Ronald.phillips

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the fifth episode of "Star Trek: Picard" season 3.

Season 3 of "Star Trek: Picard" is, by design, drawing heavily from previous "Star Trek" feature films. There are many, many shades of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" in "Picard," and not just in its use of Jerry Goldsmith's music cues from that film. This season also features a notable, prolonged standoff between two ailing starships inside a giant nebula, very akin to the battle between the Enterprise and the Reliant in "Khan." There are also -- and this is significant -- notable themes of aging, with older characters witnessing their own pasts catching up with them. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) realizes that a stalled romance with Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) produced a child he never knew about. He also finds himself reassessing his relationship with Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), who is now his equal rather than a lower-ranking subordinate. Many small elements of these relationships mirror Kirk's aging and his facing of no-win scenarios in "Khan." 

Importantly, neither Picard nor Riker are given any sort of "pass" for their celebrity or prestige in Starfleet. Both men have enjoyed prolonged and distinguished careers, and assume that their requests will all be honored. Picard and Riker, however, hit a brick wall in the form of Capt. Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick), the commanding officer of the U.S.S. Titan-A. Shaw immediately denies their requests with an answer so blunt, it has already become a meme. When his ship is hijacked by the show's title character, Capt. Shaw is incensed. He doesn't care that Dr. Crusher's life is in danger, he would prefer that people respect him and follow orders on his ship. 

In the season's fifth episode, Shaw even points out how badly Picard and Riker have fouled up in the past, making career triumphs sound like horrendous mistakes.

The Devron System

Shaw specifically refers to the events of "All Good Things...," the final episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," as well as the climaxes of "Star Trek: Generations" and "Star Trek: Insurrection." 

The events of "All Good Things..." saw Picard getting unstuck in time, randomly finding himself in the past (immediately before the events of the "Next Generation" pilot), in the present (right at the end of season seven), and in an alternate future where he was an old man. The trickster god Q (John de Lancie) explains that Picard will, through these temporal shenanigans, destroy all of humanity. Eventually past, present, and future will find themselves converging on the same point in physical space at the Devron system in the Neutral Zone. They will unwittingly create a spatial phenomenon that will grow larger as it travels backward in time (it's all very heady), ultimately growing so large as to prevent evolution on Earth all those billions of years ago. Picard managed to undo the damage, but for a moment it did look like he destroyed humanity in the past. 

I may present point of order: at the end of "All Good Things..." time was restored, and Picard says to Troi (Marina Sirtis) that it may have all been a dream. Shaw wouldn't have known about the events in the Devron system. Unless he closely studied Picard's personal logs and took them to be 100% true. The events of "All Good Things..." could very well have been a fantasy. If they were real, however, Shaw would have every reason to be peeved about it. Picard, after all, did briefly wipe out all life on Earth.

Crashing The Enterprise

In the 1994 film "Star Trek: Generations," Picard was stranded on a planet called Veridian III, confronting the evil Dr. Soren (Malcolm McDowell) who sought to launch a missile into the system's sun, hoping to wipe it out and use the resulting gravity alterations to steer a traveling Heaven-like spatial phenomenon into his own body. In orbit above, Riker, in command of the Enterprise-D, was facing off against a Klingon vessel that had found a way to penetrate the Enterprise's shields. Riker manages to defeat the Klingon vessel, but not before the ship's engine takes a beating. The drive section explodes, and the saucer section crashes into Veridian III.

While there were extenuating circumstances around the destruction of the Enterprise, crashing a ship has to look bad on a Starfleet permanent record. None of the subsequent "Star Trek" movies discuss any kind of disciplinary measures taken against Riker or Picard for losing the flagship of the Federation. Indeed, the ship's destruction can be traced directly to the kidnapping of Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton). Dr. Soren and the Klingons implanted a small spy device in Geordi's visor, allowing them to spy on vital technical information. The Enterprise was destroyed because none of the senior staff thought to look for anything untoward on Geordi. Surely someone had to be at least demoted for that.

Perhaps it was the events of "Generations" that prevented Riker from getting his own command for several more years. Or perhaps not. In "Star Trek: First Contact," the exact same senior staff is merely ported over to the Enterprise-E, and there don't seem to have been any change of rank or status.

But Shaw remembers, and is willing to bring up that the elderly men in front of him once wrecked their own ship.

Committing An Insurrection

Shaw doesn't point it out, but there is a plot error in the 1998 film "Star Trek: Insurrection" that makes Picard and Riker seem even more irresponsible than they actually were. In that film, Starfleet, having teamed up with a shady species called the So'Na, plans to forcibly relocate a remote colony of peaceful Ba'Ku farmers, kidnapping them from their homes. The Ba'Ku planet is home to a rare type of radiation that can rejuvenate living cells and allow people to live for centuries without growing old or becoming sick. Picard commits an insurrection to protect the Ba'Ku, feeling that forced relocation is wrong under any circumstances.

It's said in "Insurrection" that the fountain-of-youth radiation cannot be captured and transported away from the Ba'Ku homeworld without destroying its source. It's also explained that the Ba'Ku homeworld is located in a region of space that is difficult to enter. Many viewers will be able to see the solution right away: simply build a Starfleet medical facility on this planet. Find ways to more easily traverse the dangerous region of space, make a deal with the Ba'Ku to never interfere with their lives, and allow this medical miracle to proliferate among the many sick people who might need it. No reason to relocate anyone, or destroy the source of life-giving radiation.

