News written by James Delahunty (October, 2014)

Twitter has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Northern California seeking a means to reveal the actual number of national security related information it requests it receives.

Internet services like Twitter and Facebook can currently only inform its users publicly of the total number of data/information requests it receives from law enforcement and government agencies. Essentially, this means that it lumps together the total number of requests it receives from law enforcement agencies (mission persons' investigations etc.) and from national security entities.

They are not legally allowed to reveal how many of the total number of requests and orders received are related to national security, even if the number is zero.

According to Twitter, the firm is entitled under the First Amendment to respond to our users' concerns and to the statements of U.S. government officials by providing information about the scope of U.S. government surveillance, including what types of legal process have not been received.

It has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Northern California asking the court to declare these restrictions on its ability to speak about government surveillance as unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Later this week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will also consider the constitutionality of the non-disclosure provisions.

Google is now enabling Chromecast users to use their own photos or choose personalized sources of backdrops to be shown on the TV screen when idle.

The feature had been promised for summer but seemingly slipped a bit, but it is available now. It allows users to use their own photo albums via Google+, or to select from other options for backdrops when idle.

You can, for example, see artwork from galleries and museums around the world via the Google Cultural Institute, satellite imagery from remote places on Earth via Google Maps and U.S. users can get images from the New York Times, the Guardian and others.

Setting it up is as easy as opening the Chromecast app on your device and selecting Backdrop from the left menu. This allows you to customize your sources for imagery. You can also get more information on pictures you see by selecting "Backdrop" from the left menu and tapping on the card to find out more.

Alternatively you can open the Google app on Android or iOS, tap the microphone and ask "What's on my Chromecast?"

The update is rolling out now.

More information: chromecast.com/backdrop

Kaspersky has detailed an interesting and naughty piece of malware that allowed attackers to steal cash directly from some ATM machines running an embedded Microsoft Windows OS.

The malware was active on at least 50 ATM machines in Eastern Europe, but there is some evidence that it has spread beyond the region to many other countries, including Canada, France, India and the United States. Kaspersky Lab's Global Research and Analysis Team came to this conclusion based on statistics of submissions made to the popular VirusTotal service.

It is targeted at ATM machines made by a major manufacturer, running a 32-bit embedded Windows operating system, and it is smart enough to hide itself using several tactics.

What is interesting is Kaspersky cited security camera footage at locations of infected ATM machines that show a bootable CD was used to infect them. It transfers the malware to the device, performs some checks and then edits the registry to boot the malware, which then interacts with ATM through the standard library MSXFS.dll. which Kaspersky informs readers is "Extension for Financial Services (XFS)."

It then runs in an infinite loop waiting for user input, but it will only accept commands by default on Sunday and Monday nights. It accepts multiple commands from an operator, who then must press the Enter button the keypad to proceed. Another clever trick is clearly intended at making it so only the right people can manipulate the machine, by requiring that a session key be entered.