Enlarge / Holding up corporations, utilities, and hospitals for malware-encrypted data used to be quite profitable. But it’s a tough gig lately, you know? (credit: ifanfoto/Getty Images) Two new studies suggest that ransomware isn’t the lucrative, enterprise-scale gotcha it used to be. Profits to attackers’ wallets, and the percentage of victims paying, fell dramatically in...
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300+ models of MSI motherboards have Secure Boot turned off. Is yours affected?
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Secure Boot is an industry standard for ensuring that Windows devices don’t load malicious firmware or software during the startup process. If you have it turned on—as you should in most cases, and it’s the default setting mandated by Microsoft—good for you. If you’re using one of more than 300 motherboard...
Pioneering Apple Lisa goes “open source” thanks to Computer History Museum
Enlarge / The Apple Lisa 1, released in 1983. (credit: Apple, Inc.) As part of the Apple Lisa’s 40th birthday celebrations, the Computer History Museum has released the source code for Lisa OS version 3.1 under an Apple Academic License Agreement. With Apple’s blessing, the Pascal source code is available for download from the CHM...
Hacker group incorporates DNS hijacking into its malicious website campaign
Enlarge / DNS hijacking concept. Researchers have uncovered a malicious Android app that can tamper with the wireless router the infected phone is connected to and force the router to send all network devices to malicious sites. The malicious app, found by Kaspersky, uses a technique known as DNS (Domain Name System) hijacking. Once the...
Amazon is discontinuing its AmazonSmile charity program next month
Enlarge (credit: Getty) Amazon’s business practices and footprint have received plenty of criticism over the years. From its misleading products and reviews and its environmental impact to its effect on small businesses and its own employees, its shoppers are left with a fair amount of guilt every time they use its convenient platform. AmazonSmile, which...
1923 cartoon eerily predicted 2023’s AI art generators
Enlarge / Excerpt of a 1923 cartoon that predicted a “cartoon dynamo” and “idea dynamo” that could create cartoon art automatically. The full cartoon is reproduced below. (credit: Paleofuture) In 1923, an editorial cartoonist named H.T. Webster drew a humorous cartoon for the New York World newspaper depicting a fictional 2023 machine that would generate...
Want a Giant Neon Twitter Bird? It’s One of Many Items Up for Auction.
The company’s artwork, high-end furniture and espresso machines are for sale in an online auction that evoked a more flush era when its tastes reflected its status as a hot tech-world employer.
How the Netherlands Is Taming Big Tech
Dutch privacy negotiators have spurred major changes at Google, Microsoft and Zoom, using a landmark European data protection law as a lever.
Microsoft to Lay Off 10,000 Workers as It Looks to Trim Costs
The job cuts, which amount to less than 5 percent of the company’s work force, are its largest in roughly eight years.
Bomb Cyclone? Or Just Windy with a Chance of Hyperbole?
When the barometer drops, the volume of ‘hyped words’ rises, and many meteorologists aren’t happy about it.