Friday, June 28, 2024

Struggling to Sleep During a Heat Wave? 12 Hacks to Combat Night Sweats

You aren't the only one tossing and turning during hot summer nights. Here are 12 expert tips for cooler, comfier sleep.

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Cybersecurity researchers from Outpost24’s KrakenLabs observed a new and quite unique malware campaign that seems to values quantity over quality.

Usually, when hackers compromise a device, they deploy a single piece of malware and try their best to remain unseen and persistent, as they use the computer for whatever end goal they have.

But this new campaign, dubbed Unfurling Hemlock, does the exact opposite, making it stand out in the world of cybercrime. The researchers are saying that once the victim triggers the malware executable - in this case called ‘EXTRACT.EXE’ - they receive a handful of different malware, infostealers, and botnet executables.

Malware cluster bomb

The chances of the malware being picked up by cybersecurity solutions is high, but the researchers believe the attackers are hoping at least some of the payloads will survive the purge. Among the things dropped on the devices are Redline (popular infostealer), RisePro (an upcoming infostealer), Mystic Stealer (infostealing malware-as-a-service), Amadey (loader), SmokeLoader (another loader), Protection Disabler (a utility that disables Windows Defender and other security features), Enigma Packer (obfuscation tool), Healer (anti-security solution), and Performance Checker (a utility that checks and logs the performance of malware execution).

This “malware cluster bomb” was first spotted in February 2024, the researchers said, claiming to have seen more than 50,000 cluster bomb files, all with unique characteristics that link them back to Unfurling Hemlock. 

KrakenLabs could not say with absolute certainty who the threat actors behind Unfurling Hemlock are, but they are fairly confident they are of Eastern European origin. Some of the evidence pointing in that direction is the use of Russian language in some of the samples, and the use of the Autonomous System 203727, related to a hosting service cybercrime groups in the region usually use. 

Luckily enough, the malware being pushed through this campaign is well-known and most reputable antivirus programs will flag it.

Via BleepingComputer

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Thursday, June 27, 2024

Take Advantage of This Exclusive CNET Discount on One of Our Favorite Treadmills

Score big savings on the budget-friendly Horizon Fitness 7.0 AT treadmill with the exclusive CNET code CNETFIREWORK200.

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Anthropic has upgraded its Claude generative AI assistant to be more useful in the office. Claude Pro and Claude Team subscribers can now better organize and track their work with the AI assistant thanks to the new Projects and Artifacts features.

Projects are both a place for storing and interacting with data for tasks. Users can upload all their documents, code, and other relevant data into one place. Each project within Claude.ai includes a 200K context window, equivalent to a 500-page book. They can then ask Claude about it, and even set up custom instructions for how to respond in terms of tone or the context of who is asking and what they might need. The idea is to avoid what Anthropic calls "cold starts," where users must start from scratch each time they engage with the AI assistant. By having a knowledge base to draw from, Claude can respond to queries more quickly and accurately.

Office Artifacts

The Artifacts feature is a kind of flip of the Projects in that it can produce a wide range of content the way Projects can store them. Users can ask Claude to make text, code, and other 'artifacts.' Claude will share the output in a dedicated window alongside the chat, like a preview window of what it's composing. This setup enables users to see and interact with the generated content in real time, providing immediate feedback and adjustments where needed. An additional upgrade lets users share the best bits of conversations with Claude with their team in a shared project activity feed.

Both Projects and Artifacts are powered by Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Anthropic’s latest AI model. According to the company, Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperforms recently announced models like GPT-4o and Google's Gemini 1.5 on a variety of benchmarks.

"Our vision for Claude has always been to create AI systems that work alongside people and meaningfully enhance their workflows," Anthropic explained in a blog post. "With this new functionality, Claude can enable idea generation, more strategic decision-making, and exceptional results."

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Identity verification company AU10TIX kept a set of admin credentials exposed for more than a year, possibly allowing threat actors to steal its customers’ sensitive data.

AU10TIX verifies user identities on behalf of its clients, which include, among others, TikTok, X, and Uber, via selfie pictures and scans of people’s driver’s licenses. 

