• A Lot of US Patents Are Entirely Bogus, But Apple Was Willing to Pay for Them
• ‘Owning’ Nature, Thanks to Patent Insanity and People Who Profit From That
• Patents Stranger Than Fiction and ‘Protection’ From Fictional Things
• Benoît Battistelli Refuses to Talk to the Media About Bringing Firearms to the EPO

• Trend Micro Zero Day team discloses unpatched Microsoft Jet RCE vulnerability

• Nmap-bootstrap-xsl Hack Creates Visually Appealing Nmap Scan Reports : Interview With Its Creator, Andreas Hontzia

• Illegitimate Crypto Mining has Increased: Cyber Threat Alliance

  The ‘Illicit Cryptocurrency Mining Joint Analysis’ also included the impact of EternalBlue on business organizations. Mining malware such as Adylkuzz and Smominru were being used to exploit victims. CTA quoted EternalBlue as an example for cryptojackers targetting old and unpatched devices with the help of disclosed vulnerabilities.

• Cryptocurrency-Related Cyber Attacks Surged By 459 Percent In 2018

  Cyber attacks related to cryptocurrency have increased by 459% throughout 2018, according to a report by the Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA). The projections for the next year seems to be even gloomier. Also, the report noted that hackers moved from illegally mining Bitcoin (BTC) to Monero (XMR).

• Cyber Threat Alliance Reports 459% Spike in Cryptomining Malware

  And while the 459 percent jump isn’t quite as shocking as Symantec’s numbers — the company said detections of cryptocurrency coin miners grew by a whopping 8,500 percent in 2017 — it should be enough to make companies take notice and do something about it. Plus, the presence of illicit cryptocurrency mining within an enterprise is a strong indicator of other security flaws, said Neil Jenkins, chief analytic officer at the CTA.

• Cybersecurity Group Links Illicit Mining To NSA-Developed Exploit

• Thanks NSA! Surveillance Agency Exploit Increases Illegal Bitcoin Mining by 459%

• Is your computer slower than normal? Hackers are using NSA spy tools to mine Bitcoin on gadgets worldwide (and it could already be running on your PC without your knowledge)

• Hackers Are Targeting Bitcoin With a Leaked NSA Software Tip, Report Says

• Leaked NSA Hacking Tool And 'Wannamine' Cryptojacking Malware's Adverse Impacts

• Cryptojacking is up 459% in 2018, and it's the NSA's Fault

• NSA: Security breaches of hacking tools curtailed snooping [Ed: Microsoft back doors and their cost]

• Why the 'fixed' Windows EternalBlue exploit won't die

• Hackers Using Software Vulnerability Stolen From the NSA to Illicitly Mine Crypto [Ed: Media blasts criminals for taking advantage of illegal NSA conspiracy for back doors because the criminals do illegal things]

• Illicit Crypto Mining Jumps 459% This Year, in Part Thanks to Leaked NSA Tool

  Microsoft was forced to release a security update in March 2017 to protect its clients. Those who applied the update are now safe from risks of being hacked with Eternal Blue.

• Hackers Mining Cryptos Using Leaked NSA Surveillance Tools, New Report Reveals [Ed: Media still fails to lay the blame on Microsoft for its back doors]

  Eternal Blue was stolen from the NSA last year in what has been labeled as the worst security breach in the agency’s history, worse than the Edward Snowden leak.

• NSA’s EternalBlue leak leads to 459% rise in illicit crypto mining, Cyber Threat Alliance report

  The report further added that 85 percent of illicit cryptocurrency malware mines monero, and 8 percent mines bitcoin. Even though Bitcoin is well known as compared to Monero, according to the report, the latter offers more privacy and anonymity which help cyber criminals hide their mining activities and their transactions using the currency. Transaction addresses and values are unclear in monero by default, making it incredibly difficult for investigators to find the cybercrime footprint.

• NSA leak fuels rise in hacking for crypto mining: report

  "A patch for EternalBlue has been available for 18 months and even after being exploited in two significant global cyberattacks—WannaCry and NotPetya—there are still countless organizations that are being victimized by this exploit, as it's being used by mining malware," Jenkins wrote.

