Scary movies are the best kind of films to see with romantic partners, whether you’re trying to catch someone new’s fancy, or rekindle the flame in a longterm relationship. Fear can lead to attraction, or so science says. According to professor Javid Sadr from the University of Lethbridge, the fear that comes from…
Law firm Jones Walker has published the results of a survey focusing on the cybersecurity preparedness of ports and terminals in the United States.
Obtaining user operating system (OS) credentials from a targeted device is among threat actors’ primary goals when launching attacks because these credentials serve as a gateway to various objectives they can achieve in their target organization’s environment, such as lateral movement. One technique attackers use is targeting credentials in the Windows Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) process memory because it can store not only a current user’s OS credentials but also a domain admin’s.
LSASS credential dumping was first observed in the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of several sophisticated threat activity groups—including actors that Microsoft tracks as HAFNIUM and GALLIUM— and has become prevalent even in the cybercrime space, especially with the rise of the ransomware as a service gig economy. Detecting and stopping OS credential theft is therefore important because it can spell the difference between compromising or encrypting one device versus an entire network. Security solutions must provide specific measures and capabilities to help harden the LSASS process—for example, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint has advanced detections and a dedicated attack surface reduction rule (ASR) to block credential stealing from LSASS.
In May 2022, Microsoft participated in an evaluation conducted by independent testing organization AV-Comparatives specifically on detecting and blocking the LSASS credential dumping technique. The test, which evaluated several endpoint protection platforms (EPP) and endpoint detection and response (EDR) vendors, is the first time AV-Comparatives focused on a single attack technique, and we’re happy to report that Defender for Endpoint passed all 15 test cases used to dump user OS credentials from the LSASS process, achieving 100% detection and prevention scores. Notably, we also passed all test cases with only Defender for Endpoint’s default settings configured, that is, with LSASS ASR and Protective Process Light (PPL) turned off to validate our antivirus protection durability in itself. Such results demonstrate our continued commitment to provide organizations with industry-leading defense.
In this blog, we share examples of various threat actors that we’ve recently observed using the LSASS credential dumping technique. We also provide details on the testing methodology done by AV-Comparatives, which they also shared in their blog and detailed report. Finally, we offer additional recommendations to further harden systems and prevent attackers from taking advantage of possible misconfigurations should they fail to leverage credential dumping.
Dumping LSASS credentials is important for attackers because if they successfully dump domain passwords, they can, for example, then use legitimate tools such as PsExec or Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to move laterally across the network. They can also use techniques like pass-the-hash for lateral movement if they manage to obtain the password hashes.
Microsoft researchers are constantly monitoring the threat landscape, including the different ways threat actors attempt to steal user credentials. The table below is a snapshot of the most popular credential theft techniques these actors used from March to August 2022 based on our threat data:
| Living-off-the-land binary (LOLBin) or hacking tool | Threat actor that frequently uses this (not exhaustive) |
| Comsvc.dll (and its “MiniDump” export) loaded by rundll32.exe | DEV-0270 |
| Mimikatz (and its modified variants) | DEV-0674 |
| Procdump.exe (with -ma command line option) | DEV-0555 |
| Taskmgr.exe | DEV-0300 |
The first column shows the technique attackers most frequently used in their attempt to dump credentials from LSASS, while the second column shows which threat actor uses this technique most frequently. Based on the incidents we tracked from March to August 2022, credential theft attacks using LOLBins such as comsvc.dll, procdump.exe, or taskmgr.exe are still popular. These LOLBins are legitimate, digitally signed binaries that are either already present on the target device or are downloaded onto the system for the attacker to misuse for malicious activities.
Microsoft Defender Antivirus prevents the execution of these command lines due to its synchronous command line-blocking capabilities.
To evaluate EPP and EDR capabilities against the LSASS credential dumping technique, AV-Comparatives ran 15 different test cases to dump credentials from the LSASS process using both publicly available hacking tools like Mimikatz (which the tester modified to bypass antivirus signatures) and privately developed ones. These test cases were as follows:
| Test case | LSASS attack method |
| 01 | Mimikatz with process herpaderping |
| 02 | Native APIs DLL |
| 03 | Silent process exit |
| 04 | Alternative API snapshot function |
| 05 | MalSecLogon |
| 06 | Dump LSASS |
| 07 | Duplicate dump |
| 08 | PowerShell Mimikatz |
| 09 | Invoke Mimikatz (PoshC2) |
| 10 | SafetyDump |
| 11 | RunPE snapshot (PoshC2) |
| 12 | Unhook (Metasploit framework) |
| 13 | Reflective DLL (Metasploit framework) |
| 14 | Invoke Mimikatz (PowerShell Empire) |
| 15 | Invoke-PPL dump (PowerShell Empire) |
Each test case implemented a comprehensive approach on how to dump credentials from LSASS. After the evaluation, AV-Comparatives shared the logs and detailed description of the test cases. Microsoft participated using Defender for Endpoint, both its antivirus and EDR capabilities, with only the default settings configured.
During the initial run, Defender for Endpoint prevented 11 out of 15 test cases and alerted/detected three of the remaining ones (Figure 1). We then made improvements in our protection and detection capabilities and asked AV-Comparatives to re-test the missed test cases. During the re-test, we prevented all the remaining four test cases, achieving 15 out of 15 prevention score.
We’d like to thank AV-Comparatives for this thorough test, which led us to improve our protection and detection capabilities in Defender for Endpoint. These improvements have already been rolled out to benefit our customers, and we’re looking forward to the next similar test. We aim to provide industry-leading, cross-domain defense, so it’s important for us to participate in tests like AV-Comparatives and MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Evaluations because they help us ensure that we’re delivering solutions that empower organizations to defend their environments.
The continuous evolution of the threat landscape has seen attacks leveraging OS credential theft, and threat actors will continue to find new ways to dump LSASS credentials in their attempts to evade detection. For Microsoft, our industry-leading defense capabilities in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint are able to detect such attempts. We’ve also introduced new security features in Windows 11 to harden the operating system, such as enabling PPL for the LSASS process and Credential Guard by default. However, evaluations like this AV-Comparatives test go hand in hand with threat monitoring and research because they provide security vendors additional insights and opportunities to continuously improve capabilities.
Our teams performed an in-house test of all these test cases with the LSASS ASR rule enabled to check the protection level of that rule. We’re happy to report that the ASR rule alone successfully prevented all the tested techniques. The LSASS ASR rule is a generic yet effective protection our customers can implement to stop currently known user-mode LSASS credential dumping attacks. Defender customers should therefore enable this ASR rule—along with tamper protection—as an added protection layer for the LSASS process.
On top of the various dumping techniques, we’ve also observed threat actors attempt to weaken the device settings in case they can’t dump credentials. For example, they attempt to enable “UseLogonCredential” in WDigest registry, which enables plaintext passwords in memory. Microsoft Defender Antivirus detects such techniques, too, as Behavior:Win32/WDigestNegMod.B.
Windows administrators can also perform the following to further harden the LSASS process on their devices:
Finally, customers with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) can follow our recommendations on hardening environments:
The post Detecting and preventing LSASS credential dumping attacks appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.
![[Movie Review] TERRIFIER 2](https://i0.wp.com/www.nightmarishconjurings.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/terrifier-2-poster.jpg?resize=640%2C942&ssl=1)
The immediate response on social media helped familiarize Art even if one never heard of Terrifier or even seen where he started in All Hallows’ Eve. Thanks largely to Stephen King, clowns have more of a phobia than a piece of children’s entertainment. Art looks and walks like a clown, but even without a weapon or blood-splattered makeup, his smile alone gives a hint of pure evil.
After an Indiegogo campaign and a few years’ wait, fans are finally getting a sequel, and they are hungry for more blood. The pressure was on as the initial film featured one of the most gruesome and perverse kill scenes ever filmed. How would a sequel top that? The answer here is that TERRIFIER 2 pushes the boundaries of what is allowed to be considered entertainment and makes us watch almost two and a half hours full of bodies piling up.
Art is resurrected via an otherworldly entity that doesn’t seem fully developed, but the ambiguity is successful here. He wakes up, still suffering from the first film’s wounds. While the events and characters are referenced from the first film, the sequel focuses on a new duo. This brother/sister team, played by Lauren LaVera and Elliott Fullam, feels fresh and the chemistry shines through. Fullman is obsessed with Art and dresses like him for Halloween. LaVera dresses up like one of her dead father’s superhero creations. These two end up being new targets for Art and the onslaught of whippings and slashing commence
Writer/director Damien Leone succeeds this time around in regard to character development. He gives someone to root for and LaVera is destined to become an automatic con mainstay as she steals the show from Art throughout. Family dynamics are explored as well as slight glimpses of Art’s beginnings. While this was slasher fare, TERRIFIER 2 introduces supernatural aspects and moments of literal magic that somehow we just accept in this universe.