Instead, Picard does the ridiculous thing, defies order, and fires phasers at the So'Na marauders. Riker gets into another spacebound firefight, and explosions occur. Picard even blows up the So'Na leader (F. Murray Abraham) out of what looks like spite. And was anyone disciplined for the insurrection? Nope.

Yes, it was a silly way to defy Starfleet orders, and Shaw was right to point out how bad things got for Picard. As always, Shaw is right.

New episodes of "Star Trek: Picard" premiere Thursdays on Paramount+.

Read this next: The Main Star Trek Captains Ranked Worst To Best

The post In Star Trek: Picard Season 3, All of Picard and Riker's Biggest Mistakes Are (Hilariously) Laid Bare appeared first on /Film.

CISA this week announced it is seeking public input on draft guidance for securing cloud business applications.

The post CISA Seeks Public Opinion on Cloud Application Security Guidance appeared first on SecurityWeek.

The cryptojacking group known as TeamTNT is suspected to be behind a previously undiscovered strain of malware used to mine Monero cryptocurrency on compromised systems. That's according to Cado Security, which found the sample after Sysdig detailed a sophisticated attack known as SCARLETEEL aimed at containerized environments to ultimately steal proprietary data and software. Specifically, the

This post contains spoilers through "Star Trek: Picard" season 3, episode 5.

This season of "Star Trek: Picard" has been more than well-received by critics and fans. The show gives us "The Next Generation" movie we never got, and also introduced us to the irascible Captain Shaw, the captain of the U.S.S. Titan, who is far less enamored with Picard and Riker than others in Starfleet. Shaw is played by Todd Stashwick ("12 Monkeys"), who — as a Trek fan himself — is enjoying taking on the role.

"There's a shot in [the latest episode] that will just live in my little nerdy heart for the rest of my life," Stashwick told me in an interview a few days before the season's fifth episode dropped. "It is Shaw in the captain's seat with Picard on his right and Riker on his left, and just this great framed shot of the three of us. I'm flying my ship with my crew, and it just was peak Shaw."

Stashwick isn't the only one who appreciates peak Shaw moments. I talked to him about some fun behind-the-scenes moments from this week's episode, what he thinks about a potential Shaw spin-off, and that blue meat he was eating in his first scene on the show. Read on for our full discussion.

Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

'We Would Have To Get Ronny Cox Back At Some Point Where He Comes On To Get All Jellico'

The folks at /Film have been making the joke that this is the worst week ever for Captain Shaw in terms of everything he's been through so far. And in this season's fifth episode, Shaw takes the helm as the Titan flees the Changeling-controlled Starfleet. What was that like to film that moment?

That was so fun because, well, first of all, he's not going against Starfleet. He's obviously protecting Starfleet and once again, doing his job. He's protecting Starfleet against, like you said, bad actors. What was really fun about that scene is that might be one of the first times we see him doing full tilt captaining on the bridge and all of the evasive maneuvers — we were code red, red alert, all of that. Then I have the closest thing that I get to a catchphrase. I say, "Let's get out of here," which I like to think that's what he says every time, instead of "Engage" or "Make it so" or "Hit it" or "Let's fly." He just says, "Let's get out of here," which is a beleaguered, blue collar way of giving his command.

That scene was really fun because there's a shot in there that will just live in my little nerdy heart for the rest of my life. It is Shaw in the captain's seat with Picard on his right and Riker on his left, and just this great framed shot of the three of us. I'm flying my ship with my crew, and it just was peak Shaw.

It was so cool because you get a glimpse of what was a common scene [before Riker and Picard showed up] — to see him step up, him take charge, him running his ship, not handing it over to other people, not waiting for anything, it's like, "Okay, I've made the decision, here we go." It was really fun.

I know there are a lot of fans who are advocating for a Shaw spin-off show, probably on the Titan, which I'm sure you wouldn't mind, either. I wondered for you, hypothetically, if there was such a show, who would you want to see on the crew with you? It can be anyone from "Trek," it doesn't have to be just "Picard" folks.

Oh, wow. Well, I love all of my bridge. I love them. They're wonderful humans and I think they're really compelling characters that we could learn a lot more from and see a lot more from. What I think would be really fun, because of the era that we're in, is to see episodes with characters from "Deep Space Nine" and episodes with characters from "Voyager."

We would have to get Ronny Cox back at some point where he comes on to get all Jellico; he's probably an admiral at this point. And then the evolved version of Shaw would have to connect with him. That would be a lot of fun.

My next question actually relates to Jellico. What captains in the Trek lore do you think Shaw would get along with the most? Except for Jellico, as that's the obvious one.

Well, I think obviously Sisko, he shares a lot of history with — they may or may not have known each other but they share a common wound, I should say. [Editor's Note: Both Sisko and Shaw had traumatic experiences with the Borg.] He obviously would connect with Sisko on that level. I also think Janeway. She's not a space cowboy, not in the Kirk way. I also think his specific beefs with Picard, I don't know if he would have the same opinion of Picard that he has if it wasn't for "The Best of Both Worlds" [the "Next Generation" episode where Picard as the Borg attacked Starfleet, killing many, including Shaw's crew mates]. I think Picard, in many ways, was more similar to Shaw prior to that event.

'What Does It Feel Like To Be The Center Of A Patrick Stewart-Frakes Sandwich?'

It's interesting you say that, because another scene from this latest episode of "Picard" is when the whole crew is getting ready to reconnect with Starfleet, Shaw questions the notion that Picard and Riker are legends. I think you literally say it's like a chicken or egg thing.

