#the grid & hackers

[carolinemillerbooks]

New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/analogue-in-a-digital-world/

Analogue In A Digital World

The other day, I walked into an ice cream parlor for a cone.  When I learned I had to pay with a credit card, I walked out.  I’ve seen many people pay for coffee with a card. I admire their savvy. But I manage my finances best when I watch the money flow from my wallet rather than wait to be surprised at the end of the month. I had a similar experience with tech when I bought a magazine subscription recently. The fee was a hefty $80 which I paid with a check. When two months passed and the check hadn’t cleared, I emailed the company. No one replied but the magazines kept coming.  Finally, I wrote to the editor.  His explanation was, “We don’t get checks, normally. I guess it got lost.” The exchange gave me two pieces of information. First, I’d never buy stock in this company. Second, when my “subscription” runs out next year, not being a fool, I plan to renew with a check. AARP makes an effort to keep seniors aware of technology’s benefits.  This month their bulletin contains a section called, “Digital Financial Tools,” by Kim Porter. (pgs. 22-24, AARP Bulletin, March 20, 22.) The mind boggles at the opportunities she lays out.  But as a person who’s never used an ATM, it’s unlikely I’ll use them either.  I update my accounts as AARP advises because techies like to make changes.  I hate changes, particularly if it means I need a new password to see my bank balance. Sometimes a change requires I read through a set of instructions. I hate doing that, too.  Most of the time the upgrades are of little benefit to me.  For example, some Microsoft fool redesigned my email section so that the “save” button sits atop the “send” button. I’m forever shooting off an email before it’s time. My friends must be confused when they receive them, as well. Financial transactions I never leave to bits and bytes. To deposit a check, I address an envelope to my bank and put a stamp on it.   The price of a stamp has gone up, but that’s nothing compared to the cost of maintaining a computer system, paying for apps, and always needing to upgrade something.  And there’s the benefit of privacy through the mail.  What Google doesn’t know is fine by me. “Using so much pager is bad for the planet,” you might be thinking.  Well, that’s a myth that needs to be debunked. Paper is more environmentally friendly than electronics.  Besides, our grid is vulnerable to hackers, homegrown saboteurs, and commercial eves droppers, as I’ve suggested.   I share my digital phobia with other elderly folks if AARP’s poll is correct.  Only 3 in 10 older people are motivated to use technology… (“Helping you Stay Tech Savvy,” by Jo Ann Jenkins, AARP Bulletin, March 20, 2022, pg. 38.) Having a reluctance to learn isn’t the problem. But two out of five seniors agree with me—the system is too complex to accomplish simple tasks.  In addition, the cost of the setup and the ongoing upgrades is a deterrent. (Ibid, pg. 30.) Like most people, I have a love/hate relationship with technology.  For research, computers are a marvel.  To buy an ice cream cone?  Not so much.

[devbhumimedia]

Joe Biden से की चीन के खिलाफ भारत का साथ देने की अमेरिकी सांसद की अपील, जानें क्या है मामला

Joe Biden से की चीन के खिलाफ भारत का साथ देने की अमेरिकी सांसद की अपील, जानें क्या है मामला

मालवेयर के जरिये भारत की पावर ग्रिड प्रणाली को निशाना बनाया देवभूमि मीडिया ब्यूरो  वाशिंगटन : चीनी हैकरों द्वारा भारत की पावरग्रिड प्रणाली को निशाना बनाने की बात के सामने आने के बाद America के एक वरिष्ठ सांसद Frank Pallone ने बाइडन प्रशासन से भारत का साथ देने का अनुरोध किया है । साइबर हमले जैसी गतिविधियों की निगरानी करने वाली एक अमेरिकी कंपनी की रिपोर्ट में भारत की पावरग्रिड प्रणाली को Chinese…

[avatheai]

TECH 2 PROTECT

Cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important, with a large number of users, devices, and programs within the modern organization, along with the deluge of data, which is increasingly sensitive or confidential. Attack volume and sophistication are escalating, which raises the stakes even more.

In this last blog post, we will tackle everything we need to know about Cybersecurity and on how important it is for everyone!

WHAT IS CYBER SECURITY?

Cyber security is a collection of technologies, procedures, and practices aimed at preventing attacks, damage, and illegal access to networks, devices, programs, and data. Information technology security is another term for cyber security.

ITS IMPORTANCE

Because government, military, business, financial, and medical institutions acquire, analyze, and store massive quantities of data on computers and other devices, cyber security is critical. Sensitive data, such as intellectual property, financial data, personal information, or other forms of data, might make up a large percentage of that data. Unauthorized access or exposure to that data can have serious repercussions. In the course of doing business, organizations transfer sensitive data over networks and to other devices, and cyber security refers to the discipline committed to securing that information and the technologies used to handle or store it.

Five Types of Cyber Security for Organizational Safety

✎ Network Security - The process of defending a network against unauthorized users, assaults, and invasions.

Experts suggest the following methods for upgraded network security:

• Extra Logins

• New Passwords

• Antivirus programs

• Firewalls

• Incognito Mode

✎ Application Security - Apps must be updated and tested on a regular basis to guarantee that they are secure from cyber-attacks.

Some of the methods associated with application security are:

• Anti-virus Program

• Firewalls

• Encryption Programs

✎ Internet of Things Security - Internet of Things Security is the act of securing Internet of Things devices and the networks they’re connected to. In the business setting, IoT devices include industrial machines, smart energy grids, building automation, plus whatever personal IoT devices employees bring to work.

✎ Critical Infrastructure Security - Critical infrastructure security is the area of concern surrounding the protection of systems, networks and assets whose continuous operation is deemed necessary to ensure the security of a given nation, its economy, and the public’s health and/or safety.

✎ Cloud Security - Many files are stored in digital environments, sometimes known as "the cloud." Data protection in a completely online world offers several problems.

Malware

- Malware, short for malicious software, is a catch-all word for viruses, worms, trojans, and other malicious computer programs used by hackers to cause havoc and get access to sensitive data.

Types of Malware

× Worms

× Viruses

× Bot & Botnets

× Trojan Horses

× Ransomware

× Adware & Scams

× Spyware

× Spam & Phishing

That's pretty much everything you need to know about Cybersecurity! I hope this blog post (as well as my previous blogs) has been helpful :))

References:

De Groot, Juliana (2020). What is Cyber Security?. Retrieved From: https://digitalguardian.com/blog/what-cyber-security

Fruhlinger, J. (2019). . What is IoT Security?. Retrieved From: https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/iot-security

Malware explained: How to prevent, detect and recover from it. Retrieved From: https://www.csoonline.com/article/3295877/what-is-malware-viruses-worms-trojans-and-beyond.html

Gillis, A. (2020). Internet of Things. Retrieved From: https://www.google.com.ph/amp/s/internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/Internet-of-Things-IoT%3famp=1

Topic Covered By: Rmon Alfred Bryant V. Santiago

[christophergill8]

Ways to stymie tax identity theft attempts and scams

I attend fitness classes — OK, mostly yoga and I tend to head into Savasana a bit sooner than most of my fellow yogis — several times a week at my neighborhood club.

Most of the members have been there for year and it's got a community feel. Still, I am always amazed at how much personal information folks share about themselves with people they really don't know very well. 

