TechRadar News

• Fitbit has a Sleep Journal feature in the works
• An APK Teardown revealed the feature under construction
• It could be an AI-powered feature

According to a recently-unearthed bit of code, Fitbit is looking at introducing a new sleep feature soon to Fitbit Premium subscribers. A Sleep Journal functionality would allow users of the best fitbit trackers and smartwatches to log their sleep as usual, and make notes in-app when prompted, about any sleep problems they had via text or even a voice note. The Fitbit app then uses this information to generate more personalized sleep tips.

Discovered by Android Authority during an APK teardown (a process that looks at unfinished app code) the feature is still bare-bones and under construction, but it looks as though the feature will be AI-powered. Fitbit may plan to use generative AI to pick up on key words and phrases in your journal entries, offering you advice based on those key phrases.

The feature was found by Android Authority in the Fitbit app (version 4.30.fitbit-mobile-110146981-694155636), and it allegedly “appears to be early on in development”. The UI is apparently quite basic at the moment, although the development team is clearly keen for Fitbit’s big userbase to engage with the feature - one message suggests “To get deeper insights and more personalized suggestions for better sleep, complete your journal each day.”

If you don’t submit an entry, a reminder pops up saying “Sharing what impacted your sleep helps create more personalized insights and tips”, with an option to go back if you decide not to fill in the Sleep Journal feature.

This is likely to be a Fitbit Premium feature, based on the pricing schemes for other experimental AI services like Oura Advisor. Given that it’s fairly early on in development, we wouldn’t expect it to land until 2025.

Analysis: generative AI is coming to Fitbit

I imagine this service will be similar to Oura Advisor, the experimental generative AI service used by the Oura Ring companion app, in that it uses text prompts to summon the correct wellness advice, personalized to your needs by cross-referencing your sleep and exercise data. If you sleep poorly and do a lot of exercise, you might be encouraged to dial it back in the evenings. Such is the power of generative AI.

We may be jumping ahead of ourselves (after all, there’s no hard evidence it will be an AI feature) but entering your sleep data into an artificial intelligence owned by Google, a company with a notoriously loose grasp on data privacy, may be a sticking point for some users.

Some, but not all; for others, the convenience will be worth it. A report from the National Institutes of Health found that “sleep diaries are the gold standard for subjective assessment of sleep variables in clinical practice. Digitization of sleep diaries is needed, as paper versions are prone to human error, memory bias, and difficulties monitoring compliance.” This live, responsive version of a sleep diary could be just what the doctor ordered.

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• A spike in returning lease volumes will peak in 2026
• Market could be flooded with cheap used EVs, new report claims
• Uncertainty about tax credits could upset the supply/demand balance

According to a recent study from J.D Power, which forms part of the 2024 E-Vision Intelligence Report, there will be a 230% spike in returning lease volumes of electric vehicles in 2026, potentially opening the floodgates to a swathe of cheap, second hand EVs.

It goes on to state that nearly 280,000 EV leases will end in the next two years in the United States, but thanks to the falling prices of recently introduced EV models (or those about to be launched) it means that for many, it will make more financial sense to simply lease a new car rather than buying out their current lease vehicle.

According to J.D Power, it would cost the average returning lessee in the electric compact SUV segment $477 per month to buy out the lease, while the average lease payment on a new EV in the same category would be just $457 per month.

This is based on the fact that the average buyout price for most electric compact SUVs is higher than the $25,000 threshold that would qualify for the used EV tax credit.

Although this is potentially good news for those in the market to make the switch to an electric vehicle, seeing as there will be plenty of affordable used stock in two years, it also presents numerous complications for the used car market as a whole.

J.D Power says that uncertainty about whether the federal EV tax incentive will continue and how long high manufacturer incentives will last, concern about long-term battery health, and a shortage of used gas-powered vehicles will complicate the traditional balance of supply and demand.

Analysis: Disastrous depreciation doesn't help

(Image credit: Porsche)

So far, electric vehicle sales have been skewed towards the premium end, targeting early adopters with deep pockets. For years, they have been seen as overpriced and out of reach for many mainstream buyers.

Although that is now changing, with a slew of more affordable models hitting both the US and Europe, it is already presenting a problem for the used car market.

Put simply, depreciation of some premium EVs has been huge, with models like the $130,000 /£120,000 Porsche Taycan dropping to as little as $35,000 or around £40,000 for three-year-old examples in some markets.

An investigation by Wired earlier this year found that some premium EVs, including the Mercedes-Benz EQE, Audi e-tron GT and Polestar 2, could lose up to half of their value in the first year of ownership.

The reasons for this worrying trend are numerous, from the lingering range-anxiety among buyers to the fact that battery technology is moving at such a rate that older models are being updated or replaced at a much faster pace than their internal combustion engine counterparts.

Rather than a mild mid-life facelift, as was the way with older ICE cars, today's electric vehicles are having battery packs replaced and improved, offering much greater range and improved performance.

It’s potentially putting off private buyers of new electric vehicles, worried that their latest ride will be worth a fraction of the cost that they paid for it in a couple of years.

The world of used EVs is going to create a buyer’s market in the coming years, which is great news for those holding off and waiting to make the switch, but not particularly positive for those struggling automakers, such as Ford and Volkswagen, that so desperately need to sell new cars to stay afloat.

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• Iranian state-sponsored actors are targeting aerospace pros with fake jobs
• The goal is to install backdoors and exfiltrate important data
• The style mimics that of Lazarus, a known North Korean actor

Iranian state-sponsored hackers have been observed targeting victims in the aerospace industry with fake job offers, which resulted in the deployment of the SnailResin malware, as part of their cyber-espionage campaign.

Cybersecurity researchers at ClearSky revealed how the threat actor, known as TA455, created fake recruitment sites, and fake profiles on social media sites such as LinkedIn. After that, they would approach their targets, and get them to download files as part of the onboarding process.

Among the files was SnailResin, a piece of malware that acts as a loader for the SlugResin backdoor, capable of data exfiltration, command-and-control (C2) communication, and persistence on victim systems.

Iranians? Or North Koreans? Or both?

The campaign, dubbed “Dream Job” started in September 2023, if not earlier, ClearSky noted.

