A security researcher is showing that it’s not hard to hold industrial control systems for ransom. He’s experimented with a simulated water treatment system based on actual programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and documented how these can be hacked. David Formby, a PhD student at Georgia Institute of Technology, conducted his experiment to warn the industry…
Qualcomm will start shipping sample chips for the next generation of Wi-Fi by June, helping device and network vendors develop products that might quadruple users’ speeds and lengthen battery life. The new silicon uses an early version of IEEE 802.11ax, a specification designed to make wireless LANs more efficient and increase their performance as a…
Talk of a new version of Windows 10, dubbed “Cloud,” surfaced last week as eagle-eyed bloggers uncovered clues in a recent beta and preliminary code leaked to the Internet. It was unclear what purpose another edition would serve, but because it will apparently run only Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps obtained from Microsoft’s store, many…
Google is moving to make Maps more than just about getting to your destination. Maps is getting social. Zach Maier, a product manager with Google Maps, announced in a blog post Monday that users can create lists of their favorite places, places they want to visit and share those lists with friends within the app.…
When Microsoft first unveiled its HoloLens augmented reality headgear, the company used a special camera to show viewers third-person images of the digital objects being rendered in the headset. Now, anyone who owns two HoloLenses can recreate the same setup, thanks to a project that Microsoft released on Monday. Called Spectator View, it lets users…
Expect ransomware to grow more aggressive in the coming years, including higher ransom payments and attempts to go beyond attacking data — by shutting down entire computer systems to utilities or factories. “I see no reason for ransomware to stop,” said Neil Jenkins, an official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “It’s shown to…
Japan will kick off a drive this week to collect old smartphones and other portable gadgets so that they can be turned into medals for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. The project will be launched on Thursday by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government with a goal of collecting up to 2 million used devices to…
While Apple CEO Tim Cook is looking forward to his company’s next big idea, which sounds like it’s going to be augmented reality-related, he’s also stunned by the tech industry’s inability to stem the tide of fake news. In between tours of schools and meetings with developers in a trip to Britain, Cook spoke excitedly…
Malware attacks that recently put the Polish banking sector on alert were part of a larger campaign that targeted financial organizations from more than 30 countries. Researchers from Symantec and BAE Systems linked the malware used in the recently discovered Polish attack to similar attacks that have taken place since October in other countries. There…
Intel is bringing more options to improve gaming and virtual reality experiences on Windows PCs with official support for Vulkan APIs (application programming interfaces). Vulkan is similar to DirectX 12 and can be used for many applications, but it is most relevant to visual applications like games. Games and VR applications written in Vulkan will…