General Gaming Article |
- Russia Suspected of "Sophisticated Cyberattack" Against Pentagon
- Newegg Daily Deals: Operating System Bonanza!
- Microsoft Revises Bug Bounty Program, Doubles Award to $100,000
- Corsair Cranks Out New PC Gaming Peripherals at Gamescom
- Microsoft's First Cumulative Update for Windows 10 is Here
- How to Keep Your Hard Drives Off Life Support
| Russia Suspected of "Sophisticated Cyberattack" Against Pentagon Posted: 06 Aug 2015 03:09 PM PDT Russian hackers go spear fishing The unclassified email system belonging to the Pentagon's Joint Staff has been offline for the past two weeks. Officials shut it down after discovering a "sophisticated cyber intrusion" that occurred on or near July 25, according to NBC News, which was first to report the incident. No classified information was stolen, though the unclassified accounts and emails belonging to around 4,000 military and civilian personnel who work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff were compromised. This time around officials are pointing the finger at Russia, not China or North Korea, both of which have been blamed for other high profile cyberattacks occurring in the past year. Due to the sophistication of the cyber intrusion, U.S. officials believe it was "clearly the work of a state actor," though they're unsure if it was sanctioned by the Russian government or if individuals carried it out. The attack used an automated system that was able to quickly gather large amounts of data -- it then only took a minute for that information to be distributed to thousands of Internet accounts. Hackers also used encrypted accounts on social media to coordinate the cyber assault. Though the incident is being described as "sophisticated," The Daily Beast reports that hackers broke into unclassified email networks by way of spear phishing -- sending legitimate looking emails that ended up being laced with malware. CNBC News says the email system will up and running again sometime today. |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Operating System Bonanza! Posted: 06 Aug 2015 11:19 AM PDT Top Deal: Windows 10 is a free upgrade if you already possess a valid license for Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, but if not, you're looking at $100, right? Not so fast. Check out today's top deal for Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit (OEM) for $85 with $3 shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [BTEWIN22]). See where we're going with this? If you're building a new system and need a new license, you might as score a discount for an earlier version of Windows and then claim your free upgrade. Other Deals: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro - 64-bit - OEM for $119 with $3 shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [BTEWIN22]) Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit - OEM for $85 with $3 shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [BTEWIN22]) Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM for $119 with $3 shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [BTEWIN22]) Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 32-bit - OEM for $85 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [BTEWIN22]) |
| Microsoft Revises Bug Bounty Program, Doubles Award to $100,000 Posted: 06 Aug 2015 11:07 AM PDT Big money for exterminators Now that Windows 10 is here and off to a fast start, Microsoft wants to ensure that it stays on top of security vulnerabilities. Using the "it takes a village" approach, there's a bug bounty program in place, and Microsoft just doubled the maximum reward from $50,000 to $100,000 for what it calls Bounty for Defense. The max reward applies to defensive ideas that accompany a qualifying Mitigation Bypass submission, which itself are novel exploitation techniques against protections built into Windows 10. The new max payment brings the Bounty for Defense reward on par with offense, which already tops out at $100,000 for novel exploits found in Windows 10. "Learning about new exploitation techniques earlier helps Microsoft improve security by leaps, instead of capturing one vulnerability at a time as a traditional bug bounty alone would," Microsoft said. In addition, Microsoft is doubling the reward for authentication vulnerabilities submitted through its Online Services Bug Bounty program during the bonus period that runs from August 5, 2015 to October 15, 2015. These boil down to Microsoft Account (MSA) and Azure Active Directory bugs, which will now pay up to $30,000 instead of $15,000. The last change is that Microsoft has added RemoteApp as a new property to its Online Service Bug Bounty program. |
| Corsair Cranks Out New PC Gaming Peripherals at Gamescom Posted: 06 Aug 2015 09:25 AM PDT New gear for gamers If you're looking for new PC gaming peripherals, Corsair has a handful of products you might be interested in. The company announced several new items at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, including a pair of keyboards, three headsets, and a mouse. Starting with the keyboards, Corsair unveiled the Strafe RGB and Strafe RGB Silent, both of which are mechanical planks with Cherry MX key switches. The silent version is the first to use new Cherry MX Silent switches, which Corsair says delivers the speed and precision of linear mechanical switches but with significantly quieter actuation. They're apparently based on Cherry MX Red switches, which are known for being quiet. The Silent switches differ in that they're the first to feature fully integrated noise reduction technology through the use of a "precision-engineered glass fiber reinforced base and two integrated component tappets." Combined with the noise-suppressing architecture of the Strafe RGB Silent's chassis, mashing keys is 30 percent quieter than other mechanical planks, Corsair claims. The regular Strafe RGB comes with either Cherry MX Red or Brown switches. Key switches aside, all models sport customizable multi-color backlighting (up to 16.8 million colors) with various effects, macro support, onboard memory, textured and contoured keycaps, and built-in USB pass-through for your mouse, USB drive, or wireless headset adapter. The Strafe RGB ($150) and Strafe RGB Silent ($160) will both be available in October with pre-orders in August. Moving on, Corsair also announced its new VOID gaming headset available in wireless, USB, or analog stereo modes. Each one has earcups that are shaped to fit the human ear, while the USB and wireless models boast additional features like InfoMic status LEDs and a CUE Control dial. All three have customizable RGB lighting, EQ controls, and Dolby 7.1 surround. Look for all three models to be available in August. Best Buy will be the exclusive carrier of the VOID Wireless SE Yellowjacket ($150). The VOID Wireless Carbon will sell for $130, the VOID USB for $100, and the VOID Stereo for $80. Finally, Corsair rolled out a new rodent, the Scimitar RGB. It's built for MMO/MOBA gaming with a dozen mechanical side buttons. It also has a patent pending Key Slider control system, 12,000 DPI optical sensor, and of course customizable lighting. The Scimitar RGB will be available in September for $80. |
