Feed aggregator

Maximize your travel enjoyment while minimizing your stuff by flying with only one small bag.

Four top security companies have been charged for downplaying the impact the SolarWinds Orion compromise had on their systems, an action which violated certain provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, among other related rules.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission charged and fined Unisys Corp., Avaya Holdings Corp., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, and Mimecast Limited for “making materially misleading disclosures regarding cybersecurity risks and intrusions.”

All companies have received civil penalties, with Unisys expected to pay $4 million, Avaya $1 million, Check Point $995,000, and Mimecast $990,000.

Misleading disclosures

The 2020 attack on SolarWinds’ Orion infrastructure management software saw threat actors push updates to the Orion software that were loaded with malware, infecting other organizations downstream in the supply chain that used the Orion software.

The attack impacted thousands of businesses and several branches of the US government, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Treasury Department, and the US Department of Commerce.

Among the businesses impacted by the attack were the four charged by the SEC, which in its press release stated Unisys, “described its risks from cybersecurity events as hypothetical” despite the company having knowingly experienced two attacks as a result of the SolarWinds attack that resulted in large amounts of data being exfiltrated.

The charge against Avaya states the company attempted to downplay the impact of the SolarWinds attack, stating attackers had accessed a “limited number of [the] Company’s email messages.” In actuality, Avaya was already aware the threat actors had broken into the companies cloud file sharing system and gained access to at least 145 files.

Check Point and Mimecast were also found to have downplayed the impact of the attack on their systems.

Sanjay Wadhwa, Acting Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said, “As today’s enforcement actions reflect, while public companies may become targets of cyberattacks, it is incumbent upon them to not further victimize their shareholders or other members of the investing public by providing misleading disclosures about the cybersecurity incidents they have encountered. Here, the SEC’s orders find that these companies provided misleading disclosures about the incidents at issue, leaving investors in the dark about the true scope of the incidents.”

More from TechRadar Pro

• These are the best endpoint protection services
• Thousands of WordPress websites hacked via plugin looking to steal user data
• Take a look at the best business VPN

Apple has debuted the first trailer for the hotly anticipated second season of its hit series Severance – and now I'm even more excited to return to the office in early 2025.

Released today (October 23), the teaser, which is set to The Who's funky 'Eminence Front' track, gives us our first proper look at Severance season 2 in typically twisty-turny fashion. It's only around 80 seconds long, but I suspect there'll be plenty of fans who'll not only attempt to dissect what's on show, but also theorize about what lies in store for Adam Scott's Mark Scout and his Lumon Industries colleagues – new and old – ahead of the popular show's latest chapter.

Expectedly, Mark is at the heart of season 2's inaugural teaser – he's arguably the protagonist of one of the best Apple TV Plus shows, after all, so it makes sense that he'd be front and center of this video.

What's particularly interesting about Severance season 2's first trailer, though, is that many of the Apple TV Plus project's primary supporting cast members are only briefly teased in this first round of footage. Indeed, the likes of Britt Lower's Helly, Zach Cherry's Dylan, and John Turturro's Irving are only glimpsed in quick flash cuts interspersed between the trailer's main footage, which shows Mark navigating a labyrinthine hall of Lumon Industries corridors to try and find his co-workers.

Unfortunately for Mark, he doesn't run into the colleagues he's searching for. Instead, before the teaser ends, he's greeted by a trio of new employees – "who are you people?", a baffled Mark asks – before Tramell Tillman's Seth, the overseer of Lumon's severed floor division, appears. "Welcome back, Markus," Seth unsettlingly says with a smile as he carries a bunch of blue balloons with Mark's face on them. "Been a minute", he adds, before the footage cuts away to Severance's title card. Color. Me. Intrigued.

Gather round, everyone, and watch the season 2 trailer with us! (Image credit: Apple TV Plus)

The show's latest trailer arrives 24 hours after Apple invited us to attend a big Severance season 2 meeting. At the time, I theorized that it was destined to reveal season 2's first teaser, so I'm glad I've been proven right.

Not to blow my own trumpet, but I also predicted that a full cast list and season 2 plot synopsis would be presented by Apple. I was partly correct on that front as well, with the tech giant's streaming division providing a short story brief and confirming which actors are part of Severance's sophomore outing on one of the world's best streaming services:

"In Severance, Mark Scout (Scott) leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives," the story synopsis reads. "This daring experiment in 'work-life balance; is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work… and of himself. In season 2, Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe."

