Month: October 2022

Enlarge / Artist's conception of Team Ricochet targeting cheaters on PC.

Recent updates to online store and support pages suggested that all Modern Warfare II players would have to register a unique, text-capable phone number with their account to play the game. In a blog post this week, though, the team behind the game's Ricochet anti-cheat system suggests that the requirement will only apply to PC players.

That's a significant difference from Blizzard's policy regarding Overwatch 2, which initially required all players across PC and consoles to register a phone number for its "SMS Protect" system. Blizzard later partially rolled back that policy to exempt players that used a Battle.net account to play the original Overwatch.

Activision's SMS security requirement will also extend to PC players of the free-to-play Warzone 2.0, Team Ricochet writes. Players who accessed the original Warzone on PC have needed to link a phone number since May 2020, and will not be exempt from that requirement for the sequel.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

For almost two years, Microsoft officials botched a key Windows defense, an unexplained lapse that left customers open to a malware infection technique that has been especially effective in recent months.

Microsoft officials have steadfastly asserted that Windows Update will automatically add new software drivers to a blocklist designed to thwart a well-known trick in the malware infection playbook. The malware technique—known as BYOVD, short for "bring your own vulnerable driver"—makes it easy for an attacker with administrative control to bypass Windows kernel protections. Rather than writing an exploit from scratch, the attacker simply installs any one of dozens of third-party drivers with known vulnerabilities. Then the attacker exploits those vulnerabilities to gain instant access to some of the most fortified regions of Windows.

It turns out, however, that Windows was not properly downloading and applying updates to the driver blocklist, leaving users vulnerable to new BYOVD attacks.

Enlarge (credit: picture alliance / Contributor | picture alliance)

After the BBC launched an investigation into how TikTok profits off Syrian families in crisis—reportedly violating TikTok policies by begging live for TikTok gifts that are exchangeable for cash—TikTok immediately took action, banning all accounts that BBC identified. These accounts, a TikTok spokesperson told Ars, violated TikTok community standards that prohibit "exploitative begging."

TikTok defines exploitative begging as using children or other vulnerable people in attempts to increase gifts. The platform also prohibits children under 18 from receiving gifts.

"We are deeply concerned by the information brought to us by the BBC," a TikTok spokesperson said.

Enlarge / The 2024 Ford Mustang might prove more resistant to modding than any Mustang in the past. The culprit? Modern-day cybersecurity protections. (credit: Ford)

People have been tinkering with and modifying vehicles since not long after the invention of the automobile. As an activity, it exploded in the wake of World War II, as surplus machinery mixed with bored young people with a bit of mechanical knowhow looking for a bit of a thrill. From hot rods and desert speed racers to the import-tuning scene at the turn of the century, being able to soup up one's ride has been a core aspect of car enthusiasm. But that may be a thing of the past, if the next Ford Mustang is any indication.

Ford debuted its 2024 Mustang in September. The seventh-generation car doesn't deviate much from the recipe that made the people's pony car such a big hit all these years: a two-door body that's recognizable as a Mustang and a choice of gasoline engines up front that drive the wheels at the back. There's no hybrid or electrified version—other than the Mustang Mach-E, of course, but that'll just start a flame war in the comments.

But as you might expect of a car being unveiled in 2022, no previous Mustang has been quite as digital as the incoming model. Advanced driver assists abound, there's a full digital cockpit, and among its connected features is Amazon Alexa integration.

Enlarge / DirectStorage facilitates direct communication between your GPU and speedy modern SSDs, which can reduce game load times and speed up asset streaming.

One of the newer Xbox features that Microsoft has been working to bring to Windows is DirectStorage, a collection of features that allows fast PCI Express-based NVMe SSDs to communicate directly with your GPU. For DirectStorage 1.0, the main benefit was faster load times—up to 40 percent faster, according to Microsoft. This week Microsoft announced that it's readying DirectStorage 1.1 for release later this year, which will allow game assets to be decompressed on the GPU instead of the CPU, speeding up decompression operations and freeing up your processor to do other things.

Normally, compressed game assets are loaded into system memory and decompressed by the CPU before being sent to the GPU. This circuitous route adds to game load times and can contribute to "pop-in" in games with big open worlds—that effect where you see a bland, less-detailed version of an object for a brief instant before more detailed textures and models have time to load in.

A sample image showing the benefits of GPU-based decompression (left) vs CPU decompression (right). Note the much lower load time and the significantly lowered CPU usage. (credit: Microsoft)

DirectStorage's GPU-based decompression works with a new GPU-optimized compression format called "GDeflate," originally created by Nvidia. Microsoft's sample image comparing GPU decompression with GDeflate and CPU decompression using Zlib showed much faster load times (0.8 second on the GPU, compared to 2.36 seconds on the CPU) along with much lower CPU usage, though Microsoft says that the exact results will vary based on your hardware and the game you're loading.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Elon Musk is being investigated over "conduct" related to his pending acquisition of Twitter, the company said in an October 6 court filing that was just made public yesterday. "Elon Musk is presently under investigation by federal authorities for his conduct in connection with the acquisition of Twitter," Twitter told Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen McCormick.

Twitter's filing mostly describes its efforts to obtain documents related to the ongoing investigations. It says a privilege log produced by Musk's law firm refers to "drafts of a May 13 email to the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission]" and "a slide presentation to the FTC [Federal Trade Commission]," but that "the final communications themselves were neither produced nor logged."

"Through counsel, he has exchanged substantive correspondence with those authorities concerning their investigations," Twitter wrote. "Twitter wants those documents, because they bear upon key issues in this litigation. Twitter requested the production of those documents months ago. But with trial just 11 days away, Defendants have still not produced them."