If you want to understand why making it impossible to encrypt your iCloud data is a huge invitation to organized crime, I have two stories to share. The first involves a surveillance-as-a-service firm getting pwned, the second relates to a new wave of phishing focused malware migrating from Windows to macOS.These twin tales emerge in perfect step tomaniacal government attemptsto insert back doors inside encrypted data, arguing that doing so will make us safer. They wont, of course theyll just make cybercrime easier, particularly for criminals armed with phished credentials who want to insert their own surveillance software inside your unencrypted online data stack.This comprises a perfect storm, a cauldron of misery, all being mixed up and destined to doom users everywhere.Not the first, not the last: SpyXTechCrunchcaught theHave I Been Pwnedstory that a consumer-grade spyware outfit called SpyX was breached last year. The 25thin a series of mobile surveillance-as-a-service firms to be breached since 2017, the company had almost two million records when the breach occurred, including data concerning Apple users.SpyX didnt report the breach when it happened in June 2024, which is why Have I Been Pwned exposed it.What is SpyX? In this particular manifestation, the stalkerware is sold as a service so parents can track their kids. (It is apparently also used by suspicious partners to spy on their significant others.)In the Apple ecosystem, the way SpyX reportedly works is to tap into peoples iCloud backups, where it quietly grabs any of your most personal unencrypted information. While this exploit also requires assailants to get hold of the targets Apple Account data, it is important to note that in the UK government spooks seem to be demanding access without that key.But for surveillance-as-a-service firms, the fact that you cant use Advanced Data Protection to secure iCloud data in the UK makes undermining account security the essential next step.Have you been pwned?The thing is, your Apple Account ID can protect your data from such attacks, which is why you should always use a complex alphanumeric one and never share it.However, as everyone with the even slightest bit of interest in security knows, security is only as secure as the weakest part usually the human using the device.That, in a nutshell, is why phishing attacks are so popular, and why those attacks are becoming more and more sophisticated. Criminals know that if they can find some way to scam your account login details out of you they can jump inside your digital shoebox and grab lots of yummy information about you, your life, even your financial situation.They dont even need to use this data themselves; this stuff sells for good money on the Dark Web. Apples systems are renowned for being secure, which is why Apple IDs were being sold there for$15 a pop back in 2018.Get a MacIf youve been paying attention, you might have noticed that Apple experiencedover 25% growth in Mac sales in Q4 2024, far ahead of the PC industry average, which reflects a growing Mac market share for the company.If market analysts know that, and we know that, then well-resourced criminals are certainly cognizant of this data, which is why theyre moving to Mac. (To be fair, they have been for a while, its just that Windowsseems to be an easier target.)But that gravy train is switching platforms, and so are the bad guys. Cybersecurity firmLayerXrecently identified a new scareware campaign jumping from Windows to Mac. These attacks are basically a phishing attack designed to trick users into entering their credentials into fake Microsoft security alerts served up via compromised websites. The idea is to scare users into sharing their login details.Jaron Bradley, director ofJamf Threat Labs, explained how Mac users should approach this new attack vector. Users should never enter their iCloud credentials outside of the official Apple website. They should also be cautious when encountering flashing warnings that prompt them to call a phone number to resolve a supposed threat. These calls often lead to scammers who promise to fix a fake issue in exchange for a fee and credit card information, he wrote.Open upHes right, because once criminals get your code, they can access your iCloud data (if left unencrypted). They can, in theory, then also infest your iCloud with the kind of scary surveillance software SpyX sells, instantly crafting a backdoor to your digital existence.Rogue nations in which iCloud data cannot be encrypted, (not that we know who they are), leave their populations wide open to such attacks, closing the best door to protect against them. And as these twin tales show, these threats arent even imaginary, theyre already here. Moral of the tale? Perhaps its time to return to on-device iPhone backups and to make use of Apples own tools to encrypt databeforeyou put it in iCloud.You can follow me on social media! Join me onBlueSky, LinkedIn, andMastodon.