Joining Scott, Lower, Tillman, Cherry, and Turturro on the season 2 cast roster are returning faces Jen Tullock as Devon, Michael Chernus as Ricken, Dichen Lachman as Ms. Casey, Christopher Walken as Burt, and Patricia Arquette as Harmony. The only confirmed newcomer so far is Sarah Bock (Bruiser), who's been hired as a series regular but whose character identity remains a mystery. Show creator and executive producer Dan Erickson, plus director and executive producer Ben Stiller, are also back as key members of season 2's chief creative team.

Severance season 2 will launch with a single episode premiere exclusively on Apple TV Plus on January 17, 2025. New episodes will air weekly until the season 2 finale on March 21. While we wait to return to the office, read our thoughts on five big questions Severance season 2 needs to answer.

You might also like

• Read up on everything we know about Silo season 2 before its November 15 debut
• Or get the lowdown on what we know about Foundation season 3
• Alternatively, check out the best Apple TV Plus movies worth streaming today

You don't have to break the bank to keep your home safe, thanks to these home security cameras.

Best Buy is offering a deep discount and a free gift card when you order your new LG CordZero stick vacuum.

If you're looking to start 3D printing without spending a hefty amount, these are the best budget options to get started.

Nintendo's alarm clock does less than we want it to for more than we want to pay. You might want to buy one anyway.

Lomography has unveiled a new addition to its range of instant cameras, dubbing the Lomo Instant Wide Glass the 'world's best instant camera'. That's a bold claim when the market has otherwise been dominated by Polaroid and Fujifilm Instax – so do instant photography lovers finally have a viable alternative?

It seems as though the best instant camera claims are based on the quality of the Wide Glass's lens: a 90mm multi-coated glass lens, with 35mm effective focal length and minimum focus distance of just 0.3m. It's a lens that Lomography says is the sharpest in any instant camera. That really does sound like some serious glass, especially when you compare it to the simpler optics of, say, the Fujifilm Instax Wide 400.

Like the Instax Wide 400, the Lomo Instant Wide Glass shoots onto the readily available and reasonably priced Instax Wide film. Film size aside, the Glass Wide has more in common with the Polaroid I-2 and the Fujifilm Instax mini 99, being more of a photographer's tool with plenty of shooting modes and manual control to sink your teeth into.

The Lomo Instant Wide Glass costs $279 / £249 and shipping starts in November (international shipping is available but bear with us for Australia pricing). Fujifilm Instax Wide film costs around $24.90 / £21.90 for a twin 10-sheet pack – that's 20 shots in all.

(Image credit: Lomography) A photographer's instant camera

The Lomo Instant Wide Glass looks the part with its classic retro brown leather finish and metal-effect trim. As you can see in the product image above, it's compatible with accessories such as color gels for the built-in flash, plus lens attachments like Lomography's 'Splitzer' for creative multi-exposure effects, which by the way have more room to breathe on the wider Instax Wide film.

In addition to the multi-exposure effect (which works with or without lens attachments – see example below), there's semi-manual control over aperture and shutter speed (or 'advanced auto exposure'), which includes a long exposure bulb mode, while you can also manually adjust brightness using the ±1EV exposure compensation switch.

Elsewhere, there's zone focusing with a minimum 0.3m focus distance enabling you to capture little details. There's the option to attach an external flash, although the Wide Glass is equipped with a basic one already. Add a color gel to the flash and you can get creative with funky color effects. There's also a self timer and a tripod mount, making hands-free selfies and group shots possible.

As you can see, there's plenty of scope for creativity, and being the Wide Instax format, plenty of room to breathe in your shots. We're currently reviewing the Lomo Instant Wide Glass and will share our experiences with you really soon. The early signs are positive, Lomography could be onto a winner here.

(Image credit: Lomography) You might also like

• Fujifilm Instax Wide 400 review: wide appeal?
• The best instant camera 2024: top retro prints from Polaroid, Instax and more
• 5 tips for getting the best shots with your Polaroid or Instax camera

This nifty travel charger can power up your iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch from one outlet.

A number of popular Android and iOS mobile apps boasting millions of users carried a major vulnerability that could have been used to leak sensitive user data.

A report from cybersecurity researchers at Symantec found the problem is nothing more than software developers not paying enough attention at work.