The first film gained popularity for having a memorable new slasher icon and horrific kill sequences. That felt like child’s play compared to the sequel. TERRIFIER 2 takes its roots and stabs them straight into your eyes. The body count is higher and the absurdity of some kills is embraced with some gorgeous practical special effects. Fans of the first will find TERRIFIER 2 well worth the wait and delivers fan service to those who love the extreme.
TERRIFIER 2 will be in theaters on October 6, 2022, from Cinedigm in partnership with Iconic Events.
The post [Movie Review] TERRIFIER 2 appeared first on Nightmarish Conjurings.
Amanda, Rich, and Andrew are joined by the delightful Chris O'Regan from Cane & Rinse (aka Aeoringas) to talk about Dome Keeper, You Suck at Parking, Beacon Pines, The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, Harvestella Demo, End of Overwatch, PAX West, Seattle Indie Expo, EGX, and more!
Note: Shamus had this entire series written and prepped to post (sans his copious editing prior to posting.) I will be posting these on Wednesdays until they are finished. Other old content will also post on Wednesdays as we find it and have time to work through it.
The heli drops Troy Denton off on the roof of the Mirai Building in Tokyo. It’s nighttime. We’re here to get the source code for Denton’s augmentations. We want to find out how he got hijacked, and how we can prevent it from happening again.
Our exploration is limited to the top-most floors of this massive office tower, so we don’t need to create the environment assets for a street-level location. The city can just be a really pretty skybox.
I’m thinking this level should be a nod towards our visit to the VersaLife building in the original Deus Ex. We should have some encounters or conversations with rank-and-file office workers. There should be a few haggard, overworked guys scattered around. They’re not a direct threat, but they can summon guards or activate the security system if you spook them.
The stuff Denton needs is down a few floors in the server room, behind some heavy security doors that can’t be hacked. We’ll talk about how to open these doors in a minute.
In the original game, there’s this moment I found shocking on my first play-through. You’re wandering around the VersaLife building, generally trespassing and pilfering crap, when you run into an office worker. You walk up thinking he’s going to ask for the usual lame NPC stuff, but then he asks you to KILL HIS BOSS. I always liked it because it came out of nowhere and asked me to really consider what I was doing.
“Well, this boss works for the Very Bad Guys. But he’s not really in on it, is he? But he’s obviously an abusive boss. Right? And I’m here saving the world or something. I think. I’m not really an assassin, but I’ve had to kill a lot of people already and this boss is obviously a bastard so it’s probably okay if I take him out. Right? I’m sure it’s fine. I’m still a good person.”
I kinda want to do a different version of that same idea here. We can use this section to comment on the plight of office workers and crunch culture. Perhaps inspired by my feud with the Taco Bell scheduling software, I have this idea where there will be an AI running the office, assigning tasks, and keeping track of hours. Troy can talk to it and discover that it’s designed to maximize productivity, but it doesn’t have any understanding of workers and their needs.
However, the workers like the AI because even though it’s an amoral, unfeeling machine with no regard for their lives, their overall workload has gone down since it was put in charge. The joke here is that this machine has discovered – through brute-force trial-and-error – what the flesh-and-blood managers refused to consider: That humans have limits and making people work more hours doesn’t always result in more work getting done. The amoral machine winds up being less cruel than the human managers it replaced. So if you don’t want to make life worse for these people, you can’t just smash the computer and be done with it.
Ways to get past the security door:
One of the workers will give you the same “kill my boss” quest. Only this time, he wants revenge for the time his boss made him miss the birth of his daughter. Also he wants to make sure that the company can’t put the boss in charge of the schedule again. The worker will give you access to the server room if you’ll do this for him.
I find this funny because you’re here to investigate an assassination you’ve been blamed for, and now you have the opportunity to commit an assassination of your own volition.
If Troy talks to the manager, the manager will ask Troy to smash the AI. The manager sees that employees are only spending 60 hours a week in the office, when he was keeping them for 80. He thinks the machine is malfunctioning, and he’s worried that it’s going to replace him. The manager can’t smash the AI because the security cameras will see him doing it. But a random gaijin like you could do it and he wouldn’t be implicated. If you smash the AI, he’ll give you access to the server room AND he’ll give you the passwords you’ll need to get the source code you’re looking for.
The AI wants to increase productivity, but it can’t get more work out of the available staff. In fact, it’s worried that it’s going to have to reduce the workload even more as the staff become increasingly fatigued and stressed. However, it has observed that the secretarial staff goes home at just 5pm. Same goes for marketing. it theorizes that it could extract more useful work out of these other employees. It just needs to be put in charge of their schedules. If you’ll go over to the HR office (empty at this hour) and hack the computer, you’ll be able to put the AI in charge of the entire office. If you do this, the AI will open the security doors and turn off all the security equipment inside.
So you can murder an unarmed civilian who’s a jerk, or you can smash the computer and make life worse for the people in the office, or you can help the AI and make life worse for a different group of workers. And the three rewards are all a little different. The usefulness of these various options will depend on your specific character build. (And maybe there’s a fourth way where you have to brute-force your way past the doors, which will set off all the alarms and result in a huge messy firefight.)
The game should dial things back a bit here. We don’t need a ton of security in these offices. After the obstacle course at the Deep Storage server, the player is probably in the mood for something a little less intense. I’m assuming they won’t mind a section of low-key walking around and talking to people. It’s going to take a little bit of classic adventure game questing to figure out what we’re looking for and where to find it.
They will eventually have to deal with security, of course. Once he gets past the security doors, there will be a few guards and obstacles for him to contend with.
He’ll also discover that there’s DRM on his implants, so he can’t just patch out the exploit without bricking all of his augmentations. So Troy needs to somehow jailbreak his own brain / nervous system. Nobody here can help him do that, but at least he can get the source code.
Once he has the source, he returns to the roof and calls Alex on the radio.
—
Troy: I got you the source. Think you can use it to jailbreak my augs?
Alex: I could, but it would probably take a few weeks.
Troy: A few WEEKS?
Alex: We’re talking about five million lines of J# code with Japanese comments and no documentation.
Troy: We don’t have that much time. Sooner or later I’m going to get too close to a public security camera or someone will take a picture of me and I’ll wind up on the PARASIGHT network.
Alex: (Defeated.) Yeah. And when that happens you’ll have every law enforcement agency in the western world on your tail.
Troy: Can you talk to Carter? Maybe he can help sort this out.
Alex: He vanished about 12 hours ago and nobody has seen or heard from him since then.
(Beat)
Troy: I’m thinking about this Morgan Everett guy the conspirators mentioned. They seemed to be after him. If we could get to him first, maybe he could tell us something.
Alex: It is SO WEIRD that you mentioned him. I just got an email a few minutes ago from someone claiming to be Morgan Everett, looking to contact you specifically. I didn’t know who it was. I was just going to ignore it until you mentioned him.
Troy: Can you set up a meeting?
We get a little exposition on the heli ride. Everett (or whoever this is) doesn’t want to meet in person. But he tells Troy to report to a pay phone at such-and-such coordinates and the two of them can talk.
Troy can’t believe it. A PAY PHONE?!
The heli drops Troy off in a parking lot in Southern California. Yes, another US location. I realize we’re seeing a lot of the US, but this location is thematically important.[1]
We’re on the edge of a vast tent city. It’s evening. To the north is a sad concrete bridge, where homeless people can take shelter from the rain. To the west is a drainage canal. To the south is a graffiti-covered convenience store. To the east is a police barricade. In story terms, the barricade is here to keep the homeless folks penned in so their tent city doesn’t spill into the nearby office park. In gameplay terms, they’re an impassable barrier because our level designers don’t want to actually build a full-scale replica of Los Angeles.
I don’t want the homeless people to feel like a single indistinct mass. I want them to feel varied and alive. These people should go against the typical “dirty bum” stereotype. They should be both male and female, in a variety of ages.[2] These people have phones and laptops, and they’re wearing (wrinkled) office clothing. There’s a drainage gutter near the bridge where a few people are trying their best to bathe and wash clothes. At least some of these people must work in the nearby office park.
These people are going to have a lot of different viewpoints. Here are some things Troy might hear them say as he explores the area:
“The only reason this place exists is because corporations don’t pay us enough to afford housing. We oughta charge that police barrier, bust through, and burn down that office building. Then the companies will be just as homeless as we are.”
“This is all because the government won’t let anyone build housing. Just tear down ONE of those mansions on the edge of town and you’d have the space to build an apartment that hundreds of us could live in.”