Many folks, in fact, share stuff albeit unintentionally with total strangers as a recent piece by Kate Klonick for the New York Times alarmingly illustrates.

Klonick, who teaches information privacy to law students, recently had her students conduct experiments to assess public privacy assumptions.

The assignment was based on an almost 45-year old theory by Irwin Altman in the 1975 book The Environment and Social Behavior: Privacy, Personal Space, Territory, Crowding, to wit (to get all legal!):

"People will assume anonymity in public and then reveal various levels of private information given what they believe their environment to be and what tools might be available to manage disclosure."

Spoiler alert, Klonick's students found out a lot without too much effort.

Protect your privacy: Privacy concerns become even more important at tax filing time. After all, our lives are pretty much laid bare on our personal Form 1040.

That's why the Internal Revenue Service is once again urging taxpayers to protect the security of their personal, financial and tax information.

Basically, says the IRS, treat personal information like cash. Don't hand it out to just anyone.

Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, bank and even utility account numbers can be used to help steal a person's money or open new accounts.

Also be wary of any requests for personal information. Con artists use scams and schemes, particularly during tax time, to get this data, often going to great lengths to appear trustworthy and legitimate.

Even when you're confident a request is from a legitimate source, whenever you're asked for personal or financial or tax specifics, consider whether the request is truly necessary. For example, does your family doctor really need your Social Security number? No. So you don't have to provide it.

Lest you think I'm picking on doctors, medical offices are prime targets of hackers and identity thieves. They are gold mines of personal information on thousands of individuals, all in one handy place.

Unfortunately, I know this from personal experience after someone tried to use the credit card I specifically use to pay medical bills. My card issuer caught the suspicious charge before it was approved, but I had to get another card.

Phishing remains in season: In addition to hacking, ID thieves often simply ask for our information. And too many of us answer their criminal questions.

Phishing, in case you've been living totally off the grid, is a cybercrime in which crooks contact victims by email, telephone or text, posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data.

The efforts remain near the top of the IRS' annual Dirty Dozen tax scams list (more on the 2019 schemes coming soon to the ol' blog), notably efforts during tax time where phishers pretend to be employees of Uncle Sam's tax agency.

Don't take the bait.

The IRS doesn't initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information.

Also be skeptical of unsolicited emails, especially those instructing you to download an attachment or click on a URL. These phishing efforts often appear to come from someone that you know, such as a friend, work colleague or tax professional. But those addresses could be spoofed by the identity thieves.

In addition to anti-phishing tips, the IRS also offers the following tax privacy and security tips:

Safeguard personal data in daily and online activity. Provide it only when necessary. When you do give out personal information, do so only over reputable, encrypted websites Look for "https" at the beginning of a web address (the "s" stands for secure) and be sure the designation appears on a website's every page.

Use strong passwords. The longer the password, the tougher it is to crack. Use at least 10 characters; 12 is ideal for most home users. Mix letters, numbers and special characters. Try to be unpredictable. Don't use names, birthdates or common words. Don't use the same password for many accounts and don't share them on the phone, in texts or by email. Consider using a passphrase versus a password.

Also, requests for passwords are red flags. Legitimate companies will not send such messages. And keep passwords in a secure place or use password management software.

Use security software. An anti-malware program should provide protection from viruses, Trojans, spyware and adware. The IRS urges people, especially tax professionals, to use an anti-malware program, make sure it is always on and keep it up to date.

Back up files. No system is completely secure. Copy important files, including federal and state tax returns, onto a removable disc or a back-up drive, and store it in a safe place. If storing sensitive tax and financial records on a personal computer, use a file encryption program to add an additional layer of security.

The bottom line is use common sense. Don't share personal information, particularly not in public or on unsecured systems.

You might think you're in a safe place or that no one cares about info you think is innocuous. But crooks use all sorts of tidbits, large and small, to steal identities.

You can never be too careful or discreet when it comes to preventing tax identity theft.

You also might find these items of interest:

Online and tax security tips

Rethinking how much we share online

ID and tax thieves don't discriminate by age, targeting both youngsters and elderly

Advertisements

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from Tax News By Christopher https://www.dontmesswithtaxes.com/2019/03/tax-season-identity-theft-scams-prevention-tips.html

[wordstoreference]

Yasinsky felt sure that this was no normal blackout. He thought of the cold outside—close to zero degrees Fahrenheit—the slowly sinking temperatures in thousands of homes, and the countdown until dead water pumps led to frozen pipes. ... Once the circuit breakers were open and the power for tens of thousands of Ukrainians had gone dead, the hackers launched another phase of the attack. They’d overwritten the firmware of the substations’ serial-to-­ethernet converters—tiny boxes in the stations’ server closets that translated internet protocols to communicate with older equipment. By rewriting the obscure code of those chunks of hardware—a trick that likely took weeks to devise—the hackers had permanently bricked the devices, shutting out the legitimate operators from further digital control of the breakers. Sitting at the conference room table, Assante marveled at the thoroughness of the operation. The hackers also left one of their usual calling cards, running KillDisk to destroy a handful of the company’s PCs. But the most vicious element of the attack struck the control stations’ battery backups. When the electricity was cut to the region, the stations themselves also lost power, throwing them into darkness in the midst of their crisis. With utmost precision, the hackers had engineered a blackout within a blackout. “The message was, ‘I’m going to make you feel this everywhere.’Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom,” Assante says, imagining the attack from the perspective of a bewildered grid operator. “These attackers must have seemed like they were gods." ... For those who have been paying attention to Sandworm for almost three years, raising an alarm about the potential for an attack on the US grid is no longer crying wolf. For John Hultquist, head of the team of researchers at FireEye that first spotted and named the Sandworm group, the wolves have arrived. “We’ve seen this actor show a capability to turn out the lights and an interest in US systems,” Hultquist says. Three weeks after the 2016 Kiev attack, he wrote a prediction on Twitter and pinned it to his profile for posterity: “I swear, when Sandworm Team finally nails Western critical infrastructure, and folks react like this was a huge surprise, I’m gonna lose it.”

[moneyhealthfinance-blog]

Hackers 'could target electricity grid' via solar panel tech Hackers could target electricity grids through security flaws in solar panel equipment, a Dutch researcher has said.

[xtravirt]

VMworld 2017:  Some Hardware News

by Curtis Brown

September came with the arrival of the 10th VMworld Europe, VMware’s primary European Technical Conference. A few of us Xtravirt consultants were fortunate enough to attend and turn into roving reporters for a few days. The conference focuses on VMware® products and partner solutions, which rather implies all things virtual, however, it does include some hardware aspects as well.

Focussing on the compute side, there were a couple of nuggets that may have interesting repercussions when considering hardware purchases in the near future.

AMD is Back!

AMD have been in the processor game for a long time, primarily in the desktop side and more so for home users than corporate.  In the server side, they made waves in the x86 server industry with their Opteron line – high numbers of physical cores for competitive prices.  However, for some time, the product line has been lacking development, with the last major core release being around 5 years ago, (The Piledriver architecture).

Following the release of the AMD Ryzen range of desktop processors, based on the new Zen microarchitecture, AMD have now released the EPYC range as replacement for the Opteron.

