Daily Tech News 28 January 2022

• Facebook's venture into the blockchain space is apparently an ex-parrot. (The Register)
  
  Called Libra, it's a multi-purpose payment processing, cryptocurrency, and NFT platform. The plan was to have a core stablecoin and and easy way of implementing third-party cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
  
  Creating a cryptocurrency on Libra is very easy - no blockchain code required - and an NFT apparently not too much harder. Certainly better in that respect than Ethereum.
  
  But Facebook's plans ran head-first into disapproving regulators because they made the mistake of announcing their plans rather than just launching the platform and leaving regulators scrambling to catch up.
  
  
  
• Russia meanwhile is not intending to ban cryptocurrency mining as previously rumoured. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Just going to track it and tax the hell out of it.
  
  Fine. Whatever.
  
  

• Oh QNAP, you've done it again. (ZDNet)
  
  

  I just got hacked. Ransomware named DeadBolt found an exploit in @QNAP_nas storage devices, encrypting all files. They ask $1,000 from individuals or $1.8 million from QNAP. I have 50tb of data there, none of it essential or sensitive, but it hurts a lot. Time for a fresh start. pic.twitter.com/E8ZkyIbdfp

  — Lex Fridman (@lexfridman) January 27, 2022

  
  
  Is this a new vulnerability or a new exploit of an existing vulnerability? It's hard to keep track.
  
  
  
• Microsoft got hit with a 3.47Tbps DDOS attack. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  That's equivalent to 46,266,666,666 1200/75 modems.
  
  
  
• Nvidia's RTX 3050 is here aaand it's sold out. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Seems to be available here in Australia - and graphics cards have increased from one per customer to three per customer - but it's at least 50% over MSRP.
  
  
  
• Team Group has announced its first PCIe 5 SSD. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Won't ship until Q3 and there's no pricing yet, but speeds will reach 13GBps on reads and 12GBps on writes. Which is a lot.
  
  
  
• When open source isn't free. (Gnu)
  
  Free as in freedom, that is. As I often say, Richard Stallman is just crazy, not wrong.
  
  
  
• If you use cloud storage on your Mac and you didn't disable automated updates three years ago your in for a bad day sometime soon. (Ars Technica)
  
  The 12.3 update will break Dropbox and OneDrive integration, and quite likely others as well. Because keeping things working is simply not on Apple's radar.
  
  iCloud support won't be broken by this update... Because that would be redundant.
  
  
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

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