“Don’t listen to the rest of these crybabies. The only reason we’re stuck out here is because we’ve got substance abuse problems we refuse to deal with. You dry up the flow of drugs to the city, and everyone out here will be in rehab by next week.”
“I’m not really homeless. Not permanently, anyway. I put all my money into crypto-chain virtual stocks. In a couple of months, I’ll be worth millions.”
“I’m working on an app for displaced people. It’s a way for us to share and review good tent locations. If you find a place with running water where the police will leave you alone, you can mark it on the map to help others find it. There’s safety in numbers! I can send you a beta key if you’re interested.”
Somewhere around here we should find a lore item like a newspaper or a laptop with a news story. The bombastic headline will identify Troy as “The Man Who Killed The Future”. It’ll talk about how the assassination was this intricately executed thing and how the killer had this incredible escape plan. This will all stand in stark contrast to the reality of confusion and improvisation that Troy experienced. The story should be full of hyperbole and inaccuracies. The joke we’re going for is that the people in charge of security have blown everything out of proportion to protect their own reputations, and then the news misunderstood the rest.
Sooner or later the player will explore the convenience store to the south. When they do, they’ll find an ancient, graffiti-covered pay phone that is still somehow operational here in 2044. It rings automatically as they approach.
Morgan Everett begins speaking as soon as Troy lifts the receiver to his ear:
Morgan: (Posh British accent.) Agent Denton. Impressive job of escaping the White House after that assassination. Not many could have pulled that off.
Denton: I’m a little busy. Let’s skip the flattery. (We should probably offer the player some tone-of-voice options for friendly, hostile, or snarky. I’m not going to map out a dialog tree here. Let’s just assume that the player is walking through this conversation, clicking on the non-friendly options.)
Morgan: Busy? I imagine quite the opposite. You seem to be out of a job. And given that you assassinated the man you were supposed to protect, I’m willing to bet you need to find a new line of work.
Troy: What, are you hiring?
Morgan: Maybe. We both seem to have our backs against the wall and I thought we might be able to help each other. I’m in need of help I can depend on, and you need a way out of your current predicament. Maybe I can clear your name, although it would probably be a lot easier to just give you a new one.
Troy: What do you need me to do?
Morgan: I want the same thing you want. I want to bring justice to the people that killed your boss.
Troy: When you say “justice”, are you talking about…?
Morgan: Obviously I’m not talking about calling the police and having them thrown in prison. Our enemies exist far above traditional law enforcement agencies. If they’re going to answer for their crimes, then we’re going to have to resort to something more… direct.
Troy: So you want me to kill them? You figure I’m an assassin now?
Morgan: There are lots of people I could call if I just wanted an assassin. I need something more than an assassin. I need a problem solver.
Troy: So what’s next?
Morgan: It’s too dangerous to meet with you while your head is full of machinery that belongs to someone else. And I don’t want you showing up on my doorstep with the PARASIGHT network looking over your shoulder. Lucky for you, the solution to both of these problems is in the camping grounds in front of you. Look for a man in an orange necktie, answers to the name Edward Webb.
(Click.)
Edward is underneath the bridge. He’s middle aged, with a haggard, defeated look about him. He’s wearing glasses, and looks like an old nerd. He freaks out when we know who he is, and freaks out even more once he learns we’re working for / with Everett.
Troy gets him to calm down, and Edward explains.
Edward: I used to be Everett’s technological advisor, but after a few years I got creeped out by the whole “Shadow Government” thing. It’s just… I know Everett means well, but what we were doing was still wrong, you know?
Troy: (Reaction line chosen by the player, where they can be casual, hostile, or guarded regarding Everett’s conspiracy. Edward will respond with knee-jerk defensiveness if you challenge him, and then the conversation continues…)
Edward: What I can’t figure out is how you found me. How Everett found me.
Troy: We have this surveillance network called PARASIGHT that can…
Edward: I know, I know! I practically designed PARASIGHT! It’s one of the reasons I wanted out. The point is, I thought I knew how to spoof the system.
Troy: It’s not like you’re the only person working in the surveillance business. Other people have probably improved it since you left.
Edward: You’re right. If I really want to hide permanently, then PARASIGHT has to go.
They hammer out the details for taking out PARASIGHT.[3] Edward also admits that he’s the one who thought up the Morpheus Protocol. (He’s giddy to discover that it actually worked. And then he feels kinda bad when he realizes it means he helped kill somebody. But still, he probably doesn’t feel as bad as he should.) He agrees to create a hotfix for your hardware, and in return he wants you to take out PARASIGHT. He just needs the source code for your implants. (Which we already have, and which Alex emails him because our hero is too cool to send emails.)
It turns out that PARASIGHT is hosted even deeper in the Deep Storage facility we visited earlier. So we’re headed back to the southwest desert.
We’ve been here before. Maybe we’ll have a different entry point this time, and our eventual goal is a little deeper in the facility, but this bit should be pretty familiar and I don’t think we need to go over it again.
The one wrinkle is that Morgan Everett calls up near the end of the mission.
“Agent Denton. We need to take down PARASIGHT for the time being, but it really is a useful system and I’d hate to lose it forever. Please make a backup copy before destroying the hardware. We can reinstate the system once we’ve set things right.”
The player chooses whether or not to make the backup copy before they destroy the server. And yes, we’re going to do the Hollywood thing and say that the server needs to be physically destroyed in a big explosion at the end. Ideally the player can do the deed directly with weapons or explosives, rather than just pushing a button. Or if the engine has (say) a cool fluid simulation, then maybe we can flood the server room. I’d leave it up to the level designers. They know their tools and what would look good. The important thing is that the player gets to do something flashy and destructive.
Just before reaching the final room, Troy comes face-to-face with Sam Carter, his old boss. It turns out Sam has been chasing Troy since the assassination. He was here investigating Troy’s last break-in here, and is somewhat surprised to see him returning to the scene of the crime. Apparently the footage of the assassination has been erased, and he assumes that Troy was attempting to cover his tracks.
He’s convinced that Troy is some sort of sleeper agent, and is hellbent on bringing him to justice. He’s taking the assassination very personally. Particularly the bit where you used HIS GUN to do the deed. At the same time, he’s noticed some of the irregularities in the setup, which you can point out to him:
Carter doesn’t want to believe that the kid he’s mentored for all of these years was a sleeper agent. And he can see there are a lot of weird things about this setup. On the other hand, all of the forensic evidence points at Denton. That was his gun, fired from where he was standing.
So Sam’s loyalties are balanced on a knife’s edge. He straight-up tells you he wants to believe there’s some grand conspiracy, because that would mean he hasn’t been backstabbed by the person he trusted the most.
The player doesn’t know it, but we’ve been secretly keeping score in the background.
We assign points to all of these good / bad things. If your score is above N,[4] then Carter will recognize that you’ve conducted yourself like a trustworthy professional. If that happens, then you’ll be able to talk Sam into backing down and letting you pass because. If not, you have to fight him. Careful! He’s a toughie.
I don’t think we should reveal these numbers to the player. Carter’s reaction is supposed to feel like the cumulative response to your playstyle. I don’t want players doing math like, “I said the nice thing in conversation A so I can murder civilian B.” I don’t want people doing Mass Effect style “Paragon Math” while they play. I just want them to play how they want, and Carter will react accordingly. Players will figure this stuff out eventually, of course.[5] But we’re not going to expose the artifice to them.
Troy exfiltrates, and we return to the tent city.
Troy reports his success to Edward Webb, who gives him a thumb drive that will jailbreak his augmentation suite.
Troy tells Alex that he’s going to need help installing this. She tells him to head back to the heli. Then we reveal that she’s actually sitting in the pilot seat. It’s a really small cockpit. She’s nestled in a little tangle of screens and keyboards.
Troy: Wait, you’ve been riding up front the whole time?
Alex: Not the whole time. Just the last few trips. I realized that our stealth ‘copter was a better hiding spot than my stall in the women’s restroom.
Troy: Why didn’t you tell me?
Alex: Didn’t want you to know. Was afraid of getting Morpheus Protocol’d. Speaking of which…
She takes the thumb drive and plugs a cable into wherever Troy keeps his cyber-USB port. His vision fades and glitches, just like before. After a few seconds, it subsides.
Alex: And done. Anyone you kill from now on is 100% your fault.
Now that PARASIGHT is neutralized and Troy is no longer a potential threat, Morgan Everett agrees to meet with them.
We’re headed to the UK. We’ll chat with Everett next time.
The NSA, FBI and CISA have issued an alert describing the tools and techniques used by advanced persistent threat (APT) actors in an attack aimed at an unnamed defense industrial base organization in the United States.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
This is the one hundred forty-first entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.
Another random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality has dropped into view, placing itself between us and the sun. It’s VIRTUA BLINDS, by daffodil, and its tagline in the bundle reads:
Keep light out, let light in
Whoa, that’s deep, man.
