Month: May 2024

The United States Department of Justice on Wednesday announced charges against a 35-year-old Chinese national, YunHe Wang, accused of operating a massive botnet allegedly linked to billions of dollars in fraud, child exploitation, and bomb threats, among other crimes.

Wang, identified by numerous pseudonyms—Tom Long and Jack Wan, among others—was arrested on May 24 and is accused of distributing malware through various pop-up VPN services, such as “ProxyGate” and “MaskVPN,” and by embedding viruses in internet files distributed via peer-to-peer networks known as torrents.

The malware is said to have compromised computers located in nearly every country in the world, turning them into proxies through which criminals were able to hide their identities while committing countless crimes. According to prosecutors in the US, this included the theft of billions of dollars slated for Covid-19 pandemic relief; funds allegedly stolen by foreign actors posing as unemployed US citizens.

According to an indictment, the infected computers allegedly provided Wang’s customers with a persistent backdoor, allowing them to disguise themselves as any one of the victims of Wang’s malware. This illicit proxy service, known as “911 S5,” launched as early as 2014, the US government says.

“The 911 S5 Botnet infected computers in nearly 200 countries and facilitated a whole host of computer-enabled crimes, including financial frauds, identity theft, and child exploitation,” says FBI director Christopher Wray, who described the illicit service as “likely the world’s largest botnet ever.”

The US Treasury Department has also sanctioned Wang and two other individuals allegedly tied to 911 S5.

Wang is said to have amassed access to nearly 614,000 IP addresses in the US and more than 18 million others worldwide—collectively, forming the botnet. 911 S5’s customers were able to filter the IPs geographically, choosing where they’d like to appear to be located down to a specific US zip code, the DOJ claims.

The indictment states that of the 150 dedicated servers used to manage the botnet, as many as 76 were leased by US-based service providers, including the one hosting 911 S5’s client interface, which allowed criminals overseas to purchase goods using stolen credit cards, in many cases for the alleged purpose of circumventing US export laws.

More than a half million fraudulent claims lodged with pandemic relief programs in the United States are allegedly tied to 911 S5. According to the indictment, nearly $6 billion in losses have been linked to IP addresses captured by 911 S5. Many of the IP addresses have been reportedly tied to more insidious crimes, including bomb threats and the trafficking of child sexual abuse material, or CSAM.

“Proxy services like 911 S5 are pervasive threats that shield criminals behind the compromised IP addresses of residential computers worldwide,” says Damien Diggs, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, where the charges against Wang were brought by a grand jury earlier this month.

Adds Nicole Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division: “These criminals used the hijacked computers to conceal their identities and commit a host of crimes, from fraud to cyberstalking.”

At the time of writing, it is unclear whether these virtual impersonations resulted in any criminal investigations or charges against US-based victims whose IP addresses were hijacked as part of the 911 S5 botnet. WIRED is awaiting a response from the Department of Justice regarding this concern.

According to the Justice Department, law enforcement agencies in Singapore, Thailand, and Germany collaborated with US authorities to effect Wang’s arrest.

Wang faces charges of conspiracy, computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to money laundering, with a maximum penalty of 65 years in prison. The US is also seeking to seize a mountain of luxury cars and goods allegedly owned by Wang, including a 2022 Ferrari Spider valued at roughly half a million dollars as well as a Patek Philippe watch worth potentially several times that amount.

The problem with the term “spatial computer” is that most devices using the obtuse marketing term don’t actually look like computers. Yes, the Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest 3 meet the definition of “computer,” but most people still think of “PC” as a desktop or a laptop. So now there’s the Spacetop G1, an AR laptop, trying to kick both the desktop and VR markets for being too stuck in their ways.

The $1,900 Spacetop G1 is a pair of AR glasses paired with a laptop body and a magnetic cover with a large bulge to contain it all. That would be the reductive description, but in many ways, it’s accurate. The G1 is made by Sightful, which released a beta “Spacetop EA” version last year before coming back with a modified, more ergonomic first product ready for prime time. The company boasts a few ex-Magic Leap developers who have been iterating over the past few years to create this Frankenstein contraption. The glasses are made by the folks at XReal, specifically the Xreal Air 2 Pro, though they have a few modifications meant to handle a desktop-like interface specifically.

I was invited to test out an early version of the G1 for about an hour while talking with Sightful’s execs about what the hell this thing was and where they think their tech fits into the still-nascent AR market. When wearing the glasses, you’ll see a pretty spartan UI with a blackened background that hovers a few feet in front of you and surrounds you ear to ear. You can load up various windows and lay them wherever you want on that wide desktop akin to Apple’s spatial computer. You can resize these however you wish and bring windows forward or back with a few simple gestures on the touchpad.

However, you can’t take windows and leave them around, and you can’t separate the glasses and laptop. You can take both around, and the screen will follow you and reorient itself pretty accurately. Still, if you want to interact with the folks around you, you need to take off the glasses or else look down the bridge of your nose at them, like some preppy kid on the beach offering a vain glance under his sunglasses.

Who is the Spacetop G1 For?

