tampering
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Steph Curry: Giannis chat was about 'PUBG,' not plans to team up
Giannis Antetokounmpo is the NBA's reigning MVP, and his contract with the Milwaukee Bucks will end after next season, making him the hottest potential free agent in the league. That also means any conversation he has with affiliates of other teams will be heavily scrutinized since just about anyone would like to have the 7-foot-tall "Freak" on their team for the next few years. After last night's Bucks game against Golden State cameras caught Giannis talking to injured Warriors star Stephen Curry, and you can clearly see Curry telling him "C'mon man, let's do this." The NBA recently amended its rules to include player conversations in potential violations of "tampering" -- rules against trying to influence someone who's currently under contract with another team. And after Golden State successfully lured Kevin Durant away from the Thunder a few years ago, they're exactly the kind of team your free-agent superstar tells you not to worry about. But Yahoo Sports reporter Chris Haynes talked to Steph and says that the conversation wasn't about basketball at all -- he was just exchanging gamertags so that the two could play PUBG, aka PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
Sports teams are using Signal to duck deflategate-like scandals
Facebook isn't the only company struggling over the prospect of end-to-end encryption in messaging apps, as a report from Yahoo Sports cites examples from "every level of sport" turning to encrypted messaging. While Whatsapp and iMessage provide encrypted communications, increasingly the app of choice is turning out to be Signal, which not only protects their message from MITM spying, but can also auto-delete them based on rules. If you're a college coach or athletic director and someone makes a FOIA request, that could reduce the amount of information they get about contacts with recruits and boosters. In the NFL, investigators pursuing the "deflategate" incident famously requested access to Tom Brady's texts, but the quarterback destroyed his phone prior to meeting them -- an act cited in the league's decision to hand down a four game suspension. He stated that breaking or wiping a cell phone when he got a new one was a standard practice, but execs and agents believe a simpler, stronger argument is that if you've set Signal's rules to delete all messages regularly, then investigators can't claim you were trying to hide a particular conversation. The report specifically calls out the NBA, where commissioner Adam Silver has been pushing to reduce "tampering," or contact between players, their representatives and teams about contracts or transactions outside of the approved periods. Marc Stein of the New York Times reported this week that the NBA sent a memo to teams requiring them to keep all contract-related communications for at least a year, while The Athletic explained that could include notes on training, endorsements, player fit with a team and more. The rule seems specifically aimed at cutting off any argument about using Signal as a simple standard practice, and it wouldn't be surprising to see other leagues do something similar, whether or not they'll be able to enforce it.
Pirates are finding it harder to crack new PC games
Pirates at the infamous Chinese hacking forum 3DM are complaining that recent PC games are simply too darn hard to crack, according to Torrent Freak. The problem is apparently Denuvo, a copy protection scheme that prevents tampering of the underlying DRM. Two recent games that use the scheme, FIFA 16 and Just Cause 3, have still not been cracked, despite appearing in early December. Based on the current pace of encryption tech, "in two years time I'm afraid there will be no free games to play in the world," said one forlorn pirate.
PSA: Resetting your phone risks upsetting Google Wallet, unless you do it right
Spare a thought for Google Wallet users who have learned this the hard way, but at least you won't have to fall into the same little-known trap. Essentially, if you have a Galaxy Nexus, HTC EVO 4G LTE or any other compatible handset and you perform a factory reset, there's a high chance you'll spoil the secure element that is designed to protect your NFC chip from tampering. This disables Google Wallet and it seems there's no fix once that happens, other than calling up a friendly (and hopefully interactive) customer service agent. However, there is a way to prevent it: before factory resetting, you have to go into the Google Wallet app, choose 'Menu' then 'Settings' and 'Reset Google Wallet'. There it is -- simple enough, but evidently not advertised enough by Google or the phone manufacturers themselves.
China, predictably, denies Google's accusations of Gmail tampering
On Monday, Google expressed its belief that its email users in China were experiencing "a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail." Now, as is par for this thorny course, the Chinese state has come out with a terse rebuttal, saying simply that "this is an unacceptable accusation." The retort was, says the BBC, part of a regular news conference on Tuesday and it doesn't appear that any more time was spent on the subject. Which is odd since most people would tend to act to prevent something they see as unacceptable -- but then we suppose China already has a pretty long list of folks it'd like to shut up, Google's just gonna have to get in line and wait its turn. There's a good citizen.