VIRTUA BLINDS labels itself as vaporware, rather than a game. Players are sat at a desk in front of a magnificent window, and are free to poke around and click on various things. Turn on the TV, and switch between the three available channels. Change the volume of the music that accompanies each. Look at various post-it notes that adorn the scene. Turn the desk lamp on, or off. Play with the MPC in the corner.
The highlight of the scene, of course, is the blinds. Venetian blinds, to be specific. Raise them. Lower them. Leave them partway down. Twist the rod on the left side to change the angle of the slats. As time passes, the sun rises in the sky, sending glorious shafts of light through the blinds, before passing out of direct view. Then the patch of sunlight slowly moves across the desk, before fading into a purple sunset. Outside the window is a vast ocean, still and serene. Where is this building in which we reside? Why is one of the TV channels a closed-circuit camera showing the very desk at which we sit? Who even are we? It is a mystery.
I kept half-expecting to find some secret within VIRTUA BLINDS. A clue, a hidden message, a means of escape from this desk. I even thought I might have found something, but it did not have any discernable effect. I concluded that VIRTUA BLINDS isn’t trying to be subversive, it isn’t hiding some secret horror twist. It’s just about relaxing by a window and watching the sun go past. Keep the light out, let the light in, indeed.
If you need a little time to chill out, and adjust the blinds just so, VIRTUA BLINDS is here to help. If you missed it in the bundle, it’s sold for a minimum price of $1.69, and includes versions for Windows, Mac and Linux.
That’s 141 down, and a cool 1600 to go!
Since Google announced they were giving up on Stadia last week, some developers and publishers are taking steps to ensure players don’t lose their progress when the platform shuts down in January. So far, Bungie, IO Interactive and Ubisoft have issued statements to reassure Stadia users that they’re investigating ways to salvage their saves. It’s a welcome development following Google’s sudden shutdown revelation.
Last week Google announced that their beleaguered Stadia cloud gaming platform would be shutting down in January. While Google is generously offering refunds for any games purchased from them, that’s small comfort for people who actually invested serious time playing games on the platform. What about the person who spent hundreds of hours playing something like Destiny? Are they just up the creek? Thankfully, that may not be the case.
Since the announcement of the shutdown, a number of publishers have stepped forward to say that they’re working on ways of transferring save files to other PC platforms. Those playing Ubisoft games on Stadia will be able to continue via Ubisoft+.
“While Stadia will shut down, we're happy to share that we're working to bring the games you own on Stadia to PC through Ubisoft Connect. We'll have more to share regarding specific details as well as the impact for Ubisoft+ subscribers at a later date.”
Meanwhile, Bungie is working on a “plan of action”…
“We just learned about Stadia shutting down and have begun conversations about next steps for our players. We will announce and send out information regarding Destiny 2 Stadia accounts once we have a plan of action.”
…and Hitman developer IO Interactive “looking into ways” to keep Stadia saves from disappearing.
“To all our Hitman fans on Google Stadia. We hear you -- we are looking into ways for you to continue your Hitman experience on other platforms.”
Hopefully, the transferring of Stadia saves is a standard thing for almost all third-party games on the platform. There will still be gaps (saves for first-party games will be lost for sure) and, of course, a lot of people were playing via the cloud because they didn’t have capable hardware, so “just continue playing on PC” won’t be an option for many.
Stadia service will be available until January 18, 2023, after which, the servers shut down.
The post Stadia’s Demise May Not Destroy Your Saves, as Ubisoft, Bungie, and More Promise Transfers by Nathan Birch appeared first on Wccftech.
Is The Meteor Man (or ‘The Stranger’ to the Harfoots) Gandalf or perhaps one of the Istari? Maybe it could be the dark Lord Sauron himself in The Rings of Power?
The big problem with The Rings of Power is the showrunners literally have the rights to ‘The Lord of the Rings’. Specifically, that’s ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’, ‘The Two Towers’ and ‘Return of the King’. Any references to things such as ‘The Silmarillion’ or ‘The Unfinished Tales’ will land Amazon in the fires of Mount Doom for sure.
Let’s dig into the lore a bit further and try to eliminate some obvious options. We’ve got a couple of surprises up our sleeves, so let’s go through who we don’t think The Stranger is, finishing up with who we do think the Meteor Man is and why.
Let’s get the Grey Pilgrim out of the way, it’s not him. This must be a shock, so feel free to have a sit-down and pop the kettle on for this one.
The problem with Gandalf is that he didn’t arrive in Middle Earth until the Third Age, and he certainly didn’t come crashing down from the heavens. Tolkien briefly mentioned in a page not linked to The Lord of the Rings trilogy that the Istari sailed from the west, meaning that they didn’t want the whole of Middle Earth gazing at a Meteor landing.
Known as Olórin amongst the Maiar, his kin, Gandalf is merely a form that he took once on Middle Earth. Created by Ilúvatar at the beginning of time and before the Music of the Ainur, he served the following Valier:
He would mostly follow the footsteps of Varda, being natural akin to light and fire as we see in the Peter Jackson films. He also followed Nienna’s example of trying to draw despair from the hearts of the Children of Illúvatar, originally walking unseen or disguised amongst Elves, sending them the fair vision to lift their spirits.
Although Saurman was the original Istari to Land on Middle Earth, he still arrived in the Third Age in the Valar’s revolt against the rising power in the East.
We all know how Saruman turned out, but he was the first chosen by the Valar to unite the realms of Men and Elves following the battle of the Last Alliance that kicked off the Third Age (The battle we see in the opening of The Fellowship of the Ring).
Known as Curumo as a Maia (like Gandalf), he had a strong persuasion to smithing and serving under the Valar. The leader of the Valar, known as Manwë chose Curumo to lead the Istari from the Grey Havens and into Middle Earth.
Although being defined as a leader from the offset, it would be Ganfals who would receive the Ring of Fire known as ‘Narya’, which only amplified Gandalf’s alliance with light and fire. Saurman would hold this grudge until his eventual turn to darkness years later.
Originally known as the Maia Aiwendil, he served under the Valar Yavannia, known as Queen of the Earth. He also arrived in Middle Earth at the same time as Gandalf and the rest of the Istari, which also means he isn’t the Meteor Man.
Although serving as one of the Five Istari wizards, he was only brought along after begging Curumo (Saurman) for the spot. The Istari were sent as “Might peers of Sauron, yet forgo might and clothe themselves in flesh.”
After landing on middle Earth with Olórin (Gandalf), Aiwendil soon took the name of Radagast which was gifted to him by the Ñoldor. He became well-known for protecting the great forest and animals of Middle Earth and cared little for the affairs of Men and Elves.
Only mentioned in the Silmarillion ‘Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age’ and in Unfinished tales briefly, Alatar and Pallando are not heard about much in Tolkien, only mentioned. Unfortunately, this also means The Rings of Power doesn’t have the rights to them either.
They journeyed to the East as missionaries of the light, aiming to turn the enemies of Elves and Men into allies against the growing darkness there. We’re not talking about marching into Mordor expecting to turn Orcs, we’re talking about the alliances of men faithful to Sauron.
Sadly this is all we know, but Tolkien didn’t think that they succeeded in their quest, and instead gave way to the dark arts for these tribes of men to exploit:
“I think that they went as emissaries to distant regions, east and south… Missionaries to enemy-occupied lands as it were. What success they had I do not know; but I fear that they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were founders or beginners of secret cults and “magic” traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron.“
Known as the star student of the Vala Aulë and exceptional in crafting power weapons and items, Sauron wasn’t always the big bad guy he ended up being. Melkor, the first of the Valar and the one who introduced discord into the great music of the Ainór, corrupted Sauron into his service as he took the mantle of the Great King Morgoth.
After an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Lúthien Sauron hid as Morgoth was sent into the Timeless void, he pleaded with Eönwë before fleeing to Middle Earth to escape judgement from the gods.
What’s interesting about Sauron is he didn’t reappear until around SA 1000 when he established himself in the land of Mordor. At the time of writing, Mount Doom has just erupted to signal the birth of Mordor and the takeover of the southeast.
SA 1500 marked the rough time when Sauron chose to corrupt Elves into his service and began to craft the Rings of Power with Celebrimbor, master craftsmen and descendants of Fëanor. Sauron took the guise of Annatar, The Lord of Gifts, to trick the Elves into making the Rings so he could craft his own in secret. One ring to rule them all.
Everything that we have spoken about so far is 100% canon but is all content pulled from other Tolkien works that aren’t The Lord of the Rings. However, if the trilogy mentions any events linked to past law, that’s all good and can also work for the showrunners to celebrate things a little. If the story still hits the same beats, who cares if the path towards said beats wanders a little?
