Month: March 2020

Review: Bloodshot is the solid escapist fare we could use right now

Too bad all the theaters are closed. But you can buy it on March 24 for home viewing.

Vin Diesel stars as a marine brought back as a superhuman killing machine in Bloodshot.

Vin Diesel is having some rotten luck, professionally. First, mounting fears over the coronavirus led Universal to bump the much-anticipated Fast and Furious 9 until next year. Initially slated for an April 2019 release, it was rescheduled to make room for the 2019 spinoff film, Hobbs and Shaw, so an additional delay is extra frustration for franchise fans.

Then, the global pandemic helped sink the box office for the actor's star turn in the superhero action thriller Bloodshot, based on the Valiant Comics character of the same name. Along with The Hunt, the film debuted in theaters last weekend just as everything was shutting down nationwide, grossing around $11.5 million against a $45 million budget. It won't get a second weekend at all. And that's too bad, because Bloodshot is just the kind of escapist fare we could all use right about now.

Fortunately, Deadline reports that Columbia Pictures will release the film for electronic sell-through (as opposed to VOD) on March 24, 2020. Per a statement from Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group:

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Zero Day: Lücken in Trend Micros Sicherheitssoftware aktiv ausgenutzt

Insgesamt fünf Sicherheitslücken hat Trend Micro in seiner Anti-Viren-Software geschlossen. Mit ihnen konnte unter anderem Code aus der Ferne ausgeführt werden. (Anti-Virus, Sicherheitslücke)

Insgesamt fünf Sicherheitslücken hat Trend Micro in seiner Anti-Viren-Software geschlossen. Mit ihnen konnte unter anderem Code aus der Ferne ausgeführt werden. (Anti-Virus, Sicherheitslücke)

‘Hacked’ Netflix MENA Twitter Account Asks For Movie Torrent Recommendations

Last night the Twitter account of Netflix in the MENA region suddenly had its ‘N’ logo replaced with a pirate-themed graphic. Then, in a series of bizarre tweets declaring a hack, followers were asked for recommendations on movie torrents. This morning Netflix apparently regained control and apologized but could there be more to this than meets the eye?

Drom: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, torrent sites and more. We also have an annual VPN review.

Twitter account hacks are pretty common events, especially for targets that are high profile.

In January, for example, more than a dozen NFL teams temporarily lost control of their accounts. The group behind these breaches previously targeted the accounts of Marvel, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, and Netflix.

But while most of these hacks are very obviously what they seem, others can be more ambiguous. Last night, the Netflix Twitter account for the MENA region suddenly started behaving oddly. Down went the familiar ‘N’ logo, only to be replaced by pirate-themed artwork, a pinned tweet containing a GIF of a man rocking back and forth in his car, and a message suggesting a hack.

From here, things got even more bizarre. In a tweet around 45 mins later, the supposedly ‘hijacked’ account reached out to its 735,000 followers with a request for them to suggest movies available on BitTorrent.

Google’s attempt at translating falls short but the consensus is that the Arabic text reads “Give us movie recommendations we can torrent”.

Given that Netflix is part of Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, the global anti-piracy coalition dedicated to taking down anything related to piracy, this tweet seemed to support the notion that the account had indeed been hacked.

So, this morning, with the pirate artwork removed and the Netflix logo reinstated, it was no surprise to read that Netflix MENA had regained control of the account after the earlier shenanigans.

“We apologize for the previous tweets,” the company said. “We returned to the account and the actor is being held accountable.”

Somewhat bizarrely, however, none of the earlier tweets posted by the ‘hacker’ were removed. In fact, the Netflix apology was accompanied by a hashtag relating to the hit satirical cartoon series ‘Masameer’ and Masameer: The Movie, which is available to stream…..exclusively on Netflix.

As seen in the tweet below, Netflix MENA also embedded a video featuring two of the characters in the show, one of whom (at least according to our horribly rudimentary Arabic skills) appears to be issuing a forced apology for what happened to the Twitter account yesterday.

We invite any Arabic speakers to write in with a (much) better translation to put us out of our misery but as far as we can tell, the apology read out by the character appears to blame sleep (perhaps a lack of) for the “unfortunate events” on Netflix’s Twitter account. There’s also a suggestion that the problems can be resolved “outside court”.

All things considered, this entire situation is pretty bizarre but if the idea was to draw attention to the new movie, that has been achieved. If it was really a hack, however, then the hacker has probably done Netflix a favor. That might explain why none of ‘his’ tweets have been deleted….

Drom: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, torrent sites and more. We also have an annual VPN review.

Datenschutz: Dürfen Ärzte, Lehrer und Anwälte Whatsapp beruflich nutzen?

Das Coronavirus zwingt Ärzte, Lehrer und Rechtsanwälte zu digitaler Kommunikation mit und über ihre Patienten, Schüler und Mandanten. Viele setzen auf Whatsapp. Verstoßen sie damit gegen den Datenschutz oder machen sich gar strafbar? Von Harald Büring …

Das Coronavirus zwingt Ärzte, Lehrer und Rechtsanwälte zu digitaler Kommunikation mit und über ihre Patienten, Schüler und Mandanten. Viele setzen auf Whatsapp. Verstoßen sie damit gegen den Datenschutz oder machen sich gar strafbar? Von Harald Büring (Whatsapp, Instant Messenger)

The Windows Subsystem for Linux conference was a (virtual) success

With Redmond—and large gatherings in general—a no-go, WSLconf went virtual.

A computer monitor displays a penguin and a Windows logo.

Enlarge / Tux is starting to look surprisingly comfortable in a Windows environment. (credit: Larry Ewing, Jim Salter)

Last week, Microsoft and Canonical (the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution) were scheduled to host a developer conference focused on the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) at Microsoft's Redmond campus. Ars was invited, and I had plane tickets in hand—but the physical conference was canceled at the last minute due to the coronavirus.

Note that I did say the physical conference was cancelled—WSLconf itself went on, with 22 speakers and 21 talks given. Virtual attendees were reportedly more than double the (sold out) physical attendee registration and included developers from all around the world. Presentations were given over the Bluejeans videoconferencing platform, and Canonical's Developer Advocate Hayden Barnes says that the recorded sessions will be made generally available soon.

What’s a WSL? And how do I install it?

  • From the Start menu on a modern Windows 10 build, type features, and open the Windows features applet. [credit: Jim Salter ]

Most Ars readers will already know that there's a Windows Subsystem for Linux available and it does... Linux stuff. But what's less clear is how to actually install it or why you'd want to.

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