Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Researchers have discovered more than 280 malicious apps for Android that use optical character recognition to steal cryptocurrency wallet credentials from infected devices. The apps masquerade as official ones from banks, government services, TV streaming services, and utilities. In fact, they scour infected phones for text messages, contacts, and all stored images and surreptitiously send them to remote servers controlled by the app developers. The apps…

Enlarge / A shot from Agatha All Along, an upcoming Disney+ exclusive. (credit: Marvel Studios/Disney+) A leak of data from Disney points to the Disney+ streaming service making about $2.4 billion in revenue in its fiscal quarter ending on March 30. Disney doesn’t normally share how much revenue its individual streaming services generate, making this figure particularly interesting. Leaked data In August, Disney confirmed that it was investigating the leak…

Enlarge (credit: VGG | Getty Images) The cost of renting cloud services using Nvidia’s leading artificial intelligence chips is lower in China than in the US, a sign that the advanced processors are easily reaching the Chinese market despite Washington’s export restrictions. Four small-scale Chinese cloud providers charge local tech groups roughly $6 an hour to use a server with eight Nvidia A100 processors in a base configuration, companies and…

Enlarge / “Hmm, no signal here. I’m trying to figure it out, but nothing comes to mind …” (credit: Getty Images) One issue in getting office buildings networked that you don’t typically face at home is concrete—and lots of it. Concrete walls are an average of 8 inches thick inside most commercial real estate. Keeping a network running through them is not merely a matter of running cord. Not everybody…

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Federal prosecutors on Thursday unsealed an indictment charging six Russian nationals with conspiracy to hack into the computer networks of the Ukrainian government and its allies and steal or destroy sensitive data on behalf of the Kremlin. The indictment, filed in US District Court for the District of Maryland, said that five of the men were officers in Unit 29155 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate…

Enlarge AT&T filed a lawsuit against Broadcom on August 29 accusing it of seeking to “retroactively change existing VMware contracts to match its new corporate strategy.” The lawsuit, spotted by Channel Futures, concerns claims that Broadcom is not letting AT&T renew support services for previously purchased perpetual VMware software licenses unless AT&T meets certain conditions. Broadcom closed its $61 billion VMware acquisition in November and swiftly enacted sweeping changes. For…

Enlarge / Apple’s event will likely discuss Apple Intelligence, though that’s not going to launch until later in the year with iOS 18.1 (credit: Apple) For years, Apple’s September event has focused almost exclusively on new flagship iPhones and new Apple Watch models. Once in a while, other second-tier products make an appearance. And in recent cycles, the Mac and high-end iPads had their shining moment later in the year—often…

Enlarge / Spotify released the Car Thing to the general public in February 2022. It’s bricking them in December. (credit: Spotify) For some of us, few things are more infuriating than a gadget that stops working due to a software change. As we’ve frequently covered here at Ars, startups and Big Tech companies are guilty of rendering hardware obsolete and/or stripping it of core functions. Consumer groups are urging the…

Enlarge (credit: Jorg Greuel via Getty Images) Over the weekend, the nonprofit National Novel Writing Month organization (NaNoWriMo) published an FAQ outlining its position on AI, calling categorical rejection of AI writing technology “classist” and “ableist.” The statement caused a backlash online, prompted four members of the organization’s board to step down, and prompted a sponsor to withdraw its support. “We believe that to categorically condemn AI would be to…

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Networking hardware-maker Zyxel is warning of nearly a dozen vulnerabilities in a wide array of its products. If left unpatched, some of them could enable the complete takeover of the devices, which can be targeted as an initial point of entry into large networks. The most serious vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-7261, can be exploited to “allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute OS commands by sending a…