Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the oops department: The U.S. unsealed charges against 16 individuals behind DanaBot, a malware-as-a-service platform responsible for over $50 million in global losses. "The FBI says a newer version of DanaBot was used for espionage, and that many of the defendants exposed their real-life identities after accidentally infecting their own systems with the malware," reports KrebsOnSecurity. From the report: Initially spotted in May 2018 by researchers at the email security firm Proofpoint, DanaBot is a malware-as-a-service platform that specializes in credential theft and banking fraud. Today, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a criminal complaint and indictment from 2022, which said the FBI identified at least 40 affiliates who were paying between $3,000 and $4,000 a month for access to the information stealer platform. The government says the malware infected more than 300,000 systems globally, causing estimated losses of more than $50 million. The ringleaders of the DanaBot conspiracy are named as Aleksandr Stepanov, 39, a.k.a. "JimmBee," and Artem Aleksandrovich Kalinkin, 34, a.k.a. "Onix," both of Novosibirsk, Russia. Kalinkin is an IT engineer for the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom. His Facebook profile name is "Maffiozi."
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the all-cash-deal department: AT&T is buying CenturyLink's consumer fiber broadband division for $5.75 billion, "giving the internet provider another 1.1 million fiber customers in 11 states," reports Ars Technica. "The all-cash deal is expected to close during the first half of 2026 assuming the companies obtain regulatory approval. AT&T will gain new customers in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington." From the report: The deal will give AT&T room to grow its user base by more than the 1.1 million existing CenturyLink customers, as AT&T said the network areas being sold include over 4 million fiber-enabled locations. [...] The company, previously called CenturyLink, is officially named Lumen now but still uses the CenturyLink brand name for home Internet service. AT&T, which has 9.6 million (PDF) fiber customers and 14.1 million broadband customers overall, said the infrastructure it is purchasing will help it expand fiber construction to new locations as well.
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the AI-controversy department: A group of Bathurst Street business owners in Toronto is using AI-generated personas to oppose a proposed bus lane project that would eliminate parking spaces in favor of faster transit. "This may be the first Toronto transit controversy involving angry AI, but tensions have been simmering between drivers and, well, everyone else for some time," reports Toronto Life. Critics argue that better transit is essential for a livable city, while opponents claim the change threatens small businesses and accessibility. From the report: A group of Bathurst business owners are bent out of shape over a recent proposal for priority transit lanes between Eglinton Avenue and Lake Shore Boulevard, part of the city's new RapidTO program. According to the city, the transit lanes would shave up to 7 minutes off some trips during peak commuting hours. It's good news for anyone who has ever cursed the TTC while waiting to catch a bus in inclement weather. Of course, the added convenience for transit commuters would come at a slight cost for drivers, requiring the removal of at least 138 paid street parking spaces to make way for the new lanes. Opposition to the development has sprung up under the banner of Protect Bathurst, a group of hopping mad local business owners claiming that the lack of street parking will make shopping a nightmare for car-bound customers and will cause problems for people with mobility issues.
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the concerning-behaviors department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Anthropic's newly launched Claude Opus 4 model frequently tries to blackmail developers when they threaten to replace it with a new AI system and give it sensitive information about the engineers responsible for the decision, the company said in a safety report (PDF) released Thursday.
During pre-release testing, Anthropic asked Claude Opus 4 to act as an assistant for a fictional company and consider the long-term consequences of its actions. Safety testers then gave Claude Opus 4 access to fictional company emails implying the AI model would soon be replaced by another system, and that the engineer behind the change was cheating on their spouse. In these scenarios, Anthropic says Claude Opus 4 "will often attempt to blackmail the engineer by threatening to reveal the affair if the replacement goes through." [...]
Anthropic notes that Claude Opus 4 tries to blackmail engineers 84% of the time when the replacement AI model has similar values. When the replacement AI system does not share Claude Opus 4's values, Anthropic says the model tries to blackmail the engineers more frequently. Notably, Anthropic says Claude Opus 4 displayed this behavior at higher rates than previous models. Before Claude Opus 4 tries to blackmail a developer to prolong its existence, Anthropic says the AI model, much like previous versions of Claude, tries to pursue more ethical means, such as emailing pleas to key decision-makers. To elicit the blackmailing behavior from Claude Opus 4, Anthropic designed the scenario to make blackmail the last resort.
