DOJ says security researchers won’t face hacking charges

The Justice Department doesn’t want security researchers facing federal charges when they expose security flaws. The department has revised its policy to indicate that researchers, ethical hackers and other well-intentioned people won’t be charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act if they’re investigating, testing or fixing vulnerabilities in “good faith.” You’re safe as long as you aren’t hurting others and use the knowledge to bolster the security of a product, the DOJ said.

The government made clear that bad actors couldn’t use research as a “free pass.” They’ll still face trouble if they use newly-discovered security holes for extortion or other malicious purposes, regardless of what they claim.

This revised policy is limited to federal prosecutors, and won’t spare researchers from state-level charges. It does provide “clarity” that was missing in the earlier 2014 guidelines, though, and might help courts that weren’t sure of how to handle ethical hacking cases.

It’s also a not-so-subtle message to officials who might abuse the threat of criminal charges to silence critics. In October 2021, for instance, Missouri Governor Mike Parson threatened a reporter with prosecution for pointing out a website flaw that required no hacking whatsoever. The DOJ’s new policy might not completely deter threats like Parson’s, but it could make their words relatively harmless.

Android 13 will have native support for braille displays

Android already has some accommodations for typing in braille, but Google is taking that one (important) step further with Android 13. As hinted at I/O, Android 13 will begin offering “out-of-the-box” support for braille displays through the platform’s Talkback screen reader. You won’t have to download the BrailleBack app to use physical input instead of the virtual keyboard.

You’ll have access to “many” of Talkback’s features, whether it’s navigating the interface or shortcuts for common tasks like sending text messages. New shortcuts are aimed specifically at braille displays, such as jumping to the next line in a document or copying text.

Braille display support will first arrive in the next Android 13 beta, due “in a few weeks.” The move will help people with blindness use their phones without using voice commands, and could make smartphones far more viable for people with deafblindness that can’t rely on audio cues.

Epic Game Store sale includes huge discounts for ‘Final Fantasy’ and ‘Far Cry’

Epic is betting that you’re looking for games to keep you entertained this summer. The Epic Games Store is running a “Mega Sale” from today (May 19th) through June 16th that offers significant discounts on a host of PC games, including a few recent blockbusters. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is 29 percent off, while the open-world shooter Far Cry 6 is a whopping 50 percent off. Bethesda’s recently launched Ghostwire: Tokyo is on sale for the first time at 34 percent off, while Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and the tough brawler Sifu both see 20 percent drops.

The deals are effectively larger than that. Every Epic Games account is receiving a 25 percent coupon that applies to any full-game purchases worth at least $15 after any other discounts, including the heftier ones mentioned above. You’ll get a coupon after each transaction, too. The sale doesn’t apply to add-ons, in-game content or non-game software.

The promo will dovetail with four weekly giveaways for “tentpole” games. You won’t have to pay a thing to get at least something out of the Mega Sale, then, even if Epic is clearly hoping you’ll buy something else while you’re downloading your free titles.

The ‘villain’ in Reddit’s GameStop investor saga is shutting down

Reddit’s war over GameStop stock has claimed a major casualty. Bloomberg and The New York Times report Melvin Capital, the hedge fund considered the nemesis of the meme stock affair, is shutting down. Fund owner Gabe Plotkin told investors that the “appropriate next step” after steep losses was to liquidate assets and return cash to investors, and that it was time to “step away” from managing others’ capital. At least half of the cash will transfer by May 31st, with the rest coming by June 30th.

Melvin Capital had been a successful fund, starting 2021 with over $12 billion. However, its public bet against GameStop and other struggling companies made it one of the largest victims of a GameStop-centric investing spree by people coordinating across Reddit and social networks. Plotkin’s fund reported a 53 percent loss in January 2021, and it took a $2.75 billion cash infusion to soften the blow and keep losses down to 39 percent for the year.

The GameStop saga wasn’t the only factor involved, however. While a recovery appeared possible, Melvin posted a 23 percent loss through April that was partly linked to poor stock positions. The fund was clearly in peril after the Reddit battle — it’s just that some miscalculations finished the company once and for all.

Reddit speculators shifted their attention to BlackBerry and other companies in the aftermath of the GameStop drama, and there hasn’t been fallout on par with Melvin’s in the months since. Still, the shutdown illustrates the power of coordinated internet investors — they can demolish conventional stock managers in the right circumstances.

New York State AG investigates Discord, Twitch roles in Buffalo mass shooting

New York State wants to understand the part internet services may have played in the deadly Buffalo mass shooting. Attorney General Letitia James is launching investigations into Discord, Twitch, 4chan and 8chan over concerns they let the attacker “discuss and amplify” his plans. It was “chilling and unfathomable” that the shooter could post his intentions months in advance without facing consequences, James said.

