On Wednesday, December 13, it was observed that internet traffic being transmitted to and from Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft was routed through a previously unknown Russian internet service provider for a brief time. This activity is thought to have been intentional.
The initial hijacking lasted for three minutes, and targeted 80 separate address blocks, according to a blog post published by BGPMon. A second attack started two and half hours later and lasted for another three minutes. However, Qrator Labs suggests that the event actually lasted for two hours uninterrupted, with the number of blocks affected fluctuating throughout.
These communications were using the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), which routes huge amounts of data around the web. The security implemented on the BGP has come under fire before; earlier in 2017, network traffic pertaining to a host of different financial services was briefly redirected via a telecom company operated by the Russian government, according to Ars Technica.
It’s not uncommon for data to be rerouted via the BGP as a result of user error. For a number of reasons, experts think that this situation was carried out intentionally.
First, there’s the fact that major entities like Microsoft and Google were targeted. Then there is the fact that hijacked IP addresses split up into announced blocks with some specificity, which indicates the guesswork of an attacker rather than an honest mistake.
The hijacking was carried out by an autonomous system known as AS39523, which has long since been inactive, save for an incident in August, which also targeted Google. We don’t know what, if anything, was done with the information that was rerouted. Projects like Logjam have previously set out to develop a means of breaking common encryption methods for such traffic, with little success — but the culprits could have a new technique that allows for some kind of workaround.
This is yet another scenario that goes to show how poor online security is a problem at every level. It’s crucial that users make smart decisions for themselves but the weak points available to attackers run deeper than many of us might realize.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Google DeepMind's AI world model Genie 4 can now build interactive worlds that you can explore and reshape as they run. It also generates ambient sounds, music, and dialogue that respond to your actions.
The new world model builds on Genie 3 with improved realism, more natural human movement, and better simulations of real-world physics. It could eventually help with everything from game development to training robots.
Apple has an incredible talent for making me admire its products while simultaneously questioning what on earth it's thinking with the pricing. This isn't even something as bizarre as a monitor stand, but the audacity for starting a new laptop lineup from $2,000 doesn't surprise me.
The newly announced 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 is just the latest to showcase this. The funny thing is, I already know that it's going to be a reliable workstation. You get a powerful new 2nm M6 processor, a gorgeous Liquid Retina XDR display, and up to 24 hours of battery life. We were impressed by the M5 MacBook Air, so the high-end M6 powered MacBook Pro definitely won't let us down.