Month: October 2014

DAHC

The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) just returned an aerial surveillance balloon that it borrowed for two days in an effort to capture a man wanted for the murder of a trooper last month. Thomas Kelly, a PSP spokesman, told Ars on Wednesday that the “Blimp in a Box” was returned because it was ineffective.

“Due to the tree canopy and rugged terrain of our search area, the balloon was not as helpful as everyone hoped it would be,” he said by e-mail. “The tree canopy is too thick, we couldn’t see through it. It’s that simple. The balloon was offered to us as an alternative technique. We tried it and just didn’t work. It’s best suited for open spaces, not heavily wooded forests.”

The manhunt is focused on finding Eric Frein, a suspected murderer now on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. Six weeks ago, Frein allegedly shot and killed a Pennsylvania trooper while wounding another outside the Blooming Grove Barracks in Pike County. After the incident, local and federal authorities named Frein, a local survivalist and amateur military historian, as the prime suspect.

John Jackson

Pilots of drones or model aircraft could be fined or jailed for up to a year if they navigate near automobile racetracks or big sporting stadiums, the Federal Aviation Administration announced.

The Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) No. FDC 4/3621 is the first time US flight regulators have moved to criminally punish wayward drone pilots.

The rules—the first FAA update to pilots concerning sports venues in five years—reiterate an existing standard that prohibits pilots of all aircraft from flying under 3,000 feet and within three miles of stadiums from NCAA Division 1 football, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and even big car races. The no-fly area is designated “national defense airspace” for one hour before and after events at these venues with 30,000 or more seating capacity. The new regulation does allow for the “broadcast rights holder” of stadium events to enter the no-fly zone with permission.

Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), a retailer-backed consortium, received a lot of attention this weekend when CVS and Rite Aid suddenly stopped accepting payments from systems like Google Wallet and Apple Pay. The two pharmacists reportedly made the move in solidarity with MCX, which is developing its own mobile payments system called CurrentC. CurrentC is set to launch in early 2015, although the app is already available.

On Wednesday, however, people who signed up to be on the forefront of the CurrentC launch were sent an e-mail saying that their e-mail addresses had been stolen.

“Thank you for your interest in CurrentC,” the e-mail read. “You are receiving this message because you are either a participant in our pilot program or requested information about CurrentC. Within the last 36 hours, we learned that unauthorized third parties obtained the e-mail addresses of some of you. Based on investigations conducted by MCX security personnel, only these e-mail addresses were involved and no other information.”

streamishmc

It’s hard to have a meaningful discussion about Apple Pay (iOS’ most recent foray into mobile payments) and Google Wallet (Android’s three-year-old platform that’s had tepid success) without talking about how the systems actually work. And to talk about how those systems work, we have to know how credit card charges work.

It seems like a simple thing, especially in the US—swipe your card, wait a second or two for authorization, walk out of the store with your goods. But the reality is that a complicated system of different companies handles all that transaction information before your receipt ever gets printed.

The four-party system

If you’re using a so-called “universal” card like Visa or MasterCard, there are typically four parties involved: the merchant, the payment processor, the merchant acquirer, and the issuer. Their roles are as follows:

The unclassified network of the Executive Office of the President—the administrative network of the White House—was breached by attackers thought to be working for the Russian government, according to multiple reports. The Washington Post reported that an investigation is ongoing, and White House officials are not saying what data, if any, was stolen from the computers on the network. “We are still assessing the activity of concern,” an unnamed White House official told the Post.

According to the Post’s anonymous sources, the breach was discovered in early October after a friendly foreign government alerted US officials. The network’s virtual private network access was shut down, and some staff members were told to change passwords. “We took immediate measures to evaluate and mitigate the activity,” the Post’s source at the White House said. “Unfortunately, some of that resulted in the disruption of regular services to users. But people were on it and are dealing with it.”

This isn’t the first time attackers, apparently sponsored by a foreign state, have targeted the White House’s network. In 2008 and 2012, Chinese hackers penetrated the White House’s network. On the first occasion, the attackers gained access to the White House’s e-mail server; in 2012, a phishing attack against White House staffers gave attackers access to the network, though officials said no sensitive data was exposed.