#but like also also... where's the footage from THAT cameraman down below? RELEASE THE FOOTAGE 2K23 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

daycareattendanteclipse · 2 years

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Mermay 2022 Drabble

Into the Deep

(Might write more of this but this is also gonna be a story on my tiktok so idk. We'll see.)

"-And in other news, a United States Naval ship was sunk just outside the Bermuda Triangle. Special footage from one of the survivors shows an unbelievable sight! Jen, if you will." The camera cut from the image of a middle aged man with greying hair dressed in a white button up and flamingo tie to a grainy video clearly taken on some older model phone. Shouting voices rang out in alarm as the video played, nearly drowned out by the pounding rain and booming thunder.

A bright flash tore through the sky, illuminating a slick black tendril bordered by a dull, bloody red fin coiled around the ship's hull. Gunfire rang out and lit the night with brief sparks of light. The creaking metal being slowly crushed echoed across the deck where the tendril tightened around the ship. The phone's owner cursed loudly and bolted, camera turned away from the scene outside as they bolted from the ship's cockpit.

The video fast forwarded to the camera man standing by a lifeboat in the pouring rain. He fiddled with a bag of supplies before tossing it haphazardly into the boat. Just as he was about to climb in, the ship shuddered and swept his feet out from under him. A quiet murmur escaped him as he finally regained his balance. The phone was lifted towards the bow of the ship and as if on cue, lightning struck behind the thing towering over them. With a shaky breath, the man let out a nearly inaudible, "God, have mercy…"

It's dark colors only let it's glowing golden eyes and gleaming, sharp, white teeth stand out on its shadowed face. The flared fins along its body resembled something like a lionfish, though it was difficult to tell in the dark. With a low rumble from deep in its chest, the thing reached out its gargantuan, clawed hand to crush several of the gunmen shooting at its tail. The metal groaned louder this time and someone rushing past screamed, "We're taking on water!!" as a siren went off. The cameraman kept his phone pointed towards the beast as he climbed inside the lifeboat to secure his seat. Soon it was filled with people trying to evacuate and released into the water.

Even as the raft sailed away, gun fire could be heard. Something brighter lit the sky, leaving a trail of smoke in its wake. It clipped the monster's side with an ear shattering explosion. Someone on the raft cheered a fuzzy phrase about anti-aircraft missiles. Their celebration was short-lived. More blows landed on the creature and it out a bellowing shriek. The tail coiled around the ship squeezed tighter still as it swung its massive hands across the deck with enough force to tear the mounted guns from their bolted foundations.

A sickening crack sounded from the ship. And as the creature's tail followed it below the water, the ship sank rapidly. It's head poked back out of the water briefly, eyeing the men in their lifeboats as they huddled closer together. Then it turned, diving back below the waves. It's tail surfaced briefly in a long arch until finally the tail fin rose up and slammed down on the water's surface. The wave it made toppled several other lifeboats and sent the cameraman's boat flying far from the other survivors.

The video cut there, and the news anchor returned, but the notification of a text paused it.

-Almost there! Can you see me on the horizon?

Looking up from your phone and wiping the smile from your face, you scan the sea from your tiny pier. There, in the distance, was a rapidly approaching boat.

Finally!

The giddy energy from rewatching that video was returning quickly and you couldn't stop the way your body shook, as if shaking the feeling off. This would be your first real gig as a marine biologist, and somehow, by some miracle, you had been chosen for this project! Within minutes the small ship docked and your phone went off to alert you of their arrival. The man seated at the boat's stern had even directly met your eyes as he sent the notification.

His dark skin and white button up was mostly covered by a plastic raincoat and a sun hat with an elastic band under his chin covered his thick curls. With a gentle pat on the seat in front of him, he spoke. "C'mon it's time ta get goin' everyone's waiting to meet and brief ya back at the station." Nodding, you placed your things carefully into the boat. As instructed, you had packed lightly so there wasn't an excessive amount of clothes.

Once settled in, the man nodded and asked, "So, what brings you to the Triangle?" Part of you was dumbfounded since you were supposed to be on the same research team. It made you feel uneasy now and you hoped you hadn't just boarded the wrong boat. Still, you tried to respond only to be cut off. "Well, I guess it don't matter. The Bermuda triangle attracts all kinda of folks for all kinda of reasons. What about yer name?"

Perking up at the chance to speak, you respond, "I'm Y/N. And you are…?"

"Halian. Halian Sanchez. But you can call me Hal. Everyone does."

As the boat pulls away from the pier, you can't help but ask, "So… about the sea monster… have you seen it or even found evidence of it yet?" You ball your hands into the fabric of your shirt anxiously waiting for a response. But Hal's easy smile drops and he leans in closely.

"Listen, this sea monster business is real hush hush, ya hear?" You clamp a hand over your mouth, eyes wide at your slip. Realizing that he wants a response, you nod. That seems to appease Hal as he returns the gesture and continues. "You'll have to wait til we get to the station where we'll brief ya. And fer future reference, if anyone asks, we're looking for a new species of bioluminescent plankton."

With a nod, you agree, "Got it. Let them know we're looking for some little boys." Hal chuckles at your phrasing and nods approvingly before attempting awkward small talk. You indulge his attempts until the flicker of something bright over his shoulder catches your eye. Was that thing...yellow? You thought you saw something blue beside it too. But when you tried to get a better look, the colorful things were gone. Maybe you just imagined it then? Oh, Hal paused… he probably wanted an answer and you didn't want to keep him waiting.

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theparanormalperiodical · 3 years

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Top 10 Found Footage Horror Films Feat. Trailers + Where To Watch

Horror likes to blur the lines between fact and fiction.

Or it tries to, at least.

Could be the staple tagline ‘based on a true story’, could be the cinematic tactics that penetrate the darkest chambers of your mind.

They have a way of sucking you in and scarring you for life. Even the ones with the plot holes and the clunky CGI. But there is one specific style of horror film that has perfected the art of the creepy - and the crappy: found footage.

Bring on your shaky cameras and low budget screenplays. Come with your improv training and ‘lots-in-the-pipeline’ amateurs!

Some of the genre’s most striking sagas started with a red recording light.

Today we countdown the top 10 most famous found footage horror films. I’ve even included the trailers and where to watch each for your viewing pleasure.

*presses play*

Unfriended: Dark Web (2018)

It’s the golden rule of sequels: it has to be one and a half times as good as the original. Fortunately, the second film in this unique take on found footage goes above and beyond its predecessor with a tangle of twists that keep you hungry for me.

It’s horror, it’s mystery - it’s a great way to spend a saturday night.

Released 4 years after Unfriended, we watch Matias ‘find’ an old MacBook to use his new software on. But as he joins a Skype session with his amigos, we see them soon realise that this piece of tech contains evidence of horrific crimes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XenTM_C9fxM

You can rent the film for £1.99 on Amazon Prime.

Paranormal Activity (2007)

Gurl, you knew she would be front and centre.

Even if you loathe the mere mention of Toby and his besties, Paranormal Activity brought the found footage genre back to life. And it also killed it at the same time.

#versatile

In the original flick, we see a young couple navigate the struggles of life in sunny California when strange things happen around their house. To see what’s really going on, they get their vlog-on and set up a camera in the bedroom.

*raises eyebrows*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_UxLEqd074

You can watch it for free on Amazon Prime.

As Above So Below (2014)

This is a personal fave of mine.

Are you ready to take a quick trip around pre-Pandemic Paris with a set of adventures determined to find the Philosopher’s Stone?

*Cue Harry Potter joke*

In this film we delve beneath the streets of France and enter the twists and tangles of the Catacombs. Will they get lost along the way? What will they encounter down below? And are there any cute French guys in this film?

Find out…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq358xHbzN4

You can rent this for £2.49 on Amazon Prime.

REC (2007)

Hitting theatres the same year as Paranormal Activity, Spanish horror fans settled in to watch as a new entity emerged from the darkness of the found footage genre.

When a news reporter and cameraman are covering an emergency at an apartment in Barcelona, they capture the warning signs of a deadly virus that quickly spreads throughout the apartment building.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLizS5GFBQI

You can rent this for 99p on Amazon Prime.

Sinister (2012)

This is a unique take on the found footage genre.

As opposed to the entire film undergoing the self-shot treatment, we follow a true crime author as he moves his family to the site of an unsolved murder. But he stumbles upon some vintage film reel that reveals another side of the story.

*DISCLAIMER: this film is pretty traumatic compared to the other films on this list and features much more graphic scenes including ones relating to suicide.*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apghx7q9oeY

You can watch this film on Netflix.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014)

You don’t have to watch all six paranormal activity films. You only have to watch three: the 1st, the 5th and the 6th. But the 5th instalment is by far the best. We take a step away from Katie and Kristi as they contend with their personal demon and are guided directly to the root of the supernatural problems they encounter.

(Bonus points for providing found footage from the perspective of people of colour and the Hispanic community.)

It’s one of the few films to get it right - and it makes for really unique viewing against the backdrop of the Paranormal Activity universe.

In this film, we follow high school graduate Jesse and his friends as they investigate strange goings on from the apartment downstairs. The apartment rumoured to house a witch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccE9LeAbPU4

You can rent it for £3.49 on Amazon Prime.