Well, they caused their own problems that they solve. They're the ones who have put the galaxy in danger, but then had to bail themselves out, which I think is fun.

Was it fun filming that scene?

It was really playful. It's a little meta, obviously, but it's a man who's done his research, and maybe didn't even need to, because these are notoriously infamous moments in Starfleet history. Yet it all keeps coming back to those two. One funny thing that happened on that turbo lift is at one point, Patrick Stewart snaked his arm behind me and grabbed Jonathan [Frakes, who plays Riker], and squeezed me in between them. And then he goes [in voice like Stewart's]: "What does it feel like to be the center of a Patrick Stewart-Frakes sandwich?"

No, he didn't. Oh, man.

Yeah, I was like, "There's a line at a con that would pay for this moment."

Yeah, there is.

He was just so silly. And I think the line, "Those were the days," [that Picard says after Shaw dresses him and Riker down], that came up in the room on the day. That was a pitch, and then, "Those were the days" was the one that we landed on. We were all like, "That's perfect."

And Patrick's delivery of that is so nice. It's humorous, but also nostalgic.

Yeah, it's really how we're all feeling.

I do have to ask about your first scene on the show: What did that blue streak taste like?

It was space meat.

Space meat, but you were actually eating it, right?

Yeah, I ate the space meat.

What did it taste like?

It tasted like space.

It was very blue.

Super blue. It's from space.

Did it dye your teeth or anything like that?

Why would it? It's blue. It's not dye. It's space. That's my story, I'm sticking to it.

'We Watch Him Slowly Evolve As These Situations Present Themselves'

All right, sounds good. Hopefully we can all have space meat someday. So I know we're at the midpoint of the season, and without getting into spoilers, is there anything you can tease about Shaw's journey through the course of the season that's left?

It's funny, like any character -- and I've had the good fortune of performing in Terry Matalas joints before [like "12 Monkeys"] -- what I love about Terry is the way he uses what I do to get people to hate me at first, and then slowly wrestle them into going, "Oh, he has a point. He's a little funny sometimes." I love the journey that Shaw goes on, the evolution and the new places that he comes to when faced with these dire situations.

It's not that he hasn't faced his share of space adventure before. He's been in Starfleet, boldly going through the final frontier for at least five years on the Titan itself. He's a growing individual who, when we first meet him, has a lot to learn. And we watch him slowly evolve as these situations present themselves.

New episodes of "Star Trek: Picard" premiere on Thursdays on Paramount+.

Read this next: 11 Reasons Why The Next Generation Is The Best Star Trek Show

The post Star Trek: Picard's Todd Stashwick Found Himself in a Patrick Stewart-Jonathan Frakes Sandwich [Exclusive Interview] appeared first on /Film.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has claimed that, were parent ByteDance to sell the company, that alone wouldn't be enough to prevent it from scrutiny over security concerns. Chew made the assertion following reports this week (which TikTok has confirmed) that the US government has told TikTok to divest itself from ByteDance or face a national ban. "Divestment doesn’t solve the problem: a change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access," TikTok said in the wake of those reports.

Chew claimed that the US and other countries would still have problems with how the app handles user data were it to have a different owner. Officials have expressed fear that China will gain access to user data linked to their residents. 

TikTok's CEO told The Wall Street Journal that, were Beijing-based ByteDance to sell the company, that won't provide more data protection beyond projects it's already working on. TikTok has promised to protect US user data from China by routing it through domestic Oracle servers and putting other safeguards in place, such as third-party oversight of the app's algorithms.

TikTok has spent billions of dollars on that plan, which it calls Project Texas. It has been working on the project over the last two years in an attempt to address US security concerns after former President Donald Trump attempted to force ByteDance to sell TikTok. The company recently announced a similar project for European user data.

Some officials are worried that ByteDance might be compelled to share data with the Chinese government or that China might demand changes to the content that TikTok's algorithms show to Americans. TikTok has claimed it wouldn't provide data to Chinese officials if they asked for assistance with spying — the company says it has not received such a request.

Meanwhile, a former employee of TikTok's trust and safety team has claimed there are significant flaws with Project Texas. They said it would still theoretically be possible for China to access US data as TikTok could still be linked to ByteDance's Chinese news app Toutiao. That said, reports suggest the person left TikTok months before Project Texas was finalized and that he may not know all the details of how it works.

“The idea behind Project Texas is it won’t matter what the Chinese law or any law says, because we’re taking US user data and we’re putting it out of their reach,” Chew said. “You’re talking about real concerns. I think these are the real solutions.”

Chew hasn't said whether ByteDance is open to selling its stake in TikTok. He has also dismissed the option of listing TikTok on the stock market as a publicly traded company any time soon, but that's something his company and ByteDance are mulling.

Next week, Chew will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He'll discuss TikTok's links to China as well as issues such as privacy and the app's impact on kids.

