Author: peterjang73

Everyone from advertisers and marketers to government-backed hackers and spyware makers wants to identify and track users across the web. And while a staggering amount of infrastructure is already in place to do exactly that, the appetite for data and new tools to collect it has proved insatiable. With that reality in mind, researchers from the New Jersey Institute of Technology are warning this week about a novel technique attackers could use to de-anonymize website visitors and potentially connect the dots on many components of targets’ digital lives.

The findings, which NJIT researchers will present at the Usenix Security Symposium in Boston next month, show how an attacker who tricks someone into loading a malicious website can determine whether that visitor controls a particular public identifier, like an email address or social media account, thus linking the visitor to a piece of potentially personal data. 

When you visit a website, the page can capture your IP address, but this doesn’t necessarily give the site owner enough information to individually identify you. Instead, the hack analyzes subtle features of a potential target’s browser activity to determine whether they are logged into an account for an array of services, from YouTube and Dropbox to Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and more. Plus the attacks work against every major browser, including the anonymity-focused Tor Browser.

“If you’re an average internet user, you may not think too much about your privacy when you visit a random website,” says Reza Curtmola, one of the study authors and a computer science professor at NJIT. “But there are certain categories of internet users who may be more significantly impacted by this, like people who organize and participate in political protest, journalists, and people who network with fellow members of their minority group. And what makes these types of attacks dangerous is they’re very stealthy. You just visit the website and you have no idea that you’ve been exposed.”

The risk that government-backed hackers and cyber-arms dealers will attempt to de-anonymize web users isn’t just theoretical. Researchers have documented a number of techniques used in the wild and have witnessed situations in which attackers identified individual users, though it wasn’t clear how.

Other theoretical work has looked at an attack similar to the one NJIT researchers developed, but much of this past investigation has focused on grabbing revealing data that’s leaked between websites when one service makes a request to another. As a result of this prior work, browsers and website developers have improved how data is isolated and restricted when content loads, making these potential attack paths less feasible. Knowing that attackers are motivated to seek out techniques for identifying users, though, the researchers wanted to explore additional approaches.

“Let’s say you have a forum for underground extremists or activists, and a law enforcement agency has covertly taken control of it,” Curtmola says. “They want to identify the users of this forum but can’t do this directly because the users use pseudonyms. But let’s say that the agency was able to also gather a list of Facebook accounts who are suspected to be users of this forum. They would now be able to correlate whoever visits the forum with a specific Facebook identity.”

SpaceX is in the midst of preparing its Starship rocket for its inaugural orbital launch, but an apparent explosion of the Super Heavy booster during tests at the company’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas, may represent a serious setback.

Update: July 12, 8:50 a.m. ET: New details are emerging about the anomaly. A “cloud of well-mixed methane and oxygen gas was accidentally ignited,” and it “functioned like a small fuel-air bomb,” resulting in in the explosion and shockwave, according to Teslarati.

In a tweet that has since been deleted, Elon Musk suggested the event was planned and that it was a part of “booster engine testing.” Musk later removed the tweet, saying the anomaly at the launch mount was “actually not good.” In a subsequent tweet, the SpaceX CEO said the anomaly “was specific to the engine spin start test,” as the 44 Raptor engines require a “complex start sequence.” Musk added that, going forward, “we won’t do a spin start test with all 33 engines at once.”

Overnight, Musk said the base of Booster 7 “seems ok by flashlight,” but SpaceX officials “shut down the pad for the night for safety.” Ground teams will “know more in the morning,” he added.

Original post follows.

The explosion happened around 5:20 p.m. ET, and it was as unexpected as it was severe. No word yet on the cause of the anomaly or whether anyone was hurt during the incident. The explosion was followed by a significant amount of fire in the vicinity of the giant booster rocket; flames and smoke could still be seen wafting from the launch pad an hour after the incident, but the situation at the test site didn’t appear to be worsening.

A static fire test was not expected today, and the launch pad had not been prepared or cleared for such a test (as far as we can tell). Venting from directly beneath the booster increased dramatically in the moments prior to the explosion, which produced a powerful fireball and shock wave. SpaceX did not immediately respond to our request for more information.

The Elon Musk-led company is currently testing Super Heavy Booster 7 at its Boca Chica facility, known as Starbase. The prototype booster, with its 33 Raptor engines, arrived at the launch mount in late June. A Starship second stage will eventually be stacked on top, forming a fully stacked Starship rocket. Musk was hoping for an orbital test flight of the system in July, but that seems unlikely given today’s events.

It’s likely that Booster 7 experienced some sort of damage during the explosion, whether it be to the dozens of Raptor engines or to the booster itself. Likely both. SpaceX will need to fix (or replace) the booster and determine the cause of the anomaly. It’s also not clear if the incident damaged the launch mount, which is equipped with a pair of mechanical arms known as “chopsticks,” which lift and hold the booster in place.

SpaceX is designed to transport cargo and passengers to orbit, the Moon, and Mars. The company is currently under contract with NASA to modify the system as a means for landing astronauts on the lunar surface. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently cleared SpaceX for site expansion, bringing Starship closer to its inaugural launch.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

California Governor Gavin Newsom says California is moving forward with a plan to produce its own insulin after he signed a $100 million budget to produce the drug at a cheaper price point.

Governor Newsom revealed Thursday that he allotted $100 million in state funding for California to begin producing its own insulin from a state budget that he signed last week. The $100 million allotment will be split in half: $50 million will go toward the development of more economic insulin products while the other $50 million will fund a production facility located in the Golden State. Newsom believes that this new facility will bring a new suite of high-paying jobs to the state while creating a more robust supply chain for the drug.

“On my first day in office, I signed an executive order to put California on the path to creating our own prescription drugs, and now it’s happening. California is going to make its own insulin,” Newsom said in a briefing posted to his official Twitter. “Nothing, nothing epitomizes market failures more than the cost of insulin. Many Americans experience out-of-pocket costs anywhere from $300 to $500 per month for this life-saving drug. California is now taking matters into our own hands.”

Insulin is generated by the pancreas and helps blood sugar enter cells as a source of energy while also telling the liver to store the extra for later use, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And according to the American Diabetes Association, people living with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes rely on insulin injections to survive since type 1 diabetes causes the pancreas to stop producing insulin, while type 2 diabetes complicates the body’s response to it. A 2019 report from the Healthcare Cost Institute revealed that the average price of insulin rose from $7.80 per day in 2012 to $15 per day in 2016.

Gavin Newsom’s move to bring state-backed insulin to California could set a precedent for other states—or even the federal government—to begin producing their own low-cost pharmaceuticals too.