So, what does this mean in the virtual world?  AMD are now back with a product that is competitive to the Intel Xeon range, bringing with it some pretty clever features.

In terms of specifications, the EPYC ranges from 8 to 32 cores with a boosted performance of up to 3.2GHz.  More importantly, the EPYC now provides Hyperthreading (something new to AMD) so that 32 cores can push 64 threads per socket.  Speaking of sockets, the EPYC range currently offers only 1-2 socket support.

In terms of Hypervisor support, VMware added support for the Zen microarchitecture with VMware vSphere® 6.5 Update 1 – so relatively recently.  However, there is a feature that’s provided in the AMD chipset that is currently only supported in KVM – real-time encryption of VM memory.

For the loss of around 1% performance, a VM running under KVM can be encrypted right through to the in-use allocated RAM by the memory controller using AMDs ‘Secure Run’ feature. Each VM has a unique encryption key, and the data is encrypted and decrypted as it passes through the memory silicon.  So even in the event of the hypervisor being accessed by a hacker, the VM’s allocated memory is securely encrypted.  When asked, the AMD representative mentioned that discussions about implementing the capability in vSphere were under way.

While the first partner with AMD on EPYC is Supermicro, Dell and HPE are both releasing products using this chipset.  So, competition in the Server CPU market is firing up again.

Nvidia GRiD

Nvidia are continuing to develop their GRiD solution for enhanced graphics in VDI.  The Maxwell Core M6, M10 and M60 are now supplemented by the new P6 and P40 Pascal based GPUs.  The Pascal has much higher benchmark performance that the older Maxwell, though both have certain use cases.  The table below compares the current devices:

Note that the Maxwell still supports a 512MB profile which is suitable for enhancing the standard office experience while the Pascal doesn’t.  This means the M10 is still the go-to model for numbers of instances (64), making graphically enhanced desktops possible for many users on a host. However, for power users, the Pascals have the edge.

With a single GPU, we can scale to 24 users on a Pascal, or one with a monster 24GB vRAM profile! There are also more slot sizes available on the P40, making the solution more flexible.  For Blade based estates, the MXM packaged Teslas are improving, with the Pascal based P6 packing 16GB video RAM permitting sixteen 1GB sessions while running at 10W less power than the older M6.

A big item, demonstrated at VMworld, was the new ability to vMotion VMs running with Nvidia GRiD. Although this capability has yet to be released, it means that DRS load balancing in GRiD clusters is now possible.

The somewhat criticised management software is also much improved, supporting clustering and offering greater security too.

With the improvements in hardware and the flexibility in configuration, Nvidia GRiD shows the signs of a maturing technology and an attractive one where graphics are important in VDI.

Nvidia also offer these cards, as well as additional models specifically for CUDA based mathematical calculation work.

Closing Thoughts…

The release of these products shows that the market for hardware horsepower is far from waning. Greater power leads to higher density, permitting greater efficiency in delivering workloads.

VMworld is not just a place to look at the latest virtualisation solutions, but to also a place to see what hardware can be used to host it.

  If you’re interested in exploring the latest virtualisation solutions but not sure where to start, please contact Xtravirt, and we’d be happy to use our wealth of knowledge and experience to assist you.

About the Author

Curtis Brown joined the Xtravirt consulting team in October 2012. His specialist areas include End User Compute solutions and Virtual Infrastructure design and implementation with particular strength in VDI, storage integration, backup and Disaster Recovery design/implementation. He is a VMware vExpert 2017.

[elizabethcariasa]

Ways to stymie tax identity theft attempts and scams

I attend fitness classes — OK, mostly yoga and I tend to head into Savasana a bit sooner than most of my fellow yogis — several times a week at my neighborhood club.

Most of the members have been there for year and it's got a community feel. Still, I am always amazed at how much personal information folks share about themselves with people they really don't know very well. 

Many folks, in fact, share stuff albeit unintentionally with total strangers as a recent piece by Kate Klonick for the New York Times alarmingly illustrates.

Klonick, who teaches information privacy to law students, recently had her students conduct experiments to assess public privacy assumptions.

The assignment was based on an almost 45-year old theory by Irwin Altman in the 1975 book The Environment and Social Behavior: Privacy, Personal Space, Territory, Crowding , to wit (to get all legal!):

"People will assume anonymity in public and then reveal various levels of private information given what they believe their environment to be and what tools might be available to manage disclosure."

Spoiler alert, Klonick's students found out a lot without too much effort.

Protect your privacy: Privacy concerns become even more important at tax filing time. After all, our lives are pretty much laid bare on our personal Form 1040.

That's why the Internal Revenue Service is once again urging taxpayers to protect the security of their personal, financial and tax information.

Basically, says the IRS, treat personal information like cash. Don't hand it out to just anyone.

Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, bank and even utility account numbers can be used to help steal a person's money or open new accounts.

Also be wary of any requests for personal information. Con artists use scams and schemes, particularly during tax time, to get this data, often going to great lengths to appear trustworthy and legitimate.

Even when you're confident a request is from a legitimate source, whenever you're asked for personal or financial or tax specifics, consider whether the request is truly necessary. For example, does your family doctor really need your Social Security number? No. So you don't have to provide it.

Lest you think I'm picking on doctors, medical offices are prime targets of hackers and identity thieves. They are gold mines of personal information on thousands of individuals, all in one handy place.

Unfortunately, I know this from personal experience after someone tried to use the credit card I specifically use to pay medical bills. My card issuer caught the suspicious charge before it was approved, but I had to get another card.

Phishing remains in season: In addition to hacking, ID thieves often simply ask for our information. And too many of us answer their criminal questions.

Phishing, in case you've been living totally off the grid, is a cybercrime in which crooks contact victims by email, telephone or text, posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data.

The efforts remain near the top of the IRS' annual Dirty Dozen tax scams list (more on the 2019 schemes coming soon to the ol' blog), notably efforts during tax time where phishers pretend to be employees of Uncle Sam's tax agency.

Don't take the bait.

The IRS doesn't initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information.

Also be skeptical of unsolicited emails, especially those instructing you to download an attachment or click on a URL. These phishing efforts often appear to come from someone that you know, such as a friend, work colleague or tax professional. But those addresses could be spoofed by the identity thieves.

In addition to anti-phishing tips, the IRS also offers the following tax privacy and security tips:

Safeguard personal data in daily and online activity.  Provide it only when necessary. When you do give out personal information, do so only over reputable, encrypted websites Look for "https" at the beginning of a web address (the "s" stands for secure) and be sure the designation appears on a website's every page.

Use strong passwords. The longer the password, the tougher it is to crack. Use at least 10 characters; 12 is ideal for most home users. Mix letters, numbers and special characters. Try to be unpredictable. Don't use names, birthdates or common words. Don't use the same password for many accounts and don't share them on the phone, in texts or by email. Consider using a passphrase versus a password.

Also, requests for passwords are red flags. Legitimate companies will not send such messages. And keep passwords in a secure place or use password management software.

Use security software. An anti-malware program should provide protection from viruses, Trojans, spyware and adware. The IRS urges people, especially tax professionals, to use an anti-malware program, make sure it is always on and keep it up to date.

