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The CPU market of late has been dominated by Intel and AMD; Qualcomm, with its AI-powered, energy-efficient Snapdragon X-series ARM processors, aim to challenge that.

Qualcomm’s current X-series processors have been making waves since their June 2024 launch. Winfuture have exclusively revealed that Qualcomm has been working on its next-gen high-end Snapdragon X2 CPU “SC8480XP”, under the codename “Project Glymur”.

These next-gen processors place Qualcomm in competition with Apple’s M-series processors: unlike the x86 chips Intel and AMD use, the Snapdragon X-series uses an ARM architecture – like Apple’s M-series – designed for mobility and efficiency, compared to the mainly performance-focused former.

A standout feature of the X-series is its full compatibility with Microsoft Copilot+. It supports Microsoft’s Auto SR (super resolution), which uses AI to enhance video quality and frame rate in existing games. By including these features from the start, Snapdragon X positions itself well for the future; other chip manufacturers will have to introduce these features through later updates.

(Image credit: Qualcomm)

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X-series launched to mixed reviews. Customers hailed the new ARM processors for their power-efficiency and AI features; however, the CPUs fell short in performance when compared to AMD’s Ryzen and Intel’s Core X86 chips, especially where multi-core tasks were concerned. Another issue Qualcomm face is software compatibility: not all software has been ported to ARM.

Qualcomm has been testing the SC8480XP since July 2024, and there is still little information about what features it has to offer; according to Winfuture we will likely know little more until 2025.

In the meantime, there is still more to come for Qualcomm’s current generation of processors. In the “international export databases” where Project Glymur was discovered, the X1P-24-100, a new eight-core ARM processor, was also found.

Two federal programs that helped federal student loan borrowers ease back into payments are ending. It will have the biggest impact on borrowers with defaulted loans or borrowers who miss payments moving forward.

(Image credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds)

Hackers have found a new way to bypass the strict digital rights management (DRM) rules imposed on HP printers. This allows users to refill old and emptied cartridges, and thus continue printing without having to spend extra money on new, original ones.

Here is a little background: HP allegedly sells printers at a loss. To make up for it, the company sells ink cartridges at elevated prices, which infuriates the users. As a result, users turned to third-party ink cartridge manufacturers. HP responds by embedding chips into the cartridges, rendering third party products useless.

Users respond by refilling old cartridges instead of buying new, third-party ones. HP then responds by adding a page limiter: the printer starts counting how many pages the user prints, and then simply stops working when a certain page number is reached.

Adding a chip to the cartridge

As reported by Tom's Hardware, a YouTube creator called Jay Summet demonstrated how he added a flexible printed circuit board (PCB) on the cartridge’s original contacts, and then routed the signal passing through, to a chip.

The signal is there altered, telling the printer that the page limit has not yet been reached. The altered signal is then rerouted to another set of contacts, making the printer “think” it’s getting the information from an original cartridge.

Whether or not the crack picks up in the HP printer community remains to be seen, but one thing is certain - users obviously don’t approve of HP’s current business model and will always find new ways to work around it. In the meantime, HP has a few lawsuits against printer DRM to attend to, anyway, the publication reminds.

Perhaps the company will be legally forced to quit this practice and find another business model, even if it means making more expensive models.

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Last week, Microsoft released an optional update for Windows 11, and unfortunately it has been causing some serious trouble in some cases.

This is an optional update (KB5043145) for Windows 11 23H2 which was supposed to bring some minor quality-of-life improvements, but turned out to pack some unexpected bugs.

In the support document for the update, Microsoft has acknowledged some known issues, with nasty problems including some users being prompted to restart their devices, sometimes multiple times, while others are witnessing their PC locking up with either blue or green screen errors.

Furthermore, some devices open the Windows Automatic Repair tool after multiple restarts, and even BitLocker recovery can pop up in some cases. BitLocker is a Windows security tool that can protect your device’s data by encrypting it, but it’s only available to users of Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions. So, if you’re not using those - and most folks reading this will be on Windows 11 Home - you won’t be affected by that particular bug.

We saw BitLocker-related update problems and repeated unprompted restarts earlier in the year, and so these issues seem to be continuing, sadly. 

(Image credit: Future) Investigation is underway - standby for further info

In the support document, Microsoft says that it’s currently investigating these issues and that more information will be provided when available. So for now, we can sit tight and wait for feedback from the software giant.

Remember, though, that this is an optional update - you don’t have to install it and can just steer well clear. I would recommend doing just that with this preview update, especially as we currently aren’t aware of any workarounds for these bugs.

However, if you have already taken the plunge with KB5043145 and have encountered any of these gremlins, you can send Microsoft a message via the Feedback Hub app and describe your experience. This information could help Microsoft understand the problem and find a solution more quickly.

Alternatively, Neowin, which spotted this development, suggests that you can visit the Feedback Hub and search for ‘KB5043145.’ This should return the most relevant posts on the forum regarding the patch, and if you see any complaints that echo your issues and concerns, you can upvote those to increase their visibility.

Overall, in terms of bugs cropping up over and over, it’s not a pretty picture that’s being painted of Windows 11 these days. It feels like there are more issues with the newest OS than with its predecessor, Windows 10, which still enjoys widespread popularity - and maybe that’s one of the reasons why. 

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Cybercriminals are targeting hybrid cloud platforms with a worrying new ransomware strain, Microsoft security researchers have revealed.

Threat intelligence experts from the company have published a new blog post warning of Storm-0501, a ransomware affiliate group active since 2021.

The team has warned Storm-0501 is targeting different verticals across the United States, from government, manufacturing, to transportation, and law enforcement.

Rust-built ransomware

Microsoft's researchers believe the group is financially motivated, meaning it is not a state-sponsored player, as it targets firms with the intent of extorting money, which is then likely used to fund additional cybercriminal activity.

When it attacks, Storm-0501 looks for poorly protected, over-privileged accounts. Once compromised, the accounts are used to grant access to on-prem devices, and from there, cloud environments. The next step is to establish persistence and allow unabated lateral movement throughout the infrastructure.

The final step is the introduction of ransomware. In the past, Storm-0501 used popular variants, such as Hive, BlackCat (ALPHV), Hunters International, and LockBit. However, in some of the more recent attacks, the group used a ransomware variant called Embargo.

Embargo is a relatively new strain, developed in Rust. Microsoft’s researchers state that it uses advanced encryption methods and operates under the RaaS model (meaning someone else is developing and maintaining the encryptor, and thus gets a share of the eventual spoils). While using Embargo, Storm-0501 goes for the old and proven double-extortion tactic, where they first steal a victim’s files, then encrypt the rest, and threaten to leak it online unless the victim pays a ransom.

In the cases Microsoft analyzed, Storm-0501 leveraged compromised Domain Admin accounts and deployed Embargo via scheduled tasks. The ransomware binaries names that were used were PostalScanImporter.exe and win.exe. The extensions of the encrypted files were .partial, .564ba1, and .embargo.

It is also worth mentioning that Storm-0501 sometimes refrains from deploying the encryptor and just maintains access to the network.

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