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• Microsoft gave the US government $150 million in cybersecurity tools
• The deal included the pricey Microsoft 365 Government G5
• Consultants accused of increasing dependency on Microsoft

As Microsoft looks to confront European antitrust regulator scrutiny, the company is also facing investigations over alleged business practices over the pond in the US.

It has been suggested Microsoft offered one of its most important customers, the US government, free services in order to keep it as a customer and stamp out competition.

A ProPublica report found the company pledged $150 million in cybersecurity services to the federal government during a 2021 White House summit led by President Joe Biden. Rumored to be internally known as the ‘White House Offer,’ Microsoft’s pledge would see federal agencies gain access to the Microsoft 365 Government G5 security suite, which includes security, compliance and collaboration features. G5 costs around 60% more than G3.

Microsoft accused of monopolizing US government contracts

Furthermore, Microsoft consultants working within the government’s agencies to assist with the implementation of the company’s tools reportedly created a dependency on its services, effectively making it more difficult for the US government to switch providers.

The White House Offer benefited Microsoft beyond the cybersecurity space, as well. By boosting adoption of its Azure cloud platform, Microsoft would be able to intensify its competition against Amazon Web Services, which accounts for the largest portion of the cloud pie.

Steve Faehl, Federal Security CTO for Microsoft, stated the company’s “sole goal during this period was to support an urgent request by the Administration to enhance the security posture of federal agencies who were continuously being targeted by sophisticated nation-state threat actors.”

A White House spokesperson sought to distance the government from Microsoft’s conduct: “This was a voluntary commitment made by Microsoft… and Microsoft alone was responsible for it.”

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• 2021 Twitch breach exposed sensitive data on thousands of users
• An investigation by the Turkish data protection watchdog concluded the company was to blame
• Twitch has to pay $58,000

Türkiye has fined Amazon $58,000 for the Twitch data breach in 2021 which affected thousands of Turkish nationals.

An anonymous hacker leaked the entirety of popular video game live streaming service Twitch, including its source code and personally identifiable information (PII) of its users. The leaked data was rolled into a 125 GB torrent, and its link was posted to the popular 4chan imageboard.

Since the breach was said to have affected Turkish citizens, the country’s Personal Data Protection Board (KVKK) opened up an investigation soon after the attack. In total, 35,274 Turkish nationals were affected, so KVKK imposed a 1.75 million lira fine for inadequate security and 250,000 lira for failing to report the breach.

Lumma and AMOS

The results of the investigation showed that the company, which was acquired by Amazon back in 2014 for $970 million in cash, “failed to take adequate security measures beforehand, addressing the issue only afterward.” What’s more, KVKK concluded that the company’s risk and threat assessment were “insufficient.”

At press time, Twitch was not commenting on the incident, however it did, at the time, downplay the importance of the breach, saying the attackers didn’t get their hands on the login credentials of users, suggesting that the threat was somewhat limited.

“Twitch passwords have not been exposed. We are also confident that systems that store Twitch login credentials, which are hashed with bcrypt, were not accessed, nor were full credit card numbers or ACH / bank information,” Twitch said.

At the time, it was reported the hacker wasn’t pleased with the community that had built around the service. and leaked the data in a bid to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space.”

Soon afterward, Twitch confirmed the breach, saying its team was “working with urgency” to understand the extent of the incident.

Via Reuters

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• AnnieMac says thousands of customers have had data stolen in breach

• AnnieMac says more than 170,000 people have had names and SSNs exposed
• New filing with the Maine Attorney General covers Summer 2023 hack
• The identity and motive of the attackers are unknown at this time

AnnieMac Home Mortgage has revealed suffering a data breach in which the sensitive data on hundreds of thousands of customers was exposed.

The mortgage company confirmed the information in a filing with the Maine Office of the Attorney General, saying it spotted “suspicious activity on certain systems” within its network on August 23, 2023.

Subsequent investigation determined that an unnamed attacker accessed the company’s IT infrastructure on August 21, and “viewed and/or copied certain files” from these systems.

No one claimed responsibility yet

These “certain files” held people’s full names and Social Security Numbers (SSN). A total of 171,074 individuals were affected by the incident.

This, arguably, isn’t that disruptive of a breach. Cybercriminals prefer databases with email addresses, postal addresses, and phone numbers, since they can use the information to impersonate other people, engage in spam and phishing, and more. There are not plenty of things they can do with just names and SSNs.

