github.com/LouisPlisso/youtube-dl
github.com/ojauch/youtube-dl
github.com/rbrito/youtube-dl
github.com/successLee/youtube-dl
github.com/trammel/youtube-dl
github.com/vs9390/youtube-dl
github.com/zackfern/youtube-dl
github.com/tosuch/youtube-dl
github.com/pornophage/youtube-dl
github.com/tejaskhot/youtube-dl
github.com/VideoUtils/youtube-dl
github.com/798221028/youtube-dl

Although GitHub classified the RIAA letter as a DMCA takedown request, it is not one. As Public Knowledge Legal Director John Bergmayer pointed out today on Twitter, RIAA isn't alleging the library infringed on its rights, but that the library is illegal in itself.

This isn’t really a DMCA request. I don’t see an assertion that youtube-dl is an infringing work. Rather the claim is that it’s illegal per se https://t.co/vQ16nVleCf
— John Bergmayer (@bergmayer) October 23, 2020

The assessment isn't incorrect, as the library is often used to build YouTube ripping services that allow internet users to download YouTube music videos as MP3 songs to load and listen on their phones without paying.

However, Freedom of the Press member Parker Higgins also pointed out, youtube-dl is also an essential tool for internet archivists, who often used it to download videos of violence or social injustice before videos are taken down from YouTube for breaking the site's rule against the portrayal of violence.

As anyone who has used youtube-dl knows, it is an extremely powerful and useful tool for format-shifting. It's super popular among archivists and has incredibly broad fair use applications. The RIAA stance here is pretty aggressive and out there.
— Parker Higgins (@xor) October 23, 2020

Before it was taken down, the youtube-dl project had more than 72,000 stars on GitHub, being one of the site's most popular repositories.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/riaa-b...outube-videos/





Court Grants Nintendo’s Motion For Default Judgment, Permanent Injunction in Hacking & Pirating Suit
Kirsten Errick

On Tuesday in the Western District of Washington, United States District Judge Thomas S. Zilly issued an order granting Nintendo’s motion for default judgment and a permanent injunction against ANXICHIP.COM et al in a suit that alleged the defendants sold circumventing devices to hack Nintendo Switch and sold infringing versions of Nintendo’s video games.

Plaintiff Nintendo claimed the defendants, including Does 1-20, were doing business as eight websites, which were used “to sell devices that unlawfully hack the Nintendo Switch in violation of the Anti-Trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.” Furthermore, according to Nintendo, “[s]ome of the Defendants also sell pirated versions of Plaintiff’s copyrighted games on their Websites, in violation of Plaintiff’s exclusive rights under the Copyright Act.” Nintendo claimed that the defendants’ “Circumvention Devices…deliberately obscure their identities by using privacy tools to mask their domain registration,” therefore, Nintendo “has been unable to ascertain the true identities of any of the Defendants.” As a result, Nintendo had to serve the defendants via e-mail, which the court granted. Judge Zilly noted that while the defendants “appear to be aware of the suit – by, for example, moving their website from one URL to another in order to evade detection, and by sending communications to their customers explicitly referencing this lawsuit,” the defendants “have failed to appear, or respond.” On August 11, 2020, after more than 21 days passed, Nintendo moved for an entry of default against all of the defendants, which the court clerk entered. Nintendo then moved for a motion of default judgment, a permanent injunction and to amend the order of default to include “Defendant Does 1-20 d/b/a” the Websites.

The court declared that pursuant to the Copyright Act, it grants Nintendo’s motion to amend the order of default and its grants Nintendo’s motion for default judgment and entry of a permanent injunction. As a result, the defendants are enjoined from “[o]ffering to the public, selling, providing, or otherwise trafficking in any circumvented devices,” such as the SX Pro, SX Core, SX Lite and related software; directly, indirectly, inducing or otherwise infringing on Nintendo’s protected copyrights; “[e]ffecting assignments or transfers, including of the Websites, forming new entities or associations, or using any other device for the purpose of circumvention”; engaging in unfair competition with Nintendo; and from “supporting or facilitating access to any or all domain names, URLs, websites,” as well as any other related website, marketplace, or communication which is used to circumvent and infringe. The defendants must also cease using and immediately transfer their Website domain names and “any variant or successor [of their Websites] thereof controlled by Defendants” to Nintendo. The defendants are ordered to destroy all circumvention devices and related materials. Lastly, the defendants must provide a written report under oath detailing how they have complied with this order.