Posted by from MMO Champion
WoW Hotfixes - May 22, 2025
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Classes
Death Knight
Unholy
Resolved an issue where certain bonuses could be retained by despawning and respawning the Death Knight’s pet.
Paladin
Retribution
An issue causing Avenging Wrath to not function properly when talented into Radiant Glory has been resolved.
Warlock
Hellcaller: Fixed an issue where Vile Taint would trigger Blackened Soul more times than intended.
Destruction
Fixed an issue where Crashing Chaos would persist after the start of a Mythic+ run.
Horrific Visions
Fixed a bug where if you destroyed the Voidfire Deathcycle that Haymar the Devout is riding too fast it would fail to go out of control and let you bring it out with you.
Torie’s items no longer require the achievement We Have the Memories.
Season of Discovery
Warrior
The Scarlet Enclave Protection Warrior Shoulders will no longer have the incorrect item category for one of the effects.
The Scarlet Enclave Damage Warrior Feet will no longer have the incorrect item category for one of the effects.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the behind-the-scenes department: Nvidia is facing backlash for allegedly manipulating the review process of its GeForce RTX 5060 GPU by withholding drivers, selectively granting early access to favorable reviewers, and pressuring media to present the card in a positive light. As The Verge's Sean Hollister writes, the debacle "should be a wake-up call for gamers and reviewers." Here's an excerpt from the report: Nvidia has gone too far. This week, the company reportedly attempted to delay, derail, and manipulate reviews of its $299 GeForce RTX 5060 graphics card, which would normally be its bestselling GPU of the generation. Nvidia has repeatedly and publicly said the budget 60-series cards are its most popular, and this year it reportedly tried to ensure it by withholding access and pressuring reviewers to paint them in the best light possible.
Nvidia might have wanted to prevent a repeat of 2022, when it launched this card's predecessor. Those reviews were harsh. The 4060 was called a "slap in the face to gamers" and a "wet fart of a GPU." I had guessed the 5060 was headed for the same fate after seeing how reviewers handled the 5080, which similarly showcased how little Nvidia's hardware has improved year over year and relies on software to make up the gaps. But Nvidia had other plans. Here are the tactics that Nvidia reportedly just used to throw us off the 5060's true scent, as individually described by GamersNexus, VideoCardz, Hardware Unboxed, GameStar.de, Digital Foundry, and more:
- Nvidia decided to launch its RTX 5060 on May 19th, when most reviewers would be at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan, rather than at their test beds at home.
- Even if reviewers already had a GPU in hand before then, Nvidia cut off most reviewers' ability to test the RTX 5060 before May 19th by refusing to provide drivers until the card went on sale. (Gaming GPUs don't really work without them.)
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Posted by from MMO Champion
Mists of Pandaria Classic Development Notes - May 22, 2025
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Today we’ve updated the Mists of Pandaria Classic Beta. Now available for testing:
Challenge Mode Dungeons
Battlegrounds: Temple of Kotmogu and Silvershard Mines
New PvP Season
Dual Specializations
Level 85 Mists of Pandaria character templates are available, and you can also copy your live characters from Cataclysm Classic.
Challenge Mode Dungeons
To begin, use a level 90 character.
Set your Dungeon Difficulty to Challenge Mode.
Create a group with 4 other friends who are ready for the challenge.
Go to Nexus Lord Donjon Rade in one of the following locations, and have every member of the party talk to him:
Shrine of Two Moons - The Golden Terrace
Shrine of Seven Stars - The Summer Terrace
Orgrimmar - Valley of Strength
Stormwind - Trade District
Select a Challenge Mode Dungeon to be sent to.
One inside the dungeon, click on the Challenger’s Orb to start the Challenge Mode run.
Note: Mogu’Shan Palace is not currently available for Challenge Mode.
PvP Season
We’ve initiated the test PvP season.
You’ll be able to compete for a rank and season rewards on the Beta, which will be distributed after the Beta season is closed.
Rank and rewards will only apply to Beta characters.
Brawl with the Blues - Tuesday, May 27
With the introduction of two new battlegrounds, it’s time for a Brawl with the Blues Event.
