Ebrius Disputatios

The Platform Blocks Up To 20 Million Accounts Worldwide Every Month.

Pavel Durov appeared before a French court on December 6, where he testified to two investigating judges for ten hours, France Info writes. During the hearing, the creator of the messenger said: “Telegram was not created as a platform for criminals.”

French justice suspects the founder of the messenger of complicity in committing several crimes and offenses. At the end of August, the billionaire was charged on 16 different counts. At the same time, Durov assured that users who violate the law “harm the business and reputation of Telegram.”

Responding to questions from judges about illegal content, including drug channels, stolen banking data, offers of contract killers and the distribution of prohibited materials, the Telegram founder, accompanied by three lawyers, promised to “improve moderation procedures.” The platform blocks 15 to 20 million accounts worldwide every month for violating rules, he said, noting that other social networks face similar problems.

Regarding prohibited content, Durov stated that he takes this problem seriously: “We delete them on the same day.” He also told the judges that he had collaborated with several anti-child exploitation organizations. The judges noted that these initiatives were launched after the arrest of the billionaire. “I learned about the seriousness of all these facts during my detention,” Durov admitted.

Over the past six months, Telegram has handed over the data of 10,000 users around the world to law enforcement agencies. Between the end of August and the end of September, after the arrest of the founder, the messenger responded to all requests from the French Office for Minors (Ofmin) – about a hundred requests. This is only a small part of the numerous requests that the French authorities sent every year and to which Telegram had not previously responded.

Despite the announced blocking of accounts, criminal activity on Telegram continues to grow. In the first five months of 2024, the gendarmerie opened 535 cases, while in the whole of 2023 there were 808. From 2017 to 2024, law enforcement officers recorded 2,000 offenses committed through the messenger.

The Pharos platform recorded 2,700 violations in 2023 alone. Major categories include drug trafficking, distribution of prohibited materials, fraud, terrorism and arms trafficking.

After the charges were filed, Durov was placed under judicial control with a bail of 5 million euros. The businessman, who lives primarily in Dubai, is now required to remain in France and report to the police twice a week.

Thanks To The Pressure Exerted By President-Elect Trump, A Ceasefire Has Finally Been Reached In Gaza And The First Hostages Have Been Released.

US President-elect Trump has repeatedly threatened that all hell will break loose if the Gaza war continues when he takes office on January 20th. Apparently Trump, although he is actually an uncompromising supporter of Israel and a friend of Netanyahu, has primarily put pressure on the Israelis.

And with success, because a ceasefire has now come into force and the first hostages have been released. Here I show how Russian television reported on the release of the first Israeli hostages in its weekly news overview and have translated the corresponding report from the broadcast.

Three hostages were handed over to Israel

Today the long-awaited ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas comes into force. After 15 months of war, the parties signed a ceasefire agreement. The agreements were reached with the mediation of the USA, Qatar and Egypt. The first phase of the ceasefire will last 42 days.

According to the agreement, as of January 19:

• a ceasefire;
• Israel begins leaving densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip and withdraws troops to the border of the Palestinian enclave. A 700 meter deep buffer zone is created;
• Hamas releases 33 Israeli hostages and Israel will release 110 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.

Of course, the end to the bloodshed in Gaza is good news. But no one knows how long this ceasefire will last. Both parties to the conflict have gone far too far, there are too many victims and the contradictions in the region are too strong.

Israel has been waiting for this moment since November 2023, since the first agreement on a ceasefire and the exchange of hostages and prisoners was broken. And now the time has finally come.

As of 4:00 p.m. Middle East time, most of the Israeli population was probably watching the live broadcasts of the main television and radio stations. They showed how the first three freed women were transported through Gaza in Hamas vehicles and then transferred to Red Cross jeeps and the jeeps drove towards the Egyptian border. There, Egyptian border guards handed over the freed hostages to the Israelis, to the Israeli military. It's about the three young women Romy Gonan, Emily Damari and Daron Steinbrecher.

They were all taken to the Gaza Strip by terrorists from the Nugba Brigade on October 7, 2023 and spent 471 days as hostages in the Palestinian enclave. They were the first three of 33 Israeli hostages to be released under the first part of the ceasefire agreement.

This will last 42 days. At the end of the list, Alexander Trufanov is to be released, an Israeli with Russian citizenship whose release has been so strongly demanded, including by Russian diplomats.