The Meteor Man is actually from a poem from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, which is delivered as a collection of canon legends known by the peoples of Middle Earth. ‘The Man in the Moon Who Came Down Too Soon’ goes like this:
“He twinkled his feet, as he thought of the meat,
of pepper, and punch galore;
And he tripped unaware on his slanting stair,
and like a meteor,
A star in flight, ere Yule one night
flickering down he fell
From his laddery path to a foaming bath
in the windy Bay of Bel.”
“And like a meteor” sounds familiar right? Whilst this poem isn’t from The Lord of the Rings, but we do read Frodo singing a song penned by his Uncle Bilbo entitled ‘The Man In The Moon Stayed Up Too Late’. According to Tolkien, it would follow the tune of the nursery rhyme ‘Hey Diddle Diddle’ and goes as follows:
“There is an inn, a merry old inn
beneath an old grey hill,
And there they brew a beer so brown
That the Man in the Moon himself came down
One night to drink his fill.
“The ostler has a tipsy cat
that plays a five-stringed fiddle;
And up and down he runs his bow,
Now squeaking high, now purring low,
Now sawing in the middle.
“The landlord keeps a little dog
that is mighty fond of jokes;
When there’s good cheer among the guests,
He cocks an ear at all the jests
And laughs until he chokes.
“They also keep a hornéd cow
as proud as any queen;
But music turns her head like ale,
And makes her wave her tufted tail
and dance upon the green.
“And O! the rows of silver dishes
and the store of silver spoons!
For Sunday there’s a special pair,
And these they polish up with care
on Saturday afternoons.
“The Man in the Moon was drinking deep,
and the cat began to wail;
A dish and a spoon on the table danced,
The cow in the garden madly pranced,
and the little dog chased his tail.
“The Man in the Moon took another mug,
and then rolled beneath his chair;
And there he dozed and dreamed of ale,
Till in the sky the stars were pale,
and dawn was in the air.
“Then the ostler said to his tipsy cat:
‘The white horses of the Moon,
They neigh and champ their silver bits;
But their master’s been and drowned his wits,
and the Sun’ll be rising soon!’
“So the cat on his fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle,
a jig that would wake the dead:
He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune,
While the landlord shook the Man in the Moon:
‘It’s after three!’ he said.
“They rolled the Man slowly up the hill
and bundled him into the Moon,
While his horses galloped up in rear,
And the cow came capering like a deer,
and a dish ran up with the spoon.
“Now quicker the fiddle went deedle-dum-diddle;
the dog began to roar,
The cow and the horses stood on their heads;
The guests all bounded from their beds
and danced upon the floor.
“With a ping and a pong the fiddle-strings broke!
the cow jumped over the Moon,
And the little dog laughed to see such fun,
And the Saturday dish went off at a run
with the silver Sunday spoon.
“The round Moon rolled behind the hill
as the Sun raised up her head.
She hardly believed her fiery eyes;
For though it was day, to her surprise
they all went back to bed!“
This doesn’t sound like our Meteor man at all, but it is clear to see where Bilbo Baggins got the inspiration. Could It be that the showrunners of The Rings of Power are using this daft tavern song to canonically introduce a new character? The time gap is there and so is the legend. It’s also common knowledge in Middle Earth and beyond that the Gods are real, so why not?
Now, what if the showrunners have decided to blend a canon legend into the origins of Sauron’s appearance in the second age? Maybe he has been shunned by the Valar themselves and sent down in flames to Middle Earth as punishment for following Morgoths lead? It happened to Lucifer after all.
Whilst the latter end of this article has been pure speculation, its good speculation. The Rings of Power needs to tread the line of canon and what’s legally possible carefully, but we think we’ll get the key story beats in the end.
The post The Rings of Power Theory – Exploring The Meteor Man’s Strange Identity appeared first on ForeverGeek.
Several key members of ZA/UM, the studio behind the esoteric and critically acclaimed RPG Disco Elysium, have announced that they have left the studio and will not be committing further work toward the award-winning game's upcoming sequel.
In a candid post on Medium, titled "The Dissolution of the ZA/UM Cultural Association", Disco Elysium editor Martin Luiga succinctly noted that writer and designer Robert Kurvitz, co-writer Helen Hindpere, and lead artist Aleksander Rostov were all no longer at ZA/UM. The post notes that the trio left the company in an "involuntary" fashion. Rostov later confirmed the departure on their own Twitter. Luiga notes that this motion could cause a delay in the sequel's release, subtly pointing at studio investors as potentially being the catalyst for these events.
The news immediately set the gossip wheels in motion, with many fans upset that such core members of the Disco Elysium experience would not be around to serve further on the anticipated follow-up, with a note of anger as to the possibility that the trio had been ruthlessly pushed from the company. This aggressive reaction triggered pushback from some remaining ZA/UM employees, who understandably felt that their own contributions counted for little in the eyes of the players.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWWA1jnI5N4
This morning, ZA/UM released an official statement, which avoids the controversy and, reading between the lines, confirms the departure of Rostov, Kurvitz, and Hindpere, whilst also expressing confidence in the studio's remaining team members.
"Like any video game, the development of Disco Elysium was and still is a collective effort, with every team member's contribution essential and valued as part of a greater whole," wrote ZA/UM. "At this time, we have no further comment to make other than the ZA/UM creative team's focus remains on the development of our next project, and we are excited to share more news on this with you all soon."
While it is a fair comment to suggest that Disco Elysium is more than the work of just three individuals, it is all fair to say that the idiosyncratic nature, fantastic writing, and completely compelling and unique art style is what made the RPG such a "year's best" release. Does talent remain at ZA/UM? Of course it does, and likely in abundance, but has the key "identity" of Disco Elysium been lost?
This question will, very likely, be answered in time, one way or another.
The post Disco Elysium core members ‘involuntarily’ leave studio ZA/UM appeared first on Destructoid.
My imagination is a powerful thing. For example, I can conceive of several erotic situations involving Transformers. I can pretend, against incontrovertible evidence, that I am able to function in human society. However, a standard child’s imagination is magnitudes more powerful than my own. A child can believe that a dollar store knock-off Transformer is anywhere near as sexy as the real thing. They can also convince themselves that Mega Man on DOS is equatable to the NES version.
DOS gamers often got the shaft. Although we’d get games like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom before everyone else, not every IBM PC-Compatible user was armed with a 386. Developers often made their games to run on older 8-bit processors. A lot of games, even ones that were on 8-bit hardware to begin with, had to be scaled back for the sake of compatibility. This rarely ever went well.
Mega Man on DOS is a pretty poor conversion for that reason and more, and you’d have to squint really hard to convince yourself it’s anywhere near the NES classic.
I generally hold the Mega Man series to be the gold standard for 8-bit platformers. There are better games, such as Castlevania, but none were as consistent with their formula as Mega Man. Your platformer had to be at least comparable to that series to really be worthwhile.
DOS got its share of decent platformers, such as 1990’s Commander Keen and 1991’s Duke Nukem. However, that genre was hardly the platform’s best. Many developers struggled with smooth screen scrolling on DOS and dedicated microcomputers, so while adventure games and RPGs worked well, the side-scrollers were a bit less common.
With that in mind, Mega Man was developed by one guy, Stephen J. Rozner. And while Mega Man on DOS is a visibly easy target for ridicule, I mean no disrespect to Mr. Rozner. When you frame Mega Man along with its chosen platform, the time period it was released, and the fact that it was developed solo, it’s not surprising that it looks extremely bargain bin. The fact that it exists is someone impressive in its own right.
Mega Man for DOS is unique in the fact that it has an introduction level. You may recall that Mega Man X had the highway stage to introduce itself, but this was three years before that ever existed. Traditionally, Mega Man simply dropped you into the level select screen without any context.
The introduction level is also one of the worst parts of the entire game. It is flat and largely featureless. Right up until a robot dog pounces on you and won’t go away. Actually landing a shot on this robo-hound is rather difficult, and it takes a few hits before it finally dies. Normally, it will keep jumping on you until you are explode. Afterward, a new one will spawn and repeat the process. Pro tip: run. If you just hold the right directional button, it normally can’t kill you before you reach the end of the field.
You’re then presented with a selection of robot masters. Three of them. There’s Sonicman, Voltman, and Dynaman. None of them look particularly interested to be here. It’s amusing to me that none of these names have been used in a proper Mega Man title after the jillion that have been released since. These are exclusive to the DOS version, so it has that going for it. However, I probably don’t have to tell you that this is half as many robot masters that the NES version has, and much fewer than that later standardized eight.