The US government and dozens of states have banned their employees from using TikTok on their federal- or state-owned devices. Canada and the European Commission have enacted similar bans in recent weeks, while the UK announced a similar measure earlier today.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-ceo-says-selling-the-app-wont-satisfy-us-security-concerns-153717605.html?src=rss

Britain is to ban the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok from ministers' and civil servants' mobile phones, bringing the UK in line with the US and the European Commission and reflecting deteriorating relations with Beijing. From a report: The decision marks a sharp U-turn from the UK's previous position and came a few hours after TikTok said its owner, ByteDance, had been told by Washington to sell the app or face a possible ban in the country. The UK government's announcement was made on Thursday by Oliver Dowden, the Cabinet Office minister, in the Commons. He said the ban was taking place "with immediate effect." The decision follows a review of TikTok by government cybersecurity experts at the National Cyber Security Centre, and will cover ministers' and civil servants' work phones, but not their personal phones. "This is a proportionate move based on a specific risk with government devices," Dowden added. At least two cabinet ministers use TikTok. Michelle Donelan, the science and technology secretary, and Grant Shapps, the energy security and net zero secretary have an account on the app, which is used by millions of young people and many celebrities and influencers.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We analyzed an algorithm that evaluates people claiming welfare benefits and found shocking discrimination.

You know that sinking feeling you get in your stomach when you receive a hefty bill you weren’t expecting? That is what some content delivery network (CDN) customers experience when they get slammed with bandwidth fees without warning. To avoid that sinking feeling, it’s important to understand how bandwidth fees work. It’s critical to know precisely what you are paying for and how you use the cloud service before you get hit with an eye-popping bill you can’t pay.

A content delivery network is an excellent way to speed up your website and improve performance and SEO, but not all vendors are created equal. Some charge more for data transfer than others. As the leading specialized cloud storage provider, we have developed partnerships with many top CDN providers, giving us the advantage of fully understanding how their services work and what they charge.

So, let’s talk about bandwidth fees and how they work to help you decide which CDN provider is right for you.

What Are CDN Bandwidth Fees?

Most CDN cloud services work like this: You can configure the CDN to pull data from one or more origins (such as a Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage Bucket) for free or for a flat fee, and then you’re charged fees for usage, namely when data is transferred when a user requests it. These are known as bandwidth, download, or data transfer fees. (We’ll use these terms somewhat interchangeably.) Typically, storage providers also charge egress fees when data is called up by a CDN.

The fees aren’t a problem in and of themselves, but if you don’t have a good understanding of them, successes you should be celebrating can be counterbalanced by overhead. For example, let’s say you’re a small game-sharing platform, and one of your games goes viral. Bandwidth and egress fees can add up quickly in a case like this. CDN providers charge in arrears, meaning they wait to see how much of the data was accessed each month, and then they apply their fees.

Thus, monitoring and managing data transfer fees can be incredibly challenging. Although some services offer a calculation tool, you could still receive a shock bill at the end of the month. It’s important to know exactly how these fees work so you can plan your workflows better and strategically position your content where it will be the most efficient.

How Do CDN Bandwidth Fees Work?

Data transfer occurs when data leaves the network. An example might be when your application server serves an HTML page to the browser or your cloud object store serves an image, in each case via the CDN. Another example is when your data is moved to a different regional server within the CDN to be more efficiently accessed by users close to it.

There are dozens of instances where your data may be accessed or moved, and every bit adds up. Typically, CDN vendors charge a fee per GB or TB up to a specific limit. Once you hit these thresholds, you may advance up another pricing tier. A busy month could cost you a mint, and traffic spikes for different reasons in different industries—like a Black Friday rush for an e-commerce site or around events like the Super Bowl for a sports betting site, for example.

To give you some perspective, Apple spent more than $50 million in data transfer fees in a single year, Netflix $15 million, and Adobe and Salesforce spent more than $7 million according to The Information. You can see how quickly things add up before breaking the bank.

Price Comparison of Bandwidth Fees Across CDN Services

To get a better sense of how each CDN service charges for bandwidth, let’s explore the top providers and what they offer and charge.

As part of the Bandwidth Alliance, some of these vendors have agreed to discount customer data transfer fees when transferring one or both ways between member companies. What’s more, Backblaze offers free egress or discounts above and beyond what folks get with the Bandwidth Alliance for customers.

Note: Prices are as published by vendors as of 3/16/2023.

Fastly

Fastly offers edge caches to deliver content instantly around the globe. The company also offers SSL services for $20/per domain per month. They have various additional add-ons for things like web application firewalls (WAFs), managed rules, DDoS protection, and their Gold support.

Fastly bases its pricing structure on usage. They have three tiered plans:

1. Essential: up to 3TB of global delivery per month.
2. Professional: up to 10TB of global delivery per month.
3. Enterprise: unlimited global delivery.

They bill customers a minimum of $50/month for bandwidth and request usage.

bunny.net

bunny.net labels itself as the world’s lightning-fast CDN service. They price their CDN services based on region. For North America and Europe, prices begin at $0.01/GB per month. For companies with more than 100TB per month, you must call for pricing. If you have high bandwidth needs, bunny.net offers fewer PoPs (Points of Presence) for $0.005/GB per month.

Cloudflare

Cloudflare offers a limited free plan for hobbyists and individuals. They also have tiered pricing plans for businesses called Pro, Business, and Enterprise. Instead of charging bandwidth fees, Cloudflare opts for the monthly subscription model, which includes everything.

The Pro plan costs $20/month (for 100MB of upload). The Business plan is $200/month (for 200MB of upload). You must call to get pricing for the enterprise plan (for 500MB of upload).

Cloudflare also offers dozens of add-ons for load balancing, smart routing, security, serverless functions, etc. Each one costs extra per month.

AWS Cloudfront

AWS Cloudfront is Amazon’s CDN and is tightly integrated with its AWS services. The company offers tiered pricing based on bandwidth usage. The specifics are as follows for North America:

• $0.085/GB up to the first 10TB per month.
• $0.080/GB for the next 40TB per month.
• $0.060/GB for the next 100TB per month.
• $0.040/GB for the next 350TB per month.
• $0.030/GB for the next 524TB per month.

