KAT Takedown Triggers Traffic Spike at Torrent Sites

[airdog07]

KAT Takedown Triggers Traffic Spike at Torrent Sites

• By Ernesto
• on July 24, 2016

Breaking
Earlier this week KickassTorrents was taken down following a criminal investigation into the site's alleged owner. Since then, millions of frequent users have taken refuge elsewhere. The Pirate Bay and ExtraTorrent are among the major beneficiaries, with the latter reporting an instant traffic spike of more than 300%.

With millions of unique visitors per day KickassTorrents (KAT) was the largest file-sharing site in the world.
In fact, shortly before the site went offline it was the 69th most-visited site on the entire Internet, beating Craigslist, Alibaba and the BBC.

Today, however, the site is still offline and there haven’t been any signs of an imminent comeback. This means that KAT’s millions of users have to find a new home to get their daily torrent fix.
The Pirate Bay appears to be one of the prime alternatives. The notorious torrent site has been operating steadily recently, aside from some occasional downtime, and is still seen by many as the Godfather of all torrent sites.
At the end of 2014 many Pirate Bay users moved to KAT, when the site suffered more than a month of downtime. To get the latest torrents and discuss the latest developments, among other things. Now many KAT users are likely to switch in the other direction.
TorrentFreak spoke with TPB staff member Spud17, who has seen some increase in forum traffic in recent days. She says they will welcome homeless torrenters with open arms.
“When both TPB and its forum went down, we had overwhelming support from KAT users on their forum, and our staff were able to keep the communities updated on important news and announcements thanks to the help and messages of support we received.
“Reciprocation is only right and we hope KAT staff will keep us informed of any official news/announcements so that we can help to inform,” Spud17 adds.
As for the future, the TPB staffer believes that the KAT community is strong enough to survive one way or another.
“Personally, I think KAT will be back, their community is too strong to just fizzle out, much like the TPB community seeking refuge on IRC meant it stayed together during downtime, I’m sure the KAT community will keep the faith,” Spud17 notes.
Another refuge for KAT users is ExtraTorrent, which was already the third largest torrent site before the KAT takedown. TorrentFreak spoke to an operator of the site who said that they’re seeing a significant traffic spike.

“So far we got 200% signup, and 300% traffic increase at ExtraTorrent,” ET’s SaM told us a day after KAT went down.
Similar to KAT, ExtraTorrent has an active community and forums, which makes it one of the most natural alternatives.
Despite the traffic boost, ExtraTorrent’s operator is not happy to see another site going down. However, he is not willing to throw in the towel and believes that the “torrent community” will survive this setback.
“It is sad to see an iconic site go this way, and it shows how the torrent community is targeted by all means. But, I guess torrenting will prevail and this doesn’t mean the death or end of this era,” SaM says.
Another operator of one of the top torrent sites, who spoke with us on condition of anonymity, reports a traffic increase as well, albeit a small one. The site in question targets a different audience, which may explain the limited effect.
“We’re seeing a small traffic increase, but then again we were never the KAT type of site. So KAT’s users will not move to us,” the operator says.
Despite from the traffic spikes, some torrent sites were adversely affected this week. The popular torrent caching service Torcache.net went offline at the same time KAT did, which is likely related.
As a result, torrents on 1337x.to, Monova and other sites that use the same service are not loading at the moment. Time will tell if and how these events are connected.
It is safe to say, however, that the KAT downtime has had a significant effect on the torrent community. But as history has shown time and time again, it’s doubtful that it will stop many people from sharing files in the long run.

[airdog07]

KickassTorrents Mirrors and Imposters Spring into Action

• By Ernesto
• on July 22, 2016

Breaking
It has been just over a day since KickassTorrents (KAT) was shut down by the U.S. Government, following the arrest of the site's alleged owner. While the official site is still offline mirrors and copies are being launched left and right, with some misleadingly claiming to be an "official" resurrection of KAT.

