Month: February 2021

Enlarge / The logo of the French national cybersecurity agency Agence Nationale de la securite des systemes d'information(ANSSI) taken at ANSSI headquarters in Paris. (credit: Eric Piermont | AFP | Getty Images)

The Russian military hackers known as Sandworm, responsible for everything from blackouts in Ukraine to NotPetya, the most destructive malware in history, don't have a reputation for discretion. But a French security agency now warns that hackers with tools and techniques it links to Sandworm have stealthily hacked targets in that country by exploiting an IT monitoring tool called Centreon—and appear to have gotten away with it undetected for as long as three years.

On Monday, the French information security agency ANSSI published an advisory warning that hackers with links to Sandworm, a group within Russia's GRU military intelligence agency, had breached several French organizations. The agency describes those victims as "mostly" IT firms and particularly web hosting companies. Remarkably, ANSSI says the intrusion campaign dates back to late 2017 and continued until 2020. In those breaches, the hackers appear to have compromised servers running Centreon, sold by the firm of the same name based in Paris.

• 

  This is the McLaren Artura, a new $225,000 plug-in hybrid supercar. [credit: McLaren ]

On Tuesday evening, McLaren unveiled its newest supercar, the Artura. It's the company's first plug-in hybrid EV, promising all the usual performance superlatives associated with McLaren: 0-124mph (200km/h) in 8.3 seconds, a 10.7-second quarter-mile time, and a top speed of 205mph (330km/h) put it in good company with the rest of the brand's range. But it should also be the most efficient McLaren so far, emitting just 129g/km CO₂ according to the EU's WLTP test.

And the Artura really is all-new. Previous McLarens, from the MP4-12C onwards, have all used variations of the same carbon fiber monocoque chassis and derivatives of the same V8 gasoline engine, either in 3.8L or 4L capacities. Instead, the Artura will use a new platform, called the McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture. And the powertrain is entirely new as well.

The internal combustion component is a twin-turbocharged 3.0L 120-degree "hot-vee" V6 with an output of 577hp (430kW) and 431lb-ft (584Nm). McLaren says that, at 353lbs (160kg), this new engine—codenamed M630—weighs 243lbs (110kg) less than the V8, as well as being significantly shorter.