TA455 is a well-known cyberespionage group, linked with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and shares similarities with other groups like APT35 and TA453. Besides the aerospace industry, TA455 was seen targeting defense, and government entities, in the Middle East, Europe, and the US. Its goal, for the most part, is cyber-espionage, gathering sensitive information for geopolitical intelligence purposes.

What makes this campaign particularly interesting is the fact that it mimics the style of Lazarus, a North Korean state-sponsored group. Fake job attacks are basically synonymous with Lazarus at this point, as they were used in some of the most destructive campaigns against firms in the crypto industry. At this point, ClearSky doesn’t know if TA455 is mimicking Lazarus, tries to hide behind the group, or is in cooperation with them.

“The similar “Dream Job” lure, attack techniques, and malware files suggest that either Charming Kitten was impersonating Lazarus to hide its activities, or that North Korea shared attack methods and tools with Iran,” they said.

In any case, be careful when getting new job offers, especially if they sound too good to be true.

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• Earlier this week, researchers discover a 9.2 flaw affecting multiple NAS models
• D-Link says it won't patch them since they reached end-of-life status
• Crooks are now targeting them with available exploit code

Cybercriminals have begun targeting D-Link NAS devices, recently found to have a critical vulnerability, but which will not be patched due to being at their end of life.

Threat monitoring service Shadowserver recently sounded the alarm in a brief thread posted on X.

It was recently reported multiple versions of D-Link NAS devices were vulnerable to a 9.2-severity flaw that could allow hackers to interfere with the endpoints. However, as the devices had reached their end-of-life, the company said it would not be addressing the flaw, and would not be issuing a patch - instead, advising users to replace the devices with newer models.

Thousand(s) of victims

While the researchers said the exploitation was somewhat difficult since the complexity of an attack was relatively high, they did stress that there is a publicly available exploit out there.

“We have observed D-Link NAS CVE-2024-10914 /cgi-bin/account_mgr.cgi command injection exploitation attempts starting Nov 12th,” the researchers said. “This vuln affects EOL/EOS devices, which should be removed from the Internet.”

They added that in total, there were more than 60,000 endpoints out there that could be compromised, including different models such as DNS-320 Version 1.00,

DNS-320LW Version 1.01.0914.2012, DNS-325 Version 1.01, Version 1.02, and DNS-340L Version 1.08.

Shadowserver also said that it observed roughly 1,100 potential victims, significantly fewer than the 60,000 that were originally claimed.

A NAS device is a dedicated data storage unit connected to a network, allowing multiple users and devices to access and store data centrally. It provides secure file sharing, data backup, and storage, making it ideal for both home and business use. NAS devices are typically easy to set up and scale, offering RAID support and other protections against data loss.

Cybercriminals frequently target NAS devices because they often hold sensitive data, including personal documents, financial information, and business files. By compromising NAS systems, attackers can steal, encrypt, or delete valuable data, with ransomware being a common threat.

Via BleepingComputer

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“Developer productivity” can be an emotive, and occasionally misunderstood term. It is not the output of individuals that we are seeking to understand, but the effectiveness of the development system as a whole.

A few percentage point increases in development efficiency in a large organization can represent hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost reduction, better time to market and improved product quality. That, coupled with the promise of significant productivity increases from AI code companions, means that being able to understand and measure the productivity of the engineering workforce should be a key priority for business leaders.

But doing so can be complex and requires a shift in perspective away from merely counting lines of code, toward evaluating the broader impact on business goals. By adopting modern productivity measures, business leaders can better understand and enhance the effectiveness of their development teams, ultimately leading to more innovative and successful projects.

Dropping esoteric productivity measures

Historically, businesses have looked to metrics like lines of code or story points to gauge developer productivity. However, these measures often don’t reflect the true value that a developer brings to a project and they can also be easily influenced. For example, developers can artificially inflate their productivity by writing verbose code or overestimating story point values.

Separately, such measures can be weaponized by management and business stakeholders to apply to deliver keystrokes more quickly, without appropriate consideration for the real drivers of value. So, it usually doesn’t serve a business well to closely monitor the arbitrary output of individual developers, because it simply doesn’t directly equate to efficiency or effectiveness. Instead, the merits of measurement lie in understanding the development team’s ability to create outcomes.

Looking to modernized measures

Healthy developer metric measurement begins with understanding the outcomes you’re trying to drive within your team, not the pace at which code is created; after all, there’s no point delivering the wrong thing more quickly. This means questioning what value you’re hoping to achieve by improving developer productivity. For example, this could be reduced delivery time and cost; increased deployment frequencies; or reduced defects and rework. The aim is then to identify metrics that will provide insight into these areas and guide you towards achieving your desired business outcomes.

To adopt modernized developer productivity measures, it’s essential to first assess and understand the existing ways of working across all aspects of value delivery – from processes and practices to tools. This helps to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies and areas of potential improvement. To do so, it’s vital to look beyond individual developers and understand the entire system surrounding delivery, including business analysis, team structure, sign-offs and DevOps infrastructure.

Designing outcome-oriented targets

Once an understanding has been reached about where improvements should be made, it is possible to then define leading and lagging indicators and proxies. In turn, these can be meaningfully tracked to help businesses make the right decisions. From a practical perspective, there are numerous tools on the market that can give insight into DORA and other measures, simply by connecting to issue tracking, project management and version control systems.

Armed with an understanding of the current state, as well as a set of areas for improvement, it is then possible to define outcome-oriented targets that are achievable, but ambitious enough to create meaningful value for the organization. By linking the targets to the outcomes that the company most values, the impact of change can be maximized without changing processes that don’t positively influence broader goals.

Once targets have been set, a clear Target Operating Model can be established to help the organization deliver in the most efficient manner. This helps to ensure that all aspects of delivery (beyond lines of code and even DORA metrics) are aligned to support the desired outcomes. At this point, developer productivity tools can be put in place to help enable the development capability, and to track its progress towards the outcomes.

Track, assess & reassess

Developer productivity is a journey, and it is essential to regularly reassess the outcome-oriented targets. In doing so, new areas might be uncovered that are more urgent than those currently focused on. Alternatively, targets might already have been exceeded and it is time to push the delivery capability to the next level.

