Month: June 2022

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

About this time last week, threat actors began quietly tapping a previously unknown vulnerability in Atlassian software that gave them almost complete control over a small number of servers. Since Thursday, active exploits of the vulnerability have mushroomed, creating a semi-organized frenzy among competing crime groups.

"It is clear that multiple threat groups and individual actors have the exploit and have been using it in different ways," said Steven Adair, president of Volexity, the security firm that discovered the zero-day vulnerability while responding to a customer's breach over the Memorial Day weekend. "Some are quite sloppy and others are a bit more stealth." His tweet came a day after his firm released the report detailing the vulnerability.

Adair also said that the industry verticals being hit "are quite widespread. This is a free-for-all where the exploitation seems coordinated."

Enlarge / A negative stain electron micrograph of a monkeypox virus virion in human vesicular fluid. (credit: Getty | BSIP)

Health officials in the US have confirmed 21 cases of monkeypox across 11 states amid a multinational outbreak that has grown to more than 800 cases in over two dozen countries.

In a press briefing Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discussed details of the 17 US cases that officials have clinical data. The officials noted that genetic sequencing from some of the cases revealed two distinct lineages of the monkeypox virus, which may indicate that monkeypox has been quietly spreading among humans for much longer than previously known. It also deepens concern over whether the current outbreak can be contained entirely.

Low risk overall

So far, there have been no deaths reported in the US or multinational outbreak. Among the 17 well-documented US cases, all patients are reported to be doing well and are isolating.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Andriy Onufriyenko)

New York's state legislature approved a bill that would prevent fossil fuel power plants from being revived to power cryptocurrency mining operations. If signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, the proposed law would prevent new permits from being issued for two years.

It's a "first-in-the-nation cryptocurrency mining moratorium bill," advocacy group Earthjustice said Friday. "While the bill would not cover fossil fuel burning crypto mining operations that have already applied for new or renewed air permits, it would ensure that any future facilities could not receive air permits for two years, while the State Department of Environmental Conservation conducts a thorough study on proof-of-work crypto mining," the group said.

The bill's prospects looked dim earlier this week but was passed by the state Senate in a 36-27 vote after 12 am on Friday morning. It was previously approved by the Assembly with a 95-52 vote in April.

Enlarge (credit: Getty)

The fight for the right to repair scored a huge win Friday with New York state passing a bill that requires digital electronics manufacturers, like laptop and smartphone manufacturers, to make diagnostic and repair information available to consumers and independent repair shops.

The bill, which passed in the New York Senate (49 to 14) on Wednesday and in the Assembly (145 to 1) today, enacts the Digital Fair Repair Act. Governor Kathy Hochul has to sign the bill before it is law, but advocates, like iFixit, said they don't expect obstacles there.

Notably, the bill doesn't pertain to medical devices, home appliances, agricultural and off-road equipment, or public safety communications equipment. However, right-to-repair advocates have their eye on those areas as well. The bill also doesn't cover motor vehicles.

Enlarge / The image Apple shared alongside the WWDC 2022 announcement. (credit: Apple)

CUPERTINO, Calif.—At 10 am Pacific Time (1 pm EDT) this Monday, June 6, Apple will host the keynote presentation at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The streaming/in-person hybrid event will include new announcements about iOS, macOS, and much more, and we'll be liveblogging all the updates as they happen right here.

We recently published a list of predictions and expectations for the event, so you can get caught up there if you haven't been following the rumor mill closely up to this point. We're sure to see major new versions of every Apple operating system, plus various announcements that will be relevant to developers for Apple's platforms.

We might also see new hardware and consumer products. It has been two years since the M1 chip was announced, and this would be the ideal event to reveal the first details about its successor, the M2—as well as any Macs that might include it. Leaks have suggested that it includes a redesigned MacBook Air, but that might not be all.

Enlarge / New movie, same T-shirts.

Years after announcing a deal to bring back MTV's most popular cartoon characters of all time, Paramount+ finally took the wraps off its first major Beavis and Butt-Head production this week. And, honestly, this is about as "Ars Technica" as the '90s cartoon duo might ever get.

Warning: this preview includes spoilers based on the recently released trailer. If you want to go into this film as clueless as its lead characters, consider yourself warned.

24 years later and he still hasn't found TP for his bunghole?! (credit: Paramount+)

Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe will premiere exclusively on Paramount+ on June 23, and its handlers at MTV are already calling this feature-length treatment "the dumbest science-fiction film ever made." The film appears to resurrect the polished-yet-childish animation style established in their previous feature-length adventure, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America—only this time with CGI flourishes that you might expect from dumb teenagers flying not only through space but also time.