Nintendo is represented by Gordon Tilden Thomas & Cordell LLP and Jenner & Block LLP.
https://lawstreetmedia.com/tech/cour...pirating-suit/





The New Way South Africans are Pirating TV Shows
Bradley Prior

Piracy surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Internet piracy authority Muso and South African ISPs.

The manner in which illegal content is consumed and accessed has evolved, however, with a major move towards streaming instead of downloads.

Muso data showed that there were significant increases in film and TV piracy once the global lockdown first began, with global film piracy increasing by over 33% when comparing the last 7 days of March to the last 7 days of April. In the US, this figure rose to 41%, while the UK saw a 43% increase in piracy.

Muso noted that it had tracked over 174 billion visits to piracy sites – but this was likely to be usurped by a significant margin in 2020.

“Piracy activity was already high, but early data indicates it may well become considerably higher,” said Muso.

MyBroadband spoke to local ISPs, who said that there has been a spike in piracy following the COVID-19 pandemic.

South African pirates move to online streaming

Vox told MyBroadband that it has seen a significant increase in pirated content.

“Unfortunately, there is still a huge amount of illegal pirated activity from our customers,” noted Head of Security Niel van Rooyen.

However, he explained that the nature of piracy has changed in South Africa, with local pirates adapting their consumption habits.

“Recent years show that its not so much ‘Pirated Video Downloads or Torrents’ any longer, but rather the problem lies with illegal online streaming,” said van Rooyen.

He also said that studies have shown that the amount of piracy is increasing by approximately 80% and that fighting this often feels like it is impossible.

“Vox has relevant monitoring and processes in place to detect and respond but unfortunately, with these illegal entities always one step ahead, it’s like fighting a losing battle,” said van Rooyen.

“No sooner has one site been taken down, as another one pops up. It’s a huge challenge.”

RSAWEB said that, on a more positive note, traffic to uTorrent has reduced by 60% – 80%.

“Our data indicates that customers on higher bandwidth links are less likely to pirate movies and series,” added RSAWEB.

The ISP also noted that it has a dedicated email address for piracy and abuse, which users can use to report any such actions – abuse@rsaweb.co.za.

The risks of online piracy

In April, Microsoft warned users that there had been a significant increase in malware and ransomware being embedded into illegal media content.

“With lockdown still in place in many parts of the world, attackers are paying attention to the increase in the use of pirate streaming services and torrent downloads,” Microsoft Security Intelligence warned on Twitter.

“We saw an active coin miner campaign that inserts a malicious VBScript into ZIP files posing as movie downloads.”

“The use of torrent downloads is consistent with our observation that attackers are repurposing old techniques to take advantage of the current crisis,” the company added.
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/secur...-tv-shows.html





Netflix Reports a Summer Slump in Subscriber Growth
Michael Liedtke and Barbara Ortutay

Netflix’s subscriber growth slowed dramatically during the summer months after surging in the spring fueled by pandemic lockdowns that corralled millions of people in their homes.

The summer slump came as more people sought distraction from the pandemic outdoors and major U.S. professional sports resumed play, offering other entertainment alternatives to the world’s most popular video streaming service.

The drop-off disclosed Tuesday in Netflix’s latest earnings report was more dramatic than management had warned it might be.

After picking up 2.2 million customers in the July-September period, Netflix finished the quarter with 195.2 million worldwide subscribers. Earlier, company had forecast an addition of 2.5 million subscribers during the quarter.

Even so, Netflix is still ahead for the year. It has added 28 million subscribers through the first nine months of the year — locking in the company’s largest annual increase in its history.

But the momentum seems to be tapering off, based on the trends Netflix is seeing. The company is projecting a gain of 6 million subscribers in the October-December period, down from 8.8 million last year. Analysts were expecting Netflix to project a gain of 6.4 million subscribers for the final quarter of this year.

The influx of new subscribers has helped boost its stock by 59% so far this year. But shares of Netflix fell $28.53, or 5.4% to $496.89 in after-hours trading after the results came out.

Wall Street generally still sees big things ahead for Netflix, which is based in Los Gatos, California, with its video streaming service poised to surpass 200 million subscribers soon.

