From The Blog
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New APT Group targeting iOS Users with Zero-Click Malware, US gets the Blame
Written by Sean KalinichThere is a new bit of malware targeting iOS users via iMessage from what appears to be a new APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) group. The…Written on Friday, 02 June 2023 14:46 in News Read 233 times Read more...
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AI Drone Decided Humans Were an Obstacle to be Removed in Simulated Test
Written by Sean KalinichThe arguments for and against AI as a threat all seem to be centered on the point of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). This is the…Written on Friday, 02 June 2023 13:07 in Editorials Read 268 times Read more...
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32 Malicious Google Chrome Extensions Removed from the Chrome Web Store
Written by Sean KalinichGoogle’s Chrome (and derivatives) is one of the more popular browsers on the market. It reached the height of popularity via a well-orchestrated marketing push,…Written on Friday, 02 June 2023 12:01 in News Read 543 times Read more...
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Microsoft’s Xbox and Activision Both Considering Pulling Games out of the UK to get around CMA Block
Written by Sean KalinichRemember how the EU regulators said the Microsoft Activision deal was pro competition and pro-consumer? Well, I wonder what they might be thinking now as…Written on Friday, 02 June 2023 10:00 in Game Thoughts Read 190 times Read more...
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RaaS group Updates their Software with Better Performance and Stealthy Features
Written by Sean KalinichThe group behind BlackCat ransomware seem to be following some good business practices as they have launched a new variant with improved performance (faster encryption)…Written on Thursday, 01 June 2023 13:41 in News Read 551 times Read more...
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RedFall – How to Enjoy an Awkward, Buggy, and Confusing Game
Written by Sean KalinichFor the second of our game reviews, since returning to covering games, we decided to look at the Microsoft flagship game RedFall. If you have…Written on Thursday, 01 June 2023 11:05 in Game Thoughts Read 373 times Read more...
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RedFall Developers Hoped the Game would get Cancelled Before Launch
Written by Sean KalinichRedFall by Akrane Austin was not a well-received game. It has been pretty much panned by everyone that played it. The complaints range from a…Written on Thursday, 01 June 2023 11:02 in Game Thoughts Read 209 times Read more...
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Claimed EDR Killer Found to be a Vulnerable AV Driver Similar to Past Evasion Techniques
Written by Sean KalinichA couple of days ago an email was sent to me about a new tool kit being sold on the darker side of the internet.…Written on Thursday, 01 June 2023 08:26 in News Read 240 times Read more...
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Gigabyte Shipped Millions of Motherboards with a Massively Insecure UEFI Patch Function
Written by Sean KalinichThis one goes in both the “failure of imagination” and “this is why we can’t have nice things” category. It seems that Gigabyte, for some…Written on Wednesday, 31 May 2023 16:51 in News Read 117 times Read more...
Recent Comments
- Sean, this is a fantastic review of a beautiful game. I do agree with you… Written by Jacob 2023-05-19 14:17:50 Jedi Survivor – The Quick, Dirty, and Limited Spoilers Review
- Great post. Very interesting read but is the reality we are currently facing. Written by JP 2023-05-03 02:33:53 The Dangers of AI; I Think I Have Seen this Movie Before
- I was wondering if you have tested the microphone audio frequency for the Asus HS-1000W? Written by Maciej 2020-12-18 14:09:33 Asus HS-1000W wireless headset impresses us in the lab
- Thanks for review. I appreciate hearing from a real pro as opposed to the blogger… Written by Keith 2019-06-18 04:22:36 The Red Hydrogen One, Possibly One of the Most “misunderstood” Phones Out
- Have yet to see the real impact but in the consumer segment, ryzen series are… Written by sushant 2018-12-23 10:12:12 AMD’s 11-year journey to relevance gets an epic finish.
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MIT and Texas Intruments create an RFID Chip that is secure.. for now
Written by Sean KalinichThe term hack-proof is one that people have thrown around for some time. It is one of those phrases like NSA-Proof or malware proof that really do not mean what they should mean. However, it is certainly meant to mean that the technology in question is resistant to the majority of known (important word there) attacks. It is important to mention this definition as we start talking about the announcement that MIT and Texas Instruments have developed a new “hack-proof” RFID chip.
AMD launches World's First Hardware Virtualized GPU
Written by Sean KalinichAMD made an interesting announcement today. They are claiming to have the world’s first hardware virtualized GPU. Dubbed the FirePro S7150 and S7150 x2, these two server GPUs are not intended as direct output devices, but are to be used to power graphics for virtualized solutions. From the announcement AMD is diving into the cloud gaming, GPU assisted cloud computing and also in GPU accelerated VDI applications.
BleepingComputer hit with SLAPP suit from Enigma Software over comparrion thread.
Written by Sean KalinichThe term SLAPP is one that most people might not be aware of. To put it bluntly SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) lawsuits are ones that attempt to censor information or public discourse on a particular topic. The most common ones are from corporate entities that are trying to stop negative information about their products or other areas from getting out. The negative information is not slanderous or libelous in nature and in most cases can be backed up with documentation. Still the corporate minds try the threat of litigation to remove the information.