By continuously improving and using the right tools and expertise, organizations can boost developer productivity and build a strong foundation for future growth. As technology evolves, staying adaptable and proactively refining productivity strategies will keep businesses competitive and efficient in delivering high-quality outcomes.

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Competition for the best developer talent is hotting up in every industry, with shortages growing. An overwhelming majority (69%) of software developers leave positions after less than two years, often citing undue levels of stress, excessive unpaid overtime and toxic working cultures. Even when convinced to stay, three in four developers are burned-out and unable to work to their full potential, leaving critical projects at risk of serious impact due to lack of productivity.

Developer shortages are detrimental across the board, but particularly so for e-commerce businesses. Retailers rely on software developers to create and manage engaging online experiences for customers, improve SEO visibility and drive traffic to their sites, and keep user data encrypted and secure.

If steps aren’t taken to improve developer experience, retailers risk losing top developers to forward-thinking competitors, with ecommerce experiences for customers suffering as a result. So how can ecommerce businesses keep developers on side?

Letting devs self-manage

Developers are often interrupted by required updates or routine tasks – particularly during busy seasons like the holiday shopping period. There’s no reason to waste this time with unnecessary meetings or distractions; it only widens the gap between devs and their immediate priorities.

“Flow” is a well-known concept amongst developers. Also called “deep work”, this term refers to a state of complete concentration without distraction, something that many devs deem necessary on a daily basis to remain productive. It can take a programmer between 10-15 minutes to resume coding after an interruption, meaning that even the most trivial of delays can rapidly snowball into major project setbacks.

Learning how devs use their time at work can help to restructure workflows, identify helpful tools, and shorten lead times by up to 40%. Managers should collect regular feedback from developers on how they can best spend their time at work and plan accordingly, for instance by rescheduling meetings or allowing for flexi-time if required.

Identifying the right (and wrong) resources

Considering their staggering turnover rate, devs must see many positions as “dead-end jobs”. Developer roles must be just as valuable to the employees as they are to the company, with opportunities to learn, grow and progress.

For example, 44% of devs aren’t always sure which system or resource should be used to answer a question, which affects both productivity levels and stress management. Complex coding projects require exhaustive resources, but not all teams are suitably trained on how to use them.

Managers may assume that devs are familiar with certain platforms or tools, but this assumption may end up stunting the growth of young talent, or worse, discouraging them from asking questions. This is why project managers must ensure that all resources are accessible, user-friendly and comprehensively explained to all members of staff. Communications must also be air-tight, especially when working with remote teams, to keep devs in that ever-valuable flow state.

Another way to keep devs progressing and learning new things is to offer periodical training, whether on essential work practices or to develop skills that your business might someday need. By giving devs a chance to develop their knowledge of the latest technologies, businesses can close the skills gap while ensuring their team acquires valuable skills on the job.

However, it’s important to keep time frames and workload in mind for individual team members. Devs are likely to quit intensive courses or programs if it impedes them from their core responsibilities, especially if it’s a busy retail period. Instead of long training courses, businesses could instead consider more flexible resources without time restrictions to encourage devs to learn vital new skills on the job when they are able.

Freedom at work

70% of devs code in their spare time. For them, coding is not just work, but a hobby and a craft – it’s something they love to do. However many devs (especially those in-house) find all their time consumed by bug-hunting and other necessary, but boring and laborious, fixes, further impacting their job satisfaction. When barriers are created between devs and creative coding, it impedes innovation across the board – devs become less interested, and offer fewer ideas that would enrich the customer experience.

Without addressing the issue of devs’ freedom at work, businesses may soon be faced with a dispassionate workforce – not for lack of enthusiasm, but because their ideas have not been encouraged in the first place. This complacency will keep businesses behind while major competitors roll out innovative new ways to delight their customers.

Freedom comes from using modern flexible software that takes care of the mundane jobs developers are often tasked with, like bug fixing. This also frees up developers to add to the ecosystem. By removing tedious and laborious tasks from their workload, developers have more resources to focus on providing business value and actually contributing to the overall business strategy.

It’s natural for managers to want to maintain the hygiene of their ecommerce site, but making it a dev’s full-time job is not an efficient use of their time – it stifles innovation, distracts from more urgent tasks, and disengages the team. To reduce this kind of repetitive administrative work, businesses could consider investing in tools that can automate tests and identify bugs, freeing up devs for more complex, stimulating tasks that more directly impact conversion rates and customer satisfaction.

Where composable comes in

Top developers have become a hot commodity for ecommerce businesses. A good team of developers is crucial to creating engaging, frictionless customer journeys – so retailers have got to find ways to keep developers happy and motivated.

Self management, freedom, and airtight communication are all integral to improving developers’ experience. By giving developers the freedom and flexibility to create experiences that provide business value, retailers reap the benefits with unique, engaging experiences that help them differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Investing in new technologies, such as headless infrastructure, grants developers full control of the customer experience - without constraints from proprietary front-end tech - across the frameworks of their choice. With a composable approach, developers can make use of existing capabilities, allowing them to showcase their creativity - rather than getting bogged down in fixes and mundane tasks.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

Although I'm not a gamer, the Prime Video trailer for the new videogame anthology series Secret Level has certainly piqued my interest.

Secret Level is based on some of the world's most famous gaming franchises and while the only videogames I've played are the likes of Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda, there's no doubt that the trailer is completely mesmerizing. It's no surprise though as the adult animated anthology show is from the mind of Netflix's Love, Death and Robots creator Tim Miller, which I'm a big fan of.

The first teaser trailer for Prime Video's new videogame anthology show was unveiled at Gamescom on August 20 and now one of the best streaming services has released a new trailer (see below) which showcases the visually striking art and animation styles that'll be shown in Secret Level.

Each episode tells an original short story set in a number of beloved videogame universes such as God of War, PAC-MAN, and Dungeons & Dragons. Secret Level is a "celebration of games and gamers", and now I definitely want to be in on the party.

What is Secret Level about?

Secret Level is a groundbreaking gaming anthology series that tells individual stories set within the worlds of some of the most legendary videogames. The potential best Prime Video show will also include relatively new game franchises like the team-based shooter Concord, which you can play on PlayStation 5 and PC.

Alongside the ones mentioned above, the games included in the 15-episode series are: Armored Core, Crossfire, Exodus, Honor of Kings, Mega Man, New World: Aeternum, various PlayStation Studios games, Sifu, Spelunky, The Outer Worlds, Unreal Tournament and Warhammer 40,000.