The researchers discovered eight apps, on offer via Google Play and the App Store, that contained hardcoded, unencrypted credentials for cloud services. On these services, the apps stored sensitive user information, so, in theory, should a malicious actor obtain the binaries, or source codes, of any of these apps, they could easily exfiltrate people’s information and thus put them in harm’s way.

Thousands of compromised websites

On Android, the apps were The Pic Stitch (a collage-editing app for Android with more than five million users), Meru Cabs (a taxi-hailing app with more than five million users), Sulekha Business-List & grow (500K+ downloads), ReSound Tinnitus Relief (500,000 users), Saludsa (100,000+ users), Chola Ms Break In (100,000 users), EatSleepRIDE Motorcycle GPS (100,000 users), and Beltone Tinnitus Calmer (100,000 users).

Apple does not share iOS app download figures, however, there are app store ratings, which can be used to determine, at least in part, the number of downloads. Therefore, we have Crumbl (a desert-ordering app with 4.3 million ratings), Eureka (a survey app with more than 400,000 ratings), Videoshop (350K ratings), Solitaire Clash: Win Real Cash (240,000 ratings), and Zap Surveys - Earn Easy Money (235,000 ratings).

There is not much end-users can do here, since this is a problem with the app itself, and something the developers could have easily remedied. Still, Symantec recommends installing an antivirus program and only downloading apps from reputable sources (such as, ahem, Google Play Store, or the Apple Store).

Via The Register

More from TechRadar Pro

• Crypto fans beware — hundreds of Android apps found using OCR to steal login details
• Here's a list of the best firewalls today
• These are the best endpoint protection tools right now

The niche coffee maker brews a great cup of coffee. But at this price, parts of the machine should be better quality.

Canva has launched a new text-to-image generator based on the Phoenix foundation model technology it acquired earlier in 2024 with the purchase of Leonardo.ai.

Canva claims the new Dream Lab tool can generate up to 15 different types of graphics, including 3D renders and illustrations, and can also reference other images to fine-tune outputs, making its outputs more reliable.

It’s also capable of generating multi-subject images and photorealistic portraits.

Canva Dream Lab

The unveiling of Dream Lab comes as Canva’s popularity continues to soar – it now boasts 200 million monthly users, marking a 130% year-over-year increase. The company’s annual revenue also recently hit $2.5 billion, which is coincidentally also the number of presentations that its users have made.

The announcement, detailing a number of product launches and enhancements, also sees the company boast about the 10 billion uses that its Canva AI tools have seen to date - a jump of three billion since the Leonardo.ai acquisition.

As part of its drive, Canva is also rolling out more than 40 new features across its Visual Suite, including updates to Canva Docs, enhanced video editing tools and the introduction of interactive features like polls, quizzes and dynamic charts.

Furthermore, recognizing its growing userbase in the UK, Canva has opened up two new buildings in Hoxton Square, London, tripling the size of its campus in the city.

More from TechRadar Pro

• Need to make an important announcement? Here’s the best presentation software
• Canva has a new plan as it continues to court big business
• Check out our roundup of the best AI tools

These simple tricks can help you boost your smartphone signal, no matter where you roam.

The iPhone 16's biggest new feature isn't worth upgrading for. But you still get much more for $800 than you would have two years ago.

Text prompts to PowerPoints, in minutes.

We take you through Microsoft's newly updated Copilot Pro AI interface for PCs and phones, and look to future of Copilot Vision.

What is a photo? It’s a question that's popping up with increasing regularity as technology moves further into a dystopian AI reality. From ‘deep fakes’ of celebrities to inserting a lion into a photo of your office, photo editing is evolving at a rapid rate that's making a lot of people, myself included, feel uneasy.

As Apple prepares to launch its suite of AI-powered tools, Apple Intelligence, which includes a new photo-editing feature called Clean Up that lets you remove objects from images, the differing approaches of tech companies are becoming clear. On one side, Google’s AI editing tools allow you to completely transform an image by adding lava lakes or transforming buildings into spaceships, while on the other there’s Apple’s more basic approach, which can… remove a water bottle.

Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, sat down with The Wall Street Journal to discuss Apple’s image software approach, and he summed up Apple's approach to AI thus: “We help purvey accurate information, not fantasy.”

In the interview, WSJ’s Joanna Stern demonstrates how Clean Up works, by removing an intrusive water bottle from the edge of an image. Federighi explains that “even the ability to remove that water bottle, there were lots of debates internally.