This is a device made for ultra-multitaskers who demand more, more, and more screens. Yes, I’m one of those who prefers a multi-screen life. Does that mean I need 100 inches and nearly 180 degrees of display real estate to get my work done? Well, I thought I didn’t, but then I’m surrounded by screens with only the barest pinch of weight on my nose, and despite myself, I could see myself turning up and tuning out with the AR-laptop lifestyle. AKA, I’d become the worst weirdo you see sitting in the corner of your local Starbucks.

Sightful CEO Tamir Berliner told Gizmodo there’s a lot of ground to cover since the laptop hasn’t honestly changed after decades of design. Mobile computers have traveled such well-trodden roads for so long that nobody is thinking about innovation anymore. Still, that tried and true design has been so entrenched that folks have a pretty good idea of exactly what they need from their laptop, and rightfully so. A bad keyboard or trackpad or slightly worse benchmarks could spell doom for any device when there’s always another device on the market able to meet those expectations.

As far as specs go, the Spacetop is using a Qualcomm Snapdragon QCS8550 from last year, which sports the Adreno 740 GPU. It has 16 GB of RAM but a mere base of 128 GB of storage with more expensive options up to 102 GB. I’d want to do direct benchmarks to compare it to other PCs, though for what it’s worth, I didn’t find the device lagged or stuttered at all despite using multiple windows on the screen at once.

The glasses include a pair of OLED displays boasting a 90 Hz refresh rate with a 50-degree field of view. The external sensors and optics have been slightly modified for the Spacetop G1, but overall, they’re a nice, light pair of AR glasses. I had no problem reading text on a page and didn’t notice any focusing or blurring as I have with small AR screens like Lenovo’s Legion Glasses. They also don’t offer the kind of field of view you’re used to with a full VR headset, meaning you’ll need to crane your neck more to look at everything on your virtual desktop.

I’d argue the keyboard is the more important part of the design. If the basic typing experience can’t match expectations, I’d argue the device could be DOA. The look of the keys first resembles Apple’s Magic Keyboard, though without any of the brand-specific keys you’re used to. It’s perhaps not the best typing experience I’ve had, with the keys feeling a little hollow with minimal travel, but it wasn’t bad either. The trackpad is a standout. It’s a nice smooth glass large enough to facilitate the multiple gestures you’d need to control the UI.

What Kind of Software Is the Spacetop G1 Using?

So, all of that works, but I’m most concerned about the software. Things were slightly buggy during my demo, which is to be expected when the final release date is still months away. Sightful’s developers told me the OS is based on a heavily modified version of AOSP (Android Open Source Project) that allows for multiple windows as well as depth tracking on the mouse. There’s a single bar toward the bottom of your view where you can open apps. As of right now, there are very few apps that work natively on the Spacetop. For applications like Instagram or YouTube, use the browser version.

Berliner said he eventually wants to release some more AR-specific applications, though those are still in development, and there’s no word when we can see what Sightful has in store for its first real AR laptop. There’s so much to consider here, but one point I will put in Spacetop’s favor is, despite that massive hill on the top of the laptop’s sleeve, it fits cleanly into my backpack’s laptop holder. The cover snaps down with a satisfying clack, and you don’t have to wind the cable in any specific way to get it all contained nice and snug.

Those who want to get in line for one need to put down $100 on the company’s website deposit to be first in line for when Spacetop finally releases in October later this year. The device costs $1,900, a steep price for any mobile computer. Still, if you wear glasses, you’ll have the chance to order a specific set of prescription lenses that attach magnetically to Spacetop’s AR glasses.

It’s best not to think of the Spacetop as an “augmented reality laptop,” at least for right now. You won’t flick windows around the room with hand tracking like the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro. There really aren’t any AR capabilities save for the floating screen that is specifically tied to the laptop itself. But the screen is bright, and the darkened glasses made working even in direct sunlight possible. That’s all to say: this is an interesting, expensive new product that is, at the very least, trying something new.

California is the nation’s biggest EV market by a wide margin, and the relatively high percentage of battery-powered cars is digging a hole in the state’s budget because it relies on revenue from its gasoline tax to fund road maintenance. Lawmakers want to replace the gasoline tax with a new mileage-based tax to offset the loss, and they plan to begin testing this system by launching a pilot program in August 2024.

Lauren Prehoda, a spokesperson for Caltrans, told news outlet ABC7 that maintaining California’s road network costs approximately $8.5 billion annually. "The vast majority" of this sum comes from the taxes that the state collects every time someone fills up their car’s tank. Put another way, California loses money when someone replaces a gasoline-powered car with an EV. Hybrids are eroding the budget as well. State officials estimate that there were about 1.1 million electric cars and 1.3 million hybrids on California roads in 2022.

"On average, Californians pay about $300 a year in state gas taxes. EVs have a $100 [annual] registration fee. That’s a $200-million-a-year-loss," Prehoda said. Note that California plans to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035, so its gas tax revenues will fall to zero.