Secret Level, which debuts on Prime Video on December 10 along with additional episodes on December 17, also has a star-studded cast, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves, Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt, Merle Dandridge, Claudia Doumit and more.

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• The National Labor Relations Board has ruled against Amazon
• Amazon can no longer hold mandatory anti-union meetings
• The meetings were found to violate worker's rights

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled Amazon can no longer impose mandatory ‘captive audience’ meetings on staff, as it were found to be using these events to ‘coerce’ employees with anti-unionization objectives.

The decision passed 3-1, with the NLRB General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, arguing the meetings violated worker’s rights, as they were forced to attend and be subjected to the company’s anti-union messaging.

Abruzzo affirmed companies should be free to make their case against unions, but workers shouldn’t be forced to listen.

Wins for workers

This is the latest development in a string of conflicts between Amazon and its workers, with the retailer aggressively opposing organizing efforts and unionization in its warehouses.

Tech workers have some of the lowest union membership rates of any industry, and efforts by Amazon to dissuade workers from organizing have proved effective. However, the law states that workers must be able to freely choose whether to debate union representation, and when and how they do it.

“Ensuring that workers can make a truly free choice about whether they want union representation is one of the fundamental goals of the National Labor Relations Act. Captive audience meetings—which give employers near-unfettered freedom to force their message about unionization on workers under threat of discipline or discharge—undermine this important goal,” said Chairman Lauren McFerran.

“Today’s decision better protects workers’ freedom to make their own choices in exercising their rights under the Act, while ensuring that employers can convey their views about unionization in a noncoercive manner."

Despite the considerable opposition from the retail giant, workers in Staten Island won a historic victory by voting to create the Amazon Labor Union, a huge step in their struggle for better working conditions and protections.

Via Engadget

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• AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D has just burnt out on an MSI X870 motherboard
• The user on Reddit reports an error code of ‘00’, indicative of a CPU issue
• There’s currently no confirmation from AMD on whether this is an issue on its end

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D has been the recipient of much acclaim thanks to the upgraded 3D V-Cache for gamers, placing it at the top of our best gaming CPUs ranking. However, one troubling user report has revealed the processor burned out on an AM5 motherboard socket. Could this be an error on AMD’s part?

The unlucky Reddit user shared images showcasing the new 9800X3D processor with burn damage, along with the MSI Tomahawk X870 motherboard socket burnt out with bent pins. The user also mentioned a ‘00’ error code that appeared when attempting to post (power-on self-test) their new chip.

The 00 error code can indicate a random boot or CPU issue (it’s a fairly common error code), and Wccftech noted that other users had posted about the same code on the Tomahawk X870 over on MSI’s own forums, though it’s unlikely those users had the same issue. We’ve seen a familiar matter occur with the 9800X3D’s predecessor (the 7800X3D), which left users with burnt processors and motherboards (eventually fixed via BIOS updates for multiple mobo partners).

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Wccftech claims the motherboard could hold responsibility for the burnout issue in this instance, with the assumption that the X870 pushed voltages through the gold contact pads ‘excessively’, leading to the CPU burning out. However, some commenters in the Reddit thread have also speculated that the board itself was defective based on the images provided by the affected user, since it appears that part of the socket’s plastic casing is chipped - therefore preventing the chip from being properly seated in the socket.

There’s ultimately no confirmation as to whether the blame for this lies with AMD, MSI, or the PC user themself. Still, one thing we can say is that this certainly wouldn’t be unfamiliar territory for users of newly launched AMD processors.

Should you still buy the Ryzen 7 9800X3D now?

Aside from the supposed burning issue, getting your hands on the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is already a tough mission - it’s currently sold out completely and new stock isn’t expected to arrive until December. Not only are you up against high demand, but scalpers have already made the new processor their latest target.

If there is a serious underlying issue here, stock delays could actually work in your favor if you’re hoping to pick up this speedy new gaming CPU. If Wccftech is correct and the burnout was indeed caused by excessive voltage, we could see it fixed via a BIOS software patch by MSI by the time a new batch of stock arrives.

We’re hoping that this is just an isolated issue that doesn’t indicate more serious problems, as spending hundreds of dollars on new hardware just for it to die on you almost immediately isn’t ideal, to say the least…

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• The Night Agent arrives on Netflix on January 23, 2025
• An official teaser trailer has been released
• A third season will begin production at the end of 2024

The Night Agent is one of the best Netflix shows and fans have been waiting for news of when its next chapter might arrive on the best streaming service. Finally, the wait is over and we now know it will arrive on January 23, 2025.

Previously, there was some confusion around the exact release window after Netflix confirmed that The Night Agent season 2 would return in 2025, but said that it would "this winter", which prompted some confusion.

We have good news, though, as we now know it's going to be in January next year and not later in the year like some originally thought it might be. Now that that's all cleared up, I'm so excited to tune in to The Night Agent season two. If you're just as excited as me, we've been given a quick teaser to get us hyped up.

Take a look below.

What do we know about The Night Agent season 2?

According to Netflix's Tudum, the new episodes pick up after the high-octane events of the first season, where we'll once again follow Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) after his successful mission.

Netflix's plot synopsis for season 2 says: "Now he’s earned the opportunity to become a Night Agent. Working in the secretive organization Night Action in Season 2 will push Peter into a world where danger is everywhere and trust is in short supply."

We also know this is far from the end of Peter's story, as The Night Agent has also been renewed for a third season. We're glad it didn't end up on the list of shows canceled by Netflix in 2024, and that there'll be plenty to watch over the coming months.

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• EA has shared how BioWare and Frostbite created Dragon Age: The Veilguard's hair strand technology
• The hair technology features 50,000 individual strands per character
• Stand hair technology is present in other EA games, but BioWare had to push the limits further for The Veilguard

EA has revealed how Dragon Age: The Veilguard's hair strand technology was brought to life.

In a new blog post, the development team at BioWare and the Frostbite Engine provided a deep dive into the technology that was able to give the characters of The Veilguard the best hair the series has ever seen.

In total, 50,000 individual strands make up one hairstyle per character for over 100 hairstyles in the game, allowing for natural motion and adaptability to various character movements and environments.