To tackle the incident, AnnieMac did what most victim organizations do these days - it employed a third-party forensics company, notified the police, mailed the affected people, and offered a year’s worth of identity theft protection and credit monitoring, via CyEx.

It also apologized, saying the “confidentiality, privacy, and security of personal information within our care are among AnnieMac’s highest priorities.”

We don’t know who stole the files. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the files are yet to pop up anywhere on the dark web.

AnnieMac Home Mortgage is a full-service mortgage lender that provides a wide range of home financing solutions, such as conventional loans, FHA loans, VA loans, USDA loans, and jumbo loans. With hundreds of thousands of customers, the company generates an estimated annual revenue of approximately $240 million.

Via The Register

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The Samsung XR headset project has been an open secret for some time, but a new report suggests it has finally settled on a design we’ll see in 2025. The bad news? It could be landing later in the year than we’d like and might not be as ‘XR’ as we had hoped.

The report is from Wellsen XR Research from China, and has been shared by the likes of Samsung leaker @Jukanlosreve on social media. With the highlight being the Q3 2025 release date (that’ll be July, August, or September). Samsung usually hosts one of its Unpacked events in July for its foldables, so it’s possible it’ll slip its glasses into the mix for 2025 if we’re lucky.

As for what the specs will be capable of, the leaks don’t mention a display and the teased weight doesn’t leave room for one (unless Samsung has developed some super next-gen display tech). Overall, the specs sound remarkably similar to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses; Samsung’s glasses would apparently also be equipped with a Qualcomm AR 1 chipset, a 12MP camera sensor, and has a 155mAh battery capacity and a 50g weight – compared to Meta’s 154mAh battery and 48g weight.

The only difference this smart glasses clone can claim is it’ll reportedly rely on Google Gemini instead of Meta AI for its AI functionality. Though right now it doesn’t appear one option is significantly better than the other, so the race to the summit of our best smart glasses guide could be a tight one.

No XR, no problem?

(Image credit: Meta)

The lack of displays means these specs wouldn't really be XR – certainly not in the way the Meta Quest 3 is or the Meta Orion AR Glasses will be.

But it’s not necessarily the end of the world. While wired AR glasses – such as the Xreal Air 2 specs – are a delight, they aren’t faultless. They rinse the battery of the device they’re connected to, and they aren’t smart glasses you wear around casually – they’re best for when you’re sat down and want to watch a movie on a giant virtual screen.

The leaked Samsung glasses, as with the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, are something you wear all the time. And thanks to their solid AI abilities and in-built speakers I’ve been using my pair of Meta glasses a lot more recently and loving it.

While I’d love Samsung to make an XR headset still, I’m not disappointed to hear they’re working on a different kind of smart glasses. And while all rumors should be taken with a pinch of salt the success of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses (and their lack of competition) does suggest there’s room for some rivals in the space.

We’ll have to wait and see what 2025 brings, but for Samsung it looks like it could be an exciting year with yet another major launch.

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• Infosys founder Narayama Murthy pushes need for working longer hours
• 70 hour work weeks are needed to grow productivity, he says
• Murthy says he worked 80 hour weeks until retirement

If you find yourself dreading the weekend and wishing you could work a double shift every day, you might be Infosys founder Narayama Murthy’s dream employee.

Hvaing already spoken out against the supposedly workshy youth of today, who protested against working long hours, the Indian tech boss has revealed he doesn’t  “believe in work-life balance”, and that he won’t budge in his thinking.

Murthy went on to hit out against the very concept of weekends, claiming the idea was a mistake, and that Indian citizens need to work longer hours.

Facing India’s challenges

When asked by CNBC-TV18 if his past controversial comments on a 70 hour work week were being misunderstood, Murthy assured that he means what he says.

He pointed to the 1986 swap from a 6-day standard work week, to the now standard 5 days as a disappointment, and claims he worked over 14 hours a day, six days a week until his retirement. Murthy, the father-in-law of recent ex-British PM, Rishi Sunak, says young people should look to post WW2 Japan and Germany, where determined, disciplined, and hardworking youngsters rebuilt the nations.

Interestingly, he doesn’t point to better productivity, happiness, or money for reasons to work a double shift every day, but rather because India needs young people to work hard to improve itself.

“I think in this country, we have to work very hard because there is no substitute for hard work even if you're the most intelligent guy” he said.

Murthy previously said that young people in India have an ‘enormous responsibility to work very, very hard’ in order to support future generations.