Caltrans is proposing a solution called the California Road Charge which would record the number of miles driven annually and tax motorists accordingly. The rate hasn’t been set because the Road Charge remains at the prototype stage; it’s not a law yet. However, a cost simulator on the program’s website lists three options: $.02, $.03, and $.04 per mile. It also argues that this system could allow some motorists to save money. For example, if you drive a 2023 Honda Pilot 1,000 miles per month your monthly Road Charge bill would check in at $20, $30, or $40 depending on which of the three hypothetical rates apply to you. The site claims the same driver currently pays $27.57 in monthly fuel taxes. It’s EV drivers that will end up spending more: they’d pay the same monthly Road Charge but they currently don’t pay a gas tax.

In theory, drivers would be able to choose how the state tracks their mileage. They could hook up an electronic device to their car, use the car’s built-in tracking system or send Caltrans a picture of the odometer. "Everyone has different levels of comfort when we’re managing our data between efficiency and privacy, and that’s why it’s really important to have options from low tech to high tech," Prehoda told ABC7.

Drivers who are interested in participating in the pilot program can sign up on the California Road Charge website. State officials will select an unspecified number of applicants in July 2024. These motorists will be asked to make monthly Road Charge payments between August 2024 and January 2025, and they’ll need to fill out two surveys about their experience. The state will refund their gasoline tax or their EV registration fee at the end of the program. To make the project more enticing, Caltrans will give participants up to $400 in gift cards.

The data gathered during the program will help lawmakers determine whether the Road Charge should replace the state’s gasoline tax.

In developed countries all over the world, driving continues to get safer. The one exception to that rule is the United States, where driving continues to get more dangerous. Unfortunately, there are so many factors that make drivers in the U.S. more dangerous, there’s no silver bullet that will magically fix things. One thing that would definitely help, though, would be if drivers would simply slow down, especially in cities. In an attempt to make that happen, Road & Track reports that California just passed a bill that will require cars to warn drivers whenever they drive more than 10 mph over the speed limit.

The California Senate just passed SB 961, which would require half of all new cars built or sold in the state to include passive speed limiters by 2029, and by 2032, that figure will rise to 100 percent. If it passes the Assembly and is signed into law, the new regulation will apply to all passenger vehicles, including trucks, as well as buses. And while there will be nothing physically stopping someone from driving more than 10 mph over the posted speed limit, adding beeps and flashing warnings will at least make doing so much more annoying.

According to the bill, the “passive intelligent speed assistance system” that would be required would be “[an] integrated vehicle system that uses, at minimum, the GPS location of the vehicle compared with a database of posted speed limits, to determine the speed limit, and utilizes a brief, one-time visual and audio signal to alert the driver each time they exceed the speed limit by more than 10 miles per hour.” It would also default to the higher speed limit if, for whatever reason, there are multiple speed limits in the area you’re driving.

This isn’t exactly a new idea, either. Starting in July, the European Union will also begin requiring similar passive speed limiters in new cars, and both the National Transportation Safety Board and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety also support implementing a similar regulation nationally. Assuming it passes, California would simply be the first state in the country to require it. And if it does pass, don’t be surprised if more states end up following California’s lead.

This article originally appeared on Jalopnik.

Google’s Android mobile operating system is open source, which means anyone can, in theory, build their own mobile operating system based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Why, then, are there not many different versions of Android to choose from?

Well, the good news is that there are a few alternatives to Android—some of them are excellent if not better than the version of Android that ships with your smartphone. But the reason there are only three or four good options highlights the fact that there is more, much more, to the mobile experience than the operating system.

Android’s operating system is open source, but it runs device-specific drivers and Google’s various Play Services application programming interfaces (APIs) with a suite of built-in apps for basic functionality. All of this stuff is another layer atop the Android operating system, and it’s this layer that’s very difficult for other projects to reproduce. It’s not hard for projects to get the AOSP code running, but it’s difficult to create a great mobile user experience on top.

One project that has created a great user experience on top of AOSP is /e/OS. For the past six months, I’ve used nothing else, and I am here to say that the world of Android alternatives has never been better. If you’re looking to get out of the Google box, come on in, the water’s fine.

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Android Alternatives

It’s worth pausing here to answer the question of why you’d want to use an Android alternative like /e/OS. Despite my general dislike of surveillance capitalism, it was not privacy-related issues that initially drove me from Android but poor user experience. I got tired of Android’s constant updates. Every time I picked up my phone, the internet was ridiculously slow because Android was downloading yet another update and prompting me to install it. I lived through Windows 98; once was enough.

This was some years ago, and I did not know about /e/Os. When I decided to ditch Android, I installed LineageOS (probably the best-known Android alternative) and never looked back. LineageOS is a solid platform and provides a good set of basic applications. I never had any trouble with the open source apps I primarily rely on, nor did I have much trouble with the handful of proprietary apps I use. Outside of work, I don’t depend on or use any Google services, so my transition from stock Android was smooth.

However, due to my position at WIRED, I still needed to install the Google Play Services layer on LineageOS to access the apps I needed for work—Slack, Airtable, and Gmail. While I like LineageOS, the fact that Google was still embedded into my device bothered me, because my perspective changed. The boot screen was what did it.