The first hostages are taken to the large Israeli clinic Tel Ashemer on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. Everything is ready there to provide patients with the necessary first aid. They meet their relatives there and spend the first four days. They will then be granted disability status under current Israeli law, which will allow them to receive certain fixed cash benefits for the rest of their lives.

This is just the beginning of the agreement. Everything went according to plan and it is quite possible that another group of Israeli prisoners will be released later this week.

The release of a package for creating virtual private networks OpenVPN 2.6.13 has been published, which allows you to organize an encrypted connection between two client machines or provide a centralized VPN server for the simultaneous operation of several clients.

Among the changes we can note:

• Added blocking of requests from clients whose login and password exceed the USERPASSLEN value. It is clarified that the change is not related to eliminating vulnerabilities, but may lead to incorrect parsing of incoming IV parameters and the output of incorrect error messages.
• When setting the “push-peer-info” setting on platforms other than Windows, the client sends information about the operating system release (produced by the uname() function) in the IVPLATVER parameter, which allows servers to track information about the OS versions used by clients.
• On Linux systems, the systemd-ask-password process can be started with the “—timeout=0” option to disable the default 90-second timeout.
• Fixed memory leaks occurring in FreeBSD.
• When launched with the “—auth-nocache” option, the authentication parameters for the proxy are deleted from memory after they have been used.
• The Windows client uses the CryptProtectMemory() function to securely store cached passwords and tokens in memory. A new API has been enabled to obtain the dco-win driver version.

The Ecosystems Of Early Earth May Have Been The Key To Life On Other Planets.

The most ancient ancestor of all life on Earth is considered to be LUKA (last universal common ancestor). A recent study by a team of British scientists has shed light on this ancient organism, revealing that it was remarkably similar to modern bacteria. Moreover, LUCA lived in a complex ecosystem, virtually no traces of which have survived to this day.

LUKA existed about 4.2 billion years ago, during a period when our planet experienced extreme conditions. The Earth did not look like paradise then: it was a boiling volcanic mass, bombarded by giant meteorites. About 100 million years before the appearance of LUK, a catastrophic cosmic collision occurred, as a result of which the Moon was formed. This period was called “Hadean” – after the Greek god of the underworld Hades.

LUKA's striking similarity to modern microorganisms suggests that life could have arisen almost as soon as the right conditions appeared on the planet. This suggests that life in the Universe may not be a rare phenomenon, but rather an inevitable process on planets with suitable characteristics.

LUKA as the basis of evolution LUKA represents a key point where the three major domains of life converge: eukaryotes (including animals, plants and fungi), bacteria and archaea. For a long time it was believed that LUKA lived 3.5–3.8 billion years ago, but new research has pushed this date back even further.

A recent study by a team from the University of Bristol found that LUKA existed 4.2 billion years ago, at the very beginning of Earth's history. There was no oxygen on the planet back then, and the atmosphere contained large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, which likely gave the sky an orange tint. The Earth was covered in oceans and days were only 12 hours long due to the planet's faster rotation. The moon was closer to the Earth, which caused strong tides.

How LUKA survived Analysis shows that LUKA possessed complex enzymes that allowed it to extract carbon dioxide and hydrogen from its environment. It could live near the surface of the ocean, using gases from the atmosphere, or near hydrothermal vents in the depths of the sea, where hot water and gases erupted from the bowels of the Earth. These springs are considered one of the likely places where life originated.

LUKA was most likely a chemoautotroph, that is, it could independently synthesize the necessary substances from inorganic compounds. However, it could also be a heterotroph, dependent on compounds created by other organisms. Its developed metabolism indicates that LUCA has already come a long way in evolution.

Interaction with other organisms LUKA did not live alone: ​​his metabolism created a breeding ground for other microorganisms. For example, some of them could process methane, returning carbon and hydrogen to the environment. Research suggests that LUCA was part of a community that included organisms that used sulfur or iron from hydrothermal vents.

Additionally, LUKA had a semblance of an immune system reminiscent of CRISPR-Cas, a mechanism that today helps bacteria defend against viruses. This suggests that viruses existed even then and may have played an important role in the ecosystem by helping the exchange of genetic material between organisms. This process, called horizontal gene transfer, may have helped accelerate the emergence of diversity.

Cosmic consequences If LUKA is indeed 4.2 billion years old, it casts doubt on the theory that life is extremely rare in the universe. Rather, it may be common on planets with liquid water, such as early Mars or Venus. Astronomers have already found evidence of the existence of many Earth-like planets, raising the possibility of life beyond our planet.

