GEEK TO ME: It’s time to bid farewell to Flash Player

Question: First, your column is first on my Saturday reading list, and one of the reasons we still have a newspaper subscription. Second, I’m usually able to figure out the problems on our computers, being self-taught. ‘Nuf of that. The main reason for this is that a disturbing notification happened yesterday. It appeared quick and disappeared and I’m unable to confirm it. The note was “Adobe will be removed and not be supporting any Windows 10 computers on Dec. 31, 2020.” We have used Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash Player since their origination, and it seems we still get something that… Source link

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Did Timothee Chalamet Shade Warner Bros While Hosting ‘SNL’?

Photo credit; Warner Bros. If you’re not paying attention to the turmoil in Hollywood over Warner Bros.’ decision to put all its 2021 films on HBO Max and in theaters at the same time, you might have missed a veiled swipe that Timothee Chalamet made at the end of “Saturday Night Live” this weekend. During the customary end-of-show farewell, Chalamet implored viewers to “treat others with kindness,” giving credit to fellow recent “SNL” host Harry Styles for saying it first. But some on Twitter pointed out that the actor was wearing a hoodie featuring the logo of Legendary, the studio that produced two major blockbusters that Warner is including in the HBO Max move: “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “Dune,” the… Source link

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Russia’s SVR suspected in FireEye breach. Facebook attributes hacking campaigns. Mongolian government entities targeted.

By the CyberWire staff Russia’s SVR suspected in FireEye breach. Security firm FireEye disclosed on Tuesday that a “highly sophisticated state-sponsored adversary” had stolen the company’s proprietary red-teaming tools: “The stolen tools range from simple scripts used for automating reconnaissance to entire frameworks that are similar to publicly available technologies such as CobaltStrike and Metasploit. Many of the Red Team tools have already been released to the community and are already distributed in our open-source virtual machine, CommandoVM. Some of the tools are publicly available tools modified to evade basic security detection mechanisms. Other tools and frameworks were developed in-house for our Red Team. “The Red Team tools stolen by the attacker did not contain zero-day… Source link

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FireEye’s network testing tools were stolen – now what?

This week’s admission by FireEye that a suspected nation-state made off with so-called red team test tools it uses to probe customers’ networks for vulnerabilities has made some infosec pros uneasy. On the one hand, as many experts quickly noted, this wasn’t like the 2017 Shadow Brokers hack of the NSA which publicly revealed secret software exploits the U.S. intelligence agency used to break into targets. FireEye describes the stolen goods as ranging from “simple scripts used for automating reconnaissance to entire frameworks that are similar to publicly available technologies such as CobaltStrike and Metasploit.” Many of the tools have already been released to the infosec community, it added. FireEye quickly released what it says are hundreds of countermeasures and signatures… Source link

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Energy Companies from 10 Countries Won Honors at S&P Global Platts Global Energy Awards

NEW YORK, Dec. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Energy companies from 10 countries spanning four continents tonight received honors for leadership, innovation and exemplary performance at the 22nd annual S&P Global Platts Global Energy Awards, often described as the “Oscars” of energy. Actor-comedian-director Jason Alexander of cinema and television fame hosted the virtual event, which bestowed 22 awards upon companies and individuals.  Martin Fraenkel, president of S&P Global Platts: “In a year that was so tumultuous, it was particularly impressive and heartening to see how this year’s group of winners re-organized around obstacles, forged ahead on ground-breaking technology, completed… Source link

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Microsoft misfit helped lead company into game market

Windows inserted itself between game programs and the computer hardware in a way that slowed down graphics and animation. Game developers vastly preferred the DOS operating system, which didn’t gum up their special effects. That created an opportunity for three Microsoft misfits—Eric Engstrom, Alex St. John and Craig Eisler. Also read: The pandemic push to the silver economy Mr. Engstrom, who died Dec. 1 at the age of 55, and his pals formed one of several factions within Microsoft trying to solve the game problem. Openly contemptuous of colleagues who didn’t share their ideas, they were so obnoxious that Brad Silverberg, who ran the Windows business, dubbed them the Beastie Boys. He had to fend off frequent demands for their dismissal. Yet the solution they… Source link

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FireEye red team tools stolen in cyber attack

FireEye is urging organizations to take precautions after suspected nation-state hackers breached the security vendor and stole its red team tools. The massive cyber attack, which FireEye disclosed Tuesday, was perpetrated by “a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities,” CEO Kevin Mandia wrote in a blog post. As part of the cyber attack, FireEye’s red team tools were stolen, which, as a second post released Tuesday evening explained, are tools used in red teaming exercises to demonstrate the “impacts of successful attacks” for clients. “The stolen tools range from simple scripts used for automating reconnaissance to entire frameworks that are similar to publicly available technologies such as CobaltStrike and Metasploit. Many of the Red Team tools have already been released to… Source link

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Microsoft Misfit Helped Lead Company Into Game Market

In the early 1990s, Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system was dominant for office applications but a loser in the world of computer games. Windows inserted itself between game programs and the computer hardware in a way that slowed down graphics and animation. Game developers vastly preferred the DOS operating system, which didn’t gum up their special effects. That created an opportunity for three Microsoft misfits— Eric Engstrom, Alex St. John and Craig Eisler. Mr. Engstrom, who died Dec. 1 at the age of 55, and his pals formed one of several factions within Microsoft trying to solve the game problem. Openly contemptuous of colleagues who didn’t share their… Source link

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A Pilgrimage and Pooping at a Monolith | Opinion | Salt Lake City

OK, you monolith lovers, look what you’ve done. You have pooped all over the desert. This is the kind of s–t you can expect from people. The mysterious monolith in the Southern Utah desert was unknown until a state helicopter team spotted it in a small, remote drainage, placed there, no doubt, by aliens. (It appears on Google Earth in 2016.) As if seeking Mecca, the pilgrimage was on—followed by pooping, as though to bless or pay homage to the obelisk. Fortunately, four wise men… Source link

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Netflix Certain To Lose Over Executive Poaching Suit From Viacom – Deadline

Sure, they have the launch of The Surgeon’s Cut tomorrow, but some weeks it kind of bites to be Netflix. Already fighting an uphill appeal battle against Fox (AKA Disney ) for poaching two of their executives a few years aback, on December 4, the Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos-led streamer were sued by Activision Blizzard for allegedly seducing away the latter’s CFO back in late 2018. Now, in a repeat of sorts of the skirmish with Fox, Netflix looks almost certain on Thursday to lose their legal dust-up with Viacom (now ViacomCBS) for snagging Momita Sengupta from the Shari Redstone controlled company two years ago. “The Court finds that Viacom’s employment agreements do not contain unlawful non-compete covenants for the simple reason that Netflix has failed to support… Source link

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