In what appears to be a first on the cyber-espionage scene, a nation-state-backed hacking group has used a Google Chrome extension to infect victims and steal passwords and cookies from their browsers. From a report: This is the first time an APT (Advanced Persistent Threat -- an industry term for nation-state hacking groups) has been seen (ab)using a Chrome extension, albeit it's not the first time one has used a browser extension, as the Russian-linked Turla APT previously used a Firefox add-on in 2015. According to a report that's going to be published later today by the ASERT team at Netscout reveals the details of a spear-phishing campaign that's been pushing a malicious Chrome extension since at least May 2018. Hackers used spear-phishing emails to lure victims on websites copied from legitimate academic organizations. These phishing sites, now down, showed a benign PDF document but prevented users from viewing it, redirecting victims to the official Chrome Web Store page to install a (now removed) Chrome extension named Auto Font Manager.

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Newly public documents reveal just how paranoid Facebook was of its potential competitors and shines new light on some of the company's most important acquisitions. From a report: The internal documents, made public as part of a cache of documents released by UK lawmakers, show just how close an eye the social network was keeping on competitors like WhatsApp and Snapchat, both of which became acquisition targets. The documents, which are labeled "highly confidential," show slides from an internal presentation in 2013 that compares Facebook's reach to competing apps, including WhatsApp and Snapchat. While Facebook and Instagram lead in marketshare, it's clear why Facebook may have viewed Snapchat and WhatsApp as potential threats. [...] Facebook's presentation relied on data from Onavo, the virtual private network (VPN) service which Facebook also acquired several months later. Facebook's use of Onavo, which has been likened to "corporate spyware," has itself been controversial.

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Protesters welcome decision to shelve tax rise planned for next year but say it may not be enough to halt public anger.

Kosovo's parliament is set to vote on December 14 on transforming its 4,000-strong defence force into a regular army.

Laura K. Curtis writes about book bloggers and lists a whole bunch you might want to subscribe to:

There are fewer book bloggers around now than when I started, but I’d like to encourage people to visit them, especially since you are more apt to find less well-known books by looking at blogs, books you might really enjoy, but might otherwise never find.

“Who has time to cruise all these sites?!” I hear you cry.

“No one,” I answer. “That’s why there are feed readers.”

What delighted me especially was this line: “It’s NetNewsWire for Mac and it’s so basic it’s not even funny.”

And I — earnestly — love this, since it describes my design and development aesthetic so perfectly. So basic it’s not even funny. I might even ask her if I can quote her on the NetNewsWire website.

* * *

I’ve always been a minimalist, but when I was younger I’d temper that — sometimes extremely (remember the releases of Glassboard with a wood grain background) — because I was afraid my intended audience wouldn’t like it. I was afraid I was too extreme.

I don’t know what the difference is now, but I am completely unafraid to be the designer and coder I am. Or, as a bit of advice I got early in my career put it: be the freak you are.

Maybe just because I’m older? Maybe tastes in general have shifted that way a little? Dunno. But I’m sure glad I got here.

So basic it’s not even funny!

* * *

Yes, I’m aware of the modern use of basic to mean something rather judgmental. I plainly don’t give a fig. (And I don’t think Laura meant it that way.)

An anonymous reader writes: The best job for someone is not always in the area where they live. Often times, the job that will pay them most, and make the best use of their skills means moving to another city, state or country. Though making the choice to move can be difficult emotionally, it is extremely good for economic growth. Productive people make productive economies. Unfortunately for the US economy, people don't move they like they used to. According to recently released data from the US Census, only 10.1% of adults moved homes from August 2017 to August 2018. This is the lowest rate of moving since the government began collected data in 1948. The census tracks moves within counties, within states, or across states, and no matter how you look at it, moving rates are way down from just 15 years ago. For example, from 2002 to 2003, 2.8% of Americans moved across state lines. From 2017 to 2018, it was just 1.5%.

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After nearly four years of fighting, both sides in the war in Yemen appear ready to end the conflict.

A vote holding the UK government in 'contempt of parliament' is historic, but its fallout is limited.

One of the most galling mysteries in physics is that of the dark matter and dark energy. Scientists believe that together, these could account for up to 95 percent of the total mass in the universe. Now, a researcher at the University of Oxford says a new theory could explain all that "dark phenomena." From a report: The two mysterious dark substances can only be inferred from gravitational effects. Dark matter may be an invisible material, but it exerts a gravitational force on surrounding matter that we can measure. Dark energy is a repulsive force that makes the universe expand at an accelerating rate. The two have always been treated as separate phenomena. But my new study, published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, suggests they may both be part of the same strange concept -- a single, unified "dark fluid" of negative masses. Negative masses are a hypothetical form of matter that would have a type of negative gravity -- repelling all other material around them. Unlike familiar positive mass matter, if a negative mass was pushed, it would accelerate towards you rather than away from you. Negative masses are not a new idea in cosmology. Just like normal matter, negative mass particles would become more spread out as the universe expands -- meaning that their repulsive force would become weaker over time. However, studies have shown that the force driving the accelerating expansion of the universe is relentlessly constant. This inconsistency has previously led researchers to abandon this idea. If a dark fluid exists, it should not thin out over time. In the new study, I propose a modification to Einstein's theory of general relativity to allow negative masses to not only exist, but to be created continuously. "Matter creation" was already included in an early alternative theory to the Big Bang, known as the Steady State model. The main assumption was that (positive mass) matter was continuously created to replenish material as the universe expands. We now know from observational evidence that this is incorrect. However, that doesn't mean that negative mass matter can't be continuously created. I show that this assumed dark fluid is never spread too thinly. Instead it behaves exactly like dark energy.

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Earlier this year, many Android users were shocked to discover that Facebook had been collecting a record of their call and SMS history, as revealed by the company's data download tool. Now, internal emails released by the UK Parliament show how the decision was made internally. From a report: According to the emails, developers knew the data was sensitive, but they still pushed to collect it as a way of expanding Facebook's reach. The emails show Facebook's growth team looking to call log data as a way to improve Facebook's algorithms as well as to locate new contacts through the "People You May Know" feature. Notably, the project manager recognized it as "a pretty high-risk thing to do from a PR perspective," but that risk seems to have been overwhelmed by the potential user growth. Initially, the feature was intended to require users to opt in, typically through an in-app pop-up dialog box. But as developers looked for ways to get users signed up, it became clear that Android's data permissions could be manipulated to automatically enroll users if the new feature was deployed in a certain way.

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Provocative president intensifies attack on the Catholic Church, which opposes his deadly war on drugs.

Many hope UN-brokered talks in Sweden will bring peace and end devastating fighting.

Despite French government backing down on fuel tax rise, why islanders remain upset?

A close Hezbollah ally, Speaker Nabih Berri says his country's request for tunnel coordinates went unanswered.

Oscar-winner actor pictured filming in front of Saudi consulate, where journalist was murdered, Turkish media says.