"Harnessing the power of the Frostbite engine, Strand Hair technology transforms your character's locks into a living tapestry of thousands of individual strands," EA said. "Strand Hair technology combines physics with real-time rendering to simulate believable modeling of human hair."

Frostbite spent years advancing its hair-rendering tech and has been featured in previous EA titles like EA Sports FC and Madden NFL, however, for The Veilguard, BioWare was required to push the limits even further.

"With hair attachments that move seamlessly, and the decoupling of simulation and render tessellation, this is the first EA game to offer such detailed physics-driven long hairstyles," EA explained. "The Frostbite team increased maximum hair length from 63 points to 255, and implemented a new system for complex hair structures like braids."

A character's build and physical traits also played a role in how the hair tech was implemented, as well as all sorts of different lighting that was considered. Frostbite and BioWare also worked together to make sure hair was accurately responsive to shadows and environmental lighting.

"The collaboration between Frostbite and the BioWare engineering team was key to supporting complex hairstyles. Advancing the technology for intricate styles and optimizing performance ensured that specific moments, like when hair covers a large percentage of the screen in certain cinematics, run smoothly," said BioWare's studio technical director, Maciej Kurowski.

The post goes into greater detail on how Frostbite and BioWare were able to counter some of the difficulties that came with creating realistic hair when dealing with other semi-transparent objects.

BioWare developed a new technique for blending hair with transparent visual and environmental effects, like volumetric fog and other participating media.

"We first render the opaque part of strand hair, and then we render transparent objects," said BioWare's senior rendering engineer James Power noted. "The shaders for the transparent objects use the transparent hair depth texture to determine whether the shading pixel is 'under' or 'on top' of the strand hair. If it's below, it renders the hair and marks a stencil bit (think of it as a masking texture)."

It's a complicated process and the post even goes into how each Strand Hair asset, each with high strand counts and tessellation settings, has a "high memory footprint" which is why the game offers players the option to turn the feature off for better performance.

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• FBI and CISA confirm networks have been compromised by Salt Typhoon
• Devices and networks used by government individuals also hit
• The group also successfully breached a network used by US authorities

A joint statement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has confirmed “broad and significant cyber espionage campaign” with links to the People’s Republic of China successfully breached numerous commercial telecommunications organizations.

The infiltration of these communications networks, believed to be the group tracked as Salt Typhoon, has allowed the threat actors to gain access to customer call records data as well as the private communications of a limited number of individuals within the US government.

The joint statement has also confirmed the group managed to successfully infiltrate a US wiretap system used by authorities to submit requests pursuant to court orders.

ISPs and telecoms compromised by Salt Typhoon

In late September 2024, Salt Typhoon targeted several US internet service providers in a reconnaissance scan that is believed to assist in vulnerability hunting for potential use in later attacks. In early October 2024, it was also reported the compromise affected a number of telecommunications companies such as AT&T, Lumen Technologies, and Verizon.

Now, it appears that the issue is more widespread than first thought, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the group may have had access “for months or longer,” citing people familiar with the matter.

This access may have allowed them to harvest “internet traffic from internet service providers that count businesses large and small, and millions of Americans, as their customers.”

Salt Typhoon has also been targeting Canadian organizations, with wide sections of the government also subjected to reconnaissance scans, as well as “dozens of organizations, including democratic institutions, critical infrastructure, the defence sector, media organizations, think tanks and NGOs,” the Government of Canada said in a statement.

“The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) continue to render technical assistance, rapidly share information to assist other potential victims, and work to strengthen cyber defenses across the commercial communications sector,” the joint statement concluded. “We encourage any organization that believes it might be a victim to engage its local FBI field office or CISA.”

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• Amazon announces its first mini-LED TV in its Fire TV range
• Also adds new soundbar to range called Fire TV Soundbar Plus
• Amazon Fire TV 4-Series gets a refresh too

Amazon has announced it's adding all-new products to its Fire TV range, the Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED series TV and Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus. Additionally, the Amazon Fire TV 4-series is getting a refresh.

Both the Amazon Omni Mini-LED and Amazon Soundbar Plus will be available starting today, November 14, 2024 – starting at $819 for a 55-inch TV and $249.99 for the new soundbar.

The Omni Mini-LED series is Amazon's first foray into the competitive mini-LED TV market and joins its range of Fire TVs, including the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED series, one of the best TVs for those looking for a budget TV.

The Omni Mini-LED series is said to deliver 1,400 nits of peak brightness, which would put it in a similar range to the Hisense U7N, one of the best mini-LED TVs of 2024, and is said to have 1,344 local dimming zones for improved backlight control over standard LED and QLED models in the Fire TV range. It will also feature what Amazon calls 'Intelligent Picture Technology' which is said to combine AI and the new mini-LED backlight to optimize and analyze scenes on screen and adjust color, detail and more, as well as a light sensor, reminsicent of 'AI TVs' from the likes of Samsung.

It also has support for both Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive, as well as support for Dolby Atmos audio and a speaker system consisting of two speakers and two subwoofers.

The Omni Mini-LED also comes with an extensive list of gaming features up there with the best gaming TVs including 144Hz refresh rate, VRR with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and ALLM in Gaming Mode, a step-up on the 60Hz refresh rate of the Omni QLED.

It will also support Amazon's list of Fire TV features such as the Ambient Experience, which displays static and dynamic art and photos when the TV enters idle mode, replacing blank screens, the Fire TV smart TV platform and Alexa voice support.

Coming soon will also be support for the Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA) protocol which enables streaming of the TV's audio to compatible ASHA hearing-aid devices.

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus and 4-series refresh

The Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus brings Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support to the Fire TV soundbar range for the first time. (Image credit: Amazon )

Amazon has also announced a new soundbar, the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus series, a step-up model on last year's Amazon Fire TV Soundbar. The new model has a 3.1 channel speaker array and supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, something the company's Soundbar series did not.

There's also the option to upgrade the Soundbar Plus with a new wireless subwoofer and wireless rear speakers for those looking to expand the soundbar to a home theater system like the Hisense AX5125H, a budget 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos system and one of the best soundbars around.

In the United States, the Fire TV Soundbar Plus is $249.99 on its own, but with a wireless subwoofer, it is $374.99, and with that, plus two surround sound speakers, it is $489.99. Once we confirm pricing in the UK and Australia, we will update this story.