Cybersecurity researchers from spiderSilk were the first (among white hat researchers) to stumble upon the credentials. They claim that the login information grants access to a logging platform, where access to the identity documents is unabated. 

Stolen credentials

“My personal reading of this situation is that an ID Verification service provider was entrusted with people's identities and it failed to implement simple measures to protect people's identities and sensitive ID documents,” said Mossab Hussein, the chief security officer at spiderSilk. 

Unfortunately, it seems that malicious players beat spiderSilk to the punch, as account information was probably picked up by a piece of malware in December 2022, and shared via Telegram in March 2023. 

If someone did access this database (which AU10TIX claims was not abused in the wild), they would have gotten access to people’s names, birth dates, nationalities, ID numbers, and images of their faces. This is more than enough to run successful identity theft of phishing attacks. Such data is also quite expensive on the black market, too.

AU10TIX said it notified the affected customers and that it is replacing the current operating system with a new one, with more focus on security. 

It signed X as a client in September 2023, when we reported that the company had a clean rap sheet, without any public data breaches. As such, it was seen as a good choice for the social media behemoth. We did, however, said we’d remain skeptical given Musk’s controversial decisions in the past, and we were most definitely right.

Via 404 Media

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Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Latest Tech News

InspireSemi has announced the successful tapeout of the Thunderbird I Accelerated Computing chip for fabrication at TSMC. 

This highly differentiated "supercomputer cluster-on-a-chip" features 1,536 custom 64-bit RISC-V CPU cores, tailored for high-level scientific computing and complex data processing.

Thunderbird I is designed to cater to a wide array of compute-intensive applications, from AI and machine learning to graph analytics. Leveraging the open standard RISC-V CPU ISA, it allows easier development and integration into existing technology frameworks, with access to a solid ecosystem of software, libraries, and tools.

PCIe add-in card planned

The chip's architecture integrates a high-speed mesh network fabric that provides substantial bandwidth and minimal latency communication among cores, important for applications that rely on synchronized operations across multiple threads. This efficient network integration manages interactions within the chip's core array and memory systems, ensuring optimal performance without the common bottlenecks.

The upcoming product release will include a server PCIe add-in card hosting four Thunderbird chips, providing over 6,000 interconnected 64-bit CPU cores. This setup is equipped to handle double-precision math, essential for many high-performance computing applications in fields like climate science, medical research, and complex simulations.

Ron Van Dell, CEO of InspireSemi, said, “We are proud of the accomplishment of our engineering and operations team to finish the Thunderbird I design and submit it to our world-class supply chain partners, TSMC, ASE, and imec for production. We expect to begin customer deliveries in the fourth quarter.” There's no word on pricing yet, however.

InspireSemi also stresses Thunderbird I’s  energy efficiency, a carryover from its initial design for energy-sensitive blockchain computing applications. The company says this approach offers more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional data center GPUs.

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Medusa, an Android banking trojan that had been laying low for roughly a year now, has made a fresh appearance, experts have warned

A new, lightweight Medusa variant has been seen being used by multiple threat actors, and targeting victims in numerous countries around the world, noted cybersecurity researchers from Cleafy.

In their report, the researchers said they recently observed a surge in installations of a new app called “4K Sports”. Subsequent investigation determined the app to be an evolution of Medusa, with significant changes in its command infrastructure and capabilities.

Expanding targets

Most notably, the new variant requests fewer permissions, making it less detectable. It still asks for Accessibility Services, which should always be a red flag. Other notable mentions include Broadcasting SMS, Internet Foreground Service, and Package Management.

In total, 17 commands were nixed, and five new ones introduced, including setting a black screen overlay, taking screenshots, and more.

Five different botnets, each with unique operational goals and geographical targets, were identified using the new Medusa. These are called UNKN, AFETZEDE, ANAKONDA, PEMBE, and TONY, and their targets were mostly located in Canada, Spain, France, Italy, the UK, the US, and Turkey.