Even with the summer slowdown, Netflix’s popularity has spurred speculation whether the company may soon raise its U.S. monthly subscription prices by another dollar or two in the U.S., as it recently did in Canada earlier this month. The company recently stopped offering free one-month trials in the U.S., a move some analysts viewed as a precursor to a potential price increase. Netflix’s most popular U.S. plan costs $13 per month.

The company has periodically raised its prices to help pay for the original programming that has helped turn it into a cultural phenomenon in the face of intensifying competition from even bigger rivals such as Amazon and Apple. Higher prices also help boost Netflix’s profit, which have remained relatively modest in light of its video service’s widening appeal.

After a “blowout” first quarter and a strong second, it is “it is reasonable to think” Netflix would take a breather in new subscriber gains for the third, said Dan Morgan, a senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust.

The company earned $790, million, or $1.74 per share, in the third quarter, up 19% from $665 million, or $1.47 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue climbed 22.5% to $6.44 billion from $5.24 billion.

Analysts were expecting earnings of $2.13 per share and revenue of $6.39 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.

Netflix said as the world “hopefully recovers” from COVID-19 in 2021, it expects its subscriber growth to revert back to pre-pandemic levels. That means growth will be much slower in the first half of next year than it was this year.
https://apnews.com/article/virus-out...262ec08b7e334a





It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Won't Air on Broadcast TV But Will Stream on AppleTV+ for Free

These aren't the only iconic holiday specials that are moving to AppleTV+
Ashley Boucher

Good grief — the Charlie Brown holiday specials have found a new home!

Instead of airing on broadcast television, the Peanuts animated classics will be streaming on AppleTV+ as part of an expanded partnership with WildBrain, Peanuts Worldwide and Lee Mendelson Film Productions, according to a press release.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and A Charlie Brown Christmas will be offered on the streaming platform for free for certain dates this fall and winter.

Great Pumpkin will be available for free on the streamer from October 30 to November 1, the Thanksgiving special from November 25 to 27, and the Christmas special from December 11 to 13.

But it's not just the iconic holiday specials that are moving to AppleTV+.

Original Peanuts programming surrounding Mother's Day, Earth Day, New Year's Eve and back-to-school season will also be produced by WildBrain to air on AppleTV+. Included in the programming will be The Snoopy Show and season 2 of Snoopy in Space.

The Charlie Brown holiday shows made their debut back in the 1960s on CBS and later aired on ABC. If they don't air on network TV this year, it will mark the first time in decades.

With the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) prompting health experts to advise families avoid trick-or-treating this year, having a Great Pumpkin watch party could be a great opportunity to safely get into the autumn spirit.
https://people.com/tv/its-the-great-...letv-for-free/





AT&T’s CEO Predicts That Millions More Will Cut the Cord
Gerry Smith

• Stankey sees ‘plateauing’ when subscribers fall to 60 million
• About 91 million homes had pay-TV service at the end of 2019

TV cord-cutting is picking up steam, and AT&T Inc.’s CEO predicts there’s a long way to go before it stops.

On an earnings call Thursday, AT&T Chief Executive Officer John Stankey said “we’re probably going to see a little bit of a plateauing” when the number of homes subscribing to pay TV hits 55 million to 60 million. Most of those homes will include sports fans, he said.

It’s a stark outlook for an industry that’s already suffered a long subscriber exodus. There were about 91 million pay-TV subscribers at the end of 2019, including some 8 million who signed up to online-TV bundles like Hulu and YouTube TV. About 3.5 million people cut the cord in the first half of the year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

While AT&T, Comcast Corp., Charter Communications Inc. and other TV providers are focusing their businesses on delivering internet service, owners of cable channels are especially vulnerable. That’s because more cord-cutting means lower subscriber fees, a key revenue stream. Stankey added that AT&T is focusing on growing its new online streaming service, HBO Max, to prepare for the future.

AT&T said Thursday that it shed another 590,000 TV subscribers last quarter. With customer losses mounting, AT&T has been looking to sell the majority of its satellite-TV business, DirecTV.

Stankey’s comments suggest there is a floor for the number of people who will pay for the traditional bundle with hundreds of cable channels.

