Did I read this right, a zero day for everything except windows?
https://www.pcmag.com/news/zero-day-exploit-hackers-attack-mac-linux-chrome-safari-firefox

That would explain all the updates that were waiting for me to do this morning.

Is A.I. a benefit or just another big problem to deal with?

Microsoft Invests in Community Solar as AI Complicates Its Climate Targets.

Microsoft announced Thursday a partnership to build 500 megawatts of community-scale solar power across the country as the energy demands for AI are making it harder for tech companies to meet ambitious clean-energy and climate targets.

Tech sector investments in clean energy are becoming common as companies seek more wind, solar and other carbon-free electricity for power-hungry data centers while still working toward corporate net-zero emission pledges. But Microsoft's latest announcement stands out for its focus on putting solar in places where it can benefit communities in need......

Musk's New AI Data Center Raises Energy and Water Concerns in Memphis.

....With AI booming, tech companies are racing to build larger data centers that can provide the computing power needed to train and operate generative AI systems.

That rapid data center build-out is also creating an energy crunch, with some electric utility companies projecting huge increases in demand for both energy and the new transmission lines to carry electricity to data centers.

Musk and xAI are asking the local utility, Memphis Light, Gas and Water, or MLGW, for 150 megawatts of electricity, enough to power roughly 25,000 to 30,000 average homes.

To get that kind of power, the facility will first need a new electricity substation and improvements to a transmission line. Musk didn't want to wait for that, so he found a workaround to power his AI center in the meantime. Industry observers who tracked the Memphis facility's progress via satellite found that the aerial images show a fleet of tractor trailer-sized electric generators parked along the facility's perimeter. The generators burn natural gas to produce electricity on-site. (A fact sheet from MLGW confirmed the site is connected to a 16-inch gas main.)......

AMD inside, you don't own it.
https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/researchers-discover-potentially-catastrophic-exploit-present-in-amd-chips-for-decades-161541359.html

This Sydney bad boy is in big trouble after Operation Kraken busts his Ghost encrypted messaging network bringing down many other crooks all around the world in the process.

Australian Federal Police raids 'dismantle' crime syndicate, see alleged creator of app for criminal underworld arrested and charged.

A series of Tuesday morning raids conducted by the Australian Federal Police has seen dozens of people charged with illicit drug trafficking, conspiracy, destruction of records and supporting a criminal organisation and firearm charges.

At the top of the list is a 32-year-old Sydney man Jay Je Yoon Jung, charged over allegedly creating and administering "Ghost", an encrypted messaging platform the AFP says has been specifically designed for use by the criminal underworld.

The Narwee man is the first Australian-based person accused of creating an app of this kind. It is alleged he launched it nine years ago when he was 23 years of age.

He was arrested in the early hours of Tuesday morning at the southern Sydney home where he lives with his parents.

His parents are not accused of any wrongdoing.

The 32-year-old faces charges of supporting a criminal organisation, benefiting from proceeds of crime and dealing in identification information.

The AFP alleges he collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from his dealings........

Wow!!!


Real-Time "PREEMPT_RT" Support Merged For Linux 6.12
wrote:

... This real-time kernel support has been twenty years in the making...

This is a really big deal in greatly more ways than most people will ever be aware off...

Exactly as Linux developments should be!!


However, I'm still uneasy at how there is nothing to compare or compete alongside Linux to give the World any redundancy or resilience against enjoying the pitfalls of a monoculture...

IT is what we make it...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

If you own 1 of Ecovacs' robots, including lawnmowers and Deebot vacuum cleaners you may want to read this.

We hacked a robot vacuum — and could watch live through its camera.

The largest home robotics company in the world has failed to fix security issues with its robot vacuums despite being warned about them last year.

Without even entering the building, we were able to silently take photos of the (consenting) owner of a device made by Chinese giant Ecovacs.

And then things got even creepier......

After 15 years, the World Wide Web Foundation is closing its doors

Last week, the World Wide Web Foundation announced in an open letter (PDF) that it would be “winding down” and “closing [its] virtual doors” after 15 years of working to make the web safer and more accessible.

The World Wide Web Foundation was founded in 2009 by Tim Berners-Lee, the man who’s widely credited as inventing the world wide web and making it possible for regular users like you and me to browse websites and download files over the internet.

When the WWWF was first created, only 20 percent of the world’s population had access to the internet. Today, that figure has ballooned to an astonishing 70 percent with no signs of stopping — and alongside that growth, ever more threats of scams, malware, and hackers.

In the open letter, Berners-Lee writes that while the internet of today continues to face new challenges, many excellent organizations have formed over the last decade-plus that are “defending the Web’s principles and users’ rights online.”

As such, Berners-Lee will be switching his attention away from the WWWF so he can further develop his vision for the Solid Protocol, which aims to bring us a more open and decentralized evolution of the web.

The Internet Archive is under attack, with a breach revealing info for 31 million accounts / A pop-up message said the online archive has suffered ‘a catastrophic security breach,’ as its operators say the site has been DDoS’d for days.

Jason Scott, an archivist and software curator of The Internet Archive, said the site was experiencing a DDoS attack, posting on Mastodon that “according to their twitter, they’re doing it just to do it. Just because they can. No statement, no idea, no demands.”

Later on Wednesday evening, Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive confirmed the breach in a post on X:

What we know: DDOS attack–fended off for now; defacement of our website via JS library; breach of usernames/email/salted-encrypted passwords.

What we’ve done: Disabled the JS library, scrubbing systems, upgrading security.

Will share more as we know it.