Creep (2014)

This plot-twist heavy film follows a videographer who is asked to document the birth of a young couple’s child. But the videographer’s main tool - the camera - soon captures events that aren’t so sweet, nor sincere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBR8VcdpE4Y

You can watch this film on Netflix.

Gonjian: Haunted Asylum (2018)

The reason we are addicted to found footage films is because they emulate reality. We can’t help but think: ‘are we really watching people really explore the darkest depths of the world and uncover hidden secrets?’.

This South Korean film adds to this notion yet further: we follow a fictional web series crew that travel around a real abandoned asylum in order to fulfil their desire for precious publicity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKGJTgnkQA8

Grave Encounters (2011)

A fictional paranormal reality tv show explores a haunted asylum seeking the answers of the afterlife.

What they find is a jump-scare filled mess. But hey, it’s still a laugh to watch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEmuFgHZZK0

You can watch this for free on Amazon Prime.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Time for the icon. She started the trend of ‘finding’ footage and putting it onto the big screen. And she’s been traumatising innocent viewers ever since.

In this late 90s cult classic we watch a group of young filmmakers embark on a documentary project devoted to an urban legend: the Blair Witch. But what they capture is a lot more disturbing than what they set out to film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Hw4bAUj8A

You can watch this on Netflix.

So - which one are you watching tonight?

Let me know in a comment below!

And while you’re there, make sure you like, reblog and follow to be updated when I post something spooky every weekend...

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zayntoxicateme · 6 years

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June 18, 2018

We managed to catch up with the quietly enigmatic singer.

Read "How Do You Explain Zayn?"

Zayn, the one-named man who found himself reborn after leaving One Direction, is now on GQ's cover. In his shoot with Sebastian Mader, Zayn channels Tyler Durden and Leo DiCaprio's Romeo. And the wildly enigmatic singer also let down his guard, briefly, in talking to writer Carrie Battan about his relationship with Gigi Hadid, the self indulgence of being a "star," and his crafty use of the paparazzi for his own devices—a story you can read here (full story is below; the link will take you to the GQ website)

How Do You Explain Zayn?

Carrie Battan

Photographs by

Sebastian Mader

The 25-year-old British singer is deeply, maddeningly, almost trolling-ly enigmatic. And that cultivated mystery—along with his disdain for the standard rules of superstardom—is probably what puts him on the short list for COOLEST HUMAN ALIVE. On a recent Friday night, though, he dropped his guard and spilled his guts.

There are exactly two places in New York on a Friday night where Zayn Malik can smoke Marlboro Lights as liberally and openly as he pleases, unencumbered by gawkers or the city's increasingly draconian anti-smoking laws. The ﬁrst is Zayn Malik's SoHo apartment, where he spends the majority of his time, zoning out, reading books, listening to music, and "partaking in the herb," as he says. The second is the Mary A. Whalen, a 172-foot-long restored-tanker-ship-turned-nonproﬁt-hangout-spot that is docked off the shore of Red Hook, Brooklyn. The ship is closed for business after 6 P.M., but tonight its leader, a hardy blonde ship preservationist named Carolina, has agreed to keep it open late to accommodate us. No crowds, a few plastic chairs, and a gently lilting surface that is basically a giant ashtray.

There is just one problem: The temperature on deck is decreasing rapidly with the setting sun, and Zayn—the 25-year-old former British-boy-band member, current solo pop-ish star, and all-around inscrutable avatar of contemporary celebrity—has arrived with nothing on his person but a lighter, a backpack, and an iPhone. No jacket on his rail-thin five-ten frame—just a pair of charcoal skinny jeans, a distressed Pink Floyd T-shirt, a bright pink beanie that obscures his new ﬂower skull tattoo (or "tah-oo," as Zayn pronounces it). He looks so modernly cool, blending a hip-hop swagger with a punk-rock edge, that he should receive a cut from Urban Outﬁtters every time someone makes a purchase. He is the only man whose Disney-princess-long eyelashes seem to bolster his machismo rather than diminish it. Nobody this dreamy has ever bothered to check the weather to see if he should grab a jacket before leaving the house. Through chattering teeth, he rejects multiple offers of blankets. "It's all good," he insists, burping faintly after taking a swig of his Peroni. "I'm cool."

Still, Carolina avails us of the ship's warmer galley. "I might have a cigarette ﬁrst?" Zayn asks, as though he needs permission, gesturing toward the other side of the ship. Over there is his assistant Taryn, a young woman with French-braided pigtails that make her look more like a high school soccer player than someone designated to manage the everyday logistics of a notoriously slippery superstar's life. She is the custodian of his pack, doling out individual cigarettes to Zayn periodically.

But Carolina assures us Zayn will not have to stay outside to smoke his cigarette. She'll let us smoke belowdecks on the condition that Zayn provide her one of his Marlboros and permission to snap a photograph. She promises she won't post it until after the story runs. "Uh…yeah?" Zayn replies, sounding sincerely surprised that he is the one who has to answer a question that was directed at him.

A steely detachment from life's mundane logistical concerns is part of almost every celebrity's existence, but it is the core of Zayn's being. This character trait has ruinous potential, but it also means he gets to live his life exactly how he pleases. And it means that he doesn't have to express a single word or hint of desire in order for the conditions around him to re-arrange to his liking and comfort. There's a hapless Peter Pan quality to it that makes it tough to hold against him.

We settle around the table in the '70s-style kitchen on the boat. It's 15 degrees warmer down here and private. Zayn instantly appears relieved, his shoulders unclenching and his brow de-furrowing. He stops shivering. He is in a womb-like space, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, and he seems palpably and unexpectedly happy. "Thanks," he says quietly and earnestly in Carolina's direction as she seals off the door behind us. "Couple of times I tried to quit. But I just like smoking cigs. Simple as that."

There is a major conundrum in Zayn's life, which is that he may be constitutionally incapable of being a star. He tells me so almost immediately. "I don't work well in group situations, with loads of people staring at me. And when you say 'star'…everyone wants you to be this kind of character that owns a room or is overly arrogant or conﬁdent. I'm not that guy," he says. "So I don't want to be a star." Zayn seems to aspire to the soul of Prince, or some cult '90s skate-punk ﬁgure, but is trapped in the trajectory of a Justin Timberlake.

A decade ago, someone like Zayn would not have become the Chosen Member of a band like One Direction. The Chosen Member is the boy-band graduate whose solo career evolves and hurdles into grown-up relevance, ultimately overshadowing the band's legacy. Until recently, you could spot a Chosen Member from a mile away—he was unequivocally the best dancer and the one the most girls wanted to bring home to their parents. But Zayn never ﬁt the mold of a Chosen Member. From the day One Direction formed, on the U.K. show The X Factor in 2010, he was cast as the smoldering background foil to the eager-to-please Harry Styles and Liam Payne. His energy and his dance moves were muted. He presented as the quiet, disillusioned one.

But in the past ﬁve years or so, it has become acceptable—necessary, even—for a young pop star to show some edge. Thanks to the social-media-fueled, ever intensifying quest for authenticity, real or feigned, we no longer expect our most famous musicians to be toothless and virginal robots. Now we demand that they show a certain degree of lustiness, instability, anti-heroism. The Weeknd scored a No. 1 hit with an elaborately coded song about a cocaine binge—and then followed it up with another No. 1 hit, this one explicitly referencing a cocaine binge. Lana Del Rey's entire aesthetic revolves around a kind of narcotized death wish. And Taylor Swift spent her last album desperately trying to persuade us that she really is villainous. Even Disney's babiest-faced of pop princesses, Selena Gomez, is getting mileage out of her demons, playing a Girl, Interrupted–style heroine and rocking a hospital bracelet in a music video. Face tattoos are basically required for entry onto the Billboard Hot 100 these days. Squeaky-clean is no more.

And yet even for the most tortured-seeming of these artists, there is still a ﬁerce expectation that they play the game. Mild drug habits or mental illnesses are perfectly acceptable, so long as someone is willing to write catchy songs about those tendencies and then later gussy them up for arena audiences and gamely ﬁeld jokes from talk-show hosts. Even Justin Bieber, the poster child for our current era of troubled pop stars, is always just one phone call with his pastor away from being able to quiet his demons and pop-and-lock on demand.

Zayn seems like a perfect avatar for this new generation of bruised pop heartthrobs, but he's the only one of his cohorts who can back it up with a sincerely jaded disposition and an unpredictable way of being. He is the only one who is staunchly unwilling to play the game. You will not ﬁnd Zayn cheesing with a random group of famous people for someone's Instagram story at Coachella, nor will you ﬁnd Zayn learning the latest viral dance move with Ellen DeGeneres. When he released his solo debut, Mind of Mine, two years ago, he opted out of touring altogether, surely pissing off a bunch of emotionally and ﬁnancially invested parties. And although he promises to be more public-facing this time around—he insists he will tour—he's still removed from the album-cycle content churn. He says the creators of Atlanta have reached out to him to appear on the show—a dream opportunity for anyone in the music industry at this moment—but persnickety Zayn is still mulling the potential. "If the part's right, I'd be really into it," he says. Even the "behind-the-scenes" video that accompanied his new single fails to actually take anyone "behind the scenes"—it's just the song playing over some B-roll. "I guess the cameraman didn't get too much footage," Zayn says on the boat. "I might have been running away from him a bit."