To distribute Medusa, the botnets are most likely using droppers, the researchers said. However, the droppers have not yet been found on the Google Play Store, which significantly reduces its reach. However, dedicated websites, social media channels, phishing, and other methods, are still viable and can still result in hundreds of thousands of downloads. 

Not to be confused with the ransomware, or the Mirai-based botnet of the same name, the Medusa banking trojan is a sophisticated piece of malware primarily designed to target financial institutions and facilitate banking fraud. It was first identified in 2020, targeting Turkish financial institutions. By 2022, Medusa had launched major campaigns in North America and Europe.

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It seems like every day, there is a new macOS Sequoia feature to look forward to, or some kind of improvement in Apple’s incoming OS, with a freshly spotted one opening up the doors to improved accessibility on the audio front.

MacRumors has been busy playing with the macOS 15 developer beta and discovered this new functionality in System Settings. Under Headphone Accommodations (in Accessibility > Audio), you can tweak the sound for your AirPods and some Beats headphones. 

The settings therein let you amplify softer sounds - to make them more easily heard - and change the audio output frequencies to make your music, phone calls, and more clearer sounding (or at least that’s the idea). From what we can tell, the new settings you run with will carry over when using your AirPods on devices other than your Mac. 

This could be a really useful feature for those who are hard of hearing to some degree, and it’s an ability that has been on iOS devices for some time. So, while it’s undoubtedly a very commendable step forward for accessibility with macOS, some folks out there are wondering why it took so long to bring this functionality across to the Mac.

Still, we’re glad to see it’s arriving, and in the run-up to the release of macOS Sequoia, we’re seeing a lot of new and interesting features and tweaks pop up that seem to be popular. 

A recent example is the fix for the annoying storage issue Mac users have to deal with when it comes to downloading apps, as well as the more anticipated changes like iPhone mirroring and a plethora of AI features powered by Apple Intelligence.

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Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Have Paramount Plus? Here's What the Upcoming Price Hike Means for You - CNET

Existing subscribers may or may not need to pay more soon.

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ASMedia recently demonstrated its USB4 v2 physical layer (PHY) chips at Computex 2024, which will allow external SSDs to reach speeds of up to 15GBps, potentially matching the performance of internal drives.

The USB4 Version 2.0 specification, released by the USB Implementers Forum in October 2022, introduces several advancements over the previous version. 

It incorporates the new PAM3 signal encoding format, which extends the USB4 bandwidth from 40Gbps to 80Gbps for peer-to-peer connections and allows for asymmetric speeds of 120Gbps/40Gbps.

FPGA-based USB4 Dock

ASMedia's presentation at Computex, titled "Incredible Speed, Exceeding the Limit," covered both USB4 and PCIe Gen5 technologies. The USB4 v2 presentation showed 80Gbps and 120Gbps physical layers, which are capable of dramatically improving the speed at which large data files and high-resolution videos can be transferred. USB4's backward compatibility also ensures seamless integration with existing USB devices.

The PCIe 5.0 PHY chip on show at the same event is tailored for the demanding needs of high-performance computing, big data, and - of course - AI servers. It is set to offer faster transmission speeds, reduced latency, and support for a broader range of high-performance devices. Details on this chip are scare right now, however.

Looking forward, the Taiwanese tech firm says it plans to sample multi-lane PCIe Gen4 Packet Switches by the end of 2024. It is also set to unveil an FPGA-based USB4 Dock at CES 2025.

This future dock, designed for multifunctional workstations, promises up to 40Gbps transmission speeds and up to 240W power delivery. The dock will also offer the usual array of ports including USB A and C, HDMI, DisplayPort, and Ethernet, enabling enhanced connectivity and charging capabilities for multiple devices. 

Pricing and availability of these new products will announced in due course.

ASMedia USB4 v2 demo

(Image credit: ASMedia)

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Monday, June 24, 2024

Here's How to Buy Stamps Honoring Iconic Jeopardy! Host Alex Trebek - CNET

I'll take, "Best Postage Stamp News" for $500, Alex.

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While everyone anxiously awaits the official Amazon Prime Day date (although it might have just been accidentally leaked), Walmart is getting in on the action by announcing it's launching a huge rival sale, "Walmart Deals."