Finally, the Amazon Fire TV 4-series will be getting a design update with a new ultra slim bezel designed to give more space to the picture on screen. Amazon will offer the 4-Series in three sizes – 43-inches for $329.99, 50-inches for $399.99, and 55-inches for $459.99.

Another competitor vying for the mini-LED crown

The Hisense U7N looks set to be the Amazon Omni Mini-LED's major competitor. (Image credit: Future)

It's been a busy year for Amazon in the TV world, as it entered a partnership with Panasonic to bring the Fire TV smart TV platform to Panasonic's TVs as Panasonic re-entered the US market for the first time in over a decade. This brought Fire TV to elite-level TVs such as the Panasonic Z95A, one of the best OLED TVs of 2024, for the first time.

Now, Amazon has decided to enter one of the most competitive, crowded TV markets around – mini-LED TVs. An area that has been dominated by the likes of Hisense, TCL and Samsung over the past few years has seen Sony shock the TV world by opting for mini-LED in its 2024 flagship, the Sony Bravia 9.

On paper, the Amazon Omni Mini-LED isn't going to take on top-level mini-LEDs such as the Hisense U8N or TCL QM851G based on its number of dimming zones and peak brightness. Still, it sounds like it will be taking on more budget and mid-range models like the Hisense U7N and Samsung QN85D. While this would usually be a bold move considering Hisense, TCL and Samsung's dominance of the market, if anyone can do it, it's Amazon.

The Fire TV smart TV platform is a solid interface that's already widespread thanks to the inexpensive Fire TV Stick range. Also, its TVs are already very popular and it appears to have gone the right way with pricing. So, if Amazon can nail the mini-LED part, as it did a pretty good job with QLED in the Omni QLED, then we could be looking at a new powerhouse in the mini-LED market. We can't wait to get our hands on it.

Amazon is taking orders now for its Fire TV Omni Omni Mini-LED TVs in four sizes. In the United States, they cost $819.99 for a 55-inch, $1,089.99 for a 65-inch, $1,499.99 for a 75-inch, and $2,099.99 for an 85-inch.

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• Businesses don’t know whether to prioritze productivity gains or revenue growth
• GenAI is being favored over automation and predictive AI
• More UK businesses are experimenting with GenAI than the global average

Although businesses are actively investing in artificial intelligence, new research from Gong has revealed many are struggling to quantify the value they’re getting from new technologies.

Part of the struggle to identify the benefits is the inconsistency in priorities – 53% are prioritizing productivity gains, and a further 53% are focusing on revenue growth for their key success metrics.

However, as AI becomes more integrated into daily workflows, three in five (61%) CIOs are now recognizing increased revenue alone as a justification for the additional costs. A similar number (60%) are just as happy to use time savings as a justification.

How do businesses measure AI ROI?

In terms of the technologies being deployed, 54% of tech leaders are prioritizing generative AI, which Gong suggests could be the result of the ongoing buzz. However 51% prioritize automation and a further 31% prioritize predictive AI, which arguably has more power to generate meaningful outcomes. Data-driven predictive AI can help a company analyze previous trends and prepare for the future, which brings along with it significant efficiency improvement potential.

The vagueness continues with the underlying technologies used – nearly three-quarters reportedly use off-the-shelf LLMs despite the availability of more customized models and the ability to create industry- and workplace-specific applications with minimal coding.

“Over the last two years, the AI hype and pace of innovation has created incredible excitement and confusion for CIOs and tech leaders about its potential and where to focus," noted Gong CPO Eilon Reshef.

Smaller companies were found to be among the most likely to focus on ROI, likely due to their more limited resources. Two in five (40%) small US firms (identified as those with 250-500 employees) are willing to pause projects lacking a clear ROI, compared to just one-fifth (19%) of larger companies.

Over the pond in the UK, there seems to be more acceptance of trial and error, as separate research from CGI found 87% of UK businesses are experimenting with GenAI, compared to 79% globally.

The study found a strong alignment between business and IT operations when it comes to strategy execution, suggesting that departments are finally cooperating to maximize their returns.

A third (35%) of CGI’s British respondents stated that delivering value and insight through AI and data is a key IT focus, with a similar number (32%) optimizing their processes through digitisation, automation and AI.

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• OpenAI is rumored to be launching new AI agent tool in January
• Report claims it's codenamed Operator and can control your browser
• This help could help it write code or book travel on your behalf

Forget chatbots – AI's next big trick is expected to be artificial intelligence agents that can carry out computer-based chores on your behalf, and a new report claims OpenAI's version will be landing very soon.

OpenAI's new tool, codenamed 'Operator,' could be released in January, according to Bloomberg and its two internal sources. It will apparently be released as a research preview initially and through the company's application programming interface (API) for developers to get their hands on.

AI agents are designed to operate your computer on your behalf without supervision. Like Anthropic's similar 'computer use' tool for Claude, OpenAI's Operator is expected to be able to carry out actions like writing code or booking travel.

The space is shaping up to be the next big AI battleground, with Google recently leaking its so-called Jarvis AI tool that can browse the web for you. According to The Information, it could beat OpenAI to the punch by landing in December.

Like Google's solution, OpenAI's equivalent is expected to be a "general purpose tool that executes tasks in a web browser," according to Bloomberg's source. So, while it might not be quite ready to pilot desktop apps on your behalf, OpenAI's Operator sounds like another pretty powerful browser extension.

How much do you trust AI?

ChatGPT search (above) landed in October and effectively automates Google searches for you. OpenAI's Operator is expected to do the same with web-based actions. (Image credit: OpenAI)

There's no doubt that tech giants think AI agents are the next big computing platform – in a recent Reddit AMA, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, "I think the thing that will feel like the next giant breakthrough will be agents."

This apparent breakthrough will come soon, too, with Altman adding, “IMHO this is going to be a big theme in 2025.” Recent announcements and leaks from Anthropic, Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI certainly support this.

However, given that AI agents are expected to work autonomously without supervision, they could also demand a large amount of trust. A significant asterisk on tools like ChatGPT Search – which already searches the web for you – is that they're early releases that can still make mistakes.

