Security: 0-Days and Back Doors

• Vulnerability Acquisition Companies are Stockpiling 0-days and Selling Them to Governments Rather Than Allowing Them to be Patched

  However we got here, this is indeed the state of the world: A place where shady organizations lure security researchers with huge sums of money and then turn around and sell their discovered vulnerabilities to government customers to use against their citizenry. According to the Zerodium website, their customers are “mainly government organizations…as well as major corporations from defense, technology, and financial sectors”. Zerodium prides themselves on their high payouts, stating on their website, “We pay BIG bounties, not bug bounties”. This model differs greatly from conventional bug bounty programs like HackerOne or Bugcrowd, which report submitted vulnerabilities directly to the developers so they can be patched immediately. Conventional programs also typically pay far less to the security researcher submitting a vulnerability.

• Will open source software make your business more secure? [iophk: "FOSS is commercial, too". Ed: Such FUD has been popularised by Microsoft-connected firms.]

• In 2018, cryptojacking is up for 459% and NSA is who to blame – Crypto News Today [Ed: No, Microsoft is to blame. It gave back doors to NSA and others, now the public pays for this intentional sabotage (e.g. hospital shutdowns).]

  This malware was functioning on an outdated Windows software; thus, Microsoft accused the U.S. government for allegedly “stockpiling weapons for cyberattacks.”

• Report Finds Cryptojacking Instances Jumped 400% In A Year [Ed: This actually targets new versions of Windows, not old ones. Microsoft keeps using a lie, exploiting its own back doors to sell more 'upgrades' (to more malicious versions)]

  The CTA's analysis explains that a number of Windows operating systems remain vulnerable to the bug, despite a patch released by Microsoft. As such, these systems run a vulnerable network file sharing protocol dubbed SMB1.

• Leaked NSA Software ‘Eternal Blue’ Responsible Rise of Illegal Crypto-Mining

• Crypto-Malware Cases Have Increased More Than 500% This Year

OpenShot Video Editor Released 2.4.3 – Here’s What’s New

OpenShot is a cross platform video editor available in Linux, Windows and Mac. This beginner’s friendly to advanced users’ video editor comes with huge set to of tools to create your videos, edit videos, cut, add sliding transitions and many more. The free and open source video editor OpenShot lands with latest release with improvements.

Ubuntu Studio 18.10 Wallpaper Contest Winners

We would like to thank everyone who participated in our wallpaper contest for Ubuntu Studio 18.10! With 487 votes, the top 5 submissions were chosen. The winners can be found at this link. Additionally, we’d like to announce the new default wallpaper for 18.10, designed by Ubuntu Studio developer Eylul Dogruel, and is pictured to the right.

Red Hat Leftovers

• JPMorgan Chase & Co. Downgrades Red Hat (RHT) to Neutral

• Red Hat (RHT) Price Target Lowered to $165.00 at Oppenheimer

• Red Hat: Valuation Looks Tempting After Earnings Disappointment

• Red Hat Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (RHT)

• Fedora Women’s Day Images

• Red Hat MCT0032US Red Hat Red Hat Training Units – 1 Unit for Federal Government – September 22 – December 31 2018

• Red Hat RH401 Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Deployment, Virtualization, and Systems Management – 4 Day for Federal Government – September 22 – December 31 2018