Their pricing extends up to 5PB per month, and there are different pricing breakdowns for different regions.

Amazon offers special discounts for high-data users and those customers who use AWS as their application storage container. You can also purchase add-on products that work with the CDN for media streaming and security.

Google Cloud CDN

Google Cloud CDN offers fast and reliable content delivery services. However, Google charges bandwidth, cache egress fees, and for cache misses. Their pricing structure is as follows:

• Cache Egress: $0.02–$0.20 per GB.
• Cache Fill: $0.01–$0.04 per GB.
• Cache Lookup Requests: $0.0075 per 10,000 requests.

Cache egress fees are priced per region, and in the U.S., they start at $0.08 for the first 10TB. Between 10–150TB costs $0.055, and beyond 500TB, you have to call for pricing.
Google charges $0.01 per GB for cache fill services.

Microsoft Azure

The Azure content delivery network is Microsoft’s offering that promises speed, reliability, and a high level of security.

Azure offers a limited free account for individuals to play around with. For business customers, they offer the following price structure:

Depending on the zone, the price will vary for data transfer. For Zone One, which includes North America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, pricing is as follows:

• First 10TB: $0.158/GB per month.
• Next 40TB: $0.14/GB per month.
• Next 100TB: $0.121/GB per month.
• Next 350TB: $0.102/GB per month.
• Next 500TB: $0.093/GB per month.
• Next 4,000TB: $0.084/GB per month.

Azure charges $.60 per 1,000,000,000 requests per month and $1 for rules per month. You can also purchase WAF services and other products for an additional monthly fee.

How to Save on Bandwidth Fees

A CDN can significantly enhance the performance of your website or web application and is well worth the investment. However, finding ways to save is helpful. Many of the CDN providers listed above are members of the Bandwidth Alliance and have agreed to offer discounted rates for bandwidth and egress fees. Another way to save money each month is to find affordable origin storage that works seamlessly with your chosen CDN provider. Here at Backblaze, we think the world needs lower egress fees, and we offer free egress between Backblaze B2 and many CDN partners like Fastly, bunny.net, and Cloudflare.

The post CDN Bandwidth Fees: What You Need to Know appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Microsoft has unveiled Microsoft 365 Copilot, the next evolutionary step for its productivity suite, Microsoft 365. The company has been going all-in on AI lately, especially with the introduction of the new Bing in February (which Microsoft also refers to as a "copilot for the web"), leveraging the GPT-4 large language model. Microsoft 365 Copilot also relies on large language models, but now it's using it to boost your productivity across every app in the Microsoft 365 suite.

Register for Microsoft Secure on March 28, 2023, for insights on AI, identity, data security, and more. In this blog post, we preview what to expect and session highlights you won’t want to miss.

The post Join us at Microsoft Secure to discover the latest security solutions appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

Microsoft 365 Copilot will work in apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and more.

Microsoft is announcing a new AI-powered Copilot for its Microsoft 365 apps and services today, designed to assist people with generating documents, emails, presentations, and much more. From a report: The Copilot, powered by GPT-4 from OpenAI, will sit alongside Microsoft 365 apps much like an assistant (remember Clippy?), appearing in the sidebar as a chatbot that allows Office users to summon it to generate text in documents, create PowerPoint presentations based on Word documents, or even help use features like PivotTables in Excel. Microsoft's Copilot leaked earlier today. "It works alongside you, embedded in the apps millions of people use everyday: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more," said Microsoft 365 head Jared Spataro. "Copilot is a whole new way of working." Microsoft 365 users will be able to summon Copilot to provide information on an upcoming Microsoft Teams meeting, preparing people with updates on related projects, organizational changes like recent hires, and even updates on co-workers who might have returned from vacation.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

WIRED spoke with the coauthor of the Restrict Act, a bipartisan bill to crack down on tech from six “hostile” countries.

Meta has developed a ten-phase cyber kill chain model that it believes will be more inclusive and more effective than the existing range of models.

The post Meta Develops New Kill Chain Thesis appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Threat activity clusters affiliated with the Chinese and Russian cybercriminal ecosystems have been observed using a new piece of malware that's designed to load Cobalt Strike onto infected machines. Dubbed SILKLOADER by Finnish cybersecurity company WithSecure, the malware leverages DLL side-loading techniques to deliver the commercial adversary simulation software. The development comes as 

A new Half-Life overhaul is here, aiming to be spiritually in keeping with Valve's 1998 FPS game, while improving and changing some core mechanics to feel closer to a modern, 2023 shooter. Called Half-Life Mmod, it might look awfully similar at a glance, but subtle tweaks to the visuals, gunplay, AI, and SFX make this arguably the definitive way to play.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Whatever happened to Half-Life 3?, Best old games, Best FPS games

Reply from RayeR, 16.03.2023, 00:40:

I already tried to disable RM part by not loading the JLM but any change.
It seems there's known issue with code order of enabling interrupt and installing ISR (and also the solution suggested by Japheth), author of SBEMU is informed about it and I'm waiting for new version where he will implement the fix.

The Biden Administration is significantly increasing pressure on ByteDance just days before TikTok’s CEO is set to testify in front of Congress. The United States government is now “demanding” that ByteDance sell TikTok, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal.