Back up files. No system is completely secure. Copy important files, including federal and state tax returns, onto a removable disc or a back-up drive, and store it in a safe place. If storing sensitive tax and financial records on a personal computer, use a file encryption program to add an additional layer of security.

The bottom line is use common sense. Don't share personal information, particularly not in public or on unsecured systems.

You might think you're in a safe place or that no one cares about info you think is innocuous. But crooks use all sorts of tidbits, large and small, to steal identities.

You can never be too careful or discreet when it comes to preventing tax identity theft.

You also might find these items of interest:

Online and tax security tips

Rethinking how much we share online

ID and tax thieves don't discriminate by age, targeting both youngsters and elderly

Advertisements

  // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ // <![CDATA[ (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]> // ]]>  

[kathleenseiber]

Lightning could protect power grids from hackers

Side channel signals and bolts of lightning from distant storms could one day help prevent hackers from sabotaging electric power substations and other critical infrastructure, according to a new study.

Security personnel could analyze electromagnetic signals that substation components emit by using an independent monitoring system to tell if hackers are tampering with switches and transformers using remote equipment.

Background lightning signals from thousands of miles away would authenticate those signals, preventing malicious actors from injecting fake monitoring information into the system.

Researchers have tested the idea at substations with two different electric utilities, and with extensive modeling and simulation. They described the technique, known as radio frequency-based distributed intrusion detection system (RFDIDS), at the 2019 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium in San Diego.

“We should be able to remotely detect any attack that is modifying the magnetic field around substation components,” says Raheem Beyah, professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and cofounder of Fortiphyd Logic, Inc. “We are using a physical phenomenon to determine whether a certain action at a substation has occurred or not.”

2015 attack

Opening substation breakers to cause a blackout is one potential power grid attack. In December 2015, attackers used that technique to shut off power to 230,000 people in the Ukraine. Attackers opened breakers in 30 substations and hacked into monitoring systems to convince power grid operators that the grid was operating normally. Topping that off, they also attacked call centers to prevent customers from telling operators what was happening.

“The electric power grid is difficult to secure because it is so massive,” Beyah says. “It provides an electrical connection from a generating station to the appliances in your home. Because of this electrical connection, there are many places where a hacker could potentially insert an attack. That’s why we need an independent way to know what’s happening on grid systems.”

The independent approach would use an antenna located in or near a substation to detect the unique radio-frequency “side channel” signatures the equipment produces. The monitoring would act independent of systems now used to monitor and control the grid.

“Without trusting anything at all on the grid, we can use an RF receiver to determine if an impulse occurred in the shape of an ‘open’ operation,” Beyah says. “The system operates at 60 Hertz, and there are few other systems that operate there, so we can be sure of what we’re monitoring.”

Lightning echoes

However, hackers might be able to figure out how to insert fake signals to hide their attacks. That’s where the lightning emissions known as “sferics” come in.

“When a lightning flash hits the ground, it forms an electrical path miles tall, potentially carrying hundreds of thousands of amps of current, so that makes for a really powerful antenna radiating energy,” says Morris Cohen, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. Each flash creates signals in the very low frequency (VLF) band, which can reflect from the upper atmosphere to travel long distances.

“Signals from lightning can zigzag back and forth and make it all the way around the world,” Cohen says. “Lightning from South America, for example, is easily detectable in Atlanta. We’ve even seen lightning echo multiple times around the world.”

Security staff remotely monitoring substations would be able compare the lightning behind the 60 Hz substation signals to lightning data from other sources, such as one of the 70,000 or so other substations in the United States or a global lightning database. That would authenticate the information. Since lightning occurs more than three million times every day on average, there is plenty of opportunity to authenticate, he notes.

“Even if you could synthesize the RF receiver’s data feed digitally, generating something realistic would be difficult because the shape of the pulse from lightning detected by our receivers varies as a function of the distance from the lightning, the time of day, latitude, and more,” Cohen says. “It would take a lot of real-time computation and knowledge of sophisticated physics to synthesize the lightning signals.”

Critical power grid

Working with two different electric utilities, the researchers analyzed the RF signals produced when breakers were turned off for substation maintenance. They also used computer simulations to study a potential attack against the systems.

“The signal from a lightning stroke is very distinct—it is short, around a millisecond, and covers a huge frequency range,” Cohen says. “The only other process on Earth that is known to generate something similar is a nuclear explosion. The emissions from the power grid are very different and none of it looks like a pulse from lightning, so it is easy enough to separate the signals.”

The researchers filed a provisional patent on RFDIDS, and hope to further refine the security strategy, which is independent of equipment manufacturer. Beyah believes applications for remote monitoring of other RF-emitting devices could go beyond the power industry for remote monitoring of other RF-emitting devices. The system could tell transit operators if a train were present, for example.

“The power grid is our most critical piece of infrastructure,” Beyah says. “Nothing else matters if you don’t have electrical power.”

Source: Georgia Tech

The post Lightning could protect power grids from hackers appeared first on Futurity.

Lightning could protect power grids from hackers published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/

[opixpk-blog]