Earth's unique features—such as a magnetic field that shields solar radiation and a large moon that produces tides—may have played a key role in preserving life. But if ecosystems like Gaev’s can be widespread, then the discovery of other biospheres is only a matter of time.

Microsoft 365 Has Found Itself In The Crosshairs Of A New Hacking Tool.

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a new Adversary-in-the-Middle (AitM) phishing tool that targets Microsoft 365 accounts and is capable of stealing credentials and two-factor authentication (2FA) codes. This tool, called Sneaky 2FA, has been actively used since October 2024.

The French company Sekoia first detected activity of this phishing kit in December and identified about 100 domains associated with its use. The average level of distribution indicates that the tool is in demand among cybercriminals.

Sneaky 2FA is distributed as a service using the Phishing as a Service (PhaaS) model through the Sneaky Log service running on Telegram. Buyers receive an obfuscated version of the source code with a license, which allows them to independently deploy the tool for phishing attacks.

One attack scheme involves sending emails containing false payment receipts. Recipients are asked to open PDF attachments containing QR codes that, when scanned, redirect to fake authentication pages.

Sekoia reports that such pages are hosted on compromised servers, often powered by WordPress or other managed domains. To increase credibility, the fake pages automatically populate the victim's email address. The tool is also protected from sniffers and bots using techniques such as traffic filtering and Cloudflare Turnstile checking.

An interesting detail is that visitors with suspicious IP addresses (for example, from cloud data centers or via VPN) are redirected to a Wikipedia page associated with Microsoft. This approach is called WikiKit by TRAC Labs researchers.

To deceive users, the tool uses blurry graphics, copying Microsoft interfaces, which creates the illusion of authenticity. License checks on the server confirm that the kit is only available to customers with an active key, which costs $200 per month.

It was also discovered that Sneaky 2FA may be associated with the well-known W3LL Panel phishing kit previously disclosed by Group-IB. A similar licensing model and data transfer features indicate that these tools are related.

Additionally, it was revealed that several Sneaky 2FA domains were previously used with other known phishing kits, such as Evilginx2 and Greatness. This confirms the transition of some cybercriminals to a new service.

Sekoia also flags unusual transitions between User-Agent strings during the authentication process, which helps detect Sneaky 2FA usage. This rare pattern distinguishes the tool from legitimate interactions, allowing analysts to identify hacker attacks.

The US Supreme Court Unanimously Upheld A Ban On The Social Network Operating Under Its Current Ownership Structure.

The US Supreme Court yesterday unanimously upheld the provision of the law adopted last April to ban TikTok from operating in the US while maintaining the current ownership structure, which implies the subordination of the social network to the Chinese company ByteDance. The chance to maintain the opportunity to work in the United States for TikTok was provided only if the American business was sold to one of the American companies. As CNBC notes, representatives of TikTok announced their readiness to disconnect American users on Sunday, when the law nominally comes into force. American users will not be able to access either the TikTok mobile app or the TikTok website tomorrow.

The court's decision will also affect American companies. Google and Apple will be forced to remove the TikTok app from their app stores for US users, and Oracle will be forced to shut down the cloud infrastructure that processes data intended for and hosted by US users. If these companies do not obey the law, they will face heavy fines.

At the same time, the Biden administration, which adopted the relevant law, emphasized in its opening speech that the team of Donald Trump, who will take office as US President next Monday, will have to deal with its implementation. Trump himself said that he would make his decision on TikTok’s activities in the United States in the near future, but he would need time to assess the situation. The previous US administration insists that TikTok can remain accessible to American audiences, but only if it belongs to an American company.

Where Misconceptions Come From And What Science Says.

From stories of aliens allegedly crashing on Earth and UFOs hidden in military bases, to rumors of a giant Mars and the Moon turning green. Space has always inspired bold, but often unproven statements that require verification.

Here are ten of the most famous space myths that still excite minds.

1. The moon landings were faked. From 1969 to 1972, twelve NASA astronauts set foot on the Moon. However, in the decades after the Apollo 11 mission, theories abounded that the program was staged. However, photographs from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter prove that the landings actually took place.

Doubters often ask questions about stars that aren't in the photos, waving flags, and shoe tracks that don't seem to match module footprints. However, there are simple explanations for this: the lack of stars is due to the brightness of the lighting, the flags are equipped with metal rods for a fluttering effect, and the weight distribution of the modules does not leave noticeable marks.