In October, OpenAI released a new benchmark called 'SimpleQA' to measure the accuracy of its own AI models – and its recent o1 preview model performed pretty poorly, only getting a 42% success rate in the new benchmark.

So, while AI agents might be the next big hype feature in 2025, it could still be a while before we entrust them with automating our computer-based chores – at least without some careful supervision.

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• New preview for Windows 11 is almost entirely about bug fixes
• Bugs, especially weird glitches, seem to be more prevalent since 24H2
• Microsoft is trying hard to cure all these various issues

Microsoft is busy fixing a whole host of bugs with Windows 11, and that’s clearly illustrated with the work in the latest preview build for the OS, which is almost entirely focused on squashing glitches – of which we’ve seen plenty with the new 24H2 update, of course.

In fact, Windows 11 build 27749 for the Canary channel only has one change that isn’t a bug fix, with Narrator getting a new keyboard shortcut combo (‘Narrator key + control + X’) which copies what was last spoken by the screen-reading tool to the clipboard. Also, Narrator now works to auto-read emails in the new Outlook app, as it did with the classic app.

Let’s cover Microsoft’s raft of troubleshooting work in this build next, then, bearing in mind that the Narrator capabilities are just in testing, as are the bug fixes – albeit with a notable exception.

That’s the fix for a bug where Task Manager errantly tells the user that zero processes and apps are running – which is, of course, impossible, given that the OS itself is built on a load of background processes – as this is also resolved with the cumulative update for the full version of Windows 11 in November. That Patch Tuesday update fixes another weird bug where Alt-Tabbing to switch between apps causes a lengthy pause and a black screen before the app you’re changing to is presented on the desktop – and a problem where the internet connection was failing on some PCs.

Back to preview build 27749, which also shores up a bunch of glitches with the core parts of the Windows 11 interface. That includes File Explorer having the contents of its navigation pane spread out too much (with extra space between them), and also some fine-tuning for the taskbar. Microsoft notes it has: “Made a change so you will now see a search box if the taskbar auto-hides when the setting for search on the taskbar is set to ‘Search box; (rather than an icon).”

On top of that, there’s a cure for an odd issue where a blank entry is present in the Privacy panel in the Settings app, and if clicked, it causes Settings to crash. Microsoft has also fixed an issue where Windows 11 would crank the volume to maximum on “certain audio devices” which doubtless made for a rude awakening after your PC returned from sleep (or it could happen on the first boot-up, too).

Narrator got some fixes as well, including the resolution of an issue where it would slow down after 15 minutes of continuous use in a single app.

There’s a clutch of other miscellaneous fixes here which Microsoft lists in the usual blog post.

(Image credit: Marjan Apostolovic / Shutterstock) Analysis: The current prevalence of weird bugs

What’s clear is that there’s a growing theme with Windows 11 being hit by some very strange bugs since the 24H2 update hit the scene. The weird spacing in the interface seen in File Explorer, zero processes showing in Task Manager, that blank entry in Settings that causes a crash, your audio suddenly being ramped to full volume, and many more oddball glitches besides (that menu disappearing off the top of the desktop springs to mind, too).

Normally, these kinds of bizarre issues are relatively rare, but seem to have become more common since the release of Windows 11 24H2, both in the update itself, and as we see here, in preview builds. It’s our theory that the major change to a new underlying platform in Windows 11 – Germanium – might have some side effects that we’re seeing manifested in these stranger kinds of bugs.

Hopefully, this run of quality assurance turbulence will start to calm down soon enough, and as we can see with this long laundry list of fixes in the latest preview, Microsoft is busy doing a lot of firefighting to resolve these multiple issues. We’ve already seen other preview updates where a lot of the work is bug fixing in recent times, and indeed in fairness, this era of heightened bugginess does go back further than the new version 24H2. Overall, 2024 has been something of a rocky year for Windows 11.

All of this seems to broadly point to the need for Microsoft to get a better handle on QA and testing processes for Windows 11, something that some people have been banging on about for some time now (ourselves included). The good news with 24H2, at least, is that it’s a major piece of work – in terms of the mentioned new Germanium platform underpinning the OS – and we haven’t seen any huge showstopping bugs (yet – touch wood). Just a lot of weird little cockroaches scurrying about.

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• Instant Games has been ditched nine months after it went live
• The feature let you instantly play arcade games without installing them
• It’s the ability to play instantly that’s scrapped, not the games themselves

Early in 2024, Microsoft started rolling out ‘Instant Games’ to its store in Windows 11, but the feature has come off the rails – and is now being scrapped.

The idea with Instant Games was to give Windows 11 users another reason to visit the Microsoft Store, allowing them to enjoy some quick-and-easy casual games that didn’t need to be downloaded or installed.

Yes, these were free games you could play on your PC there and then – instantly – with no fuss around setting them up.

Okay, so as you might imagine, they were just simple arcade or puzzle-style casual games – they were housed under the ‘Arcade’ tab in the Microsoft Store’s side panel menu, in fact – but still, they were free, and very easy to access.

At the last count, there were close to 70 games that could be instantly played using the feature in the Microsoft Store.

It seems the feature simply wasn’t very popular, though, because as Windows Latest reports, Microsoft has now canned Instant Games, as of today (November 14). The games themselves aren’t going anywhere, we should note; it’s just that the only option will be to download them going forward – there’s no instant play button anymore.

(Image credit: Windows Latest / Microsoft) Analysis: Stumbling blocks that led to derailment

As Windows Latest points out, one of the frustrations with Instant Games was that it took a long time to roll out to everyone on Windows 11. Rather ironically, the delivery was anything but instant, as the idea was announced in September 2023, but as noted, the rollout didn’t begin until early 2024 (in February). And even when it did kick off, the feature was slow to be rolled out to Windows 11 users.

That probably didn’t help, and going by reports, there was another stumbling block with Instant Games. While the convenience of just clicking and playing a game there and then was great, running the title directly within the Microsoft Store was seemingly quite resource-intensive. Anecdotally, things could be less than smooth when running these arcade titles, even though they are by their very nature much less demanding than you’re the best PC games.

Granted, the level of smoothness doubtless depended on your PC (and Windows) configuration, but still – there were issues here by all accounts. Although to be fair, the feature did still allow you to try out these casual games, and if you liked them, you could then fully download and install them, to get smoother gameplay.