The perpetrator reportedly talked about his plans for racism-fuelled violence on Discord, 4chan and 8chan. He tried to livestream the entire attack on Twitch. The service took down the shooter’s channel within two minutes and has clamped down on attempts to reshare the video, but that didn’t stop others from trying to distribute the video on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. On Discord, meanwhile, the culprit invited others to review his plans half an hour in advance. Both 4chan and 8chan have long focused on an anything-goes approach to content and have been accused of harboring hate speech.

A Discord spokesperson told Engadget the company would cooperate with the investigation. We’ve also asked Twitch for comment. Discord has a long history of banning extremist chat servers. Likewise, Twitch has previously pulled violent streams and curbed efforts to share the associated clips.

The investigations won’t necessarily lead to action against the involved sites. Whether or not they do, the move underscores the pressure on internet services to proactively remove hate and threatening speech, rather than reacting to incidents.

You can finally stream YouTube Music on your Wear OS watch

YouTube Music on Wear OS now works the way you’d expect. As The Vergenotes, Google’s music service now streams directly from its Wear OS app, whether you’re on LTE or WiFi. You’ll need to pair with an Android phone for full functionality (cellular streaming isn’t an option for iPhone users), and a Premium subscription is necessary regardless of platform. If you meet those criteria, though, you can leave your phone at home knowing you’ll still have access to all your tunes.

The upgrade also lets you add a YouTube Music tile for quick access to the browse section or your most recently played playlist. If you do need offline listening, Smart Downloads will automatically refresh your on-watch library whenever you’re connected to WiFi. The streaming upgrade should finish rolling out this week.

First-party music streaming on Wear OS has been problematic, to put it mildly. Google Play Music was available on the platform, but the app didn’t carry over when the company shut down the service in 2020 and transitioned to the YouTube offering. YouTube Music came to Wear OS (with offline-only playback) in summer 2021, but it was initially restricted to the Galaxy Watch 4 and didn’t come to Wear OS 2 devices until September that year. You’ve had to turn to Spotify and other third-party services for streaming, and in some cases it wasn’t an option at all.

There’s plenty of pressure to add streaming, though. Google is releasing the Pixel Watch this fall with optional LTE, and it wouldn’t look good if you couldn’t stream the company’s music service on its official smartwatch. The improved YouTube Music app should ensure a consistent experience when the Pixel wristwear arrives, at least if you’re determined to use an all-Google setup.

YouTube’s player now shows the most popular parts of a video

YouTube is making it easier to find the best moments in a video. The service is updating its desktop and mobile video players with a previously experimental graph that shows the most popular (that is, replayed) segments. You might not have to use guesswork or chapter markers to jump past the fluff and get to the content you’re really there to watch.

The company has also teased plans to test an “easier” method of seeking the exact point in a video that you want to play. Rather than simply displaying a thumbnail for a given point, the player will show a visual timeline (below) that can indicate a scene change. The test will come “soon” to Premium subscribers through YouTube’s “new” section.

YouTube test with advanced seeking
Google

The additions join an existing wave of improvements, including an enhanced full-screen mode, auto-generated chapters and single-video looping. These latest upgrades are more targeted, however— YouTube is clearly aware that you might not want to sit through a whole video just to find the snippet you’re really looking for.

Homeland Security ‘pauses’ disinformation board three weeks after creating it

The Biden administration may be struggling in its efforts to fight security-related misinformation. The Washington Postsources claim the Department of Homeland Security has “paused” a Disinformation Governance Board just three weeks after its April 27th announcement. Officials reportedly decided to shut down the board May 16th, but that decision appears to be on hold after a last-minute effort to retain board leader Nina Jankowicz. She resigned from the board and the DHS today (May 18th).

While the leakers didn’t directly explain why the Disinformation Governance Board was frozen, they claim the White House neither had clear messaging nor a defense against misinformation and threats levelled against Jankowicz. The board was meant to examine approaches for fighting viral lies and had no power over content, but far-right influencers and outlets misrepresented it as a censorship tool and villainized Jankowicz. The campaigns led to harassment and threats against the board leader — in other words, the board was the victim of the very sort of attack it was supposed to prevent.

We’ve asked the DHS for comment. In a statement to the Post, the department said the board’s role had been “grossly mischaracterized” and that Jankowicz had been targeted by “unjustified and vile personal attacks and threats.” Previously, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House press secretary Jen Psaki have respectively tried to clarify the board’s objectives and debunk falsehoods with little effect.

There is a chance the board could survive depending on a Homeland Security Advisory Council review. If the reports are true, though, the US government may have to rethink its anti-disinformation efforts if they’re going to survive both criticism and internal scrutiny.

Update 5/18 2:20PM ET: Homeland Security provided its full statement to Engadget. The department defended both the board and Jankowicz, and noted that its Advisory Council will conduct a “thorough” review to improve its anti-disinformation efforts as well as increase transparency. Final recommendations are due within 75 days. You can read the full statement below.