With an active community and millions of regular visitors, KickassTorrents has been the most used torrent site for quite some time.
This ended abruptly earlier this week, following the arrest of its alleged founder in Poland. A criminal complaint from the U.S. Government revealed that entire operation had been compromised by the Department of Homeland Security.

Starting a few hours ago, the first Kickass domain was signed over to the U.S. authorities. Others are expected to follow during the days to come.
Kickass.to now displays a seizure notice, which means that the associated domain registry was quick to respond to the U.S. warrant. People who visit the Kickass.to address today will see the following banner, specifically tailored for KAT.

KAT’s seizure banner



As expected, the U.S. authorities are not the only ones to ‘lift’ KAT’s logo, many others are doing the same, but for a different reason.
Shortly after KAT went offline dozens of people began promoting mirrors and copies of the site. Some are just trying to keep lost files accessible, but there’s also a group trying to take over the brand, similar to the efforts seen following YIFY’s demise.

For example, the operator of Kickass.la sent an email to several reporters promoting a new KAT address. In a follow-up, we were told that the site is an “official backup,” and that a copy of the database is in their possession.
However, the site appears to be little more than a partial copy and the person behind it later admitted that they are not related to KAT.
Only adding to the confusion are the many other copies and alternatives claiming to be the official resurrection of KAT. Some even advertise themselves as such, but most have been available for a longer time as proxy/mirror sites.
Kickasstorrents.to, for example, has been around for a long time, hosting cached pages of the original site. The latter is also true for others, such as Dxtorrent.com. But in any case, there is no true backup with freshly added content available.
Another mirror that has been widely discussed is kickasstorrents.website (which is NOT a project of Isohunt.to, as some reports suggest).
Unlike others, the people behind this site are very clear about the fact that they are not related to the original KAT team. Their copy currently lists torrent files from the past one and a half years, but like other mirrors it doesn’t have a working forum or upload functionality.

“It’s not perfect but if users need to save and archive something it’s time. We don’t know how long it can last, but at least it’s something,” the site’s operator told TorrentFreak.

The people behind the site, who describe themselves as a group of individuals who stand for freedom of the Internet, also launched a petition on Change.org calling for the release of KAT’s alleged owner Artem Vaulin.
“We are protesting against violent attack on our right to share information and arrest of Kat.cr founder Artem Vaulin. Our freedom to share is the human right which Artem Vaulin has been providing to millions of users from all over the world,” they say.
While a notable effort, the banner promoting the cause appears to show a photo of an entirely different Artem Vaulin. The image was removed from the petition after we pointed this out, but it’s still present in the manifesto at the time of writing and being shared in news articles and on social media.
What is clear is that former KAT users are grasping at straws to get their old community back. While mirrors and copies do look like their old home, without a working forum and new content they don’t provide much of an alternative.
For now, people are probably better off not trusting any “KAT resurrection” claims. The chance of getting your password stolen is higher than finding a site with a true backup of the user database.
so be careful

[airdog07]

Solarmovie Disappears Following KAT Shutdown

By Andy on July 21, 2016

Following the news that KickassTorrents (KAT) has been shut down and its alleged owner arrested, another big site has disappeared from the Internet. Popular streaming portal Solarmovie went offline overnight without explanation and it seems possible that connections to KAT are to blame.

solarmovieIn the most dramatic turn of events since the raid of The Pirate Bay in December 2014, KickassTorrents went dark yesterday.

Previously the world’s largest torrent site, KAT shut down following the arrest of its alleged founder. Artem Vaulin, a 30-year-old from Ukraine, was arrested in Poland after his entire operation had been well and truly compromised by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

When large sites are raided it is common for other sites in a similar niche to consider their positions. This phenomenon was illustrated perfectly when the 2012 raids on Megaupload resulted in sites such as BTjunkie taking the decision to shut down.

At this point, most other torrent sites seem fairly stable but there appears to have been at least one ‘pirate’ casualty following yesterday’s drama.