Whatever the case, ultimately the Instant Games library couldn’t have got much traffic, otherwise Microsoft wouldn’t be shutting it down just nine months after the feature was sent live. The idea was to attract more users to the Microsoft Store – which needs all the help it can get – but the plan seems to have failed in this instance.

Microsoft is, however, very much continuing its efforts to make the Microsoft Store a better place, including ushering in a major visual revamp, and changes to boost performance in various ways, making the app more responsive and much quicker to boot.

None of which can hurt, but in the end, it’s the content that the store will live and die by, and Microsoft still has a lot of work to do in that respect...

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• Microsoft rolls out monthly payment support for annual subscriptions to more products
• To spread the cost, you’ll need to pay an extra 5%
• Teams Phone and Power BI also get price hikes

Microsoft has announced that it will be increasing prices for many enterprise-focused subscriptions from next month to keep up with rising costs.

To help customers spread the cost of the additional dollars, Redmond will also roll out wider support for monthly payments on annualized plans.

The company confirmed the changes will impact customers across Buy Online, Cloud Solutions Partner (CSP) and enterprise Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA-E) channels.

Microsoft’s subscriptions are getting more expensive

Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales and Microsoft 365 Copilot for Service annual term subscriptions will now be payable annually or monthly from December 1, but they’ll be subject to a price hike of around 5% depending on exchange rates and local pricing.

Teams Phone is also set to get its first price rise since in 2017 launch, with customers set to pay the equivalent of $10/month or $120/year per user from April 1, 2025 based on annual payments. Like Copilot, Teams Phone users will pay a premium of around 5% to spread the cost of an annual commitment over 12 months.

Microsoft confirmed the following product categories will be standardized with the new 5% rise for monthly payments:

• Microsoft 365
• Office 365
• Enterprise Mobility + Security
• Windows 365
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Services
• Microsoft Power Platform
• Other Online Services

For now, customers looking to avoid the 5% surcharge can continue to pay annually.

Elsewhere in the business, Product Management VP Kim Manis confirmed Microsoft Power BI Pro and Premium Per User (PPU) licenses will get their first price hike since their launch around a decade ago.

Also effective from April 1, 2025, Power BI Pro licenses will cost $14/month per user and PPU licenses will be $24/month per user – both representing a $4 monthly increase. Paying annually for Power BI through Microsoft 365 E5 or Office 365 E5 will avoid the price hike.

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• Danish pricing for the upcoming Asus ROG Phone 9 has seemingly leaked
• The phone could cost around $1,400, but we’ve only seen one model listed
• Both the ROG Phone 9 and its Pro variant are due to launch on November 19

The Asus ROG Phone 9 gaming phone is due to launch on November 19, but we may already have a fair idea of how much the phone will cost thanks to a new leak.

As Android Headlines reports, a Danish retailer was spotted listing the phone for 9,838 Danish Kroner, or around $1,400 / £1,100 / AU$2,150. That’s for the model with 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and the Storm White color option.

That's quite a lot more than the base model ROG Phone 8, which started at $1,099 / £949 at launch, and around as much as the ROG Phone 8 Pro, which started at $1,199 / £1,099. It's possible, given the list price, that the retailer has erroneously labeled the Pro model as the standard, or maybe we're simply seeing a price hike this year. Of course, price conversions aren't always accurate.

For what it’s worth, the listed model carries the model number AI2501-12G512G-WH.

As spotted by 91 Mobiles Indonesia (via Android Headlines), the upcoming phone’s power certification was also listed publicly by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) well before launch day. The WPC listing notes that the phone received certification on November 11.

The listing includes a rendered image of the front of the phone, too, which displays the phone’s home screen and looks much the same as it did during our hands-on time with the ROG Phone 9 at Snapdragon Sumit.

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(Image credit: Myriam Joire / Future)

Though the ROG Phone 9 might not look much different than the previous generation ROG Phone 8, we’ve heard a steady flow of rumors suggesting the new phone will receive major upgrades in the performance department.

We previously reported that the ROG Phone 9 is tipped to best the Galaxy S25 in performance benchmarks, and that its Pro counterpart is rumored to launch with a blisteringly-fast 185Hz display.

Other leaks have pointed to the vanilla ROG Phone 9 sporting the same ultra-high refresh rate display. And Asus has itself confirmed that the phone will come equipped with the new flagship Qualcomm chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

It’s likely that we’ll see the ROG Phone 9, the ROG Phone 9 Pro, or even both make it onto our list of the best gaming phones.

Asus is due to officially reveal both phones on November 19, so we don’t have long to wait for official details on the new devices. For the latest official updates as we hear them, be sure to check out our Asus phones coverage – and for the latest mobile gaming news, head on over to TRG.

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• Hacker found selling a database of 180+million emails on the dark web
• The archive was stolen from a data broker
• The data broker confirmed the information was scraped from public sources

A hacker is selling a database containing 183 million records of people’s contact details, including email addresses, stolen from a data broker who, in turn, generated it by scraping publicly available data.

One might say, no harm - no foul, but still, whoever buys this database will get the chance to annoy millions of people with spam, and possibly even target them with phishing, malware, and business email compromise (BEC).

The database, which includes people’s business email addresses, postal addresses, phone numbers, employer names, job titles, and links to various social media, is being sold by a threat actor alias ‘KryptonZambie’, for $6,000.

Decommissioned legacy systems

The archive was stolen from a data broker company called DemandScience (previously known as Pure Incubation) who has confirmed the data was publicly available to start with.

"It is also important to note that we process publicly available business contact information, and do not collect, store, or process consumer data or any type of credential information or sensitive personal information including accounts, passwords, home addresses or other personal, non-business information," a DemandScience spokesperson said in an email.

HaveIBeenPwned?, a website that tracks email addresses compromised in various data breaches, reports that the archive was pulled from a “decommissioned legacy system: “In early 2024, a large corpus of data from DemandScience (a company owned by Pure Incubation), appeared for sale on a popular hacking forum. Later attributed to a leak from a decommissioned legacy system, the breach contained extensive data that was largely business contact information aggregated from public sources.”

We don’t know if the hacker managed to sell the database already, or if there were multiple buyers. At press time, there was no information of in-the-wild abuse.

Via The Register

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