When I ask him why he failed to show up at the Met Gala a couple days earlier, he almost chokes on his cigarette smoke as he exhales. He went to the Met Gala once, in 2016, and that experience symbolized everything he detests about being a famous person—and the litany of coercion and artiﬁce that someone in his position experiences.

"I did go, but I didn't go there to be like, 'Yo, take me serious,' " he remembers. "I was taking the piss! I went there as my favorite Mortal Kombat character, Jax."

He continues: "The Met Gala is not necessarily anything that I ever knew about or was about. But my [former] stylist…would say to me, 'This is really good for you to do.' And no matter how strong you are mentally, you can always be swayed to do certain things. Now, it's not something I would go to. I'd rather be sitting at my house, doing something productive, than dressing up in really expensive clothes and being photographed on a red carpet.… To do the self-indulgent Look at me, I'm amazing thing on the red carpet, it's not me."

Here Zayn catches himself, probably realizing this might register as a diss of Gigi Hadid, the 23-year-old supermodel he's been in an on-again, off-again relationship with for two years. The supermodel who very much seemed to enjoy dressing up in really expensive clothes and being photographed on the red carpet days earlier.

"I get it, and I understand that people gain enjoyment from it," he says. I ask if he followed along with the coverage from his couch. "No, no," he says, and pauses. "Gi stole the night, though. The stained glass on her dress. Everyone else just put a cross on."

When I ask Zayn if he has any conﬁdants in the industry, he shakes his head vigorously. "No," he says. "I don't ever want to cross wires with other people too much. I just want to see the world through my eyes."

Zayn grew up with three sisters ("I was outnumbered," he says) and is still surrounded by women, ensuring that there's a high level of exasperated but fond maternal energy swirling at all times. Blood relatives and the Hadids—particularly Gigi's mother, Yolanda, who seems to have taken on a Kris Jenner–ian role in his life—make up much of his inner circle today. ("We get on. She's really fucking cool. She's a Capricorn. She's the same star sign as me.") He recently parted ways with his high-proﬁle manager. His best friend is a younger cousin.

"I'm not [in] the mix," he says. "I'm outside the mix."

This kind of stubborn non-participation, of course, is a reaction to the years Zayn spent being in a mix that was not to his liking. When he was a kid, growing up in the northern working-class city of Bradford, singing was just one part of an aimless but all-consuming creative impulse. He never thought he was much of a singer, until one day the choir leader at his performing-arts school praised his voice and suggested that he try out for Britain's premier vocal-competition show. Zayn's mom had to drag him from his bed at 4 A.M. to attend the audition, where he broke from the typical pop fare with a rendition of Mario's "Let Me Love You."

After his X Factor audition, there was an exchange (never aired) in which head judge Simon Cowell probed baby Zayn. " 'You know, with all these online platforms, why haven't you ever put out anything prior to this?' " Zayn remembers Cowell asking him. Zayn seemed the type, after all: a soft-spoken and artistically gifted teen who liked to sing alone in his bedroom and tinkered with rudimentary song-recording equipment. "I didn't necessarily think my stuff would be seen amongst the millions of people who put their stuff online. So I went with X Factor at that age," he says now. Like any ﬁckle teenager, Zayn "just did it for fun, to see what would happen."

The day that Zayn auditioned, he was among many aspiring solo artists rejected by the judges. But ﬁve of the young singers were cobbled together as a boy band in a later segment. Thus was born One Direction and a rabid fandom that British people love to compare to Beatlemania. A craze so ﬁerce and massive that it generated global synchronized ﬂash mobs and fan-ﬁction authors who've reportedly scored six-ﬁgure book deals. In an instant, Zayn was thrust into a star-making boot camp, fast-tracked to an uncontrollable type of notoriety without being given the opportunity to consider alternatives.

It's no secret that Zayn didn't love One Direction's sound or his bandmates. "My vision didn't necessarily always go with what was going on within the band," he says. There was something so earnest, so wholesomely dweeby, about the whole thing. It wasn't cool, and Zayn didn't particularly enjoy being dragged around the world to look like an epic dork during the prime of his youth.

When he split off, in 2015, Zayn ﬁnally got to do all the things he hadn't been able to in One Direction: dye his hair, grow his beard, sing about sex. But he was also introduced to a fresh army of puppeteers trying to guide him, and he felt disoriented, adrift. The only way to ground himself was to resist the pull of anyone's expectations and answer only to Zayn. He'd spent ﬁve years taking direction and had become allergic to it.

There are plenty of clichéd expressions about how toxic and stiﬂing freedom can be, and Zayn experienced many of them when he went solo. "I didn't really, like, make any friends from the band. I just didn't do it. It's not something that I'm afraid to say. I deﬁnitely have issues trusting people," he says. When he was living in Los Angeles, aimless, he fell in with a crowd of industry people: "Producers, musicians, tailors, stylists, managers. Them kind of things," he says. "It got too crazy. I just got too much into the party scene. Just going out all the time. And I was too distracted." So he left L.A. permanently and moved to New York earlier this year as a way to bring himself back down to earth.

Running a bit further, he recently bought a farm in rural Pennsylvania on the advice of Yolanda Hadid, who also has a farm there. The farm? "Cool." The state of Pennsylvania? "Cool." If you haven't picked up on it for yourself yet, Zayn loves the word "cool"; he loves it so much that he uses it more than 43 times over the course of our conversation. And now that Zayn likes to go to his farm and visit the Hadids, he and Gigi even have a horse together, named Cool. He's just getting things going on the farm, but already there are crops of cherries, tomatoes, and cucumbers. He likes to ride his ATVs. Sometimes he and Gigi will go at the same time, and she'll ride a horse, like Cool, while he watches.

Zayn has a habit of speaking in a conditioned state of detachment, responding in friendly but anodyne one-liners. Still, even someone who willfully projects this kind of cool two-dimensionalism can get irked from being flattened all the time by those around him. I catch myself flattening him, even when he's right in front of me. When I bring up the deceased Lil Peep, with whom he shared a manager, I say that it's a shame they never met—they seem like kindred spirits who could have made a great song together, or at least bonded over tattoos.

Zayn begins to laugh. "I'm not just going to be friends [with people] because we've both got tattoos. Loads of people come up to me and they're like, 'Yo, I got tattoos, you got tattoos. Let's be friends.' And I'm like… 'We're not just going to be friends because we've both got tattoos.'

"There's a bit more depth to me than that," he says, admonishing me.

One topic that will draw out this aforementioned depth is, unexpectedly, America. Despite the fact that he is living in a country under a leader that is exceptionally hostile to immigrants, the fantasy of America as a come-one, come-all melting pot is alive and well in Zayn's mind. He says he'd vote for Oprah if she ran for office because he likes her "ideologies about the world" and she's a "badass businesswoman."

"The UK is like, Fuck you, you're successful. That's not a nice attitude to have," he says. "You come to America, you're a bit shocked at first: Are these people being genuine? Are they really interested in me? Do they want to have a conversation? But they do! And that's a really nice thing. And I feel like it's misrepresented across the globe. For the kind of country it is, because everybody supports, no matter what color, what gender, what sexuality, what class—none of that matters here. People genuinely want to know you for who you are. And that's how America should be represented across the world."

Watch Now:Zayn Rocks Summer’s Best Swerves

Maybe you should run for office, I say.

"Maybe. It'd be cool. I feel like it's a beautiful place. [Because of the current political climate,] people are expressing how they really feel about where they come from and their heritage and their backgrounds. They're all mixed. To be American, you are mixed.

"So that's how I feel about it—it's a beautiful place, and it's a beautiful time to be alive."

Another unlikely topic that will break Zayn out of his default conversational mode and get him talking in jolting, paragraphs-long monologues: the paparazzi. The paparazzi who have been trailing him for years and, recently, every time he sets foot near Gigi's NoHo apartment, feeding the endless tabloid speculation about the state of their relationship. The paps used to piss Zayn off, until he realized their utility.

"That's my promo," he says. "I come outside, they take photos." He gets to quietly remind people that he exists—and gets photographed looking like the second coming of Johnny Depp, leaving the apartment of one of the most gorgeous women in the world—without doing a thing. "They stay outside and do all the work!" he says. "You can get pissed off about it and be like, 'Yo, this is a hindrance on my life.' Or you can use it for your own beneﬁt and be like, 'Well, if they're going to take the photos, then let them.' You've gotta earn your dollar, and I've gotta earn mine."

Which is to say that just because Zayn loathes the cornball industry churn doesn't mean he needs to surrender his relevance. Zayn represents an era in which underground cool and mass-market, Calabasian-style popularity have collapsed into one another. He operates on a plane where celebrity is predicated chieﬂy on relevance and intrigue, and Zayn—with his equally illustrious girlfriend, his brooding glare, and his following of millions—has about as much relevance and intrigue as anybody. He is both a casualty and a beneﬁciary of this uniquely modern form of celebrity. In running from his stardom, he's only fueling it.

I suppose now is the time to dispense with the rest of the intel I gleaned from Zayn about his relationship with Gigi Hadid, which was a less sensitive subject than I had anticipated. The two met at the end of 2015 at a party—which "pah-y," Zayn will not disclose, but suffice it to say it was a "cool pah-y"—and just days later, Zayn learned she'd broken up with Joe Jonas. He reached out to her and asked her to dinner at the Bowery Hotel. And thus was born a couple that will go down in history as one of the most iconic and Zeitgeisty pairings of all time, a couple whose images I will show my grandchildren to prove that the world was better in my day. All of the gossip about their relationship being an opportunistic setup by their respective management is bullshit, Zayn says: "If a relationship is for your career, you can fucking walk out the door. No way. See you later."