These comments were widely criticized, and excessive working hours have been found to harm productivity amongst workers rather than contributing to higher output. It’s well established that happier and healthier workers are more productive, so Murthy’s comments haven’t been entirely welcomed.

Infosys was also criticized heavily in April 2024 for forcing its employees to return to the office.

Its ‘In-Person Collab Weeks’ acted to force more workers to return to the office, with Infosys designating six weeks per quarter as mandatory in-person collaboration periods.

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• Mercedes targets over 460 miles on a single charge
• Upcoming CLA could be most efficient EV on sale next year
• Impressive in-car tech also promised

Mercedes has revealed more information about its hotly-anticipated CLA model, which is due to go on sale next year sporting either a compact 1.5-liter petrol hybrid powertrain or two battery electric options.

Although we were treated to a pretty stunning concept at last year’s IAA Mobility show in Munich, complete with masses of infotainment real estate and the promise of a new Mercedes-Benz Operating System, the company has remained tight-lipped about further details.

That is until now, as the German marque has recently revealed that it will be among the most efficient EVs on the market when it goes on sale next year. The company is targeting long range battery-to-wheel efficiency of 93%, as well as an overall battery efficiency of 5.2 miles per kWh.

Currently, only the 2025 Lucid Air Pure has been able to hit those heady heights, with a proposed figure of 5 miles per kWh, while Tesla is making wild claims that its Cybercab will be capable of 5.5kWh per mile travelled.

(Image credit: Mercedes-Benz)

Mercedes has taken learnings from its record-breaking VISION EQXX electric concept, which travelled 747 miles from Stuttgart, Germany to Silverstone, UK on a single charge. The German marque claims the CLA’s latest Electric Drive Unit (EDU 2.0) is heavily influenced by the hyper-miling concept vehicle.

The first car to ride on the new Mercedes-Benz Modular Architecture (MMA), the upcoming CLA will boast 800V electrical architecture as standard, with the ability to charge at speeds of up to 320kW from the appropriate outlet.

What’s more, it has been revealed that it will also be among the first EVs to sport both CCS and the Tesla-derived NACS charging ports under one flap. This will allow North American customers to take advantage of the Tesla Supercharger network.

Available with either a 1.5-liter petrol/hybrid powertrain or the choice of two battery electric options, Mercedes-Benz is aiming for maximum efficiency and energy returns in both guises.

The largest 85kWh battery packs in the pure EV variants feature anodes that use both silicon oxide and graphite for greater energy density. The company claims that these larger battery models can travel in excess of 460-miles on a single charge.

As standard, the compact and highly efficient EDU 2.0 drive unit will send 268bhp to the rear wheels of the upcoming CLA, although all-wheel-drive 4Matic will introduce a second 107bhp motor on the front axle for improved performance and grip.

There is currently no word on pricing or an official release date, but the Mercedes C-Class has traditionally offered a more ‘entry-level’ pricing strategy than some of its more luxurious models.

Analysis: Efficiency is key

(Image credit: Mercedes-Benz)

Although arguably not the sexiest subject, Mercedes is right to focus its attention on electric vehicle efficiencies, as accurate range read-outs still separate some of the best EVs on sale from some of the worst.

The ability to travel over 450-miles on a single charge and potentially charge the upcoming CLA from 10-80% in just 10 minutes from the appropriate charger will ensure that even those with plenty of regular miles to cover are catered for.

The German marque has proven that it can make the technology work, with its EQXX rolling lab able to travel 628 miles across the Arabian desert at an impressive 8.4 miles per kWh efficiency level.

This concept has been more than an excellent PR opportunity, as the company has some of the learnings to inform engineering decisions in the CLA. It will use an air-to-air heat pump, for example, that is able to capture excess heat from the motor, battery, and ambient air to heat the cabin, rather than rely on an energy-sapping HVAC system to do all of the heavy lifting in colder climates.

Pair this with smaller battery options and a compact petrol hybrid and there will be options to suit most demands, while the promise of a dazzling array of infotainment tech (complete with a razor-sharp MBOS operating system) and the CLA could very well be one to watch.

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• Lego has revealed a new Horizon set
• It's based on the recently-released video game Lego Horizon Adventures
• It will launch on March 1, 2025

Toy manufacturer Lego has revealed an upcoming set based on the recently released Lego Horizon Adventures. It is the first Lego set based on the game.

