The Category5.TV Newsroom

Here are the stories we're following for the week of Wednesday November 21, 2018

Mark Shuttleworth has revealed that Ubuntu 18.04 will get a 10-year support lifespan.

Mark Shuttleworth has revealed that Ubuntu 18.04 will get a 10-year support lifespan.

At OpenStack Summit in Berlin, Canonical and Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth said in a keynote that Ubuntu 18.04's Long Term Support lifespan would be extended from five years to 10 years.

Ubuntu 18.04 released in April 2018. While the Ubuntu desktop gets most of the ink, most of Canonical's dollars comes from server and cloud customers. It's for these corporate users Canonical first extended Ubuntu 12.04 security support, then Ubuntu 14.04's support, and now, preemptively, Ubuntu 18.04. In an interview after the keynote, Shuttleworth said Ubuntu 16.04, which is scheduled to reach its end of life in April 2021, will also be given a longer support life span.

Shuttleworth also said in his keynote that, in the past two years, Canonical had been getting Red Hat customers coming Ubuntu's way. He explained that companies have been coming to Canonical not to replace existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux or OpenShift deployments, but to expand into new technology areas such as the Internet of Things, edge computing, and machine learning/artificial intelligence.

However, Shuttleworth foresees IBM buying Red Hat may lead to customers switching to Ubuntu. He says, "We're neutral on the public cloud. We work at arm's length with AWS, Azure, and Google. We provide a common currency across different environment. But, we're not the lowest common denominator. We want to be the best operating system on Azure for Azure, AWS for AWS, and so on."

He also disclosed that Canonical is still aiming at going public in 2019. This is not on a set schedule. Instead, it will happen when the company meets the metrics he's set. Before Canonical IPOs, he plans on bringing in growth equity from private-equity companies. Shuttleworth has started talking with private equity advisors to get things ready to bring in a cash infusion.

So, all-in-all, Shuttleworth sees a bright future ahead for both Canonical and its underlying Ubuntu Linux, container, and cloud technologies.

Source: www.zdnet.com

Sent to us by: Solbu

A database leak exposed millions of two-factor codes and reset links sent by SMS.

A database leak exposed millions of two-factor codes and reset links sent by SMS.

Millions of SMS text messages—many containing one-time passcodes, password reset links, and plaintext passwords—were exposed in an Internet-accessible database that could be read or monitored by anyone who knew where to look.

The discovery comes after years of rebukes from security practitioners that text messages are a woefully unsuitable medium for transmitting two-factor authentication data. Despite those rebukes, SMS-based 2FA continues to be offered by banks such as Bank of America, cellular carriers such as T-Mobile, and a host of other businesses.

The leaky database belonged to Voxox, a service that claims to process billions of calls and text messages monthly. The database stored texts that were sent through a gateway Voxox provided to businesses that wanted an automated way to send data for password resets and other types of account management by SMS. The database provided a portal that showed two-factor codes and resent links being sent in near real-time, making it potentially possible for attackers who accessed the server to obtain data that would help them hijack other people’s accounts.

The database ran on Amazon’s Elasticsearch and was configured with a Kibana front-end to make the phone numbers, names, and other contents easy to browse and search.

Voxox locked down the database after TechCrunch privately reported the issue prior to informing the public of their findings.

Source: arstechnica.com

Sent to us by: Roy W. Nash

NVIDIA stock has dropped to the worst it's been in 10 years.

NVIDIA stock has dropped to the worst it's been in 10 years.

NVIDIA lost a gigantic $23 billion in market cap in a single 24-hour period on Friday, dropping more than 30%.

Why? Well, there are many reasons - with some claiming it was the cryptocurrency mining bubble popping, but it seems the various issues with the newly launched GeForce RTX series being center focus for NVIDIA right now.

NVIDIA stock dropped heavily after the company posted their Q3 earnings report which saw the company missing revenue estimates.

The sales channel is filled with GTX 10 series graphics cards and the overpriced RTX series that seem to have fallen flat with gamers. There have been many problems with the RTX cards, and there aren't many games that really take advantage of the features. Then, games with RTX support -- like Battlefield V -- are plagued with issues and underwhelming performance.

CNBC's Jim Cramer says NVIDIA "made a serious misjudgment about the level of demand for their product. And for that, NVIDIA's in the penalty box for a very long time."

Source: www.tweaktown.com

Sent to us by: Robbie Ferguson

NASA has successfully tested OSIRIS-REx's robotic arm ahead of its arrival at a giant asteroid millions of miles away.

NASA has successfully tested OSIRIS-REx's robotic arm ahead of its arrival at a giant asteroid millions of miles away.

NASA's spacecraft OSIRIS-REx is nearing its destination and it's starting to stretch out. The craft successfully tested its Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), a robotic arm that will allow it to grab samples from the surface of the asteroid Bennu.

According to NASA, the test run went as planned. OSIRIS-REx, with the help of engineers from Lockheed Martin, showed off the full range of motion of its arm. It flexed its shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints -- all while hurtling through space. The test's success was confirmed by telemetry data and photos captured by an onboard camera.

TAGSAM will be essential for OSIRIS-REx to complete its mission. The craft will use the robotic arm to collect a couple of ounces of loose dirt and rock from the surface of Bennu. Researchers hope the sample of regolith from the carbon-rich space rock might hold some hints about the beginning of the solar system and the building blocks of life.

OSIRIS-REx is expected to reach Bennu on December 3rd. It will spend two years studying and mapping the 1,650-foot asteroid before finally scooping up the sample it was sent to retrieve. Then it will make its way back to Earth. The spacecraft is expected back on this planet in 2023. In the mean time, it's already sent back some pretty impressive photos of its trip from 3 million miles away.

Source: www.engadget.com

Sent to us by: Robbie Ferguson