“Do we want to make it easy to remove that water bottle or that mic? Cause that water bottle was there when you took the photo. The demand for people who want to clean up what seemed like extraneous details to the photo that don’t fundamentally change the meaning of what happened has been very, very high. And so, you know, we were willing to take that small step.”

Federighi goes on to explain that Apple is constantly thinking about the impact these AI features can make on reality, and limits the extent to which users can alter images. "We are concerned that there's a great history to photography and how people view photographic content as something they can rely on is indicative of reality."

A different approach

Siri's new redesign in iOS 18.1 activated on an iPhone 16 Pro Max (Image credit: Apple)

One way the company does this is by including any edits to a photo with Apple Intelligence’s Clean Up in the Photos app metadata for that image. This is something I’ve talked about at length with an Android user colleague, as I wanted to know if this approach to understand whether or not a photo has been AI-altered is specific to Apple, or employed by Google and Samsung too. It turns out, Apple is one of the few smartphone companies taking this approach with Google opting for changes in the metadata on Pixels which isn’t as clear for end users – something I wish existed across all social media platforms and smartphone software as photo editing enters new murkier waters.

It’s not just photo editing where Apple has taken this thoughtful, if perhaps over-cautious approach. "When you look at experiences like Image Playground, we made sure that the images we were generating were not photorealistic,” Federighi said. “Not because the underlying model couldn't generate something photorealistic but because we never wanted someone to have any confusion of whether Joanna was really wearing that fuzzy hat?"

It’s an interesting insight into how Apple views AI-powered photo editing, and stands in stark contrast to Samsung’s claim that “There is no such thing as a real picture.” Many have questioned Apple’s approach to AI, with Apple Intelligence taking its sweet time to arrive on devices. Some feel that Apple is late to the party and playing catch-up, but time will tell if the company’s tailored approach goes down well with users, or if its limited AI tools don’t quite scratch the same itch as the mind-bending, reality-altering approach of others.

You might also like...

• Apple Intelligence "changed my life" says Tim Cook
• iPhone 16 Pro review
• I've used Apple Intelligence Writing Tools and it supercharges the Notes app

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Harris are taking on vastly different approaches to their campaigns as Election Day nears. And, California could determine who controls the House.

(Image credit: Scott Olson)

Their wages have always been low. With rising inflation and falling prices paid by Western companies for clothing, they're protesting for better pay — and hoping the new government will spur change.

(Image credit: Kazi Salahuddin Razu/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

If the recent Kindle announcements have interested you in getting a new ereader, but you think the Amazon brand options might be too big for you, then you might want to pay attention to the new smartphone-sized reading slate from Boox.

The Palma 2 is up for preorder right now at $279.99 (around £230 / AU$450), with a new and improved chipset and Android 13 support – a step up from its predecessor’s reliance on Android 11. It features a 6.3-inch 300ppi E Ink Carta 1200 screen, and is outfitted with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for downloading ebooks and Android apps.

We haven’t yet reviewed the Palma 2, but in our four-star Boox Palma review we praised its smartphone-lite features – including its ability to play music through speakers and its rear camera – while still remaining true to what an ereader is, all in a compact package.

To that end the Boox Palma 2 does seem to inherit what made the original special – an ereader complete with the mod cons of smartphones, like the new fingerprint scanner built into the power button, and flexible home-screen widgets.

Not a Kindle competitor

However, next to the new and cheaper $159.99 / £159.99 / AU$299 Kindle Paperwhite, or the equally pricey $279.99 / £269.99 Kindle Colorsoft (it's coming to Australia in 2025), Boox’s new product does feel a tad last-gen.

The E Ink display is a generation behind what those other new ereaders rely on, and Android 13 is two generations behind the current-gen Android 15. This leaves the Palma 2 feeling a bit like an old ereader and old smartphone bolted together.

That portability could be appealing, but TCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper 5G could be a better fit at roughly the same cost for your ereader-smartphone-hybrid needs at a similarly small size, and if size doesn’t matter one of the new larger Kindles could be a better choice overall.

We will have to test the Palma 2 out for ourselves before we deliver a final verdict, but our advice right now is think carefully about what you want from an ereader before rushing to get a preorder in.

You might also like

• I love my Kindle, but the one thing I don't like won't change anytime soon
• Hands-on: Amazon Kindle Scribe 2024: An excellent 2-in-1 eReader gets annotation and a healthy infusion of AI
• Hands-on: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2024): Super-fast and bigger, but refreshingly familiar