| Microsoft's First Cumulative Update for Windows 10 is Here Posted: 06 Aug 2015 08:34 AM PDT Big update rolls into view Well that was fast. In this new era of Windows as a Service (WaaS), Microsoft has released its first cumulative update for Windows 10, which some are calling Service Release 1 (tongue in cheek, of course). Microsoft lists the update as KB 3081424 and it's a big one. It replaces KB 3074683, which you likely already installed since updates are automatically applied to Windows 10 Home machines. Same goes with Windows 10 Pro, though Pro users can opt to put them off for eight months. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't provide a ton of details about the cumulative update, and instead tosses out a ho-hum description of what you're getting. "This update includes improvements to enhance the functionality of Windows 10," Microsoft says. "Windows 10 updates are cumulative. Therefore, this package contains all previously-released fixes (see KB 3074683). If you have installed previous updates, only the new fixes that are contained in this package will be downloaded and installed to your computer." That said, be aware that KB 3081424 checks in at around 325MB. You'll also be required to restart your PC to finish applying the bug fixes, so save your work. Expect more of the same, at least initially. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley heard from one of her contacts that Microsoft is planning to dole out more cumulative updates in the future, possibly every week for the first month of Windows 10 availability. |
| How to Keep Your Hard Drives Off Life Support Posted: 06 Aug 2015 12:00 AM PDT Defragmentation, SMART monitoring, and more tips to keep your hard drives chugging alongIn an age of increasingly affordable flash storage, hard drives are slowly disappearing from enthusiast rigs and mass-market laptops alike. Although SSDs are markedly faster than their platter-based counterparts, hard drives are still useful for long-term storage, archival, and massive media libraries that don't require fast read/write speeds. Keeping your hard drives spinning can mean the difference between enjoying a music collection and having a pricey paperweight. Fortunately, it's not all that hard to maintain HDDs since they're a lot like all your other computer components. Avoid Drops, Kicks, and Other Physical DamageUnlike other components, hard drives are particularly susceptible to mechanical damage. Hard drives are manufactured with minimal tolerances that make them especially vulnerable to damage during operation. The spinning disks arranged inside each hard drive can usually tolerate slight movements, but aren't meant to withstand being dropped or shaken—especially not during read/write. Physical damage is the death knell of most drives because a misaligned or otherwise obstructed platter simply can't spin correctly. Keep Things CoolIt's generally a good idea to keep things from getting too toasty inside your PC. Hard drives are designed to operate within a specific range of temperatures. The numbers vary between specific drives, but most hard drives can function normally anywhere from 5 to 60°C (~40-140°F). Drives aren't especially sensitive to temperature changes, but it's still a good idea to prevent unnecessary wear and tear whenever possible. Provide Constant, Stable PowerHard drives are fickle beasts and require a constant, uninterrupted power source. Brown outs, black outs, and even static discharges can cause permanent data loss. An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) can be a godsend, but they're probably not feasible for most people. Instead, make sure you keep your computer on a surge protector and avoid turning your PC off and on unnecessarily. Whenever you're digging around your PC's internals, make sure to ground yourself before handling your hard drives—or any other components for that matter. Static discharges are particularly dangerous in dry climates, but can happen anytime, anywhere. Defragment, Defragment, DefragmentDue to the nature of hard drives, data is stored across a physical disk and thus fragments of individual files are written to various physical areas. Over time, these separate fragments can lead to diminished read/write performance. Regular defragmentation—but only when the disk in question is actually fragmented—is an important step in ensuring that your hard drives aren't working overtime for everyday tasks. Monitor S.M.A.R.T. DataSelf-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology can be used to monitor the status of your hard disk drives. SMART provides information on various drive-related statistics like Read Error Rate, Spin-Up Time, Start/Stop Count, and how long the drive has been powered on. There's plenty of free drive monitoring software, such as Acronis Drive Monitor. Keeping tabs on hard drive errors, warnings, and critical events can provide insight into the impending death of a drive or its day-to-day operability. Switch to an SSDIf you're especially worried about HDD failure, consider switching over to high-capacity SSDs. Prices are dropping and flash memory is less prone to catastrophic failure because of the absence of moving parts. A set of chips on a PCB are a lot less fragile than spinning disks. Back up Important FilesThis last tip isn't related to maintaining your drives, but it's probably even more important. Your data is arguably the most important piece of your computing experience. Essential documents and media are worth more than the initial cost of a drive. All components fail, so it's important to keep any files that you need backed up. Have any tips or tricks that you've used in the past to maintain your drives? Share them in the comments below! |
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