Month: March 2022

Enlarge / Locked out. (credit: Sean Gladwell / Getty Images)

Last week, the Ukrainian government put out a public call to “all game development companies” to “temporarily block all Russian and Belorussian accounts” in response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Now, after a slow start, many of the game industry’s major players are heeding that call and cutting off new sales in the country.

French mega-publisher Ubisoft became the latest game company to take action against Russian customers Monday morning, telling Bloomberg that it is “suspending its physical and digital sales” in the Russian market. Take-Two announced a similar move earlier in the morning, telling Mashable that it is stopping “new sales, installations, and marketing support” in Russia and Belarus, including purchases made through the Rockstar Game Launcher.

The new announcements come after a flurry of similar actions taken by large game publishers over the weekend. Activision Blizzard announced late Friday that it will be cutting off games sales and offering a two-to-one match on employee contributions to relief organizations operating in Ukraine.

Enlarge / The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a fly around of the orbiting lab that took place following its undocking on Nov. 8, 2021. (credit: NASA)

In the 10 days since Russia invaded Ukraine, relations between the first nation to reach space and the Western world have been stripped to the bone.

To wit: Europe’s space agency has canceled several launches on Russian rockets, a contract between privately held OneWeb and Roscosmos for six Soyuz launches has been nullified, Europe suspended work on its ExoMars exploration mission that was set to use a Russian rocket and lander, and Russia has vowed to stop selling rocket engines to US launch companies.

Virtually every diplomatic and economic tie between Russia’s space industry and Europe and the United States has been severed but one—the International Space Station.

Enlarge / A group of Amazon Echo smart speakers, including Echo Studio, Echo, and Echo Dot models. (Photo by Neil Godwin/Future Publishing via Getty Images) (credit: T3 Magazine/Getty Images)

Academic researchers have devised a new working exploit that commandeers Amazon Echo smart speakers and forces them to unlock doors, make phone calls and unauthorized purchases, and control furnaces, microwave ovens, and other smart appliances.

The attack works by using the device’s speaker to issue voice commands. As long as the speech contains the device wake word (usually “Alexa” or “Echo”) followed by a permissible command, the Echo will carry it out, researchers from Royal Holloway University in London and Italy’s University of Catania found. Even when devices require verbal confirmation before executing sensitive commands, it’s trivial to bypass the measure by adding the word “yes” about six seconds after issuing the command. Attackers can also exploit what the researchers call the “FVV,” or full voice vulnerability, which allows Echos to make self-issued commands without temporarily reducing the device volume.

Alexa, go hack yourself

Because the hack uses Alexa functionality to force devices to make self-issued commands, the researchers have dubbed it “AvA,” short for Alexa vs. Alexa. It requires only a few seconds of proximity to a vulnerable device while it’s turned on so an attacker can utter a voice command instructing it to pair with an attacker’s Bluetooth-enabled device. As long as the device remains within radio range of the Echo, the attacker will be able to issue commands.

Enlarge / A sign outside Canada’s embassy in Beijing supporting Ukraine. It was later defaced, and posts about the incident were scrubbed from Chinese social media. (credit: Kevin Strayer | Getty Images)

“Artillery fire lights up the sky and breaks my heart. I hope my compatriots in Ukraine are taking care of themselves and their families,” said a user on Weibo, often called China’s Twitter, on February 27. The message was quickly blocked, according to Free Weibo, a service of Great Fire, which tracks Chinese censorship online.

Two days later, a very different message appeared on Weibo: “I support fighting! America and Taiwan have gone too far.” That, too, was blocked, according to Free Weibo.

Enlarge / Derek Wolfe #95 and Von Miller #58 of the Denver Broncos celebrate after Wolfe sacked Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on January 24, 2016 in Denver, Colorado. (credit: Dustin Bradford | Getty Images)

The past two decades have seen Apple transform itself from a maker of expensive computers to a hardware, software, and entertainment Goliath. Live sports may be next on the agenda—according to a report in Front Office Sports, Apple is eying a multibillion-dollar bid for the National Football League’s Sunday Ticket package.

Sunday Ticket, which broadcasts out-of-market NFL games, has been carried by Directv since its launch in 1994. The rights to Sunday Ticket expire after the 2022 season, and with Directv hemorrhaging both subscribers and money, Sunday Ticket is going to have a new home for the 2023 season.

In addition to selling the rights to Sunday Ticket, the NFL is also seeking an investment partner for NFL Media, which includes the league’s website, NFL Network, and NFL RedZone. Apple would also become a minority shareholder in NFL Media, in addition to getting the streaming rights to out-of-market NFL games.