Just how quickly the industry reaches that floor remains to be seen. The research firm Kagan predicts there will be 59 million subscribers by 2022.

The pay-TV industry is on pace to lose about 11% of its traditional customer base in 2020, compared with a 6.5% drop last year and a 3% decline in 2018, according to Kagan.

The pay-TV industry was already threatened by the rising number of low-cost streaming alternatives, namely Netflix Inc. Then the pandemic, which postponed sports and led to higher unemployment, helped “fan cord-cutting flames,” according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Geetha Ranganathan.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...l-cut-the-cord





FCC to Delay $9 Billion Rural Broadband Push to Fix Data Flaws
John Hughes, Keith Perine

• Agency to collect data before awarding $9 billion
• Hopes to avoid fate of 4G fund abandoned last year

The Federal Communications Commission is poised to delay $9 billion in rural 5G subsidies for 18 to 24 months so it can fix mapping flaws that bar the agency from determining which areas need the service.

The holdup is the most recent delay in the FCC’s nine-year effort to pay wireless carriers to expand service to remote areas that otherwise are too unprofitable to serve.

The FCC scrapped a similar subsidy effort last year, after it found carriers’ maps exaggerated existing coverage areas, meaning locations that needed the subsidies wouldn’t have gotten them.

“It is truly unfortunate that it has taken so long,” said Carol Mattey, former deputy chief of the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau. “In the intervening years, obviously, consumers haven’t had service.”

The commission plans to vote Oct. 27 on an order that would create the new $9 billion effort to replace the program it scrapped. Under the order, however, the agency would wait to award funds until it evaluates new data it’s collecting on rural service locations.

“This approach won’t be the fastest possible path,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a blog post earlier this month. “But it will allow us to identify with greater precision those areas of the country where support is most needed.”

The replacement 5G program would distribute twice as many funds as its predecessor. As in the earlier effort, the subsidies would come from the agency’s Universal Service Fund, which is raised from monthly fees on consumers’ phone bills.

It will likely take until at least mid-2022 for the FCC to collect the data, putting the commission on track to start awarding the funding to carriers later that year, Mattey said.

That timeline assumes Congress appropriates the $65 million needed to fund the initiative next year, though there is bipartisan support to do so, Mattey said.

Flawed Broadband Maps

Rural areas continue to lag urban areas in mobile broadband access.

About 83% of rural Americans live in areas that have 4G LTE mobile with median speeds of 10/3 Mbps. That compares with 97% of urban Americans who have such coverage, according to the most recent FCC data.

The commission in 2011 addressed the concern by voting to establish a program that would distribute subsidies to expand rural mobile service in two phases. The agency auctioned off the first round of subsidies totaling $300 million to carriers in 2012.

It then moved forward with the larger, $4.5 billion funding phase in 2017.

For that phase, the commission relied on wireless carrier data showing areas the companies served. Smaller carriers complained that large rivals’ data overstated coverage, leaving some unconnected rural communities out of the running for subsidies.

An FCC investigation released in December 2019 validated the small carriers’ concerns. The agency concluded, however, that the data flaws did not merit enforcement actions against the companies, including T-Mobile US Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., and UScellular.

But the findings did prompt the FCC to abandon the 4G LTE program in late 2019.

“No amount of treasure is going to correct an unreliable map,” said Steven K. Berry, president of the Competitive Carriers Association, a trade group that represents smaller wireless carriers.

Companies Defend

UScellular defended its data collection process, saying it conducted the effort in accordance with FCC rules.

“We faithfully implemented the coverage map requirements as specified by the FCC with the knowledge that some of the parameters adopted by the FCC would result in overstated coverage,” Grant Spellmeyer, the company’s vice president of federal affairs and public policy, said in an email.

T-Mobile pointed to a December statement that stood behind the company’s maps. Verizon didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The FCC hopes to resolve the accuracy issue by collecting new, more precise data from wireless carriers for the new 5G program.

The process will require carriers to submit standardized mobile broadband data. Then, consumers, government officials, and other entities will be able to challenge the accuracy of the information.

Pai said in his blog that the new approach shows the FCC is “building upon lessons learned” with plans to distribute funds “based on improved mobile broadband coverage data.”
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/tech-a...fix-data-flaws





House Democrats Slam FCC Chairman Over 'Blatant Attempt to Help' Trump
Rebecca Klar

House Democrats slammed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman on Monday over his announcement that the panel would move forward with the Trump administration's petition to clarify the meaning of a law that grants tech companies a legal liability shield over content posted on their websites by third parties.