Despite the dramatic announcement of their split a couple of months ago, Zayn and Gigi are very much still close, as evidenced by myriad photos of him leaving her apartment or kissing her on the street. Zayn speaks about Gigi in a purely misty-eyed, worshipful tone that telegraphs he may be atoning for something. "I'm really thankful that I met her," he says. He uses the term "we" in the present tense quite a bit: "We go to the farm." "We have horses." The time he actually rode a horse with Gigi, he says, "I looked like a complete idiot and she looked like a complete professional.… We're still really good friends, and we're still in contact," he says. "No bad blood." He laughs. "…Taylor Swift.

"We're adults. We don't need to put a label on it, make it something for people's expectations." To hear Zayn tell it, Gigi is the hyper-organized, clear-headed, and positive counterweight to his disposition, which can dip into a vacant or negative state. She helped him reset his attitude when he was releasing his ﬁrst solo album, partying too hard. "I had a very negative outlook on things. That might have been adolescence or testosterone or whatever the fuck was running through my body at the time," he says. "She's helped me to look at things from a positive angle."

As Zayn heads into his new album cycle, Gigi has been a font of support and organizational heft. He says she's especially good with dates, which I mishear as "good with debts."

She's good with debts? You're in debt?

"No, no. Dates. She doesn't handle my ﬁnances yet," he says. "We'll get to that eventually."

When Zayn Malik went solo, he dropped his last name. The mononymic "Zayn" took on a potency and directness that enabled him to break free from the chains of boy-band drudgery and lameness. Zayn: It's a single syllable that conjures a vaporous sexuality and a moodiness that blurs the line between contemplative and blank. You can imagine the black-and-white commercial for L'Eau de Zayn.

In the years since he dropped his last name, the word "Zayn" has also become, to insiders, an equally potent verb. To "Zayn" means to be within someone's reach one moment and then completely disappear the next without any explanation. Poof! To be "Zayned" is to witness a French exit so aggressive that it almost has a supernatural quality. I know this because it happened to me.

We emerged from the ship's galley, and as I prepared to launch into more conversation, he asked Carolina where he could ﬁnd the toilets. She pointed him toward a porta-potty on dry land, and Taryn wordlessly followed behind him, obviously accustomed to this ritual. Before I could get my bearings, he was zipping off into the parking lot adjacent to the tanker, no doubt scurrying home to his fortress of solitude and cigarette smoke in SoHo. I'd been Zayned.

We were supposed to hang out the following week, and I patiently waited for him to reach out. But I knew that he never would. And much as I'd like to be the exception to the Laws of Zayn's Nature, I get it. Who among us has never fantasized about blowing off pesky professional obligations we deem useless? Zayn—driven by a spirit that is part self-destruction, part self-preservation, part youthful punk contrarianism—actually has the balls to live that fantasy. It's self-absorbed, immature, and unprofessional. I'd be offended if I didn't think it was so fucking cool.

Carrie Battan is a staff writer for 'The New Yorker' and a contributor to 'GQ'.

An abridged version of this story appeared in the July 2018 issue.

#zayn #gq #interview #magazine #print interview #love of my life

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transformationattack · 4 years

Text

Y’all, I’mma keep it real. I’mma Bang Bang Con Reject. I didn’t make it through 24-hours worth of concert footage and I’m fine with it LOL!

I make no qualms about being in my thirties, hell, I’ve written that all over my blog. What I can’t seem to come to grips with is…homegirl can’t hang all night.

YES! I’m a night owl till about 1 AM, maybe 1:30 AM at the most then I need to go to bed. Staying up 12-hours until noon the NEXT DAY isn’t one of my superpowers.

Omg, can we admit it’s no fun seeing perfectly good nighttime sleeping conditions slip from your grasp with the slow creep of sunshine crossing your windows and with the increasingly booming cheerfulness of tweeting birds outside? Yes, I meant for it to sound dreadful. Can’t sleep to the call of the morning!

So, when news of Bang Bang Con was released along with Big Hit waving the ARMY Bomb connection in my face, I believed I could do anything to experience the entire 12-hour concert LOL! Guess what I did do, tapped out an hour before The Red Bullet Tour (The WHOLE reason I was trying hard to stay up on day 1! (*>д<)) and slept in till midnight the same day, then I caught some of the Wings tour and all of 4th Muster (only cause by Day 2, my sleep rhythm was hella off and I couldn’t go back to sleep). I think I caught some of Love Yourself too before I said eff it and took some melatonin LOL!

Bruh, thinking on Reflection, why does RM make such heartbreaking songs knowing he has to sing them on tour? I truly sympathize because the emotion is the song is so raw that there’s no way he’s not reliving those feelings with each stage. I cried with him ( ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ ).

There was a little bit of an internal struggle. I thought:

“You’re ARMY! You can do this!”

“Don’t give up now or you’ll miss out!”

“What about seeing all of BTS’ special messages they promised us?”

But…in essence, these are just recordings Big Hit is allowing us to watch for free on an authorized service with a synchronized ARMY Bomb flashing a rainbow color pattern LOL! Once I remembered I’ve been with The Boys since 2017 and have had two ARMY memberships, I was like who cares what people think or my silly negative feelings judging me for wanting to catch some sleep, my ARMY status is still valid and I LOVE BTS! I’ll catch the recordings y’all KNOW will be EVERYWHERE LOL!

YO! I ain’t NEVAH crashed so hard from sleep deprivation on a Monday. The day didn’t even exist, that’s just how powered down I was. Omg, it was the PITS! LOL!

Granted, I totally understand this experience was many ARMY’s first true concert experience and I appreciate that. In fact, I truly believe this experience was mostly for them (and just a little bit of tiding over Map of the Soul Tour ticket holders due to the pandemic). I’m hella glad many new and tenured ARMY got to enjoy Bang Bang Con.

With what little I caught, I did have some takeaways which made me love BTS more:

The ARMY Bomb would turn purple during ments and special footage. It really made me burn with ARMY pride and I’m sure it was BTS and Big Hit saying that they love us back.

Also! What other idol group and entertainment company is legitimately, philosophically and psychologically teaching their fandom HOW TO LOVE during times where love is needed more than ever?! None. They’re the GOAT!

Speaking of ARMY Bomb, even though the Bomb cycled through the colors of the rainbow, I had a HUUUUGE burst of energy on only four hours of sleep when it was on (once I got it to finally work (-_-)). It got me dancing and cheering much more than before (and it could’ve been that my determination paid off and I was just celebrating that the damn thing was on LOL!). I’m sure this was the engagement Big Hit intended (ღゝ◡╹)

The personal messages BTS recorded in between concerts were adorable and yes, not only did I do my stretches but I also took Jin’s behavioral cues (cause Big Hit didn’t translate NOTHIN!) and bought the special edition Map of the Soul lightstick LOL!

Stage cameramen have had a come up! There were cameras panning EVERYWHERE in HYYH on Stage and HYYH: Epilogue as if they didn’t know where to focus! I wanted to see the full OT7 formation in Butterfly and the cameraman was like NOPE! Second time around we got a GLIMPSE! But Wings and 4th Muster were juuuust right LOL!

I TOTALLY loved seeing all the representation on the LCD screens behind BTS during Miss Right but I ESPECIALLY loved the black kinky haired girl! #SheBeMe

Nevermind was on EVERYTHING during HYYH era, so I can see now why Jimin got that word tattooed on him. It definitely has very strong significance for him let alone his 3rd Muster stage (Also, I think JK had something to do with it being the tattoo-head he is *shhhhh*).

It was amazing to see physically how and hear vocally how BTS matured. It was like seeing the growth I missed out on because I wasn’t a fan of theirs until later in their career. Ain’t gonna lie, the sexy choreo during HYYH had me cringing. They looked like babies! I kept going, “NOOOO! I dun wanna!” (;´Д`).

Cause I’m weird like this and know the feeling very well, I thought BTS is gonna look back at these concerts and GO, “Damn I was pretty slick back then.” You know like older people talk about their aesthetics like “You couldn’t tell me nothin!” They’re also gonna be like how the hell was I ever that small cause teenage and 20s weight is NOTHING like 30s+ weight LOL!

I didn’t believe ARMY’s interpretation of the 4th Muster VCRs but…BTS really did get high on their own supply! I mean, Jin didn’t mean to, he was just an accidental overdose, but Hobi and the rest of The Boys TOT-TAH-LEE did! LOL! I’d flippin love a pic of Jin trippin with alpacas around him if any of you have it 💜!

The BIGGEST takeaway is that millions of ARMY got to celebrate together. #BangBangCon was trending, friends were posting pictures of themselves with their Bombs, snacks and soju. ARMY were checking on each other like “Did you make it?!” There was a lot of love being shown all around and I think that’s most important. I’ve never felt so much love from a group, including ARMY, that I’ve never met but the feeling was genuinely there.

That’s it for this super long post! I hope you enjoyed reliving some moments with me. Post what you loved most about Bang Bang Con below in the comments (I wanna relive your moments tooooooo! (*˘︶˘*).:*♡) and don’t forget to like the post!