For many years, Solarmovie has been one of the most visible and visited ‘pirate’ streaming portals. Like many others, the site has had its fair share of domain issues, starting out at .COM and more recently ending up at .PH. However, sometime during the past few hours, Solarmovie disappeared.

solar-large

No official announcement concerning the site’s fate has been made but it’s clear from the criminal complaint filed against KickassTorrents that Artem Vaulin had close connections to Solarmovie.

As reported yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security obtained a copy of KickassTorrents’ servers from its Canadian host and also gained access to the site’s servers in Chicago. While conducting his inquiries, the Special Agent handling the case spotted an email address for the person responsible for renting KAT’s servers.

Further investigation of Vaulin’s Apple email account showed the Ukrainian corresponding with this person back in 2010.

“The subject of the email was ‘US Server’ and stated: ‘Hello, here is access to the new server’ followed by a private and public IP address located in Washington DC, along with the user name ‘root’ and a password,” the complaint reveals.

Perhaps tellingly, the IP address provided by this individual to Vaulin was found to have hosted Solarmovie.com from August 2010 through to April 2011. Furthermore, up until just last month, the IP address was just one away from an IP address used to host KickassTorrents.

“As of on or about June 27, 2016, one of the IP addresses hosting solarmovie.ph was one IP address away (185.47.10.11) from an IP address that was being used to host KAT (185.47.10.12 and 185.47.10.13),” the complaint adds.

While none of the above is proof alone that Vaulin was, for example, the owner of Solarmovie, it’s clear that at some point he at least had some connections with the site or its operator.

On the other hand, in torrent and streaming circles it’s common for people to use services already being used by others they know and trust, so that might provide an explanation for the recent IP address proximity.

In any event, last night’s shutdown of Solarmovie probably indicates that the heat in the kitchen has become just a little too much. Expect more fallout in the days to come.

[airdog07]

US Military Sued for Software Piracy
Added: Monday, July 25th, 2016

The US military is accused of installing unauthorized copies of 3D virtual reality software onto thousands of computers without the permission of the copyright owner. Bitmanagement, the software makers, accused the Navy of willful copyright infringement and decided to sue the US government for $600m in unpaid licenses.

The lawsuit centers around a 3D virtual reality app created by the German company Bitmanagement, which the Navy agreed to license for 38 computers for the purposes of testing, trial runs, and integration into its systems. After the tests, the parties started negotiating the licensing of additional computers, but prior to any deals, the software makers learned that the Navy had already installed it on more than 558,000 computers, without their permission. Moreover, the US military allegedly disabled the software tracking on how many computers it is being used, thus effectively preventing the software vendor from stopping the unauthorized copying.

Bitmanagement claimed that the willful copyright infringement has damaged its business and rights and so it now demands compensation to a total of nearly $600 million. Installing the software onto a single PC cost about $1,070 at the time, so the software makers claim they are entitled to at least $596,000,000 in unpaid licensing fees. By the way, this is more than the damages MegaUpload have caused to the US copyright holders, while the MegaUpload case was billed by the FBI as one of the “largest criminal copyright cases” ever.

The industry observers remind that it wasn’t the first time that the Navy has been caught pirating software: several years ago the US military was accused of running unlicensed logistics software, which ended up with $50m settlement.

Thanks to TorrentFreak for providing the source of the article.

Posted by: SaM

Date: Monday, July 25th, 2016

[airdog07]

Apple Devices Can Be Hacked through an iMessage
Posted by: SaM
Date: Saturday, July 23rd, 2016

It became known that hackers are now able to take over any Apple device through a simple iMessage or email thanks to a flaw in the way software handles images. Speaking technical language, the flaw allows a malicious TIFF file to force a so-called “buffer overflow”, enabling a hacker to break through Apple’s security and run their own code.