Democratic leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee accused FCC Chairman Ajit Pai of attempting to help a "flailing President Trump" through his decision to move forward with the administration's push to clarify Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

"Chairman Pai's decision to start a Section 230 rulemaking is a blatant attempt to help a flailing President Trump," Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) said in a statement.

"The timing and hurried nature of this decision makes clear it's being done to influence social media companies' behavior leading up to an election, and it is shocking to watch this supposedly independent regulatory agency jump at the opportunity to become a political appendage of President Trump's campaign," the Democrats added.

They said the FCC's "rush to push President Trump's agenda weeks before Election Day should be seen for the reckless and politically-motivated stunt that it is."

Pai's announcement last week that the FCC would move forward with the administration's petition to clarify the meaning of Section 230 came after Trump and his GOP allies renewed allegations of an anti-conservative bias and accused social media companies of censorship after Twitter and Facebook moved to limit the spread of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.

The article about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's son drew skepticism over its sourcing. The report included allegations, based on emails obtained from a hard drive with no substantive links to anyone involved, that Hunter Biden had organized a meeting between a Ukrainian businessman and the former vice president. Other media outlets have not been able to confirm the information.

The Biden campaign denied allegations in the report, stating that no such meeting happened and pointed to numerous investigations that concluded that there was "no wrongdoing" by the former vice president regarding Ukraine.

Pallone and Doyle's statement adds to Democratic criticism in response to Pai's announcement. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), one of the original authors of Section 230, slammed Pai last week after the announcement.

"The FCC does not have the authority to rewrite the law, and Ajit Pai can't appoint himself commissioner of the speech police," Wyden tweeted.

Trump targeted Section 230 in a May executive order shortly after Twitter fact-checked some of the president's posts about mail-in voting. The order had the National Telecommunications and Information Agency submit a request to the FCC for the law to be reconsidered. It was widely criticized by tech groups and legal experts who noted that Congress has the authority to amend laws.

Pai said last week in a statement that the FCC's general counsel told him the agency "has the legal authority to interpret Section 230."

The two Democrats on the five-person FCC also criticized the order last week.

"Setting aside the now-standard overheated partisan rhetoric, what's most notable about the statement is that Chairmen Pallone and Doyle agree with Chairman Pai on the need for Section 230 reform," an FCC spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill in response to Pallone and Doyle's remarks.
https://thehill.com/policy/technolog...-to-help-trump





The Curious Case of Romanian Broadband
Will Rinehart

Photographers often lament taking pictures in Romania. Taking a clear photo of centuries-old homes and city centers is difficult because of the wires. Everywhere they are strung, breaking up the views.

Part of the reason for these dense nests of wires comes as a result of Romania’s wired broadband networks, which had their genesis in the apartments of Bucharest. Even before the commercial Internet came to the country in the late 1990s, computers were common in the apartment complexes in the capital city. Back then, people would network themselves together into large local area networks to play games, watch movies, and share music. These small networks are now known as reţea de bloc or reţea de cartier, which translates to block networks or neighborhood networks.

Truth be told, these early networks were fueled by rampant pirate content. They sprang up because the government did little to stop neighborhoods from wiring themselves together. Most cities require underground infrastructure, which is expensive to approve, build, and maintain. But the Bucharest neighborhood networks never went through regulatory approval processes. Due to salutary neglect, aerial connections proliferated in Romania, giving rise to the poles with wire nests. As even the International Telecommunications Union noted, “Often, aerial fibre is deployed in areas where [underground] duct-based network roll-out is mandatory.” Even though the law often required underground deployment, neighborhood networks would use poles to wire their community.

Despite the drawbacks, the regulatory leniency also had its benefits. When the commercial Internet started to take hold in the late 1990s, it piggybacked off of these local small Internet service providers to create superfast networks. Simultaneously, Romania lacked a robust telephone market, and so instead of upgrading telephone services through DSL, Romanians jumped directly into fiber through these neighborhood networks.