• They’re Drinking Your Milkshake: CTA’s Joint Analysis on Illicit Cryptocurrency Mining

  This Joint Analysis is a call to action for network defenders. CTA and network defenders have the ability to disrupt the activities of illicit miners by raising their costs and forcing them to change their behavior. Together, we can keep them from succeeding in their goals.

• Red Hat (RHT) Price Target Cut to $145.00

• Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT) Shares Sold by MetLife Investment Advisors LLC

• Benzinga's Bulls & Bears Of The Week: Amazon, Caterpillar, Costco, Netflix, More

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

• Twin Capital Management Inc. Acquires Shares of 14,560 Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT)

• Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Decreases Holdings in Red Hat Inc (RHT)

• LAS 2018

  This month I was at my second Libre Application Summit in Denver. A smaller event than GUADEC but personally was my favorite conference so far.

  One of the main goals of LAS has been to be a place for multiple platforms to discuss the desktop space and not just be a GNOME event. This year two KDE members, @aleixpol and Albert Astals Cid, who spoke about release cycle of KDE Applications, Plasma, and the history of Qt. It is always interesting to see how another project solves the same problems and where there is overlap.

  The elementary folks were there since this is @cassidyjames home turf who had a great “It’s Not Always Techincal” talk as well as a talk with @danrabbit about AppCenter which are both very important areas the GNOME Project needs to improve in. I also enjoyed meeting a few other community members such as @Philip-Scott and talk about their use of elementary’s platform.

• Developer Center Initiative – Meeting Summary 21st September

  Since last blog post there’s been two Developer Center meetings held in coordination with LAS GNOME Sunday the 9th September and again Friday the 21st September. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the LAS GNOME meeting, but I’ll cover the general progress made here.

Back in June is when the Linux kernel patches appeared for the Hygon Dhyana, the new x86 processors based on AMD Zen/EPYC technology licensed by Chengdu Haiguang IC Design Co for use in Chinese data-centers. While the patches have been out for months, they haven't reached the mainline kernel quite yet but that might change next cycle.

The Hygon Dyhana Linux kernel patches have gone through several revisions and the code is mostly adapting existing AMD Linux kernel code paths for Zen/EPYC to do the same on these new processors. While these initial Hygon CPUs appear to basically be re-branded EPYC CPUs, the identifiers are different as rather than AMD Family 17h, it's now Family 18h and the CPU Vendor ID is "HygonGenuine" and carries a new PCI Express device vendor ID, etc. So the different areas of the kernel from CPUFreq to KVM/Xen virtualization to Spectre V2 mitigations had to be updated for the correct behavior.

The KDE Plasma 5.15 release due out next year will likely be in good shape for Wayland remote desktop handling.

The KDE Plasma/KWin developers have been pursuing Wayland remote desktop support along a similar route to the GNOME Shell camp by making use of PipeWire and the XDG-Desktop-Portal. Bits are already in place for KDE Plasma 5.13 and the upcoming 5.14 release, but for the 5.15 release is now where it sounds like the support may be in good shape for end-users.

Linux powers the internet, the Android in your pocket, and perhaps even some of your household appliances. A controversy over politics is now seeing some of its developers threatening to withdraw the license to all of their code, potentially destroying or making the whole Linux kernel unusable for a very long time.

• SC Controller driver and UI version 0.4.5 is out, last release for a while

• PlayOnLinux 5.0 Alpha Released With Redesigned UI, Phoenicis

  It's been a long time since last hearing anything new with PlayOnLinux, a graphical front-end to Wine catered towards making it easier running Windows games on Linux, but they are out this weekend with a version 5.0 alpha release.

• OpenRA for playing classic Command & Conquer titles has a fresh release up with AppImages for Linux builds

  The excellent open source RTS game engine OpenRA [Official Site], which allows you to play classic Command & Conquer titles has a new release out.

  As a reminder, it currently supports Tiberian Dawn, Red Alert and Dune 2000 officially. They're working on Tiberian Sun, which is one of their current major goals with the project. It's taking a long time though, since it's quite different to the other games. For the existing games, it will download the required content for you since they were set free by EA years ago.

• Looks like Galaxy in Turmoil, an exciting looking free to play shooter will come to Linux

  Galaxy in Turmoil [Steam] is an upcoming shooter that looks promising, with large 32v32 battles that take place both on the ground and in the air. The developers are looking to do a Linux version too.