Security experts noted that the vulnerability in question is especially concerning, because it can be triggered in any app using the Apple Image I/O API when rendering tiled TIFF images. For example, most applications (including Messages, MMS, Safari, Mail, etc.) on an iPhone use the Image I/O API to render pictures, leaving them all vulnerable.

Depending on the method of delivery, this flaw can be exploitable through methods that don’t require explicit user interaction, because many apps, including iMessage, automatically try to render received images in default configurations.

Once the image is viewed, the hacker is able to gain full control of the device, steal passwords and other data, most likely without the user knowledge.

Apple released software updates for all of its devices, including Apple TV to address the vulnerability, but users who have not updated are still vulnerable to attack. In addition, the iOS update is not available for the iPhone 4 and older models, so they remain at risk. Overall, according to some estimations, there are 1bn iOS devices around the world which will be affected by this security hole if their owners fail to update.

In the meantime, Google’s Android faced similar security holes dubbed Stagefright, which also affected about 1bn devices. In that case, the updates required to fix the flaw were slowly released through various smartphone manufacturers and mobile operators.

[airdog07]

Hackers create Safe Skies TSA master key from scratch, release designs

Credit: Johnny Xmas

Hackers reverse engineer Safe Skies master key, publish designs

CSO | Jul 23, 2016 9:00 PM PT


On Saturday evening, during the Eleventh HOPE conference in New York City, three hackers released the final master key used by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which opens Safe Skies luggage locks.

The talk was given by DarkSim905, a lock enthusiast who heads the New Jersey chapter of TOOOL (The Open Organization of Lockpickers); Nite 0wl, a member of TOOOL from New York City; and Johnny Xmas, of RedLegg International's TradeCraft Labs.
In addition to releasing a 3D-printable model of the Safe Skies master key, the talk also addressed the techniques used to collect the intelligence leading to the compromise of the seven Travel Sentry keys in 2015, as well as vulnerabilities in the Safe Skies lock design.

How to respond to ransomware threatsThe public release of this eighth and final key has once again exposed the problems created by key escrow.

Approved Locks:

TSA approved locks became a common sight at airports in 2003. Passengers were using locks to prevent theft, and the TSA wasn't thrilled with the overhead required to inspect baggage. Prior to the creation and availability of approved locks, the TSA would simply cut the lock off if a bag needed inspected. These days, under the approved locks program, the TSA can access bags by using a master key.

Two companies are responsible for the majority of the TSA approved luggage locks on the market.

The first is Travel Sentry, but they don't make their own locks. Travel Sentry authorizes a system of keys that can be used as standards for other lock manufacturers. The second company is Safe Skies. They do make their own locks, and hold the patents for the designs.
When the approved locks program was introduced, some felt the concept was security theater and wouldn’t actually provide additional protection from thieves. But it’s possible some travelers did believe in the concept stronger protection, as the TSA made claims in 2012 that the locks would "prevent anyone from removing items" from locked bags.
A few years later, the TSA reversed their stance in a statement given to the Intercept, saying the approved lock program was implemented to provide "peace of mind."
When asked for comments concerning the creation of a Safe Skies master key, the TSA sent Salted Hash a similar comment.
"These consumer products are convenience products that have nothing to do with TSA's aviation security regime," an agency spokesperson said.
"Carry on and checked bags are subject to the TSA's electronic screening and manual inspection. In addition, the reported accessibility of keys to unauthorized persons does not affect the physical security of bags while being screening by TSA officers."
Granted, the locks do serve as a deterrent against opportunistic theft, but that's about it. Locked or not, your luggage can be opened with a pen, a knife, or screwdriver in seconds – and most of the more common Travel Sentry or Safe Skies locks can be picked with ease.
But, as Johnny Xmas said during a recent interview with Salted Hash, the point being made isn't about "how bad men can lick your travel toothbrush" after opening your luggage with a printed key.
The point being made by the development and subsequent release of the eighth and final TSA master key centers on the dangers of government key escrow.