The levels themselves feel more like they’re based on later Mega Man games. 1990 brought us up to Mega Man 3 on the NES, and sure enough, there’s a stage that dumps garbage on you. However, this is different than the NES because the garbage doesn’t actually do anything. I think it’s supposed to damage you, but you can run right through it without even suffering knockback. There are also water and robo-frogs, both of which appeared first in Mega Man 2.
There are also those vanishing block sections. I know that the vanishing blocks are a staple of the series, appearing in essentially every core title since the very first, but that doesn’t make me hate them less. They at least normally appear in only a single level throughout the games, but on DOS, you get those disappearing blocks every single stage. Two of the stages are at least simple enough that you can just jump on the blocks as they appear, which is good, because the sound design doesn’t make timing them very easy.
This probably won’t come as a surprise, but the level design is nowhere near as good as the console games. To be fair, it’s not terrible. It’s mostly just annoying, but there’s a reasonable amount of variety and some obvious thought in how they’re set up. However, the checkpoints are sporadic, the difficulty of them is not really well paced, and you’re still limited to three lives before you have to start over.
Each one caps off with a boss, as they do on consoles. Like the stages, the robot masters aren’t as well designed, but they aren’t a travesty, either. Mostly, they just fight like their hearts aren’t in it. They’re still weak to the weapons you pick up off of other robot masters, but that feels kind of token. Notably, they don’t have invincibility frames, so you can just get close to them and unload into their faces as quickly as you can press the button. This works for Dr. Wily, even, so I guess that’s another Pro Tip for you.
Speaking of Dr. Wily, he gets his own castle stage. Actually, in the DOS version, it looks more like a shed. It’s just a skull-shaped door in someone’s back garden. The inside isn’t particularly impressive either, consisting of one stage. At the very least, you do need to beat all the robot masters again before reaching the final boss.
Where Mega Man for DOS fails the most is with aesthetics. There is no music, which is straight-up blasphemy, even if my brain can just play much of the series’ soundtrack from memory. The graphics look like a child’s fan-art of the games, and all the sound effects may have been created to play from an internal speaker.
With that said, I still give Mega Man for DOS points for effort. As terrible as it looks, it’s hardly the most excruciating game I’ve played. I guess it was good enough to get a sequel, which against all logic, is called Mega Man 3: The Robots are Revolting. I’ll probably check that out someday soon, but for now, I need to give my heart a rest. While I’ll admit that Mega Man isn’t an effective form of torture, it’s always hard to see my little blue man twisted up and spat out as a mere shadow of himself.
For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!
The post Mega Man for DOS is only slightly better than no Mega Man at all appeared first on Destructoid.
(Welcome to Under the Radar, a column where we spotlight specific movies, shows, trends, performances, or scenes that caught our eye and deserved more attention ... but otherwise flew under the radar. In this edition: "Athena" juggles eye-popping filmmaking with harrowing violence, "Saloum" boasts action and the supernatural in equal measure, and "Vesper" delivers the original sci-fi we always yearn for.)
Believe it or not, the idea of blockbusters dominating the multiplexes year-round is only a relatively recent phenomenon. Previously reserved for prime-time slots during the hot summer months, big budget fare has increasingly taken over the other months of the year as studios staked their claim to more and more landing spots. Last year, "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" debuted in early September to incredible success, while recent years have seen (the pandemic-delayed) "Tenet," both "It" movies, and even a major re-release or two take the top spots during the month.
This year has unfolded a bit differently, with original and non-IP (and adult-targeted!) movies like "The Woman King," "Barbarian," "Don't Worry Darling," and "Smile" leading the way this past September. Granted, even the somewhat mixed performance of these films probably disqualifies them from a column dedicated to underseen gems, but that only highlights the fact that they're far from the only movies worthy of discussion. Without an endless parade of blockbusters sucking up all the available oxygen, this "Under the Radar" edition is dedicated to the smaller -- but no less impressive -- efforts that are well deserving of praise.
September featured the likes of "Athena," "Saloum," and "Vesper," all of which have are currently available on streaming and VOD, to tide over adrenaline junkies, genre aficionados, and all who simply enjoy ambitious and creative features in an otherwise low-key month.
Spooky Season may only have just begun in earnest for those waiting until the calendar flipped over to October. Real ones, however, know that they could've kicked off the Halloween festivities with the unconventional action/horror joys of "Saloum." The Senegalese-language film, written and directed by Jean Luc Herbulot, rode a wave of social media hype upon its streaming debut on Shudder largely due to its brazen rejection of any easy genre labels.
Part Western, part supernatural fable, and part revenge thriller, "Saloum" starts off under the auspices of a typical drug-running crime drama before transforming into something else entirely by the final act. After its unforgettable, handheld-operated opening sequence throws us headfirst into the story of three highly proficient mercenaries hunting for a valuable bounty, their foiled escape plan provides the opportunity for the script to suddenly switch gears and remain impressively content to play things with a slow-burning sense of calm before the storm. The steadily-churning tension builds during a middle sequence set in an isolated village in Saloum, Senegal that practically drips with hidden secrets, ancestral ghosts, and a genuinely terrifying local legend that may have just set its sights on our bloodthirsty main characters.
Though perhaps ending up biting off a little more than it can reasonably chew, it's difficult to fault a movie like this for going too far in places when so many mainstream options insist on playing things frustratingly safe. Luckily, here comes the perfect antidote to those suffering from a case of creative burnout, leaving audiences invigorated and setting the bar impossibly high for any other movies unfortunate enough to follow a first-time viewing of "Saloum."
Sometimes you catch yourself watching a movie and simply gawk at the images unfolding in front of you, utterly baffled at how anyone was actually able to film them in the first place. The initial 11 minutes of breathtaking footage in "Athena," shot all in one take in one of the most elaborately-staged sequences of bravura filmmaking you'll ever see (especially on this budget), has gotten most of the attention in recent days. But it'd be a shame to let the eye-opening oner distract from the fact that the rest of the French-language film currently streaming on Netflix is pretty damn great, too.
Directed and co-written by Romain Gavras, the visceral drama tells the story of a trio of brothers caught up in the middle of a rapidly spiraling revolution of their own making. In a visceral display flawlessly uniting both form and function, "Athena" evokes the feeling of constantly one-upping itself to gleeful and heartbreaking results alike with several more long takes throughout the brisk (yet punishing) 97-minute runtime. Gavras repeatedly allows the camera to linger on characters as they move through the mise-en-scène of each fully lived-in location, boldly calling attention to his own filmmaking to elicit just as much shock and awe from viewers as the characters themselves are undoubtedly experiencing.
Breathlessly paced, unapologetically political, and unflinchingly emotional, the technical precision of "Athena" behind the scenes is only matched by the incredible confidence dripping from the screen at every moment.
Sci-fi comes in many forms and flavors, but post-apocalyptic stories face a particularly steep hill to climb when it comes to carving out their own memorable space in this niche. Far too many unsuccessful attempts fall under the mistaken belief that world-building alone can make up for a sagging story, strung together by an overwhelming focus on what makes the circumstances of the film so different from our own, instead of connecting the dots with how things remain disturbingly the same.
"Vesper" thankfully avoids this trap, even as it boasts an incredibly detailed vision of a world taken over by genetic experiments gone horribly wrong as a scarred remnant of humanity struggles to survive in the aftermath. Ostensibly serving as a cautionary tale of environmental collapse, the film, directed by Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper, finds even greater meaning in pursuit of answering a very simple question: Why shouldn't we give up when things get impossibly hard?
The answer arrives through the eponymous Vesper (Raffiella Chapman), the stubbornly capable child at the center of the action who's been abandoned by her mother and forced to care for her disabled father (Richard Brake) left in a vegetative state (though capable of communicating through a drone-like piece of floating futuristic tech). As gorgeously rendered as the details of this misbegotten world are, with its roving camera constantly finding the beauty in the monstrously mutated surroundings, the somewhat conventional script soon places her in the path of an untrustworthy stranger (Rosy McEwen) who may ultimately change everything.
We've seen stories like this before, but "Vesper" proves greater than the sum of its parts thanks to its simple, yet striking insistence on staying personal amid calamity.
Read this next: The Best Movies Of 2022 So Far
The post Under The Radar: Athena, Saloum, and Vesper Brought The Thrills In A Spectacle-Starved September appeared first on /Film.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) this week published Binding Operational Directive 23-01 (BOD 23-01), which requires federal agencies to take the necessary steps to improve their asset visibility and vulnerability detection capabilities within the next six months.
PlayStation exclusive titles will release on PC at least one year later, while live service games will release at the same time on console and PC, the Head of PlayStation Studios revealed in a new interview.
Speaking with Julien Chièze, Head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst confirmed that single-player games from PlayStation Studios will release at least one year later on PC, which is not surprising, considering it took a while for games like Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War to make the jump from PlayStation consoles. At the same time, all live service games will launch on day 1 on PlayStation and PC, a strategy that makes a lot of sense to build a strong community around any given game and potentially maximize profits with in-game purchases.