Is Virtual Reality really the next IT technology?
Written by Sean KalinichIt is said that nature abhors a vacuum and that is certainly true. Something will come along to fill the void if we let nature take its course. Unfortunately this law is a little mutated in the consumer electronics market and especially in the PC component world. Here is reads; the market cannot stand not having an “It” technology, so we much create one. It seems that the last few years we have been watching this happen.
YouTube not liable in Germany for users' copyright infringement
Written by Sean KalinichYouTube and copyright has been a controversial subject since they first hit the internet. The problem is who is liable for copyright infringement. Is it the poster or the service? The copyright gang would love to tell you it is both. They want the chance to go after the individuals and also to be sure to get financially compensated by the service provider. Sadly in the US the courts are siding with the copyright cartels for a multitude of reasons (none are based on how technology works though). In EMEA, well things are a tad different over there.
Norse Corp, famous for their live attack map and Viking based parties at Black Hat, could be having some financial issues. At least that is the word from researcher Brian Krebs. Over the last couple of weeks they have laid off 30% of their staff and let their CEO go. Neither of the occurrences is good news for a company that is relatively new (Norse was founded in 2010). The basis of the business was to provide a nimble product that would allow for better threat tracking and blocking. Everything was centered on the use of live information to help prevent and mitigate attacks.
HSBC's DDoS raises questions on how companies treat these events.
Written by Sean KalinichOne cool thing about working in IT is that things are very predictable. You generally know how a system or application will react if you do this or that to it. This is how people find and use exploits in software and even hardware. You look at how an application works and identify ways you can use those processes against it. It is like digital judo. However, what many people do not really get is that this also works when setting up a larger organization for an attack. If you can track how they will respond to a particular threat, you can use it against them in very interesting ways.
Anaheim Police caught using DRT Cell Simulators to listen in on calls
Written by Sean KalinichLaw Enforcement surveillance is a necessary thing. It really is, but what is not necessary is when the agencies in question decide to get lazy or feel their powers extend to a larger group of people than their intended targets. This is when things get messy and from a legal stand point ugly. Over the last ten or so years law enforcement in general has made the decision to extend their surveillance programs into mass collection of data.
TOR releases version 5.5 of the TOR Browser Bundle; bug fixes galore
Written by Sean KalinichTor has pushed out a new version of its privacy enhancing Tor Browser Bundle. We are up to 5.5 now and, according to the Tor Project it is a full stable release. The update fixes a laundry list of bugs and also covers some usability issues that have been plaguing the software for some time. One interesting note is that they are finally working on blocking ways of fingerprinting users through different mechanisms (resolution, keyboard type etc.).
The race to HBM2 for the future VR GPU performance crown
Written by Sean KalinichOn the 19th of January Samsung announced that they had begun mass production of their 4GB HBM 2.0 3D memory. This announcement was the starting gun for the next big GPU race. As we know both AMD and NVIDIA are racing to get viable products to the market in time for Oculus and HTC to launch their consumer version VR headsets. Up until now we have really only seen the developers’ kits and while these have been impressive they are not what most are hoping for in the final product.
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Oracle says they will kill off the Java Browser Plug-In... sometime in the future
Written by Sean KalinichIt seems that the stars might finally align to remove one of the largest security holes in the history of… well history itself. Oracle is announcing that it is finally getting rid of the Java Browser Plug-in… sometime. According to a blog post on the Oracle page they are aware that most (if not all) browsers are already blocking plug-ins like the one in the Java Runtime Environment. These are for security, stability and performance, and really should have been done a long time ago. Over the last few years the Java browser plug-in (along with Flash) has been the vector of choice for many web-based attacks.
BMG wants Cox to give up personal information on suspected Pirates
Written by Sean KalinichThe world of copyright and patents is one of ignorance, greed and just plain stupidity. This is, sadly, on just about all sides of the game. From the people complaining all the way to the judges asked to decide these cases. We have already talked (at length) about the fantasy math the copyright holders use in determining damage and the massive impacts on privacy that they want to further their causes, but now we area in a situation where they have “won” something that no one every should have even considered.
AMD earnings call indicates a rough 2016 ahead
Written by Sean KalinichAMD as a corporate entity is facing some rough times. As of their last earnings call we saw that they are still losing money and really do not have a product ready to combat this. The Rage Fury line of GPUs is doing ok in terms of sales, but as of this writing AMD has not been able to take a significant amount of market share from NVIDIA or even Intel. This is not to say that Radeon Graphics, or AMD’s APUs are bad products, it is just that they are not performing as well as the competition. In terms of the APU AMD still cannot compete with the compute power of Intel’s Core series even though the GPU side of the APU is a much better product.
When is encryption not encryption? When it is faked.
Written by Sean KalinichIn the war against (yes against) encryption there are many things to hide behind. One of the most frequently used is that criminals will use it to mask their dastardly deeds. The term criminal is, of course interchangeable with just about any other popular bad guy; pedophile, drug dealer, terrorist…. You know the list. Anytime there is even a hint that one of these media boogeymen used some sort of encryption, we hear that law enforcement and the government need to be able to break encryption.