Borahae and Stay Fighting 💜

Y’all, I’mma keep it real. I’mma Bang Bang Con Reject. I didn’t make it through 24-hours worth of concert footage and I’m fine with it LOL!

Y'all, I'mma keep it real. I'mma Bang Bang Con Reject. I didn't make it through 24-hours worth of concert footage and I'm fine with it LOL! Y'all, I'mma keep it real. I'mma Bang Bang Con Reject. I didn't make it through 24-hours worth of concert footage and I'm fine with it LOL!

#ARMY Bomb #Bang Bang Con #BTS #BTS 4th Muster #BTS ARMY #BTS HYYH #BTS Lightstick #BTS Love Yourself Tour #BTS Wings #Concert #Experiences #KPOP #Love #Map of the Soul Tour

0 notes

flightykickback · 4 years

Text

Y’all, I’mma keep it real. I’mma Bang Bang Con Reject. I didn’t make it through 24-hours worth of concert footage and I’m fine with it LOL!

I make no qualms about being in my thirties, hell, I’ve written that all over my blog. What I can’t seem to come to grips with is…homegirl can’t hang all night.

YES! I’m a night owl till about 1 AM, maybe 1:30 AM at the most then I need to go to bed. Staying up 12-hours until noon the NEXT DAY isn’t one of my superpowers.

There was a little bit of an internal struggle. I thought:

“You’re ARMY! You can do this!”

“Don’t give up now or you’ll miss out!”

“What about seeing all of BTS’ special messages they promised us?”

YO! I ain’t NEVAH crashed so hard from sleep deprivation on a Monday. The day didn’t even exist, that’s just how powered down I was. Omg, it was the PITS! LOL!

With what little I caught, I did have some takeaways which made me love BTS more:

The ARMY Bomb would turn purple during ments and special footage. It really made me burn with ARMY pride and I’m sure it was BTS and Big Hit saying that they love us back.

I TOTALLY loved seeing all the representation on the LCD screens behind BTS during Miss Right but I ESPECIALLY loved the black kinky haired girl! #SheBeMe

Borahae and Stay Fighting 💜

#ARMY Bomb #Bang Bang Con #BTS #BTS 4th Muster #BTS ARMY #BTS HYYH #BTS Lightstick #BTS Love Yourself Tour #BTS Wings #Concert #Experiences #KPOP #Love #Map of the Soul Tour

0 notes

terabitweb · 5 years

Text

Original Post from SC Magazine Author: Bradley Barth

In the film “Ocean’s 11,” Danny Ocean and his team of expert cybercriminals execute a daring casino heist in glitzy Las Vegas.

This past summer at the Black Hat and DEF CON conferences in Sin City, the editorial staff at SC Media attempted to pull off a less ambitious – and decidedly more legal – caper of its own. With far less success.

The job: Complete a full series of video interviews with leading cyber experts, all while riding the world’s largest ferris wheel.

As a bonus, we even invited a pair of wireless researchers from the DEF CON Wireless Village to accompany us on the ride and use their equipment to sniff out whatever devices and signals they could detect along our 360-degree journey.

Our crew was set: one reporter + one cameraman + two wireless researchers + five experts + two PR associates for logistical support = SC’s 11.

As it turned out, Ocean’s 11 would have a much easier time of it.

The first challenge was getting on the ride in the first place, without breaking any rules. Ferris wheel policy didn’t allow professional video cameras, so we steered clear of this problem by filming only with an iPhone. Meanwhile, wireless researchers Rick Falcone and Rick Mellendick inquired in advance to make sure nothing they would bring on board was forbidden and were given a thumbs up that all was well.

Still, it was tempting fate when, for dramatic effect, Mellendick decided to handcuff himself to the protective case carrying his equipment. Surely, even in Vegas, this odd sight would cause a scene once we reached security, wouldn’t it? But after a few curious questions from the guards at the metal detectors, we were sent on our way.

Bradley felt like a big shot when a passerby saw the SC logo on the microphone and asked if he was with SportsCenter. Of course, reporting for SC Media is pretty darn cool too.

The next phase of the plan was to perform four interviews with our five experts (two were a duo who were interviewed together) in 30 minutes of ride time, before we quite literally came full circle. Mission accomplished there – just barely – as we finished our final interview right as it was time to disembark. Feeling victorious, we hurriedly gathered our belongings and stepped out of the cabin.

That’s when we ran into security. And they were not happy.

The woman in charge began interrogating our group, insisting that we should never have been allowed to board the ferris wheel while carrying electronic equipment – especially during DEF CON week. But since we didn’t actually bring any officially prohibited items, she let us pass. But not before making an ominous statement along these lines: “Excuse me, I have to go fire some people.” (We certainly hope no one was actually fired when it appears everyone had followed the rules.)

Whew. That was a close one. But at least we got our footage, right? Well, not exactly. The next morning, we discovered that the audio did not record correctly. Nothing but static. It was the equivalent of the Ocean’s 11 crew escaping the casino with bags of loot, only to find they were filled with Monopoly money.

But we weren’t about to let that stop us. So, nearly three months later, SC Media is finally pleased to present a photo essay of our Las Vegas (mis)adventure, featuring Q&A commentary from our guests, who were kind enough to recreate some of their talking points from the ride.

Who would have thought that a slow, scenic trip on a ferris wheel would turn into such a roller coaster ride?

See our interviews, below:

Sherrod DeGrippo (right), senior director of threat research and detection, Proofpoint.

Our first guest passenger was Sherrod DeGrippo, senior director of threat research and detection at Proofpoint.

SC: Sherrod, during our ferris wheel interview you described some of the recent activity of the cybercriminal threat group TA505, which historically has been associated with the Dridex banking trojan and Locky ransomware. What are the latest developments with this actor?

SD: This summer, we observed TA505 introduce a new downloader malware, AndroMut, which has some similarities in code and behavior to Andromeda, a long-established malware family. Our researchers identified two distinct campaigns by TA505 that used AndroMut to download [the remote access trojan] FlawedAmmyy. These attacks appeared to be targeted carefully by geography and somewhat targeted by industry, especially in Singapore and the UAE, where attacks were dramatically skewed towards financial services organizations.

Our research has followed TA505’s evolution over the last few years from an extremely high-volume actor dealing in global ransomware and banking Trojan campaigns to a targeted actor focused on regional campaigns and malware ranging from downloaders to sophisticated remote access trojans. This group is both adaptable and adept at following the money. They tend to set trends across the malware landscape, so, at this point, it appears that they are adapting to changing conditions based on regional and vertical targeting, as well the types of malware they are distributing. Some of these conditions may relate to cryptocurrency volatility and adaptations of defenders to previous malware strains they distributed en masse.

SC: During the interview, we noted that you are from Georgia, which has been hit repeatedly by ransomware attacks on a local and city level. Please explain why municipalities have become such an appealing target. Also, you mentioned that you may have even been indirectly affected by the SamSam ransomware attack on Altanta. Please explain.

SD: Threat actors recognize that municipalities typically have outdated information security protections and lack the resources necessary to recover quickly from an attack. These factors, along with their broad swath of responsibilities and relatively deep pockets, have made them more attractive targets in recent years. Additionally, ransomware actors look for the best, highest payout potential and focus their efforts there. A municipality has access to funds in excess of what consumer users or most small or medium businesses would have available that they can relatively easily divert to regain access to their systems, making them a lucrative target.

I was actually pulled over by a police officer in Atlanta during the city’s SamSam ransomware attack. Because the police department’s systems were down, I was let go without a ticket.

SC: You also mentioned the most paranoid thing you’ve seen someone do to keep secure at Black Hat and DEF CON. Is there such a thing as being too paranoid?

SD: I don’t think there is such a thing as too paranoid. Everyone should take every possible precaution to protect themselves and their digital identities. However, I have seen extreme acts taken at Black Hat/DEF CON that don’t have any impact on security, like tinfoil-wrapping an entire hotel room. That’s probably more for fun than actual security. I’ve seen people handcuff their tech to their wrist. That’s pretty paranoid, but also important if you’re forgetful.

Tyler Moffitt (left), senior threat research analyst, and Jason Davison (center), advanced threat research analyst, Webroot.

As we climbed toward the apex of our ascent, we were joined by a duo from Webroot: Tyler Moffitt, senior threat research analyst, and Jason Davison, advanced threat research analyst.

SC: Last year, the big ransomware threat was GandCrab. That changed following the developers’ supposed retirement. Now there’s a new threat, Sodinokibi, which also uses a ransomware-as-a-service model. Based on your observations, what makes this threat unique and dangerous? And what has led experts to conclude that Sodinokibi was created by GandCrab’s developers?

TM and JD: GandCrab was one of the most successful RaaS (Ransomware as a Service) operations we’ve seen to date. Due to their success, they [GandCrab’s developers] received attention from researchers and the media alike. It’s not uncommon for successful threat actors who receive a lot of attention to try and start new projects in an attempt remain successful. There are extremely strong ties between Gandcrab and Sodinokibi. We even found an early decryptor binary listed as “gc6” (assumed to be GandCrab 6, since the last known distributed version of GandCrab was version 5.2) in the PDB path.

SC: You’ve also been following several DNS hijacking campaigns in which malicious actors, perhaps government-sponsored, are altering internet records to reroute website visitors to attacker-controlled sites. Explain how this scheme works and explain why this is such a serious threat to the integrity of the internet’s infrastructure?