As already mentioned, all PlayStation 4 single-player games that are now available on PC took more than a year to get ported. The latest of them is Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, which launched on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store on August 12th, one year and nine months after its debut on PlayStation 5. With PC becoming an increasingly important market for Sony, hopefully, other big single-player titles like Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok will release sooner on PC than their predecessors did.
When it comes to the quality of their PlayStation to PC ports, Sony is already doing a great job. The aforementioned Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered is an extremely solid port, as highlighted by Alession in his hands-on piece.
Visually, the ray traced reflections make a big difference while swinging around Manhattan, especially at nighttime. Some building and pedestrian models aren't cutting edge, but we must remember that the game originally came out for PS4 nearly four years ago; Miles Morales should fare better when it launches on PC soon.
Last but not least, the higher frame rate (completely unlocked) of Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered PC makes both traversal and combat as everyone's favorite friendly neighborhood superhero feel better than ever.
With this latest port, Sony has shown how serious it is with the PC gaming business. For example, the company has now released three games that support NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR, while a PC company like Microsoft still only has Ninja Theory's Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, with Asobo's Microsoft Flight Simulator due to receive both with an upcoming update.
The post PlayStation Single Player Games Will Launch at Least One Year Later on PC; Live Service Games to Release on Day One by Francesco De Meo appeared first on Wccftech.
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and I’m excited about what Microsoft and our partners in the industry have planned to help everyone stay #CyberSmart. 2022 may have offered some respite from the previous year’s rush to enable a remote and hybrid workforce, but the increased use of personal devices also left security professionals with even more endpoints to manage and secure. As illustrated by breaches like the March 2022 attack on Shields Health Care Group1 that impacted two million people and the April ransomware attack that became a national emergency for the Costa Rican government,2 we all need to be cyber defenders to protect what matters.
Technology can only do so much; it’s people who remain our greatest strength. That’s why Microsoft is taking this opportunity during Cybersecurity Awareness Month to help security professionals educate their employees on fundamentals highlighted by the National Cybersecurity Alliance, such as protecting their identities, updating their software and devices, and not falling prey to phishing schemes.3 Be sure to explore the resources and skilling opportunities in our Cybersecurity Awareness Month website, such as the #BeCyberSmart education kit with assets to help people to protect their data both at work and at home.
People have become the primary attack vector for cyber attackers around the world, so humans rather than technology now represent the greatest risk to organizations.
—SANS 2022 Security Awareness Report
In today’s boundaryless workplace, comprehensive security is essential. That kind of 360-degree protection requires education and awareness to safeguard identities, data, and devices. Awareness programs help enable security teams to effectively manage their human risk by changing how people think about cybersecurity and helping them practice secure behaviors. The SANS 2022 Security Awareness Report analyzed data from more than a thousand security professionals from around the world to identify how organizations are managing their human risk. The report found that more than 69 percent of security awareness professionals are part-time, meaning that they spend less than half their time on security awareness.
According to the SANS report, cybersecurity awareness professionals should endeavor to:
In 2022, the most common causes of cyberattacks are still malware (22 percent) and phishing (20 percent).4 Even with the rise of ransomware as a service (RaaS) and other sophisticated tools, human beings remain the most reliable, low-cost attack vector for cybercriminals worldwide. For that reason, it’s vital that we all stay informed about how to prevent breaches and defend ourselves, both at work and at home.
Here are some basic steps we can all take to #BeCyberSmart:
Phishing: Deceptive emails, phony websites, fake text messages—these kinds of phishing scams accounted for 30 percent of attacks in 2021.5 During Terranova’s annual Gone Phishing Tournament last year, 19.8 percent of participants clicked on the phishing email link, while 14.4 percent downloaded the fake document.6 So, how can we avoid taking the bait?
Devices and software: Unpatched, out-of-date devices and software are a leading access point for cybercriminals. That’s why practicing good cyber hygiene is so important for avoiding destructive malware that can steal users’ personal information. To help keep your devices safe:
Scams: Criminals will often contact you seeking to “fix” a nonexistent problem. The email or text message will contain a sense of urgency, such as “Act now to avoid having your account locked!” If you see this type of message, do not click the link. And remember to always report any suspected scam so the organization can take action. A few tips to remember:
Passwords: Passwords are our first line of defense against unauthorized access to accounts, devices, and files. However, the average person now has more than 150 online accounts; password fatigue is always a danger. Some tips on how to protect your passwords include:
As of April 2022, there are more than 700,000 vacant cybersecurity positions in the United States, with a predicted 3.5 million cybersecurity positions going unfilled worldwide by 2025.7 That’s why Microsoft continues to reach out to students, veterans, people re-entering the workforce—anyone with an interest in becoming a cybersecurity defender. This year for Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we’re also acting on Microsoft’s initiatives to increase cybersecurity education access and help close the workforce gap. In partnership with the Last Mile Education Fund, Microsoft aims to reach at least 25,000 students by 2025 with scholarships and additional resources related to cybersecurity pathways.
On October 7, 2022, we’re again hosting the Microsoft Student Summit, a virtual skills event designed to inspire higher education students toward a career in tech. This one-day event offers students the opportunity to engage with the Microsoft student developer community, hopefully providing inspiration and stoking a passion for innovation. We’re also continuing to help students move into real-world employment by offering learning sessions aligned to Microsoft certifications for security, compliance, and identity. Eligible students can take up to eight fundamental certification exams for free this academic year.
Helping to create the next generation of cybersecurity defenders is critically important, and we want to make sure the doors are open to everyone. That’s why we’re continuing our partnership with Girl Security, helping to empower adolescent girls, women, and gender minorities by demystifying cybersecurity and developing the in-demand skills needed for employment. Microsoft is also partnering with other organizations to leverage the message from this moment in October 2022 to bring more women to the industry, with a Community College Pathways to Cybersecurity Success webinar with Women in Cybersecurity (WiCys) and a virtual event with the Executive Women’s Forum focused on cybersecurity careers at Microsoft.
We’re always working on new educational initiatives, so stay tuned to our Security blog and check for updates on our cybersecurity awareness and education website.
Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a special time for us as we collectively come together—industry, academia, and government—to promote the importance of a secure online environment. We know that cybercriminals are persistent and driven, working all day, every day with no days off. That’s why we need to work together on awareness and education year-round and build a culture of cyber defenders. Please continue to visit our cybersecurity awareness and education website to learn more about cybersecurity education programs from Microsoft, and get our new cybersecurity education kit to use in your organization. Everyone has a role to play in cybersecurity, and when we learn together, we are more secure together.
Explore our best practices and educational resources with our Cybersecurity Awareness website.
To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.
1Shields Health Care Group data breach affects 2 million patients, Bill Toulas. June 7, 2022.
2A massive cyberattack in Costa Rica leaves citizens hurting, Carla Rosch. June 1, 2022.
3National Cybersecurity Alliance.
4Alarming Cyber Statistics For Mid-Year 2022 That You Need To Know, Chuck Brooks. June 3, 2022.
5Verizon 2021 Data Breach Investigation Report, Verizon. 2021.
6Gone Phishing Tournament, Terranova Security.
7Cybersecurity Jobs Report: 3.5 Million Openings In 2025, Cybersecurity Ventures. November 9, 2021.
The post Cybersecurity awareness tips from Microsoft to empower your team to #BeCyberSmart appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.
In what marks a likely culmination to months of speculative frenzy, Elon Musk is apparently going ahead with his original offer to Twitter.
Bloomberg has reported that Elon Musk intends to consummate the original agreement to acquire Twitter at a price of $54.20 per share, which would value the social media giant at around $44 billion. Musk has formalized this new offer in a letter addressed to Twitter's board.
Twitter shares were halted when this news broke a few minutes back. Currently, the stock is up over 12 percent.
Of course, Elon Musk and Twitter were scheduled to spar with each other in the Delaware Court of Chancery later in October. In light of today's development, however, it remains likely that both parties will withdraw their respective lawsuits against each other.
As we had noted in a post earlier today, Elon Musk's stance vis-à-vis the quantum of bots on Twitter faced two major challenges. First, Twitter's legal team recently disclosed that the two independent experts appointed by Musk to gauge the quantum of bots or fake accounts that populate the social media platform actually negated the claims made by the CEO of Tesla, who at one point had claimed that as much as 90 percent of the engagements on the platform might have been bot-driven. Specifically, Cyabra and CounterAction have now concluded that the quantum of fake accounts on Twitter was 11 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively, in early July.