Lego Horizon Adventures Aloy & Varl vs. Shell-Walker & Sawtooth will be available to buy from March 1 2025 and contains 768 pieces. It will cost $44.99 / £39.99 and includes two minifigures, one of protagonist Aloy and the other of her companion Varl.

The duo, armed with a bow and makeshift spear, are fighting off two large robotic creatures - the crab-like Shell-Walker and the Sawtooth. The Sawtooth is the largest construction in the set and measures over 7 inches / 18cm centimeters high.

The set seems like a great way to get your hands on the delightful Aloy mini-figure, which was previously only available as part of the considerably more expensive $89.99 / £79.99 Horizon Forbidden West: Tallneck set.

“Lego Horizon Adventures has brought Aloy and the acclaimed Horizon universe to a new audience and we’ve been very pleased with the title’s launch,” said Guerrilla Games art director Roy Postma regarding the reveal of the toy. “This new set adds to that momentum by enabling players to build on the excitement of the adventures they experience in the game in true Lego fashion.”

"We’re delighted to bring one of gaming’s most beloved franchises to life in both physical and digital Lego brick form,” added Lego branded games product lead Kate Bryant. "We hope this latest set continues to fulfil our commitment to seamless play and empowers our fans to expand on their favourite games in their own, unique way."

Lego Horizon Adventures launched early this month on November 14 and is currently available for PlayStation 5, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

In our Lego Horizon Adventures review, writer Sarah Thwaites praised the game’s visually stunning Lego world. The humor was also a high point, though the dull mechanics mean that the title ultimately “fails to reach its full potential.”

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• Nvidia is said to be halting production of mid-to-higher-end Lovelace GPUs
• That means the RTX 4080 Super, RTX 4070, 4070 Super, and 4070 Ti Super
• Next-gen successors are expected to arrive soon for those GPUs

Nvidia is rumored to be winding down production of most of the firm’s RTX 4000 GPUs, ahead of the launch of next-gen RTX 5000 models.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard such speculation, and once again it originates from the Board Channels forums over in China (as noticed by Japanese tech blog Gazlog, via VideoCardz). As ever, we’d add more than a little seasoning to these theories.

We’re told that the Nvidia RTX 4080 Super is discontinued as of this month (November), and existing stock is all that’s left to be sold – and that inventory could sell through by the close of December (or certainly January 2025).

With the RTX 5080 arriving in early January, the rumors reckon, that could potentially leave a gap of a month between existing RTX 4080 Super models selling out, and the next-gen replacement arriving.

Apparently, the RTX 4070 Ti Super is in much the same boat, and while there’s a small supply of chips left, that won’t last beyond November. This means that the 4070 Ti Super could sell out in a similar timeframe to the 4080 Super.

It’s a rather different story with the RTX 4070 and 4070 Super, though, which will get a supply of chips from Nvidia to board makers through to the close of 2024. Don’t expect anything but a limited supply, and hence production, of these graphics cards, though, which could run dry in January 2025, possibly lasting a bit longer.

The RTX 4060 isn’t mentioned, so the supply isn’t being run down by Nvidia by all accounts – not yet anyway.

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This does make sense based on next-gen rumors, with Nvidia expected to be readying an RTX 5090, 5080, and 5070 for launch early next year (or maybe even late in 2024). So, leaving the RTX 4060 alone would be the plan if there isn’t going to be an RTX 5060 for some time yet.

This sort of speculation has to be treated very carefully, mind, as we’ve had all sorts of chatter along these lines in recent times. In fact, we’ve been hearing about Nvidia slowing down the assembly lines since August 2024, and more recent revelations have also suggested that Team Green is now in the ‘final stage of inventory clearance’ for the RTX 4000 range. Save for the RTX 4060 as noted, though even that had a pause in its production, if the rumors are right.

There are a mix of theories coming through, then, but all add up to the broad conclusion that Nvidia is looking to halt Lovelace production and move full speed ahead with RTX 5000 models.

While it might seem obvious to wait for these next-gen graphics cards to arrive at this point – and see how they shake out, performance and price-wise – retailers are also aware of this, and the need to shift existing Nvidia RTX 4000 stock as the transition to RTX 5000 begins.

What this means is we might see some excellent Black Friday bargains on Lovelace GPUs, and perhaps deeper graphics card discounts than normal at the higher end of the spectrum with Nvidia. Fingers crossed, and we’ll keep you up to date on all the best Black Friday deals, whether they pertain to GPUs or otherwise.

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