Company claims 1,000 percent price hike drove it from VMware to open source rival

Company claims 1,000 percent price hike drove it from VMware to open source rival

Companies have been discussing migrating off of VMware since Broadcom’s takeover a year ago led to higher costs and other controversial changes. Now we have an inside look at one of the larger customers that recently made the move. According to a report from The Register today, Beeks Group, a cloud operator headquartered in the…

Code found online exploits LogoFAIL to install Bootkitty Linux backdoor

Code found online exploits LogoFAIL to install Bootkitty Linux backdoor

Researchers have discovered malicious code circulating in the wild that hijacks the earliest stage boot process of Linux devices by exploiting a year-old firmware vulnerability when it remains unpatched on affected models. The critical vulnerability is one of a constellation of exploitable flaws discovered last year and given the name LogoFAIL. These exploits are able…

FTC opens antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s cloud, AI, and cybersecurity practices

FTC opens antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s cloud, AI, and cybersecurity practices

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an antitrust investigation into Microsoft, scrutinizing its cloud computing, software licensing, cybersecurity, and AI businesses. The inquiry follows over a year of informal interviews with competitors and business partners, Bloomberg reported. FTC antitrust lawyers have sent Microsoft a detailed information demand, spanning hundreds of pages, after receiving…

Found in the wild: The world’s first unkillable UEFI bootkit for Linux

Found in the wild: The world’s first unkillable UEFI bootkit for Linux

Over the past decade, a new class of infections has threatened Windows users. By infecting the firmware that runs immediately before the operating system loads, these UEFI bootkits continue to run even when the hard drive is replaced or reformatted. Now the same type of chip-dwelling malware has been found in the wild for backdooring…

AWS and Anthropic ink deal to accelerate model development, enhance AI chips

AWS and Anthropic ink deal to accelerate model development, enhance AI chips

The announcement that Amazon Web Services (AWS) will be Anthropic’s primary training partner confirms rumors of an even tighter partnership between the two companies. They announced Friday that Anthropic will use AWS Trainium processors to train and deploy its Claude family of models. Further, as predicted earlier this month, Amazon will invest an additional $4…

Spies hack Wi-Fi networks in far-off land to launch attack on target next door

Spies hack Wi-Fi networks in far-off land to launch attack on target next door

One of 2024’s coolest hacking tales occurred two years ago, but it wasn’t revealed to the public until Friday at the Cyberwarcon conference in Arlington, Virginia. Hackers with ties to Fancy Bear—the spy agency operated by Russia’s GRU—broke into the network of a high-value target after first compromising a Wi-Fi-enabled device in a nearby building…

Amazon pours another $4B into Anthropic, OpenAI’s biggest rival

Amazon pours another $4B into Anthropic, OpenAI’s biggest rival

On Friday, Anthropic announced that Amazon has increased its investment in the AI startup by $4 billion, bringing its total stake to $8 billion while maintaining its minority investor position. Anthropic makes Claude, an AI assistant rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. One reason behind the deal involves chips. The computing demands of training large AI models…

5 charged in “Scattered Spider,” one of the most profitable phishing scams ever

5 charged in “Scattered Spider,” one of the most profitable phishing scams ever

Federal prosecutors have charged five men with running an extensive phishing scheme that allegedly allowed them to compromise hundreds of companies nationwide, gain non-public information, and steal millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. The charges, detailed in court documents unsealed Wednesday, pertain to a crime group security researchers have dubbed Scattered Spider. Members were behind a…

A year after ditching waitlist, Starlink says it is “sold out” in parts of US

A year after ditching waitlist, Starlink says it is “sold out” in parts of US

The Starlink waitlist is back in certain parts of the US, including several large cities on the West Coast and in Texas. The Starlink availability map says the service is sold out in and around Seattle; Spokane, Washington; Portland, Oregon; San Diego; Sacramento, California; and Austin, Texas. Neighboring cities and towns are included in the…