By the early part of the 2010s, it became clear that Romania had something special going on. A travel blog in 2012 commented,

“Romania, and Bucharest specifically, is something of a travel blogger’s digital fantasy come true. Walk down most streets, stop on any corner, whip out your smart phone and more often than not you’ll find a wireless connection. That’s open. No password required; generally because a commodity as common as an Internet connection here isn’t worth stealing.”

The early start endures today. As of the latest rankings in August 2020, Romania placed third in the world for fastest wired broadband, just behind dense, urban regions like Singapore and Hong Kong. Even though the country isn’t especially dense or wealthy, Romanian broadband remains a standout.

Of course, this story about broadband excellence has its limits. Importantly, while the cities continue to experience fast wired, rural areas still struggle with broadband. As for mobile broadband, the speeds are hardly of note; the country ranks in the middle of the pack.

Still, Romania’s wired broadband experiment foregrounds a key lesson on the possibilities of network development. The country shows what could happen with reduced restrictions for wired infrastructure. Networks could quickly pop up organically as dictated by current demand. This stands in sharp contrast to places like many U.S. cities where regulatory approval serves as a steep barrier to entry and deployment.

Stephen Milton, who helped to design and build the Gigabit Now service in Sea Ranch, California explained that his company had to obtain permission from 23 separate local, county, and federal granting agencies to get the new project up and running. Broadband provider Sacred Wind out of New Mexico wrote in a filing to the FCC that an application involving one landowner and one authorizing jurisdiction commonly takes 2–4 years to complete, while something more complex, that involves more than one piece of land spanning multiple authorizing jurisdictions, can take anywhere from 4–8 years to complete. Slow response times translate into delays and adoption lags.

In some cities, it is even more dire. On the podcast Reply-All, host PJ Vogt dug into the issue and was shocked to discover how extensive the problem is,

“Ray, who is a Verizon spokesperson, still can’t actually can’t get Fios in his own Hell’s Kitchen apartment. And he says that’s because in Manhattan there are neighborhoods where you just can’t run cables on telephone poles. There’s no telephone poles outside and so you might have to string them from apartment building to apartment building. So even if your landlord is fine with having Fios you still might need permission from the landlord of the guy next door. Ray says it can get really complicated.”

Fast regulatory approvals aren’t going to solve all of our broadband ills, but, as the contrast with Romania’s laissez-faire approach to communications infrastructure shows, they are a major component of a better infrastructure regime. As cities and states consider reforms of broadband to deal with the pandemic, ensuring that approvals are timely should be at the top of the list.
https://medium.com/cgo-benchmark/the...d-c58291b2fcda





US Charges Russian Hackers Behind NotPetya, KillDisk, OlympicDestroyer Attacks

The US Department of Justice has unsealed today charges against six GRU officers believed to be members of Sandworm, one of today's most advanced state-sponsored hacking groups.
Catalin Cimpanu

The US Department of Justice has unsealed charges today against six Russian nationals believed to be members of one of Russia's elite hacking and cyberwar units — known as Sandworm.

In court documents today, US officials said all six suspects are officers in Unit 74455 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a military intelligence agency part of the Russian Army.

As part of this unit, US officials said the six conducted "destructive" cyber-attacks on behalf and under orders of the Russian government with the intent to destabilize other countries, interfere in their internal politics, and cause havoc and monetary losses.

Their attacks span the last decade and include some of the biggest cyber-attacks known to date:

