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One of the most exciting parts of Microsoft's DirectX 12 API is the ability to pair graphics cards of varying generations, performance, or even manufacturers together in a single PC, to pool their resources and thus make games and applications run better. Unfortunately, testing "Explicit Multi Adaptor" (EMA) support under real-world conditions (i.e. not synthetic benchmarks) has so far proven difficult. There's only been one game designed to take advantage of DX12's numerous low-level improvements—including asynchronous compute, which allows GPUs to execute multiple command queues simultaneously—and the early builds of that game didn't feature support for multiple GPUs.

As you might have guessed from the headline of this story, it does now. The latest beta version of Stardock's real-time strategy game Ashes of the Singularity includes full support for EMA, meaning that for the first time we can just what kind of a performance boost we can get by doing the previously unthinkable and sticking an AMD and Nvidia card into the same PC. That's not to mention seeing how EMA stacks up again SLI or Crossfire—which have to be turned off in order to use DX12's multi-GPU features—and whether AMD can repeat the ridiculous performance gains seen in the older Ashes benchmark.

Benchmarks conducted by a variety of sites, including Anandtech, Techspot, PC World, and Maximum PC all point to the same thing: EMA works, scaling can reach as high as 70 percent when adding a second GPU, and yes, AMD and Nvidia cards play nicely together.

For all the technical ways to break into an ATM, you can still just crowbar your way in in many cases. (credit: clement127)

What was the best way to steal cash from an ATM in 2015? Skimming still remains king, but a survey of 87 members of the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) says that card trapping and transaction reversal fraud are on the rise around the world.

In November 2015, ATMIA internally published a survey (PDF) describing the state of ATM hacking in the previous year, from how ATMs were attacked to how much money was lost from the attacks. The results showed that ATM operators were wising up to skimming operations, in which devices are placed in or on the ATM to capture card information so the skimmer can reuse the card numbers later. This caused "a deflection of crime from traditional electronic skimming towards more physical and less sophisticated forms of attack, especially card trapping and Transaction Reversal Fraud.”

Fourteen percent of respondents said they saw an increase in card skimming hacks, but 28 percent of respondents said they actually saw skimming operations decrease. Still, credit card skimming outpaces other techniques for committing ATM fraud overall. Of those instances of skimming, 73 percent involved skimmers placed within the ATM, and 27 percent involved skimmers placed on the verification device of the bank access door.

Enlarge (credit: Malware Don't Need Coffee)

Malicious websites are exploiting a recently fixed vulnerability in Microsoft's Silverlight application framework to perform drive-by malware attacks on vulnerable visitor devices, a security researcher has determined.

The critical code-execution vulnerability, which Microsoft patched last month, was actively exploited for two years in attack code owned by Italy-based exploit broker Hacking Team. As Ars reported last July, the Silverlight exploit came to light following a hack on Hacking Team's network that exposed gigabytes worth of private e-mails and other data. Researchers with Russian antivirus provider Kaspersky Lab later discovered the vulnerability being exploited in the wild and privately reported it to Microsoft.

Now, exploit code for the patched vulnerability is being being distributed through Angler, one of several toolkits that criminals use to seed websites with code that carry out drive-by attacks. The Silverlight attack was spotted earlier this week by a researcher who goes by the moniker Kafeine. The vulnerability is indexed as CVE-2016-0034.

McLaren Automotive

The 570GT is McLaren's most refined car, suitable for road trips.

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We are unashamed fans of McLaren's road cars. The 650S blew our socks off last year, and we're eagerly awaiting a visit from the 570S later this year once outside temperatures have risen some and McLaren's press fleet migrates back east. Yesterday, the company released information about a companion to the 570S, called the 570GT. McLaren describe the 570GT as the most practical car it has ever built, "targeted towards longer journeys and weekends away."

As with all McLaren road cars, the 570GT is built around a carbon fiber "MonoCell" tub; in this case the second iteration MonoCell with redesigned sills that make getting into and out of the car a lot easier. Changes from the more hardcore 570S include revised spring rates and some other suspension tweaks that improve the ride quality, a slightly quieter exhaust, and bespoke Pirelli tires that cut road noise by 3dB. And instead of an exposed engine bay, there's a glass hatch that gives the car an extra 7.8 cubic feet (220L) of luggage space.

Weight is up 81lbs (37kg) compared to the 570S—2,976 lbs (1,350kg) without any fluids. That's still comparatively little mass for the 562hp/419kW 3.8L turbocharged V8 to move, so a more refined McLaren does not necessarily mean a slower one.