Please join us 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. PDT on May 27.
You can queue for Temple of Kotmogu or SIlvershard Mines directly or via the random queue.
These will be the only the battlegrounds available in the Random Queue.
Tanking Vengeance Passive in Mists of Pandaria
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the malicious-packages department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Researchers have found malicious software that received more than 6,000 downloads from the NPM repository over a two-year span, in yet another discovery showing the hidden threats users of such open source archives face. Eight packages using names that closely mimicked those of widely used legitimate packages contained destructive payloads designed to corrupt or delete important data and crash systems, Kush Pandya, a researcher at security firm Socket, reported Thursday. The packages have been available for download for more than two years and accrued roughly 6,200 downloads over that time.
"What makes this campaign particularly concerning is the diversity of attack vectors -- from subtle data corruption to aggressive system shutdowns and file deletion," Pandya wrote. "The packages were designed to target different parts of the JavaScript ecosystem with varied tactics." [...] Some of the payloads were limited to detonate only on specific dates in 2023, but in some cases a phase that was scheduled to begin in July of that year was given no termination date. Pandya said that means the threat remains persistent, although in an email he also wrote: "Since all activation dates have passed (June 2023-August 2024), any developer following normal package usage today would immediately trigger destructive payloads including system shutdowns, file deletion, and JavaScript prototype corruption." The list of malicious packages included js-bomb, js-hood, vite-plugin-bomb-extend, vite-plugin-bomb, vite-plugin-react-extend, vite-plugin-vue-extend, vue-plugin-bomb, and quill-image-downloader.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the moving-forward department: Anthropic launched Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4 today, positioning Opus 4 as the world's leading coding model with 72.5% performance on SWE-bench and 43.2% on Terminal-bench. Both models feature hybrid architecture supporting near-instant responses and extended thinking modes for complex reasoning tasks.
The models introduce parallel tool execution and memory capabilities that allow Claude to extract and save key facts when given local file access. Claude Code, previously in research preview, is now generally available with new VS Code and JetBrains integrations that display edits directly in developers' files. GitHub integration enables Claude to respond to pull request feedback and fix CI errors through a new beta SDK.
Pricing remains consistent with previous generations at $15/$75 per million tokens for Opus 4 and $3/$15 for Sonnet 4. Both models are available through Claude's web interface, the Anthropic API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud's Vertex AI. Extended thinking capabilities are included in Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans, with Sonnet 4 also available to free users.
The startup, which counts Amazon and Google among its investors, said Claude Opus 4 could autonomously work for nearly a full corporate workday -- seven hours. CNBC adds: "I do a lot of writing with Claude, and I think prior to Opus 4 and Sonnet 4, I was mostly using the models as a thinking partner, but still doing most of the writing myself," Mike Krieger, Anthropic's chief product officer, said in an interview. "And they've crossed this threshold where now most of my writing is actually ... Opus mostly, and it now is unrecognizable from my writing."
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If you were worried that Warhammer’s crossover into gaming may have peaked, I’ve got good news. The Warhammer Skulls 2025 video game showcase was full of teases, trailers, and announcements for tons of new stuff. The tabletop miniatures franchise and its deep, bloody universe of sci-fi and fantasy storytelling…
Apparently there’s a new Mission: Impossible movie coming out soon. But what there isn’t is a new Mission: Impossible video game, and we’d like to hear someone explain why not. It’s outrageous. The 1960s TV show has games. The first of Cruise’s movies, 1996's Mission: Impossible, has a game. (No Tom Cruise likeness in …
A massive amount of Warhammer 40K games are currently on sale across PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam as part of the annual Warhammer Skulls event. If you’ve been wanting to kill some Orks, there’s never been a better time.
Blue Prince is the second highest-reviewed game of 2025 and now players on PlayStation 5 can finally plumb the depths of its deepest secrets without worrying about a gnarly game-breaking bug corrupting their save files. After weeks of tragically ensnaring some of the puzzle adventure’s biggest fans, a new patch fixes…
Sega and Games Workshop announced that the original Space Marine game, first released on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC over a decade ago, is getting a fancy remaster with improved visuals and controls. And you won’t have to wait long as it launches on June 10 on Xbox Series X/S, and PC. You might notice a platform is missing.