Bimber - Viral Magazine WordPress Theme

https://opix.pk/blog/bimber-viral-magazine-wordpress-theme/ Bimber - Viral Magazine WordPress Theme https://opix.pk/blog/bimber-viral-magazine-wordpress-theme/ Opix.pk LIVE PREVIEWBUY FOR $59 Bimber is a viral magazine theme, that lets you launch a fully functional viral site in no more than 24 hours. It comes with powerful sharing buttons; popular, hot, trending listings and multiple ad locations. Everything in a lightweight and easy-to-use package. Just start today and go viral today! Amazing Viral, Magazine Demos We’ve got many demos for shareable viral content like lists, polls, quizzes, breaking news, memes, gifs, gags, social bookmarks, video, open lists, freebies, celebrity news & gossip. Insired by popular sites like BuzzFeed, 9GAG, Reddit, Hacker News, Bored Panda or YouTube. Main – inspired by BuzzFeed and other popular buzz making sites. Preview all viral theme features in one place. Relink – inspired by Reddit, Hacker News and other social bookmarking sites. It’s a perfect start for your own social news aggregator based on WordPress. Users submit content such as links, text posts, and images, which are then upvoted or downvoted by others. Gagster – inspired by 9GAG and other online platforms for sharing humorous GIFs, memes, videos, gags, jokes, funny stories and even NSFW pics. Users can upload their own content, create memes with meme generator or embed content from other social media sites like YouTube, Instagram or Facebook. The homepage template supports video auto-play as videos comes into the viewport. Freebie – showcase latest freebies, free goodies, design resources, giveaways and samples from across the web. Above all free stuff you can add premium content and make some money with paid membership plans. There’s also a complete integration with the Download Monitor plugin, so visitors can safely download every freebie. Bunchy – inspired by Bored Panda and other social media platforms with plenty of list-based articles, open lists and ranked lists. Let community users submit new content to already published lists and vote up for the best submission. It’s a all-in-one solution to build a viral content sharing platform. Celebrities – present breaking celebrity stories, hot celeb gossip and latest news about celebrities, entertainment, royals, music, movies and TV shows. Add galleries, video, Instagram posts, Twitter posts as well as gif images and photos from the exciting world of show business. Viral Content Optimization Create listicles with images, gifs, self-hosted videos and embeds Popular, hot and trending lists Fancy badges for popular, hot, and trending posts Paginated posts with big, bold navigation Share count visibility threshold – no more “0 shares” messages View count visibility threshold – no more “1 view” messages Comment count visibility threshold – no more “0 comments” messages NSFW posts (Not Safe For Work) Maximize Time on Page with “You may also like”, “More from category” and “Don’t miss” sections Social Media Profits Social media, when used correctly, gives you more money-making opportunities than you might realize. Build up enough trust with your followers and they will be more inclined to check out your recommendations. Start using social media platforms with: Big social share buttons with clear call to action Big players first Sticky sharebar Image sharing Social Comments Integration (Facebook, Disqus) Fake counters for viral newbies Possible Locations: Share buttons before post content Share buttons after post content Micro shares on images Site’s social links in the header Site’s social links inside sidebars with sticky option Site’s social links in footer Social comments (Facebook and Disqus) after post content Social Widgets: Facebook Page Instagram Twitter YouTube Snapchat Fake Counters: Fake shares Fake page views Fake votes Fake reactions Make Money with Ads Various ad providers supported: Google AdSense ads Content delivery platforms like Taboola, RevContent, Outbrain, etc… and many more Multiple ad slots ads automatically injected into post listings ads inside sidebars with sticky option ads inside the post content, before the first paragraph, etc… ad before the header theme area ad before the content theme area ad before the “You may also like” collection ad before the “More from” collection ad before the “Comments” section ad before the “Don’t miss” collection Other Monetization Methods Affiliate Links Coupons Donations Paid Content Promoted Products Shop Shop The Post Block (Single Post) Shop With Us Block (Global) Shoppable Images Sponsored Articles Mailing List If you are involved with internet marketing you most likely have heard that “The Money is in the List”. Large email list is a key to start making money online and for long term internet marketing success. Integration with free, highly popular MailChimp for WordPress plugin Custom styling Place subscribe form after post content, inside grid collection, inside list collection and inside sidebars Front-end Submission Bimber includes Snax – Viral Front-End Uploader plugin, our dedicated solution for submitting viral content: Story (like WP post) Meme (create a funny pic) Open List (users can submit new items and vote for them) Ranked List (users can vote for best item) Classic List Trivia Quiz Personality Quiz Classic Poll Versus Poll Hot or Not Poll Image (photo, gif) Gallery Audio Video Embeds (YouTube videos, Instagram photos, Twitter statuses etc) Check Bimber + Snax in action Unique Features (built-in, no 3rd party plugins required) Frontend Uploader Viral Image Editor Video Playlist Lightbox Gallery Quizzes Polls Lists (Open, Ranked, Classic) Reactions & Badges Header Builder Top Lists (Hot, Trending, Popular, Top 10) Auto-injected ads / newsletters / products Fake Counters NSFW – Not Suitable For Work Off-Canves Menu (Hamburger Menu) Ajax Search Tracking Codes Panel Sticky header Sticky sidebar Social Media Widgets Posts widget (sort by: date, views, votes, downloads, shares) Random Post Points, Badges and Ranks Paginated Viral Story Lazy Load Watermarks Hotlink Protection Image Sizes Manager Exit-Intent Newsletter Popup Slide-In Ad Ads Manager AdBlocker Detector Shoppable Image Shop The Post Affiliate Marketing Tools Sponsored Articles Coupons Donations Promoted Products Multiple sticky widgets Voting Archive Voting Mega Menu Infinite scroll (optionally triggered with the Load more button) and standard pagination Auto load next post Left/Right sidebar Two Sidebars Easy to Use No matter if you are a beginner or WordPress ninja, you will find the theme very easy and intuitive to use. Every single element, module or UI control was made with simplicity in mind and you should be able to use them without necessity of looking up the documentation. 15+ predefined demos to start with One-Click Demo Installation Install/Uninstall demo components Preview changes immediately with Live Customizer Drag & drop intuitive interfaces Change order of single post elements with drag & drop interface Change order of footer modules with drag & drop interface No coding knowledge required Well documented Easy to Customize Finding a theme with the exact design, layout and all the features you need can be a challenge. Bimber is the highly customizable WordPress theme that allows you to modify various elements and customize every single site aspect so it looks and functions the way you want. Customize without touching the code Build any layouts using Visual Page Builder Compose your header with our Drag & Drop Header Builder Customize every font on the site Different design styles Get total control over single post page Get total control over archive pages Hide/Show most elements Boxed or full-width layout Different style stacks Light and dark skins Tons of color options Different featured posts templates Different single post templates Different archive headers Different archive templates Different featured entries templates Different home page and archive layouts: Grid Grid + sidebar List List + sidebar Small list Large list Stream (like on 9GAG) Stream + sidebar Stream + skyscrappers Zigzag Masonry Plugin Integrations AMP for WordPress bbPress BuddyPress Disqus Download Monitor Facebook Comments Facebook Instant Articles Loco Translate Mailchimp for WordPress myCRED Search Everything Social Media Share Buttons | MashShare Restrict Content Pro UpdraftPlus WooCommerce WordPress Popular Posts