Your daily dose of tech news, in brief.

Welcome to the Snap!

Flashback: March 10, 2000: Dot-Com Bubble Peaks (Read more HERE.)

Bonus Flashback: March 10, 2006: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Reaches Red Planet (Read more HERE.)

You need to hear this.

Police seize Netwire RAT malware infrastructure, arrest admin

According to BleepingComputer:

"An international law enforcement operation involving the FBI and police agencies worldwide led to the arrest of the suspected administrator of the NetWire remote access trojan and the seizure of the service’s web domain and hosting server.

NetWire was a remote access trojan promoted as a legitimate remote administration tool to manage a Windows computer remotely. The service was sold via a website . . . where users could sign up for subscriptions for as little as $10 a month, which included support."

Learn more at BleepingComputer.

And another thing...

Acronis Clarifies Hack Impact Following Data Leak

According to SecurityWeek:

"Acronis offers backup, disaster recovery, antivirus, and endpoint protection management solutions. After the incident came to light, the company’s CISO, Kevin Reed, clarified in a post on LinkedIn that the leaked data appears to come entirely from a single customer’s account.

“Based on our investigation so far, the credentials used by a single specific customer to upload diagnostic data to Acronis support have been compromised. We are working with that customer and have suspended account access as we resolve the issue. We also shared IOCs with our industry partners and work with law enforcement,” Reed said.

He added, “No other system or credential has been affected. There is no evidence of any other successful attack, nor there is any data in the leak that is not in the folder of that one customer. Our security team is obviously on high alert and the investigation continues.”"

Learn more at SecurityWeek.

Even more...

Hackers Targeting Unpatched SonicWall SMA Devices with Malware

According to The Hacker News:

""The malware has functionality to steal user credentials, provide shell access, and persist through firmware upgrades," cybersecurity company Mandiant said in a technical report published this week. The Google-owned incident response and threat intelligence firm is tracking the activity under its uncategorized moniker UNC4540.

The malware – a collection of bash scripts and a single ELF binary identified as a TinyShell backdoor – is engineered to grant the attacker privileged access to SonicWall devices. The overall objective behind the custom toolset appears to be credential theft, with the malware permitting the adversary to siphon cryptographically hashed credentials from all logged-in users. It further provides shell access to the compromised device."

Learn more at The Hacker News.

But there's more going on in the world than that.

Relativity Space Prepares to Launch First 3D Printed Rocket

According to ExtremeTech:

"Relativity Space initially planned to launch the rocket Wednesday, March 8. Observers eagerly watched the company’s YouTube livestream, vapor swirling around the 35-meter rocket. After an hour and 40 minutes, however, Terran 1 was still sitting atop its Cape Canaveral launchpad, and commentators announced Relativity Space’s decision to push back the launch.

“As you saw, we unfortunately scrubbed for today,” one commentator, Relativity Space infrastructure project manager Arwa Tizani, said. “While we obviously had high hopes for sending our Terran 1 off today, we’re going to continue to take a measured approach so we can ultimately see this rocket off to max q and beyond.”

Relativity Space quickly followed up with a tweet saying it had been forced to push back Terran 1’s launch after it exceeded Stage 2’s launch commit criteria limits for propellant thermal conditions. “When using liquid natural gas, the methane needs time to get to the right concentration,” Relativity Space explained. “This is why our next attempt will be a few days from now.” The company now plans to attempt the launch between 1 and 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 11."

Here's hoping it works out well. :)

Learn more at ExtremeTech.

Here's something odd...

Bing, yes that Bing, now has 100 million daily users

According to Mashable:

"Compared to Google's daily active user count, estimated to be at least one billion, 100 million daily active users is still small potatoes. But it's a significant milestone for the search engine that was often the butt of jokes. Since its launch a month ago, the new Bing has suddenly become the cool kid. Over one million users signed up for the waitlist to get access, and social media has been saturated with posts from users who got early access. The New York Times even posted an entire two hour transcript of a conversation between Bing chat and technology columnist Kevin Roose.

Of course, some of Bing's newfound popularity is often about how creepy or misguided it can be. But Bing has been using this feedback to create updates and improvements. The key is whether Microsoft can transform Bing's novelty into long-term success. "This is a surprisingly notable figure, and yet we are fully aware we remain a small, low, single digit share player," said Mehdi about the long road ahead. "That said, it feels good to be at the dance!""

I like seeing other browsers sharing the road. Just hoping everyone isn't trusting flawed AI more than they should. :)

Learn more at Mashable.

Another cool one...

Nintendo shares final Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer and kicks off Mario Day festivities

According to TechSpot:

"Nintendo's latest effort features cutting-edge animation and a star-studded voice cast including Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen and Keegan-Michael Key, among others. Charles Martinet, who has voiced both Mario and Luigi in several games since the early 90s, will also appear in "surprise cameos" throughout the film."

The movie trailer is in the article. Happy MAR10 Day. :)

Learn more at TechSpot.

And you can't not know this.

HP Updates Its Printers to Only Work With Official Ink Cartridges

According to PCMag:

"The company confirms that recent printer updates are implementing this change to requiring HP-approved ink. It's unclear which printer models are or will be affected by this change in the future. Some of HP's printer listings go so far as to state, "Cartridges using a non-HP chip may not work, and those that work today may not work in the future." It seems the only way to avoid your unofficial ink cartridges no longer working is to not install HP's printer updates.

It's surprising HP decided to do this as the company has gotten into trouble for doing it before and ended up paying millions in compensation through multiple lawsuits. Australians claimed $100,000 in compensation back in 2018, Italy fined the company $10.5 million in 2020, and a class-action lawsuit is slowly making its way through the US court system."

I'd rather buy a more expensive printer and not be caught up in future obligations, personally. You never know how things are going to be in the future, and I don't like feeling trapped into things like that.

Learn more at PCMag.

A final note...

Virtual reality games can be used as a tool in personnel assessment

According to TechXplore:

"Although many companies are increasingly using VR technology to recruit candidates, only a few studies have specifically investigated whether and how VR games can be used to draw conclusions about intelligence in this area. The study by Markus Weinmann and his colleagues contributes to bridging the gap between research and practice.

Weinmann and his fellow scientists invited 103 participants to their lab. Under controlled laboratory conditions, they played the commercial VR game "Job Simulator" and completed the short version of the intelligence test BIS-4.

The researchers' analyses show that participants who finished the game faster than others also had higher levels of general intelligence and processing capacity. An increase of 17% in processing capacity correlated with less time spent playing the game (by an average of 3.7 minutes). The results suggest that VR games can be useful supplementary tools in companies for predicting the job performance."

Can you imagine being asked to play a game as part of a job interview process, or your annual review? Seems like this would get rejected for some kind of discrimination... although at the same time, it might be fun. :)

Learn more at TechXplore.

Wait, one more...

Audi's electric mountain bike costs over $10,000

According to Engadget:

"The Audi electric mountain bike comes in three sizes, but you'll need to act quickly and carry a large bank balance. The bike is only available as a "limited run" model priced at £8,499 (about $10,200) in the UK. That puts it roughly on par with Porsche's $10,700 eBike Sport, and it's priced well above the $3,999 Bash/Mtn, the GMC Hummer e-bike (also $3,999) and the more powerful $5,499 Jeep e-bike. /em>"

I thought that was an outrageous price, but seeing all these comparison prices maybe it isn't. Mountain bikes are a lot more expensive than they were last time I bought one. :)

Learn more at Engadget.

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