Hasta La Gadget!

Florida towns are proving to be easy targets for hackers. A third local government in Florida has reported that it has also been attacked by ransomware which left its systems locked down until a ransom was paid. Key Biscayne has suffered a similar attack that Riviera Beach recently paid $500,000 to get itself out of.

There has been one common denominator in all three of these attacks with Lake City being the first to get hit earlier this month. A city employee clicks on a malicious attachment in an email which spreads the ransomware across the network.

Once the malware spreads and the computers are locked down, a note is displayed which directs the victims to contact the attackers through email. A ransom is then demanded in bitcoin and until that’s paid, city officials are unable to access their systems.

In both previous cases, the towns had decided to pay the ransom as they figured that was the best way out of the dilemma. Key Biscayne is a much smaller community, around 3,000 residents compared to 12,000 at Lake City, so officials have yet to make a decision whether they’re going to pay up or try something else. They have called a special council meeting tonight to talk about their options.

Third Florida Town Hit With Ransomware Attack , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Microsoft’s Surface products have largely used Intel chips even though the company has used ARM chips for some Surface products many years ago. It might be thinking about a return to ARM and possibly even using AMD chips for new Surface products. A report claims that Microsoft’s relationship with Intel is on shaky ground and that the company is testing AMD and ARM chips for future products.

The report claims that Microsoft is testing the AMD Picasso SoC for a Surface Laptop variant while it’s also toying with a Snapdragon chip for a future Surface Pro model. The Pro device that runs the ARM chip is reportedly being developed on-campus by Microsoft in Redmond. Devices like the Surface Go had been outsourced to ODM (Original Device Manufactures). That doesn’t appear to be the case this time around.

The report goes on to mention that Microsoft has actually been developing a custom SoC codenamed Excalibur and that the company has worked very closely with Qualcomm to make this chipset that’s based on their own specifications in a bid that it would work better with Windows 10.

This doesn’t mean that Microsoft will ditch Intel entirely. Even if these prototypes make the cut and AMD and ARM chips make it to Surface products, Microsoft will reportedly offer new iterations of the Surface Book, Pro, and other devices that will also feature Intel chips.

Microsoft Reportedly Testing AMD And ARM Chips For Surface Products , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Networking on the battlefield won’t just be limited to communication between units for one country. Germany and the Netherlands have created a joint military network, TEN (Tactical Edge Networking), that helps soldiers from the two countries coordin…

Pepsi is making a big play to reduce its plastic usage as companies across the globe face growing backlash from consumers for their heavy reliance on single-use plastics. The company has now announced that it’s going to replace plastic bottles for its Aquafina water brand. The water will be offered in aluminum cans instead initially in food service outlets in the country while the company will test this move in retail on a smaller scale.

Many environmental advocates have long argued for the use of aluminum over plastic since its almost 100 percent recyclable and also has a better environmental footprint overall. Pepsi will only be offering the canned Aquafina water at food vendors who stock its products initially. It will test this move out through retail and might eventually expand it further down the supply chain.

Pepsi says that these changes are going to go in effect next year and it expects that they will eliminate over 8,000 metric tons of virgin plastic and approximately 11,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

The company has a goal to make 100 percent of its packaging recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable by 2025. It also commits to using 25 percent of recycled plastic content in all plastic packaging. It’s already onle of the largest users of food-grade recycled PET in the world.

Pepsi To Reduce Plastic Use By Replacing Aquafina Bottles With Cans , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Hackers believed to be working for Western intelligence agencies “broke into Russian internet search company Yandex from October to November 2018,” deploying a malware variant called Regin that is “known to be used by the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence-sharing alliance of the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand…

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