1. NASA is hiding the truth Some argue that NASA's main mission is to create fake images and myths about space. Skeptics are sure that photographs of planets, the Moon and Earth are the result of computer graphics. However, NASA actively publishes images and videos taken from satellites and the International Space Station.

Since its founding in 1958, NASA has launched hundreds of satellites and conducted research that is available to the general public. Today, anyone can watch rocket launches in Florida or track the ISS using online trackers.

1. The earth is flat The flat earth theory is popularized by the so-called Flat Earth Society. Their arguments include the claim that the horizon is always at eye level and that videos of the planet rotating are faked. However, numerous videos from space, including live broadcasts from the ISS, completely refute these claims.

2. Planet Nibiru will destroy the Earth The theory about Nibiru, a planet that will supposedly collide with Earth, first appeared in Zecharia Sitchin's book The Twelfth Planet. Predictions of a collision in 2003 and 2012 never materialized. Scientists, including Mike Brown, say there are no threats from Nibiru, and its existence has not yet been confirmed.

3. Alien Research at Area 51 Area 51 in Nevada has become the subject of many rumors thanks to films such as Independence Day. Theories claim that alien technology is being studied here. However, the site was officially used for testing spy planes such as the Lockheed U-2 in the 1960s and 1970s.

4. There's a face on Mars In 1976, the Viking 1 spacecraft took a photo of Mars, where some saw a face. However, subsequent studies using modern cameras proved that this is just a play of shadows on the surface of the Red Planet.

5. Hexagon on Saturn is the work of aliens A giant hexagonal storm at Saturn's pole, discovered by the Voyager mission in 1980, has sparked theories about alien technology. But scientists have confirmed that this phenomenon is a natural phenomenon caused by atmospheric processes.

6. Satellite Iapetus – alien base Saturn's moon Iapetus, which resembles the Death Star from Star Wars, has also been the subject of conspiracy theories. However, NASA photos show that it is an ordinary satellite covered with ice and rock.

7. UFOs around the Earth Many supposed UFO images are actually reflections of light or satellite debris. These phenomena are being investigated, but so far no evidence of the presence of aliens has been found.

8. Mars appears as big as the full Moon This myth appeared in 2003 and has become a widely known hoax. It was then claimed that Mars was at its closest to Earth in 60,000 years and would appear as large as the full Moon. The rumor originated from a misinterpreted email, but soon began to repeat itself every August, spreading on social media and gaining more and more popularity.

However, in reality, Mars will never look as big as the Moon. Even when the planet is closest to Earth, it is visible only as a bright red dot in the night sky. To get a closer look at Mars, use a telescope or enjoy spectacular photographs taken by NASA.

Space remains a source of inspiration and mystery, but it also gives rise to many myths and conspiracy theories. It is important to maintain critical thinking and rely on scientific evidence to separate reality from fiction. Thanks to modern research and advances such as missions from NASA and other space agencies, we can find answers to many questions and destroy misconceptions. Space opens up amazing prospects for us, and to explore it we need to trust facts, not rumors.

Now identity verification is the key to the system.

Microsoft has expanded testing of administrator protection in Windows 11 by allowing Windows Insider users to enable the feature through Windows Security Settings.

First introduced in October for the Canary channel, Administrator Protection uses a hidden mechanism for temporary elevation of rights and authentication requests through Windows Hello, allowing access to administrative rights only when necessary. Protection is aimed at preventing unauthorized access to critical system resources.

When this feature is enabled, logged in administrators have standard user rights and must authenticate using Windows Hello (PIN or biometrics) when installing new apps or making registry changes. Authentication requests are more difficult to bypass than the existing User Account Control (UAC) mechanism, making it difficult for malware and attackers to penetrate.

Example of a credentials window with a new (larger) colored area above the application description (Microsoft)

The feature is disabled by default and can be enabled by administrators through group policies or management tools such as Intune. In addition, now users can enable it themselves through Windows security settings in the Update and Security section – Windows Security – Account Protection. The change requires a system reboot.

This feature is available to Windows Insiders in the Canary channel who have installed Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27774. Microsoft also plans to soon introduce a new feature called Fast System Restore, which allows administrators to remotely troubleshoot issues that cause devices to become inoperable after updates. Windows. The new feature, like many other security options, works as part of the Secure Future Initiative.

Mark Zuckerberg and the team at Meta, more than anyone, will be happy to see the back of Tik-Tok, if indeed, the draconian measures of banning a website, goes to the full measure.