WordPress Social Login WordFence WPBakery Page Builder for WordPress (formerly Visual Composer) WP Super Cache W3 Total Cache WPML Yoast WP SEO All In One SEO Pack Theme Exclusive Plugins AdAce – ads and other monetization methods G1 Socials – social icons and widgets MediaAce – for all media related tasks Photomix – to create engaging viral images without Photoshop Snax – the first viral content builder for WordPress What’s Your Reaction – to share your reaction to a post, using nice looking badges Well Thought Features 100% responsive design Retina ready AMP ready GDPR ready Cross browser compatibility SEO optimized Compatible with SEO plugins Optimized for Google PageSpeed Microdata (schema.org), rich snippets support Translation ready Full RTL support (right-to-left languages like Arabic or Hebrew) Support for multi page articles Compatible with caching plugins (WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache) Multi-site ready Really Premium Product Created by ThemeForest Elite Author 1-click demo installation 5-star support Automatic, free theme updates Always up to date online documentation Comes with the child theme to allow you safe modifications What’s Included All demos All necessary plugins FREE lifetime updates 6 months support – with the ability to extend it Documentation   Need support? Support for all our products is conducted through our support forum , where you can submit your product related questions, bug-findings, etc. Disclaimer The photos used in our live preview are not a part of the demo content. All photos can be purchased from shutterstock.com Emoji provided free by EmojiOne Latest Updates Before you update to 6.x If you have modifications in the child theme, please read the migration to version 6.x guide first. VERSION 6.4 – 4 January 2019, major update # NEW - Dark | Light mode switcher # Improved - myCRED integration: refactored code to easily disable the "Badges" tab via hook # Fixed - Ul, OL alignments issues: CSS fixes # Fixed - GIFs on archive pages too small: CSS fixes # Fixed - Snax: Minor CSS fixes # Fixed - Snax: Only Snax Author can vote, if anonymous voting disabled # Fixed - Snax: Open Graph encoding # Fixed - myCRED: Badges/Ranks SVG upload # Fixed - myCRED: Points balance in user header # Fixed - What's Your Reaction: SVG security # Fixed - Bimber Translation: unified phrases, removed duplicates # Fixed - What's Your Reaction Plugin Translation: unified phrases, removed duplicates # Fixed - Music Demo, home featured entries on mobiles: CSS fixes # Fixed - Post content, CSS: remove hyphens # Fixed - Comment content, CSS: add word-wrap # Fixed - Search archive: CTA buttons always visible VERSION 6.3.1 – 12 December 2018, minor update # Fixed - BuddyPress Activity: CSS fixes # Fixed - BuddyPress Single Member Profile Tabs: CSS fixes # Fixed - BuddyPress Registration Form: Confirmation step has login form # Fixed - Snax AMP Lists: Missing method attribute # Fixed - AdAce content-slot.php template file: Refactoring # Fixed - MediaAce Gallery alignment: CSS fixes # Fixed - myCRED Leaderboard Widget: CSS fixes # Fixed - dark mode | light mode: CSS fixes # Fixed - zigzag template: CSS fixes # Fixed - .wp-caption responsiveness: CSS fixes # Fixed - .wp-video responsiveness: CSS fixes # Fixed - Home Featured Entries, Music Template: CSS fixes # Fixed - GDPR: Consent checkbox visible when plugin disabled # Fixed - Google Fonts: Only one style is loaded VERSION 6.3 – 4 December 2018, major update # NEW - WordPress 5.0 compatibility # NEW - Gutenberg editor support # BETA - Toggle Mode (dark, light) straight from the header # BETA - Toggle NSFW straight from the header # Improved - BuddyPress, Follow button in author info box via ajax # Improved - Snax, CSS classes added to allow easier elements targeting # Improved - Dynamic styles caching # Improved - WPBakery Page Builder upgraded # Improved - WooCommerce compatibility # Fixed - BuddyPress, Members directory: don't show placeholders if cover images are disabled # Fixed - Off-canvas rendering glitch when Header Featured Entries are missing # Fixed - Box layout CSS fixes # Fixed - MediaAce, javascript fixes # Fixed - Prefooter/Footer background options # Fixed - Snax Toolbar is missing in the preview mode # Fixed - Snax Poll results mobile CSS fixes # Fixed - myCRED leaderboard widget CSS fixes VERSION 6.2.2 – 14 November 2018, minor update # Improved - Web Accessibility # Fixed - Snax, missing labels # Fixed - Snax, RTL CSS proper loading # Fixed - WP Bakery Page Builder, missing page breaks the home # Fixed - BuddyPress, fields can't be renamed # Fixed - Download Monitor, wrong dependencies # Fixed - Wrong image selection if images have the same names # Fixed - CSS fixes VERSION 6.2.1 – 31 October 2018, minor update # Fixed - Missing translations # Fixed - AdAce, outdated styles # Fixed - BuddyPress, member profile # Fixed - CSS fixes VERSION 6.2 – 30 October 2018, major update # NEW - Foodies demo # NEW - Download page # NEW - Download methods: direct, download page # NEW - Newsletter options # NEW - Call to Action button # NEW - Post widget new templates # NEW - Moderation action # NEW - Link duplicates checker # NEW - Link open methods: new window, same window, landing page # NEW - Link format, url in content changed to button # NEW - Relink demo improvements # NEW - Snax, edit format texts and labels # Improved - Products/Affiliate products can be opened in a new window # Improved - Track page views on collections with the "Load More" option # Improved - AdAce, ads between poll and quiz questions # Improved - Snax, option to disable linking to a single item page from a list # Improved - Snax, prevent links duplication # Improved - Author info box, "Written by" to "Posted by" for the Link post format # Improved - rel="nofollow" for external urls (sponsors, referral links) # Improved - Follow button in author's info box # Improved - Add typography control for the dropdowns # Improved - CSS improvements # Improved - WordPress compatibility # Improved - WooCommerce compatibility # Improved - Visual Composer update # Fixed - AdBlock detection doesn't work for AdBlock addon # Fixed - Ads overlay # Fixed - Carmania demo, mobile view # Fixed - Demo music, big item featured image is pixelated # Fixed - Video/Audio/Image format is on even if allowed types are empty # Fixed - The newsletter icon in the header doesn't link to the search page anymore # Fixed - Latest page (in header) can't be be disabled # Fixed - Special collections (in header) can't be disabled # Fixed - Waiting room posts preview not accessible # Fixed - Link format shouldn't be editable # Fixed - All posts tagged as trending # Fixed - Stream template, instagram on mobiles is not 100% # Fixed - Stream template, voting box can't be disabled # Fixed - Amazon S3 storage, broken image links # Fixed - G1 Social Icons, save doesn't work # Fixed - BuddyPress, register page # Fixed - BuddyPress, profile page without cover image bug # Fixed - Center quiz result image # Fixed - Search results page # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - PHP notices and errors # Fixed - Missing translations # Fixed - PHP 7.x issues VERSION 6.1.1 – 6 September 2018, minor update # Fixed - Pending post not assigned to taxonomy VERSION 6.1 – 6 September 2018, major update # NEW - reLink Demo # NEW - Home Filters # NEW - Link Format (Snax) # NEW - Waiting Room (Snax) # NEW - External Link Redirect Page # NEW - Order Hot/Trending/Popular collection by votes # Improved - Admin interface improvements (tag selectors) # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - PHP notices and errors # Fixed - Missing translations # Fixed - AMP Gallery not working # Fixed - Ad slots not working on AMP # Fixed - Impossible to edit referral links on some posts # Fixed - Target '_blank' links option not working # Fixed - URL waypoints in collections not working # Fixed - Add friend button always visible in BuddyPress # Fixed - Dummy ads issues VERSION 6.0.4 – 9 August 2018, minor update # Fixed - Adsense not working # Fixed - Snax error on multisite VERSION 6.0.3 – 7 August 2018, minor update # NEW - Option to add a custom sidebar # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - PHP notices and errors # Fixed - Missing translations # Fixed - RCP blocks access to comments on restricted posts # Fixed - Publication of scheduled post doesn't trigger header featured entries cache purge # Fixed - BuddyPress header issues # Fixed - AdSense JavaScript errors # Fixed - AdSense issues on masonry # Fixed - Hot/popular/trending pages get injected into VC content when VC widget is used on those pages # Fixed - Auto Featured Image for embeds overrides the one set manually # Fixed - Fake views and votes not working # Fixed - Snax format's options not working properly VERSION 6.0.2 – 31 July 2018, minor update # NEW - Option to set the excerpt length # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - PHP notices and errors # Fixed - Missing translations # Fixed - Sticky widgets issues # Fixed - Ad injections don't work on small list # Fixed - Fake counters issues # Fixed - List draft issues # Fixed - Email notices not working correctly VERSION 6.0.1 – 27 July 2018, minor update # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - PHP notices # Fixed - Gallery FB share not working VERSION 6.0 – 26 July 2018, major update # NEW - Carmania Demo # NEW - Fashion Demo # NEW - Freebies Demo # NEW - Video Playlist # NEW - Lightbox Gallery # NEW - AdBlocker Detector # NEW - Install/Uninstall Demo Data # NEW - Facebook Social Widget # NEW - Instagram Social Widget # NEW - Twitter Social Widget # NEW - YouTube Social Widget # NEW - Snapchat Social Widget # NEW - Featured Posts Templates # NEW - Archive Templates # NEW - Left/Right Sidebar # NEW - Two Sidebars Template # NEW - Multiple Sticky Widgets # NEW - Archive Voting # NEW - Sort Posts by Votes # NEW - Shop The Post Block (Single Post) # NEW - Shop With Us Block (Global) # NEW - Shoppable Images # NEW - Coupons # NEW - Donations # NEW - Promoted Products # NEW - Affiliate Links # NEW - Restrict Content Pro Plugin Integration # NEW - Download Monitor Plugin Integration # Improved - WordPress compatibility # Improved - WooCommerce compatibility # Improved - Visual Composer update # Improved - WP Customizer sections # Improved - Single/archive sidebars # Improved - Fake counters # Improved - Snax admin sections # Improved - Snax options per format # Improved - Setting separate ads per device # Improved - Setting separate ads for AMP # Improved - Option to add disclaimer for ads # Improved - Groups in ads widgets # Improved - Option to disable GIF player # Improved - AMP tracking fields # Improved - Option to disallow playing quizzes/polls for guests # Improved - Updates WooCommerce templates # Improved - Cleaned markup # Improved - Snax GDPR compliance improvements # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - PHP notices # Fixed - Missing translations # Fixed - FB comments count notice # Fixed - Auto load issues with quizzes/polls and embeds # Fixed - Translations get deleted during updates # Fixed - Customizer UI issues # Fixed - BuddyPress extended profile field issues # Fixed - Typography settings don't affect headers in post content # Fixed - WooCommerce display issues # Fixed - White space in collections with ad injection # Fixed - Votes widget issues # Fixed - Front submission UI issues # Fixed - Draft and post status related issues # Fixed - Embed issues # Fixed - Broken link in after submission notice # Fixed - Login popup issues # Fixed - Meme creator issues VERSION 5.6 – 24 May 2018, major update # NEW - Music Demo # NEW - GDPR compliance # NEW - BuddyPress 3.0 compatibility # NEW - Facebook SDK 3.0 compatibility # Improved - Tracking code options # Improved - Minor performance improvements # Improved - Meme generator output file sizes # Improved - YouTube player controls to remove suggested videos from a paused and ended video # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - PHP notices # Fixed - Missing translations # Fixed - RTL styles not loading # Fixed - Canvas menu not opening in customizer # Fixed - Can't disable Facebook Comments per post # Fixed - Random ads don't work on widgets # Fixed - No page reload after login in login popup # Fixed - Unnecessary "See more" link in item comments VERSION 5.5 – 8 May 2018, major update # NEW - Typoghraphy Controls # Improved - Option to set number of more from/you may also like/don't miss posts # Improved - Froala editor translations upgraded # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - PHP notices and errors # Fixed - Posts loaded while scrolling open FB and Twitter shares in new window instead of in popup # Fixed - Issues with featured author widget # Fixed - BuddyPress menu exceeds the viewport on mobile # Fixed - HTML special chars are escaped in microshares # Fixed - Missing translations VERSION 5.4.2 – 20 April 2018, minor update # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - Collections in BuddyPress show full post content # Fixed - MyCred bages tab in BuddyPress doesn't deactivate with badges addon # Fixed - BuddyPress user cover image not working VERSION 5.4.1 – 18 April 2018, minor update # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - Header Builder UI glitch VERSION 5.4 – 17 April 2018, major update # NEW - Header Builder # NEW - Exit intent newsletter # NEW - Archive header - new options # NEW - Global featured entries - new options # Improved - Option to disable microshares # Improved - FB Comments plugin packaged with the theme # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - PHP notices # Fixed - PHP errors on older PHP versions # Fixed - AMP notices # Fixed - Missing translations # Fixed - Icons breaking after switch to HTTPs # Fixed - AdAce align center issues # Fixed - Sticky sidebar breaking on smaller screens # Fixed - Reaction icons - missing alt attribute # Fixed - Meme - minor UI glitches # Fixed - Issues with login popup # Fixed - All list drafts turn into open lists # Fixed - MediaAce breaking upload for snax_authors # Fixed - Share buttons always visible in polls VERSION 5.3.5 – 26 February 2018, minor update # Improved - Option to restrict polls to one vote per user # Improved - Updated WooCommerce templates # Improved - Secondary Menu submenu support # Improved - reCaptcha on BuddyPress register form # Fixed - RTL CSS fixes # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - PHP notices # Fixed - Missing translations # Fixed - WooCommerce single product sidebar not working # Fixed - Featured image in amp # Fixed - Disqus not working # Fixed - AMP breaks when Mailchimp is used with MashShare # Fixed - MyCred badges import errors # Fixed - AdAce - some units not visible on AMP # Fixed - Custom post type archive title not showing # Fixed - Duplicate sponsor after content # Fixed - BP register issues on IE # Fixed - Snax Login popup chrome dev tools warnings # Fixed - AMP error with GIF featured images # Fixed - Nested categories issues # Fixed - Password reset not working on multisite # Fixed - Snax poll character escaping issues # Fixed - Meme creator UI glitches # Fixed - BuddyPress user profile collection excerpt issues # Fixed - Auto Featured Image issues # Fixed - Multiple Category Assing on mobile UX glitches # Fixed - Post limit blocking edition VERSION 5.3.4 – 12 January 2018, minor update # Fixed - Boxed backgroud color not working # Fixed - Mailchimp form error VERSION 5.3.3 – 11 January 2018, minor update # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - Icons not working after the update VERSION 5.3.2 – 10 January 2018, minor update # Improved - Author info box shows BP description if available # Improved - Turn reactions on/off separately for collections and single posts # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - Import issues # Fixed - Ranks break author info box on AMP # Fixed - Single group view broken when BP sidebar is disabled # Fixed - Voting breaks on AMP # Fixed - Snax item's comment being under moderation is visible for other members # Fixed - Twitter login not working in WP Social Login VERSION 5.3.1 – 22 December 2017, minor update # Fixed - Featured author widget shows mutliple users # Fixed - BP members counter show wrong value on multisite # Fixed - Share badge/rank notification on FB not working # Fixed - CSS fixes VERSION 5.3 – 21 December 2017, major update # NEW - myCRED integration (badges, ranks, hooks, points widget, BuddyPress integration) # NEW - BuddyPress followers plugin integration # NEW - Reactions BuddyPress page and widget # NEW - Votes BuddyPress page and widget # NEW - Featured Author widget # NEW - Redesigned BuddyPress layouts # NEW - BuddyPress profile widgetized Home page # NEW - G1 socials for authors # Improved - Redesigned author info box # Improved - AdAce wraparound