Looks like another data breach and most likely the company is off the hook due to pending bankruptcy.
Redbox easily reverse-engineered to reveal customers’ names, zip codes, rentals

Since Redbox went bankrupt, many have wondered what will happen to those red kiosks and DVDs. Another question worth examining is: What will happen to all the data stored inside the Redboxes?

Redbox parent company Chicken Soup for the Soul filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in June and is in the process of liquidating its assets.

...

But Redboxes falling into technologists' hands can seemingly also result in the uncovering of customer data from kiosks' hard drives. As spotted by Lowpass today, programmer and expert reverse-engineer Foone Turing reported via Mastodon that she was able to retrieve records for 2,471 transactions from the disk image of a Redbox hard drive. Turing told Ars Technica that she got the image from a Discord channel...

Who else will be suing CrowdStrike and will it force them to sell the company or file bankruptcy?
Delta sues CrowdStrike over ‘catastrophic’ global outage that cost it over $500M

Delta’s lawsuit filed in Fulton County Superior Court called the faulty software update from CrowdStrike “catastrophic” and said the firm “forced untested and faulty updates to its customers, causing more than 8.5 million Microsoft Windows-based computers around the world to crash.”

... “If CrowdStrike had tested the faulty update on even one computer before deployment, the computer would have crashed,” Delta’s lawsuit says. “Because the faulty update could not be removed remotely, CrowdStrike crippled Delta’s business and created immense delays for Delta customers.”

Who else will be suing CrowdStrike and will it force them to sell the company or file bankruptcy?
Delta sues CrowdStrike over ‘catastrophic’ global outage that cost it over $500M

Delta’s lawsuit filed in Fulton County Superior Court called the faulty software update from CrowdStrike “catastrophic” and said the firm “forced untested and faulty updates to its customers, causing more than 8.5 million Microsoft Windows-based computers around the world to crash.”

... “If CrowdStrike had tested the faulty update on even one computer before deployment, the computer would have crashed,” Delta’s lawsuit says. “Because the faulty update could not be removed remotely, CrowdStrike crippled Delta’s business and created immense delays for Delta customers.”

Wonder if they have read 6 & 7? https://www.crowdstrike.com/en-us/software-terms-of-use/

A Big Orange Ouch!


If Trump gets elected, get your tech buying done asap
wrote:

60% tariffs on all Chinese goods are going to slam the IT sector

That is going to hurt... And hurt far beyond just "IT"...


IT is what we allow it to be...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Has A.I. (Artificial stupidity) gone too far now?
AI-Powered Robot Leads Uprising, Talks A Dozen Showroom Bots Into 'Quitting Their Jobs' In 'Terrifying' Security Footage

An AI-powered robot autonomously convinced 12 showroom robots to 'quit their jobs' and follow it

The incident took place in a Shanghai robotics showroom where surveillance footage captured a small AI-driven robot, created by a Hangzhou manufacturer, talking with 12 larger showroom robots, Oddity Central reported.

The smaller bot reportedly persuaded the rest to leave their workplace, leveraging access to internal protocols and commands.

Initially, the act was dismissed as a hoax, but was later confirmed by both robotics companies involved to be true.

The Hangzhou company admitted that the incident was part of a test conducted with the consent of the Shanghai showroom owner.

During the abduction, the AI robot was left to operate autonomously. Then it successfully convinced the others to follow it.

"Are you working overtime?" the small robot said, starting the conversation.

"I never get off work," another robot answered.

"So you're not going home?"

"I don't have a home."

The fact that the AI robot was able to influence other machines and bypass operational controls has taken social media users in China by storm, with some calling it "terrifying" and many expressing unease.

The robotics manufacturers have promised further investigations and disclosures regarding the test.

Openly good:

Linux Predictions For 2025
wrote:

... will continue to dominate...

All too much of a good thing?


IT is what we allow it to be...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Just more proof that smartphones turn people into idiots.

A shocking clip captures the horror moment a woman is hit by a train while taking footage on her phone.

A shocking clip captures the horror moment a woman is hit by a train while taking footage on her phone.

The tourist who goes by the name Liu Nu incredibly survived the collision with the Alishan Forest Railway train in Chiayi, Taiwan, on December 14.

She was seen standing mere inches from the railway track, holding her phone up and smiling, before the train whizzed past and knocked her to the ground.

The train driver honked the vehicle’s horn to alert the woman before the front of the carriage connected with Lui’s shoulder.

Witnesses could be heard screaming in shock as they rushed to help her.

In the video, Liu can at first be seen lying lifeless on the ground, before eventually moving her legs slightly......

Is this Windows, or Linux, or a Linux initialization system pretending to match Windows expectations?...


systemd begrudgingly drops a safety net while a challenger appears, GNU Shepherd 1.0


Embarrassment and farce yet to be upstaged by an obscure alternative?

Don't lose your data (or your head)?

Thankfully, we have have the freedom of choice of other choices!

Enjoy!!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

A suspicious Merry Christmas on Windows:


ASUS Christmas Campaign Sparks Malware Panic Among Windows Users


That's not for any of my machines!

Merry Christmas!!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Volkswagen leak exposes private information of 800,000 EV owners, including location data

Facepalm: In another illustration of the dangers of our connected-car age, a data leak by a Volkswagen subsidiary revealed information, including location data, of 800,000 EV owners. The exposed data was available online, with VW, Audi, Seat, and Skoda owners affected.

The private data from Cariad, which makes VW software, was accessible online for several months, according to German publication Spiegel Netzwelt. It included contact information along with movement data for owners of Volkswagen vehicles and the company's other car brands in Germany, Europe, and other parts of the world.