YouTube Advertisements Used to Secretly Mine Cryptocurrency: Report

Some YouTube ads in certain countries were hijacked by hackers to mine cryptocurrency by using the processing power of video viewers' computers without their knowledge, according to new reports. The cryptocurrency mining code was apparently embedded in JavaScript in the YouTube ads, which mined CoinHive's Monero digital currency. This issue was identified when antivirus software of users' desktops detected the said covert mining when YouTube was played.

According to a report by technology website Ars Technica, the antivirus red flags continued to appear after users changed the browsers to watch YouTube. The issue only came up when a YouTube video was played. Cyber-security research firm Trend Micro published a blog post on Sunday, saying it detected a 285 percent increase in the number of CoinHive miners on Wednesday, January 24. A deeper look into the problem showed five malicious domains had enjoyed a five-fold increase in traffic since January 18, with Google DoubleClick ads turning out to be the source of traffic.

CoinHive is considered controversial as it allows website administrators to use the resources of visitors' computers to mine Monero cryptocurrency. In the case of YouTube ads, 90 percent of the cases involve publicly-available CoinHive JavaScript, while the remaining 10 percent involves a private mining JavaScript that allows the hackers to save on the 30 percent fee CoinHive charges. In both cases, 80 percent of the resources of the affected computer are used to mine the cryptocurrency, meaning that the computer is left with barely enough resources to operate.

Among the countries affected by this hack include Japan, France, Taiwan, Italy, and Spain. One of the ways to protect computers from this issue is to disable auto-running JavaScripts in browsers. YouTube is an obvious target for such an attack as it is the most popular video streaming website in the world, with over 1.5 billion users worldwide.

In a statement to Ars Technica, Google said, "Mining cryptocurrency through ads is a relatively new form of abuse that violates our policies and one that we've been monitoring actively. We enforce our policies through a multi-layered detection system across our platforms which we update as new threats emerge. In this case, the ads were blocked in less than two hours and the malicious actors were quickly removed from our platforms." It is not apparent which ads were blocked within two hours.

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Far Cry 5 Gameplay, PC Specifications, DRM, and More

Far Cry 5 release date is March 27. In the run up to that, Ubisoft has released more details on this much anticipated open-world first-person shooter. Aside from the usual mix of stealth and action, certain missions involve a welcome amount of vehicular carnage. One of them has you tasked with returning a glorious big rig that’s in the possession of Eden’s Gate — the cultists you’re up against in the game. Dubbed as the Widowmaker, it has twin-mounted machine guns that made clearing out gas tankers and cultists with ease.

In addition to this, the Guns for Hire missions (which promise a special ending for seeing their arc play out) improve odds in any given battle by bolstering the resistance group in Hope Country against its zealots. This means allied forces armed with bows, machine guns, and shotguns make battles easier than they should be.

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Uber Shouldn't Be Shut Down, Says British Prime Minister

British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Thursday that taxi company Uber should not be shut down but instead should comply better with labour and safety standards.

"We need to make sure that our employment law keeps pace with the way that technology is shaping modern working practices," May told business leaders meeting at the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
"Take the example of Uber ... a company that has got things wrong along the way, with safety issues and concerns over protections for its workers," she added.

"The answer isn't to shut Uber down but rather to address those concerns and to establish and enforce the standards and protections that can make this technology work for customers and employees alike."

© Thomson Reuters 2018

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Google Files Go App Update Brings SD Card View, Tablet Support, 'Open With' Tab, and More

Launched alongside other announcements at Google's Android Oreo (Go edition) event in December last year, the Google Files Go app is getting three new upgrades. A new SD-card only view allows users to filter content based on where it is stored. Files Go also adds support for Android tablets, allowing for a seamless transfer between phones and tablets. Lastly, a new "Open With" flow lets users choose the app that they want a file to be opened with. Files Go is available widely for Android devices.

According to a blog post by the Next Billion Users team at Google, the Files Go Android app has received an update with three significant changes to its functionality. Google claims that many of its Files Go users use SD cards to back up their files. Thus, the update has made it easier to distinguish between files stored on inbuilt storage or external storage with the new "Show SD card only" button that helps find only those files saved on the SD card.

In an attempt to create a seamless experience for users, Google Files Go app is now available on Android tablets. This allows users to "manage storage and transfer files between your small and big screen Android devices without using any data."

And, lastly, a new "Open With" tab has been rolled out to the Files Go app. It allows users to choose the app they want to open specific files with. For instance, users might want to choose their preferred word processing tool to open a word document through Files Go.

The changelog on the Play Store link also suggests that hidden files will now be hidden by default on the app.

The Files Go app has been custom built for Android Go edition phones and will come pre-installed on them. The app prompts users to regularly delete large files to make up for space on phones with limited storage space.

"With these new features, we hope it's even easier to free up space, find files faster and share files offline with Files Go," said Devesh Sarwate - Software Engineer at Files Go.

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