1. Ukrainian Government & Critical Infrastructure: From December 2015 through December 2016, the group orchestrated destructive malware attacks against Ukraine's electric power grid, the Ukraine Ministry of Finance, and the Ukraine State Treasury Service, using malware that altered industrial equipment (BlackEnergy in 2015 and Industroyer in 2016) or wiped hard drives (KillDisk).
2. French Elections: In April and May 2017, Sandworm orchestrated spearphishing campaigns and related hack-and-leak efforts targeting French President Macron's "La République En Marche!" ("En Marche!") political party, French politicians, and local French governments prior to the 2017 French elections.
3. The NotPetya Ransomware Outbreak: On June 27, 2017, Sandworm released the NotPetya ransomware. Initially aimed at Ukrainian companies, the ransomware quickly spread and impacted companies all over the world, causing damages of more than $1 billion to its victims.
4. PyeongChang Winter Olympics Hosts, Participants, Partners, and Attendees: Between December 2017 through February 2018, Sandworm launched spearphishing campaigns and malicious mobile applications targeting South Korean citizens and officials, Olympic athletes, partners, and visitors, and International Olympic Committee ("IOC") officials. The attacks took place after Russian athletes were banned from the sporting event due to a state-sponsored doping scheme.
5. PyeongChang Winter Olympics IT Systems (Olympic Destroyer): From December 2017 through February 2018, Sandworm orchestrated intrusions into computers supporting the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, which culminated in the February 9, 2018, with the release of Olympic Destroyer, a destructive malware strain that attempted to wipe crucial servers during the opening ceremony.
6. Novichok Poisoning Investigations: In April 2018, the Sandworm group orchestrated spearphishing campaigns targeting investigations by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons ("OPCW") and the United Kingdom's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory's ("DSTL") into the nerve agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal, his daughter, and several UK citizens.
7. Georgian Companies and Government Entities: In 2018, Sandworm carried out spearphishing campaigns targeting a major media company in the country of Georgia. These attacks were followed in 2019 by efforts to compromise the network of Georgian Parliament, and a mass website defacement campaign in 2019.

But these are only the attacks documented in the DOJ indictment [PDF] unsealed today. They represent only a fraction of the group's vast cyber-operations, which go back as far as 2010.

To read more on the group's history, reports from the cyber-security industry are also available here, with the group also being referenced as Telebots, BlackEnergy, Voodoo Bear, and under other codenames.

But above all, the group is universally known as Sandworm. However, the six nationals indicted today are only the Sandworm members who could individually be linked to past Sandworm attacks. The group is believed to be made up of many more other GRU officers.

The six GRU officers charged today, and their respective crimes, are listed below:

Defendant


Summary of Overt Acts

Yuriy Sergeyevich Andrienko


• Developed components of the NotPetya and Olympic Destroyer malware.

Sergey Vladimirovich Detistov


• Developed components of the NotPetya malware; and

• Prepared spearphishing campaigns targeting the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.

Pavel Valeryevich Frolov


• Developed components of the KillDisk and NotPetya malware.

Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev


• Developed spearphishing techniques and messages used to target:

- En Marche! officials;

- employees of the DSTL;

- members of the IOC and Olympic athletes; and

- employees of a Georgian media entity.

Artem Valeryevich Ochichenko


• Participated in spearphishing campaigns targeting 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games partners; and

• Conducted technical reconnaissance of the Parliament of Georgia official domain and attempted to gain unauthorized access to its network.

Petr Nikolayevich Pliskin


• Developed components of the NotPetya and Olympic Destroyer malware.

The six supects are still at large in Russia. If they are apprehended and trialed in the US, all six would face sentences of tens of years in prison, each.

Irresponsible use of destructive malware

But today's case is also an oddity in the cyber-security industry. International norms exempt cyber-espionage operations from international prosecution, as cyber-espionage is considered an arm of normal intelligence gathering operations.

But speaking at a press conference today, US officials said Sandworm's cyber-attacks often relied on the indiscriminate use of malware with destructive capabilities that caused not only financial losses to thousands of companies but also put human life at risk, showing a disregard for regular cyber-norms.

"As this case shows, no country has weaponized its cyber capabilities as maliciously and irresponsibly as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented collateral damage to pursue small tactical advantages and to satisfy fits of spite," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, referring to attacks like BlackEnergy, NotPetya, and OlympicDestroyer, all of which were not aimed at intelligence gathering but were clear destructive attacks intent on sabotage.

US Attorney Scott W. Brady, one of the US prosecutors, said the US has been working on a case against Sandworm operators for more than two years, as part of the aftermath of the NotPetya ransomware outbreak.

"The crimes committed by Russian government officials were against real victims who suffered real harm," Brady said in a prepared statement. "We have an obligation to hold accountable those who commit crimes – no matter where they reside and no matter for whom they work – in order to seek justice on behalf of these victim."

Shortly after the indictments were announced, the UK government also formally accused Russia's Sandworm group of attempts to disrupt this year's Tokyo Olympics before the event was moved to next year due to COVID-19. The UK also showed support for the US legal case.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/us-cha...royer-attacks/





Germany Searches Premises of Spyware Maker FinFisher
AP

German prosecutors said Wednesday that authorities have searched 15 premises linked to spyware maker FinFisher as part of a probe into allegations the Munich-based company broke export laws by selling its products to authoritarian governments.

