BATTERYFORPC BLOG
EA: Gaming giant hacked and source code stolen
Hackers have stolen valuable information from major game publisher Electronic Arts (EA), the company said. The attackers claimed to have downloaded source code for games such as FIFA 21 and for the proprietary Frostbite game engine used as the base for many other high-profile games. News of the hack was first reported by news site Vice, which said some 780GB of data was stolen. EA said no playe ... Read more
2021-06-10 20:13:39
Donald Trump-era ban on TikTok dropped by Joe Biden
President Joe Biden has revoked an executive order from his predecessor Donald Trump banning Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat in the US. The ban faced a series of legal challenges and never came into force. Instead, the US Department of Commerce will now review apps designed and developed by those in "the jurisdiction of a foreign adversary", such as China. It should use an "eviden ... Read more
2021-06-09 20:18:50
One Fastly customer triggered internet meltdown
A major internet blackout that hit many high-profile websites on Tuesday has been blamed on a software bug. Fastly, the cloud-computing company responsible for the issues, said the bug had been triggered when one of its customers had changed their settings. The outage has raised questions about relying on a handful of companies to run the vast infrastructure that underpins the internet. Fastly ... Read more
2021-06-09 20:18:33
Apple pays millions in iPhone-repair explicit photo case
Apple has paid a multi-million dollar settlement to a woman whose photos and videos were shared online by technicians repairing her iPhone. Explicit images and videos were uploaded to Facebook and other places, and made to look as if they had been posted by her. Apple was not named in the lawsuit but its involvement came to light in an unrelated case. It has now confirmed the incident and apolo ... Read more
2021-06-08 20:36:06
Websites begin to work again after major breakage
A major outage has affected a number of high profile websites including Amazon, Reddit and Twitch. The UK government website - gov.uk - was also down as were the Financial Times, the Guardian and the New York Times. Cloud computing provider Fastly, which underpins a lot of websites, said it was behind the problems. The firm said there had been issues with its global content delivery network (CD ... Read more
2021-06-08 20:35:49
Colonial Pipeline: US recovers most of ransom, justice department says
The US has recovered most of the $4.4m (£3.1m) ransom paid to a cyber-criminal gang responsible for taking the Colonial Pipeline offline last month. DarkSide - which US authorities said operates from eastern Europe and possibly Russia - infiltrated the pipeline last month. The attack disrupted supplies for several days causing fuel shortages. According to the firm, the pipeline carries 45% of t ... Read more
2021-06-07 19:54:49
iOS15: Apple continues privacy war with app tracker reports
Apple device users will now be able see when individual apps request to access features such as the microphone, camera and phone gallery, plus which third parties they have connected with in the last seven days. The new "app privacy report" feature was unveiled at the firm's annual developers' conference, WWDC. Apple has prioritised privacy lately, including a war on ad-tracking. No n ... Read more
2021-06-07 19:54:20
Facebook suspends Trump accounts for two years
Facebook Inc has suspended former US President Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts for two years. He was barred indefinitely from both sites in January in the wake of posts he made on the US Capitol riots, but last month Facebook's Oversight Board criticised the open-ended penalty. Facebook said Mr Trump's actions were "a severe violation of our rules". Mr Trump said the mo ... Read more
2021-06-06 19:52:04
Xiaohongshu social media account blocked after Tiananmen post
A social media account for popular Chinese e-commerce app Xiaohongshu has been blocked after it issued a post on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. It had posted "Tell me loudly: what's the date today?" on microblogging platform Weibo. The post to its 14 million followers was swiftly deleted. Its Weibo page has been replaced by a message saying it is being investi ... Read more
2021-06-06 19:51:19
Apple updates AirTags after stalking fears
Apple has released a software update for AirTags following concerns they could be used to track people secretly. AirTags were released in April and were promoted as a way for people to keep track of their belongings. However, critics warned that the coin-sized tracker could be easily used to monitor someone's real-time location. Following the update, AirTags will beep if they are away from thei ... Read more
2021-06-04 20:20:26