Second, the social media giant uses monetizable Daily Active Users (mDAUs) as its key criterion to gauge user growth, which is very fuzzily defined in Twitter's own documents. This obfuscation made it extremely hard to gauge the true proliferation of bots on the platform.
In order to legally walk away from the takeover deal, Elon Musk was required to prove that the whistleblower complaint filed by Pieter "Mudge" Zatko, Twitter's security tzar until January 2022, when he was fired for allegedly raising the issue of chronic mismanagement at Twitter, including security lapses, technical shortcomings, and non-compliance with an already-signed privacy agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), constituted a Material Adverse Effect – a materiality threshold to measure the negative effect of an event on the target business or a contract. Musk also needed to furnish a fraudulent statement by Twitter in relation to the spam accounts. However, as noted by Professor Ann Lipton, the associate dean for faculty research and a Michael M. Fleishman associate professor in business law and entrepreneurship at Tulane University Law School, the likelihood of both of these eventualities remained slim.
We will continue to update this post with additional material details as they become available. Stay tuned!
CNBC is reporting now that Elon Musk and Twitter are likely to close the takeover deal by the coming Monday.
MUSK LIKELY TO REACTIVE TRUMP'S TWITTER ACCOUNT -CNBC
— FXHedge (@Fxhedgers) October 4, 2022
In other news, Musk is now likely to reactivate former US President Trump's banned Twitter account.
As per the reporting by Washington Post, Twitter has still not accepted Elon Musk's offer to close the deal on original terms, citing a lack of trust as the reason behind the social media platform's decision to wait at least a day before conveying a formal response to the CEO of Tesla.
The post Elon Musk Surrenders: The CEO of Tesla Now Plans To Acquire Twitter at the Original $54.20 per Share Offer Price by Rohail Saleem appeared first on Wccftech.
While working on "The Color Purple," Steven Spielberg had yet another million-dollar idea: a movie about childhood adventure on a rainy day. Of course, this is Spielberg, so the adventure had to include more than puddle jumping and catching frogs. The famed director gave the idea to screenwriter Christopher Columbus and director Richard Donner, who created a film about a goofy group of kids searching for long-lost pirate treasure.
The movie's blend of childhood nostalgia, imaginative adventure, and pirate treasure was already a winning recipe, but the inclusion of upcoming Hollywood stars like Josh Brolin, Sean Astin, and Corey Feldman cemented the film's success. On top of the film's cast, the set of "The Goonies" was a popular hangout for Hollywood heavyweights.
The talented cast of kids that helped make the film a hit had massive chemistry on-screen, but there was some tension behind the scenes. Back in 2015, Martha Plimpton, who portrayed Stef, told Empire about one tense moment between herself and Feldman that got violent:
"I was sitting at the typewriter doing my homework and he came over and started annoying me. I got up from the typewriter and got [him] on the floor and started smashing [his] head on it, shouting, 'Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!'"
From Plimpton's description, it seems like that incident could have ended really badly, but Feldman seems to shrug it off. "It was the first time a woman had ever gotten on top of me," he revealed.
In an interview with Buzzfeed, Plimpton admitted that putting a group of temperamental, know-it-all teenagers together wasn't a great idea:
"Teenage girls and teenage boys — no. You know? It's not a good mix. I was, like, 13, 14. I was listening to Prince and Mozart on my headphones. I mean, I thought I was like — I was from New York. I thought I was smarter than everybody. You know? I think I just might have been just kind of an a**hole. Do you know what I mean? And I know for sure that Corey Feldman was an asshole. I mean, he won't mind me saying it: He was. A f*cking a**hole. We were children! And children are a**holes. When they're that age."
Although some days were tense due to the young cast's egos and precociousness, others were filled with once-in-a-lifetime meetings with Hollywood's biggest stars.
Whether it was the pull of youthful energy or the epic pirate ship, "The Goonies" set was a magnet for who is who of Hollywood in the '80s. "Pee-Wee's big adventure" was filming at the same time, so Tim Burton and Pee Wee himself (Paul Reubens) came to hang out on the set. Although Pee Wee was pretty big back then, Feldman told Empire that he was the least famous of the set visitors:
"'Pee-Wee's Big Adventure' was shooting across the lot, so Tim Burton and Paul Reubens would come over. Dan Aykroyd too. Harrison Ford actually came and climbed around the caves with us at one point. Michael Jackson and his whole family were there quite a bit. It was the happening, you know? One downside was, I became friends with Michael and was wearing a Prince T-shirt every day."
Meeting such massive celebrities on a Spielberg film set is probably cool, but hanging out with famous adults can have huge consequences for child actors. Many child stars, including Feldman, are introduced to drugs and alcohol at a young age, which often lead to a lifelong struggle with addiction. Plimpton also experienced the devastating effects of drugs in young Hollywood when her boyfriend, River Phoenix, died from an overdose in front of her. Sadly, addiction isn't the only life-changing experience young actors might face.
Feldman mentioned his relationship with Michael Jackson in the Empire article, which began on "The Goonies" set. For years, Jackson was accused of grooming and abusing children, but Feldman and fellow child star Macaulay Culkin defended him against the allegations for years, insisting that he was never inappropriate with them. However, in recent years, Feldman has begun to question his friendship with the pop star:
"He bought me gifts, a Watchman TV, a gold watch from Disneyland [...] "So was he grooming me and I just never ended up being his pick? Or was that just who he was? 'That's the f***ing thing. We'll never know."
In hindsight, Feldman sees the potential risks within the relationship that he didn't have the capacity to understand as a child. The same naivety leads young stars to dabble in drugs and other high-risk behaviors, which makes children extremely vulnerable to the famous and powerful within the entertainment industry.
Having the chance to hang out with superstars on a Spielberg set might sound like a dream come true. However, young, wealthy, famous actors may seem really lucky from the outside, but Fame has had massive consequences for Feldman, Plimpton, and many other child actors.
Read this next: The Horror Movies We Can't Wait To See In 2022
The post The Goonies Set Was A Hang Out Spot For Some Of The Biggest Stars In Hollywood appeared first on /Film.
YouTube’s ‘Saur X’ has shared a video, showcasing what the original/classic Fallout game could look like as an FPS/RPG hybrid. In order to create Fallout: Bakersfield, Saur X used the GZDoom Engine, and it looks retro-cool. For those wondering, there isn’t currently any ETA on when Fallout: Bakersfield will come out. However, this is a … Continue reading Here is what the original Fallout would look like as an FPS/RPG hybrid →
The post Here is what the original Fallout would look like as an FPS/RPG hybrid appeared first on DSOGaming.
In an interview with Julien Chièze, the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Hermen Hulst, shared some interesting details about their first-party games. According to Hulst, Sony plans to release its first-party GaaS games simultaneously on PC and PS5. Hermen explained their decision to release “day and date” their GaaS games on PC. For … Continue reading Sony will release all of its future first-party games on PC, GaaS games “day and date” on PC →
The post Sony will release all of its future first-party games on PC, GaaS games “day and date” on PC appeared first on DSOGaming.
It’s one thing to emulate classic videogames on PC. I’m still mainly a PC gamer (have been since I got my Commodore 64 as a kid…), and so my gaming PC is a bit of a beast, fully VR capable. It’s unsurprising that it’ll run my old console games from the 8, 16, and 32-bit eras without raising a sweat.
When I’m getting nostalgic or gaming with friends and family, there’s nothing quite like holding a game controller in your hand in front of a TV. I still have a few (too many, according to my wife) game consoles I’ve kept around for occasional use, and so I still have something that can still run games I helped create back in the “old days.” And… well… I still have an extensive library of sometimes painstakingly acquired discs and cartridges that I don’t want to part with. Even though running the older consoles on new TVs is quite a challenge.
Aaaanyway… to that end, I’ve also picked up a few emulators. We’ve owned a few with built-in licensed games, and some that have been more do-it-yourself. My latest acquisition is built around the Raspberry Pi 4. It has a form-factor of a tiny Playstation 1, which will probably always be my favorite console due to it being where I started my career. With an SD card capable of handling hundreds of CD-ROMs’ worth of games, it has a ton of potential. Rather than blow off the dust on my old Dreamcast and its library currently banished to the basement, I put some Dreamcast games on my tiny new acquisition. And… yes, they run just fine. That didn’t come as a surprise.
But that’s when the “old fart” part of my brain kicked in. I guess there’s some ingrained element there that still imagines these games as… well, definitely not cutting-edge, but not something that can be run on an all-in-one card that costs about as much as an off-brand XBox controller. I know that’s a weird me-thing, and after a couple more rounds of Soul Caliber it’ll be gone forever. I’ve long gotten used to automatic coffee makers getting hacked to run Doom. Tech marches on, thank goodness. Now not only can my childhood fit on a pocket-sized box, but a chunk of my adult life too!
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