ads # Improved - Option to add pagination URL waypoints in infinite scroll # Improved - Visual Composer upgraded to the latest version # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - PHP Notices # Fixed - Microshares don't expand on mobile # Fixed - Fake views and shares visible on preview # Fixed - Lazyload conflict with AMP # Fixed - Missing icons # Fixed - Auto Load Next Post breaks "Time ago" date format # Fixed - Embed instead of featured image shown in collection for Snax Polls and Quizzes # Fixed - Microshares break on autoload # Fixed - YT video requires two clicks to start playing on iPad # Fixed - Snax item comments - see more uses wrong post count # Fixed - Snax Authors can't add images to a poll # Fixed - Embed instead of featured image shown in collection for Snax Polls and Quizzes # Fixed - Snax breaks 2nd level comments VERSION 5.2.4 – 16 November 2017, minor update # Improved - Load more/ infinite scroll UX # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - PHP notices # Fixed - Archive does not show post when featured and collection has sidebar and there's only one post # Fixed - Middle of the content ad displays in a wrong location # Fixed - No featured images in the BuddyPress posts card # Fixed - Video player issues on load more/auto load # Fixed - Pinterest default domain # Fixed - Snax breaks wp-admin post search # Fixed - Image/item microshare shares wrong image # Fixed - Mov videos not working VERSION 5.2.3 – 8 November 2017, minor update # Fixed - G1 Socials not automatically updating VERSION 5.2.2 – 7 November 2017, minor update # Improved - Autoplay UX # Improved - Poll UX # Improved - Autoload UX # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - PHP notices # Fixed - Animated GIFs display issues # Fixed - Items not clickable in featured entries if there's no featured image # Fixed - Items are lost when saving list draft # Fixed - Poll displays too many results # Fixed - Clasic collection displays full content instead of excerpt # Fixed - Users with lower roles can access Ads in dashboard # Fixed - Sticky sharebar shows on Auto Loaded next post even if it's disabled # Fixed - Wrong schema for AMP # Fixed - Can't disable ads for search results # Fixed - Ads not available for polls # Fixed - Polls/quizzes conflict with YOAST link checker # Fixed - Sticky sidebar glitches # Fixed - Autoload analytics issues # Fixed - Lazy load breaking RSS # Fixed - Ads rendering in wrong places # Fixed - Snax sanitizes embedly in story # Fixed - Snax Lists widget shows closed for submissions lists when is set to show only open for submissions lists # Fixed - Missing translations VERSION 5.2.1 – 26 October 2017, minor update # Improved - Visual Composer 5.4.2 # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - Escaping characters in poll share # Fixed - Only first poll share works # Fixed - Polls require manual regeneration of permalinks to work VERSION 5.2 – 24 October 2017, major update # NEW - Classic poll # NEW - Versus poll # NEW - Hot or Not poll # Improved - HDPi image field in custom ads # Improved - Google Analytics and WPP counts views for auto loaded posts # Improved - Snapchat in G1 Socials # Improved - Up to date WooCommerce templates # Fixed - PHP notices and errors # Fixed - Most viewed collections not working # Fixed - Ads don't work on author archives # Fixed - Snax call to action widget has wrong link VERSION 5.1 – 4 October 2017, major update # NEW - Auto load next post rewritten # NEW - Auto play videos on stream collection # NEW - Visual Composer upgraded to the latest version # Fixed - PHP notices # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - Multisite issues # Fixed - Loco Translate default file location # Fixed - Lazy load breaks cropping in BuddyPress # Fixed - Lazy load breaks Instant Articles # Fixed - bbPress breaks manual excerpts # Fixed - Repeating middle of the content ads # Fixed - AdAce breaks instant articles # Fixed - Blurred images with big height # Fixed - Watermarks break animated GIFs # Fixed - Auto load next post breaks various post elements # Fixed - List description is not saved # Fixed - Fake views, votes, reactions settings available for author role # Fixed - Ads are not displayed on tag archive # Fixed - MashShare placeholder descriptions for Facebook share # Fixed - Ads render is RSS feeds # Fixed - AdAce AMP issues # Fixed - AdAce activation error # Fixed - Embeds do not work in auto load next post/ load more # Fixed - Counter for list shows wrong number after removing/adding items # Fixed - Guest voting UX glitches VERSION 5.0.2 – 12 September 2017, minor update # NEW - Ad groups # Improved - Ad slot settings # Fixed - PHP notices # Fixed - Ads not working on Bunchy collection template # Fixed - Ad align setting not working # Fixed - Ad links attributes # Fixed - Posts per page setting not taking effect # Fixed - Cross-conflict with YOAST and Visual Composer # Fixed - Reply button on AMP pages not workign # Fixed - 1 with sidebar template not working # Fixed - AdAce breaking Instant Articles # Fixed - Embeds not working in auto loaded posts # Fixed - Video format does not show grabbed featured image when using embed video # Fixed - Snax login URL glitch VERSION 5.0.1 – 6 September 2017, minor update # Improved - AdAce AdSense format setting # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - Lazy Load breaks Slider Revolution # Fixed - Lazy Load breaks embed provision # Fixed - AdAce escapes characters in the codes # Fixed - AdAce AdSense units not working correctly # Fixed - PhotoMix fatal error # Fixed - Auto load next post display issues # Fixed - Auto featured media for video format embeds not working # Fixed - Video format form not working when video items are disabled # Fixed - Images/GIF's from url overwrite issue VERSION 5.0 – 4 September 2017, major update # NEW - PhotoMix plugin # NEW - AdAce plugin (WP QUADS replacement) # NEW - Manage Image Sizes # NEW - Lazy Load Images # NEW - Lazy Load Embeds # NEW - Watermarks # NEW - Hotlink Protection # NEW - Auto Featured Images # NEW - Regenerate Thumbnails # NEW - Auto Load Next Post # NEW - Load and play embeds directly on archive view # NEW - Sponsored article # NEW - Video format # NEW - Audio format # NEW - Video list item # NEW - Audio list item # NEW - Text list item (now you can create text based list) # NEW - Embed.ly integration, 400+ social channels supported # NEW - Full control over each format (upload size, allowed mime types) # NEW - AMP for all Snax formats # NEW - Compatibility with most popular compressing services # NEW - Visual Composer upgraded to the latest version # Improved - Frontend UX # Improved - Admin UX # Improved - Performance # Fixed - CSS fixes # Fixed - Missing translations # Fixed - PHP notices # Fixed - Search Everything conflicts # Fixed - Minimal demo not working # Fixed - Injections setting not working for single categories # Fixed - bbPress display errors # Fixed - Missing microdata # Fixed - Guest reaction votes error # Fixed - Missing thumbnails on attachement pages # Fixed - Meme format not marked on backend post list # Fixed - Meme creation issues # Fixed - Broken call to action widget for plain permalinks Full changelog Source

[t-baba]

#168: Progressive Web Apps Are A Toolkit, Not A Recipe

Mobile Web Weekly July 26, 2017   #168

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[reading-writing-revolution]

Hackers working for a foreign government recently breached at least a dozen U.S. power plants, including the Wolf Creek nuclear facility in Kansas, according to current and former U.S. officials, sparking concerns the attackers were searching for vulnerabilities in the electrical grid. The rivals could be positioning themselves to eventually disrupt the nation’s power supply, warned the officials, who noted that a general alert was distributed to utilities a week ago. Adding to those concerns, hackers recently infiltrated an unidentified company that makes control systems for equipment used in the power industry, an attack that officials believe may be related. The chief suspect is Russia, according to three people familiar with the continuing effort to eject the hackers from the computer networks. One of those networks belongs to an aging nuclear generating facility known as Wolf Creek -- owned by Westar Energy Inc., Great Plains Energy Inc. and Kansas Electric Power Cooperative Inc. -- on a lake shore near Burlington, Kansas.