Travel Sentry and key escrow:

Testing the security of TSA approved locks is something lock enthusiasts have been working on since 2004.

In late 2015, a hacker who goes by name of Xylit0l, using high-quality public images released by the TSA and published by Travel Sentry, as well as a ton of community-driven research, eventually produced 3D-printable copies of the Travel Sentry master keys.
Later, DarkSim905, Johnny Xmas, and another hacker by the name of MS3FGX, added to the project by fixing a few of the early design flaws and sharing knowledge.




The media coverage related to the Travel Sentry leak primarily focused on the fact that hackers could now break into luggage, which the hackers involved in the leak claimed completely missed the point.
"The point we were trying to make, which everyone involved stated very clearly over and over again, was that this was all an act of civil disobedience in order to create an excellent metaphor for the general public to better understand the inherent dangers of trusting a highly-targeted third-party to have the tools necessary to grant unfettered access to your stuff," Johnny Xmas said.
Around the time the Travel Sentry keys were released, Apple and the FBI were going to war over the FBI's demand that Apple develop a backdoor in their software. The backdoor would allow unrestricted access to the encrypted data on a person's iPhone or iPad, but the FBI claimed they would only use it when legally allowed.
Another way to put it – the FBI wanted Apple to give them a master key that would bypass the security protections on an Apple customer's device, one that would be held in escrow and only used when the FBI felt it necessary. However, no one trusted the FBI's ability to protect such golden keys.
"At its best key escrow creates a larger attack surface and places significant, if not complete, control or your security in the hands of a third-party. How much can you trust that third-party? If they're dishonest or greedy, they can steal your property or access your sensitive information without your knowledge or consent," explained Nite 0wl during a recent interview with Salted Hash.
Even if the third-party is completely honest, Nite 0wl added, "their security must be at least as good as your own or an attacker can get your keys from them instead of attacking your system directly."
Yet, at that point in time, those calling out the parallels between the Travel Sentry keys and the backdoors being sought by the FBI were routinely ignored.
"Security, encryption and protecting communications that many of us security researchers take for granted, are constantly under threat. Just because the average person was forced to share keys to their things (i.e. luggage), doesn't mean we should accept it for our electronic communications as a result," DarkSim905 said.
"The fact an organization with an already questionable history and existence went so far as put all of our travelers' belongings at risk for theft is mind boggling. It should shock anyone who has even vaguely private things or thoughts. People have had a great deal of things stolen from their luggage in recent years due to the abuse of key escrow," DarkSim905 added, referencing reports of valuables being stolen at airports.
As mentioned, when the Travel Sentry story broke, most of the hackers involved felt the media missed the point entirely.
In all fairness, they were right to be frustrated. At no point, did the media contact Johnny Xmas, DarkSim905, Xylit0l, or MS3FGX to get additional details or confirm facts – a major misstep considering there were problems with some of the keys in the first place.
One Tweet made by Johnny Xmas at the time was widely circulated in the media, despite the fact it wasn't truthful.
"I had printed the keys up, confirmed they looked good, and then took that picture while I was out grabbing some dinner. I came home and began testing them, only to find the sizes were way too small," he explained.
Xmas posted a second message to Twitter after some testing, saying that he had the correct scale for the TSA keys. However, this wasn't correct either, as 004 and 006 needed serious work before they could function properly.
"All of this is of particular importance because at no time did anyone publishing these articles ever attempt to get in touch with me. I was making claims lofty enough to attract major media attention, and yet nobody ever attempted to verify the truthfulness of them," Xmas added.

Safe Skies:

The Safe Skies master key released during the Eleventh HOPE conference took some effort to engineer.
According to research, Safe Skies only uses a single master key. Previously, Nite 0wl and the others had high-resolution images and design specs to work with on the Travel Sentry project. This time however, they had no such help, so things had to be done manually.
"Unlike the Travel Sentry keys, there is very little information about the exact design of the Safe Skies key floating around. There are no leaked documents, inadvisable publicity photos, or anything like that. Instead, I had to use more traditional locksmithing techniques to create a working key," Nite 0wl explained.
The first step in his research was to acquire Safe Skies locks for examination and testing. Nite 0wl purchased them from as many different sources as possible to ensure he had a diverse sample set to work with.



