Hasta La Gadget!

T-Mobile has been fined $60 million for failing to both report and stop data breaches, as indicated by Bloomberg. The hefty fine was levied by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) and represents the largest such financial penalty the organization has ever issued. T-Mobile is owned by Deutsche Telekom, a company based in Germany, which is why CFIUS got involved.

These penalties have their origins in the terms of a 2020 deal in which T-Mobile purchased Sprint. CFIUS put some conditions on the purchase, including some related to protecting consumer data. The Committee found that T-Mobile didn’t comply with these conditions by failing to secure data and then by failing to report unauthorized access to this data, as reported by Reuters.

The data access occurred in 2020 and 2021. T-Mobile has blamed it on technical issues that sprang up during its post-merger integration with Sprint. The company says that this impacted “information shared from a small number of law enforcement information requests.”

It also says that the data stayed within the law enforcement community, even after the unauthorized access of data. T-Mobile claims that these issues were reported “in a timely manner” and that they were “quickly addressed.”

A representative from the company reached out to Engadget and echoed the above sentiment, saying “this was not a data breach, but a technical issue.” 

CFIUS has been getting more aggressive in recent months with regard to fines and affiliated penalties. It issued six large penalties in the past year or so, though none get close to the $60 million fine T-Mobile was just hit with. This is approximately three times the number of penalties it has issued during any other similar timeframe throughout its existence, from 1975 until 2022.

“The $60 million penalty announcement highlights the committee’s commitment to ramping up CFIUS enforcement by holding companies accountable when they fail to comply with their obligations,” a US official told Reuters.

Update, August 15 2024, 2:40PM ET: This story has been updated to include a quote by T-Mobile. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/t-mobile-fined-60-million-for-failing-to-stop-data-breaches-170438570.html?src=rss

T-Mobile has been fined $60 million for failing to both report and stop data breaches, as indicated by Bloomberg. The hefty fine was levied by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) and represents the largest such financial penalty the organization has ever issued. T-Mobile is owned by Deutsche Telekom, a company based in Germany, which is why CFIUS got involved.

These penalties have their origins in the terms of a 2020 deal in which T-Mobile purchased Sprint. CFIUS put some conditions on the purchase, including some related to protecting consumer data. The Committee found that T-Mobile didn’t comply with these conditions by failing to secure data and then by failing to report unauthorized access to this data, as reported by Reuters.

The data access occurred in 2020 and 2021. T-Mobile has blamed it on technical issues that sprang up during its post-merger integration with Sprint. The company says that this impacted “information shared from a small number of law enforcement information requests.”

It also says that the data stayed within the law enforcement community, even after the unauthorized access of data. T-Mobile claims that these issues were reported “in a timely manner” and that they were “quickly addressed.”

A representative from the company reached out to Engadget and echoed the above sentiment, saying “this was not a data breach, but a technical issue.” 

CFIUS has been getting more aggressive in recent months with regard to fines and affiliated penalties. It issued six large penalties in the past year or so, though none get close to the $60 million fine T-Mobile was just hit with. This is approximately three times the number of penalties it has issued during any other similar timeframe throughout its existence, from 1975 until 2022.

“The $60 million penalty announcement highlights the committee’s commitment to ramping up CFIUS enforcement by holding companies accountable when they fail to comply with their obligations,” a US official told Reuters.

Update, August 15 2024, 2:40PM ET: This story has been updated to include a quote by T-Mobile. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/t-mobile-fined-60-million-for-failing-to-stop-data-breaches-170438570.html?src=rss

Activision is finally taking some steps to stop Call of Duty games from hogging up hard drive space. The games are notoriously giant but the company is going to lessen the load a bit ahead of the October 25 release of Black Ops 6.

How will this work? One big change is that Warzone is being decoupled from the rest of the games with regard to the default download for annual titles. This change happens on August 21, accompanying the launch of Season 5 Reloaded, and should actually help a lot. Warzone is huge (around 130GB) and this can be frustrating for those who don’t even participate in the battle royale-style mode.