Zuckerberg an company was once the largest most active social media platform, until Tic-Tok gained in popularity. They're clearly anticipating the moment, if it occurs, when Tic-Tok, a website supposedly, covered under the first amendment of the US Constitution, becomes banned, in an alleged, free, democratic, republic.

We do not take these infringements on our liberties and or freedoms lightly. Since there are no longer any guarantees that will protect any of us when it becomes our websites, our servers, that come under the scrutiny of the government censors and busybodies.

Mark Zuckerberg is closer than ever to achieving his long-standing goal of banning TikTok in the United States. Such a decision by the US government could be a windfall for Meta*, eliminating its most serious competitor in years and giving the US company an advantage over a more successful product.

On a recent Joe Rogan podcast, the head of Meta* said that the American government “should be protecting its companies, not being the tip of the spear against them.” At the same time, the Biden administration, which he criticizes as part of the turn to the MAGA movement, has targeted Meta*'s main competitor.

Zuckerberg's recent actions include turning Meta to the right, dehumanizing migrants, ignoring the interests of LGBTQ+ users and employees, refusing to hire for diversity, visiting Mar-a-Lago, removing sanitary products from men's restrooms at Meta's offices, and inauguration party – experts consider in the context of the potential benefits of the TikTok ban. Donald Trump, who takes office on Monday, could be a key figure in lifting a possible ban on the platform.

Zuckerberg's public display of loyalty to Trump serves several purposes. Trump has previously threatened to jail the head of Meta*, so moving closer to a future administration could help avoid regulation of his companies. However, the main prize remains a possible ban on TikTok, and Trump is positioning himself as the main arbiter in this matter.

Zuckerberg's political views have always changed in accordance with the current interests of his companies, as confirmed by an analysis of hours of testimony in Congress. What has remained constant is the use of the threat of Chinese digital dominance to protect against criticism and create a basis for government regulation of Chinese platforms.

Meta* officially denies directly lobbying for a TikTok ban, but the company spent a record amount on lobbying in 2024, including on national security issues. In March 2022, the Washington Post reported that Meta* had hired Targeted Victory to promote awareness of the dangers of TikTok for children.

In 2019, at Georgetown University, Zuckerberg spoke about the growing influence of Chinese platforms, noting that six of the ten largest internet companies are now based in China. He also highlighted differences in values ​​and the censorship of protests on TikTok even within the United States.

During a seven-hour congressional hearing, Zuckerberg argued that Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency system is critical to U.S. financial and cultural dominance, hinting at the threat of a Xi Jinping victory if Congress were to restrict it. The Libra project, later renamed Diem and sold to Silvergate Bank in 2022, eventually folded.

Meta* and its Instagram* Reels service could be the main beneficiaries of the TikTok ban. The Chinese platform has what Facebook once had and Instagram is slowly losing: deep cultural relevance and a generation of devoted users.

Facebook* and Instagram*, despite their billion-dollar audience, suffer from artificial intelligence spam, poor algorithms and a large number of bots. Users stay on these platforms out of habit rather than out of actual desire.

Now Zuckerberg sees an opportunity to achieve his goal. The key question is whether rapprochement with Trump will finally achieve the desired result.

** The Meta company and its products are recognized as extremists, their activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation.

** The LGBT movement is recognized as extremist and is prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation.

ARM64 ILP32 is the Armv8 architecture with a 32-bit ABI rather than 64-bit — akin to the “x32” x86 effort that never really took off on Linux. ARM64 ILP32 support never ended up making it into the mainline Linux kernel or GNU C Library but did appear within the GNU Compiler Collection. But years later and little use, GCC developers are consider deprecating ILP32 support ahead of its eventual removal.

The GCC codebase used to form the GCC 15 branch has been modified to remove support for the ARM64 ILP32 ABI. ILP3 resembles the x32 subarchitecture for x86_64 systems and also allows the use of 32-bit pointers and a 32-bit memory addressing model, while running the processor in 64-bit mode with support for 64-bit registers and extended instructions. A limitation of the ILP32 ABI is that it cannot address more than 4 GB of memory from an application.

The ILP32 ABI was originally designed to make it easier to port 32-bit applications to 64-bit AArch64 processors, but was not widely adopted. ILP32 support was never adopted into the Linux kernel and the Glibc system library. Linaro and Debian ports for ILP32 were developed separately, but they have been abandoned for more than five years. The rare system that supports ILP32 is the watchOS operating system used in Apple Watch devices, but GCC is not supported for this OS.