Johnny Xmas

The second step was to identify possible key blanks. This stage was helped by examining the user keys that were supplied with some of the Safe Skies locks. Ultimately though, he had to resort to creating his own blanks. While the first set of custom blanks were created with polystyrene sheets, he eventually switched to modifying commercially available key blanks that were similar to actual Safe Skies keys.
"Once I had blank keys that would fit the locks I needed to figure out what the cuts should be," Nite 0wl said.
This stage involved examining and comparing the user keys supplied with the sample locks, since he knew the master key could never exactly match one of the user keys. By doing so, he was able to eliminate those sets of cuts and look for patterns that would give him a rough idea of the pattern a master key would use.
"The big breakthrough was when I acquired several Safe Skies locks that used wafer-tumbler mechanisms instead of pin-tumbler mechanisms, because of the different mechanical design I was able to work out the master key cuts very quickly and then confirm that the key worked on all of the sample locks I had," he added.
The 3D model of the master key being released contains some additional work by Nite 0wl and the others, and it might require some additional tweaks due to the nature of consumer 3D printers, but the key itself is fully functional on Safe Skies locks.



Nite 0wl

There is one point all three of the speakers wanted to stress during their interview. There was nothing shady or illegal going on during their research. Unlike the Travel Sentry keys, the Safe Skies key was not developed due to leaked photographs, files, or any other proprietary data. This was a manual development project, one that was full of trial and error. But their overall point remains the same – key escrow is a bad idea.
"This was done by legally procuring actual locks, comparing the inner workings, and finding the common denominator. It's a great metaphor for how weak encryption mechanisms are broken - gather enough data, find the pattern, then just "math" out a universal key (or set of keys). What we're doing here is literally cracking physical encryption, and I fear that metaphor isn't going to be properly delivered to the public," Johnny Xmas commented.
Salted Hash reached out to Safe Skies and the TSA for comment. However, only the TSA responded.
Attempts were made to reach Safe Skies prior to publication via phone, email, and LinkedIn, but none were successful.

[airdog07]

Edward Snowden Presented Phone Case Revealing Spying

Posted by: SaM Saturday, July 23rd, 2016

Edward Snowden was one of the designers of a mobile phone case that can show when a device is transmitting data that could be spied on. Snowden and his co-designer Andrew Huang appeared online at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, demonstrating how the device connects to the phone’s radio transmitters and shows its owner when any type of connection is being used to share or receive information.



The prototype of the case shows a small, monochromatic display built into the casing, which shows whether the phone is “idle” or transmitting information. Besides, the case is also able to supply a device with extra battery power and cover the rear-facing camera. Snowden also explained that the item could be developed to act as a kind of “kill switch” that would disconnect a phone’s power supply once detecting that a radio is transmitting information after its owner turned it off.

Although this phone case is just an academic project and is not ready for the mass market, it could still influence how consumers view the “tracking devices” or regular smartphones. The former NSA contractor explained that if you have a phone in your pocket, a long-lived record of your movements is being created, as the smartphone is constantly shouting into the air by means of radio signals. This communication is not only saved by that phone company, but can also be observed by independent third parties.

Even when you turn off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cellular transmission in airplane mode, it can’t be trusted, because some malware can activate radios without any indication from the user interface.

The project is part of Snowden’s work to inform the public about the surveillance capabilities of the governments. Three years ago, he revealed the truth about mass surveillance programs from the NSA and has since become a recognizable name that can explain these issues in a comprehensible way.

