Month: May 2022

Enlarge / People watch a television broadcast showing a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a military parade at the Seoul Railway Station on May 4, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea. (credit: Getty | Chung Sung-Jun)

North Korea instituted a nationwide lockdown Thursday after reporting an omicron coronavirus variant outbreak in its capital, Pyongyang. The report marks the first time during the pandemic that the secretive, authoritarian country has acknowledged coronavirus cases within its borders, though outside experts have doubted the country’s previous claims of zero infections.

Acknowledging omicron cases in Pyongyang raises questions over whether the admission is a sign of deteriorating public health conditions and/or a signal that the country is willing to accept pandemic aid, including vaccines.

So far, North Korea’s government has rejected offers of COVID-19 vaccine supplies from the United Nation’s global vaccination effort, COVAX, and China’s domestically produced vaccines. North Korea is one of the few countries that has not run a public vaccination effort, and its 26 million people are believed to be largely unvaccinated.

Enlarge (credit: Zyxel)

Hardware manufacturer Zyxel quietly released an update fixing a critical vulnerability that gives hackers the ability to control tens of thousands of firewall devices remotely.

The vulnerability, which allows remote command injection with no authentication required, carries a severity rating of 9.8 out of a possible 10. It’s easy to exploit by sending simple HTTP or HTTPS requests to affected devices. The requests allow hackers to send commands or open a web shell interface that enables hackers to maintain privileged access over time.

High-value, easy to weaponize, requires no authentication

The vulnerability affects a line of firewalls that offer a feature known as zero-touch provisioning. Zyxel markets the devices for use in small branch and corporate headquarter deployments. The devices perform VPN connectivity, SSL inspection, web filtering, intrusion protection, and email security and provide up to 5Gbps throughput through the firewall. The Shodan device search service shows more than 16,000 affected devices are exposed to the Internet.

Enlarge / At first glance, this could be any other Ford F-150 pickup, but the aerodynamic wheels and nose treatment mark it out as the all-electric F-150 Lightning. This is the top-spec Platinum trim. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS—Simply put, the Ford F-150 Lightning is the most important new electric vehicle we’ll drive for some time. Auto journalists can be accused of using that cliché all too readily, but in this case, I think it’s defensible. Americans love pickup trucks more than any other four-wheeled vehicle, and when it comes to pickup trucks, they love Ford’s F-series enough that it has been the nation’s bestseller for almost as long as I’ve been alive.

Making a fully battery-electric version of its favorite pickup therefore seems like a good way to spur adoption of electric vehicles in a country that’s lagging behind Europe and China. But only if the truck is any good. Part of the reason Ford sells so many F-series trucks is that many of them are put to work, pulling trailers or hauling heavy loads in their beds. And it’s just as important to decarbonize those trucks, which means that a stripped-down electric F-150 has to be able to cut it on the job site just as much as in the role of a suburban dad’s fully loaded commuter pickup.

To a casual observer, there’s little that marks the F-150 Lightning as being anything other than just another F-150 with a super crew cab and a 5.5-foot bed. Instead of an open grille, there’s a more aerodynamic treatment at the front, plus some distinctive daytime running lights. The alloy wheels’ surfaces are more disc-like than you’d normally see. And if you look carefully, you’ll spot the occasional lightning bolt. The cab is light and airy thanks to large glass moonroofs, and there’s plenty of room in the back for large adults.