As a matter of fact, when folks purchase an annual title in the near future, they’ll only download files for that particular game. Hard drives everywhere suddenly have a bit of spring in their step. Of course, the masochistic among us will still be able to opt-in and add Warzone game files with any purchase.

That’s not the only action Activision is taking, though it’s likely the most important one. The company is also expanding its usage of texture streaming, starting with the forthcoming Warzone update. This means that users won’t have to download everything directly to their hard drives, as the devs will “cycle content that is less frequently used by players to a streaming cache.”

The devs do warn, however, that this could result in some of this content appearing at a lower quality until the streaming cache has fully loaded. To that end, there are multiple settings for this feature. Finally, forthcoming PS5 downloads will be split into multiple parts, many of which can be scooped up ahead of time. These downloads will also include file optimizations to further reduce the size.

As previously stated, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 hits consoles and PCs on October 26. It’s also going to be available on Game Pass from release day.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/activision-is-finally-addressing-those-massive-call-of-duty-download-sizes-191616063.html?src=rss

It’s only been seven years since the “Fred” started to rise up in the VR zombie shooter Arizona Sunshine, but a remake is already lumbering your way and will land on VR headsets on October 17. Vertigo Games announced the upcoming release of Arizona Sunshine Remake at the first VR Games Showcase. It’s slated to come to the Meta Quest 2 and 3, PS VR2 and Steam.

The Arizona Sunshine Remake will feature the same central story and multiplayer modes but with a noticeable graphics update. The zombies look more defined and real in the trailer, with an advanced mutilation system that looks bloody great (pun intended). The remake also comes with all five of the game’s DLC storylines and gameplay modes.

The game puts you in the shoes of an unnamed survivor who treats the presence of zombies the way you’d treat a noisy upstairs neighbor who can’t take a hint. The protagonist calls the shambling ghouls “Fred” as a way to mentally normalize the madness and mayhem unfolding around him as he treks across the titular state, following a radio signal in the hopes of finding other human survivors.

Arizona Sunshine was one of the first big breakout titles in VR that didn’t have a connection to another pop culture property like Marvel Comics or the Batman Arkham games. It came out the same year as other big VR hits like Superhot VR, the first I Expect You to Die puzzle game and Job Simulator. It’s part of a boom time of sorts for VR gaming when the medium was able to find its footing.

Arizona Sunshine is not just a mindless zombie killing machine even if it has multiplayer and endless swarming modes if that’s all you want to do. It’s got a great mix of VR gaming elements with puzzles to solve, strategies to plan as you prepare for a big wave of “Fred” and some genuine tense, immersive moments. It’s everything I always wanted from a zombie apocalypse and the remake sounds like a fun way to play with “Fred” all over again.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/arizona-sunshine-remake-brings-the-undead-back-to-vr-with-enhanced-graphics-194535362.html?src=rss

Our lives are full of screens in this digital age but sometimes you can’t access them or you need a bigger one for your tired eyes. Meta announced a new app called Meta Quest HDMI Link for its Quest 2, Quest 3 and Quest Pro headsets that can connect any of your devices with HDMI or DisplayPort and send their output to your VR.

The HDMI Link app is available to download to your headset now from Meta’s App Lab.

HDMI Link lets you watch videos, look at your computer and play games on the headset in your Quest headset from any device with a HDMI or DisplayPort output. You’ll need a UVC and UAC compatible capture card to use the feature and connect it to the device you wish to view and a cable ending in USB-C male to connect the card to your headset.

Wireless options like Quest Air Link or Xbox Cloud Gaming are still available on the Quest headsets and a little easier to use. However, HDMI Link can be useful if you’re in a space where you don’t have access to a solid Wi-Fi connection and can link up to devices that wouldn’t normally play nicely with a Meta Quest headset.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/your-meta-headset-can-now-display-the-output-of-any-hdmi-or-displayport-device-230714344.html?src=rss