Europe is on the cusp of a new dawn in commercial space technology. As global political tensions intensify and relationships with the US become increasingly strained, several European companies are now planning to conduct their own launches in an attempt to reduce the continents reliance on American rockets.In the coming days, Isar Aerospace, a company based in Munich, will try to launch its Spectrum rocket from a site in the frozen reaches of Andya island in Norway. A spaceport has been built there to support small commercial rockets, and Spectrum is the first to make an attempt.Its a big milestone, says Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and spaceflight expert at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts. Its long past time for Europe to have a proper commercial launch industry.Spectrum stands 28 meters (92 feet) tall, the length of a basketball court. The rocket has two stages, or parts, the first with nine enginespowered by an unusual fuel combination of liquid oxygen and propane not seen on other rockets before, which Isar says results in higher performanceand the second with a single engine to give satellites their final kick into orbit.The ultimate goal for Spectrum is to carry satellites weighing up to 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) to low Earth orbit. On this first launch, however, there are no satellites on board, because success is anything but guaranteed. Its unlikely to make it to orbit, says Malcolm Macdonald, an expert in space technology at Strathclyde University in Scotland. The first launch of any rocket tends not to work.Regardless of whether it succeeds or fails, the launch attempt heralds an important moment as Europe tries to kick-start its own private rocket industry. Two other companiesOrbex of the UK and Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) of Germanyare expected to make launch attempts later this year. These efforts could give Europe multiple ways to reach space without having to rely on US rockets.Europe has to be prepared for a more uncertain future, says Macdonald. The uncertainty of what will happen over the next four years with the current US administration amplifies the situation for European launch companies.Trailing in the USs wakeEurope has for years trailed behind the US in commercial space efforts. The successful launch of SpaceXs first rocket, the Falcon 1, in 2008 began a period of American dominance of the global launch market. In 2024, 145 of 263 global launch attempts were made by US entitiesand SpaceX accounted for 138 of those. SpaceX is the benchmark at the moment, says Jonas Kellner, head of marketing, communications, and political affairs at RFA. Other US companies, like Rocket Lab (which launches from both the US and New Zealand), have also become successful, while commercial rockets are ramping up in China, too.Europe has launched its own government-funded Ariane and Vega rockets for decades from the Guiana Space Centre, a spaceport it operates in French Guiana in South America. Most recently, on March 6, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched its new heavy-lift Ariane 6 rocket from there for the first time. However, the history of rocket launches from Europe itself is much more limited. In 1997 the US defense contractor Northrop Grumman air-launched a Pegasus rocket from a plane that took off from the Canary Islands. In 2023 the US company Virgin Orbit failed to reach orbit with its LauncherOne rocket after a launch attempt from Cornwall in the UK. No vertical orbital rocket launch has ever been attempted from Western Europe.Isar Aerospace is one of a handful of companies hoping to change that with help from agencies like ESA, which has provided funding to rocket launch companies through its Boost program since 2019. In 2024 it awarded 44.22 million ($48 million) to Isar, Orbex, RFA, and the German launch company HyImpulse. The hope is that one or more of the companies will soon begin regular launches from Europe from two potential sites: Isars chosen location in Andya and the SaxaVord Spaceport on the Shetland Islands north of the UK, where RFA and Orbex plan to make their attempts.I expect four or five companies to get to the point of launching, and then over a period of years reliability and launch cadence [or frequency] will determine which one or two of them survives, says McDowell.ISAR AEROSPACEUnique advantagesIn their initial form these rockets will not rival anything on offer from SpaceX in terms of size and cadence. SpaceX sometimes launches its 70-meter (230-foot) Falcon 9 rocket multiple times per week and is developing its much larger Starship vehicle for missions to the moon and Mars. However, the smaller European rockets can allow companies in Europe to launch satellites to orbit without having to travel all the way across the Atlantic. There is an advantage to having it closer, says Kellner, who says it will take RFA one or two days by sea to get its rockets to SaxaVord, versus one or two weeks to travel across the Atlantic.Launching from Europe is useful, too, for reaching specific orbits. Traditionally, a lot of satellite launches have taken place near the equator, in places such as Cape Canaveral in Florida, to get an extra boost from Earths rotation. Crewed spacecraft have also launched from these locations to reach space stations in equatorial orbit around Earth and the moon. From Europe, though, satellites can launch north over uninhabited stretches of water to reach polar orbit, which can allow imaging satellites to see the entirety of Earth rotate underneath them.Increasingly, says McDowell, companies want to place satellites into sun-synchronous orbit, a type of polar orbit where a satellite orbiting Earth stays in perpetual sunlight. This is useful for solar-powered vehicles. By far the bulk of the commercial market now is sun-synchronous polar orbit, says McDowell. So having a high-latitude launch site that has good transport links with customers in Europe does make a difference.Europes end goalIn the longer term, Europes rocket ambitions might grow to vehicles that are more of a match for the Falcon 9 through initiatives like ESAs European Launcher Challenge, which will award contracts later this year. We are hoping to develop [a larger vehicle] in the European Launcher Challenge, says Kellner. Perhaps Europe might even consider launching humans into space one day on larger rockets, says Thilo Kranz, ESAs program manager for commercial space transportation. We are looking into this, he says. If a commercial operator comes forward with a smart way of approaching [crewed] access to space, that would be a favorable development for Europe.A separate ESA project called Themis, meanwhile, is developing technologies to reuse rockets. This was the key innovation of SpaceXs Falcon 9, allowing the company to dramatically drive down launch costs. Some European companies, like MaiaSpace and RFA, are also investigating reusability. The latter is planning to use parachutes to bring the first stage of its rocket back to a landing in the sea, where it can be recovered.As soon as you get up to something like a Falcon 9 competitor, I think its clear now that reusability is crucial, says McDowell. Theyre not going to be economically competitive without reusability.The end goal for Europe is to have a sovereign rocket industry that reduces its reliance on the US. Where we are in the broader geopolitical situation probably makes this a bigger point than it might have been six months ago, says Macdonald.The continent has already shown it can diversify from the US in other ways. Europe now operates its own successful satellite-based alternative to the US Global Positioning System (GPS), called Galileo; it began launching in 2011 and is four times more accurate than its American counterpart. Isar Aerospace, and the companies that follow, might be the first sign that commercial European rockets can break from America in a similar way.We need to secure access to space, says Kranz, and the more options we have in launching into space, the higher the flexibility.