The new demand, which TikTok confirmed to Reuters, is a major blow to the company, which has spent more than two years negotiating with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) over its future in the country. Those negotiations resulted in a sweeping partnership with Oracle and other measures meant to safeguard US users' data.

Now, CFIUS has reportedly told TikTok that it wants ByteDance to sell its stake in the company after all. If it doesn’t, the app could face a national ban. The House and the Senate have both recently introduced bills that would make it easier for government officials to ban TikTok and other services deemed to be a national security threat.

TikTok didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has previously stated that divesting from ByteDance wouldn’t address the government’s underlying concerns about data security. However, Bloomberg reported earlier in the week that TikTok executives were “discussing the possibility of separating from ByteDance” if the CFIUS talks were to fall through.

Of course, this isn’t the first time the United States government has tried to force ByteDance’s hand. Former President Donald Trump also attempted to compel TikTok to sell itself, but was ultimately unsuccessful. The latest threats of a total ban on the app are, however, sure to amp up pressure on TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who is set to make his first Congressional appearance next week.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-us-government-is-trying-to-force-bytedance-to-sell-tiktok-005751763.html?src=rss

Remember when Warner Bros financed an expensive "Blade Runner" sequel and everyone assumed it would eliminate the sharp, interesting edges of the original movie to deliver something more accessible and mainstream — and then they went and made "Blade Runner 2049," the most "Blade Runner" movie imaginable? Well, something must be in the water at Warner Bros., because "Evil Dead Rise" could've been a chance to tone down one of the most extreme horror franchises in Hollywood history, and instead someone with the power to do so said "F*** it" and let writer/director Lee Cronin make the nastiest, most extreme entry in a series that's pretty well-known for being nasty and extreme.

Yes, "Evil Dead Rise" is the most "Evil Dead" movie, from the mind-melting body horror to the outrageous creature design to the darkly comedic spring in its step. Here's a movie that invites you to treat the decimation of a family unit by demonic forces like a big ol' party. There is a select portion of the human population who will find that reprehensible. The rest of us freaks can just crack open the cursed book, read the cursed words, and enjoy the cursed ride.

Director Lee Cronin Means Business

"Evil Dead Rise" is the kind of horror sequel that gets to have its (maggot-infested, vomit-encrusted) cake and eat it, too. By moving the action away from a cabin in the woods and to a crummy apartment building in Los Angeles, it's free to twist out of the shackles of every entry that came before and make a clean break entirely the original trilogy's characters (no Ash to be found here, folks). At the same time, it knows what works, breaking out familiar beats to add spice here and there, knowing that some things just work, and pretending otherwise would be foolish. "Evil Dead Rise" loves being an "Evil Dead" movie, but it's not going to settle for just playing the greatest hits ... even though it knows those notes well.

The most unnerving aspect of the film is introduced fast and furious: horny college students in a cabin are replaced by a charmingly dysfunctional family unit, whose home is invaded by demonic forces when the wrong book is opened and the wrong incantation recited (stop doing that, people). Soon, it's mother against children, children against mother, and sibling against sibling as the flesh is torn asunder and household objects become weapons (cheese grater, anyone?). No soft edges here, no beating around the bush — Cronin goes hard fast and early. His movie means business, and he's not above letting a family destroy itself to make that clear.

Getting Away With It

Making the cast of "Evil Dead Rise" relatives who find their home transformed into hell on Earth is Cronin's most twisted trick. There's an air of tragedy and danger present at all times, a sense of wrongness that permeates every moment. As his active camera spirals through hallways and careens into close-ups of mayhem that'll have audiences shrieking (and others chuckling), the film feels dangerous by default. Even as the film's tone employs a similar energetic jaunt to the original Sam Raimi-directed trilogy, it never taps the brakes and keeps poking you in the ribs. No one is safe because they're the innocent kid or the mom. Everyone in this movie is the innocent kid or the mom. And they're gonna be dead by dawn.

While the 2013 franchise revival from Fede Alvarez leaned into misery (to strong effect), Cronin rides his extreme choices like a surfer from hell, catching wave after wave as he yanks us into one deranged set piece after another, whittling down the cast and upping the ante at every opportunity. By the time the film enters its final stretch, and he unleashes the most extreme creature imagery seen across the entire "Evil Dead" series, you can practically hear him cackling behind the camera. A movie this grotesque has to be in on the joke or it would be an exercise in misery. "Evil Dead Rise" never forgets to be a good time, and its darkest moments feel less like an act of punishment on the audience and more like a playful nudge. Hey ... can you believe we're getting away with this?

The Mother Of All Deadites

With Bruce Campbell firmly on the sidelines, "Evil Dead Rise" rests on the shoulders of two newcomers to the series: Alyssa Sutherland as Ellie, the mother who finds herself possessed by a demon hellbent on bloodshed and chaos at all costs, and Lily Sullivan's Beth, who returns home after an unexpected positive pregnancy test and finds herself acting as the only line of defense between her family and the forces that want to destroy their souls and bodies. There's a powerful "final girl" energy to Sullivan, who rises to the occasion and does exactly what you'd hope an "Evil Dead" protagonist would do in the dismemberment department.

But it's Sutherland who proves to be the real revelation, playing the most alarming "deadite" we've seen in the series so far. A few common tropes are repeated (these demons clearly have a recurring bag of tricks), but no "Evil Dead" villain has been so sinister, so darkly funny, and performed with such physical commitment by an actor willing to go all-in on embodying a force of malevolent evil that refuses to operate by coherent or human logic. It's a spectacular performance, and her every scene turns the pressure up on Cronin's already-tight pacing. She's not going to stop until everyone else in the movie is dead, and you believe she can pull it off.