TM and JD: DNS is an older, fundamental part of networking that didn’t really account for security too much when it was initially designed. Attacks have been reported targeting mainly government and military organizations in the Middle East and North Africa regions. At a high level, the attack is to manipulate DNS name records to then redirect to hacker-controlled servers. This is critical because attackers are leveraging the trust placed on DNS systems to successfully attack users.

SC: We also talked about DEF CON being famous for hackers trying to hack into everything – elevators, hotel rooms, ATMs, etc. What’s the most unusual device/system hack you’ve researched or witnessed, at DEF CON or elsewhere?

TM and JD: I haven’t seen anything too crazy with my own eyes other than construction signs hacked to say “ZOMBIES AHEAD.” Also, all the speakers at the Bellagio casino were once hijacked to play Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

Dr. Richard Gold (left), director of security engineering, Digital Shadows.

Halfway home! Our next guest was Dr. Richard Gold, director of security engineering at Digital Shadows.

SC: Over the summer, the Senate Intel Committee released volume one of a report detailing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. You have followed reputed Russian APT actor APT 28/Fancy Bear closely. What were your reactions to the report?

RG: The report really lays out how the Russian intrusion groups took an “offense in depth” approach to their activities; that is, they conducted a very broad campaign against a number of targets using a wide variety of methods. The report goes into detail on the activity around the election infrastructure in a number of states. This is all in addition to the intrusions into the DNC [Democratic National Committee] and the DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] and the misinformation campaigns that have also been attributed to Russian groups. With the 2020 election looming large, the report clearly indicates the need for shoring up the security of any systems around elections and political campaigns.

SC: How great is your concern that Fancy Bear is willing and able to take more extreme measures next year and actually alter voter information (to cause chaos or disqualify certain voters) and/or change vote tallies?

RG: It is certainly possible. However, they had this access in 2016 and they did not use it, indicating that they didn’t need to use this access in order to achieve their goals. That does not mean that they will not use this access in 2020 as the target environment for these groups has changed in the last four years. There is more awareness of the threat posed by foreign interference than there was in 2016 so it may require hostile groups to go further in order to achieve their goals.

SC: You also have closely followed Hidden Cobra/Lazarus Group. During Black Hat, news broke that the reputed North Korean ATP group has collected $2 billion in illegal funds. What has made Lazarus Group so effective and lucrative over the years?

RG: Lazarus/Hidden Cobra are adept at “following the money,” to use a well-known phrase. They have consistently targeted organizations that handle large sums of money but do not necessarily have the same level of security as some more mature organizations. They have targeted cryptocurrency exchanges and financial institutions where the attackers had uncovered security weaknesses. This increased the likelihood that their intrusions would be successful, that they would be able to steal substantial amounts of money, and would be unlikely to be detected.

Ben Seri (left), VP of research, Armis.

Our final on-board guest was Ben Seri, vice president of research at Armis. Ben took us through the Armis team’s discovery of URGENT/11, a series of vulnerabilities found in the real-time operating system (RTOS) VxWorks. More than 2 billion devices operate on VxWorks, about 200 million of which were judged to be affected by the flaws.

SC: Ben, please summarize your URGENT/11 presentation at Black Hat, and the nature of the vulnerabilities you discovered.

BS: At Black Hat, we presented our findings, and did a deep dive on some of the most interesting of the discovered vulnerabilities. Many of the discovered vulnerabilities were found in esoteric features of the TCP and IP protocols, that are rarely used but nevertheless implemented, even in modern TCP/IP stacks. These esoteric features tend to be overlooked by both developers and pen testers, and therefore might end up containing very critical vulnerabilities.

SC: We talked about how vulnerability researchers have largely overlooked real-time operating systems. Why is this the case?

BS: There are a couple of reasons researchers overlook real-time operating systems. First of all, researching RTOSs is challenging – many of these operating systems are closed-source, and not easily debuggable. So to start hunting for vulnerabilities in such systems, a researcher would first need to invest significant time in preparing tools. Other reasons might be the competitive nature of researchers, who are mainly focused on the security of their personal devices – PCs and mobile phones. In addition, researchers have a much greater incentive to search for vulnerabilities in devices of companies that have bug bounty programs, for instance.

SC: I understand that since we last spoke in Vegas, it was determined that other RTOSs are similarly affected by the vulnerabilities because they share the flawed TCP/IP stack component known as IPnet. Please elaborate.

BS: The IPnet TCP/IP stack was indeed a standalone product that was licensed to users of various RTOSs in the past. Armis actually discovered this through the BD Alaris Infusion pump, a widely used Infusion pump that was detected as running the IPnet stack in a hospital environment where the Armis solution is used. The surprising factor was that this device is not based on VxWorks. That fact led us to further investigate the reach of these URGENT/11 [vulnerabilties]. It is surprisingly difficult to determine the OS used by medical devices, and embedded devices in general, let alone the TCP/IP stack that powers the network connectivity function of these devices. A vulnerability in a widespread component, such as the IPnet stack, is a case of a software supply chain vulnerability that unfortunately affects any device or operating system that uses it.

Rick Mellendick (left), chief security officer, PI Achievers, and Rick Farina (right), senior product manager, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Company.

With our feet firmly planted back on earth, we finally turned to our wireless detectives Rick Mellendick, chief security officer at PI Achievers, and Rick Farina, senior product manager with Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Company. The two Ricks ran this year’s Def Con Wireless Village, and so we had asked them to bring some special equipment aboard the ride to passively – and legally – monitor the local environment for notable device activity. (You might remember them from our 2019 Trolley Talk segment at the RSA conference.)

SC: Explain your point of view of what happened at the end of the ride with ferris wheel security.

RF: The most likely explanation? The manager saw what appeared to be an interview and accosted the people who looked like they were carrying camera equipment. When she realized we didn’t have professional camera equipment, she claimed DEF CON attendees aren’t allowed to bring any electronics, which seems reductio ad absurdum. In truth, their physical security was about what would be expected at most places. We had a briefcase full of stuff, we showed them inside, it wasn’t dangerous or otherwise prohibited, so they let us through (despite the silliness with the handcuffs). Once we were past main security, and we powered up the kit, I am a bit surprised no one cared that Rick and I were tethered together. Again, all of our stuff was already checked, but I would say we behaved sufficiently atypical in a manner that would have easily justified additional scrutiny.

SC: Describe the equipment you brought with you for this particular mission, and what you were looking for.

RF: We brought a hard case full of wireless monitoring equipment; specifically, a small Intel compute stick, four general purpose software-defined radios for looking at different types of standard sensors and wireless remotes, one ADS-B-specific SDR (Software Defined Radio) for tracking airplanes, three Wi-Fi cards for monitoring Wi-Fi traffic, one Bluetooth dongle for monitoring Bluetooth and Bluetooth smart, two 802.15.4 (Zigbee) dongles for monitoring 802.15.4 in 900 MHz and 2.4GHz, and 2 Crazyradio PA dongles for monitoring wireless keyboards and mice. Basically, our goal was to see everything we could easily see passively, specifically using a free open-source tool called Kismet.

SC: Did the height of the ferris wheel present any unique opportunities to capture data? Also, did the ferris wheel present any unique challenges or obstacles that hindered data collection?

RF: The overall design of a ferris wheel does obviously lend a great opportunity for gaining some altitude, which removes the lower height obstructions like buildings and lets us pick up signals from farther away. Being Vegas, however, the pods of the ferris wheel likely use nice expensive low-e glass, which works as a shielding against much of the electromagnetic spectrum, as it is specifically designed to block out things such as infrared light. While these two things balanced out quite a bit, being in an enclosed space that was moving around (a ferris wheel in our case, but it could be a subway or a train or a bus) gave us the unique opportunity to really “get to know” everyone around us. We profiled how many phones we saw, and based on signal strength and duration seen it was obvious who was in the pod with us and who was not. While we only acted passively, there was more than enough time to consider a targeted attack against our fellow ride enthusiasts, which remained purely theoretical. The same thing could easily happen every day on the yellow or blue metro lines in Washington DC, or anywhere else where it may be interesting to profile people via their electronics.

SC: Ultimately, what did you find? Give us some specific examples of interesting observations, and then share with us your total statistics!

RM: We saw seven wireless mice and keyboards, as well as hundreds of active Bluetooth radios (both associated and probing). We saw a typical amount of Wi-Fi, and many other associated signals.

The stats: * 1,496 Bluetooth devices * 1,286 Wi-Fi devices including both clients and access points * two temperature sensors * seven wireless mice and/or keyboards * 65 aircraft

RF: So here’s how I broke it down and my assumptions: Wireless keyboards and mice have a fairly short range. The low-e glass also limits our range. As such, it’s extremely likely that the wireless keyboards and mice were in use on the [cocktail] bar-equipped ferris wheel cars.

The temperature sensors are also pretty short range typically. We saw one that was an appropriate temperature for a refrigerator, and one that was the current outside temperature. Range is a bit further on these things, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that one was in a refrigerator and one was monitoring outdoor temperature for some monitor system or a sign with the temperature.

SC: Finally, a question for Rick M.: Explain why you handcuffed yourself to the equipment and, since you didn’t have a key, how long did it take to pick yourself out of it?

