Tangle Tech

Cybersecurity researchers from Trend Micro recently found a Linux variant of the dreaded Play ransomware strain targeting VMWare ESXi environments. In a technical breakdown, Trend Micro’s Threat Hunting team said this was the first time Play was seen targeting ESXi environments, and it could be that the criminals are broadening their attacks across the Linux platform, giving them an expanded victim pool and more successful ransom negotiations. Play was first spotted more than two years ago, and since then it became popular for its double-extortion tactics, evasion techniques, custom-built tools, and a “substantial impact” on companies in Latin America, the researchers explained. Prolific Puma and Revolver Rabbit Businesses usually use VMWare’s ESXi instances for virtual machines, where they host critical applications, data, and integrated backup solutions. By targeting these endpoints, Play’s operators could reduce the chances of the victim recovering any encrypted data. Therefor...

Here's your Monday Quordle, ready to trip you up once again with its combo of four Wordle-style puzzles you have to solve simultaneously. It's a tricky beast to master, so read on if you need some hints. Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my Wordle today , NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles. S POILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers. Quordle today (game #910) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today? • The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 2 *. * Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too). Quordle today (game #910) - hint #2 - repeated letters Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters? • The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1 . Quordle today (ga...

Micron has confirmed starting its new multiplexed rank dual inline memory module (MRDIMM). The new memory is designed for scenarios requiring more than 128GB of memory per DIMM slot and works by combining several layers of memory modules, running at standard DDR5 speeds, with a data buffer that speeds up the connection to the host computer, allowing for faster data transfers.  MRDIMMs improve upon traditional TSV RDIMMs by offering increased bandwidth, greater capacity, reduced latency, and enhanced performance per watt. Designed for use in virtualized environments, HPC, and AI data center operations, the MRDIMMs are the first generation in Micron's new memory module family and are compatible with Intel's new  Xeon 6 processors. Used in Granite Rapids “Micron’s latest innovative main memory solution, MRDIMM, delivers the much-needed bandwidth and capacity at lower latency to scale AI inference and HPC applications on next-generation server platforms," says Praveen Vai...

Sony has long been a key player in digital storage technologies. The company introduced the CD in 1982, which it developed in collaboration with Philips, revolutionizing how data and music were stored and accessed. In 1995, Sony launched the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), a joint effort with Philips, Toshiba, and Panasonic. This was followed by the Blu-ray Disc in 2006, which offered even greater storage capacity suitable for high-definition video and data. In 2014, the company, in partnership with Panasonic, came up with a new optical storage format for professionals, the Archival Disc , which could store a whopping 300GB of data. The writing has been on the wall for Sony’s older optical solutions for a while however, and the company has said it plans to phase out its recordable disc production, which includes Blu-ays, having previously announced plans to cut a significant number of jobs at its optical media plant in northeast Japan. Alternatives step up "The growth of the co...

Here's your Connections puzzle for Sunday from the NYT. It's hard, as always, but not so tricky as some are – and I have hints if you need some below. What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers , Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too. SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers. NYT Connections today (game #406) - today's words (Image credit: New York Times) Today's NYT Connections words are… MAKEUP LEVEL TAN STUMP LOG STRUCTURE SAW FILE FABRIC CLAMP CANVASS MOD ORGANIZE CAMPAIGN MAX COMPOSITION NYT Connections today (game #406) - hint #1 - group hints What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups? Yellow: Political aid Green: Made from Blue: Woodwork things Purple: On a calculator...

We stockpiled, considered building bunkers, and generally prepared for the first tech apocalypse on January 1, 2000, like it might be the end of the world. But the original Y2K came and went and was nothing compared to Y2K24.  That’s what many have come to call the CrowdStrike outage that sparked a global tech calamity on an unprecedented scale. The particulars, as we understand them, are this: cybersecurity firm CloudStrike delivered a bad bit of code to Windows host systems around the world that led to those Windows systems and servers crashing and blue screening across the globe. CloudStrike has thousands of customers, many of them in business, enterprise, government, travel, health, and more... the list goes on.  Travel was upended, health providers couldn’t serve patients, banks were unavailable, stock markets closed, and shipments stalled . Everything basically went to hell for most of July 19th, a day that will go down in history as the worst IT outage ever and ou...

Google's AI-fueled Ask Photos feature, previewed at Google I/O 2024 , has begun initial testing, as first shared by 9to5 Google. Ask Photos employs Google's Gemini AI to search a user's photo library using natural language without first organizing and tagging the image. Google hasn't shared any release date, but it looks like a select group of users are being asked to try it out and offer feedback before a broader rollout. Ask Photos essentially expands Gemini's ability to parse visual information from a user's photos. The AI can then comb through images, presumably those in an album or on a device that the AI has permission to access and search through. It's not just a keyword hunt either, as the AI can also answer questions posed by the user. For instance, at the initial demonstration at Google I/O, CEO Sundar Pichai showed how he could use it to ask his phone for his license plate number, with the answer provided thanks to a photo of the license plat...