BATTERYFORPC BLOG
REvil: Day of reckoning for notorious cyber gang
A global police operation has dealt a devastating blow to one of the most prolific cyber-crime gangs in history. The co-ordinated action against the REvil gang was announced on Monday by Romanian police, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Europol. The raids, which took place both on and offline, led to the arrests of two alleged hackers in Romania and one from Ukraine. REvil has been blamed ... Read more
2021-11-08 18:47:26
Instagram: A blessing or a curse?
Wake up, reach for your phone, open Instagram and start scrolling. It is an all-too familiar routine for many of us. But how does the app affect our mental health? Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen warned that Instagram was "more dangerous than other forms of social media", after it was revealed that the company's own research showed it could be harmful. At the time, Instagram sai ... Read more
2021-11-07 19:07:12
US offers $10m bounty for Colonial Pipeline hackers
The United States government has offered a bounty of up to $10million (£7.4m) for information about the hacking group known as DarkSide. In May, a DarkSide ransomware attack shut down a vital 5,500-mile-long fuel pipeline on the east coast of the US. The pipeline carries 45% of the fuel used on the east coast. The bounty is offered for information which can lead to the "identification or l ... Read more
2021-11-07 19:06:20
Zuckerberg's metaverse: Lessons from Second Life
This week, I travelled back in time to visit the future. It has been about 10 years since I first entered the virtual world of Second Life, arguably the internet's first attempt at what every tech giant is now racing to build: the so-called metaverse. The term metaverse was coined in the 1990s in a science-fiction novel, Snow Crash, where it served as a virtual-reality successor to the internet, ... Read more
2021-11-05 19:31:31
US offers $10m bounty for Colonial Pipeline hackers
The United States government has offered a bounty of up to $10million (£7.4m) for information about the hacking group known as DarkSide. In May, a DarkSide ransomware attack shut down a vital 5,500-mile-long fuel pipeline on the east coast of the US. The pipeline carries 45% of the fuel used on the east coast. The bounty is offered for information which can lead to the "identification or l ... Read more
2021-11-05 19:30:56
Labour Party members' data hit by cyber incident
The Labour Party has been affected by a "cyber incident" involving its members' data. Labour said it was told on 29 October that it had been affected by the event by a third party firm that handled membership data on its behalf. As a result, "a significant quantity" of party data was "rendered inaccessible on their systems". The Information Commissioner's Office an ... Read more
2021-11-03 19:25:11
NSO Group: Israeli spyware company added to US trade blacklist
The Israeli company behind the controversial Pegasus spyware has been added to a US trade blacklist. Pegasus has reportedly been used by nation states to target the phones of rights activists and journalists. The US has now put its maker, NSO Group, on its "entity list", banning business dealings with them. NSO Group said it was "dismayed" by the decision, adding that its te ... Read more
2021-11-03 19:24:44
Facebook to end use of facial recognition software
Facebook has announced it will no longer use facial recognition software to identify faces in photographs and videos. There have been growing concerns about the ethics of facial recognition technology, with questions raised over privacy, racial bias, and accuracy. Regulators had not yet provided a clear set of rules over how it should be used, the company said. It has faced a barrage of critici ... Read more
2021-11-02 19:44:24
COP26: Leaders agree global plan to boost green technology
More than 40 world leaders say they will work together to turbo-charge the uptake of clean technologies by imposing worldwide standards and policies. The announcement will be made at the climate summit COP26 in Glasgow on Tuesday. Five high-carbon sectors will be targeted at first, including agriculture and electricity. It aims to encourage global private investment in low-carbon technologies. ... Read more
2021-11-02 19:43:17
Squid Game crypto token collapses in apparent scam
A digital token inspired by the popular South Korean Netflix series Squid Game has lost almost all of its value as it was revealed to be an apparent scam. Squid, which marketed itself as a "play-to-earn cryptocurrency", had seen its price soar in recent days - surging by thousands of per cent. However, as the BBC reported, it was criticised for not allowing people to resell their token ... Read more
2021-11-02 00:49:04