Apple is reportedly cutting its Apple TV+ budget as this is its only service that is losing money, but the report conveniently leaves out that the service has always been a loss-leader with benefits that can't have a dollar-value.Apple TV+ being promoted in an Apple Store in 2019The specific claim of the new report is that Apple loses $1 billion per year on Apple TV+. Of course it does.It should be more, really, since the budget for Apple TV+ films alone, not even including serialized shows like "Severance," was originally set at $1 billion annually. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

A new phishing attack going after Mac users has been discovered, one that changed tactic only after the previously targeted Windows users received an Edge browser update.A phishing attack website targeting Mac users - Image Credit: LayerX LabsPhishing attacks are quite common threats for people to deal with, as online criminals set up websites and send out messages tricking people into sharing credentials or sensitive information. While the technique of using emails or bogus websites can take aim at practically anyone, sometimes the target audience can change for unexpected reasons.One new attack discovered by security outfit LayerX Labs has been found to target Mac users specifically. However, while the attack's latest targets use macOS, the phishing campaign actually had a different audience at the start. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

This week's edition of ourcurated career roundupfrom theArchinect Job boardfeatures 9 architecture schools in search of faculty,academic leaders, staff, and fellows.Preparing for a new job? Be sure to follow ourArchinect Tipsseries to improve your portfolio, resume, and interviewing skills and increase your chances of getting that next job.Teaching PositionsUniversity of Pennsylvania seeks an Assistant (or Associate) Professor, Architecture and aProfessor of Practice (or Associate Professor of Practice)inPhiladelphia, PAAssistant (or Associate) Professor, Architecture details:"The successful candidate will have a proven track record in teaching design studios, as well as demonstrated leadership potential, critical thinking skills in design, and a commitment to professional development. The ideal applicant will engage actively with contemporary issues in both teaching and research. The position involves teaching at undergraduate, graduate, and post-professional levels,...