Munich prosecutors opened an investigation into the company last year following complaints from human rights groups, which alleged FinFisher had supplied Turkey with software that could be used to spy on dissidents in the country.

A spokeswoman for the prosecutors’ office said authorities searched offices and homes linked to the company around Munich and a subsidiary in Romania from Oct. 6-8.

The probe is directed against the chief executive and employees of FinFischer GmbH and two other companies, said spokeswoman Anne Leiding.

“There is a suspicion that software may have been shipped abroad without the necessary approval from the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control,” she said.

FinFisher didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
https://apnews.com/article/germany-m...b709165db949b6





China's Revamped Law Bans Online Services that 'Induce Addiction' in Kids

Games and streams have to set limits to stay legal.
Jon Fingas

China is implementing stricture measures in its bid to keep kids away from addictive digital content. The state-backed news agency Xinhua reported (via Reuters) that China has voted for revamped law that will ban internet products and services which “induce addiction” in kids. Game creators, livestream services and social networks also have to set up time and consumption limits.

The revised measures also give kids and their parents the right to ask internet providers to take “necessary measures” to thwart cyberbullying, including blocking and deleting content.

The updated law will take effect on June 1st, 2021.

To some extent, this is formalizing what China has done before. It was already exploring the ethics of game addiction, and developers like Tencent have already put checks in place. However, an explicit ban on addictive content could force sites and game creators to put checks in place to be safe, even if they’re not convinced kids will be hooked. While that will mostly affect China-focused digital goods, it could have an effect on the Chinese-made games and services you see elsewhere.
https://www.engadget.com/china-law-b...181301284.html





Intel Agrees to Sell its NAND Business to SK Hynix for $9 Billion
Catherine Shu

SK Hynix, one of the world’s largest chip makers, announced today it will pay $9 billion for Intel’s flash memory business. Intel said it will use proceeds from the deal to focus on artificial intelligence, 5G and edge computing.

“For Intel, this transaction will allow us to to further prioritize our investments in differentiated technology where we can play a bigger role in the success of our customers and deliver attractive returns to our stockholders,” said Intel chief executive officer Bob Swan in the announcement.

The Wall Street Journal first reported earlier this week that the two companies were nearing an agreement, which will turn SK Hynix into one of the world’s largest NAND memory makers, second only to Samsung Electronics.

The deal with SK Hynix is the latest one Intel has made so it can double down on developing technology for 5G network infrastructure. Last year, Intel sold the majority of its modem business to Apple for about $1 billion, with Swan saying that the time that the deal would allow Intel to “[put] our full effort into 5G where it most closely aligns with the needs of our global customer base.”

Once the deal is approved and closes, Seoul-based SK Hynix will take over Intel’s NAND SSD and NAND component and wafer businesses, and its NAND foundry in Dalian, China. Intel will hold onto its Optane business, which makes SSD memory modules. The companies said regulatory approval is expected by late 2021, and a final closing of all assets, including Intel’s NAND-related intellectual property, will take place in March 2025.

Until the final closing takes places, Intel will continue to manufacture NAND wafers at the Dalian foundry and retain all IP related to the manufacturing and design of its NAND flash wafers.

As the Wall Street Journal noted, the Dalian facility is Intel’s only major foundry in China, which means selling it to SK Hynix will dramatically reduce its presence there as the United States government puts trade restrictions on Chinese technology.

In the announcement, Intel said it plans to use proceeds from the sale to “advance its long-term growth priorities, including artificial intelligence, 5G networking and the intelligent, autonomous edge.”

During the six-month period ending on June 27, 2020, NAND business represented about $2.8 billion of revenue for its Non-volatile Memory Solutions Group (NSG), and contributed about $600 million to the division’s operating income. According to the Wall Street Journal, this made up the majority of Intel’s total memory sales during that period, which was about $3 billion.

SK Hynix CEO Seok-Hee Lee said the deal will allow the South Korean company to “optimize our business structure, expanding our innovative portfolio in the NAND flash market segment, which will be comparable with what we achieved in DRAM.”
https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/19/in...for-9-billion/





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