The Funhouse Tour

Like the other "Evil Dead" movies, I'm not sure "Rise" has much more going on under the hood other than being a good time at the movies, even as it leans in the direction of being a tale about motherhood and the responsibilities one has to their family. But does an "Evil Dead" movie need to be about something beyond craft? I don't think so. And the craft here is frequently stunning, especially the severed limbs, devoured body parts, impalings, and skin-rippings that look tangible enough to feel like practical effects but startling enough to suggest quiet digital assistance (an argument for the best of both worlds when it comes to horror gore, naturally).

Cronin knows what made the first two "Evil Dead" movies in particular work and leans into it while being unafraid to leave a new mark. While certainly darker than Raimi's films, this is, like them, a hyper-violent tour through a nightmarish funhouse that pauses only to show off something gnarly enough that you can only scream or laugh. Hey. An "Evil Dead" film through and through.

/Film Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Read this next: The Highest Rated Horror Movies Of All Time

The post Evil Dead Rise Review: The Classic Horror Franchise Roars Back to Bloody Life [SXSW 2023] appeared first on /Film.

Editor’s Note: Some mild spoilers in this EVIL DEAD RISE review

Playing as a special screening, EVIL DEAD RISE made SXSW run red…with blood. All the blood. Director Lee Cronin brought high levels of creepiness and abject terror to every aspect of this film. Bone-snapping soundscape, traumatizing gore and practical effects, demonic and skin-crawling make-up, and the cinematography from David Garbett create a writhe-in-your-seat creepy atmosphere. EVIL DEAD RISE continues with the familiar tone of the franchise and brings us a new kind of monster which I can only describe as a ‘blob of family.’ Some theatergoers will find the gore off-putting (and will probably never use a cheese grater again) but fans of any portion of the Evil Dead saga will find themselves cheering for more. And that’s groovy, baby.

The film starts with a point-of-view shot trekking through the forest and as the camera gets closer to an unsuspecting woman quietly reading a book, the music intensifies. Even though this opening shot reveals itself to have a far less sinister purpose, fans of Evil Dead will find amusement in the homage to their beloved franchise. Aside from the ominous camerawork, the film also starts with a memorable setting. Now, a dusty cabin in the woods is never a good location, and pretty soon it becomes clear to everyone that one of the happy campers will soon take a dark turn and the dusty cabin will become a bloody one. The cold opening and the title card crawl for EVIL DEAD RISE brought the house down. Screams of surprise and jubilation roared throughout the theatre and this enthusiastic (yet horrified) din did not settle until the end of the credits. The audience really helped make this movie special and I just want to cut them open, so I can climb inside them and stay one happy family forever.

Unlike all previous installments of the Evil Dead franchise, EVIL DEAD RISE follows a female lead (and a mostly female cast), which just goes to show that when you are in trouble you just need a good girl with a boom stick. The main cast consists of Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) who plays a single mother of three children. She eventually becomes the scariest damn mother you will ever see, but when first introduced, she struggles with accepting her husband left and that he does not plan to ever return. She not only needs to move out of her apartment, but she needs to move on as well. Every part of the apartment holds an item, a photo, or a memory connected to the now-absent husband.

Our second lead is Ellie’s sister Beth (Lily Sullivan) who works as a guitar technician and is always on the road with little available time to dedicate to her sister and her family (let alone start her own family). Both actresses bring a powerhouse performance and absolutely nail every aspect of their roles. Some Evil Dead purists will say “Not without my Ash!” but seeing these women on the big screen will make them some of your new horror favorites.

The lives of Beth and Ellie are tumultuous but still fairly normal in the world of horror. An absentee husband and an unplanned pregnancy make for an uncomfortable time but not the level of horror expected of an Evil Dead installment. So, Cronin threw in an earthquake and now a portentous-looking hole appears in the building’s parking lot just begging for a teenager to explore. Ellie’s oldest son Danny (Morgan Davies) hops into the hole and soon begins uncovering all kinds of secrets. He discovers some old records and decides to steal them assuming something on the albums will provide some good material for sampling. But, these records are not the biggest find. In a back room sits a cracked tomb that would make any other person go “Nope!” but Danny ignores these instincts and pushes through to find none other than the Necronomicon!

Soon, evil once again becomes unleashed and the inhabitants of the 14th floor of the apartment complex must fight and the dead-ites came to fight dirty. Everything is now a weapon: a large shard of glass, an aerosol can, and even a babydoll head on the end of a staff. Nothing makes an audience scream and squirm more than a cheese grater dragged across the skin. Leg-uini, anyone? With all the hand stabbing, eye gouging, and throat slashing, it’s probably best to just sit back and watch the world end through a blood-splattered peephole, but Beth did not come to sit back and ideally watch evil consume everyone around her.

While EVIL DEAD RISE brought quite a few changes to the forty-year-old franchise, there were still a lot of similarities in how the newcomer Cronin handled the well-loved material of the previous films and series. With plenty of nods and winks to the original films, Cronin still creates enough of his own world and monsters to stand strongly beside (but separately) from Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead.

EVIL DEAD RISE played as a special screening at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival. Make sure to check the rest of our SXSW coverage here.

EVIL DEAD RISE will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures and is set to open in theaters in North America on April 21, 2023, and internationally beginning April 19, 2023.

The post [SXSW Review] EVIL DEAD RISE appeared first on Nightmarish Conjurings.