People Can Fly started the Future Games Show Spring Showcase by introducing its next title, Lost Rift. It begins with players washed up on a desert island, Pioneers Landing, hunting animals and scavenging resources to survive. Things seem to be going well until some gunfire is heard.Though they eventually set out to see whats wrong, the trailer is cut short by a monster jump-scaring the camera. Something supernatural is going on, and alongside PvEvP gameplay, players can also engage in some regular PvP. Nothing says island survival like some Lord of the Flies-style skirmishes.Lost Rift is coming to PC via Steam Early Access, so stay tuned for more details and gameplay in the coming months (alongside a launch date). People Can Fly is also working on Gears of War: E-Day (rumored to launch in 2026) and recently entered an agreement with Sony to develop Project Delta based on the latters existing IP.

The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is less than two weeks from launching on PC, but what kind of hardware will you need to run it? Naughty Dog, Nixxes and Iron Galaxy Studios have outlined various presets, including the expected frame rates and resolutions.An Intel Core i3-8100 or AMD Ryzen 3 1300X, GeForce GTX 1650 or Radeon RX 5500XT, and 16 GB RAM are required for 720p/30 FPS at Low settings. Recommended requirements include a Core i5-8600 or Ryzen 5 3600, an RTX 3060 or Radeon RX 5700, and 16 GB RAM for 1080p/60 FPS at Medium settings.High requirements, which deliver 1440p/60 FPS at High settings, necessitate a Core i7-9700K or Ryzen 7 3700X, an RTX 3070 or a Radeon RX 6800, and 16 GB of RAM. Finally, running the game in 4K at 60 FPS and Very High settings requires a Core i7-11700 or a Ryzen 7 5700X CPU, an RTX 4080 or RX 7900XT and 32 GB RAM. A whopping 150 GB of installation space and a solid-state drive are also mandatory.Settings should be flexible with various upscalers like DLSS 3 and FSR 4 available. However, given how Marvels Spider-Man 2 launched with reports of performance issues, time will tell.The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered launches on April 3rd for PC. Check out its various features and options here.

The ESA introduced the Accessible Games Initiative to provide players with information about accessibility features in video games.Read More

Three, all new proprietary voice models called gpt-4o-transcribe, gpt-4o-mini-transcribe and gpt-4o-mini-tts.Read More

Chris Kerr, News EditorMarch 20, 20251 Min ReadImage via The ESA / Accessible GamesThe Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has launched the Accessible Games Initiative at GDC 2025 to provide players with clear information about accessibility features in video games.The initiative was announced alongside representatives from five founding members in Electronic Arts, Google, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, and Ubisoft, who have all pledged to leverage new accessibility tags to better support players.It's a notable cross-industry effort that will hopefully facilitate clear communication around accessibility featuresletting prospective players see how titles can meet their specific needs.The initiative is launching with a set of 24 tags (as shown below)each outlining a specific feature or consideration such as 'clear text,' 'narrated menus' and 'stick inversion'that can be voluntarily used by companies to ensure their accessibility messaging is on point."Tens of millions of Americans have a disability and often face barriers to experiencing the joy and connection that comes with playing video games, said ESA president and CEO, Stanley Pierre-Louis."We are immensely proud to announce the Accessible Games Initiative in partnership with industry leaders. This initiative demonstrates how impactful we can be when we work together in our industry-wide pursuit of helping more people experience the power of play."Related:The idea for the Accessible Games initiative was originally developed by EA, Google, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Ubisoft. Other major companies such as Amazon Games, Riot Games, Square Enix and Warner Bros. Games joined their ranks ahead of the GDC announcement.The ESA, the U.S. trade association best known for organizing E3, will manage the initiative.You can find out more about the project on the Accessible Games website.Read more about:GDC 2025About the AuthorChris KerrNews Editor, GameDeveloper.comGame Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist and reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, andPocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has featured on the judging panel at The Develop Star Awards on multiple occasions and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss breaking news.See more from Chris KerrDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like