RF: I’m not Rick M, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say “because it was funny.” It does prevent security from attempting to confiscate things if they don’t like something, but we did unlock the case and show them everything inside before gaining entry. As for the picking, I think it was about 20 seconds for the first cuff and 10 for the second. Don’t let him convince you he did both cuffs in 10 seconds.

RM: The handcuffs were just for show, and to be different. It forced questions, and allowed for us to possibly have some teaching moments. If we just had backpacks, no one would have asked much of anything. And I think Rick’s estimation of the time to get out is a bit high, but it was very quick and during a discussion, while talking to a colleague.

* Q&A responses were minimally edited for content and clarity.

Trolley Talk, RSA 2019 edition: SC’s second annual cable car chats (video)

Trolley Talk: SC cruises the cable car line with cyber experts

Trolley Talk – The Full Ride

TA505 cybergang debuts ‘AndroMut” downloader to deliver FlawedAmmyy RAT globally

Report suggests GandCrab’s developers may have created Sodinokibi ransomware

‘Brazen’ nation-state actors behind ‘Sea Turtle’ DNS hijacking campaign

DHS issues emergency directive to protect federal domains from DNS hijacking campaign

Report: Russian-sponsored hackers could have modified U.S. voter data, but didn’t

Second Senate Intel committee report confirms Russia social media campaign to influence 2016 election, skewer Clinton

U.S. sanctions North Korea hacking groups, says attacks funded missile program

Over 200M devices affected by critical flaws found in real-time operating system

The post We interviewed leading cyber experts on the world’s tallest ferris wheel. Then security showed up. appeared first on SC Media.

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Go to Source Author: Bradley Barth We interviewed leading cyber experts on the world’s tallest ferris wheel. Then security showed up. Original Post from SC Magazine Author: Bradley Barth In the film “Ocean’s 11,” Danny Ocean and his team of expert cybercriminals execute a daring casino…

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mikemortgage · 5 years

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Netflix is lying about those falling walruses. It’s another ‘tragedy porn’ climate hoax

Now that polar bears have failed to die off in response to a sea-ice decline as promised, climate alarmists are looking hard for a new icon. They think they’ve found it in the walrus. And for their purpose, walruses are more useful dead than alive, and best of all splattered against sharp rocks from a great height.

For instance, a now-famous episode of Netflix’s “Our Planet” documentary series, released this month and narrated by veteran BBC broadcaster David Attenborough, features walruses falling from atop a high cliff and bouncing helplessly over rocks to their deaths. The incident occurs after what’s called a “land haulout,” which is when large herds of walrus females and calves emerge from the water to gather and rest on a beach. The show blames the land haulouts — and the deaths caused by falling from cliffs — squarely on lack of sea ice due to human-caused climate change. “They’d be on the ice if they could be, but there’s no option but to come to land,” the episode’s producer says. The claim isn’t true. In fact, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined in October 2017 that Pacific walrus have not been harmed by recent sea-ice loss and are not expected to be harmed in the foreseeable future.

Still, the brutal death scenes horrified sensitive viewers (while some others shook their heads at the questionable claims). Film producer Sophie Lanfear has defended her inclusion of the sequence as an essential “truth,” although Netflix eventually issued a warning to “animal lovers” that they might want to skip the death sequence.

Don’t blame melting ice for polar bear attacks. Blame a bear baby boom

The real story behind the famous starving polar-bear video reveals more manipulation

Polar bears keep thriving even as global warming alarmists keep pretending they’re dying

But animal lovers and sensitive viewers are the target audience. The sole intention of the footage of walruses falling to a splattery death is to spark outrage, to shock viewers into taking climate change seriously. Lanfear admits as much. “I would like people to think about their lives and the fossil fuels they use in their lives and be inspired to support renewable energies and to try and find solutions to this problem,” she told People magazine. And the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which partnered with Netflix for the series, is now busily promoting walruses as the “new symbol of climate change.”

The tactic is reminiscent of the infamous 2017 stunt when National Geographic magazine publicized a video of an emaciated polar bear, which it falsely blamed on global warming. This kind of disturbing nature film footage has become known as “tragedy porn.” It’s infused with a narrative that misrepresents or glosses over important facts for the sole purpose of manipulating emotionally immature viewers into feeling distressed and angry. And both the starving polar bear and the plummeting walruses count on viewers who are well connected on social media to vent their dismay and spread the climate-change alarm.

But the actual facts of what happened with the walruses would be obvious to anyone who took the time to look at what history and science reveal about the claims.

Along the Russian coast of the Chukchi Sea, records show that walrus land haulouts are a natural phenomenon going back to the 19th century, and have nothing to do with climate change. Recent haulouts are enormous because the total population is enormous.

Pacific walruses appear to have a cyclical “boom and bust” population history. A very large population soon outstrips its food supply, something that last happened with walrus in the 1980s. The starving population then declines dramatically and stays low until the food supply can recover.

Despite the climate change fears, the walrus population is actually booming once again. It may now be as large as 300,000 animals. And polar bear numbers are also up in the Chukchi Sea, according to a survey completed in 2016. Chukchi polar bears are fatter and reproducing better than they were in the 1980s. Ringed and bearded seals are doing better too, which has been attributed to more algae and plankton in the water since 2007. In other words, longer ice-free summers in the Chukchi Sea, along with restricted hunting, have allowed walrus, Arctic seals, and polar bears to thrive.

So much for the producers’ claims that global warming is killing off walruses. However, producers may have done more than get the facts wrong. There are indications that some of the real factors causing the walrus deaths were misleadingly kept from viewers.

Lanfear told Ed Yong at The Atlantic that two locations were used for producing the final film: the cliff location and another beach where more than 100,000 walruses were hauled out. Footage from both locations was spliced together so seamlessly that the action looks to happen at the same place, but that’s an illusion. The walrus action at the cliff appeared to be just around a corner of the huge beach haulout. In fact it was hundreds of kilometres to the west.

A recent forensic comparison of photos by Andrew Montford at the Global Warming Policy Foundation establishes the location where the walruses fell as Cape Kozhevnikov, near the village of Ryrkaipiy in the Russian Far East. Here, the headland of sharp rock falls down to beach level on one side, allowing walruses to climb up a relatively gentle slope to the top when space on the beach gets cramped.

On shore, walruses prefer to huddle close together, even when more space is available. These tightly packed groups are easily startled, and if something like an approaching polar bear, hunter, or aircraft overhead frightens them, a stampede to the safety of the water can be deadly. We know from a report published by the Siberian Times in mid-October 2017 that hundreds of walruses died at Cape Kozhevnikov some time in September, when about 20 polar bears approached the herd hauled out on the beach and the cliff above it. Even at the haulout on the other beach, the one without the cliffs, scores would have died in a stampede simply from being trampled by other walruses, but presumably that’s less cinematic.

Records show that initiating a stampede is a safe and successful way for polar bears to hunt walrus. The walrus that end up killed in the panic become a buffet for bears. One study showed that stampedes initiated by polar bears were responsible for most of the 358 dead walruses found trampled to death at beach haulouts on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean in the 1990s.

What really made those walruses on Netflix fall to their death from a rocky cliff? Overhead shots in a “behind the scenes” trailer for the “Our Planet” series suggest a drone was used in filming, which could have spooked the walruses into stampeding. The crew also admitted there were polar bears in the area, another possible cause for the deadly stampede. The behind-the-scenes segment also, troublingly, shows how a cameraman on the beach may have potentially discouraged walruses at the top of the cliff from returning the way they had gone up — the safer way down.

And when producers panned their cameras over a scene of carnage below the cliff, they implied all the animals had fallen to their death on that same day. We actually know that most of those animals died days before, when Lanfear’s cameras weren’t around — after being frightened by polar bears.

The walrus the producers caught on film were not displaying unnatural or unusual behaviour. Netflix and the WWF are lying to the public just as National Geographic did when it falsely claimed its video of an emaciated polar bear was “what climate change looks like.” Reading from the same script, Attenborough utters a similar statement when he says of the walruses, “This is the sad reality of climate change.” That is also false.

Dr. Susan Crockford is a University of Victoria zoologist specializing in Holocene mammals, including polar bears and walrus. Her new book is The Polar Bear Catastrophe That Never Happened.

from Financial Post http://bit.ly/2W4Kqow via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

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caveartfair · 7 years

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$450 Million Leonardo da Vinci Stuns Art World and Smashes Records—and the 9 Other Biggest News Stories This Week

01 Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi sold for $450 million at Christie’s on Wednesday, becoming the most expensive artwork of all time.

(Artsy)

Auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen began bidding for the Leonardo painting, lot nine in the house’s post-war and contemporary evening auction, at $70 million. After some anxious early seconds of tepid reception, bidding took off, surpassing the rumored $300 million that billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin paid for Willem de Kooning’s Interchange (1955) in 2015, the most expensive art transaction ever publicly reported until the Wednesday sale at Christie’s. After 19 minutes of bidding that eventually narrowed down to a jousting match between two clients bidding over the phone, the price hit $400 million, and that was the end (the total paid, with fees, came to about $450 million). The room clapped, gasped, and laughed, the way one does when seeing something simultaneously historic, unbelievable, and more than a little crazy.

02 The major evening auctions in New York this week brought in a combined total of $1.5 billion with fees, excluding the work by Leonardo.

