An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Tesla is developing a long-haul, electric semi-truck that can drive itself and move in "platoons" that automatically follow a lead vehicle, and is getting closer to testing a prototype, according to an email discussion of potential road tests between the car company and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), seen by Reuters. The correspondence and meeting show that Tesla is putting self-driving technology into the electric truck it has said it plans to unveil in September, and is advancing toward real-life tests, potentially moving it forward in a highly competitive area of commercial transport also being pursued by Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] and Alphabet Inc's Waymo. After announcing intentions a year ago to produce a heavy-duty electric truck, Musk tweeted in April that the semi-truck would be revealed in September, and repeated that commitment at the company's annual shareholder meeting in June, but he has never mentioned any autonomous-driving capabilities. An email exchange in May and June between Tesla and Nevada DMV representatives included an agenda for a June 16 meeting, along with the Nevada Department of Transportation, to discuss testing of two prototype trucks in Nevada, according to the exchange seen by Reuters.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box."

Chandigarh court sends Vikas Barala, son of a BJP politician, to police custody after social media backlash.

President under growing pressure after spending more than 90 days abroad seeking treatment for an unspecified illness.

Director of Yemen's national blood bank warns the centre could shut down within one week due to lack of support.

We received another Emotet maldoc, but this time the analysis with VBA emulator ViperMonkey will have to be done differently.

ViperMonkey is still under development, and for this maldoc, it does not manage to execute the code that reveals the base64 payload. But when we use ViperMonkeys option -a to use an alternate parser, we can extract the base64 payload.

The maldoc was delivered inside a password protected ZIP file.

This time, I made a video of the static analysis process:

Didier Stevens
Microsoft MVP
blog.DidierStevens.com DidierStevensLabs.com

(c) SANS Internet Storm Center. https://isc.sans.edu Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

China recently launched a crackdown on the use of software which allows users to get around its heavy internet censorship. Now as the BBC reports, developers are facing growing pressure. From the report: The three plain-clothes policemen tracked him down using a web address. They came to his house and demanded to see his computer. They told him to take down the app he was selling on Apple's App Store, and filmed it as it was happening. His crime was to develop and sell a piece of software that allows people to get round the tough restrictions that limit access to the internet in China. A virtual private network (VPN) uses servers abroad to provide a secure link to the internet. It's essential in China if you want to access parts of the outside world like Facebook, Gmail or YouTube, all of which are blocked on the mainland. "They insisted they needed to see my computer," the software developer, who didn't want us to use his name, told us during a phone interview. "I said this is my private stuff. How can you search as you please?" No warrant was produced and when he asked them what law he had violated they didn't say. Initially he refused to co-operate but, fearing detention, he relented. Then they told him what they wanted: "If you take the app off the shelf from Apple's App Store then this will be all over." 'Sorry, I can't help you with that'. Up until a few months ago his was a legal business. Then the government changed the regulations. VPN sellers need a licence now.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Colombian sports fans and athletes took to social media to criticise government plans to slash national sports budget.

Opposition leader rejects presidential poll results alleging fraud, as yet another election in Kenya runs into trouble.

If Apple’s 12.9-inch iPad Pro seemed awfully big and the 9.7-inch model a bit on the cramped side, you might find the new 10.5-inch variation to be just right. Its major under-the-hood upgrades are mirrored on the just-refreshed 12.9-inch version for those who do want the larger screen.

 

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A visual explainer on North Korea and the recent increase in tensions regarding its nuclear and missile programmes.