  From what I understand, it started off as a fan-made Star Wars game, but Lucasfilm got involved and asked them to remove all Star Wars related IP and so they're now going their own way.

• DXVK 0.80 Released With Initial State Cache, Direct3D 11.1 Feature Level

  Development on DXVK for mapping Direct3D (primarily D3D11) atop Vulkan continues speeding along for boosting Windows gaming on Wine / Steam Play (Proton). Ending out the weekend is the release of DXVK 0.80.

  The DXVK 0.80 features the initial pipeline state cache, which can help reduce stuttering within games on subsequent runs (once the pipeline state has been cached) and all around improve the experience. DXVK also now supports Direct3D Feature Level 11_1, has minor reductions in CPU usage overhead, and has some fixes affecting APU systems, Assetto Corsa, and Project Cars 2.

• DXVK 0.80 is out with a new cache to reduce stutter and further CPU overhead improvements

  DXVK [GitHub], which provides a Vulkan-based D3D11 and D3D10 implementation for use in Wine has a new build out. The pace of development on this continues to absolutely mesmerise me, with each release bringing something really interesting. Reminder: See my interview with the creator of DXVK here.

• KDE's Dolphin File Manager Can Now Show LibreOffice Document Previews

  Coming to KDE Applications 18.12, the Dolphin file manager will finally be able to show LibreOffice document previews as the icons.

• This week in Usability & Productivity, part 37

  Next week, your name could be in this list! Just check out https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved, and find out how you can help be a part of something that really matters. You don’t have to already be a programmer. I wasn’t when I got started. Try it, you’ll like it! We don’t bite!

• Huawei P20, Mate 10, and Honor Play start getting Android 9 beta 2 update

• Android users have a new 911 emergency location service

• 6 ways the first Android phone changed absolutely everything

• Toyota reportedly agrees to support Android Auto

• OnePlus takes just 45 days to bring Android 9 Pie to the OnePlus 6

• Android at 10: Google's mobile OS has come a long way

• Android turns 10: Google's fierce iPhone rival had a stumbling start

As almost everyone knows, it's been an "interesting" week from a social
point-of-view. But from the technical side, -rc5 looks totally normal.

The diffstat is a bit higher than previous -rc5's, but the number of
trees pulled is lower, so overall, pretty much all is on track. I'm not
seeing any major "these bugs are not being fixed!" type of reports, so I
can hope that the initial churn that -rc1 threw at everyone is under
control.

The majority size-wise of changes here are with more tests being added
and fixed up, but there is also the usual networking, x86, sound, drm,
ppc, and other fixes. Full details are in the shortlog below.

Also: Greg Kroah-Hartman Releases Linux 4.19-RC5 Following An "Interesting" Week

• Patent Law Firms Have Become More Like Marketing Departments With an Aptitude for Buzzwords
• Interlude: The Need to Counter Misinformation From the Patent and Litigation ‘Industry’
• Advocacy of the Unitary Patent System Has Become Almost Identical to the ‘Leave’ (Brexit) Campaign
• Open Invention Network is Rendered Obsolete in the Wake of Alice and It’s Not Even Useful in Combating Microsoft’s Patent Trolls

The next major Linux kernel cycle whether it is called Linux 4.20 or ends up being called Linux 5.0 as expected is now slated to carry support for the high-end Creative Labs' Sound BlasterX AE-5 sound card.

Earlier this week I reported on Linux patches for the Sound BlasterX AE-5 coming from a contributor. The AE-5 is a ~$150 PCI Express sound card with SABRE32 Ultra Class DAC, BlasterX Acoustic Engine, and other high-end audio features and for suiting to gamers/enthusiasts also has an RGB lighting controller onboard.

It took several weeks past the initial stable debut of the Linux 4.18 kernel, but the Reiser4 file-system has now been updated to work with this new kernel build.

• OnePlus Rolls Out Android Pie Update To OnePlus 6, And You Can Get It Right Now

• Android WARNING: Terrifying new malware has DEVIOUS way to stay installed on your phone

• Watch Android Auto and Apple CarPlay slug it out in a Mazda CX-9

• The first Android phone was an ugly thing, and I loved it

• 10 features from other ROMs, skins, and platforms we'd like to see in stock Android

• 'Hey Google, take me home:' Android soon to power millions of cars

• 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 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.

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.

• 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