Technology

The Russia-linked SolarWinds hack which targeted US government agencies and private corporations may be even worse than officials first realized, with some 250 federal agencies and business now believed affected, the New York Times reported. Microsoft has said the hackers compromised SolarWinds’ Orion monitoring and management software, allowing them to “impersonate any of the organization’s existing users and accounts, including highly privileged accounts.” The Times reports that Russia exploited layers of the supply chain to access the agencies’ systems. The Times reports that early warning sensors that Cyber Command and the NSA placed inside foreign networks to detect potential attacks appear to have failed in this instance. In addition, it seems likely that the US government’s attentio...

The Russia-linked SolarWinds hack which targeted US government agencies and private corporations may be even worse than officials first realized, with some 250 federal agencies and business now believed affected, the New York Times reported. Microsoft has said the hackers compromised SolarWinds’ Orion monitoring and management software, allowing them to “impersonate any of the organization’s existing users and accounts, including highly privileged accounts.” The Times reports that Russia exploited layers of the supply chain to access the agencies’ systems. The Times reports that early warning sensors that Cyber Command and the NSA placed inside foreign networks to detect potential attacks appear to have failed in this instance. In addition, it seems likely that the US government’s attentio...

The best thing I have watched in 2021 so far is the Ratatouille TikTok musical, it’s charming and the performances —by some big Broadway stars— are excellent. If you haven’t purchased your ticket yet (prices are on a pay-what-you-can scale), there’s still time; it will stream until January 4th. Ticket proceeds benefit the Actors Fund, a worthy cause. Be warned that the songs will definitely get stuck in your head, just like any good musical number does. In other news I just started Bridgerton… will report back. Saucy so far. It’s kind of slim pickins this week for new trailers, but I found a couple of interesting ones that all happen to feature strong female protagonists, a fine tone to set for 2021. [embedded content] Pretend It’s a City It’s no secret that Fran Lebowitz has thought...

The best thing I have watched in 2021 so far is the Ratatouille TikTok musical, it’s charming and the performances —by some big Broadway stars— are excellent. If you haven’t purchased your ticket yet (prices are on a pay-what-you-can scale), there’s still time; it will stream until January 4th. Ticket proceeds benefit the Actors Fund, a worthy cause. Be warned that the songs will definitely get stuck in your head, just like any good musical number does. In other news I just started Bridgerton… will report back. Saucy so far. It’s kind of slim pickins this week for new trailers, but I found a couple of interesting ones that all happen to feature strong female protagonists, a fine tone to set for 2021. [embedded content] Pretend It’s a City It’s no secret that Fran Lebowitz has thought...

T-Mobile suffered a security breach in December that may have exposed call-related information and phone numbers for some of its customers. First reported by Bleeping Computer, the information affected by the breach did not include names on customers’ accounts, physical or email addresses, financial data, credit card information, Social Security numbers, tax IDs, passwords, or PINs, the company said. T-Mobile said in a statement emailed to The Verge that it had notified “less than 0.2 percent” of its customers— which works out to about 200,000 people— that some account information may have been illegally accessed. That information “may have included phone numbers, number of lines subscribed to and in a small number of cases some call-related information collected as part of normal operatio...

T-Mobile suffered a security breach in December that may have exposed call-related information and phone numbers for some of its customers. First reported by Bleeping Computer, the information affected by the breach did not include names on customers’ accounts, physical or email addresses, financial data, credit card information, Social Security numbers, tax IDs, passwords, or PINs, the company said. T-Mobile said in a statement emailed to The Verge that it had notified “less than 0.2 percent” of its customers— which works out to about 200,000 people— that some account information may have been illegally accessed. That information “may have included phone numbers, number of lines subscribed to and in a small number of cases some call-related information collected as part of normal operatio...

If you’ve never gotten around to buying and playing Metro: Last Light, the remastered version is free on the GOG store today and tomorrow (via Polygon). The game has been out for a while now, but it’s still as terrifying as ever, even if you’re playing it for a second or third time. And, when you get a game from GOG, it comes without any DRM, so your copy of the game isn’t tied to any particular platform. You can download the files to your hard drive, and it’ll still run without GOG’s launcher installed. The process of claiming the game is a little non-obvious, as the “Metro: Last Light giveaway” link at the very top of the page just leads to GOG’s search screen. To claim the free game, you’ll first want to log in (or create an account if you don’t have one), then go to the homepage. Scrol...

Gazelle, one of the longest-running used smartphone buyers in the US, has announced the end of its core trade-in program, which let phone owners mail in phones and other electronics devices in exchange for cash. The news, revealed in an email Gazelle sent to some customers on Wednesday and shared with The Verge, means any prospective Gazelle customers will have to receive a quote and initiate the trade-in process by January 31st, 2021 (allowing 30 days to mail in the phone) if they want to take advantage of the program. The service will shut down officially on February 1st, while any active trade-ins will be honored, the company says. Gazelle will still accept used smartphones through its ecoATM kiosks This isn’t the end of Gazelle’s business. Gazelle’s parent company ecoATM, which has bee...

LG’s screen-swiveling Wing was one of the most interesting looking smartphones of 2020, but its unique design was held back by poor software support. A new software update, out today for the Verizon-exclusive device, looks to help address those issues by adding some new dual-screen functionality. Specifically, Droid Life reports that the new update makes it much easier to send apps to and from the smaller display to the main one (a process that previously involved some convoluted menu wrangling.) With the new update, there’s now a “send” button that shuttle apps from one display to the other, along with a “restart” button to relaunch apps that transition over poorly. You can also use a third-finger gesture to accomplish a similar task. Finally, LG has added app names to the homescreen when...

Ticketmaster has agreed to pay $10 million for breaking into a competitors’ network. The company and its parent Live Nation admitted to hiring a former employee from rival ticket seller CrowdSurge, then using his knowledge — including old usernames and passwords — to learn CrowdSurge’s inner workings and “cut [the company] off at the knees.” “Ticketmaster employees repeatedly — and illegally — accessed a competitor’s computers without authorization using stolen passwords to unlawfully collect business intelligence,” said acting US attorney Seth DuCharme. “Further, Ticketmaster’s employees brazenly held a division-wide ‘summit’ at which the stolen passwords were used to access the victim company’s computers.” The hacking allegations were reported in 2017 after CrowdSurge (which had merged w...

Peloton is getting into the music business. The popular fitness startup, already known for its use of popular music during its classes, announced today that it will be commissioning its own music that can only be heard from within its app. For the new year, three new remixes of Elvis tracks are coming to the app from Chromeo, Big Boi, and DJ Dillon Francis. Peloton will own the exclusive rights to the songs, which premiere in the app today as part of an “ultimate remix collection,” which includes yoga, strength, core, and outdoor running classes. As part of a New Year’s promo, the company is also extending its 30-day free trial to two months. A spokesperson says the idea behind starting with Elvis was to find a “new expression of the classic catalog in a contemporary way” — which to me rea...

Health officials in the United States may be able to use a fluke of COVID-19 testing to monitor the spread of a more contagious form of the virus, which was identified in the country for the first time this week. The variant is spreading widely across the United Kingdom, and has been found in over a dozen countries so far — including the US. Experts don’t think the coronavirus variant is more deadly than other forms of the virus, and the vaccines already developed should still protect against the new strain. But the variant does appear to spread more easily, and uncontrolled outbreaks would overwhelm hospitals more quickly. So far, one US case was detected in a patient with COVID-19 in Colorado. Health officials say that the patient hasn’t traveled out of the country, indicating that the v...