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With big discounts on some of our favorite systems of 2024, there's never been a better time to upgrade your entertainment setup.

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In Savings and Trust, historian Justene Hill Edwards tells the story of the Freedman's Bank. Created for formerly enslaved people following the Civil War, its collapse cost depositors millions.

• Courts across Washington state forced to shut down IT infrastructure
• There is no word on the attackers, or type of cyberattack
• Not all courts were affected in the same way

Unnamed hackers have attacked court systems across the US state of Washington, forcing the judicial organization to shut down parts of its infrastructure to prevent further damage.

"In an abundance of caution, we proactively took down our systems to secure them and are working around the clock with leading experts to restore services as quickly as possible," AOC associate director Wendy Ferrell told local media.

Washington’s court systems include multiple municipal and district courts, and it seems that not all have been affected in the same manner, or to the same extent. For example, courts in Bainbridge Island, Monroe, Puyallup, Milton, and Thurston County, are operating with limited services.

Limited operation

Pierce County Superior Court Clerk's Office still offers online access, saying the impact on its systems and operations was limited.

"The Pierce County Clerk of Superior Court's Office is experiencing service interruptions due to unauthorized activity detected on the Washington Courts network," the Pierce County Clerk of Superior Court said.

"The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) has taken immediate action to secure critical systems and is actively working to safely restore services."

Speaking to the Seattle Times via phone, King County District Court Chief Presiding Judge Rebecca C. Robertson said superior and district courts in King’s County weren’t significantly affected since they operate a separate case management system.

“We are prepared for at least a week,” Robertson said. “To protect the extremely sensitive data, (state officials) decided to shut everything down and rebuild it.”

There is no word on who the attackers are, or what kind of attack this was, however judicial organizations are no strangers to ransomware attacks.

In summer 2024, the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, the largest in the United States, suffered a ransomware attack which forced it to close down its entire operation for a day.

Via Seattle Times

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Civil and immigration rights groups say they are better prepared this time for potential Trump border policies. But they also expressed disappointment with Democrats on immigration issues.

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Password-sharing crackdowns – they're the three words that users of the best streaming services dread, as such crackdowns mean they can’t as cheaply or easily share their account with friends or family. Disney and Netflix have already launched their password restrictions – much to everyone’s annoyance – and now Max is preparing to clamp down too.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) confirmed its password crackdown intentions back in March this year, but at the time WBD's streaming head J.B. Perrette only vaguely said it was going to start the process “later this year.” Now Gunnar Wiedenfels, CFO of WBD, has said the process will begin with “very soft messaging” this year, which he described as “asking members who have not signed up, or multi-household members to pay a little bit more.”

This softball start – which was discussed on the company’s recent Q3 earnings call (via The Verge) – follows in the footsteps of the approach Netflix and Disney originally took. They began by nudging people to sign up for their own accounts in a few regions at first, before rolling out tighter restrictions everywhere as time passed.

While there’s no confirmation as to what the final stages of Max’s password crackdown will look like, we expect Max will continue to follow Disney and Netflix until users are left with three options – leave the streamer, pay for their own account, or pay to be an additional user on another account.

Will The Penguin convince you to stay with Max? (Image credit: HBO) Price rises coming too

Account-sharing restrictions like these are the carrot-and-stick approach without the carrot – and Max might be serving up extra stick, as despite Wiedenfels describing this crackdown as “a form of price rises” he later added that there’s still “a fair amount of room to continue to push a price we’ve been judicious about.”

So not only might you soon have to pay for your own Max account, you’ll have to pay extra for the privilege too.

As always, we’re left asking when or if the camel’s back will break. When Netflix announced password-sharing plans we thought it might be the end of the streamer, but it’s now doing better than ever financially speaking – so it's no surprise that Disney and now Max would follow suit after threats of mass cancellations rang hollow.

It feels like there will still come a point where users say enough is enough, but until then expect password-sharing crackdowns and price rises to continue. And if you are thinking of saying goodbye to Max, you'll want to check out our list of the best Max shows to watch before you unsubscribe.

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• Nvidia GeForce Now Priority membership is now ‘Performance’
• Price will remain the same, with 1440p resolution and ultrawide support additions
• The playtime limit will come into effect on January 1, 2025

Nvidia’s GeForce Now has been an inexpensive cloud gaming alternative for PC gamers out for a high-end experience, and now its ‘Priority’ membership tier has been upgraded to ‘Performance’ with a host of upgrades.

Previously, the Priority membership’s resolution was limited to 1080p while lacking support for ultrawide resolutions (21:9 or 32:9 aspect ratios) and was priced at $9.99 (£9.99 / AU$19.99). Nvidia will change this by adding a 1440p resolution and ultrawide support (previously exclusive to Ultimate members), and the good news is that the new Performance membership will not change from the $9.99 price despite the improvements made (which we love to see from Nvidia).

Starting January 1, 2025, both Performance and Ultimate members will have a monthly playtime limit of 100 hours, which will help shorten queue times - this includes the option of saving your in-game graphics settings, which will go a long way to help you pick up where you left off without tinkering for better performance or visual quality.

While the playtime limit won’t come into effect until January 1, 2025, all active paid memberships will maintain unlimited playtime until January 1, 2026. The new tier is active now, and Nvidia is letting you test the new benefits with a Day Pass which is 25% off on both Performance and Ultimate, in a limited special time offer until November 22, 2024.

(Image credit: Nvidia) A positive step in the right direction for Nvidia

This is a move from Nvidia that I’m pleased to see - not all PC gamers have the opportunity to get their hands on the best graphics cards on the market, and GeForce Now has always been a great alternative. While cloud gaming has its cons, Team Green has taken the right steps to ensure quality and connection speeds are high.

It’s also worth noting that up to 15 hours of unused playtime will be carried into the next month - you can always keep your eye on the number of hours played via the ‘Account Portal’.

I believe this is a prelude to the long-awaited GeForce RTX 5000 series reveal, and if recent rumors are true, we could be seeing Nvidia’s new GPUs within a matter of weeks…

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• Researchers have spotted a very specific SEO poisoning campaign
• The campaign is dropping a decade-old malware framework
• The end result is either a Cobalt Strike beacon, or ransomware

If you’re an Australian interested in Bengal cats, be very careful when researching the topic online, because you might get hacked.

That’s what cybersecurity researchers from Sophos said in a new report concerning a new SEO poisoning campaign that targets people searching for Bengal cats in Australia.

SEO poisoning is a malicious technique in which cybercriminals manipulate search engine results to push websites under their control to the top of search engine page results. When users open these websites, they are offered malware downloads, or phished for sensitive data.

Limited operation

In this campaign, the crooks were deploying Gootloader, a malware delivery framework used primarily to distribute various types of malware, such as ransomware and information-stealing trojans (like the Gootkit banking trojan). Sophos said they observed Cobalt Strike beacons being dropped, as well as different ransomware strains.

Gootloader has been around for a decade, and so has SEO poisoning. There is nothing out of the ordinary in the method of compromise, or the tools being deployed by the hackers. What stands out is the topic the crooks chose for their distribution - Bengal cats in Australia.

Usually, the crooks would either try to compromise as many computers as possible, or they would go for a specific high-value target, such as a financial institution, or a hospital. SEO poisoning is usually used in the former, to attack a larger cohort such as software developers, cryptocurrency users, or something similar.

In this scenario, the only people who would possibly get infected would be the ones searching “Are Bengal Cats illegal in Australia?”.

One potential reason could be that the crooks were trying to test their SEO poisoning strategies out without drawing too much attention to themselves, therefore choosing the most niche thing they could possibly find.

Via The Register

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