Month: December 2021

Enlarge (credit: Matejmo | Getty Images)

Hackers including Chinese state-backed groups have launched more than 840,000 attacks on companies globally since last Friday, according to researchers, through a previously unnoticed vulnerability in a widely used piece of open-source software called Log4J.

Cyber security group Check Point said the attacks relating to the vulnerability had accelerated in the 72 hours since Friday, and that at some points its researchers were seeing more than 100 attacks a minute.

Perpetrators include “Chinese government attackers,” according to Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer of cyber company Mandiant.

Enlarge / Toyota is playing EV catchup, but it's evidently been busy behind closed doors working on some ideas, as seen above. (credit: Noriaki Mtsuhashi/N-RAK PHOTO AGENCY)

Despite being a pioneer in hybrid cars, Toyota failed to translate that knowledge and experience into a strong battery electric vehicle portfolio. Although the company collaborated with Tesla early in the last decade, it has recently taken to lobbying governments to water down decarbonization strategies rather than churning out BEVs. But that situation looks set to change—at least in terms of the company presenting a stronger lineup of fully electrified products.

On Tuesday in Tokyo, the automaker held a briefing to discuss more details about its BEV plan. "Specifically, we plan to roll out 30 battery EV models by 2030, globally offering a full lineup of battery EVs in the passenger and commercial segments," said Toyota President Akio Toyoda.

Toyota wants to sell 3.5 million BEVs per year by that date, and it showed off a diverse array of EV concepts, many of which it says should appear as road versions in the next few years.

Enlarge / In early December 2019, the Starliner spacecraft is mated to its Atlas V rocket. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann)

Nearly two years have now come and gone since Boeing's Starliner spacecraft made its unsuccessful debut test flight, launching on December 20, 2019. Now, finally, there is some clarity on when the vehicle may launch again and attempt to dock with the International Space Station.

NASA and Boeing said Monday that they were working toward a launch of Starliner in May 2022. To accommodate this launch date for the "Orbital Flight-2" or OFT mission, Boeing will swap out a faulty service module—which provides power and propulsion to the Starliner capsule in flight—with a new one.

Boeing initially tried to fly OFT-2 in August. However, with less than five hours remaining in the countdown to launch, during a routine procedure, 13 of the 24 valves that control the flow of dinitrogen tetroxide oxidizer through the service module of the spacecraft would not cycle between closed and open. The launch was aborted.