(Artsy)

New York’s fall auction week kicked off Monday evening with a strong $480.4 million sale of Impressionist and Modern art at Christie’s, the house’s highest total for the category in a decade. Driven by a record-breaking Fernand Léger painting and fervent bidding for a landscape by Vincent van Gogh, the auction brought in $416.2 million before buyer’s fees, on pre-sale estimates between $360 million and $476 million. Tuesday evening’s sale of Impressionist and Modern art at Sotheby’s brought in $269.6 million, a 71% rise from the prior year’s sale, but well short of rival Christie’s Monday night haul. Nearly all of the 64 works at Sotheby’s found a buyer (often in Asia), for a 92% sell-through rate by lot. But many of the works sold after just a few bids and for below their low estimates, including some of the bigger-ticket items. The spectacular result for the Leonardo da Vinci painting at Christie’s post-war and contemporary auction Wednesday is likely best viewed as an entirely separate sale compared to the solid, but not jaw-dropping, results obtained by the evening’s actual post-war and contemporary art. Across Wednesday night’s sale, the sell-through rate was a solid 84% by lot. The total haul sans-Leonardo was $338.9 million, or $292 million before fees. Phillips posted solid numbers at Thursday night’s New York evening sale, ending at $114.8 million, or $96.3 million before fees, led by Peter Doig’s Red House (1995–96). Sotheby’s posted a solid contemporary sale Thursday evening as well, bringing in $310.2 million over 72 lots, or $267.4 million before buyer’s fees, with a notable 96% of lots sold. Bidding on many of the higher-end lots was thin, but a fair number of them—44 in all, or 61% of the sale—came with guarantees or irrevocable bids, suggesting that the auction house preferred to cut deals ahead of the sale rather than hold out for a little drama in the room.

03 Two Swiss journalists covering the opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi were detained by authorities in the country for over 50 hours.

(via Al Jazeera)

Journalist Serge Enderlin and cameraman Jon Bjorgvinsson were accredited and slated to interview the museum’s architect, Jean Nouvel. But they were held by authorities after taking photos of migrant workers at an open-air market in Abu Dhabi last Thursday, according Swiss broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS), the pair’s employer. The two were blindfolded by United Arab Emirates (UAE) police, who reportedly wanted to know why the journalists were taking the photos and if they had any connection to foreign governments or NGOs. Enderlin and Bjorgvinsson were separated and subjected to interrogation sessions, which sometimes lasted 10 hours without breaks. The pair were eventually released after signing a document written in Arabic that Enderlin said he could not read. Labor practices in Abu Dhabi are notoriously appalling, with migrant workers toiling in conditions that resemble slavery. Critics have argued that the Louvre Abu Dhabi was constructed using forced labor, though the museum denies the charges. “All we wanted to do was put the opening of the Louvre in a wider context - as a flip-side to the glitz of the museum, we wanted to show the migrant workers who actually built it,” Enderlin told Al Jazeera.

04 The New Museum has announced the artist list for its 2018 Triennial.

(via the New Museum)

The New York museum’s fourth triennial, titled “Songs for Sabotage,” will run from February 13th through May 27th. The exhibit, which focuses on bringing emerging international artists to New York, will involve works by 26 young artists from 19 countries, the majority of whom have not been exhibited in the United States. Curated by Gary Carrion-Murayari and Alex Gartenfeld, the exhibition will span all four gallery floors of the downtown space. Among the artists included are Violet Dennison, Tomm El-Saieh, Diamond Stingily, and Lydia Ourahmane. The exhibition “questions how individuals and collectives around the world might effectively address the connection of images and culture to the forces that structure our society,” according to the museum’s press release. Co-curator Gartenfeld said the exhibit “highlights artists whose interventions into the mechanics of culture and daily life are reestablishing common ground, and powerfully, poignantly advocate for systemic changes in global culture.”

05 Police are searching for a woman caught on surveillance footage mailing back two photos stolen from MoMA PS1.

(via the New York Post)

The two gelatin silver prints by Alex V. Sobolewski, valued at $55,000 and $50,000 apiece, were reported missing in late October, after an unknown thief took them from the “Carolee Schneemann: Kinetic Painting” exhibition on view at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City. On Friday, the institution received a FedEx box with the two stolen works inside. Both pieces were back on view as of Sunday. Surveillance footage at the Office 11211 store on Bedford Avenue, where the package was sent from on Thursday, caught a woman, described as being in her twenties, dropping off the box. Police are now actively seeking her as a suspect in the crime, and if caught, she could face charges of grand larceny and possession of stolen property, according to the Post. The motive for the crime is not publicly known.

06 Walker Art Center director Olga Viso has stepped down from her post amid “a challenging year” for the institution, which included tension with the board and controversial artwork.

(via StarTribune)

On Tuesday, the Minneapolis museum announced that Viso, who has served as executive director since 2008, would be resigning, effective by the end of the year. Viso oversaw the ambitious expansion of the museum’s sculpture garden, which initially included the contentious Sam Durant sculpture Scaffold (2012). The work, modeled partially on gallows where 38 Native Americans were hung following the U.S.-Dakota War in 1862, prompted anger and calls for Viso’s resignation. Viso apologized and met with Dakota elders to discuss work’s eventual removal, though the incident prompted a formal board investigation (the results of which have not been made public). Sources close to the board described Viso’s resignation as “the end result of a months-long process fueled by unusually high turnover among Walker staff and demonstrations against the ‘Scaffold’ sculpture” that postponed the garden’s opening until June, wrote the StarTribune. A Walker spokeswoman called the move “Olga’s decision,” but added that the board is “in strong agreement” with the timing of her resignation. Four senior staffers will serve collectively as executive director during the museum’s search for a replacement.

07 Spreading Documenta 14’s programming across two countries caused cost overruns, an independent inquiry into its financial troubles found.

(via artnet News and The Art Newspaper)

What made the lastest Documenta most distinctive also proved to be its downfall. A report presented this week by auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the price of operating the exhibition in Athens, Greece, took Documenta out of the black and into the red, due to added “personnel, transportation, space, and security costs,” according to artnet News, plunging it into financial trouble and eventually requiring an emergency loan to stave off bankruptcy. The quinquennial is a staple of Kassel, Germany, but curator Adam Szymczyk had taken the controversial and ambitious step this year to host the art event in Athens, as well. Although any changes to management structure and oversight as a result of the financial challenges have yet to be announced, the dates for the 2022 edition were announced this week, mollifying concerns that Documenta’s next iteration was in jeopardy.

08 Artist Marina Abramović is disputing claims that money raised partially through Kickstarter for her now-canceled arts center was mishandled.

(via Vulture)

The Marina Abramović Institute (MAI) raised $2.2 million for a performance space planned for the upstate New York town of Hudson, which she announced in 2013. The artist said she gave $1.1 million towards the institute, while some $661,400 (or $596,600 after fees) came from the platform Kickstarter, which allows members of the public to back causes and products. According to the MAI Kickstarter page, money raised on the platform would go to “the design process” of the building, slated to be by Rem Koolhaas. But a New York Post article that ran on November 11th asked where the money had gone and charged in the headline that following cancellation, the artist “hasn’t given money back.” A spokesperson said the donated money went towards the architect’s firm, as originally intended. The artist ultimately shelved her insitute due to ballooning costs and the difficulties inherent in the Koolhaas design. Today, the site is “empty and dilapidated and full of pigeons,” according to Vulture.

09 A judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by an artist whose work was removed from the courtyard of New York’s Trinity Church.

(via the New York Law Journal)

Artist Steve Tobin’s twisting red-rooted sculpture The Trinity Root (2005) served as a memorial to the September 11th attacks, standing in Lower Manhattan’s Trinity Church courtyard for a decade. In December 2015, the church moved the sculpture from its city location to a different property in Connecticut. This prompted Tobin to file suit in April in the Southern District of New York, alleging that the move, which damaged the work, violated the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) of 1990 (along with further claims). Among other things, the law prevents the “distortion, mutilation and modification” of artwork, even after the artist has given or sold a piece to someone else. But in a ruling filed Tuesday, Judge Lorna G. Schofield dismissed Tobin’s suit, ruling that merely moving an artwork doesn’t rise to the level of damaging alteration specified under VARA, and that the artist had failed to show evidence of gross negligence on the church’s part. Tobin also alleged that Trinity Church violated its promise to always display the piece in the courtyard, but Schofield actually found that Trinity Church was granted wide latitude by the contract to use the work as it saw fit in the agreement between the parties.

10 A Massachusetts appellate justice temporarily halted the controversial auction of works from the Berkshire Museum collection just days before the sale.

(via the Berkshire Eagle and WAMC)

In a ruling issued late last Friday, Justice Joseph A. Trainor put a 30-day halt to the contentious auction that had previously been given a green light by a lower court judge last Tuesday. The deaccessioning of some 40 artworks at Sotheby’s in New York by the Massachusetts museum has drawn wide criticism, since the institution planned to use the $60 million it expected to raise for renovations and other purposes that violated industry guidelines around selling art. After a case brought to halt the sale last week was tossed out by a lower court, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office filed an emergency appeal for an injunction to halt the auction, which Trainor granted. Following the judge’s ruling, the Berkshire Museum works were removed from the Sotheby’s showroom. The museum has requested an “expedited trial” in the appellate court so that it can plot its financial future with certainty.

from Artsy News

#Artsy News

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