The phone case developers admit the device is likely to remain a mockup, because the project is run largely through volunteer efforts. Apparently, if the proper funding is raised, they could release the device in partnership with the media advocacy group and use it to help protect journalists. So far, the designers are concentrating on working with iPhone, but the device could be modified to work on other models.


Posted by: SaM

Date: Saturday, July 23rd, 2016

[airdog07]

The Mozilla Blog
Advance Disclosure Needed to Keep Users Secure

Researchers have discovered over 100 malicious nodes on the Tor anonymity network

How Hacking Team and FBI planned to Unmask A Tor User

Police Unlock Dead Man's Phone by 3D-Printing

[airdog07]

The CIA, NSA and Pokémon Go
Credit: Michael Kan
Before heading out to capture Pokémon, you might want to consider the data the game has access to and the history of the company that created the game

Network World | Jul 22, 2016 9:15 AM PT
RELATED TOPICS

Mobile & Wireless Mobile Security

Comments

With Pokémon Go currently enjoying, what I would call, a wee-bit-o-success, now seems like a good time to talk about a few things people may not know about the world's favorite new smartphone game.

This is not an opinion piece. I am not going to tell you Pokémon Go is bad or that it invades your privacy. I’m merely presenting verifiable facts about the biggest, most talked about game out there.

+ Also on Network World: The Pokémon Go effect on the network +

Let’s start with a little history.

Way back in 2001, Keyhole, Inc. was founded by John Hanke (who previously worked in a “foreign affairs” position within the U.S. government). The company was named after the old “eye-in-the-sky” military satellites. One of the key, early backers of Keyhole was a firm called In-Q-Tel.

In-Q-Tel is the venture capital firm of the CIA. Yes, the Central Intelligence Agency. Much of the funding purportedly came from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). The NGA handles combat support for the U.S. Department of Defense and provides intelligence to the NSA and CIA, among others.

Keyhole’s noteworthy public product was “Earth.” Renamed to “Google Earth” after Google acquired Keyhole in 2004.

In 2010, Niantic Labs was founded (inside Google) by Keyhole’s founder, John Hanke.

Over the next few years, Niantic created two location-based apps/games. The first was Field Trip, a smartphone application where users walk around and find things. The second was Ingress, a sci-fi-themed game where players walk around and between locations in the real world.

In 2015, Niantic was spun off from Google and became its own company. Then Pokémon Go was developed and launched by Niantic. It’s a game where you walk around in the real world (between locations suggested by the service) while holding your smartphone.
Data the game can access

Let’s move on to what information Pokémon Go has access to, bearing the history of the company in mind as we do.

When you install Pokémon Go on an Android phone, you grant it the following access (not including the ability to make in-app purchases):

Identity

Find accounts on the device

Contacts

Find accounts on the device

Location

Precise location (GPS and network-based)
Approximate location (network-based)

Photos/Media/Files

Modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Read the contents of your USB storage

Storage

Modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Read the contents of your USB storage

Camera

Take pictures and videos

Other

Receive data from the internet
Control vibration
Pair with Bluetooth devices
Access Bluetooth settings
Full network access
Use accounts on the device
View network connections
Prevent the device from sleeping

Based on the access to your device (and your information), coupled with the design of Pokémon Go, the game should have no problem discerning and storing the following information (just for a start):

Where you are
Where you were
What route you took between those locations
When you were at each location
How long it took you to get between them
What you are looking at right now
What you were looking at in the past
What you look like
What files you have on your device and the entire contents of those files

I’m not going to tell people what they should think of all this. I’m merely presenting the information. I recommend looking over the list of what data the game has access to, then going back to the beginning of this article and re-reading the history of the company.
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Bryan Lunduke

Bryan is a writer and works as the Social Media Marketing Manager of SUSE. On this here blog, he seeks to accomplish two goals: 1) To be the voice of reason and practicality in the Linux and Open Source world. 2) To highlight the coolest things happening throughout the world of Linux.