Having high levels of caffeine in your blood may lower the amount of body fat you carry and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, research suggests. From a report: The findings could lead to calorie-free caffeinated drinks being used to reduce obesity and type 2 diabetes, though further research is required, the researchers wrote in the BMJ Medicine journal. Dr Katarina Kos, a senior lecturer in diabetes and obesity at the University of Exeter, said the research showed potential health benefits for people with high levels of caffeine their blood, but added: "It does not study or recommend drinking more coffee, which was not the purpose of this research." She said any caffeinated drinks containing sugar and fat would offset the positive effects. The researchers said their work built on previously published research, which suggested that drinking three to five daily cups of coffee, containing an average 70-150mg of caffeine, was associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. As those were observational studies, they made it difficult to pinpoint whether the effects were because of caffeine or other compounds, the researchers said. This latest study used a technique known as Mendelian randomisation, which establishes cause and effect through genetic evidence. The team found two common gene variants associated with the speed of caffeine metabolism, and used these to work out genetically predicted blood caffeine levels and whether this was associated with lower BMI and body fat.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A previously undocumented threat actor dubbed YoroTrooper has been targeting government, energy, and international organizations across Europe as part of a cyber espionage campaign that has been active since at least June 2022. "Information stolen from successful compromises include credentials from multiple applications, browser histories and cookies, system information and screenshots," Cisco

If you know someone who fell for an online scam last year, you're far from alone. The FBI reports that Americans submitting incidents to the agency lost $10.3 billion to internet scams in 2022, a steep jump from $6.9 billion in 2021. While there were fewer complaints (800,944), certain ripoffs were still very problematic. Investment scams were the most common and costliest schemes. Related fraud losses jumped from nearly $1.5 billion in 2021 to $3.3 billion, and most of that value came from cryptocurrency scams — losses surged from $907 million to almost $2.6 billion in 2022.

There were some bright spots. While investment scams were the on the rise, ransomware complaints fell sharply. There were just 2,385 complaints about these digital extortion attempts versus 3,729 the year before, and they led to a relatively modest $34.3 million in losses. And while phishing was the most prevalent scam type with over 300,000 complaints, the damages were limited to $52.1 million.

The FBI warns that its figures don't represent the entirety of online scams in the US. Not everyone who was the victim of a ransomware attack reported it to the bureau, Executive Assistant Director Timothy Langan says. However, he says the reports help law enforcement spot trends and otherwise deal with threats. The Investigators have better sense of what they need to address, even if they don't have the full picture.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fbi-says-americans-lost-10-billion-to-scammers-in-2022-144514762.html?src=rss

Compliance and ZTNA are driving encryption into every aspect of an organization’s network and enterprise and, in turn, forcing us to change how we think about protecting our environments.

The post Are Encryption and Zero Trust Breaking Key Protections? appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Sagar Singh and Nicholas Ceraolo have been charged for their alleged roles in a doxing operation that involved hacking a law enforcement platform and email account.

The post US Charges Two Men Over Use of Hacked Law Enforcement Database for Doxing appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Learn the three stages of migrating to cloud-based data loss prevention (DLP), along with how to overcome perceived challenges to create a scalable, holistic DLP solution.

The post Gain flexibility and scale with a cloud-native DLP solution appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

NSA publishes recommendations on maturing identity, credential, and access management capabilities to improve cyberthreat protections.

The post NSA Shares Guidance on Maturing ICAM Capabilities for Zero Trust appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Learn the three stages of migrating to cloud-based data loss prevention (DLP), along with how to overcome perceived challenges to create a scalable, holistic DLP solution.

The post Gain flexibility and scale with a cloud-native DLP solution appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

Fluid dynamics

Publisher Ziggurat and developer Terminal Reality have dropped an updated version of Apogee shareware classic Terminal Velocity on PC and Switch without telling me, and I am offended. Terminal Velocity: Boosted Edition is a source port of the overlooked classic that everyone played that updates the base game to run natively on modern hardware.

Terminal Reality is actually the original developer of Terminal Velocity, having released it way back in 1995 for DOS. The three-episode game was released by Apogee under their 3D Realms label, who gave away the first episode for free as part of their shareware method of distribution. Because it was free, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone with a DOS-based PC at that time who didn’t play it. In fact, I bet there are numerous people reading this right now going, “Ooh! That’s what that game was called.”

[embed]https://youtu.be/TPDxl8rdRQw[/embed]

As sort of a space-flight sim similar to Descent, Terminal Velocity had you cruising across planet surfaces, accomplishing various objectives, which were normally just blowing something up. It wasn’t a particularly deep game, but it had 3D polygonal graphics, which were still catching on with PCs at the time. I want to say that it’s mostly memorable because of its shareware origins, but that sounds like it’s damning it with praise. It’s an inoffensive and fun experience, and I honestly enjoy it more than Descent.

The Terminal Velocity: Boosted Edition features extended draw distance, widescreen visuals, reduced polygon jitter, re-engineered sound, and translucent shadows.

I love seeing source ports of older games. It’s possible to get a lot of them to run in something like DOSbox, but that can be finicky to get it just right. I prefer a nicely future-proofed engine over tinkering any day.

Terminal Velocity: Boosted Edition is available right now for PC and Nintendo Switch for $11.99. Xbox and PlayStation console ports are reportedly coming sometime in the future.

The post Terminal Velocity: Boosted Edition brings back the shareware classic on PC and consoles appeared first on Destructoid.