The Walmart Deals sale will begin on Monday, July 8, at 5 PM ET and last until Thursday, July 11, at Midnight, and Walmart Plus members will get early access starting at Noon ET. Walmart's press release claims it will be the retailer's largest savings event ever, with deals on best-selling items, including tech gadgets, home items, toys, travel gear, and back-to-school must-haves.

While Amazon isn't mentioned, based on years past, we know that Walmart always launches a July summer sale to try and take a piece of the Prime Day pie. Walmart is trying to compete with the retail giant by offering similar or even better deals and exclusive offers.

Unlike Amazon, Walmart has given us a preview of the bargains at its July sale, and I've listed some of the best deals below. Those include discounts on TVs, vacuums, kitchen appliances, popular toys, laptops, and more. I've also included a link to sign up for a free 30-day trial of Walmart Plus if you're interested in early access to the sale.

Walmart Plus: sign up for a free 30-day trial
You can sign up for a Walmart Plus membership and gain early access to the July Walmart Deals sale. You can try Walmart Plus for free for 30 days, and after that, an annual plan is $98 or $8.17 a month. Walmart Plus perks include free shipping with no order minimum, a free Paramount Plus subscription, discounts on gas, and early access to sales.View Deal

Walmart Deals sale preview: the 13 best offers

You can shop early bargains right now in our 4th of July sales roundup.



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Sunday, June 23, 2024

Latest Tech News

Gigabyte has launched its AI TOP 100E series of SSDs specifically designed for high-endurance tasks such as AI training. 

The new SSDs are available in 1TB and 2TB capacities and come housed in a standard M.2 2280 form factor.

What makes them stand out from the competition is their extraordinary endurance ratings. Gigabyte says the 2TB model offers up to 219,000 TBW (Terabytes Written), a figure that is significantly higher than you’d expect from typical consumer SSDs. The mean time between failure (MTBF) is rated as 1.6 million hours.

AI TOP utility

AI TOP 100E uses the PCIe 4.0x4, NVMe 1.4  interface, so it won’t win any performance races, especially not when compared to newer PCIe 5.0 drives, but it’s fast enough. The 1TB SSD offers sequential read speeds up to 7,200MB/s and write speeds up to 6,500MB/s, slightly outperforming the 2TB model (7000MB/s reads, 5900MB/s writes). So essentially, based on the figures it's provided, Gigabyte is saying the 2TB model can write 219,000,000GB at 5.9 GB/s in 37,118,644 seconds, or approximately 1.18 years. That's quite a claim.

Gigabyte hasn’t detailed how it achieves its enhanced durability, nor specified the type of 3D NAND used, but the drive supports exceptionally high levels of data write operations, rated at 60 drive writes per day (DWPD).

Due to their limited capacity and high costs, VRAM and system DRAM often become bottlenecks when training an AI models. The AI TOP 100E SSD does come with a "AI TOP" utility which Gigabyte says will let users “offload the processing of large datasets from VRAM or DRAM to the AI TOP 100E SSD, effectively enlarging your memory pool and upgrading the capability to fine-tune large AI models. This approach enhances performance and significantly lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO), with the AI TOP 100E SSD emerging as the most cost-effective option per gigabyte compared to VRAM and system DRAM.”

While specific pricing and availability details have yet to be announced, the SSD comes with a five-year limited warranty or is guaranteed for 109,500 TBW (1TB model) or 219,000 TBW (2TB), whichever comes first.

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Copa America 2024 Soccer: Livestream USA vs. Bolivia From Anywhere - CNET

The host nation gets Group C underway in Texas against La Verde.

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Saturday, June 22, 2024

Best Blue Light Glasses of 2024 - CNET

Staring at screens for long periods of time can lead to eye strain and compromise your sleep quality. The best blue light glasses can help.

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Heat Domes and Surging Grid Demand Threaten US Power Grids with Blackouts

A new report shows a sharp increase in peak electricity demand, leading to blackout concerns in multiple states. Here's how experts say ...