[airdog07]

Torrentz.eu Shuts Down
Added: Monday, August 8th, 2016

One largest torrent websites ever has shut down and announced "farewell" to its users. Torrentz.eu was a huge meta-search engine, which didn’t host any torrents but provided links to other services including TPB.



Torrentz.eu was founded 13 years ago and has been a stable factor in the torrent community since then. It accounted for millions of visitors per day and was one of the most visited torrent sites. A few days ago, it announced its shutdown, disabling its search functionality without any warning.

While the main page may look normal, the search function doesn’t wok any longer. Instead, Torrentz.eu now refers to itself in the past tense. Whatever link you click, the message is the same: “Torrentz will always love you. Farewell.”

So, right after KickassTorrents, just another major torrent service is shutting down. Like many other sites, Torrentz itself never hosted any torrent files. Moreover, the engine had a takedown procedure in place, which allowed rights owners to take down infringing links. However, this was not enough to make copyright owners happy: RIAA and MPAA have reported Torrentz.eu to the American government in recent years. In its turn, the government repeatedly placed Torrentz in its annual “Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets.”

So, the trend is a kind of worrying – with Torrentz.eu and KickassTorrents both shutting down, the file-sharing community lost two of the largest service in just 3 weeks. Now millions of their users will have to find new services to get free content (or turn to legal alternatives).

Torrentz.eu was founded before The Pirate Bay and was considered one of the oldest torrent websites in the world. When it first launched, it was hosting torrent files. However, quite soon it swiftly turned into a meta-search engine.

Thanks to TorrentFreak for providing the source of the article.

Posted by: SaM

Date: Monday, August 8th, 2016

[airdog07]

Best Android Hacking Tools 2016

January 6, 2016 9622

Best Android Hacking Tools 2016

I’m going to post some latest best hacking tools 2016 for android and must have tools for every hacker.

As we all know hacking and pen testing is only can be done on computers. But now the world is changing now your mobile is small hacking toolkit 2016 using these apps. Must try all these hacking tools 2016.

Also Read: Best Hacking Tools for PC

Best Android Hacking Tools 2016

Here are latest and best android hacking tools,

#1 The Android Network Hacking Toolkit

In the last Defcon conference a new tool has been released by a security researcher and the tool is called “The Android network toolkit”. The has been developed for penetration tester and ethical hackers to test any network and vulnerabilities by using their mobile phones. This toolkit contain different apps that will help any hacker to find vulnerabilities and possibly exploit it. The company behind the app is an Israeli security firm called Zimperium.

#2 Nmap for Android

Nmap (network mapper) is one the best among different network scanner (port finder) tool, Nmap mainly developed for Unix OS but now it is available on Windows and Android as well. Nmap for android is a Nmap apps for your phone! Once your scan finishes you can e-mail the results. This application is not a official apps but it looks good.

#3 FaceNiff 2.4 final- Session Hijacker for Android

Your Facebook account is at risk, just like a Firesheep (for firefox hacking) there is a FaceNiff for hijacking the session of famous social networking websites includes facebook and twitter. FaceNiff is developed by Bartosz Ponurkiewicz who created Firesheep before but faceniff is for android OS.

#4 AnDOSid- DOS Tool for Android

DOS or denial of service attack is very dangerous attack because it takes down the server
(computer).AnDOSid allows security professionals to simulate a DOS attack (A http post flood attack to be exact) and of course a dDOS on a web server, from mobile phones.AnDOSid is designed for security professionals only!

#5 SSHDroid- Android Secure Shell

Secure shell or SSH is the best protocol that provides an extra layer of security while you are connecting with your remote machine.SSHDroid is a SSH server implementation for Android.
This application will let you to connect to your device from a PC and execute commands (like “terminal” and “adb shell”).

Also Read: Android Hacking Apps

Note :- This post is only for security or information purpose, But now the world is changing now your mobile is small hacking toolkit using these apps. Must try all these best hacking apps or hacking tools.