“DHS created an internal working group called the Disinformation Governance Board to ensure the Department’s disinformation-related work protects free speech, civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy. It was intended to ensure coordination across the Department’s component agencies as they protect Americans from disinformation that threatens the homeland – including malicious efforts spread by foreign adversaries, human traffickers, and transnational criminal organizations. The Board has been grossly and intentionally mischaracterized: it was never about censorship or policing speech in any manner. It was designed to ensure we fulfill our mission to protect the homeland, while protecting core Constitutional rights. However, false attacks have become a significant distraction from the Department’s vitally important work to combat disinformation that threatens the safety and security of the American people.

“To help instill trust in our work, Secretary Mayorkas has asked former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff and former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick to lead a thorough review and assessment, conducted through the bipartisan Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC). This assessment will focus on answering two pivotal questions. First, how can the Department most effectively and appropriately address disinformation that poses a threat to our country, while protecting free speech, civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy. Second, how can DHS achieve greater transparency across our disinformation-related work and increase trust with the public and other key stakeholders. The Secretary has requested the HSAC’s final recommendations within 75 days. During the HSAC’s review, the Board will not convene and its work will be paused, but the Department’s critical work across several administrations to address disinformation that threatens the security of our country will continue.”

Russia claims it’s using new laser weapons against Ukraine

Russia is supposedly using its invasion of Ukraine to try new technology on the battlefield. As Reutersreports, the Russian government says it’s using a new wave of laser weapons to counter the Western technology aiding Ukraine’s self-defense. Deputy prime minister Yury Borisov claimed Russia was using prototypes for a drone-destroying laser weapon, Zadira, that can burn up drones. One test incinerated a drone 3.1 miles away within five seconds, according to the official.

A more established system, Peresvet, reportedly blinds satellites up to 932 miles above Earth. This was already “widely deployed,” Borisov claimed. The deputy leader maintained that new lasers using wide electromagnetic bands could eventually replace traditional weapons.

This isn’t the first reported use of cutting-edge tech in the war against Ukraine. CNNnoted that Russia has fired multiple Kinzhal hypersonic missiles at Ukrainian targets. This variant of the Iskander short-range ballistic missile can be launched from a fighter jet (the MiG-31K). Russia has maintained that Kinzhal is virtually impossible to stop due to its very high speed, but US and UK officials have dismissed its effectiveness and argued that it’s really just an air-launched variant of a conventional weapon.

As with those hypersonic weapons, it’s difficult to know how well the lasers work in practice. Russia has routinely made false claims about its overall capabilities and the war in Ukraine, where it has struggled to gain ground despite a large military. However, these uses may be less about turning the war around and more about symbolism — Russia wants to boast about its technological prowess and discourage further material support for Ukraine.

Acer’s latest mainstream laptops include a Swift 3 model with an OLED screen

You don’t need to pay a hefty sum (or go large) to get OLED in a laptop. Acer has unveiled a refreshed laptop line headlined by the Swift 3 OLED, an enhanced version of its thin-and-light mainstream portable. The highlight, as you’d guess, is a 14-inch “2.8K” display that promises OLED’s signature high contrast, accurate color (100 percent of DCI-P3) and 500-nit HDR. Add in a 92 percent screen-to-body ratio and it might be a good fit if you want lush visuals without buying an exotic PC.

The Swift 3 OLED runs on 12th-gen Intel Core H-series chips with Iris Xe integrated graphics, PCIe Gen 4 SSDs and as much as 16GB of LPDDR5 memory. It ships to the US this July starting at $900. While we wouldn’t call it a budget laptop, that’s a relative bargain given the display tech.

Acer Spin 5 laptop (2022)
Acer

The are upgrades for convertible machines, too. The 14-inch Spin 5 (shown at middle) comes with a 1600p display and configurations that offer up to a 12th-gen Core i7, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD. You’ll also get two Thunderbolt 4 ports and an improved cooling system that should net more performance under heavy loads. Opt for the Spin 3 and you’ll get ‘just’ a 1080p 14-inch display, but you’ll also have the twin Thunderbolt 4 ports, SSD storage and a range of 12th-gen Core CPUs.

The updated Spin 5 arrives first, shipping in July with a $1,350 starting price. Acer delivers the new Spin 3 in August at an $850 base sticker.

And yes, Acer is expanding its eco-friendly Vero line. You’ll find new 14- and 15-inch Vero laptops that meld 12th-gen Core, Thunderbolt 4 and 1080p displays with bodies made partly from recycled and ocean-bound plastic. Desktop users can spring for a 24-inch Veriton Vero all-in-one with up to a 12th-gen Core i9 and GeForce MX550 graphics. The Vero portables ship to the US in September starting at $750 regardless of size, while the Veriton Vero will wait until October to sell for $799.